ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Monday, April 29, 1996 TAG: 9604300011
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: 1 EDITION: METRO
COLUMN: The Green Scene
SOURCE: CATHRYN MCCUE
After a long, cold winter and a weird spring, the days of buds and bugs have finally returned for good. The days of lawn mowers and pruning shears also have returned.
This year, the Clean Valley Council urges valley residents not to clog local landfills with lawn waste - 750 pounds for the average American - that is perfectly capable of decomposing on its own. Right in our back yards.
The council is hosting a composting program on May 11 to demonstrate how to start and maintain a compost pile. (It's fun. I did it last year.) Roanoke Valley extension agent John Arbogast will impart the basic knowledge to get started, and the council will have the lightweight, plastic compost bins available for a small fee. Call 345-5523 to register, for $5. Participation is limited to 30.
'Logs, Lies, Videotape'
The Roanoke River group of the Sierra Club will present a video entitled "Logs, Lies and Videotape: The Impacts of the Timber Salvage Rider" on Tuesday at 7 p.m. in the Science Museum, fifth floor of Center in the Square.
The 15-minute video, produced by an Oregon-based environmental group, highlights the environmental and economic impacts of the timber salvage section of the Rescissions Bill passed last summer in Congress. A discussion will follow. The public is invited, and the event is free.
'Dream of the Earth'
"The natural world is the larger sacred community to which we belong. To damage this community is to diminish our own existence."
So writes cultural historian and environmental ethicist Thomas Berry, who will be in Blacksburg on Sunday to speak at the Unitarian Universal Fellowship. Berry, author of "A Dream of the Earth" and "The Universe Story," is one of the country's leading scholars exploring the relationship of religion and environment.
Almost from the beginning, Berry argues, man has developed civilizations and institutions that separate him from the Earth and strain the essential relationship between the two, leading to irreparable damage. The next chapter of our human story must lead back to a new association with the planet and its processes.
Berry is founder and director of the Riverdale Center of Religious Research in New York. His talk, scheduled for 4:30 p.m., is part of a six-week "eco-religious" study group sponsored by the Blacksburg church. The church is located at 1301 Gladewood Drive. There is no charge and the public is welcome, as are donations. Call (540) 552-3136 for more information.
It's 'P2' and it's OK
Pollution prevention (hence, P2) is the hot buzzword among manufacturers these days. More companies are looking for ways to cut waste, reduce use of chemicals, and save money, rather than waiting to clean up the mess at the end of the pipe or smokestack.
Virginia's Center for Innovative Technology and the A.L. Philpott Manufacturing Center are offering grants to all Virginia manufacturers on a competitive basis to develop and implement P2 plans. Winning proposals will be based on potential to eliminate or minimize wastewater discharges, air emissions, or the production of solid and hazardous waste. Maximum grants are $7,500. Proposals due by June 14. Call the CIT at (703) 689-3013, or Philpott center at (540) 666-8890 for more details.
Tales of the parkway
Did you or someone you know help build the Blue Ridge Parkway? The park will interview former employees and people who worked on the scenic highway in the 1930s, '40s and '50s for an oral history project beginning in June. The taped interviews will fill in the gaps of the parkway's 60-year history, and will be kept in an archived collection.
"We encourage family members of employees to share some of the stories told to them depicting the early years," said parkway superintendent Gary Everhardt. Call (704) 271-4779, or write Jackie Holt, Curator, Blue Ridge Parkway, 400 BB&T Building, One Pack Square, Asheville, NC 28801.
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