Faith and Nature

Archive for the ‘environment’ Category

My trip to the AGO meeting in Davis turned out to be an all day affair if you take into account the bike and train commute. I hopped on my bike at 7:20 am and pedaled to the Berkeley Amtrak station. The day started cold, foggy and breezy waiting for the train. I used to know my way around Davis like the back of my hand, having spent four years there as an undergrad. But my memory failed me, and the campus has expanded, and I ended up a bit disoriented, but fortunately found a sign and a fellow attendee to point me in the right direction. I arrived at the meeting location, the Mondavi Center at 9:50, with a little more than an hour to spare. I took the liberty of introducing myself to a few other early arrivals, including the Executive Director of the Stewardship Council, the Associate Dean of the College of Agriculture and Environmental Sciences, a former dorm mate from my undergrad years at UCD, and the California Wilderness Coalition.

The session went from 11:00 until about 12:15, with most of that time taken up with the audience listening. If you are interested you can download the agenda. Of the various presenters the presentation that left the most impact with me was Andy Beckstoffer, from Beckstoffer Winery talking on the benefits of private conservation easements in California. With the pressure to expand development up and down the Central Valley, easements may play a key role in protecting land and sustaining agriculture. Phil Martainelli talked about reintroducing Elk into California, including two areas that I’ve visited while taking photos for The Nature Conservancy, The Carrizo Plain and San Antionio Ranch.

But the real focus of the meeting was to give the people attending the event the opportunity to tell their stories. The stories continued for an additional 45 minutes beyond the 45 minutes allotted, and they could have gone on for another two hours. There were, in my estimate, about 200 people attending. We heard from fly fishers, mountain bikers, off road vihicle enthusiasts, rock hounds, hikers, land trusts, cattlemen, farmers, ranchers, environmental educators, including Natures Theater just to name a few. Some of the issues that came up included the Berryessa Snow Mountain proposed national conservation area, with stories both for and against the proposal, the wilderness status of Drakes Estero (the photo above is from Drakes Estero), invasive species such as the Zebra Mussel, and restrictive nature of the Land and Water Conservation Fund.

I left the event with a new awareness of the opportunities that exist to connect people with nature by helping them share their stories.

I’ll be attending the America’s Great Outdoors listening session hosted by Congressman Mike Thompson tomorrow, with the intend of expanding my network people that are interested in connecting people with nature.  A number of organizations involved with nature, conservation and land protection are expected to be there.  And to help celebrate America’s Great Outdoors here a photo of on of my favorite places, the Carrizo Plain

On May 2 as part of Dance-A-Rama I staged a performance piece involving dancers, the audience and the panoramic camera. My intent was to create some hope and inspiration amidst all the statistics we see about the effects of climate change. You can read more about the event and see the resulting images by clicking here.

Earth Day found me on the Carrizo Plain looking for wildflowers. It was an overcast and cold with an occassional rain shower. Watching the clouds move in on the Carrizo Plain is dramatic. I’ll be posting photos shortly. In the meantime here’s  photo I captured a couple of hours ago in the Antelope Valley, east of Los Angeles.

The Amen of Nature is always a flower – Oliver Wendell Holmes

I’m reading Gary Snyder’s book Back on the Fire, which is a thought provoking collection of essays, I was particularly struck by the following from pages 34-35.

Gift economy? That might be another perspective on the meaning of ecology. We are living in the midst of a great potluck at which we are all the invited guests. And we are also eventually the meal. The Ainu, when they had venison for dinner, sang songs aloud to the deer spirits who were hanging about waiting for the performance. The deer visit human beings so that they might hear some songs. In Buddhist spiritual ecology, the first thing to give up is your ego- The ancient Vedic philosophers said that the gods like sacrifices, but of all sacrifices that which they most appreciate is your ego. This critical little point is the foundation of yogic and Buddhist askesis. Dogen famously said, “We study the self to forget the self. When you forget the self you become one with the ten thousand things.” (There is only one offering that is greater than the ego, and that is “enlightenment” itself.)

The being who has offered up her enlightenment is called a Bod-hisattva. In some of the Polynesian societies the Big Person, the most respected and powerful figure in the village, was the one who had nothing—whatever gift came to him or her was promptly given away again. This is the real heart of a gift economy, an economy that would save, not devour, the world. Gandhi once said, “For greed, all of nature is insufficient.” Art takes nothing from the world; it is a gift and an exchange. It leaves the world nourished.

