The Forest Taught Us How to Belong
Only $1,260 left to raise and 21 days to accomplish our goal!!!
I’m so very gratified to learn how important our work is to all of you! Thank you!!!!
For too long, we placed ourselves at the center of everything—our value systems, our economics, our vision of the future. And in doing so, we created a dangerous blind spot: we forgot that we are in relationship with all life on this planet.
Today, we're living with the consequences of that shortsightedness. But we're also discovering something profound.
The forest has been showing us the way all along.
When we study the biotic pump—how trees and soil work together to create the rain that sustains entire continents—we're witnessing nature's ultimate commitment to life itself. Every root reaching into the earth, every leaf transpiring moisture into the air, every mycorrhizal connection in the soil: these aren't random acts. They're part of an intricate system where all actions create the conditions that support life.
This is what the Resilient Values Set calls the Prime Directive. It's not an abstract principle—it's literally how nature works.
The second resilient value—committing to the health of the whole planet—is equally inherent in the biotic pump. Trees don't create rain just for themselves. They create weather systems that travel thousands of miles, nourishing forests and farms, communities and creatures they'll never meet. They are in service to the whole.
This changes everything about how we see ourselves.
When we truly appreciate how committed nature is to life, when we understand the incredible role that trees and soil play in something as fundamental as rain, we can begin to shape our own actions within that context. We can design our economies, our policies, our daily choices to mimic these regenerative patterns.
And perhaps most importantly: we can begin to feel that we are cared for. That we DO belong. That we are not separate from nature but held within its systems of mutual support.
This is the work we're doing—bridging rigorous science with a values framework that can guide us toward a thriving future. The biotic pump research shows us how nature sustains life. Resilient values help us understand how to align with that wisdom.
Will you help us continue this essential work?
We're raising $2,635 by December 31st to support our research and education efforts. Your donation—whether as a one-time gift or through membership—helps us:
DONATE BECOME A MEMBER
I’m so very gratified to learn how important our work is to all of you! Thank you!!!!
For too long, we placed ourselves at the center of everything—our value systems, our economics, our vision of the future. And in doing so, we created a dangerous blind spot: we forgot that we are in relationship with all life on this planet.
Today, we're living with the consequences of that shortsightedness. But we're also discovering something profound.
The forest has been showing us the way all along.
When we study the biotic pump—how trees and soil work together to create the rain that sustains entire continents—we're witnessing nature's ultimate commitment to life itself. Every root reaching into the earth, every leaf transpiring moisture into the air, every mycorrhizal connection in the soil: these aren't random acts. They're part of an intricate system where all actions create the conditions that support life.
This is what the Resilient Values Set calls the Prime Directive. It's not an abstract principle—it's literally how nature works.
The second resilient value—committing to the health of the whole planet—is equally inherent in the biotic pump. Trees don't create rain just for themselves. They create weather systems that travel thousands of miles, nourishing forests and farms, communities and creatures they'll never meet. They are in service to the whole.
This changes everything about how we see ourselves.
When we truly appreciate how committed nature is to life, when we understand the incredible role that trees and soil play in something as fundamental as rain, we can begin to shape our own actions within that context. We can design our economies, our policies, our daily choices to mimic these regenerative patterns.
And perhaps most importantly: we can begin to feel that we are cared for. That we DO belong. That we are not separate from nature but held within its systems of mutual support.
This is the work we're doing—bridging rigorous science with a values framework that can guide us toward a thriving future. The biotic pump research shows us how nature sustains life. Resilient values help us understand how to align with that wisdom.
Will you help us continue this essential work?
We're raising $2,635 by December 31st to support our research and education efforts. Your donation—whether as a one-time gift or through membership—helps us:
- Continue biotic pump research that reveals nature's blueprint for resilience
- Share these insights with communities, policymakers, and change-makers
- Develop frameworks that center LIFE in our decision-making
- Build a movement that understands: we are not above nature, but woven into it
DONATE BECOME A MEMBER
We've created four membership levels, each designed to meet you where you are:
For just $15/month or $150/year, as a Homeowner, you become part of the soil revolution: Save Money, Increase Value, Reduce Worry
Your results include:
Your membership benefits content specific:
For just $25/month or $250/year, as a Homesteader, you become part of the soil revolution: Abundance, Resilience, Sovereignty
You already believe in self-sufficiency but may struggle with water scarcity, soil depletion, climate unpredictability.
Your results include:
Your membership benefits include content specific:
For just $50/month or $500/year, as a Developer, for Builders, Architects, Landscape Designers, you become part of the soil revolution: Profit, Differentiation, Regulatory Advantage
Your concerns are:
Rising development costs, stricter stormwater regulations, client demand for sustainability, liability from flooding/erosion, competitive market pressure.
