Immersive field ecology courses I'm offering this summer in western Colorado: an overview
We're going to be having a superbloom this year in Western Colorado and it will be one of the best years to really learn the plants and skills you can take to any landscape
Hey ya'll,
I wanted to cue you into some 4-7 day immersive ecology programs I am offering in western Colorado this summer mostly out in the backcountry at basecamps.
I did two month-long Wide Open Studios trips through an organization called Signal Fire over the years that hosted art and ecology wilderness residencies ran by artists, ecologies and environmental activists, (I think one was in 2017? in the inland Northwest focused on ‘coyote’ as ecology thread - and the other was in the Southwest fall 2020 focused on the ‘wolf’ before the pandemic hit) so obviously Signal Fire has greatly influenced me and my work with plants and the land. I finally feel like I’m ready to integrate the critical thinking skills I learned on my Signal Fire residences, with 15 years of field study across North America, my Philosophy and Religious Studies degrees and land based skills work into a program that feels unique and important to offer.
I also run the ecology focused Ground Shots Podcast where I have documented my travels, work with plants, and the Colorado Trail Project I did in 2020 with ethnobotanist Gabe Crawford where we walked across Colorado documenting plants, writing observations and stories, ideas, planted seeds of first food plants Gabe had gathered the year before and more. The podcast episodes we did from the field focusing on the project span several episodes and greatly deepened my knowledge of the ecologies of Colorado. Gabe ran these programs last year and I hope to expand on the tending work done by his classes by running two of the week long classes at the same location he ran them last year. Relationships build over time, and I’m excited to share the plants in this place with students.
I recently made public a website I worked on this winter with an overview of the project, featuring unpublished photos and videos, a sample plant list from one section of the trail, what our goals were, and what we had hoped to do with the project one day in the future.
The project is on hold for now, but the influence it has had is still onlong. You can get a glimpse into what work will be woven into the ecology programs I’m teaching this summer out on the Grand Mesa in western Colorado, which isn’t on the Colorado Trail but has many of the same southern Rockies plants with influence from the desert nearby.
Here’s a link to the Colorado Trail Plant-a-go page.
All of the podcast episodes we did related to the project and what we observed are cataloged there in one place if you are interested in listening or re-listening.
The ecology programs will be based on learning the plants of the region, basic botany skills, but also focused a lot on land-tending wild plants, socio-political-economic philosophies that affect how we see landscapes in the region and the west in general, awareness of how colonialist narratives affect the land, landscape awareness and more. We'll be responsibility foraging some foods too that will be incorporated into meals, which will be provided by a rad cook 3x day (my friend Brigid!). The trips are through a regional nonprofit and we will be doing them basecamp style with our cars at a backcountry location where we can day trip out to different zones to study the landscape.
You definitely don’t have to live in the region or know the region to participate. What I teach are skills that connect landscapes everywhere, and no matter where you come from, or live, you can get something out of the skills both in the field and through our critical thinking— to pass onto the place(s) where you live. That said, other students are taking field trips out to attend, and I welcome that journey to the region during such an amazing time of year to learn with me.
Here are the dates:
1. Riparian Ecology and Water : May 4-7, 2023 (4 days) in Paonia, Colorado
with this one we will be holding it at the Groundwork (the nonprofit hosting these immersions) campus on a farm by the Gunnison River and day tripping out from there. So, if you've been wanting to visit Paonia, this could be a good one to attend as town proper is 5 minutes away. We'll be studying the plants along the waterways that will be leafing out and flowering during this time, doing some cordage making, looking at water politics of the southwest, wild-tending along riparian areas, studying changing riparian ecologies (introduced plants) and more. Folks can camp on the land or stay nearby if they want. This one is coming up fast and we have a couple spots left. We will have a REALLY good local chef for this one.
2. Piñon Juniper ecology and beyond: May 23-29, 2023 (7 days) in the Grand Mesa National Forest, near Grand Junction, Colorado
3. Piñon Juniper ecology and beyond: June 4-10, 2023 (7 days) in the Grand Mesa National Forest, near Grand Junction, Colorado
both of these camps are a week long and will be at the same base camp location but the plants will be quickly evolving at this time so attending either or both would be amazing for observing a landscape evolve in a season. This is the heart of my programming this summer and what I’m most focused on making extensive and immersive. We'll be studying plants at around 8,000 feet and go up in elevation by car or on foot to scout higher depending on road openings. I am most excited about these camps because we will have time to get really deep into landscape training, learning the plants along the mesa and hills that will be in full deep flower at the time. Especially this year will be amazing because there will be a superbloom due to all the rains and snow we have gotten in the region. I will be covering a lot on the history of mining in the region and the effects that resource extraction has had on the southern Rockies, give an overview of how this region is connected to other ecologies on the whole, get into desert ethnobotany and ecology and more. We'll be doing basic botany, learning plant families, do land-tending, look at roots and bulbs, have critical conversations about culture and ecology and more.
4. High Elevation Ecology August 2-5, 2023 (4 days) in the Grand Mesa National Forest near Paonia, Colorado
In this four day camp we will be up at high elevation as the monsoons start and plants are still flowering but also going to seed. We'll be scouting what the landscape looks like and why during this time of year and what makes the high elevation unique above 8,000 feet unique. Critical conversations about ecology and botany will still be key in our landscape learning.
Again all camps will have a cook (an awesome friend of mine!), and we'll be car camping at a basecamp in the national forest. All camps are sliding scale based on income level. We'll have a reader too for you to take home!
Here’s my cook for the classes:
Also, my friend Nikki is offering week longs on the schedule too, in August You can find them also listed through the link to sign up here. Here’s us on a walk in Nevada last summer: (and more photos from that Nevada walk can be found elsewhere on that secret Colorado Trail website, here. There are some insano beautiful photos there)
Here's the link to sign up:
https://www.layinggroundwork.org/ecologies-of-colorado/