“Ripples on the surface of the water— were silver salmon passing under—different
from the ripples caused by breezes”

A scudding plume on the wave—
a humpback whale is
breaking out in air up
gulping herring
—Nature not a book, but a performance, a high old culture

Ever-fresh events
scraped out, rubbed out, and used, used, again—
the braided channels of the rivers
hidden under fields of grass—

The vast wild
the house, alone.
The little house in the wild,
the wild in the house. Both forgotten.

No nature

Both together, one big empty house.

Join Jan Steffe and me for a six week course titled Finding Joy and Generosity in Creation.  The class will look to the natural world and our experiences within it to better understand living with joy and generosity while surrounded by pain and scarcity. In response, we hope to rejoice in our responsibility and commit to generously caring for the resources with which God as entrusted us. The course will be offered at First Presbyterian Church of Berkeley, 2407 Dana Street, Berkeley, CA,  starting Sunday January 10,  2010 at 11:30.  You can download the Winter Institute Program here, or register for the class here.

A new year brings with hit hope and determination for change. I’d like to think that we can begin anew at any moment in time. Tomorrow, today, right now. And then why not embrace change now? Why wait for an event like a new year or a new decade. As part of my own renewal I received a book for Christmas, Earth Gospel, A Guide to Prayer for God’s Creation.  I’ve been working through this book, following the daily prayers and meditations.  For December 31 the meditation includes a familiar hymn:

Breathe on me, Breath of God,
fill me with life anew,
that I may love what thou dost love,
and do what thou wouldst do.

Breathe on me, Breath of God,
until my heart is pure,
until with thee I will one will,
to do and to endure.

Breathe on me, Breath of God,
fill I am wholly thine,
till all this earthly part of me
glows with thy fire divine.

I offer this hymn as a meditation for the new year. And the picture that I’ve chosen to go along with these words was captured on December 31 also, while exploring “The Bulb,” a local open-space area which has become a location for artists to create artwork from found objects and recycled junk. You can view more photos of The Bulb here.

The day after Thanksgiving found us hiking on Angel Island. It was a blustery day, with the threat of rain showers as dark clouds drifted by the island. We felt a few drops but were spared the rain. We hiked the North Ridge trail to the top of the Island, Mount Livermore, which gives one a 360 degree panoramic view of the Bay Area. Angel Island is an island of peace and solitude surrounded by cities, San Francisco to the Southwest, Oakland and Berkeley to the East, Sausalito and Tiburon to the Northwest. We hiked through ferns and mossy oak woodlands on the Ridge Trail, returning through chaparral and the recent burn on the Sunset Trail. It was a good way to work of some of the extra calories from Thursday’s feast. It was also good to be reminded that one doesn’t have to travel far to find peace and solitude in the busy Bay Area. You can view more photos here.

People all over the world today are demonstrating as part of the International Day of Climate Action. You can follow many of the activities at 350.org. In thinking about climate change I was reminiscing about my own involvement in climate research and thought it might be fun to post a few photos I took some thirty years ago when I was working in the field of oceanography.  The photo you see here was taken in 1979 somewhere near the equator between Hawaii and Tahiti as part of an oceanographic expedition called FGGE, an acronym for the First GARP Global Experiment, GARP being an acronym for Global Atmospheric Research Project. You can find additional related images here.

The Nature Conservancy turns 58 today, having incorporated on this day in 1951. I’ve been involved with TNC for over 20 years, helping organize and lead tours of some of the preserves, and then providing photographs to help with fund raising and promotion of some of the projects. One of my favorite TNC projects is The Carrizo Plain. This is a broad expanse of land on a plateau between the Caliente and Temblor ranges.  It’s notable because it comes close to representing what the Central Valley looked like before irrigation and farming. In the spring time it becomes a carpet of wildflowers, and a sense of exapansive open space. When I first visited the Carrizo in 1987 or so, it was the domain of barb wire, Peruvian sheepherders, and a few staunch coservationists and researchers. It is now a National Monument with hiking trails, an interpretive center, the Guy Goodwin Center.