April 1 - April 30, 2020

Davis Wilkins

"“You cannot get through a single day without having an impact on the world around you. What you do makes a difference and you have to decide what kind of a difference you want to make.” —Jane Goodall"

POINTS TOTAL

0 TODAY
0 THIS WEEK
586 TOTAL

participant impact

UP TO

5.0

pieces of litter

picked up
UP TO

55

minutes

spent learning
UP TO

2,115

minutes

not spent in front of a screen
UP TO

2,205

minutes

spent outdoors
UP TO

70

conversations

with people
UP TO

61

meatless or vegan meals

consumed

Davis's actions

Action Track: Building Resilience

Support A Sharing Economy

To reduce my consumption and waste and support my community, I will create or support a sharing economy with family, friends, and neighbors.

COMPLETED 1
DAILY ACTION

Action Track: Building Resilience

Research Benefits of Biodiversity

I will spend at least 20 minutes researching how biodiversity positively impacts our world and how the loss of biodiversity harms it.

COMPLETED
ONE-TIME ACTION

Wildlife

Support Pollinators

At least 30% of crops and 90% of flowering plants rely on pollinators, including monarch butterflies, to produce fruit. I will spend 15 minutes researching which plants support local native pollinators and plant some in my yard.

COMPLETED
ONE-TIME ACTION

Wildlife

Research a Wild Animal

I will spend at least 15 minutes learning about a wild animal I find interesting, including their life cycle, habitat, ecosystem functions, and interactions with humans (if any!).

COMPLETED
ONE-TIME ACTION

Forests

Explore My Area

I will explore at least one new hiking trail or nature walk in my area while following CDC guidelines for social distancing.

COMPLETED
ONE-TIME ACTION

Action Track: Building Resilience

Connect While Social Distancing

I will connect with at least 1 person/people a day through phone call or video chat to support mine and other’s mental and emotional health during this challenging time.

COMPLETED 0
DAILY ACTIONS

Action Track: Building Resilience

Spend Time Outside

I will replace 30 minute(s) each day typically spent inside (computer time, watching television, etc.) with quality time outside that follows CDC guidelines for preventing disease spread.

COMPLETED 0
DAILY ACTIONS

Action Track: Building Resilience

Farm FOOD for the Unsheltered

THis week I got Adam Holtey and Rogue Produce to set up a way on their website to allow people sheltering at home and looking for ways to help to be able to donate food to Vanessa Houk & The Ashland Community Peace Meal/Southern Oregone Jobs With Justice. Now when people are ordering their weekly farm food to be delivered, they can allot an amount to both the peace meal and to Farm2School. Adam was excited by the opportunity as they have been looking for a way to give but don't have the $...but we both agreed they have the platform...and the farmers are the same way-wanting to help, but not with much to spare...but growing and delivering fresh local food to those most in need right now is hugely important. I hope it will also continue once the quarantine/this crisis has passed.

COMPLETED
ONE-TIME ACTION

Food

Reduce Animal Products

I will enjoy 2 meatless meal(s) and/or 2 vegan meal(s) each day of the challenge.

COMPLETED 0
DAILY ACTIONS

People

Keep My Community Clean

I will pick up 1 piece(s) of litter each day while following the CDC’s current guidelines for prevention of disease transfer.

COMPLETED 0
DAILY ACTIONS

Climate

Choose Renewable Energy or Purchase Renewable Energy Credits

I will sign up for my utility company's clean/renewable energy option. If my utility does not offer one, I will purchase Renewable Energy Credits to match my usage.

