treehuggers's topics - tribe.net

Join the "No Meat Week" campaign: Help stop global warming!

Julia — Sun, 03 Aug 2008 18:56:53 GMT

Did you know that if every American who eats meat daily decided to have one meat-free day a week, it would be the equivalent of taking 8 million cars off the roads?

• Animal agriculture causes about 18% of global human-induced green-house gas emissions

• Livestock produce 30-40% of total methane gas emissions

• Livestock occupy 30 percent of ice-free land on the planet, a major cause of deforestation

• Industrial meat production relies heavily on fossil fuels through fertilizer manufacturing and global transport

The emerging global warming crisis requires both personal change and industrial accountability. In addition to energy conservation, each of us can also limit our contribution to global warming by eating less meat and calling for a more sustainable livestock industry.

The goal of this one-week meat-fast is to provide a platform to raise awareness about how meat-consumption directly contributes to climate change.

Join now at:

http://www.thepoint.com/campaigns/no-meat-week-help-stop-global-warming

posted in treehuggers - 0 replies

hippies and treehuggers needed

shamanstar — Sun, 01 May 2005 17:29:33 GMT

i dont quite understand people who hate hippies. i especially dont understand why anarchists think that they can achieve peace by causing havok. you can have peace and unity without living and beaing peace and unity. breaking stuff and hating everyone who isnt an anarchist will not do good for your cause. it will only bring hate upon yourself. you get what you put out. it is the truth, not just some hippie bullshit. the laws of physics confirm this.

posted in treehuggers - 16 replies

Urban Forestry

Lorenzo — Sat, 02 Sep 2006 18:17:03 GMT

Can anyone point me to any national urban forestry groups??

posted in treehuggers - 3 replies

Heartwood Forest Council in Ohio -- Burning Issues: Climate is a Forest Product

pudgalan — Thu, 08 May 2008 01:27:10 GMT

Heartwood Forest Council in Ohio
http://www.heartwood.org/forestcouncil/index.html

Save the Date for the 18th Annual Heartwood Forest Council, Memorial Day Weekend, May 23-26, 2008, to be held at Boy Scout Camp Oyo in the Shawnee State Forest near Portsmouth, Ohio.

Online Registration coming by next week. Download PDF Brochure: http://www.heartwood.org/forestcouncil/brochure.pdf

We would like to invite you to the 18th annual Heartwood Forest Council, to be held Memorial Day weekend, May 23-26, 2008, at Boy Scout Camp Oyo in the Shawnee State Forest near Portsmouth, Ohio. Hosts for this years event include Heartwood, the Buckeye Forest Council, Save Our Shawnee Forest, Voices for the Forest, Meigs Citizens Action Now!, Protect Biodiversity in Public Forests, and EarthWatch Ohio. The theme of this year's Forest Council is "Burning Issues: Climate is a Forest Product."

What is the Heartwood Forest Council?

The Heartwood Forest Council is the largest annual gathering of citizens from across the Eastern, Midwestern, and Southern United States who care about the health and well-being of our nation's forests. This will be the second time this event has taken place in Ohio, the first being at Camp Oty Okwa in 1992. We will focus on threats to our region and to human and community health, in an atmosphere of collaboration designed to form stronger personal and organizational connections. While addressing the issues we face and celebrating the work that we do, the Forest Council offers participants an opportunity to identify lasting solutions and proven action steps that will move us as a community toward a shared vision of a healthy, just, and sustainable society.

The program will begin the afternoon of Friday, May 23, and continue through mid-day, Monday, May 26 (Memorial Day), and will be interspersed with ample social time, leisure, lively local music, dancing and great food. The Forest Council will be family friendly - kids of all ages are encouraged to attend.

This year's Forest Council will explore how we can nurture sustainable local and regional networks and a culture of cooperation and care. Together we will identify viable alternatives to the dominant economy and its toxic legacy of waste and prepare ourselves with the knowledge and tools to protect ourselves, our communities, and our planet. The program will consist of three days of workshops, discussions, keynote speakers, and field trips. Key program elements will include:

* Forest Issues: public lands management, roadless and other special areas, prescribed burning on state and national forests, genetically modified trees, sustainable forestry and low impact logging, land certification, and land management strategies and opportunities including the value of non-timber forest products.
* Coal, air, energy and climate issues: coal mining and processing, including mountaintop removal, room and pillar, and longwall mining, coal-fired power plants, air pollution and global climate change. We will also talk about resurgent efforts to promote nuclear power, the alternatives to fossil fuel such as wind, solar and hydropower, and the connections between forests and energy production including cellulosic ethanol and biomass.
* Sustainability issues: creating viable communities and taking responsibility for our own future; localized economies, permaculture, local and regional food production and distribution, alternative energy and transportation, traditional uses of plants and their preservation, religion and environmental protection, alternatives to the corporate control of food and seed supply; and how to sustain our minds, bodies and spirits as we seek environmental justice and transformational change.

18th Annual Heartwood Forest Council Program

Theme: Burning Issues Climate Is A Forest Product

Program Tracks:
1) Forest Issues
2) Coal, Energy and Sustainability - Positive Alternatives

Where: Camp Oyo Shawnee State Forest - Ohio

When: Friday, May 23 to Monday, May 26, 2008

Weekend Schedule:
Friday, May 23 General Goals: Introductions and Reunions

Afternoon hike - Shawnee State Forest/Park Hike
led by Kevin Bradbury - Regional Manager Shawnee and Adams Lake State Parks.

5:30-7:00 Dinner: Vegetarian Gumbo with tofu hot
dogs, brown rice, roasted asparagus, Salad
greens, vegan Cornbread, Strawberry shortcake.

7:00-9:00pm - Forest Council welcome:
Ernie Reed - Heartwood
Barb Lund - Save Our Shawnee Forest
David Maywhoor - Buckeye Forest Council

History of the Shawnee Forest:
Shawnee Nation Reflections - Dr. Cora Tula Watters
Lower Scioto Valley history Dr. Andrew Lee Feight
Flora and Fauna of Shawnee - Kevin Bradbury & Jenny Richards -

9:15 til? Campfire behind the dining hall for
planned and unplanned music, and spontaneous revelry

Saturday, May 24 General Goals: Explore the
Issues: Follow one of the tracks or do some of both:
Forest Issues - physical and economic issues
Coal, Energy and Sustainability - Positive Alternatives

6:30 - Bird Hike, Yoga Stretch or Polarity work

7:30-9:00 Breakfast: Baked Omelet with asparagus,
feta, ramps, fresh herbs with green tomato salsa,
Vegan Paw Paw cornmeal pancakes OR vegan Paw Paw
Buckwheat pancakes with maple syrup,
Tempeh/potato sausages (vegan) or sun choke latkes, Fruit

9:00-10:30 - General Introduction to the
workshops’ “burning issues” by the leaders of the workshops.

10:30-10:50 Break

11:00-12:30 Forest/Energy Issues Workshops Session 1
(The session 1 workshops will be repeated in session 2.)

Forest Issues Choices:
#1 introduction to Forest Ecology,
Prescribed Burns, Clearcuts, and certification.
#2 Introduction to Forest Economic.
#3 Specific Economic Study: Green
Fire/Heartwood Economic Impact Study in the Wayne National Forest.
#4 Prescribed Burning Issues (for those
already somewhat knowledgeable on this issue.)

