All posts by Gail Black

About Gail Black

I have a keen eye for what influences human life. My keen eye opened widely while working in Washington, D.C., for ten years. In the early 1980s, while working for Organic Farms, Inc., the world’s largest distributor of organic food at the time, an unusual alliance presented itself. The National Coalition for the Misuse of Pesticides (NCAMP) sent a letter to Organic Farms, Inc. asking Organic Farms to join their organization. Joseph Dunsmore, President, asked to write a letter back. The letter advised NCAMP that organic farming practically implements NCAMP’s environmental concerns. The letter from Organic Farms, Inc. resulted in NCAMP using organic food at their conference and spearheaded most National organizations exploring the practical implementation of their environmental concerns through organic farming in D.C. During this time of organic farming and environmental organization connection, Michael W. Fox, Vice President of the Farm Animal division at the Humane Society of the United States (HSUS), met me at one of the conferences and offered me a position. He wanted to create a Humane, Sustainable Agriculture (HSA) program at HSUS. Which I did. Later advising a book of producers be identified. The Humane Sustainable Agriculture program, coordinating with organic certification organizations, environmental groups, conventional agriculture associations, United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), and university extension agencies; during this time, I toured organic farms across the country, assisted with policy analysis of the Organic Foods Act of 1990; and was delighted to set with a friend in the balcony of the Senate when this landmark legislation was passed! ‘The Humane Consumer and Producer Guide’ was published in 1993. https://www.amazon.com/Consumer-Producer-Producing-sustainable-Agriculture/dp/B007V5JUKS

Dealing with Identity and Credit Card Theft

Home, Humans, ,

Locking up your identityI wrote my first draft for this post on a yellow pad. Sometimes I like to write on a yellow pad with long and broad stokes; much like a painter would enjoy a large canvas.Telling this story needs broad strokes; I need to find room between the lines to identify my emotions.

All my identifying documents, bank card and my wallet were stolen from my car while parked at a wilderness trail head; almost $2000.00 was spent by the villains in less than two hours.

Beauty

Pieper (my golden retreiver) and I were parked at the trail head of Stratton Open Space, hiking on Cheyenne Mountain. It was Pieper’s birthday (she just turned four) and I promised her a hike and a swim and after a trip to the doggie store for a toy and a bone. I love this girl.

The hike was wonderful. There was cloud cover and it looked like rain. Not at all what the weather person predicted (90 degrees and hot). The forest was lush and green and a light breeze played in the tree tops. Pieper went swimming and we ran into an old friend and continued hiking with her and her three canines. After about two hours we returned to the parking lot.

Continue reading Dealing with Identity and Credit Card Theft →

Journeys With My Canine

Canines, Home, , ,

Wilderness in Rocky Mountains

DEFINING WILDNESS AND HOWLING IN THE WILDERNESS

One evening, I went on a tiny journey with my canine Pieper: We ‘howled’ together and I watched as Pieper transformed. Her eyes got this untamed wildness in them. How exciting to see and hear the wildness in her. I felt pretty wild myself and wonder about this wildness. What does ‘wildness’ mean? Mariam Webster says to be ‘wild’ is: uncontrolled, unruly, stormy, fantastic, sensational and barbaric.

WHAT LURKS IN THE WILD?

Hmm, I do understand Webster’s perspective; however, what lurks in the ‘wild’ sometimes defies definition. I read about a cat named Oscar in a Providence, R.I. nursing home that has a sixth sense: Oscar can predict when a resident is about to pass away. Pets have extraordinary healing power. Our canines have the ability to know when someone is sick or dying, they sense our emotions. These areas of the ‘wild’ are more difficult to measure and define. I believe we have only scratched the surface of the secrets animals and nature hold.

