Paddle On

Much like the river, reflection and visioning are on-going — sometimes free flowing, other times pooled and dammed, navigating obstacles, partnering with the great power of the current, pausing in eddies. However, winter tends to offer a natural opportunity for greater reflection and preparation for the seasons to come. As we move into the final weeks of winter, I’ve been reflecting on the lessons and accomplishments of the last year and enthusiastic to share about our growth into the future.

Over the last year we’ve made a lot of changes and progress toward big picture goals, alongside tough decisions to suspend our river programs in 2020. We have maintained strong and healthy partnerships with all of the community organizations we work with and to whom we will continue to provide our programs when the time and environment is appropriate for each specific community. We have been able to engage our alumni community and reach new youth within our partner communities through the creation of our Guide Book program which provided guided journals that include curriculum activities to support community connection, mental health, personal reflection, and nature connection. We facilitated virtual campfires for past participants to reconnect and share about their current experiences. We were able to create local small group programming for New Avenues for Youth in partnership with Next Adventure Scappoose Bay Center to provide afternoon paddle programs.

Our Board of Directors reviewed and reconfigured staff roles to match the changing needs of the organization, creating an Executive Director position which added the oversight and care for all areas of the organization to my current role of shepherding programs, partnerships, staff and operations. We created a Board Development and Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) committee who has been working on authentic and meaningful ways to diversify and grow our Board leadership for the future, alongside a commitment to education, growing awareness, and making conscious changes across our organization regarding anti-racism and DEI efforts from staffing, curriculum, operations, marketing, and leadership. With the commitment of our supporter community, we were able to shift our fundraising goals and events to create engaging offerings that fit the parameters of our pandemic reality — including a wildly successful year end giving campaign which brought in over double what we have achieved in past years. These internal and community-supported shifts have set the stage for an abundance of health and positive growth for LEAP into the future.

After lots of communication, research, and consideration — as of now, we are planning to run programs for the 2021 season. Precisely which groups will be able to join us, the number of participants and exact program details are still coming into form — but we are enthusiastic to proceed, as always, with integrity and the care and well-being of each individual and group at the forefront of our decision-making. I have never been more ready or understood so fully the responsibility of connecting people with nature, the river, and essential community.

Included in the 2021 programs will be a new offering that supports the expansion of our programming for our current communities and new communities with whom we can’t wait to share the transformative power of the river. In late 2020, we applied for and were awarded a new permit on the Lower Deschutes River in Oregon through the Bureau of Land Management. Although precisely who will join us in what capacity on the Deschutes this summer is still to be determined due to the on-going impact of covid-19 — the creation of this new program will enable us to offer shorter program experiences within the state of Oregon for individuals and communities that have greater barriers to access our 5-day flagship programs in Idaho. These groups are likely to include specific subsets within the communities we already serve, such as: middle school aged youth, adults who have lost a spouse or a child, family and multi-generational programming, youth from specific service programs, and LEAP alumni who are interested in developing outdoor leadership skills. As well as new specific communities from across Oregon and Southwest Washington. I look forward to sharing about this new programming, who will be served and in what ways as we get closer to the summer season and as these offerings expand in the years to come.

Additionally, we continue to be committed to the expansion of our Idaho programming to serve new partner communities in the Salmon River region. These partnerships take time to meaningfully develop as we also are thoughtfully growing our support network to fund and champion these new programs. We look forward to sharing more about the groups we’ll be able to support in 2022 and beyond.

One of the great lessons of the last year has been that diversity in every form supports the health and strength of our community. Many different perspectives help us create the broadest impact in our programs. As we continue to grow the diversity in our leadership and internal structures, we will also continue to explore diversity in our programming to create offerings that promote greater access to the outdoors and the transformative power of time spent in nature and community.

Thank you for your continued support and engagement in our work. We can’t wait to share what this upcoming season holds as we continue to navigate the many challenges and opportunities of our current time.

