Meet TFS partner Earl Flewellen
Earl is the founder of the nonprofit Bull Valley Agricultural Center on whose land TFS is building its residential campus and natural learning lab. (He’s also co-founder/co-owner of the acclaimed Bull Valley Road House in Port Costa and owner of the storied Burlington Hotel and Cafe in town).
Tell us about your connection to this piece of land.
When I was new to California at age 21, I visited Port Costa with a friend. And like most who happen upon the historic Victorian town, I was enchanted. But I was even more taken by the surrounding land. It has a Brigadoon quality—something lost and found, emerging from history as if unscathed. And you just can’t believe it’s actually there! But with the slightest curiosity you can push past its charm and beauty, and it quickly becomes clear that this wonderful place has not escaped history unscathed at all. This landscape has in fact endured many layers of assault over the past 150 years. And it is that, strangely enough, that drew me to this particular piece of land.
That first glimpse was in 1987, and on a subsequent summer visit to the land I sat near its trickling creek, surrounded by mattresses, broken bottles, and appliances. Dumping here had been a long-standing plight. I sat there imagining how one might restore this beautiful place to health and vibrance. And for 23 years, whenever I returned to Port Costa, I would slow down and revisit that dream until, by a twist of extraordinary circumstances, the land fell to me to steward. And it became my driving purpose to make that dream of restoration a reality.
I began work by establishing a bee colony there in 2011 that I tend to this day. And along with local friends of the land and the Contra Costa Resource Conservation District, we have endeavored to clean up the decades of abuse, hauling out nearly 300 cubic yards of dumped debris—an amazing beginning for the land’s bright and vibrant future.
What excites you most about The Field Semester from the perspective of the site as the current steward of the land?
It’s one thing to sit on a rock imagining how one person could toil a lifetime cleaning up this site alone, and it’s entirely another to be joined by like-minded people and organizations in such an environmental restoration effort. What's been even more extraordinary is watching a vision develop that far exceeds my dreams: inspiring new generations of young learners to take up the torch, not just for a semester spent restoring this wonderful site, but perhaps for the rest of their trajectories—applying what they learn here to help solve problems they encounter in their work, their lives, and in the world.
That a handful of enlightening experiences in one’s youth on a small piece of land can inspire individuals to join collective efforts to address world challenges is the stuff of dreams for me. And this is exactly the sort of experiential inspiration at the core of The Field Semester’s educational model. Moments of inspiration in our lives, however we come upon them, chart how we live and what we contribute to this world. And I believe that nature is a key—and increasingly neglected— component to such inspiration.
Though still in development, what impacts has The Field Semester already had?
The project’s well-articulated core goals and intentions have inspired a lot of people. And that inspiration has translated directly into hands-on contributions of solid support.
Without help from those who have gathered around this educational project, there would still be 300 cubic yards of debris on the land, including 255,000 pounds of asphalt and concrete waste strewn about. Were it not for supporters who helped us install partial perimeter fencing (including a 300-foot unfenced section for wildlife to pass freely), the decades-long plague of chronic dumping there would still be a problem.
During its idea phase, The Field Semester has already garnered a community of supporters who want to see this school become an operating reality. And that community is ever-growing as people see the capacity for this program to make a real difference in a world that needs inspired young thinkers and doers… perhaps more than ever before.