We give thanks to all the waters of the world for quenching our thirst and providing us with strength. Water is life. We know its power in many forms- waterfalls and rain, mists and streams, rivers and oceans. With one mind, we send greetings and thanks to the spirit of Water.

Now our minds are one.

From the Haudenosaunee Thanksgiving Address Greetings to the Natural World

Water is the ocean, the rain, tears, cells, and the Source of life; it pours from the skies, and ebbs and flows with the tides.

Water is the sacred element of cleansing, creativity, emotion, and soul; It’s a wild element- the rain and the floods cleanse and they destroy. The river cuts deep channels in the rock and smooths stones. Waters connect us all.

I grew up surrounded by water, in a state with abundant clean water, and have generally taken that for granted, but people all over the world, including rainy Oregon, are experiencing climate change through the disruption of formerly dependable water cycles.

As the World Wildlife Fund says;

“Rainfall or snowmelt arrives either too early or too late or with too big or too little amounts, causing droughts or floods and impacting people and nature everywhere.”

If you live in a place with a dramatic water shortage you probably already give a good deal of attention to water and conservation, but many of us still think that abundant clean drinking water is our unquestioned birth-right, and we can use as much as we want and waste it as we will.

Here in the Pacific Northwest it’s been hard to shift my thinking, but with global warming and population upheaval, I know that I need to give attention to water now, before it’s too late. I’ll write more about water scarcity soon, but today I’ll start with a foundational water awareness practice.

Source water can be a body of water, like a river, stream, lake, reservoir, or spring, or water under the ground, like a well, or, uncommonly, from rainwater.

Treatment plants clean water to remove harmful germs and chemicals and meet safety standards for drinking. Different utilities will use different treatment steps depending on the initial quality of the water. (If you’re curious, here’s the Center for Disease Control article on How Water Treatment Works.)

Waste water comes from daily activities like showering, brushing teeth, laundry, the toilet, and watering the lawn; also from industry and commercial activities. Waste water is a cocktail of contaminants: Pathogens, pharmaceuticals, microplastics, heavy metals, and more. Water is treated either in a waste water treatment plant or a septic system before it’s released back into the watershed.

A watershed is an area of land that sheds water to a single point - all water that enters it -from rain or from springs or from your sprinkler - drains to creeks, streams, and rivers, and eventually to a single outflow point such as a river, reservoir, bay, and the ocean. Thinking in terms of entire watersheds is important because streamflow and water quality are affected by the actions happening (landslides, roadwork, development) in the land area above.

My water story:

My city’s primary drinking water source is the beautiful, cold, McKenzie River, which is fed by melting snow and mountain springs. It originates at Clear Lake in the central Oregon Cascades and flows south and west through the Willamette National Forest. The McKenzie features pools, dramatic waterfalls, and cascading whitewater, and I have thrilling memories of rafting on it.

Our water is filtered through the Hayden Bridge Water Filtration Plant in Springfield, where impurities are removed and chlorine is added to kill bacteria and inactivate viruses. The water is then put through an activated charcoal filter before flowing into my home. (Because Hayden Bridge is our only active treatment plant and is over 75 years old, plans are in the works for a $392 million second water treatment facility along the Willamette River in Glenwood.)

Waste water from our drains and toilets goes to the Eugene/Springfield Wastewater Treatment Plant off River Road, which is run by the Metropolitan Wastewater Management Commission; there it is cleaned through primary and secondary treatment processes, then is disinfected, before being “gently” released into the Willamette River.

Our stormwater (and run off from our garden) runs over roofs, streets, and driveways, through the storm drain system, and channels into the Amazon Creek, the Mill Race, or directly out of stormwater pipes (untreated) into the Willamette River. Water flowing through Amazon Creek eventually moves toward the Fern Ridge Reservoir or the Lower Long Tom River - all part of the Long Tom Watershed, which also flows eventually to the Willamette River, and the sea.

What is the story of your water?

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In Praise of Air by Simon Armitage
I write in praise of air. I was six or five
when a conjurer opened my knotted fist
and I held in my palm the whole of the sky.
I’ve carried it with me ever since.

Let air be a major god, its being
and touch, its breast-milk always tilted
to the lips. Both dragonfly and Boeing
dangle in its see-through nothingness…

Among the jumbled bric-a-brac I keep
a padlocked treasure-chest of empty space,
and on days when thoughts are fuddled with smog
or civilization crosses the street

with a white handkerchief over its mouth
and cars blow kisses to our lips from theirs
I turn the key, throw back the lid, breathe deep.
My first word, everyone’s first word, was air.

If you’ve been moved to curiosity, concern, or passion for the air, the next step is a bit of activism - just a tiny toe-in-the-water (or AIR, in this case) bit of public action.

Airy activism could be…

Community monitoring, like helping to set up neighborhood air quality monitors (see this from IQAir) to track pollution and smoke spikes.

Eco-justice actions, like helping to implement free or low-cost clean energy home improvements in areas most affected be air pollution, or helping to set up cooling centers when heat and air-pollution spikes, or any kind of wildfire resiliency work.

Engaging with lawmakers: Call, write, or meet with representatives to demand stricter emission caps and air quality standards, or lobby for specific legislation, such as Make Polluters Pay.

Support established campaigns like the American Lung Association, which has an activist toolkit, or Moms Clean Air Force, which has a clean air action guide, or the Clean Air Fund, which has documented some very creative campaigns for clean air around the world.

Climate-change activism, because, of course, our changing climate affects weather patterns, and leads to more air pollution and more wildfires.

A starting place:

Take some time this week to learn about the local implications of air pollution. Who in your area are suffering the worst? What are some strategies and solutions others have taken? Learn the facts, and look for groups in your area that are doing good work. Sign up for their newsletter, and consider going to the next meeting. Begin to think about how you might fit in.

A search in my area came up with these groups working on air pollution:

• Beyond Toxics, which says “Nearly 99% of Eugene’s pollution comes from factories in a single ZIP code, which is also home to the majority of the city’s people of color and lower income households.”

• The Oregon Environmental Council, which says “Clean and healthy air outdoors means cleaning up soot and smog from transportation, helping people replace polluting wood stoves, protecting people from toxic pollution in our air from industry, and controlling pollution to protect Oregon’s climate.”

• Neighbors for Clean Air, a Portland based organization that says, “We empower Oregonians with information and tools to ensure everyone breathes clean air.” They have an advocates guide for air activism in Oregon.

My airy activism story:

I lobbied for the Make Polluters Pay bill during Oregon’s short session in January and February this year. (It didn't pass, but made advancements, and will come back in 2027.) And, in the process, I got invested in the idea that big corporations could be asked to help pay for the improvements we need, because they are the forces that cause much of the problem.

When I heard about a local effort to bring a similar initiative to my city, I got excited, and decided to bring it to the attention of the Earthcare groups I’m active in.

The Eugene Clean Energy Fund is a local measure on the ballot in November, that aims to tax ultra-wealthy corporations to directly fund community clean energy, climate justice, and green resiliency programs. It’s modeled after the very successful Portland Clean Energy Fund, which was passed in 2018. Since that time, the PCEF has generated $1.71 billion in funding for climate programs.

The Eugene Clean Energy Fund (ECEF) is a great example of how the various environmental groups work together; it’s a coalition of people from Sierra Club, Beyond Toxics, the Breach Collective and many others, including the Interfaith Earthkeepers, of which I’m the representative.

Dylan Plummer, the deputy director of the local Sierra Club chapter (and an active member of ECEF coalition), says in a local news report, "As our city is experiencing firsthand the impacts of the climate crisis, whether it's extreme heat or wildfire smoke or low snowpack in the mountains and so many other effects, we know the time to act is right now to reduce our emissions while building a more resilient city.”

My little bit in this action so far has been to

• attend bi-weekly online coalition meetings (amazing just to listen to these smart young people),

• bring information back to the Interfaith Earthkeepers,

• ask and have approved our sponsorship of the initiative (and follow up with paper work),

• ask and have approved our submission of a voters pamphlet statement in favor of this initiative.

At this writing, I’m getting ready to write our statement, which I think will be painless, because of support from the coalition board, and I’m also sharing information about ECEF’s “Pledge to Vote Yes” campaign.

Take action - Have fun with it! - Report back here.

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Think of this as one more way you can create sanctuary for the nature living nearby - for the birds and the trees and the little animals that live in your hedge. It’s also a community responsibility - it makes your community more resilient. By slowing down a fire, you might create a little time for emergency responders to protect life and property threatened by a fire.

