I acknowledge that I live and work on the traditional, ancestral, and ongoing homelands of the Cherokee, East (Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians), Osage Nation, Yuchi (Euchee), and Shawnee peoples.

My relationship to this land is one of resident and worker, guided by a growing intention to be a respectful and reciprocal partner. My commitment is embodied through The Positive Pollinator™ ecosystem, where I honor my dual role as scientist and artist by creating tools that help others strengthen their bonds of resilience with the more-than-human world. My primary action is to directly heal the small piece of land I steward by returning it to native species as a tangible, ongoing practice of care and restoration for these homelands.

This acknowledgement reflects my journey to understand my responsibilities within this living network of relations.

This land acknowledgement was crafted with information and reflective guidance from the Native Land Digital’s Constellation Map (https://native-land.ca/maps/constellation).

The Positive Pollinator™ ecosystem does not approach more-than-human species as metaphors to be mined or resources to be used for human benefit alone. This work focuses on exchange not extraction, by opening with attention (to each species’ life history, relationships, names, strategies, and seasonal rhythms) and closing with care (identified vulnerabilities, suggested stewardship actions).

Any effort to learn from more-than-human resilience must also ask how to care for the beings and habitats that make such learning possible. Nature-Based Solutions for the Soul™ is therefore rooted in reciprocal care: strengthening human capacity while deepening connection to, responsibility toward, and care for the living world.

The Positive Pollinator™ ecosystem lives at the intersection of scientific rigor, creative expression, and reciprocal care. This work is guided by the following commitments:

• Scientific Integrity: Grounding ecological claims, species profiles, and conservation guidance in credible science, peer-reviewed literature where available, and conservation best practices.

• Creative & Ethical Translation: Translating ecological insight into Nature-Based Solutions for the Soul™ with care, humility, and transparency, without reducing more-than-human species to simplistic metaphors or rigid prescriptions.

• Professional Resilience: Advocating for the internal health of those working within siloed, complex, and/or high-pressure conservation and care-based systems.

• Protection of Intellectual Property: Maintaining the boundaries of the Nature-Based Solutions for the Soul™ framework, Specimen Protocols™, original artwork, and related materials so the work remains a dedicated and integrity-held tool for the communities it is intended to serve.

The Positive Pollinator™ is built with care, time, research, original artwork, and lived creative practice. I welcome thoughtful sharing, citation, conversation, and connection to this work, while also protecting the integrity of the original frameworks and materials.

• Intellectual Property: All content on this website and within The Liminal Ledger™, including text, original artwork, the Nature-Based Solutions for the Soul (NBSS)™ methodology and framework, and the Specimen Protocols™, is the intellectual property of Shannon Westlake and The Positive Pollinator™.

• Protection of Derivative Works: No part of this site or its associated frameworks may be reproduced, distributed, transmitted, adapted, or used to create derivative works in any form or by any means without prior written permission. This includes adaptations or applications of the Specimen Protocols™ or NBSS™ methodology or framework for commercial, public, educational, organizational, or programmatic use.

This work is a synthesis of more than twenty years of collaboration, mentorship, observation, practice, and learning. I hold deep gratitude for the countless people, places, lands, waters, and more-than-human species whose resilience, presence, labor, care, and ways of being have inspired this effort and ecosystem. 

The Positive Pollinator™ is still growing with care, and I hold that growth with humility, responsibility, and gratitude.