Geography of Hope:Celebrating Wallace Stegner
March 7-9, 2008
Point Reyes Station, California
Free Audiocasts available!
For three days during early March, the small coastal town of Pt. Reyes Station (Population 818) was the center of one of the most exceptional literary conferences ever held in northern California, Geography of Hope: Celebrating Wallace Stegner.
Sixteen writers of fiction, nonfiction and poetry books; newspaper and magazine journalists; literary agents and attorneys, book critics, and academics from the West Coast, New York City, and Canada gathered in Pt. Reyes from March 7-9 to talk about Wallace Stegner and his concept of “the Geography of Hope.”
This phrase ended Stegner’s famous 1961 wilderness letter and was a major factor in the passage of the Wilderness Bill a few years later. The ideas in the letter also encompassed his wider concepts of the American West. Pt. Reyes Station, forty miles north of San Francisco and adjacent to Pt. Reyes National Seashore, is the commercial hub of western Marin County where many of the land use concepts advocated by Stegner have taken root.
Stegner was the West’s best known writer of fiction and nonfiction, conservation advocate, and teacher of such writers at Stanford’s Creative Writing Program as Edward Abbey, Wendell Berry, Robert Stone, Larry McMurtry, Ken Kesey, and Scott Turow. He received countless awards and honors during his lifetime (1909-1993), including the Pulitzer Prize for Angle of Repose and the National Book Award for Spectator Bird.
To honor Stegner on his 99th birthday, celebrate the publication of three new books and one journal that reflect his spirit and concerns, and to initiate a ground-breaking new program in the schools, his son and daughter-in-law, Page and Lynn Stegner, were present at the conference. Both are accomplished writers. Other panelists included Barry Lopez, Merrill Joan Gerber, William Kittredge, Rebecca Solnit, Philip Fradkin, Annick Smith, David Rains Wallace, Mark Dowie, Harold Gilliam, and Sharon Butala, who lives on a ranch near the small prairie town in Saskatchewan where Stegner was raised.
Also present at the conference was Carl D. Brandt, whose literary agency represented Stegner interests since 1937, and Jonathan Kirsch, author, attorney and book reviewer for the Los Angeles Times. Melody Graulich is the editor of the journal of the Western American Literature Association and teaches Stegner’s books to students at Utah State University. The chair of the conference was Robert Hass, two-term U. S. Poet Laureate who has just won the National Book Award for his poetry. Hass was a student at Stanford when Stegner headed the writing program and they had frequent conversations.
Of this assemblage and the man they are honoring, California author and State Librarian Emeritus Kevin Starr said: “As a man of letters, Wallace Stegner excelled as a novelist, biographer, historian, and literary activist on behalf of environmental causes. And now, thanks to this conference, writers of comparable stature will be gathering to assess the legacy and lasting influence of a revered colleague in whose footsteps they are privileged to follow.”
The conference represented one of the most distinguished literary gatherings in the history of the San Francisco Bay Area and Northern California. Its panelists have received three National Book Awards, three National Book Critic Circle Awards, two Lannan Literary Awards, two John Burroughs Medals for Nature Writing, a Pulitzer Prize, three National Magazine Awards, a Pen/Faulker Award, a MacArthur “genius” Fellowship, two Guggenheim Fellowships, four Commonwealth Club of California writing awards, three Stegner Fellowships, the Robert Kirsch Award for lifetime achievement from the Los Angeles Times (the first was received by Wallace Stegner in 1980), and numerous other honors including two members of the American Academy of Arts and Letters and the co-producer for an Academy Award film based on a prize-winning book about the West.
Education was all-important to the man who grew up on a prairie homestead, whose parents did not finish the sixth grade, and who made the journey from the Saskatchewan frontier to Salt Lake City to the University of Iowa to Harvard University to Stanford University and the higher echelons of the intellectual elite in this country. All proceeds above costs for the conference will go toward establishing a unique writer-in-the-schools program in West Marin. While writers are in residence in many universities, creative writing is badly neglected in grade and high schools. It is the hope of conference organizers to rectify that situation locally and provide a national model for others to follow.
