I have in a pile next to my desk the latest National Geographic and in it I found what felt like a windfall apple—a Landscope America Natural States of America map from NatureServe. On one side, it has protected areas across the U.S., and on the other, open space that is threatened. I love the work these folks are doing.

Here you have complimentary projects focused on creating space for other creatures to flourish–uplifting, inspiring work. And, there are two other related trends that just make me sit back and wonder.

At Mount Desert Island, Maine, this summer, I found one of these compendiums of science and nature books at Port in the Storm bookstore—The Best American Science and Nature Writing (2006). One of the articles really intrigued me-an Orion piece by Mark Dowie titled Conservation Refugees, in which he describes the plight of the Batwa people’s ancestral territory—now comprised of the Mgahinga, the Echuya, and the Bwindi forest reserves. Dowie juxtaposes the concerns of global foundations, the planet’s largest conservation organizations, and corporations, against the plight of the Batwa people, and the efforts of initiatives focused on their demise such as the International Forum on Indigenous Mapping.

Market-based solutions, which may have been implemented with the best of social and ecological intentions, share a lamentable outcome, barely discernable behind a smoke screen of slick promotion. In almost every case indigenous people are moved into the money economy without the means to participate in it fully. They become permanently indentured as park rangers (never wardens), porters, waiters, harvesters, or, if they manage to learn a European language, ecotour guides. Under this model, “conservation” edges ever closer to “development”, while native communities are assimilated into the lowest ranks of national cultures. Given this history, it should be no surprise that tribal peoples regard conservationists as just another colonizer–an extention of the deadening forces of economic and cultural hegemony.

Later, Dowie describes the growing realization among some conservationists that national parks and protected areas surrounded by angry, hungry people are doomed to fail.

More and more conservationists seem to be wondering how, after setting aside a “protected” land mass the size of Africa, global biodiversity continues to decline: might there be something terribly wrong with this plan? This question is particularly apt since the Conventional on Biological Diversity has documented the astounding fact that in Africa, where so many parks and reserves have been created, and where indigenous evictions run highest, 90% of biodiversity lies outside of protected areas. If we want to preserve biodiversity in the far reaches of the globe, places that are in may cases still occupied by indigenous people living in ways that are ecologically sustainable, history is showing us that the dumbest thing we can do is kick them out.

As I reflected on this, I thought about the cultures described in Jared Diamond’s book, Collapse, and our own culture here in the U.S. and how we think about “the environment”. We have something called the Environmental Protection Agency, and state environmental departments. Politicians call for “protecting the environment” like it is separate from us. Part of sustainability, I believe, is way deeper than architecture and technology and polices, it is a reconception of our place in space.  Carolyn Merchant, in her incredible book Ecological Revolutions, Nature, Gender, and Science in New England, describes our movement into a new consciousness, in which our thinking becomes integrated with nature or as she puts it becomes “mind in nature”.

As we begin to see space as house, as oikos, we will reduce the clutter of our culture, and reduce our ecological footprint. I believe this has now started and is evident in the fourth trend—the rise of the City.

In The City, A Global History, by Joel Kotkin, he describes the “Urban Future”, in which there are two kinds of cities—one that is “ephemeral”, with an economy focused on entertainment, tourism, and creative functions, while the other is focused on these as well as mundane industries, basic education, and infrastructure.

To avoid the pitfalls of an epemeral future, cities must emphasize those basic elements long critical to the making of vital commercial places. A busy city must be more than a construct of diversions for essentially nomadic populations; it requires an engaged and committed citizenry with a long-term financial and familial stake in the metropolis. A successful city must be home not only to edgy clubs, museums, and restaurants, but also to specialized industries, small businesses, schools, and neighborhoods capable of regenerating themselves for the next generation.

Cities can thrive only be occupying a sacred place that both orders and inspires the complex natures of gathered masses of people. For five thousand years or more, the human attachment to cities has served as the primary forum for political and material progress. It is in the city, this ancient confluence of the sacred, safe, and busy, where humanity’s future will be shaped for centuries to come.

To Kotkin’s great conclusion I add that if we are to find a way to provide other species freedom to roam on the wildlife corridors essential to their survival, we need to figure out how we can live in a way that we are in-nature, creating our economy, and every other cultural expression of human endeavor in partnership and in reciprocity.

This is our charge. Soon, we will launch the next version of this site, and I hope with the new tools we provide, we will help to move this great endeavor along.

