 Hello again from Hotlum Camp in Northern California, very close to the Oregon border. We've had a very rough week of trying to figure out whether we could stay or go or had to go. And the air quality has been very bad with fires raging up and down. Many people have died. Many people have lost their homes. It's a very, very rough situation. And of course Camp Hotlum is here to teach us how to tend the forest, how to manage fire. And we need you now to step up and to join in this effort. For a couple of years now this has been in the works, in planning. There's still important infrastructure that needs to be here. But we know now that it's possible to restore the soils in here. We know that there are natural nursery systems with all the major types of indigenous and endemic plants. And we need to nurture and tend these and make sure that they respond and have the chance to grow. We have to work on fire management to reduce the enormous fuel loads. This can be done by teaching more and more people how to do controlled burns, prescribed burns that reduce the risk of wildfires destroying everything. This is how the native people maintained these forests for thousands of years. We need to honor them and learn from them and work with them because they're still here. So being out on the land, especially this mountain, it's also very, sometimes harsh here. It can be very dry, it can be cold in the winter, hard in the summer. The wind can be very strong. I'm well aware this land has been raped and has really suffered from humanities misuse. I tend to believe that it's also impacted the climate here. The people that live around here say there used to be much more snow, much more rainfall here. And I believe that comes from the 100 years of logging. The mycorrhizal relationship here has been disrupted due to bulldozing. So what we're going to look at is an area where due to bulldozing to access the lumber, they caused a tremendous amount of disruption. We have old stumps here, but we also have young stumps from about 23 years ago. And what we see is to access this, they built these piles. So we're going to be using these piles to do contour swales to try to retain more moisture, put this wood back under the ground so it can rot. And so I'm just exploring what's here. Part of it is that we have a lot of these blocks of lava. Well, maybe we can do something positive with these. The last folks that were here tried to plant, and they built some little perimeters around the trees they planted. But as you can see, the tree didn't survive. It needs a lot more nurturance. But in the meantime, we're just trying to figure out what to do with, you know, what we got. Work with locally available materials, work with the local plants, the local indigenous microorganisms. For me, having a relationship with the biosphere is the most important thing. And having that disconnection is really what has caused so much of the environmental destruction that we see. More specifically, this area was last cut 22 years ago. And the replanting, which was a monocraft of ponderosa pine, it was not taken care of, wasn't watered. And so a lot of the trees died. And this area is in desperate need of restoration. First of all, for mitigating for fires, there's a lot of really big fires here in Northern California. And also, by restoring this ecosystem, we can actually combat climate change in a way that just reducing our emissions isn't going to allow. This is the first time that I've really felt hopeful that I can do something with my hands and with my expertise. It's been a privilege and an honor to spend the last five months here in Hotland and to get to know the animals and the plants and the insects and even to begin to understand the microbial communities, the fungal communities and to see how all of these life forms live and die here. And that over eternal time, constant infinite time, life unfolds. And this is where we all need to meditate. We all need to consider what this means and what we can do. And what Hotland is about is engaging more and more people in this effort. And it's going to require hundreds and thousands and tens of thousands and one camp will not be enough. And many camps are needed and everyone has a role to play. The people who have now lost their homes, the people who are homeless, the people who are failing in the existing economy, they can do restoration. We need to make that happen. If we live in privilege, if we have enough food, if we have the ability to study this and to work on this, we need to make it possible for everyone else to do it too. Because together we're strong. Alone there's only so much we can do as individuals. But together we can restore the earth. And when we restore the earth, we're going to have a better life. We're going to enjoy the beauty. We're going to absorb and marvel in awe, in wonder at the beauty and the synergy and the symbiotic nature of life. And we're going to understand death is part of life. And that while we're alive, we need to do what needs to be done. Not spend our time distracted and fleeing from what we need to understand. What we see here is a small ponderosa pine tree. And next to it is a mountain mahogany tree. What you see mainly though is manzanita and bitter brush. And then you see a huge amount of fire material, so fuel. So if this place burns, it's going to burn very hot. So this was left over from bulldozing and cuttings that they did over the years. This has been clear cut multiple times. And now in many places there's just exposed soils. And where you see these exposed soils, the temperatures are wildly elevated. So we need to lower the temperatures and absorb all the moisture. And we need to reduce the fuel loads. So there's a lot of work for a lot of people. And this is going to make their lives better and make the environment better and protect these huge forests. And by using this place to train, we can protect this place. But we can also make sure that hundreds and thousands of people can fan out. We can make multiple camps. One camp will not be enough. And we need to realize that we're normally getting in our cars and driving to stores. But what we need to do is walk down these paths. And if we walk down these paths and we understand what this means, then we're going to have a very different outcome than we're having at this time. And this is the future for this forest. And the future for the moisture coming off of the Pacific Ocean. And the future for ourselves and for future generations. So come and join us here. Help us with money, with physical materials to make this happen. We can work in the collective interests. We don't have to work only in our own self-interests. The person who dies with the most stuff does not win. And what we need to do is give everyone a chance, an opportunity to participate in this, the great work of our time. So come and walk down this path with me. I've been walking on this path for some time. There are other people. Paul Greenman has been here longer than anyone. Jonathan and Lauren are the instigators of this. And their choices in a crisis moment are helping to make this possible. So we're ready now to train hundreds and thousands of people in controlled burns during the rainy season, during the winter. And we can turn the tide, but it's going to take enormous efforts.