**The sign reads: “We Are Mourning the Genocide of Mountain Lions.” (photo credit: Paul Garvey, Mountain Lion Foundation)**

On August 11, 2026 a dozen of us set out on a 37-mile Vigil Walk on Behalf of Our Cougar Kin. This action arising as a response of my heart to the grief and pain of looking into the Heart of Darkness as I discovered that political greed was behind the state sanctioned genocide of mountain lions in our area and throughout Utah.

We walked on Highway 12 from Boulder to Torrey to raise awareness of this atrocity. We walked in Silence recognizing that Silence has the power to touch the heart of the indigenous soul and kindle a memory of our kinship with all of Life. We walked in peace, love and beauty, envisioning a future when cougars flourish and thrive in the wildlands that have been their home for millions of years. Our walk as a ceremony, an offering in the seen realm to connect with the unseen realm…a prayer to forces greater than ourselves.

Along the way we came to call our makeshift community, Cougar Water Pride and discovered a sense of meaning and purpose that arises from collectively attending to what matters and finding that others care too….and while bearing witness to atrocity we discovered a depth in our humanity and a great capacity of our hearts to experience love equal to our grief…for a lot was asked of us along the way.

Three days before embarking on our journey, I inadvertently found out that the DNR (the same agency behind the lethal eradication of the mountain lions) would be poisoning Pleasant Creek with Rotenone and other chemicals as part of their fisheries management on August 10-14. Our vigil walk was scheduled to arrive at Pleasant Creek on August 12 to camp for the night.

Upon receiving this news I felt a knowing in the depth of my being that Mystery aligned this, as the timing was impeccable for us to bear witness to the poisoning of our beloved Pleasant Creek, to document the incident with videos and photos and to offer the sacred waters a healing ceremony. Intentionally walking into the camp while the poisoning was actively occurring would take every ounce of courage within me and when I meditated for guidance, the message I received was to “stay on course.”

**Ricky, Constance, Erika, Abigail and Jaimie…Bearing witness to Pleasant Creek flowing neon purple/pink with toxic chemicals. (photo credit: Ember Foust)**

In Summoned by the Earth, Cynthia Jurs tells the story of how women in Liberia ended the civil war after actively walking into a camp where thousands of men were planning an attack that would likely kill 20,000 women and children. To try to stop this event, “Annie Nushann led one hundred women on a long march to find General Leopard (aka Christain Bethelson) and implore him to reconsider. When they arrived at Bethelson's camp, they begged him to choose peace. But Bethelson just laughed at the women. So, the women started singing. One of the songs was in his native language, and it awakened a long distant childhood memory that touched his heart. He began to cry and commanded his men to lay down their weapons. Annie and the women washed the feet of many men who were ready to surrender and gave them clean shirts, and walked them home. …..It took Annie time to fully trust Christian, but they came to work together for peace in Liberia.”

When I read this story years ago it amplified the knowing in my bones of the power of Sacred Activism. In the face of this atrocity of civil war, the women in Liberia had the capacity to stay rooted in love and had the courage and conviction that their prayer coupled with action could make a difference…and it did. Not only did their prayer and actions lead to the ending of the war, Bethlsen joined the women, who called themselves the Everyday Gandhis, in creating a Peace Hut movement that is active to this day.

“There is something deeper than hope...engagement. Keep showing up...bear witness...tell the truth of what you saw.”

— Terry Tempest Williams

In 2012 I went into a three month silent retreat…”The feeling I had during the months preceding my retreat was that I had to do this or die. The feeling was that strong. I was in a lot of pain throughout my whole body, but specifically I was experiencing a sharp pain in my heart. The thoughts that started coming in around my need to retreat were that I had to discover another way of being in these times. That the fight I’ve been fighting for Earth and another way of living is a fight the mainstream system has enticed me into. And the fight was going to kill me. Literally.

By mid February, I was forced to confront my mortality and fight for my life. The realization that my empathy for Earth, and the destruction she is enduring and the fight I was in to save her had the potential to kill me, was a catalyst to wake me up from the nightmare. I broke my silence out in the wild only to scream to release the pain I’d been manifesting in my body. I’d go out on a mesa with the rocks, pinion, juniper, hawks and ravens as my witnesses and rage until exhausted and crying. It was in this place of complete surrender that another force found its way through—the Grace of a Great Love, reaching out from all of Nature.” (quoting from my essay: The Story Behind the Story 2013).

