Blake Ellis
Ecotherapy Program Manager
CSUC Reserves
CSUC Reserves
- Email: bellis@csuchico.edu
Blake Ellis has spent many years helping others learn about and deeply connect with nature. Blake helped establish community gardens with refugees in Atlanta, Georgia, WWOOFed on organic farms in Taiwan and New Zealand, taught garden education to elementary schoolers, and provided horticultural therapy for adults with developmental disabilities.
Following the 2018 Camp Fire, Blake returned to school to become a social worker to better support community recovery efforts. While completing her Master's in Social Work, Blake served as an AmeriCorps Disaster Case Manager with individuals impacted by the Camp Fire and conducted her thesis on the concept of "solastalgia." Solastalgia can be defined as the mental, emotional, and spiritual impacts of environmental degradation or the loss you feel when your beloved home environment is transformed beyond recognition. Her research led her to discover the practice of Forest Therapy, a hopeful intervention to help her community process trauma and grief, rebuild individuals' sense of place, and reconnect to nature.
Blake is now a certified Forest Therapy Guide through the Association of Nature and Forest Therapy, the Program Manager for the Chico State Ecotherapy Program(opens in new window) with the Big Chico Creek Ecological Reserve(opens in new window), and an Associate Clinical Social Worker. Blake is also a Type 2 Wildland Firefighter passionate about prescribed fire, supporting first responders, and helping wildfire-impacted communities repair their relationship with intentional fire and wildfire-adapted landscapes. Blake hopes to nurture the health and well-being of Butte County by supporting nature connections and healthy community relationships that might also instill a sense of kinship, reciprocity, and responsibility to protect and steward our local environment.
Following the 2018 Camp Fire, Blake returned to school to become a social worker to better support community recovery efforts. While completing her Master's in Social Work, Blake served as an AmeriCorps Disaster Case Manager with individuals impacted by the Camp Fire and conducted her thesis on the concept of "solastalgia." Solastalgia can be defined as the mental, emotional, and spiritual impacts of environmental degradation or the loss you feel when your beloved home environment is transformed beyond recognition. Her research led her to discover the practice of Forest Therapy, a hopeful intervention to help her community process trauma and grief, rebuild individuals' sense of place, and reconnect to nature.
Blake is now a certified Forest Therapy Guide through the Association of Nature and Forest Therapy, the Program Manager for the Chico State Ecotherapy Program(opens in new window) with the Big Chico Creek Ecological Reserve(opens in new window), and an Associate Clinical Social Worker. Blake is also a Type 2 Wildland Firefighter passionate about prescribed fire, supporting first responders, and helping wildfire-impacted communities repair their relationship with intentional fire and wildfire-adapted landscapes. Blake hopes to nurture the health and well-being of Butte County by supporting nature connections and healthy community relationships that might also instill a sense of kinship, reciprocity, and responsibility to protect and steward our local environment.