As a Water Protector and Rights of Nature advocate, I wholeheartedly support all efforts to preserve Bolin Creek and Bolin Forest, and prevent the unnecessary, irreversible harms that will result from paving a concrete path alongside the sensitive riparian zone of Bolin Creek.
Since time immemorial, Indigenous peoples have been taught to treat the environment and other species as we would our human kin. Today, the Indigenous-led Rights of Nature movement aims to avoid the worst of the climate catastrophe by shifting the status of nature in our Western legal system from property or commodity, to arights-bearing entity. It challenges all of us to examine proposals for development through the eyes of our ecosystems, the more-than-human beings that inhabit them, and our future generations. It’s from these vantage points that I voice opposition to the proposed concrete trail alongside Bolin Creek.
Paving in the riparian zone of Bolin Creek would sacrifice the long-term vitality of its water quality and aquatic life by removing crucial riparian trees, destabilizing stream banks and creating ripe conditions for erosion. Manufacturing such frailty will have rippling consequences. Bolin Creek and Bolin Forest deserve health and resilience, and it’s our job as stewards to make choices that ensure it.
Bila:huk,
Dr. Crystal Cavalier-Keck, Co-Founder and Director of 7 Directions of Service
7 Directions of Service (7DS) is an Indigenous-led environmental justice and community organizing collective based on Occaneechi-Saponi homelands in North Carolina dedicated to canceling the Mountain Valley Pipeline/Southgate Extension,advocating for legal Rights of Nature and developing a land, language and cultural center based on traditional teachings. Visit 7directionsofservice.com to learn more and get involved.