What happens when science, law, and love for the Ocean come together? 

Callie Veelenturf, marine conservation biologist and National Geographic Explorer, has walked the nesting beaches with sea turtles and worked hand in hand with coastal communities, turning relationship into real protection. Michelle Bender, an international leader in Ocean Rights, is helping reshape law itself—pioneering policies that recognize the Ocean and her beings not as resources, but as relatives with rights of their own.

In this conversation, Callie and Michelle share how their paths of biology and law weave into a movement for change: sea turtles and people thriving side by side, orcas and other beings gaining legal recognition, and humanity stepping into its role as caretaker of the living Sea. 

Be inspired by two voices showing that transformation is not only possible—it is already underway.

Callie Veelenturf is a marine conservation biologist, National Geographic Explorer, a Scientist with the United Nations Harmony with Nature Programme, and Founder of The Leatherback Project and National Geographic Society’s program For Nature, who inspires high-impact conservation measures through collaborative scientific research initiatives. Callie has a special focus on marine turtles, ocean ecosystems and the Rights of Nature. 

As Founder of The Leatherback Project, she has trained over two thousand Panamanian Army and Navy soldiers in the recognition of illegal sea turtle products; identified new to science sea turtle nesting and foraging sites; and spearheaded groundbreaking conservation proposals and laws in Panama including a new National Wildlife Refuge; Law 287 recognizing the Rights of Nature; and Article 29 of Law 371 that recognizes sea turtles as legal entities with specific rights. 

She leads the Operations for three field research programs that document coastal development threats, justify new protection measures, and combat fisheries bycatch in the Pearl Islands Archipelago, Darien Gap, and project Iluminar el Mar from 2022-2025 in Ecuador.  Most recently, she has received the 2024 Future For Nature Award, 2024 Schmidt Ocean Institute Visionary Award, and 2024 New Explorer of The Year Award from The Explorers Club and been named a 2022 United Nations Development Programme Ocean Innovator and 2020 National Geographic Early Career Leader.

Michelle Bender is the creator and leading expert in the movement towards "Ocean Rights," the application of Rights of Nature in the ocean policy seascape. She has provided her expertise to Rights of Nature laws and policies worldwide, including in the United States (Rhode Island and Washington), Panama (national law, sea turtle conservation law and marine reserve), the Philippines (national law), Aruba (constitutional amendment), the Moananui Sanctuary Agreement to recognise whales as legal persons, and within international law and institutions (IUCN Motion 056 (2025)). She serves on the Advisory Board for the Global Alliance for the Rights of Nature, is a member of the IUCN's World Commission on Environmental Law, an expert of the UN Harmony with Nature initiative and Steering Committee Member for the UN Ocean Decade Coordination Office on Connecting People and the Ocean. In 2018, she was named one of 15 Youth Ocean Leaders taking on the world internationally by the Sustainable Ocean Alliance. Michelle graduated Summa Cum Laude from Vermont Law School, where she earned a Master’s in Environmental Law and Policy and holds a B.S. in Biology with a Marine Emphasis from Western Washington University.  To learn more about Michelle and her work visit the Ocean Vision Legal website.  

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We are often taught to see ourselves as separate from the living world — yet this separation is an illusion. As we grow into our fullness as human beings, we come into resonance with the shared intelligence of Life.  It is natural to be open to conversation with Nature and other species.

In this unique two-hour webinar-workshop, the Ocean Voices team — Intuitive Interspecies Communicators collaborating with marine scientists and researchers — shares how this groundbreaking initiative began and how it is transforming the way we listen to and engage with the Ocean.

During this experience, you’ll:

•  Hear first-hand how Ocean Voices bridges science and intuitive communication.

•  Learn the principles of Intuitive Interspecies Communication (IIC).

•. Experience the H.E.A.R.T. method (Heart Energy Achieving Real Transformation).

•. Be gently guided in a direct, heart-based communication with our Ocean kin.

Led by Dr. Lynne Shannon, Principal Researcher and head of the Marine Sustainability Lab at the University of Cape Town, the team also includes Wynter Worsthorne, Eleni Gkikakis, and Christine Noble Seller. Their work has been shared at the Global Biodiversity Forum in Davos and within Nature’s Council, inspiring new ways of knowing and collaborating across species. This is a special meeting of science and spirit as we listen to the Ocean together.

