Responding to a need: the Land Restoration School
We are so proud that the Fund for Lake Michigan, who has funded ecological restoration work at Crossroads at Big Creek, has featured the Land Restoration School on their landing page. Read the full article here or here.
The article begins,
Do you know people with a passion for healing the earth?
They’ve got ideas for change. They embody and are committed to diversifying environmental fields. What they need: ecological restoration knowledge and skills. Enter the Land Restoration School (LRS) at Crossroads at Big Creek in Sturgeon Bay. The LRS is excited to launch its inaugural session this summer with a cohort of seven future ecological restorationists.
2022 LRS Cohort, clockwise from top left: Megan Hart, Andrew Umentum, Martina Patterson, Liz Metz, Ben Kielar, Emily Sautebin, Hanan Ali
In 2020, Crossroads at Big Creek was the proud recipient of a Fund for Lake Michigan grant to heal degraded wetlands connected to Sturgeon Bay. That grant helped raise awareness that regional environmental deficiencies were not just in the ecological function of wetlands, but also in finding qualified people to do the healing. This helped inspire Crossroads to launch the Land Restoration School, an initiative that delivers an 8-week residential academic session (12 weeks if the optional field practicum is included). The LRS teaches the principles, practice and planning of ecological restoration for degraded lands — an educational immersion in land restoration.
Key ideas
Central to the LRS are (1) a paid fellowship stipend and provided housing; (2) an experience modeled on biological field stations, where participants engage in land-based learning and collaborative discovery; and (3) the strength derived from being rooted in diversity, equity and justice.