Guiding Principles

Woodbine Ecology Center operates its programs and facilities guided by certain fundamental principles and values. Learning to live in a new way is not a quick or easy process and our own understanding of these principles will evolve over time. Yet, we make a commitment to them and to continuously challenge ourselves and those around us to live up to them to the best of our abilities.

When our decisions and our actions are based on these principles, we can rise to a new way of acting and being. When we raise new generations according to these principles, then it will be a way of life for them. The changes may be small, slow, even imperceptible at times. Many of them may not become obvious for years, decades, even lifetimes, but this place, and we along with it, will have changed.

Woodbine Ecology Center is guided by:

• The teachings, wisdom and examples of indigenous peoples. These teachings have been transmitted to countless generations from time immemorial and they continue to provide valuable lessons today.
• The connections of our programs to the Earth and to the specific place and environment where our community exists.
• Mutual aid and solidarity within our community as well as with groups, organizations, and other communities that share our vision and values.
• A gift culture that honors interdependence and appreciation and comes out of a spirit of abundance.
• The desire and necessity to heal our relationships with one another and with all living beings.
• An abiding pursuit of historical truth and a commitment to enduring social reconciliation.
• The principle of restorative justice, bringing together those who are harmed with the wrongdoers and the entire community to promote solutions based on mutual responsibility, reconciliation and the rebuilding of relationships.
• The Seventh Generation Principle, i.e. that all of our political, social, economic, cultural, and ecological decisions are made with a responsibility for, and a mindfulness of, the impact of those decisions on the next seven generations.