*Photo* by *Beko, under the* *Creative Commons* *Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International* *license*

In the Northern Hemisphere, we are at the balance point of night and day. The vernal equinox represents the effort of rebirth, emerging from the dark of the Dreamtime and raising new shoots from the cold soil. The cycles within each of us mirror the larger cycles that occur in our regional environments, and all of the ecosystems on Earth. Spiritually, the spring equinox is a time to tend to the cycles of darkness yielding to light, and death (re)becoming life.

As we turn towards the new growing cycle at this turn of the Wheel of the Year, all of the creatures (including us!) are reawakening, emerging from their buds, beds, and dens. It is a time of sowing seeds and tending the cycles of nature in preparation for the gifts of summer and the abundance ahead. What seeds have you been nurturing through the winter season? What can you plant, physically and metaphorically? Consider the metaphoric soil and nutrients that you have, and don’t crowd the garden of yourself with too many things.

It’s a good time for spring cleaning, to freshen up your home and life. Don’t just stop at your own doorstep. What needs tending in your community? In the world? Every year at Vernal Equinox, I plant seeds of “content and discontent.” I choose seeds that will remind me as they grow and bloom of all the ways I’ve worked hard to get where I am and what I’ve overcome, and that there is still much work to do to make this a just, equitable, and living planet.

There are currently 114 armed conflicts worldwide. Since October 7, 32,161 Palestinians have been killed and about 1,139 people killed in Israel. Famine is “imminent” in Gaza, with 70% of people experiencing catastrophic hunger. Additional conflicts and loss of life are happening in Yemen/Red Sea, Sudan, Haiti, and many more.

Light a candle, symbolizing your light that stands with myriad other lights, on the turning of the Wheel back towards the light and longer days in the Northern Hemisphere. Reach for one another; we will only thrive in the ongoing Collapse together. Separation is not the answer. War can never bring peace. #ceasefirenow 🇵🇸

Seasonal Foraging: Dandelion (Taxacum officinale)

Around the vernal equinox in the Northern Hemisphere, Dandelions (Taxacum officinale) start to emerge. This amazing plant can grow in almost any soil conditions, even the hardest urban soil and through cracks in paved surfaces. Their wide-spreading roots loosen hard-packed soil, aerate the earth, and help reduce erosion. The deep taproot pulls nutrients such as calcium from deep in the soil and makes them available to other plants.

Native to Eurasia, dandelions are generally believed to be brought to North America by white settlers for medicinal purposes. They are often considered an invasive species; however, meditating with dandelion can help us connect with our settler roots.

Dandelion is edible raw or cooked, high in fiber, vitamins, and minerals. Bitter taste indicates important digestive and liver-cleansing properties and dandelion greens provide this. Steamed or boiled flower buds are tasty, and they can also be pickled and fermented with other vegetables. The root can be used as a dried herb to help cleanse the liver. Dandelion tea can be used as a digestive aid, as well as a diuretic. The root can baked until brown, then ground and perked into a coffee-like beverage.

When you were a child you might have made a wish as you blew the puffs off of mature dandelions. Dandelions were thought to have a connection to the spirit world, and in some mystical traditions, they

are used for divination and manifestation.

Because dandelion has been devalued despite being so useful, spend some time with dandelion and reconsider what new possibilities you might be overlooking during this vernal equinox.

Rewild Salish Sea community map

Check out the many excellent community resources such as tool libraries, mutual-aid groups, learning orgs, and more on the Rewild Salish Sea community map. Are we missing something? Please contribute more resources to the Rewild Salish Sea map!

Upstream Podcast: radical ideas and inspiring stories for a just transition to a more beautiful and equitable world

Founded in 2016, Upstream is a podcast that offers a quarterly Documentary series and a bi-monthly In Conversation series exploring a wide variety of themes pertaining to economics — from an anti-capitalist perspective. Through a mixture of heartfelt stories, expert interviews, and rich sound design, we invite you to unlearn everything you thought you knew about economics and imagine what a better world could look like.

Be sure to check out these episodes:

Everyday Utopia and Radical Imagination with Kristen Ghodsee

It’s perhaps more important than ever in these especially tumultuous, lonely, and oppressive times that we continue to believe that another world is possible. Simply reimagining the way we raise our children, the homes that we dwell in, the property we horde or share, and the form of the families we choose — can have profound and long-term impacts on the quality of our lives and on the world we’re living in more broadly. By challenging these seemingly ordinary structures of everyday life we can spark and re-spark our collective and individual desire to live in a more just and equitable world.

This is the premise of the book Everyday Utopia: What 2,000 Years of Wild Experiments Can Teach Us About the Good Life, written by Kristen Ghodsee. In this conversation, take a journey around the world and through time, and explore some of the most fascinating, inspiring, and sometimes quirky, experiments in alternative ways of living. From Plato to the Buddha, from the Bible to the Communist Manifesto, from ancient Athens to the Soviet Union, we’ll explore what utopian thinking and practice have achieved, not just materially, but also in igniting our capacity for hope, radical imagination, and militant optimism.

