Who We Are

"I’ve long held the romantic idea of living off the land. Maybe I got the idea from my parents, my grandparents and generations of family who lived off the land in Puerto Rico. But growing up in Chicago and living in big cities, it seemed like living in a rural environment in the U.S. was not only financially inaccessible but also — as a Puerto Rican with Taino heratige — culturally uninviting. By the time this opportunity arose my sentiments toward land ownership had evolved. It’s a reclamation, but more than that, I realized the land needs stewards as much as stewards need the land."

Enrique explores humans' relationship with nature through technology, 3-dimensional design, sculpture, philosophy and stewardship. Though he graduated from Yale with a BA in Anthropology, and Chinese, he excelled in Erwin Hauer's sculpture courses and after reconnecting years later they collaborated and founded Erwin Hauer Studios. There, Enrique mastered the necessary technology, material science and traditional fabrication practices to reissue and install Hauer’s seminal architectural Continuua screens in institutions like the Boston MFA, hotels like The Standard Hotel in New York City, the World Bank in Washington DC, and scores of other commercial and residential projects in the United States and abroad. In recent years, Enrique has studied ecology, reciprocal land stewardship, Traditional Ecological Knowledge, and agroforestry and will be applying his expertise in both analog and digital fabrication to regenerative design efforts at Mount Owen Forest Sanctuary.

ENRIQUE ROSADO

"Land protection thrives on connection, not distance. Ecological awareness grows through relationship. To truly protect and nurture biodiversity, we must move beyond observation and recreation and instead, cultivate an active, lived understanding of the more-than-human world. When we distance ourselves from the ecosystem we are part of, we lose sight of who and what we are protecting."

Vanessa Chakour is an author, naturalist, herbalist, martial artist, and land steward whose work fosters intimacy with inner and outer wilds. Her multidisciplinary approach blends writing, plant medicine, movement, and ecological restoration, rooted in decades of study and land-based practice. A devoted student of nature, she studied ecology and herbal medicine in the Northeastern U.S., Costa Rica, and Scotland, and has collaborated with organizations like the Wolf Conservation Center and Jaguar Rescue Center. Earlier in her own journey of rewilding, Vanessa trained as a professional boxer in New York City and spent over a decade coaching others while her Brooklyn-based herbalism school and Plant Walks introduced students to plants and fungi in the urban wild. Her books, Awakening Artemis and Earthly Bodies, explore personal and ecological healing through kinship with plants, animals, and place. Passionate about giving voice to other species, Vanessa facilitates Writing For The Wild workshops and groups, helping writers craft compelling work on behalf of our wild kin. She shares some of that work through Wild Voices Collective. A USA Boxing certified coach, she now lives in Western Massachusetts, where she coaches boxing, facilitates writing groups and embodied ecology apprenticeships. A Project Coyote Ambassador, her work has been featured in Orion, Terrain, Psyche/Aeon, Yes! Magazine, and Psychology Today.

VANESSA CHAKOUR

Over 1,500 feet in height, Mount Owen is located on the ancestral homeland of the Nipmuc Tribal Nation, the original stewards for over 12,000 years. Before this region was voilently colonized, the Nipmuc homeland stretched over 2000 square miles, encompassing central Massachusetts, Northern Connecticut, Northern Rhode Island, and southern New Hampshire. Part of the Algonquin language group; there are roughly 3000 family clan members living in southern New England today. You can learn more about the Nipmuc Tribal Nation as well as actions you can take on their behalf through The Ohketeau Cultural Center. Ohketeau is the Nipmuc word meaning: “a place to plant and grow.”

Species who live on Mount Owen include black birch, paper birch, yellow birch, shagbark hickory, hemlock, white pine, beautiful old sugar maples and more. Understory plants include native medicinals such as trillium, bloodroot, blue cohosh, Solomon’s Seal and wild leek. Spicebush grows around the vernal pool while goldenrod and mugwort flourish around the forest edge. Flushes of reishi, oyster, turkey tail and chaga mushrooms grow throughout the woods amidst dramatic moss covered ledges, often cascading with seasonal streams. You may hear songbirds like the veery, hermit thrush, black-throated blue warbler and scarlet tanager and find evidence of red fox, porcupine, white-tailed deer, red-tailed hawks, bobcats, and black bear.