Welcome to the Forest Ranch… a space where we come to talk about rebuilding, reconnecting and enjoying the abundance that comes from Earthcare and people care.

Forest Ranch is a place that invokes wildness and human intervention – two things that belong together. We, humans, evolved for a long time with other organisms but at some point, we started changing quicker than everything else due to our ability to mimic other organisms.  In any case, we are here, in great numbers but our relationship to the natural world is confusing and inconsistent. Some suggest we don’t integrate telling us to “leave no trace.” Others think that no amount of integration or impact will adversely affect ecosystems or the global climate. So what’ll it be?

Leave No Trace?

Leave no trace is so absolute that most people avoid interacting with nature altogether. They begin to see nature as the untouched wilderness; a place that humans inhabit as completely separate from that nature. What’s worse is that as time goes on, people seem to become unaware of the interconnectedness we are supposed to have not only with our environment but also with each other. Everything becomes isolated, our norm becomes ourselves apart, isolated, alone.

This change is ever apparent in the frequencies of cancer, depression, suicide. Society’s answer is medication and technology. Rarely do people ask why these things have increased, but when overlaid with our disconnection from our environment and from each other, a relationship emerges. 

Nonconsensual Dominion?

My own father implores that we exhaust every drop of fossil fuel and that changes to the climate are inevitable and have no connection to human activity.  Fortunately, my father is not a climate scientist. I love my father and try to remind him that those words are the rhetoric of people who hold investments in land, oil, infrastructure and more.  Investments that also include hundreds of millions of dollars in lobbying. There are many status quos that keeps government and business from considering a harmonious relationship with the land, air, and water while also making an investment in clean/green technology unattractive.  What can we do when the people with the most power to make change… won’t?

Let’s be Intentional

• I believe that we are in a state of environmental emergency and that the stakes are high.
• I believe that building community and relationships activates our potential for environmental regeneration.
• I believe that being involved with the environment on a daily basis will remind us that we are part of it.
• I believe in the power of consumer choice is still the most powerful force to regenerate air, soil, and waterways in our current capitalist system. 
• I believe we must support and encourage those in this regenerative movement including those doing things that we won’t or can’t do. 
• EVERY EFFORT COUNTS!

Get Involved

I invite you to join the discussion. Provide your views and enrich the conversation. Correct my errors and feel to respectfully disagree with me. Through discussion and honesty and leaving ego at the door, I hope to further the conversation and create beautiful experiences for all who visit. Let’s do our best in this life and make numerous positive changes. Small personal changes combined with those of  a growing community of like-minded individuals, we can accomplish great things.

How to Connect

YouTube

Here you’ll find fresh videos about regenerative agriculture and regenerative culture including inspirational mentors from Central Pennsylvania and beyond.

The Forest Ranch Blog

The blog features reflections and articles about regenerative agriculture, permaculture, clean local seasonal food and much more.

Instagram

Our Instagram will help to promote our videos and literature but also include daily observations that may have more than surface meaning. We hope our pictures invite you to stop and think while sharing in the beauty of natural living.