Spring
2006 Number 87
2006
ASPI EVENTS
June 3 - 23rd Annual ASPI Rockcastle River Day. Our theme will
be "Rockcastle River Reunion." We invite you
to save the date & plan to
attend - see details below.
June 17 - Rockcastle
River Sweep for tires (Livingston Water Plant at 9 AM)
October 7 - National Tour of Solar Buildings.
October 14-15 - 2006 Bluegrass Energy & Green Living Expo.
23rd
Annual ASPI
Rockcastle River
Day
Please join us the
weekend of June 3-4th for the 23rd Annual Rockcastle River Day celebration.
This year’s theme is A Rockcastle Reunion – come reconnect with ASPI alums and new faces alike. As always,
primitive camping will be available on the River beginning on Friday,
or you can stay in town if your old bones can’t “rough it” anymore.
Events will kick off on Saturday morning,
river conditions permitting, with a canoe trip on the Rockcastle
River from the Wilderness
Road ford at Livingston to the I-75 bridge just
downstream from our Rockcastle Demonstration Site. Call
for cost and registration information.
Regardless of the weather, we will have
a large picnic potluck at noon, followed by tours
and games for both kids and adults. There
will be representatives from several watershed groups on hand to answer
your questions about your favorite stream or river, and our own
Water Watch guru Ken Cooke will do some fun aquatic habitat learning activities
for young and old alike. There
will be a silent auction running all day, and you can bring a white elephant to donate to the cause.
We hope you’ll spend Saturday evening at
our campfire, and bring your favorite instrument for some pickin’ and grinnin’.
Sunday morning, we’ll have a pancake breakfast and you can spend the day hiking
our newly upgraded Michael Francis Zalla Nature Trail or visiting any
of our beautiful local historic or natural attractions.
You can check out the plans or register
for activities by visiting our website or calling the office for information or a flyer.
As always, this is a zero waste event and we ask that you bring a dish
to share and your own table service.
(PHOTO 1 TEXT - Loyola
University students explore Mullins
Station Cave)
Kentucky
Solar Partnership on the Airwaves and in the News
KSP continues to promote our loan and rebate
programs for solar waterheaters. In the past
three months we have approved one loan and seven rebate applications and have several applications pending approval.
One of our major PR initiatives for these
programs has been the purchase of underwriting from the National Public Radio stations
in Richmond(WEKU),
Lexington (WUKY), and Louisville
(the Public Radio Partnership). These
stations have been broadcasting 15-second announcements at least five times per week since mid-March, promoting KSP and
our solar water heater programs. The
announcements can often be heard during morning news broadcasts and bring our message about renewable
energy to a wide audience. We have
received many calls in response to this campaign, which will run until July.
KSP held a very successful solar water
heater installer training in
March on the campus of the University
of Louisville.
The two day training drew 28 participants from four states.
KSP now lists six contractors as qualified solar installers serving Kentucky
on our website at www.kysolar.org.
Taking Renewable
Energy on the Road
Progress continues on the development of
our Renewable Energy Roadshow. The RE Roadshow
will be a traveling exhibit all about renewable energy and energy efficiency.
The centerpiece of the exhibit will be a 16 foot trailer that will carry a variety of functioning renewable
energy systems, such as solar PV panels, a solar water heater, and
numerous other exhibit items. The
exhibit will travel around the region, enabling us to educate the community where they are – in schools, at
county fairs, and other events. The
basic structure of the trailer has been completed, thanks in large part to the dedicated efforts of
Berea College
student Dan Pray, Joshua Bills, and the support of the Berea
College Sustainability and Environmental Studies Program.
The educational program for the Roadshow
is now being developed by Connie
Lemley, who is working on a Master’s Degree in Sustainable systems from Slippery Rock
University of Pennsylvania.
This project will serve as the foundation for Connie’s master’s thesis.
We are presently seeking funding to allow
us to complete the exhibit and take it on the road. Among our needs are a diesel truck that can haul the Renewable Energy Trailer (while fueled by vegetable
oil – we will convert the truck’s engine to burn vegetable oil, making it
a major part of our exhibit), and funding to hire a Roadshow Coordinator
to manage the exhibit and take it around the region.
If you wish to contribute to this exciting new project, please contact us!
* Take Advantage of the Best Financial
Incentives for Solar Energy We’ve
Seen in a Generation!
* $500 Rebates for Solar Water Heaters
available state-wide in kentucky!
* Low-interest loans for residential solar
water heaters and commercial
renewable energy projects available in Eastern Kentucky!
* Federal Tax Credits Available for Solar
and Energy Conservation nationwide!