Conference sponsors include Tomales Bay Library Association, Wells Fargo Bank, Marin Agricultural Land Trust, Point Reyes Books, Alfred A. Knopf, Penguin Books, the Iowa Writer’s Workshop, and the Stanford Creative Writing Program.
Conference Schedule and free audiocasts
Friday, March 7th
- “Writer, Teacher, and Environmentalist,” discussion leader Mark Dowie with John Daniel, Merrill Joan Gerber, Harold Gilliam, William Kittredge, and David Rains Wallace
(Part 1, 1 hour and 2 minutes) - “Writer, Teacher, and Environmentalist,” discussion leader Mark Dowie with John Daniel, Merrill Joan Gerber, Harold Gilliam, William Kittredge, and David Rains Wallace (Part 2, 40 minutes)
Saturday, March 8th
- “Angle of Repose and Other Fiction,” discussion leader Robert Hass with Carl D. Brandt, Melody Graulich, Annick Smith, and Lynn Stegner. (Part 1, 51 minutes)
- “Angle of Repose and Other Fiction,” discussion leader Robert Hass with Carl D. Brandt, Melody Graulich, Annick Smith, and Lynn Stegner. (Part 2, 53 minutes)
- “Beyond the Hundredth Meridian and Other Nonfiction,” discussion leader Philip Fradkin with Sharon Butala, Barry Lopez, and Page Stegner. (Part 1, 39 minutes)
- “Beyond the Hundredth Meridian and Other Nonfiction,” discussion leader Philip Fradkin with Sharon Butala, Barry Lopez, and Page Stegner. (Part 2, 46 minutes)
- “Three Views of Wallace Stegner,” a conversation between Philip Fradkin, Robert Hass, and Page Stegner at the West Marin School gymnasium. (1 hour and 15 minutes)
Sunday, March 9th
-
“The Writing Life,” a discussion between Barry Lopez, William Kittredge, and Robert Hass
(1 hour, 17 minutes)
Artist Receptions
- Madeline Nieto Hope, and Heather Peters Pratt at Toby’s Gallery, 11250 Shoreline Hwy, Point Reyes Station, CA
- Art Rogers at the Point Reyes Bookstore, 11315 Shoreline Hwy, Point Reyes Station, CA
Friday, March 7th from 5-7 pm
- Jacqueline Mallegni, Martin Butt and Waldemar Mitrowski at Gallery Route One, 11101 Highway One, Point Reyes, CA
- Madeline Nieto Hope, and Heather Peters Pratt at Toby’s Gallery, 11250 Shoreline Hwy, Point Reyes Station, CA
- Marty Knap at the Marty Knapp Gallery, 11245 Shoreline Highway, Point Reyes Station, CA
Sunday March 9th from 3-5 pm
- Eric Zachary Whitten at the Claudia Chapline Gallery, 3445 Shoreline Highway, Stinson Beach.
Info@cchapline.com
415.868-2308
Art Exhibitions, in five venues, sponsored in part by a grant from 
RePose
February 15 - March 23, 2008
Gallery Route One,
1101 Shoreline Hwy,
Point Reyes, CA
RePose, a site-specific installation featuring Bolinas artists Jacqueline Mallegni, Martin Butt and Waldemar Mitrowski, will be exhibited at Gallery Route One in Point Reyes, CA beginning February 15 thru March 23, 2008 in conjunction with the conference. The public is invited to the artists’ reception on Sunday, February 17, 3-5 PM and Friday, March 7, 5-7 PM
RePose, is a harmonious collaboration of sculptural textures, waterworks and digital imagery, offering visitors a moment of reflection on how we meet our environment, how we interact with, shape and rest in it and how we can rediscover ourselves through Nature - integrating the Earth and it's systems into our own selves, free from dualistic thinking.
Geography of Hope
March 1 - 30, 2008
Toby’s Gallery, 11250 Shoreline Hwy, Point Reyes Station, CA
Geography of Hope installation by Madeline Nieto Hope, a mixed media, assemblage artist who is a native of California and Heather Peters Pratt, an illustrator native to British Columbia, Canada, both residents of Marin County, plus guest artists .
