Earthworms KDHX

ALAN - Artificial Light At Night - is surging. Light pollution disrupts health for humans and wildlife, wastes energy and money, and blocks out awe-some Universe views. How to flip the switch on this issue? Dark knights arose in 1988 to challenge and turn this offense to Quality of Earth Life.
     
Today the International Dark Sky Association mobilizes over 193,000 members and supporters through 70+ chapters in 24 countries, who educate and advocate for protecting and restoring nighttime darkness. Dark Sky Missouri is the IDA chapter formed in 2018. Earthworms welcomes chapter founder and former chair Don Ficken, a retired business person, amateur astronomer and ardent nocturnal darkness champion.   
Dark Sky MO operates state-wide to measure and report night sky   light levels, build awareness, and grow support for light pollution controls, with the public and policy-makers. Lights Out Heartland, one key initiative specific to our region, works to protect migrating birds in ecologically critical months of May and September. 

   
Why should we care about night-light issues? How can we have  outdoor lighting that's responsible, healthy, functional and beautiful? You tell it, Don Ficken!
THANKS to Sasha Hay, Earthworms audio engineer and to KDHX Production Pro, Jon Valley.
Related Earthworms Conversations: Illinois Clean Energy Policy - Andy Heaslet on making of a legislative model (January 2022)
 

To champion grassland soil health in Missouri, where conventional grazing practice is practically enshrined in state law, Amy Hamilton's family enterprise has dug in as deep as roots of the native plant species whose seeds they sell. 
   
Hamilton Native Outpost has been led since 1981 by Amy and her husband Rex. They are passionate, expert advocates for the Diverse Native Grassland species and practices that sustained human to microbial communities across the vast mid-continent region for centuries. They support native landscaping in general, though this Earthworms conversation is focused on their grazing-grassland work.
     
Plenty of color blazes through this tale, from vibrant summer-prairie blooms to seed mix names (Wildlife Chuckwagon, Firebreak, Buck's Hangout) to commentary on what it takes to change grazing practices and minds, even with bushels of data-backed experience ("Double the hay with none of the fertilizer using native warm season grasses!"). 
The 60-page Hamilton Native Outpost catalogue is packed with clear, specific guidance to upgrade land management with native plants. Their website is a storehouse of articles and videos ("This Savannah restoration paid for itself" "Healing a small stream with native plants"). Novel research the works, like deploying grazing bison for weed control, demonstrates this team's constant learning commitments. And their rural Sho-Me State site hosts Pasture Walks and other events so soil health wannabes and skeptics can see Outpost successes for themselves.
You've heard about native plant benefits plenty of times in Earthworms interviews. This one steps a new hoof forward.
THANKS to Sasha Hay, Earthworms audio engineer, and KDHX production stalwart, Jon Valley - and to Ed Spevak of the Saint Louis Zoo for introduction to Amy Hamilton.
Related Earthworms Conversations:  -------
 

If you have a library card or not, St. Louis County Library welcomes you into their multi-verse of learning.
      
Earthworms' Jean Ponzi has been hosted as a speaker many times by SLCL's Sarah Kunz Jones, Adult Programs Coordinator. This conversation returns the favor, spotlighting myriad SLCL offerings to all ages, from webinars to community garden beds, from author events to loans from SLCL's Library of Things, from free lunches for children to computer access for anyone - and much more from a public library system geared to educate, engage and serve, powered by the dedicated creativity of LIBRARIANS.
           
St. Louis County Library is at your super-service, in branch locations around the area and online at www.slcl.org. 
THANKS to Sasha Hay and Jon Valley for audio tech expertise.
Related Earthworms Conversations: Seed Bank with Meg Englehardt (March, 2022)
Terrain Magazine (December 2020)
 
 

Hungry for new dining thrills? Need a place to meet and eat in an area of STL you don't know well? Align your fork, dollars and values by heading to a restaurant certified by the Green Dining Alliance, a program of our town's EarthDay-365.
       
