Funding the Revolution

The rate of change that we have been able to achieve with our tree planting efforts has been limited in many ways. The most frustrating limitations have come through having limited funds for purchasing trees. It has taken nearly twenty years to plant thirty thousand trees, but as we grow and learn how to conserve our resources, we are also find ways to exponentially increase our effectiveness. The past two years, our not-for-profit group has been planting over one million tree seeds each fall. This season we will have the potential to double even that amount. Because we have no paid staff or overhead other than purchasing tree seedlings to plant, and occasionally dirt to use for our potting up parties, there could be more growth if we had money to hire a full-time staff person. further, if we had the cash flow to justify owning a bit of acreage, we could exponentially increase the number of trees we plant by having a much larger tree nursery.

A range possibilities present themselves when we are fully funded that cannot even be imagined without cold hard cash. When we fought nuclear energy, mining or ever taller smokestacks, we bought sheets from the resale shops to make our banners. When we stood up for our children whose educations were being underfunded so that our political leaders could give more corporate welfare to their cronies, or when we stood united against the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, the front lines were not filled with slick and glossy images, but the hand-painted signs of people who cared. The truth of our struggle has always been that we are singing for our lives! The depth of intellectual capital that we bring to the revolution is not in question. The creativity that we use to keep our issues in front of the complacent borders on the super-human. The spirit that we share is indomitable and our financial wherewithal is finite. Unlike the rich man's club that opposes us at every turn, we are self funded and when the chips fall, we need to pass the hat for funding. In essence, all of my blogs, from Paganspace, where I write as Saladman to The Otherfish Wrap and from this blog to my wordpress blog called, Permaculture, ECO-Ethics, Trees. I must continue to bang the drum for donations. Like our tree planting effort, we continue to do what we believe to be right, whether or not it pays the bills. Sometimes, and I believe that we are doing it now, doing the right thing is far more important than making a buck at it.

We take heart in the fact that twenty years ago, our efforts were questioned and our motivations were confusing to many of the landowners that we came in contact with. When we were first contacting folks about wanting to plant trees, we got responses like,"That's not a creek, that's a ditch." or "Why would you want to do that?" Our message has remained the same throughout, but the awareness and culture has begun to bend in our direction. Like a tree, seeking light, the humans that I am meeting are growing in the right direction, leaning ever so slightly into awareness of sustainability. The term sustainability is at once scary, for those that resist change, offensive to those who think that they will have to give something up to achieve it and bewildering to those who think that we were put on Earth to subdue nature, but the tide is starting to turn in favor of the environment. When we share the idea of change, what needs to take center stage is the fact that we will be working less, traveling less, having more time for ourselves and living higher standards of living if we do make the shift to ecomunicipalities, adopt proven practices of transition towns and get on with the process of living more lightly on the planet. The duality that is often trotted out to justify no change needs to wither under the harsh light of truth and when we are told the lies of duality and estrangement between humans and their Earth, Air, Fire, Water and Spirit we need to understand where the arguments are coming from and keep holding the liar's feet to the fire. clearing the way for change requires that we get straight on why and how lies are developed and understand the mechanisms that have been used to foist them upon us. Only then can we continue to speak truth to power and lead in ways that make sense to greater numbers of people. As I have personally pared back my own carbon footprint, it has led to a richness of life that was unimaginable prior to my investigating just what the heck I was doing. 

Each and every dollar that we spend is a vote for, and against specific things. When I buy plastic anything, it supports a complex and diversified industry of extraction that is based on, primarily, oil. fossil fuel use is part of nearly every single thing we touch. Even the air that we breathe is the same air that allows petrol to be burned in our car engines. Adding even a tiny bit of poison to this ocean of air can lead to problems in other places, for other creatures and in essence it degrades us as well as the planet. Just taking time to understand the complete life cycle of the products that we use, the items that we buy and the processes that are required to bring them to the market will change our lives profoundly. Since money is just a place holder for time, the most revolutionary thing we can do is to spend our time educating ourselves. Even the data that we study comes with certain caveats. don't forget to ask yourself, "Who compiled these numbers?" and perhaps more importantly, "Why?". I accept the full truth of the statement, "Each one of us brings our own prejudices to our study, attitudes and even our perspective on truth." However, ignorance can just as profoundly skew our perspective, but in a way that is engineered by people we may never see and who certainly don't care one whit about us. This is where my fundraising effort comes to a head, so pay attention.

