Nature is our natural world, our beginning. Nature forms earth and provides for humans. Without nature, life ceases to exist. My connection to nature is simple; my life in Montana constantly surrounds me with nature. I live in the mountains, I only ever smell pine trees or wildfire smoke; I only ever hear the sound of trees rustling, rocks clattering, bugs buzzing, and animals calling. The air feels warm and dry in the summer, crisp and bitter in the winter, and thick and suffocating during wildfire season. Our family owns 320 acres, we have honey bees, chickens, cows, a green house, and an orchard with over 1000 apple trees. Additionally, elk, deer, and turkey graze freely on our land. I greatly participate in the care of our food and animals. This is my connection to nature and agriculture. On the contrary, our house is 30 minutes from our mountainous land. I live in a modern home, with modern appliances. Our yards are groomed by machines and our trees and vegetation are transplanted from nurseries. This is my disconnection from nature.
Nature is a process, it cannot be forced. Nature will eventually balance itself, humans must wait for it to discover its instinctive course. Nutrients is important for soil, soil is important for plants, and healthy plants are important for a living species’ survival.
In my county the Forest Service and volunteers care for our local places, just as it should be.
The Bitterroot National Forest is regularly thinned and cleaned of dead wood to mitigate wildfires. In addition, there are strict regulations to keep the Bitterroot River clean. I support the protection and care of our national forests, property rights, land rights, indigenous land rights, and animal protection laws.
I used observation and creativity as a means to survive in my father’s household. My father passed away in 2014 from cancer. His sickness mainly derived from his alcoholism. He was mentally and physically abusive to both my sister and me. Our parents divorced when I was eight and my sister was seven, so we were forced to spend every other weekend with him. To avoid abuse, I started to observe his behavior and listen to his conversations on the phone and with other adults. He was not an honest man. He was comfortable to speak freely around me since I was just a child; however, he underestimated me and I was able to repeat what I heard from him to my mom. I used my creativity to learn how to act around him when he was in certain moods. I learned to praise him was he was mad and “through a tantrum” when he was drunk. My “tantrums” annoyed him enough to protect us form him. My mom was able to use the information I repeated to her; she discovered many secrets of his and used the information for our best interest in court.
Here in the Bitterroot Valley, there is great public respect for the National Forest and Bitterroot Mountains for hiking and recreations. This was established long before I moved here and the wonderful respect for the environment continues today.
The Chesters encountered an imbalance in their farm at one point. One example is that there was an overpopulation in slugs and the slugs began to destroy their trees by eating the bark. The Chesters were also encountering a drought during this period; their duck pond had begun to dry up and they did not know what to do with the ducks. Their solution was to kill to birds with one stone. The Chesters introduced the ducks to their orchards, the slugs were eaten by the ducks and now the ducks had a place to stay.
When I was five, my mom introduced to me to horseback riding. I immediately fell in love with the sport and when we moved from New York to Montana, I was determined to find a way to continue jumping. We were introduced to a natural horsemanship instructor who worked with me for two years, she was the best in our tiny county. Her approach to riding did not fit with me. I constantly failed her instructions and I felt as if I had little to no improvement over time. My first competition I placed well but I did not feel like I rode my best. In my second competition, I had a great warmup with my horse and I wanted to sit quietly with him and watch the two riders before us. My instructor did not agree with that, she wanted me to run the warmup course more. I became stressed and worried I would miss my turn because I was not paying attention and of course, I entered the arena late, stressed, and angry. The course went horribly and after that I knew that she was just not the right teacher for me. From that day on, I looked into new instructors and came to the conclusion that I needed to get back on the east coast. This led me to Foxcroft and my new, former olympic trainer. We worked great together, I improved quickly and confidently. “Failure is only the opportunity to begin again, only this time more wisely.” - Henry Ford
As an area that is scarcely populated by humans, our nature is very perfect the way it is today. Above, I stated that in the Bitterroot Valley, there is great public respect for the National Forest and Bitterroot Mountains for hiking and recreations. This was established long before I moved here and the wonderful respect for the environment continues today.