- Michael Collins

]]> http://www.conservationrealestate.org/2008/11/15/landscope-freedom-to-roam-humans-in-nature-and-the-city/feed/ http://www.conservationrealestate.org/2008/10/28/affirmation-for-interdependence-respect-and-responsibility-an-ethical-framework-for-a-sustainable-future/ http://www.conservationrealestate.org/2008/10/28/affirmation-for-interdependence-respect-and-responsibility-an-ethical-framework-for-a-sustainable-future/#comments Wed, 29 Oct 2008 01:00:10 +0000 admin http://www.conservationrealestate.org/?p=317 Sustainability is now a mainstream word. People feel the need to put an adjective in front of it, i.e., economic sustainability, or environmental sustainability, I suppose in an attempt to focus its meaning. It is to me a word that connotes far deeper dimensions than many seem to consider—an ethic about how we are to treat each other and our world shared widely among humans from all walks of life.

I recently heard from my friend Al Weed, a farmer and soldier and one of the most thoughtful people I’ve had the pleasure of working with. He also is a driving force behind Public Policy of Virginia.  Many moons ago, we worked together on a sustainability program in Charlottesville. One of our projects was something called the Interfaith Roundtable on Sustainability, funded by the Virgnia Foundation for the Humanities, with the strong support of another old colleague and VFH staff member, David Bearinger.

That Roundtable, composed of conservative and liberal representatives of area faith and ethical traditions,  crafted a meditation that helped to provide the moral underpinnings for what I came to understand “sustainability” to mean and in an indirect way provided the impetus for the creation of Conserv. With times as they are, it seems to me their words are more relevant today than they were a decade ago.

Affirmation

for Interdependence, Respect, and Responsibility:

An Ethical Framework for a Sustainable Future

Preamble

As people with differing beliefs, we travel on different paths:

reverence for a creator and the creation inspires some of us;

a realization of interdependence through enlightenment moves others;

while others respond from considerations of personal ethics.

Whatever our starting point in faith or belief, we have reached consensus on the following, and fully endorse its relevance to the human condition:

All life is connected.

No life is lived alone.

Humans, animals, and plants depend upon each other

through an interdependent web of physical and spiritual relationships.

Because each life influences all life, human prosperity is bound with the fate of all the earth.

We believe

that we are only one part of life;

that all parts are precious;

that we are responsible for every part.

We are called to appreciate the wonder of life,

to recognize its inherent value, and

to respect the right of all living things to live through mutually beneficial relationships.

Our purpose is to care for life,

to be concerned for ourselves, our families, our friends,

and all living beings of the present and future.

Our response as individuals and communities should be service to other people and other species,

not to harm or destroy anything indiscriminately,

to share the earth—limiting our space,

creating and preserving places for all life to flourish,

through awareness, cooperation, justice, and love.

Signed this 22nd day of September, 1997, the the members of the Interfaith Roundtable on Sustainability

Daniel S. Alexander

Wayne B. Arnason

Brenda Brown-Grooms

David Collyer

Frank Forehand

Charles Lancaster

Andrew W. Mackey

Sandra R. Newhouse

Ernest Q. Reed

Mark Salata

William Stewart

Doyle Thomas

Andrew Trotter

and

Christina Wulf, Staff

- Michael Collins

]]> http://www.conservationrealestate.org/2008/10/28/affirmation-for-interdependence-respect-and-responsibility-an-ethical-framework-for-a-sustainable-future/feed/ http://www.conservationrealestate.org/2008/10/19/web-designer-needed/ http://www.conservationrealestate.org/2008/10/19/web-designer-needed/#comments Mon, 20 Oct 2008 01:01:06 +0000 admin http://www.conservationrealestate.org/?p=313 We are looking for a part-time web designer to deploy the Phase III version of this site to add new functions and improve existing ones. Compensation is commensurate with experience. Contact Mike at 540-661-7379 if you are interested or send us an email.

My view is the root of this dilemma has nothing to do with these.

Its cause is a faulty worldview. A premise rooted in 19th and 20th century thinking that our macroeconomy exists without limits.

This crisis exposes the rotten core of traditional U.S. macroeconomic theory-that GNP can grow world without end disconnected from biophysical limits. This “growth economy” now has tenacles that reaches literally into every nook and cranny of our lives in 2008. We have a word for anything that grows without stopping, grows without limits, it’s called CANCER. It’s tenacles are wrapped around us to the point where it is now eating its host—human culture and all life forms we live with on this planet.

The Growth Economy is addicted to ever increasing energy throughput from terrestrial sources that are one-time gifts from our geologic past in the form of hydrocarbons and high energy bonds of a few rare elements. Our abstract macroeconomic models may be disconnected from the second law of thermodyamics (entropy) but Main Street and Wall Street are not.

There is an alternative. It is called a steady-state economy, or sustainable economy. In fact, we already have such an economy, and it is the one that really exists for each of us on a day to day and month to month basis, and it’s called our “microeconomy”. It is well understood that this economy is ecological—it is connected to the real world around us via energy inputs and outputs. This commentary is part of a cry that has sprung from the mouths of many others throughout this planet in the last decade. It is an apolitcal cry for rational thinking about the real fundamental roots of what is causing this moment.

