Grit and Gumption: Bringing Back Ecuador’s Forests
Global Forest Generation’s Communications Director, Abby Metzger, reflects on community-led conservation and what it really takes to bring back nature. The piece was originally published in Traverse magazine. Read an excerpt here:
I’m not going to make it to the top. Ninety minutes into the hike, we’ve just passed the old-growth clearing with 45 minutes still to go. Streams of people are already descending, saplings planted and smiles wide. Grandmothers, children, Indigenous women in hats with bird feathers—all moving with ease through the mud.
At 12,000 feet, my head whines, my breath caught in the shallows of my throat. Even though I regularly exercise and commute on my bike, I’m winded. These lungs and legs live near sea-level, in a valley between two rivers in Oregon. Now, I’m in Ecuador in the shadow of Chimborazo, a girthy and glaciated mountain. Each year, the hem of its icy skirt unravels a bit more.
“Buen día.” Good day, the people say as they pass me on the way back down. “You’re from America?” A man says to me in Spanish. What gave me away? Was it the fly-fishing ball cap and quick-dry pants? Or my pasty skin? “You are rich!” he says. I look down. Maybe not rich, but certainly able to make this trip and witness hundreds of ordinary Ecuadorians plant 40,000 trees in about two hours. I didn’t make it to the top or plant any trees—but what I saw changed how I think about action, community, and what it really takes to bring nature back.
