The Fox
Our human circle stopped the small red fox in her tracks. Chan had just finished smudging us – an action that would not, Chan said, get rid of the toxins in the ground, but would perhaps help to heal our relationship to this land. The fox had come from the marshy area in the south following the path into the forest and we were standing in a circle fifty feet away, at the edge of the canal.
Chan said, “There, a fox,” and we looked together with one pair of eyes. Fox returned our gaze, sitting down, calmly considering who these newcomers to her world were or maybe understanding something that she caught in the smudge smoke that wafted in her direction. Hopefully, we were sending a message of concern and care and, hopefully, a message of partnership.
We are Friends of the Barge Canal, and our commitment is to preserve the wild that has taken hold in this place. A wild that Fox needs, and so do we, the people who live in the neighborhoods that surround these twenty-eight acres in Burlington’s south end.
The Barge Canal is as far from wasteland as you can imagine. It is alive and growing more so. Our vision is to learn how to work in partnership with nature. Our vision is to heal the land, not dig it up and dump it elsewhere – nor pave it over – but to learn how to remove the toxins that the land contains, the heavy metals and hydrocarbons that are the legacy of the industrial development at the root of our city.
Our vision is to leave the land intact, to work alongside nature’s own processes to restore its natural ecology, the mycelial network under the ground and the flora and fauna above. In our vision, we humans take responsibility for the messes we create, learn how to clean up after ourselves, to clear the toxins we have left behind using the tools and industry of nature – mushrooms and plants that break down and take up into their own bodies the substances that poison all of us.
This is new/old technology, and we have much to learn that is key to continuing life on our planet. Which fungi and what combination of species, specific to this land, this climate? How much time (years, decades) will it take? What can we learn, and how can we become the teachers and trainers of a new generation of land stewardship?
We are Friends of the Barge Canal. Our work involves partnering with the natural processes inherent in nature, learning the natural history of the place but also claiming the cultural legacy of industrial development that is at the heart of our city. Our work is rooted in environmental justice, and we hold rematriation at the heart. We are learning how to partner with the land as we go, relearning what indigenous people understand – that life depends on this living foundation.