UNCOMPLETED
ONE-TIME ACTION

Participant Feed

REFLECTION QUESTION
Action Track: Building Resilience

How can you encourage biodiversity by your own actions?
Davis Wilkins 4/27/2020 11:16 AM
EVERYONE SHOULD TAKE 4 MINUTES AND WATCH THIS VIDEO: How WOlves Change Rivers:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ysa5OBhXz-Q&t=9s from the EcoChallenge education links for biodiversity...
I grew up in Idaho...Yellowstone has changed so much since wolves were reintroduced...and yet, I had not appreciated the full ecological scale to which this has happened. Some of this is likely not SOLELY due to the wolves...but the argument is quite compelling: an intact ecosystem manifests changes in so many ways...and there is still time in many of our impacted ecosystems around the world to create positive change. My college roommate is a marine biologist/ecologist and she told me recently: "I always choose the restoration projects...they give me hope when I see how resilient things can be. I need that hope. "
I need that hope too! I think we all do.....

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- Ana B 4/29/2020 5:03 PM
  Love these Davis!
  
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- Erin M 4/28/2020 8:58 PM
  Hello! I can't wait to watch the wolf video, but also wanted to say I read that NY Times article from 2012 and agree wholeheartedly - CRAZY and prophetic!
  
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- Davis Wilkins 4/27/2020 11:22 AM
  Also...this is a CRAZY article to read from the NYTimes in 2012 (https://www.nytimes.com/2012/07/15/sunday-review/the-ecology-of-disease.html?fbclid=IwAR03nGQzdFR6jT84Xb6R7oX--gdZkjUzXF01A6O0gBbnHsy5A_tDVD9ZsQQ) about how 'the next pandemic could cost the world $3 billion..and is likely to happen at the intersection of humans encroaching upon wildlife"...a bizarre read 8 years later in the middle of the pandemic that came from wet-slaughter wildlife markets in China...and on a morning where I pulled 10 ticks off my dogs after camping out all weekend by a deserted slice of riverbank.....We have got to advocate louder and harder for change at the polls this fall and in the way we fund scientific research. Pandemics and their ilk will keep happening...if we are smart, we can do it quite differently next time around.
  
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REFLECTION QUESTION
Action Track: Building Resilience

What are the benefits of a sharing economy? How could a sharing economy change the dynamics you have with friends, family and/or neighbors?
Davis Wilkins 4/27/2020 10:58 AM
I asked for a Little Free Library last mother's day and I haven't put it up yet--wanting to paint it and get it out before THIS mother's day! Can't believe its been a year...but ready to get that done. Going to head up and paint it today. I've always loved walking around cities (Seattle, Vancouver BC, SFO) where I see neighborhoods full of Little Free Libraries...and lots of people walk around our neighborhood for a little extra sunshine and peace.
What I REALLY liked about this challenge was thinking about the ways we could all share amongst friends or neighborhoods. I feel like in our little rafting group, we have items we let one another borrow/share...wondering if any of you do this with fruit trees in the fall? Tools? Kitchen appliances, etc? I know people unofficially use Mama's Medicine Wheel and Ashland Peeps...but wondering if someone has done the forage share like these articles reference? So cool and I DO see so much fruit in our town and our neighborhood falling off the trees and rotting on the ground in the fall....I like the idea that we could share what we have instead of letting it go to waste and through that, connecting more. If you are part of some kind of sharing network, will you reply to this post? Or if you know of a local one?

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Davis Wilkins 4/24/2020 8:49 AM
I would love to know how the young people in our team feel about this article:
https://www.globalcitizen.org/en/content/youth-climate-activist-voices-earth-day/
and the older people too!

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- Carmen Proffitt 4/24/2020 10:39 AM
  I feel a combo of hope and frustration.
  
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REFLECTION QUESTION
Wildlife

Why is it important to take care of pollinators?
Davis Wilkins 4/20/2020 11:56 AM
I love that I chose to take 15 minutes today when I didn't feel like I hadit to read about pollinators while I am in the midst of putting in my garden this month. Growing up on a 40 acre farm, we always had so much milkweed and many monarch butterflies...and I've known that they and bees are in decline for so many reasons...but it was rejuvenating to learn more about what plants I could specifically plant in my flower beds this year to help...especially now, in spring, when they will have a chance to thrive for a while before the heat of the summer. I also loved realizing that our water pot 'fountain' a friend made us to try and help drown out freeway noise, which we know the birds like, is also good for the bees. I see them there...but I hadn't really recognized how hot they get/how theyneed water to regulate their temperatures.

