a1 January 6, 2005 - January 16, 2005 (Alberto - Peninsula Park)

Greetings from Peninsula Park! The roses were singing and soaking up the sun this week. I sat by the pond for a while and watched the afternoon light slanting through the trees, skipping like a stone across the waves. A single Milkbone biscuit rested on the bottom as a ragged piece of leaf slowly sailed the current beneath the icy edges, and bubbles of air jiggled back and forth looking for a way out. Candlewax, white and red, remains along the southern shore from someone's midnight mass.

A couple of weeks ago I saw a hundred thousand flower buds on Oregon Grape and squeezed the bloody juice from one of last year's berries. The first few blossoms are slowly opening up today. After the last few frosty nights, I had wondered if they might reconsider, but they seem quite content.

By the time i finished shopping at the library and made it out of the market, some thickish bluegray clouds had begun to gather in the twilit sky; they looked a bit familiar in some strange sort of way. Perhaps they'll stay a while, and put that pesky winter sun back in its place!

Rain or shine, have a great day, don't forget to stop and hear the roses, and enjoy this week's Dirt!

Alberto
and the rest of the Intrepid SRSF/Dirt! Volunteers

a2 January 14, 2005 - January 23, 2005 (Cheyenne - Gaia Theory)

Twice in the past week, I have caught a glimpse Mount St. Helens blowing dainty white plumes into the pastel winter sky.

Seismically it's been an unusually hyperactive year for the entire globe. From the exuberant dome-building of Mount St. Helens, to the nightmare tidal waves in Indonesia, dozens of tectonic events crowded into the world news over the course of 2004.

Officially, the anecdotal sense that the year was overwhelmed with fracture, vibration, death and upheaval is only a coincidence. But, the science of plate tectonics is young, and geologists are just beginning to gather evidence that even distant episodes of geologic movements may be related - that the shifting of faults in one location may have repercussions clear to the other side of the globe. This revolution in the understanding of earth sciences is in keeping with James Lovelock's famous Gaia Theory. Gaia Theory asserts that the Earth is not an inert, lifeless space boulder that just happens to be covered with a mass of individual living organisms, but that the planet is a singular cohesive living system. This system involves, not only the verdant coating of life we call the "biosphere", but also the oceans, atmosphere, and mineral ground on which we stand.

Somehow, it seems only sensible that every geologic shift resonates throughout the globe. An erupting volcano in Washington is part of the same energetic ripple that fractured the bottom of the Indian Ocean. It makes me stop and wonder how I can be enjoying the dreamy plume drifting along Portland's jagged eastern horizon, while corpses of children are still being dragged from the mud choked ruins of south-east Asia. But it is the snow decked mountains and the sharp January air that remind me, even in the dark chill of winter, that the gift of life is still with us, and of it's beauty.

For more information on plate tectonics and Gaia Theory, visit:
http://gnn.tv/headlines/headline.php?id=613
http://resurgence.gn.apc.org/issues/lovelock211.htm

a3 January 21, 2005 - January 30, 2005 (Zeratha - Inaugural)

Hello fellow humans. This week is one of great possibilities and opportunity. As you all know, Thursday (Jan. 20th) was inauguration day for our new president. There are many events going on in and around Portland that voiced resistance to four more years of environmental rollbacks. I encourage everyone to see this as a time to get active and stay active. Remember your favorite outdoor spots whether they be a patch under a friendly tree or a spot by a soothing river. Take a moment to gain an ecosystemic perspective and cherish the interconnectedness you feel when in your favorite places. How would you feel if that place was no longer available to you or degraded to the point of avoidance? Remember these things and bring that energy to the possibility for a new world. We are the Cultural Creatives and no president can take that away from us. can take that away from us. Let your fellow humans and fellow plants, animals, rocks and places remind us why we continue to voice resistance to the dastardly deeds of the worst environmental administration in history. Remember that day you had an epiphany on a mountain or got through a hard day thanks to a few well earned epiphany on a mountain or got through a hard day thanks to a few well earned minutes out in the forest. Pay it forward by fighting to preserve what is good in the world around us, that which can be found in the ever creative spirit of humanity, and in the DYNAMIC foundation of our well being--trees, plants, animals and natural spaces. I hope the following poem can provide a little inspiration to those feeling downtrodden, depressed or discouraged in this week of paradoxical regression and growth.
Enjoy this week's dirt.

Zeratha

P.S. Check out Zeratha's Poem for the Week at: Inaugural Poem

We are looking for "TESTERS" for our new website.



From All of Us At The Dirt!
& Spreading Roots, Spring Forth

b1 February 3, 2005 - February 13, 2005

Hello and Welcome to The Dirt!

What is it to struggle? How can anyone in a position, such as affluent American, claim suffering? Does any one know what it is to truly treat people fairly, regardless of their class or more importantly race? While most citizens of this country treat any race problem that might exist as something left to militia members eager to inflict their opinions on anyone that might resist, the idea of a struggle between races in this country is as important as it has ever been. "The idea that citizenship is a form of racial privilege in which whites are equal to each other but superior to everyone else" this produces a passive form of democracy that discourages participation in politics because it treats citizenship as an identity to possess rather than as a source of empowerment.^? This quote by Joel Olson from his new book The Abolition of White Democracy, raises new and valid questions regarding ingrained racial relations both in the psyche and the infrastructure of our country. With continual attention being paid the successful entrepreneur in our culture, civil rights issues have taken a back burner to any equality problems that may exist within our society. "The backbone of color blindness is the principle of public nonrecognition of racial identity." The problem is people are not paying full attention, if people recognize that many factors play into the racial injustices that lie underneath the surface of society many more would realize the toll it has taken on non-whites in this country. By making participation in the governmental processes a "gentlemen's club," reserved for a certain subset of society, we have effectively eliminated any chance of truly representing ourselves in an equal and fair way. Changing the way we relate to one another and therefore becoming more unified in an ever changing and ever-ominous world is something we as a society should stive towards, injustice is cyclical; we all suffer if there are many that remain unequal.

