The Way Foundation
EarthTeach Forest Park
General Waiver
Form
Acknowledgement of Risk
Agreement to Participate
Acceptance of Responsibility
Release of Liability
Acknowledgement of Risk
and Danger
Invitation:
The primary
purpose of the Way Foundation and EarthTeach Forest Park is
to be an agent for heightened consciousness. Our mission is
to advocate, literally and metaphorically, for living our
lives in awareness and balance...with total respect for how
other life is lived. We see this agentry in terms of
fostering a new 3 R’s--reverence, remembrance, and
responsibility--in support of an emergent “new culture of
meaning;” an inspiring, life-affirming new sense of why we
are here.
EarthTeach Forest Park is meant to be a
model of stewardship, learning community, and
sustainability in the process of offering a wild nature
public setting for experiential education and wisdom
schooling. As such, EarthTeach is envisioned variously and
simultaneously to be a laboratory, a workshop, and a very
big sandbox. You are invited here to experiment, to work,
to play.
So you are welcome!...and well come!
Know, however, that with this invitation there comes an
obligation: To be aware. And to be responsible. Beware and
be response able.
Warning:
Much of the
efficacy and value of experiences at EarthTeach Forest Park
is derived of the fact that the park is a somewhat remote,
semi-wild, relatively un-peopled place.
One aspect of the danger and risk
associated with outings at EarthTeach stems from the fact
that participants will be engaged in physical activities in
an area without immediate access to emergency services or
professional medical aid.
Another aspect of the danger and risks
associated with these outings results from the fact that
effective experiential education, healing, and challenge
adventure trainings by their very nature encourage
participants to operate at the edges of their perceived
competence and capacity (i.e., to get outside the
proverbial “comfort zone”).
In addition, as with
any wilderness activity, rugged terrain, the weather,
potential encounters with wildlife, and travel to and from
the program venues on foot or by motor vehicle will, each
alone or in possible combination, subject EarthTeach
participants to risk of accident, injury, and--projecting a
worse case scenario--even death.
Inventory of Hazards:
EarthTeach Park
is located in mountains at the edge of the Cascade/Siskiyou
high elevation land bridge. Siskiyou is a native word meaning “moving earth”
or “shaking ground”...i.e. earthquakes. Earth heaves,
fissures, land slides, distorted trees and dislodged
boulders bear witness to a long history of seismic activity
and unstable ground, including evidence of such that dates
back no more than a decade.
Relatively large predators that have been
witnessed within the bounds of EarthTeach Forest Park
include mountain lion, black bear, lynx/bobcat and coyote.
There are a few isolated instances of
poison oak and many instances of stinging nettles. Brush
and lower branches of trees can lash and lacerate. There
are remnants of very old barbed-wire fences here and there.
Insects that are
disturbing, if not hazardous, include mosquitoes, deer
flies, hornets, yellow jackets, honeybees, spiders,
centipedes and ticks.
Snakes are present
that can startle and alarm, but we’ve been 40 years
covering this ground without encountering or even hearing
of a rattlesnake at this elevation.
There are swamps, bogs, and other water
elements, often covered by reed and grass mats, in which to
get wet and/or stuck in the mud unexpectedly.
Footing can be treacherous. There is
rugged and precipitous terrain. There are areas of rubble
and loose stone and areas of steep, loose soil. There is
soil of high clay content, which can be very
slippery--especially in combination with steepness--when
wet. Decaying wood and gopher activity can cause ground to
give way underfoot.
In the fall,
hunters will pose a safety threat until our prohibition of
hunting with firearms on this land--historically open
without restriction--becomes known and heeded.
There is potential danger overhead. For a
short period each year, squirrels cut green Sugar Pine
cones, sending 3lb+ “missiles” hurtling down with the force
of a small pile- driver. A more widespread problem stems
from the fact that much of the timber at EarthTeach Park is
subject to dwarf mistletoe, a cancer-like condition, which
simultaneously weakens the fiber strength of tree, limbs
and causes weighty runaway growth of foliage. Wind and snow
frequently bring down these heavy, structurally compromised
limbs. It is a primary goal of EarthTeach to mitigate the
impact of dwarf mistletoe but the disease is extensive and
will present a hazard for some time.
Similarly it is a long-term objective of
the Park’s forest management plan to minimize fire danger
by replicating the effect of the natural fire cycle.
Presently, however, because fire has been suppressed for
several decades, we are faced with a major accumulation of
fuel. Catastrophic wildfire is a severe risk to the Park
with obvious potential to put EarthTeach participants in
jeopardy.
So, with reference to all of the
above--and to “acts of God” (we can show you varied
evidence of lightning strikes)--you should be fully
cognizant of the fact that, while all but the most private
and personal of EarthTeach activities will be supervised by
qualified and experienced personnel and while safety is
always a paramount concern, it is impossible to guarantee
that accidents will not occur.
Your best insurance--and ours: Be
Conscious. Be Aware. Be Responsible.