Brook's Bend Farm

stewardship guilds

These working teams consist of small groups of volunteers who have a particular passion and skillset towards understanding how each of these elements interacts with the whole. While the focus is on the non-leased shared areas of the farm, they serve as a point of contact with the leaseholders so that changes in use or circumstances can be coordinated with the entirety of the landscape in mind. Each guild holds the responsibility of maintaining and communicating the sets of ecological values that are specific to their work, and in ensuring that there are no major places of discord between decisions or management practices.

Inner Fire

The Inner Fire is a guiding circle of founders, elders, and original leaders of stewardship at Brook’s Bend which holds the accountability of the overall values of the farm, and oversees the legal, financial, and administrative functions of the farm.

Water and Access

The Water and Access guild attends to how the water on the landscape interacts with the roads and paths, fields, and structures, and how to maintain sustainable access routes that create the least amount of impact on the landscape.

Fields

The Fields guild attends to the management of the non-forested pastures and fields, and how their management affects the forest edges, program access, water flow, and wildlife.

Structures

The Structures guild monitors the conditions of existing shared infrastructure, anticipating and implementing necessary changes and repairs, and ensuring the proper integration of any new infrastructure that might be proposed.

Forest

The Forest guild oversees the interactions of how all leases and programs affect the forested landscape, the implementation of any forest management practices, and monitoring the safety and health of the forest.

Programs

The Program Guild at Brook’s Bend strives to encourage and support local community members to run programs that connect people to the land, each other and the natural world. The Program guild interfaces with people who want to run programs that meet the mission of the Brook’s Bend collective. We accept proposals for programs, do site walks and work to schedule programs on an ongoing basis in order to get more land based programming running on our beautiful site. For more information please contact Neill Bovaird at neillbovaird@gmail.com.

Finance & Administration

The Finance guild manages the overall finances of the farm, as well as insurance, taxes etc.