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

Friday, March 17, 2017

First Robin

Robins always reminded me of Robin Hood. Harbingers of Spring, they send a chill the first time you see one for the year. This year was odd because they stayed 'til way after Thanksgiving, the early winter floods and green grass kept them on even after the first snow. At least one brave fellow is back, staking claim to the small patches of grass on the verge of plowed areas.
When I was a youth, I remember one year calling the tee vee news, I think it was channel five when I lived with my mom and sister on Kellog street. I had seen the first robin and they wanted to interview me. I think, in the end, I chickened out. The interviewer saw me at the old Shopko on Main street one day and remembered all those years earlier, when I was but a timid second-grader.

My daughter had a great Birthday, we had a cup of coffee before she had to be in class and when I got home, a friend and fellow blogger Tenney Naumer, had posted this: http://climatechangepsychology.blogspot.com/2016/02/108-scientists-call-on-worlds-largest.html It is about asking the American Geophysical Union AGU to refuse funds from ExxonMobil. I completely agree. The jig is up! Although many self-respecting environmentalists say they will take money from everyone and not let it detract from their message, I can't believe that large corporate donors would line up to support causes antithetical to their bottom line. Fossil energy is dead. In addition to poisoning the planet, the fossil fuel industry has waged a culture war against the poor, workers and users of their "products" for decades. This is a classic example of the need for people to boycott, divest and sanction these corporate welfare recipients.

We are experiencing cultural genocide, where the culture being eliminated is primarily the poor. We die earlier than the wealthy, because they can jet off to places that still have relatively clean air ,spend more on unprocessed and organic ingredients, drink Fiji water, etc. Even these privileges are granted them as a privatized good, subsidized by us all through socialized costs. When we organized ECO-Tours of Wisconsin Inc. Fully ten years ago, it was plain what the stakes were. We could either practice restoration biology, reclaim clean air and water as a right, or squander the earth's resources, polluting more and more for the benefit of a tiny few. There were obvious and cost effective ways that we knew of to rehabilitate soils, restore native plants and reforest denuded areas. Many acres had already been composted, aerated and planted with trees as a result of our efforts, however we wanted to be more "formal" about our commitment. Being able to go out and sit in the shade of trees that your hands planted twenty years ago is pretty heady stuff. Those moments are literally stolen from the oligarchs, they didn't make a dime on most of those interactions. we create bridges between the ECO-Tourists and the Earth. The trees they plant will be there for lifetimes, encouraging them if they ever return, to see them mature and grow. Reclaiming the planet is one thing they cannot benefit from, it is not possible to capitalize on doing the right thing. The uberwealthy are unable to wrest from us the desire to make the world a better place. It is our cultural heritage to live unmolested, free of usury, deceit, hatred and oppression. Creator, endowed all of us with the same inalienable rights. None of those include  abuse or neglect of others. The first robin always shares a resonant chord in our hearts of industriousness and optimistic yearnings and their abundance, the blessings as brought forward when generosity springs eternal. The graciousness of mother Earth to gift us with the first Robin is sublime.

Much of the stock, tools and equipment that we use to do our work is cast off, re-purposed, or reclaimed in some way.The only thing we really go through is soil and dollars spent on native seedling trees. since we started, we have inspired several local growers to begin planting trees to give away as well, multiplying the effectiveness of silvaculturalists across Northeast Wisconsin. as with the robins, once that first one appears, more follow, just like in the realm of ideas. Once the path has been made, others soon follow.

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