05 — Gather
Tending is not solitary work.
The Spaces
The property has natural gathering places — not designed for human use but shaped by forces that happened to create the conditions for it. Water moving downhill, old field boundaries, geology, the specific patterns of forest succession on this piece of land. These are the rooms the landscape made. The program takes them as given and works with them.
Where the stream drops through a narrow gorge, the sound carries and the banks on either side create a natural stage and seating. Water creates an acoustic intimacy that large open spaces can't replicate.
Rocky ledge exposures on the eastern slope open to seasonal views — full when deciduous leaves are down, filtered in summer. At 1,700 feet elevation, the ridge catches weather and light in ways the valley floor doesn't.
The old farm walls that cross the property were built by hands clearing fields two centuries ago. The corridors they form — parallel walls ten feet apart, running straight through mature forest — make intimate outdoor rooms with a quality unlike any open space.
Areas managed for early successional habitat — low shrubs, tall grasses, sky — create contrast with the mature forest canopy. Where the clearing meets the treeline, the edge is the most biologically active and visually dynamic part of the landscape.
The hemlock and white pine stands have their own microclimate and acoustic character — drier, darker, quieter than the deciduous forest. Their dense canopies provide shelter in rain and snow. Standing in one feels like being inside something.
Every one of these places was shaped by something other than human intention — water, geology, past land use, succession. Gathering here means fitting ourselves into spaces the landscape already made. The challenge is learning to read them: understanding why this particular bend in the stream creates a natural amphitheater, why these two parallel walls make a room, what made the softwood grove grow as a dense cluster here rather than there. The spaces teach. The gatherings are, among other things, a class in landscape literacy.
Walks & Hikes
These walks practice forest mind in its most direct form: going slowly, looking closely, and letting the forest set the curriculum. Each is led by someone who knows this particular piece of land — not generalists with field guides but people who have spent enough time here to know what the anomalies mean, where the interesting spots are, and what to look for at this season in this place.
Reading a forest landscape is a skill built over time — noticing which species grow together and why, what a stone wall running through mature forest tells you about what this land looked like 150 years ago, how to read deer pressure, soil drainage, and light history in the plants that are actually growing. This walk covers tree identification and natural history, what the forest structure tells us about its past, wildlife signs and what they indicate about habitat quality, and basic invasive species recognition — what to look for and how to distinguish harmful from benign.
The eastern edge of this property holds a remarkable transitional zone where glacial till ridges create microhabitat variation within a short horizontal distance. That variation is visible in the vegetation if you know what you're looking at. These walks are designed to build that literacy — not a checklist exercise but a practice of close attention that becomes a permanent way of moving through forested land.
The bird surveys conducted on this property have identified over 60 breeding and migratory species using the land. These walks are not general birding outings — they're tied to the habitat data, using the birds as indicators of forest structure and management. Understanding which warblers require which canopy age classes, why the young forest patches are critical for species that can't breed in mature forest, how the stream corridor functions as a movement route during migration: these are questions about this specific place, answered by the species actually present here.
Early morning walks in May and June, during peak breeding season, offer the highest species diversity. Fall migration walks in September are less dramatic but cover different assemblages — species breeding north of here, passing through. Winter walks focus on resident species and what they reveal about forest health year-round. The bird breeding restriction that shapes our management calendar (May through August, no loud disturbance in sensitive areas) is something these walks make concrete — participants see the nesting activity that the restriction protects.
Fungi are the forest's hidden infrastructure. The mycorrhizal networks that thread through the upper soil horizons connect trees in ways we are only beginning to understand — transferring carbon, signaling stress, facilitating the establishment of seedlings. The visible fruiting bodies we call mushrooms are the temporary reproductive structures of organisms that live primarily underground, sometimes for decades. Learning to identify them is one of the most effective ways to begin thinking in forest time and forest scale.
These forays focus on identification of forest fungi common to northeastern mixed hardwood and hemlock stands — edible and inedible species treated equally, because the goal is understanding rather than harvest. Topics covered include identification by key features (cap, gill structure, spore print, substrate), the ecological role of different fungal guilds (decomposers versus mycorrhizal partners), and the specific tree associations that determine which species you'll find where. Participants leave with a working field methodology and a new lens on what the forest floor actually contains.
