In response to threats of encroaching development near the boundary of 3E land, a group of about a dozen 3E participants self-formed last summer to raise funds among themselves to buy an additional forest lot. This purchase was completed in February 2026, bringing the total of newly added land to the 3E site to 13 strategically located acres forming a buffer zone from development while providing new affordances for 3E activities. Long-term possibilities include the construction of a meeting house to facilitate joint activities between 3E participants and local residents, and an ecological dwelling to extend 3E’s accommodation possibilities, not only during special events, but year-round as a base for 3E participants wishing to have more sustained, on-the-ground engagement with the project.
The new lot was bought in the name of the 3E nonprofit. It is contiguous to existing 3E holdings, and will be added to the land that will be protected in perpetuity for the 3E mission of experimental pedagogy and the exploration of ecological thought and practice, extending across the “3 ecologies” of social, conceptual, and environmental, with special attention to neurodiversity in all its dimensions. The land will be placed in the equivalent of a land trust under Quebec law.
The Quebec law concerned, promulgated in 2008, is actually an anomaly. It creates a status called the “trust with social utility” (fiducie à utilité sociale, or FUS). Legal scholars have determined, with some consternation, that this is a new and unprecedented legal status that is entirely outside the system of property. Neither a moral nor a physical person, a FUS has no ownership status. This makes it ideal for 3E’s goal of “giving the land back to itself.”
Much work and discussion has been undertaken in the 3E network over the past year to try to provide “giving the land back to itself” with a strong conceptual basis, and to begin to explore how it can be practically implemented in collective, self-organizing process.
The group that spearheaded the latest land purchase has decided to continue operating as a Landcare Affinity Group. It will be central in the continuing exploration of the concept of “giving the land back to itself,” starting with a series of site visits to existing FUSs in Quebec to learn about their experiences, exchange ideas, and form continuing connections. One of the affinity group’s main aims is to involve more 3E participants in on-the-ground landcare activities across the seasons, toward developing the kinds of collective land custodianship that will carry the 3E project forward beyond the present generation. A FUS is in perpetuity – it can never be returned to the property market. This raises the stakes. Practices and sustaining networks that are just as enduring need to be built.
The SenseLab journal Inflexions: A Journal for Research Creation, which took a pause starting in the covid period, is being reactivated under the 3E umbrella with a special issue on “giving the land back to itself.” The issue will combine philosophical and artistic explorations of the concept. It will connect in to the 3E “anarchive,” fuit.es, a participatory platform for collective expression combining sound, image, and words in ever-changing constellations. It serves as a repository of creative traces of 3E interactions.