I want you to put your hard earned dollars where they will do the most good. Buy locally produced products as much as possible. Reduce the amount of money that you spend on toxic compounds, products that have lots of packaging, or that result in disposal hassles down the road. consult data bases like Environmental Working Group's  Safety Guide for Cosmetics and Skin Care. Take time to research your town or city through the TRI Toxic Release Inventory. Find ways to grow more of your own food, even if it is just a few potted tomato plants. Walk or ride your bike more and use your car less. If you are thinking about moving, try living in a compact transition town or ecomunicipality where you can walk everywhere you need to go. Just taking one car off the road can save your family thousands of dollars each year. Then, with the money you save, please send a portion of it to organizations that help make the changes you would like to see in the world. The native tree planting programs that we provide here at ECO-Tours of Wisconsin have reclaimed several hundred acres from stark, denuded, wasteland to shady areas with food and shelter instead. the power that lies in a single acorn is truly miraculous. Imagine that power and multiply it by the number of dollars that you can afford to send us. the change we make today has the power to outlive us, so choose your actions carefully and spend your dollars (votes) conscientiously.

Donations accepted through Paypal at tnsaladino42@hotmail.com or if you prefer to use snail mail, send checks to ECO-Tours of Wisconsin Inc. at 1445 Porlier street Green Bay, Wisconsin 54301

Long Arc- The North Shore of Lake Superior

As I watched my progress, like a snail, across the maps I had in my pack the landscapes of the North Shore unwound stories that had been played our over thousands of years. Time immemorial was alive and aware of my presence, harboring me, permeating me and lifting my spirits in the face of the lonesome isolation of these remote vistas and infinitely varied desolation. I was far outnumbered by organisms and I needed but to slow my pace or stop along the way and the life would become overwhelming. I sensed that I was but a tiny sliver of life amongst a great profusion of individuals and communities of living things, calling out to me to express their urge to be heard. The awesome responsibility of speaking for the trees is enough, but the mosses, the winged things, the finned ones and those who are earth bound all showed themselves to me in ways that made me aware of the importance of my walkabout.
We are each the center of a sacred hoop, unfolding our lives like a billion Mobius bands extending out into our environment. Bringing in and expending energy simultaneously. My own path was more clear, even though I only had lines on a map to guide me, than many of the most simple and regimented mazes. In essence, my life's purpose has not changed for over forty years. The difference now is that I can break the boundary of time and space, communicating with an infinite number of souls not just through intimate contact with the earth, but with the internet as well. Perhaps what we are looking for, whatever our quest, is union. that perfect mercabic state of oneness, of transcending time, space and this realm which we most often measure, record, believe in and partake of.
Everywhere were indications of the heavy hand of humankind upon the land, but in between the scars and mayhem there is a relatively natural cover that reminds us that we are just a tiny portion of the life that surrounds these lakes like a heavily trafficked carpet.Where we have played our hand, the threads seem to often be the most bare. Luckily, there are more and more people changing their ways and working with rather than against Mother Nature. Understanding the great gifts of this region allowed me to follow the graceful curve of Lake Superior as a revered guest, finding food a plenty, appropriate shelter and always enough relatively clean water.

