Public Events
The Spring Creek Project organizes creative gatherings of people in public places to imagine new ways of thinking about, and thus acting in, the world. Spring Creek-sponsored events have included everything from informal conversations between poets, philosophers, and scientists to nationally recognized weekend symposia, from theatre and musical performances to writing workshops to field trips.
Upcoming Events
Tuesday, December 1, 7 pm
“Where Does Our Food Come From?”
An evening with Gary Nabhan and Frank Morton
to benefit Ten Rivers Food
Web Historic Mary’s River Grange, Grange Hall Road, Philomath
$7-$20 sliding scale
FMI: Charles Goodrich, 737-6198
Past Events
Friday, October 23, 2009
Vandana Shiva, "Earth Democracy: Women, Justice, and Ecology"
10 am – 5 pm Seminars and workshops on the intersection of environmental justice and women’s lives
7 pm, LaSells Stewart Center -- Dr. Vandana Shiva, “Earth Democracy”
Vandana Shiva is the Director of The Research Foundation for Science, Technology and Natural Resource Policy. She was the recipient of the 1993 Right Livelihood Award, commonly known as the "Alternative Nobel Prize". A contributing editor to People-Centered Development Forum, she has also authored many books, including The Violence of the Green Revolution; Biopiracy: The Plunder of Nature and Knowledge; Monocultures of the Mind; Water Wars: Privatization, Pollution, and Profit, and Soil Not Oil: Environmental Justice in Age of Climate Crisis.
Monday, April 6, 7:00 pm: Jim Proctor:
"Geographies and Spiritualities of Ecotopia: Seeking and
Dwelling in Oregon Communities"
From meditative harmony to technological mastery, there
is a profound relationship between geography and spirituality in the
Pacific Northwest. Jim Proctor has conducted research on a range of
utopian Oregon communities-- ecovillages, destination resorts, and
GenX/creative class magnets. In this talk he'll discuss what he's
learned about utopias and dystopias at local, regional, and global
scales, how these ideal and nightmare worlds incorporate biophysical and
human nature, and how they mingle actual and imagined landscapes.
Read this Oregonian article, "Is Nature Sacred?" on Proctor's research.
Jim Proctor is Professor and Director of the Environmental Studies
Program at Lewis & Clark College in Portland, Oregon. His visit is co-sponsored by The Hundere Endowment for Religion and Culture, and the Spring Creek Project.
Thursday, March 5, 7 pm
"Environmental Degradation as a Human Rights Issue"
Steven Vanderheiden, Philosophy, University of Colorado Gilfillan Auditorium, OSU. Free and open to all.
Vanderheiden's talk is part of the IDEAS MATTER lecture series: "United Nations Declaration of Human Rights at 60"
For the complete IDEAS MATTER schedule click here.
Friday, February 27, 3 pm, Seminar with Flo Leibowitz and Tony Vogt, Hovland 104
Please join us for this presentation and discussion with the two previous Spring Creek Project Faculty Fellows.
Flo Leibowitz: "Picturing Nature in the Hubble Photographs."
The colorful astrophotographs from the Hubble Space Telescope and other space-based observatories arouse both scientific curiosity and aesthetic interest. Are the Hubble images of such objects as the Eagle Nebula and the Crab Nebula guiding 21st century imaginations of the cosmos much in the way that Albert Bierstadt’s paintings and Ansel Adams’ photographs helped shape 19th and 20th century conceptions of the American wilderness? How might these Hubble images influence our concepts of the sublime in nature, and the concept of “seeing” itself?
Tony Vogt: "Toward an Ethic of Solidarity."
The meanings of solidarity, and the ethical implications of solidarity as an embodied practice, are more often assumed than articulated. Social movements, including environmental movements, can offer insights into what might constitute an ethics of solidarity. How might an ethic of solidarity differ from, and perhaps complement, (some) other ethics? What promises and challenges might an articulated ethic of solidarity open to us, in terms of both our actions and perceptions?
Tuesday, February 24, 4 pm, “Changing Climates on Campuses,” with SueEllen Campbell, Memorial Union 208
Campbell will talk about Colorado State University's innovative, cross-disciplinary education initiative, “Changing Climates @ CSU,” and how two English professors have hooked up with atmospheric scientists, ecologists, political scientists, and many others to raise the visibility of the climate problem on a land-grant university campus--and to bring together many different ways of understanding and tackling it. So far the project has involved faculty from all eight colleges and some twenty-five departments in running four lecture series with total headcounts in the thousands. And it's all been remarkably inexpensive, not all that difficulty, and surprisingly rewarding.
