Members of the Ozark Chapter
of the Sierra Club are invited to attend the 17th annual Heartwood Forest Council,
to be held the weekend of Memorial Day, 2007 in the Missouri Ozarks at Camp Taum
Sauk, on the Black River near Lesterville. The theme of this year’s Forest
Council is Localism: Answering Globalism.
What
is the Heartwood Forest Council?
The Heartwood Forest Council is the premier annual gathering to bring together
forest activists and other concerned citizens from across the Eastern, Central,
and Southern United States. This will be the first time the event has taken
place in Missouri. We will focus on threats to our regional ecology and human
and community health, in an atmosphere of collaboration designed to form stronger
personal and professional ties. While addressing and celebrating the work that
we do, the Forest Council offers participants an opportunity to identify lasting
solutions and proven action steps that will move us as a community towards a
shared vision of a healthy, just, and sustainable society.
The program will begin the
afternoon of Friday, May 25 and continue through mid-day, Monday, May 28 (Memorial
Day), and be interspersed with ample social time, leisure, lively, local music,
dancing and great food. The Forest Council will be family friendly, and kids
of all ages are encouraged to come.
This year’s
program: Localism: Answering Globalism
Localism is the idea that our communities, our families, and our selves, should
be rooted where we live. Our relationship with the land where we live is to be
reciprocal, where we care for and nurture a landbase that in turn offers us food,
water, and livelihood. Globalism, on the other hand, seeks to force us into an
economy that would have us destroy the land under our feet as we struggle to stay
afloat in a global “race to the bottom.”
This year’s Forest
Council will explore how we can nurture sustainable local and regional networks
that offer a viable alternative to the dominant economy and land ethic. The
program will consist of three days of workshops, discussions, keynote speakers,
and field trips. Key program elements will include:
- Watersheds: Karst geology,
rivers, and CAFOs (concentrated animal feeding operations)
- Lead issues: Lead mining
and smelting, from the Ozarks to La Oroya, Peru, the struggle in Herculaneum,
and the ongoing hazards of lead in St. Louis and elsewhere
- Forests: Public lands
management, Roadless and other special areas, prescribed burning on national
forests, sustainable forestry and low impact logging, land certification,
and land management strategies and opportunities including the use of non-timber
forest products
- Creating viable communities
and taking responsibility for our own future: Localized economies, local food
production and distribution, alternative energy, traditional uses of plants
and their preservation, religion and environmental protection, and corporate
control of food and seed supply
Participating
Organizations
Those participating in organizing the Forest Council so far include: Heartwood,
Missouri Forest Alliance, Newton County Wildlife Association, Sierra Club (Ozark
Chapter), Missouri Coalition for the Environment, FORGE, Certified Naturally Grown,
Ozark Riverkeepers Network, Ozark Mountain Center for Environmental Education,
Bean Mountain Farms, Goods from the Woods, and Pan’s Garden, as well as
a number of individuals with a long history and ties to a wide array of organizations
and networks in our region. If you would like to help us organize the event, please
let us know.
To cosponsor, make checks
payable to “Heartwood,” and send to: Heartwood Forest Council, PO
Box 1011, Alton, IL 62002-1011. Please make sure to include your name and contact
information, and that your donation is intended for the Forest Council.
If you have any questions
regarding the Forest Council, please contact Jim Scheff, Missouri Forest Alliance
at shagbark12@sbcglobal.net or (314) 991-4190.
