Beaver Crossing
March 4th, 2010
Chuck Pettis and new Beaver Xing Sign
The beavers have started crossing Newman Road by Earth Sanctuary. A neighbor called and asked me to put up a “Beaver Xing” sign. Voila!
The Earth Sanctuary Blog
“Pretty Spectacular”
February 8th, 2010“Felt like a child again. Walking through the trees in awe and enraptured with nature, totally free”
-Sheila Pack, Earth Sanctuary Retreatant
Sense of Being Part of Something Greater
February 6th, 2010“It’s January, the changing of the year, a time for death and the promise of rebirth. Among the brown leaves and wilted fern fronds, there are hints of new life to come. I found it inside myself too. Thank you.” -M.E. (Earth Sanctuary Retreatant)
New Trees Planted
January 25th, 2010We have just planted 200 new trees in the Earth Sanctuary arboretum. Trees planted this year are: sibeian spruce, white spruce, sitka spruce, sequoia, white pine, ponderosa pine, grand fir, pacific silver fir, douglas fir, western red cedar, port orford cedar, redwood, black cottonwood, dawn redwood, western larch, and two palm trees.
We selected these trees based on: a) the trees that survived the first year, b) drought resistence, and c) live at least 250 or 500+ years. We planted the palm trees just in case!
Is the Future Palm Trees & Parrots?
January 6th, 2010
Palm Tree at Earth Sanctuary
At Earth Sanctuary, we have a 500 year plan to return the property to mature old growth forest.
What trees should we plant with 500 years in mind? The problem is complicated by the fact that at Earth Sanctuary, we have seen much longer periods between summer rain in past 10 years. Last summer, we didn’t get any rain for 2 months and then the rain was only about 1/10″. This makes it hard for a lot of plants and trees to survive. The trees that are surviving are the drought tolerant trees such as pines and trees from California like Sequoias.
A few years ago I asked some biologists what they expected the climate to be like in 500 years and they said: “Imagine parrots.” So, we are getting ready for those future parrots. We have just planted two Palm trees in the Earth Sanctuary arboretum as a symbol of climate change and our potential future climate.
The Ava Pettis Sequoia
January 2nd, 2010
The just-planted Ava Pettis Sequoia
For Christmas I got a small Sequoia tree from my daughter-in-law Kat and son Morgan. Morgan is going to make a sign to go beside it: The Ava Pettis Sequoia Tree, named for my granddaughter. Hopefully Ava will be able to watch it grow to ~100 feet in her lifetime. The new Sequoia is now planted at the top of the Celestial trail in the new Earth Sanctuary arboretum beside a boulder cairn. Sequoias seem to do really well at Earth Sanctuary and we are planting more of them this year. -Chuck Pettis
A Tour of the Wetland Trail in December 2009
December 26th, 2009
In this video, I give a tour of the Wetland Trail, including the Tibet-Tech prayer wheel, the Cottonwood Stone Circle, the erratic boulder, a restoration area with 10 Native American medicine plants, and the Fen, a spring-fed peatland or bog. Chuck Pettis, Earth Sanctuary Founder
Walking the Middle Path Trail - Nov. 28, 2009
November 28th, 2009
The leaves have fallen on the trails at Earth Sanctuary. This is a video of me walking the Middle Path trail from top to bottom. - Chuck Pettis
“I want to belong.”
August 26th, 2009A story from a recent Earth Sanctuary retreatant:
After hours of trying “too hard” in my centering prayer, hours of waiting to hear the still, small voice of God, hours of sitting, piecing together scraps of discernment that may or may not be at my heart, I was moved to tears one twilight when I came upon the Fen Stone Circle. The tiny cairn with its offerings in the center opened me. “I want to belong,” I said aloud and fell to my knees, “I want to belong.”
Article in Change Magazine
August 12th, 2009Earth Sanctuary was featured in a nice article in Change Magazine.
