Nurture Learning: Root Education

We aspire to become a hub for cultivating climate leadership dedicated to exploring and implementing the paradigm shifts necessary for facing the climate crisis resiliently, equitably, and meaningfully.

Root.ED Nature School

BioEarth is developing yearround nature immersion, intimacy and inquiry pilot programming rooted in the Methow Valley of North Central Washington. At Root.ED Nature School we cultivate an ecology of CARE- community, alignment, ritual and enchantment. We collaborate with local partners to deliver nature immersion, intimacy and inquiry programs rooted in the Methow Valley. Current land partners include:

Hoodoo Blooms- Weekly Parenting Playgroup for parents with kids 0-3yrs opening Nov. 2023

www.hoodooblooms.com

"We grow quality food and medicine with thoughtful tending practices. We approach our farm as an integrated system of which we are a part. We feed our soils the same way we feed our bellies, with attention to quality and respect. We never spray chemical pesticides or herbicides, instead relying on holistic integrated pest management methods, such as crop rotation and rotational grazing. Our focus is to ensure immunity within our plants from seed to soil by using regenerative soil building techniques and biodynamic preparations. On occasion we will feed our plants medicinal remedies made from fermented wild plants or fungal matter. We are here to serve the land and all those who inhabit it."

Walking Rose Farm - programming for youth and families in development

www.walking-rose.com

"We are stewards of a small farm on East County Rd, where we raise pastured lamb as part of our restoration practice. We use management-intensive grazing rotations to improve the soil and produce a healthy animal and a high quality product. We are also engaged in restoration work on 8 acres of wooded and riparian habitat in the center of our farm. As a business striving towards sustainability, we are in relationship with community and ecological projects in Western Alaska and Central Washington. We contribute finances, time and fish each year to support the amazing work happening in our communities."

Dana Visali's Homestead - programming for youth and families in development

www.methownaturalist.com

The way in which we as humans develop as individuals, community members, and creatures of the natural world depends upon how our sense of self in time and space is drawn out by the shared vision and action of the community we are raised in. Through intentional nature immersion programming we are fostering the growth of vibrant, beautiful humans who will hold a lasting relationship and connection with the natural world within rooted community.

A core value and outcome of our program is Sustainable Peace: the physical, material, psychological, cultural/religious, and ecological well being of all peoples.

Root.ED Nature School celebrates people's (especially children's) innate sense of wonder, vibrancy and beauty through play, exploration, and relationship-building so our children can say with confidence, “We are the ones who are from this place and who hold relationship to each other, the land, and the other beings here. We belong here. I belong among us. I am one of us” (Carter 2016), so they and we may thrive as members of our earth.

For more updates follow Root.ED Nature School on Instagram @root.education

Dark Green Bible

By 2060, two-thirds of the world's population will either be Christian or Muslim and their scriptures include the Bible which has been blamed by some for being the cause of climate crisis. Our scholars wrestle with these texts in the original contexts and from a variety of audience perspectives, especially First Nations peoples, to uncover the potential for biblical text to speak positively to the environmental crisis. Our language of the dark green Bible is an homage to Bron Taylor’s classic Dark Green Religion and the work of the Yale Forum on Religion and Ecology, as well as all of the amazing scholars who have been working already on religion and ecology.

Root.ED Center

The Root.ED Center for Religion, Spirituality, Science, and Sustainability aims to be a field-leading interdisciplinary educational hub for cultivating energized, humble, and hopeful climate leadership that asks, “What should humankind preserve from our past as we recognize with humility the blindspots that created climate change? What must we transform to survive and flourish in the short and long-term futures? How can religions such as Christianity, Islam, and indigenous lifeways motivate cultural transformation and lend meaning and hope?” At the Root.ED Center, we will curate cohorts of academics, practitioner experts, and community leaders drawn from diverse backgrounds to collaborate on research and projects shared widely to provide inspiration, resources, and strategies that build societal and ecological resilience. This will establish the Root.ED Center as a learning and leadership community generating field-leading research and public education that explores what we should preserve and transform from the past as we chart a resilient, equitable, and meaningful future.

Root.ED Workshops

Transforming human civilization so that we not only survive the climate crisis, but also flourish with purpose, will require unprecedented global cooperation, widespread scientific and cultural/religious literacy, profound theological reflection, and enduring hope. Root.ED Workshops will cultivate climate leadership dedicated to exploring and implementing the paradigm shifts necessary for facing the climate crisis resiliently, equitably, and meaningfully.

While the climate crisis is daunting, we take the approach that Local+Local+Local=Global, such that when we connect and energize the many individual efforts working towards a sustainable future, a global movement emerges that makes civilizational scale change possible. We bring diverse international climate leaders into a growing community that cultivates their leadership skills, supports them in their climate grief and anxiety, instills hope, amplifies their impacts, generates imaginative collaborative research and strategies, and communicates their insights with a public audience in order to educate, inspire, and embolden further change.