Thanks for a wildly successful rendezvous!

Huge thanks to all the volunteers who organized the gathering, drove the shuttle vans, cooked meals, hauled water, dug latrines, and cleaned up afterward. Your hard work made Wild Earth a howling success!

The Wild Earthlings gratefully acknowledge those who contributed financial support to the gathering. Over $4000 was raised in April and May to cover food, supplies, camp gear, and transportation. The donation jar at the rendezvous collected almost $1000 from a hundred participants. Those donations made all the difference! The funds covered all our costs and even allowed us to reimburse many of the workshop presenters for their travel.

Props to our biggest supporters:
- Allan Antliff, Victoria
- Alberni Environmental Coalition, Port Alberni
- Cowboy Coffee, North Vancouver
- Rainforest Action Network, California
- Global Greengrants Fund, Colorado

Thank you!

Qwatsinas gives a Nuxalk name to baby Lily, now known as "Qax" (Salmonberry) with parents Osha and Justin.

Hala'qwit, songkeeper for the Ditidaht First Nation, and his daughter welcome the campers.

Hadikin Lake, near the upper Walbran Valley. A small lake with a fringe of old growth forest on Ditidaht territory, with good drinking water and a dock for swimming. Hadikin Lake is two hours drive down logging roads from Lake Cowichan. This informal campsite on Crown land is free and has no electricity, plumbing, or other amenities. (The Wild Earthlings will provide meals, snacks, drinking water, coffee, tea, wash stations, and latrines.)

Update - Thursday May 24th
Here’s the latest: everything is coming together beautifully. Thanks to all the presenters and volunteers who have signed up. Thirty different workshops and events are already scheduled – see below.

Forecast: Be prepared for cool, rainy weather. Temperatures may drop to 6 degrees (42 F) at night. Sunny and hot weather is equally likely. Bring warm clothes, wool socks, rubber boots, and rain gear, as well as a tent, sleeping bag, cup, bowl and spoon, medications, mosquito repellent, sun screen, drums and musical instruments. The Wild Earth camp - workshops, campfires, and kitchen - are alcohol and drug free. Please be responsible.

Wild Earth is 100% volunteers. Your help with food prep, cleanup, childcare, transportation, and cash is enormously appreciated. A sliding scale donation ($20 to 50) is suggested. Breakfast, lunch and dinner is provided each day, along with drinking water, coffee and tea.

Google Map: Click here to view the interactive Google Map of Hadikin Lake. Use the satellite view to see the landscape. (Logging roads are not well marked on Google, so we'll be creating a hand-drawn map to post here.)

miywâsin-wayawîwinîk

Beautiful Outside Home
Special event at Wild Earth
Saturday, June 2, 1:00 pm

A First Nations performance by Rob Hunter, Cree-Metis Scottish-Canadian musical artist and Wild Earthling. Discussion afterward about indigenous environmental perspective. Daily morning smudge offered by Rob Hunter as well. June 1 - 7 at Wild Earth.

Banner-making, tree climbing, non-violence training and more

Barking up a Tree
At Wild Earth, tree climbing trainers will be on hand each day to teach proper technique and safety for canopy research, banner hangings and treetop occupations. Fun for all ages!

Role-Playing Games
Non-violence trainers demonstrate how to de-escalate conflicts. Role-playing exercises put those skills to the test with mock confrontations. Take turns playing the "good guys" and the "bad guys."

Grassy Narrows
Find out more about the longest running forest defense blockade in Canada, established by First Nations in 2002 and still going on in Northern Ontario.

Finger Paints
Banner messaging is an art. This workshop provides materials, paint, and brushes (optional), plus tips on how to get the point across.

Jailhouse Rock
Ask a radical lawyer: he's on your side! Learn all about legal rights for arrestees, the ins and outs of injunctions, and what everyone risking arrest needs to know about the law.

Many more workshops will be announced once they're confirmed. For updates emailed directly to you, sign up for the Wild Earth list! See right-hand sidebar.

Meet the Wild Earth Keynote Speakers: Mike Roselle

Here at Wild Earth headquarters, the place is buzzing with emails and phone calls as folks respond to our announcement about this year's rendezvous.