Geography of Hope is a collaborative installation integrating writing, sculpture, painting and mixed media images to illuminate the life and work of Wallace Stegner. The exhibition will draw the individual into a story of the American West and will discuss various themes. The exhibit uses imagery that helps to describe the complicated nature of the West. Stegner’s writing, alive in the academic and literary traditions of this country, will be integrated into the installation to reveal how his unique experience, courage and talent influences our collective understanding of the American West.
West Marin Landscapes
March 2 - 30, 2008
Claudia Chapline Gallery, 3445 Shoreline Highway, Stinson Beach, CA
San Rafael artist Eric Zachary Whitten shows West Marin landscapes influenced by the work of Wallace Stegner at Claudia Chapline Gallery in Stinson Beach. Whitten’s oversize oil on canvas paintings show images of dead firs, grass, coyote brush, green hills, Bolinas Ridge and Schooner Creek, painted between 2000 and 2007.
Whitten’s paintings are based on the writings of Wallace Stegner and look like wilderness. There are no fences, barns, or cows. The local landscape has dictated the palette. Painted on location, these paintings convey a rush of beauty followed by a mixture of sadness about the past. Blood in the Forest references our cultural fear of the dark forest and our destruction of the forest and its native inhabitants. Dead Fir Over the Pacific is an image of the end of conquest. The dead fir looks like bones reaching over the ocean. Whitten says, “Like Stegner, I remain hopeful for the American West. My hope is that we will die and be reborn enough times that we will forget the conquering and see the land as our home.”
Marty Knapp Photography
Marty Knapp Gallery, 11245 Shoreline Highway, Point Reyes Station, CA
The Marty Knapp Photo Gallery specializes in traditional B&W photographs of the Point Reyes wilderness area. The Gallery will remain open on Friday March 7th until 7 PM during the opening of Geography of Hope:Celebrating Wallace Stegner. Regular gallery hours are Friday through Sunday 11-5 PM.
Art Rogers Photography
Point Reyes Bookstore, 11315 Shoreline Hwy, Point Reyes Station, CA
With his personal vision and intimate style, Art Rogers has been photographing the lives and celebrations of families in the Bay Area for over 35 years. A Guggenheim Fellow and NEA recipient, his photographs are among the collections of the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, the International Center of Photography, New York, the Center for Creative Photography Archive, Tucson, Le Musée de l'Elysee, Switzerland, and the deYoung Museum, San Francisco.
Art Rogers is well known for a series of portraits entitled “Yesterday and Today”, where he returns to photograph the same subjects after a period of years. He is now producing a new series of photographs utilizing 100-year-old antique wooden view cameras. Contact prints are made from negatives as large as 14 inches by 17 inches. This large, wood camera and film process is “an exquisite 19th century technology” that allows him to "express phenomenal tonality" in his images. The process of making a portrait with these tools is an event and “of itself is a joy”. By engaging such an archaic technology as a contemporary photographer, Art Rogers is able to revive and celebrate the tradition of black and white, gelatin silver photography. His collection of beautiful, tranquil and dynamic images captures the intimate relationship of humanity with the land and animals. A collection of these prints will be exhibited at the Point Reyes Bookstore Gallery, 11315 Highway One, Point Reyes Station.
BIOGRAPHIES OF PARTICIPANTS IN THE STEGNER CONFERENCE
CARL D. BRANDT: The firm of Brandt & Brandt, now Brandt & Hochman, is one of the oldest literary agencies in New York City and has represented Wallace Stegner and the Stegner Estate since 1937. First Bernice Baumgarten of the firm, a legendary agent who was married to the novelist James Gould Cozzens, then Carl’s father, mother, and lastly Carl represented Stegner.
SHARON BUTALA: This award-winning Canadian author, whose fifteen books center on life on the Saskatchewan prairie, has lived for the last thirty years on a ranch near Eastend, where Wallace Stegner spent his formative years. She and her husband Peter donated 13,100 acres of their ranch to the Nature Conservancy of Canada. Butala was instrumental in preserving Stegner‘s Eastend home as a retreat for writers and artists.