Continue reading Journeys With My Canine →

Salvation: Walking on Four Legs and Wagging it’s Tail

Humans, ,

Salvation for me is treating humans, animals, and nature as a  single system. Finding my way to thinking about this kind of consciousness is easy…implementing the idea is another. Is this a mind-boggling concept or a simple truth? As I trek into the woods this way of thinking becomes a simple truth. Living so close to the mountains makes it possible to have a unique perspective; I can be in the wilderness in 20 minutes. The flip side is in the city with a population of about 370,000 in the same 20 minutes. Talk about mind-boggling! Anyway, going into the wilderness on a daily basis does something to your psyche. The sight of the various pine trees and vegetation; the smells, the wildlife, the sound of my feet on the trail, the crunch of snow, rustling in the bushes. Stopping to inhale and look deeply at where I am. Life abounds and surrounds me; hides from me and excites me! I feel like I’m on another planet!

A WARREN OF RABBITS!

Sometimes I feel like Fever in ‘Watership Down‘, Richard Adam’s novel; delving into the surprisingly violent world of a warren of rabbits as they seek to escape human development which is destroying their warren.

THE HEAVY PRICE WE PAY

Do we acknowledge the heavy price we pay for our over-populating and development? I feel a bit disillusioned and impatient with our societies failure to show respect and value towards all living beings; to seek a balance that would bring our world to the ‘Eden’ it was meant to be. Those who do acknowledge this ‘heavy price’ are seeking a balance, we treat all as a single system. We are aware that the places we let ‘slip and slide away’ hold inhabitants that define the balance we seek. As we seek this balance we look with a slow and long eye. We see the camouflaged beauty and unsuspecting inhabitants. We seek to populate and develop more consciously; we acknowledge those inhabitants as equally deserving to be here and that we each have a role to play.

MOVE MORE SLOWLY

000_0322.jpgThere is hope if we move more slowly and follow the lead of our furry friends. Take a path into the forest and unpaved trails. Look more deeply at the nature around us… salvation does walk on four legs and wags its tail.

 

SCIENTISTS SAY

Nowhere is Living holistically more evident than in the four-legged animal we call ‘dog’. Scientists say we have walked with and depended on the ‘dog’ somewhere near 130,000 years (one millennium is 1000 years)!

ANCIENT LEGENDS

There are two ancient legends which speak about our relationship with our canines. The Chinese tell a story about a great separation, as do the Native Americans.

Zeb and AniBoth legends speak of the separation between humans and canines; and how humans lived before this separation; the legends speak of how humans were able to communicate through telepathy; that we understood and respected all life and nothing was beneath or above us: we were all equal. A marvel of harmony!

 

HARMONY VS EGO

Where did this harmony go? Legend says our egos developed. We no longer wanted to travel on the same path as the other animals. We moved away from other creatures and forgot how to communicate with them. We lost most of the holistic approach to life that flows in nature.

The Chinese and Native American legends differ by one extraordinary event: When the Great Spirit of the Native American legend decided to create this ‘Great Separation’ an extraordinary event occurred!

ONE POWERFUL LEAP

Following our Angel BeastsLegend says, the Great Spirit of the Native Americans opened a chasm in the earth, and the Great Spirit wanted to make the separation between humans and animals permanent. The chasm continued to widen; dog looked to human as the chasm widened; then looked at the other animals…then at the last possible moment; dog made a powerful leap across the chasm; making a conscious decision to join humans forever.

OUR CONNECTION WITH NATURE

In the Native American version of the Great Separation, we did not lose our connection with nature; our canines keep the connection ever present. I believe a key ingredient to keeping our holistic nature alive, is to listen to and follow our four legged friends as they urge us to enter the wild. While there, if we listen and watch closely, we can more fully feel and understand our connectedness to one another and recapture some of the holistic nature we lost.

000_0194.jpgHappy Trails!

Environmental Dreams and the Tax Man

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Finding Our Space in Time

I’m watching ‘The Bridges of Madison County’ for the second or third time. The timelessness of the film brings thoughts of my mother and our life together.

As I watch the film, I’m hoping my mother and dad had laughter…strong and loud; just as Robert and Francisca did during the kitchen dinner scene, that first day. I hope they had the kind of passion Francisca and Robert experienced: The kind that takes your breath away!

