Landscape ~ Hardscape ~ Water & Fire Features
Walking Fish
My story begins in the Finger Lakes region of Upstate New York. Surrounded by water, mixed forest, fields, and orchards meant there was no shortage of places to explore. I could usually be found outside on a quest to find a new waterfall or swimming hole leaving no stone un-turned in search of berries, toads, or the occasional salamander.
Walking Fish was a title given to me shortly after I learned to swim due to my affinity for swimming primarily underwater. Like any good nickname it well encapsulated traits and characteristics I would carry for years to come. My fascination with hidden worlds and curiosity for all things nature would shape future interests in art, organic farming, ecological restoration, and environmental sustainability. However, deforestation, destruction of habitat, and industrialized agriculture, would become the catalyst spearheading a journey that would lead me across the country, heeding the call of mountains, big trees, and all the places I had yet to explore.​
​Walking Fish is the culmination of my life's work in the fields of agriculture, landscape construction, local/organic food systems, and entrepreneurship. The skills and experience I have gained converge with the common interest of deepening our connection with nature, and pioneering a fundamental shift in the way we live our daily lives.
Philosophy
The Salamander, a.k.a. Walking Fish, is a symbol for regeneration, adaptability and transformation. As both an indicator and keystone species, the salamander plays a vital role in the health and structure of their environment. The salamander reminds us to tread lightly, attune to nature's cycles, have an active role in the preservation of our shared habitat, and leave only footprints.
​In a healthy forest there is no waste, resources cycle, energy is shared, and resilience emerges from the understory like newly sprouted seeds reaching for the light. We believe our communities, like a forest, are living systems shaped by relationship, balance, and time. In the same way a forest organizes itself through cooperation and diversity, we organize our projects, as an eco-system, with each decision connected and every action branching out to accompany the greater chorus.
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Rooted in the natural world we design and implement systems with the understanding that abundance is inherent when aligned with ecological principles. Our work gives rise to the idea that our built environments shouldn't be imposed upon nature, rather co-created, resulting in spaces that feel less like an installation and more like an awakening.
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Vision
The current status of environmental policy, industry, and developing technologies pose some the greatest threats of our time. Clean water, healthy living soil, and the air we breathe are all at risk. We are faced with the stark reality that these failing systems, if left unchecked would alter the future of life on this planet. Ultimately we are standing with a foot planted in two opposing worlds, our decisions forever marking the point at which we will one day look back and say, this was the time when everything changed.
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At Walking Fish, we envision a future where human environments seamlessly integrate with the natural world. Cities and rural spaces alike are transformed into living and breathing ecosystems that capture carbon, restore soil life, and manage water with elegance and intelligence. Gardens are brimming with native and adapted plants; food forests, pollinator/wildlife corridors, and renewable energy systems are infused into the landscape, and we are remembered not for what we built, but for what we allowed to flourish.
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Our landscapes tell a story of possibility, where working with nature is the rule and not the exception. The line between what is built and what is grown dissolves, and what is left, having undergone a state of metamorphosis, emerges as a more refined version, like lead transformed to gold.
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