In wildfire parlance it’s called hardening your home - making your home less likely to burn if a fire did get close. If a fire swept through your town, or if a neighbor’s home caught fire, your home could be threatened by direct flames, or from radiant heat from nearby burning objects, or from flying embers; embers are capable of igniting homes up to a mile away.

How to Harden Your Home

The big picture - Check your surroundings:

Hardening your home is the same process of reducing fuel loads that we want our foresters to employ in our forests. The fuels near your home—including vegetation like trees and shrubs, and manmade fuels such as fences, decks and outbuildings—are what affect ignitability.

• Focus especially on your southern exposures and in the direction of prevailing winds, both of which cause vegetation to dry out more quickly.

• Also focus extra effort between your house and nearby structures such as a detached garage, shop, shed, or neighboring home. These are fuel that could ignite your home through embers or radiant heat.

• You will need to increase your vegetation management if your house sits on a slope above dense vegetation, as fire spreads quickly going uphill.

Start with your actual home and any other structures on your property:

The Oregon.gov Home Hardening Guide talks about in-depth ways to build or retrofit homes to make them fire resistant, but some basic steps are:

• Remove all leaves, needles, and debris from the roof and gutters, including moss.

• Cover the underside of eaves with a soffit or box them in; open eves are more exposed to embers and flames from below.

• Install non-combustible (metal) gutter covers.

• Replace missing or loose shingles to prevent ember entry.

• Cover all attic and crawlspace vents with 1/8” metal wire mesh to keep embers from being blown inside.

Next, the 5-foot buffer area around your home (called the “ember resistant” zone):

Embers are most dangerous when they land on anything flammable near a house or structure, or combustable mulch or debris on the ground:

• Don’t mulch with bark mulch or dry leaves in this zone! Use river rock, gravel, pavers, bare ground, or lightly-irrigated native ground covers as a green mulch in this 5-foot swath around structures.

• The best vegetation for this zone is native plants and shrubs. Keep them lightly irrigated; native plants and shrubs need less water to stay hydrated, meaning they are less likely than ornamentals to become a fire hazard. Evergreen native shrubs have the highest moisture content. Keep other perennials easy to access so you can deadhead spent flowers and remove dried out foliage throughout the fire season.

• Trim trees and shrubs so they are not in contact with any structures, and keep them pruned from under your eaves, because they can carry fire up into the eaves and roof. (You don’t have to remove healthy, mature native trees from this zone because they can block flying embers, and also help maintain a cool, wetter microclimate around your home.)

• Do remove highly flammable plants, like Arborvitae, Juniper, and Cypress, because they contain volatile oils; also rosemary, eucalyptus, and tall ornamental grasses.

• Do not store firewood, or outdoor furniture, or anything else that could be ignited by embers under your eaves or on a porch or deck in this zone.

• Remove any brush or debris piles near decks or structures. (If you like to provide rotting wood piles for insects and animals, like I do, keep them outside of the ember resistant zone.)

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And the rest of your yard:

• Keep grass mowed to less than 4 inches, and keep it watered during fire season.

• When using wood mulch, keep it moist and break up its continuity with patches of hardscapes, such as landscape rocks or gravel, or with areas of watered grass.

• Remove dead or dying trees and shrubs. Clean up downed branches. Inspect all trees and shrubs for sections of dead foliage in the center.

• Create separation - Dense stands of trees and shrubs pose a greater wildfire threat. Space tree crowns at least 10 feet apart.

• Prune trees up 6-feet from the ground (but not more than 1/3 of the tree’s total height), to reduce the chance that fire can climb into the canopy of trees. If shrubs are growing under tall trees, prune limbs up to three times the height of the vegetation underneath.

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This research has made it clear to me that I need to stop acting like I’m invulnerable and on an island of safety. With climate changes, we are all more and more vulnerable to fire. Integrity requires me to do my part to protect my neighbors from the spread of a fire.

First, I need to rethink some of my garden practices, especially right next to the front of my house, and secondly, I need to think about how to join forces with nearby neighbors. One Oregon State Extension article says:

Wildfires do not recognize property boundaries.
”Implementing defensible space practices around every home improves the survivability of entire neighborhoods and helps create a fire-adapted community. Wildfire risks are shared among neighbors, as wildfire does not recognize property boundaries. For that reason, planning for community protection is a critical part of your wildfire preparedness.”

What steps do you need to take?

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Forest fires are a conundrum of the times.

Fires in the forest-urban interface, where buildings are interspersed with woodlands, are dangerous and damaging; and that describes much of my beautiful state of Oregon, where even our largest cities are wooded. Preventing, controlling, and suppressing wildfires has become a high priority as more people build homes in woodlands and other natural areas. And smoke from wildfires is bad news - a mixture of gases and fine particles from burning trees and other plant materials - that travels for miles, affecting the health of people and animals.

But we also understand that fires are a part of Earth’s natural cycle; forests, grasslands, deserts, and prairies all depend on fire as part of their life cycles. Fires help forests, by clearing dead trees and dry leaf litter, opening up the forest floor for new growth; they nourish the soil with mineral-rich ash; and support the process of natural selection by thinning small trees and removing weak trees. Certain species of conifers rely on heat from fire to open the cones and to release the seeds, thereby helping to reseed the area after a fire. Forest fires are good and natural for forests.

For thousands of years the indigenous people managed our forests with fires. Fire’s role in U.S. ecosystems changed in 1905, When Congress created the U.S. Forest Service to oversee the nation’s forestlands, and the agency’s leader promoted suppressing forest fires at all costs. This policy is called fire exclusion.

A well-written article by the Oregon State Extension Service on The Ecological Effects of Fire, says:

“Before colonization, Indigenous people used fire extensively in many ecosystems. Indigenous burning was especially important in maintaining coastal prairies, oak savannas and grasslands of the Willamette, Umpqua and Rogue valleys, as well as meadows and open forests across the state. This practice is referred to today as cultural burning, and it continues, although often on a smaller scale. This is the legacy of genocide and a policy of fire exclusion that attempted to eliminate all fires from the landscape, whether started by Indigenous fire practitioners or by lightning.”

The OSU article explains the results of this policy:

“To this day, the majority of fires are extinguished during initial attack. ... But the price of this success is that young trees have filled in the spaces that fire historically kept open in dry forests, making them much denser. Meadows have shrunk or disappeared entirely. Forests once made up of large, fire-tolerant species like pine and oak have shifted toward more Douglas-fir, grand fir and white fir. Logging in many areas also removed the large fire-resistant trees, and replaced them with uniform plantations. Due to drought and competition for water, trees are now more stressed and vulnerable to insect and disease outbreaks, and dead vegetation is accumulating. These changes have caused a decline in species that prefer fire-maintained habitats. Without fire, species diversity and ecological resilience in dry forests are diminished.”

What’s the answer?

Well, we need to reverse the damage that the fire exclusion policy created. But we can’t just let nature run it’s course because, with the current overgrown and dry state of our forests, that would be devastating. As the Oregon Wild Forests and Fire page explains:

Unfortunately, a century of logging that removed the largest and most fire resistant trees, and misguided efforts to prevent all fire everywhere, have degraded our forests and led to a serious buildup of fuels and dense undergrowth in many areas–which can lead to unnaturally hot and destructive fires, putting our forests at risk. Oregon Wild believes it is important that we find ways to restore the role of fire in our forests without compounding the damage that has already been done.

The remedy is very hard work:

• We need to control the fuel loads - remove all the dead and dry vegetation, and invasive species, that are making our forests, and nearby small towns, so dangerous. We need a “defensible space” around homes, structures and escape routes. It’s a ton of work, and it has to be kept up with.

• And (after fuel loads are under control) we need controlled burns, either cultural burns by indigenous people, or prescribed burns by trained people.

• Finally, we need to make communities more fire-resilient so they are not threatened by natural processes like fire.

Starhawk has an excellent post on Substack about her experiences in Northern California.

Starhawk’s Substack

Fire and Forestry

Yesterday, I went on a hike, the first challenging hike since my knee surgeries earlier this year, through primeval forest in the Drôme region of France. The forests are dry and suffering from drought, but still beautiful, the small trees growing down in the ravine draped in moss and lichens, the great beeches higher on the hills spreading their majesti…

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16 days ago · 54 likes · 7 comments · Starhawk

“There’s a lot that we can do to bring our forests back to health and make them safer, but all of them involve time, labor, expertise and ultimately money and other resources because of the vast scale of the lands involved. Yet doing them benefits everyone, not just those who live in the woods, but those who live in vulnerable suburbs in the wildland-urban interface and those even hundreds of miles away who choke on the smoke.”