Every Minute of Every Day

What is the Passion that takes my breath away? How will I meet and fulfill my passion? As my ‘day job’ comes to an end…Isn’t it amazing how we just skip over the words ‘day job’. Surely, you’ve thought about how much time your ‘day job’ takes away from fulfilling your dreams? Did you know there are eighty seven hundred and thirty (8,736) six hours in a year? I spend 2,580 waking hours a year going to and from and at my ‘day job’. I spend approximately 2,912 hours sleeping; which has left me with 3,874 waking hours to do with what I want. Precious hours to fulfill my dreams! How exciting to think soon I can do what I want with every minute of every day!

estherhicks-video.jpgDefining Who We Are

How I spend every hour of each day defines who I am and is relevant. Do we ever disconnect from our dreams? No. If you think that you do; you are incorrect. Our dreams are as much apart of us as an arm or a leg. Disconnection is futile. It can not be done. Do you think trying to disconnect from your dreams has anything to do with disease and dying; for yourself or the planet? What do you think? Trying to disconnect from what we really want to do and be is like trying to swim up stream…you will wear yourself out; become weak and drown.

polar-bear-dog-7.JPGLiving the Dream

My dream is that our development stops creeping in on wildlife. My dream is that we continually expand spaces that acknowledge our inter-connectedness with nature and wildlife. My dream is for spaces that celebrate this connectedness; exciting and joyful places; places were bird songs, babbling brooks and the winds through the trees supply much of the entertainment we crave.

My dream is that the Office of Economic Development and Public Finance offer environmental incentives that have an extremely high tax break for people and business that want to move here and NOT drain our resources; wildlife and natural habitats. Wildlife does not understand the ‘concrete jungle’ that keeps crumbling the land.

Happy Environmental Trails

Animals: Second Class Victims of Foreclosures

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Animals Left Behind

In April 2007, there were 147,708 U.S. foreclosure filings–default notices, auction sale notices and bank repossessions, according to RealtyTrac, an online foreclosure marketplace based in Irvine, California.

Today nearly 2.2 million Americans may lose their homes. As these families struggle to survive and find rentals and housing they are faced with options that are heart wrenching…they can not always keep their fury family members. As a result, these animals are left behind. The suffering these animals endure is heart breaking. The foreclosure crisis makes these animals a ‘second class of victims n the national economy’.

Heart Wrenching Struggle

I had never thought or made a connection between Real Estate Foreclosures and animals until saw the television news recently. The conditions and situations revealed are heat breaking and impossible to imagine.

As people struggle to keep their homes; animals sometimes go to the bottom of their list. Then, these foreclosure homes house starvation, disease and death for many animals. The trauma that people and animals go though during this stressful time is horrendous.

There are not enough homes for all the lost, homeless and abandoned animals–and when homes can not be found they are euthanized to make room for other lost, homeless and abandoned animals.

Resources

There are resources for pet owners facing foreclosures: If you are someone you know is unable to care for their animals; call a shelter such as the Best friends Animal Society. Doing so can elimante the unnecessary suffering for an animal.

Spaying or neutering may be the kindest thing you can do for your animal friend. Spay/USA is a nationwide network and referral service for affordable spay and neuter services with a hot line (1-800-248-SPAY). Surgery at one of the clinics in the network averages $50, about half of the average cost in a vet’s office.

successdthumbnail.jpgMay all your trails be happy!

Plight of The Sumatran Tiger

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TRAFFIC: CONSUMERS PARTNERS IN WILDLIFE CRIME

Today, the Sumatran tiger is being sold Body part by body part into extinction! The Sumatran tiger is listed as Critically Endangered on IUCN’s Red List of Threatened Species, the highest category of threat before extinction in the wild. “We cannot afford to lose any more of these magnificent creatures”, says Jane Smart, Head of IUCN’s Species Programme.TRAFFIC INDIA, the wildlife trade monitoring network says end consumers are as much partners in wildlife crime as those who deal in or hunt protected species of wildlife. TRAFFIC says:

Tiger body parts, including canine teeth, claws, skin pieces, whiskers and bones, were on sale in 10 percent of the 326 retail outlets surveyed during 2006 in 28 cities and towns across Sumatra. Outlets included goldsmiths, souvenir and traditional Chinese medicine shops, and shops selling antique and precious stones.

