Announcing Songscape: Seedskadee National Wildlife Refuge with River Whyless

Today, 113 years ago, Theodore Roosevelt established the first National Wildlife Refuge at Pelican Island. Back in 1903, pelicans, herons, egrets and other birds were in danger of extinction as market hunters killed them in great numbers to supply the feather industry for women's fashionable hats. T.R. created Pelican Island National Wildlife Refuge to protect these birds, and it was the first time the federal government had set aside land specifically for wildlife.

Today there are over 560 National Wildlife Refuges (NWRs), all working to protect the biological integrity and environmental health of wildlife, fish, and plants of the habitats they encompass. NWRs protect over 700 species of birds, 220 species of mammals, 250 species of reptiles and amphibians, and over 1,000 species of fish. While National Wildlife Refuges are less well known than the National Parks and National Forests, they have a key role in protecting our biological diversity and natural resources.

Sustain is honored to announce that we have partnered with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to host a Songscape at Seedskadee National Wildlife Refuge in Wyoming. Sustain is also honored to announce that River Whyless, an innovative folk band from Asheville, N.C., will be participating in this Songscape.

River Whyless is a great match for the Songscape program. Sustain's co-founder, Betsy Mortensen, was drawn to their music because of the detailed and intimate way their songs cover the natural world. As a wildlife biologist, she appreciated the way the band spoke about nature in a way that was beyond cliché or false romanticism. Not only are they great at writing lyrics, their music is superb, and well received by the likes of NPR and Paste Magazine. Their latest release, River Whyless, came out last summer. "River Whyless puts a hauntingly sweet spin on traditional foundations. Their newest EP is full of lush harmonies, wide sweeping arrangements that are driven by dark percussion, putting them in a category similar to contemporaries Fleet Foxes and Stornaway." Sustain is very excited to work with River Whyless and to see how Seedskadee NWR inspires their Songscape songwriting.

Sage Grouse- Photo by Tom Koerner.

Seedskadee NWR certainly has plenty to offer for inspiration. It's located in the remote southwest corner of Wyoming, with the Green River running through its heart. It's a great example of the sagebrush steppe ecosystem, which has been under duress elsewhere due to natural gas development and poor grazing practices. One of the key species at the NWR, the Greater Sage Grouse, just narrowly missed being listed as an Endangered Species last autumn. If you're lucky, you can still see the chicken-like big bird at Seedskadee. In fact, Seedskadee takes its name from the Shoshone word sisk-a-dee-agie, which means River of the Prairie Hen. Besides Sage Grouse, Seedskadee is full of Trumpeter Swans, Sandhill Cranes, and owls and ducks of all sorts. Moose, Pronghorn Antelope, Bobcats, and even River Otters can be found at Seedskadee too. Tom Koerner, Project Leader for Seedskadee and Cokeville Meadows NWR, not only runs things at the NWR, but also takes incredible photos of the wildlife and landscapes at Seedskadee. Check out his photography here.

Lightning at Seedskadee NWR- Photo by Tom Koerner

Coyote- Photo by Tom Koerner

Last summer, Sustain's Co-Founders and board member, Nicole Reese, had the fortune of visiting Seedskadee NWR. It. Is. Beautiful. Tom took us out to see Sage Grouse feeding on sage at dusk, while Great Horned Owls flew alongside us, and Sandhill Cranes cackled from out in the marshes. He also showed us where the Mormon Trail ran a ferry across the Green River, and where the wagon ruts of the Oregon Trail pioneers are still carved into the land. The sky is wide open and lends itself well to dramatic sunrises and sunsets, and dark nights full of stars. The sagebrush steppe ecosystem may not get the attention that forests or sculptural sandstone deserts attract, but it is a special landscape. We're excited to share Seedskadee NWR with River Whyless, and our audiences. 

Harrison, VP of Sustain, and Nicole, Secretary, enjoy dusk at Seedskadee NWR last summer.

KTAADN Music Video Release

We gave you a peek at Parsonsfield performing in a canoe a few weeks ago, but today you can see the KTAADN music video in its entirety! The latest Songscape song is even more meaningful when you can see the experiences and landscape that inspired Parsonsfield during the Songscape: Katahdin Woods & Waters Recreation Area retreat. Check out this music video to see the band in action in the woods and waters that might become America's next national park.

Additionally, please do consider purchasing the song HERE, as proceeds will help us bring you more Songscapes in the future!

This song, KTAADN, and its music video, are the product of Sustain's Songscape program. Songscapes partner bands with public land organizations for a week of outdoors-inspired songwriting. The band creates a song influenced by their experiences and the landscape, and donates it to their host land group.

Songscape: Katahdin Woods & Waters Recreation Area- SONG RELEASE DAY!

Less than a year after our founding, Sustain’s first Songscape song is officially released! You can now purchase ‘KTAADN’, by folk-rock band Parsonsfield, at their website HERE.

KTAADN is the product of Songscape: Katahdin Woods & Waters Recreation Area. Songscapes are Sustain’s songwriting retreats, where we partner bands with public land organizations. Through the hospitality of host land groups, we send bands out for a few days of immersion in protected landscapes. The musicians use this time to write a song inspired by their experiences and their environment. This song is then donated to the host land group, and used to inspire and encourage audiences to value these landscapes.

In our first Songscape project, we partnered folk-rock band Parsonsfield, with Katahdin Woods & Waters Recreation Area in Maine.  Parsonsfield, formed in Connecticut in 2010, has played their rowdy Americana folk music across the USA and throughout Canada. David Vescey, from The New York Times writes, “They harmonize; they play saws, mandolins and pump organs; they back their songs with crickets and squeaking screen doors; they are boisterously youthful yet deftly sentimental...”. Theirs is a sound that has its roots in Maine as well. The name, Parsonsfield, comes from the rural town in southwest Maine where they recorded their first album. Those crickets and squeaking screen doors were courtesy of the old farmhouse recording studio there, called Great North Sound Society. Parsonsfield was very excited to pilot the Songscape program, and spend a week in Maine exploring Katahdin Woods & Waters Recreation Area (KWWRA).