My next article will cover how to “harden” your home, to make it more resilient to fire.

I’d love to hear about your experiences with fire.

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I am very aware of the forest fires, the local industrial pollutants, car pollution, dust, and pollen in the air I breathe, but where else is air pollution coming from?

And what can I do to help?

A Stanford School of Sustainability article says about air pollution and its effects:

“While about half of all air pollution-related deaths from fine particulate matter result from burning fossil fuels, the remaining are largely from animal agriculture, dust from construction and roads, and burning wood for heating and cooking.”

“People usually think of power plants and cars, but nowadays, livestock and wood stoves are as big of a problem. It’s also our farms and our homes.”

Before we can advocate for bigger changes in our communities, we might adopt some personal and household “air-wise” habits to help to heal our environment. Even small changes in daily routines can help clear the air.

This is the third shift into nature-culture: To change our habits to do less harm - to make small adjustments towards unity and balance with nature. When we acknowledge and remember that we are part of nature, then this becomes self-serving: We are simply making common sense adjustments that align with our own health and safety, and that of our children, and our neighbors.

It’s hard to know how much difference personal changes make in the air quality of the world, but if we don’t shift our own habits, how can we expect to change an economic and political system built on a paradigm we are supporting?

How to be an Air Ally

1. Reduce gasoline travel and shipping:

The number one source of air pollution continues to be travel and shipping. Tailpipe emissions from cars, trucks, and buses release pollutants like nitrogen oxides and fine particles, and of course, carbon dioxide. Here are some ideas for how you can make a personal difference:

• Cut down on car trips. Walk, bike, carpool, or group your errands into one single trip. According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), our cars, trucks, buses, and other motor vehicles account for more than half of all air pollution in the United States.

• Buy locally-grown and locally-made food and products. Fewer delivery trucks on the road means less traffic, less refrigeration, and less pollution. Especially avoid those items that need to be flown from afar, because air fuel causes the greatest pollution.

• Avoid engine idling. Turn off your engine instead of waiting in long drive-thru or school pick-up lines.

• Use flying as a rare treat. While early steps are underway to power airplanes with biofuels, we are a long way from them mainstreaming. A drop in demand for air travel could help accelerate the biofuel revolution in aviation. (For more on the challenges, see How much biofuel would we need to decarbonise aviation?)

2. Adopt clean energy at home:

Switching to solar or efficient electric energy reduces pollution. As the United Nations site says, “Renewable energy sources — such as sunlight, wind, water, organic waste, and heat from the Earth — are abundant, replenished by nature, and emit little to no greenhouse gases or air pollutants.”

• Consider installing rooftop solar or subscribing to a community solar garden.

• Replace gas-powered appliances with efficient electric ones, such as heat pumps for heating and cooling, induction stoves, and electric water heaters.

• Weatherize your space by sealing leaks, adding insulation, and upgrading windows to reduce energy waste.

• Reduce wood-burning. Save your fireplace or outdoor fire pit for rare occasions rather than regular use. Burning firewood and trash are among the major sources of particle pollution in many parts of the country, as well as carbon monoxide, nitrogen oxides, and volatile organic compounds that contribute to creating ozone pollution. Wood smoke also adds carbon dioxide and methane to the air, two pollutants that contribute significantly to climate change.

• Use manual or electric tools. Choose a broom or rake, or battery-powered tools over gas-powered when tidying up your yard. Small gas engines - like the engine in your mower, handheld leaf blower, and chainsaw - put out exhaust, just like cars but these small engines don’t have any pollution controls, so they produce way more pollution - one statistic says an hour of lawn mowing is like driving 300 miles!

3. Change your diet:

Back to the Stanford article, the researchers reported a surprising finding about the sources of PM2.5 responsible for harming human health. We are familiar with PM2.5 as soot, exhaust, and road dust, but fine particulates also form from ammonia released from animal manure and the fertilization of crops.

• Reduce the amount of meat and dairy that you eat. Less meat and dairy translates to less manure and less ammonia pollution. In an article from the Academic Times, a researcher is quoted as saying, "Meat consumption can really affect this ammonia emission. If everybody can reduce meat consumption, they can really help the environment, the air quality."

• Support organic meat and dairy: It’s true that ammonia emissions from large organic beef and dairy farms are lower than those from large conventional farms because they use no artificial fertilizer, more outdoor grazing, less animal slurry, and less protein-rich feed. However, it’s an environmentally-mixed bag, because animal protein takes many times the energy, water, and land to produce as plant protein, so the modest gains for improved ammonia output are largely irrelevant. Still - it does produce organic manure! (Read on.)

The organic farming controversy:

While it seems reasonable to assume that organic vegetables would release less ammonia than conventionally grown vegetable, the rub is that organic vegetable farms in the U.S. are permitted to use manure from non-organic feedlots, chicken houses, pig barns, and fish farms, and so the source of their nitrogen is actually synthetic.

The Washington State University the Center for Sustaining Agriculture and Natural Resources says,

“This system allows organic proponents to claim that they are free from all the downsides of synthetic fertilizer production while also claiming all the benefits of using manure for their system. However, this is clearly not accurate. As long as organic farms are allowed to use manure from non-organic farms, they are reliant on chemically fixed nitrogen.”

My next natural-living challenge

The research I’ve done this week has opened my eyes. I can think of several habits I could change: I buy far too much stuff online that is probably flown across the country. I could eat less cheese. I should definitely weatherize.

But the information about manure has really caught my attention. My own solution has always been to use my home-grown duck manure, but I realize that I use straw and feed that is not organic, so I’ve set this intention:

“I plan to buy organically-grown straw and feed for my ducks, so that I can reduce the ammonia I am personally putting into the air that my family, my neighbors, and the animals in my eco-system must breathe to live.”

What habit might you change? Put it in the comments!

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Awareness of Air in my valley is often fraught with anxiety about the air quality. Summer is when we experience high ozone levels, high pollen counts, and wildfire smoke. Right now the air has cleared, but last week we were in the danger zone for several days because of a north wind bringing smoke from fires in Spokane and Canada, requiring me to wear a mask when outdoors for more than a few minutes.

Outdoor air pollution is unhealthy for everyone, but some of us are more vulnerable than others:

• Children - because their airways are small and still developing;

• Older people - because we have reduced lung ability;

• Women who are pregnant, and their fetuses;

• People with asthma or other chronic diseases.

• And anyone who lives or works in an area with frequent pollution (such as busy roadways, transit depots, industrial facilities, power plants, or oil and gas operations) - often people of color and those with lower income - because they have exposure more regularly.

But that’s not all. Many plants and animals are also vulnerable to airborne pollutants:

• Amphibians, like frogs and salamanders, have permeable skin that easily absorbs airborne toxins.

• Lichens and Mosses lack roots and obtain all their nutrients directly from the atmosphere.

• Animals at the top of the food chain (like eagles and bears) suffer from the bioaccumulation of heavy metals and toxins that concentrate in their prey.

• Understory plants and trees can become stunted from ground-level ozone because it reduces photosynthesis.

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has established an Air Quality Index (AQI) for five major air pollutants regulated by the Clean Air Act: Ground-level ozone; particulate matter (PM); carbon monoxide; sulfur dioxide; and nitrogen dioxide.

The Air Quality Index runs from 0 (good) to 500 (hazardous). You can check live local maps and forecasts on several AQI sources. AirNow.gov divides out the index into Ozone, PM 10, and PM 2.5.

Understanding the Index

• 0 to 50 (Good): Air is clean.

• 51 to 100 (Moderate): Air is fine, but a few people might have mild issues.

• 101 to 150 (Unhealthy for Sensitive Groups): Kids, older adults, and people with lung disease should stay inside.

• 151 to 200 (Unhealthy): Everyone may feel sick.

• 201 and up (Very Unhealthy to Hazardous): Stay indoors and keep windows shut.

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“Look up. Way up. The clouds you see in the sky, the wind that is moving the trees or the flag in your school yard, even the sunshine you feel on your face—these are all a result of Earth’s atmosphere.” ~National Geographic

The earth’s atmosphere stretches outward for more than 6,000 miles. The closest layer is called the troposphere: This is the part with most of earth’s clouds and most weather. The atmosphere is made up of Air, an invisible mixture of gases, such as oxygen and nitrogen, that most species need to survive.

Earth’s atmosphere and basic elements continuously recycle through natural planetary loops like photosynthesis, respiration, and wind and ocean exchange. Air recycles endlessly - every breath you take contains trillions of atoms from the collective pool of all past breathing. Because air is always recycled, your breath connects you to the past and the future; we are breathing the same air that our ancestors once breathed, and that which all future animals and people will someday breath. Air and breath also connects us to the sky, the wind, all the plants of the world, and the oceans.

