pdxecologists

[pdxecologists]

Hello everyone, We are so excited to announce that "resilience giant" Dr. Lance Gunderson will speak in Portland August 9th at Taborspace from 6-8pm.  He is the co-editor of "Panarchy" and is the chair of the board for the Resilience alliance and has been researching and communicating about using a resilience framework to understand social-ecological systems.  Portland Ecologists Unite! and Society for Ecological Restoration NW have teamed up to present this unique evening.  After the lecture we will have a chance to connect and build our own resilience(!) to the sounds of Broken Pipe Jones and some beers from Hopworks brewery.  Thank you to SERNW and EMSWCD for their financial support and for Friends of Trees being our fiscal sponsor!! We will have a signup sheet online soon and send that information your way.  Mark your calendars!

Bio: Lance Gunderson is a systems ecologist who is interested in how people understand, assess, and manage large-scale ecosystems of people and nature.  He worked as a research ecologist for National Audubon Society (1977-78), as a botanist for the US National Park Service in south Florida (1979-89), and as a research scientist at the University of Florida (1992-98). He was the founding chair of the Department of Environmental Studies at Emory University and is a Professor in that department.  He is Co-Editor in Chief of Ecology and Society. He has been involved in environmental assessment and management of large-scale ecosystems, including the Everglades, Florida Bay, Upper Mississippi River Basin, and the Grand Canyon/Colorado River

Abstract of Talk: Recent assessments by legal, social and ecological scholars of six regional scale water systems (Columbia River, Klamath River, Middle Rio Grande River, Central Platte River, Anacostia River and the Everglades wetlands) all suggest a common historical pattern of crisis, adaptation and transformation. All systems went through development phases that created infrastructure and policies aimed at controlling the water to meet a set of human water supply needs.   Such successful control led to a decline in ecological resilience, resulting in a series of environmental surprises. Such crises were followed by lurches in adaptation and learning, in which new institutional and governance structures emerged.  Such adaptive forms of governance appear to be a robust way of integrating science, law and policy to confront the uncertainties of climate change.      

#resilience lance gunderson ecology society of ecological restoration ecounite

[pdxecologists]

Restorative Justice Summary

Gina Ronning, Jason Botel, and Kim Hack presented their work involving a community-based education and restorative justice dialogue program serving adults in custody housed at the Oregon State Correctional Institution. Insight Development Group (IDG) works to share stories, be inmate driven, non-hierarchical and to inspire greater levels of personal awareness as a means for emotional liberation and non-violent social change. They work to move discussions from the head to the heart and to expose and break down toxic shame and toxic masculinity.  They also work to discuss the web of connections between offender and victim and the community and the society and the universe.  Jason is working on a community ecology program where they are educating inmates on 1.Ecological relationships and systems thinking 2. Ecopsycology-Nature as healer and 3.Naturalist skills- He taught them how to use dichotomous keys to key out clouds! Gina also described an amazing example of an ecologically sustainable prison in Norway that uses ideas of restorative justice in a holistic manner.  They have a prison that has no security check, no arms, free schooling health care and entertainment, no locked doors, and extensive farming that uses no chemicals. See slides for further photos and descriptions of this prison. IDG  described the challenges of working in the prison which includes needing officers buy-in to proceed with the program, hierarchy changes within the prison, teaching about subjects that is often not in line with the current justice system approach.

How could restorative justice framework be applied to your work? How can the prison industrial complex work for the betterment of ecology? How can the environmental movement support social justice in the prison industrial complex?  

Want to know more about Restorative Justice? Buy the little book of Restorative Justice! Check out the Restorative Justice Network Restorative Justice online libraries

Do you want to help this amazing group do the hard work of transforming our justice system from the inside out? They need volunteers!  You can sign up to be a guest speaker (in a subject you know lots about!), and they need resources.  How awesome would it be to sponsor inmates to improve their identification skills by sending nature identification books? To contact IDG to volunteer or to learn more contact Gina at [email protected] or Jason about the Collective Ecology program at [email protected]

Thank you to EMSWCD for hosting, Gina, Kim, and Jason for presenting, and for you at EcoUnite! for showing up and learning about how we can connect ourselves to social justice programs.