JOHN DANIEL: A Stegner Fellow, lecturer at Stanford, and tenant of the Stegners in the mid-1980s, Daniel got to know the Stegners on a personal basis. He is the author of eight books of memoir, personal essays and poetry. Daniel’s most recent book is Rogue River Journal, for which he won a Pacific Northwest Booksellers Association award.
MARK DOWIE: The award-winning investigative journalist, former editor and publisher of Mother Jones magazine, and author of seven books, including Losing Ground: American Environmentalism at the Close of the Twentieth Century, teaches at the University of California Graduate School of Journalism and has been active in local environmental issues in West Marin.
PHILIP L. FRADKIN: The author of eleven books on the American West, including A River No More: The Colorado River and the West which Stegner praised as “looking illusion in the eye until it blinks,” Fradkin‘s biography Wallace Stegner and the American West will be published by Knopf in February.
MERRILL JOAN GERBER: The author of seven novels, one of which won the Pushcart Press Editor’s Book Award, as well as five volumes of short stories and three books of nonfiction. Her most recent novel is The Victory Gardens of Brooklyn. Gerber has also contributed to numerous literary journals and teaches writing at the California Institute of Technology. She was a Stegner Fellow.
HAROLD GILLIAM: The former environmentalist columnist for the San Francisco Chronicle was a student of Stegner’s at Stanford University and followed him to Washington, D.C., where he also worked for Interior Secretary Stewart L. Udall. He is the author of many books, among them Island in Time about the Point Reyes peninsula.
MELODY GRAULICH: A professor of English and American studies at Utah State University, Graulich is the editor of the journal Western American Literature. She teaches his books to students from the state where Stegner lived as a young man and has written a number of essays on his works. Graulich is currently editing a volume of letters of Mary Hallock Foote, on whose life and letters Stegner based Angle of Repose.
ROBERT HASS: A two-term poet laureate of the United States, twice winner of the National Book Critics’ Circle Award and a MacArthur Award, Hass is a professor of English at the University of California at Berkeley and the author of numerous poetry books, editor of collections, and translator of the poetry of Nobel Laureate Czeslaw Milosz. Hass was acquainted with Stegner while a graduate student at Stanford in the creative writing program.
JONATHAN KIRSCH: The son of longtime Los Angeles Times book critic Robert Kirsch, who Stegner praised for his astute criticism, Kirsch is the author of ten nonfiction books and an attorney specializing in publishing law and intellectual property rights. He reviews books for the Times and for years specialized in reviewing books on the American West.
WILLIAM KITTREDGE: Raised on a ranch where he worked until the age of thirty-five, Kittredge was a Stegner Fellow and Regents Professor of English and Creative Writing at the University of Montana. After writing collections of essays, short stories, and a memoir he published his first novel The Willow Field in 2006 and was cited in the San Francisco Chronicle as being “one of the American West’s most respected fiction writers.”
BARRY LOPEZ: The essayist and author of works of fiction and nonfiction has written about the relationship between physical landscape and human culture in such books as Arctic Dreams, which won a National Book Award, and more recently on themes of resistance and reconciliation. Like Wallace Stegner and William Kittredge, he has taught at the Bread Loaf Writers' Conference.
LYNN STEGNER: The daughter-in-law of Mary and Wallace Stegner has written four novels, the most recent being the critically-acclaimed Because a Fire Was in My Head. She edited and wrote the forward to Wallace Stegner: On Teaching and Writing Fiction. Stegner is the director of the Santa Fe Writer’s Workshop.
PAGE STEGNER: The only child of Mary and Wallace Stegner is the author of numerous works of fiction and nonfiction and is the editor of a number of collections. His most recent book is The Selected Letters of Wallace Stegner to be published this fall by Shoemaker & Hoard. He headed the creative writing program at the University of California at Santa Cruz.
DAVID RAINS WALLACE: The author of sixteen books, Wallace won the John Burroughs Medal for Nature Writing for The Klamath Knot. His works include The Turquoise Dragon, The Quetzal and the Macaw, The Bonehunters' Revenge, and The Monkey's Bridge, which was named a New York Times Notable Book. Stegner wrote the forward for The Wilder Shore.