1467551-1304655-thumbnail.jpgHUMAN TIGER CONFLICTS

Dr Susan Lieberman, Director of WWF International’s Species Programme says this is an enforcement crisis.

Dr Tonny Soehartono, Director for Biodiversity Conservation, Ministry of Forestry of Republic of Indonesia. “We have been struggling with the issues of land use changes, habitat fragmentation, human-tiger conflicts and poverty in Sumatra. Land use changes and habitat fragmentation are driving the tiger closer to humans and thus creating human-tiger conflicts”.

HOW MANY LEFT?

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The latest report was launched the day after India’s National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) announced an official estimate of 1,411 tigers currently surviving in the wild in India; more than 50 percent down from the previous census estimate of 3,642 tigers in 2001-02.

My heart aches when I look into the face of this animal. I want to scream and stomp! Stop it! My voice is so tiny; and when I think about the hundreds of environmental and animal organization, the thousands of scientists and animal advocates, all our resources and decades of time: how does the Sumatran tiger find itself at extinction’s door?

We have yet to find a balance between human social and economic development and the natural world. I do not argue that we need to reduce poverty and improve people’s lives. However, I wonder about the planning we make to achieve the reduction of poverty and improve peoples lives. The Sumatran tiger is one in a long list of animals at the brink of extinction in our quest for human social and economic development.

WHAT CAN WE DO?

000_0194.jpgWhat can I do in my tiny spec of the world to save this incredible creature? What can you do? If you have an answer, please share it here, so I can spread the news to as many little bloggers as possible! Of course, dollars to any of the organizations mentioned above will help. And I’ll continue to monitor this story.

Winter Hiking: A Dip Into Serenity

Hiking Trails, ,

Resevoir Straton Open Space

Rocky Mountain Splash

A February 2008 view of the Stratton Open Space resevoir from the Ponderosa trail. The resevoir is at the bottom of Cheyenne Mountain near the Will Rogers Sun Shrine. From a distance it looks as though the reservoir has a swirling funnel; opining up and swallowing the water. As we arrive closer we see the water is frozen. I love the contrast from the winter terrain, the pines against the water and the tawny horizon, as blue upon blue defines the sky. Our relationship to the planet seems so serene in this time and space.

000_0415.jpgDabbling Ducks

The three tiny dots on the water are ducks; I’m outside a chained and locked gate. A chain link fence surrounds the reservoir, keeping people and animals out; the frozen lake is dangerous to unsuspecting large animals who might wander onto the ice.

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No Humans Allowed!

In the summer, rangers open the gate, allowing people and animals to enter. Canines are permitted to swim in the summer and early fall months.

At one time the reservoir was closed to everyone; however, people kept cutting through the fence. Finally after a few town meetings and months of debating, a decision was made to open the reservoir during the summer and early fall months to everyone. However, humans would not be allowed to enter the water; just the animals…no matter how tempting the water is on a hot day, just the dogs get to swim.

Last summer a golden retriever searches for unknown treasure; leaving me panting on the bank!

Cattle Abuse in Slaughterhouse

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“LOS ANGELES – An undercover video showing crippled and sick animals being shoved with forklifts has led to the largest beef recall in the United States and a scramble to find out if any of the meat is still destined for school children’s lunches.”

Watching ‘NBC’s Today’ show about animal abuse in a slaughterhouse; I’m horrified! I’m reminded of Dr. Michael W. Fox and his work at The Humane Society of the United States (HSUS) where I was privileged to work along side Dr. Fox in a quest to identify humane sustainable agriculture practices for livestock and poultry.

I’d never thought much about what livestock and poultry go through before it gets to the table. But after I became acquainted with Dr. Fox; the horrific nature of ‘Factory Farming’ became very clear. The dark side of this seldom viewed industry made my mission to find sustainable practices in livestock and poultry rearing imperative and to look to a more vegetarian diet.

