Lewis & Clark, Canyonville, adventures, & loved ones. Below is a gallery of 2008 images; click on any image for more info and a slideshow.
2008 was a year (aren't all years like this?) of transitions. One mundane transition from March involved moving our family things out of the trailer in Canyonville to prepare for Alder Creek Children's Forest to welcome its first resident VISTA worker, Gabe Engeland.
I pretty much stayed put in Oregon this year after globetrotting in 2007 (and more of that coming in 2009). One trip in March, however, took me to Gainesville, Florida to give a talk, "Reclaiming Ecotopia: Reason and Spirit After Environmentalism."
A number of Kojosho buddies (L to R: Tom, Mike, me, Ken, and John) celebrated our promotions in March with an all-day workout in Wildcat Canyon near Berkeley. (Just in case you're wondering: traditional martial arts are definitely not UFC…that would get our gis dirty.)
In April, the Environmental Studies Program at Lewis & Clark welcomed students from across the country as part of a Mellon Foundation-sponsored interdisciplinary environmental research initiative. We're planning to keep in touch over the next few years and eventually showcase this high-quality work done by undergraduates.
Speaking of students, my Lewis & Clark students took a bunch of field trips with me, including several to southern Oregon. Here are some students from late April enjoying a well-deserved lunch after climbing to the top of the Alder-Jordan watershed surrounding our forest near Canyonville.
Other than having a knack at producing huge amounts of fur to spread around the home, George and Ira have learned how to un-make my bed so that they can sleep in it. This is why we all have kittty cats.
In another quick trip connected with environmental studies, I visited (dry) Jonesboro Arkansas in May. Here's my colleague Eban with me on Beale St., the commercialized (and definitely wet) blues district of Memphis.
I finally decided to take my music on the road in 2008…sort of. I didn't get much further than metro Portland, but enjoyed playing in a number a venues over the summer. After schlepping gear, though, I'm ready for roadies.
My fellow researchers Evan (and partner Gina), Megan, and Amber with me at Breitenbush Hot Springs, near Detroit (Oregon, that is). Over the summer they visited a dozen and a half communities scattered throughout Oregon as part of our Ecotopia Revisited project (see http://media.lclark.edu/content/ecotopia).
In late summer I had the pleasure of taking my fellow faculty to southern Oregon as part of an annual faculty workshop. Here we are climbing Canyon Mountain.
For the last few years, Joy and Elise have enjoyed visiting Oregon in late August during Canyonville's Pioneer Days to help run our Alder Creek Children's Forest booth. Here they are with a sign Elise crafted…just before she erased it to craft this year's sign. (See Bailey in the shade?)
Through our many family trips to southern Oregon during this time without a home on our forest, we have enjoyed the gracious hospitality of Sue Moran and Chuck Spindel. (And Bailey is clearly their new grandchild.)
In late October, my students and I explored the Columbia Slough in Portland firsthand. Only one paddle casualty resulted from the trip, and all said students got was wet (and a bit red).
One thing I love about taking my Lewis & Clark students to southern Oregon is that they get to experience an entirely different way of life relative to Portland. Here Douglas County supervisor Joe Laurance is pointing out a few pictures (including one of him traveling very very fast on a motorcycle) prior to a November interview with the students on forestry opportunities in the county.
It's been fun taking the students out onto our forest. Here in that same November field trip, professor of biology Ken Carloni from Umpqua Community College is working with them to figure out why this part of our forest consists mostly of white oak.
We've also had the pleasure of taking teachers out onto the forest for all-day training workshops. In this workshop from November, Gabe is helping some rather reluctant teachers open what appears to be an owl pellet.
For Thanksgiving in Portland this year, sister Mary visited from New Mexico along with Elise, Matt, and Joy. Here are some of Mary's baked creations, soon to disappear. Mom's baking tradition appears to be alive and well among her daughter and granddaughters.
While Mary was in Oregon, we visited our brother Bob in Eugene, along with partner Merrilee and son Brooke and his partner Ryoko (you can see her in the mirror). Merrilee and Bob's daughter Lyra is now living in Jordan—a bit too far away to hop back for Thanksgiving, unfortunately.
There are big near-future plans for our forest in southern Oregon. We will soon build an open-air pavilion and restrooms to support school visits, and use the trailer as a caretaker's dwelling. This means I need to start building a place for our family to stay in during our visits. Here are Matt and Joy on the forest in (frigid) December, working for a week with me me to open up a small construction site.
Matt did a great deal of chainsaw work helping us remove trees, which we plan to use in the structures. And Joy got a piece of the chainsaw action as well.
I returned briefly to Portland after the week in southern Oregon with Joy and Matt before heading down to Santa Barbara for the holidays…and what sort of weather awaited my return?? Well, I'll give you a clue: when I Ieft Portland it took me an hour just to get out of my parking lot. Snow made everything glow by night and quiet by day (no traffic, no ambient noise).
I have had a beautiful time with Joy, Matt, and Elise in Santa Barbara prior to my imminent departure for Ecuador (stay tuned for pix on that in 2009, plus most likely India, Vietnam, Europe, and southern Africa). And we ushered in the new year with the reggae band Kingston 13. Their last song: "Ba-rack O-bama." A great start to a hopeful year. Let's each do our part.