Press Releases - April 02, 2003
April 2, 2003 - FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Buddhist Mediation Center Receives Federal Grant for Forest Restoration
Portland, ORE -- Kagyu Changchub Chuling (KCC), a Tibetan Buddhist
Meditation center in Portland, Oregon, announced that it has been
awarded a federal grant to conduct a stream-side (riparian) restoration
project on its 240 acre property located outside of Goldendale,
Washington. The $107,000 grant, funded through the Natural Resources
Conservation Service and the Farm Services Agency, will help purchase,
plant and maintain nearly 11,000 trees and shrubs on the edge of three
year-round and intermittent streams that run through the property-65
acres of land in all. KCC will plant a total of 25 species near these
waterways, including aspen, wood's rose, mock orange, and cottonwood,
as well as Ponderosa pine.

Kashi King-Tamang (L) and Dora DeCoursey (R)
assure a good start for a seedling.
The planting began in late February and will continue through the
spring of 2003. This effort follows two years of KCC-sponsored habitat
restoration, which included the planting of 1,000 pine trees on the
property. The federal grant becomes part of a larger capital campaign
launched in 2000 by KCC to build retreat facilities on the Goldendale
property and to purchase a new, larger urban center in Portland. In the
campaign's first phase, the center purchased the land near Goldendale
and raised $1 million dollars. Kagyu Changchub Chuling still needs to
raise an additional $1 million in order to complete the construction of
retreat facilities on the Goldendale land. In the interim, KCC
continues its work to improve and restore the property.
Rebuilding habitat degraded during previous logging and grazing
ventures is something the whole KCC community has embraced. "Visiting
the site, putting our hands in the earth, and helping reforest the
property has given us a stronger connection to the land itself, and in
turn, to Kagyu Changchub Chuling," said KCC Lama Michael Conklin.
Vegetation on the banks of forest streams provides many benefits for
the stream ecosystem, including temperature moderation created by
shade, nutrient input from fallen leaves, reduction of erosion through
bank stabilization, and reduction of sediment deposit in runoff after
rains. A healthy stream ecosystem will support a diversity of plants
and animals, including many in the stream channel itself, making
restoration efforts vitally important for the health of the environment.
As Buddhists, KCC members feel a strong connection to living beings.
When working to restore the Goldendale property, mediation center
members are guided by The Dalai Lama's thoughts as printed in his book
"My Tibet" where he says, "according to Buddhist teaching, there is a
very close interdependence between the natural environment and the
sentient beings living in it. Therefore, in order to succeed in the
protection and conservation of the natural environment, I think it is
important first of all to bring about an internal balance within human
beings themselves. The abuse of the environment, which has resulted in
such harm to the human community, arose out of ignorance of the
importance of the environment. I think it is essential to help people
to understand this. We need to teach people that the environment has a
direct bearing on our own benefit."
Kagyu Changchub Chuling is a Tibetan Buddhist
Meditation Center, founded in Portland in 1976. The mission of KCC is
to make the teachings of the Kagyu lineage accessible for all
practitioners, whether they are just beginning to investigate Buddhism
or are long-time students. Creating a healthy, natural environment on
KCC's retreat land is an important part of that effort.