Find Solar Water Heater Installers
in your area at www.kysolar.org, or call KSP toll-free at 1-888-576-6527.
New
Round of Watershed Activities in Kentucky
and Nationwide
ASPI is once again an active participant
in Kentucky’s citizen water
monitoring program, Watershed Watch.
We are using the organizing opportunities to educate and mobilize residents of a number
of watersheds in the Upper Cumberland
River Basin to address ongoing
water quality issues.
This spring we have travelled to Eagan,TN,
to train members of the Clearfork
Community Institute, assisted with a training on the Poor Fork in coal country at Cumberland,
KY, and we held a training at ASPI for samplers from the Little Laurel River, Renfro Creek/Lake Linville,
and Rockcastle River watersheds. Citizen
monitors continue to play a large role in defining the extent of our most pressing water problems:
sediment, bacteria, excess nutrients, and industrial and mining
runoff.
The good news is that bacteria levels in
Eastern Kentucky streams are beginning to respond to an onslaught of efforts by various
citizen and government groups to upgrade, repair, and replace small municipal
wastewater treatment plants, and replace straight pipes and
failing septics for individual homes. Other
watershed solutions are not as far along at this point however, and will require widespread community
education and mentoring to implement.
In the coming months, ASPI will participate
in a new program to educate Kentuckians on construction site Erosion and Sediment
Control measures required by the Clean Water Act.
We will be training to organize community volunteers to conduct Construction Sediment Control
Management Practice
Surveys at construction and development sites.
If you are interested in volunteering to do water monitoring or construction
site sediment surveys, contact Deb Bledsoe at our office, or get
information during our Rockcastle River Day event.
If you are not in the Upper Cumberland
Watershed, contact us with your location and we will put you in touch with the group in your
area that is doing these types of activities.
Volunteer water monitoring is a nationwide effort and is necessary now more than ever, due
to the upswing in extractive industries and the ongoing attempts to roll back
clean water laws.
(PHOTO
2 TEXT - Watershed Volunteer Monitors test Little Renfro Creek)
Service Learning
at ASPI
ASPI’s Volunteer Program is rapidly evolving
into a popular service learning site, according to feedback from students and university
contacts who recently coordinated alternative Spring Break
trips in Rockcastle County. One participant
stated, “...we were introduced to some of the key concerns involving environmental degradation in the region.
More importantly however, we were [also] able to see the interconnectedness
of the many social justice issues facing Appalachia.”
Along with illegal dump cleanups, our volunteers
also worked on ASPI demonstration rehab, helped get a new recycling center up and
running, researched remote sensing solutions for apprehending illegal
dumpers, and wrote and performed a recycling program for local fifth
graders.
All told, the groups spent six days on
dump cleanups, including four on Hammonds Fork and two on Mullins
Station Rd. along the Roundstone Creek near Sinks. Working
with County PRIDE
Coordinator James Renner and his crew, as well as Clear Creek resident Ron Owens and NRCS/Nature
Conservancy’s
Roundstone Creek Project Manager Joan Garrison, they emoved 842
bags of garbage, 132 tires, 10 gas tanks, and 2 propane tanks from the roadside.
The Loyola
University students also prepared
an informational brochure on our new local recycling center and did a presentation of
“Recycle Rap” for 5th grade students at Roundstone Elementary.
Notre Dame students painted barrels donated by ASPI to the recycling center,
and researched remote surveillance methods, contacting manufacturers
to ask for donations of that equipment to help the county keep tabs on
areas that are seeing repeat dumping in violation of the law.
Members of University
of Dayton’s ETHOS club camped
at the Rockcastle River
site and reconstructed our solar food dehydrator for use as a demonstration of solar principles to visitors, and of course,
preserving produce from Jack Kieffer’s organic garden.
ASPI Board member Jamie Johnson and her
family hosted our groups at her mountain-top home, which is constructed using local materials.
Jamie and her sisters Melanie and Bonnie prepared delicious soups
on her woodburning range, and served home-baked pies which were the
subject of song during a late-week poetry slam.
One ode to their talents went something like this: “Pies, pies, PIES!!”
Other activities included campfires, hikes to local natural attractions and attending
bluegrass on Friday night in Livingston.
It was good to have the volunteers here
– their enthusiasm and energy are a shot in the arm. Collaborations in our community are
particularly educational for everyone involved.
Someone said “there’s no end to what you can accomplish if you don’t care who gets the credit”,
but these young people deserve recognition for their hard work and inquisitive
and open attitudes, and our neighbors certainly deserve a lot
of credit for their hospitality.