I'm including the link below to the pollinator garden builder information that is specific to our region in case its useful to any of you.

https://www.pollinator.org/PDFs/SierranSteppe.rx3.pdf

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- Ana B 4/21/2020 2:13 PM
  What a cool share Davis!
  
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- Davis Wilkins 4/20/2020 12:06 PM
  And answering the question more specifically: No pollinators=No food...Drastically changed landscape/ecology..and the end of much life on our planet.
  
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REFLECTION QUESTION
Action Track: Building Resilience

How does connecting with others help your own mental and emotional health? How can it help support others?
Davis Wilkins 4/13/2020 10:51 AM
My writers group usually meets once/month on a Wednesday late afternoon to share work, feedback, and moral support & encouragement. Since the quarantine, we have been meeting weekly and doing more ZOOM writing sessions to prompts to help both keep us writing (since we seem to feel more compelled to show up to support one another than sometimes write for just ourselves in the midst of the weird ennui that this time sometimes leaves you with) and also to stay connected/support one another. It's been productive and supportive and we have become more vulnerable and connected even after 3 weeks than we had in the past 6 months, honestly. I wouldn't have said that could happen online/virtually...but I think there is something about the fact that we are all under these more intense circumstances, witha lot more time on our hands, that is helping driving our level of vulnerability and need for connection that has been really good for our writing. There is something very real and powerful about toggling back and forth between being lonely and letting that spur you to action...and then being TOO lonely/isolated and needing to connect and know that YOU ARE NOT ALONE. I think that is why the video conferencing is helpful, because you can still read people's faces/emotional response to you in a way that text and email cannot/leave you sometimes a little cold.
We all acknowledged that there are probably going to be some verrrry good books written/art made during this time in the long run across the globe with so many in the same situation and now time to write that novel/memoir...paint that series, work on & print those photographs...I hope that it is the same for many/all of you! At a minimum, it really is surprising how many different 'groups' in my life are connecting to one another in a we don't normally: extended family, former summer camp counselors (highschool), college girlfriends. It's like this time is stirring up a real cross-pollination of connecting from past and current lives that I find is a surprisingly rich gift/silver lining to this global crisis . What are you all experiencing ?

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- Alice Hardesty 4/13/2020 1:27 PM
  My writing group also meets on Wednesday afternoons, now by Zoom. We've been meeting in person for more than a year, and I was beginning to think I'd rather do other things, but once the virus hit, I was more than motivated to keep it going. Writing provides the platform for sharing in a deep way what we are thinking, feeling, planning, fearing, appreciating - the whole endless list of opportunities during this unusual time.
  
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REFLECTION QUESTION
Forests

How can spending more time outdoors enhance your sense of place?
Davis Wilkins 4/11/2020 10:44 AM
Today Matt and the kids and I tried to walk as far up to Grizzly Peak directly from our house as we could. It made 3 of us incredibly happy to explore these areas right close to home but that feel like a mystery (Luke lost steam about 1/2 way through and finished a bit begrudgingly). We felt so free to be out of thehouse/our usual haunts and exploring a new 'old' place and filling in the space on our map. We saw coyotes, foxes, a lot of birds, beautiful spring wildflowers (sego lily, shooting stars, monks hood, mule ears and lupine), and found a rumoured waterfall is real, though a trickle this year. We felt free and on a grand adventure even though we just walked from our door. It helped us to feel more ownership of our neighborhood...which certainly leads to a sense of wanting to protect it and greater sensitivity to its fragile nature...and yet its resiliency...and how it feeds our sense of resiliency and peace when we appreciate how lucky we are to have it outside our back door to visit anytime.

