Faith and Nature

Posts Tagged ‘conservation’

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.

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.

I find it encouraging when leaders of faith such as the Rev. James Jones, a prominent leader in the Church of England, make statements that will help map our future in terms of environmental stewardship.  Jim Wallis in Soujourner’s Magazine has the following quote from the Rev. Jones:

Just as we look back on previous times with incredulity and wonder how people, especially believers, could have not only condoned but succored the slave trade and slavery, so in later years I think subsequent generations, who will live consciously with the reality that the earth is not a limitless larder, will find it difficult to understand how we could have described ourselves so uncritically as: “consumers.”