The work I've undertaken—at its most fundamental level—is the work of restoring our connections to Self, Nature, and Consciousness. By healing the Earth, we heal ourselves. By restoring our connection to Consciousness, we restore our connections to all life that we share this planet with.
I use my own publishing company, Pondering Poet Publishing, Co., to facilitate my work in the field, my research, writing, printing, and distribution efforts.
I use my own publishing company, Pondering Poet Publishing, Co., to facilitate my work in the field, my research, writing, printing, and distribution efforts.
Current Projects:
- Watershed restoration: focused on the restoration of ground water, native plant species, and slowing runoff by organic means. Specific focus on beaver reintroduction, mimicry, and educational efforts.
- Preservation of the Shirley Basin: The Shirley Basin is a fragile, high-elevation sagebrush steppe ecosystem in Wyoming that gives home to rare and uniquely adapted species. The basin is rich with Native American ruins including a massive stone circle site, stone effigies, a large bison kill, and burial mounds. The global energy-development conglomerate BayWa AG has submitted a proposal to "develop" the basin. I am working to stop that proposal and preserve the basin's natural ecosystem.
- Regenerative forestry: this is a boots-on-the-ground effort to return the forest's biomass back to its own soils, to aid the regeneration of the Forest Network, fungal and mycelial growth, and the land's ability to retain water and recover nutrients. This is a hands-on effort that involves as much research as it does sweat and hard labor.
- Apex predator protection/advocacy: primarily focused on the "spotlight species" such as mountain lions, wolves, and grizzly bears. My efforts are focused on redefining our relationship to these animals through educating the public about the critical roles they fill within their ecosystems, their fundamental natures and behaviors, and how we can learn to peacefully coexist with them.
- Preservation of Old-Growth in the Yaak Valley: The U.S. Forest Service and Department of Agriculture’s so-called "Black Ram" logging projects aims to harvest nearly 60 million board feet of virginal, uncut, old-growth forest out of Montana's northern Yaak Valley without first obtaining an Environmental Impact Statement...all under the guise of "forest management" and "fire mitigation." It's a reckless proposal that threatens to eradicate an irreplaceable and ancient forest network.
- Climate Change and Macro-Environmentalism: the problem of climate change and the negative human impacts that we are imposing upon our planet are, admittedly, overwhelming. My motivation is to produce works that shift our perspectives away from the feeling of "hopelessness in confronting the problem" to forming active and mutually-beneficial relationships with the land and resources that we utilize and rely upon. The projects in-progress that I've summarized above are all practical examples of work I am undertaking to personally address this issue.
- Governance, Consumerism, and Individual-Autonomy: our nation-states are stuck in perpetual cycles of war, greed, and extraction. We, as citizens, have been made distracted and over-leveraged by "smart technology" and our worker-consumer societies. We have been divided by the rhetoric of our nationalist governments. We are not our nations, we are not political parties, we are not our corporations. If we are, indeed, meant to be free individuals who collectively comprise and direct our world governments, we must reconnect with ourselves and our autonomous potential so we may reconstruct a better world. I've been developing works that seek to give the individual this perspective back. The "anti-ad" that ran for two consecutive months in Harper's Magazine exemplifies one of these efforts.
- Distribution of Books, Materials, and Ideas: for years I have been a student of Nature and ancient wisdom passed down from Indigenous, Taoist, Zen, and Buddhist traditions. I am continuously working to deliver helpful and creative original works that cultivate our human relationship with environment, consciousness, and our capacity for wonderment. I also actively research, read, and purchase particularly helpful books and materials to distribute to the public. The "Community Book Nook" hosted by The General Mercantile in Helena, Montana is one of my brick-and-mortar efforts to make these kinds of materials available to the public.
- Watershed restoration: focused on the restoration of ground water, native plant species, and slowing runoff by organic means. Specific focus on beaver reintroduction, mimicry, and educational efforts.
- Preservation of the Shirley Basin: The Shirley Basin is a fragile, high-elevation sagebrush steppe ecosystem in Wyoming that gives home to rare and uniquely adapted species. The basin is rich with Native American ruins including a massive stone circle site, stone effigies, a large bison kill, and burial mounds. The global energy-development conglomerate BayWa AG has submitted a proposal to "develop" the basin. I am working to stop that proposal and preserve the basin's natural ecosystem.
