Wildtender

11/04/2022

After a wonderful and nourishing summer season of Wildtender programs in Big Sur, we are passionately planting seeds for spring! We are excited to announce our first program of 2023:
Bowing to the Wild: Zen & Wilderness Retreat

Immerse in the Big Sur backcountry for four enchanted Spring days of land connection and spacious Zen practice in a remote and peaceful valley. After a day of backpacking into the valley, we will camp in place for three nights – allowing this sublime landscape to become our home and place of pract...

05/06/2022

As we re-emerge from a pandemic dormancy and gear up for a robust season of Wildtender programs, we want to reintroduce ourselves and let you know about an exciting opportunity to practice with us for an entire summer month at the Institute.

We are Noël and Fletcher – partners, co-founders of Wildtender, and passionate students in traditions of wisdom and wilderness. We came to this enchanted land of Big Sur (ancestral territory of the Esselen tribe) over a decade ago to apprentice in the farm & garden at Esalen.

Over the years, we explored our inner emotional and spiritual landscapes through many modalities, and broadened our apprenticeship with the outer landscape – hiking deep in the backcountry, building intimacy with our plant and animal relatives in the gardens and wild spaces, and attempting to cultivate a more reciprocal relationship with the living land.

Wildtender emerged as a natural extension of these experiences. We wanted to help other people find meaningful connection with wild nature, themselves, and one another – to become beneficial participants with place, and discover belonging on this Earth.

So we are beyond honored to announce that this June we will lead an intimate cohort of students for an entire month of land-based learning and wild-crafting at Esalen in a workshop called “Becoming Kin: Tending Relationship with the Natural World”.

Though we have taught at Esalen before, this opportunity feels like a wonderful homecoming and full circle. We hope you will join us or spread the word! Apply soon!

Link in profile.

Photo by

06/09/2020

Wildtender has been in a period of silent dormancy and re-visioning for many months, catalyzed in part by the pandemic’s halting of our planned programs. But staying silent isn’t right during these urgent and emergent times.
We stand in wholehearted solidarity with the Black Lives Matter movement and the call for justice. We strongly support the defunding and abolition of the police. Our hearts break for all the people grieving, suffering, and living in fear. Our spirits rejoice for the courage and power of protestors, activists and community leaders.
We’ve been listening to, and feeling deeply impacted by, the righteous outrage, multi-generational grief, deep wisdom, and powerful leadership of Black, Indigenous and People of Color communities.
We have been humbly considering our role in the essential work of dismantling white supremacy and settler colonialism within our field of wilderness and outdoor education. The longing and need to connect deeply with the living world is a universal human experience, and is the birthright of all beings. But the same systemic racism and inequality that creates police brutality also prevents BIPOC from feeling safe, welcome and able to connect with the outdoors – including wilderness programs like ours. It’s up to white-owned organizations like ours to take responsibility for this to change.
We are working to integrate and activate what we are learning from this moment, the land, and BIPOC voices. Our dreams and plans are transforming in the most necessary way. We commit to learning, listening, uncovering our blind spots, and putting in the hard work. We welcome your thoughts, ideas, suggestions, questions and concerns. We’d love to hear from you at [email protected]
Below are several BIPOC-led accounts that we have learned from and deeply appreciate their thought leadership around intersectional environmentalism, and diversity equity & inclusion outdoors. Please follow and support their good work. Deep bows and gratitude to:

thread

02/08/2020

When the land awakens with the warmth of Spring, Wildtender will make our annual backpacking pilgrimage from Big Sur’s coast to the hot springs retreat and Zen Mountain Center of Tassajara.
For fifty years, the remote valley of Tassajara has been home to a community of monks, practicing and renewing the Dharma (Buddha’s teachings).
Tassajara is our destination, but our exploration and practice of Zen begins on the trail. Together with wild-hearted Zen monk & wilderness therapist Emily (pictured here chanting in the forest), our intimate group will traverse the Big Sur mountains on foot, seeking the Wild Dharma in the mountains, clouds, and trees…
Hiking and meditating, we will become initiates in the great legacy of Buddhist wilderness practice which stretches back to the very beginning of Zen. As the Japanese Zen master Ikkyu wrote in the 15th century:
"Who needs the Buddhism of ossified masters?
Me, I’ve spent three decades alone in the mountains
and solved all my koans there,
Living Zen among the tall pines and high winds"
Our journey will conclude with a two-night stay at Tassajara, including Japanese-style hot springs bathhouse, off-grid cabins, splendid vegetarian cuisine, and formal Zen practice in the magnificent Zendo (meditation hall).
There are only TWO SPACES left in our Wild Dharma Pilgrimage. If you’d like to join us, please apply at Wildtender.com (link in profile). We hope to bow and walk among the mountains with you.
@ Tassajara Zen Mountain Center

02/08/2020

When the land awakens with the warmth of Spring, Wildtender will make our annual backpacking pilgrimage from Big Sur’s coast to the hot springs retreat and Zen Mountain Center of Tassajara.
For fifty years, the remote valley of Tassajara has been home to a community of monks, practicing and renewing the Dharma (Buddha’s teachings).
Tassajara is our destination, but our exploration and practice of Zen begins on the trail. Together with wild-hearted Zen monk & wilderness therapist Emily (pictured here chanting in the forest), our intimate group will traverse the Big Sur mountains on foot, seeking the Wild Dharma in the mountains, clouds, and trees…
Hiking and meditating, we will become initiates in the great legacy of Buddhist wilderness practice which stretches back to the very beginning of Zen. As the Japanese Zen master Ikkyu wrote in the 15th century:
"Who needs the Buddhism of ossified masters?
Me, I’ve spent three decades alone in the mountains
and solved all my koans there,
Living Zen among the tall pines and high winds"
Our journey will conclude with a two-night stay at Tassajara, including Japanese-style hot springs bathhouse, off-grid cabins, splendid vegetarian cuisine, and formal Zen practice in the magnificent Zendo (meditation hall).
There are only TWO SPACES left in our Wild Dharma Pilgrimage. If you’d like to join us, please apply at Wildtender.com (link in profile). We hope to bow and walk among the mountains with you.
@ Tassajara Zen Mountain Center

