Nature Walks
Under the dedicated, consistent and competent leadership of Rick Miller, Habitat Manager for AZ Game & Fish, Christians for the Earth have taken Nature Walks for 11 years! We have taken from 3 to 6 Walks each year. You can see that is a lot of Nature Walks!
The first name for our Walks was Nature Walks after Church, perhaps because our first Walk was after church. In 1996 after our first Earth Sunday service we took our first Nature Walk After Church to the site of the Side fire in east Flagstaff. Over 30 individuals of all ages planted seedlings at the site of the Side fire.
Since that first Walk we have explored many natural wonders, sometimes going out of town to the Grand Canyon to see the California condors, the Aubrey Valley to see the black footed ferrets, sustainable living at Arcosanti, and to Socorro, New Mexico, to experience thousands of water fowls at the Bosque del Apache reserve and eat at Pie Town!. Some of our Walks include visiting land at Dry Lake that has been preserved, feeding relocated prairie dogs at the Babbitt Ranch, seeing spruce beetles at the Snowbowl, finding radio collared antelope, observing grass on experimental grazing patches at Hoxworth Springs, tracing the Rio de Flag to its source, visiting Anazazi ruins, understanding the expanding Arboretum, seeing a herd of buffalo at Raymond Wildlife Preserve, hiking at Griffith Springs, walking historic downtown Flagstaff, and touring Anderson Mesa to see how ranchers and environmentalists work together.
Since Karen Appleby came to Federated as the Director of Ministries, our Walks have become Nature Walks With God. Karen writes a meditation for each Walk, unique to that experience. We have taken Nature Walks With God to the compost pile at New Start, the Flagstaff recycle facility, Willow Bend Environmental Education Center, and Picture Canyon.
Under the dedicated, consistent and competent leadership of Rick Miller, Habitat Manager for AZ Game & Fish, Christians for the Earth have taken Nature Walks for 11 years! We have taken from 3 to 6 Walks each year. You can see that is a lot of Nature Walks!
The first name for our Walks was Nature Walks after Church, perhaps because our first Walk was after church. In 1996 after our first Earth Sunday service we took our first Nature Walk After Church to the site of the Side fire in east Flagstaff. Over 30 individuals of all ages planted seedlings at the site of the Side fire.
Since that first Walk we have explored many natural wonders, sometimes going out of town to the Grand Canyon to see the California condors, the Aubrey Valley to see the black footed ferrets, sustainable living at Arcosanti, and to Socorro, New Mexico, to experience thousands of water fowls at the Bosque del Apache reserve and eat at Pie Town!. Some of our Walks include visiting land at Dry Lake that has been preserved, feeding relocated prairie dogs at the Babbitt Ranch, seeing spruce beetles at the Snowbowl, finding radio collared antelope, observing grass on experimental grazing patches at Hoxworth Springs, tracing the Rio de Flag to its source, visiting Anazazi ruins, understanding the expanding Arboretum, seeing a herd of buffalo at Raymond Wildlife Preserve, hiking at Griffith Springs, walking historic downtown Flagstaff, and touring Anderson Mesa to see how ranchers and environmentalists work together.
Since Karen Appleby came to Federated as the Director of Ministries, our Walks have become Nature Walks With God. Karen writes a meditation for each Walk, unique to that experience. We have taken Nature Walks With God to the compost pile at New Start, the Flagstaff recycle facility, Willow Bend Environmental Education Center, and Picture Canyon.
Nature Walk to the Arboretum
A stop at Pie Town near Bosque Del Apache
Scenes from our Nature Walk to Picture Canyon
Condor Watching:
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A group of hardy Christians for the Earth took a Nature Walk With God to Picture Canyon. Karen Appleby wrote a meditation which included a focus on the more than 150 pictographs in the canyon and the wetlands in the Rio de Flag channel. This beautiful place is in the city limits and in danger of being developed.
On Saturday September 15 an intergenerational group of Christians for the Earth visited Mountain Meadow Farm in Flagstaff. It is a three acre Farm that produces food and other agricultural products using sustainable practices; plus it serves as a demonstration site for our community. We toured the outside farm where we saw a fig tree growing all year round in a shelter made from shower doors; we also saw blue corn, Jerusalem artichokes with their bright yellow flowers, large compost piles, chickens and turkeys. In the bioshelter we saw several kinds of tomatoes, orchids, a banana tree and many other plants as well as a root cellar and plant processing areas. The farm uses permaculture principles in their farming practice. Karen Appleby had created a beautiful meditation for adults and another for the children. You can see these meditations as well as more about our Nature Walk With God on the Christians for the Earth bulletin board on the first floor in the Beamer building.
Photos from our visit to Mountain Meadow Farm, a sustainable farming project.