Sierra Institute
  • About
    • About Us
    • Contact Us
    • Staff and Board
    • Field Staff
    • Sierra Institute History
    • About Indian Valley
  • What We Do
    • Restoration and Field Work
      • West Shore Project
      • Adult Restoration Crews
    • Rural Community Development
      • Disadvantaged Community and Tribal Involvement Program
      • Socioeconomic Monitoring
      • Sierra Fellows
    • Wood Utilization
      • Biomass Heat
      • Community Build
      • Sierra Forest Entrepreneurs Program
      • Indian Valley Wood Utilization Campus
    • Collaborative Groups
      • Sierra to California All-Lands Enhancement (SCALE)
      • South Lassen Watersheds Group
      • Lake Almanor Watershed Group
      • Burney Hat Creek Community Forest and Watershed Group
    • Youth Stewardship
      • P-CREWPlumas Conservation, Restoration, & Education in Watersheds
        Plumas Conservation, Restoration, & Education in Watersheds
      • Natural Resource Education
  • Job Opportunities
  • Learn More
    • Publications
    • Media
    • ForestFest
    • Blog
    • Almanor Updates
  • News & Updates
  • Get Involved
  • Donate
  • About
    • About Us
    • Contact Us
    • Staff and Board
    • Field Staff
    • Sierra Institute History
    • About Indian Valley
  • What We Do
    • Restoration and Field Work
      • West Shore Project
      • Adult Restoration Crews
    • Rural Community Development
      • Disadvantaged Community and Tribal Involvement Program
      • Socioeconomic Monitoring
      • Sierra Fellows
    • Wood Utilization
      • Biomass Heat
      • Community Build
      • Sierra Forest Entrepreneurs Program
      • Indian Valley Wood Utilization Campus
    • Collaborative Groups
      • Sierra to California All-Lands Enhancement (SCALE)
      • South Lassen Watersheds Group
      • Lake Almanor Watershed Group
      • Burney Hat Creek Community Forest and Watershed Group
    • Youth Stewardship
      • P-CREW
      • Natural Resource Education
  • Job Opportunities
  • Learn More
    • Publications
    • Media
    • ForestFest
    • Blog
    • Almanor Updates
  • News & Updates
  • Get Involved
  • Donate

Earth Day Reflections by Spencer Lachman

April 22, 2021  |  By Sierra Institute Blogs
Giant Forest Sequoia National Park

To me, Earth Day is an opportunity to reflect on our individual relationships to global systems. The adage goes, “Think globally and act locally”, suggesting we should consider the broader implications of our actions on our global community and the intentionality of the decisions we make as consumers, humans, and Americans.

Grizzly Print in BlackFoot Valley Montana 

To understand these identities more clearly, it can be helpful to reflect on why your relationship to a process, practice, or place is meaningful and what context guides the way you interact with, or project, those identities. One place which always grounds me is Montana’s Blackfoot Valley.

Blackfoot Valley, near the town of Ovando in Montana

Like Plumas County, this corner of the Treasure State is rugged and untamable. The southern flank of the Bob Marshall and Scapegoat wilderness areas stand guard to a place which harbors a brutal mysticism. In those remote glacial valleys one may render themself to an intentionally non-human world and find themselves bound to the place by the spirit of all things – quelling the sense of worldly and ecological homelessness which underlies our domesticated, westernized psyches.

Scapegoat Plateau in the Scapegoat Wilderness, Montana 

I have worked on, sweat through, ran up, swam in, and gawked at the spirit of this place. It humbles me to consider the complexity of such a landscape and the daunting task of restoring wholeness to a world so very different from that which lies within the arbitrary lines of public land. 

Scapegoat Plateau in the Scapegoat Wilderness, Montana 

Across the west, the muddled waters of conservation strip topsoil from burn scars and pass through seeping mines and sapling choked forests – a journey through the outcomes of our stewardship which illustrates how our piecemeal attempts to conserve and restore the special places mean naught without the consideration of entire landscapes, ranges, and watersheds and the varied scales at which we interact with land.

The Needles- Sequoia National Park – burned in the 2020 SQF Fire 

It is apparent that we need to work harder to unite ourselves in support of our common denominator; the people on whom we depend and the landscapes which support them. Developing this deep sense of reciprocity is essential in laying the foundation for grassroots, community-based conservation at the rural/ urban-wildland interface and will be vital for surviving as we walk together into this hotter, drier century. 

Previous StoryNative Plant Propagation: A New Collaborative and a Novice Horticulturist
Next StoryYouth Support Wildland Urban Interface Fuels Reduction Efforts in Butterfly Valley

Related Articles

  • Reinvesting in Working Forests, Business by Business
  • Forest Products for Forest Communities

Sierra Institute on Instragram

Please check the widget data

Popular Posts

  • Day-1_Walking-Tour_Gville-Museum
    Sustainability Institute 2018: Part One Wednesday, 14, Feb
  • Native Plant Propagation: A New Collaborative and a Novice Horticulturist Friday, 9, Apr
  • Youth Support Wildland Urban Interface Fuels Reduction Efforts in Butterfly Valley Tuesday, 25, May
  • Earth Day Reflections by Spencer Lachman Thursday, 22, Apr
  • How Has the Dixie Fire Affected Sierra Institute’s Work? Wednesday, 13, Oct
  • Reinvesting in Working Forests, Business by Business Thursday, 4, Nov

Categories

Tags

academic Biomass coalition Collaboration Community Community Well Being conservation Cowboy in the Forest Environment Having Fun Healthy Forests interview Jobs Learning Local Investments Mass Timber natural resources Nature Rules! New Friendships outdoor adventures Personal Health policy policy process Positive Mental Attitude public policy research resource management Rural Communities Rural Communtities Rural Economies Rural Voices Sierra Fellows Socioeconomic Monitoring teen health and wellness Tours Urban & Rural Value Added Products watershed Watershed Health Water Supply Whirling Disease wildfire wildlife Workshops Worth It

Archives

  • November 2021
  • October 2021
  • May 2021
  • April 2021
  • February 2021
  • January 2021
  • November 2020
  • August 2020
  • March 2020
  • February 2020
  • January 2020
  • September 2019
  • August 2019
  • July 2019
  • June 2019
  • April 2019
  • March 2019
  • February 2019
  • January 2019
  • December 2018
  • September 2018
  • August 2018
  • July 2018
  • June 2018
  • May 2018
  • April 2018
  • March 2018
  • February 2018
  • January 2018
  • December 2017

Help Us Promote Vibrant Rural Communities

DONATE TODAY

P.O. Box 11, 4438 Main Street
Taylorsville, CA 95983

530-284-1022 phone
530-284-1023 fax
info@SierraInstitute.us

NEWSLETTER SIGN-UP



© 2020 Sierra Institute