Get The Dirt!

Sincerely, Casey & The Dirt! "It is right it should be so; Man was made for Joy and Woe; And when this we rightly know, Thru the World we safely go. Joy and Woe are woven fine, a clothing for the soul divine." William Blake

b4 February 24, 2005 - March 8, 2005

2/24/2005

Hello, and Welcome to The Dirt!

Have you measured your ecological footprint? An ecological footprint is a relatively accurate way to measure an individual or a populations impact upon the earth. It is a tool used by governments, environmental scientists and other professionals as well as individuals and groups concerned with consumption and it's impact upon the natural environment. According to the glossary in Our Ecological Footprint, by Mathis Wackernagel and William Rees, the definition of an eco-footprint is as follows: "Ecological Footprint is the land (and water) area that would be required to support a defined human population and material standard indefinitely."

To measure a footprint such things as resource and energy flows, consumption of food, products and resources as well as living space are considered and entered into a calculation. The main idea is to measure the flow of natural resources into a given economy and finally into a given population. This allows urban planners, environmental scientists and policy makers and concerned individuals to measure their impact on the earth and take the information into consideration when promoting, providing and planning for sustainability. Ecological footprint analysis is a relatively new and wonderful tool that can help professionals work towards maintaining natural capital while helping individuals gain insight into their own lifestyles and how they can become more sustainable within them. Click on the link to measure your ecological footprint Enlighten the environmentalist inside yourself by discovering what goes into your personal footprint and how you can step a little lighter upon the earth...

Enjoy this week's dirt!

Zeratha
& The Rest of the Dirt!-ly Gang

c1 March 3, 2005 - March 13, 2005

I work in what I've come to think of as the anti-life building. A skeleton of steel re-inforced concrete mesh that must act as some kind of mineralized Faraday cage, stuffed with synthetic fibers spun from the deeply mined blood of the earth and pressure sealed so that no fresh air can enter. I enter refreshed and living and at the end of the day feel like an electrified corpse, my skin all buzzy with a billion nano-gnats, infected with that barely audible buzz of the computer and the fluorescent lights, but feeling depleted inside as if my life stuff was mined by the building itself. I often wonder why I continue to work here, but then I remember Judy's story of wondering the same about living in the city and seeing Eagle flying overhead headed toward his aeryie on Ross Island and catching his eye and knowing-"If he can thrive here, so can I." This memory floats up in the mind and I think*I don't know what is around the corner*keep walking.

But all along the way I am fed and I seek to learn how to feed. The Hawk feeds me. There is a pair that live near this building. I often see them catch the thermals rising off the freeway, lifting them in graceful spirals to some upper lever current that speeds them straight away to the northeast. One afternoon we watched her eat her kill on the ledge only 20 feet below us. This morning as I locked up my bike I heard her insistent and tonally slanted shriek. She was floating in the air, having found, I imagine that "perfect wave" that allowed her to stay suspended in one spot without a flap. Another cry and she descended disappearing onto the top of a nearby building*not so fast that I thought it was a strike, but when she emerged she flapped heavily and I thought maybe her feet looked bundled and bigger than they should have. So she feeds me.

In these strange times some of us do our work to heal ourselves, our families, our communities (of mineral, plant and animal), our society and Earth herself all out in the open; sometimes the work is hidden, in the dark secret corners of our bodies, in the bellies of bureaucratic beasts of steel and concrete. Wherever your work takes you may you be fed by the sky clouds, by hawks and pansies, by the roadside sentinels of dandelion, mullein and fireweed by the beauties small and grand, seen and unseen. May today's dirt inspire you to action.

In peace,
Tim

c2 March 11, 2005 - March 20, 2005

The Gift

The day before yesterday it arrived. I held Rose, my 17 month old daughter, and Mida, one of our neighbor's daughters, stood next to me as we watched the dump truck dwarfing our driveway disgorge its load. White Ash, Hawthorne and Birch. Once seemingly distinct trees, now all mingled and particulated as strips, bits and shreds. They were warm and smelled of spices-like Christmas in a Moroccan spice market on warm gentle humid morning. Most of the small mountain was the color of honey but one side was a light cream. There were curly strips, and twigs with funny Styrofoam looking pith, a few undigested chunks, and myriad perfect little nuggets of honey. All of us, the workmen too, scooped handfuls and washed ourselves with the fragrance. Rose, too, grabbed a little itty bitty fist full and made her tiny audible sniff. For a moment we were all bound together in the body of the heavenliness of the fragrance. I thanked the men.

The next morning the mound was steaming. I smiled and thanked the wood. I thanked the Earth, Sun and Air for bringing this gift to us. I thanked the men, again, and their growling ancient organism eating monster of a truck.

Yesterday, Theresa (the neighbor's other daughter), Rose and I spread the wood around the base of the Hibiscus, the bamboo, and in my wife's Peace Garden. Saturday we used half the mound to spread around the backyard to keep down the dust from the bare dirt created by our marauding mutts. Rose toddled around the wood chips and became an expert spreader finally able to use those inherent entropic skills without hindrance from her order craving parents.

I will miss the steamy presence of the wood and their shocking scents.

May you be blessed with gifts this spring.

In peace,
Tim and the rest of the Dirt! gang

c3 March 17, 2005 - March 27, 2005

Driving home from Seattle last weekend, traffic bogged me down until I was uplifted by clean views of three of our local cascade volcanoes - all from the same vantage point, no less. For a girl from the Sacramento Valley, this is still a breathtaking, primordial sight. The individual characters of the mountains impressed me: Hood, with its Fuji-like perfectionism, Rainier, with its weighty, masculine dome, and the battle-scarred St. Helens, her great wound gaping north. She keeps us on our toes.

