Meet the Team
This week, Ecotone Home introduces you to Galen Smith, the Landscape Designer behind Ecotone Land and a Founding Partner of Ecotone Home.
My name is Galen Smith. I am an award-winning Graphic Designer and author with 35 years of marketing and communications experience. I have spent over 25 years in the NYC publishing industry designing books focusing on lifestyle, art, and culture. Recently, I have advanced my longstanding personal passion for low impact landscape design into a professional pursuit with Ecotone Land.
I grew up in an ecological and cultural ecotone. The old farms had become unprofitable, and the wooded areas between the fields were starting to expand, initiating the process of re-wilding the acreage. The rural low-density culture was now being replaced by the higher density ever expanding suburban sprawl. My parents moved further into the country; I moved into town.
My partner and I purchased a property in upstate New York in 2011 that was rather similar to the rural landscape that I had grown up in. As we got to know this landscape, we slowly began reshaping it with small, manageable interventions that allowed nature to lead the way. Much of the small scale landwork that we did was similar to the work I had seen my parents and grandparents do. As an adult, it didn’t just elicit a feeling of nostalgia; it provided some basic insights. We saw that their low intensity approach, which saved their energy, their time and their money, was leading to a subtle, integrated natural space with seamless transitions. Not a space that mimics a pre-Columbian forest; it accepts that the land has a history; it is in a state of permanent transition, and it is willing to make space for us to take part in it.
Over the years, we came to love this ecotone environment. It is a common phenomenon in the rural outposts of the Catskills mountains - land once cleared for agriculture is transitioning back into a wild state and in the process the line between field and forest becomes blurred. In the ecotone a larger than average variety of plant species flourish, resulting in a robust, competitive environment of food and shelter for many animals, birds, and insects. While the trace of human activity can still be found - rock walls define boundaries no longer observed and one can occasionally find a piece of an old plow - the ecotone provides endless opportunities to observe and enjoy nature. Our goal was to make it accessible without compromising habitats.
We began with the selective removal of particularly aggressive, invasive plant species - those that form dense, thorny, impenetrable thickets, choking neighboring trees and shrubs. The difficult, time-consuming labor of removing these tenacious plants by hand paid off. Without going too far, we could open up views, uncover a tree or shrub allowing it to thrive. We could make subtle access points that open onto private spaces. By adding trails, foot bridges, steppingstones and corduroy roads we could work our way further into the landscape without disturbing the wildlife we’d come to see.
Getting to know our ecotone and all it had to offer we started curating destinations - cross over a footbridge and through a thicket tunnel and you arrive at the enormous stone ledge we aptly call Picnic Rock, climb the hand mowed creek trail to the edge of the woods and you’ll arrive at Rathduff, our birdblind structure built from deadfall trees and foraged stone. By being mindful and selective, we’ve created spaces that are immersive and magical. They are spaces that exhibit a desire to engage with nature rather than the need to conquer it.
We bring this feeling of interaction and ease to every property that Ecotone Land develops. We look for existing places of interest - a hidden meadow, a vernal pond, a stone ledge. These spots are often concealed and difficult to access. We carefully mitigate the difficulties to facilitate and enhance these destinations without diminishing their natural beauty or the role they play in the ecosystem. Our use of foraged stone, deadfall wood, and re-claimed lumber ensures our interventions are non-toxic, biodegradable, and environmentally seamless. Our small structures provide a comfortable place for observation or picnicking. If there is a promising small brook or marshy zone, we create micro ponds that promote insect, bird and amphibian activity.
Our work is methodical, done mainly with hand tools, and performed with the utmost care and concern for the natural habitats we want our clients to experience. We believe that this kind of engagement fosters an appreciation for nature that will have a lasting effect on our relationship with the environment, drawing us toward more responsible decision making and resulting in happier, healthier lifestyles.