“Air is a matrix that joins all life together ... In everyday life we absorb atoms from the air that were once part of birds and trees and snakes and worms, because all aerobic forms of life share that same air.” ~David Suzuki, The Sacred Balance: Rediscovering Our Place in Nature.

Air is one of the universal sacred elements, the element of wind, breath, inspiration, and spirit. Earth’s air is the home of birds, and angels, and the life-energy for our world (known as prana in yoga, or ki in Taoism). Our life depends on the life-energy that breath provides; both our bodies and our state of mind is linked to the quality of prana or ki we breathe in.

Because air is necessary for life, let’s give some attention to it today.

Begin with mindful breathing:

• Sit quietly and breathe; focus entirely on the physical sensation of breathing.

• Feel the air enter your nose and leave your body. Feel the air raise and lower your chest and belly.

• Breathe at a natural, comfortable pace.

• When your mind wanders to thoughts or worries, gently bring your focus back to the next breath.

• Notice also the touch of air on your skin (even if you are in still air, it is touching you).

• Let your attention expand with each breath to acknowledge and give thanks to the air in your room, your home, your neighborhood, and outward into the vastness of the earth’s atmosphere.

• When you are ready, bring your attention back to your own breath, and take the inspiration of the clouds with you through this day.

“The word spirit has developed from the Latin spiritus, meaning “breath.” Just as spirit connotes the sacred, so our air, this life-giving breath all around us, is sacred. Through the element of air there is a continuous communication among all the beings and life systems on the planet. The spirit of Earth also communicates with us through the Wind (air) nierika [essence]. When we learn to listen, we can hear the words of Earth and all life and grow closer to both.” ~James Endredy, Earthwalks for Body and Spirit

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“…for life to continue, we must make a shift in our hearts and minds towards reciprocity. This shift isn’t an itemized payback, but the scale needs to be balanced better than we’ve been doing, or we will find ourselves with nothing left to take.”

Today I’m writing about Climate Activism.

I believe that we each have a responsibility to engage in climate activism in one form or another, each within our unique abilities and time constraints, because climate change is the most critical global crisis of our time, driving severe weather, health emergencies, and ecosystem collapse, and we are all complicit.

We don’t have to solve all the problems. We just need to each do our little bit, and in that way take responsibility (there’s that word again) for repaying our debt. We have greater power than we think: Our purchasing power, our political pressure, our showing up and speaking out; by educating others, advocating for nature, and all kinds of creative resistance to the culture of delusion. And it is so rewarding!

But is anything really effective? Isn’t it already too late for the climate?

Well, it might indeed be too late to completely stop the impacts of climate change, but we need to keep working to weaken its effects. Anything we do to help to prevent suffering for some animal or human, now or in the future, is worth our effort.

“Climate change is the single greatest threat to a sustainable future but, at the same time, addressing the climate challenge presents a golden opportunity to promote prosperity, security and a brighter future for all.” ~Ban Ki-Moon, Former Secretary-General of the United Nations

And, since climate harms are pretty much insensitive to small individual changes in emissions, we must engage in activism—so as to form the kind of collective action that is needed to reduce climate harms.

Any potential positive shift in government policy is worth any little effort we can give it.

“What you do makes a difference, and you have to decide what kind of difference you want to make.” ~ Dr Jane Goodall, Scientist & Activist

Until recently, I did not consider myself an activist! I used to do mostly behind-scenes support work. I could be counted on to make soup for the event that someone else was organizing. But that all changed in 2016. I had a fire lit under me, and began to seek out something I could do.

Things I’ve done in the last 10 years:

• Painted signs and banners.

• Carried signs and banners

• Educated friends and neighbors.

• Spoke at city council meetings.

• Organized speakers and events.

• Wrote letters and signed petitions.

• Lobbied my state legislators.

I do my advocacy work with groups who are well-organized and mostly staffed with energetic and smart young people. This is my comfortable place of entrance: I go to a meeting, or sign up for a group chat to get informed, then offer to do one small thing to support the effort. Sometimes I’m led to step outside my comfort zone, but it always starts with a comfortable and safe entry.

What is your comfortable entry point?

Some ideas:

• Check out your local 350.org to see what they are working on. Do they have a direct action planned that you could join or even help to organize? (One of my first climate activism tasks was to help to paint a banner for a 350 event!)

• If you are part of the over-sixty demographic, look into Third Act. They have local working groups, acting on campaigns for solar power, divestment, and stopping data centers, to name a few. (They were my entry point into lobbying at the state capitol.)

• If you are younger, visit the Sunrise Movement site. They are working on Green New Deal electoral organizing.

• The Citizen’s Climate Lobby is an advocacy organization focused on federal climate solutions, with easy-to-access online letters to write to congress about timely climate policies.

• Extinction Rebellion (XR), is a movement that uses non-violent direct action and civil disobedience to communicate the urgency of the climate crisis. If you enjoy theatrics, this is the group for you! (I once laid down in front of a bank with our local XR group to protest fossil fuel investment.)

With all activism we find a “demandingness problem”, which arises because there is no limit to how much time and effort a person could potentially devote and still not fully address the cause. In the case of climate activism, the demandingness concern is HUGE, because climate reforms are so hard to push for - fossil fuel dependency is so deeply rooted into our economy and life-style.

You might be the person to ease the burden for someone who is drowning in their activism; sometimes just showing up is an act of generosity and support.

“Believe in the power of your own voice. The more noise you make, the more accountability you demand from your leaders, the more our world will change for the better.” ~Al Gore, Former US Vice President

Introduction posts:

Just browsing? Read this first. Nature-Culture defined, and its parts and principles. (April 27, 2026)

Nature-Culture Flow; How my 4 ideas fit together (May 29, 2026)

Parts and principles of Nature-Culture include:

1. Awareness:

Staying in daily touch with your local ecosystem - observing and interacting, learning the names of the flora and fauna, and being mindful of the air, water, land, season and climate; becoming a better neighbor.

What is Nature-Culture? Idea #1 is Awareness (April 25, 2026)

Awareness of place; Build an awareness that nature is part of our community, and that we are part of nature. (April 30, 2026)

Awareness of caterpillars; Know my creepy neighbors (June 4, 2026)

Awareness of the Summer Sun; Celebrate the Solstice (June 21, 2026)

Heat Awareness; Showing compassion for our stressed ecosystems (July 4, 2026)

2. Healing care:

Creating healthy sanctuary - a wildlife garden with native plants and intentional wildlife habitat (in your yard, on your balcony, or in a neighborhood garden space) to reverse some of the human-caused habitat destruction that is hurting nature; using regenerative agricultural practices.

Idea # 2: Healing Care; Let us reverse some of the human-caused habitat destruction. (May 4, 2026)

Shrink your lawn; Plant a tiny wilderness (May 8, 2026)

Create Caterpillar Sanctuary; Reverse some human-caused habitat destruction (June 11, 2026)

Rethink Your Food Garden Practices; Intro to regenerative gardening (June 19, 2026)

Create Sanctuary for Heat-Stressed Nature; How to show care as our world heats up (July 8, 2026)

3. Natural living:

Having integrity with your whole life - causing less harm; using less plastics, less carbon fuels, and less processed foods; limiting waste by recycling, reusing, and repurposing materials.

Idea #3: The Natural Living Challenge; Creating an opening for living in unity with our true nature (May 12, 2026)

Eat sustainably; Natural living starts here. (May 15, 2026)

Synch to Summer Rhythms; Natural living is slower in the summer (June 23, 2026)

Shrink Your Carbon Footprint; Biking is a radical climate action. (July 16, 2026)

4. Reciprocity:

Repaying the gifts you receive from nature by educating others, and advocating for nature, with all your creative self.

Idea #4: Balance the Scale; Giving back to Nature. (May 19, 2026)

Become an Advocate; Find your reasonable entry point. (May 23, 2026)

5. Hope:

Having resilience - finding the strength to be the people the world needs us to be; take control by focusing on how you frame the challenge.

The Bonus Shift is to Hope; Strength for the Nature-Culture journey (June 1, 2026)

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The Natural Living Challenge involves choosing to change one tiny habit that brings you into better integrity and unity with nature - small shifts in your consumer, transportation, or eating habits, and other ways to protest our culture of greed and consumption.

One way to choose habits to change is to calculate your carbon footprint. I kind of like to try this occasionally, even though I know it was first invented by British Petroleum:

As Mark Kaufman wrote in The carbon footprint sham:

“BP sought to explain what a carbon footprint is in a way which assigns responsibility for climate impact to the individual, while BP registers its own concerns by appearing already to be doing something about it.”

