In-visioning Rewilding Havens

Communities of Rewilding
#1

Our thoughts are like seeds. Everything that we accomplish / create begins first with an imaginative thought, vision, dream. So after alot of stimulating, philosophical chit-chat about the theory of Rewilding Havens…

http://www.rewild.info/conversations/index.php?topic=1206.0

… I think it is time for those who share the vision, desire, and excitement for creating Rewilding Havens, to begin planting the seeds that will grow into a real web of interconnected Rewilding Havens across the country.

Right now this Rewilding Haven theory is actually happening in real life on beautiful, native land just 1 1/2 hours from many of you in Portland. Finisia Medrano, who is about the closest entity you’ll find, to a real hunter/gatherer in 2008, she has been camped out for several weeks on a friends 40 acre “rewilding Haven” on the Little Klickitat River in Washington. Finisia has traded in her heavy covered wagon train and 3 horses http://www.pullingforwildflowers.org/journal-time-machine.htm for a mountain bike with inline trailer for her gear. The landowner and several friends from Portland joined her over the weekend, tending the wild permaculture and telling stories around the campfire.

Images are great sources of energy to feed the Imagination and Vision. So I offer an image or a potential Rewilding Haven to fire your imagination of the possibilities…

20 Acre Parcel on the Columbia River! 600+ ft of River Frontage. Only access by water. More details - http://tinyurl.com/6yjfv3

Imagine needing to travel only by boat on the wide majestic Columbia River to enter and exit this remote isolated Rewilding Haven. I think that would be wonderful avenue and vehicle to arrive and depart. A canoe could be your primary mode of transportation.

I found a wonderful Visual source for envisioning, daydreaming, fantasizing, or actual searching for the perfect rewilding haven. It’s an interactive map where each property appears in it’s location on the map, with a photo when you “mouse over” the property icon, and a link to the detailed property webpage. I spent hours searching for the perfect Haven and saved about 20 links to land that “spoke to me”. Try it out… take a daydream walk to Rewilding Havens. You need to check the Land box and uncheck the Single Home & Condo Boxes… then zoom way in on an area so that there aren’t too many properties to display.

Have a nice dreamwalk to your Rewilding Haven.

at http://www.johnlscott.com/SearchInteractive.aspx?

If you don’t have the resources to buy your dream Haven, a small clan or community could pool their resources and buy the property communally… or a Land Trust, or Non-profit Coop or corporation. Where there is a will there is a way.

Here is beautiful land surrounded by Indian owned land

http://www.johnlscott.com/propertydetail.aspx?IS=1&ListingID=32328355

Here is another

http://www.wenatcheeidx.com/listing.php?sid=220002&mls=685041&site_id=324&page_current=32

Orion >>
www.pullingforwildflowers.org

#2

Thanks for posting all this Orion, and keeping this subject alive here on the forum. Questions:

  1. could we somehow use rewild.info as a matchmaker for folks looking for others to go in on land with?
  2. could we somehow use next years Rewild Camp tour as a matchmaker for folks looking for others to etc. etc.?
  3. do we need to talk more about what it means for folks to make agreements, foresee and address difficulties in “getting along”, and so on?

Maybe we need an in-depth discussion of “getting along” strategies, like the Hoop Law example, and how they might apply to Havens.

#3

Like Finisia Medrano, I think Dan Price’s work is another place to look for people interested in “In-visioning” Rewilding Havens, although I don’t know if DP would call what he is doing Rewilding.

Radical Simplicity

Here is what Daniel Quinn had to say DP’s work:

This is a book for the many hundreds of young (and not-so-young) people who have written to me asking how to go about "walking away" from the Taker lifestyle. Author and "hobo-artist" Dan Price has done that most successfully, using his ingenuity and determination to build an authentic life, a life “hand made” for himself, rather than one dictated by outside circumstances.

Take care,

Curt

#4

[quote=“Willem, post:2, topic:1199”]Questions - Invisioning Rewilding Havens

  1. could we somehow use rewild.info as a matchmaker for folks looking for others to go in on land with?
  2. could we somehow use next years Rewild Camp tour as a matchmaker for folks looking for others to etc. etc.?
  3. do we need to talk more about what it means for folks to make agreements, foresee and address difficulties in “getting along”, and so on?

Maybe we need an in-depth discussion of “getting along” strategies, like the Hoop Law example, and how they might apply to Havens.[/quote]

  1. Rewilding.info is a great place for matchmaking for people with land to offer as a Rewilding Haven or those who want to pool resources to buy a communal Haven. Perhaps seperate threads like:
    a) Offer your land as a Rewilding Haven
    b) Pool your resources to buy a Rewilding Haven

  2. Next summer’s Root Camp and festival near Arco Idaho would also be a great place to “Matchmake” and form a Clan that is moving closer to the reality of creating a web of Rewilding Havens. It might be the central theme or one of the many “Idea Circles” in the Open Space Gathering.

More info on Root Camp and Festival

http://www.pullingforwildflowers.org/journal-rootfestival-2009.htm

http://www.pullingforwildflowers.org/journal-open-space.htm

But before next June 2009, it seems to me that Now in the Portland area would be a wonderful place/time to organize a clan or community of “hunter-gatherers” who hold regular camp gatherings outside of the city in a native, natural setting where shared visions can move from the Virtual Realm and Rhetoric into Tangible Reality. This might be the Moving Force, Stimulus awaited by those who are dying to escape the city, and join a clan in the wild. Instead of conducting rewilding seminars in city parks, how about hosting weekend Camp gatherings in the wild, outside the city. Perhaps the city park seminar could serve as the introduction and invitation to join the clan at Weekend Camp-out gatherings.