Be ready to slow down, listen deeply, and embrace your fully human self — stepping into that wider conversation and relationship with Ocean, grounded in respect, reciprocity, and wonder. 

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Among the Tlingit people of Sheet’ká Kwáan (Sitka, Alaska), the yaaw, the herring, are honored as sacred relatives. The story of Kaxátjaashaa, the Herring Rock Woman, tells how the first herring came when she sang to them with respect, laying their eggs in her hair. From this teaching, Kiks.ádi women have carried responsibilities to the yaaw for generations through ceremony, harvesting, and collective care.

In this conversation, Kh’asheechtlaa – Louise Brady, of the Kiks.ádi (Raven Moiety – Frog Clan), shares stories of the yaaw, their importance to Tlingit culture and ceremony, and their place in the wider ecosystem that supports whales, birds, fish, and people. She also speaks about the founding of the Herring Protectors, an Indigenous women-led grassroots movement rooted in traditional teachings that celebrates the yaaw, challenges destructive extractive practices, and asserts a sovereign Tlingit relationship with the land and waters.

We invite you to join this webinar to learn about the yaaw, the people who continue to honor them, and why protecting herring matters for the life of the Ocean and for us all. 

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Dive into the deep wisdom of Whales with Pat McCabe (Weyakpa Najin Win, Woman Stands Shining), as she shares stories of kinship, presence, and the great evolutionary teachings carried by our Ocean relatives.

During her recent time with Whales in Tonga, Pat witnessed their intimate family constellations — mothers and calves, quiet escorts, and the radiant love that flows through them. Through these encounters, Whale offered profound reminders about relationship, guardianship, and the spiral of time itself.

Whale invites us to see evolution not as a long, linear timeline, but as something simultaneous — a vertical movement where past, present, and future rise together, like Whale itself lifting from the depths into the light.

In this special conversation, Pat shares about her experiences with Whale as elder, teacher, and kin. Through her stories and ceremonial presence, we are invited to listen more deeply, to feel the spiral of time within us, and to remember our place in the great web of life.

This is a chance to sit with Whale’s medicine of love, presence, and evolution — and to let their song awaken new possibilities in our hearts.

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Plastic pollution is one of the most urgent and far-reaching threats facing our Oceans today—touching everything from marine life to coastal communities to climate resilience. In this powerful conversation with Rachel Bustamante of Plastic Pollution Coalition and Tamara Adame, a scientific ocean diver and anti-plastics activist, we explore the multifaceted impacts of plastic on Ocean health, and the deep interconnections between pollution, policy, and our relationship with the living world.

With a background in environmental policy analysis and campaign coordination, Rachel has worked to protect marine biodiversity and Ocean health at both state and global levels—including participation in the UN Global Plastics Treaty negotiations and direct advocacy with U.S. lawmakers. Her work is grounded in a commitment to justice, care, and solutions that protect people and planet.

As a scuba diving instructor in the Yucatan Peninsula of Mexico, diving in the Mexican Caribbean, Tamara started noticing a huge influx of plastics to the Ocean about eight years ago. Her own grassroots efforts at organizing Ocean cleanup - and seeing how little impact that had on the quantity of plastics in the region - led her to become an anti-plastics activist, both in her state of Quintana Roo and at the national level. Plastic bags in supermarkets have now been banned across Mexico, thanks to the efforts of many anti-plastics advocates, including Tamara.

This session includes grounded insight, personal story, and tangible steps for those seeking to become more active stewards of Ocean health—whether in local watersheds or at the global level.

Visit the webinar page to watch short film Mermaids Against Plastic and download a resource list with links mentioned in the webinar. 

To learm more about Rachel Bustamante and her work visit her here Plastic Pollution Coalition. 

To learn more about Tamara Adame and her work visit her website.  

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The Amazon breathes life into the Ocean. Through airborne rivers, nutrient cycles, and unseen pathways of energy and water, these two great bodies—Forest and Ocean—are intimately intertwined.

In this opening session of our Ocean Conversation Series, we are joined by Dr. Rosa Vásquez Espinoza—Peruvian chemical biologist, National Geographic Explorer, and award-winning artist. Raised between Lima and the edge of the Amazon jungle, Rosa’s work bridges Indigenous knowledge and modern science in service of biodiversity, conservation, and cultural resilience.