#restorative justice #restoration #insight development group

[pdxecologists]

June EcoUnite: Restorative Justice

This month we are jumping out of our "ecology" box!  We are starting a series to expose the connections between the civic, social and the ecological.   How does our work as land managers, conservationists, and nature lovers intersect with social justice? To start us off in June, we will look into "Restorative Justice".  In future EcoUnite! gatherings, we will explore Environmental Justice as well as a lecture about Social-Ecological Resiliency with Dr. Lance Gunderson.

On Thursday, June 22nd at 5:30-7:30pm, we will join the Insight Development Group for a presentation and discussion on the power and transformation of restorative justice and their Collective Ecology program. Collective Ecology launched last year offering a 10-week course with curriculum co-created by incarcerated individuals and volunteers at the Oregon State Correctional Institute. Topics explored included eco-psychology, indigenous & scientific ways of knowing, food systems & permaculture, ecology & biodiversity, restoration, environmental justice, and sustainability. There will be small group discussions exploring this restorative justice framework and how to create a culture of equity and inclusion in the environmental realm with the incarcerated individuals.  

Location: East Multnomah Soil/Water Conservation District office 5211 N. Williams Avenue Portland, Oregon 97217

The Insight Development Group (IDG) is a community-based transformative education and restorative justice dialogue program serving adults in custody housed at the Oregon State Correctional Institution. Originally founded by four inmates under the guidance of the institution's chaplain in 2009, IDG was created by offenders, for offenders, as an opportunity to explore more deeply the causes, and impacts of their harms upon victims and the greater community. Additionally, the program was created to help offenders develop higher levels of personal accountability, and offer opportunities for restoration.

http://www.insightdevelopmentgroup.org

All I’m saying is simply this, that all life is interrelated, that somehow we’re caught in an inescapable network of mutuality tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly affects all indirectly. For some strange reason, I can never be what I ought to be until you are what you ought to be. You can never be what you ought to be until I am what I ought to be. This is the interrelated structure of reality.             -Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

Sorry, no alcoholic beverages allowed, but we can walk to a bar afterwards if people want to continue the conversation there.  Also, we will be asking for a small donation which can be in the form of buying raffle tickets to win amazing prizes!

See you there!

Toby

#restorative justice #ecology environmental justice

[pdxecologists]

This is happening tomorrow!  It’s been 5 years ya’ll!

#ecounite

[pdxecologists]

Slow water species conservation in stream restoration projects with Katie Holzer!

Come learn about the slimy critters that love warm water and muck! For our next EcoUnite meeting I will lead a discussion focusing on considerations for slow-water species (including turtles, frogs, and salamanders) in stream restoration projects.

  When: 5:30-7:00pm, Wednesday, Nov. 16th. Socializing will start at 5pm with the discussion starting at 5:30pm.

Where: Green Dragon Barrel Room (928 SE 9th Ave., Portland, OR 97214; the Barrel Room is through the glass doors and past the brewing room)

  Stream restoration projects usually focus on improving habitat for fish and stream invertebrates. Many of these projects also have opportunities to benefit other species of conservation concern, including turtles and frogs; however, projects often end up degrading habitat for these slow-water species. This discussion will be adapted from a session at River Restoration Northwest where several biologists from the Portland metro area described the basic habitat needs for these slow-water species and discussed ways to reduce harm and even improve conditions for them during stream restoration projects.

  I hope to see you there!

  Katie, and the other EcoUnite! Steering Committee Members

[pdxecologists]

Sue Palmer's summary of her visit

We had a great time hosting Winston Churchill fellow and artist/producer/environmentalist Sue Palmer for October's EcoUnite!  Here's her blog about the evening: https://inquilines.com/2016/10/14/portland-ecologists-unite/

And see a movie that Sue made titled "succession" https://youtu.be/_9bUhgdKDEY

#suepalmer Ecounite artecology

[pdxecologists]

[pdxecologists]

Homelessness in Natural Areas discussion

PDX Ecologists Unite!

Date: June 9, 2016

Location: Willamette River Keepers

Speakers: Katie Holzer, City of Gresham; Justin Takkunen, Metro; Gabe Erbs, Portland Tenants United

Topic: Discussion of issues regarding impacts to natural areas from homeless camps

~25 people in attendance

 Overview:

We had a discussion on the issues surrounding homeless camping in natural areas. There were brief updates about what is going on in different jurisdictions and how Portland Tenants United is involved followed by a long group discussion.

