What Might a Glacier Say? Lessons from “The No Voice”

The most unusual session of the Regenerative Outdoor Visioning Project may also have been one of the most important. For 90 minutes, participants were invited to leave their professional identities behind and speak on behalf of a species, landscape, ecosystem, or natural system they know well. Glaciers. Polar bears. Salmon sharks. A marbled murrelet. Beaver. Moss. A king bolete mushroom. The Northern Lights. Even a fly.

The goal was not to determine what nature would literally say. It was to explore what becomes visible when we stop centering ourselves for a little while.

The conversation was grounded by Ilarion “Kuuyux” Merculieff, Unangan elder and Director of the Global Center for Indigenous Leadership & Lifeways. Drawing on a lifetime of learning from the natural world, Ilarion challenged participants to think beyond management, policy, and data and instead consider relationship.

Again and again, the discussion returned to a common theme: everything is connected.

Glaciers reminded us that newly ice-free lands may become future salmon habitat. Moss spoke of its role in maintaining permafrost and healthy soils. A king bolete mushroom described the hidden mycelial networks connecting forests, recycling nutrients, and supporting life above and below ground. A marbled murrelet asked us not to confuse old-growth forests with second-growth substitutes. Polar bears reminded us that healthy wildlife and healthy human communities depend on the same healthy ecosystems.

As participants reflected on what humans misunderstand, what should be protected, and what must change, several themes emerged.

• Think in systems, not silos.

• Consider future generations of ecosystems, not just present-day conditions.

• Include more-than-human interests in decision making.

• Move from awareness to responsibility and action.

• Most importantly, recognize that stewardship begins with relationship.

  
  

One participant observed that Western science often focuses on classifying and separating things into categories, while living systems operate through relationships. Another suggested that awareness of the whole may be just as important as attention to the parts.

In the end, this session produced fewer tactical recommendations than some of our earlier conversations. But it may have generated some of the deepest philosophical foundations for the regenerative framework we are building.

The central insight was not about wildlife management or recreation planning.

It was that regeneration begins with a different way of relating—to ourselves, to one another, and to the living systems that make life possible.