Claws camping trips take students 11-17 into wild places. We climb mountains, ford rivers and sea kayak. Students test their edges and boundaries as they learn skills needed to overcome challenges. We move through fascinating terrain and waters, having fun while practicing mindfulness. We gain the ability to control our thoughts and movements—like seal, fish...Continue Reading
Biocitizen is so pleased to welcome Mason Lollis-Taylor as an Assistant Teacher in the Our Place Summer School! (More: Living Rivers School) Mason trained with us last year, and has learned so much about teaching Field Environmental Philosophy in Western Massachusetts. After the Summer School concluded, he went to Nepal to immerse himself in Himalayan...Continue Reading
Humans like to separate. Sometimes, that isn’t our fault- it can come down to biology. Our left brains ground us with logic, a knack for detail, and a ordered sequencing. Scientific thought thrives here, in this space where we can label and organize our world around it. In contrast, our right brain inspires inquiry, adventure, and...Continue Reading
Wonder – Connection – Stewardship Imagine moments from your childhood – your first encounter with the wonder and majesty of the wild – I like to remember the moment I first figured out how to dive under a wave. Do you remember that feeling of committing to driving on through the water, under the breaking wave…the...Continue Reading
Kurt here—once upon a time (1998) I was invited by Ricardo Rozzi and Francisca Massardo to visit Navarino Island, where they were conducting conservation biology research. I am not a scientist, so while they were busy I freewalked the Dientes Range. In 2000, they invited me to be a co-founder of the Omora Ethnobotanical Park....Continue Reading
Biocitizen is so pleased to welcome Ursa Heidinger as the Assistant Director of Biocitizen NY! Ursa has been a part of Biocitizen from the very beginning, and has taught Field Environmental Philosophy in Western Massachusetts for several years. She moved to NYC three years ago and realized that if Los Angeles has an Our Place...Continue Reading
Phoebe Gelbard has been building our school of Field Environmental Philosophy since 2015, when she was a junior at Northampton High School. Biocitizen is grateful for her service to the hundreds of students she’s taught. She’s grown with us as we experiment with and codify FEP curricula and itineraries, and is ready to become one...Continue Reading
For many of us, our first attraction to nature arose from a good feeling of perceiving beauty in flowers, waves, the sky. Bird song. This good feeling—of biophilia—is key to environmental philosophy because it inspires a yearning to perceive, and understand, nature more deeply. Biophilia is also a key element of environmental conservation, because it inspires...Continue Reading
Biocitizen is so pleased to welcome Sabrina Moore to the Living Rivers School senior staff! Sabrina is a graduate student at the University of North Texas pursuing a PhD degree in Biology. Her main research area involves the aquatic ecology of the Robalo River and the effect of invasive rainbow trout on the phenology of invertebrate...Continue Reading
WHAT IS BIOCITIZEN? The word “biocitizen” is a contraction of “biotic citizen,” a term and idea conceived by Aldo Leopold (1887–1948) who is widely celebrated for conceiving the “land ethic.” A thing is right when it tends to preserve the integrity, stability, and beauty of the biotic community. It is wrong when it tends otherwise. A […]
Charlie is a recent graduate from Wesleyan University who is just beginning to get his footing in the big wide world and figure out where he’s going. Although he majored in music, his studies always seemed to circle around environmentalism and the more-than-human world, a cross pollination which began the summer after his freshman year […]
Lugar son historias en las que vivimos. Y algunos lugares nos gustan más que otros. ¿Por qué? Ricardo Rozzi nos cuenta una historia sobre un lugar que ama. —secundo de […]
Lugar son historias en las que vivimos. Y algunos lugares nos gustan más que otros. ¿Por qué? Yubitza Bermúdez nos cuenta una historia sobre un lugar que ama. —primero de […]
Westhampton, MA