Green Scene: This week's greenie news

Opportunity knocking
I ate lunch last week at a local joint where diners are supposed to bus their own dishes, separating silverware, trash, and plates. This I was dutifully doing when I noticed some signage encouraging me to separate recyclables, too.

The sign said the restaurant’s plastic cups and dishes could be recycled. But those items dotted the trash can. Why? The recycling bin was hidden underneath the bus tub, while the garbage was easily at hand. Anyone who wasn’t paying full attention, or didn’t care that much, wasn’t gonna recycle squat.

Ergonomics matter. You can’t bring your own bags to the grocery store if you keep forgetting them at home because they’re stored in an inconvenient place. Far better they live in the car. You won’t compost the core of the apple you eat at work if you have to schlep it back home to a compost bin. (Well, actually I do that all the time, but I have a high tolerance for organic matter in my purse.) More to the point, people (as in “the public”) won’t improve their habits if businesses and institutions make it difficult or counterintuitive to do the right thing. I love the green recycling bins on the Downtown Mall, but how come they’re less numerous than the black garbage bins? What’s the message there?

Then again, we’re talking about individual choices. At a workshop I took recently, a fellow student who also happened to be a farmer noticed that people were throwing away food scraps. She announced that she’d take that valuable stuff home to her pigs, then provided a bag. If only all systems were that quickly improved.—Erika Howsare

Not bypassed yet
Jack Jouett Middle School lies in close proximity to the proposed site of the Western Bypass. Critics of the road, including the Southern Environmental Law Center, have argued that the increased traffic will adversely affect the air quality of nearby school children.

The point is, nature organizes along a path of least resistance. Or put another way, nature organizes to optimize the use of energy in the system.

 

Danger zone
Remember 2004, when Charlottesville was named the number one city to live in the U.S.? Well, the city and its surrounding countryside made it onto a different list this year: the Southern Environmental Law Center’s top 10 most endangered areas in the Southeast. Charlottesville has long been known as a special place to live—and now it is being recognized as environmentally endangered, due to the proposed Western Bypass around 29N.

This is the third year that the SELC has released a most endangered list, and according to Marie Hawthorne, director of development and marketing at the SELC, deciding what places make the list is based on urgency—whether or not an area is at high risk of permanent environmental damage in the next 12 months.

“The environment includes the air we breathe and the water we drink,” said Hawthorne. “But it also includes the character of the community.”

Morgan Butler, senior attorney at the SELC, says that if the bypass is approved, the surrounding areas will suffer severe, permanent damages. He notes that the bypass would run just a few hundred feet from the area’s primary drinking water reservoir, and he worries that children will be in danger, as the bypass would pass near elementary schools and their playing fields.

The bypass is intended to relieve traffic congestion on 29 and is, according to Albemarle County Board of Supervisors member Ken Boyd, “long overdue.”

Boyd said that VDOT has made recent updates to the plan based on environmental studies, and that, despite its proximity to drinking water, the bypass would pose minimal threats to the environment and to the county’s overall health. A contributing factor to the high cost of this bypass (estimated at $245 million), according to Boyd, is the “great deal of precaution” taken toward minimizing environmental ramifications.

“It’s important for our readers to know that this is not a done deal,” Hawthorne said. While the bypass has local approval, a lengthy federal process is still underway, giving concerned locals time to act.

Butler encourages concerned individuals and groups to contact the Federal Highway Administration, and to “let their local leaders know that they’re opposed to this process.”—Laura Ingles

Path of least resistance
On our farm in Cismont, we design much of our work by observing and mimicking nature. Winter is a great time to reexamine how we use energy and to create work that uses our finite resources more efficiently. By modeling our energy and resource use on natural systems, we can shift our ecological role from consumer towards producer.

Mark Jones splits wood at Sharondale Farm in Cismont. (Photo by John Robinson)

We design the farm and our home to yield benefits on many levels. Our goal is to use energy more efficiently and more optimally for our lifestyle, which requires time for play and family. For example, to minimize fossil fuel use, we heat the house with wood. Chopping wood is hard work, with visible and useful results. The physical rhythm opens a space for meditation and communication. It also warms us at least twice.

Splitting firewood is not just brute strength, but employs finesse in the placement of the force applied. Understanding the flow patterns of the wood structure informs each strike to find the path of least resistance. Other energy patterns here on the farm reflect the same flow. Animal trails cut across the hills rather than straight up and down; weeds occupy bare soil more rapidly than mulched areas; fungus grows faster along the grain of wood than across it.

The point is, nature organizes along a path of least resistance. Or put another way, nature organizes to optimize the use of energy in the system. In permaculture, these observations inform the design of the farm and farm work. For example, my favorite berries—currants, gooseberries, strawberries and blueberries—are planted along the main garden paths, so when they are in season the furthest many of them travel is the length of an arm. We coppice the willows at waist height rather than at ground level for easy pruning.

Our perennial polycultures of useful plants are maturing and need less maintenance. Waste from mushroom production is used in the garden, and we have a crop of feral mushrooms in the mulched beds most of the year. Trips into town are planned so time and energy are kept to a minimum. The food we eat is mostly local, from our farm and from farmers we know.
By observing and understanding our ecological niche, we can mimic natural systems. And, by applying our intelligence and imagination to the resources we have available, we can work smarter rather than harder and consume less external energy.—Mark Jones

Bulletin board
Barrel of funds: In order to finance the construction of a biodynamic garden project, the Charlottesville Waldorf School will hold a rain barrel sale on March 3, 9-11am. Barrels cost $90 (Charlottesville and Albemarle both offer $30 rebates); you must reserve yours at rainbarrel sintl.com. Black or terra cotta?

Village person: Douglas Olson will rap about the idea of an Eco Village —what it is, why it matters—at the Unity Church of Charlottesville, March 6, 7-9pm. Any of the following topics might come up: permaculture, alternative energy, green buildings, and (this is interesting) nonviolent communication. In other words, a recipe for better living.

Interpretive chance: Anyone who’s at least 17, and has time to give away this summer, can apply to the Virginia State Parks AmeriCorps Interpretive Project. Job description, paraphrased: Learn about interpreting parks, rack up customer service experience, develop “water craft skills” (!). Apply before March 31 at www.americorps.gov.