1/120

One one-hundred and twentieth is a realtionship. Is the same ratio as 44 feet is when compared to a mile. If you live in a climate where temperatures can rach 100 and also down to -20, the ratio is about the same as one degree of temperature would be compared to the whole range of possible temperatures you may experience n that location. Another way of thinking about this strange fraction is that it is a little less than 1%, about twenty percent less in fact. A handful of readers already know that I started a gofundme site late in the year and it has reached 1/120th of the goal! The project is to protect 80 acres of inholding, land completely surrounded by National Forest. Our local not-for-profit has reforested hundreds of acres already, but they were spread across ten counties and several dozen individual sites. This larger acrage will allow us to focus our efforts near the highest ppoint in Wisconsin and concentrate our ECO-Tours in a finite space so that people can more easily see the transformation, pretty much all at once. Over the last twenty years we have spent thousands of hours on logistics, making sure all of our needs woul dbe taken care of at hundreds of separate events. We have been able to plant over 60,000 native trees and millions more native perennial plants, but since they may be only a few acres, or perhaps even a site as small as a few hundred square feet, we know they are there, but it does not look like much when viewed by satellite. This 80 acre parcel will change that. target="_blank">

12,000 Tree Seeds, One Day, 25,000 Another

With any skill practiced, any undertaking repeated, time and time again, things happen. Efficiencies of scale and attunement take time. As we dial in, we become adept at spinning the wheel. Frequencies beyond our detection are all around us, vibrating like a pond's surface in a hailstorm. There are chords, perhaps the Lost Chord, that the Moody Blues sang of, that tie the frequencies together like an ethereal tapestry.

in the day, people were said to have good auras, or on occasion they might be a bummer, a downer or just give you bad vibes. Apart from the flakiness, what was spoken of was not the person, but their energy. Those who were able to stay in what we now call flow, or inspired, again there are many words for it. I first learned "In The Moment", true to one's own heart, trance, trippin', in the groove, spinnin' the wheel. At the moment that we merge with a greater whole, we tap into the very energetic world around us, leaving time, space and duality in the dust. When we are channeling "God/ess's" true purpose, nothing else matters. the swirling potential that flows over us at every moment is given physicality and purpose through us. that is the state that I slip into when I'm planting trees.

If you can find some seeds and plant them, you might know the breadth of my desire to do it again and again. The relationship between our selves and the eternal may seem tenuous at times, especially when we walk through the other dimensions of supermarkets and subway stops. Frequent the local tap or a religious institution or school and you will fine an atmosphere of anti-nature, Servoglobe, or some other altered state. when the raw wind blows through your hair and deposits ions all over your skin, it is hard to deny that we are one with nature. Practicing be-ing a part of nature rather than apart from it is the first step to understanding the sanctity of nature, the amazing abundance of it, the sheer miraculousness of our very being, here at this place and time.

As we practice our heart's own most treasured nature, we often find ourselves taking the time to adopt a critter or a plant, perhaps "just a fish", in a bowl. my thing is trees and when you sleep at night, or in your walking hours, know that I will be planting more real soon. at the tops of hills, in little glens, across vast expanses and in hollows the size of your neighborhood, I will be out, every chance I get, planting trees and tree seeds. Think of me as your personal landscaper of Mother Earth. I know dozens of trees like family and realize their habits and limitations. i know the conditions that make them thrive and always strive to place them in places that are appropriate for their long term success. In just a few hours each day, massive change can occur, not just in our own lives but across the planet. i will continue to express my love for and the voice of the trees through my commitment to them and to you to continue planting trees for the rest of my life. If I ever become too tired to plant a seed, please, let me go, the Earth needs me more than I need me.

ECO-Tours - The Skinny

When we first started, about a dozen and a half friends who understood that for us all to have a comfortable future, some sacrifice today was necessary. We were not brutal, coarse of brash, but rather compassionate, helpful and concerned for the well-being of all creatures. Humans tend to think from a species-centric place, affording the natural world no quarter in their world view. I do not want to paint with too broad a brush, but for those who are exceptions to this world view, you know who you are. Our founder, and author of most of what you read here at The Otherfish Wrap, continues to pump his own funds into these efforts. What began as a performance art project, completely funded with his own tax returns has grown into a regional force for good that has broken through all self-imposed ideas about what might constitute a success. Our efforts have crossed any limitations and boundaries we may have envisioned into a lifelong pursuit.

