Katy Adams
Mar 25, 20224 min read
Welcome to Our Stories
An introduction to Fellowfield Discovery Park.
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Fellowfield is a new ten-acre, 501(c)(3) non-profit, open space park and education center being built in Pittsfield Township, Michigan.
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Rather than treating social justice and environmental health as separate issues, the park will invite visitors to explore how they intersect in our local landscape and its history. Natural playscapes, interactive discovery stations, guided trails, ongoing stewardship projects, and educational programs will raise questions about our cultural roots and everyday decisions to better understand the problems we face today and build a path to a healthier tomorrow . . . for all of us.
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The Park is currently under development.
We invite you to explore this website to learn more!
Fellowfield is a place where we can practice the skills of stewardship and explore its meanings by learning about nature, sharing cultural stories, and building relationships of care.
Ecojustice offers a useful framework for exploring what stewardship looks like in a just and healthy world. It is Fellowfield’s approach to stewardship through ecojustice education that sets it apart from other organizations.
Does the vision for Fellowfield speak to you? Please get involved! We can only do this work with your help.
In a world reckoning with its long legacy of social and ecological harm, how does a descendant of European colonizers, like me, contribute to meaningful change? How do I take responsibility and step away from those ways of thinking and being that continue to cause harm? How can I help to build a more diverse, democratic, and healthy world? The question of how to be a good steward took on new meaning for me when I became a parent and accepted responsibility to care for ten acres in Southeast Michigan.
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In seeking an answer, I reflected on all I have learned as an ecologist and educator and spent time with my son on the land that has been a part of my family for generations. We poured over stories from history. We wondered about current events - climate change, the Flint water crisis, school shootings, George Floyd, and January 6th. We discussed our own and other people's ideas of what is possible, meaningful, and good. We learned about the trees and the ice and the insects and each other.
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Over the years, we came to see how the landscape reveals its history with people. We found evidence of decisions that have led to ongoing harm and examples of healthier systems. We began to see the opportunities this place offers for inviting others to witness our human impact and to join in the lifelong effort to become better stewards.
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The vision for Fellowfield Discovery Park took root as a place to listen and remember, play and practice, inspire and grow.
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- Katy Adams