Earthworms – Details, episodes & analysis

If you can only plant one tree, make that tree an Oak.

Doug Tallamy, national advocate for restoring the LIFE in our places with the power of Native Plants, celebrates the mighty Quercus family of trees with this latest book, his third as definitive matchmakers for humans and plants.

The Nature of Oaks: the Rich Ecology of our Most Essential Native Trees (Timber Press, 2021) is Tallamy's personal story, scientific observation chronicle and love song to the oak trees around his home. He connects tree lore to healthy soil, songbirds, and more caterpillars than even he (an expert entomologist) can count.

Earthworms host Jean Ponzi welcomes Doug Tallamy back to KDHX, in a conversation part Eco-FanGirl idolizes Bug Guy, part Summit of Biodiversity Peers. Prepare to want to grow with an Oak!

Connect to the real of native trees and plants through Parters for Native Landscaping, with 2025 webinar series and workshops beginning in March.

THANKS to Andy Heaslet, Earthworms audio engineer and Sierra Club national communicator, and to Andy Coco and Jon Valley, KDHX Production Guys.

Related Earthworms Interviews: Nature's Best Hope? Ecologist Doug Tallamy Says WE ARE! (Feb 2020)

In the Company of Trees: Forest Bathing with Andrea Serrubi Fareshteh (January 2019)

Renewable energy Return On Investment is booming, across the U.S. and worldwide. With uber-real concerns about this trajectory on environmental minds, Earthworms reviews how a powerful coalition of advocates - in a timely turn of events - moved Illinois state lawmakers to achieve results for people, planet and economics.

Consider what we can learn and apply from this story, as the Fossil forces go for every last greenhouse gasp.

           Andy Heaslet, Earthworms' esteemed audio engineer, dug into the details of CEJA, the Climate and Equitable Jobs Act enacted into Illinois law in September 2021. He shares the story from his research for Masters' level coursework at Southern Illinois University, which was one nexus of collaborative activism that make this landmark policy a law both powerful and replicable.

Give a listen - be inspired!

Thanks, Andy, for how Earthworms sounds - with BIG THNX as well to Jon Valley of KDHX Production.

Related Earthworms Conversations: Diversifying Power: Energy Democracy with Jennie C. Stephens (Sept 2020)

Rule of Five: the Supreme Court and CO2 (July 2020)

Leah Clyburn: Organizing to Act on Environmental Racism in St. Louis (Oct 2019)

Drawdown: Solutions to Reverse Global Warming (March 2018)

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)

You say you've got squirrels in your attic. Garry Guinn says you've got a hole in your house, and works with you to secure a fix that benefits both the critters and you. 

               
Garry's business, Humane Wildlife Solutions LLC runs on eco-logic with super Green cred: this St. Louis enterprise endorsed by all the wildlife agencies in town! His practices like "exclusion and eviction" apply his deep understanding of animal behavior, including the animals (us) who call him to deal with their "pests." Note that "extermination" does not need to be on this action list, for a company that gives a multi-month guarantee of problem-solving success!

Meet Garry Guinn and Humane Wildlife Solutions LLC at the Green Living Festival - Saturday June 1 - Missouri Botanical Garden.

Music:  Big Piney Blues, performed live at KDHX by Brian Curran

THANKS to Andy Heaslet, Earthworms podcast engineer

Related Earthworms Conversations: Nancy Lawson, the Humane Gardener (Feb 2019)

Bears! (July 2018)

Bug Off! Mosquito Control Need-to-Know (June 2017)

Camera Traps: Tools for Conservation (Aug 2016)

A power plant burns coal to produce electricity. As with any other combustion, ash remains. This ash is typically stored in "ponds" near the plant. What do ponds do? The fill up, they overflow, they leak into groundwater. With coal ash in this flow, toxics like Arsenic, Lead, Molybdenum, Mercury and more get into our water supplies.

                            
LEO, the Labadie Environmental Organization, has been tracking and acting on Missouri coal ash issues for more than 11 years. LEO organizers Patricia Schuba and Janet Dittrich bring to this Earthworms edition research, observations and an urgent request to YOU to weigh in as MO-Dept of Natural Resources develops a plan to present to US EPA.

Groups like LEO across the country are working to hold power plants responsible for cleaning up coal ash ponds, and managing coal combustion waste responsibly. In Missouri, a public comment period through March 28 gives citizens the chance to comment on MO-Dept of Natural Resources proposal to regulate coal ash.

You can sign a LEO petition through March 21.

Check out related coverage by Eli Chen of St. Louis Public Radio.

THANKS to Andy Heaslet, Earthworms Green-savvy enineer

Music: Stomp Hat, performed live at KDHX by Matt Flinner

Related Earthworms Conversations: Value of Water Coalition (Oct 2015)

A lot of enviro-info dis-credits our human species for the impacts of our "footprints" on Earth's systems, and on beings other than ourselves.

Scientist and public health advocate Greg Norris was inspired, while working with Life Cycle Analyses, to look up from Footprints and focus on the human part that can collaborate, create and restore. "Handprinting" has become a vehicle to encourage and measure our capacity to be a benefit on Earth.

Beneficial actions - and the ripples of influence they create - can now be measured through a key piece of Norris' work-in-progress, the app Handprinter.org.

This tool and idea aim to ensure that Earth is better off because of human beings, than without us.