Twenty-five Years Ago Today

Twenty-five years ago today, I turned an important corner, not only in my life, but into a geographic realm beyond my imagination. My physical body crossed from Wisconsin, where I had spent many years of my life, into Minnesota along the shore of Lake Superior. It was a moment that stands apart from time. This change of course, from heading pretty much due West, swinging North, by Northeast along the North Shore of The Greatest Lake, made me aware of my anonymity as well as my infinite spirit. Leading off into the distant future was a path that was both undeniably my own and intimately entwined with each and every other organism that lives, has lived and will ever live around these inland seas. I was barely a week into my Great Lakes Bicycle Tour, but my young body had already turned from a tentative young man into a stoic and experienced traveler. I was shedding pounds and lightening my panniers with each meal. As I entered the North, the scars of extraction were all around me. Heavily silted waterways, deforested areas that stretched for miles, heaps of acid mine waste and open pits that might never again support life were all around me. The mining and milling industries that built the great fortunes of city dwellers far far away had left scars so deep that after one hundred years, the ugliness of them remained, spread out across the landscape. Plainly visible for anyone to see, but understood by few, if any, of those who were speeding by on the highways at breakneck speed.

I had rested up for an extra day in Superior, Wisconsin enjoying some down time after pushing though the pain of hundred mile days. In that first week, I had experienced snow, sleet, rain and one crisp night that froze my tires to the ground so thoroughly that leaves, dirt and pine needles stuck to them and created a funny sound as they swished past the frame on each revolution. I was happy and sad, tired and energized, but the overarching goal of making my way around all five Great Lakes just got that much closer. I was as far away from home as I had ever been, yet I felt as one with the earth as ever as well. I could feel the Living Earth, cheering me on, the wind, finally, at my back and the freshening breeze bringing the warmth of spring to the region. As I passed the Viking ship in Duluth, I felt the presence of my ancestors, buoying my energy reserves and keeping me aware of the deeper meanings behind any pilgrimage. Losing one relationship between who we thought we were and who we may find ourselves to be is part and parcel of any voyage. Rather than crossing the great water as my viking ancestors had, I was circumnavigating them, finding my way with a series of maps that were more or less handed down to me from wizened old travelers and mapmakers of high repute. rather than seeing images of maps and having to infer what must be there, i was seeing what was actually out there and condensing that knowledge into the lines and color fields that I had in my pocket.

The ultimate shift in my course was to switch from thinking that I had power to change the course of history to wanting to change myself. the only thing I have absolute responsibility for and dominion over is, in fact, my own self. how that shakes out amongst my fellow humans is for them to determine and amongst their own lives they must take responsibility for their own part in making the world better as they see fit. My own ego had been trying to stay in charge, but as I was finding, powers beyond my comprehension were at work in my days, my nights and even those beautiful moments in-between the two. I began to feel a deep connection to the waters, the rock and the thin soils of the area, working my own special magic wherever I stopped to honor and respect what I would find there, what I took away from them and what I left behind. At this point, making my way up the shore toward the border with Canada, any demons that had led me to question my ability were vanquished, any doubts about my convictions evaporated and the truth of my own message, which I shared with others each and every time I stopped , stopped being just words, but a reflection of the voices of the trees, the water and the very wind which I was becoming one with. I seriously questioned whether I would be able to be clear about my mission, adept at bringing salient information to communities that I had not lived amongst for very long and if it would be possible to capture the imagination of those I would meet along the way. What I was beginning to find is that more often than not, my message was not only received, but shared and welcomed by both individuals and the news outlets that I provided with interviews. As I skirted the shoulder of the Canadian Shield, riding near the border between land and the lake, every turn revealed a more beautiful sight. Except for the areas that had been poisoned by mining, each cascade was more wonderful than the previous one, each tiny hamlet and locality was more picturesque. Each settlement was more focused on the values and approaches that we would one day call sustainable.

What I was seeing reflected in both the people and their passions was an undying commitment to one another that is exemplified in nature. Just as the tree falling in the woods feeds the soils that will provide a footing for another generation of trees, the falling of the great extractive economies of the past has given rise to a new way of life that respects the Earth, cares about water, and has learned some of the lessons of taking without giving back, grabbing the money and running and the responsibility we all have to one another. I was turning onto a new road, into a new culture and finding my true self, free of the limitations that I had placed upon myself.