Paddle On,

Valerie Pufahl

Presence + Noticing: the connections we make in the natural world

Carly Gray is a former LEAP guide who is now a PhD student in Developmental Psychology at the University of Washington. Carly also collaborated with me in 2019 to update the way LEAP gathers participant experiences, using surveys based on psychological scales that measure the impact or change in an individual’s experience of certain factors, such as awareness, connection to self or others, and self-efficacy. She recently shared a talk as part of the Nature and Health Speaks series, which is referenced in our conversation and the link to this talk is included at the end of the interview. 

Carly took the time to speak with me on May 7th, 2020 to share about how her river experiences have fueled her curiosity in her current research, some of her preliminary findings, and suggestions for all of us to notice the small things in the natural world during this season where, for all of us in various ways, our daily lives have been dramatically altered. Carly and I spoke over skype on our computers – me in Northeast Portland, and her in Southwest Portland. 

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Val: To begin, I wonder if you would share some about meaningful outdoor experiences for you personally. What has been impactful for you – being out with a group or being on the river in particular?

Carly: The river gives us this experience that we have to kind of surrender to in some ways. Part of it is surrender and part of it is knowing our capability, and our ability to keep ourselves safe is something that the river can do in a unique way. I think these are two things I’ve found most powerful on a personal level: Learning to surrender to the power of the river and to what the experience will be, but also understanding my capabilities. I think the social aspects of the LEAP experience are also one of the most meaningful parts. Being able to create community in a really unique, intense and beautiful way. Bringing people together who might not otherwise get to come together but have a lot in common all while facing this unique challenge of getting ourselves down the river safely – I don’t think there’s much else like it.

Val: Yeah, I mean, I agree. Tell me a little bit more about what you’re doing now. 

Carly: I work in the Human Interactions with Nature and Technological Systems Lab at the university which is directed by Peter Khan. We study the human relationship with nature and technology, with the lens that our world is changing and we’re in this really unique moment of the history of the human species. We are increasingly in urban spaces and not to say that is good or bad in and of itself, but it’s new in our evolutionary history. We’re also experiencing this mass rise in how much technology is part of our lives, especially digital and screen technologies. And we also have things like climate change that are really putting the natural spaces of our planet at huge, huge risk and we’ve already seen the impacts of that. So, how is that affecting the human psyche and how are we growing up differently than we have previously -- those are some of the questions that we’re most interested in. 

 Val: What led you to an interest in this particular area of study? 

Carly: I’ve been interested in research in a general way for the past 5-6 years, studying things in a systematic way really speaks to my skillsets and inclinations. And I’ve always been interested in people, the ways we interact with each other, what motivates us, what makes one person different from another, what’s similar across all of our experiences. So that’s what led me to the study of psychology. And developmental psychology specifically, where right now, every single year, kids are growing up in a different way than their older siblings. The way that my sister grew up and the way that I grew up are relatively different in terms of the things we had access to technology-wise, and that is relatively new. So that’s part of why the developmental questions are really interesting to me. 

Val: Yeah, absolutely. It’s such an interesting observation because you and your sister are not very far apart in age and I think for so long we’ve thought about those things as generational and that is, as you’re saying, a very different experience now. That within one generation we have many, many different experiences specific to technology and our access to things and how rapidly that has evolved. 

Carly: Yeah, and it’s hard to predict, right, like we don’t always know what the next thing will be. Maybe the people developing it do, but our common experience is not that we can predict exactly what our lives will look like even two years from now because things are changing so rapidly. I think that is especially apparent right now, but so are the inequities of access to those technologies. Like kids not being able to keep learning because they don’t have access to wifi. 

Val: Yeah, which is very in our face right now, to say the least. In light of that, it would be interesting to hear if or how the pandemic experience has changed or altered some of your questions or work. I’d be interested to know your thoughts on that or what new questions you have. 

Carly: Yeah, like we were saying, the equity and access questions are becoming all the more apparent and unavoidable, so I think that is an area that I want to more intentionally pursue in my research moving forward – like what are the ways that we can reimagine or redesign the ways our lives look to allow for human connection and connection the more-than-human too. And that we’re not just geared towards constant growth, because that’s not necessarily benefiting all of us right now and I think the pandemic is really highlighting that. That would be one question. And practically, research is on hold for anyone dealing with human subjects that aren’t using online surveys. We’re not pivoting any of our projects to see how people are spending their time during the pandemic, but those kinds of questions and studies are definitely being addressed by some folks, so I’ll be really interested to see what we can learn from this really unique, strange time. 

