The Unique Potential for EcoCultural Recovery
California's North Coast is a global treasure at the southern extreme of the world's largest coastal temperate rainforest. Coastal temperate rainforest once covered less than 1% of the earth, now only half of that remains. The ecological devastation of the past 150 years is threatening the survival of this delicate web of life.
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EcoCultural Recovery and Indigenous Communities in Northwest California
Until not very long ago, the focus of life for human inhabitants of Northwestern California was daily sustenance taken from the diversity and abundance of the land, which provided the countless foods, medicines, and materials necessary for a good life. Every aspect of Indian people's life was informed by their close relationship with the Earth. Indian people understood and lived in accordance with the land's natural laws, which dictate that in order to sustain life one should take only what is needed. Their belief in natural law is reflected in the structure of their societies and religions, which set specific limitations on the times and quantities appropriate for harvesting plants and animals. These limitations were established in order to prevent depletion and to ensure that the future generations of humans and other species would have enough.
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A Whisper of Hope from the Wildlands
The beginning of the 21st century ushered in many riveting and exhausting events for America: a seemingly endless war, dysfunctional health care and social security systems, corrupt leaders obsessed with polls rather than people, and the looming unknown of climate change, just to name a few.
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BACH: Pushing the Spirit of Conservation in the Urban Jungle
When I look out my window, I see redwoods. I consider myself very lucky, particularly because I live in the Bay Area, albeit on the funky fringe of that teeming urban area. But the environment that I wake up to every morning connects me to my work, to my relationship with the Earth, and it also connects me to the North Coast, since the trees that I see constitute the southern remnants of a ribbon of a unique and mostly disappeared ecosystem that winds from 150 miles south of my cabin to spill over the northern border of California, all the while extending only 30 to 50 miles inland.
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Welcome To Our New Partner: Friends of Small Places Targets Gravel Mining
Friends of Small Places is a local Northern CA organization concerned with impacts to rural neighborhoods and river ecosystems brought about by gravel mining and crushing, and asphalt and concrete production. Friends of Small Places (FOSP) was founded by Kristen Lark, Carlos Quilez, and Jessica Puccinelli when they realized how difficult it would be to prevail as individuals against the strong and lucrative gravel industry.
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