This intimate, conversational session explores the nutrient flows between forest and sea, the role of traditional ecological knowledge in scientific understanding, and the art of storytelling as a pathway for ecological healing and reconnection.

We also glimpse Rosa’s personal journey—her grandmother’s backyard “natural pharmacy,” her pioneering research on the Boiling River and medicinal stingless bees, and the global ecosystems that have shaped her vision. Her newly published book, The Spirit of the Rainforest, weaves these threads into an immersive journey through the Amazon—science, spirit, and story entwined.

This is a conversation about relationship and reciprocity. A chance to listen to the waters—of land, sea, and self.

Dr. Rosa Vásquez Espinoza is a Peruvian chemical biologist, National Geographic Explorer, and award-winning artist whose work bridges Indigenous knowledge and modern science to protect biodiversity and uplift rainforest communities. Founder of Amazon Research Internacional, Rosa has led groundbreaking studies on extreme ecosystems, including the Boiling River and medicinal stingless bees, while advocating for policies that honor the intrinsic value of Nature.

With Andean-Amazonian roots and global research spanning from the Amazon to Yellowstone and Alaska, Rosa integrates science, storytelling, and ancestral wisdom to foster deeper connection with the living world. Her recently published book, The Spirit of the Rainforest, offers an immersive journey into Amazonian ecology, culture, and healing.

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Join Suzi Steer, founder of The Tree Conference and co-author of Rooted in Ethics, for an insightful conversation on citizen-led reforestation, protecting old-growth forests, and transforming our relationship with trees. Suzi explores the intersection of science, policy, and deep listening with Nature, highlighting innovative projects, grassroots movements, and cultural shifts that are reshaping how we care for Earth’s ecosystems. This session inspires new ways of thinking about trees—not just as resources, but as intelligent, interconnected beings essential to planetary wellbeing.

Suzi Steer’s mission is to support trees to survive and thrive on Earth in these times. She is the founder of the Tree Conference, an event that brings together scientists, tree-related NGOs, foresters, grassroots communities, creatives, legal experts, tree-speakers and the general tree-loving public. 

Suzi’s specialism is in the relationship between human construct systems (e.g. financial, legal, technological and governmental) and Nature’s planetary intelligence system. From her profession as a maths teacher, Suzi’s journey into exploring systemic change with individuals, communities and organisations has been through deep listening with trees and plants as experts in Earth’s multidimensional living systems.

For six years Suzi worked through the UK charity TreeSisters to articulate the Ethics and Nature Relationships that support land, forest and biocultural restoration that honours all beings of Nature as conscious, intelligent and having agency. 

This involved listening with representatives of Original Peoples and Nations and reforestation practitioners alongside specialists in law and international agreements. The resulting Rooted in Ethics: The Community Tree Stewardship Framework and Practices Guides are co-published by TreeSisters and The Fountain, a US 501c3.

Learn more about Suzi and her work at thetreeconference.com

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Join us for a rare and profound conversation with visionary botanist, biochemist, and bestselling author Diana Beresford-Kroeger, whose work reveals Forests as living, breathing networks essential to our survival.

In this intimate webinar, Diana shares insights from Our Green Heart, the culmination of her life’s research on the deep connection between forests, human health, and planetary survival. As one of the last people in Ireland to receive a full Druidic education, she bridges ancient ecological wisdom with cutting-edge science to show how forests serve as Earth’s lungs, medicine, and protectors against climate breakdown.

Discover the hidden intelligence of trees, the critical role forests play in stabilizing climate, and how Diana’s groundbreaking Bioplan offers a roadmap for replanting the global forest—and our future. She calls on each of us to take action through planting, protection, and reciprocity with the natural world.

This is more than a conversation—it’s a call to action. Leave inspired and empowered with steps to help safeguard the forests that sustain life on Earth.

Diana Beresford-Kroeger is a globally recognized author, medical biochemist, botanist, and climate visionary. Raised in Ireland after the early loss of her parents, she was educated by elders in the Brehon tradition who passed on ancestral knowledge of plants and nature.