Life Beyond the Clock with Jenny Odell

Do you ever feel like time is marching in a particular direction? Towards, say, rising global temperatures, mass extinctions, ever-increasing divisions — and ultimately, towards inevitable collapse? What if this particular perception of time contributes to our feelings of despair and hopelessness about our futures? What if it limits our ability to imagine and fight for a more just, equitable, and regenerative system?

In this conversation with Bay Area artist and author Jenny Odell, we learn about the commodification and colonization of time under capitalism, how it happened, when it happened, and how the fungibility of time contributes to human and planetary suffering. We explore her unique reframe of classes to include those who time, those who are timed, and those who self-time. We also talk about a more ecological and place-based sense of time, a life beyond the clock, unbound from capitalism, that shows that neither our lives nor the life of our planet is a foregone conclusion, that we are not alone in our efforts to dismantle capitalism, and that the more-than-human world is actually an active participant in the endeavor — and here to help.

Form a mutual aid group

Mutual aid is “cooperation for the sake of the common good.” It’s getting people to come together to meet each other’s needs, recognizing that, as humans, our survival is dependent on one another.

Mutual Aid 101 Toolkit: created by Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and organizer Mariame Kaba during the COVID-19 lockdown, includes step-by-step instructions for how you can build your own mutual aid network.
Big Door Brigade - a website guide to everything mutual aid by organizer Dean Spade.
Mutual Aid Disaster Relief - a mutual aid network with many guides, reports, and resources.

Join existing mutual aid groups around the Salish Sea region

There are many small mutual aid groups operating in the region, and these are just a few examples:

Puget Sound Anarchists zine, Notes on Mutual Aid
Gender Justice League list of mutual aid
SnoCo Mutual Aid for Snohomish County resources
South Seattle Emerald maintains a page of mutual aid groups
Jefferson County Anti-Racist Fund, a mutual aid project focused on the individual and collective wellness of our local community of Black, Indigenous, and People of Color.
Check out more mutual aid orgs on the Rewild Salish Sea resource map. Suggest any orgs we missed and we’ll add them.

Upcoming events around the Salish Sea, organized by location

Tell us about your event and we will share it.

Washington Native Plant Society

Washington (statewide)
Many varied events including land tending, plant identification, botanical drawing, and more
Promoting the appreciation and conservation of Washington's native plants and their habitats through study, education, and advocacy.
More information

Green Seattle Partnership

Burien, Des Moines, Everett, Redmond, SeaTac, Seattle, Shoreline, Snohomish County, Snoqualmie, Tacoma, Tukwila, WA
Many volunteer opportunities
A collaboration between City of Seattle, community groups and non-profits, businesses, schools, and thousands of volunteers working together to restore and actively maintain the City’s forested parklands.
More information

Northwest Natura

Bellingham, WA
Upcoming classes: “Pine Needle Basketry,” “ Bushcraft Crash Course Survival Basics,” “Spring Foraging & Outdoor Cooking,” “ Spring Naturalist Series: Botany & Nature Awareness,” and “Spring Plant Walk”
Northwest Natura offers place-based education in botany, ecology, fungi, and outdoor skills, and leads field trips within the greater Salish Sea Bioregion.
More information

Tending Alive

Duvall, WA
Upcoming classes: “Tending the Harvest,” Wildtending,” and “Harvesting”
Katie Vincent is a longtime gardener, farmer, herbalist, horticulturalist, and teacher who marries offerings with a background in rites of passage ceremony and trauma-informed facilitation.
More information

Wilderness Awareness School

Duvall, WA
Upcoming classes: “Monthly Tracking Club” (free), “Monthly Bird Language Club” (free), “Monthly Night Club” (free), “Wild Edible Plants,” “Coyote Mentoring,” and “Night Connection Overnight,” plus Day/Overnight/Expeditions for Youth
Wilderness Awareness School is an internationally recognized leader in outdoor education, helping children and adults cultivate healthy relationships with nature, community, and self.
More information

Online: Bird Language, Wilderness Survival, Wild Plant Identification, Nature Connection, and Secret World of Mushrooms eCourses.
Gain a renewed perspective for the natural world with free eCourses delivered right to your inbox.
Sign up

Raven's Roots Naturalist School

Ferndale and Carnation, WA
Upcoming classes: “Twined and Twill Cattail Baskets” (short course), “Naturalist Immersion Course” (10 months), and “ Ethnobotany Field Immersion” (5 months)
Offering both short and long-term courses on naturalist and self-reliance skills, including wildlife track & sign, herbalism, bird language & behavior, ethnobotany, wild-foraging, permaculture, homesteading techniques, wilderness survival, primitive skills, and wild-crafting.
More information