Val: I listened to a talk you gave recently, where you shared some about the project you were working on with the Girl Scouts, would you say a little bit about that project? 

Carly: Yeah, the project is with the Girl Scouts of Western Washington. We partnered with them to help evaluate some of their outdoor programming that they are introducing to see how it is benefiting the girls’ health and wellbeing. We are looking at their stress levels and how they spend time outdoors when they have more access to outdoor programming – and that’s anything from self-directed activities like observing a tree or more intensive experiences like going on a day hike with their troop. So we have both the group that is getting that and we’ll also have a control group so we can really isolate the affects of this programming that’s being introduced to just a small group of girl scouts right now. The goal is to then make this programming available to the control as well so they can have equitable access and then it should become available to all of the girl scouts for at least Western Washington, ideally. 

Val: One of the things you talked about connected to that were the ideas of immersion and interaction. Would you talk about both of those things and how you are defining and observing them?

Carly: In terms of immersion, I think this is something we are still trying to figure out, part of my motivation with asking questions about it are my experiences with LEAP. It’s this unique time of being out, more of less away from human built communities or human built objects of any kind, and what does it mean to be out there for multiple days at a time, and what does that do to our minds. What does it mean to be kind of “away” for a period of time, to be in more natural and unmanaged areas than what we might be accoustomed to, like urban parks or just walking down our street in our day to day lives. So I was interested in what does it really mean to feel immersed in an experience or environment – both in terms of the environmental and what are the psychological aspects of that experience. 

The other part of that is interaction. So, we take an interaction pattern approach to the research we conduct in our labs, so we are currently working on cataloging the ways we interact with the natural environment.  We think this is important in part because we are losing opporutunities for those kinds of interactions and one step to preserving the way we talk about that relationship with the other than human or more than human natural world is to characterize those patterns that we know are important for us. That can also promote further research into understanding the health effects of different types of interactions which could ultimately inform the way we design urban spaces or parks and how we can make more opportunity for interaction with nature while we're in an urban space. Also, how we can really prioritize equitable access to spaces for some of those patterns to be enacted in perhaps state parks or larger tracks of land that we know are really important for our ecosystems but also for human health and wellbeing. 

 Val: That's such a cool string of things. When you say, what did you call it, interactive pattern, would you give some examples of what that might be? So that we can also recognize them for ourselves. 

Carly: Yeah, giving precise language to our experiences in the natural world can be important to really categorize what is meaningful for us. So, if you were to go to the ocean, you could just go to the ocean and look out at the ocean. You could drive up to the parking lot, near the ocean, and sit in your car and watch the sunset over the ocean. Or, you could get out of your car and walk down along the beach, feel the sand between your toes. Maybe take off your shoes. Every time I go to the beach I always take off my shoes, and even if it's really cold, I always get my toes at least a little wet. So in the case of watching the sunset, you could be enacting a pattern, like: gazing out at sunset. Or, gazing at sunset over water. But in the example when you get out of the car, you're also enacting experiences that engage all your senses, like: walking barefoot through sand, or walking along the edge of water and land. And you can imagine those things happening in different contexts too, if doesn't have to only be at the ocean. You could be enacting a pattern like walking along the edge of water and land, along the ocean, or a riverbank, or in a more urban design context, you could have a small stream or a small fountain and you can create spaces for people to enact that same pattern even when you don't have an ocean or river running through your city.  

Sometimes interaction and immersion go hand and hand.

Sometimes interaction and immersion go hand and hand.

Val: Yeah, so, in those examples, and one of the things you mentioned in your talk also, was the increased impact when there was more than just the visual interaction. Would you talk a little bit about what is happening, or what people are reporting, when there are more patterns enacted?

