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
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. Tickets $8 at the door (Libby's website)
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>>
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Past Events
Winter term, 2008
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.
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.