LAND STEWARDSHIP TRAINING WEEKEND 2: 

WATER 

the second Land Stewardship Training weekend of 2024. 

sat + sun, april 13-14 

10am-4pm 

sliding scale: $150-300  

In the second weekend immersion, we will learn to partner with WATER in our landscapes to feed life: water catchment, irrigation, swales, rain gardens, wetlands, riparian restoration and more. 

This is part of an 8-month holistic training in land stewardship and horticulture—plus practices for attunement with self + the wider ecology. Over a full growing season, you will learn how to tend land well and fall madly in love with plants. 

Aligned with a watery moon in Cancer, this coming weekend is a threshold for anyone ready to walk a more ecological path — gardeners, farmers, herbalists, homesteaders, environmentalists, nature lovers and more.  

Learn practical skills as you practice deep attunement with land and explore your ancestral relationship to place, all in a supportive community.  

Try it out! Register for this weekend, or join us for the whole program. 

Reach out if cost is an issue.

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THE OVERVIEW

The Tending Alive Project is an experiment in restoring the people's hands to the soil and soul. We evoke a profound cultural remembering of how to tend our local ecosystems back to life in these complex times.

Our new 8-month program is a holistic training in land stewardship and horticulture, plus practices for attunement with self, ancestors, soul, cosmos and the wider ecology. You will learn how to tend land well, and fall madly in love with plants.

THE PROGRAM

In our immersive weekends, participants will grow a deep foundation of skills to partner with their landscapes in ecological ways.

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We will dig our hands into land stewardship topics over a full growing season:

• orienting to a landscape
• pruning
• propagation
• soil + compost
• water
• ecology
• ​wild + introduced plants
• garden planning + planting
• medicinal plants
• organic gardening
• ecological design
• restoration
• wildlife tracking
• climate resilience
• fire ecology
• ...and more, if you sign up for an add-on learning track.​

Our lessons are seasonally arranged to align our learning experience to the local ecology and moon + planetary cycles.

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As we learn how to relate to plants and land, we will engage a deep inquiry into our own ancestral relationship to place, and explore invitations to attune our senses to a deeper way of listening with the land. As part of this, we will experiment with practices to with cultivate our inner and outer resilience in a burning world.

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At the end of the season, participants can choose to participate in a rite of passage ceremony to mark the transition into their role as a land steward.

Graduates walk away with a broad foundation in land stewardship, a greater confidence in working with plants, a deeper intimacy with place, and much more. All participants are connected to a network of land stewardship opportunities where they can apply their skills in support of restoration, LandBack and ecological landscape projects.

the structure:

As 2024 is a pilot year for the Land Stewardship Training, we are offering a flexible participation structure to meet our people where they are at.

The full Land Stewardship Training is a comprehensive, holistic pathway into land stewardship. It offers a consistent learning structure in a supportive community over the year. It includes 8 months of seasonal learning in immersive weekends + a rite of passage ceremony.

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Participants in the full training receive a 10% discount off other Tending Alive classes during the course of the Land Stewardship Training—wild plant walks, harvesting and more.

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WEEKEND ONLY: This year, weekends of the full training may be taken on a per weekend basis. Mix and match to join a weekend as it fits for your schedule or budget. This option is only available as spaces are open. Note: Participants must attend a minimum of 3 weekends to join the rite of passage ceremony.

DATES

Mar 9-10

Apr 13-14

May 4-5

June - no class

July 13-14

Aug 10-11

Sept 14-15

Sept 27-29 optional: 1-day rite of passage ceremony

Oct 12-13

Nov 9-10

TIME

10am-4pm

Saturday + Sunday

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we will take a lunch and other small breaks. participants are responsible for providing their own lunch, snacks and water/coffee/tea. depending on the site, it may not be possible to heat up your meals.

LOCATION

various sites in the Snoqualmie Valley, near Duvall, WA.

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location shared after registration, and at minimum one week prior to the coming immersion.

COST

per weekend

$300**

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**Sliding scale is available.

Choose a tier that fits your capacity:

$150/$225/$300

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Some work trade options are available, as are payment plans. Contact Katie for options.

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OUR LENS + PHILOSOPHY

This program roots in the truth that wilderness is a myth and—as Indigenous communities demonstrate today as since time immemorial—humans can be beneficial to ecologies. Further, that active and informed participation can lead to more resilient, vibrant landscapes for all. We challenge the word "homesteading" as a way to describe living closely to the land, and look to deconstruct our relationship to land so we can find a more genuinely relational way forward.

Our learning holds a lens of settler responsibility and dreaming toward intersectional liberation. We hold respect and discernment when sharing knowledge rooted in Coast Salish cultural plant traditions and technologies—especially in wildtending, restoration and wild plant lessons.

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A portion of program tuition is redistributed to the Tend, Gather and Grow Project—a wild food, medicine and cultural ecology curriculum for K-12 learners centering Coast Salish communities. Their work is a powerful catalyst to cultural sovereignty, and a foundation to my awareness of traditional land tending practices. The percentage donated will depend on enrollment and be calculated in response to Tend's suggested levels of financial support.

OUR INSTRUCTORS

Katie Vincent (they/she) is the primary instructor for the Land Stewardship Training, as well as all add-on courses. We will welcome a few guest instructors over the season to deepen our learning in special topics.

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The plants and landscapes we learn from will be our biggest teachers.

OUR SCHEDULE:

march -  SOIL

soils, compost, greenhouse + nursery design, site orientation, seed-starting

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april - WATER

water, irrigation, rain gardens, water catchment, swales, riparian + wetland plants.

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may - FOOD

medicinal plants, edible plants, food forest design, vegetable gardens,

companion planting.

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july - TEND

pruning (summer), fall/winter vegetable garden planning, weeds + introduced plants, softwood cuttings.

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august - CLIMATE + RESILIENCE

seed saving, pollinator gardens, fire ecology, climate resilient landscapes.

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september - RESTORE

ecology, restoration, forest stewardship, cover crops.

optional rite of passage ceremony on Sept 27-29

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october - WILD LIFE

mushrooms + fungi, wildlife tracking, habitat-building, hedgerows.

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november - WHOLE CIRCLE

whole systems design, garden logs + organization, potluck + closing.