Located in the shadows of Mount Katahdin, Maine’s highest and most storied peak, Katahdin Woods & Waters Recreation Area offers a sneak peak of land that one day could become a new national park and national recreation area. The land, bordered on the west by Baxter State Park and with the amazing East Branch of the Penobscot River running through its heart, includes unparalleled opportunities for traditional outdoor recreation and an opportunity to see firsthand the woods and waters that have helped to define the state. It is KWWRA’s hope that the Katahdin region, and KWWRA specifically, will gain public support to become America’s next national park and recreation area. This unique and beautiful landscape has such a rich history and ecology, and it deserves to be shared with the nation.

For our Songscape: Katahdin Woods and Waters Recreation Area project, Parsonsfield spent a week at KWWRA, at off-the-grid Lunksoos Camps on the banks of the East Brach of the Penobscot River. The first night, local KWWRA supporters welcomed Parsonsfield with a feast and bonfire- a friendly welcome that set the tone for the rest of the retreat. The band hiked Barnard Mountain and saw the Katahdin landscape cloaked in fiery autumn foliage. They went looking (and calling!) for moose. They saw glowing sunsets, and canoed in the same waters that Henry David Thoreau paddled. Parsonsfield had a wealth of experiences and beauty to draw from while writing and composing their Songscape song, KTAADN.

On the band’s final day at KWWRA, we filmed a music video of KTAADN, with the whole band playing in a canoe. This video will be available on Sustain's Youtube channel next week. Parsonsfield has also been performing the song on dry land, at shows across the northeast.

After the retreat, Sustain arranged for Parsonsfield to record their Songscape song at Dirt Floor, a recording studio in Haddam, CT. Dirt Floor, run by Eric Lichter, is one of the original members of Sustain's Green Roster program. Green Roster is a community of bands, luthiers and recording studios which pledge to uphold environmental practices in their businesses. Dirt Floor has been a great supporter of Sustain and generously donated a free recording session for this project. Another Green Roster band member, Greg Dyson of Hanging Hills, donated his graphic arts skills in designing the KTAADN album cover. Sustain is very grateful for everyone's support.

All of this work has culminated in today's release of KTAADN. Parsonsfield has donated the song to Katahdin Woods & Waters Recreation Area to use in their marketing materials, and has made the song available to anyone who would like to purchase it on their website. The proceeds of the song sales will help support Sustain, KWWRA and the band, so we can continue to bring you great music, a great landscape, and future Songscape projects.

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Sustain would like to especially thank the following people for supporting Songscape: Katahdin Woods & Waters Recreation Area and taking a chance on our new organization and our pilot project. Lucas St. Clair (president of Elliotsville Plantation, which founded KWWRA), Susan and Mark Adams (KWWRA Ambassadors & Hosts), Simon Roosevelt, the members of Parsonsfield (Antonio Alcorn, Chris Freeman, Harrison Goodale, Erik Hischman and Max Shakun), Eric Lichter, Greg Dyson, and the Board of Sustain Music and Nature (Ricky Hernandez, Maggie Comstock, Nicole Reese, Aubrey Gallegos, Harrison Goodale and Betsy Mortensen).

Songscape: KWWRA Song Release on Feb. 2

Guess what! You'll be able to listen to and purchase the very first Songscape song, KTAADN, on February 2nd!

The Songscape was held this past October in Maine at Katahdin Woods & Waters Recreation Area with Americana Folk Rock band, Parsonsfield. The band spent a week in the shadow of Mount Katahdin, enjoying all the land had to offer and using their experience to write a song inspired by the landscape.

Katahdin Woods & Waters Recreation Area encompasses 100,000 acres, managed by a Maine foundation, Elliotsville Plantation, Inc. It's open to the public and is working to become America's next National Park. Sustain and Parsonsfield were deeply impressed by the land and people of KWWRA and are excited to share this Songscape song, KTAADN, with the world.

Proceeds from sales of KTAADN will support Parsonsfield, Sustain and Katahdin Woods & Waters Recreation Area.

Sustain also thanks Greg Dyson, of Green Roster band Hanging Hills, for donating his graphic art skills to create this album cover.

Check out Parsonsfield HERE and Katahdin Woods & Waters HERE.

Music Video Preview for Songscape: KWWRA

Here's a quick preview of Parsonsfield's Songscape: KWWRA song! The band managed to fit everyone and their instruments into a canoe on the east branch of the Penobscot River, at Katahdin Woods & Waters Recreation Area.

New Content for Songscape KWWRA Page

Head over to the Songscape KWWRA page to see new photos and updated content. We'll be adding videos soon too!

Check it out: http://www.sustainmusicandnature.org/past-songscapes/

Songscape: KWWRA Recording Session

Yesterday, Parsonsfield headed over to Green Roster Studio, Dirt Floor, in Haddam, CT to record the song they composed for Songscape: Katahdin Woods and Waters Recreation Area. The studio is nestled up in the hills overlooking the Connecticut River, in a cozy log cabin, complete with a great fireplace, a bear of a dog, and even a house rabbit! Owner Eric Lichter was incredibly generous and donated a full day of recording studio time, which has been Sustain's largest donation yet! We couldn't have done this without Eric's support and time.

Enjoy a few photos from the day below, and be sure to keep an eye out for our "Making of Songscape: KWWRA" video in the future, and of course, the release of Parsonsfield's newest song!