Voices of Nature: Common Ground

Sundance Nature Alliance presents Voice of Nature, in partnership with Sundance Mountain Resort. A Speaker & Filmmaker series exploring our relationship with nature.

Beaver Land – How one weird rodent made America

Written by Leila Philip. October 12, 2024

An intimate and revelatory dive into the world of the beaver—the wonderfully weird rodent that has surprisingly shaped American history and may save its ecological future.

From award-winning writer Leila Philip, Beaverland is a masterful work of narrative science writing, a book that highlights, through history and contemporary storytelling, how this weird rodent plays an oversized role in American history and its future. She follows fur trappers who lead her through waist-high water, fur traders and fur auctioneers, as well as wildlife managers, PETA activists, Native American environmental vigilantes, scientists, engineers, and the colorful group of activists known as beaver believers.

Giants Rising

A film by Lisa Landers. October 26, 2024

GIANTS RISING tells the epic tale of our relationship with America’s iconic redwood forests. Prized for the quality of their wood, some 95% of the primeval redwoods have been logged since the1800s. The losses were dramatic, but so too have been the battles to protect these trees, then and now.

In this film we meet passionate people dedicated to unraveling the mysteries of the redwoods and safeguarding their future. They include a scientific detective uncovering the secrets of redwood resilience, members of the Yurok Tribe fighting to restore their cultural connections to these forests, a park manager summoning new life from ravaged timberlands, and a modern-day Ansel Adams who’s attempting to display a life-size photograph of a 310 foot redwood— a portrait she hopes will rekindle our connection to these ambassadors from another time.

Through the stories of these redwood devotees and others, we also delve into questions about why we evolved to experience such intense awe in the presence of redwoods, and how spending time in these forests also offers social benefits— like making us more compassionate, generous, and willing to cooperate with each other for the greater good. The goal of GIANTS RISING is not only to celebrate the marvels of redwoods and all they do for us, but to recognize what we can do for them to ensure they continue rising up for generations to come