'Harmony in Diversity': Regenerative Experimentation through Playful Pedagogy in Colorado's Short Grass Prairie

Across what we now call Colorado, the Denver metropolitan area—encompassing Aurora, Centennial, and surrounding communities—houses nearly 3 million people within what was once thriving Short Grass Prairie habitat. Rather than surrendering to ecological grief, we can transform overwhelm into purposeful action by examining pre-colonial land relationships before the 1851 Fort Laramie and 1861 Fort Wise treaties, while integrating time-tested Silvo Pastoral Systems with contemporary regenerative practices. This weaving reveals an intricate tapestry where diversity and harmony dance together.

The climate emergency has accelerated dramatically since 2016, elevating this regenerative work from meaningful to essential. Former predictions have materialized into present realities—unprecedented wildfire seasons, altered precipitation cycles, and ecosystem disruption across our bioregion. Yet instead of succumbing to despair, we can embrace what Joanna Macy terms "Active Hope"—awakening to life's beauty and acting on its behalf. We belong to this living world, and our children deserve to inherit reciprocal relationships rather than extractive legacies.

This regenerative experimentation in nature-based education embodies Macy's "Great Turning"—the civilizational shift from industrial growth society toward life-sustaining culture. Our playful pedagogy with children, families, and community elders through Forest School principles weaves together seemingly disparate yet interconnected themes that challenge binary thinking:

• Indigenous-led Buffalo Treaty initiatives * alongside iridescent Rainbow Scarab ecology;

• Urban development pressures * balanced with ecosystem restoration;

• Ancient Silvo Pastoral Systems wisdom * integrated with Permaculture design principles

  
  

Through songs, stories, and hands-on exploration of these sophisticated concepts, we discover hopeful possibilities: Our metropolitan landscape need not remain degraded habitat but can transform into vibrant ecosystems supporting diverse life, cultures, and futures.

Indigenous Leadership: The Buffalo Treaty Movement

The Buffalo Treaty exemplifies Indigenous-led conservation focused on North American bison restoration and protection. This intertribal alliance, spanning present-day Canadian and United States borders, demonstrates bioregional collaboration transcending colonial boundaries. Beginning with grassroots organizing around 2004, the treaty gained formal recognition in 2014 with 13 founding nations across 8 reservations. A decade later, hundreds of additional tribally sovereign nations have joined, including South American Indigenous communities.

This alliance commits to restoring bison across 6.3 million acres—equivalent to Massachusetts—between Canada and the United States. Local restoration partnerships include Denver Zoo, Denver Mountain Parks, The Tall Bull Memorial, and Highland Ranch BackCountry Wilderness Area.

Significantly, 2022 marked the first century without Denver's annual bison auction, where Genesee and Daniels Park herds were sold for meat. Instead, 33 buffalo returned to Native communities as reparations: 15 to Wyoming's Northern Arapaho Tribe, 17 to Oklahoma's Cheyenne and Arapaho Tribes, and one to Denver's Tall Bull Memorial Council.

This transformation from commodity auction to reparative return exemplifies the economic paradigm shift required—moving beyond extractive systems that commodify life toward regenerative relationships honoring reciprocity and historical repair. Such initiatives emphasize revitalizing cultural heritage alongside biodiversity while regenerating landscapes for multispecies flourishing.

But how do we actually engage these complex topics through play? Colorado Public Radio featured our approach, with Jenny Brundine observing: "Initially resembling conventional preschool—story time, painting, singing—these 3- to 6-year-olds sing about mycelium, nematodes, and planetary care, partially in Māori language."

"Tane Mahuta/ Guardian of the forest/ We're planting seeds/ Thinking of Amazing Grace/ Mycelium and mycorrhizae/ Tree roots, soil and nematodes too!"

Our daily song continues through additional verses:

We give back/ More than we take/ All that we touch/ We change good or bad/ All that we change/It changes us too/ Tihei mauriora/ Breath the breath of Life

Regeneration/ Is one path forward/ Cheyenne Arapaho/ Lakota Ute Diné/ Buffalo Treaty/ And Languages too

Te Ringa Tika/ Reconciliation/ Listen to this Waiata/ With your heart/ Tihei mauriora/ Breath the breath of Life

Brundine concludes by quoting Jennifer Kollerup, Mycelium Director for Colorado Collective for Nature Based Early Education: "It's simultaneously cutting-edge early childhood practice and completely ancient wisdom."

Ecological Jewels: Rainbow Scarab Mysteries

Within prairie grasslands, Rainbow Scarabs add brilliant color while maintaining crucial ecological balance across Short Grass Prairie ecosystems. These remarkable beetles serve as both pollinators and soil regenerators, demonstrating nature's intricate diversity through seemingly small inhabitants.

Children's natural fascination with insects, supported by deeper regenerative ecology and entomological knowledge, creates profound play-based learning opportunities. The Prairie Ecologist blog features Hubbard Fellow Olivia Schouten explaining: "While walking through prairies—or anywhere—most people avoid animal waste piles. Though unpleasant to encounter or smell, scat remains essential ecosystem components that many creatures actively seek."

Rainbow scarabs join over 50 dung beetle species documented across Colorado and Nebraska short grass prairies, playing vital soil regeneration roles. Chris Helzer, Nebraska Nature Conservancy Science Director and author of "The Ecology and Management of Prairies in the Central United States," describes three beetle categories:

Dwellers

Tunnelers

Rollers

"Dwellers simply inhabit manure piles. Tunnelers burrow beneath, burying portions for larval food. But ROLLERS create spherical manure balls, rolling them across landscapes for our entertainment—and to locate perfect burial sites for egg-laying. While all three types break down manure and return nutrients to soil, rollers accomplish this work most entertainingly!"