Port Townsend School of Woodworking

Port Townsend, WA
Many woodworking classes, from beginner to expert
Focusing on technique and community problem-solving, their classes include hand tools, joinery, fine furniture, indigenous arts, woodturning, and creating a diverse and supportive fine woodworking community.
More information

North Cascades Institute

Rockport, WA off Highway 20
Upcoming classes: “Wildfire in the North Cascades,” “Outdoor Survival Skills,” “Understanding Bird Songs,” “Columbia Basin Natural History Ramble,” and “Wolves in Washington Update”
North Cascades Institute’s mission is to inspire environmental stewardship through transformative hands-on study of the natural and cultural history of the Pacific Northwest.
More information

The Heron’s Nest Landback Project:
Outdoor Education & Restorative Justice Volunteer Land Stewardship Day

Seattle, WA
Every Monday, 10 am - 2 pm, all ages, on-leash dogs welcome
Work includes land tending, blackberry root removal, invasive species removal, planting, weeding, small building projects, and more! Gloves, tools, snacks, and drinks are available.
More information

Upcoming Events:
3rd Annual Hunt for Spring (treasure hunt, art activities, games), Sat March 23rd, noon - 3 pm, free/all ages
- Stormwater Pollutant Education: Protecting Our Waterways, Sun March 31, 11 am - 2 pm, free
- 2nd Annual Heron’s Nest Music Festival (12+ local performances; proceeds benefit local musicians, and community farm and kitchen project), Sat May 4, 1:00 - 9:00 pm, all ages, $15 via Eventbrite
- The Heron’s Nest is the first-ever landback with the Duwamish Tribe, with meaningful community programming, education, social events, traditional practices, gardening/farming, and more.
More information

Seattle Spoon Club

Seattle, WA
Every third Friday of the month, 6 - 9 pm
A monthly gathering of spoon carving enthusiasts. Spoon blanks are available but bring your own carving tools.
More information

Northwest Basketweavers Guild

Seattle, WA
Upcoming event: Coiling Convergence, Sat April 6, 9:30 am - 3:30 pm (Kent, WA)
Promotion and preservation of the art of basketry, the study practice, sharing, and teaching of basketry weaving techniques, the identification, collection, and appreciation of diverse examples of basketry, and the gathering and use of natural materials.
More information

Duwamish Alive!

Seattle, WA and Tukwila, WA
Sat April 20, 10:00 am - 2:00 pm
A community effort to improve the health of the Green-Duwamish Watershed by promoting awareness and coordinating efforts to improve and enhance native habitat health and water quality so that people and wildlife can thrive in our urban community.
More information

Tilth Alliance

Seattle, WA
Upcoming classes: “Culinary Herbs in the Garden,” “Graft Your Own Fruit Tree,” “Gardening with Hügelmounds,” “Spring in the Organic Garden,” “Joy of Chickens: 101,” and “Drip Irrigation for the Home Gardener.”
Inspiring people to (re)connect with their food through meaningful and enjoyable experiences growing, preparing, and enjoying food together, they offer a variety of classes on topics such as vegetable gardening, food preservation and cooking, permaculture, and urban livestock.
More information

The Bronze Chapter

Seattle and Bellingham, WA
Upcoming classes: “Camping Equipment Demystified”
Black woman-founded; provides supportive opportunities for underrepresented communities of color to experience nature and the natural world in ways that lead to curiosity, joy, deep listening, and life-long learning.
More information

Puget Sound Mycological Society (PSMS)

Seattle, WA
Upcoming events and classes: “Wild Mushroom Show,” “Mushroom Maynia,” ID Clinics, and more
Fostering the understanding and appreciation of Mycology as a hobby and science, representing the pothunter, the adventurous gourmet, the weekend naturalists, the serious amateur, and the professional mycologist.
More information

EartHand Gleaners Society

Vancouver, British Columbia
Events with the seasonal round of the gardens, including annual tasks like harvesting the willow of flax, weaving garden fences, and more. They also share and demonstrate other skills such as spinning, weaving, or netmaking.
More information

Vashon Wilderness Program

Vashon, WA
Upcoming event: Spring Feast/Bizarre Bazaar: A magical evening of community celebration to share a spring-inspired potluck meal. Sat April 27, 4:00 - 7:00 pm
Vashon Wilderness Program provides nature immersion experiences for children, teens, and adults that cultivate a deep relationship between self, community, and the natural world.
More information

Rewild Salish Sea needs your help!

There are only two of us running Rewild Salsih Sea and we need help!

Are you a person who has skills to share with the community? These could be “physical” like mending, foraging, and friction-fire starting, or they could be “somatic” like increasing physical/mental health, and relational practices?
Do you like planning, organizing, and supporting events, both in-person and online?
Is social media and communications your jam?