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Advocating for the Mexican Gray Wolf: An Interview with Amy Harwood

by Kollibri terre Sonnenblume

Photo courtesy of Lobos of the Southwest

On June 2nd, I interviewed Amy Harwood of Lobos of the Southwest about her organization’s advocacy for the Mexican Gray Wolf, and particularly for its reintroduction into the wild. You can listen to the full interview here.

Amy: My name is Amy Harwood and I’m currently the coordinator for Lobos of the Southwest, which is a joint outreach and education initiative of several different environmental organizations and individuals who live in the southwest US. The idea is to be working collectively to elevate the advocacy of Mexican Gray Wolves in the effort to recover them, and also to elevate the idea that wolves belong here, because of the reality that they were removed so fully from this area. There’s an interest to make sure that, along with our legal tools and angles, and along with political pressure, [we’re] doing a lot of basic outreach and education about wolves in the area, so hopefully by the next generation, it’s more of an accepted thing that wolves exist in the southwest US.

I’ve worked in environmental organizing for a long time and have been spending time in Arizona for a number of years and took on this role almost two years ago now. I’ve been a longtime fan of wolves. Like a lot of advocates, I find myself constantly pulled back to the species because they are so remarkable. Also, politically, it’s a very compelling species to work on for a number of reasons. They have a pretty compelling parallel to a lot of other points in our social evolution as the United States and as the Southwest. You can really see how, when something happens around acceptance or rejection of wolves in the wild, it’s often pretty tied to a lot of other social things that are evolving or happening. So in terms of species and wildlife protection, wolves always bring a very important story…


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What is a “Native” Plant in a Changing World?

by Kollibri terre Sonnenblume

California Fan Palms in Anza-Borrego State Park in California (Photo by author)

The term “native plant” has become a common one, and many people probably assume that the definition is clear cut. However, like many other seemingly simple designations, that’s not the case.

Whether a given plant is considered “native” where it is found growing is dependent on the interpretation of the interrelation of three factors: time, place and human involvement.

So, in the United States, a plant is generally considered native only if it grew here before European colonization. On the East Coast, that’s the 1500s and in California, that’s 1769. Plants introduced since then, whether deliberately or by accident, are labeled “non-native,” “introduced,” “exotic,” or in some cases, “invasive.”

In the UK, some would set the date for ~8000 years ago, when rising sea levels made those landmasses islands.


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Postcard From Eastern Oregon: When planting food is illegal

by Kollibri terre Sonnenblume

Finisia Medrano, far right, with some of her wildtending friends in eastern Oregon, Summer 2019 [Photo by Gabe Crawford]

On Friday, April 3rd, Finisia Medrano—also known as “Tranny Granny”—died in Nevada. She was a well-known, or rather, notorious personality in rewilding / wildtending / primitive skills circles. Her name was praised and cursed, but even her critics had to acknowledge her experience and expertise when it came to Native American first foods and how to cultivate them in the wild. She inspired not one but three chapters in my book, “The Failures of Farming & the Necessity of Wildtending.”

The mark Granny made on the world is undeniable and will bear fruit for years to come. Her labors have been picked up by many others, especially among the younger generations, who are hungry for change. I count myself lucky to have spent time with her multiple times.

I originally wrote this article in September 2012, after meeting her earlier that year.

This Spring my farming partners and I found ourselves landless. For the past eight years, we had been actively exploring a variety of forms and practices of small-scale agriculture and restoration, including bicycle-based urban farming, CSA (Community Supported Agriculture), plant-breeding and seed-saving, staple crops (grains, legumes and oilseeds) and the cultivation and processing of medicinal herbs (no, not pot). Last year I wrote an article, “Who Will Feed The People?”, discussing the challenges to small-scale agriculture in the United States, such as lack of equipment, knowledge, financial resources, and markets; the polluted wasteland left behind by conventional farming; increasingly volatile and unpredictable weather patterns brought by Climate Change; and, last but not least, the social barriers: people of the U.S. are by and large uninterested in significant changes to the socio-economic status quo, and resist cutting edge projects. It was the social factor — which can and did embody a profound hostility to Truth — that brought down our own farming efforts, at least for now.

With sadness and anger, we put our tools and seeds in storage, found foster homes for our perennial medicinals, and raised traveling cash by selling our home (a school bus) and an old but reliable Volvo. After tearfully parting with our beloved farm cat, two of us hit the road in an old pickup to see what we could see.

This journey took us to Eastern Oregon to seek out Finisia Medrano, a.k.a. “Tranny Granny”, a Shoshone-trained elder who knows the ways of “The Hoop”, an ancient tradition of food gathering and cultivation that sustained the Native Americans and the land in good health for thousands of years until being violently disrupted by the European Invasion. The Hoop is not dead but, as we were to see, is severely threatened.


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Featured as guest on Ground Shots Podcast

by Kollibri terre Sonnenblume

I’m super pleased that I got to be a guest on Kelly Moody’s “Ground Shots” Podcast!

FIND IT HERE

From Kelly’s show notes, we talked about:

  • the pros and cons of permaculture
  • wild-tending as not just using knowledge from the past but adapting to a changing world
  • some connections between patriarchy, organized religion and slavery
  • the blurry line between gatherer-hunter life-ways and small scale agriculture
  • horticulture vs. agriculture
  • some history of agriculture, the negative impacts of agriculture on health and culture
  • Kollibri’s various books and zines on farming, wild-tending, ‘invasive’ plants, and place-based travel
  • questioning victorian ideas of gatherer-hunter culture and the transition to agriculture
  • the importance of an interdisciplinary approach and looking at things from many angles, avoiding ‘silo’ing when possible
  • the importance of practicing small scale agriculture with the fragmented ecology and culture we have right now
  • the racist origins of wilderness, national parks and public lands, and the continued racism in these institutions or ideas
  • what to expect from Kollibri’s new podcast ‘Voices For Nature and Peace’

New Mexico Postcard: The Call of the Sandhill Cranes

by Kollibri terre Sonnenblume

Sandhill Cranes in flight, Gila River valley, NM
Sandhill Cranes in flight, Gila River valley, NM

I arrived in the Gila River valley in New Mexico in mid-September to stay at a friend’s property for a few months. Shortly afterwards, migrating Sandhill Cranes began showing up too. I heard them before I saw them, and my first reaction was, “What the heck is that?”