ANNICK SMITH: Bridging the worlds of films and books, Smith was a founding board member of the Sundance Film Institute, co-producer of the Academy-winning film A River Runs Through It, executive producer of Heartland, the author of four books, and co-editor with her longtime companion William Kittredge of The Last Best Place: A Montana Anthology. She lives on a ranch in Montana’s Blackfoot Valley.
REBECCA SOLNIT: The author of twelve books - among them A Field Guide to Getting Lost, Hope in the Dark and Storming the Gates of Paradise - Solnit won the prestigious Lannan Literary Award and the National Book Critics Circle Award for River of Shadows in 2003. Along with Fradkin, she wrote the text for Mark Klett’s photography book After the Ruins: 1906 and 2006.
Hope for the future of Marin wildlands, wetlands, farms and ranches.
When:
Field Trips Friday, March 7th and Sunday, March 9th, 1:00 - 4:00 pm
Max 25-30 persons per field trip - Minimum 10 people
Where to meet:
All Tours leave from Toby's Feed Barn, 11250 Hwy 1, downtown Point Reyes Station,
with the exception of Friday's Historic Walking Tour of Point Reyes Station with historian Dewey Livingston. That tour meets at The Dance Palace Community Center, 503 B St., Point Reyes Station.
What to bring:
Tours will be offered rain or shine so be prepared for all kinds of weather. Bring hiking boots, rubber boots, rain gear, backpacks, water, hats, and sun block.
Transportation:
We will be car pooling to the tour sites. Bring your car to the meeting place and we will organize car pools from there.
Historic Walking tour of Point Reyes Station with historian Dewey Livingston – This historic town, once a hub of the dairy industry laid out along a narrow-gauge railroad line, has experienced ups and downs since its founding in 1875. Dewey Livingston provides an illustrated talk on the history of the town and surrounding area, followed by a walking tour. Learn about the history and listen to the stories of this dynamic small town as you visit the old Cooperative Creamery, the old Northwestern Pacific Rail Road engine house and depot, as well as many other fascinating buildings.
Elephant Seals of Point Reyes National Seashore (PRNS) with Sarah Allen, Science Advisor for PRNS & Fredrick Smith, Executive Director of Environmental Action Committee of West Marin - Hike to spectacular Chimney Rock at the southern tip of Point Reyes for an unforgettable trip and see the abundant marine life and learn more about the Marine Life Protection Act, a statewide effort to create a marine habitat protected area network for the California coast.
Black Mountain Hike with Constance Washburn, Education Director, Marin Agricultural Land Trust (MALT) and rancher Mick Giammona - Black Mountain, overlooking Point Reyes Station and Tomales Bay, is one of the largest properties protected by a MALT agricultural conservation easement. The spectacular lands that we will view from the top of the 1,280-foot peak are a valuable resource. They provide not only food for the body, but food for the soul as well. Black Mountain is named for pioneer cattle rancher James Black. In 1851, he bought a tract of land which included the landmark for $2000.
Limantour Estero, Point Reyes National Seashore with Naturalist David Wimpfheimer - Limantour Estero is one of the most pristine estuarine systems along the California coast. It hosts a mix of habitat types - tidal, brackish and freshwater marshes and and slough, coastal dunes, coastal scrub and swale, riparian thickets, sandy beach, and rocky shore. This mix of habitats, coupled with panoramic views of Drake's Bay, the Point Reyes shoreline and the rolling coastal hills, offers myriad opportunities for viewing native local wildlife. Limantour is especially attractive to shorebirds and waterfowl, and March is an ideal time to see the diversity for which the peninsula is so well known.
Hog Island Oyster Co. & Straus Organic Dairy with Hog Island owner Terry Sawyer and dairyman Albert Straus - Learn all about oyster farming and water issues as you tour Hog Island Oyster Company. Taste oysters grown in Tomales Bay, while enjoying great views. Then tour the Straus family’s organic dairy at milking time and learn about their innovative methane digester which turns manure into energy and reduces greenhouse gases. Straus Dairy is a member of Marin Organic and protected by a MALT conservation easement.
