Since 1999, Trillium Farm
and Birch Creek Arts and Ecology
Center have hosted the Sustainable Living Internship Program. At our
eco-village, deep in a wild river canyon of S.W. Oregon's Siskiyou
Mountains, we provide Interns with a unique opportunity to explore both
Nature and themselves. Sustainable Living Interns experience a season of service at our rustic wilderness homestead, retreat and
education center, while immersed in intentional community and the beauty of the natural surroundings.
The program is designed to be a volunteer hands-on educational experience and a
practice period of learning how
to grow a garden, steward a remote educational retreat center, and develop sustainable living skills. We are a non-profit service
garden farm. We steward a
complex area of Land with irrigation, fruit tree culture, landscaping, firewood
cutting, greenhouse work, maintenance of infrastructure (roads, trails, water
systems, cabins, etc.). We are not a large commercial and/or production farm; we
grow food organically on an intensive gardening scale without power equipment
like tractors and rototillers. We provide a
place for people to come to learn, heal, and expand through Birch Creek Arts
and Ecology Center.
Susanna and summer Sustainable Living Interns.
About the Program
The
Sustainable Living Internship Program is offered three times each year
for two-month sessions. Spring Session (April and May) occurs during the
magical time when the mountain snows high above us begin to melt, streams
begin to flow, wildflowers bloom in profusion, and the gardens enter
major planting mode. Summer Session (June and July) occurs during the sweetest
season, and finds the gardens entering full production mode with early
harvests and mid-season maintenance. Autumn Session (September and
October) blesses us with deepening autumn colors, abundant harvest, and
final preparations for the onset of winter. During all three seasons we
are harvesting firewood by cutting dead trees on our Land and salvaging
waste from logging projects on nearby public lands, mostly U.S. Forest
Service and Bureau of Land Management (B.L.M.). Visiting these public
lands for gathering firewood and wilderness hiking provides insights
into our dedication to environmental activism: our efforts to promote wildland protection, forest restoration, and promotion of truly
sustainable ecologically sensitive utilization of natural resources.
MARCH UPDATE: Spring has arrived! And now that the ice has melted,
ducks and turtles have returned to our big pond . Daffodils, Lenten
roses, and primroses are blooming in the flower gardens. Out on the
landscape the first wildflowers are blooming: shooting stars and satin
lilies on the ridge, snow queen and milk maids at the river, and arabis
all over. At this time, early March, we still have openings for our
Spring Session: April and May. Spring Session is a wonderful time to be
at Trillium, and a good opportunity to learn how to get a garden planted
and growing. We also have openings for our Autumn Session in September
and October, a spectacular season at Trillium featuring awesome fall
colors and the transition from hot summer days to the crisp days of
autumn. Autumn Session is an opportunity to learn how to harvest a
garden, cooking and sharing the bounty. Also, harvesting apples and
plums, plus the subsequent jamming and canning, freezing and storing the
bounty, and preparing the garden for winter. We are also still accepting
applications for our Summer Session, although it is nearly full. Interns
from the earlier Sessions who find Trillium a rewarding lifestyle
experience may be encouraged to participate in the following Session, or
to continue as a resident after the Autumn Session.
Late summer on the bank of the Little Applegate River.
It
is our intention to provide
a
unique learning opportunity
for students interested in exploring:
-
What
it means to live and
work in an intentional community, developing a Sense of Place in a remote
setting where the power of surrounding wilderness provides inspiration for
personal growth and connection with wild Nature.
-
How
it feels to share in community practices by actively participating
in service activities, celebrations, meal preparations,
conversations, wilderness hikes, and visioning.
-
Why
it is important to learn the higher ideals of love and service both
within our community and how that translates into the larger
community.
-
What
it is to
understand one’s Self at deeper levels through the community process, and
practicing
ethical relationships through honesty and compassionate
communication.
Seeding a new garden bed.
