Giving Back

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Earth Ethic || Wild ones who hear the primordial call of the Earth Mother, as kin, we come to this gathering with hearts intertwined in the service of continued Life.

This year, we will be welcomed by the great temperate conifer forests, oak woodlands, and wildflower meadows of the Siskiyou National Forest foothills. These brilliant compositions painted onto the landscape remind us of the world we want to inhabit and tend to. In such vanishingly rare places that are still intact, we can listen deeply to the wisdom of this land and her original guardians, and we can begin to rise to the ever-present call of Earth stewardship.

This is the ancestral land of the Takelma People. Long before European conquest, these foothills were the home of cougars, deer, elk, beaver, bear, antelope and bighorn sheep, owls, eagles, long-eared chipmunks, golden trout and of course lots and lots of salmon. A rich mosaic of ecosystems spanned the mountain ranges, with deep pine, cedar and fir forests opening into oak savanna, where the wildlife congregated to feast on acorns, as well as countless types of berries, grasses, and flowering plants. Every elevation hosted a different assembly of species, all the way up to where the lodgepole pines gave way to the alpine meadows and rocky spires.

The Takelma and other Rogue Valley Indians hold sophisticated cultural practices to diversify and regenerate the landscape for the benefit of all forest inhabitants. Cyclical harvesting, sowing, pruning, and especially the use of fire in prescribed burns, has shaped the character of the Siskiyou National Forest area. Irresponsible logging practices coupled with the suppression of the natural fire cycles have caused many of the region’s forests to be crowded and susceptible to high-intensity fires. The traditional knowledge of the Takelma people, which is gradually recuperating after near-extirpation, holds a key to enhancing ecological health here in Illinois Valley. The Earth ethic of this gathering impels us to learn about the natural and cultural legacies that have been eroded in recent centuries, and to come with hands and hearts set on lending reciprocal support.  The Takelma cultivated only one crop, a native tobacco (Nicotiana biglovii)

OUR OFFERINGS:

  • Our Conservation easement will be moving into place in 2023! With our dedication behind long-term stewardship of this land, we have been researching the best ways to protect her for the next 7th generations.  Through conservation easements and a soul commitment to safeguard the forest and aquatic communities who calls this land home, we commit to never log or develop this land in any harmful way.
  • Permaculture, native polycultures and flower farming has nourished and created habitat for our precious bird, insect and human kin.
  • We are proud to have 8 EcoZoic composting toilet facilities at Cedar Bloom, which turn all of our human waste into nutrients that get returned right back to the soil here on the land! Every year we empty the tanks, their contents going straight to feed the fruit trees and soil around the land. In this way, our event is actually giving back and nourishing the land on which we gather, as opposed to harming it. We are grateful to these innovative systems, and to have knowledgeable and inspired folks on our team that help us implement these new systems of sustainability into our community and homes.
  • To offset the absence of fire, we will bring biochar, a pure crystalline charcoal made from chipped wood. We will offer this to the soil around the Grandmother Oaks, Madrones, and Pines, which will hold water around the root system and provide some added protection against drought. The biochar will enliven the soil with bacterial and fungal activity, and thereby create fertility for the trees and plants. In these moist beds, we will leave endangered wildflower seeds imbued with our prayers for resilience.
ayana

Soon we will stand together like blue oaks, gathering with the deer, bears and foxes, and light up the forest like the lost fires returning!

For the wild,

Ayana