Told as a child she would one day carry that wisdom into a troubled future, Diana has done just that. Since the 1960s, she has been sounding the alarm on climate change and advocating for the protection of global forests. Her scientific path led to degrees in botany and biochemistry, and to discoveries such as genetic smearing and cathodoluminescence in biological systems—now used in cancer detection.

Yet her heart remained with the forest. In the 1970s, she created her own arboretum, gathered rare trees from around the world, and uncovered the chemical language and medicinal intelligence of forests. Her Bioplan empowers people everywhere to replant and protect native species. The plan has been adopted by cities like Ottawa and inspired international action.

Diana’s 2016 documentary Call of the Forest introduced wider audiences to this vision, alongside a tree-planting app matching native species to location. Her collaboration with activist Sophia Rabliauskas helped secure UNESCO World Heritage status for Pimachiowin Aki, a boreal forest of immense ecological and cultural value.

Diana’s legacy project is to clone and map the entire global forest—creating a living library of seeds to safeguard biodiversity for future generations.

Learn more: https://dianaberesford-kroeger.com

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The Elwha River Watershed is a living, breathing web of interconnection—home to salmon, orcas, towering trees, and the stories of the Lower Elwha Klallam people. For generations, these lands and waters have sustained life, and in return, they have been cared for as kin. But today, 850 acres of mature, structurally complex forests in the watershed are at risk of being auctioned for logging, despite decades of restoration efforts.

In this conversation, we will explore the urgent movement to protect the Elwha’s legacy forests, guided by those who stand on the leading edge of this movement for protection and stewardship. Tashena Francis (Lower Elwha Klallam Tribal Citizen) and Freddie Lane (Lummi Nation Elder) have been organizing their communities to defend the watershed, upholding their sacred responsibility to protect the land. They are collaborating with Elizabeth Dunne (Elwha Watershed Resident), co-founder of the grassroots Elwha Legacy Forests Coalition (of which Tashena and Freddie are also a part). Elizabeth, who leads Earth Law Center's Cascadia Bioregion Program, is working to establish legal protections rooted in the Rights of Nature and principles of respect and reciprocity.

Together, we will discuss:
🌿 Forests as relatives, elders, and teachers
🔥 Community organizing as an act of resistance and protection
⚖️ The Rights of Nature and how law can align with Indigenous knowledge
🌳 Working together as Indigenous and non-Indigenous allies for the places we love
🛡️ What we can do, collectively, to ensure these forests remain standing

This is a call to listen, witness, and act. The Elwha’s forests are not lost yet—but they need all of us.

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Join us for a transformative Earth Day webinar with renowned plant spirit healer and author Pam Montgomery. Pam guides us into a deeper relationship with the living world, inviting us to experience Nature as an ally and teacher rather than a resource to manage.

Pam offers a perspective that is both practical and profoundly heart-centered, illuminating the subtle yet powerful connections between human beings and the natural world. Her newly released book, Co-Creating with Nature, delves into this relationship and offers pathways for healing.

In this webinar, Pam shares stories of her own journey into plant communication, explores the intelligence present in Nature, and inspires us to rekindle our relationship with the Earth. Come with an open heart and leave with a renewed sense of wonder and connection to the world around you.

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This free Earth Day webinar is a gift from the heart of our community—and we invite you to give back in support. Your donation helps the Organization of Nature Evolutionaries continue offering Earth-honoring programs like this one, uplifting Nature’s voice and deepening our collective relationship with the living world.

🌿 Make a Donation to ONE »

Thank you for helping this work grow.

Pam Montgomery has been investigating plants and their intelligent spiritual nature for more than three decades. As an author, teacher, and practitioner, she has passionately embraced her partnership with the plants who are guiding us in our spiritual evolution.  

She is the author of Partner Earth: A Spiritual Ecology and the best-selling Plant Spirit Healing: A Guide to Working with Plant Consciousness and most recently Co-Creating with Nature: Healing the Wound of Separation. She teaches internationally on plant spirit healing, spiritual ecology, and people as Nature Evolutionaries. 

Pam is the founder of ONE.  She has dedicated herself to co-creative partnership with all of life and feels the Organization of Nature Evolutionaries is a way to make this partnership manifest.

You can connect with Pam here: www.wakeuptonature.com 

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