Balancing the Biome Summit

The Rights of Nature movement is quickly gaining momentum. How would such a legal system work, and could giving rights to nature create a paradigm shift in our fight against the climate crisis? Or in preventing ecosystem collapse at Great Salt Lake? These are the questions we’re asking at Balancing the Biome: Rights of Nature, an in-person event on October 7-8. Join us as we explore this movement with Great Salt Lake experts, artists and activists, and advocates working within the Rights of Nature movement.

As living communities of animals, plants, people and microbes, diverse biomes thrive when each organism lives in symbiosis with others. This framework inspires CRUDE and Humble Bloom’s third Balancing the Biome Summit, entitled Rights of Nature, in support of Save Our Great Salt Lake.

Balancing the Biome: Rights of Nature is an invitation to reimagine collective stewardship of Great Salt Lake’s precious ecosystems and the world at large. Through engaging firesides, expert-led panels, workshops, and a thoughtful lakeside ceremony, this summit connects the fight for Great Salt Lake’s survival to the wider water rights movement, inspiring cooperation and community to effect change locally and globally.

All proceeds from this event support our organization. Save Our Great Salt Lake is a coalition of organizers, artists, business owners, and concerned citizens working together to prevent ecosystem collapse at Great Salt Lake. We’re here to educate and engage our community to spark grassroots action and ensure legislative action is taken to save our great lake.

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Agenda

Friday	CONFERENCE @ INDUSTRY SLC
10:00 am	WELCOME Solonje Burnett and Danniel Swatosh of Humble Bloom Denise Cartwright and Krista Parry of CRUDE Tzintzun Aguilar-Izzo and Blake Lavia: Artists, Community Organizers & Talking Wings Co-Founders
10:15 am	SOUL MOMENT: WATER WISDOM Tap into the force universally symbolizing life, movement, purification, transformation, and healing. ~ TBA
10:30 am	SAVE OUR GREAT SALT LAKE The state and fate of Utah’s Great Lake. How we got here, why current strategies have failed, and the need for a broarder, life-affirming movement like Rights of Nature. ~ Deeda Seed: Public Lands Senior Campaigner, Center for Biological Diversity Nate Housley: Historian & Save Our Great Salt Lake Founding Member Zach Frankel of Utah Rivers Council Virgil Johnson: Educator and Native American Activist, Confederated Tribes of the Goshute
11:30 am	BREAK: REFRESH & REVIVE
11:45 am	SOUL MOMENT: WATERWORKS Select readings from award-winning authors and poets living and writing in Utah. ~ Jai Hamid Bashir
11:50 am	RIGHTS OF NATURE: BEFORE WE RUN DRY To meet the challenge of saving Great Salt Lake, we need a new approach. Rights of Nature is the movement shifting the paradigm in hearts, minds, and environmental law. ~ MODERATOR Yessenia Funes: Atmos Climate Editor & Journalist FEATURING Grant Wilson: Executive Director, Earth Law Center Frank Bibeau: Leech Lake Reservation Tribal Attorney Blake Lavia: Artist, Community Organizer & Talking Wings Co-Founder
12:50 pm	SOUL MOMENT: REFLECTION & JOURNALING Rights vs. Rites: Changing laws doesn’t change minds. Explore the cultural shift needed to accept our relationship to nature and each other. ~ Solonje Burnett and Danniel Swatosh of Humble Bloom
1:00 pm	LUNCH
2:00 pm	MOVEMENT MOMENT Meditative movement and breathwork for grounding and energizing bodies and minds. ~ Kera Thompson: Registered Yoga Teacher
2:15 pm	INTERSECTIONS OF A LIMINAL STATE We sit at an interconnected series of crises threatening our survival. In order to heal and survive, we must take an intersectional approach to ecological restoration and grassroots organizing. ~ MODERATOR Alastair Lee Bitsóí: Public Health & Environmental Journalist FEATURING Ashley Finley: Doula & Black Lives Matter SLC Co-Founder Tzintzun Aguilar-Izzo: Artist, Community Organizer & Talking Wings Co-Founder Katie Boué: Outdoor Advocacy Project Founder Isaias Hernandez: Environmental Educator
3:00 pm	SOUL-UTION SESSIONS Community building and alternative learning workshops rooted in empathy and strategy. ~ Mesei González of HEAL Utah TBA
4:00 pm	BREAK: REFRESH & REVIVE
4:15 pm	KEYNOTE ADDRESS ~ Frank Bibeau, Leech Lake Reservation Tribal Attorney
4:45 pm	INTERSECTIONAL IMPACT OF ENVIRONMENTAL VIOLENCE Environmental trauma can seriously impact our physical and mental health. Discover how community care is connected to self care. ~ MODERATOR Kristy Drutman of Green Jobs Board FEATURING Ashley Cleveland of Outdoor Afro Brooke Larsen: Community Organizer & Writer
5:45 pm	INTEGRATION & REFLECTION ~ Solonje Burnett and Danniel Swatosh of Humble Bloom
6:00 pm	CLOSING REMARKS ~ Denise Cartwright and Krista Parry of CRUDE
6:15 pm	MOCKTAIL HAPPY HOUR & CREATIVE CONNECT
Saturday	A DAY AT THE LAKE
9:30 am	BUS DEPARTURE TO GREAT SALT LAKE
10:00 am	WELCOME + GROUNDING + INTRO TO GREAT SALT LAKE
10:20 am	SOUL MOMENT Honoring the lake and its traditional stewards. ~ TBA
10:30 am	BREAKOUT SESSIONS: GREAT SALT LAKE PLANT WALK ~ TBA ~ FACILITATOR WRITING IN RELATIONSHIP TO GREAT SALT LAKE: GIVING VOICE TO GRIEF AND PRAISE ~ Nan Seymour of Save Our Great Salt Lake & River Writing Collective
12:00 pm	PICNIC LUNCH
1:00 pm	COLLECTIVE HEALING Imagining a new future: the change we want to be and see. ~ Brooke Larsen: Community Organizer & Writer Alastair Lee Bitsóí: Public Health & Environmental Journalist
1:30 pm	CLOSING REFLECTIONS & INTEGRATION Denise Cartwright of CRUDE
1:55 pm	THANKS & BUS DEPARTURE

Equity Fund

Like our biomes, communities thrive when each part of the larger system can rely on the others for connection, healing, and sustenance. We created the Equity Fund to provide deserving community members with lesser means the opportunity to join us for the Balancing the Biome Summit.

Apply for the Equity Fund