We discussed some of the major impacts of homeless camps in natural areas, including: garbage and human waste that is sometimes harmful to wildlife, people, or water quality, low success of new restoration projects small plants are trampled, compaction from persistent camps that make replanting difficult without major tilling, and reduced ability to conduct field work due to safety concerns.

We also discussed some of the major barriers we are finding to solutions, including: rents are increasing rapidly, many jobs are becoming “on-call” that do not allow enough work to pay rent, there is increased bureaucracy for some social services, many non-homeless people are open to solutions if they aren’t “in their backyards”, there are no services like trash or waste pick up for homeless, and many people are hesitant to build new trails because it will increase camping along them.

Lastly, we came up with a few things that could use further action. People expressed a desire for a common language to be able to discuss the serious issues of natural resource degradation without being seen as anti-homeless. The discussion seemed to highlight possible actions that would benefit the homeless community while also protecting natural resources. There was an idea for all agencies/organizations that deal with homeless camping in natural areas to quantify the impact. This quantification could be presented to boards or councils to demonstrate the amount of resources being used or damaged, and could be weighed against other options for the use of those resources for a more permanent solution. There was a general desire to be able to prioritize open spaces that would be the most or least damaged by camping, and to enforce no camping on areas with high natural resource value while allowing planned camps in areas with low natural resource value.

 Notes:

Camping in natural areas has increased drastically in the last year or so

Camps have been observed farther from the city center

There is an “eviction-to-homeless pipeline” (many of these evictions are “no-cause” evictions where the manager wants to fix up the building and charge higher rent)

There are ecological impacts to creating new housing; it is likely less damaging to keep existing housing affordable

Homeless camping can be unplanned (most of what we see now) or planned (like Hazelnut Grove)

When we don’t have planning, we get sprawl (both for constructed houses or homeless camps)

Sweeps tend to spread camps out in to larger areas

Clear signage often works well for directing people out of particular areas

Camps are often found next to trails

Once an area has become a campsite, it often continues to be a campsite

Observations that single tents that kept their areas clean were rarely seen as a problem by natural resource managers

Directives from policy makers are currently changing quickly which is very confusing and difficult for us to follow

Many people used to do field work alone, but now it is less safe and they do field work in pairs; this greatly reduces the amount that can get done with limited resources

In some areas, clearing shrubs that conceal camps can reduce camping, but those shrubs are often bird habitat, so we don’t usually want to clear them

There has been a lot of tree and shrub cutting that wouldn’t have been done otherwise to protect pedestrian safety

Observation that clearing shrubs (especially blackberry) actually increases camping, especially recently when campers are less worried about being detected

Garbage is a definite natural resource issue

Homes have garbage service, homeless do not; the homeless camps often produce much less garbage than homes do, but they don’t have a good way to dispose of it

Experience of giving garbage bags and a place to put them to homeless people; result of very clean camps; the people do not want to live in squalor

There are currently very few contractors who will clean up homeless camps, and those that exist have very long wait times and specifications of what they will and will not clean up; does somebody want to quit their day job and start a business?

It was found that it was much more cost-effective to leave shopping carts in place after clean ups rather than storing and moving them all when they would likely find their way back

Street Roots resource pamphlets are often handed out when people are getting kicked out of a camp; the pamphlets show existing resources, but there aren’t enough resources, especially in some areas of town

There is a huge shortage of shelter beds compared to the need

Many shelters have rules that are deal-breakers for people looking for a place to stay; for example, most do not allow pets, and many people living outside have a dog for companionship or safety that is a very important part of their life

Many homeless people have jobs; one issue is the current “on-call” trend in the service industry where a person is often given 10-20 hours per week in work but is expected to be free for 40+ hours per week with schedules given on very short notice; this makes it difficult or impossible to get another part-time job or go to school, but working 10-20 hours per week on minimum wage will not allow you to rent a room in Portland

Some people are saying things like: “Why should we invest in saving the salmon when there are people on the street?”; this doesn’t have to be an either-or; we can do both

The people doing the sweeps are often in extraordinary emotional distress and do not want to do it

Planned camps like Hazelnut Grove seem to be a good idea to many natural resources managers; it is clean, quiet, has a kitchen and port-a-potty