  1. The first Rewilding Haven opportunities to appear will probably be private landholder hosts, offering their land as a Rewilding Haven. Some land offered may be vacant of habitation and other land may be a homestead / farm. Each host will have their own terms for the guests use of the land. The terms and conditions should be made clear and agreed to before the host/guest relationship begins.

The hosts with unreasonable, unbearable terms and conditions for guests would find that after a few guests visit, suffer and spread the word… few or none would want to come to their Rewilding Haven and this Haven would naturally fall “off of the hoop”. Those guests who prove to be disrespectful, annoying, parasitic, destructive would soon be known and not made welcome to the Rewilding Havens. Newcomer guests could be recognized and welcomed to the Haven when they arrive with pre-notification and recommendations from known & trusted members of the Clan.

It would also be helpful to have a loosely woven Rewilders Creed, Oath or Vow (a system of common principles, values, beliefs) that the the host / guests are inclined to live by. The best setting to draw up this set of principles would be “out in the wild” in a Council meeting around a campfire, not by a council of remote, isolated humans sitting alone in front of a computer screen, reading and posting their opinions on an electronic bulletin board.

As for communally purchased and owned Rewilding Havens… the terms and conditions would need to be agreed to by those pooling their resources together.

A man called Spider has the intention of creating a Non-Profit Co-op, Land Trust or Corporation for the purpose of creating Rewilding Havens. As a non-profit, the organization could accept tax-deductible contributions of money or even land that would go towards Rewilding Havens, owned and used by members of the organization and guests. Spider is searching for interested and capable people to join him in the creation of this non-profit organization. If you are interested in joining him in this endeavor give him a call at (707) 869-1612 or email aranahombre88 at yahoo.com Spider is also one of the organizers of Root Camp and Festival in Idaho June 13-28, 2009

Those of you in the Portland area who want to talk with or meet around a campfire with a real Hunter/Gatherer who is walking the walk, and find out first hand how she is doing it… call Finisia Medrano at 208-406-7818
at her campsite on the Little Klickitat River (1.5 hours from Portland)

#5
It would also be helpful to have a loosely woven Rewilders Creed, Oath or Vow (a system of common principles, values, beliefs) that the the host / guests are inclined to live by. The best setting to draw up this set of principles would be "out in the wild" in a Council meeting around a campfire, not by a council of remote, isolated humans sitting alone in front of a computer screen, reading and posting their opinions on an electronic bulletin board.

:wink: Fair enough. I also think that we could have multiple and diverse incarnations of the Rewilder’s Creed, suiting different groups of folks, as different people invent them. Let’s not wait for someone else’s permission, or a central committee, to articulate why we rewild and what we stand for. Can I get an amen?

So all this work could happen right now, too, wherever and whenever rewilders congregate.

You’ve said a lot of fruitful stuff here in your last post. I can’t respond to it all right now but thanks for your thoroughness.

#6

Amen and Hallelujah!! I agree!! No need to wait for others… just do it and inspire others to join you.

#7

[center][size=12pt]Scenes from a Rewilding Haven on the Hoop[/size][/center]
[center][size=8pt]Breadroot Ranch - Little Klickitat River, Washington[/size][/center]

[center] [/center]

Hi Coyotes 6 Nov 2008

Spent a day with Finisia up on Breadroot Ranch. We spent the day spreading mole dirt over Lomatium biscuitroot seeds that were all over the ground. In the photo above, we are sharing lunch with Fin. We also planted putting places with yampah seed and camas seed. It was a beautiful sunny day and I remembered how much I love being in Fin’s company.

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We talked around the campfire and cooked Boletus mushrooms and Lomatium roots from the earth. By sundown we had to head back home to Portland and leave Fin out on the hoop.

Here are some writings from Finisia who requested I pass them along to you.

[font=Comic Sans MS]"To complete our circle and give life to the Mother Earth’s remaining wilderness is every humans covenant with the seven generations. No other duty’s or activity substitutes for this act of planting back an abundant natural world & creating in ourselves the spirit that makes it our nature to do so.

Plant your hope on the hoop. Where one’s treasure is, there one’s heart is also. Of the fullness of our hearts our mouth speaks. We come to give life and to make it abundant and for the reason only did we come. The indigenous way is the only way to be ‘truely’ human.

To get ready and equipped to go out onto the land, is to come to root camp at Breadroot Ranch in the old Potlatch way. Carrying your own weight and to bring gifts, & ready to do the work of renewal making the mother bread & berries & nuts for all the living things to share & build again a naturally abundant mother to the seven generation is why we get “ranger ready” Gear up & go. There is work to do.

For genocide let us bless all that exists. For hatred let us give them love. For the damage done to the mother let us give her hoops life. For abuse let us show them kindness of sharing a walks in beauty with there children. For rotten beef & starvation let us give an abundant natural earth by walking now in beauty again. ‘Les’ us show them now what was destroyed to make room for them. For ashes give them Beauty" ~ Finisia[/font]

[center][/center]

Here is a picture of some camas bulbs I saved from a soon to be developed prairie in Winchester OR. I planted them in my camas garden in Portland and hope to move them to a safe spot next year.

This fall I’ve been busy planting back Perideridia oregana yampah seed that I purchased from a regional native seed nursery. Also we just finished up the last of berry camp harvesting Vaccinium ovatum huckleberry’s on the Oregon coast.

I hope everyone is safe and warm during this season.

                                                      ~ Palach

More Breadroot Ranch…
http://www.pullingforwildflowers.org/journal-breadroot-ranch.htm

www.pullingforwildflowers.org