 Carly: One thing we are finding, at least in a preliminary analysis of a subset, is that when the Girl Scouts are enacting non-visual patterns so they are doing things that engage multiple senses, or they engage their minds as well as their vision, things that rely on verbs in those patterns, like: walking, hiking, exploring, smelling, or hearing -- things that aren't just using our sight alone, the girls felt more present during those experiences. We're hoping that this is some evidence for the importance of getting out into natural spaces that really engage our whole bodies and minds and not just prioritizing looking at pretty views. I think there's more to our relationship with the natural world than simply a visual one to look out at. 

Val: You’ve mentioned, here and in your talk, about the ideas of presence and mindfulness. Would you talk about how you see those things as similar or different? And how the findings that you have about the ways that those contribute to wellbeing outcomes for people? 

Carly: We are still definitely in the process of sorting through some of these concepts, and not all of this is data-driven and more so a conceptual approach right now. But we're thinking of presence being something kind of related to mindfulness. One way we think about mindfulness is a very conscious, intentional, focus on the present moment and nonjudgmental acceptance of the thoughts that are running through your mind or the things that you're perceiving. Presence we think could be related to that, but it's kind of what happens when you start to let all that mental noise fall away and your mind is cleared and opened up and you have this merging of your awareness with everything else around you. I think the experiences that we have on LEAP programs  really lend themselves to that, because you are really directly focused on getting through a wave, perhaps to get yourself through a rapid safely or stay in your boat, but in those moments there's glimpses of "wow, I'm not having to consciously think about anything", where there's moments that you're able to kind of let go and just be. I think that one way that we can describe those moments is giving us this sense of presence. I think it's related to mindfulness, and perhaps related to these really intensely active experiences, and then there's somewhere in the middle of those two where we find kind of space in our minds to get out of ourselves and away from feeling self-conscious or feeling super self-aware and I think that can happen in a really special, unique way in nature, when the conditions are right, both psychologically and physically. 

Val: Yeah, I mean, I certainly have that experience personally, when I am out in nature. During the last two months when we haven't really had the same access to outdoor spaces, as people who live in urban environments and with the discouragement to travel or that access to public lands has been limited or restricted in significant ways, so it's been interesting to recognize the differences in myself, without interacting with people in those spaces, which is so often how I am spending time with people. But when I'm walking in my neighborhood instead, I'm noticing lots of different things. On things like social media, I'm seeing all of these people posting pictures of flowers or all the different things they are encountering on their walks or the time that they're spending in their yard or wherever. What shifts have you noticed in your stay at home time?

Carly: I've gained an appreciation for noticing the smaller things. I've often been walking the same path every single day, where as before, that path would at least have taken me to a larger geography. Like commuting back and forth to school. So I think I'm finding ways to notice the small changes or things that I had never noticed before in places I thought I was familiar with. I mean, I wouldn't trade a global pandemic for this, but is has been one cool thing to come out of this -- this extra opportunity to notice in a new way. 

Val: You also mentioned earlier and in your talk, the suggestion for us to remember that a connection and awareness of our bodies is also an experience of nature. Would you say a little bit more about that?

Carly: I’ve had a lot of messages over my life about how those two things are separate. That the natural world is other and then there's the human world and the human experience. But our bodies are made up of all the same things that plants are made up of, and we eat them and that feeds and grows our bodies and that relationship is so reciprocal, but I think our lives have become pretty removed from that process for a lot of us. Like, I go and buy my food at the grocery store, I'm not often participating in that process of the earth growing that food and then that food helping me grow, so, I think there's a cultural message that I've internalized in some way, and so I think it's an important reminder to recognize our bodies as part of the natural world in a physical sense but also in a sense of connection, that there aren't really boundaries between those things. 

Val: I'll be curious too, where in this particular moment, the big activity for many people who have had access to space and time, has been that everyone is gardening. People who have never had a garden, they're like: I guess this is a thing I'll do. That's one thing that I'm really curious about -- like you were saying earlier -- this interaction or immersion, what are the new interaction patterns that people are creating because they are doing things differently. Like maybe they are making more food at home, or interacting with the natural spaces in their reach by growing and tending plants or building a garden or growing food. Of course, that isn't everyone, and that still takes access to certain resources to be able to do that, but I think it is interesting to see if there is any change or effect. 

