IAT
NEWSLETTER
Fall 2009
 This issue of the IAT newsletter is dedicated to the memory of our dear
friend and teacher, John Denver, who left us much too soon
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"IT'S ABOUT TIME WE BEGIN IT,
TO TURN THE WORLD AROUND . . . "
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ORGANIZATION INFORMATION
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Co-Founder/Former President -- Marcelle Orswell
(notmartha2@yahoo.com)
Co-Founder and Secretary -- Theresa Shea (Tree1A@aol.com)
Co-Founder/Webpage Designer -- Sandy Clark (tybrenn@comcast.net)
Co-Presidents -- Ann Schnitz (aerie01@comcast.net)
and
Mary Ledford (eagleshorses@yahoo.com)
Web Site -- -- http://home.comcast.net/~tybrenn/iat/
Facebook -- -- IAT – John Denver: http://www.facebook.com/home.php#/group.php?gid=100472756285
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LETTER FROM THE PRESIDENT
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Dear Friends,
It was a lovely early October day, the weather cool, the wind light. We had just finished a four-day journey to a uranium mine tailings landfill to survey the site and conduct pertinent interviews for human health and ecological risk assessment, and we found ourselves with a free afternoon before we had to fly back to our respective home bases. Never one to miss an opportunity to visit parts of the country I haven't seen before, I, along with one of my colleagues, spent it touring the South Rim of the Grand Canyon.
I had actually gotten a glimpse of the canyon as we flew from Phoenix to Flagstaff and I'd certainly seen photos of it before, but nothing can really prepare you for seeing it for the first time. For one, pictures don't do the scale justice. Until you've stood on the Rim and felt the wind and seen the vista stretch on for miles and miles to the point that your eye just can't take it all in, you just don't understand how wide across and how far down it is. "Grand" is definitely an understatement. Our discussions at that point were about how the vegetative cover kept changing as we drove higher and higher -- biologists, what can I say? -- but when we pulled into the overlook at Lipon Point, 7,360 feet above sea level, even we were silenced by the sheer spectacle of all that rock and all that sky, the product of millennia of water and geological forces forever entwined.
But standing there, staring off into the lovely view, something started to happen for me. A thought kept intruding. iPod. Get your iPod. A certain someone apparently wanted to "talk" to me ;). Play "Yellowstone". It was very specific about that. OK, I said to myself with a grin, and I did. Apparently I had forgotten where John wrote that song because I was stunned to listen to his spoken introduction to it and hear:
"And on this trip down the Grand Canyon, I thought about the fact that every wave I've ever seen somehow makes it to the shore. And I thought about the water, and those snow-capped mountains that I love, in their journey back home to the sea. And so the song got to be about returning, it got to be about coming home..."
No matter where I go, John is with me, no matter how far I might get from my memories and the music, it's really still there, always there, in my heart. Leaning into the wind, listening to John sing, coincidentally only three days before the anniversary of his last flight, it reminded me again of my connection to the Earth and her creatures, a sentiment encapsulated so beautifully in this song. Yes, there were tears, but there was also a deep feeling of renewal.
I returned to my home changed, and with an enhanced commitment to protect the life with which we share this planet, humankind and otherwise. I hope that all of you, particularly at this time of year, at this time of Earth, will join me.
My heart to yours,
Ann
PS -- As always, hearty thanks goes out to all those who contributed to this issue of the newsletter.
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QUOTE OF THE MONTH
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"Humankind has not woven the web of life. We are but one thread within it. Whatever we
do to the web, we do to ourselves. All things are bound together. All
things connect."
