OUR BASIN book excerpt

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Trevien Stanger, the curator of the nearly twenty, in the know, authors in the book OUR BASIN OF RELATIONS, The Art and Science of Living with Water, is worth paying attention to!. He relates to clean water and the environment in a way that is inspiring and interesting to read - like Thoreau to me.

Following is an excerpt from one of the three articles he scribed for OUR BASIN, titled TEN INVITATIONS INTO THE WATERSHED, FOR MY DAUGHTER, FERN:

4. A Unit of Perception. But other than knowing the name of your home watershed (the Winooski, which is within the Champlain Basin), how can you develop an intimacy and a sense of belonging within it? The waters themselves will teach you. Try this at least once a season: choose a spot on the Winooski in which you see another stream entering the river (a confluence) and ask: what is that water? From where does it come? Through what types of landscapes and land-use patterns does that stream run to get here? What stories does that water tell? And then, either on foot or by boat, by car or by bike, start exploring that sub-watershed as much as you can. Those water paths will invite you up through many places seldom visited, some of them profoundly beautiful and others quite unremarkable; some of them full of pollution and heart-breaking negligence, others exploding with Nature’s exquisite resilience. In the process, you’ll learn this territory, not as a confused tangle of roads and town names, but instead as an orderly learnable, dynamic place in which humans are truly but one part of the process. You may also arrive at a similar conclusion to the Californian writer and restorationist Freeman House - ”A watershed is a unit of perception.”

Our Johnny Brook

Our Johnny Brook, flows by our, certified organic, Purple Lark Farm, to the Winooski, to Lake Champlain. I have been lost in the nearby woods. My six year old grandson, Emmett, gave me a compass, for the next time I explore the woods along the waterway - what a wonderful adventure.

Order your copy of OUR BASIN for a discounted price of $25 by clicking here and than clicking on book cover image. And, if you know a student of the environment, let me know - Mike@mesipe.com, and I will send them a FREE copy of OUR BASIN, as long as there are copies still in print.