Carly: Yeah, I'm definitely curious about that too. I think some of the power in it for me, comes from the recognition that interacting with a spreadsheet is not something that we've been doing for very long. But growing a garden, that is like, in us. It’s something that we have this long history as a species and also culturally, that's often a really important thing for us -- gathering and growing and making food for ourselves and for other people. 

Val: Considering the variety of effects of the coronavirus on our lives, which has been really significant changes in stability for so many people, an increased potential for isolation or increased potential for stress from so many different factors, what do you think would be simple ways that we can connect or increase our wellbeing from exactly where we are?

Carly: Yeah, it's definitely a really challenging moment and I think although it's really difficult for a lot of us, I'm somehow busier than I was before, and simultaneously more exhausted. That experience is very real. But I think one thing would be to prioritize spending some time moving your body outside, whether that's a walk or even if you just find a place to sit and be. We know those things are really important for us, both psychologically and physically. 

Someone who is joining our lab next year has been involved in this really cool study that is about just noticing nature. The study instructed people to write down times that they noticed something in nature, and then another group was asked to notice things from the built environment, like a really cool building. And the people who noticed things in the natural environment had all of these positive changes for their mental wellbeing and felt more attached to the place that they were living in. And the people in the built environment didn't have those changes, though some did feel more connected to the place that they were living. We know that noticing is helpful to generate positive change, but especially noticing the small bits of nature that we have access to right now, which will look different for all of us. But whether it's a dandelion coming between a crack in the sidewalk or a big maple tree down the street, taking the time to really focus your mind on attending to those things is going to do good things for us.  

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You can find Carly’s lecture that is referenced in our conversation here

The Heart of Facilitation

Language can, at times, be confusing until there is a shared understanding of what certain words or terms mean. One specific instance of this, can be the common misunderstanding or use of the concept of therapeutic or wilderness therapy. The wilderness, community, and connection can be powerful forces for positive change, collectively and individually. Time in nature and creating the space for authentic human connections can have beneficial outcomes for all people; and in particular, those who feel isolated in their circumstances or need an opportunity to have some distance from a specific challenge or story.

As a facilitator, I am not a counselor, nor do I attempt to provide counseling or advising beyond my scope of expertise or training. My hope is to hold each individual capable and able, to trust that you know best for yourself, and to create opportunities for you to both hear and listen to yourself; as well as make connections with your peers in the circle, whose stories also have wisdom to share. My facilitation style is to ask questions that help you find your way to your own voice, to uncover needs and pieces of your identity that may have gotten buried underneath the weight of illness, injury, trauma, chaos, or disappointment. I don’t give advice or tell you what you should be doing – but rather, aim to provide experiences and reflective activities that help you find your own answers.

Beyond those opportunities for personal reflection, there is also the invitation to share those discoveries or questions out loud with the group – to be witnessed, acknowledged, and celebrated. At times, these discoveries of something you would like to reclaim, accept, celebrate, or change can be both powerful and challenging. It’s important as the facilitator, that I am not taking us into territory that we can’t find our way through – that to ensure the safety and health of the group, that we only venture to the places we can find our way back. Working with practical ideas about how to carry these important discoveries back home is an essential part of our conversations as we near the end of each program.

There is also the important element of what discoveries or reflections come after the program has ended. Often, it can take awhile to digest an experience, and to feel or realize what has been gained. For some, to actualize a step or change one might like to take, can be instantaneous – for most of us though, it can take a lot of effort, strategies, and support. It is the hope and intention that the Eddy Out reunion activities can provide some of that support and inspiration, as well as continued engagement in relationships that are formed during our days together on the river.

The discoveries we make in the wilderness can be both powerful and subtle. Sometimes, just being out, away from routines, habits, or circumstances is the reprieve and perspective needed. Other times, the reflections and experience of being witnessed by a supportive group of peers or mentors is the catalyst for positive change. And in other moments, it’s just floating on the river, feeling the current as a partner in your journey, the rapids offering self-reflection on your own capacities, the night sky a mysterious and encouraging friend. Every element of a LEAP program can provide impact depending on what speaks to each participant in that moment of life. The wilderness elements are thoughtfully navigated and enjoyed, and the many human elements are given equal, if not greater, consideration and care.  

-- Valerie