According to the United Nations, land areas managed by Indigenous Peoples are among the most biodiverse and well-conserved on the planet. The cultural stories of Indigenous People have embraced sustainability long before the term entered public discourse. Modern environmentalism has been deprived of Indigenous knowledge because our early environmental thinkers, like John Muir, saw nature as something apart… (read more)
Shinrin-yoku is the Japanese practice of bathing your senses, or immersing yourself, in the forest; it’s a process of slowing down to pay attention to nature. Research shows that forest bathing reduces anxiety, strengthens your immune system, and helps you sleep better. And it will also help you to develop a stronger connection with nature. … (read more)
Eugene rests in the Willamette Valley Oak Savanna ecoregion. Oak savannas are landscapes characterized by widely spaced oak trees and a prairie-like ground layer vegetation. The white oaks of this ecoregion are considered keystone species because “they support more life-forms than any other North American tree genus including fungi, insects, birds and mammals.” (U.S. National Park Service)… (read more)
I talked about intact forests last week, but we hear more about old-growth forests in Oregon. Oregon Wild says, “generally speaking, old growth means a forest that has not undergone any major unnatural changes (such as logging) for more than 100 to 150 years, contains a diversity of tree species and structures, and provides a home for a diversity of wildlife species. Natural disturbances like… (read more)
Our world’s forests are one of the most effective nature-based solutions to climate change and the wildlife extinction crisis. Despite this, forests are undervalued and largely unprotected. More than 75% of the forests on the planet have been damaged or destroyed by roads, mining, logging, oil extraction or industrial farming. The remaining 25% of our planet’s forests are what we… (read more)
Native pollinators need appropriate native plants, those that are indigenous to our specific geographic area: Here in the Willamette Valley, we live in the Pacific Lowland Mixed Forest ecosystem (same as the Puget Sound Valley). Before cultivation, we had dense coniferous forests, prairies that supported open stands of oaks, and wetlands with swamp or bog communities. The original, natural… (read more)
“What if each American landowner made it a goal to convert half of his or her lawn to productive native plant communities? Even moderate success could collectively restore some semblance of ecosystem function to more than twenty million acres of what is now ecological wasteland. … we can create this country’s largest park system. It… (read more)
The concept of ‘unity with nature’ is still unsettled in Friends’ minds. Our commitment to the exploration of this concept … is alive and growing. But how to nurture it? Where will it lead us? Is it an aspect of our deepest spiritual selves, to be integrated into our whole being by quiet contemplation of wilderness and… (read more)
“We are at a critical point of losing so many species from local ecosystems that their ability to produce the oxygen, clean water, flood control, pollination, pest control, carbon storage, etc, that is, the ecosystem services that sustain us, will become seriously compromised.” ~ Doug Tallamy Bees, butterflies, birds, bats (and more) are critical to… (read more)
Click the picture for information about community group use of the Meeting House.