The past two autumns, we have been able to plant over one million trees per year. The resulting trees are favored by birds and we fully expect this to enhance the impact as birds become agents of further change over the years! The best thing about bird bombs is that each seed packet will land wrapped in a boost of fertilizer. When our first plant-ins took place, we would show up with a hundred or two small seedlings and within a few hours, they would all be planted and watered in, then we would retire to a campfire, or picnic table, share a mostly vegetarian pot luck and have time to share our insights, hopes and dreams with one another amongst the tiny trees that would one day transform the areas that we took under our wing. Today, many of those first trees we planted are towering giants, casting shade on fields, homes, paths and hillsides that had been dessicated and lifeless just twenty years ago. Some hug the banks of streams while others are shielding the brow of hills across Northeast Wisconsin.

At this point in  our development, we are seeking a more diversified and consistent donor group. We would like to begin to keep a regular office, rather than always meeting in our living room or kitchen. We want to have space to meet in larger groups increasing our effectiveness further. We are about to begin our plant-ins in the watershed of a second Great Lake, Superior and doubling our efforts will require double the time, money and human effort and further increasing our efficiency and effectiveness. Anyone interested in our work is encouraged to contact either Tony C. Saladino, our director, through facebook or donate through our link to Paypal. We always welcome in-kind donations, as well as any opportunities to share our knowledge, skills and attitudes with curious ecotourists and further our guests' understanding of sustainability issues, permaculture and efficient use (and re-use) of resources. This blog is beginning to reach a significant number of people and if each one who reads an entry would donate just a dollar, it would allow us to plant an additional tree each and every day! To put this in perspective, an acre of temperate forest, in climax condition provides home to between 300 and 320 mature trees. We continue to transform acreage, one tree at a time, one seed at a time. One thing we have seen proven out over the years is that a single acorn holds within it the miracle of a great oak. however, if it is not planted, there is no chance of it growing, ever.

If you are planning to be in either Northeast Wisconsin, or along the Lake Superior Shore, let us know ahead of time and we will prepare a unique ecotour for you. If you want to see energy efficient homes, plant trees, or just walk amongst beautiful wild rivers and waterfalls, we can show you them. If you would rather tour an organic farm, learning how to make your own lifestyle more sustainable and pare down your carbon footprint, we can share insights into ways of going about that too. We are continuing to provide living examples of bringing together folk wisdom and natural healing and food production with modern technologies that are appropriate and scaled to provide higher quality of life at less expense. This revolution is not being televised, although there are some sources of information on the internet, the best way to learn many of these important lessons is through seeing and doing them. We always welcome guests who are serious about finding their own path to sustainability.

Come, see what we are doing and revel in the abundance of life, in step with Mother Earth.

How Long?

Back in the day, I was a community organizer with Citizens for a Better Environment. I knocked on nearly eighty doors each night and spoke with about fifty people per night. I always had five or ten "raps" that I would share with receptive folks. Those who didn't want to listen only heard one or two. Much to the chagrin of my bosses, I would err on the side of education over fund-raising, but for my part, I spoke to over 100,000 awesome people in my time there. I also raised hundreds of thousands of dollars for the organization which paid researchers to study ecological issues across the Midwest as well as supporting lawyers to represent the people of Wisconsin, Illinois and Minnesota in their battles with industry over how clean they had to be. Most people were willing to hear what was being done to protect the environment on their behalf. Today, little has changed except for the political climate, the loss of groups like Citizens for a Better Environment and the desperation that has been created by the corporate sell out of our nation and subsequent bail out of so many massive corporations. Even though we are constantly told that America is more divided than ever, virtually everyone agrees that the corporate welfare that has become synonymous with the Rethuglican Party and the massive theft of wealth from the pockets of "average folks" by big banks, the military and cutbacks of environmental protections is the real problem with our country. Monsanto owning the entire soy bean crop because of genetic engineering that has leaked into other people's bean fields is criminal, not protected behavior in the America we were taught to love. My car, a 1999 model has gotten over fifty miles per gallon routinely since then and continues to save fuel as it sits in the driveway far more often today than it did when I bought it. I am much more frequently on my bike or walking, tilling the soil I have built over the past ten years, or planting native trees across the landscape while traveling by bike or canoe.

