Living a Year at the Catto Center at Toklat
REFLECTIONS
FROM AN ACES
ACES staff share a meal with visiting environmental experts outside of the Catto Center at Toklat.
NATURALIST
Olivia Niosi, ACES Naturalist
Was this going to be something like Leopold’s Shack, Thoreau’s Walden Pond cabin, or the Murie Ranch? New to town, I wasn’t sure. But the moment I arrived at the Catto Center at Toklat I knew I had made the right choice. The beauty. The history. The plea to help protect the place.
My first few weeks at Toklat were spent learning how to get warm water in the shower (derived from the magic of the pilot-lighted stoves), listening to Trevor’s stories of the place, and somehow answering the ooohs and ahhs from guests who walked in the door. Every week, I met someone who was a respected artist, ecologist,
I shyly opened the doors through a leather shop that stung my nose
philosopher, or outdoors person. I lived with Nika, an avid trail runner
and into a cold, large living room. I was greeted by a hurried Trevor, the
and thru–hiker. I attended a drum–making workshop Trevor hosted in
caretaker, who showed me my room, told me to get unpacked, then
memory of his late mentor. I sat around a fire with people who helped
we’d get to work. We needed to carry some wood and pipes up to the
start ACES and had deep roots with both Toklat and Aspen. I met Eddie
intake of Devaney Creek – the source of both our water and electricity.
Running Wolf, a talented Native American wood carver. Stuart and
Trevor explained that the big snow year’s peak water was approaching,
Isabel Mace mentored so many people in the art and conservation
possibly the next day, and might overwhelm our micro–hydroelectric
world in their family home, Toklat, and here I was decades later hearing
generation system. Not even five minutes up I felt my heart racing, my
their voices, their stories. Meeting these inspiring people made me
lungs burning, and my forehead sweating. I realized maybe I wasn’t
realize that by living here, I was joining their unique community that
invincible to this whole altitude thing. We fixed the flow gate, walked
celebrates a connection to nature through many forms. I also shared
back down, and shared some beers around the pond. This was going to
a love for this place and grew tremendously over the summer. I was
be an alright place.
gaining so–called “Stuartship” for the Castle Creek Valley.
Page 12 – ACES Annual Report 2020