Last week, St. Helen's 5-mile-high hiccup of steam brought back memories of 1980 -- a much more monumental and dangerous blast. As I craned my head out the window to see the white scalloped cloud rise across the Washington border, I felt connected to the region's history much farther back than a couple of decades, or even a couple of millennia. To witness the work of mountain building is to witness an ancient process that operates on a scale of time and space we can hardly fathom. If you stretch out the timeline long enough, hiccups and even blasts become just a breath, a shift, part of a flow as constant as a river, sure enough to amass our greatest peaks (and shape their unique characters). Still, these erratic events are impressive. The mountain grabs us by the shirt collar to remind us that, though humans are comparatively new additions to the Northwest's natural history, we are still very much a part of that history, including processes that have remained constant for thousands of years. Moreover, this region is still *making* history, not only in the front-page-news sense, but in the scope of geologic time. What an amazing thing to have been offered a glimpse of this process. Enjoy this week's dirt (and volcanic ash hiccoughs :).

Jenny
& the rest of us at Spreading Roots, Spring Forth

c4 March 27, 2005 - April 3, 2005

Civilization is at a critical point; the human species is faced with the great challenge of developing a working, holistic and sustainable relationship to the rest of the natural world. Furthermore, humans must also learn how to live equitably and peacefully with their own species, no small feat! To accomplish these tremendous feats we must consider ecotopian visioning which will be defined as the optimistic and sustainable vision of a sustainable ecologically friendly society, culture and planet. The formulation, critical discussion, and open inclusive dialogue of ecotopian visions in and amongst communities, individuals, governments and organizations is one major, vitally important step towards birthing an ecologically and socially conscious world. Those of us who are serious about reconstructing our worldviews in order to build a sustainable present and future for all life realize the inherent importance of optimism. The environmental movement has been shrouded by too much pessimism for too long. This approach is often likely to lead to apathy rather than motivation. people are motivated by hope, creativity, love, inspiration...People need inspiration like an Oregon ecosystem needs salmon or gently nestled nurse logs. It is something that all life, certainly the human species thrives on, and it is something that is part and parcel in the creation, visioning and discussion of ecotopian visions. So in this fresh faced beautiful time of the year put on your positive boots, walk your talk and get visioning!
Enjoy this week's dirt!

Happy Spring Vernal Equinox Everyone!!
~Zeratha


The Dirt! is a publication of the nonprofit Spreading Roots, Spring Forth
Our mission: to strengthen connections between people and the environment

d1 April 8, 2005 - April 18, 2005

The volume of bird song is set at full blast for April. As soon as the first dim hint of dawn cracks, the air explodes with the flute song of the robin. The screaming of the crows, the soft chirping of the chickadee, and the haunting voice of the varied thrush follow quickly as grey mornings warm. But today, I am not listening for birdsong; I am listening for the space between the sounds. I am listening for the stillness and the silence, and trying not to name the species. I am trying to stop breaking the forest into component parts and start appreciating the space between the parts. A relationship is defined by space and silence. I can not hear it, see it, smell it, touch it or own it; but I can be a part of it.

Robins are homely and common; no bright colors really, just a splash of red on the chest. I find mobs of robins eating berries in the holly brush, and pulling flaccid earthworms out of prim suburban lawns. The robin is not a glamorous bird, but the robin is reliable. Robins can tell you things if you can learn to listen. I learned this lesson the hard way.

Last summer, my mother and I were hacking at a thick tangle of blackberry bramble in the southeast corner of my yard, when I heard my mother gasp. I ran over to where she was working to see what was wrong. She held up a severed vine; a nest dangled in mid-air; baby robins thrusting their naked heads up at us, mouthing for food. In that moment of ruined nest, and doomed babies, all of the sudden, I could hear what I should have been listening for all along. I could hear shaking, flapping, and screaming above me. The mother and father robin were shrieking calls of distress, and I could not hear them, because I did not know how to listen.

A good friend told me that if I could sit down and give the robins an hour of my time, I could learn to understand their language. This of course, does not mean that robins are simple and all that they will ever have to say can be learned in an hour. It is just that if you give yourself completely to a robin for an hour, you will learn just enough to keep you listening. Now I listen to the robins. They let me know when the house cats are stalking, they sound an alarm when the children are climbing to close to their nest, and they let me know that the morning is fresh, and that the sun will rise soon.

Enjoy this week's dirt.

Cheyenne

Hear a neat article about bird songs recently covered on NPR.

d3 April 21, 2005 - May 1, 2005

This Earth Day, we bring you 10 multi-faceted ways that you can get involved. Earth Day marks a time to celebrate our inherent connections to how our lives are woven into the web of life. This web stretches across the globe and integrates us within its pulse. Some days, it may seem like we are unraveling, but still we are nonetheless intricately intertwined. The pain runs parallel to the joy and each reminds us to shed the destructive negatives and work towards the positive. Each Earth Day we renew our hope to create positive changes within our lives.

• 1) Inspired by Wisconsin Senator Gaylor Nelson, Earth Day was first celebrated on April 22nd, 1970. 20 million people and thousands of schools and local communities organized at an incredible grass-roots level and participated in the event around the nation. Read a first hand account written by Gaylord Nelson.