The truth is that most carbon pollution is emitted not by individuals but by industries and large-scale commercial enterprises.

We are NOT going to solve the climate problem by drying our clothes on a line, but that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t do it.

So go ahead and take a carbon calculator quiz online, because it will give you a baseline idea of where you stand and also some thoughts on things you might change.

Many of the calculators are pretty hard to use - you need to know how many miles per year, kilowatts, etc. I used the Climate Hero Carbon Calculator, which is AI generated and very easy to use. (It’s also embarrassingly ironic, since we’ve recently had a spike in US emissions, primarily attributed to the explosive growth in electricity demand from AI data centers.)

But since we already KNOW it’s a bigger-than-individual problem, what can we do with that information? It’s entirely up to you, but I feel that I can’t advocate for changes in policy unless I’ve changed my own habits first.

My own carbon footprint is about 2.7 tons a year, not quite at the Paris Agreement level yet, but way below the average American. I’m there mostly because I don’t own a car and I don’t fly in planes. It’s one of my firmest and longest-living environmental commitments: I refuse to support the Almighty Auto Industry. I manage mostly with walking, my electric bicycle and bike trailer, city buses, some car sharing (mostly for groceries and family outings), an occasional taxi or rental car, and train travel.

I’m not trying to seem self-righteous, but just to say - it’s possible. This is not a tiny shift; it takes a major life-style change, but it’s definitely possible.

Gasoline powered cars are the very biggest carbon polluters that most of us own. The Center for Energy and Climate Solutions says that burning one gallon of gasoline creates about 20 pounds of CO₂, which means the average vehicle creates up to 9 tons of CO₂ each year - depending on how much you drive it. Reducing your dependency on a gas-powered car is the most effective way to shave down your carbon footprint.

An electric car produces about half the tons of a gas car, and using predominantly walking, biking, and public transit will get you down to less than half a ton per year.

The frustrating thing about cars is that they determine everyone’s lifestyle, whether we own one or not. Our car-centric cities encourage sprawling suburbs, wider roads, and large parking lots. This infrastructure requires massive amounts of concrete and asphalt, which have heavy carbon costs, and destroy natural habitats. And then (don’t get me started) we have air pollution from carbon dioxide, and oil and gas run off…

It’s summer - the easiest time to park the car, and walk or bike.

Let me know: What is the tiny habit you can commit to, to reduce your carbon footprint?

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July is starting off cooler than normal in my part of the world, but another heat wave is coming soon. Now’s the time to prepare. With some forethought, we can prevent damage to trees and plants in our nearby eco-systems, and prevent the death of birds and other animals in our small sphere of influence.

First off, provide shade and shelter.

1. Plant living shade.

With a great deal of forethought, we can plant with heat in mind. Instead of isolated plants, arrange your backyard into supportive “guilds” that mimic natural forest edges:

• Leave some wild, over-grown areas in your garden for shade for birds and small animals. Undergrowth and patches of long grass will create cool, shady refuges.

• Plant trees: As our forests die off because of mismanagement and heat stress, our urban trees take on greater importance. The Bird Alliance of Oregon says,

“In the age of climate change, urban trees are our superpower. They are a nearly one-stop shop for alleviating a host of climate issues. Rising temperatures? Shade from trees can lower surface temperatures by as much as 15 degrees. Want to decrease vehicle emissions? Street trees encourage walking and biking. Flooding from increasingly intense weather events? Trees will absorb runoff. Our urban tree canopy is one of the best tools to create climate resilient cities.”

• Over-story anchors: Position sun-loving, drought-tolerant species (like elderberry, sunflowers or yard-long beans) to the south and west of sensitive plants. Plant greens and other cool season annuals, berries, or young perennials directly in the afternoon shadow of your larger anchor plants.

2. Use mulches.

Mulch will help to retain soil moisture, cool the root zone of plants, and also provide shade for insects!

• Mulches: Use a 2–4-inch layer of mulch a few inches out from the trunk around stressed trees, and an even thicker layer (4-6 inches) of straw, pine needles, leaves or grass clippings on your vegetable and flower garden to keep them cooler and hold the water longer. (Garden Therapy has a comprehensive list of natural mulches.)

• Living mulches: Replace bare, exposed soil with living mulches like clover or creeping thyme (or use any low-growing native plant), to drop soil surface temperatures drastically. Living mulch is great protection for over-heated insects, too.

3. Structures and shade cloth.

Even if all you only have a small patio, consider making a spot for small animals and insects to find shade.

• Make a Log Pile: Partially burying old, decaying wood in a shady spot provides the perfect cool, damp environment for beetles, centipedes, bumblebees, salamanders, snakes, and other small animals.

• Provide temporary shade with a patio umbrella, a hanging sheet, strategically placing lawn furniture, etc.

• Reusable Shade Cloths: Drape a 30% to 40% knitted shade cloth over a simple wooden frame or tomato cages, ensuring the sides remain open for cross-ventilation. Burlap also works, and it’s a lot cheeper. New tree seedlings are particularly vulnerable - consider getting a big piece of shade cloth to stretch over small trees.

• Make a wattle shade wall: Weave vertical branches or sunflower stalks together on the south side of plants to create a rustic, biodegradable shade wall. (See How to Make Wattle Fencing Step by Step.)

Secondly, provide plenty of water.

Shade is only half the battle; hydration is crucial for all living creatures, and keeps plants’ internal cooling system (transpiration) working.

• Water trees and plants in the early morning or early evening, or use a soaker hose or drip irrigation to direct water right into the soil and avoid loses from evaporation. Although overhead watering is not generally recommended (as it can foster an environment for plant disease), during periods of prolonged extreme heat, you may consider gentle overhead watering or misting over the leaves in the morning. Give special attention to new and vulnerable plants, and container gardens, but also consider watering your mature trees during a major heat wave.

• Set out several different containers of water. Insects need a shallow bowl with a rock to sit on; mammals and ground dwelling birds need a bowl at ground level; and other birds need a higher bird bath, in a safe place. Consider adding a moving or dripping water feature, such as a solar bubbler. Birds are drawn to the sound of moving water. Moving water deters mosquito breeding and helps prevent bacterial growth. Place the bath in partially shaded conditions, near shrubs, and when appropriate, at ground level. Keep it clean and cool, changing the water frequently. Leaving ice cubes in water bowls and bird baths helps keep the water cooler for longer.

• You could also put down moist food, like soaked raisins and currants, for birds and small mammals.

• Build a wildlife pond. This helps amphibians struggling to find a damp, sheltered spot to soak, and supports lots of other kinds of wildlife, including beneficial insects. Your pond can be as simple as an old wash tub, repurposed sink, oak barrel or a water trough, or you can build a more natural looking one using a pond liner (Our Wild Yard has a great description of how to do this - my next project!)

Other tips:

• During heat waves, avoid pruning healthy tree branches or removing large limbs.

• When you have a heat wave, stop fertilizing. Without adequate water, fertilizing could cause damage to plant tissues. A sudden flush of nutrients signals to the plant that it is time to grow. It is dangerous and stressful for the plant during soaring temperatures, because new growth is more-susceptible to the effects of heat damage.

During extreme heat events, we all need food, water, and appropriate shelter. Check in on your human neighbors too, particularly those that live alone, or who may have underlying health conditions, or who are elderly.

What is one thing you can do this week to prepare to help?

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Heat waves are uncomfortable and dangerous for humans, and sometimes, if we can’t find relief, we die. But think for a moment what it feels like for the rest of the natural world. The Yale School of the Environment reports:

“The impacts of a hotter world are no longer off in the future — they have already arrived. As the planet grows warmer, the effects of heat stress on organisms trying to survive outside the temperature envelope they evolved in is becoming increasingly evident. From insects to coral reefs to biodiversity across entire ecosystems, researchers are chronicling the serious impacts of heat stress as temperatures break records. And several leading scientists believe we are underestimating the impacts, even as the heat ramps up.”

As you suffer in the heat, bring your awareness to the plight of nature.

This list is a lot of bad news, so try to breath it in as a compassionate meditation:

• Trees are dying: Warmer temperatures are causing major damage to the world’s forests. As temperatures warm, trees become less resilient and die-offs become more frequent — as much as five times more. And warmer temperatures also reduce seedling survival so burned and clear-cut forests can’t re-grow.

