The theme of the conference was “Solid Foundations: Together We Can!” Over the 2 1/2 days of the conference, Peter and I were exposed to a compelling and dynamic keynote speaker, to some excellent and some not-so-great workshops related to Land Trust issues, to motivational speakers with moving personal stories, to Ontario’s Minister of Natural Resources, to landowners who had donated their wilderness lands, to the dedicated people who run OLTA, to the magician at the Awards Banquet, to OLTA’s 2009 Award Winners, to exhibitors ranging from Bullfrog Wind Power to the Oak Ridges Moraine Land Trust, to good food and good accommodations and, above all, to people representing various Land Trusts, Environmental Organizations, Conservation Authorities, and Government Agencies with a common bond - a ‘Love of Nature’ and a passionate desire to protect and enhance our Natural and Cultural Heritage for future generations.
Day 1: Peter Forbes, a writer, photographer, farmer, conservationist, and co-founder of the ‘Center for Whole Communities’ from the Mad River Valley in Vermont, served a triple-function on the first day of the conference. He delivered the keynote address, conducted the all-day ‘Whole Communities’ workshop and topped it off with an unforgettable, heart-warming, passionate and inspiring evening session.
In his keynote address Peter, who has built a national reputation in the US as the champion of more than 100 successful Conservation Projects, stressed that people like us must champion environmental and social change by reconnecting people to Nature and by engaging ‘Have’ and ‘Have-Not’ communities alike in novel and persuasive ways to once again bond with the land. We must reach out to the 98.5% of the population who are not members of a ‘Nature Organization’ and who do not subscribe to a ‘Nature Publication’. He concluded with these thought-provoking reminders: ‘For a Land Trust Conservancy to be successful, building relationships is as important as place… It is not enough to care, we must act to protect our Natural and Cultural Heritage’.
In the course of the ‘Whole Communities’ workshop, Peter introduced us to the Spanish word ‘Querencia’. It conveys such meanings as a sense of place and belonging, returning to your roots, connecting with people, love and being loved, Aloha, a sense of who I am as a person, a sense of caring and bonding with the land,...Throughout the remainder of the day, Peter repeatedly invoked the spirit of ‘Querencia’.
Next he gave us a glimpse of some novel ways employed to protect ecologically valuable lands: Land Trusts are introducing the ‘Food’ component in Conservation Easement Agreements (CEA’s) to bring local communities and local producers together. Land Trusts are buying forests and contracting out the lumber rights. US Voters in some jurisdictions have successfully tied their tax dollar to conservation efforts. The Nature Conservancy has built a school for the children of a remote Montana ranching community and 17 families of ranchers have agreed to stay and reintroduce bison to the area as part of a CEA. Land Trusts work together with beef farmers and government to secure funding for fencing and cattle drinking stations. Land Trusts provide land for community members interested in gardening and growing their own organic food.
Peter then asked this question: ‘What do Communities need to hear from Conservationists?’ In our discussion we came up with this list: We listen; we care; we want to change the natural environment for the better; we seek balance; we respect you and your views; we value your contributions; we are going to inspire you, not demand of you; we want to create a Culture of Belonging, not one of Suspicion and Fear; we want to work together with you to achieve a common goal; we want everyone, including future generations, to win.
To illustrate how change happens and how a single individual can profoundly change society, Peter Forbes took us back to 1963. He showed us a black and white video of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. making his ‘I have a dream…’ speech to a huge crowd in front of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington DC. It was the defining moment of the Civil Rights Movement and it changed America. It was the first time I had seen the complete version of King’s passionate speech and it raised a number of questions in my mind: What was it that made Dr. King so influential? What was it in this speech that connected so deeply with people? Who will bring about the defining moment of the Environmental Movement and profoundly change our world for the better?
Peter Forbes used King’s speech to illustrate how stories can change people and nations, and how you can connect with people in opposition by revealing the why, the Big Picture, the shared Vision, and the shared Values. ‘Common Values’ tend to unite people, whereas ‘Strategies’ spelling out the how, the steps, facts and figures tend to cause conflict and divisiveness. The secret is to focus more on the why and less on the how. To achieve a breakthrough on contentious issues, Peter advised, ‘Ask people what they care about; then let people talk.’
One other critical element in connecting with the 98.5% of the people outside the Realm of Environmentalism is language. Peter walked us through a short exercise and it quickly became apparent that words like ecology, natural heritage, watershed, stewardship, sustainability; ‘Green’, organic, etc. are overused by Conservationists and poorly understood by the uninitiated. Words like the Spirit of Nature, love of the land, dreams, nurture, home, achievable tasks, etc. are more likely to resonate.