Sacred Activism is a devotional response to my Love for this Living World. I walk the mountains and desert with offerings in my hand and blessings with each step, walking in praise and grief for Sacred Waters, Earth and All Beings, tending to the Holy in Nature. …I walk with all that feels like too much..for all that feels way beyond my limited capacity to change…and yet I’ve experienced the change that occurs through prayer and ceremony when forces..perhaps a Great Love… from the unseen realm align with our on the ground dedication to be of service to Life. A Vigil Walk on Behalf of Our Cougar Kin is continuing to ripple out in all directions in mysterious ways. May this be good medicine for the benefit of All Beings.

“The eyes of the future are looking back at us and they are praying for us to see beyond our own time. They are kneeling with hands clasped that we might act with restraint, that we might leave room for the life that is destined to come. To protect what is wild is to protect what is gentle. Perhaps the wilderness we fear is the pause between our own heartbeats, the silent space that says we live only by grace. Wilderness lives by this same grace. Wild mercy is in our hands.” ~ Terry Tempest Williams, from Refuge (photo credit Denise Peterson, Mountain Lion Conservation)

A Nature Mystic with Practical Feet

Upon my return from the vigil walk, I reached out to the Department of Natural Resources to discuss the incident at Pleasant Creek and I ended up speaking to Dax Mangus, the regional supervisor for DNR. A result of our conversation was an agreement that he would come to Boulder for a Listening Session with our community on September 22, 2026. Here are the comments I presented and soon I will be able to offer an audio podcast of the event…as it was quite inspiring!

To Dax Mangus:
This past January over 100 individuals attended a presentation with mountain lion researcher, Joshua Lisbon as I had invited him to Boulder to teach us how to be in a good relationship with the cougars who have lived here as a species for thousands of years.

Joshua began with showing us his documentary, Willow: Diary of Mountain Lion which provided us with an intimate glimpse into the lives of mountain lions as well as a diversity of wildlife. We delighted in witnessing cougars interacting in family and social relationships, raising their young and coexisting with other animals within a wild and beautiful forest in Montana. And we learned about the crucial role cougars have in the greater ecology, not only culling sick and diseased deer from the herds, including those with CWD but supporting a trophic cascade of beneficial relationships with vegetation, other animals, birds and insects.

That evening we also found out about WRI 7707, the study out of BYU that is funded by Sportsmen for Fish and Wildlife and the Wild Sheep Foundation, whose priorities are the availability of trophy mule deer and trophy wild sheep. And we learned that Governor Spencer Cox, Casey Snyder, Carl Albrecht, and Scott Sandall have essentially unleashed a genocide on mountain lions in Utah by supporting and signing legislature~HB125 and HB469.

Discovering that personal and political greed and willful disregard for the greater ecology is driving current wildlife management was like pulling back a curtain and looking into the Heart of Darkness. I know that I wasn't the only one in the room that night who was feeling devastated and heartbroken.

Lethally eradicating a species is forcing them into extinction and this is morally and ethically a crime against Nature. And currently we are seeing how management policies of eradication are creating a devastating cascade effect in the ecology as Boulder Mountain is diminishing in ecological health.

There is a vital intelligence in Nature where each being has their unique ecological role and niche, including cougars…including humans. If we tend from a place of our role in the greater ecology, Nature can flourish and thrive. Mountain lions and all the animals are our kin…our relatives… and All Beings have an intrinsic right to their lives just as we do…to betray this is to betray our own humanity.

I request the immediate ending of WRI-7707, HB125 and HB469.

Sincerely, Constance Lynn

Dear Mike Hadley (Mike Hadley is the aquatics manager for DNR).

Today is Sunday, August 16, a few days after the Rotenone poisoning, and I’ve been walking alongside Pleasant Creek offering prayers for healing, as this water is sacred …all water is sacred.

Pleasant Creek, this water, sacred water was alive last week with moss beds, deep green with sparkly white flowers who live under the water and today the moss beds are brown/black and the flowers are all dead and some aquatic organism is stuck in the vegetation, carried like small white flags as water flows through.

I come here weekly and I know just where to sit to see a dipper or two flying through or pausing to dip on a rock and sing their melodic song…of course there aren't any dippers today because their food is all dead and there aren’t any swifts either who just last week were speeding through the air and cresting the surface of the water for a drink…and the mayflies are gone and with them the Willow flycatchers....and of course there aren’t any fish, well unless you count the dead ones lying in the bottom of the creek. Even the squirrels who are always here are gone and I worry about the impact the poisoning has on them and other mammals as Rotenone is linked to Parkinson’s Disease in humans, so why wouldn’t it also affect the deer, elk, cougars, coyotes, fox, bears, squirrels, chipmunks…..