Energy Issues Choices:
#1 Introduction to Local and Regional
Coal Issues & explore the whole coal cycle.
#2 Introduction to the Community Impacts of Coal.
#3 Issue of Coal Fired Power Plants, led by John Blair.
#4 Nuclear Power Issues

12:30-1:45 Lunch: Tempeh sloppy Joes, Raw Snow
Peas, Spring Potato salad with mint and peas

1:45-3:15 Forest/Energy Issues Workshops Session 2
Repeat of all Session 1 workshops.

3:15-3:30 Break

3:30-5:00 Forest/Energy Skill Building Workshops Session 3
#1 Tree Climbing Dale Wallace,
#2 Forest Monitoring David Maywhoor,
#3 Waste Issues Where Does It Go? Jeff Stant,
#4 Climate Issues 1Sky - Liz Butler,
#5 Working with Municipalities to Stop Coal Fired Power Plants,
#6 Market Campaigns Alliance for
Appalachia, Dogwood Alliance, ForestEthics
#7 Bio Mass Issues Mike Ewall and Denny Haldeman

5:00-6:00 Self Reflection Time or Movie Time or
Therapeutic Touch or Body Recuperation Massage Polarity Work

6:00-7:00 Dinner: Crumbs Bakery Ramp pasta with
Chris Schmiel's wild mushroom pasta sauce,
Roasted Veggies, Arugula salad w/ Raspberry
vinaigrette dressing and Italian bread, Vegan Tiramisu.

7:00-8:30 Music and Keynote Speaker
Music by Steve Free
Speaker Harvey Wasserman, Solartopia: Our Coming Green-Powered Earth

9:00-11:00 Music and Dancing: John Simon and Friends
11:00 Music and Dancing continued: Mothman

Sunday, May 25 General Goals: Sustainability & Cooperative Strategies:

6:30 Bird Hike, Yoga Stretch or Polarity work

7:30-9:00 Breakfast: Warm, fresh, homemade
granola, rice or cow’s milk, fruit, yogurt & biscuits with soy protein gravy.

9:00-9:20 Introduction to the Day’s Activities & Announcements

9:30-10:45 Sustainability Workshops Session #4
Sessions to introduce these topics:
#1 Introduction to growing Ginseng -
Chip Carroll with United Plant Savers! and Randi Pokladnik
#2 Principles of Environmental Justice Charlie Fredrick
#3 David Coyte Small Scale Hydropower,
Solar Power and Wind - Third Sun Solar and Wind,
Geoff and Michelle Greenfield plus Mark Donham
#4 Community Rights-Based Organizing and
Local Democratic Self-Governance Shireen Parsons
Session for people who want to work on (participated in) these topics:
#5 Emerging Corporate Campaigns RAN Alliance for Appalachia
#6 Permaculture Successes Rhonda Baird
#7 Successful Community Models ACE-Net,
Community Food Initiatives-CFI, Lost River
Community Coop, Pine Mountain Settlement School .

10:45-11:15 Break

11:15-12:30 Sustainability Workshops Session #5
This is a repeat of Session #4 workshops

12:30-1:45 Lunch: Black Bean Soup, Portuguese
corn bread, green salad w/shredded roots & miso
dressing or vinaigrette, pawpaw sorbet.

Also during lunch - Chris Schmiel Paw Paw Plenary

1:45-5:00 Field Trips, Hikes and workshops either at the camp or off site.

Off site field trips / hikes:
Shawnee Forest led by John Howard and Cheryl Carpenter
Permaculture Farm Field Trip led by Robert Klouman
At home composting led by Liska Kunn, her property is next to the camp.
Rock Run, part of the Arc of Appalachia Preserve System

Tree Identification - at the camp may be one or
two sessions held - times to be announced

2:00-3:30 Workshops - Sustainability Session #6
#1 Principles of Environmental Justice
#2 Ohio Student Environmental Coalition
Matt Reitmann, Sonia Marcus, Head of Ohio
University's Resource Conservation Office -
"Tackling Climate Change on a College Campus"
#3 Current Corporate Campaigns Scot
Qaranda, Dogwood Alliance & Linda Wells, ForestEthics

3:30 4:00 Break

4:00-5:30 Workshops - Sustainability Session #7
#1 Body Work Chris Keller
#2 Self Care… “Cloud Watching On A Horizontal Plane”

5:30- 7:00 Dinner: Veggie Curry with coconut
milk, vegan cole slaw, chocolate cake &
strawberry coconut milk ice cream (vegan).

7:00 7:30 Keynote speaker: Nancy Stranahan -
Arc Of Appalachia Preserve System

Sunday evening activities will be at a farm next
to the camp where alcohol is allowed.

7:30-8:30 Heartwood Benefit Auction & Keg Tapping Ritual

8:30 until? Talent Show! Danny Dolinger Master of Ceremonies

Monday, May 26 General Goals: Cooperative Strategies and Action Planning

7:30-9:00 Breakfast: Wild mushroom frittata;
parsnips & potato hash; vegan biscuits with hemp
& poppy seeds and nutritional yeast gravy; fruit.

9:00-10:30 Discussions about Future Actions and
Campaigns and key note speaker Brock Evans.

10:30 - 10:40 Break

10:40- 11:30 Presentation by Albert Bates, author
of Post-Petroleum Survival Guide and Cookbook: Recipes for Changing Times
or
10:40- 11:30 Memorials and Megan Hollingsworth grief work/ discussion

11:30 to 12:30 Closing Circle: Final thoughts, big ideas, and looking forward

12:30-1:30 Lunch: The weekend’s culinary hits revisited

1:00 Collective Action and Memorial Tree Plantings

posted in treehuggers - 0 replies

Looking for an Earth Woman Friendly community style living solution?

Temeluch — Mon, 10 Mar 2008 22:52:30 GMT

There is a Meeting of the Kindred Spirits coming up March 29th! And
we do need to see some more Positive well integrated Female Energy in
this group who can work closely with others.

http://edenvillage.net/18.htm

We are still looking to organize a group of volunteers to
help out some good folks one day out of the week, with some
organic gardening and we still do need someone to take Minutes
at the next meeting.

It would be possible, I would think, if there is a single female or
two out there who is cool about living closer to the Earth then
I may be able to provide a place for you to live, for
maybe 6 months out of the year up where I live in Northern
California.

If you can simply come to our next meeting on March 29th. - T

http://edenvillage.net/18.htm

posted in treehuggers - 1 reply

tree tat

Jackie — Wed, 20 Feb 2008 19:07:25 GMT

ok- so I am wanting to get a tattoo of a tree on the base of my spine. I want a 'tree of life' image, but not THE tree of life, because anyone could get that. The tree of life symbolizes growth, as well as the connectedness of all beings and the earth, which is something that really represents me... So, I've got some ideas of what I want to do, but I wanted to bounce this off of other tree lovers and see if you guys know of any cool images that I may use for inspiration. The roots are an important addition, FYI.
Anyway, any links you guys may know of or images I can look up would be very helpful. Thanks!

Love and Light!

posted in treehuggers - 2 replies

Fraud Alert regarding North Coast Earth First! Aka NCEF! Media. Completely independent from any activist group!

White Rabbit — Mon, 18 Feb 2008 21:19:09 GMT

16 views since posting on Sunday, December 2, 2007
Location California

enlarge photo
NCEF! Media in Humboldt County Ca.(AKA NORTH COAST EARTH FIRST!), is accused of fraud and donation embezzlement. Caution! Do not support this lone wingnut's scam! Active and legitamate groups exist in the area. Caution! Do not be fooled by NCEF! Media and his fraudulent outreach. Shunka Wakan exists completely seperate from any active affinity group.

