Spring Renewal Experience
Hitchcock Nature Center, Pottawattamie County
Saturday, March 26, 2022
Inspire renewal and new beginnings in your life through this mindful spring equinox experience meant to strengthen your connection to the natural world.
As winter melts into spring, join naturalist and folk herbalist Dustin Clayton for a renewing hike and demonstrations focused on the spring, or vernal, equinox. You’ll learn about medicines the forest offers this time of year, how to recognize ephemeral spring flora, which birds are migrating, and how migration patterns affected the way our ancestors thought about springtime. Depending on what’s available on the land, Dustin will also share how to make infused herbal oils for skincare, teas that can be made from native plants this time of year, or an antiseptic, infused cottonwood bud salve for skin ailments.
Ages 16+ please. $12 per person. Park entry fee included in registration. Please meet at the Loess Hills Lodge.
About Dustin:
Dustin Clayton is a lifelong student of the natural world and an avid woods walker. He has for many years been a practitioner of various Earth-based skills including: flintknapping, folk herbalism, foraging, traditional woodworking, cordage making and fiber arts. Additionally, he has extensively studied folk traditions and practices from around the world. He believes very deeply in approaching the land as it presents itself through the lenses of myth, craft, and contemplation. Dustin’s goal in all the programming he presents is to inspire people to get out into the woods and begin to build respectful relationships with the living world all around them.
“It is my very great hope that this program will provide people who are not scientists, but who are nevertheless filled with wonder and curiosity while in natural spaces, with access points for being in the right relationship with the living world.” — Dustin Clayton
Awaken Your Connection to the Natural World Today:
This is one of ten programs that Dustin will lead in 2022, all with the goal of guiding you into a deeper relationship with the land by awakening your senses, curiosity, and interconnectedness with the living communities of which you are a part. Each program will include three components: traditional craft, folk/ancestral knowledge, and contemplative engagement. These programs will naturally build on each other and have cumulative value, but participants do not need to attend them all to gain understanding and a sense of awakening. We hope to see you soon - whether it’s for a single program or more!
