For all practical purposes I think things may very likely have come to where this will be the last summer I will be working in forestry. From what I have seen on Summit Main and Cous Main, and from what I know is being planned, the work we have been doing in our business First Nations Wildcrafters BC has pretty much been destroyed and/or is being bargained away with agreements. It is very likely that we have come to place of having to wrap up some of the loose ends on pilot project work we have been doing to be able to exit in a way that maintains the credibility and ethics we have tried our best to guide us as a business. It has been great....I first started working for the US Forest Service 19 years ago....it has been a very interesting journey through invasive species management, elk calving grounds impacts monitoring and migration route habitat improvements, native plant protection and restoration, protection of ceremonial practices for access to practice ceremonies, working on legislation for protection of ceremonies during fire bans, protection of sacred sites and harvesting rights of medicines, environmental impact studies affecting treaty rights, working with my friends with the International Indian Treaty Council papers that were submitted in Geneva for indigenous peoples....then into the non-timber and ultimately cultural heritage resources management under the new forest practices code. I would not have traded this experience, and especially the true honor and blessing of having been able to work and learn from spiritual leaders and traditional knowledge holders of many indigenous peoples and tribes through this journey. It is always the people you meet along the way that makes any career have value...but in the case of forestry and land use management, it is also the many places that I have been blessed to stand and experience the true power of the Creation we live in. I will always live with the regretful feeling that maybe there could have been more that I could have done to honor the Creation we live in and the commitments I have made to the ancestors that live in so many homes in the forests and to their unborn generations of all life. I will be making my peace with these sacred places and beings as I prepare to wrap things up and prepare to greet whatever may come next in this new era time has entered into. Thank you to all of you that were part of this magnificent life and the support and prayers you offered and that we shared. All my relations
Posted on: Fri, 07 Jun 2013 15:27:28 +0000
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