Tomales Bay Wetlands Restoration Project with Michael Mery, Tomales Bay Watershed Council and Lorraine Parsons, wetland ecologist for the Point Reyes National Seashore (PRNS) - You will learn about this extensive marsh restoration project on the Waldo Giacomini Ranch which was acquired by PRNS for the purpose of wetland restoration. The 600 plus acres of the Giacomini Ranch and Olema Marsh represents approximately 12 percent of the total wetlands present along the outer central California coast. The restoration area is the home of several endangered or threatened species including the Red Legged frog, Coho salmon and Steelhead, and Tidewater Goby.
Star Route Farms in Bolinas, California’s oldest certified organic farm with Farm Manager, Doug Gallagher, and Paige Phinney, of Marin Organic - This beautiful farm in Bolinas is part of the Pine Gulch Creek watershed, is certified salmon safe, and supports a diversified ecosystem. Learn about their organic techniques, see the cover crops, greenhouses, and wander along the creek searching for salmon. Helge will inform you about the efforts of Marin Organic to support local organic agriculture for the health of the community and the planet.
Lagunitas Creek Watershed Tour with Paola Bouley, watershed biologist, and Todd Steiner, Director of Salmon Projection and Watershed Network (SPAWN) - The tour will focus on endangered creek wildlife and the community-based watershed restoration projects in support of the our local Coho salmon and steelhead trout. Including, rain catchments and rain garden designs, bioengineered bank restorations, riparian reforestation and in stream woody debris projects, a native plant nursery, and new Coho Salmon Land Trust program.
Historic Drakes Bay Hereford Ranch ( Murphy Ranch ) with rancher Anne Murphy and historian Dewey Livingston - This ranch is the oldest and best preserved of all the Point Reyes ranches. The house was built in 1857 by the Shafter bothers who envisioned it as the Home Ranch, the center of their vast diary holdings in the Point. The ranch covers 3,000 acres along Drakes’s Estero and offers spectacular views as well as many historic buildings. Learn about the beef ranching operation from Anne and the history of ranching in the park from Dewey. The ranch is a member of the Point Reyes Seashore Rancher’s Association.
Bios of Tour Leaders,
Sarah Allen is a Senior Science Advisor with the National Park Service at Point Reyes National Seashore and assists other parks in the Pacific West Region. Her experience spans more than three decades and ranges from studying marine mammals and seabirds in central California to penguins in Antarctica. Prior to working for NPS, she worked at the Point Reyes Bird Observatory and the California State Lands Commission.
Paola Bouley, SPAWN's biologist since 2004, leads community-based monitoring and restoration projects to restore and protect coho and steelhead habitat in the Lagunitas Creek watershed, the largest remaining, although critically endangered, wild run of coho in Central California. She has a B.S. in Marine Biology from U.C. Santa Cruz and a M.S. in Ecology from the Romberg Tiburon Center for Environmental Studies and San Francisco State University.
Doug Gallagher, Farm Manager of Star Route Farms for 22 years had degrees in both Environmental Science and Agriculture. He has uses a variety of organic techniques including soil inoculants, cover cropping, and composting.
Dewey Livingston works both professionally and as a volunteer documenting the agricultural history of the West. Locally, he is completing a book detailing the history of the Nicasio Valley, and is collecting oral histories on the fine points of dairy and beef ranching in north-central Marin County on a grant through the Marin Resource Conservation District. Dewey has written extensive histories of ranching in West Marin, the Channel Islands and the East Mojave Desert. He is a longtime MALT tour leader and is associated with the Jack Mason Museum of West Marin History and the Nicasio Historical Society.
Michael Mery, has lived since childhood in Inverness. His family has been involved with conservation and he was the first chair of the Tomales Bay Watershed Council.
Anne Murphy married into a long time Point Reyes Ranching family and raised her two children at the Home Ranch, the original diary ranch on the Point Reyes Peninsula. She ran the beef operation for many years and is an avid horsewoman who is often found riding over the ranch.