One of yesterday's messages was from Mike Roselle, co-founder of Earth First!, the Ruckus Society, Rainforest Action Network, and countless other eco-groups. Now the publisher of Lowbagger -- and still the Man Without a Bioregion -- Mike has accepted our invitation to present a keynote address at Wild Earth 2007. Assuming, of course, that he can get across the border from Montana. His attorneys are already at work to clear those hurdles. (Go, team!)

Mike says he's lost count of how many times he's been arrested at nonviolent anti-war and environmental civil disobedience. His dispatches from the road can be read on Lowbagger.org.

Keynote speaker: Chief Qwatsinas

In the past few months I've been speaking with Chief Qwatsinas, (Ed Moody), a hereditary chief in the Nuxalk Nation. Qwatsinas and the House of Smayusta - Nuxalk traditionalists in Bella Coola - were the driving force behind the campaign to protect the Great Bear Rainforest in the 1990's. But the House of Smayusta did not sign on to the Great Bear Rainforest Agreement last year. Qwatsinas told me about his problems with the Great Bear deal while I was researching an article on the subject. Qwatsinas and a group of other traditional Nuxalk folks will be traveling to Wild Earth this year to discuss protecting Nuxalk territory and spirit bear habitat on the central coast.

Keynote speaker: Joe Foy

Joe Foy is one of Canada's best-known environmentalists. His campaign work with the Western Canada Wilderness Committee began in 1987. As National Campaign Director, he'll bring us up to date on the Committee's grassroots work to protect endangered species, old-growth rainforests, and provincial parks. Joe lives in the Vancouver area with his family.

The amazing Wild Earthlings

The group is small and dedicated -- an all-volunteer, grassroots, consensus project run on a shoestring budget. And what the Wild Earthlings achieve each year is nothing short of amazing.

Feedback from Wild Earth 2006 participants:

“I learned quite a bit, and my perception really changed. It was good to be around so many different kinds of people in such an inclusive environment."

“I’ve never done anything like this before. I feel like I’ve just woken up and discovered a purpose in life.”

“I’m so glad I had a chance to get to know you and your crew, and don’t you dare count me out of any actions you have planned.”

“I had such a great time at Wild Earth, I really appreciated all the time and energy you put into it. It was really well-organized and went smoothly.”

“I hope that one day I can come back to BC and work closely with you all.”

Sign up to volunteer, present a workshop or host a discussion! Download the poster and sign-up sheet here.

Wild Earth is funded in part by voluntary donations at the camp. Volunteers and presenters get in free. For more info, keep reading the posts below.

Only 89 days to go!

About Wild Earth

The Wild Earth 2007 Rendezvous is a training and networking gathering for activists and community members involved in rainforest protection. This year’s rendezvous will focus on imminent threats to old-growth rainforest in BC and prepare participants for action. Response to our outreach this winter has been strong, and several key BC environmental leaders, both native and non-native, are already committed to attending.

Since 1999, more than 800 Wild Earth participants have learned new skills, strategies, and contacts for forest activism. Wild Earth has hosted more than 75 workshops in an inclusive community-minded environment.

Wild Earth is modeled on the Ruckus Society and Rainforest Action Network activist training camps. The annual gathering (now in its 9^th year) is dedicated to individual and group empowerment through volunteer recruitment, skill-sharing and strategic alliances. The draft agenda includes discussions of First Nations campaigns, threats to old-growth rainforests, effective media strategies, non-violence, civil disobedience, tree-sits and blockades, legal rights, activist first aid and much more. We expect 150 to 200 people to participate from across Canada and the western United States.

The rendezvous is coordinated by a small team: long-time Wild Earthlings and qualified volunteers recruited in the past year.Last year’s success in reviving Wild Earth has brought us the tools and organizing capacity to help communities seeking environmental justice.

A Rendezvous in the Woods

Just Announced

Wild Earth Rendezvous
June 1 - 7, 2007

somewhere in the forest on the BC coast

Campaign strategies
Hard-working volunteers
New alliances

Join us this summer and plug in to the action

Now more than ever, rainforest protection needs every tool in the box. More organizers are joining the crew to prepare for the 2007 Wild Earth Rendezvous. Help promote the gathering, host a workshop and connect with fellow tree-huggers from all walks of life. Newcomers and veterans, natives and non-natives, young and old.