Learn more about a bioregional lifestyle!
• 2) Read, Learn, How To at ErraticImpact.com
• 3) Commit to go to the 9th Annual Bioregional Congress in July
• 4)Start your own discussion group by using curricula developed by the Northwest Earth Institute
• 5) Incorporate Wendell Berry's Considerations - an easy list he published in the Utne Reader of ways we can all work together.
• 6) Now is the time to educate ourselves about environmental issues on the local and global scale. Let us train our hands to work together in new patterns, new ways that bring us closer to living sustainable lifestyles that manifest locally and globally. Live the dream right here at home in Portland by signing up for the Village Building Convergence happening in May!


• 7) Forward the message on to a Friend farther abroad:
  • Internationally we actually have a chance to celebrate Earth Day more than once per year. International Earth Day is celebrated on the spring vernal equinox rather than on April 22nd as it is in the United States.
  • Earthday.net publishes information about Earth Day celebrations all around the nation.

Closer to Home:
• 8) This Saturday, Portland's very own Earth Day Celebration is taking place in a Celebration of Localization
• 9) Check out our community calendar for other wonderful events this weekend and beyond.


• 10) If you love the work that we do consider making a donation to see this work continue.

Alright everyone get out there and get involved!

Happy Earth Day!
from Zeratha
and Everyone at
The Dirt!
a publication of
Spreading Roots, Spring Forth

d4 April 28, 2005 - May 8, 2005 (Nina Jett - Salmon)

Spring has fully arrived bringing the warm wet smell of rain, the realization that the world is once again green and colorful, and the joy of knowing that the months ahead will bring more time outdoors. I’ll be on my bike, hammering up a hill, sweating and working my muscles for the reward of a fantastic view and the best part: coasting down the hill and embracing the wind. I’ll be at the park, tossing a softball, kicking a soccer ball, doing cartwheels and playing with children. I’ll be hiking on Mount Hood and in the Gorge where I’ll come to an overlook and feel like I’m on top of the world as I bite into the chocolate bar I’ve earned through sweat and sore muscles. I’ll be white-water rafting on the White Salmon River as I have in past summers feeling the rush of joy as I navigate the rapids.

The giant, powerful rivers of the west have always filled me with awe and wonder. But this year will be the first time I’ll be thinking of the salmon, worrying about all the man-made barriers they get caught in and the low river level’s affect on their journey. Funny how I’ve never given them a thought, as many times as I’ve enjoyed the recreation the rivers provide. Here in the Pacific Northwest there are hundreds of organizations devoted to saving endangered salmon, and the people who do the work are a passionate bunch. Some are replacing culverts, building fish ladders, removing invasive plant species, and planting trees and shrubs to create salmon-friendly habitat, others are working with farmers to create environmentally friendly solutions for irrigation. The folks who do this work say that it’s not just about salmon. It’s about creating partnerships and finding common ground among groups who have been at odds with one another in the past. It’s about building community and bringing together teachers, parents and conservationists for planting parties and water quality monitoring. It’s about boosting local economies by hiring local contractors and suppliers for salmon restoration work. It’s about stewardship of the land and the rivers. It’s about appreciating and honoring the earth -- our home. With the coming of warm weather I get excited as I anticipate days and nights outdoors feeling the ground beneath me, the wind through my hair and the river water splashing my face. I hope to see you at the park, in the gorge, in the mountains and on the rivers. Happy Spring!

Check out these websites for more information on salmon restoration.
Wild Salmon
National Fish and Wildlife Foundation
Salmon Nation, a program of EcoTrust

Nina
The Dirt!
a publication of Spreading Roots, Spring Forth

e1 May 5, 2005 - May 15, 2005

Happy May and Welcome To The Dirt!

Last week the world was treated to a miracle. The largest woodpecker in North America, thought extinct for 60 years, was recently scientifically documented to be alive in the Big Woods of Arkansas. A coalition of~50+ field biologists and other experts, working together~in the Big Woods Conservation Partnership and representing private, nonprofit, and governmental organizations has formed as a result of the discovery of one male ivory-bill woodpecker.

A May 3, 2005, Oregonian editorial speaks of the similarities between conservation battles in our own Pacific Northwest old-growth forests and the swampy bottomland of Arkansas' Big Woods forest. It speaks of the hope this re-discovery gives all wild creatures. I am reflecting as well on the hope it gives those among who spend our limited personal resources of time, energy, and dollars working for the environment, hoping it is not too late, praying for a miracle.

In 2001, the Marshall Institute estimated there are between 10 million and 80 million species on earth, of which just over 1.5 million have been identified. When we hug a tree, we just may be hugging one of those undiscovered species, and in the web of life each strand - every single species - plays its part, usually in ways beyond the ken of human knowing. The Global Issues website states that extinctions in the 20th century happened at a rate 1,000 times greater than the average rate over the past 65 million years. If the trend continues, one-third to two-thirds of all species now known (and we can deduce the same for those we do not yet know) will be extinct by the second half of this century. It is very sobering to think that many of us, and certainly our children and grandchildren, will be alive to witness this decimation.

The rediscovery of a live member of an "extinct"species is cause for celebration in the face of such grim statistics. What we do does make a difference! Each day we can step as lightly as possible on our mother planet, leaving as much space and freedom and safe haven as possible for the millions of species who share her with us. And once in a while a miracle will fly down from above and renew our hope and steadfastness.

Nancy Wolf and all of us at The Dirt!
a publication of
Spreading Roots, Spring Forth

e2 May 12, 2005 - May 22, 2005

Hello, and Welcome to The Dirt!

Why bother with cold rain in the middle of May? Soft rain catching on fir needles. Hard rain tearing through green. Rain in the garden, pooled up in the center of a lupine leaf. Rain creatures - kids in yellow rubber rain suits, my kids naked in the mud. Wood ducks and mallards paddling around Oaks Bottom followed by lines of silly little ducklings. Slugs in the lettuce. My lettuce sawed off at the root, covered in slug slime. What will the slugs eat now?

