Orion Society

The Orion Society's mission is to inform, inspire, and engage individuals and grassroots organizations in becoming a significant cultural force for healing nature and community.

Mission

The Orion Society's mission is to inform, inspire, and engage individuals and grassroots organizations in becoming a significant cultural force for healing nature and community.

Programs

Since 1982 The Orion Society has published Orion Magazine, called by the Boston Globe "America's Finest Environmental Magazine," and widely considered to be the literary, artistic, and philosophic voice of the environmental movement. In 2003, Orion was relaunched as a bi-monthly magazine with greater emphasis on cultural change, and with practical examples of cutting edge grassroots activism. The fast-expanding Orion Grassroots Network is home to 1240 local and grassroots organizations dealing with a range of environmental and social issues. OGN includes land trusts, nature centers, schools, living wage and environmental justice challenges, alternative lifestyle groups and coops, to name a few. A complete list is available at www.orionsociety.org/pages/ogn/index.cfm. As a leading proponent of "place-based" education, The Orion Society has published Place-Based Education: Connecting Classrooms and Communities by David Sobel and other books that present this very compelling alternative to education by high-stakes testing. The Society holds teacher training institutes and courses and collaborates with colleges, schools, and nature centers to promote nature literacy and place-based learning. The Society has organized two historic conferences, the 1996 Watershed Conference at the Library of Congress and the 1999 Fire & Grit Millennium Conference at the National Conservation Training Center. It holds regional conferences of grassroots groups to facilitate their networking and ability to develop constructive synergy through shared endeavor. Orion's website, with an annual visitorship in the millions, contains web-exclusive writing, audio, and video content. Visit the web site for more information: www.orionmagazine.org. Also a book publisher, The Orion Society has inaugurated its New Patriotism Series of books to help individuals come to terms with the demands of a post-September 11 world. Books in the series include In The Presence of Fear by Wendell Berry; Patriotism and the American Land by Richard Nelson, Barry Lopez, and Terry Tempest Williams; Citizens Dissent: Security, Morality and Leadership in an Age of Terror by Wendell Berry and David James Duncan; and The Open Space of Democracy by Terry Tempest Williams.