Winter 2000 Number 62
AT Demonstration Center/Gardens
Garden Design and Additions The rock work at the herb garden has been extended by Eddie Stallsworth. This includes the demonstration garden near the Nature Center. The design by 1999 gardener, Amanda Allen, permits maximum use of the limited fertile garden space with accessible paths. The storage area in the back of the cordwood house is being enclosed and turned into a garage/storage building.
Demo Workshops Dry composting toilet and artificial wetlands workshop/projects are being funded by a grant from the U.S. E.P.A. This comes at an opportune time because Kentucky and other states in central Appalachia are struggling with water and sewage disposal problems and the dry composting toilet is an easy, low-cost and environmentally friendly alternative. If you are interested in more details, please write to ASPI Workshop Coordinator.
Garden Yields During 1999 the ASPI demonstration gardens produced 4,500 pounds of vegetables. The one-twentieth of an acre Mt. Vernon former blacktop parking lot was monitored for the third straight year. It produced 1400 pounds (as of December 18th) compared to 1340 in 1997 and 1446.5 in 1998. This yield occurred in spite of the century's driest year. The impact of the drought was lessened by the frugal use of cistern water and by the use of straw and green mulching (hairy vetch), plus the use of Reemay as an autumn cover. We harvested over 90 pounds of autumn Japanese radishes but other November and December yields were lower due to the drought.
Sustainable Forestry
Nature Center The Center received a grant from the University of Kentucky Newman Center for the purchase of nature books and materials for use by school children during visits beginning in the spring of the year 2000.
Chris Sowers has been working on this along with laying plans for developing a Woman's Equity Program for interesting young women in central Appalachia in subjects pertaining to science and technology. She is working with Andrea and Joey Kesler of WOBZ-TV on this budding program.
U.S. Forest Plans The Clinton initiative to protect roadless areas on national forestlands is now being considered at the individual forest levels. We are quite concerned about central Appalachian forests because the tracts are smaller and more fragmented thus requiring consideration of relatively small areas compared with the large areas of western forests. Furthermore, efforts to keep the lands from being overrun by off-road vehicles remain a major concern. This is an ongoing problem which demands the protection of newly designated walking, hiking and horseback riding trails.
Ginseng Training Workshops The Educational Foundation of America has given ASPI $52,600 to launch the Appalachian Ginseng Foundation and to conduct a series of five training workshops in each of the five central Appalachian states. Details will be worked out with our new Workshop coordinator, Jeannette Matthews, when she comes on board in January, 2000. The first of these will be held on Saturday, March 11, 2000 from 9:00 to 3:00 at the ASPI Demonstration Center. Scholarships for packets are available for trainees. These include a detailed 90-minute videotape, background materials along with study materials for siting Ginseng growing areas.
ASPI Administration
After 30 thirty years of public interest science work (23 with ASPI) Al Fritsch is planning to phase-out or -down his involvement in administration and fund-raising by Spring, 2002 (ASPI's 25th Anniversary). He would prefer to concentrate on writing and other media work and gardening. He is looking for a replacement for the director-portion of his job at ASPI. It will be a full-time position with a negotiable salary, especially if the replacement raises his or her own money.
The position requires an articulate public-spirited individual with a substantial knowledge of environmental and appropriate technology issues on the five-state Central Appalachian regional level. The person must be willing to work with a staff of 12 full or part-time self-motivated persons, half having been associated with ASPI for more than seven years. Though ASPI has always operated in the black, it does not have an endowment nor more than one year's funding at a given time. Over half of income is from non-grant sources such as the calendar sales, Thanksgiving Drive, and consulting work.
Please send resumes to Greg Williams, 750 Black Lick Road, Gravel Switch, KY 40328 by March 1, 2000. For further detailed information on the position, call Al Fritsch at (606) 256-0077.
