The phrase Quaker Community Forest was launched in 1998 by Ralph Jacobson and Cynthia Bartoo, rising out of their many years of experience with 40 acres of land in western Wisconsin. Ralph got about a dozen of us interested in visiting the Menominee Indian Tribal Land, which is a county-sized forest in Wisconsin that has been managed sustainably since shortly after the American Civil War. Could we do something like the Menominee have done, based on our spiritual tradition? It would be different, of course, but we are hungry for the intimate, community-wide, multi-generational, sustainable relationship with a diverse ecosystem that this tribe has. Could we at least make a start toward our own community forest? The idea was warmly received by Friends throughout the Midwest, and within a couple of years we had a mailing list approaching 100.
But what does it mean, REALLY, a Quaker Community Forest? The answer has just begun to grow, not surprisingly, given the scale and speed of forests.
While some of us dream of a huge tract of land eventually, “Community” is our middle name, so we need to start near where people live. Our most successful and enduring program so far is named “Four-Seasons Forest,” and it consists of outings on the land six times a year. These are mostly family-friendly. We have a big concern for providing young people with enough experiences in natural settings so that they will feel comfortable seeking out nature themselves, as they mature.
Most Four-Seasons Forest events happen at “Sandhill,” the 40 acres that were part of what inspired the original vision, but it is important to us to think bigger than a particular location. Each fall we do buckthorn removal in the Canon River valley, south of the Twin Cities, and we visit wooded land owned by Friends all over the place, from north of Duluth to near Green Bay to southern Wisconsin.
Our core concern is not a particular plot of land, but rather creating a culture which recognizes and nourishes a spiritual connection with the natural world. If we lived by the sea, we might be doing a Quaker Community Salt Marsh, but we live HERE, in the upper Midwest. Here, our part of the planet offers us wonderful woodlands, which provide us much of our sense of place because they are an essential part of the fabric out of which our natural setting is woven. What we learn in the woods, especially as children, can provide a crucial stabilizing influence as industrial civilization stumbles and tries to re-establish itself on a new footing. As that happens we are going to need guidance from a reality much larger than city life, even as we go on living in cities, with their (relatively) planet-friendly density of human activity.
Each year, our Four-Seasons Forest program includes maple syruping, buckthorn removal and an “early-winter harvest” of Yule trees and boughs, and firewood. Summer events have included berry picking, try-to-escape-from-the-firecrackers-4th-of-July-camping-trips, mushroom hunting, and camping with attention to the Perseid meteor showers. The year often ends with a retreat around Groundhog Day, where we look back, evaluate, and plan for the year ahead.
Other things we have done include forming a tax-exempt corporation, Forest Friends, Inc, which can accept donations of money and land. We’ve got about $4,000 in the bank, mostly from small donations from our mailing list which is now well over 100.
In the last two years, we have spent some of that money on planting trees for Friends School of Minnesota at our Student Grove project at Petersons’ Valley View Farm, near Glenwood City, Wisconsin.
At Northern Yearly Meeting gatherings, we’ve conducted meetings for worship with attention to forest ecosystems, and nature walks, including a wolf-pack-awareness-walk. We’ve done three retreats for NYM teens, and we’ve done a lot of good thinking and talking while walking in the woods, and afterward. Check us out! Come on in!