Gregory Norris will presents "Handprints and Footprints" in St. Louis on Tuesday evening, March 12 for the U.S. Green Building Council-Missouri Gateway Chapter

THANKS to Andy Heaslet, Earthworms net-positive impact engineer

Music: Trambone, performed at KDHX by Brian Curran

Related Earthworms Conversations: Traditional Ecological Knowledge with Dr. Daniel Wildcat (October 2018)

The Patterning Instinct in Human Nature with Jeremy Lent (June 2017)

You too can BEE one! Or Taconite Fly or Opossum or Golden Ragwort one, gardening on an eco-logical team with critters and plants you've overlooked, or maybe even maligned. 

Nancy Lawson invites us to understand more of the habits and roles of species around us, to bust the dualistic myth of Pest vs Beneficial. Her book The Humane Gardener: Nurturing a Backyard Habitat for Wildlife is a long love note to relationships we can all enjoy. Such as with Tachinid Flies.

Coming to St. Louis Friday March 8: Nurturing Backyard Habitat, a talk-and-mingle with Nancy Lawson and local native plant professionals, 5-8 p.m. at Powder Valley Nature Center. Click here to learn more and register. Thanks to STL Audubon, Greenscape Gardens, Missouri Department of Conservation and Grow Native! for bringing Nancy Lawson to us.

THANKS to Andy Heaslet, Earthworms engineer and listening buddy.
Music: Divertimento k131, by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, performed by Kevin MacLeod

Related Earthworms Conversations: Relatives, Responsibility, Mindfulness with Dr. Daniel Wildcat (Oct 2018)

Bears! (July 2018)

The Owl Man of Forest Park (July 2015)

In 2015, Pope Francis message about Climate Change called on people of faith world-wide - not only Roman Catholics - to take action to protect Earth's resources.

A St. Louis consortium of Catholic parents, students and leaders is calling this community to convene, learn, strategize and respond. This edition of Earthworms talks about why, and how, this response is growing.

Sacred Earth: Our Call to Action Conference, Saturday March 9 9 am - 2:30 pm, hosted by Nerinx Hall High School. 

Guests Jamie Hasemeier of Holy Redeemer Parish, Mark Etling from St. Nicholas Parish, and Maggie Hannick of St. Joseph's Academy are conveners, with other partners, of this conference.

 Music: For Michael, performed live at KDHX by Brian Curran

THANKS to Andy Heaslet, Earthworms so-green engineer, on loan from Sierra Club

Related Earthworms Conversations: 

Drawdown: Solutions to REVERSE Global Warming (March 2018)
Brian Ettling: Climate Change Advocacy Marches On (Oct 2018)

On Care of Our Common Home: Exploring Pope Francis' Message (Jan 2016)

Zero Waste Fish Fry: Holy Redeemer Parish is Hooked on Green (Feb 2018)

So you know the "Three Rs," right? Recycle is the famous one, but #1 in this trio (REDUCE) deserves more creative attention and - use!

                    

In a recent blog post, recycling professional Kelley Dennings considered why the recycling community may be ditching out on waste reduction. Dennings serves as Advisor to NewDream.org, one of Earthworms' favorite educational orgs.

When Dennigs added a degree in Public Health to her credentials and influence potential, she framed the sort of off-putting Reduce idea of in the human-centered focus of Prevention. Could this be a way to get our species to explore more New Dream's territory? Their motto: More Fun - Less Stuff!

  Resources that come up in this Earthworms conversation include New Dream's So Kind Alternative Gift Registry, an E-Z online way to request and give day-of-event help, shared experiences, homemade and secondhand gifts - and more. Plus references to Zero Waste, Scrap Exchange, Product Stewardship Institute and other Reduce-Reuse activity in the Waste Space.

Music: Cadillac Desert, performed live at KDHX by William Tyler

THANKS to Andy Heaslet, Earthworms so-Green engineer

Related Earthworms Conversations:

Zero Waste Fish Fry Hooks Holy Redeemer in STL (Feb 2018)

Life Without Plastic? (Jan 2018)

TerraCycle's Rockin' Founder Tom Szaky (Sept 2015)

Getting modern humans out of our house-car-school-work boxes is no small feat. But whenever that may occur, our tall, spreading, leafy neighbors have what it takes to help our kind be more of our best selves. Potentials are TREE-mendous!

                       

Writer Andrea Sarubbi Fareshteh enjoys "Forest Bathing" and researching good stories, facts and quotes. She has composed a gorgeous new book In The Company of Trees - Honoring Our Connection to the Sacred Power, Beauty and Wisdom of Trees (Adams/Simon and Schuster, Jan. 15 2019).  Each tree tale is illustrated with a color photograph, print or woodcut - in a work of art published in accord with Sustainable Forestry Initiative guidelines.

Earthworms is proud to host the first interview for this book!

If you are hearing this podcast in St. Louis before February 12, mark that date to learn about Calculating Tree Benefits in a free program at Missouri Botanical Garden in the BiodiverseCity STL Wild Ideas Worth Sharing Speaker Series. Tree Data is MOTIVATING!

THANKS to Andy Heaslet, Earthworms True-Green Engineer

Music: Bitter Root, performed live at KDHX by Matt Flinner

Related Earthworms Conversations: Urban Forests: Seeing the Benefits from Trees - Oct 2016

PawPaw: Reviving America's Forgotten Fruit (Tree) - Sept 2015