Does Nature Have a Purpose in Our Lives? Exploring Our Relationships to the Land

Oregonians have long struggled to balance cultural, political, and values-based differences tied to our use of land and resources. As we enter an age of accelerating environmental change and scarcity, it is important to understand what drives these differences. In this conversation we will explore our attitudes and assumptions about the purpose of the environment in our lives and consider how those attitudes and assumptions shape our perception of environmental issues and policies.

Facilitator Ruby McConnell is a writer, geologist, and explorer whose work centers on outdoor advocacy, place, and examining the relationships between the landscape and human experience. Her work has appeared in scientific journals and outlets including Alta Journal, Huffington Post, Mother Earth News, Oregon Humanities, Grain Literary Magazine, Atlas Obscura, and LitHub, and was awarded an Oregon Literary Arts Fellowship in 2016. She is the author of the critically acclaimed outdoor engagement series A Woman’s Guide to the Wild, A Girl’s Guide to the Wild, and My Nature Journal and Activity Book. Her collection of place-based personal essays, Ground Truth: A Geological Survey of a Life, was a finalist for the 2020 Oregon Book Awards. Ground Truth, along with her 2024 creative nonfiction book, Wilderness and the American Spirit, were listed among Ms. Magazine’s Best Reads. You can almost always find her in the woods.