Read about how he perpetuated a lawsuit under the guise of EF! against a legitimate environmental nonprofit:

From: northcoastjournal.com/100407/...004.html

October 4, 2007

"Money On Trees"

Big cash nearly fell into Shunka Wakan's lap. Other Earth First!ers are kinda happy it didn't.

by Heidi Walters

As the jury trial for the civil suit Kathryn Miller v. the Trees Foundation puttered to a start last week inside Courtroom 3 at the Humboldt County Courthouse, Shunka Wakan — a key witness for the plaintiff — spent mornings sitting on the hard wooden benches in the long hallway outside the courtroom. During breaks, Miller's attorney Linda Mitlyng, would come out of the courtroom to join him. But otherwise, as other people and their legal affairs swirled around him in a warm, odiferous bath of humanity, Shunka sat alone. Or, sometimes, he stood alone, straight-spined, his small, stocky body swallowed by the huge, stiff blue suit out of which his newly shorn, razor-scraped bald head poked vulnerably — as if, at any moment, the suit could gulp once more and he'd disappear completely. Always, he clutched a paper folder with a wolf's face on its cover.

The North Coast Earth First! Media guru had shaved off his woolly rust-tinged brown hair and beard the night before jury selection started, after discussing it with attorney Mitlyng. Now, it took an uncertain moment to recognize him. Then, of course: Shunka's light blue eyes in the pink-pale face, Shunka's closed-lip smile, Shunka's trademark husky murmur, "Mm-hmm, for sure," in response to a comment.

In Courtroom 3, the amiable but no-nonsense Judge Christopher Wilson's domain, the fate of a $185,000 donation dangled. Would the plaintiff, donor Kathryn Miller, prevail in her claim that the defendant, the Trees Foundation, was not in fact the intended recipient of her generous gift? That Shunka Wakan's NCEF! Media Center and the treesitters were? Or would the Trees Foundation convince the jury that, in fact, the money was intended all along for Trees, with no instructions attached for funneling it elsewhere?

Richard Idell, left, who is defending the Trees Foundation against a lawsuit filed by Kathryn Miller, confers with Doug Wallace, community support coordinator for Trees. Photo by David Lawlor.

In her opening arguments, Miller's attorney, Mitlyng, said the case came down to "fraud and broken promises." "She believed [Trees] would hold [the money] in trust, for the benefit of North Coast Earth First!" said Mitlyng. The defense's attorney, Richard Idell, countered in his opening argument that the donation was an unconditional gift and Miller never wrote letters of instruction — as Miller claims she did. "Ms. Miller ... didn't do anything. She took the check [from her mother's estate] and flipped it over and wrote on the back, 'Payable to the Trees Foundation,'" said Idell.

Miller's claim sought the return of her $185,000, plus interest.

Out in the hallway, Shunka waited to tell his side of the story. Maybe he thought about the magical donation that never materialized, and now probably never would. Maybe he thought about the other times he'd been in this courthouse — dozens of times, along with other activists, often before Judge Wilson, answering to charges of trespassing and other forms of civil disobedience in the woods. Likely, he wondered when they were finally going to call him in to testify — it was taking forever in there. He'd even sent out an e-mail prematurely to the several hundred subscribers to his NCEF! online group erroneously announcing he would be first up to testify.

By the end of Friday's court session, Miller was still on the stand. Perhaps Monday it would be Shunka's turn. Whenever it was, he would be testifying on Miller's behalf; but he wasn't a party to the lawsuit. And in the end, after hearing all of the evidence, the jury would be determining who was telling the truth about intentions and letters of instructions. Shunka was just there to provide context and evidence in a contract dispute.

But to a number of forest activists, including a half dozen or so who appeared in the audience last Friday to watch the trial unfold, that context matters more to them than the legal questions. They say this lawsuit has placed a strain on the environmental community that could do as much damage as an ill-felled redwood that takes down other giants in its descent. They disapprove of the lawsuit, and they blame Shunka for it. And, they say, it's just another example of how Shunka has commandeered the North Coast Earth First! identity and used it for purposes that nobody else in the amorphous but consensus-driven local Earth First! movement has agreed to.

"For a lot of us, when we read about the lawsuit, this is kind of like Shunka on trial," said long-time forest activist Deane Rimerman last Friday, calling from Olympia, Wash. "And, to what extent is he worthy of that money?"

Kathryn Miller wanted her money to go toward saving trees, she said on the witness stand last Thursday. The slender 59-year-old was dressed in a pink print skirt and white sweater, with her gray-streaked dark hair pulled back into a neat, thin braid tinted slightly green. (Little did the jury know that Miller had spent the night in jail, in blue jail duds, and then had been "dressed out," in court lingo, in her street clothes before being escorted into the court by the bailiff. Miller had been arrested the week before, on Sept. 17, when she arrived in civil court for the pre-trial readiness hearing; according to the misdemeanor criminal charges filed against her, Miller allegedly had made annoying phonecalls to Barbara Ristow of the Trees Foundation all hours of the day and night.)

On the stand, Miller described how she became an activist. She remembered how, when she was a child in Orinda, her mother decided to stop spraying the beautiful oak trees on their property after reading Rachel Carson's Silent Spring. "And then, when my son was 9, we were watching the news on TV about the Chernobyl nuclear power plant meltdown. And my son said to me, 'I wish I'd never been born. I don't think I'll get to live a full life.'"

She protested the building of the Diablo Canyon Nuclear Power Plant. She started a peace action group in the late 1980s in San Jose. She did nonviolent protests at the Nevada Test Site. And in 1990, she came up with some of her fellow protestors to help set up the camp for Redwood Summer, and to take part in demonstrations. She's been on and off involved in Earth First! actions in Humboldt ever since, she said, including huffing in supplies for treesitters and huffing out their garbage. She'd also, at one point, bought a condo in Arcata.

In 2004, Miller sold her condo and bought an acre of farmland, already planted with coffee, in Guatemala. She put in fruit trees to shade the coffee. That same year, her mother, who lived in Sonoma, died. "The last time I saw her was in 2003," said Miller. "She told me when she died, she was going to leave me some money. I told her I'd use it to further my work for the forest. And she was pleased, because she loved the treesitters and the forest."

Shortly after learning of her mother's death, Kathryn Miller sought out Shunka Wakan in front of the food co-op in Arcata, where he "tabled" to raise funds for the North Coast Earth First! Media office — selling T-shirts, and stickers, offering pamphlets, accepting donations. She'd known Shunka for about five years, she said.

"I said to him, I was going to inherit some money: What was the best way to get that to the North Coast Earth First!?"

In the spring of 2005, Shunka Wakan was floating above the treetops. "I was so excited," the 32-year-old said in an interview a few weeks ago, sitting inside his tiny but colorful North Coast Earth First! Media office in Arcata, walls covered in art and topo maps — including one of Buckeye Mountain, where in 2000-2001, during the "Mattole Free State" action, Shunka and others hiked 14 miles through waist-high snowdrifts to save trees.

Kathryn Miller, he recalled, had come up to him excitedly as he walked along the sidewalk outside the Arcata Co-op and said, "I just donated $185,000 to North Coast Earth First!'"