The best fun you can have in rainy May Portland is to stand in the middle to the street, and watch where the rain goes. Watch it run off of the houses, down the driveway. Watch it pour into the gutters and braid through the debris that collects along the sidewalk. Stand on a manhole cover and listen to the buried watershed rushing through the sewer pipes. It is still there. Don't forget.

Cheyenne,
and The Rest of Us
at Spreading Roots, Spring Forth

PS. Dear Folks,
This week's issue perfectly showcases all the many wonderful ways that you can go out, learn about and make a positive difference. From learning about migratory songbirds, speaking out for nature in our neighborhoods, collecting your own rainwater, discovering the earth charter or attending a unique play about breast cancer, where else could you learn about all of it but in The Dirt!?

e3 May 20, 2005 - May 30, 2005

The first law of thermodynamics states: "In all physical and chemical changes energy is neither created nor destroyed, but may be converted from one form to another."

This is a great fundamental universal law to keep in mind as we go through our daily lives. It serves to remind us how connected we all are, from the daddy long legs crawling up the patio stairs to the freshly planted sunflower. It also serves to remind that what we do to the natural world around us and what we throw away does not just "go away". The atoms holding you and I together come from an infiinite variety of sources and are recycled over and over...Your form has been here forever. Wow, how smart you must be! In honor of all this miraculous energy and potential and in honor of the upcoming Village Building Convergence:

In the heart of this space
skin of stars, eye of dinsoaur
beating and pulsing
atoms of yesterday
moons of tomorrow
the promise of a sustainable future

Remembering how to live as villagers
we mix amongst the tentacles, feathers and scales of life
learning how to balance and reciprocate
breathing in and letting go
old paradigms and constructs
in with the new and out with the old

It is time, it is time

to celebrate, to grow
this is a precious time
between you and I
between the space of possibility, inspiration and action
we are birthing together
this new reality
let us converge
and build this new village

From Zeratha and everyone at Spreading Roots, Spring Forth!

Check out the Village Building Convergence at
http://vbc.cityrepair.org/vbc5/

e4 May 26, 2005 - June 5, 2005

Hello, and Welcome to The Dirt!

"Beauty is in the eye of the beholder." As I look out on the small plot of land which Lady Albina has so graciously allowed me to call home, I am reminded that beauty, and ugliness, can be found in every thing; what one sees quite often depends upon what you are looking for, or expecting to find. For instance, if you heard one neighbor yelling at another to "Get the heck out of my backyard!? And stay out!" you might see ugliness. On the other hand, if you heard one bird speaking those same words to another, you might comment on what a beautiful song that was. I sometimes wonder when humans are yelling and carrying on with each other, if slugs or sowbugs might be nudging one another and exclaiming over the "beautiful music" those two-leggeds make.

Once upon a frosty morning, while walking on a hill above a river, I came across a faded beer can that had there been tossed some years before.? "How ugly," said I unto myself; "I should take that back to town and drop it in the trash." But when I picked it up and looked more closely, I spied a small black band of ants huddling together on the leeward side. They had placed a sign above the door that said "Home, Sweet Home" and laid a Welcome mat across the pulltab. So, I gently placed the can back where I'd found it, and bid that village fond adieu; one man's trash was one band's treasure.

According to the ancient traditions of Chinese Medicine, trees not only thrive on the carbon dioxide that we expel so as not to poison ourselves, and feed us with the oxygen that would poison them in turn. They do the same on an energetic level, as well. That's why tree hugging feels so good sometimes. The trees thrive on the energies that cause chaos in our minds and bodies, and give us manna in return. So if one day you should catch yourself, seeing ugly in most every where you look, perhaps it's time to hug a tree. Give your grief to Weeping Willow; she knows what to do. Share your angst with Blue Colorado Spruce; she'll help you find some peace. And, when you have a splitting headache, perhaps you'll touch your forehead to the ground and feed it to Wild Lettuce roots, or maybe Feverfew; who knows?? It couldn't hurt to try.

However wends your way this week, whatever thoughts you weigh, we here at The Dirt! are warmly wishing well? and hoping you see Beauty, where e'er she may be found!

-- Alberto, and the rest of
The Dirt!-y Dozens

f1 June 3, 2005 - June 13, 2005

Hello and Welcome to The Dirt!

This week, I just thought I would share with you a couple thoughts regarding chemicals - toxic and what-not. "Toxic" is a word that we regularly hear thrown in front of the word chemical. The word toxic almost immediately triggers a sinking feeling in the stomach, a dread of the unseen adversary. Harboring toxicity in your body can take many shapes. Lead poisoning, we know about this - just don't eat the paint. But there are other ways that chemicals can become toxic in our bodies. They affect our immune system, reproductivity, nervous system, cancer rates, and our senses like vision and hearing among other things. They can come to us in the air we breathe, the food we eat, through our skin, or the water we drink. The chemicals that we ingest become a part of our own chemical body burden. In thinking about these things - it might be easy to become - well, overwhelmed! For chemicals are all around us! What can we do to make a difference? Will it have any affect in the long run? You never know. You never know.

You can take the things that might be potential sources of contamination - the water we drink, the air we breathe, the food we eat, our daily habits and places we live, and you can make choices to spin these around in another direction. Chemical reactions can sometimes be reversed. People are doing it every day when they control adult-onset diabetes by changing their diet and exercise habits. Every time you make a choice like this, you send a message out - into the universe and the rest of the wide world - about what is the kind of world in which you want to live. One person can make a difference both for themselves and for those around them. By sharing our stories we all can be inspired. A recent article I read in Orion Magazine told the story of how one boy Jean-Dominique Levesque-Rene in Canada began to put two and two together and began to draw correlations between how he had gotten cancer and the pesticides that were being sprayed in Montreal. Since his initial campaign the city of Toronto actually passed an ordinance that banned the use of pesticides for purely aesthetic reasons. Toronto has made history with their powerful law to protect the health and well-being of its citizens over commercial interests. Although the chemical companies battled against the ordinance, it was recently upheld in the courts this May.