If you haven’t heard the calls of a Sandhill Crane before, you might not immediately identify them as coming from birds. They have been variously described as “loud, rattling bugle calls,” a “deep chesty squawk” and “kar-r-r-r- o-o-o.” I’ll take a stab at the challenge and offer: “a moody trilling trumpet.”

You can listen to recordings online here, here, and here, among other places.

These helped jog my memory as I was writing this piece (since the cranes here don’t vocalize on command) but they all seriously lack compared to the real thing. They might capture the sound but not the spirit.

The first time a group of them flew overhead, I couldn’t help but to stop and stare in awe. Their silhouettes were certainly striking—with necks extended forward and legs stretched out behind—but it was their voices that really took my breath away. I will offer the words “haunting,” “otherworldly” and “preternatural,” though they all fall short. I felt like I was hearing the echoes of dinosaurs (and given birds’ evolutionary heritage, I guess I literally was).

But of course there is nothing alien about these creatures or their noises. It is I, raised in cities by a dominator culture, who doesn’t belong here, or rather, who doesn’t know my place, or how to find it. Such is the tragic estrangement of Western Civ.


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Rare Wildflower vs. Green Energy & Human Hubris (Part 2)

by Kollibri terre Sonnenblume

Tiehm's buckwheat [Photo by Gary A. Monroe, hosted by the USDA-NRCS PLANTS Database]
Tiehm’s buckwheat [Photo by Gary A. Monroe, hosted by the USDA-NRCS PLANTS Database]

This is part 2 of a two-part series. Read part 1: “Rare Wildflower vs. Mining Company.”

In part 1 of this series, I told how Tiehn’s Buckwheat (Eriogonum tiehmii) is a rare species found only on ten acres of land in Nevada and how its existence is threatened by the mining activities of Ioneer, an Australian Company. I also discussed the efforts by the Center for Biological Diversity (CBD) to save the species by petitioning the federal government and the state of Nevada to give it legal protection. Additionally, I provided information for the reader to support the Center’s efforts.

What I didn’t mention is what Ioneer is hoping to extract at the site: Lithium carbonate and boric acid.

Though a variety of industrial applications utilize lithium carbonate, demand is rising primarily due to its use in batteries, especially for electric vehicles. In other words, Ioneer’s operation could be considered part of the “green” or “clean” energy industry. Indeed, they make use of one of the monikers themselves: “Lithium is a strategic element linked directly to high technology and clean energy. It has been described as the new oil as it is a key component for batteries fueling the electric vehicle revolution.”

But “green” and “clean” don’t mean “no impact.” All extractive activities have destructive impacts on the natural environment, including lithium mining. Some would argue that fossil fuels are the worst, and that anything is better—that a lesser cost is preferable to a greater cost. Yet in this case, what is the cost?


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Rare Wildflower vs. Mining Company (Part 1)

by Kollibri terre Sonnenblume

Tiehm's buckwheat flower by Patrick Donnelly/Center for Biological Diversity.
Tiehm’s buckwheat flower by Patrick Donnelly/Center for Biological Diversity.

This is part 1 of a two-part series.

In a remote corner of Nevada is a wildflower that grows nowhere else on earth. Named “Tiehm’s Buckwheat” (Eriogonum tiehmii), it has been found on only ten acres of public land in the Silver Peak Range of Esmerelda County, and is virtually unknown except to a handful of botanists. Tragically, it is at risk of extinction due to mining activities that have just started in its habitat.


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Reading from my book on “Environmental Coffeehouse”

by Kollibri terre Sonnenblume

Sandy Shoelles, host of "Environmental Coffeehouse"
Sandy Shoelles, host of “Environmental Coffeehouse”

Sandy Schoelles read a chapter from my new book, “Roadtripping at the End of the World” tonight on her show on YouTube, “Environmental Coffeehouse,” and it was awesome! She is an enthusiastic host and an expressive reader. Very entertaining. I’m looking forward to going on the show sometime. Check out the reading here.

“Roadtripping at the End of the World”

by Kollibri terre Sonnenblume

My new book, “Roadtripping at the End of the World,” is now available! For a limited time, you can order an autographed copy direct from me. When these run out, the book will be available only on Amazon.

When you order the hard copy, you will also get the book in all its digital versions (PDF, epub, Kindle). Or you can order just the digital versions.

This book is a collection made up of eight essays inspired my travels around the USA and six interviews with activists I met along the way. A few appeared online previously, but much of the material is brand new.

Check out this excerpt: “Virgin Prairie: Rarer Than Old-Growth Forest”

The book is available at four prices:

If you would like to order multiple copies, please contact me.

Virgin Prairie: Rarer Than Old-Growth Forest

by Kollibri terre Sonnenblume

Purple Poppy Mallow (Callirhoe involucrata) – Photo by author

The following is an excerpt from my new book, “Roadtripping at the End of the World.“

I was born and raised in Nebraska, but my curiosity about the native prairies was not piqued until years later. In September 2018, over twenty-five years since the last time I lived in the state, I finally visited a remnant of original, unplowed prairie, located outside the city of Lincoln and entirely surrounded by the farmland that replaced most of it. I was entranced by what I found.


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