~ attributed to Chief Seattle, 1855
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CALENDAR OF EVENTS
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November 14, 2009 - Pacific Grove, CA - Concert by Mack Bailey and Rachel Levy at "The Works" Coffee house in Pacific Grove, California 667 Lighthouse Ave. 8:00pm for info call (831) 373-7780
February 21, 2010 - Largo, Florida - Ron Rich, The Rocky Mountain Memories, a John Denver Tribute show will be held at the Largo Cultural Center / 105 Central Park Drive / Largo, FL 2:00 pm Tickets are VIP $25, advance $22, day of show $25, Group $18 (10+), and Senoir (60+) Box office 727-587-6751
March 15-23, 2010 * IRELAND CRUISE * Bill Danoff, Mack Bailey and Rachel Levy - Traveling Troubadour Cruises and Tours / P.O. Box 3189 / Staunton, VA 24402 (540) 887-8491 or 800-584-6724 They will be re-visiting one of their favorite places, Galway, where they will join in the celebration of St. Patrick's Day! The tour will end in Dublin. lynette@travelingtroubadour.com http://www.travelingtroubadour.com/Bailey-Levy,_Danoff_Ireland_2010.htm
Branson, MO - Monday through Saturday 10:00am "A Tribute to John Denver & Country Music Legends". James Garrett sings John Denver's best-loved hits. IMAX Little Opry Theatre / 3562 Shepherd of the Hills Expressway / Branson, MO 65616 (800) 419-4832
(thanks to Emily Parris and the Rocky Mountain High newsletter for these dates; thanks too, to Karen Tupek for keeping us up to date with Mack Bailey’s schedule, PattiAnn Cutter, Pat Hough and others for information on Chris Westfall and Charlie Zahm’s engagements, and Deb Sanderson for news of events in California)
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LETTERS & POEMS
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from Rich Romanowski <wrangellmtns@aol.com>
Don’t Forget Step Two
Bottles, cans, paper, cardboard, wood and metal – years ago we used them then trashed them. Now it’s a two-step process. We have been conditioned to use them then properly dispose of them for re-use thereby bettering the environment. The extra step is positive and sensible.
Carole and I have been re-cycling as long as I can remember. Old clothes and furniture were always donated to either church drives, the Salvation Army or Goodwill Industries. Land fills were spared and less fortunate people benefitted.
We recently had an old above-ground oil tank removed from our property when drops of oil leaked from it. We hired a reputable environmental company to do the job and fortunately the removal was done before the soil became contaminated.
We take used automobile engine oil to our local gas station for disposal.
We dispose of excess paint by solidifying it with cement before taking it to the re-cycling center. There are two in our city – one for solid waste and the other for tree cuttings, brush and the like.
Landscaping is done to minimize weeds by effective use of weed-blocking fabric and decorative stone. This eliminates the need for vegetation killers and sprays such as
“Round-Up”.
Cement walkways, steps and landings are cleaned with an environmentally safe cleaner called “Krud-Killer” which doesn’t harm nearby shrubs or grass.
Bottles, cans, newspapers and cardboard are left out for weekly collection by the City.
We buy natural household products such as “Nature’s Source” all-purpose cleaner to replace Fantastik and Mr. Clean. We also purchase re-cycled products like toilet tissue, paper towels, napkins, etc. whenever possible.
These are some of the things we do to care for the environment in a suburban setting. We are trying and know our efforts are making a difference.
And also from Rich Romanowski:
Starting a HABITat Home
An article appearing in our local newspaper (The Journal News) caught my attention. It mentions the National Wildlife Federation, one of many environmental organizations that John Denver supported. Here’s a summary.
Earlier this year, landscape architects and wildlife activists Jane Grant and Chris Cohen of Rye, New York launched a program to make their city the first certified community wildlife habitat in the s tate. To do this, the city needs to show the National Wildlife Federation that 100 individual homes and 25 community sites suppor t native animal and plant life by building areas that have a pond or birdbath, berry or seed shrubs for food, log or rock piles for animal shelter and host plants and flowers for butterflies and bees. Each site is required to eliminate or minimize the use of chemical pesticides and fertilizers. Grant maintains that if enough people do it, it will provide corridors for wildlife to move through while improving the health of the environment for people. So far, 24 homes and six community sites, including schools, have been certified. She goes further to say that this type of project is something that anyone can do and starts in your own back yard.
from Carole Romanowski <whispjesse@aol.com>
My daily news paper, The Journal News, reports on two green facilities here in New York State. The first concerns medical facilities, like Burke Rehabilitation Hospital in Westchester County, which is using heat more productively from the facility’s buildings that would otherwise go unutilized.
This process is called cogeneration, and this environmentally friendly technology is cutting the hospital’s annual electricity purchases by $360,000, a 70% drop per year.