The completion of the series of environmental resource assessments under ASPI sponsorship includes the return to the St. Joseph Motherhouse\St. Joseph Academy at Rocky River at Cleveland, OH (first performed in 1986) and the assessment of the motherhouse and academy for the Mercy Sisters of Watchung, NJ. Also walk-through assessments were performed for "Peace Acres" in Indianapolis, IN and for the proposed municipal park at Livingston, KY.
Jubilee, Appalachia and the World
Jubilee is a time of liberation and celebration. You will declare this fiftieth year sacred and proclaim the liberation of all the inhabitants of the land (Leviticus: 25:10). Celebration is the easy part when it comes to Appalachia. Our folks know how to celebrate -- music, dancing, county festival, homecoming, potluck, card game, good conversation on the front porch or just halting the pickup and chew the fat in the middle of the highway. It doesn't take a Jubilee Year to have good times in Appalachia.
The liberation theme is a different matter. Who has to be liberated and who has to do the liberating? Maybe we all have to do both -- and the all are people from all parts of the world. Some would simplify matters by saying the binding chains are due to outsiders who seized the region's resources. But we are all partly to blame for resource loss without a fight. Another group would say the chains are personally inflicted by smoking, drinking and a hundred other vices. Likewise, we all need to recognize that personal vices include external enticements of "snakes" and "snake oil." Blame extends to us all, and so does the need for liberation, a process which will only succeed through regional and world solidarity.
Liberation involves a willingness to share resources. None who have more than they need are really excused. And it is extremely difficult for desensitized wealthy folks to extend compassion for the struggling poor. All of us find it hard to see that the disparity between rich and poor grows, and that today less than 10% of the world's people control 90% of the wealth. The remaining 90% of the people, including many Appalachians, fight over the scraps and try to play life's Monopoly game with its hotels controlled by the wealthy few.
A widening disparity of wealth is evident, with such central Appalachian states as Kentucky standing at the highest end of the disparity rating among states. The 2000 Census will most likely show Kentucky with the dubious distinction of having the largest disparity listing among states. We have two Commonwealths that appear to exist side by side, namely, the golden triangle of Lexington, Louisville and Northern Kentucky (granted with their own pockets of poverty), and the outlying areas with some of America's poorest counties. Where is there a greater American disparity?
Amid celebrations, the Jubilee Year should radicalize us to the needs of the desperate and the superabundance of the overly affluent. Abraham Lincoln's basic Civil War insight, that we can't have a nation that is half slave and half free, is challenging us to expand our social awareness. We can't have a region or a world that is 90% have-nots (and essentially enslaved by poverty and debt) and 10% haves. Jubilee is a time for speaking out, for proclaiming social and eco-justice. Modern Dives know Lazarus by name, but fail to do anything about it. Jubilee makes us reconsider the ways we must act to those who are near and far. Time is running out. We have to do more than remain silent and wait for the affluent to correct their own ways -- amid their debilitating addictions. Let's pray all take such social matters into their own hands, for the rich to let go, for the poor to take what is rightly theirs, and for all of us to get involved?
Publications and Television Shows
Earth Healing Shows The 42-part Pollution Prevention series is now available through ASPI Publications - with a synopses of the series downloadable from ASPI's Web Site. We've recently filmed some new shows, including two on crafts in Appalachia gathered at the Appalachian Museum's fall homecoming, another with longtime community organizer Marie Cirillo and one on Eagan's Mountain, Tennessee, the ASPI Nature Center with Chris Sowers, and a Bird Sanctuary in Berea with bird expert Wayne Davis. Stay tuned for further Earth Healing programs slated for the year 2000.
Publications Recently completed publications include Perspectives in Promoting Appropriate Technology by Mark Schimmoeller which is the latest (54th) in the ASPI Technical Papers. Al Fritsch's 50 Possible Ways to Challenge Over-Commercialism is now being sent to donors and could be purchased for $5.00 from ASPI Publications. Six further technical papers are being planned for this coming year along with the 2001 Simple Lifestyle Calendar. A training manual for ginseng growers is in the pipeline as well and will be ready in 2001.