Peter closed his workshop session by re-emphasizing that Conservationists must move beyond ‘Acres’ and focus on what is most important: We must tell people that we are proud to be Conservationists - tell stories that paint a picture of the world we long to see - rethink and reinvent ‘SUCCESS’ - connect people to one another and to Nature - choose the one significant thing we each personally can do to build ‘Whole Communities’ - …
In the evening Peter succeeded in captivating his audience from the start. Without a word he flashed a series of stunningly beautiful photos of people, mountains and valleys on the big screen. He then proceeded to tell us three stories of people who profoundly changed him and the course of his life: For one and a half years he lived in a tent in a valley in the Mountain Kingdom of Nepal, miles from the nearest road to the outside world. The valley had been designated to be flooded as part of a hydro development project and the people, who for generations had lived the simple life and tended their rice paddies in this isolated valley, were to be displaced. Peter Forbes went there to record ‘The Before’ for National Geographic. The heart-warming interaction with the young and old in this remote valley made a deep and lasting impression on him. Unlike people from many other parts of the world, these people wanted to live nowhere else. It was their Querencia.
Dr. William Coperthwaite, originator of the taper-walled ‘Yurt’, author of The Handmade Life: In Search of Simplicity, and good friend of the late Buckminster Fuller (architect of ‘Geodesic Dome’ fame) became Peter’s mentor and idol. Coperthwaite has a Ph.D. from Harvard, but has chosen to live the simple life in the woods, on an isolated stretch of coastline in Maine. There, without telephone, computer, or TV, he labours in his round three-story version of a ‘Yurt’ patterned after the ‘Yurts’ used for centuries by the nomads of Mongolia. Coperthwaite is intent on capturing the healing, creative, communal and spiritual nature of the ‘Yurt’ and characterizes the thrust of his work as not simple and self-sufficient living, not ‘Yurt’ design, not social change, but as ‘Encouragement’- encouraging people to dream, seek, experiment, plan, create and to find a better way to be One-with-Nature.
The third person who had a profound impact on Peter’s outlook was Gladys, a black woman in Harlem. Gladys almost singlehandedly transformed an empty urban wasteland, covered with litter, into a street-side garden and forest - an ‘Oasis of Green’ for her neighbours in the heart of Harlem. We gave Peter Forbes, the driving force of ‘Whole Communities’, a standing ovation.
Day 2: On Friday morning, Howard Clifford started us off on an emotional roller-coaster account of why and how his family donated their 1200-acre Alba Wilderness property to the Mississippi Madawaska Land Trust Conservancy under a 999-year Conservation Agreement. In a quiet manner Howard related how a sequence of coincidences led the Clifford Family to acquire the property in 1979, how they restored it into one of Lanark County’s Gems of Nature, how Howard himself helped an elderly cancer patient achieve her dying wish to reconnect with Nature on this land and how he was moved by the simple and eloquent words of a visiting native chief talking about the spiritual attachment to the land.
Howard considers 'Nature' the best preacher, the best teacher, the best friend, the pathway to the soul. 'Nature' refreshes the spirit again and again. He advised us to engage landowners emotionally and in a non-threatening way to share the still natural and ecologically valuable parts of their land. He ended his emotional presentation with this profound insight: “If we don’t protect Nature we loose our Soul.” We all sat there in hushed silence as the eyes of more than one filled with tears. At the end, Howard also got a standing ovation.
Day 3: On Saturday morning I sat in the comfort of the conference room and ended up taking one agonizing step after another towards the top of Mount Everest with Peggy Foster. In her pursuit to explore her human limitations, she has climbed the highest peaks on six continents and set her sights on the seventh- Mount Everest. After dazzling us with breath-taking photos of each of her conquests, Peggy led us up the slopes of the highest mountain to the ‘Edge of the Earth’. With a spellbinding narrative, accompanied by photos, video clips, and sound-bytes, she conveyed how a physical, mental and spiritual bond develops with fellow-climbers, with the local Sherpa, with the starkly beautiful environment, and with the forces of nature in the Pursuit of the Impossible.
As Peggy climbed the mountain in virtual reality, we experienced the camaraderie among the climbers, the bitter cold, the howling winds, the struggle to breathe at high elevations, the mysterious heartbeat of the mountain, the constant fear, the sheer exhaustion and death. 300 meters short of the summit, Peggy had to make a decision- to climb to the top of Mount Everest and die during descent, or to turn around and live. She chose to live. She had reached her absolute limit. Back in the Sherpa village a little girl came up to Peggy, tugged at her and motioned to her own eyes and then to Peggy’s eyes. Peggy could not understand what the little girl wanted. No, she did not want a candy - No, it was not a fascination with Peggy’s blue eyes. Finally, someone came to translate the little girl’s wish- she wanted Peggy’s courage when she grew up.
It was an inspirational journey. And yes, Peter Banks and I had come to learn more about the ins and outs of Land Trusts and building solid foundations for Land Conservation at this conference. We did attend a full slate of the more technical workshops and we did pick up pointers on such issues as Conservation Easement Agreements (CEAs) with owners of ecologically valuable lands, funding for the acquisition of critical lands, effective land-stewardship planning, tax implications, the systematic monitoring and enforcement of CEAs, and more. In the true spirit of the conference Theme, “Solid Foundations: Together We Can!”, Peter Banks, of LWI Fungi-Foray fame, delegated the task of writing the formal Conference Field Report for the LWI Land Trust Committee to me- ‘Together’ we did.
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