Places like Burke burn natural gas to heat their water. Rather than let the excess energy from that evaporate into thin air, cogeneration units capture that heat and direct it to a use that would otherwise need electricity, thereby keeping the air cleaner.
Burke is doing this to be a part of the going-green movement. This facility plus 15 other local hospitals’ efforts are reducing their carbon footprint on the local environment by reducing greenhouse gases emitted in their county by 30% by the year 2015.
Other Westchester hospitals’ green initiatives include recycling medical supplies, offering carpools to save on gas and it’s emissions, using eco-friendly products, and banning smoking on hospital grounds.
Burke’s cogeneration efforts estimate that over 10 years, it will reduce emissions by an amount equivalent to taking 2,624 cars off the road, thereby furthering NY State’s green movement.
Another facility, Post Road Elementary School in White Plains, was recently built with total environmentalism in mind! Nearly 5 years and $32.2-mill. went into the planning of the school district’s first “green” school building, probably the greenest elementary school in the state!
The building has as its centerpiece a $l.7-mill. geothermal heating and cooling system. Eighty-four wells under a parking lot funnel water 490 feet below the surface, where it is heated or cooled by the constant 55-degree temperature of the surrounding earth and recycled through the ventilation system. From there, less energy is required to heat or cool air to the appropriate indoor temperature.
Eight solar panels on the 3-story school’s roof also serve to heat water.
Floor to ceiling windows in the halls and skylights throughout the property allow an abundance of natural light, which reduces energy use, and bathrooms are equipped with low flow plumbing.
In my opinion, both institutions – the medical facility and the school - deserve an “A” on their respective report cards for their environmental efforts, and the school is a great example of “green” incentive for the children – the next generation and our future! – attending such a “green” establishment!
From Kathy Lill <k.lill@cox.net>
I spent six wonderful days in Aspen, CO for John Denver week at the brand new Limelight Lodge, which is beautiful!
The weather cooperated fully and we even had one afternoon of light snow which made everything look as if it had been dusted with powdered sugar…as John would say!
Meeting up with old friends and watching those who had come to Aspen for the first time was very gratifying! The camaraderie of those present to celebrate John’s life and music hasn’t waned in the 12 yrs. I’ve been going to Aspen.
We had a special treat at the Wheeler shows on Friday and Saturday evening. Pete Huttlinger introduced special guests Jim Curry and Lee Holdridge!
Jim sang “High Flight”…beautifully!! and Lee accompanied him on piano. The audience loved the performance and gave them a long standing ovation!
Bill Danoff sang a few songs in honor and memory of Mary Travers who recently passed away. He wiped tears as he sang which was very touching.
We did some hiking at the Grottos and Maroon Bells and just being out in nature was invigorating and good for the soul! There’s nothing like spending time outdoors in the beautiful Rocky Mountains of Colorado!
I believe this quote from Bill Danoff sums up what many feel;
“What started as a memorial has become a celebration and reunion with John Denver at the center as he was in life”
My Prayer |
(by Carole Romanowski - whispjesse@aol.com)
Oh, let John know in contemplation
The rhythmic songs he left behind
Had a mentorship upon our humanity
With a deep sense of loss in kind.
For a tree fell from the greening forest
The fateful day John Denver left.
And a luminous star dimmed in the Heavens
Because it mourned and felt bereft.
Please let John know that we still honor him
Feel "the vision of (his) goodness..." and his merit.
Let him sense his life was never in vain
So as to gladden John's free-flying Spirit.
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"Planet Earth" by Michael Jackson |
(contributed by Deb Chilton)
Planet Earth, my home, my place
A capricious anomaly in the sea of space Planet Earth are you just
Floating by, a cloud of dust
A minor globe, about to bust
A piece of metal bound to rust
A speck of matter in a mindless void
A lonely spacship, a large asteroid
Cold as a rock without a hue
Held together with a bit of glue
Something tells me this isn't true
You are my swweetheart soft and blue
Do you care, have you a part
In the deepest emotions of my own heart
Tender with breezes caressing and whole
Alive with music, haunting my soul.