Thanks(Donations from September 15 to December 13, 1999) Ken Bossong & Sun Day for solar books and monetary donations from Leona Drennen, Walter Bado, Michele Handelman, Fr.Henry Atkins, Emil & Wendy Cook Pasavac, Leonard Levine, Carol Moore, Rosemary Leahy, Robert & Diane Mushaben, Carolyn Vadala, Barbara Spicer, Dave & Barbara Schmenk, Lynn Chong, Kit & Ev Pilgrim, Betty Johnson, Joseph Taylor & Sharon Fradenburgh, Peter & Patrice Emmerson, Leah Aasen, David Wheeler, Herbert Petitjean, Beth Grendahl, Maura Ubinger, Frank Hare, Nick & Julie Schnitzer, Betty Graham, Robert DeJonge, J.T.Wright, Gena Krueger, Francesca Bartos,O.P., Lynne Moody, Barbara McNamara, Karen Phillips, Catherine Cameron, Mary Yocum, Russell & Elizabeth Ebelhar,Greg & Kathleen Harmeyer, George Scholemer, Bethany Fitzgerald & Judith Wagner, Kent Busman, Sr. Lucinda Mureck, Mary Sweda, Doris Magan, Julie Rodolph,Tenley Weaver, Al Keiser, Pat Bing, Bob Suber, Lena Cramer, Ruth Shirley, John Florin, Missie Carrigan, Dawn Ramsey, Judith Lynn Cruz McDowell, Harry Daly, Milton & Martha Rosenberg, Robert & Ellen Levy, Maurice & Susan Jospe, Albert & Eleanor Kohn, William Andrews, William & Val Wolff, Wendell & Tanya Berry, Ed & Dorthy Singer, Donna Lynne Strong Brott, Sr. Leanne Herda, Wayne & Shirley Davis, Raphael & Eleanor Edwards, Colin Raitiere, Clay & Donna Goebeler, June Fritsch, Paschal Phillips, Joseph T. Netherland, Dan & Lauren Chapman., Ralph McCaslen, Rev. Arthur Redmond, Mary Wicksten, Charles & Elizabeth Crail, Maggie Brandt, Frank & Beth Ettensohn, John & Karen Schultz, Phil & Linda Pfieffer, Janet Seeds, Lilian Lawrence, John & Dorothy Tohill, Rheta Lanehart, Wayne & Imogene Margison, Paul & Elizabeth Oberst, John & Colleen Harmeyer, Joe Steen, Christopher & Della Oberst, Margaret Gorey, George & Rita Watkins, Beth Dotson, Adam & Simon Rothkrug, John H. Noel III, John V. White, Leonard Levine, William Shallenberger, Paul & Ann Marie Halverstadt, Daniel Shine, Andy Ries & Deb Baird, Stewart Peebles, Elgin Cottrill, James Fleck, Don Pratt, Maria Powers, John & Barbara Holt, Richard Austin & Anne Leibig, Dan Coffey, Ruth Kalin, Jessie Lang, Barbara Ottewell, Linda Ewald, Brian & Susan Bobka, Steele & Ave Hinton, Ken Herren, Edward & Nancy Schumacher, Rick Katterman, Jame Schaefer, Ralph & Christina Bolgiano, Marjorie Williams, Paul Rothkrug, Greg Rieneke, Marion Mitchell, John A. Patterson, Donna Hanley, Wiliam & Barbara Boeck, Robert Beaudoin, Richard & Elaine Stollzfus, Margaret Thielke, Robert & Mary Kelly, Ernest & Minnie Egerer, Nancy Jackson, Jack W. Vetter, Betty Shelton, SCN, Joan Wilson, SCN, David & Nan Fry, Alice Retzner, Joop Van Der Grinten, Katherine Christensen, Elizabeth Long, Eugene & Marilee Kieffer, Daniel Teresa Casselman, Kathy Gilbert, John Burke, Daniel & Betsy Croft, Carole Russell, Susanne Fountain, Sarah Moore, Sarah Peterson, Betsy Olson, Heather Erbeznik, Betty Stone, Nora