Trackers PDX Blog

Plants Are People Too

30th

July

Our cultural stories typically reveal empathy for animals. Having two eyes, a nose and ears makes them familiar to us. Disney tells us a furry friend can be a comedic and spunky sidekick; while being vegetarian is now widely accepted by both restaurant menus and Aunt Sally's family dinners.

Yet what about plants? The epic story of how they thrive and live is equal to any deer, cougar or even human. It's simply that how they grow seems stranger to us.

In tracking I tell people to get to know the bear like it's family. This familial awareness leads to an intimate knowledge and deep caring. First hand experience is what makes certain hunters or fisher-people the most ardent conservationists. I laud this same regard for the wild plants around us. A life is lost whenever we uproot a dandelion by its dark roots, whenever we take a tree for its wood. Does that mean we should stop eating animals or plants? Not necessarily. The cougar continues to forage for deer and the deer continues to hunt the meadow for green grasses born of sunlight. In the web of life it's not only about the right to live, it's about the right to live wild and free.

As humans we're compelled by the emotion of sadness. When we take life by our own hands in order to survive, our tears prevent us from doing it indiscriminately. Regret can pace us, holding back cataclysmic consumption of all the land on this Earth. Without this vital connection of grief tempering our hunger we create unchecked fields of soy, corn and wheat to feed an insatiable appetite. We have lost the recognition that even we are part of the web of life. One day we may even create a world where only humans exist. I don't want to live in that kind of world. As hippie as it sounds, I remain an advocate for the plant "people" and a brother to the dandelion growing in the sidewalk cracks.

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Wild Edible & Medicinal Plants Taster August 7 Join Bobby Smith to learn a little more about our family friends growing around  us. Only $25.

Other $25 tasters…

Wildlife Tracking Taster August 21
Awareness & Stealth Taster August 22
Wilderness Survival & Primitive Skills Taster August 28

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