SueEllen Campbell, professor of English at Colorado State University, is co-director of Changing Climates @ Colorado State University. Her latest book of literary/ environmental nonfiction is Even Mountains Vanish: Searching for Solace in an Age of Extinction; other publications include Bringing the Mountain Home and articles about American environmental literature and ecocriticism. She is now working on a guide to landscapes in nature and culture. The Web address for Changing Climates is http://changingclimates.colostate.edu.
Tuesday, February 17, 7-9 pm, “Re-inventing Ecological Restoration: Re-storation or Pre-storation?” with Anita Guerrini and Stan Gregory, Memorial Union 211
In these times of accelerating change -- new government and old policies, increases in hope and decreases in funding, increases in atmospheric carbon dioxide and sharply decreasing time to act -- we are offered a huge, maybe a last, opportunity to re-think the meaning and goals of ecological restoration. Join us for a discussion of the changing concept of ecological restoration with two exceptional thinkers, Anita Guerrini, Horning Professor in the Humanities, and Stan Gregory, professor in Fisheries and Wildlife.
We'll begin with a conversation between Anita and Stan about the relative importance of the past and the future in decisions about ecological restoration. That conversation will raise questions for smaller groups to discuss informally over dessert. Then we will come back together to share our observations, our questions, our insights. We hope you will join in the fray.
Professors are encouraged to bring one student. There is room for 40 participants, so please RSVP to Charles Goodrich by February 10.
Monday, November 17
Revitalizing Natural History Seminar and discussion with Thomas Lowe Fleischner , author, educator
Tom Fleischner is the author of two books, Singing Stone: A Natural History of the Escalante Canyons and Desert Wetlands, and he teaches Environmental Studies at Prescott College. He is a co-founder of the North Cascades Institute, and has served on the Board of Governors of the Society for Conservation Biology. Fleischner has written widely about rangeland issues, Canyonlands ecology, and the importance of natural history. He will be writer in residence at the HJ Andrews Experimental Forest the week preceding his visit to Corvallis.
FMI about Tom Fleischner’s work and links to his writings: http://www.prescott.edu/faculty_staff/faculty/tfleischner/
Wednesday, November 12
Trees and Forests of America Readings and slideshows with Tim Palmer, author / photographer Cosponsored with the OSU's Sustainable Forests Partnership
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Saturday, October 18
Let There Be Night: Testimony on Behalf of the Dark Reading with Kathleen Dean Moore, John Daniel and Paul Bogard, editor at Corvallis-Benton County Public Library, followed by Star Viewing sponsored by Heart of the Valley Astronomers at Adair County Park
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Book Launch:
In the Blast Zone: Catastrophe and Renewal on Mount St. Helens
7:30 pm, Friday, May 16 OSU Valley Library Rotunda Please join us for readings by Charles Goodrich, Frederick J. Swanson, and Kathleen Dean Moore, Tony Vogt
Most popular accounts of the momentous 1980 eruption of Mount St. Helens have focused on the devastation it caused. More recent scientific work on the volcano tells a story of unexpectedly rapid and varied ecological and geological change. In the Blast Zone is the first book to present a cross-pollination of literary and scientific perspectives on the mountain’s history of cataclysm and renewal.
Click here to read a review of In the Blast Zone
Other IN THE BLAST ZONE events:
4 pm, Sunday, May 18 Powells Bookstore, 1005 W. Burnside, Portland With Ursula LeGuin, Kim Stafford, Charles Goodrich, Frederick J. Swanson, Kathleen Dean Moore, and Tony Vogt
7 pm, Wednesday, May 21 University of Oregon Knight Library Browsing Room With Charles Goodrich, Frederick J. Swanson, and Kathleen Dean Moore
7 pm, Tuesday, May 27, Bellingham, WA, Village Books with Nalini Nadkarni, Susan Zwinger and Charles Goodrich
7 pm, Wed., May 28, Olympia, Orca Books with Nalini Nadkarni and Charles Goodrich
7 pm, Thurs, May 29, Seattle, UW Books with Tim McNulty and Charles Goodrich
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Saturday, May 24, 2008
Working and Writing the Woods: Volunteer Work Party and Free Writing Workshop with Ann Staley at the Cabin at Shotpouch Creek
The Spring Creek Project will hold its fourth annual work party and writing workshop Saturday, May 24, 2008 with a writer and teacher Ann Staley at the Cabin at Shotpouch Creek.