02/06/2020

It’s fairly outrageous to haul three cauldrons down a crumbling Big Sur cliffside, fill them with native plants, build driftwood fires underneath, and then experiment with natural dye techniques using seaweeds and sticks, without a playbook, having heard only vaguely that seawater could work as a mordant (color fixing agent)…
…but this was ten years ago, we were young and full of zeal, and our journey with wildcrafting was just beginning!
Many more playful experiments would follow, revealing extraordinary colors from the plants and fungi around us. The deeper learning was about our potential to connect with the landscape…to witness how colors change by the seasons, amount of rainfall, location, etc….it’s an empowering, enriching and fun way to observe and participate with the natural world.
So a decade later, we are delighted to offer a native plant dye & ink wildcrafting workshop in Big Sur this Spring: WILD COLOR, April 25-26, 2020, set on wild trails and in a workshop studio .
Our co-teacher is the extraordinary artist/designer/dyer Kristin Morrison , who has her own colorful background with native and invasive plants of California.
Link in our profile. The course is filling quickly, with a few spaces available.
Props and gratitude to for our original introduction to wildcrafting color, and the concept of tending the wild through sustainable and regenerative harvesting for dye!


@ Big Sur, California

11/25/2019

“There are two kinds of people: those who know nothing about Esalen and those who purport to know everything about it,” quipped a recent New Yorker article. We think there’s at least a third option: people who WALK to Esalen!

Join us this May for a week of "Wild Pilgrimage” to Esalen, as we cross the majestic mountains of Big Sur on foot. Allowing our animal bodies to carry us through wildflower meadows, over remote ridges, to the shimmering coast. We will take the trees as our teachers, find healing in the fields, and uncover meaning among boulders, creeks, and firelight!

Our backpacking journey concludes at the sacred grounds of the Esalen Institute, where hot springs await to soothe our well-used muscles, and a contemplative atmosphere will aid us in our integration.

We hope you can take part in this once-in-a-lifetime, transformational journey. "Wild Pilgrimage: Backpacking Journey to Esalen" – May 10-17, 2020.

More info and registration at www.wildtender.com/esalen2020

Photos (in order) by Maddy Minnis, Noël Vietor, and Amanda Marsalis. Quote from the New Yorker article about Esalen by Andrew Marantz.



@ Big Sur, California

08/12/2019

“Being a ‘Wildtender’ means tending to our inner and outer landscapes. In the outer sense, this means a practice of active engagement with wild nature, showing up in stewardship and companionship with all the non-human beings we share our environment with. We created Wildtender to help other people reclaim a sense of true belonging and beneficial participation in nature – to find meaningful connection with the wild and themselves.”
Fletcher Tucker. Wildtender co-founder, from an interview with the Esalen Institute () about our immersive wilderness programs and the path that has led us here...Check out the link in profile for the whole interview.
Pictured here: Fletcher ascending from the Big Sur coast on the first day of our 2017 backpacking pilgrimage to the Tassajara Mountain Zen Center.

07/19/2019

Meet the littlest Wildtender! Our daughter Elda was born one month ago today. One of her favorite pastimes seems to be gazing out of windows at the Oak trees above our cottage. We are so overjoyed to share this beautiful wild world with her!

06/04/2019

Big Sur Herbal hike this Sunday! Join Wildtender herbal educator Kelsey () for a guided hike, plant meditation and picnic on the Big Sur coast, offered as part of Big Sur residency.
Learn the edible and medicinal uses of Big Sur native plants, and share a communal picnic overlooking the ocean, with yummy artisanal lunch provided by and !
Registration link in profile.
Photo by

05/09/2019

Whew! We’ve been so engaged with facilitating our Spring wilderness programs that we basically dropped off Instagram these last 2 months! Stay tuned — in the coming weeks we’re going to catch you up on all the backcountry magic we’ve experienced, and share Wildtender’s Summer / Fall offerings that will draw us deeper into the inner and outer wilds!
enchanted pic by photographer-in-residence from our ‘Wild Council’ Ojai Wilderness Pilgrimage of overlooking the wild Sespe River.

03/22/2019

One of the many wonderful things about following a wild river for days on end is the opportunity to track and trail our wild kin along the sandy shores and mud flats.
While scouting the route for our upcoming ‘Wild Council’ pilgrimage in the Sespe wilderness, we followed the trail of a MOUNTAIN LION for an entire afternoon. The “official trail” had washed away, so we humbly followed the lion’s lead.
This was the lion’s place. She knew it better than we ever could. She gracefully threaded through the challenging riverside terrain, slipping between boulders and behind thickets of trees to keep out of sight.
While walking in the footsteps of this powerful, illusive and complex being, I found the illusion of anthropocentrism impossible to cling to.
I felt my own limitations and deep humility in the presence of a being that knows this land with total intimacy and can make a living so fully here.
I encountered my fragility in the company of a mighty hunter who - fortunately - does not want me on the menu, but certainly could have me if she were so disposed.

– Fletcher, Wildtender co-founder
P.S. what do you notice in the lion’s tracks?