I’ve written quite a bit about forests in our EFM blog over the years (October 2023 and August 2024). I’m led to review and update now because our forests (like everything else we hold dear) are under new threat. On March 1, 2025, President Trump issued a pair of Executive Orders aimed at promoting domestic production of… (read more)
Last week I wrote about the Northwest Forest Plan of 1994. While the Plan was innovative at the time, it didn’t consider some important issues we now face, such as global climate change, the role of Tribes and Indigenous knowledge in land management, and the need to protect communities from uncharacteristic wildfires. The Forest Service… (read more)
Local food includes any foods grown, harvested, raised, and processed within our area. We naturally think of fruits and vegetables, but we can also buy locally grown herbs, dairy products, eggs, grains, and a variety of meats and seafood. Many locavores use a 100-mile rule. One of the biggest benefit of buying and consuming locally sourced food… (read more)
Besides their intrinsic value as members of the Natural World, birds play many crucial roles in our ecosystems — including pest control, pollination, and seed dispersal — and are essential to human welfare. With an estimated 1,200 species facing extinction over the next century, and many more suffering from severe habitat loss, we must feel the impulse… (read more)
“You cannot get through a single day without having an impact on the world around you. What you do makes a difference and you have to decide what kind of a difference you want to make.” —Jane Goodall We’ve been talking about discernment and clarity for Earth-care in the new year; after you have taken… (read more)
In winter, one can walk into woods that had been opaque with summer growth only a few months earlier and see the trees clearly, singly and together, and see the ground they are rooted in. … Winter clears the landscape, however brutally, giving us a chance to see ourselves and each other more clearly, to… (read more)
A land acknowledgement is a statement, often at the start of a meeting or other gathering, that recognizes the Indigenous people who are the original caretakers and inhabitants of the land upon which the event is taking place. Acknowledgement means to accept and admit the truth of something, in this case, the complicated and fraught history of people… (read more)
Click the picture for information about community group use of the Meeting House.