From 10 a.m. to 1 pm we will enjoy the camaraderie of friends and the vitality of outdoor labor as we maintain the Shotpouch hiking trails and tree plantings. After lunch, from 2 - 5 p.m., we’ll turn to a free writing workshop, exploring the prose and poetry of forests and nature. All are welcome, whatever your level of writing experience.
“Working and Writing the Woods” is limited to 20 participants. Please call or e-mail to reserve a place. charles.goodrich@oregonstate.edu, 737-6198.
The Trillium Project -- April 20 -- May 18, 2008
We at the Spring Creek Project invite you to participate in the Trillium Project during prime wildflower season -- April 20 to May 18, 2008 -- at the Cabin at Shotpouch Creek. We're inviting ideas from people from a wide variety of backgrounds and interests—artists, botanists, writers, biologists, musicians, philosophers, etc.—who might like to visit or stay at the cabin for an afternoon, a day and a night, or several days, to study and write (draw, photograph, compose songs, etc.) about the Shotpouch place itself... read more>>
Libby Roderick: A Concert for the Commons
Wednesday, April 9, 7:30 pm Alaskan singer/songwriter Libby Roderick, with Cassandra Robertson, Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of Corvallis, 2945 NW Circle Blvd., Corvallis.
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Who Owns the Sky?-The Tragedy or Triumph of the Commons
The Ideas Matter Lectures, "Who Owns the Sky? The Tragedy or Triumph of the Commons," featured historian Charles Wilkinson, novelist Kim Stanley Robinson, environmental designer Ted Jojola (Pueblo), legal scholars Eric Freyfogle and Mary Wood, ethnoecologist Devon Pena, marine ecologist Mark Hixon, and futurist David Korten, among others. Click here for COMPLETE SCHEDULE.
Click here to view STREAMING VIDEO of Ideas Matter talks.
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Oct. 26, 2007
Mary Evelyn Tucker, "The Emerging Alliance of Ecology and Religion”
Clink on the link to view a video of Mary Evelyn Tucker's lecture,
"The Emerging Alliance of Religion and Ecology," Oct. 26, 2007 http://media.oregonstate.edu/ramgen/philosophy/spring-creek-tucker.rm
Mary Evelyn Tucker is a director of the Forum on Religion and Ecology at Yale University where she has appointments in the School of Forestry and Environmental Studies as well as the Divinity School and the Department of Religious Studies. She is the author of Worldly Wonder: Religions Enter Their Ecological Phase (Open Court Press, 2003), She co-edited Worldviews and Ecology (Orbis, 1994), Buddhism and Ecology (Harvard, 1997), Confucianism and Ecology (Harvard, 1998), and Hinduism and Ecology (Harvard, 2000) and When Worlds Converge (Open Court, 2002). She edited Thomas Berry's book, Evening Thoughts: Reflecting on Earth as Sacred Community (Sierra Club Books and University of California Press, 2006). She is a member of the Interfaith Partnership for the Environment at the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and served as a member of the International Earth Charter Drafting Committee from 1997-2000. She is a member of the newly appointed Earth Charter International Council.
Director of the Forum on Religion and Ecology at Yale University
http://www.religionandecology.org/About/founders.php
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November 9, 2007
Gary Holthaus, “From the Farm to the Table: Modern Agriculture in Community”
Corvallis-Benton County Public Library, Main Meeting Room
Gary Holthaus is the author of several highly regarded books, including Wide Skies: Finding a Home in the West. An ordained minister, Holthaus has held readings as far away as Baghdad, Iraq. His new book, From the Farm to the Table, explores farmers' experiences to offer a deeper understanding of how we can create sustainable and vibrant land-based communities by cultivating agrarian values.