The live images screaming out of the television on NBC’s Today’ show were horrific, however, I’ve seen much worse. This is not one isolated case; I’ve seen more proof than anyone would care to see. People should be made to see more of where our food comes from; how it’s produced and how the animals are treated.

Wendell Berry writes:

An agriculture can not survive long at the expense of the natural systems that support it and the provide it with models. A Culture cannot survive long at the expense of either its agricultural or its natural sources. To live at the expense of the source of life is obviously suicidal. Though we have no choice but to live at the expense of other life, it is necessary to recognize the limits and dangers involved: past a certain point in a unified system, “other life” is our own.

The definitive relationships in the universe are thus not competitive but interdependent. And from a human point of view they are analogical. We can build one system only within another. We can have agriculture only within nature, and culture only within agriculture. At certain points these systems have to conform with one another or destroy one another.

Dr. Fox writes:

Currently agriculture, along with all the natural wisdom and empathy that our farmer-ancestors and earlier hunter-gatherers acquired (and, with such wisdom and empathy, were deeply religious), is being lost–to high-tech agribusiness. From culture to technocracy: from sensibility to money, power, and control. The evolution of factory farming is a natural consequence of our culture’s materialistic and objectifying attitude toward nature. Consequently, humanity no longer acts as part of a unified field of being. By not acting so, we destroy this unity, violating the ecological laws of nature and the ethical and spiritual principles of our forebears. Factory farming is a second Industrial Revolution.

Thanks to the national attention brought to us by the media and film taken by the HSUS; the images are a mere glimpse of the ‘tip of the iceberg’! This is NOT a single isolated case! The trail of farm animals on the way to our table tops is paved with misery and cruelty. I urge you to stop and think about the food choices you make. Do you really need to eat that ‘Whopper’ or ‘Mac burger’ everyday. Do you give a thought to the suffering of the animals who went into it? Pain and suffering went into the meat on your plate! Do you give a darn?! Would you dare take a close look at where they live; what they are fed; the medications they receive on a daily basis?

Stay tuned, I’m going to take you to the dark side of livestock and poultry rearing. I’ll also take you to the other side and introduce you to ranchers who rear livestock and poultry with respect. I’ll give you answers on what you can do to make change to your diet.

Animals, Wilderness and Being Present

Canines

000_0335.jpgWilderness

As much as I love the woods, I probably wouldn’t go there nearly as much if I had not had such incredible angel beasts in my life. The love and responsibility for these canines kept and keeps me on the trails and in the present!

In Touch With Nature

Having frequent contact to the woods has kept me in touch with nature. And nature keeps me in touch with a connection I would never make unless I visited the forest. Though I’m able to categorize and find names for all its parts; when I go there, I feel a wildness beating and somehow know that I’m connected to it. The connection makes me feel strong, alert and apart of the incredible invisible energy force that fills the universe. And watching The Way of Animals always puts me on a precious path!

Walk on the Wild Side

What could possibly be better than a walk in the woods? When I’m there, nothing is better. The000_0294.jpg sights and smells; lush greens and wild flowers, I inhale and the fragrance of the wilderness fills me with a wild embrace and I never want to leave the woods. The trail is shaded with lush wild green; scrub oak, spruce and pine. Wild flowers are abundant; Fairy Trumpets, Mouse Eared Chickweed, Evening Primrose, Fireweed, Shooting Stars, Globeflower and Paint brush. A creek weaves in and around the trail as the trail winds its way up the mountain.

I believe humans who do not make frequent journeys into the wilderness; touch, smell and listen to the forest, can not truly understand our connectedness to this beauty. We need to embrace the wild. When did asphalt trails, plastics, synthetics and technology become more desirable?

Leave the City Behind

Lets take a journey. Lets leave the city behind. Find some green. Get as close as we can, as frequently as possible to nature. Discover our connectedness with our animal friends and the wild beauty of the woods…come with me as I try and hold onto and keep close to the wild within.
000_0336.jpg Happy trails!