Learn more about Toronto and Jean-Dominique Levesque-Rene
Jean-Dominique Levesque-Rene
Toronto Recent in May

Bill Moyer's "Trade Secrets" is an amazing documentary where you can learn about our right to know and the chemical industry. It's a must-see.

Body Burden

This week, there are lots of ways you can positively shift the balance in favor of minimizing the toxicity of our environs. Help the Northwest Coalition for Alternatives to Pesticides work to keep pesticides from use in our own public parks. Alternatively closer to the walls in your own home, next weekend, you can learn how to make a plaster with non-toxic American Clay. Our choices are all around us. Get informed. Take action. These things make a difference.

Enjoy this week's dirt.

-- Laura, and all the Dirt!-y Dozens!
at Spreading Roots, Spring Forth

PS. SPECIAL NOTE Speaking of making a difference, we would love to hear from you about actions you may have taken because you heard about them in The Dirt! Come and share your stories of either how you made a difference or how the actions of one person has made a difference to you at our upcoming fundraiser and house party for Spreading Roots, Spring Forth on June 16. Every little bit counts and that is what The Dirt! is all about. (It is also how we forsee raising our needed funds for the future! ;) Light refreshments will be served. An enjoyable time will be had by all.

PPS. Here's another thought! Read Ariana's recipe to counter toxicity by putting the beauty back IN our river.

f2 June 12, 2005 - June 19, 2005

Welcome to the Dirt!

What stories do you hear these days? What stories do you tell? The word "story" stirs up images of animated storytellers by the fire and of novels cozily read on rainy Winter (or maybe summer!) nights. But we hear and tell stories constantly. The TV tells stories manifesting as commercials and "news" programs and sitcoms. Newspapers, magazines, the radio all tell stories. What is the story line that runs through your daily mind? Is it a story of wounds incurred during childhood, of sins committed and then redemption, of worthlessness alternating with grandiosity; is it a story of fear or of love? Is it a story of doom, of personal or societal collapse, or is it a story of as-yet-unseen possibilities? Ask yourself--what are the stories being told whether loud and brash, shiny and sexy, or subtle and whispered? What clothes do they wear? Do they come as themselves or disguised as something else?

And what stories do you hear about nature? Is nature a gift given to original man to be conserved or squandered? Is nature the temptress and store house of passions to be escaped upon death? Is nature for all its aliveness really controllable matter - spiritless and dead?

It is past time to look to some of the most ancient stories-for guidance, for inspiration, for an alternative to the morass of stories foisted upon us daily^?the stories thrown and tossed upon our backs, the stories that we conspire with by donning them, then forgetting who we really are, the stories cast under our feet like small pebbles causing us to lose our footing.

But ancientness isn't the brand for beauty or good-the story of Good vs. Evil, where it has become our job to pick sides, forego our sisters and brothers who don't pick our side and then vanquish the Other may have begun in ancient Persia with the prophet Zoraster. In this story the dark was no longer yin, but was bad, evil and to be eliminated. Light was no longer yang, but Good and Holy. And tradition cannot be blindly followed-folk tales can be laden with xenophobia. But the older stories can be a source for rejuvenation and an alternative to the corrosive, mechanical buzz of much of modern media, if we can transcend "isms" of tribe and nation. We must consider carefully the stories we eat.

The old Germanic peoples told stories about the primeval giant who was destroyed and his body was cast about. You can see it today. His skull became the heavens. His brain turned into clouds. His bones can be seen in the bare basalt of the Gorge. And his hair became the vast forests. People were created from the trees. So the trees are our kin.

The Tzutujil Maya tell multi-layered sagas. One of these tells about the beautiful, tall and radiant but disobedient daughter of the sun and the moon and how she falls in love with a short plain man. On one level it is about the personal psychology of adolescence. But on another level it is about the geography of highlands of Guatemala and how certain mountains got to be where the are. And on another level it is about the life cycle of water and how the daughter is fresh water and the short man is the sparkle of the light off the ocean and how all women are sisters of this tall girl and so how all women are water.

Stories like these light the imagination and their call resounds like a lion's roar in a deep canyon. They tell us that nature is family. Nature is holy and we are born from it and have a responsibility to it. We are nature. Classical Chinese medicine recognizes this-reminding me (thanks to Healer Will Wan for the inspiration) that I have the qualities of wood, fire, water, metal and earth all within me: Wood for the infinitely generative quality of nature; fire is the inner warmth of the Heart; water is adaptability and movement; metal is the clarity of the pure ringing of the bell and of the Zen master's sword that cuts through delusion; earth is rootedness, solidity and support.

We become the stories we listen to and tell. Some say we are made of songs (stories put to music) and that our singing recreates the world. What stories are you telling? What story are you living? What story are you becoming?

May today's Dirt! bring you powerful tools, materials, colored bits, relations, and all the makings for you to create a good story.

