The warm months fly by so quickly. Spring and summer are times of intense activity at 3E. It starts even before the snow has really begun to melt, when collaborators, local and international, gather for our spring ritual of maple syrup production and surrounding activities. This year we decided to produce a relatively small amount, and to take advantage of the slower pace to hone our techniques. The result was about 70 gallons of what is probably our highest quality product yet. Like last year, the collective effort of the mapleing season overlapped with the Spring Writing Residency, during which there is a constant stream of 3E collaborators coming through for various lengths of stay over a two-month period. This year, the stream never stopped. The stream of visitors (more than 40 in all) has continued through the summer. With the 3E guest house rented for much of the summer to help defray costs, the newly renovated cabin (hot water!), which is free and always open to collaborators, becomes the base of operations following the Spring Residency.
3E online activities continue, including the 6 ongoing philosophical reading groups, as does the work of the Landcare Affinity Group. A proposal came out of the Landcare Affinity Group to recontinue Inflexions, the experimental journal of research-creation published by 3E’s predecessor project, the SenseLab. An editorial collective is curating a special issue (no. 12) on “giving the land back to itself,” the concept we have been working on together and that will be the topic again for this autumn’s on-site research-creation event (the third edition of “Perceptual Ferment,” to take place September 25-30). The issue is planned for publication in early 2027.
In other news, the struggle of the Mamo coalition of Quebec First Nations was successful in its campaign last year against Law 97, which would have opened vast territories of the north to basically unregulated clear-cutting. The provincial government minister in charge of the effort to pass the law was sacked, and the law was shelved until after the next provincial elections this fall. In the meantime, the struggle continues, as rapacious forestry practices on unceded indigenous land continue as before. A delegation of 3E collaborators will be traveling this week to the current blockade site in Atikamekw territory 150 km northeast of the 3E land to renew contacts and explore ways of supporting the efforts. We’ll post more on this soon – and on some exciting news about additional land purchases that will further consolidate the 3E preserve and safeguard its ecological integrity.
