News and Updates

Seattle 2015

Author: Martin Brendecke

Seattle community has been participating in many ecological activities including taking a road and ferry trip to Double Bluff Beach where we made sand art on the beach; weeding around the "Compost Droids"; planting trees; inner tubing in the Methow River; and facilitating a presentation by Paul Stamets who gave a presentation of how fungi connect everything on earth.  

1) Double Bluff Beach: Sand Mandalas Nature Art Ecological Activity Description: 5/17/15-Little road trip and ferry ride together to Double Bluff Beach, Whidbey Island. We made sand art on the beach using only materials we found there that could be washed away by the tide, inspired by the forms of nature, in collaboration with one another.

2) Weeding around the “Compost Droids” Ecological Activity Description: May 2015 A picture of some sócios, including Kristen who is one of our grounds coordinators and who has been outstandingly instrumental in the implementation of sustainable landscaping (she has a background in forestry, a doctorate in human waste composting and we have a few yards of "Tagro", Tacoma's municipal waste compost to work with thanks to her), weeding around our "compost droids." Our friend Sue collaborates with Martin, NE Monitor on sharing some knowledge she gained from attending a permaculture workshop on Maui. Our friend Cécile, has put me in contact with some of her friends who are very knowledgable about local rivers. I hope to organize a river trip to educate folks on the importance of waterways and also an outing to help clean one up!

3) Planting Trees Ecological Activity Description: 2/21/15- Laying the framework for the vegetation of the temple grounds and planting mostly fruit-bearing species during a pre-session work party.

4) Inner tubing on the Methow River in Winthrop, Washington, and two nature hikes. Ecological Activity: A fun activity in nature inner tubing on a one-hour float down the Methow River through Winthrop. The day before tubing we went on two different hikes, one at Washington Pass to Blue Lake and the other at Cedar Falls. Photos: (*no photos were taken, since on the river).

5) Mushrooms, Bees, and Saving the World Ecological Activity: 5/4/15 Ecological Awareness & Education Paul Stamets gave a presentation of how fungi connect everything on earth. Literally growing in plants and between organisms, but also metaphysically. He believes that mushrooms and humans and many other creatures share a common ancestor, way, way back when. He calls for the preservation of old growth forest as a bank of genetic diversity, where so much of our culture and medicine comes from. Fungi turn wood into soil and when their fruits appear, they are food and medicine for all other organisms. He speaks of the curing properties of mushrooms: from traditional medicines curing cancer to common fungal species that are eliminated by conventional agriculture and “progress” that are essential to the health of pollinators which, in turn, are essential to our existence. He speaks of the issues of forestry clearing practices. When one species is harmed, the whole system suffers, not just that species.