Plant Speak Gathering
Sept. 21st, 2024 9am to 5:30pm

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As co-founder of Plant Pioneers, a human-Plant relations movement and collective, we are interested in living rightly for Nature and each other. Always, we put Nature first. As a Clinical Herbalist consultant and retired Registered Nurse, my Earthist values speak for and relates with the-Nature-that-surrounds-us. As co-creator of EarthSchool teachings at the Root Cellar, this is my life, not my job,

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Uprooted, rootless, if I still have any tendrils connecting me to the Earth, they are withered and weak. Like many European Americans, I have a history of picking up my roots and moving on. I’ve lived in seven places on two continents. I got a BFA in sculpture, but making art fed my ego, which I prefer to keep subdued, and not my bank account, so I’ve earned a living in many ways – as a travel agent, a maid, a salesclerk, a teacher, a waitress, a manager, a makeup artist & wigmaker (my favorite) and am now an English tutor at SUNY Delhi. I was born a liberal but raised in a conservative family, an environmentalist who continued to live as if she weren’t, a feminist in a long line of “eccentric” women. The last man I accepted money from was my father, but artist friend JG sorrowfully informed me, “That’s what men a FOR, dear.” I am in fact struggling financially, so maybe she was right (… Naaa). I’ve tried many different modes of thinking and ways of looking at our World, but have stubbornly held onto 3 beliefs: (since age 4) Plants are sentient beings; (age 13) there are too many humans on Planet Earth; and (age 15) the Greenhouse Effect/Global Warming/Climate Change/Climate Emergency, whatever we have chosen to call it, we made it, it’s real and it’s been adversely affecting our home planet since well before I was born around 70 years ago. I’ve spent my entire adult life grieving for our losses. We can’t seem to save ourselves, much less our nonhuman neighbors, so maybe the Plants can. I am certain they are far more intelligent than we, and certainly more reciprocal and benevolent, so I still have hope – in the Plants.

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Miki grew up in Tokyo and Los Angeles. Feeding off city energy she moved from one big city to the next eventually landing in NYC where she fried her nervous system before fleeing to the Hudson Valley. Miki's sense of Nature was shaped by 80's horror movies set in the woods, she was afraid of the dark and Nature until a few years ago.

She has a B.S. in Environmental Science and worked as a Human-Centered Designer and Researcher. Her job was to deeply understand humans and their experience of things, like receiving cancer care or working on a construction site, so she could make recommendations to keep what’s working and improve what’s not.

While doing this work, Miki's heart began to ache. She couldn’t ignore the consequences of excluding Nature as a living, breathing, sentient being that our very lives depend on any longer.

She wondered if she could deeply understand Nature the way she could understand humans. Could we communicate with Nature? How could we hear them? Will we understand their language?

Miki began apprenticing with Marguerite Uhlmann-Bower in March of 2022 and completed Cultivating Cognitive Agility training in July 2022. Marguerite’s deep wisdom and nurturing guided her back to what is innately in each of us, in each of our cells, the ability to sense, send, and receive information from the natural world. Miki continues to work with Marguerite, now as peers and partners, to restart EarthSchool in a renewed form. As co-creator of We Are All Kin (link : weareallkin.earth) she facilitates Plant kinship experiences to support our remembering and sense of belonging.

Miki lives nestled among the Sugar Maples with her loving and furry family of human and more-than-human kin no longer afraid of Nature or the dark.

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Barbara Aspland-Wolf is an Herbalist, Flower Essence Practitioner, and Reiki Master/Teacher. Becoming a member of Plant Pioneers is a wonderful melding of her science background, work with plant medicine, and energy work. Plants as beings are a part of her education to others. She is the owner of Garden Gate Herbals and an herbal teacher with an education background in high school earth science, geology, and chemistry. She has taught at Sage Mountain, Herbstalk, the Northeast Herbal Association retreats, and local Adult Learning Programs. In addition to nature walks, she has written for United Plant Savers, the Northeast Herbal Association journal, Aroma Culture e-magazine, is co-editor of the Northeast Herbal Association newsletter, and writes a monthly blog. Barbara is past President of the Northeast Herbal Association, a member of Plant Pioneers, the Northeast Herbal Association, United Plant Savers, and the Native Plant Trust.

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Karin was lucky to grow up in North Riverdale across from Van Cortlandt Park in the Bronx seeing Pin Oak, Black Locust and Sycamore trees from her childhood apartment windows.

After a minor career in the music industry, she obtained an M.S. in Landscape Design from Columbia University and embarked on a successful fifteen-year journey as an ecological landscape designer. She's known for cultivating biodiverse gardens in the Catskill Mountains alongside her beloved dogs Bella, Ollie, Arthur, and Suzie.

One day, she sat underneath an American Ash tree reading Call of the Trees and cried the whole way through. That day, Ash Tree, Yellow Dock, and Bull Thistle called Karin to study with Marguerite Uhlmann-Bower at Earth School in Delaware County, NY.

Further investigation into books by Penobscot Nation author Sherri Mitchell, Esq., artist, writer, musician, storyteller, teacher, healer and leading thinker Martin Prechtel, and ecophiloshoper Derrick Jensen continues to shape and form Karin’s relationship with plants, winged, four-footed and furry creatures and Mother Earth.

Currently identifying as a reformed landscape designer, Karin has ceased working on design projects that cause violent ecological destruction and is seeking a path where she may work with plants in subtle, healing ways.

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Meer grew up in the Leatherstocking region of Central New York. He was raised by his single mother and was unschooled by her, always being encouraged to listen to his heart and march to the beat of his own drum. Through this intuitive upbringing, Meer naturally found his way as a reciprocal and respectful being of the earth. In 2022, Meer met Marguerite when he was seeking herbal medicine for his newly diagnosed Lyme’s Disease, and they immediately connected. Marguerite began to teach Meer about plant medicine and identification, and Meer deeply relished learning about and listening to the natural world around him. Through meeting Marguerite, Meer has met a wide variety of humans and plants. He feels lucky to be living his birthright of a relational existence and to be a part of such a beautifully rich and diverse ecosystem of creation. He recognizes the ordinarily interconnected nature of life and continues to incorporate earth reciprocity in all of his life– in his music, art, work, academics, friendships, and community. Currently, Meer works as a collaborator with Marguerite, Miki, and a number of other people in the Plant Pioneer community, organizing community events and workshops that foster connection with the landscape around us. Meer is also a student at Hartwick College. He is completing his degree in a major of his own design– “Culture, Origins, and Creation”. His academic plan amalgamates all the relational work he has done in his life thus far, and he is very excited to see where this marvelous journey continues to lead him.