What Conservation Is and Isn’t… 2015 thoughts and a late january desktop image

So it’s now well past the half way point of January and still no calendar. It’s been busy for sure, but more importantly, my mind has been filled with how I create the impact I dream of. The impact that helps people embrace, explore, and conserve this wonderful thing we have called nature. This is all to say, well yes, I have been skiing, and no I didn’t eat the last peanut butter ball at 1 am over beers with some friends, and I’m late because my kids are sick (no really, they were sick, trust me!)

My non-profit, Golden Hour Restoration Institute, is one such arm of my work. Hands-on, git yer hands dirty while you think about unwieldy and complex theories like endemism, dispersal mechanisms and ecological tradeoffs. This fills my soul with hope. The people, the participants are all so amazing. I’m blessed and inspired with (almost) every workshop. [You have to have a par one every once in a while to keep it real. I mean even Pooh got stuck in the occasional doorway.]

Another way by which I attempt to incite random acts of conservation is by photography. I want to produce images with people as positive agents of conservation and restoration. I want human hands, sweat, gracelessness-lost-to-a-slippery-muddy-slope-I just-fell-down type conservation. Here’s one of my favorites of a local hero who knows how to remove the bad weed.

Now that’s real conservation. But, people want the shock and awe beauty of nature. I understand that. I take photos of that. I’m drawn to that like Pooh to Rabbit’s honey stash. But… there’s more to life than pretty pictures. Thus, I pay this tribute to Magritte, and send this challenge to all of you: photograph someone working to create a more healthy, vigorous, beautiful landscape and post it/link it in the comments section. This is your mission. And let me tell you, the best way to get to these photos is to volunteer at a restoration day and embed yourself. Do it. Get dirty, get inspired in 2015!