We tell the kids at our camps if they want job security in the future, go into environmental restoration. The damage humans have done to our planet can seem insurmountable to us all. There is only one way out; taking responsibility and positive action to remedy the situation! If you see some way you can help the health of the planet, take action now! Restoration has many faces: removing junk from the landscape, cleaning up waterways and improving water sources, recovering animal habitat, removing noxious weeds.....the list is long. The thinning and planting of trees to improve the health, productivity and beauty of our forests needs to be done on a grand scale now and we are doing it on a small one at Ekone.
As a land trust, the Ekone community, along with countless volunteers, have cleaned up many abused and abandoned home sites and brought them back to a natural condition. Our land has been off the electrical grid for nearly 30 years, using alternative sources of energy production. Thus we are not dependent on hydroelectric dams which are so destructive to salmon. At the heart of restoration lies Sacredness; the knowledge that we are one with the environment and our health is a direct reflection of our planet's health.
Community members and AmeriCorp volunteers recently cleaned up thousands
of tires that defiled the landscape at the headwaters of a spring near
Ekone.
The heavy equipment that has been used to destroy Earth must be
enlisted now to help repair and restore her damaged ecosystems. This is
a key task of our younger generation. Nick Dancer, eager to learn the fine
art of environmental restoration with heavy equipment, learns how to operate
the Ekone back hoe.