Why subscribe?
My name is Don Elzer. I am a wildcrafter, an artist, a teacher, mystic, ecologist and adventurer. For more about me, see: www.donelzer.com
I am the steward of the Wildcraft Forest. Stewardship represents the means by which we all create a tangible relationship with nature and through this process we create meaning and purpose within ourselves, our community and world. Stewardship brings into being the peace that we have all been searching for.
The Forest proper represents 600 acres of riparian old growth and wildcrafted forests within a larger 15,000 acre remote wild area that we seek to steward. Within this forest there are two water sources separated by a single mountain. On one side of the mountain we work a headwaters area that represents the source of the Fraser River; on the other side of the mountain we work a headwaters for the Columbia River.
In short, here’s why it's unique and wonderful. These forests and these watersheds provide more freshwater to the Pacific than any other water system in the Americas.
The Forest is a gateway to understanding how life and this planet works and provides an opportunity to experience the insights and gifts of relationships. I have learned here that what we do at the source of these places ends up creating a ripple of energy that can be felt and seen at the estuaries where this water meets the ocean.
I have learned and shared with others that nature holds a mysticism which includes humans as caretakers….stewards.
What I’m going to do in this almanac is explain why creating a personal relationship with nature is necessary, why stewardship is important; and how creating one’s soul meaning and purpose is possible.
What’s in it for you?
I will make it possible for you to centre your life, discover your direction, and hopefully invent a new and better future.
Here’s how:
Subscribe to this Forest Almanac on Substack. This venue is important for myself and the community here at the Wildcraft Forest. Our work does not exist within a wilderness vacuum. The engine of capitalism, government policy and consumer behavior all mixes with corruption and greed to destroy these ecosystems and poison the water. So we fight like hell and these fights require us to share stories and solutions as they are needed – so as a subscriber you will be supporting our efforts to report the news.
So please subscribe.
You can also subscribe to our streaming channel on Roku. On the Wildcraft Forest Channel we present documentaries that we have created right in the forest. We share our observations along with the science and spirit we find within ecosystems. Please subscribe at: www.wildcraftforestchannel.com
Enroll in one of our learning programs. We share what we learn and we have now delivered our programs into over 30 countries. Join us: www.wildcraftforest.com
Join our community virtually or in person. Sponsor our work or engage with the stewardship work that we do. The Wildcraft Forest Foundation has a variety of extension programs. Explore: www.mothertreehub.com and www.wildcraftforestschool.com
You can visit our community and visitor centre and explore the “Trail of Song” one of Canada’s “Healing Forests”. Visit us: www.wildcraftforestemporium.com
You can find me on Facebook, Instagram and TicTok but for the most part I’m migrating to Substack and streaming on Roku.
The Longer Story
The forest represents the source of the human experience and it remains at the core of what gives us both comfort and fear. Whether we dwell within the ecology of the forest or whether we use it as a metaphor to describe civilization, it offers us a root understanding of the landscape connected to the Earth and our world.
I have spent over four decades seeking to understand the forest while defending it and imagining humanity as returning to the sacredness that it holds. I have been an artist, poet, journalist, publisher and researcher. I have also been a specialist within rural community planning that has included Canada’s First Nations Treaty Process. I am a founder and advocate for several initiatives including the Wildcraft Forest School which links people to spiritual stewardship that includes nature.
Today we are experiencing a new form of colonization as oligarchies create global problems and then task themselves with trying to solve these same problems without any real understanding of how they got there. This colonization causes crimes against humanity as well as crimes against nature and within all of it there is a complete lack of responsibility mixed with profound ignorance that displays arrogance and entitlement.
The people who lead us are not the sharpest tools in the shed – but the trouble is we have chosen them to lead us.
So there is a certain desperation that occurs in our communities. Viktor Frankl might have called it Anomic Depression. To combat it we must find our true meaning and purpose so that we may see our way through the darkness. But where do we begin?
First let’s inquire and examine today’s events through a lens that considers nature as sentient and intelligent.
Second, let’s explore how things work while celebrating the great mysteries that surround us whether they are scientific, social or spiritual.