April Fool's Day Twenty-five Years Ago

I was away from the keyboard on the first of April. My unfolding life had taken me into the heart of Superior Country. Twenty-five years earlier I had embarked on my bicycle ride around all five Great Lakes, it just felt right to be back along the shore of the greatest of lakes to celebrate the occasion. Even though I have helped to keep the ideas of conservation alive, the changes we have seen over the past quarter century have been quite a bit less than I had hoped for when I started out on my voyage intended to educate and increase awareness of issues that threaten the health of this ecosystem. Back in 1987, I was nearly two years into a course of study focused on The Great Lakes Ecosystem. My preparation for the trip began with physical geography, cultural geography and combined my own extensive knowledge of local pollution issues as well as those documented throughout the region by both the USEPA and Canadian Ministry of the Environment. Armed with insight into sustainability, conservation and the possibility of restoring balance to this troubled region, I felt confident that sharing my insight would ignite the passion of local residents around the lakes to usher in changes that are only now starting to be seen.
When I spoke to the issues associated with transportation twenty-five years ago, I would encourage folks to walk or ride bikes, use mass transit and demand more train availability. Oddly enough, the doubling of fuel costs since then has done more to reduce our driving than my encouragement seems to have done. The insights that I had about reducing energy use by retrofitting old housing stock and designing homes from the ground up to be more energy efficient is still just beginning to take hold. Another generation of vacuous multi-thousand square foot residences has been built, much of it sitting empty because of the housing crash, but forever in need of massive energy inputs if they ever do get used. The agricultural issues that confronted the region back in the late eighties have mushroomed and are in even more urgent need, although tiny steps in the right direction are taking place in pockets across two nations. Even the alternatives to household hazardous waste that I urged folks to adopt have languished, out-advertized by multi-national corporate interests.
On the bright side, the recent crash of the world economy has slowed the pace of destruction in some areas and a growing number of people world wide are beginning to re think the bigger is always better mantra that has led us down the halcyon path of technocracy. It is funny to see the yawning chasms of un-built homes, empty foundations dotting the suburban landscape, the "neighborhoods", some completer with unattended gate houses, ghost towns before their time. People are finally beginning to realize that to have their little house in the country, on five acres, would require several hundred dollars per month for commuting in addition to several thousand more in depreciation and insurance, tax, title and license on another car. Cities are regaining a bit of their former luster, if only for being affordable. You may have to throw in with "those people" but when you can eliminate a car or two from your budget, making ends meet gets infinitely easier.
The recent decline in carbon emissions from some of the more developed countries seems to be more a result of economic depression rather than any ecological awareness. My hope, and I am still extremely hopeful for the future is that as we learn to reevaluate the extreme costs of agricultural, industrial and real estate policy decisions, we will begin to make the changes that I had encouraged two and a half decades ago. It is never too late to change. The Learning Curve may seem steep at times, but the understanding of what has gone wrong is spreading like wildfire. Sure there are people who want things to return to pre-recession conditions, but larger and larger numbers of people are starting to understand that there is really no going back. Our future depends on rewarding smart decisions rather than stupid ones, true conservatism, not unbridled exploitation of resources. Corporate welfare and environmental callousness have come to an ungainly end. Sadly, too many of the rich and powerful just want one more fix of big money before they try to wean their desire for everything. The most heinous traits that the media projects onto addicts can be found in the wealthiest among us. Oddly, in them, we are led to want to make those traits our own. The ever-more popular legalized gambling houses are proof enough that we all want to dream of cash induced "happiness".
On my trip to the water's edge, I was able to carpool up and most of the way back. Technology now allows carpools to form faster than ever, reducing fuel use and wear and tear on our fleet of vehicles. spending time with others who share our commitment to saving Mother Earth any more disfigurement and trauma is leading to better decision-making, lower carbon footprints and increasing the possibility of charting a course to a more sustainable way of life. The local food movement has begun to make headway across the region with untold benefits from soil conservation to more efficient resource use. These decisions are not only helping the environment to heal, but is influencing our health positively as well. It has been a long time coming, but the principles and ethics that my trip sought to popularize are finally coming to pass. Sadly, the pain that has led us to tighten our belts, and the melt down of Fukushima are terrible results of the old way of doing business. Those who made beneficial changes twenty-five years ago are old hands at doing these things, but now, the majority are taking a second look at what tree huggers were doing to make ends meet a generation ago. The same things can work today, but we have to be willing to question the conventional wisdom that has been handed to us by those who would profit from our belief in them.

