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Thank you for your interest in Reclaiming Your Place. This program will examine, both theoretically and experientially, one of the more urgent ecological questions of our time: how can we live in ways that foster the health of the earth and our communities? Sustainable living involves a tangible and daily expression of intimacy with our place. We will find that it is also, as others have described it, the "good life": rewarding in its simplicity and creativity, its involvement with natural cycles, and in the community that it engenders.
How you express your personal relationship to place is unique to you and your gifts, skills, and passions. It may be as habitat restoration, community organizing, art, music, dance, gardening, involvement in local politics, ritual, etc. Through the study and practice of a multitude of expressions, spanning hunter-gatherer culture to contemporary bioregional activism, each of us will develop our own understanding of how we want to claim, and be claimed by, the place in which we live.
This program will integrate wilderness experience, hands-on instruction in permaculture garden design, hydroelectric and solar technologies, alternative building methods, readings and discussion in ecophilosophies such as deep ecology, ecofeminism, ecopsychology and bioregionalism, and firsthand learning from individuals and groups whose lifework is intertwined with their places. Of course, nature will be our primary teacher, whether it is found in wildlands, gardens, or rural communities.
Our main location will be in Round Valley, California. Here we will take up residence on a small homestead and land trust and carry on our study and practice of sustainable living theory and practice. We will have interactions with a large network of active practicing homesteads in the area. We will also delve into a variety of local environmental and cultural issues defining the Round Valley and the Middle Fork of the Eel River.
We will, however, begin our journey with a backpack into the Yolla Bolly Mountains near Round Valley. The wilderness experience is an essential component of this program. Here our sense of place will grow as much from the daily experience of living as a tribe in the wilderness as from our studies of the natural and cultural history of the area. After our sustainable living studies during our residential stay in Round Valley, our program will culminate with a second wilderness journey back into the mountains. Here we will return to the intimacy of our small tribe alongside a wild river, surrounded by oak woodland and fir, pine, and cedar forest.
We will meet in Santa Cruz on June 18, at which time we will have an orientation and make arrangements for traveling to the Round Valley the next day. We will begin and end our program with wilderness trips of about 7 days into the Yolla Bolly/Middle Eel Wilderness . The middle six weeks will be spent in residence at a small homestead in Round Valley, California. The program will end August 12 in Santa Cruz, California.
Student comments (anonymous) from Reclaiming Your Place program evaluation forms:
“I loved everything about this course. My life has been changed in the most positive way possible. I feel more connected to the natural world than ever and also more happy about my inner self. This course is totally brilliant and magical.”
“All aspects of this course were fantastic: the readings, the locations, the teaching, the discussions. I loved that this course offered an alternative, yet totally valid way of learning. I will never look at education the same way.”
“Willow Abel is a woman of great knowledge and love. Her spirit and loving presence have taught me how to love myself. She has such a connection to the natural world, and it inspires me to find that within myself.”
“It was truly a life changing experience.”
“Willow is the most amazing teacher I have ever had.”
“I feel I have truly learned applicable knowledge. I have searched for a course to provide this information for a long time.”
“I feel the most positive aspect was our instructor's (Willow’s) talent and especially love for teaching the material. Her dedication to making the experience a ‘top flight’ education was strong. You could tell she has, over the years and through trial and error, made the course what it is today, a true success.”
program info | courses | field conditions | instructor | costs
See SLIDE SHOW