Ann Linnea

Engage in the life stories of fourteen people whose lives have been shaped by trees?featuring the true stories of a tree doctor, big tree hunter Will Blozan, Plant Amnesty’s pruner, and ninety-four-year-old logger Merve Wilkinson. Also interviewed is Vietnam veteran Bud Pearson, whose post-traumatic stress disorder found healing and acceptance as a wood carver in the wilds of Montana, as well as Andy Lipkis, founder of TreePeople, who has spent thirty-five years ripping up concrete in L.A. to plant over two million trees in an effort to stop flooding and reduce air pollution. Each tree keeper reveals the inspiration and organization behind their advocacy with detailed explanations and touching stories of how their lives have come to be shaped by the forests they are fighting to preserve. Keepers of the Trees includes stories from all over North America, including Vancouver, Chicago, L.A., and Montana. This book includes one hundred color photographs of the tree keepers in action as well as diagrams illustrating the keepers’ work. These are inspirational stories of conservation, healing, passion, and advocacy for any classroom, conservationist, activist, and nature lover.

All modern group processes that are open to collaboration or to flattening the hierarchy are based in some way on circle practices. As organizations of all kinds move increasingly toward shared and rotating leadership, they are calling on the circle model to form sustainable teams and adopt circle-driven group processes such as "World Cafe," "Open Space," and "Art of Hosting." Meetings in the round have become the preferred tool for moving individual commitment into group action. This book lays out the structure of circle conversation, based on the original work of the co-authors who have studied and standardized the essential elements that constitute circle practice. It takes readers through a circle visual (the Components of Circle) and presents both structure and story so that readers understand how these elements come into play and how they interrelate and interact. It also embeds circle process experience in stories and examples drawing on the authors' 15 years of experience as global thought leaders and originators of this form, and it presents detailed instructions and suggestions for getting started, setting goals, and solving conflicts.

This "engrossing adventure and . . . story of spiritual awakening and inspiration" ("Publishers Weekly") tells the true story of Ann Linnea, the first woman to circumnavigate Lake Superior by sea kayak.