In my veins I've felt the mystery
Of corridors of time, books of history
Life songs of ages throbbing in my blood
I Have danced the rhythm of the tide and flood
Your misty clouds, your electric storm
Were turbulent tempests in my own form
I've licked the salt, the bitter, the sweet
Of every encounter, of passion, of heat
Your riotous color, your fragrance, your taste
Have thrilled my senses beyond all haste
In your beuaty, I've known the how
Of timeless bliss, this moment of now
Planet Earth are you just
Floating by, a cloud of dust
A minor globe, about to bust
A piece of metal bound to rust
A speck of matter in a mindless void
A lonely spacship, a large asteroid
Cold as a rock without a hue
Held together with a bit of glue
Something tells me this isn't true
You are my sweetheart gentle and blue
Do you care, have you a part
In the deepest emotions of my own heart
Tender with breezes caressing and whole
Alive with music, haunting my soul.
Planet Earth, gentle and blue
With all my heart, I love you.
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CONSCIOUS CHOICES – TIPS AND TRICKS FOR SAVING $, TIME AND THE ENVIRONMENT
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Nothing this month
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WEBSITES OF INTEREST
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Nothing this month
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FOR SALE
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Nothing this month
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ENVIRONMENTAL NEWS
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In keeping with this month’s president letter, here’s a timely article from the NYTimes about the National Park Service – AS
Debate Flares on Limits of Nature and Commerce in Parks
The New York Times, 31 October, 2009
POINT REYES STATION, Calif. — It seems a perfect marriage of nature and commerce. As boats ferry oysters to the shore, pelicans swoop by and seals pop their heads out of the water.
A worker washes oysters at the 70-year-old farm, which predates the park.
But this spot on the Point Reyes National Seashore has become a flashpoint for a bitter debate over the limits of wilderness and commercial interest within America’s national parks.
The National Park Service has said it cannot renew the permit to farm oysters in a tidal estuary here, which lapses in 2012, because federal law requires it to return the area to wilderness by eliminating intrusive commercial activity.
Kevin Lunny, the owner of the Drakes Bay Oyster Company, says he feels persecuted by the National Park Service and has sought legislation that could allow him to continue operating.
He argues that the 70-year-old oyster farm, which predates the park, is part of the historical working landscape of the area — and every bit as in need of protection as the harbor seals and eelgrass that share the bay.
Mr. Lunny and his allies also accuse the park service’s regional office of issuing faulty scientific reports exaggerating the threat that the oyster farm poses to baby seals and flora in the estuary — accusations given credence last spring by the National Academy of Sciences.
The battle has split the local towns into passionately opposed camps: The Point Reyes Light, a local newspaper, has been critical of the park service, as have many sympathetic ranchers. But other residents and environmental groups cast Mr. Lunny as a savvy businessman manipulating public opinion to win favored status at the expense of the estuary.
The furor over the oyster lease has also drawn in partisans across the country because it plays into an old debate: Are the national parks primarily for preserving untouched wilderness, or for preserving the historic human imprint on the land, too?
Senator Dianne Feinstein, Democrat of California, has thrown her support behind the oyster farm. A provision she attached to the fiscal year 2010 appropriations bill for the Interior Department, passed by Congress recently, would give Interior Secretary Ken Salazar the option to extend the oyster farm’s lease for 10 more years.
Some environmental groups worry that the provision could set a precedent for hundreds of other private leaseholders in the national parks looking to extend their stay. For example, some owners of fishing cabins and other vacation properties in the Apostle Islands National Lakeshore in Wisconsin want to stay on in perpetuity for similar historical reasons. And federal legislation has been introduced several times to allow the private herds of a hunting club in the Channel Islands National Park in Southern California to remain on the land.
Ms. Feinstein included language in the provision saying that it should not be seen as a precedent, but the environmentalists say those words could prove meaningless.
“This exception is not just about the slippery slope,” said Jerry Meral, vice chairman of the Environmental Action Committee of West Marin, which has helped organize opposition to the lease extension. “It’s the beginning of the end of wilderness.”
Foes of the provision also include the Sierra Club, the National Parks Conservation Association and the Point Reyes National Seashore Association here.
By siding with the oyster farm, Ms. Feinstein has symbolically crossed swords with the Obama administration: Jon Jarvis, President Obama’s new director of the National Park Service, supported ending Mr. Lunny’s lease when he oversaw Point Reyes as a regional parks official.