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REFLECTION QUESTION
Wildlife

What interesting facts did you learn about the animal you researched? What are some of your favorite things about this animal?
Davis Wilkins 4/06/2020 3:52 PM
Link to video and call: https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Western_Screech-Owl/media-browser-overview/475649
I wanted to research the Western Screech owl because we've seen them twice on our property hungrily surveying our bird feeders in the past and like many of you, we used to occasionally see the one that nested in the tree above the Lithia Park playground when the kids were younger. For Chrismas, Matt gave me a western screech owl box and we put it up last month, hopeful that this year or next it will become a nesting spot near the cottage. We used to listen to it that smoky summer we were holed up in the cottage after the house flood, but not know it was an adult owl calling, thinking it was a juvenile (link above to listen to its funny call).
I love that the screech owl is so magnificently camouflaged like the bark of the trees in which it inhabits and is such a small, compact owl...like Ron Weasley's Pigwidgeon in Harry Potter--its described as 'about the size of a pair of binoculars'-ha! I am also so grateful that some of their favorite foods are...rats! and hopefully ground squirrels since we have too many of those out here...they eat insects as well as occasionally rabbits which are much bigger than they are! Thankfully they are not endangered and apparently take easily to nesting boxes, which we noted in the film The Biggest Little Farm--a must see if you haven't--especially this Earth Day/Month!

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- Erin M 4/06/2020 4:18 PM
  This is fabulous! I just played the sound clip and my dog is now hunting all over the house for the critter : ) They are the coolest and their cammo is amazing! I forgot about that sweet one by Lithia Park, awwwww. The best! Thank you!
  
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Davis Wilkins 4/06/2020 3:21 PM
Hey everyone, this week I got Adam Holtey and Rogue Produce to set up a way on their website to allow people sheltering at home and looking for ways to help to be able to donate food to Vanessa Houk & The Ashland Community Peace Meal/Southern Oregone Jobs With Justice (and another person helped set up the same for some of the Farm2school families). Now when people are ordering their weekly farm food to be delivered on the Rogue Produce website (https://rogueproduce.com), they can allot a $50 share or $ amount to both the unsheltered/Peace meal and to Farm2School. Adam was excited by the opportunity as they have been looking for a way to give but don't have the $...but we both agreed they have the platform...and the farmers are the same way-wanting to help, but not with much to spare...but growing and delivering fresh local food to those most in need right now is hugely important. I hope it will also continue once the quarantine/this crisis has passed. Check it out and spread the word. I would really love to hear how you all are finding ways to help others in the face of social distancing/sequestering right now, or creative things you're hearing/seeing from friends across the globe.

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- Ana B 4/10/2020 3:30 PM
  Thank you for sharing out ALL of this Davis. What a great way to support local farmers and lend a helping hand...all while keeping the larger community safer!
  
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- Carmen Proffitt 4/06/2020 6:15 PM
  This is awesome. I've been meaning to sign up for the CSA shares. I'm a member of his community compost program, and I love his qigong classes. Heck yeah for this level of collaboration to help those in need. <3
  
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- Erin M 4/06/2020 4:19 PM
  Fantastic idea! Thank you for sharing - I will as well!
  
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REFLECTION QUESTION
People

How does the act of picking up litter connect you more to your community?
Davis Wilkins 4/02/2020 10:33 AM
Matt and I often take a walk in our neighborhood in the evenings, but now it feels like a daily necessity to get out of the house, connect away from the kids (especially around more serious concerns), take in the awakening spring as a balm to the bleak news...it would be really easy to pick up a piece of garbage every time. It's funny how I don't notice or think about garbage along the roadside in the same way I notice it on beaches...yet another 'aha' of increased awareness due to the pandemic...ultimately these awarenesses can be game changers for our lives and I really hope for the planet.

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- Erin M 4/02/2020 11:47 AM
  So important to get out and connect and yes, discuss the news without scaring the whole house! Love your insights on how easy it would be to pick up garbage (I agree) and how it blends in as we walk around our own community, but at the beach is more jarring. So interesting!
  
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Davis Wilkins 4/02/2020 10:16 AM
We will only figure out solutions by facing the problems we have created as a society together and using our wits, tenacity, and shared wisdom to think outside the box about how to undo, redo, and move forward more sustainably.

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