Lorraine Parsons, Wetlands Ecologist, Giacomini Wetlands Restoration Project Manager, Pt. Reyes National Seashore. She holds an M.S. in Wetland Ecology and worked with other county agencies in Sonoma and for private consulting companies doing wetland restoration and mitigation and monitoring.
Frederick Smith is the Executive Director of the Environmental Action Committee of West Marin. He is also a Primary Regional Stakeholder Group member for the Marine Life Protection Act, charged with developing a marine protected area network for the North Central coast.
Todd Steiner is a biologist and organizer, as well as the founder and director of the Sea Turtle Restoration Project and SPAWN. With 20+ years of field biology and environmental activism experience, he has learned to balance long-term vision with achievable short-term objectives that keep passions alive and organizations moving forward and growing sustainably. Todd has served on the Board of Directors of the Earth Island Institute, Turtle Island Restoration Network, and the San Geronimo Cultural Center. Todd has recently been recognized with awards from the Sierra Club, the Social Justice Center of Marin, and from US Representative Lynn Woolsey. He has a M.S. in Biology from Florida International University and a B.S. in Nature Conservation and Interpretation from the University of Maryland.
Albert Straus - began the conversion of the dairy to a certified organic dairy in 1993. In 1994 the farm became the first certified organic dairy west of the Mississippi River. In February 1994, Albert forged ahead and opened Straus Family Creamery to produce organic milk, yogurt, butter and ice cream under the family name. He also installed the areas first methane digester which captures naturally occurring gas from manure and converts it into electricity. This new system, generates up to 300,000 kilowatt-hours per year which runs the farm machinery and Albert’s electric car.
Constance Washburn M.A. –Has over 30 years of experience designing education and outreach programs for non-profits. Over the past 12 years as Education Director at the Marin Agricultural Land Trust (MALT) she has designed and run their popular outreach and volunteer programs, which reach over 7,000 people a year. These programs include hikes, tours, talks, large public events, art shows, teacher trainings and a farm field study program for school groups. Constance consults on education and volunteer program design, runs community building workshops on re-connecting to the land, and teaches at Dominican University.
Environmental Action Committee of West Marin (EAC) is a 1,300 member grassroots, not for profit conservation organization. We are dedicated to responsible stewardship in West Marin, to ensure that human activities are in harmony with the area's irreplaceable
wildlife, scenic and other natural resources. We do this by advocating against threats to the natural environment, informing the public and decision-makers about land use challenges, encouraging productive solutions to resource conflicts and supporting environmentally beneficial ways of living with the earth.
Marin Agricultural Land Trust Marin (MALT) was the first land trust in the United States to focus on farmland preservation. Founded in 1980 by a coalition of ranchers and environmentalists to preserve farmland in Marin County, California, MALT acquires agricultural conservation easements on farmland in voluntary transactions with landowners. MALT also encourages public policies that support and enhance agriculture. It is a model for agricultural land preservation efforts across the nation. MALT has so far permanently protected over 40,000 acres of land on 61 family farms and ranches
Marin Organic is an association of organic producers in Marin County whose livelihood is based on a respect for nature and a sense of place. As the primary link between farmers and eaters, Marin Organic is committed to promoting and supporting a sustainable, organic county - a county in which growers and the people who rely on them recognize their mutual interdependence. Marin Organic’s mission focuses on the environmental soundness and economic viability of farming and ranching in Marin County.
Point Reyes National Seashore (PRNS) - From its thunderous ocean breakers crashing against rocky headlands and expansive sand beaches through its open ranchlands to its brushy hillsides and forested ridges, visitors can discover over 1000 species of plants and animals. Home to several cultures over thousands of years, Point Reyes preserves a tapestry of stories and interactions of people.
Point Reyes National Seashore Association (PRNSA) exists to preserve the extraordinary wilderness of Point Reyes and to educate the public about the environment. Incorporated in 1964, PRNSA is a nonprofit organization working in coordination with the National Park Service. Each year, with the support of our members, we sponsor over a million dollars in preservation projects in the park. More than 4,000 people of all ages attended our environmental education programs.
