August 2005 | Evergreen Citizen
Taking a Long View
By Bob Condor
A five-year plan is snap of the fingers to Chuck Pettis, this month’s Evergreen Citizen. His plan for Earth Sanctuary, a 72-acre parcel of land on south Whidbey Island, is significantly more long-term.
Try 500 years.
Pettis says the land needs the full five centuries to be restored to its old growth and natural habitat. Earth Sanctuary is his giveback after making good money during the Internet boom years as a branding consultant. His lifelong appreciation for nature and 35 years as a practicing Buddhist paired up to inspire this decidedly Northwest project.
“I was in India in 1999 for special path to enlightenment teachings,” recalls Pettis. My lama [teacher]said he wanted a retreat center. It struck me that I was fortunate enough to have the funds to do it for him.”
By 2000 Earth Sanctuary was established and poised for retreat purposes for the Sakya Monastery of Seattle.
“We’ve had five to six retreats just in the past several months,” reports Pettis, who spends his weekends on Whidbey while his Brand Solutions office (www. brand.com) is based in Medina.
Day visitors can tour a number of sacred spots on the nature reserve and meditation parkland, including secluded areas with Tibetan prayer wheels and a stone circle with osprey flying overhead. Pettis has installed 45 bird nesting boxes to attract the osprey and other native birds. Students at Chinook Middle School in Bellevue constructed the boxes.
The suggested donation is $7 per person, a bargain for up to a whole day of prayer and meditation.
While touring the grounds, Pettis was happy to explain how mushrooms and fungal cousins will someday feed the entire plant system throughout Earth Sanctuary.
“If a plant way over there needs help, the fungal network will send it even from acres away,” he says.
While Pettis wisely hired professionals to guide him with the land reclamation, he is fluent on what trees will go where. He is comfortable talking alders, firs, red cedar, you name it. He is clear that blackberry plants need to be so native salmonberry bushes and other foliage can flourish. He can show you the nurse logs (deadwood with new trees growing out of them) and snags (nature-speak for dead stumps) that are happily crawling with insects or home to woodpecker families.
“We started with conifers around the [property’s three]ponds first,” says Pettis. “We plant about 300 a year. It will take 20 years to fill in around all of the ponds.”
Another part of the vision: Planting black cottonwood trees that in 2025 will be huge and attractive to blue herons looking to place a rookery.
The beauty of the place is already exquisite and off the charts. While Pettis can’t predict just who will be Earth Sanctuary’s caretaker in say, a couple of hundred years, he has done the appropriate paperwork to keep it as a sanctuary. He is determined to use today’s money to make a better tomorrow—lots of tomorrows.
Citizenship can’t be any more pure than that.
![[Send]](http://seattle.consciouschoice.com/sendlink/send.gif){kind=small}
Recommend this page to a friend
Top Ten pages recommended to friends:
