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Our partners and web resources Board of Directors and
Current Staff Rural Report May 2001
Februray 2001
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Selected articles from Rural Action hosts Ford Foundation: Sustainable Forestry Program welcomes nationwide grant recipients Rural Action was joined May 3, 4, and 5 by people from across the country
who believe the answer to the Jobs vs. Environment debate is "Both!"
The national meeting, which brought together Rural Action's Sustainable
Forestry Program and the eleven other recipients of the Ford Foundation's
Community Forestry Demonstration Project grants, was hosted by Rural Action.
The grants, ranging from $100,000 to $150,000 a year for five years, will
fund economic development plans that benefit both local communities and
forest ecosystems. Rural Action will also provide small loans of planting stock to low-income
people who are ready to make a commitment to cultivating NTFPs and supporting
the member-based Roots of Appalachia Growers Association (RAGA). This
group helps new and established growers of ginseng and other herbs locate
markets, learn better growing techniques, and establish cooperative buying
for seed and other materials. The Sun-Catcher of Hooper Ridge by Thelma Seto Rural Action VISTA "Using electricity to make heat is like using a chainsaw to cut butter," says Geoff Greenfield, who recently spoke on solar power at Rural Action's Federal Valley Watershed Group's speaker series in Amesville. In response to this winter's skyrocketing energy costs, a large crowd turned out, eager to learn more about converting their homes to solar energy. Participants even included absentee landowners from Columbus, according to event organizer Lisa King, the watershed coordinator. Greenfield grew up in sunny New Mexico with a childhood passion for electronics, technology, and tinkering; he became an environmentalist as a young adult. After a stint in the Peace Corps in Zaire, where he gained an appreciation of our energy use patterns, Greenfield returned to the U.S. intensely interested in solar energy. He embarked on a self-education campaign, putting systems together in his spare time. As these pursuits took over his life, he found he had too little time for his young family. In the fall of 2000, he quit his job with the Corporation for Ohio Appalachian Development to start his own business, Third Sun Renewable Energy Services. Greenfield's business name comes from the idea of humans' historic eras of solar energy sources: the earliest was primarily wood fueled; the second, based on the solar energy stored in fossil fuels; and the third, which we are entering, is based on harvesting energy directly from the sun. Clearly, solar is his preference. In addition to solar electric, he designs and installs solar thermal systems. These use the sun to heat water, which provides domestic hot water and/or heat to the house through convection air or the more efficient radiant-heat floors. Geoff and his wife Michelle built their home on Hooper Ridge with a lot of help from friends and neighbors. He says 108 people attended their house-raising party to erect its timber frame. "Work slowed down appreciably," he laughs, "when my wife became pregnant during the drywall period. All those owner-builder articles in Mother Earth News are lying. It's not nearly as enjoyable as they make it seem, and you don't save money." The Greenfields' second son was born upstairs, so clearly it does get done. The house, oriented towards the south, is designed around an open three-story stairway "cooling tower" at its center. The windowed room on the third floor allows hot air to rise and leave naturally during hot weather, drawing in outside air through ground-floor northern windows even when there is no breeze. The timber frame, constructed from local woods, is held together with one-inch wooden pegs. Two-foot overhangs keep out the summer sun. The house was designed on an open plan, with a central woodstove and a massive brick hearth which retains heat hours after the fire goes out. The concrete-slab floor provides additional thermal mass. Greenfield used cellulose insulation, made of recycled paper, and minimized use of wood and toxic materials. The family uses only filtered rainwater, which is run first through a fine mesh to remove debris and then through water filters. Greenfield had a truckload of rock brought in to build the intensive, terraced garden. The rock's thermal mass retains heat, so the garden is early to thaw and late to freeze. After laying the terrace walls, Greenfield hauled compost, manure, sand, and limestone from the quarry to improve the soil pH and imcrease drainage. The garden includes orchards and chicken tractors. The house is surrounded by eighteen acres of hardwood forest, which is "coming back" from past logging. Greenfield estimates that about fifty percent of the house's heat comes from the sun. During cold spells, the centrally located wood-burning stove makes up the balance, and when needed, propane-heated water circulates in pipes buried in the concrete slab. All electricity comes from a solar photovoltaic array, energy from which is stored in batteries and converted to AC through an inverter. The Greenfields use compact fluorescent lights and a horizontal-axis clothes washer. Their wash is line-dried. They have no need for air conditioning, and the dishwasher has been modified to run without its electric heating element to use less current. "The thing that keeps me in business is knowledge and sometimes hard-won experience," Greenfield says. His motto? "I've already made mistakes so you don't have to," he jokes. His primary concern as a consultant is customer satisfaction. This requires working closely with his clients' specific needs. He also does green building consulting, including straw-bale construction which he says is "high performance, chemically sensitive, and allows you to tread lightly on the earth." In the next year, Greenfield will be installing systems in public schools throughout the state of Ohio through a program of the Fund for Environmental Education. The Fund's contribution of solar panels is supplemented with money from American Electric Power, and the schools must match their grant. Greenfield is one of two people in the state doing these installations. He involves the schoolchildren in the installation process, and they will follow a curriculum in math and science classes to learn about electricity and develop computer skills. Greenfield expects to do installations at fifteen to twenty-five schools, eight of which are in Columbus. He recently completed work at the Worthingway School in Worthington. In addition, he is doing installation and/or material acquisitions for similar projects nationwide. Geoff Greenfield can be reached at www.third-sun.com or geoff@third-sun.com, or call 740-448-6103. Federal Valley Watershed Group events are scheduled for the second Monday of every month. For more information, call coordinator Lisa King at 740-448-9108, e-mail at fedcreek@ruralaction.org; or check out the Sunday Creek website. Home-based solar power--the components and their costs: Solar Panels--30-40% of system price. Between
$6-12 per watt. Energy-saving strategies: USE AVOID Financing Mother Jones inspires powerful
drama International screen and stage star Eileen Pollack was the main attraction
at Hocking College March 15 in a critically acclaimed one-woman show,
Fight Like Tigers. An audience of about 75 people turned out on a cold,
rainy night for Pollack’s performance in Fight Like Tigers is adapted from the autobiography of Mother Jones,
the very outspoken and courageous United Mine Workers of America union
organizer. When strikes broke out near the turn of the twentieth century,
the mining companies sent in contract guards with machine guns; the union
sent tents for the evicted miners. They also sent Mother Jones. Time and
again the law threw her in jail to keep her quiet. The attorney general
of West Virginia called her "the most dangerous woman alive."
She was a courageous woman in very tough times. The performance was powerful, with Pollack giving a notable delivery
of the boastful Mother Jones’s historic words. The setting was a
Chicago union hall in 1920, with the lights dimmed and no props but a
chair, a table, and a bottle of beer. Portraying Mother Jones at the age
of eighty, Pollack wore a full, bell-bottom black dress. She immediately
began her inspiring oratory, exhibiting her compelling storytelling talent.
Although she came directly from another touring company in New York, Pollack’s
energy captured the audience and kept them spellbound. The color-ful stories
and memorable anecdotes of union strikes and the enduring solidarity of
the workers’ movement made the time pass all too quickly. After the one-hour performance, there was a discussion period with the
audience. Many questions were asked about the life of Mother Jones, and
comments from audience members who live in the old mining towns of Athens
and Perry counties were poignant additions to the subject of the play.
Also in the audience was Mary Morgan, who has portrayed Mother Jones for
many years in this area. The two actresses bonded immediately. "I feel like I am seeing the reincarnation of Mother Jones!"
Morgan proclaimed. Jones was instrumental in helping to stop child labor in coal mines,
and she was directly involved with other union issues of the times, including
mill girls, steel workers, and railway workers. Pollack recounts the brutalities
suffered by workers who dared to organize in defiance of the company bosses.
One powerful scene includes a description of a particularly vicious machine-gun
attack on a workers’ camp, presented with such clarity that audience
mem-bers are on the edge of their seats. Pollack commands the production with her sarcastic interpretations of
corrupt union leaders, dumb politi-cians, and snooty society ladies. "I’m no lady," quips Jones. "God made women. It’s
that Rockefeller gang of thieves that made ladies." This is a rebellious
and thrilling drama about a feisty, luminous character. Not many people
can put their hand over the end of a rifle and debate on ideological grounds
with company gunmen (and win!) or think to send an army of women with
mops into battle against them. Pollack’s most notable film appear-ances include the part of Molly
Kay, the brothel-keeper in Ron Howard’s Irish epic Far and Away
with Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman, and Alan Parker’s film Angela’s
Ashes from the book by Frank McCourt, in which she played the money-lender
Mrs. Finnucand. She also starred in Sid McCarney’s A Love Divided,
in which she was a cheroot-smoking former African missionary who rides
a motorcycle with side-car in the wilds of the Orkney Islands. Pollack
was born and raised in Belfast and now lives in London. The actress was very moved by the history of mining in our area. She
expressed a desire to return to the region and see Robinson’s Cave
in New Straitsville, where many believe the first meetings of the UMWA
were held. The Hocking College performance was one of ten in Ohio. The
tour was a great success, with more than one thousand people attending.
An unexpected high-light was a last-minute performance for the Mansfield
steel workers who have been locked out from their jobs for almost two
years. Rural Action’s Arts and Cultural Heritage program partnered with Organize! Ohio, Hocking College, and the Little Cities of Black Diamonds to help sponsor Pollack’s local performance. |
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© 2001 Rural Action Inc. All rights reserved. |