Jamison Danko, Diane Faircloth, Lyle Starr, Elizabeth Legum, Don Russell, Andrea Kurtz, Susan Ludwig, William Parks, Allene Long, Anna Auteri, Fred Schwerer, Ed Perraut, Tim Lee, Amy Ravenholt, Edward & Dale Harris, Frank & Kathy Wynne, Sr. Marie Cooper, Mark Heffer, Rev Leo Haigerty, Charles & Margaret Hollowell, Ted & Betty Linden, Sr. Margaret Wendell, Jerry Ropp & Jeanne Staas, Burton & Lenora Barnes, Helen Mullins, David & Christine Nadler, Allen & Kathy Feibelman, Carol Ann Morrow, Bill & Dorothy Harmeyer, Susan Anderson, Tim & Sue Garry, Judith McCandless & Grady Clay, Barbara Withum, Chris Schimmoeller, James Hall, Roger Frisch, Ellen OBryan,RSM, Kay & Tom Anderson, John Carroll, Joan Scanlon,O.P., Julie Barnes, Ed & Tricia Cortas, David Arnold, Barry Howard, H.D. Marcum, Mary Dresser, Patricia Pielnik, Jeanne E. Walker, Patricia Perraut, Don & Rosemary Thielke, Ian Rudick, Robert & Anna Harris, Carl Callenbach, Chloe Treksbury, John A. Rogers, Morten Moesswilde, Andy & Janet Ingraham Dwyer, William & Mary Ann Parke, James P. Zeller, Orie & Elinor Loucks, Judson Cramer, James Wilson, Tom & Linda Green, LaDene King, Mary Goodwyn, Joan Davison, Robert & Mary Davis, Ike & Kathy Kahler, Paul Buterbaugh, Sister of Saint Joseph of Peace, Milford Spiritual Center, Larry & Pat Darcey, John & Sandra Freda, Patti Staton, Coalition for Jobs & The Environment, Mike Brophy,SJ., Steven & Laura Harmeyer, Allene Long, Wendell & Virginia Kingsolver, Tom Bell, Anita Brelage, Paul & Monique Winther, Peg Taylor, Richard & Paula Hays, Kathryn Campbell, Leo Babeu, Karol Osborne, Angela Showalter, Laurie Webb, Joan K. Yeager, Faith Campbell, Paula Ferron, Ben Eissen, Kathi & Ken Beerbohm, Carol Levine, Anita Ung, Luci Merlo, Carol Cox, Robert Beaudoin, Stewart Peebles, Dan Chapman, Jenny Holmes, William & Julie McBee, Phyllis Robinson, Nick & Julie Schnitzer, Diane Roche, Elaine Potts, Diane McCallum, John & Jade Hargrave, Bruno Jaselskis, Roger & Stacy Campbell, Ronald & Elizabeth Legum, Richard Murphy, Robert & Angela Iadavaia-Cox, John Stoeckinger, Alexander Lee, David Sheley, Marty & Hedi Kaufman, Terry & Anne Symens-Bucher, Royal Graves IV, Robert Hoover, Jim Perkaus & Carol Reed, Robert & Barbara Perkaus, Jennifer Gleason, Anne Romance, Cathy & Ihor Hlohowskyj, Frank & Carol Schmidt, Lonnie & Sandra Sears, Tom Eick, David & Becky Grandgeorge, Richard & Michelle Harr, Joan & Dan Grey, Catherine Reed, Greg Horrocks, Anne Woodard, J.R. Morrison, K. Ryan, Peg LaMartina, Karen Bakita, Dawn Marie Day, Lucille Farrar, Faith Wright, Anna Belle Day, Albert & Jean Cevasco, Tom Newkirk-Moore, Robert Honkomp, John & Anne Horstman, George & Charlesetta Perraut, Deepak & Abeer Desai, William & Julie Gregg, George & Bonnie Estill, Eugene & Sonya Hirschberg, Kit & Evelyn Pilgrim, Richard & Susan Pozdol, Carl Todd, Renate Craine, Peter & Donna Ford, Steve & Jill Acree, Margaret Crellin, Sally & Jonathan