Conference & Event Listings

• Wisdom by Nature is pleased to announce its Holistic Wellness Conference will be held at
  Copper Mountain Resort  at Copper Mountain, Colorado October 25 to 28, 2009.
  
• Presentations by industry leaders in homeopathy, herbal remedies and essential oils, as well as Chiropractic, EFT and Reflexology.
  
• Each day includes yoga, meditations, chef inspired organic lunches, hands-on learning and sampling of plant-based natural products as well exhibits by local eco-friendly vendors. 
  

• Here is a sneek peak of what you can expect: 
  
  
  Keynote speakers include Joshua Onysko  CEO and Founder of Pangea Organics and Catherine Hunziker, Owner of Wish Garden Herbs.          
  
  What you need to know about antibiotics and Steven Johnsons Syndrome
  
  How essential oils, homeopathy, and herbal remedies create a hostile environment that colds and flu can not survive in.
  
  Networking opportunities that help you connect with like-minded people who want to manage their health naturally.
  
  Sample organic products that will help you to achieve optimal wellness 

DARCA workshop, Real Estate Law for Ditch Companies, will be held Friday, October 30, 2009 at the First United Methodist Church at 824 Cooper Avenue in Glenwood Springs. 

Ditch and reservoir companies in Colorado are not only concerned with water law issues but many spend much of their efforts and time dealing with their real estate assets. Urban pressures facing ditch companies have created storm flow problems, the creation of trails along ditches, and increased liability concerns. If ditch company assets are properly managed, they can increase the company’s financial health. The workshop will cover: easements of ditches and reservoirs; carriage agreements; oil and gas royalties; reservoir holdings; and rights, responsibilities, and liabilities of land owned under fee simple. 

Jeff Kahn from the law firm of Lyons, Gaddis, Kahn, & Hall P.C. in Longmont, will teach the four hour course. Mr. Kahn has authored several articles for the DARCA Ditch Company Handbook and will bring sample real estate agreements. Participants will see real-world examples of how ditch companies are successfully dealing with Colorado’s urban growth. 

The Ditch & Reservoir Company Alliance, a nonprofit organization, established in 2001, is dedicated to serving the needs of mutual ditch and reservoir companies, irrigation districts and lateral companies. 

The price of the workshop is $50 for DARCA and Colorado Water Congress members and $100 for non-members. There is a limit of 50 participants. To register for the workshop, please visit www.darca.org or contact DARCA at 970-412-1960.

Join us for this breakthrough event in the Salinas Valley of California where permaculture, mainstream agriculture and support agencies are working together to support truly sustainable agriculture strategies for larger-scale agricultural operations. Participants will learn powerful, informative solutions in broadacre soil building, soil carbon sequestration, water harvesting techiques, and agroforestry for temperate farms and m0re.

It is accredited through the local water quality control board and has been funded by NOAA since these permacultural approaches support estuaries, fisheries and overall ecosystem health. Our funding from NOAA allows us to charge a minimal fee for this opportunity--$100 for 3 days. The fees include lunch and dinner. The event will be translated into spanish throughout the three days.

The course is being taught by the following experienced and visionary instructors:

• Darren Doherty – a fifth generation Australian farmer, Darren has worked throughout the world designing and developing more than 1,000 properties, specializing in water management systems and soil building techniques for large-scale agricultural properties. One of the world's foremost permaculture design professionals, Doherty has taught hundreds of classes around the world, including teaching extensively with the founders of permaculture design, Bill Mollison and David Holmgren. 
• Penny Livingston Stark – founder and co-director of the Regenerative Design Institute, Penny has more than 25 years of experience in all phases of ecologically sound landscape design and construction. She specializes in the planning and design of resource-rich landscapes, integrating rainwater collection, edible landscaping, pond and water systems, habitat development and watershed restoration for homes, co-housing communities, businesses and diverse-yield perennial farms.
• Lisa Lurie – the Agriculture Water Quality Coordinator at the Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary, Lisa coordinates and tracks implementation of the Sanctuary's Agriculture and Rural Lands Plan. Lisa has a Master's degree in Environmental Management from Duke University with an emphasis on community-based watershed management. Lisa's experience also includes work with an Ecuadorian conservation commission on projects related to protected areas management, sustainable agriculture, community forestry, and environmental education.
• Ken Oster - soil scientist with the USDA National Resource Conservation Service.

Contact the Regenerative Design Institute for more information about the course, or view the website listed below.