Most people at the meeting could think of public property that camps could be on that would cause much less ecological damage than where the camps currently are

There are models of providing basic housing for anyone who needs it (Housing First models) that have generally worked very well in other states and other countries; it is often costs less money for a city to provide small houses than to enforce and clean camps and house people in jails and hospitals

People expressed willingness to volunteer to build tiny houses on the weekend if it would provide a place for someone to live instead of the natural areas

It would be great if we could all quantify the resources that are spent dealing with this issue; it could then be presented to policy-makers to show how that vast amount of resources could be better spent to provide space for people rather than enforcing, cleaning, and replanting

#homeless natural areas ecological impacts

[pdxecologists]

Discussion summary of Dr. Mark A Davis

Thank you everyone that came on Thursday to discuss the ideas and research of Dr. Mark A. Davis.  The discussion on Thursday was a lot of things and was full of energy and dialogue and mostly civil.  I know we hit a nerve with this topic and I'm thankful to be part of a community that is willing to face controversial subjects to make our work better.   The main take aways from the discussion were:

There is division in the way attendees viewed non-natives, but most people don't see them as black and white. Rhetoric around invasive species can be problematic and we should all examine the meanings of our commonly used words. And it is OK to uncomfortable- Speak your truth, embrace discomfort and except non-closure!

And here are some snippets overheard at the discussion: -Dr. Davis didn't take into account a lot of the science around Garlic Mustard, such that in Minnesota it is on the edge of -suitability model's ranges, where it is not the case in Oregon.

-Many invasive species are early-successional species. Why are they where they are? Have those drivers changed? Are there places where some might be facilitating other species? How to minimize continual redisturbance?

-Many mangers already spend a lot of time carefully weighing costs and benefits of invasives removal rather than just trying to nuke everything non-native.

-Garlic mustard spread is a combination of non-native slugs, deer and worms that create conditions for it to flourish as researched by Dr. Bernd Blossey

-Invasive species work is just keeping an allusion that we have control of the system.

-Humans are the ultimate invasive species and most invasives are just our "passengers"

-Humans have managed the landscape for thousands of years.

-We often use a strange baseline for restoration: ~50 years after Native Americans and beavers were greatly reduced on the landscape.

-The longer I work in this field, the smaller the list of species I decide to manage against is.

- The talk was insulting and black and white.

-Talking about natives and non-natives and novel ecosystems could be thought about as too different mind sets, similar to the black and white of Judeo-Christian beliefs and Eastern values where everything is cool.

-We are managing for human values; there is always cultural evolution.

-People make good decisions when they know they don't know everything.  People make bad decisions when they think they know everything.

-Challenge to not use evaluative words like “good” and “bad” when describing species.

-You can’t just jump to a conclusion because something pretty landed on it.

-All you can do is be a reflective practitioner.

-What are the impacts of invasive species and of their management? Ecological, economics, human health?

-Change is always hard; sometimes it’s bad and sometimes it’s not.

-What if I told you there is a plant that is the best at sequestering nitrogen and uptaking heavy metals from the air, and that plant is English Ivy? (said by a Professor that studies air quality and plants)

-Indigenous peoples used to gather lots of data as they spend a lot of time outside and come home and discuss what they saw, discuss management decisions and take note of the the responses of the species.  We are now working under low ecological knowledge when that huge lineage of history of nature observations has been severe.  Little time in the field, limited budget, no culture of sharing daily nature observations, and we are trying to make the best decisions with what we have.

-In California it was found that the rare/protected Red-legged frog was hybridizing with the invasive bull frog.  At first most scientists immediately wanted to kill all the bull frogs, but Native americans on the task force said they decide by "asking the Red Legged frog what it wants".  And the answer was the Red legged frog would want to survive and have its offspring.  The indigenous also stated "We have changed everything, why would we slaughter them?"

-Animals want to live their lives and so what can we do to help them?

And here are the (very non-random, non scientific) SURVEY RESULTS (of scientists!)