What Are Ecotours?

I have been an ecotourist since before the term was coined. The clearest vision of what this term means to me is that the ECO part is first and the tour part is second. First off, ECO-Tours require an adaptability that can be found in nature. Not only do travelers adapt their own behaviors to become more integrated in the environment, but they take the time to realize the inevitable impacts that they may be bringing to the areas that they visit and actively work to offset them, thus preserving the integrity or enhancing the natural cohesion amongst the communities and niches that they find there. Eco-tours can be trans-formative, especially in this age. Not only for the planet and the ecology of an area, but for the individual who begins to see themselves as part of the larger whole than many of us could have imagined before the tour is taken.
A brief review of information on what is called Leave No Trace Camping allows us to understand more fully the possible mistakes that we could make when going intro the field. Leave No Trace gets serious about some of the principles that underlie the foundations of ECO-Tours. There are also several good resources regarding the Rap 101 (basic boring bullshit) that allows us to shift our perspective from seeking a Disneyland style, mediated experience and immersion in our natural surroundings. Environmentalists tend to focus on the physical world and the natural organisms and processes that take place in an area, but the ecotourist who stops there is also missing much of the experience. Human culture and responsible interaction with the native people is part of the process of transforming ourselves to not so much blend in, but to responsibly interact with the populations that will remain after the tourist departs.
Often, the ECO-Tour is the beginning of a heart to heart with a region, a specific river valley, a mountain or estuary. The Earth can literally speak to us in ways that exploitative tours can never approximate. Being engaged in the living processes of the landscape, we are able to see with new eyes. Years ago, I learned that in many places around the world, harvesting wood for fires is the number one cause of deforestation. bringing one's own fuel for cooking in these areas is essential if we are to not be part of the problem, or agents of negative change for native people. After we leave, the ripples continue to spread out across the living tapestry of life that we have interacted with. ECO-Tours reflect an awareness of this and seek to minimize the negative impacts while enhancing the sustainability of the natural systems that brought us to the area in the first place.
Folks who used to hike and camp with me thought it odd that I frequently opted for smooth soled shoes and would even walk barefoot across the land. After years of scientific inquiry, this method of hiking has been found to be healthier for the environment in several ways. Deep lugs on the soles of our shoes can not only scar the path, if there is one, but create mud and rip at tiny root hairs close to the surface. They can transport invasive species from one location to another, creating damage that could blossom into a major threat years after we have gone home.
Years ago, I was given several nicknames by my travel companions. Tony Appleseed, God's Exterior Decorator and Crazy Guy to name a few. I would often work to do trail building and maintaining, working to minimize the possibility of wash outs on the trails, or making sure that the path would create the least damage by strategically placing stepping stones or creating retaining walls and laying downed trees across the hills, terracing and helping to build soil, thinning over planted mono-cultures or planting native plants in appropriate areas that would create habitat or slow erosion. the Earth has been my guide in ways that are difficult to put into words, but those who pay attention to what they are seeing, not just taking a glance at the natural world, but truly integrating with it will know of what I speak.
I have a friend who is an old hunter who has not taken an animal in over twenty years, although he has had many opportunities to do so. The last creature he fired upon was a wounded fawn who was trailing intestines out of a gaping hole in it's side created by another hunter, perhaps days earlier. The mercy he showed to that tiny creature stayed with him. He still carries a gun with him in the woods,"just in case" and so that other hunters don't question why he is there, but he is there for the experience of being in the woods, not just seeing it like a passerby might, but as a living breathing part of the environment. He has been taking ecotours for longer than the word has existed as well. although we all must find our way toward a future that remains illusive, knowing where we are at any specific moment and understanding our reason for being there as well as our purpose can liberate even the most caged mind, body and spirit. Often people who embark on tours of this kind reflect on what they have learned, not only about the planet, or a specific place, but what they have learned about themselves.
Ecotours are far more than can be put into words. Ironically, they enhance rather than exploit places that are visited. Instead of leaving a path of destruction behind as we motor through the world, ecotours allow us to weave ourselves and the benefits of a conscientious organism into the tapestry of life that makes up the ecosphere. The very Earth that we inhabit deserves to be respected. Learning what to leave home before we travel and understanding ways that we can take only what we really need can change any trip into an ecotour. The soul searching and prioritizing that goes into planning for and taking an ecotour will always yield learning opportunities and insight that is not available to the traditional tourist. When we take time to integrate ourselves into nature, the rewards are truly infinite and when we return to our "normal lives" we can bring a bit of nature with us, reflecting itself as ways of living more lightly on the earth and with vision as to how we might reduce our negative impacts at home as well.