As program manager, Ben Daugherty whisks his love of restaurant energy and culture into GDA audits that have helped over 80 restaurants, catering enterprises and food trucks earn 2-5 Star ratings for Green practices in seven categories of food service operations. Recommendations included in GDA evaluation reports advise participants with detailed options to improve. Three pre-requisites for certification are practicing recycling, eliminating Styrofoam, and having or phasing in LED lighting. Restaurants give GDA access to utility bills, purchasing records and other relevant documentation. 
GDA's work with restaurants in Maplewood, MO, established the nation's first Green Dining District (led then by Jenn DeRose); today the Grove and University City Loop are Green Dining Districts, with work underway in Webster Groves and the Cortex Innovation District to form two more. As theater companies know, more theater offerings generate more theater audiences. GDA proves the Abundance Principle!
Next time you make plans to dine, check out www.GreenDiningAlliance.org - and tell your host, chef and server you chose their place because they are GDA Certified.
Ben Daugherty spoke with Earthworms host Jean Ponzi on 2-3-24, and announced a career move shortly after. Visit www.EarthDay365.org if you'd like to apply for the GDA position!
THANKS to Jon Valley, Production Pro for KDHX.
Related Earthworms Conversations: Fair Shares: Abundance, Innovation, Relationships, FOOD (July 2022)

In a south St. Louis city park created in Victorian times, Indigenous culture, native plant ecology and 21st century engineering are newly united in a southwesterly flow. Tara Morton, Community Engagement Manager for this project's urban someplace, Tower Grove Park, shares the story of Nee Kee Nee, a riverine revival.
      
Named Nee Kee Nee, or “revived water” in the language of the Osage People who once inhabited the land, the East Stream captures stormwater from 43 Park acres and provides a naturalized play area for many of kinds of nature relatives, including humans young-to-old. 
    
East Stream’s headwaters are fed by a user-activated potable water source. Stormwater from intakes on adjacent Arsenal Street rejoin the stream 300 feet below the headwaters and flow through a system of weirs and rain gardens. Shunted underground for more than 100 years, East Stream is now a biodiverse, living partner in the Park's nature stewardship: a waterway working with human needs, designed to divert stormwater - up to 3.8 million gallons annually - from overloading the urban sewer system.
Nee Kee Nee is also reviving culture. Tower Grove Park staff worked with the Osage Nation’s Tribal Historic Preservation Office on design of the stream, the direction it flows and landscaping with pawpaw, arrowwood, and many other kinds of native plants. Physical and interpretive elements embody the Osage People's origin story and elements of Osage community life. 
Tower Grove Park is open daily, sunrise to sunset, in the City of St. Louis, Missouri.
THANKS to Jon Valley, KDHX Audio Production Pro
Related Earthworms Conversations: Artist Jayvn Solomon Envisions Loutopia (Dec. 2021)
The Water Defenders with John Cavanaugh (Oct 2021)

Traditional Ecological Knowledge (TEK) offers indigenous wisdom to "conventional" society, where responses to issues like climate change and biodiversity loss need all hands to work together.
      
Cathy “Cat” Techtmann serves as a University of Wisconsin-Extension Environmental Outreach State Specialist. She weaves together indigenous science, place-based knowledge, and academic science to “decolonize” climate education. Cat coordinates the UW- Extension Climate Leadership Team and is a member of the UW-Extension Native American Task Force. She lives and works in the homeland of the Lake Superior Ojibwe people and works out of the Iron County UW-Extension Office in Hurley, WI.
Cathy “Cat” Techtmann, University of Wisconsin-Extension Environmental Outreach State Specialist. She weaves together indigenous science, place-based knowledge, and academic science to “decolonize” climate education. Cat coordinates the UW- Extension Climate Leadership Team and is a member of the UW-Extension Native American Task Force. She lives and works in the homeland of the Lake Superior Ojibwe people and works out of the Iron County UW-Extension Office in Hurley, WI.
 
Links to: Daniel Wildcat
Heather Navarro - MCC