She'd talked to him the year before about making the donation — she'd said she was anticipating an inheritance from her mother's estate, and she wanted to make a big donation to his group. He'd told her to make it through the Trees Foundation, which handled the NCEF! Media office's finances through an arrangement that had been established years ago. (The Trees Foundation is an umbrella organization formed in 1991 to assist smaller environmental groups. As a 501(c)3 nonprofit, it can accept large, tax-deductible donations on behalf of affiliates, and provide professional resources. And it can lead large campaigns, like the one to save the Headwaters Forest back in the '90s.)

Well, now she'd finally done it.

Miller and Shunka agreed to meet at Fiesta Café in Sunny Brae, so she could tell him how she wanted the money spent: She wanted, straight away, for someone to organize a mediated workshop for the local Earth First! activists on ageism and sexism, issues she thought were fracturing the movement. And, she wanted the bulk of the donation to help support the forest activists who blockade logging roads and hunker up in ancient redwoods to fend off loggers' saws.

Not long after, Shunka was on his way to have lunch with some folks from the Trees Foundation, where they'd talk about Miller's wishes.

"Our media outreach was going to get a big boost," Shunka said. "The donation would keep the EF! office going for many years. So I walked into the Wildflower Café feeling elated, thinking we got all this money."

Barbara Ristow and Doug Wallace of the Trees Foundation were there. "I was super excited," Shunka said, "and I said, 'This is great, this big donation. Isn't it wonderful?' We ordered food, and still I'm all excited, talking about the money, but I notice they're looking nervously at each other. [Finally], they said, 'Well, we're just shocked that you think this money was for you.' And I was like, 'I just met with the donor, and that's what she said.' And they're like, 'Well, let's go ahead and plan the workshop and deal with that later.' I remember that, because it put me at ease."

After that, Shunka said he gave Trees a list of people he thought might benefit from the mediator-run workshop. "Some were people I knew had beefs with me, but I was willing to bring 'em into the circle and talk about it."

According to some vague accounts, the workshop was a disaster. One person who was there claims that Shunka, at one point, pounded his fists on the floor, blustered, then got up and stormed out, yelling as he walked away. Shunka says that's overblown.

"The letter from Kathryn Miller to Barbara Bristow said she wanted the mediation to be a safe place, safe to be emotional," he said. "And I think people are saying 'I freaked out.' The freak-out reports are exaggerated. It's just part of this ongoing character assassination. People say I was 'red-faced.' But my face is naturally red."

In late 2005, while Shunka was in Seattle, a friend called him from Arcata to say a woman had come by asking for the office key. She had a list of equipment she wanted to take away. The friend didn't give her the key.

When Shunka got back from Seattle, he discovered his reimbursement funds from Trees had been "frozen." He also learned about a letter someone in the NCEF! movement had circulated for signatures and then sent to Mark Knipper, who handled the Trees Foundation transactions for the NCEF! Media office. It said, in essence, "We don't want Shunka running EF!"

"I called the Trees Foundation," Shunka recalled. "I was sick, it was the middle of the winter, I'm trying to table, it's raining, it's cold. And Barbara Ristow told me, 'You just need to have a meeting [with the other Earth First!ers] and come to a group consensus on what the Trees Foundation funding should be used for."

The meeting never happened — nobody could agree to meet, said Mark Knipper, also in an interview last week. Knipper is a social worker and a long-time activist who had been the contact person between Trees and NCEF! Media. "So it ate itself," Knipper said. "And although I'm former Navy, a mariner, I said I'm not going down with this ship. So I divorced myself from it ... and signed it all back to Trees."

The NCEF! Media office was dropped from the Trees Foundation altogether.

Shunka and the NCEF! Media office never did see any of the big donation. Miller didn't even know that, he said, until she phoned him up in the summer of 2006, more than a year after she made the donation, to ask about a guy named "Jungle," who had been reported as missing on the NCEF! hotline. Miller was spending much of her time in Guatemala now, where she was raising fruit trees; after she'd made her big donation, Hurricane Stan had struck — she spent the ensuing year mopping up the mess.

First, Shunka told her Jungle was still missing. Then he told her about the money.

"I said, 'Yeah, they told me it wasn't for us,'" said Shunka. "And she said, 'I meant for all of it to go to you guys.' She sounded real upset. And I was like, 'I knew it! I knew it!'"

Shunka tried to sue Trees in small claims court, but it went nowhere.

Miller filed a claim against the Trees Foundation on Oct. 5, 2006, in Humboldt County Superior Court, seeking the return of the $185,000 plus interest so she could distribute the money herself.

And if she wins? "She may just spread it out more," said Shunka. "She's got tree planting ideas. Maybe she could buy a grove. She'd maybe not give it all to Earth First! this time. It was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity that Trees blew for us."

On an uncomfortably hot afternoon last week, four forest activists who'd agreed to an interview for this story — Jeff, Shaggy, Sparrow and Farmer — sat on the ground at the Arcata Marsh next to a log bench on which a teeming crew of red ants worked a splintered notch. Someone had come along here in 1999 and carved a grouping of faces — bearded, grimacing, possibly mourning faces — onto the log and signed it Daniel. The carving had been drenched in red paint, and burnished by years of sitters.

"It kind of reminds me of the memorial for Gypsy," said one of them. "With the red paint."

Gypsy was the forest name of David Nathan Chain, who in September 1998, during an Earth First! action at Grizzly Creek, was crushed to death by a tree felled by an enraged logger. Farmer, actually, was there — he was just 16, but had a year of activism already under his belt. And Shunka was there — it was Shunka's first forest action.

Farmer, Shag, Sparrow and Jeff first made it clear that they spoke for themselves alone, although they participate in various forest defense affinity groups: Farmer works for the Mattole Wildlands Defense Group now, watchdogging the California Department of Forestry for new timber harvest plans, and keeping an eye on a Pacific Lumber Co. watershed analysis. Shag, who saw his first redwood about five years ago, helps keep the Fern Gully treesit village in Freshwater functioning. Jeff, who grew up in the high desert, and fell in love with the woods, works with the Nanning Creek treesit just outside of Scotia, as well as other groups. Sparrow, who was drawn to forest action because the cultural landscape was "like a folktale" he couldn't resist, is with the Fern Gully affinity group. These groups are all part of the Humboldt Forest Defense Association, a collective with a website but no formal structure.

The HFDA sprang into being six years ago — about the time the entity called North Coast Earth First! had essentially dissolved. It would take a book to describe that drawn-out dissolution — a book of lost causes, won causes, waning media interest, Judi Bari's death, Gypsy's death, ego-spurred squabbles, interpersonal catastrophes, a war overseas, hurricanes. And while the HFDA activists might still cherish the Earth First! name — the movement — in their hearts, it's now been further complicated by what you might call the Shunka effect.

"I still feel in many ways solidarity with the greater Earth First! movement abroad," said Farmer. "But in this county, in this climate, if you say you're with the North Coast Earth First!, many people associate you with North Coast Earth First! Media."

Shunka revived the North Coast Earth First! office around 2002. And he did what previous office managers had done — tabled, put out news releases, wrote articles for other publications. But it wasn't like the old days, in the '90s, when hundreds of people were getting arrested in forest actions and the jail support phone and legal resources were in constant use.

Shunka first worked in an office in Eureka, then later moved to Arcata. He called his outfit the NCEF! Media Center. For a time, he and other "affinity groups" tried to work together. But he alienated some people. He took over the North Coast Earth First! website. He controlled the North Coast Earth First! email list of 300 or more subscribers to the news alerts. He sent out press releases on his own.

