Cycle III Activities Become familiar with an ecosystem different from the one in which you live. Spend a significant amount of time in this environment and learn skills that are needed to be in balance with this environment. Develop a sense of yourself in this environment. Assist those in other Cycles to become familiar with the environment they live in and with new environments.

New (Different) Ecosystem Cycle III (new) Environment: South Central Wisconsin; Cycle II Environment: Austin, Texas.

A "Cycle II-style" report (water/food/garbage/etc.) is forthcoming. However, Pat Cuney interviewed me for all this material, which she reported in her Cycle III report. Her report was accepted and she is now a Ms.W. and ordained Priestess of RCGI. Her use of my research and documentation for her report, and the approval of her documentation by the Cella Advisory Board, essentially serves as documentation of my own activities.

Spend Significant Time in this Environment; Learn Skills Needed to be in Balance with It. I've now lived in south central Wisconsin for 11 years. Learning to live in balance here has been a huge part of my experience:

• learning to dress for and make my way through winter weather
• learning to drive in winter conditions
• learning Midwest (regional) cultural values
• learning to live where there is great pressure to keep house cats inside, and learning about the songbird habitats that are the root of this pressure
• others...

Develop a Sense of Myself in This Environment Two areas where this has been most pronounced are these:

• environmental
  • seasonal -- learning to live with four seasons:
    • long winters with diminished light -- learning to recognized the earliest signs of seasonal change from winter to spring and celebrating them (the earliest? winter birds begin to sing at the end of January!)
  • short summers -- soaking up every ray of sunshine and making the most of the long days of summer; Summer Solstice observances -- which used to be a season of celebration for me and have become a season of grief, knowing well, as I do, the short, dark, cold days of a long winter; grief is an authentic response to this seasonal marker, which was atmospherically meaningless when I lived in Texas, with its summer that lasts from May through October; the solar year peaks in Wisconsin when summer weather has just taken root
  • true fall and spring -- several months of temperate, playing, changing, refreshing, transition weather, instead of the week or two of each in Texas, my former habitat
  • gardening -- though I've always done some gardening, in Wisconsin I've fallen in love with; there's a visceral gardening enthusiasm that that matches the prolific growth rate of plants in areas where there is a short growing season
  • perennial plants, especially native flowering plants -- as with the gardening enthusiasm, I've fallen in love with and studied (by books and experience) perennials, especially flowering native plants; I was doing the same in Texas, and left behind a quarter acre of bluebonnets in the city of Austin, with instructions to the buyer of my home about taking care of them so they don't die off (and I hear reports that people drive by every year to experience the beauty of my former yard!). This wildflower activity is greatly expanded in my new environment, an expansion due partly to environmental change and partly to spiritual growth within my pagan, earth-loving tradition; see my flowering plant identification & blooming chronology list of plants in my yard, my neighborhood, and my regularly traveled routes; though I've learned to identify quite a few plants by their flowers and flowering schedule over the last few years, each year I identify more plants; also, my plant identification skills are expanding beyond flower identification to include other plant characteristics (for example, I can identify starry campion and motherwort long before they bloom). As I learned more about my new environment (see "mixed hardwood forest" entry below), I worked hard to only introduce native perennials as I expanded my gardens, because non-native perennials, though beautiful and hardy, tend to crowd out native plant habitats.
    
  • my ecological footprint
    • when I first took this interesting test, my ecological footprint was 24, the national average; shelter was the highest category in my footprint because I live in a relatively large house which I share with only one other person
    • since taking the test, I have reduced that average to 21, which is still much higher than what the planet can actually sustain for all its human inhabitants
    • because of the relatively high number for shelter in my footprint, I've thought about moving into a smaller house to reduce my footprint, and thought about how my partner's footprint would be reduced if we moved into Madison and reduced her 40-mile per day work commute. There are many reasons (physical, spiritual, financial), however, for our not making such a move. As I thought about the impact of my ecological footprint on the planet's resources, I became even more convinced that the privilege of living in such a beautiful, natural, environment demands taking responsibility for the land and working actively for its health and longevity (see the "mixed hardwood forest entry" below)
  • identifying the ecosystem in which I live and living in ecological balance with the system