ASPI will be hosting other groups as the
year goes along, and is always looking for folks to come out and work with these visitors
on the various projects they are assigned to.
Contact us if you can help, or have ideas for projects you’d like to see accomplished.
(PHOTO 3 TEXT - Notre Dame students prepare barrels for
new Rockcastle County
Recycling Center)
Reintroducing
Martha Bond
Many of you have been involved with ASPI
for years, but a good number of new readers may not know a lot about the people who make
up the Board and Staff. We
will be publishing a little information and news about our folks over the next few issues, starting with Martha Bond,
Office Manager.
Martha was born at home on the farm in Brodhead,
and had two brothers, though one died in infancy.
Her mother and father raised tobacco, and Martha
graduated from Livingston High
School and married and started a family.
She found out about ASPI when one of her
sons-in-law did some work for Al
Fritsch, and she started as the Office Manager in the Cordwood
House in February of 1988, moving with the office to establish the
Mt Vernon Small Town Demonstration site in 1995.
Her husband Ott and she raised ten kids
in Livingston, and now live in Mt
Vernon. Martha is staying busy as
always, attending Livingston Pentecostal Holiness Church and teaching Vacation Bible School. She is enjoying her grandbabies and great-grandbabies in her semi-retirement,
but also enjoys her days in the office because she likes keeping
in touch with all the generous folks who help to keep ASPI going.
She works on Wednesdays
and Thursdays, so give her a call if you need anything, or just to say “Hi!”
(PHOTO
4 TEXT - Office Manager Martha Bond)
Ginseng
Project update
Our February Beginners Growing Workshop
was well-attended, and we have plans for another in the fall.
Call for details and to be added to our contact list. Jack
Kieffer's leaf extracts have been used in analysis by a student of Professor Matt Saderholm from Berea
College, who did a comparison of our leaf extract and a commercially prepared
ginseng supplement. Work with
Jack's extracts continues in a cancer study at Illinois
State University,
and reports on both should be available by fall.
Note:
Author Kristin Johannsen has a new book, Ginseng Dreams: The Secret
World of America’s Most Valuable Plant, available from ASPI’s Fleamarket.
THANK
YOUS
1-19-06 to 4-14-06: Sr. Carolyn Lambert/Benedictine
Sisters, V.L.Cummings, Claire Nader, Damien Mallen, Edward Perraut
Jr, Walter L. Farrell, SJ, /Detroit
Province of the Society of Jesus,
Nancy Jackson, Mary Morgan, Janet & Dick Futrell, Sally Firestone,
Judith Bell & Richard Goodwin, Hilary Lambert, Barbara Warner,
Carl & Mary Moore, David & Martha Lester, Robert &
Rosemary Courboin, Jim & Heather
Bartos Sonya Hirschberg
in memory of husband Gene Hirschberg, Denise Peterson,
Ian Rudick, Lyle Starr, Kasey Moulton, Philip & Terrie Curd, Dennis
& Helen Sullivan, Janet Garrison, Church of the Epiphany, Charles &
Joy Perry, Len Levine, Dan Dimiduk, Don Brandner, Pete Stow, &
Dan Bond.
Wish
List
Late-model diesel pickup truck, energy
and environmental reference/design books, fire-box or fire-proof safe, recent
model PCs and monitors, digital projector, a flat-bed utility trailer (12’ ideal),
sawdust, mulch and manure.
SUPPORT
ASPI through DISCOUNT COMMUNICATION SERVICES
NEW
iTurboCharger™ Web Accelerator Internet Service- Ideal for rural areas where DSL is not available, or for users who need more
speed but do not want to pay DSL or cable rates!
5X Faster than standard dialup!
ASPI supporters save 33% off
the regular $14.95 rate. Pay $9.95 per month for Unlimited Access, Five 10MB POP3 Email accounts,
Toll free tech support, Free set up software, Pop-Up Blocker, Anti-Spam/Anti-Virus
Email Protection, Customized Webmail, No advertisements, Instant
Messenger Compatibility, Free Content Filtering Software, Win/Mac/WebTV/Linux
Compatible,
No setup fees!
Call Novocon.net today at 877-882-6686.
Mention code ASPI to save 33% off your monthly bill and to designate at no cost to you 10%
of your monthly bill to ASPI!
Discounted Long Distance Service
for Home or Business - No monthly service fees, no minimum billing, low-cost calling cards, and
six-second billing. * Mention this
ad and designate (at no cost to you) 3% of your bill to ASPI.