• Wild food ripens early: Ripening of fruits and nuts now happens earlier for lots of plant species, and so fruit may be smaller and drop earlier. This is a mechanism that helps plants and trees preserve water. But this can spell disaster for the wildlife that depends on them later in autumn, to build their energy reserves for winter.

• Insects struggle: Heat waves scorch the plants that insects feed on and kill young caterpillars. Bumblebees are also particularly hard hit because their furry coats cause them to overheat, and they can’t fly or forage. Bumblebees do store food reserves in their nests, but these last for just a few days – not sustainable in prolonged heat waves.

• Birds suffer in the heat: Birds have a higher core body temperature than many other animals, and don’t have sweat glands, so they pant to cool off, exhaling air and water. The hotter they get, the more water they need to expel, and replace, to keep cool. Many birds sing less and stop foraging to focus on cooling themselves.

• Amphibians are in hot water: Warmer water affects amphibian lifecycles - babies might develop faster, but if ponds dry up earlier, young frogs and toads may leave the pond before they’re fully developed, and they will simply die.

• Thirsty mammals: Water sources dry up in the heat, forcing animals, including urban animals, to travel farther to drink. To conserve energy, they may hide in burrows and skip meals, leading to malnutrition. Extreme heat scrambles animal minds, leading to decreased vigilance, reduced learning capacity, and increased aggression.

I’ll write soon about some practical things you can do to help heat-stressed nature, but first, let’s just sit with our feelings. As you become more aware of your local ecosystem and become a better neighbor, you will naturally begin to feel greater empathy; our knowledge of how nature is suffering drives our earth care activism.

It’s natural to feel sad, distressed, or angry about climate change, but if the feelings turn towards despair or hopelessness, you might find comfort with this guided meditation for overcoming eco-anxiety. What I like most about this particular meditation is how it shows honor to our human feelings, while emphasizing how we are interdependent with the earth. It includes a beautiful Tonglen practice for visualizing how to draw out the suffering from the earth and send the earth healing and compassion.

How do you sooth your eco-anxiety?

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The word busy originated from the Old English word bisiġ which originally meant careful and anxious, and developed into meaning diligent, zealous, or occupied. Busy is the human condition - nature isn’t busy. Nature is active, fruitful, and abundantly full!

In reality, while I am on committees, have responsibilities, write my essays, care for my grandsons and my garden, and have many important tasks on my to-do list, my life is pretty flexible and fluid. My summer is full, and lively, and fun! This simple mental and verbal shift is an impactful way to live into nature-culture, and create an opening for existing outside the confines of the political and economic system that is destroying the environment.

Maybe you really are busy; summer is a natural time to relax some of your busy-ness. Days are longer, and kids are not in school. We get to slow down a bit, play at the park, bask in the sun, go swimming or on evening walks, eat ice cream, and stay up late talking to friends

Use any or all of these tips for balancing with the active and bold energy of summer.

Honor the sun energy

Nature gets a supercharge in the summer months. In Chinese medicine, Summer is the season of Yang, which manifests as sunshine, heat, movement, growth, expansion, laughter and joy. Give attention to a boost in your energy level, and use this extra energy for something good.

• Let the sunrise and sunset guide your days. Get up a little earlier and stretch your bedtime to a little later. You may find that you have more energy with less sleep during the summer.

• Take a midday siesta. When the heat bogs you down, a midday rest is a good way to recharge.

• Stay hydrated. This may seem obvious, but dehydration may sneak up on you before you even feel thirsty.

• Eat seasonal foods. The earth produces foods at particular seasons - eat as many seasonal foods as possible - fresh fruit and vegetables. Eating locally sourced, seasonal ingredients slashes “food miles” and minimizes carbon emissions from global transport.

• Nourish your creativity. While spring is the time to start new projects, summer is the time to nourish them. It’s the season when nature grows and expands; what do you want to nurture in your life? Take your creative endeavors to a new level.

• Find what brings joy. The emotion and sounds associated with summer are joy and laughter. Laugh with joyful abandon, and play like a child.

Slow down

Take advantage of the slower pace of summer to experiment with living outside your comfort zone. You can make a few conscious life-style changes in order to live without depleting yourself or the environment. Slow living is natural and sustainable.

• Enjoy “slow foods”. Prepare fresh meals at home rather than indulging in fast foods. Take an honest look at your relationship with convenience and comfort, and counteract the disappearance of local food traditions.

• Practice active transportation. Walking, cycling, and public transit are easier to experiment with in the sunny days of summer, and will significantly cut your carbon footprint.

• Vacation near home. Avoid air travel this summer and explore areas closer to home; you will reduce carbon emissions and support the local economy and local culture.

• Relax with your community. Share meals with family and friends. Take time to build community now that will be a support in the darker seasons.

EcoBlvd, a sustainable products business, posted an article explaining how Slow Living Can Help You Consume Less & Enjoy More:

“Although we have access to a wealth of convenient and efficient technology and tools, we are forever chasing the feeling of wanting more. Due to this relentless cycle of progress, our consumer habits have changed. Ultimately, we have become accustomed to speed and variety. The Internet has become our go-to source for immediate answers to life’s questions. In real-time, we receive notifications with breaking news. We can access any produce or cuisine regardless of the season or where we live.

But what would happen to us if we slowed down?

That will mean we’ll be late, not meet our deadlines, or lose out on something. The challenge of accomplishing more, faster, and having less time for ourselves increases as we become busier and more pressed for time.

Slowing our lives down extends beyond just how we manage tasks, as it can also affect our health and the planet. It has been found in areas with the highest life expectancy that people live a life free from urgency, worry, or hurry and instead lead an intentional and purposeful life. This creates a stronger connection between the community and its environment, preserving traditions and cultures that have often been lost to modernity.

How do you synch to summer rhythms?

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At the summer solstice, it is fitting that we give attention to the life-giving sun. Natural light from the sun is vital for the health of every living thing on this planet – either directly or indirectly. Light energy affects temperatures on land and water, plant photosynthesis and growth, and biological processes, such as the relationship between predators and prey, or when animals mate and birds lay eggs.

Humanity could not exist on earth without sunlight and all of the earth processes that transform light into usable nutrients. We collect the essence of sun as we walk in the sunlight. Just as plants absorb sunlight, so do we - with our skin and eyes. The energy of the sun lives in each of us.

At some point every year, near to the solstice, my family has a week of activities that celebrate the start of summer. We make strawberry shortcake and home-made ice cream; we have a picnic. We harvest herbs, and make flower crowns. And we usually have a family gathering with a solstice fire.

The summer solstice is an invitation to pause and notice the everyday reality of the rising and setting of the sun, the lengthening (and shortening) of the day, and the glorious gifts they bring us. Take a pause, reflect, and give thanks.

Herb bundles

According to tradition, the summer solstice is the “day of all days for gathering the wonderful herbs”. In some parts of the world, the plant’s energy has not yet been directed into making flowers or seeds, so the flavor and scent is potent. Most of my herbs are past that and are well into flowering by the solstice, but I still harvest some today to make a bundle for burning. Typically Native American people burn white sage, but I burn my homegrown culinary sage, and add other herbs to the bundles.

Sun mandala

Today I will also make a sun mandala of grapevine, with two cross arms. The outer circle represents the wheel of the year, and the arms of the cross symbolize the four seasons. Each year on the solstice I take down the old mandala from the grape arbor where it has been hanging, and put up the new one.

And if we make a fire, we throw the old mandala on it.

A Blessing For Summer Solstice

From Pausing with the Sun, The invitation of Summer Solstice, by Amy Hoppock:

How do you celebrate the solstice?

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I’ve grown a food garden since my 20’s, but a few years ago, as I was starting to plant natives in my front yard and think about how to welcome and support nature there, I began to also rethink some of my food gardening habits and attitudes. I heard gardeners use language such as “outwit the pests”, “abolish weeds”, and “conquer the weather”, and asked myself:

I realized my organic gardening practices were not enough; I needed a bigger shift in practices and philosophy - a shift towards becoming a Habitat Healer rather than a “gardener”; towards greater respect and deference for the garden ecosystem.

History and definitions

I grew up during the Green Revolution (1950s–1960s), a time when the human population of the world was growing rapidly (yes - I’m a boomer). All thoughts were on how to feed the world. The Green Revolution transformed gardening and agriculture with high-yield, industrialized techniques, intensive irrigation, mechanical farm equipment, synthetic fertilizers and pesticides, and hybrid seeds. Much of our industrial agriculture is still done this way, and many home gardeners still use these methods too.

The Green Revolution did increase global food production, but it also led to decreased genetic diversity (monoculture), soil erosion, chemical pollution, and a move towards large-scale, commercial agri-businesses that could afford the necessary chemicals and machinery.