"I felt the North Coast Earth First! Media Center was a unilateral effort on Shunka's part," said Farmer. Whereas, in the old days, "spokespeople were decided on by the group. And if you wrote an article it was passed by everyone. I feel Shunka appointed himself spokesperson at some point."

Many also claim they've been subject to a lashing anger from Shunka.

"I won't work with him because I pledge nonviolence in my actions," said Shag. "I don't believe he pledges the same thing. He has exhibited violent behavior towards me and towards other activists in my presence."

"He's a bear," said Jeff, making claw-fists with his hands.

But the sad thing is, all of this infighting probably has done nothing to help the actual trees. And the mediation workshop Kathryn Miller wanted didn't fix matters. Now, there was her lawsuit.

"When I heard about this lawsuit, I thought, the Trees Foundation does not deserve to be attacked in that way," said Farmer. "There's much bigger issues that need to be dealt with — with Maxxam and old-growth logging. ...If you look at Fern Gully and Nanning Creek (the Bonanza timber harvest plan), there's hundreds of old growth acres still standing whose fate is unclear."

Shag put it more bluntly: "If [Miller] knew Shunka and wanted to get the money to North Coast Earth First! Media, she should've given it to Shunka. But if she was trying to get it to treesits and forest defense, then the money went to the right place.

"My problem is this whole representation thing. There's people in the trees — how do you know who to get the money to, to help them?"

Shunka knows that a lot of fellow activists aren't happy with his role in the donation dispute. He also knows how some people talk about him and say he's hard to get along with. "I'm just standing up for the truth," he said. "And people don't like it. To me, it feels like a small clique of people who don't like me. I feel a lot of love and support in this community."

He certainly doesn't come off right away as someone who's angry, or who lashes out, or who locks the office and doesn't let people in. Why, recently, he helped a young woman hook up with the treesitters so she could learn the ropes. (Shaggy said that's proof Shunka doesn't have direct connections with the people doing direct action; but you can't deny it's a connection.)

It's probably a bad idea to ask Darryl Cherney, one of the founders of the local Earth First! movement, what he thinks of Shunka Wakan, whose real name is Jason Wilson. (Shunka tells a story of how he was named by a Lakota medicine man on the banks of the Cheyenne River in South Dakota in 1995. "Shunka Wakan," meaning "great dog," is only part of it. There's a secret part after that — altogether, his name means "the humble man called horse.")

"Shunka's a wingnut," Cherney said over the phone last Friday, sounding cheerfully vitriolic. "I have a 10-verse song about Shunka."

Here are the last few verses:

Who's at the co-op spanging a donation
Shunka, Shunka
Who's got a lawsuit 'gainst the Trees Foundation
Shunka, Shunka
Shunka, Shunka
Who's gonna keep on fighting the fight
Shunka, Shunka
With four of his friends at swimmers delight
Shunka, Shunka
Shunka, Shunka (Shunka voice: It's the last of the revolution)

There's no other word for it but "mean." But Cherney and Shunka have history — not all of it sour. Cherney said Shunka laughed when he heard the song, at least the first time.

"I met Shunka in 1998," Cherney said. "And I know he knew Julia ["Butterfly" Hill, whom Shunka had come west to find]. That was a good thing, helping Julia. That was good Shunka."

Cherney had even pushed for Shunka to go to Houston to talk with Charles Hurwitz, whose Maxxam Corp. bought out the old Pacific Lumber company back in 1985 and quickly became the forest activists' number one villain. Shunka went.

But now? "The current status of Shunka and me," Cherney said, "is that Shunka has sent me five or eight or nine e-mails threatening to sue me. Shunka is a joke."

Cherney can talk for hours about the problems he's had with Shunka over the years. His main point, though, is what has Shunka done for the trees lately?

"My question is, where's your topo maps?" he asked. "Where's your wilderness preservation proposal? Where's your lobbyist team in Sacramento?"

It has to be that, on some level, even the people in the movement who don't like Shunka understand somewhat where he's coming from. So he's emotional. Passionate. Perhaps he's caught up so completely in the cause he can't let go. Or, who knows — maybe he's a phony, like he accused Knipper of being back in 2005.

But being a forest activist comes with perils beyond the obvious physical ones.

"I'm really trying to have compassion for Shunka, even though he's kind of attacked us," said Susy Barsotti by phone from Laytonville a couple of weeks ago. Barsotti is president of the Trees Foundation board, and she says the lawsuit has held Trees hostage, unable to function fully. "I've been mystified and dismayed that he's participated like this in the suit. But Shunka witnessed Gypsy's death. And I think he may have post-traumatic stress syndrome. I don't think he's recovered from it. And that can affect your behavior."

A number of people mentioned this, actually, about Shunka. And he often refers to Gypsy's death himself. In an article titled "What Luna has taught me," posted on the website of Julia "Butterfly" Hill's organization, Circle of Life, Shunka writes: "I decided to commit to doing ground support after witnessing the death of David Nathan "Gypsy" Chain on September 17, 1998 ... I remember looking across the valley as we hiked up that day, seeing the rolling hills of forests and clear-cuts, and thinking out loud, "That's why we're here!" Seeing Gypsy's life taken from him, and then seeing the corruption and lies of the Humboldt County Sheriffs ... really opened my eyes to the situation our old-growth forests face."

Later, he did ground support for Hill in her second year in Luna. And in the same article on her website, something else Shunka writes indicates how ready he was to devote himself to a cause: "Being on the support team was the top priority in my life, and I was happy knowing that everything else revolved around when I'd be needed for the next supply run. I never felt lost because I knew what I was doing. That was a feeling I had not felt in years, between feeling dissatisfaction with life in college, and then more dissatisfaction with life as a minimum-wage worker after college. Before joining Julia's ground support team I was unhappy, even to the point of tears, wondering if my entire life was going to be a minimum-wage nightmare ...."

Pure devotion, without benefit of a little hypocrisy, could drive anyone batty. Deane Rimerman, the activist from Olympia who said it is Shunka who is on trial, said it's not uncommon for intense, stressful movements like Earth First! to produce an army of walking wounded. And he's been around, in forest actions up and down the coast, for long enough to know; he was the one, in fact, who "got the maps and led the first hikers up to the hill" to the Gypsy Mountain campaign and Luna treesit.

"In the forest activist movement, there's very little that's rewarding," Rimerman said. "There's a lot of post traumatic stress syndrome. All of us get it. Once you've been through the court process, and the jail process, and seen 1,000-year-old trees get cut down that you really cared about and thought you could save — it's devastating."

That alone, setting aside the troubles with Shunka, could explain the many rifts that have occurred within the local EF! ranks over the years. Josh Brown, who moved to Humboldt in 1995 right before the peak of the Headwaters campaign, said one of the unique qualities of Earth First! is that it "is primarily a youth movement."

"A lot of people that come through are young, are passionate — and it's a wonderful thing," he said. They get thrown into leadership positions quickly — and then they get burned out. Many move quickly on to other things. Brown stayed in longer than most. "When I left [in 2001], I was 30 years old. And I'd been a full-time activist since I was 18."

Paradoxically, said Brown, the youthful draw and the departure of seasoned activists leaves the movement with "no elders to kind of sit around and coach the [new kids]."

The movement also draws strong personalities, he said. Tenacious ones, too, like Shunka's.

"Shunka, I think he really does have a big heart," said Brown. "And I think he does care for the forest."