About the Experience
Intern Work and Time Contribution:
Sustainable Living Interns are considered temporary Trillium Residents, sharing the
responsibility of running a wilderness eco-village and educational
retreat center. We ask that you
look at your time here holistically, understanding that there is a blend between
work, play, service, and creativity. Your week may look like this in terms of hours and responsibilities:
3-4
days of focused service on the Land, usually 5-6 hours daily, blending
service projects and homesteading skills
1
day participating in Trillium Service Activities as a community work party
5-6
hours weekly for
community meals and weekly council
1
occasional day for group hikes, outings, and field trips
Please do not arrange
to have an outside job while interning. Sustainable
Living Internships
are designed to offer a full immersion into community life at Trillium Farm. It is our sincere intention that you find your time here a beneficial and
rewarding experience to your heart, mind, body and soul. Please expect a bit of culture shock
from living in community close to the Land in a rustic lifestyle at a
remote location; it is not unusual.
Also expect jubilation, spontaneous explosions of beauty, and to learn a
great deal. If at any time you are uncomfortable or have questions, we are always
available to your needs.
Getting down to harvesting roots. (Photo credit: Charling Chen.)
What Is Provided:
Facilities:
The
historic Garden Cabin in the "downtown" area of Trillium (parking lot,
Mother Garden, barns, offices) provides Sustainable Living Interns with desk space, a
community telephone with free long-distance for domestic (US) calls, a refrigerator, grid electricity, and limited
internet access. This cozy space serves as an alternate vortex of
activity from the historic Trillium School, a quarter-mile further up the canyon.
The historic Garden Cabin serves as the garden and Sustainable Living
Intern office.
Housing:
Sustainable Living Interns
share our historic 2-story octagonal schoolhouse,
with individual sleeping spaces and a common living room and kitchen
featuring huge windows letting Nature inside and your gaze outside. An outdoor hot shower sits at the base of a large pine tree, and a composting
outhouse awaits a short distance by trail into the forest. In season, Birch Creek
flows right outside the door, providing music of waterfalls.
Surrounding fir and pine trees provide welcome shade in the warmer
weather, and the School Meadow awaits nearby for expansive space and
play.
Inside Historic Trillium School.
Food:
We provide bulk food supplies for
Sustainable Living Interns. These include: a wide
variety of dry organic legumes, organic grains, organic baking supplies, some
basic and culinary organic condiments, and
garden food as available. Specialty foods for personal use are provided by interns. Interns are asked to maintain an
organic
vegetarian kitchen while at Trillium. Trillium is a wildlife sanctuary;
pets are not welcome.
Beautiful food, flowers, and herbs freshly harvested from the Mother Garden.
Academic Credit Opportunities:
Sustainable Living Interns who are enrolled in a college or
university program may obtain academic credit for their Sustainable
Living Internship experience through their home institution by working
with Dakubetede Environmental Education Programs (DEEP). This opportunity involves working with your academic advisor, DEEP
university instructors, and creating time to complete written
assignments, such as journals, papers, interviews. DEEP fees for
academic credit arrangements start at $200 per credit.
Transplanting spring salad greens in the Mother Garden.
We
are looking for highly motivated folks who love the natural world and
approach life with an attitude of integrity and optimism, and who are willing to
learn new ways of living, working and serving.
Our most successful
Sustainable Living Interns are
people who are proactively moving forward in their lives to embrace this
experience.
Celebrating successful installation of the
footbridge crossing the river.
We invite you
to Trillium, where you can witness and become a
part of the great beauty and harmony that this wilderness setting offers. Our Sustainable Living Internship Program is one of our ways of serving the greater good,
as we experience the
transformations that this beautiful Land facilitates. Each of us will naturally be drawn to work within certain areas that
compliment our talents and interests, while other projects will seem less
desirable or relevant. True service is the ability to
do what you may not be ordinarily inclined to do. Everyday holds something
new. We try to do our best to match the person with the task, but we all
remember it takes our common effort to achieve the goal. There will be times when each of us is asked to stretch our vision of
service to get the job done.
Spring Break Deep Ecology class from
California Institute of Integral Studies.
Additional Program Logistics
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