woods, waves, water & the ecologies of eels

A Personal & Ecological Restoration Project

I am ecologist, educator and artist who builds wooden surfboards.  I propose a two-month, multifaceted residency at The Truro Center for the Arts wherein I will: 

• Conduct an Oikalogical Survey possibly as part of citizen-science-art collaborative on the American Eel (Anguilla rostrata)
• Produce a number of wooden artworks that integrate salvaged wood from terminally dilapidated old barns in the area and locally harvested Eastern White Cedar (Thuja occidentallis). 
• Develop & deliver an online workshop in Ecological Intelligence for Artists (to be followed up post-pandemic with in-person workshops)

Trust takes time. This 2-month, bespoke residency will allow me to develop relationships and cultivate community for a personal homecoming and ecological restoration project.

A Personal & Ecological Homecoming

For many years I sailed from Cape Cod to a small patch of the Sargasso Sea far offshore. As part of our pelagic research, I would catch small, transparent leptocephali (eel larvae) in our sampling nets. 

Lately, I’ve been catching eels in my dreams. I see them migrating through the dark ocean, crossing the bottom contours across the continental shelf, slipping beneath the bluefin tuna, and making their way home, to live out their adult lives in the warm, fresh water of Truro's Herring River in Truro. 

I do not want to catch eels anymore. I just want to return the favor of their presence, to be around them, and to live near their habitats. It feels good to know they are here,  in the small brooks and ponds of Cape Cod. 

Like the eels, I am made of here. My formative years played out (literally) as a child, among these glacial tills, baywaters, woodlands and wetlands. After traveling the world, I now see how important those years, in these places are. 

So one of the goals for the last third of my life is to bring myself, and Oika back to my home habitats.

I am interested in citizen science and ecological restoration that includes the artistic community. But I'm not interested in further development of land. To the contrary, I'm most interested in putting land into conservation. As it turns out, I am in a position to invest a considerable amount if I can find a way to integrate my plans with Oika.

Whatever form this project takes, I plan on continuing my ongoing ecological education work within it and using it as a basis for further fundraising (I've raised nearly $1 million in the past ten years).