This moment, right now, is THE opportunity for current and future generations to alter our worldview—to align physics and economics. This moment is the time to align the fact of interdependence with our most basic models of economic thought and theory.

The Growth Machine is eating us all alive. I do not know what the answers are, but I believe there are some things to not do.  Treatment of symptoms will not help. Do not provide nutrients to the cancer. Do not feed the machine.

- Michael Collins

Congratulations! You made it to the member’s area. Let the class know you got here by doing something silly once you arrive!

Michael Collins

Any conservation-minded seller that wants to network with conservation-minded buyers should also consider listing on the site.

Certified agents receive Conserv and American Conservation Broker logo downloads and listing capability on the Conserv homepage.

Contact the Blue Ridge Association of REALTORs for more information.

Farmcolony was first featured in Volume 35, No. 2, of the February, 1976 Urban Land Institute publication Urban Land. Author Joe Nash (former Farmcolony lot owner) described the concept behind Farmcolony:

The basic concept of Farmcolony is to keep as much of the agricultural land in farming as possible while using the remainder of non-farm land for residential development. The owners of various lots and/or homes control use of the farm land through the Farmcolony Homeowners Association. The Association owns the beneficial interest in the common farm land, all the buildings, equipment, livestock, and produce. A Board of Directors directs the farm manager as to what the general uses of hte farm will be, and the farm manager implements the Board’s directives and operates the farm on a day-to-day basis.

Farmcolony was created by Florida developer Gilbert P. Edwards. In 1973, he hired Michael Redd, a landscape architect, to assist him in finalizing the concept. According to Nash, Edwards and Redd developed a matrix of criteria for selection of the first and future Farmcolony sites.

Edward’s idea was that the food produced by residents would be made available to residents at the cost of production. Excess food could also be sold to the general public as a way to offset farm costs. Edwards and Redd canvassed the Blue Ridge Mountain area from Charlottesville to Front Royal and finally decided on the Shur Farm five miles from Stanardsville on the east slope of Parker Mountain. The lots were created in the uplands area of the parcel, leaving the pasture and steeper mountain land as common area. Lot sizes varied from 1.4 to 3.5 acres.

The Farmcolony HOA operates the common areas and buildings and equipment and legally is a Virginia Real Estate Trust, with a Board of Directors comprised of residents. Lots and common areas have fairly substantial covenants and restrictions. In addition, structures must be approved by an Architectural Committee. Nash’s article concludes with the thought that the subdivision would likely prove to be particularly attractive to commuters.

Today, 34 years later, Farmcolony not only endures, but thrives.

Farmcolony Today

The fencing is perfect. The garden is glorious. Exotic invasives are generally controlled. Eggs are in the farmhouse refrigerator and the farm as a whole continues to find a way to break even. While there are always a variety of issues and conflicts, the farm in 2008 is doing remarkably well. A high quality newsletter is regularly published and a prototype website has been launched.

The quality of the families that live there are the greatest reason that it continues to thrive. The spirit of the farm is well captured in words and photographs by former resident Roger Arbogast. Roger passed away a few months ago but his blog does a great job of capturing life on the farm. Roger was loved by the farm community and they recently completed a gazebo as a testament to his life and energy.

Farmcolony: The Future

There are challenges ahead. The cost of fencing and fuel continues to increase. The Past-President of Farmcolony, Smith Coleman, began to ask in a serious manner what other options for farm income might exist. Is the farm’s historic reliance on beef still the best option? Are there other creative revenue options that have yet to be considered? The solar aspect of the farm, south-southeast, may provide options for solar energy generation in the years ahead. The ridgeline may also provide opportunities for wind. Perhaps a native plant or nursery operation or shiitake mushrooms are options.

Another issue is the fate of related lands around the farm. Discussions have begun in recent years to consider ways to gain control of potentially available parcels around Parker Mountain, to ensure the continuation of land uses that support the agricultural operations of the farm.

Then, there are demographic issues. Farmcolony is what it is today because of the unique blend of young families and retirees that love and care for it. long-time farm manager, Don Thurnau, has run into serious health issues recently. Don’s imprint on the farm and its families is beyond description. Will new folks begin to step in and not only maintain the farm but institute change to bring it into the 21st century, whatever that may mean? The evidence appears to be yes. The Bohns, Haases, Hodges, Helsings, Higgins, Mitchells, Nitzsches, Priors, Sinclairs, and many others not listed here, have stepped up to the plate.

Recently, folks from Farmcolony and Bundoran Farm have begun to meet and toss around ideas. Some of those conversations will be captured in an upcoming Conserv success story.

For More Information on Farmcolony

Landchoices has a recent informative article.

Farmcolony is also featured in a book by Randall Arendt, Growing Greener, Putting Conservation into Local Plans and Ordinances.