Does your job involve the planning, management, and/or control of invasive species?(35 responses) Yes  82.9%   No 17.1% Yes 29 No 6 Age(37 responses) 0-2425-3536-4546-55over 5510.8%10.8%40.5%37.8% 0-24 0 25-35 14 36-45 15 46-55 4 over 55 4

Dr. Mark Davis's gave a talk at the SER conference titled "Little Evidence of Negative Effects by Garlic Mustard on Other Understory Plants in a Minnesota Oak Forest.” His 3 year study showed no evidence that garlic mustard had any effect on the presence of other understory species. Will these results effect how you consider garlic mustard specifically or invasive species in general?   Yes: 9 (26%) Potentially or Maybe: 7 (21%) No or not likely: 18 (53%)

Please write any other responses, comments or questions that you have surrounding Dr. Mark Davis's viewpoint, or about how you may or may not think differently about invasive species or conservation biology. (Just a few published here!)

"There are a wide variety of micro-organisms that rely on the native species of an area. If we allow invasive species to replace our native species, even if they provide the same functions, then we will lose these species."

"We know that plants native to this region provide ecological function; that makes the decision to use them in restoration easy. As to leaving non-native plants, it would require decades of research to make a science based decision about which ones are neutral, net benefit, or detrimental. There is also likely a lot of gray area; a plant may benefit some species while displacing others."

"Well I hold a lot of reservations to points he made, I very much agree that it is a conversation worth having and that we need to examine how we view, label, and finally approach our application of ecological restoration."

"...To argue about whether or not there is such a thing as an "invasive species" misses the point entirely: incomprehensibly complex systems have given rise to the only life known to exist in the universe. We tinker with those systems at our own peril, to say nothing of that of every other species. "Novel ecosystems" strikes me as the restoration equivalent of "God is dead;" if human activity is to be given such license, there's no longer a foundation for this field's existence."

"It's refreshing to hear an idea that differs from the mainstream, especially when the mainstream employs violent tactics that focus on a materialistic view over a functional one. This talk brought ideas like “policy driven science” and focusing on environmental impact and function over “nativism” to my attention. Also, realizing how this type of thinking, if not backed by science, may do little more than put money in the pockets of chemical companies at the expense of efforts, public funds, and wildlife species that have adapted to depend on these “invasive species” is very disturbing and worth consideration."

"think of his approach as over-simplifying a number of complex issues. I am frustrated by his binary categories for topics that I consider gradients. Although his theses are somewhat interesting, I don't gain a lot of valuable insight from his work. My world is full of grays and his appears black and white."

"...We still have to gain understanding of the negative effects of plants that originate outside of our ecosystems. Given the unconscious "nostalgia" and current rhetoric with their whole set of unconscious assumptions, "war on invasives" etc, it seems terribly difficult for restoration planners to change our mindset to one that is unbiased. We can make this shift in mindset and practices together, without the two-sided polarity that currently exists. I have stayed diplomatic, but obviously have been bottling up some criticisms of the status quo... We are scientists. There can be no sacred cows. Lets stay curious. Y'all."

#invasives species MarkADavis ecounite nativenonnative nativism

[pdxecologists]

As we ruminate more with Mark Davis’s ideas for our May meeting, here is an interesting Q and A session with Davis, Daniel Simberloff and Peter Kareiva

#nonnative #ecounite

[pdxecologists]

#ecological novelty ecounite mark davis

[pdxecologists]

Summary of Dr. Davis’s Talks

Dr. Mark Davis from Macalester College in St. Paul, MN gave two presentations in Portland on April 7th.  The first, at the Society for Ecological Restoration NW regional conference was titled “Little Evidence of Negative Effects by Garlic Mustard on Other Understory Plants in a Minnesota Oak Forest.”  Some key points from this talk:

• A six-year monitoring study was conducted in a Minnesota oak woodland.  Garlic mustard was the second most common species in this forest.  Understory species richness was monitored in 182 1 x 0.5m plots.

 • The strongest predictor for the 10 most common understory species was plot species richness.  Garlic mustard showed the strongest positive relationship with species richness.

• There was no evidence that garlic mustard had any effect on the presence of other understory species.

• Seed bank samples were collected from plots with and without garlic mustard.  There was no difference in among samples with and without garlic mustard in number or species germinating.

On Thursday evening, Dr. Davis “Ecological Novelty, A Challenge and Opportunity for Urban Ecologists and Managers” to EcoUnite! At the Disjecta Art Center.  Dr. Davis’s presentation was controversial to many in the audience and a lively conversation followed.  Some major points from his talk

• Cities are inhabited by residents of mixed origin, with new species coming in all the time.  How we respond to this situation depends on our narrative.