Last Friday, following the morning session of Miller v. Trees, a group of the Humboldt Forest Defense Association activists stood on the courthouse steps talking. The door opened, and Shunka walked out and down the steps toward the group. They didn't greet him. After a time, he tried to talk to one of them, Jeff. Jeff walked away. Shunka followed him, then stopped and talked to another guy. Then he stood alone again.

From: northcoastjournal.com/101107/...011.html

"Trees Foundation Wins"

October 11th, 2007

The jury in the civil case Kathryn Miller v. the Trees Foundation decided in favor of Trees, after deliberating all day Tuesday. (See "Money on Trees," Oct. 4).

Miller is the long-time forest activist who inherited a bundle from her mother and then signed $185,000 over to the Trees Foundation. In her lawsuit, she claimed she had intended the money to be passed through Trees to one of its affiliates, North Coast Earth First! Media, run by Shunka Wakan. She claimed she had made her intentions clear, verbally and in writing, and that Trees had agreed to the conditions, then broken its promise and kept the money. Trees denied making such promises, and said it had never seen any letters or heard of instructions to give the money to NCEF! Media. (Also, somewhat relatedly, in criminal court on Tuesday Miller pleaded no contest to charges that she had made annoying phonecalls to Barbara Ristow of the Trees Foundation.)

So, that's that. Now, there are only the pieces to pick up.

For Shunka Wakan — featured in last week's Journal as a central figure in a messy nest of infighting that has fractured the current ranks of local Earth First!ians — it could be a long, lonely patching together of lost friends and broken alliances. Not only did he and Miller lose their attempt to retrieve her donation, but now he's been banned from the North Coast Co-op.

Yes, that happened last week. It was Thursday, around 4:15 in the evening, and two activists with the Humboldt Forest Defense Association were tabling — hawking brochures and such — outside the Co-op. It's an activity Shunka himself has spent many a day doing in that very same spot, raising cash to pay for his NCEF!Media outreach work and other causes. And, well, these two fellows, Jeff and Farmer, were on Shunka's shit list, now. They'd spoken gently, but unfavorably, about Shunka's doings in the North Coast Earth First! arena — said he lashed out at people, said he commandeered NCEF! resources, and so forth. Here's a snippet of Jeff's account of what happened, which he sent to the NCJ in an e-mail on Friday:

"Shunka was removed from the Arcata Co-op yesterday after a scuffle with myself and another activist around 5 p.m. Well, he wasn't exactly removed, but APD was called. He was asked to leave after threatening to flip over the HFD donation table while stating he was 'like Jesus in the marketplace ...'"

Sue Coulter, manager of the Arcata Co-op, recounted on Friday how an employee walking by heard the argument and went inside to get her. "So I went out to talk to [Shunka], because it's not the first time we've had problems," she said. "Most of the time, he's fine. Most of the time, I stick up for him." One time, she said, she even called the police to protect Shunka after someone had threatened him. "But he gets into arguments. I tried to talk to him. I told him to leave. ... He was causing a scene, right by the door, and I can't have it. He refused to leave. ... I said, fine. I went into the store. He followed me into the store, and he was still yelling at me, 'Oh, now you're going to call the police on me.'" Coulter called the police, but Shunka left before they arrived.

Shunka, waiting in the courthouse for the jury verdict Tuesday, said Coulter did indeed ask him to leave and he did, indeed, refuse to. As for the HFD tablers, he said he merely asked them why they had Trees Foundation literature on their table. "I said, 'Why do you want to represent these people?'" And then, he said, "Jeff accused me of embezzling — he said this in public. He said, 'You've embezzled thousands of dollars from the Earth First! movement through the years.' And I complained to one of the employees who was walking by. Because that's serious, accusing someone of embezzling."

But Shunka said the whole thing's yet another attack on him. "I don't consider I was yelling. We were talking. I'm an emotional person, I concede to that. I speak from my heart. I don't scream at people. I would love to — but I don't."

In his email, Jeff with HFD predicted Shunka would leave town within weeks, if not sooner. But at the courthouse, even before the verdict, Shunka said he wasn't going anywhere.

"I'm just going to continue to run the Earth First! office and continue to call Humboldt County home," he said. He's also going to write a letter to the Co-op, complaining about how he gets scapegoated and booted out of there even when other people, he says, are the culprits. And, as for the Miller v. Trees case, he said, he and Miller may now take their complaint to another venue.

-- Heidi Walters

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posted in treehuggers - 0 replies

roots

Shanti — Sat, 12 Jan 2008 23:15:12 GMT

Tree Hugging Hugging Trees Hugging Me. Tree Hugger Hug Tree.

posted in treehuggers - 1 reply

Sea Shepherd in the New Yorker

DarklingThrush — Thu, 22 Nov 2007 14:33:05 GMT

NEPTUNE'S NAVY
Paul Watson’s wild crusade to save the oceans.
by Raffi Khatchadourian

http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2007/11/05/071105fa_fact_khatchadourian?currentPage=1

posted in treehuggers - 0 replies

TRUTH IS FREE; so is my RETREAT --Vermont

Bald Mountain Retreat, — Mon, 05 Nov 2007 17:57:43 GMT

I'm looking to network with folks, to extend an invitation to visit Bald Mountain Retreat (www.baldmountainretreat.com) as my guest. Like-minded people who appreciate rustic accommodations are welcome to come up at no charge. (Those who require a private room can inquire about those accommodations as well.)
Basically, I'm offering people the opportunity to come stay with a retired naturopathic doctor in a truly amazing natural setting, secluded, idyllic, peaceful...
Also, if you might like to lead a retreat, please contact me.
Thank you and you are welcome,
Dr David

posted in treehuggers - 0 replies

Flash: Treehugging destroys bark microbials

bradleyalbus — Tue, 11 Oct 2005 19:25:30 GMT

In a new study published by the ap, it has been found among trees most hugged that copious amounts of harmful bacterial, namely the e.lycos.meninlius, as well as collinopal-lingus bacteria (a & b) can be found living inside the bark of trees most often hugged.

The study was double-blind and found that among open space recreation areas where the population of "stinky, dirty, treehugging, pot-heads" were more than 2% above the mean, the bark of the trees most hugged were infected with the above mentioned bacterium.

Sorry folks. You're going to have to change your earth un-conscious ways. Hugging trees is in line with cohorting the lumberjacks. It has been noted that since the publication of said study, there has been a 32% rise among treeloggers involved in actual treehugging. The job market in this field is expected to skyrocket by mid-November.

Get a life! @#$@@# Stop hugging trees!!!

bradley in boulder

posted in treehuggers - 34 replies

Help save our old-growth forests!

Fri, 19 Oct 2007 22:38:01 GMT

Hello,

Many of you may not know that in August 2007 the Bush Administration introduced the Western Oregon Plan Revison (WOPR) to change the Northwest Forest Plan and proposes to greatly alter the management of the remaining old-growth forests in Oregon. Did you know that only 3% of the ancient forests in the United States are still standing today, and they are all in this area of Oregon that the WOPR affects? The WOPR will affect lands managed by the BLM and are proposing the following changes:

1. Doubling the amount of old-growth forests that are available for clear-cut logging from 25% to 50%. That translates into clearcutting more than 110,000 acres of 120+ year old trees in just the first decade.
2. Open to logging over 200,000 acres of protected areas bordering streams and rivers which would destroy water quality and ecosystems in these waterways.
3. Remove protections for over 250 vulnerable plant and animal species, some listed under the Endangered Species Act , if their protection would hinder logging operations in these areas. In other words, logging would take precedence over saving endangered species already being protected.