Performances & Events
The forest has its own acoustics — the way sound moves through standing trunks, the way a clearing opens into silence, the way water provides continuous ground beneath everything else. Performing in this environment isn't the same as performing on a stage. The forest is not a backdrop. It's a participant.
Small acoustic performances — audiences of 20 to 50, no amplification — work with the site rather than against it. Musicians are chosen for their willingness to let the space shape the performance: to stop when a bird calls, to work with the ambient sound rather than over it. The intimacy of small audiences in outdoor settings creates a quality of attention that is rare in more formal contexts. People listen differently when there is no seat assignment and no roof overhead.
Seasonal events tied to ecological milestones rather than the conventional calendar: the return of the first warblers in late April, peak color in the second week of October, the first hard frost, the winter solstice. These are moments when the landscape is doing something legible, and gathering at those moments is a way of marking them together. Night events — stargazing at 1,700 feet with genuinely low light pollution, nocturnal wildlife listening walks, lantern-lit forest walks in winter — occupy the parts of the daily cycle that most people rarely experience outdoors.
Artist residencies bring makers onto the land for extended periods — a week, a month — to spend time in the forest and create work in response to it. The work doesn't need to be about the forest in any explicit way. The residency is about proximity and time, not subject matter. Artists who spend genuine time in a specific place make different work than artists who visit. The residency program will develop over time as relationships form with artists whose practice seems suited to this particular environment.
There is something that happens when twenty people sit on the ground in a forest and listen to the same thing at the same time. It's not church, not therapy, not a show. It's something older than all of those — and simpler. Forest mind would just call it paying attention together.
Workshops
Tending requires skills. Skills require teaching. The workshop program is how the knowledge built here gets shared — not as a curriculum designed in advance but as a response to what this land actually demands and what the people who come here actually need.
These offerings are being developed. Some will be one-day intensives; others will be multi-session commitments. All will be led by people with direct, working knowledge — not classroom instruction but hands-in practice on real problems. The list below represents the range we're working toward. Formats, schedules, and pricing will be established as partnerships and capacity develop.
01
Safe operation, maintenance, and directional felling. For land managers, homeowners, and anyone working with wood at any scale. Prerequisite to many other land-based activities.
Half-day / Full-day02
Site reading, tread construction, drainage principles, sustainable grade, erosion control. Trail volunteers will also work on the property's actual trail network — this is learning by doing.
Full-day03
Field identification of the most consequential invasives in northeastern forests, removal techniques for each, and prioritization frameworks. Hands-on in the field, on actual infestations.
Full-day04
Forest and meadow medicinals of the Northeast — identification, harvest ethics, preparation basics. Taught with attention to ecological context and the Indigenous knowledge traditions these plants carry.
Half-day05
Reading a forest for management decisions: what the current structure tells you, what a timber cruise involves, how to work with a forester, and what management goals look like written down.
Full-day06
Solar PV sizing, battery storage, charge control, DC and AC distribution. Gravity-fed water catchment and delivery. Practical systems design for remote properties, small-scale and buildable by non-professionals.
Full-day / Two-day07
Cob, cordwood, timber frame joinery, and earthen plaster — the techniques for building with materials close to hand. Structural principles, moisture management, and what each method is and isn't suited for.
Two-day08
Log and stump inoculation with shiitake, oyster, and lion's mane; substrate preparation for indoor cultivation; understanding what each species needs. Takes the foray knowledge into production practice.
Half-dayGetting Involved
The simplest form of tending is showing up. If any of this resonates, we'd like to hear from you.
Trail maintenance, invasive species removal, food forest planting, and general land stewardship. Work days are announced through the mailing list. No experience required — tools, training, and lunch provided. The work is real and the company is good.
adaptation.forest@gmail.comInfrequent updates — events, walks, work days, and things worth noticing. Not a newsletter. More like a letter from the land when something is happening. We won't fill your inbox.
Sign up by emailThe forest management, habitat surveys, infrastructure, and programming all take time and money. Ongoing support through Patreon helps sustain the work between events. Whatever amount makes sense is welcome.
PatreonForest mind recognizes that humans, like trees, do better in relationship than in isolation. These gatherings aren't entertainment or networking — they're shared acts of attention to a place and to each other. We hope to see you in the forest.