• As land managers we constantly need to distinguish between implementing science-driven policy and practicing policy-driven science.

• When thinking about individual species we need to focus on function instead of origin.

• There are introduced species that cause serious problems.  Most of them are predators and pathogens.

• Declaring war on non-native species is ecological fundamentalism, not substantially different from religious fundamentalism or views espoused by Donald Trump.

• Biological invasions don't inherently exist; they are a concept we have imposed on nature.

• There is an effort among a group of ecologists to completely retire the invader narrative and move to a paradigm of ecological novelty as a more pragmatic and flexible approach.

• The history of ecological novelty is interwoven with the history of a place.  Many state flowers and insects are non-native species!

• A new paradigm for land management could be very liberating, allowing for more flexibility and imagination.

 • Decisions to intervene in a system are not scientific decisions.  They can be based on scientific findings, but ultimately decisions are based on values we place on one species or system over another.  This is a fine thing to do, and what humans have always done.  We should be clear though about what is science and what is not.

Many questions followed the presentation.  For full questions and answers, listen to the accompanying recording.

• What do you say to the thought that species that evolved together are mutually beneficial in a way that couldn’t happen with an invasive species?

• Was there a turning point in your career?

A: this article had a major impact:

http://michaelpollan.com/articles-archive/against-nativism/

• What do we restore to?  Do we restore?  What should the new model be?

• You didn’t present science either.  Aren’t you just mocking us?

• What are the conditions that allow for non-native species to thrive?  What are the goalposts for evaluating whether a species should be managed?

#ecological novelty ecounite mark davis

[pdxecologists]

Art and Ecology Summary

Portland Ecologists Unite! and the Society for Ecological Restoration NW teamed up to host “Art and Ecology Unite!” featuring six Portland-based artists on April 4th, 2016.  Vanessa Renwick, Lisa Schoenberg, Ka’ila Farrell-Smith, Adam Kuby, Eric Steen, and Peg Butler shared some of their work, described their processes, and discussed the connections between art, nature, and science.  The major points that emerged from the artists’ presentation and following discussion were:

• Connecting people to place and to nature is a major component of all 6 artists’ work;

• Art can play a major role in conservation and restoration by presenting issues in new ways and telling the larger story of a place and project;

• Restoration science can be improved by integrating the concepts of relationship and knowledge sharing, joy and love of nature, and connection to place that emerge in art.

Vanessa Renwick, Oregon Department of Kickass, founder and janitor

http://www.odoka.org/

            Vanessa works primarily with film.  Her work examines relationships between bodies and landscapes and all kinds of borders.  She has long been fascinated by wolves and spends much of her time at wolf conferences and with wolf biologists.  She showed slides and discussed of one of her large installations inspired by wolves, called “Hunting Requires Optimism” (http://www.odoka.org/hunting-requires-optimism/).  The piece was inspired when Vanessa learned that 90% of hunting attempts by wolves are failures.  Other pieces on or inspired by nature include films on jellyfish and swifts.  Vanessa described the challenges of straddling the art and science worlds.  She hopes to bring those two worlds together, calling for scientific writing to leave space for beauty and appreciation of the study subject or system.  Vanessa has an exhibit called “Next Level Fucked Up” that will be on display at the Portland Art Museum through June 17 (http://portlandartmuseum.org/exhibitions/apex-vanessa-renwick/).

Lisa Schonberg

http://www.lisaschonberg.com/

           Lisa studies soundscapes, insects, and habitat, incorporating them into music.  She played drums all through her childhood and became interested in insects and nature in college in upstate New York.  Her work with Secret Drum Band combines percussion with tonal elements to create place-based music.  She shared images, sounds, and a book from The Hylaeus Project, a collaborative project on habitat of a rare bee in Hawaii with a visual artist.  Lisa has also been collaborating with other artists to provide feedback on what an effective environmental impact assessment might look like.  Lisa said that she struggles to find many situations where art and science are really intertwined.  She hopes to collaborate directly with scientists to bring the two disciplines together.

