How We Listen to Nature
November 26, 2025
How do we (humans) make decisions as members of a watershed or ecosystem? How do we make decisions as part of Nature? Talking Rivers’ Listening to Nature Toolkit – an online guide for eco-centric, pluralistic decision making – attempts to answer these questions to honor the rights of Nature. The toolkit provides:
- Concrete ways to shift the language we use to honor the personhood of the other-than-human world.
- Decision-making models that organizations and community groups can use to represent the ecosystems they are part of.
- Sample language that can be included in an organization’s bylaws, environment easements, and organizing documents.
- Steps for listening to the ecosystems we are part of and co-creating with them.
Talking Rivers is an organization that uses eco-centric storytelling, art, and science to advocate for the rights of the Upper St. Lawrence River and Adirondack watersheds of northern New York, Haudenosaunee Territory. We work locally and globally to promote the importance of listening and taking into account the voices of rivers, their watersheds, and their human and other-than-human beings in our actions. We have applied the toolkit to our own organizational practices, making a commitment to act as representatives of the rivers and watersheds to which we belong. All of our human “board members” represent the watersheds they call home, and the voices of these watersheds guide our decision-making process.
To make the Listening to Nature Toolkit, Talking Rivers held a series of conversations where members of non-profits, businesses, and local, national, and international communities came together to discuss how governance structures can listen to the ecosystems they are part of. We are open to assist organizations who wish to apply the toolkit to their own operational structure, and we acknowledges that this document is a work in progress that will continue to grow.
As a continuation of the “Listening to Nature Toolkit,” Talking Rivers is embarking on a related endeavor:
The “Legal Action for Bioregions” (LAB) is a circle of law practitioners, law students, and community organizers who come together to discuss and answer questions about the rights of Nature within the context of New York State law. The LAB aims to create a formal guide for anyone who needs practical steps to protect the rights of more-than-human beings within New York State and beyond. The LAB will officially begin in January 2026. If you live in New York State and would like to learn more or participate in the LAB, information can be found here.
Images courtesy of Talking Rivers. Turtle art by Tzintzun Aguilar Izzo.
Blake Lavia (they/them or all pronouns) is a multimedia artist and community organizer, currently living in the Kaniatarowanénhne / St. Lawrence River Valley, at the foothills of the Adirondack Mountains, Haudenosaunee Territory. Through their work with the environmental storytelling group Talking Wings, Blake Lavia has organized numerous conferences, curated in person and virtual art exhibitions, and produced visual storytelling pieces that spotlight Water and Earth Guardians. Their art practice dances between filmmaking, writing, photography, animation, and mixed media illustration, and spotlights structural violence, cultural memory, and our current climate crises. Blake Lavia is also the President of Talking Rivers, INC., an organization that is using art and education to unite communities and bring about an ecocentric reality for the region and the world. Instagram: @panopticsnow – @blakeartillustration. Websites: talking-wings.art & blakelavia.com
Tzintzun Aguilar-Izzo (they, elle) is an environmental artist and movement weaver, who is currently working to spotlight stories of regenerative solutions to the climate crises in the North Country, Haudenosaunee Territory. As part of Talking Wings, they have collaborated with Blake Lavia on several art and community-centered environmental projects, such as the “North Country Art, Land and Environment Summit” and “Confluence: A Tapestry of Rivers and their Guardians.” Also, Tzintzun is one of the Directors of Talking Rivers, INC., where they are working on promoting “Rights of Nature” for the North Country rivers. Instagram: @talkingwings. Websites: nocoenvironment.org & tzintzuni.com