As I wander the creek alone I’m aware that in my 18 years here I have never seen anyone fishing in Pleasant Creek, nor have I seen you or any DNR employees walking the ground and experiencing the place. When I requested that you pause before going through with the plans to poison Pleasant Creek on August 10-14, my next request would have been to have you walk this land, this creek with me…to experience the aliveness and beauty and how special this creek is and this place and the mountain are…perhaps after some time walking together and seeing this place through my eyes you’d begin to see kin instead of resource…sacred water instead of a fishery, a full ecology instead of a fixation on eradicating fish that DNR planted in the creek years ago.

Perhaps if you were open to meeting with the locals who call Boulder Mountain home, you’d discover the depth of knowledge and wisdom we have from engaging with and caring for this place, the forest, trees, plants, animals, water, insects and birds…perhaps you’d discover that we could be allies in coming up with solutions and plans to tend to the greater ecology that aren't based on an eradication mentality that rationalizes the use of poison or any means necessary to meet a goal.

During the call I had with you on August 7 you mentioned that there would be collateral damage from the poisoning and I asked, “do you mean more than the fish are killed?" and you replied, “yes.” Collateral damage that creates a devastating cascading effect in the ecosystem is unacceptable and is avoidable. Currently there is collateral damage in your decision to once again push through with an agenda to poison and sterilize a creek without engaging with the Boulder Community and a dozen individuals experienced the collateral damage of walking into the meadow on August 12 to find our beloved creek flowing neon pink with toxic chemicals.

My request now is to do what is necessary to heal the rift between DNR and the Boulder community by working with us and to refrain from using Rotenone and other chemicals for fisheries management.

May we recognize Water as Life and the responsibility we have to care for the sacred waters of the Aquarius Plateau for the benefit of All Beings.

Sincerely, Constance Lynn

Boulder Community Quest~Sacred and Depth Activism

November 4-8, 2026

“Sacred/Depth Activism is about being fully present, deeply aware and actively engaged…so change is both rooted in the heart and effective in the world.”

Join us for 5 days and 4 nights out in the desert with wild water…sitting around a fire and under the stars as we explore our theme of Sacred and Depth Activism. In a time of growing threats to the places we love, the sacred waters and wildlife, how do we release feelings of helplessness, overwhelm, or simply standing by and discover that acting on behalf of what we care for gives us purpose and meaning? What might sacred and depth activism look like when it grows from our sense of belonging, responsibility, devotion and love? How do we respond when our love for a place, a community, and the living world asks more of us than we are accustomed to giving?

The Five-Day Experience

For five days, we will gather in the desert to explore our theme through discussion, council, ceremony, and practices of awareness and deep listening. As well, we will consider what it means to act with greater intention, courage, and responsibility, and how our individual gifts and sense of purpose find expression in service to something larger than ourselves.

At the heart of the Quest, each participant will enter a 24-hour period of solitude on the land, fasting from food if desired, while guides hold space at basecamp. This is an opportunity to step away from the demands and distractions of daily life, to open to our direct experience with the land and the encounters with the beings of nature, and to listen for a clearer sense of purpose and belonging.

Upon returning from the solo, we will share our stories, with reflections from the guides and each other, and explore how the insights from our time on the land informs our individual and collective actions.

THE DETAILS

WHEN: November 4–8, 2026. Departing Boulder at 9:30 on Wednesday and closing the quest at 1pm on Sunday. Participants will organize carpooling.

WHERE: Desert location TBA.

WHO: Those already engaged in activism or are interested in the topic of sacred and depth activism. (18 years or older and no pets please)

PREP: We will send out a welcome letter and suggested gear list once you register. We request bringing an armful of firewood for our communal fires.

MEALS: We will provide a meal upon return from the solo and we’ll have some cooking stoves for communal use, although you might like to bring a personal backpacking stove, as well. Please bring all other personal meals and water. (details on meals will be in your prep letter).

SOBER EVENT: No alcohol or consciousness-altering substances, thank you.

REGISTER: Please contact the facilitators by October 28 to reserve your place.

RECIPROCITY:

We are offering this quest as a giveaway to our community, yet a donation of

$300/person will support us in our ongoing activism on behalf of the Sacred Waters of the Aquarius Plateau and our Cougar kin.

In the spirit of reciprocity, we ask that you return with the intention of living what you learned during your time on the land. What we receive through solitude, deep listening, and relationship with Nature carries an invitation to give something back. This may result in action that we tend to as a community beyond the quest.

THE FACILITATORS:

Constance Lynn, Matt Cochran and Shawn Berry

Please reach out to any of us individually with questions or to hear more about our personal experience in guiding and supporting nature-based soul offerings.