Something I did not know until recently is that there is some consensus on both sides of this issue that timber needs can be accomplished in sustainable ways by focusing on thinning in previously logged areas. There is no need for these old-growth forests to be sacrificed!

Could you please help save these last remaining ancient forests before it's too late?

A decision will be made on WOPR in December 2007, just 4 months after this proposal was made. And citizen comments must be received by Nov 8, 2007. The organizations working to defeat WOPR, including Klamath-Siskiyou Wildlands Center (www.kswild.org), feel strongly that WOPR can be defeated if citizens speak out against this proposal. Please go to:

www.oregonheritageforests.org/citizenguide

There you can learn more about how wrong this proposal is, why there is a good chance to defeat it, and will also give you a link to send your comments to the BLM with a copy sent to KS Wild and to Oregon's congressional delegation. Your email matters! Please help save these old-growth forests in Oregon no matter where you live.

Thanks for reading this. It's so important and we only have until November 8, 2007 to act!

Calliope

posted in treehuggers - 0 replies

Hi Guys,

Grant — Tue, 11 Sep 2007 18:19:28 GMT

Hi Guys,

I have added an Energy Efficiency section to my website- Comments/Suggestions would be great.

Link: http://www.worldofrenewables.com/EnergyEfficiency/index.html

Grant Rowe

World of Renewables
grantrowe@worldofrenewables.com

posted in treehuggers - 0 replies

hOwdy Folks !!!! Oregon Regional Rainbow directions - Find your way home!

evilive — Fri, 07 Sep 2007 14:04:14 GMT

www.welcomehome.org/rainbow/index.html (this shows the Oregon 1997gathering, which is the exact location this year. ) The directions are taken directly from welcomehome.org.

Howdy Folks,

Welcome Home to the Oregon gathering in the Ochoco National Forest from September 11, 2007 until September 23, 2007. Seed camp begins September 6, 2007.
For more information, contact:
groups.yahoo.com/group/mountainspirit
or call 240-863-6250 or email mountainspirit@yahoogroups.com.

Where the Ochoco Gathering in Oregon will Be.
The 2007 Rainbow Gathering is in Ochoco National Forest at a place called Indian Prarie in central Oregon. (between Prineville and Mitchell)
From Prineville:
Take hwy 26 east towards Mitchell. Make a right turn onto hwy 23,(this road is not marked, but is the next two lane paved road after the reservoir, a few miles out of town, to the right) which later turns into hwy 22 and continues to Walton Lake. Soon after the lake, turn left onto FS 150, a dirt road. Go a little ways till 150 ends in a T. Go right onto FS 2630, and continue to the parking lot and Bus Village.
From Mitchell:
Take hwy 26 west towards Prineville. A little ways past the Bandit Springs rest area, go left onto FS 2630. This later becomes FS 2210, and 2630 becomes a less maintained road. Follow FS 2210 to hwy 22. Turn left onto hwy 22 and follow past Walton Lake. Soon after the lake, turn left onto FS 150, a dirt road. Go a little ways till 150 ends in a T. Go right onto FS 2630, and continue to the parking lot and Bus Village.
More map details
This is right near the Bridge Creek Wilderness area, and north of the Big Summit Prarie. I can see several springs on the map. Sortof behind the site is the Mt. Pisgah Lookout. It looks to be no more than 6000-6500 feet in altitude.
For general information about the Rainbow Family and regional events, please first look around an unofficial family website- go to Welcome Home at
www.welcomehome.org or email rob@welcomehome.org

www.welcomehome.org/rainbow/index.html

What is a Rainbow Gathering?
Carla's Gathering Basics
What follows is my take on it. No one put me in charge (thank goodness), so you may get other answers from other folks that add or subtract stuff - but basically I think most folks will be in agreement with what I see as being the basics for a gathering.
It is free and non-commercial. This means no entry fee and no money charged for any service at the event (food, medical, etc.). There are people at gatherings who hang out with the barter circle and essentially have a commercial trip going either with trade or cash, but this is their own personal trip and has nothing to do with the actual set-up of a gathering. I personally consider these folks in violation of the basic spirit of the gathering and wish they would go away, or at least put away their trade goods. But since we have no cops, no courts, and no jails, they continue to do as they please, over the objections of many but also with the support also of many. Anyway, with the exception of these folks who are taking advantage of the free space, you shouldn't find any commercialism at a gathering whatsoever.
Rainbow gatherings are non-aligned both spiritually and politically. There is no one right religious or spiritual belief; people of all faiths are welcome to come gather. Often, people from specific churches or temples come set up their own camp and feed lots of folks from their kitchens (the Krishnas and the Bread of Life Christian camp being the most notable). There are no hassles towards any church group proselytizing or trying to win converts - if people want to listen, that's their own business.
Rainbow also does not support any specific political cause, party, issue, or candidate. Many people come to gatherings to recruit for their own specific Peace Walk, Drums around the Pentagon, environmental action, or whatever; but again, that is their own trip. They certainly have the right of free speech to spread the word about whatever event they are sponsoring. But they do nothave the right to call it a Rainbow event or claim they have support of the Rainbow Family. If they do make such claims, they are ripping off the Family name. Folks involved in such actions have every right to also mention, if asked, that yes, they consider themselves to be Rainbows. No reason not to fly your colors, especially when you're doing something you consider a good cause and are proud of being involved in. You just can't say that your event (protesting logging the rainforest, for example) is a Rainbow protest as such.
We have no leaders. We operate by consensus process. No one is in charge, we have no board of directors. For many regional events, a small circle of people often initiates the event, and the circle grows and becomes many. All the labor of getting the gathering together in a safe and healthy manner is done by volunteers.
The only rule we have is that of peaceful respect. That actually encompasses a lot, when you stop and think about it. Sure, no one can tell anyone else what to do, but if someone builds an unsafe fire under a tree, they will hear about it (hopefully in a sweet way) from many people who are worried about the safety of the camp. We like to say that everyone is Shanti Sena (Peacekeeper). The idea is to communicate in such a way that folks doing something non-peaceful, non-respectful, unhealthy, or unsafe will see the error of their ways and choose to get with the program. When something really out of line occurs (a violent individual hitting someone with a club, for example) a Shanti Sena council (consisting in the ideal of all interested parties, as well as some experienced folks from the Shanti Sena Clan to give guidance and physical safety) forms to deal with the issue. If the victim of the violence wishes to press charges, the incident is dealt with accordinly, and the Shanti Sena folks cooperate in turning the perpetrator over to local law enforcement - a controversial move, to be sure, but in some cases unavoidable and sometimes even desirable. If no one wants to see the local authorities involved but a person is considered a danger to the safety of folks in camp, two options are commonly turned to: someone capable of handling the situation volunteers to accompany the offending person 24 hours a day around camp; or the person must leave the gathering and not come back that year.
As per a standing consensus by the Rainbow Family Tribal Council, we don't apply for or sign permits. With the new group use regulations instituted by the Forest Service this year, this has become a difficult position to hold.One regional gathering signed a permit and gathered under a different name than Rainbow. Weird, and lot of people were angry at the folks who signed the permit,but what are ya gonna do? Take away their hippie cards? Anyway, theoretically,if a gathering has a permit, it is by definition not a Rainbow Gathering.
Also, by long tradition, we do not gather anywhere but public land. Occassionallythere may be focussed councils (Thanksgiving Council, regional councils) that happen on private land, but gatherings themselves are always held on public land. Again, if it happens otherwise, it is by definition not a Rainbow Gathering, though the event may be very rainbow in nature otherwise.
We take responsibility for every aspect of the gathering, from set-up to clean-up. We don't ask for help bulldozing roads, getting donations from local charities or food banks. We are self-sufficient in every aspect of our gathering, and responsible for ourselves. Most important, when the gathering is over, many people stay behind to totally clean up the site. No janitors are paid to clean up after folks. Gatherers are expected to use the recycling center set up on site and to pack out what they packed in. The clean up crew takes out all trash to recycling centers and to landfills, then restores and rehabilitates the site. This may involve scarifying the earth to loosen up compacted areas, filling in ruts caused by vehicles, water-barring hilly areas, and reseeding the ground. All shitters and camps are disappeared and naturalized. This is a lot of work folks! If you've never stayed for cleanup, you've never really done a gathering. This is not a dead lot - this is real, this is a labor of love, and it's one of the only reasons, both karmically and politically, that the powers that be haven't put the ax to us long ago.
A Rainbow Gathering is not a rock concert or a platform for speakers. If cars are allowed in the gathering area proper, and if there is amplified music as a central theme, it most certainly is NOT a Rainbow Gathering (the drive-in gathering in Texas was an exception, as we were not allowed to close the road).
If it were up to me to define it, I would say this is the most important aspect of the Gathering: It is a free assembly of individuals who come together to practice peace. The focal point of the Annual Gathering July 1-7 is a coming together in a large circle, each person praying silently in their own way for peace. Most of the regional gatherings also set aside a day for the Silent Circle. A Rainbow Gathering is not a party, although partying certainly happens. It is not just a big hippie campout, although there are lots of counter-culture and new-age types camping in the woods. It is not just the world's largest love-in/be-in/ smoke-in, although a lot of that certainly goes on. For me, without the element of prayer we might as well not gather at all. For me, without the element of the Circle in which we participate, we mights as well have a hippie convention at the Hilton. For me, without the practice of Peaceful Respect and continuing attempts to create harmonyamong each other and all beings of the Earth, me might as well give up any pretense that the human race is evolving.
So, does that make things more clear? You'll probably get as many different answers as you will people answering. Good luck sorting it all out. The annual Rainbow Gathering of the Tribes will take place in the Northwest next July - Oregon or Washington. Stay tuned for directions, which will probably come out about amonth before the gathering!
Love and Light,
Carla