Cahppell, Joan Scanlon,O.P, Charles & Marjorie Sheffieck, Margaret ODyer, Charles & Carol Webb, James & Karen Phillips, Suzanne Comtois, Paul Hollenbach, Sr. Lesley Block,O.P., Gwen Hall, Janet & Mary Furlong Leonard & Donna M. Wrona, Holy Redeemer Monastery, R.K. McDonald, Marilyn Ortt, Nancy Troxler, Robin Cochran, Loretta Galbraith, Deborah Kanter, Kathy Birmingham, Celeste Wojcik, J.D. Wulfhorst, Michael Shremshock, Tricia Gehl, Rev. Pam Tinnin, Mary Victoria Hayden,SCN, Wendy Brunner, Libby McCann, Dana Wildsmith, Dorothy Shields, Ed & Christina Fritsch, Christopher & Carole Pierce, Connie Schmitt, Paul Gade & Martha Moore, Carrie Webster, CSPI/Nutrition Action, Esther Sutton, Stuart Butler, Charles Phillips, Frank & Barbara Creegan, Paul & Ann Rapien, David Schmank, Gene & Joanne Wilhelm, Albert Ruschman, Everett Brooks, Sylvester Yunker, Helen E. Latour, Kathleen T. Hall, Sam & Margie Lynd, Mary Chapman, Rhonda Coleman, Colleen Fogarty, Alice Haberle, Ernest & Barbara Seebaldt, Chris & Olga Ahrens, Marilyn Huegerich/Srs of St. Francis, Mary E. Fritsch, Beldon & Louise Paulson, John Capillo/Ky. Environment Foundation, Leadership Team/Mount St. Joseph, David Andrews/N.C.R.L.C., Mary Louise Perraut, University of Kentucky Newman Center, Phyllis & Lester Machta, Ruben Angel, David Sanders, Sr. Loretto Driscoll, Joe Steen, J.R. Morrison Steve Diver, Eric Rohr, Paul Hollenbach, Cecile Parker, Susan McDaniel, Sisters of Notre Dame, Patricia & Jerry Wolf.
Nature Center Tours -- Especially geared for youth and teachers during the work week from 8:00 to 4:00. Please call (606) 453-2105 and ask for Chris Sowers, the Nature Center coordinator.
Ginseng Training Workshops -- The first workshop will be held at Livingston, KY on Saturday, March
11, 2000, 9:00 to 3:00. Limited to first twenty participants. Workshops schedules for West Virginia, Virginia, Tennessee and North Carolina to be worked out in a few weeks and will be posted in the spring Appalachian Alternatives.
Land Stewardship Conference -- May 9-11, 2000 at Milford Retreat Center, Milford, Ohio. There are still openings.
Compost Toilet/Artificial Wetland Workshops -- Rockcastle County June 1-3, 2000; Harlan County June 22-24, 2000.
River Day, 2000 -- June 3, 2000. Canoe from 9:00 to 12:00 &/or celebrate at our Rockcastle River festival at 12:00 to 6:00.
Solar Home Tour-2000 -- Saturday, October 21, 2000 10:00 to 5:00pm both at the Livingston and the Mount Vernon Demonstration Sites.
Wish List
ASPI is looking for a light riding mower due to the grounds person's infirmities. Also there is need for additional nature, science and appropriate technology books for the ASPI library and display and educational materials for the Nature Center.
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MAIN OFFICE, RAS, & PUBLICATIONS
50 Lair Street, Mt. Vernon, KY 40456
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Telephone & Fax 606-453-2105