Our Mission
Restore the Earth & Inspire Ecological Stewardship.
We inspire communities to rediscover a sense of place through preserving indigenous ecosystems, restoring biological diversity, and embracing ecological stewardship.
Behind all of our work is an intention to respect Earth’s ecological limit, heal damaged ecological processes, and catalyze mutually beneficial relationships among the land and all forms of life. Our five core values and three drivers embody the spirit of our culture. They serve as the foundation for how we do what we do.
Values
Revere Wild Nature
Nature, and the full array of life this planet has to offer, is at the very, very core of what we are about.
Increasingly we find ourselves living in an artificial world. A world where ecosystem processes are compromised and biodiversity is marginalized and commodified. Nature, in its wildest and raw form, is at the essence of what we are about. Wild nature provides the blueprint for ensuring that we know how to conserve, restore, and regenerate the full expression of biological diversity and ecosystem functions to ensure our survival. It is at the heart of our collective souls.
"The wild requires that we learn the terrain, nod to all the plants and animals and birds, ford the streams and cross the ridges, and tell a good story when we get back home." — Gary Snyder, The Practice of the Wild
Heal Compassionately
Nature is under assault. We are entering the next great extinction of flora and fauna.
Our climate is shifting faster than ever before, and many of our ecosystem processes are beginning to break down. We know it’s not enough to slow down or even halt these impacts. We know that what we need to do is heal by making whole our relationship with the earth and each other. The core of what we do―conservation, restoration and regeneration, is about healing. And healing embodies a sense of caring―caring for the land and caring for each other.
"The assumption that animals are without rights and the illusion that our treatment of them has no moral significance is a positively outrageous example of Western crudity and barbarity. Universal compassion is the only guarantee of morality." — Arthur Schopenhauer, The Basis of Morality
Practice Wholeness
Life on earth is interconnected, and that damage to a part entails damage to the whole.
Thinking and acting whole means feeling a sense of connection to all of life―to other people, to new ideas, to the world around us. We have a responsibility to honor our obligations to future generations of all beings and to take their interests into account when we reflect on the consequences of our actions. Accordingly, our virtues are cooperation, respect, prudence, foresight, and justice. Living by the principle of reciprocity, giving as we receive, re-creates the richness of life.
“To resolve the dichotomy of the civilized and the wild, we must first resolve to be whole." — Gary Snyder, The Practice of the Wild
Act with Uncompromising Integrity
Integrity in our work is doing our best to restore biodiversity and ecological processes.
We must seek ways to employ science to objectively evaluate the performance of our projects, accept our findings and continuously learn. No matter what we do, if we don’t have integrity then none of our innovation, creativity, passion, commitment, synergy, or affirmation for life will mean anything to our constituency. While science should lead the way, it must be tempered by keen observation and the stories that are borne from traditional ecological knowledge. We must do what is right, even when it is difficult or less profitable.
"A thing is right when it tends to preserve the integrity, stability, and beauty of the biotic community. It is wrong when it tends otherwise." — Aldo Leopold, A Sand County Almanac with Other Essays on Conservation from Round River
Evolve to be the Best
Everything changes. Everything on this earth is in a continuous state of evolving, refining, improving, adapting, enhancing…changing.
If we aren’t evolving, we aren’t relevant. Being inquisitive, curious, and probing should be encouraged and celebrated. As we evolve, we will fail, and that is many times the most important part of evolving. Learning from our successes and failures is built into everything we do. In order to be our best, we must encourage testing, objective analysis, tinkering, innovation, and creativity.
“Nature everywhere speaks to man in a voice that is familiar to his soul.” — Alexander von Humboldt
Drivers
Passion
“Only the mountain has lived long enough to listen objectively to the howl of the wolf.”
― Aldo Leopold
Collaboration
“When we try to pick out anything by itself, we find it hitched to everything else in the universe.”
― John Muir
Fun
“Today was good. Today was fun. Tomorrow is another one.”
― Dr. Seuss
Culture | Approach
Science forms the core of our practice, and provides us with facts. But stories provide the patterns, connections, relationships, and context that enable us to see challenges from a whole-systems perspective. From that perspective emerge the three tenets of our work:
Living
All life has intrinsic value. Life is complex, diverse and symbiotic. It is unpredictable, mysterious and awe-inspiring. Life affords us countless possibilities and unbounded potential. The celebration of life and living systems is at the heart of everything we do at Biohabitats.
Engaging
Every living thing should have the opportunity to decide its future. That is ecological democracy, and in practicing it, we emphasize direct, participatory, hands-on engagement. Active engagement seeks to reveal potential and purpose. It awakens us to the essence of place and uncovers the patterns that connect us to the living world. At Biohabitats, inclusiveness, empowerment, justice and fairness are not just buzz words. They define the art of effective engagement, and guide the way we approach our work.
Evolving
Life evolves, adapting to ever changing conditions and possibilities. From evolution comes diversity, and diversity leads to complexity, resiliency and richness — characteristics that define our work. To us, evolution is more than a biological process; it is a way of continuing to improve upon our practice. Inherent in our approach is the capacity to change and the capability to unleash possibilities from that change.