Ka’ila Farrell-Smith

http://www.kailafarrellsmith.com/

           Ka’ila is contemporary Klamath/Modoc visual artist whose work explores native and western worlds.  Her work acknowledges that culture is linked to the land.  A major goal of Ka’ila’s work is to acknowledge Indian land, and to perpetuate narratives that embrace the indigenous paradigm of inter-generational community.  She discussed an oil painting called “The Wocus Gatherers,” which she created out of a remembrance of an experience with her father.  Another piece, recently on display at Vancouver City Hall was inspired by the petroglyphs at Celilo Falls, most of which were lost after the Dalles Dam was built.  Recently Ka’ila has been working with a master basket weaver.  They have collected raw basket materials in the wild and worked with different styles of weaving.  Their large project, “Woven: The Art of Contemporary Native Basketry” is on display through April 23 in the Archer Gallery at Clark College (http://www.clark.edu/campus-life/arts-events/archer/index.php).  Ka’ila’s work emphasizes indigenous knowledge and community.  She strives to expand the definition of restoration to include language, culture, and community, in addition to habitat.

Adam Kuby

http://www.adamkuby.com/

Adam creates large public structures and installations that connect the built and natural worlds.  He is interested in human form and counterparts in the natural world.  He envisions the urban and wild environments as one indivisible whole, and this concept is visible in his art.    Adam shared a commissioned work in Seattle, in a former quarry that was cleaned up and transformed to a city park with a small wetland.  His installation in the park is a series of raised rock rings that reflect the history of the site, and also serve as bird and bat nesting habitat.   Other work of Adam’s is designed to evolve and change with the landscape.  Granite benches installed around city trees are designed to change with tree growth, like a sidewalk that is buckled by a tree root.  Recently, Adam has been working with the concept of disintegration.  One installation on this theme showed a line of plastic buckets, with the buckets broken into smaller and smaller pieces with each line.  A goal of Adam’s is to tell the whole story of restoration sites in his art, including the impacts of human development.  He strives to engage people in ecological processes and use art to symbolize paradigm shifts.  Structures by Adam were incorporated in the Westmoreland Nature Playground, built in 2014 (http://www.adamkuby.com/commissions/#/nature-play/).

Eric Steen, Beers Made by Walking

http://www.ericmsteen.com/p/portfolio.html

           Eric has designed a whole career out of doing creative things with beer.  He works with brewers in Oregon and across the western US to create place-based beers.  In 2011 he began inviting brewers on nature hikes.  The brewers then make beers that incorporate or are inspired by plants or other elements they observe on the trail.  The projects and beers look very different in every city, based on the natural history of the area.  A trip in Colorado Springs resulted in a pink beer with prickly pear cactus, and Coalition Brewery in Portland did a tour of plants growing in sidewalks. Eric has partnered with Forest Park Conservancy and other environmental non-profits to use the beer for fundraising.  In one project, Eric compared yeasts harvested in old- and second-growth forests.  Eric hopes to inspire wonder about the natural world through hiking with people and drinking beer.

Peg Butler, Black Dog Art Ensemble

http://pegbutler.net/about/

http://blackdogart.org/

           Peg is a systems thinker and interdisciplinary artist.  Much of Peg’s work demonstrates how humans are part of nature, which is not something taught in our culture.  In one project, Peg installed a blind in the Portland Building.  People could stand in it and observe other people, as they would observe birds in a wetland.  There was even a place to post field notes.  Other work of Peg’s has integrated storm water.  An installation at Breakside Brewery channels roof runoff through barrels-turned-planters.  The structure fills the space of three parking spots and also serves as a bike rack.  A piece called “Mountainhood” connects watershed stewardship issues from the mountain to the neighborhood.  The installation is a living wall in a rain garden.  It is designed to ebb and flow with the seasons.  A goal of Peg’s is to get people to view ecological issues in a new light.

Thanks to Christa Von Behren for this summary and to everyone that attended and helped run the event!

#ecounite vanessarenwick adamkuby kailafarrellsmith ericsteen pegbutler lisaschonberg art ecology restoration

[pdxecologists]

Two amazing events happening in the first full week in April.  April 4th we bring 6 amazing artists to discuss their work interfacing with the natural world, and on April 7th we will chat with distinguished professor Dr. Mark A Davis about what to do with all these species arriving from elsewhere.  This will be the biggest week in the history of EcoUnite! and we look forward to it!