How To Put Your Tax Return To Good Use

Since I have been working for over half my life, I have had plenty of time to figure out what to do with the "funny money" that the government manages to borrow from me without paying interest. When I do manage to qualify for a return, in my mind, the money never really existed at all. I had it paid to me, but the cost for living in a society is to fund government programs, so I feel like my dues have been paid as it were. I also understand that many of the government programs that I am floating interest free loans to support are against my beliefs and values, so finding a more appropriate way to spend those dollars that make the world better for everyone rates pretty high on my list of things to do with it when it comes.

As far back as the early eighties, I have often spent virtually my whole tax return on wholesale trees. There have been a few years which didn't go that way for one reason or another, but most of the time, that is how we funded the trees that we plant on the ECO-Tours that we run in the Spring and Fall. When we started, the first trees came in at under a dollar each, the several hundred to $1,000 returns went really far. We would buy whole flats of trees growing in plugs so tightly together that they looked like grass! When I repeatedly filled the front and back seats of my car with these carpets of trees, it would perfume the cabin so wonderfully that I had a hard time driving, especially when the trees were cedars. I encourage everyone to get a tax ID number and turn your tax returns into trees, then plant them so that they can begin paying back with interest.

If you prefer to donate to ECO-Tours, we continue to plant trees, using the donations that we raise throughout the year. Often the trees we plant grow one to two feet per year and we have very high survival rates because we work diligently to make sure that each tree is planted in the most appropriate area for it. Our Paypal account can be found at: http://paypal.com/tnsaladino42@hotmail.com Those who prefer to send checks, use snail mail to: ECO-Tours 1445 Porlier street Green Bay, WI 54301-3334

Finding ways to make positive change in the world has been a pet project of mine since I was young. friends used to call me Tony Appleseed, god's exterior decorator and a few just called me strange. when we would go to the woods, I would construct barriers that were designed to reduce erosion and runoff, enhance the local ecosystem and build soils and reduce compaction. One of the greatest experiences ever was when my daughter was very young. She repeatedly asked me what I was doing whenever I would put vegetable clippings in the compost. I would always reply, "Making dirt."
After a couple years, when she was about four, she must have heard the term "older than dirt", because one day, she ran out by the compost as I emptied the bucket into the pile and said to me, "You are older than dirt!", then she pointed at the bottom of the pile, where composted material was finding a way out of the pile and said, "You're older than that dirt, because you made it!"

Another great day was when I was planting a tree and a passerby, a young fellow who was developmentally disabled asked what I was doing. I said, "Planting a tree."
His response was to say, "Great!"
I asked him why he thought it was so great. His reply? "That's easy! Trees make oxygen and we need that to breathe!"