Many people concerned with protecting the commercial tradition in parks see Mr. Jarvis’s desire to end the lease as evidence that he will usher in an era of antagonism.
“Half the parks have farms or working orchards,” said Gary Paul Nabhan, who served on the National Park System Advisory Board in the early 1990s. “This isn’t a side issue — it is fully as important as wilderness.”
Mr. Jarvis declined to be interviewed about Drakes Bay. Aides at the park service said he saw no benefit in discussing the issue with reporters.
The Drakes Bay farm is a collection of low-lying shacks, residential trailers and piles of shucked oyster shells. Like many of the cattle ranches that surround it within the park, it predated by many decades the creation of the Point Reyes National Seashore in 1962.
In a common arrangement, the federal government bought the land from the owners, who kept the right for occupancy and use until 2012. Unlike the parkland, however, the tidal bay was designated “potential wilderness” — the highest level of protection in a national park — by Congress in 1976. The Interior Department’s solicitor general has interpreted Congress’s action to mean that the park service must get rid of any commercial operations that extract wildlife as soon as it can.
Mr. Lunny, a rancher whose cattle land is in the park just up the hill from the oyster farm, bought the farm’s lease in 2005, although at the time the park service warned him that it intended not to renew.
He contends that the original lease included a clause that allows him to renew and has hired a lobbyist to promote his view in Washington. The park service says that the clause has been superseded by the wilderness legislation. Mr. Lunny also says that he produces roughly 40 percent of the oysters grown in California. Without him, he adds, oysters would be imported from overseas, costing consumers more and taxing the environment through fuel emissions. And he says he is providing environmental services like cleaning the bay of debris and replenishing the native oyster population that filtered the bay before it was overfished by native Indians.
The park service counters that there is no evidence native oysters were ever there in large numbers.
The fight might have been cast as a simple matter of abiding by a wilderness designation, but after the park service worried that Mr. Lunny was beginning to lobby to extend his lease, they moved to counter him.
Managers at Point Reyes produced their own documents saying that the oyster operation’s motorboats were thrashing the eelgrass. The oyster operations, the documents said, were spooking the mother seals off the sandbars and disrupting the birthing season, reducing the number of seals at one site by 80 percent in two years.
The findings were furiously contested by Mr. Lunny, and Ms. Feinstein asked the National Academy of Sciences to review the documents and produce its own report. Issued in May, it found insufficient data to determine whether the seals or other wildlife were being significantly harmed. And it criticized the park service’s reports, saying they had “exaggerated the negative and overlooked potentially beneficial effects of the oyster culture operation.”
Corey Goodman, an academy biologist who studied the science separately for the Marin County Board of Supervisors, said in a letter to Secretary Salazar that “Jon Jarvis participated by steadfastly defending the use of distorted science by his subordinate.”
But Mr. Jarvis, while acknowledging some problems with the science, vigorously stood up for his staff members.
Tom Strickland, the assistant secretary of Fish and Wildlife and Parks, emphasized that Mr. Jarvis was simply seeking to abide by the law. He said that if Ms. Feinstein’s provision became law, Mr. Salazar would review the issue again.
But many residents of Point Reyes say this will just bring a new round of conflict.
“Rather than heal a rift, this legislation arms everyone with howitzers,” said Mark Bartolini, executive director of the Point Reyes National Seashore Association. “It is a lose-lose decision, and this is a fight that can go one for years.”
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NEWSLETTER NEWS
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If you would like to submit articles, news items, stories, poetry, or any other pertinent information to IT'S ABOUT TIME, please e-mail any of the IAT staff. The submission deadline for the next edition is January 19, 2010. Please be sure to include any contact information so that members can e-mail or snail-mail for further details.
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The contents of this newsletter are entirely at the discretion of the "It's About Time" staff. Contributions, as always, are welcomed, although inclusion is not guaranteed. All contributed material may be subject to editing for content and length.
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". . . IT'S ABOUT TIME WE START TO LIVE
IT,
THE FAMILY OF MAN,
IT'S ABOUT TIME
AND IT'S ABOUT CHANGES . . .
AND IT'S ABOUT TIME."
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