As wild kin who heeds to the primordial call of the Earth Mother, we come to this gathering with hearts intertwined in the service of continued Life. We will venture into the last primeval forests and be schooled by the intelligence and mystery of ancient mycelial communities. We will discuss how fungi have been evolving as Earth stewards for millions of years: connecting and feeding their ecological communities; remediating oil spills and metal contamination; cleansing and filtering toxic runoff; boosting growth of native and agricultural flora; building soil at incredible speeds; strengthening the immunity of bees and other pollinators; generating biofuels; and extracting radioactive particles from soil following nuclear disasters. We will also tune in to the inner dialogue of the forest, deeply listening to and observing how she nurtures thriving interdependent living communities. Let us share our gratitude for the oxygen, water, physical and dietary nourishment, medicine, carbon sequestration, and so much more that the forest offers so generously.
Yet, in this anthropocenic time, we cannot continue taking the forest’s gifts without reciprocating. This is a time for fury, passion, dedication, and responsibility. Horrific logging, extraction, development, and toxification imposed upon the planet by our kind has already destroyed 98% of old-growth forests; and, still the insatiable death urge of this civilization grasps for a stranglehold of the rare slivers left standing. In resistance to this unrelenting destruction, we gather, we fight, and we love. For our love for the Forest is all the more fierce in the face of their collapse.