Sometimes I wonder why more of us are not as smart as the children and cognitively challenged among us. There have always been great ideas circulating in the minds of those we consider to be immature or "retarded". Perhaps if we allowed ourselves to experience life more like they do, many more things about our lives would become clearer to our adult eyes and the transformations that we seek would unfold like a blossoming flower. we will be planting trees again tomorrow and before long we will be putting in our spring tree order. If we make our order before the end of the month, we get half off and that effectively doubles the impact of your donation!

Thank-you in advance for your support. It allows us to leave forests behind and to help protect water quality, reduce the harmful effects of flooding and to help fix carbon and stabilize the environment. If you need ideas for how to do the same thing wherever you live, you can always contact us through the address above. If you are coming to Northeast Wisconsin, let us know in advance and we will plan a tour for you that includes planting some trees, touring our permaculture beds and a visit to some of the forests that we planted with tax returns dating back to the eighties!

Help Us Plant More Trees!
ECO-Tours thanks all those who have helped us through their labor, their donations and their time. As far as not-for-profit groups are concerned, we are still in our infancy. We first started planting trees as a group of friends who shared a deep love for the environment. We enjoyed the work parties that allowed us to plant thousands of trees over the course of our first dozen years or so. Back then, we were guerrilla landscapers but the term had not yet been coined. We planted several hundred trees in national forest lands that had been deforested by loggers. We adopted a city park that was slated to become a "conservancy area", we planted in County Parks, City Parks and on private land as long as the property owners agreed to let us.
Just over six years ago, we began the process of formalizing our efforts. We dipped deep into our own pockets to come up with the five hundred dollars or so that a lawyer wanted  to draw up our papers of incorporation. Registration with the state gave us some respect when dealing with land managers and official types. It still took about five years to get a measure of respect from City officials and we now have a verbal agreement that allows us to plant on nearly 100 acres of city-owned property, if we also help them with invasive species removal.
To save money we have been planting a lot more tree seeds and fewer seedlings and potted trees, but those are coming back with the economy and donations. In the time since we have incorporated we have been able to plant many times more trees than when we were operating on virtually no budget. Instead of planting 1,000 trees or less each year, we have increased to tens of thousands. If you include the tree seeds, we have planted over two million! I know that it will make a difference as people learn how to go about doing this in their own parts of the world, but even now, we are planning to add a second hub of activity along the shores of Lake Superior! All of our activity to date has been focused on the Lake Michigan Watershed, mostly in Northeast Wisconsin.
Back in college, our founder learned from Dr. Nair of UWGB (University of Wisconsin Green Bay) and the United Nations Forestry Department that whenever environmental protection programs are implemented, they have the best chance of protecting water quality when they take place at the highest points within the watershed. Conversely, the worst damage to the environment occurs in these areas as well. What we teach our guests, ecotourists and landowners is that the watershed that we spend most of our time in is our house. Look up, wherever you are and if there are no trees to intercept the rain that falls, or if your home is capped or surrounded with impermeable surfaces, these make up the most important watershed in your environment. Anything that can be done to intercept the water, slow it's progress to the nearest stream, allow it to cool before it runs away, or create places for it to percolate into the Earth. That is the most profound ecological improvement that you can achieve.
For too long humans have been at war with nature, trying to manage the massive discharges of runoff wherever they have compacted the soils. what is needed at this point in time is less impermeable surface and better management of green space that will allow water to infiltrate and stabilize the climate. The trees that we have planted here in Northeast Wisconsin improve the environment over more than 250 acres (100hectares). It has taken many years, but all of our time, talent and labor has been provided by volunteers or guests. We too often dig into our own pockets for the money to make this miracle happen and that is why I ask for donations to help us continue this important work.
If you would like to find out more about how to start these efforts where you live, contact me through facebook, write ECO-tours at tnsaladino42@hotmail.com or use snail mail to our office at 1445 Porlier street Green Bay, Wisconsin.
If you are planning a trip to our area, let us know if we can plan a trip for you. We love to share what we have learned about Permaculture, ecology and sustainability. Hopefully in the not too distant future we will have a second outpost near Lake Superior!
For the Earth and speaking for the trees, Tony C. Saladino