In my teens I began to practice organic gardening. Pioneered by figures like Sir Albert Howard and J.I. Rodale, organic gardening focuses on soil health, composting, and biodiversity, and evolved into a certified industry by the 1990s.

Later I heard about permaculture, which was developed in the mid-1970s by Bill Mollison and David Holmgren in Australia, integrating indigenous knowledge, agroforestry, and organic farming to combat industrial agricultural destruction.

And then more recently I began to adopt regenerative gardening practices, which are a step beyond organic gardening. Regenerative gardening was popularized in the 1980s by Robert Rodale of the Rodale Institute. It builds heavily on concepts from permaculture and Indigenous land stewardship, and has the potential to help reverse climate change by supporting carbon drawdown — the capturing and sequestering of atmospheric carbon — and improving water retention in our soils.

I love what Emily Murphy, the author of Grow What You Love, says in her post “Regenerative Gardening: A Primer for the Home Gardener”:

Some regenerative practices:

• Feed and protect the soil. Focus on the soil health more than the crop by feeding the soil microbes. Soil microbes will do the work of improving the soil structure and sequestering carbon, but they need food, and one way to feed them is with compost and manure - organic fertilizing products, derived from natural sources.

• Use no synthetic chemicals. Organic fertilizers nourish the soil, while synthetics nourish the crops; organic fertilizers usually have to be processed and broken down my microorganisms to become available to the plant; synthetic fertilizers discourage plants from seeking nutrients that are deeper in the soil, and from working with soil microbes for nutrition. The result is less carbon sequestration. For more on this, see Organic Vs. Synthetic Fertilizers: Differences And Uses (I’ll cover chemical pesticides in another post.)

• No bare earth. Keep the soil planted as much as possible by growing ground covers, cover crops, and perennials, to maximize photosynthesis and carbon sequestration. Also, keeping live roots in the ground is the very best way to feed soil because roots feed the microbes with their root sweat, called exudates. (For more on exudates, see Advancing Eco Agriculture.)

• No digging. Disturb the soil as little as possible, rather than churning it up with a shovel or tiller. Digging destroys the soil structure, the fungal networks, and the sticky soil organisms that hold soil together. When soil is left undisturbed to act like an ecosystem, it is able to naturally build and retain essential nutrients. (Check out Emily Murphy’s How to Start a No Dig Garden.)

• Grow a diversity of plants, for a beautiful garden that attracts beneficial insects. Plant some natives amidst your vegetable “exotics”, and also look for vegetable seeds that are adapted to your eco-region. And rotate your crops to different beds each year.

I’ve been using these practices since 2020, and have seen a big difference - the soil is fluffier, and the clay is less clumpy; more native insects are visiting; and vegetable yield is up. And my favorite part is that I’m working less! Less weeding, less digging - I use a garden fork to loosen the soil, add compost on top, and plant.

Regenerative gardening has required me to make some large-scale shifts in thinking: The first was to be less aggressive, and interfere less; I act less like the God of the Garden, and more like a caretaker, observer, and healer. I trust more in the garden eco-system to know what to do.

And secondly, I’ve changed my aesthetic ambitions. I’ve gotten used to a garden that looks less tidy: I let some “weeds” stay (such as plantain, thistles, clover, and self-sewn flowers like calendula and daisies), as long as they aren’t stunting plants, because living roots are better than bare earth, and when vegetables go to seed, I let them flower until I need that spot for a new crop.

My garden doesn’t look like the magazine pictures I used to try to emulate, because it doesn’t have neat rows with bare earth around each plant - it’s a happy jumble, almost but not quite a chaos garden - there is some order in the apparent madness.

According to Kate A. Congreves, in her article Regenerative agriculture—a definition and philosophy, regenerative agriculture is an ethic “that involves reciprocity with the land, to support ecosystem processes with the goal of nurturing the environment.” Adopting this ethic implies that I deem the land, plants, soil, water, air, and their ecological processes as “morally worthy”, due to their roles in giving life.

Being a Habitat Healer means that we have turned our vegetable garden into a place of sanctuary for nature, from which we are able to harvest an amazing variety of healthy food for ourselves - the gifts of reciprocity.

With this shift firmly in mind, we can accept that caterpillars are an important part of the diversity of a garden ecosystem. Caterpillars will turn into beneficial pollinators or become meals for predatory insects or a brood of birds.

If you plant a variety of native plants, you will end up hosting a diversity in overall species, including those that prey on caterpillars. Caterpillars are the mainstay of a nesting bird’s diet - they need thousands each day to feed their babies, so you need not fear that caterpillars will take over your garden!

Creating pockets of safe caterpillar habitat will increase the overall diversity and health of your garden. Providing caterpillar sanctuary involves four things:

• Choose a safe site;

• Plant the food caterpillars like (called host plants);

• Plant the flowers that they will like as adults (nectar plants) nearby;

• Keep the site safe over time.

Choose a safe site

A caterpillar sanctuary can be a small area in a larger garden, away from foot traffic, perhaps under an established tree or in a back corner of a yard or patio. You’ll want to choose a site that people and pets don’t routinely walk through. Caterpillars are soft and squishy, and when they are in their pupa stage, they are vulnerable.

Many butterflies lay their eggs in their host trees or directly on their host plants, and the caterpillars hatch there, eat, then pupate, all on this host. Depending on the species, the pupa may be suspended under a branch, hidden in leaves or buried underground. This stage can last from a few weeks to a month or even longer. Some species have a pupal stage that lasts for two years ... and so they need a space with some leaf litter, duff, and plant debris that will remain uncompacted and undisturbed for a long time - free of foot traffic, dogs, and leaf blowers.

Plant host plants

Plant generously: Caterpillars are voracious eaters. Ensure you have a dense, ample supply of native host plants so they don’t run out of food.

Check the National Wildlife Federation Native Plant Finder tool to find the best host plants for your area.

Choose keystone plants to maximize biodiversity and feed the highest number of caterpillars. The NWF calls keystones “Power Plants”, because they support more wildlife than others.

If you have space for a tree or two, plant a keystone tree, like an oak or willow, but really any native plant is better than an ornamental. (Ornamentals are nice, too - Doug Tallamy calls them sculptures - of no benefit except for aesthetics.)

It’s also fine to pick a target butterfly or two that you want to feed, and plant specific host plants. For example, I’ve got ceanothus, spirea, and serviceberry in hopes that the lovely Lorquin’s Admiral will lay eggs here.

Host plants are sometimes very specific, because many butterfly and moth caterpillars have coevolved with plants. Coevolution involves reciprocity - an evolutionary change occurs between the insect and plant as they interact with one another. Some caterpillars have evolved to be solely dependent on certain habitats and species of plant. We all probably know that monarch caterpillars eat only milkweed. Many (but not all) other caterpillars are equally picky.

Nectar plants

Nectar plants are more varied, and can be planted anywhere nearby. I’ll write about that later.

Keep the site safe over time

Once you have chosen a site, and have planted host plants, you need to take some steps to protect them from un-natural threats - Caterpillars face many threats in a typical garden, and being eaten by birds or other insects is the only natural one.

Being trampled or blown away with a leaf-blower, or killed with pesticides, are anthropogenic, human-induced threats, that we can and should protect them from as best we can. You might need to put up a protective wire fence, or post a sign, or re-train your family members, or your building’s yard maintenance crew.

What steps are you willing to take to re-populate the world with butterflies?

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One of the big shifts I’ve made in the last few years is to stop demonizing caterpillars, and care for them as my neighbors, and the unsung heroes that they are. Caterpillars keep the ecosystem's food web together - they are an essential food source for breeding birds, who need thousands of them to feed their young.

Many kinds of caterpillars are in severe population declines due to habitat loss, climate change, light pollution, and pesticides. The very least I can do is get to know the creepy crawlers that live on my patch of earth, and call them by name.

I’m not very aware of caterpillars in my yard. I’m not sure if it’s because I’m not observant or if we just have so few. The ones I know I’ve seen are the cabbage worm (white cabbage butterfly) and sawfly larvae (a kind of wasp). I’m trying to find more, and learn more.

Tips for meeting caterpillars:

1. Find their food: Caterpillars have favorite foods. If you are looking for, say, a Painted Lady caterpillar, you’ll need to look on a artemisia, checkermallow, lupine, pearly everlasting, stinging nettle, thistle, and yarrow. (Shout out to Amy Manning for this list of host plants for the butterflies of the Willamette Valley.)