#ecoart ecology novel ecosystems ecounite

[pdxecologists]

Genetic Diversity of Native Plants

We are excited to host Adrienne Basey for our February EcoUnite! to talk about the Genetic Diversity of Native Plants. A large part of restoration planning and implementation is procuring and planting native plant material.  Why is genetic diversity important to these restoration sites and how might we be affecting the diversity by propagating native plants in nurseries?  We will have an introduction to genetic concepts, outline how nursery propagation might affect genetic diversity and talk about what things we, as land managers, might consider while implementing restoration projects and land conservation.  Hope to see you there!

Where: Green Dragon Barrel Room 928 SE 9th. (go past the bar, through the brewery on the right past all the equipment, into the room on the right) When: 5:30-7:30pm February 18th

So you are new to EcoUnite!?: We at EcoUnite! wanted to clarify that when you attend a EcoUnite! discussion, your views are your own, and your attendance, questions, and insight is never assigned to where you work or anything else about you. Just like our ecosystems, EcoUnite! discussions can be messy, but we welcome all viewpoints in hopes to push dialogue beyond the water cooler and create a better world.  We hold our discussions in the spirit of exploration and community building. Also, we depend on donations from attendees to keep things going, and we sometimes have a raffle that includes some beer!

#ecounite genetics native plants

[pdxecologists]

EcoUnite with Rose High Bear Thursday Nov. 19th

We are pleased to announce our November meeting with a very special speaker!  Rose High Bear (Deg Hit?an Dine) is co-founder of Wisdom of the Elders which is a nonprofit committed to Native American cultural sustainability, multimedia education, and cross-cultural communications.

What role should Traditional Ecological Knowledge (TEK) play in natural resource management decisions?  Where is there opportunities for agencies and First Peoples to collaborate in land management?  What can ecologists gain from learning from the Native American perspective?  Is it appropriate to use traditional knowledge gained from Elders for land management decisions?  

Please come to our meeting Thursday November 19th at 1515 SE Water Ave. (3rd Floor Mt. Hood Room) from 530-730pm to hear from Ms. High Bear and to discuss these and other issues.

Rose High Bear (Deg Hit?an Dine) is responsible for project management; youth prevention and career pathway curricula development; focus group/pilot project planning and coordination; and strategic marketing planning. High Bear has successfully gained funding for and administered over two dozen local, statewide and national projects since 1998. She is Co-founder of WISDOM and Executive Producer of the Wisdom of the Elders Radio Program, Wisdom of the Elders Curriculum Project, and Discovering Our Story Project. She formed the Northwest Indian Storytellers Association in 2005, organized NISA?s Advisory Council and sponsored four series of tribal storytelling festivals, symposiums and emerging storytellers workshops. She developed Turtle Island Storytellers Network, the web-based American Indian speakers bureau, coordinated WISDOM?s Oral History Projects which recorded 300+ Native Americans since 1999, and coordinated 15 multi-cultural celebrations.

For more info on TEK:

http://www.fws.gov/nativeamerican/traditional-knowledge.html

http://www.ser.org/iprn/traditional-ecological-knowledge

#RoseHighBear TEK Wisdomoftheelders

[pdxecologists]

Citizen Science Discussion tonight

Our discussion for tomorrow night has been moved to the Barrel Room at the Green Dragon Pub located at 928 SE 9th Ave, Portland, OR 97214. Description below.

We hope you will join us for our next EcoUnite! discussion, which will focus on Citizen Science and the Intertwine Regional Eco-Blitz Series: Empowering the Naturalist in us all.

It will be co-presented by Shawn James of the US National Parks Service, Bonnie Shoffner of Metro Regional Government, and Christian Haaning of Clean Water Services.

What is Citizen Science? Is it the newest buzzword or can it really benefit your organization? Learn about and discuss current Citizen Science efforts, and how the Intertwince Alliance and its partners plan to put the Portland Region on the iNaturalist map.

Socializing will begin at 5pm on Thursday, Oct. 15th, with the presentation and discussion from 5:30-7:00 pm. We will be in the Barrel Room at the Green Dragon Pub located at 928 SE 9th Ave, Portland, OR 97214. Beer from HUB available for raffle.

We hope to see you there!

Katie and the other EcoUnite! steering committee members (Toby, Joe, and Tonia