ECO-Tours only purchases trees and dirt to plant them in...

Sunday, January 27, 2013

Headwaters Land Trust

Eco-tours is altering our strategy for reclaiming the forests. In light of the fact that downstream areas always fall victim to the conditions, "development" and mis-use that takes place in headwater areas that feed water to them, we are creating a land trust. This is a legal status for land that both exempts it from taxation, and protects it from development in perpetuity. Instead of just recovering lands that have been denuded and in many cases no longer support an integrated forest system, we will be branching out into protecting relatively pristine areas as well. As I have written about before, much of my adult life presented a subtle but pervasive quandary. The issue of ecological triage...

In my youth, I was violently opposed to this way of thinking. Think, for a moment about saying straight out and forever, we will cede this land, of that to the dust bin of history. This is what is being done far below the surface of the Earth to liberate "natural gas" through fracking. It is what has been done in many Superfund sites and is being done in hundreds of thousands of areas that have been toxified beyond recovery. Just like finding someone more dead than alive, occasions arise that we have to turn our attention to places that could recover, if we carefully and strategically allocate our resources. Now a young man, who realizes that Mother Earth is sacred, each of her elemental forces and each of her creatures and plants are sacred as well, cannot accept writing off a single acre to mistreatment by humans. Sadly, we now have no choice. Certain areas have been despoiled to the point that no life can inhabit them, only poisonous plants can grow in them and for centuries, they will continue to blossom with fruits of taint. Just as many of our brothers and sisters are coming to find, on the field of war, some will always be lost, with no hope of recovery. Mother Earth and her landscape share this eternal truth.

In addition to planting trees, as we will continue to do, we are adding land to trust status so that it can be protected for the long haul. We will target areas that have significant impact on downstream areas and will help, as all of the acres that we reclaim, protect and improve water quality. we are asking everyone who reads this to share a link with others, because we spend no money on advertizing and none on administrative costs. all of our efforts are done by volunteer time spent by those who are committed to our mission. Our Paypal account link is in the sidebar or you can use our street address and send checks snail mail to: 1445 Porlier street Green Bay, WI 54301-3334 USA. We have three distinct projects so let us know if you want your donations to go to trees, land or our capital program for creating the school of sustainability. Our visioning for the school this year is to create a place that exists between a summer camp and a spa, a hybrid that encompasses retreat centers and eco-tourism destination. We will use several modalities to address the need for an integration between ourselves and nature. To find out more about our structure and process, it helps to read about The Natural Step, no trace camping, How To Shit In The Woods and a little known book called Thinking Like A Mountain. We are healers, herbalists, fortune tellers, shamen and are working to unleash the magic in others by sharing the magic that we have found all around us.

It has taken nearly fifty generations to estrange the vast majority of us from our true nature, but we have far less time to get things right, or massive dislocation and trauma will be felt all around the planet. Saving as much land as possible, protecting it from the dangers of exploitation and desecration, poisoning and oppression of natural systems is the only way to stem the tide of recovery that we need to undertake. for the first time this year, we will be planting in the headwaters of Lake superior and we ask for donations to plant as many trees as possible. Appreciatively, Tony, Director ECO-Tours of Wisconsin Inc.

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