Fostering a closer connection with our lands and waters.
Beacan Hollow Offerings
Welcome! This website outlines Abi Fergus’s available offerings toward the conservation of ecosystems that we all depend on as well as the lifeways that are connected to preserving flourishing food webs.
Tracking
Tracking other animals teaches us about their behavior and ecological roles and also requires that we learn to track ourselves and the way our food webs perceive us. I offer tracking classes and contractual services.
Mycelial Medicines
Gathering and growing our own food helps us be more connected to our ecosystems and allows us and our human communities to be more resilient in the face of a changing human world. I offer lessons in gathering and preparing medicinal foods, including lessons in ecologically minded beekeeping, mushroom foraging, and selling medicinal cottage food .
Carnivore Coexistence
Farmers must keep their livestock safe on shared landscapes with carnivores. I offer consultation services to help identify carnivore presence and troubleshoot methods like deterrents and husbandry to empower coexistence.
Writing & Editing
I am gifted in scientific, journalistic, and nature writing as well as editing. I offer contractual freelance writing and editing services and am maintaining a new blog to document my efforts in tracking, carnivore coexistence, and wildcrafting.
I am dedicated to stewarding connection to the ecosystems we depend on and the organisms that make up these food webs. When we have relationship to the land and the water, and to all the beings who live reciprocally with the land and water, it is much more difficult for us to exploit nature’s offerings or to feel alone in this world. This connection has “tangible” benefits such as buy-in when it comes to conservation minded ways of interacting with the land and water. Being in aware relation to our ecosystems also has intangible blessings, such as supporting us to heal from trauma or to find safety despite being marginalized in human society.
I hold a master’s degree and have studied conservation with a focus on wildlife biology, human dimensions in carnivore coexistence, and Indigenous approaches to conservation. I have been employed and contracted to apply this learning in monitoring wolf populations, teaching others how to track wolves and other wildlife, collaborating with farmers in coexisting with carnivores, and sharing knowledge about wildcrafting traditional foods and medicines.
Beacan Hollow is the name of the place in the Penokee hills I’ve been lucky to live and which helped seed in me my current dreams and direction. Beacan is a Scots Gaelic word which means both “bee” and “mushroom”. As a beekeeper, native pollinator steward, and amateur mycologist, I draw inspiration from bees and mushrooms in how I conduct myself in my food webs: in connection with fellow community members both alike and different to myself. -Abi Fergus (they/them)