Allison Roberts

I had the opportunity to spend 3 days in the Willamette Forest this weekend with a group of friends and it was wonderful! We camped right next to the river, spend all day Saturday at Breitenbush Hot springs and all day Sunday on Detroit Lake Kayaking and exploring Piety Island in the center of the lake. We saw Otters!!!! They were foraging along the island bank and were so adorable and curious, they ended up following us for part of our trip. The weather, the water and the companionship made for a magical experience. This area was severely burned in the 2020 fires, Britenbursh was thankfully able to rebuild and reopen earlier this year. But it is still pretty devastating to see all the burned forest, but nature is making a comeback and I enjoyed naming all the native plants that are beginning to regrow in the forest understory.

Yesterday was my birthday and rather than sleeping in I rolled out early for a morning hike with my partner and 12 year old Labrador, Iris. I chose a trail that was short enough Iris to enjoy and we beat the heat by getting out early! It felt really good to get a 2 mile hike in first thing, appreciate nature and the late summer wild flowers and get some fresh air! My partner and I enjoyed it so much our new goal is to do this hike at least once per week since it's so close to our house and had some nice elevation change with a beautiful view of the valley.

Spend a few minutes reading an article about tagging your hike with the name of the indigenous land you are on, I will certainly do this on my next outdoor adventure. Or rather my Labrador, Iris, will since my Instagram account is just for our pets 😆 I also started following NativesOutdoors on Instagram who was mentioned in the article.

I spent some time looking at the world map of indigenous populations, it always amazes me to see how many types of tribes existed and how they overlapped, so many colors! I was particularly struck looking at Australia, (where my father is from and where I still have a lot of family) it's usually thought of as such a barren desert landscape yet the Aboriginals thrived! The treatment of the native population in Australia is unfortunately very similar to our history here in the US and they are still a marginalized and underrepresented community. I was also reading some treaties from New Zealand, what a fascinating culture! They set up a very specific arrangement with the British very early on that allowed them to keep their culture and autonomy even while being a British colony, I quite enjoyed reading their declaration of independence from the British Crown in 1835 https://www.archives.govt.nz/discover-our-stories/the-declaration-of-independence-of-new-zealand. When I visited NZ in 2020 I was stuck by how ubiquitous the Maori culture was, many Maori words are used in everyday conversation, their language is on all the street signs and symbols of their art are everywhere. They are obviously proud of their heritage and it was wonderful to experience the inclusiveness and celebration of their culture. It makes me wish for an alternative version of US history, what might our country look like now if we had treated the native population differently?

I spent so much time outside playing this weekend, in my garden, in nature, and out on the water with friends! It was so nourishing and even though I'm a bit tired today from being physically active all weekend, my soul feels rested 😀

I was using the resources under My Rights to Nature and learned there is a Feminist Bird Club 😍 I started following their main account and my local chapter on Instagram, here is some info about them https://www.feministbirdclub.org/. I can't wait to get involved with this group and continue growing my 'fledgling' birding skills. I got a wonderful set of binocular a few years back and now birding has replaced photography on my hikes and nature walks. I find that it helps keep me in the present moment while appreciating nature's immense diversity and beauty in a different way than photography. Plus I have a whole new range of birds to learn about since I grew up on the East Coast but now reside on the West Coast. There are a few species that are the same, but so many new ones!!!

I just found out my local library also has a seed library! https://www.oregonpubliclibrary.org/seed-library And they have so many other resources too. I'm not sure that I'll be able to participate this growing season but it will certainly be part of my garden planning for next year. So cool!!!

I just read a quick article about Sharing Economy. I'm grateful to live in a community where a lot of this already happening and I participate a lot more than I even realized! We have Little Free Libraries everywhere that I regularly pursue while walking the dog (and bring the books back when I've read them and contribute other books I'm finished reading) We have community gardens and I participate on NextDoor and FB Marketplace. We also have a really cool 100% free community second hand store called Vina Moses (this is where I don't my goods vs Goodwill which is for profit) and they have a free community pantry where I take my extra brand samples and food items. We have a lot of need in our community, a very large unhoused/underhoused community, so it feels good to be able to give back and support initiatives that are already in place!

So I calculated my water footprint and it's high!!! Outdoor and Virtual water being the largest contributors. I understand how they calculated this number but there's also a lot more nuance than this quiz allows for instance, yes I eat meat daily and have pets, however I source my meat locally from grass fed small farmers and the same goes for my pet food. But it is helpful to have some numbers in my back pocket, how much water a typical shower and bath use, how many gallons per minute if you're letting your sink run ect.. we can all do better. And the extra tips are really helpful too!

I started learning about Green Baking options today and I'm curious if we might be able to work with Slavic (our 401K investment bank) to have more Green investment options for those of us that don't want to be investing in big oil and fossil fuel? There is a resource to look into specific funds which I'll dive into tomorrow and I'll share any insights I find!