Reviews of From the Farm to the Table:
"Farmers all over the world have begun to choose a new path--a way of farming that is enjoyable and profitable for the farmers, leaves a small footprint on the planet, and makes a beneficial contribution to rural communities. Gary Holthaus has taken the time to listen to, and share with us, the stories of such new farmers, most of whom live near his own community in Minnesota. Then he contends that these wonderful farmers may be the harbingers of the future."--Fred Kirschenmann, Distinguished Fellow for the Leopold Center for Sustainable Agriculture at Iowa State University
"Rural America is not somehow 'behind us,' a part of a past that is no longer central to our lives. For all of us, Holthaus shows, the thinking of rural people is relevant to the well-being of the nation and far more complex than we have realized. This book provides fresh insight into what is going on in the rural countryside and what farmers themselves have thought about those changes."--Donald Worster, author of Nature's Economy: A History of Ecological Ideas
Co-sponsored by the Ten Rivers Food Web. http://www.tenriversfoodweb.org/
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Spring Term 2007 - Native American Philosophies
All lectures free and open to the public.
6:30 p.m. every Wednesday, Spring Term (April 4 to June 6, 2007), Gilfillan Auditorium, OSU. Available for course credit. Free to community members.
Wednesday, April 4 -- Leslie Marmon Silko, novelist (Ceremony)
Wednesday, April 25 -- Wilma Mankiller, Cherokee Nation leader
Wednesday, May 23 -- Linda Hogan, poet, novelist
Wednesday, June 6 -- Jan Michael Looking Wolf Reibach, native flute
Click here for the complete schedule.
Click here for more information about the Native American Philosophies course.
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May 2007 - The Trillium Project
The first annual Trillium Project took place at the Cabin at Shotpouch Creek during May, 2007. People with a wide variety of backgrounds and interests—artists, botanists, biologists, writers, musicians, philosophers, etc. came to the Cabin for an afternoon, a day and a night, or several days to study and write about the Shotpouch place itself, its history or philosophy or bird species or wildflowers or mosses or trout or soundscape or anything else on the land that excited their interest. As Trillium participants went about their ventures, exploring the creek, meadows, and upland forests, they also encountered new people and new ideas, finding inspiration and information in this special place, and also find interest in their encounters with others who are equally involved with the land.
The Trillium Project will be held again in the Spring 2008.
Download a full description of the Trillium Project, including directions on how to send us your proposal, and read more about the Cabin at Shotpouch. Please contact us if you have any questions.
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Sunday, April 1, 2007
Working and Writing the Woods: Volunteer Work Party and Free Writing Workshop
with Judith Barrington at the Cabin at Shotpouch Creek
The Spring Creek Project held its third annual work party and writing workshop Sunday, April 1 with a remarkable poet, memoirist and teacher Judith Barrington at the Cabin at Shotpouch Creek.
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January 25, 2007
"What Are Our Obligations to Future Generations?"
A Panel Interview with David Orr
What we do today -- the fossil fuels we burn or conserve, the toxins we choose or choose not to introduce into the air and water, the natural resources we mine or carefully steward, from the fish to the fertility of the fields, and the carelessness or the creativity and caring we bring to our decisions -- will determine the opportunities and lives of people not yet born. What obligations do we have to future generations? Do we have a responsibility to preserve natural resources and natural systems? To anticipate danger? Do we have an obligation to forbear from actions that risk irreversible harm? How can we balance our duties to the future against our obligations to meet the real and terrible needs of the present generation? These are the sorts of questions that were posed to environmental studies professor David Orr by four Corvallis panelists.
David Orr, best known for his pioneering work on environmental literacy in higher education, is Distinguished Professor of Environmental Studies at Oberlin College. He is the author of five books, including Earth in Mind and The Last Refuge: Patriotism, Politics, and the Environment, and editor of The Campus and Environmental Responsibility.
Four panelists posed questions to David Orr: Charlie Tomlinson, Mayor of Corvallis; Courtney Campbell, Chair of the Department of Philosophy, Oregon State University; Cristina Eisenberg, graduate student, OSU College of Forestry; and Kathleen Dean Moore, OSU philosophy professor and author of The Pine Island Paradox.
The event was sponsored by the Spring Creek Project for Ideas, Nature, and the Written Word; and the Starker Lectures in the OSU College of Forestry.
David Orr also delivered a Starker Lecture, "To ourselves and our posterity: Climate change and the rights to life, liberty, and property," at 4 pm, Thursday, January 25 in the CH2M Hill Alumni Center, Cascade Ballroom 110. For more information about Dr. Orr: http://www.cof.orst.edu/starkerlectures/presenters/orr.php
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Archive of past events
Review our other past events here.