Living Earth Adult Foundations (LEAF)

Relationship
Resourcefulness
Re-Wilding and Re-Inspiring

In this world of technology and choice, we find ourselves busier than ever. Many of us feel alienated from the core of life, moving faster than feels healthy, wondering if we are connected to what is truly important.

Yet it has not always been this way. Even in this modern world there is a surefire way to return to ourselves with clarity and strength: nature connection.

Living Earth Adult Foundations—LEAF—is an invitation to remember the most vibrant parts of yourself. For one weekend a month, you have a chance to disconnect from phones and to-do lists, and reconnect to the peace of staring into a fire, the rejuvenation of sleeping under the stars, the inspiration of learning the plants you can eat on the landscape, the joy of laughing and learning with a community of like-minded people.
Our mission is to bring nature connection into your life in a powerful way. We explore skills that build competence and confidence, expand awareness, and create a thriving community of passionate students of life and the natural world.

Graduates say that LEAF has made them more resilient in the face of life’s struggles and sorrows. They say it gave them the courage to make big life changes. They say they laughed more than they expected, and felt quickly comfortable with the group. They say it helped them feel more at home in their own backyards and more comfortable exploring wild places. Nature connection practices can empower us to feel more grounded and potent in our lives, or as Ryan Eliason says “to become an unstoppable force for good.”

LEAF’s Core Curriculum Elements:

Routines of Connection. Learn the art of natural movement, how to use all your senses to listen deeper, and connect with the seasonal rhythms of the land. You will explore core practices that help you develop a deep relationship with place that will bear fruit in other aspects of your life.

Wildlife Track and Sign. The forest is teeming with life! You will learn to read animals’ stories on the landscape through tracks, trails, scratches, feeding signs, feathers, bones, kill sites, and trails. Tracking opens up the animal world like nothing else.

Wildcrafting/Plants in Human Life. The “wall of green” is actually made up of hundreds of our plant allies. You will learn identification, ethical harvesting, crafting with natural materials, medicine making, and how to transform greens, fruits, nuts, and bark into edible feasts. Crafting useful things with materials from the land is a deeply satisfying creative act.

Tending the Earth. We seek to be in dynamic reciprocity with the earth, recognizing that we are one strand in a complex, beautiful ecology. Humans, in balance, are caretakers of the earth. We will learn to wield our skills and ability to help the earth heal and return to health and vitality.

Survival Skills. Cultivate your creativity and resourcefulness as we practice fire by friction, shelter building, water filtration, stone tools, and primitive cooking. These ancient skills bring a sense of satisfaction, competence, and belonging.

Inner Tracking and Community. At the heart of healthy community is peacemaking, both within ourselves and in relation to others. We embrace skills of authenticity, reflection, and conscious living. We sing, we share stories, and we co-create culture.

Bird Language. You will learn individual bird identification as well as patterns of vocalizations that allow you to determine if nature is in baseline or if there is something creating a disturbance. The birds mirror our awareness of the landscape, giving us a pulse of the web of life.

Who is LEAF?

Since starting the program in 2015, we have had every age decade represented from 20’s to 60’s, as well as various races, religions and orientations. “City-folk” with little to no camping experience have come together with seasoned wilderness therapy instructors and everyone in between. Parents, single people, grandparents, couples…educators, engineers, stay-at-home-parents, health practitioners and military personnel have come. Our collective curiosity about the natural world and our openness to connection has woven sweet threads of community each year.

Core instructors Hub Knott and Erin (Soupy) Campbell guide students with humor, experience and “the beginner’s mind,” the belief that we are all perpetual students. One student reflected, “I was challenged, yet held…Hub and Soupy met me where I was at.” (See our staff bio page for more on Hub and Soupy.)

Here’s how the course works:

Each weekend contains routines like sharing gratitude, making fire, going to our “sit spot” to quietly observe, singing songs, and sharing meals. The weekends generally have a central theme such as tracking, edible plants or bird language, yet we revisit skills and weave together seemingly unrelated elements. Within this structure, we sink into core practices that builds one’s connection to nature and community. Our teaching styles vary, with lots of storytelling, sensory activities that activate less-used parts of our brains, active-bodied games, and many questions. We believe “the learning is in the doing,” which makes for experiential, embodied weekends.

We will have special guest instructors for certain weekends, and we’ll take one or two field trips in the local area.

LEAF is a popular program that fills quickly. Over the course of 9 months we become a tight-knit community. Because of LEAF’s popularity, we ask you to consider realistically if you are able to be present to each weekend and to this community. We know that life moves in unexpected ways and that you might need to miss a weekend or a day here or there. So please consider if your full presence at this program is realistic for you, and if not, graciously allow someone else to register.

Come join us in the woods. Take a breath of fresh air, sink your roots in deep, and experience the power of the Earth as Mentor. Step aside, and let the wilderness do the work.

We are passionate about spreading nature connection to whoever wants it, and we are committed to diversifying our programs. Financial aid and work trade opportunities are one way that we encourage this diversity—please see the info box below!