The Eye of the Storm: Re-imagining Ethics for a Changing Planet
September 30, 2011
This Blue River Symposium gathered some of the nation’s most creative moral thinkers—philosophers, activists, theologians, writers, poets, and scientists—to think collaboratively about the moral ‘pinch-points’ we will face and to imagine what a resilient ethic might look like. This gathering lead to the writing and publication of The Blue River Declaration: An Ethic of the Earth (pdf). (Participant List)
Destruction and Renewal in Geological, Ecological and Human Dimensions in a Volcanic Bioregion - II.
July 18, 2010
A dozen writers from around the country gathered with about 110 scientists and staff for a week of camping and field work at Mount St. Helens to consider lessons from human and ecological responses to 1980 volcanic eruption. The retreat closed with a reading of early stages of the writers’ works. See an account of the adventure at the on-line journal. (Participant List).
Dragonfly Eyes: Multiple Ways of Envisioning the Future of Landscape Changes
April 30, 2010
Twenty participants gathered for a weekend field workshop to explore what happens when people with expertise in many ways of seeing and communicating— poets, novelists, visual artists, philosophers, architects, teachers, environmental historians, scientists, land managers—began composing a multi-faceted view of future landscape changes. (Participant List) This exploratory work involved parallel activities with supplemental Long Term Ecological Research funding to four sites: Andrews Forest(OR), Bonanza Creek (AK), Harvard Forest (MA), and North Temperate Lakes (WI). (Participant List).
Environmental Humanities Initiative Gathering
September 01, 2009
A weekend retreat for brainstorming a possible future environmental humanities program at Oregon State University. This has now evolved into the Environmental Arts and Humanities Initiative, which brings humanities scholars and scientists into close collaboration and, by that means, brings together the full powers of empirical knowledge and cultural, moral, and spiritual understanding. Oregon State University is also scheduled to begin a MA in Environmental Arts and Humanities in the Fall 2014. (Participant List)
Blue River Environmental Philosophers Gathering
September 28, 2007
This field symposium brought environmental ethicists and philosophers from throughout the bioregion to the H.J. Andrews Forest. The goal was to think hard and collaboratively about what is our work in a 'wounded world.' To answer the questions: What does the world need from us as environmental philosophers? How can we provide it? Click here for the Salmon Nation Environmental Philosophers’ Gathering. The seed of an idea planted at this gathering grew to become the book Moral Ground: Ethical Action for a Planet in Peril (K.D. Moore and M.P. Nelson, editors, Trinity 2010). (Participant List)
Exploring the Meaning of Watershed 'Health'
October 19, 2006
The symposium brought together twenty distinguished creative writers, thinkers, artists, and ecologists to engage a critical question in this time of destruction and restoration: What is a healthy watershed? Are there analogies between watershed health and human health? What is illness in a watershed? The final symposium event included a larger group of people who were in a position to use these ideas for practical purposes—watershed council members, health practitioners, environmental activists, legislative leaders.
Blue River Writers Gathering
January 01, 2006
Spring Creek inaugurated a biannual Blue River Writers Gathering for Northwest nature writers at the H.J. Andrews Experimental Forest in 2006. The weekend gathering is an opportunity for support, inspiration and restoration for 30 invited writers from Arcata to Anchorage to Fort Collins who are engaged in this loving but sometimes lonesome occupation. Nature writers have been holding regional gatherings for a number of years in New England and in the Colorado Rockies. (Participant Lists: 2006, 2008, 2010, and 2012.)
Destruction and renewal in geological, ecological and human dimensions in a volcanic bioregion.
July 21, 2005
Twenty creative writers, scientists, philosophers and others gathered together on Mount St. Helens for four days of camping, hiking, learning, and sharing insights about the meaning of cataclysms and the sources of renewal. The Foray asked the question: What can this radically altered landscape tell us about how to understand nature and how to live our lives? Read about the gathering in Terra.
New Metaphors of Restoration of Forests and Watersheds
January 01, 2002
As we work to restore damaged and altered landscapes and reframe our relationship with the land, what new metaphors can give meaning and direction to our efforts? During this three-day, three-stage event sixteen writers and scientists examined this question; shared ideas with a public audience in a performance that included music, readings, and lectures; and then discussed their ideas with a group of restoration practitioners. The event was co-sponsored by the Forest Service.