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
This is Not an offical document of any kind by the Rainbow Family. This invitation is my own creation, and as such only represents my own ideas. In no way does this mean I or anyone else represents the Rainbow Family, regardless of what the Family wingnuts say.

RAP 107
www.chebucto.ns.ca/Current/.../107.html
Gathering Consciousness
Please protect this Beautiful Land. Walk softly. Harm no living thing. Harmonize - Blend
in. Use only down, dead wood. Cut no living trees. Preserve the Meadows....camp in the Woods. We are caretakers of this land. Everyone sharing makes a strong Human Tribe!
Please Protect the Water Sources by staying out of DELICATE spring areas. Avoid camping, peeing, washing above spring areas. Keep ALL soap out of streams, springs or the creek!
Use a bucket to take your bath 60 feet away from the water source. To be certain of drinking water: boil it! Use the slit trenches or covered latrines - cover your paper & waste with ashes or lime, wash hands. Break the fly/illness connection: shit-fly-food-you! Dig no shitters near water areas or kitchens. Protect our Health! Use your own cup, bowl & spoon! Wash them after eating and rinse in bleach-water. Visit C.A.L.M./M.A.S.H. if you feel ill - especially if you have a contagious disease - or are injured. Camp Together - Establish neighborhoods. Community Fires only! ~ Each with 5 gallon water bucket and shovel for Fire Protection. If you are the last to leave a fire PUT IT OUT! Watch your gear: Be Responsible ~ "Tempt Not Lest Ye Be Lifted From." Pets are discouraged but if you must bring them keep them fed, on a leash and out of the kitchens, springs & fights. Clean up their poop. Love them. PACK IT IN - PACK IT OUT !!! Cleanup begins when you arrive. Bring in only what is necessary. There is no janitor here...you are the cleanup crew. Separate Garbage for recycling. Don't litter - Find collection point. Compost in pits only. You are the Gathering! Participate in Shanti Sena, the peace keepers council, and all activities, councils, work crews, workshops. Volunteer wherever needed: kitchens, welcome home, firewatch, parking lot, shitter digging, supply, front gate, etc. R-E-S-P-E-C-T your Sisters & Brothers energies. Keep the Balance: Earth, Sky, Trees, Water & People! Alcohol is Discouraged, Guns are Inappropriate, Violence is contrary to the Spirit. Please take no photographs or videos of people without permission. Discourage Drug Abuse. Buying and selling endangers our legal right to be here. The Magic Hat is our Bank, donate early to fund our Needs. The Magic Hat goes around at mealtime circles and with the Magic Hat Band. Our power together is many times our power separated. Enjoy the Rainbow with an open heart and you Will see the Vision. Join us for July 4th Silent Contemplation & Prayer for Peace, respect those maintaining silence from dawn. Hold the silence until the arrival of the Children's Parade.

WE LOVE YOU!!!!

Note: If you packed it in then pack it out.

posted in treehuggers - 0 replies

Jobs!

Grant — Mon, 03 Sep 2007 21:58:10 GMT

Just posted 20 U.S jobs and 18 uk and europe jobs in the renewable sector.
Also added news feeds for each of the sectors.

Grant

www.worldofrenewables.com/forum.php

posted in treehuggers - 0 replies

Got passion?

Grant — Wed, 29 Aug 2007 18:20:05 GMT

Hi,

I am looking for informed individuals with a passion for renewable energy
that wish to be part of a small team that runs World of Renewables.

Link: www.worldofrenewables.com

Its a free website so we rely on peoples passion.

We need individuals that are willing to contribute to the site in terms of news articles and
forum topics.
To be a moderator of the site to help members find information and generally promote
Renewable energy/Alternate energy/Susatinabillity.

If you are interested please drop me a line.

Not interested but have views? goto : www.worldofrenewables.com/register.php
And contribute to the forum- all feedback is welcome.

Regards

Grant Rowe
Editor
World of Renewables.com

grantrowe@worldofrenewables.com

my tribe: http://tribes.tribe.net/renewables (its new)

posted in treehuggers - 1 reply

beautiful tree batik designs!

shamanstar — Thu, 21 Jun 2007 01:42:16 GMT

Hey! You all are going to love these guys... i met mateo at harmony festival in santa rosa a couple weekends ago and we realized through talking about how much we love trees that we knew eachother through this tribe. their batiks are beautiful!!! there website is under construction but please go there to contact them about buying a shirt. they have many more designs than what was on their website and they make beautiful hemp hoodies! http://mountainairbatik.com/
much love tree huggers!!!
star

posted in treehuggers - 0 replies

Pescan Tribe

SacredRiver — Tue, 15 May 2007 06:31:38 GMT

greetings, summer is on the way and a lot of us well be hitting the road. I know that helath will be the last on the list during these travels but you have to be on top in order to enjoy on these festivals. A new "Pescan" tribe has been, please visit the site and your input would be welcome. treehuggers be informed.

posted in treehuggers - 5 replies