- Regenerative forestry: this is a boots-on-the-ground effort to return the forest's biomass back to its own soils, to aid the regeneration of the Forest Network, fungal and mycelial growth, and the land's ability to retain water and recover nutrients. This is a hands-on effort that involves as much research as it does sweat and hard labor.
- Apex predator protection/advocacy: primarily focused on the "spotlight species" such as mountain lions, wolves, and grizzly bears. My efforts are focused on redefining our relationship to these animals through educating the public about the critical roles they fill within their ecosystems, their fundamental natures and behaviors, and how we can learn to peacefully coexist with them.
- Preservation of Old-Growth in the Yaak Valley: The U.S. Forest Service and Department of Agriculture’s so-called "Black Ram" logging projects aims to harvest nearly 60 million board feet of virginal, uncut, old-growth forest out of Montana's northern Yaak Valley without first obtaining an Environmental Impact Statement...all under the guise of "forest management" and "fire mitigation." It's a reckless proposal that threatens to eradicate an irreplaceable and ancient forest network.
- Climate Change and Macro-Environmentalism: the problem of climate change and the negative human impacts that we are imposing upon our planet are, admittedly, overwhelming. My motivation is to produce works that shift our perspectives away from the feeling of "hopelessness in confronting the problem" to forming active and mutually-beneficial relationships with the land and resources that we utilize and rely upon. The projects in-progress that I've summarized above are all practical examples of work I am undertaking to personally address this issue.
- Governance, Consumerism, and Individual-Autonomy: our nation-states are stuck in perpetual cycles of war, greed, and extraction. We, as citizens, have been made distracted and over-leveraged by "smart technology" and our worker-consumer societies. We have been divided by the rhetoric of our nationalist governments. We are not our nations, we are not political parties, we are not our corporations. If we are, indeed, meant to be free individuals who collectively comprise and direct our world governments, we must reconnect with ourselves and our autonomous potential so we may reconstruct a better world. I've been developing works that seek to give the individual this perspective back. The "anti-ad" that ran for two consecutive months in Harper's Magazine exemplifies one of these efforts.
- Distribution of Books, Materials, and Ideas: for years I have been a student of Nature and ancient wisdom passed down from Indigenous, Taoist, Zen, and Buddhist traditions. I am continuously working to deliver helpful and creative original works that cultivate our human relationship with environment, consciousness, and our capacity for wonderment. I also actively research, read, and purchase particularly helpful books and materials to distribute to the public. The "Community Book Nook" hosted by The General Mercantile in Helena, Montana is one of my brick-and-mortar efforts to make these kinds of materials available to the public.
Sponsor A Naturalist
My work is financed with my own labor-wages-earned and supplemented by contributions from those who wish to help. If my work is of value to you and you wish to contribute, I'll ensure that your donation is used in the most direct and effectual way possible.
Things I Currently Need:
- FOIA fees: It is necessary for me to file many Freedom of Information Act requests to obtain needed information about projects and developments. Each one of these requests comes with a fee that can exceed $50.00.
- Per diem: the most fundamental and essential resource for enabling this work is time. The less limited I am by the basic costs of living, the more productive and effectual I can be. While the basic costs of food and fuel are ongoing, I've learned to do a lot with a little. I make every dollar count to maximize my time and effectiveness in the field.
- Publishing/printing/distribution capital: the ability to produce and disseminate information is essential to my efforts. These costs are ongoing.
- Stamps/Postage: There's always mail to send and these fees have a tendency to add up.
Thank you for contributing to this work!
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Mailing Address:
Douglas Matthew Balmain
Pondering Poet Publishing, Co.
P.O. Box 2092
Laramie, Wyoming 82073
USA
(I'm sometimes away from this mailbox for long periods of time. If you wish to contact me more quickly, or if you have any questions about donating please send me an email and I'll get back to you as soon as possible. )
Golden eagle studies and preservation efforts in Wyoming's Shirley Basin.