Urban landscapes typically lack large ungulates producing the dung these beetles require for survival and processing through rolling, tunneling, or dwelling behaviors. Though buffalo reclassification from livestock to wildlife remains distant, young children easily imagine "Bison Jams" across Havana and Hampden Boulevards. More practically, our partner school Wild Roots in Highlands Ranch borders Daniels Park Buffalo Herd and recently agreed to expand grazing range onto their property.

Urban Complexity: Beyond Development Versus Preservation

Continuing urbanization pressures threaten Short Grass Prairie habitats with unprecedented challenges. Rather than accepting either/or frameworks pitting development against conservation, we practice both/and approaches honoring urban life complexity while centering ecological relationships. Balancing progress with preservation requires innovative solutions prioritizing ecosystem health amid rapid metropolitan expansion.

Within our polarized political climate, binary thinking about these issues becomes tempting. However, regenerative education teaches complexity-holding—acknowledging our embeddedness within harmful systems while simultaneously creating alternatives. This nuanced approach proves essential for navigating tensions between human needs and more-than-human world protection.

One outdoor nature-based preschool parent describes learning extending beyond children. From "Colorado's outdoor preschools trade chalkboards and desks for crawdads and mud": "Aubrey Newnam, who spent her childhood outdoors, notes her daughter has time for play and observation, bringing home daily treasures. 'So many people maintain constant activity without downtime,' Newnam observes. 'For us, this approach helps not just her but parents understand relaxation. Not everything requires constant go-go-go.'"

Ecosystem Health: Nurturing the Land

Short Grass Prairie vitality depends upon delicate ecosystem balance. Embracing regenerative practices promoting biodiversity, soil health, and water conservation enables stakeholders to foster landscapes thriving across generations. Nurturing land through sustainable practices represents responsibility rather than choice—our obligation to planetary wellbeing.

Intergenerational playful practices focusing on soil health and giving back more than we take remain achievable. We establish seed banks, replant disturbed areas, and help propagate wild edibles including chokecherries, currants, sand cherries, and prickly pears.

Ancient Wisdom: Silvo Pastoral System Blueprints

Time-honored Silvo Pastoral Systems provide regenerative land management blueprints integrating trees, livestock, and agriculture through holistic approaches. Weaving historical wisdom with contemporary innovation reveals regenerative solutions uplifting both landscapes and dependent communities.

Since Colorado's first broken treaty, Denver-Aurora-Centennial metropolitan culture faces ongoing challenges. Many residents working 40+ hour weeks to pay bills, support families, and hope for annual two-week vacations lack time for learning about the 1825 Yellowstone River "buffalo treaty" or the 2014 Buffalo Treaty celebrating its tenth anniversary this September.

Families raising young children find it overwhelming to hear how settler colonial culture continues dividing, controlling, and exploiting land—exacerbated by modern urbanization and agricultural practices producing single-crop yields for global economic systems. Moving from despair toward active hope, Buffalo: A Treaty of Cooperation, Renewal and Restoration invites all Bison, Buffalo, Iinnii, Tatanga, Tatanka, Paskwâwimostos, Xaniti, Qwisp, Kamquq̓ukuǂ ʔiyamu, Iyanee', heneeceeno', ésevone, Mushkode Bizhikim, Q'weyqway, Hii3einoon, boyzhan and countless relatives to September 22-25, 2024 Gathering. Co-hosts include Motokiiksi (Buffalo Women's Society), Blood Tribe (Kainai First Nation) of Blackfoot Confederacy, and International Buffalo Relations Institute.

Regenerative Alternatives: Mycelium Cooperative Vision

Through Mycelium Cooperative's integrated school model and teacher ownership structure, we're developing concrete alternatives to educational and economic systems contributing to social inequality and ecological destruction. This exemplifies life-affirming growth emerging from extractive system ruins.

Our Pay What You Can culture embodies radical trust and relationship-centered approaches necessary for building truly integrated learning communities. Rather than perpetuating extractive economics separating families by class, we experiment with solidarity economies making transformative education universally accessible.

At minimum, Denver-Aurora-Centennial families can raise children more aware and connected to Short Grass Prairie history and ecological functions. Through patient observation and learning alongside curious children, entire ecosystems can demonstrate the intricate diversity-unity dance defining our world.

Through Buffalo Treaty, Rainbow Scarabs, urbanization challenges, ecosystem health, and timeless Silvo Pastoral Systems and Permaculture Theory principles, we discover resilience, adaptation, and hope narratives. Let us embrace this regenerative experimentation journey, collaborating toward futures where harmony in diversity flourishes.

These sophisticated concepts become accessible through playful exploration within Regenerative Experimentation and Outdoor Nature Based Schools. Let prairies guide us toward brighter tomorrows, leaving legacies of stewardship, respect, and love for the natural world.

Throughout the next three seasons—Fall, Winter, and Spring—"Regenerative Ryan Pleune" shares weekly live sessions on Vimeo and Facebook, exploring these topics through songs, stories, and reflections from "Grasslands" School (Forest School) experiences with students ages 3-15 plus adult workshops.

Click Play below for his first live footage mash up:

My writing serves diverse audiences—families, guardians, parents, practitioners, graduate students, and community adults—covering "Tangled Bank" (Darwin's enduring metaphor) interests, initiatives, and networks.

Through Outdoor Nature Based Preschools, K-8 Forest School, and Emergent Strategy Wildcraft Workshops for Adults, we explore perception, observation, interpretation, and reciprocity from human and more-than-human perspectives. Central to all age groups remains this concept: Early Childhood is "Not just cute, but powerful and incredibly important."