Your issues include:
Developers:
Your membership benefits include content specific:
For just $15/month or $150/year, as a Homeowner, you become part of the soil revolution: Save Money, Increase Value, Reduce Worry
Your results include:
- Immediate savings: Regenerated soil holds 20,000+ gallons more water per 1,000 sq ft, slashing irrigation costs by 50-75%
- Property value: Mature trees and thriving landscapes add 7-15% to home values; regenerative landscapes require far less maintenance long-term
- Insurance & resilience: Better water infiltration = no pooling near foundations, reduced fire risk from green buffers, potential insurance discounts
- Low maintenance paradise: Once established, regenerative landscapes need less mowing, less watering, less chemical inputs—more time for living
- Be the cool neighbor: Your yard becomes a teaching moment, a refuge for pollinators and birds, a source of neighborhood pride
Your membership benefits content specific:
- Soil Wise happenings newsletter
- The State of the Climate space
- The Biotic Pump space
- Transcending Collapse space
- Public Events space
- Learning Journeys – paid version
- Earth Forward insider newsletter
- Soil Wisdom space
- Keeping Water space
- Regenerative Design space
- Miyawaki/Native Plants space
- Finding Help space
- Paid Interviews space
- Project Support
- Direct impact on projects transforming Spokane's landscape
For just $25/month or $250/year, as a Homesteader, you become part of the soil revolution: Abundance, Resilience, Sovereignty
You already believe in self-sufficiency but may struggle with water scarcity, soil depletion, climate unpredictability.
Your results include:
- Food security amplified: Healthy soil = nutrient-dense food, better yields with less input, perennial systems that produce for decades
- Water independence: Restore your land's sponge capacity—capture and hold every drop that falls, reducing or eliminating irrigation needs
- Climate buffering: Regenerated soil moderates temperature extremes (warmer in winter, cooler in summer), extends growing seasons, provides drought insurance
- Ecosystem income: Healthy soil grows everything better—timber, medicinal plants, livestock forage, mushrooms—creating multiple revenue streams
- Legacy building: You're not just feeding your family; you're healing land for generations, creating a thriving ecosystem that gets better with time
Your membership benefits include content specific:
- Soil Wise happenings newsletter
- The State of the Climate space
- The Biotic Pump space
- Transcending Collapse space
- Public Events space
- Learning Journeys – discounted version
- Earth Forward insider newsletter
- Soil Wisdom space
- Keeping Water space
- Regenerative Design space
- Miyawaki/Native Plants space
- Finding Help space
- Free Interviews space
- Direct impact on projects transforming Spokane's landscape
For just $50/month or $500/year, as a Developer, for Builders, Architects, Landscape Designers, you become part of the soil revolution: Profit, Differentiation, Regulatory Advantage
Your concerns are:
Rising development costs, stricter stormwater regulations, client demand for sustainability, liability from flooding/erosion, competitive market pressure.
Your issues include:
Developers:
- Regulatory fast-track: Regenerative stormwater management can satisfy—or exceed—retention requirements at 30-60% lower cost than gray infrastructure
- Marketing gold: "Climate-resilient community," "net-positive water," "living landscape" are premium positioning statements that command higher prices
- Reduced liability: Better infiltration = less flooding, less erosion, fewer lawsuits and maintenance headaches
- Phased cost savings: Lower irrigation infrastructure needs, reduced long-term maintenance costs you can pass to HOAs, faster lot sales due to visual appeal
- Future-proofing: As water restrictions tighten and climate impacts intensify, your developments will thrive while conventional ones struggle
- Competitive edge: Clients increasingly demand regenerative solutions—this expertise makes you indispensable and commands premium fees
- Award-winning work: Regenerative projects win sustainability awards, generate press, build your reputation as a thought leader
- Integrated design opportunities: Soil-centric design allows you to merge aesthetics, ecology, and function—creating truly innovative spaces
- Regulatory expertise: Understanding regenerative stormwater = you can navigate complex permitting, save clients time and money
- Long-term relationships: Projects that perform well lead to referrals, maintenance contracts, and ongoing consulting relationships
Your membership benefits include content specific:
- Soil Wise happenings newsletter
- The State of the Climate space
- The Biotic Pump space
- Transcending Collapse space
- Public Events space
- Learning Journeys – Free version
- Earth Forward insider newsletter
- Soil Wisdom space
- Keeping Water space
- Regenerative Design space
- Miyawaki/Native Plants space
- Finding Help space
- Free Interviews space
- Direct impact on projects transforming Spokane's landscape
- Project Support
Ecosystem Architect ($500/year, $50/month) - Professional Leadership Platform
Value Proposition: Ecosystem Architect certification provides a professional platform for established practitioners to build their regenerative career while shaping network direction and educational content.
Professional Benefits:
Professional Development: Managing spaces and generating engagement develops advanced leadership, education, and community building skills highly valued in sustainability careers.
Ideal For: Certified practitioners, established consultants, educators, and entrepreneurs building businesses in the regenerative economy.
______________________________________________
Student Ecosystem Architect ($250/year, $25/month) - Emerging Professional Development
Value Proposition: Student Ecosystem Architect membership provides emerging professionals with hands-on leadership experience and mentorship while completing their sustainability education.
