The Deep Ecology of Community: An Interview With Paul Berensmeier

Voices of the Valley Podcast & Radio Show

Join us for a fasicnating episode on the wilderness of community featuring LIVE flute music by Paul Berensmeier. In this episode I talk with Paul Berensmeire about Deep Ecology, and how to keep your community wild. We discuss Paul's influential parents Lee and Jean who were instrumental in mobilizing the community to resist a proposal for massive development of our community. Lee was an inspirational artists who taught in San Francisco and showed his work nationally. Jean was a founder of the San Geronimo Valley Community Center and an effective environmental conservation activist.

Paul grew up in the foothills of Mt. Barnabe in Lagunitas, California. A scholar-athlete at SFSU, Paul earned a BA in Physical Education and a Masters in Sport Psychology while competing in the decathlon, eventually winning the NCAC championship. He co-founded Wilderness Way (a non-profit environmental education organization), focusing on taking children out of the classroom into the outdoors and bringing the outdoors into the classroom. He does annual backpacking solos in the Grand Canyon filming old native routes, often writing about his outdoor experiences in his well received “Wilderness Calls” column in Stone Soup. Paul has made over a dozen wildlife films of the Valley (including coho salmon), and does film documentaries of elders of the Valley. He serves as Treasurer of the San Geronimo Valley Planning Group. Paul’s work with Native Americans, and their philosophy about the health of the earth “seven generations into the future” heavily impacts his decision making, writing, and filmmaking. Paul plays the Native American flute and studied with renowned flautist R. Carlos Nakai. A Valley resident since 1965, Paul continues to run and hike the many Valley trails and now focuses his athletic talents on baseball, where he is a player/manager of a senior baseball team.