Blessings to all from Tim and the rest of the Dirt! Gang.

f3 June 17, 2005 - June 28, 2005

cha cha cha

g1 July 8, 2005 - July 17, 2005 (Ariana - Framing)

Dave Foreman, longtime conservationist and current executive director of the Rewilding Institute recently wrote an article in which he states that the conservation movement in the U.S. is being watered down by anthropocentric concerns. Referring to Michael Shellenberger and Ted Nordhaus and others calling for the "death of environmentalism" (see http://www.grist.org/news/maindish/2005/01/13/doe-intro/) Foreman asserts that the new brand of conservationists has lost sight of the importance of protecting nature for nature's sake. "Insofar as they consider Nature protection at all they demand that conservationists drop their priorities to focus on social justice and other anthropocentric progressive causes. Overall, they call on environmental organizations to essentially go out of business and just become part of the progressive wing within the Democratic Party. The overwhelming identification of environmentalism with the progressive movement and the Democratic Party is a key reason that it lacks credibility with much of the American public." His comments provide an opportunity to reflect on the purpose of conservation work that attempts to protect natural systems and wildlife from human degradation. How has this work been politically framed? Why has it been juxtaposed against human needs when we are all dependent on natural systems? What are the core values environmentalists hold that cross political lines?

Ariana
Spreading Roots, Spring Forth

g2 July 14, 2005 - July 24, 2005 (Tim - Maize)

Maize to Corn: The enslavement of nature

In her amazing (wink) article on the translation of the name the Arawak Indians gave their staple (mahiz), Betty Fussel (“Translating maize into corn: The transformation of America’s native grain” Social Research: Spring 1999; Vol. 66, No. 1 ) traces the fascinating and instructive journey of Zea mays from semi-divine grain to industrial petro-chemical source.

How is it that we call corn “corn” and not “maize?” And what does that tell us about our attitudes toward it?

In Taino (the language of the Arawak Indians) “maize” meant “life giving seed.” But as the grain spread throughout Europe each people seemed to not know what to call it and so ended up calling it by a generic or denigrating term. Thus the Spaniards called it panizo—the generic term for the grains they knew. In Turkish it became kukuruz which meant barbarian. In 1536 a Parisian botanist dubbed it Turcicum frumentum, which the British translated as turkey wheat, which wasn’t a reference to the place of its origins but rather to its barbaric nature. My mother grew up in Germany during WWII and even in that time (and place) “Turk” and “Hun” were curse words—a long hold over from the times when the Germanic tribes (themselves at one time considered barbarians) were settled and then plagued by the supposedly barbarous Mongol tribes. And so maize as the grain of the barbarian, the Indian, the uncivilized did not deserve a name of meaning but only a bare recognition with the generic term corn. When I was a child, we at it at picnics, but I remember the stories my father told from the farm how corn was mostly food for pigs. And this is true that we still turn corn into pigs and cattle.

The word corn has its roots (as most short words in English do) in the Old Germanic, specifically in the rune-grn from which sprouts our modern English words corn (generic for any grain of edible grass), kernel (small grains) and grit (tough small grain), from which one can assemble the perfectly sensible but linguistically farcical statement: “Grits are ground from kernels of corn grain.”

Carolus Linnaeus was on the right track in trying to standardize the naming of the grain dubbing it Zea mays. Zea is Greek for “life-giving.” So, in the scientific name we have the well intentioned, if ignorant, name “Life-giving life-giving seed.”

For ancient and contemporary indigenous Americans maize was certainly a gift of the divine and perhaps divine itself. A thousand years before the birth of Christ, the Olmec articulated a complete universe—a language, calendar, mythos, and cosmos—on the life and nature of maize. For contemporary pan-American “modern” society corn is at best considered a picnic food and at worst has become yet another pawn in the industrial food game. Fussell quotes the National Corn Growers Association—“Anything made from a barrel of petroleum can be made from corn.” And, indeed, corn products can be found in things like rubber tires and insecticides, and, of course, nearly every packaged and sweetened beverage on the grocery store shelf.

Perhaps if we, in the vernacular, referred to corn, not as “generic cereal grain” but as something we knew as “life-giving”, we wouldn’t have allowed what was sacred to the Amerindians and meso-Americans to become a commodity. The journey of maize to corn is a good lesson for us to not only be mindful of the language we use, but to know the often surprising origins and subtle meanings of the words of our own languages.

Here you can read Ms Fussell’s article.

Or, you can read more about the origins of maize.

Next week…the potato… ; )

With a wink,
Tim and the rest of the Dirt! Gang Spreading Roots, Spring Forth

h2 August 12, 2005 - August 21, 2005

h3 August 18, 2005 - August 28, 2005

As a parent I am always on the scout for ways I can incorporate nature into my daughter’s life. Sometimes it is peering at bugs, and sniffing flowers, or greeting the morning sun. Sometimes it is a simple as asking her—what do you hear? What do you see? What do you smell? It always means indulging my playful and curious side.

Often times it means intervening with my own habit energy of a freight train mind of go, go, do, do… that is trying to keep up with some relentless treadmill in its ceaseless run away from some unknown, by stopping to breathe and, literally, smell the flowers and taking the time to notice life.

Sadly our choice to live in the city means that her answer is often “cars.” That is devastating, but it motivates me to keep on.

We take her on little trips. This weekend it was to the Gorge to hear, and feel, and see Latourel Falls…she loved it and wanted to get closer, much closer than our parental algorithm would allow.

We try to give our daughter choices. Simple ones, but meaningful ones none-the-less, like—“do want to wear this shirt, or this dress? Do you want to eat soup or cheese?” When we need to pick her up to go into her car seat, which, on a very good day she will put up with but on most days just detests, the options are something like: “Do you want to go to the car like a sparrow or a hippopotomus?” The choice sweetly and skillfully reframes the energy of resistance and the experience becomes fun. Yesterday I gave her the options of: “Do you want to go to the car like a hippo or a giraffe?” She bested me and gave my heart a takedown on the mat (and was ever so tickled to have that happen) when she picked neither choice and said “Lady bug!” We had the best time flitting from flower to branch (and eventually to the car) like a Lady bug.