Point Reyes Seashore Ranchers Association is a volunteer association of historic ranching families whose goals are to protect agricultural interests in the Point Reyes National Seashore and Golden Gate National Recreation Area. The Association helps to educate the public on the historic stewardship of the land by local ranchers and facilitate a healthy relationship between ranching permitees and the National Park Service.
Salmon Protection and Watershed Network (SPAWN) is a non-profit based in West Marin working to protect endangered stream ecosystems and salmon in the Lagunitas Watershed. SPAWN uses a multi-faceted approach to accomplish our mission including grassroots action, policy development, habitat restoration, conservation monitoring and research, citizen training, environmental education, strategic litigation, and collaboration with other organizations and agencies.
Star Route Farms is the oldest continuously certified organic farm in California. Warren Weber began farming 5 acres in Bolinas in 1974 with a horse-drawn plow and now he produces some of the Bay Area's most sought after leafy greens, herbs, edible flowers, legumes and tender seasonal vegetables. The farm which is laid out on either side of Pine Gulch Creek is certified salmon safe and supports a diversified ecosystem.
Straus Family Dairy and Creamery - a small, family-owned organic dairy farm began when Bill Straus began farming in 1941 with just 23 cows here on the beautiful shores of Tomales Bay. Ellen Straus, his wife, read the book Silent Spring by Rachel Carson in the early 1960s and began the family's strong commitment to environmental sustainability. Ellen co-founded the Marin Agricultural Land Trust (MALT) in 1980 and the family still considers their most important responsibility to be stewards of the land. In 1994 the farm became the first certified organic dairy west of the Mississippi River. The Dairy creates its own electricity with a methane digester which captures naturally occurring gas from manure and converts it into electricity. The farm is permanently protected by a MALT conservation easement and is a founding member of Marin Organic.
Tomales Bay Watershed Council is made up of representatives from local organizations, businesses and government agencies who are dedicated to managing the 220 square miles of the Tomales Bay watershed, an area that encompasses about one-third of Marin County, California.
Writers in the Schools Program
We are in a crisis of literacy. The National Endowment of the Arts reports that 15 -24 year olds spend seven minutes a day on voluntary reading. (The Week 12/7/07) Therefore, it is every community's challenge to sponsor access to good writing so that the young too can be moved, inspired, and guided by the great lights of literature, especially in a time when the values of the enlightenment are being tested. In this spirit, we want to institute a Writers in the School's program in West Marin so that practicing accomplished writers / large minded people can spend time with our kids to model and inspire writing as well as encourage perceptiveness, presence and attention in observing the world. Wallace Stegner noted that literature can enhance life when a Montgomery Fellow at Dartmouth: In his talks, he said," All a teacher can do is encourage the will to explore plus a few do's and don'ts of voyaging. These observations are recorded in (Italics, please) On the Teaching of Writing published by Dartmouth in 1988. He says: "Writing is not a function of intelligence or application. It is a function of gift. All any teacher can do is work with what is given. But I believe that everyone born should be given the best he is capable of and that many have undeveloped or obscured gifts that, like spores, will grow if they are given waters...Let young people begin with what moves them...and let them discover many things themselves. Through contact, students discover the love and uses of language, "its tools, techniques, strategies and stances and ways of getting at the narrative essence ... or the memorable ness of a poetically honed thought. " We believe that the conversation generated by practitioners and novices will yield enormous rewards, knowing that being touched by an authentic being opens us up and helps us inhabit large rather than small minds, open rather than closed ones. We want our students to claim their birthright, the practice of engaging their awareness, understanding, and take on life through the vehicle of language.
To this end, we propose to solicit applications from Northern California writers for a residency of two months in Point Reyes during which time the writer will give, in the spirit of Stegner, creative and environmental writing classes and workshops to middle school and high school classes in our area: West Marin, Tomales, Stinson -Bolinas, San Geronino Valley, Tomales High. There will be workshop ops for West Marin home schoolers and high school students matriculated elsewhere. We will provide room board and a stipend as well as time to contemplate or actively write. At the end of the program, there will be readings at each of the schools and a West Marin Anthology which we hope will be the first of many. Applications will be available Summer 2008 for a Spring 2009 residency.
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