Astounding Earth
Astounding Earth
Classes That Connect
Cultivating Eco-literacy, Sense of Place and Deep Nature Connection through Experiential Education and Mentoring.
Explore Classes & Workshops
Learning the plants around us profoundly changes how we walk through the world. Astounding Earth offers deep explorations of the amazing and diverse plant life of the Southern Appalachians, their myriad uses, and the extraordinary ways plants shape and are shaped by their ecosystems. Classes range from beginner to expert level.
Come take a dive deep into the fascinating world of Birds. Astounding Earth offers exciting half-day, full-day, and multi-day classes on bird ID, bird language and behavior, creating bird habitat, and more. Meet our local birds!
Come join us for fun fungi and mushroom walks in the woods. Learn about our one-day and multi-day explorations of common mushrooms and fungal families with specific attention to positive identification, safety, and edible and medicinal species.
Interested in hands on experiential activities such as fire making, foraging wild foods, constructing survival shelters, crafting natural cordage, animal observation, and activities for teachers and nature connection facilitators? See our various skill offerings.
Interested in the miraculous relationships connecting all life? Join us for fun-filled days of group learning as we explore 12 incredible natural communities in our region with a big- picture focus on plants, trees, mushrooms, and their natural processes and cycles.
Do you want to get to know the plants, trees, birds, fungi, and ecosystems on your land? Want to learn how to create better wildlife habitat or what plants will grow best where? Interested in an inventory of the species on the land you live on? Check out our private land consultations.
A powerful and transformative immersion program in which participants take a deep dive into exploring our local ecology and building their knowledge, relationship, and reverence of this astounding bioregion. The program spans 25 glorious days throughout the Appalachian Spring, Summer, and Fall. Find out more about this extraordinary experience here.
Luke offers private and group plant, bird, mushroom, and ecology walks; custom experiential and survival skills classes; plant and bird surveys; and more designed for your personal or group needs. Find out more here.
Give the gift of connection with an Astounding Earth gift certificate. Gift certificates can be used for all Astounding Earth classes, workshop and private walks.
Discover the life all around you...
From the immaculate intricacies of the smallest fungi to the soaring songs of our brilliant birds, nature’s magnificence is calling out all around us. Our living blue planet is truly a splendor to behold.
Now, more than ever, there is a need to bring our human culture into balance with the exquisite ecosystems of our Earth. To reawaken to the language of nature, learn the planet’s most magnificent stories, and become so familiar with plants, trees, wildlife, and fungi that they become as friends.
Our experiential courses are designed to facilitate both relational and informational learning, while connecting with others to celebrate and enjoy the majesty of the wilds.
I look forward to sharing time together in the Woods!
~ Luke Cannon, Founder/Director
WHAT PEOPLE SAY
"What you get when you step into the woods with Luke Cannon is more than just rich and informed instruction but an immersion into the forest, one that will change your relationship with the forest itself. Small plants you'd perhaps overlook become ancestors carrying countless stories; sapling and virgin growth trees alike become messengers, bearing a history of human interaction and evolution. Time and again, I've seen just how Luke instills vivid curiosity and deep knowledge, and from a slight bit of moss to a bird calling far off, he's there to translate the forest for everyone in his classes, giving us a true and lasting literacy of the kingdom of green". ~ Nickole
