Nature’s Retreat
I’ve had the joy and honor to be part of the 2023 Biomimicry Institute’s Launchpad program. The Biomimicry Launchpad is a program designed to help scientists, designers, and innovators bring their nature-inspired ideas into reality. The 2023 cohort consists of 15 other individuals that have their own unique perspective and background in science, engineering, art, and design.
A special opportunity offered by the program was attending a week long nature retreat in Montana. Our cohort came from all corners of the world, so once everyone convened in Missoula, Montana, the trip began by following the Clark Fork river to Butte, MN.
During our visit at Butte, we toured the mining grounds. We learned about the heartbreaking devastation of this Superfund site. A biologist spoke to us about their efforts to prevent fatalities in the Berkley pit, and we conversed about the 40 years of attempts to restore the land around the mining site. This visit evoked emotions of desperation and hope, and was an impactful lesson in the duality of humanity’s impact on the natural world.
As we embarked on our next journey, we stopped to witness the architectural creation of beaver dams. Beavers have found a way to make barren land into a home of life: the dams beavers create allow some of the harmful metals to be sequestered into the soil. I saw an overlap between our visit to Butte and these dams; how could we learn from beavers to restore land we have destroyed?
We continued to the Blackroot river and stopped to visit sculptures in the woods as we enjoyed a beautiful picnic. We wandered around the sculpture garden in large and small groups with joyful banter and conversations between ourselves.
After the sculpture visit, we continued our journey to our final destination: Lake Seely. We stayed at camp for the rest of our retreat. During this time, it truly felt like summer camp for nature loving nerds. Not only did we play fun camp games, some of the activities we participated in encouraged our authenticity and vulnerability. The conversations, the activities, the competition, and our laughter provided a home through community I never knew could be found.
The stay at Lake Seely was simply special. We had the wonderful opportunity to hear from an ancestral steward of the land, a bitterroot Salish person from the Flathead Tribe. He was a captivating storyteller. When he left, I quickly filled a page of my notebook from the knowledge and lessons he had shared with us.
On our last day full day at Lake Seely, we received a visit from Janine Benyus, the cofounder and owner of the Biomimicry Institute. Janine took the group on a naturalist walk, where we all shared and conversed through knowledge of the natural land. My notebook became even fuller. I think other’s notebooks did too. I took a personal interest in the Western Larch Tree, or the Tamarack tree, and recreated the knowledge and beauty of the tree through art.
It was hard to say goodbye to this cohort. As one of the individuals from the group had said, some of the conversations we had were nothing we could share with our closest of friends and family; our love for the natural world and the burning curiosity to create better solutions connected us in a way that couldn’t be found anywhere else. My dream as an artist and designer is to continue this companionship with other artists, designers, scientists, and engineers to create empathetic solutions to the dire problems that impact us and our natural home in today’s world.
Nature's beauty has a tendency to
capture your curiosity
spark an exploration
and give insight to what love is.
-Why is that,
that Nature is so beautiful?
Surely she could fulfill her duties
without such grace.
-But, like an artist,
what one designs
is something dedicated
to the pursuit of a joyful of Life.
A deep thank you to Dave Hutchins, Sarah Mclnerney, and Jared Yarnall-Schane for a wonderful retreat in Montana. Also a big thank you to Dave for the continuous mentoring! It’s been an exceptional honor being apart of this cohort and within the Biomimicry Institute community.