Third let’s make things and grow things with our hands based on our own passions and ideas.
Fourth let’s tell stories – good ones. Let’s straddle the line between fiction and non-fiction so that we may learn ahead of others – what’s next.
Finally, fifth let’s make better plans.
These five points represent the meaning of this magazine and the purpose surrounding them will be to provide a vantage point from the forest which will be unique within the information landscape today.
The Wildcraft Forest represents a rural facility in the southern area of British Columbia, it represents the longest running non-institutional artist run centre outside of Vancouver and has been an example of how Canadian counter-culture had evolved since the draft-dodger era. As I type this out from one of the original forest studios I can look over and see a building that still houses an AB Dick 385 printing press used to produce an alternative magazine and small books during the 1980’s and 90’s. I hold the scars in my lungs operating a poorly ventilated darkroom in a repurposed chicken coop. All for the cause – we knew then what we know today - ecosystems and the planet are in peril – few listenened then and really few listen today.
This was a place that voiced the back-to-the-land movement from people who were actually doing stuff….the real stuff that inspires the hipsters in the cities and the suburbs today. For over 40 years we have been figuring out how to do more with less – now it’s a rather new idea but an idea not to be believed because it’s simply too hard to imagine.
Work at it. It’s possible and within that work you will find happiness.
As a wildcrafter I would eventually find myself deeper and deeper into the forest and spiritually transformed by nature and this has resulted in a transitioning of those counter-culture ideas into a form of spiritual stewardship which considers that the natural world is sentient and that we should build a caring relationship with it. At the Wildcraft Forest School we sought to evolve this narrative so that it challenges the norms that are choking human civilization – that’s what I write about.
But these messages that I share are not for everyone and that’s ok.
But look how far you got?
You and I may have a soul connection that requires our view of the future to be cleared of fog – and we both know that we simply need to have patience and that patience requires bits of inspiration that will cause us to dwell on the mountain top for a bit longer. We both know that the Sun, beauty and love will prevail.
Since the late 1990’s the Wildcraft Forest has transitioned most of its media away from print to virtual. I began writing about environmental, political and cultural issues within a number of magazines and newspapers and eventually served as a columnist with Glacier Media, however my true home as a creative and a journalist remains as an independent – in the forest.
When social media became a thing I found it to be a valuable tool for reaching our narrow direct action audience but that soon changed during the pandemic and our collective voice has slowly become censored by elite tech. It’s bizarre; all any of us here are trying to do is to make things better.
It is my hope that Substack will be the vehicle where I can nurture my contributions for helping out. When one generates ideas and tangible actions there are always times of painful reflection and a diagnosis of how sick and broken things have become. It’s a very bad idea to block the diagnosis of things. So I will attempt to be relentless and will treat Substack as an extension of our old printshop in the barn and coop.
You will become our financial support, not corporations. For $6 dollars a month, or $55 a year, I will be able to provide you with regular features, reports, podcasts and shorts which will boil your awareness regarding issues that you have never been exposed to before; provide solutions; and bring you to a calmness that only nature can provide. Much of this will be exclusively for subscribers. Please subscribe.
What you will get:
Subscribers will receive, in addition to my weekly Tuesday column a weekly Friday feature which includes interesting trends, nature driven content and elements of plant spirit medicine. Shared with subscribers is a Wednesday podcast shared from our Wildcraft Forest Channel on Roku. There are many articles that are only for paid subscribers and these folks have periodic access to direct chats with me.
This is a big part of my day job now so it is my hope that you will join me in the forest.
Join us in the forest:
My stories are reports which bring together people who have a connection with nature. Be part of this community of people who share your interests.
It costs $6 a month, or $55 annually, to receive the weekly column, the weekly feature and a podcast or documentary with bonus material and posts exclusively for subscribers.
To find out more about the Wildcraft Forest Foundation visit:
www.wildcraftforestchannel.com
www.wildcraftforest.com
www.wildcraftforestschool.com
And our Forest Almanac at: www.forestalmanac.com
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What you get:
The weekly Tuesday column, along with columns that will only be for subscribers, plus the podcast with the extended interviews and invitations to chats will go directly to your inbox.