Professional Benefits:
Ideal For: Students in sustainability programs, career changers completing certifications, and emerging professionals building expertise in regenerative practices.
Already a member? You're amazing. Not yet? Here's your moment to join something bigger than yourself.
Value Proposition: Ecosystem Architect certification provides a professional platform for established practitioners to build their regenerative career while shaping network direction and educational content.
Professional Benefits:
- Space Management: Lead specialized communities aligned with your expertise
- Teaching Platform: Offer webinars and classes to expand professional reach
- Vendor Opportunities: Showcase services and products at network events
- Project Support Access: Connect with implementation opportunities and collaborations
- Professional Recognition: Certified status enhances credibility and visibility
Professional Development: Managing spaces and generating engagement develops advanced leadership, education, and community building skills highly valued in sustainability careers.
Ideal For: Certified practitioners, established consultants, educators, and entrepreneurs building businesses in the regenerative economy.
______________________________________________
Student Ecosystem Architect ($250/year, $25/month) - Emerging Professional Development
Value Proposition: Student Ecosystem Architect membership provides emerging professionals with hands-on leadership experience and mentorship while completing their sustainability education.
Professional Benefits:
- Real-World Experience: Manage professional communities while studying
- Mentorship Access: Direct guidance from established Ecosystem Architects
- Portfolio Development: Demonstrate leadership and community building skills
- Career Preparation: Build networks and experience before entering the job market
- Reduced Investment: 50% discount makes professional development accessible during studies
Ideal For: Students in sustainability programs, career changers completing certifications, and emerging professionals building expertise in regenerative practices.
Already a member? You're amazing. Not yet? Here's your moment to join something bigger than yourself.
What Your Support Has Already Made Possible
Your donation and membership don't just give you access to knowledge—they fund real transformation:
Current projects in process:
- Created a team of professionals that can design communities starting with working with the land, from conceptualization to designed build in a way that integrates human and natural systems so that the project becomes stronger and more resilient over time, healing the Earth as we work.
- Created a network of over 200 homeowners, homesteaders, development professionals and practitioners for education and project support.
- Hold regular free webinars on all aspects of earth regeneration, showcasing some of the guiding lights in this field.
- Partnering the Friends of Trees to protect trees on private property in the city of Spokane.
- Partnering with Spokane’s Climate Resilience and Sustainability Board to initiate a biochar pilot project, demonstrating biochar’s ability to reduce water and chemical use while improving
- Supporting a Spokane Community College student in a Miyawaki planting project working with Whitworth University
- Hold several ‘Soil Labs’ for the public to bring samples of their soil or compost and see the life in them under a microscope.
- Partnered with All Things Regenerative, Growing Neighbors, Inland Northwest Permaculture Guild, Children of the Earth Coalition, and the Global Earth Repair Foundation to hold the Spokane Permaculture Symposium.
- Partner with the Inland Northwest Permaculture Guild and others to begin to explore the role of bioregionalism in regeneration.
- Engaging with Spokane Low Income Housing Consortium (SLIHC) and their land bank
- Engaging with the Spokane division of Architect Institute of America (AIA) on regeneration education and noncombustible building.
- Showing up in the community at city-wide events to bring the story of the biotic pump and our agency in making rain, to the public, at large.
- Working with the European Union (EU) funded Soil Tribe project addressing soil health in seven countries.
- Facilitating the Living Soils game designed by the Living Soils Project, funded by the EU to develop soil literacy via gamification.
- In conversations with Los Angeles communities who are interested in rebuilding more sustainable resilient communities, incorporating rehydrating our landscape and other regenerative practices to create energy and resource efficient communities that are more resilient and less flammable.
We can keep watching our cities get hotter, drier, and more fragile. Or we can work with nature to create something astonishingly resilient.
Will you join us?
Every membership matters. Every $15, $25, or $50 per month is a vote for a city that's green, wet, and resilient. A city where water isn't scarce but abundant. Where landscapes thrive instead of merely survive. Where soil wisdom guides how we build, plant, and live.
Become a member today at Soil Smart-SoilWise.org/3000-challenge
Or mail your donation to: Inquiring Systems (our fiscal sponsor) with Soil Smart - Soil Wise in the note section; 1275 4th Street #371, Santa Rosa, CA 95404
Already a member? You're amazing—share this letter with someone who needs to hear this message.
Not yet? This is your moment to join something bigger than yourself.
Together, we're not just growing plants. We're growing possibility.
With gratitude for the soil beneath our feet,
Kathryn Alexander MA, Chief Strategist, Soil Smart - Soil Wise
P.S. The trees are already doing their part—creating the rain, building the soil, sustaining the whole. Now it's our turn to show up for the work of healing and regeneration. Join us before December 31st.
P.P.S. Curious to learn more about how resilient values shape regenerative work? Watch our recent webinar on honesty for the US Values Alliance: Honesty - How Nature Can Inform How We Look at This Value