    • "trash trees"	mixed hardwoods
      black locust	red oak
      buckthorn	white oak
      mulberry	ash
      hackberry	black walnut (partial)
      click on the small images for larger views all scanned photos © Sage Starwalker, except buckthorn and black cherry (courtesy Iowa State University)	elm
      	maple
      	black cherry

      mixed hardwood forest
      I spent time outside, online, with a field guide, and on the telephone trying to identify the ecosystem where I lived, without much success, until signs of distress in one of the oak trees on my property motivated me to make contact with a certified arborist and tree disease specialist. When she came to diagnose the problem, I asked her to identify the ecosystem in which I live. I knew I lived in a grove of oaks and thought perhaps the area might be a savannah, but she told me I that I live in what remains of a mixed hardwood forest. She also identified all the trees on my property and the surrounding properties, all of which share some wild, unimproved spaces (photos above right). When I asked her what I could do to preserve and promote the native habitat, she recommended that I have all the "trash trees" (photos above right) removed, because they prevent the hardwoods from reseeding. (This was not a self-serving recommendation; she does not do tree removal herself and stood to make no money from this recommendation.) At the next appropriate season for tree removal, I had the mulberries, hackberries, black locusts, and buckthorn removed (pictures above right). I had their roots ground out so they would not repropagate. All this I did at great expense, but the satisfaction is great, knowing that the work I have done will have beneficial effects beyond my lifetime. There are 3- to 5-year old "next generation hardwoods growing here now. I look at them and give thanks for the opportunity to do this little bit of stewardship of our Mother, the Earth.
  • remodeling
    • for health reasons, we chose to put hardwood floors in instead of replacing 25-year old carpet with carpet; our research led us to "Kahrs" flooring, a Swedish product made from farmed hardwoods, as opposed to old growth, and that uses about 1/3 the amount of hard wood as other hardwood flooring systems
    • as we have replaced appliances, we have chosen Energy Star products (highly rated on energy efficiency scales)
    • we upgraded our furnace when we remodeled, not because it wasn't functioning, but because it was old and was only 72% energy efficient
  • watershed
    I live about 250 feet from "Lake Ripley" and in the Lake Ripley Watershed. I have attended Lake Ripley Management District meetings to educate myself about the watershed and to become involved in the relatively aggressive attempts to balance the plant and water health of the lake with the inevitable and destructive recreational boating uses of the lake; though my disability prevents me from actively participating in the lake cleanup days, each summer I clear trash (mainly old anchors, bottles and cans) and invasive plant species (mainly Eurasian water milfoil) from the lake in a wide area around my neighborhood's beachfront.
    I took an active part in convincing some reluctant neighbors to join a district-monitored "shoreline stabilization and restoration" project. Again, there was cost involved (thus the reluctance), but we have contributed to the health of the lake by stopping nonpoint source pollution from soil erosion and stormwater runoff on our 250 feet of shoreline.
    I advocate with my neighbors against the use of herbicides and fertilizers, because they pollute the lake and feed the growth of algae and plants that clog the lake.
    Fortunately, Lake Ripley is one of the cleanest public-access lakes in south central Wisconsin; I do my part to keep it that way and look forward to becoming even more involved in the future.
    
• cultural -- learning to live in a new region
  • despite living in one of the most liberal centers of the Midwest, I find that it is less less cultural diverse and generally more conservative (politics, laws, esthetics, lifestyles) than the region I moved from (Texas, especially Austin, Texas)
• as I've come across these differences, I've had to learn where and when to adapt my behavior to them, and where and when to stay true to my Texas roots
• I've learned that regionalism is like other isms -- we need to educate ourselves to become more aware of when our isms are filtering our perceptions of others

Assist Those in Other Cycles to Become Familiar with Current and New Environments Pat Cuney is only one of several Cella students whom I have assisted in these activities. The topic for my "solo" Cella Weekend organizing/programming experience was Environment. We explored many aspects of environment, from spiritual connections with the land to survival techniques. One of the activities I incorporated into the programming was a weed walk, taught by RoseMary Fandel, a Cella sister who has since graduated and become ordained. Many Cella students were introduced to a variety of elements relating to this topic that weekend.