In 2009, we are celebrating the centennial of the arrival of the great American
conservationist Aldo Leopold in the Southwest as a ranger with the fledging U.S.
Forest Service. Over the course of a diverse and influential career, Leopold eloquently
advocated a variety of critical conservation concepts, including wilderness protection,
sustainable agriculture, wildlife research, ecological restoration, environmental
education, land health, erosion control, biological holism, watershed management,
and, of course, a land ethic.
Each of these concepts resonates today – perhaps more so than ever as the
challenges of the 21st century grow more pressing. But it was Aldo Leopold’s
emphasis on conserving whole systems – soil, water, plants, animals and people
together – that resonates most strongly today. The health of the whole system, he
argued, is dependent on its indivisibility. And the knitting force was a land ethic
– the moral obligation we feel to protect soil, water, plants, animals, and people.
Leopold’s call for a land ethic is the root of what is being called a new agrarianism,
an intermixing of ranchers, farmers, conservationists, scientists and others who
aim to create a regenerative economy that works in harmony with nature. Leopold
is the spiritual mentor to this hopeful effort.
In this ‘practitioners’ Conference, we will feature speakers
who are “living Leopold” in their work – people who are
implementing his vision on the back forty, where the land
ethic is alive and well.

Come to the 9th World Wilderness Congress (WWC)

in Merida, Yucatan, Mexico!

WILD9 will gather international conservation leaders from politics, science, academia, the private sector, arts and native communities to discuss and act on the most pressing environmental issues of our time.  Held every 3 – 4 years, the WWC is a type of Conservation Olympics to showcase innovation, best-practices and models in an interactive, results-oriented forum.    WILD9's principal theme is the critical role wilderness plays in mitigating climate change and conserving biodiversity.

Confirmed presenters include Dr. Jane Goodall; Mexican Environment Minister Juan Elvira; Canadian Environment Minister Jim Prentice; Indian economist Pavan Sukhdev; IUCN President Dr. Ashok Khosla; Nobel laureate Mario Molina; Tashkã Yawanawá, chief of Brazil’s Yawanawá Indians; Rocky Mountain Institute founder and energy expert Amory Lovins; and Stephan Harding, Gaia theory expert, among others.  

Currently, women represent only 15.2% of Fortune 500 company board membership and we are out to change that!

The event will educate and prepare women for board service. Our panelists are top-level executives with extensive board experience and a desire to share their knowledge and necessary tools for serving as a director.

Topics include: being an effective board member; how to position yourself to get on a board; how to transition from serving on non-profit boards to for profit boards.

"Take Me to the River", is a favorite song for the nostalgia-bound and the theme of the 2009 Bluff Arts Festival scheduled from November 13 - 15.  Our 5th annual event has evolved into a multi-faceted venue melding visual, literary, scientific and musical arts into one eclectic happening.

Everything revolves around the San Juan River this year.  We launch on Friday afternoon, November 13, with a river ecology lecture and hike and a presentation of the geology and hydrology of the San Juan River.  We follow with a most unusual art installation, the creation of "The River's Gift", a land art sculpture guided by artist J.R. Lancaster and created by all Bluff Arts Festival participants.  

Friday evening will prove most eventful and based on early reservations, there is strong interest in our presentation of "Everett Ruess - Final Desert Trail?" with author David Roberts; local artist Denny Bellson; adventurer Vaughn Hadenfeldt and Navajo NationSupervisory Archaeologist, Ron Maldonado.  The most recent revelations about this young adventurer only add another later to his mysterious and many-layered story

Workshops and artistic presentations on Saturday demonstrate the deep commitment the Bluff Community has to artists and the sharing of creative processes.  The day is filled with writing workshops by David Roberts; writer and outdoor educator, Ann Weiler Walka; and writing coach, Sandra Dorr.  Our featured artist, Stephanie DeGeorge, along with local artist, Gary Guymon, will lead a plein air painting and drawing workshop at the river.

After your mind is filled with creative learning, unwind at our Arts Fair, featuring regional visual creations and our annual Trail of the Artists receptions which spotlight local talent on a walking/cycling tour across the Bluff community.  To close the day's events, sit back and enjoy the foundation and a perennial favorite of this wonderful, our "Poetry, Prose and Potluck" evening.

Sunday morning brings a beautiful close to a beautiful weekend.  Join us at Sand Island for "The River's Reflection - Navajo and Anglo Remembrances of the River". Hot beverages and muffins will be served as we gather around a bonfire and listen to stories from locals who know the history of the river, a closing festivity which promises a lot of laughs and a few surprises.