2. Look for nibbled leaves: When looking, see if you notice nibbled leaves, or stems with all the leaves stripped off.

3. Look for caterpillar poop: Caterpillar droppings are called frass. Frass looks like small dark pellets, usually found on lower leaves or understory plants. If you are really serious, you can put a white sheet out overnight and look for frass the next day.

4. Look after dark: Many caterpillars are active at night. Take a flashlight and look at host plants in the dark.

If you are lucky enough to spot a caterpillar, take a few moments to notice something special or beautiful about it. Also, notice what plant it’s feeding on. Check the Caterpillar Identification site to find out its name. Say “Howdy, neighbor!”

The challenges we face are so huge, so daunting - it can feel like a nightmare scenario: we’re up against the wealthiest, most powerful people in the world — the fossil fuel industry and the bankers who fund them. It seems hopeless.

And because it’s so huge and seemingly hopeless, we either freeze in anxiety, or ignore it and hope it will go away. If that’s the head-space you find yourself in (and we all do from time to time), you might find it helpful to take steps to shift your perspective.

In the book “Perspective: Reignite, Reinvent, Reframe” (2025), by Meridith Elliot Powell, the author says,

“Perspective is like a switchboard -- get it right, and it can positively and dramatically impact your energy, beliefs, actions, and results.”

My challenge with my Nature-Culture work is always to find the perspective that gives me some peace; if I can reframe my wild thoughts - step back, assess the situation, and find a more useful reality - I can respond with creativity, curiosity, and hope.

We can’t know the future

We all know in our hearts that we are living on borrowed time - the worst is yet to come. But none of us know what the future holds - what movements might rise up; what good thing a big corporation may suddenly decide to do; what planetary shifts might still occur. One step to building hope is to open your mind to the possibility that things can get better. Life is full of uncertainties- why not hope for the best? Broad perspectives and possibilities invite an opening to action.

In “Hope in the Dark; Untold Histories, Wild Possibilities” (2016), Rebecca Solnit says,

“Hope locates itself in the premises that we don’t know what will happen and that in the spaciousness of uncertainty is room to act. ... It’s the belief that what we do matters even though how or when it may matter, who and what it may impact, are not things we can know beforehand.”

And Bill McKibben in his latest Substack post “Just my imagination”, says,

“Climate change, to me, has always seemed like a test of whether or not the big brain was a sound adaptation: obviously it can get us in a lot of trouble, but can it get us out of that trouble? The longer I live, the more I’m convinced that the answer to that question has mostly to do with the size of the heart that brain is attached to. In the end, “imagination” is about enlarging that heart.”

Start by being present

That brings me back full circle to my Nature-Culture idea #1: Awareness, because to find hope one needs to be present.

When I am truly present in nature, bringing my whole heart to the moment - not thinking about the next project on my list; not worrying about the future of the planet; not feeling guilty about my bad habits - I don’t have time for dread or sadness because I am focused on the NOW. I’m looking with fascination at the beautiful pale yellow butterfly that just landed in front of me… what is your name?

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In the last month I’ve introduced my 4 Nature-Culture ideas: Awareness, Healing Care, Natural Living, and Reciprocity.

How it works in my life

I take time almost each day to be still in my garden and watch the bees, or on a walk, to look at the trees and flowers. (Sometimes I get to share that awareness with my grandsons, who also love to watch bees and flowers.)

I take lots of photos, and later I look up the names of the bugs and the flowers I’ve met. I get to know my nature neighbors by name and learn about their life-cycle and needs. I also read books, blogs, pod-casts, and take classes: This kind of study has pretty much replaced the time I used to spend on things like meditation and self-improvement classes, and has a broader set of benefits: I am becoming aware of the air, water, land, season and climate, and of myself as a part of nature.

I want to know, for example, how can I welcome and care for this native black-tailed bumble bee, Bombus melanopygus? In a search I found out that they are one of the bumbles that often nest above ground, in birdhouses, mail boxes, walls, or the stuffing in a chair, or sometimes also underground. Like honeybees but unlike other native bees, bumble bees live in colonies with a single queen.

A bumble bee nest may contain about 250 bumble bees. Bumble bees don't make honey, but their nests do contain a nectar pot and extra pollen stores to feed the queen and larvae, who will overwinter in the nest. This bumble is a female, a worker, collecting pollen to take home. She loves my Ceanothus bush, but is not a picky eater.

Where are my resident black-tailed bumbles living? I need to know that - I don’t want to carelessly dig up the nest, or throw it away when I clean up the yard (Back to #1: Awareness - I’ve got a new goal - to track this bumblebee home).

Last week I wrote about one of the biggest threats bees face, which is from neonicotinoids, a pesticide used to treat the seeds of more than 140 crops including virtually all corn, soy, wheat, and canola planted in the US. These are systemic insecticides that contaminate the nectar and pollen of plants, leading to death or severe development issues for butterflies and bees.

I don’t want to support this practice! And, really, the only strategy for avoiding food treated with neonicotinoids is to buy certified organic products.

This is the part where I am moved to share what I’ve learned about bees, what they need to thrive, and how we can be better neighbors; I write, I preach a little, and I find creative ways to advocate.

One thing I did two years ago was to become an official Bee Advocate through the Oregon State University BEE ADVOCATE program, a free certification designed for those interested in outreach and public education, and open to anyone who might want to do tabling at farmer’s markets, or deliver talks to school groups, etc. I got a lot of free materials, like these bee trading cards.

I know that activists in my state of Oregon introduced House Bill 2679 last year to restrict the use of neonicotinoid pesticides. The bill faced intense debate between environmental groups and agricultural interests, and some dubious amendments were proposed. The bill was left in the House Committee on Climate, Energy, and Environment and failed to pass during the 2025 regular session. One of my goals this summer is to track down who is continuing to work on this bill and when it will be re-introduced. What might I do to help?

That’s one way the flow of Nature-Culture has worked in my life; it’s energizing and exciting, and it brings me hope and fulfillment.

How are the parts of Nature-Culture inspiring you??? Please let me know!

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…and we want to, but it seems daunting.

Today I’m writing in support of advocacy (ha ha - that’s a pun). Being an advocate simply means to support, recommend, or speak in favor of a person, cause, or idea.

If you have an issue that is calling to you - like preserving the wetlands in your town, or preventing large scale spraying of pesticides - you can easily become an advocate; you just need to be passionate and believe in your cause, have some clear information (the facts), and find a comfortable way to share it.

Sharing is often the stumbling block: It is scary to put yourself forward as an advocate. Please, take some time to find your most reasonable entry point - what are your natural gifts? Are you a good public speaker, or a writer? Or are you better at helping out behind the scenes? Are you good at raising money, or canvasing, or organizing events? Are you good with computers, or willing to call or visit your representatives? Do you like to make graphics, posters, or artwork? All of these are parts of advocacy. Even talking casually with your neighbor over the fence about the issue you are working on is a great start to advocacy!

Advocacy does NOT need to be a big commitment of time; you can commit to one tiny piece, work on that at your own pace, then move on to another piece. The crisis is urgent but we do not need to be zealots; indeed, we will be much better advocates for the earth if we are slow and thoughtful.

And if you wonder whether your tiny offering will make any difference, be reassured that it WILL.

Amanda Blackburn, a community organizer, writes:

“When individuals take small but deliberate actions, they begin to shift the momentum of decision-making in their communities. These acts may seem modest at first glance - writing a letter to a city council member, attending a public hearing, or rallying a few neighbors to speak up about a zoning change. But over time, they contribute to a mosaic of civic engagement that influences how policies are designed and implemented. One of the most powerful aspects of individual advocacy is its accessibility. It does not require a title, a budget, or a platform. It begins with a conviction and the decision to act.” ~ Amanda Blackburn, Everyday Advocacy: Small Steps That Lead to Big Change, citygov.com.

Really, I believe that perseverance is the only thing you need. Here are some easy first steps towards being an advocate:

• Memorize a catchy but passionate reason WHY, and repeat it ad nauseam, to anyone who will listen (your dog or cat are likely audiences).

• Have informed conversations with your immediate circle - communicating on a peer-to-peer level is extremely effective for creating lasting change.

• Share resources and facts on social media.

• Write to your legislators.

• Publicly protest with your reason on a sign.

• Show up for work - support the groups that are doing the work by showing up to help with hands-on actions like restoration or letter-writing campaigns.

As a confirmed introvert, I’ve found that writing is my favorite kind of advocacy, but I am willing to take my writing and speak it out loud to the city council or state politicians if I have plenty of community back-up. Most recently I went to my state capital to advocate for the Make Polluters Pay bill: That was a stretch for me, but it felt good!