There are many creative ways to introduce nature into our lives, into the lives of children…or reintroduce nature to our souls. One of the most delightful and playfully radical is this: to “pretend” that we are animals and plants. Reconnect with the playful part of our minds that somehow knows that it can become an animal or plant. Having a little daughter gives me the excuse to be playful and silly with nature. In my vision of paradise, though, we adults would not need a reason or excuse to become eagles or ants, but would simply do it because it feels good.

In this week’s Dirt! may you find ample opportunities to play with nature.

From Tim and all the Dirt! Gang, Spreading Roots, Spring Forth

h4 August 26, 2005 - September 4, 2005

As the last days of August spread themselves out like a quilt tucking in the last few days of summer, the leaves of an old oak rustle in the breeze.

Kathleen O'Brien Blair of the Hanauer Heritage Oak Tree Neighborhood and Homes Association has written a thought-provoking piece about a 300 year old Oregon White Oak in her neighborhood.

"In McMinnville there is a City Ordinance 3380 Section 17.58.030, Critical Root Zone, which the city has on the books. According to that formula, 103 radial feet around the tree are required to be fenced off and left unmolested in order to protect it. 103 feet could save The Hanauer Oak Tree."

Read more about The Hanauer Oak Tree

Enjoy this week's dirt!

From all of us,

Spreading Roots, Spring Forth 

i1 September 2, 2005 - September 11, 2005 (Zeratha - Story)

Ethnobiologists and cultural anthropologists have discovered that there is a direct correlation between indigenous peoples and biodiversity. In areas where indigenous cultures are present there is often a high level of biodiversity and a healthy ecosystem. This also holds true for areas diverse in languages; of which the world is rapidly losing many as traditionally oral cultures give way to the Western world. Seems obvious, yet humans, at least modern Western humans, seem to be grappling with the relearning of many fundamentals of the human-nature connection. The world has lost vital knowledge of natural history and culture as generational story telling and oral cultures have gone by the wayside. Surely we lost a large portion of our elder Native American storytellers with the colonization of this country and in turn failed to tap into a reservoir of wisdom. The story-place connection has been an integral part of cultures around the world for millennia. In American culture though it seems to often be confined to a genre of environmental writing that includes such authors as Sue Hubbard, Terry Tempest Williams or Barry Lopez. It is not an intrinsic part of American culture to connect a person or families bioregion with myth and story relating the culture and the land. Was it as one point this way when the land still seemed fresh and new and challenging to American settlers? Leslie Marmon Silko discusses the subject of the story-place connection in her piece titled "Landscape, History, and the Pueblo Imagination." Traditionally everyone, from the youngest child to the oldest person, was expected to listen and to be able to recall or tell a portion, if only a small detail, from a narrative account or story. Thus the remembering and retelling were a communal process^?A dinner table conversation, recalling a deer hunt forty years ago when the largest mule deer was taken, inevitably stimulates similar memories in listeners. But hunting stories were not merely after dinner entertainment. These accounts contained information of critical importance about behavior and migration patterns of mule deer. Hunting stories carefully described key landmarks and locations of fresh water. Thus a deer-hunt story might also serve as a map. Lost travelers, and lost pinon-nut gatherers, have been saved by sighting a rock formation they recognize only because they once heard a hunting story describing this rock. I believe that we could learn how to connect to our surrounding natural world with story and thereby follow a more bioregional approach in our lifestyles. Story in turn could serve as a creative and enjoyable vehicle to transmit important information about how to live in harmony with a particular bioregion and its ecosystems. Many of us think the idea of storytelling holding an important place in our culture is an unnecessary indulgence. However, it seems that in the present time of environmental destruction and concern a bioregional story telling and sharing approach could open our eyes to much that we are not aware of in the surrounding natural world. It could also open the way to a new sensibility of the natural world, a fresh and creative new approach to our relationship with nature and with each other. Landscape, history and the American imagination...

i2 September 8, 2005 - September 17, 2005 (Clair - Education)

Education is such a generic term - the act or process of imparting knowledge or skill. It comes down to how a person can improve their life and the lives of their family and friends. When Beverly and I go to farm meetings together, one of us goes to one session and one goes to another. It does not matter who learns the skills, it improves our lives.

In the past, Clackamas Soil and Water Conservation District emphasized strictly full-time farming assistance. That gave way to assisting all those part-time farmers with jobs in the city. More recently the district has been addressing needs of the city homeowner and all the resource concerns that come with urban life. At this point we find that it does not really matter what the size of the land, the conservation measures are still the same. For example, nutrient management on farms is called lawn and garden fertilization in the urban area. We can oversupply in either of those locations and from recent evidence we know that cities, as well as farms, contribute widespread chemical pollution to streams. Weed control options are either hand, mechanical or chemical (herbicides) or a combination of the three no matter where you are. Hand control is removal of invasives by clipper or lopper. Mechanical removal is by weedeaters, chainsaw, and large brushcutting tractors. Reading the label is a definite requirement of using chemicals. It also helps to talk with someone that has applied the different chemicals in order to avoid applying more than absolutely necessary..

This month is education month at the Clackamas Soil and Water Conservation District. In addition to information tables at Lake Oswego, Milwaukie, Molalla True-Value Hardware, Oregon Small Business Fair, we have classes ranging from lawn care to pasture management. For the city folks, "Golf Course Quality Lawns" and "Rainwater Harvesting" is a possibility. For the country folks, "Advanced Pasture Management" as well as Lawns and Rainwater Harvesting may be beneficial. And if these topics do not seem especially pertinent to you right now, you might consider going as I sometimes do,
SIMPLY FOR THE JOY OF LEARNING.

Clair Klock is Conservation Specialist for urban and small acreages at Clackamas Soil and Water Conservation District and with his wife; Beverly operates a small farm in the Columbia River Gorge. You can contact Clair at 503.656.3499 or clair.klock (at) or.nacdnet.net