Reservations are required for workshops and the Everett Ruess presentation, so be sure to contact us ahead of time. All events are free unless otherwise noted and will be held in Bluff, Utah, or Sand Island Campground and Visitor Center located 3 miles west of Bluff, Utah, on U.S. Highway 191.  For a more detailed schedule, visit bluffutah.org.

Bluff is a great place to get away and offers many wonderful activities before, during and after the festival.  Explore remote canyons and cliffs.  Walk or bike the historic district.  Visit the Bluff Great House and Bluff Fort.  Run the river.  Marvel at our star-filled sky.  Encounter wildlife, human and otherwise.  Discover ancient rock art and ruins.  Relax.  Unwind.  Enjoy.

Bluff Arts Festival is funded by the Utah Arts Council, Utah Humanities Council, San Juan County Economic Development, Rocky Mountain Power, Business Owners of Bluff, and the Bluff Arts and Education Foundation.

How do we provide sustainable fuel, food, fiber and fresh water to a global population of 9 billion people in our lifetime? That’s one of the critical issues we’ll explore during E3 2009. New this year, the conference features a lunchtime panel discussion with national experts, track sessions focused on the big questions of the 21st century, and a series of “Green on the Ground” workshops.

Hosted annually by the University of Minnesota’s Initiative for Renewable Energy and the Environment, a signature program of the Institute on the Environment, the E3 conference showcases current technologies, environmental benefits and market opportunities in renewable energy. Each November, scientists, movers and shakers, and policymakers from across the Midwest and beyond join together to share knowledge and discoveries.

Stay tuned to our Web site, www.iree.umn.edu/e3  for the latest details on E3 2009, including announcements of our keynote speakers and track session line-up. Don’t miss the Midwest’s premier energy, economic and environmental conference!

This conference will explore and evaluate potential and existing Native American Renewable Energy Projects and discuss the development of energy sufficiency, economic growth and employment in Indian Country.  This event will feature panel topics that will:

-       discuss federal energy policy and government initiatives

-       explore different financing options

-       explain risks and obstacles that could arise in developing renewable energy projects

The "Cleaning Stars" program, offered through Lyfstar,Inc, is a program that teaches children ages 7-14 the importance and principals of cleaning their environment, in the home or at school, using a non-toxic, biodegradable cleaner especially designed for them. 

During the two hour program children will learn how to properly clean to reduce flu virus and bacteria transmission. 

At the end of the program Children will be able to demonstrate how, and why it is important, to properly clean counters, sinks, their school desks, floors, and hands.

 Each participant will receive their own "Lyfstar" multipurpose spray cleaner, "Lyfstar" dirt boxing mit, natural sink scrubber and "Cleaning Star" certificate from Lyfstar,Inc. All the tools needed to start a "Cleaning Star" program at home to help busy parents!

*The program will be taught by Michelle Shewchuk, BsN, CEO,President of Lyfstar,Inc and former Registered Nurse with experience in Infection Control and teaching children in schools through Public Health and Community Health nursing. 

We produce the largest sustainable lifestyle event in the Northwest. Find everything green, good and sustainable in one place - Portland, Oregon. The Energy Trust Better Living Home and Garden Show. If you are looking to live a more earth friendly life, this is the festival for you. Seminars, workshops and music add to the expo. Admission is free to this show.  Contact Michael O'Loughlin for this and other trade shows.

American Indian World's Fair. An invitation to all indigenous cultures of the world to share their unique cultural expressions with indigenous peoples of other tribes and a formal request for participation by dance groups, musicians, poetic and literary artists, pow-wow folks, war mothers and veteran's societies, seventh generation youth and golden age groups, tribal tourism, art and craft vendors and tribal commercial exhibits, sponsors and volunteers are welcomed. We also send out an invitation to all four directions of the world to invite the four races of mankind, the red, the yellow, the black and the white to participate, share, experience and taste this unique event of ten thousand years of cultures, one hundred-fifty tribal nations, 10 days all at one location - Tucson, Arizona, USA. To be held on December 30, 2011 through January 9, 2012. "Thunder in the Desert 2012" will feature parades, fashion shows, birds of prey, equestrian events, pow-wows, concerts, midnight friendship dance, elder's, veterans', children's and world indigenous people's exhibition days and a lot more.