When I was young, I tried to "make friends" with less than five hundred people each month. Perhaps less than ten percent of that number gave enough money to join in a membership, but nearly half gave something to the cause. More than half of the doors that I knocked upon were sure to be in the midst of something, just not interested or unhappy to be disturbed by any "do-gooder" no matter what they might have said. In fact the twenty or so folks I met and talked to each night who were truly receptive could share what they learned from me with others, we made sure of that by leaving information that was appropriate for them. Some got fact sheets on recycling, or household hazardous waste and how to avoid it. Others got brochures about composting or how to dispose of waste oil appropriately. Chances were, if you had a specific issue that you were concerned about, I had a fact sheet to help educate you about that issue. making good decisions gets much easier when you have the right information at your disposal. Integrated pest management, no problem waste reduction strategies, that too. What later became transition town stuff or sustainability we used to call living better on less.

Today, the internet allows us to tailor a message to a world audience. Many of the friends I make today are from overseas, but the messages are often the same, the raps of two decades ago have just morphed and merged into new words for many of the same things we talked about back then. I had to spend five hours each night, during the eighties, discussing a very limited series of issues, I was able to tailor groundwater issues to communities situated each on their own well, or help educate folks just as the recycling programs in their area were coming online, but today, people can more or less pick and choose what issues they want to read about and instead of having to be face to face with a community organizer who was only out for about five hours each night, talking to folks, I can do this work in just an hour or three twice a week or so. I never have to knock on a door at an inappropriate moment and folks who don't know enough to make sense of these issues, or just don't care can continue to muddle about without looking at what I have to say.

The difficulty in the current system is that it has taken me nearly thirty months to get up to 2000 views. What I was able to accomplish in just four months has taken nearly two and a half years! Granted, the contacts and context that we share here is more detail oriented, in some ways more intimate, and relieved from the time consuming part of the former community organizer's job of fund raising. Making ends meet without fund raising is an ever more untenable position to be in. Even though I take great pains to hold my tongue on matters of my own personal finances, trying to plant large numbers of trees on less money each year than I used to raise in a week has stressed the limits of possibility. Even though we struggle to make a difference, a difference is being made by sheer will and strength of character amongst those who come to plant-ins with us. If my writing has value, let my know, donate through Paypal, our account number there is also our e-mail address: tnsaladino42@hotmail.com if you prefer to send checks via snail mail, our offices are 1445 Porlier street, Green Bay, Wisconsin 54301-3334 USA. I want to continue to share this site as well as Permaculture, ECO-Ethics, Trees on wordpress, but without funding, I am forever in an energy vortex that draws away vitality instead of amassing more power for the coming changes that are on the horizon.

We are always searching for partners in the building of our dream. On the horizon are several properties that can serve as a Northern Base of Operations. we have funded the retrofit of several old buildings that now sip energy and provide healthier and more liveable space, yet the rewards that are most profound are for the watersheds that we have planted, the ecotones that have come about because of our continuing tree planting efforts and the education that we have provided the hundreds of guests who have come with us to our events. In addition to expanding our base, we are ready to redouble our efforts to bring people to experience our tours, become guests in and way points along our paths to abundance. During the course of the next year or so, I am going to be working on several fronts to share my experiences with Citizens for a Better Environment and things I learned from that important part of my life as well as finalizing my book about the 1987 Bicycle Tour Around the five Great Lakes. If you are interested in a collection of stories that I am putting together, please let me know. I'm not sure how to market such works, but I do know that those who are lucky enough to hear them always say that they should be available to a wider audience.

I would like to find a way to let the person who becomes my two thousandth reader to know how much I appreciate their interest in these things, perhaps offer them a free overnight tour with us. Instead, i will just say that someone accessing the blog this second half of February 2012,will surely put me over two-thousand views. Thank-you and please invite your friends and family to explore the ideas that I write about, get to know me and to take the time to engineer their own sustainable life way.