For more information or to order
new service, contact Ian
Rudick with Come From the Heart at 1-888-622-0957
Appalachia
– Science in the Public Interest
" Working
for Healthy Land & Sustainable Communities in Kentucky
& Central Appalachia."
Contact information:
50 Lair Street, Mt.
Vernon, Ky
40456-9806
Phone: (606) 256-0077 Fax:
(606) 256-2779
Office hours: 9-4 M-F, Facility tours
by appointment
www.a-spi.org
aspi@a-spi.org
Projects of A-SPI:
The
Kentucky Solar Partnership
www.kysolar.org
The
Appalachian Ginseng Foundation
www.a-spi.org/AGF/index.htm
The
Bluegrass Energy & Green Living Expo
www.bluegrassenergyexpo.org
***
The ASPI Flea Market ***
Energy Books (& DVD)!
All are highly recommended for
anyone who wants to reduce their energy and resource use, and gain a better understanding of the challenges
we will face in coming post fossil fuel era.
Give them as gifts and help spread the word!
The
Consumer Guide to Home Energy Savings,
by Alex Wilson, Jennifer
Thorne, &
John Morrill; America
Council for an Energy Efficient Economy,2003
(216 pg) - $10.00
This book is a must for homeowners!
It is well organized and easy to read, and each chapter has a list of recommendations that summarizes
how to save energy in one area of your home. It helps you identify
your major energy uses, offers paybacks for various investments,
and helps you estimate the reductions in pollutants your actions will
result in. It’s
full of helpful charts, graphs, diagrams and contact information.
The Most Energy-Efficient
Appliances 2004,
American Council for an Energy
Efficient Economy (ACEEE), 2004 (42 pg) - $5.00
As Joe Friday would say;
“Just the facts”. This booklet contains just the appliance information from The Consumer Guide to Home Energy
Savings, for
those looking for a quick reference when shopping for refrigerators, freezers, dish and clothes washers, water heaters,
and home heating and cooling equipment (including room ACs).
The Consumer’s Guide to Effective
Environmental Choices,
by Michael Brower,
PhD, and Warren Leon, PhD; Union of Concerned Scientists,
1999 (259 pg)
- $15.00
Warning … this book may relieve you of
deeply held guilt! It helps you decide which actions make a difference, and which are not worth
a lot of worry. It debunks environmental “sacred cows” such as paper
vs plastic and cloth vs disposables.
It doesn’t go far enough for some serious “greens”, but is a huge step in the right direction for most
consumers and a marvelous informational resource.
The
End of Fossil Energy,
by John Howe, McIntire Publishing, 2004 (99 pg)
- $5.00
A quick read for those wanting to learn
about the post fossil fuel world we are heading toward with reckless abandon. Howe argues
that we have a brief window of opportunity, and that the remaining
fossil fuel reserves should be used strategically to build the infrastructure
for a renewable energy economy that will allow us an acceptable quality
of life in the future. He offers a fairly detailed plan to take us
from where we are now, to where we need to be in 50 years.
The End of
Suburbia – Oil Depletion and the Collapse of the American Dream
(DVD),
Barry Silverthorn & Gregory Greene, Hosted by Barrie
Zwicker (78 min) 2004 -
$25.00
A real eye-opener! It offers a fascinating
and humorous history of suburbia and a sobering look at the prospects for the suburban
lifestyle in the post peak oil era. It includes interviews with some
of the world’s leading authorities on peak oil and petroleum industry
insiders.
ASPI Appalachian Wildflower Notecards
- The Wildflower notecards are all full-color pictures of daisies, roses, dogwood blossoms,
rhododendron, phlox, and black-eyed susans growing near rustic
structures such as split-rail fences and log cabins or in other Appalachian Settings.
Each set contains 6 cards. We are out of several varieties of the
Appalachian
Winter notecards so please call to inquire before ordering.
New
Lower Prices on CFL Bulbs + New 3-Ways and Globes !
Compact Fluorescent Light Bulbs (CFLs)
– We stock 20 & 25 watt CFLs (75 & 100w brightness), and 11 & 15 watt mini-CFLs (40 &
60w brightness).
The mini-CFLs fit anywhere a
standard light bulb fits. Unlike older and cheaper CFLs, these bulbs light instantly, give off a warm
light, and don’t flicker. Operating
six hours a day, each 25 watt CFL will last almost five years, saving an average of $59, 13 bulb changes
& 750+ lbs of coal versus a standard 100w bulb. Also available are 10w
(40w brightness) decorative globe CFLs and 29/18/13w 3-Way CFLs
(100/60/40w brightness).
Click
Here to go to ASPI fleamarket
