Haifa a city in nature • Nahal Lotem community ○ Discovering and learning together the secrets of the Wadi

(live here in the wild) - Last week, in this column, we presented the Ehud Trail community that formed around the neighborhood trail following the initiative of neighbors who organize outdoor gatherings. This time I turned to Efi Bat Ilan, who leads the unique collection and listening group of Wadi Lotem, a long-time resident of Carmel, who with great talent described the meetings of the Nahal Lotem community in the wadi near their home and the secret life they discovered there...

Nahal Lotem community Efi Bat-Ilan

Last Saturday (1/7/23), in anticipation of the full moon of Tammuz (which rose on Tuesday this week), the community of Wadi Lotem received an obviously unexpected gift. A moonlit night tour at the mouth of the gorge that was organized spontaneously on Saturday afternoon turned into a romantic journey - the small group found themselves walking among patient, stationary fireflies, planted in a thicket or on a low rock, and the suitors who flashed around them in a calm and mesmerizing cruise, looking for their partner for the moment, or for the season.

The surprise was doubled and very happy. Although community members have already begun to report a single firefly, or at most two, observed in gardens or stairwells, their decline in Israel is well known. No one expected to see many of them at once, and more here in the river. The magic that took hold of the small group that had gathered its feet in the dark and instantly reported sent ripples of excitement all around, setting in motion two more night patrols.

Who doesn't want to see a firefly?

Naturally, most of the community's activity does not happen at night, of course, but during the day, with a distinct emphasis on sunrises and sunsets. This is an activity that takes place in the Wadi itself, as well as in a lively conversation about birds, plants, spirits and transformations in a lively WhatsApp group that also attracted Haifaites who do not live directly on the banks of the Lotem River. Looking at the nature close to us, sharing, asking questions and together exploring the possible answers are a form of action that connects us to the flora and fauna around us and to each other and to the history of the place at that time.

Collecting and listening

The community was formally formed thanks to the first Haifa wadi tours in the fall of 2021, led by Inbal Chen Bergev, from which arose the initiative of Rotem Levy, a young researcher and tour guide who brought great vitality to the early tours, a rich look at the place of this central wadi in the fabric of the city and its special abundance, and no less Important - organized and invested events.

The first tour, called "Collecting and Listening in Wadi Lotem" became a kind of nickname and the name of the active WhatsApp group. Rotem's initiative was naturally connected to the personal learning processes of several members of the community who had already conducted extensive correspondence regarding the identification of the sounds of the local warblers and nightingales, the arrival dates of the sissies and the shrews, and seasonal changes in the two types of loess and the invasions of the monk's cap beyond the banks of the wadi and along it.

"Veterans of the Wadi"

Already on that first tour, the group's modus operandi was established - hot coffee (brewed on the spot), cookies, mutual acquaintances, surprising route innovations, and above all the invitation to deepen attention. At the end of that tour, for example, Yaakov Garev, an environmental researcher who lives above the Nahal Hatshebi branch, shared with the travelers pieces of micro-observation in the vicinity of the basketball court at the entrance of the branch, where he followed every day for more than two years the patterns of fall and accumulation of eucalyptus leaves, the scattering of seeds, knots Between cats and ants, and woodpeckers and electric poles. for example.

Michal Hertz, on the other hand, a botanist and nature painter (a hobbyist, she emphasizes), a well-known activist in Western Carmel and one of the founders of the daffodil garden, has been observing Wadi Lotem from her balcony in Shoshanat Carmel for 40 years. For her part, she told about a wonderful morning in which she woke up to a white wadi, not from snow, but from the wings of white storks that camped here for a rare overnight stay. She knew how to explain that the natural route of the Hasids goes far east from here, but that heavy Hamsin winds sometimes divert them to the west.

The extensive knowledge of Michal, and of others such as the photographer Nili Benno, who has been photographing the flora and fauna in the Wadi (and throughout the city, and more), for decades, is one of the great resources of the community. The conversation with them and other neighbors prompted a series of in-depth interviews with "Wadi veterans," who know how to tell about a toad pond, a flowing water channel, abundant and seasonal flowering, and other wonders that characterized the Wadi decades ago.

A profound and funny observation

On last fall's equinox, the community held a performative storytelling evening, where speakers were hosted who presented an in-depth - and funny - observation of the changing geographical systems in the stream alongside music, and a fragrant plant mandala of late summer. The event was held in front of the sunset and the wadi that spreads out from the lower extension of the Haifa Zoo and by his courtesy, to allow veterans who have difficulty getting down and up from the gorge to participate; The interviews and the collection of local history continue.

As mentioned, most of the group's activity takes place in the Wadi itself. Since the first tour, the community has experienced, among other things, "tracking trees," and "relationships between birds and plants" with the urban nature guide and birder Oren Baum; Painting with the young painter Maayan Fogel, who found and painted spectacular cuckoo feathers on her preliminary tour, and even sang us a song in Portuguese for dessert; Wadi meetings with landscape architecture students from the Technion and tour guides, and a formative look at the restoration of the forest and the land that is so necessary with Gilad Margalit, an educator and permaculture person.

Ripples of inspiration

The issue of rehabilitation is not accidental, of course. Learning the depth of the habits of the bastard that sits above the electric pole on Leonardo's path, for example, is heartening and comforting, but does not eliminate the multitude of hazards that this wadi, like most wadis of the city, has absorbed and continues to absorb. In the spring, the members of the group initiated and operated cleaning days at the mouth of the Wadi, one of them with the help of the hardworking and multi-tasking Clean City group, led by Olinka Alyenka. Committed group members spoke with professionals and established continuous contact with the people of Carmel Water who spent a lot of time repairing a stubborn sewer breach at the entrance to the Wadi. The municipality mobilized for a pruning and clearing day, and we hope for more days.

These actions and their ripples inspired others in the group to report and address local waste hazards and plan continuous and consistent cleanup operations. Naama Tesler, an expert in forest restoration after a fire and a friend of the group, volunteered to give an assessment of the state of the entrance to the Magen Ham trail and help the group members begin to understand the action required there. The Reali School, which used to visit Wadi Tadir frequently, became interested in it again.

A connection to life in the Wadi

The permaculture tours and the work in the field that developed organically as a result of the connection to everything that lives and moves in the Wadi illustrate the vision that motivates the people of the group: revealing the large and full of life presence of the Wadi as a resource for learning, art and seasonal rituals that deepen the connection between the human, animal and plant communities around it, and revive the These communities as a whole fabric. Or Gilat, a member of the group and (among other things) a family constellation facilitator, offered us a groundbreaking action a year ago - a tree constellation. Like the moonlit night tours that one of the group's members started last fall, the offer to experience the energy of the trees in the ancient olive grove in the Wadi did allow for a special poetic magic that connects well with the emphasis on observation and attention that are the community's DNA.

Or described the group's activity as the awakening of a dormant nervous system, which is the connection with nature and through it a new type of creative connections between men and women. When the connections are opened and the information flows again, the sense of the seasons, the fluctuations, and the beauty so close to us awaken wonder and forgotten knowledge, and strengthen our ability to see the beauty also in our human neighbors, who echo the wonder and learn with us. The connection strengthens our powers to act - if only for all this threatened beauty. The wadi that teaches us its secrets - in the rhythm of the falling leaves, in the flight of the fireflies, in the consistent and increasing joy that the connection with it builds - directs us to the healing of the entire city.

The wadis are the lifelines that Haifa was blessed with, the threat to them threatens everything that is unique here. May we continue to build a sustaining community and a model for relations with the wild creatures around us, which in connection with them bring as well as symbolize the possibility of reformed urbanism and community.