In Our Backyard Podcast

Court Lewis is the BREDL chapter President of Unicoi Clear in Unicoi County, TN and currently living in Upstate, South Carolina. 

In late September of this year, category 4 Hurricane Helene caused widespread destruction and death across the Southeast United States including Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina, Virginia and Tennessee. More than 230 people have been killed and it has caused more than $2 billion in damages. 

Court witnessed the effects and aftermath of Hurricane Helene first hand. He tells about how unprecedented this disaster was, stories from neighbors and community members, the aftermath and clean up process, and what local organizations you can donate to.

From talking with people from Western NC who were affected - here are 4 steps you can take to help with Hurricane Helene efforts:

1. Donate to Hood Huggers International. They are a resiliency organization in Asheville, NC that are providing immediate and direct support for those hit hardest in the area.

2. Refuse to shrug this off as a natural disaster. Talk to everyone about how unprecedented this was and how the destruction was due to human induced climate change. This can’t be the new normal.

3. Learn - learn how to bring more balance and justice to the world by educating yourself and others.

4. Vote - vote for people who support policies rebuilding impacted communities better before the storm.

Donate: Hood Huggers International: https://hoodhuggers.com/

Helene was NOT a natural disaster: https://www.yahoo.com/news/helene-shows-that-hurricanes-in-the-age-of-climate-change-dont-wreck-just-coastlines-210015013.html?guce_referrer=aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuZ29vZ2xlLmNvbS8&guce_referrer_sig=AQAAAJiD87rnbHmYtfOtq6X3HBm-xG6D7RzwZawgYkJwNxh8vbY3jfi_9J1Hns47GF-yMLr5jkYvVoe6MR50wY00NjY8-TlUekQWxaq8g1-Y0Lq32VV-AksvSDQ8QWC4iZzISFEpecHvNRmKS8fCOqku7s7UCI4lempBtfHuwiagYSX1&emci=4e0a2ebe-1780-ef11-8474-6045bda8aae9&emdi=d02158fd-4380-ef11-8474-6045bda8aae9&ceid=1121357&guccounter=2 

Contact and connect with Court: [email protected]  

Karen Hill is the President of the Tennessee Native Plant Society. The Tennessee Native Plant Society mission is to conserve and celebrate native plant communities and their habitats through education. From the Appalachian Mountains to the floodplains of the Mississippi, Tennessee’s native plant communities make one of the most botanically diverse and interesting states in the nation. 

With Karen we talk about what plants are native to the TN region, which are endangered, how insects play a vital role, and efforts they make to help bring native plants back.

Connect: [email protected] https://www.tnps.org/

Abigail Franks who is the Membership and Policy Manager and Alexander Easdale who is the Executive Director at Southeast Climate and Energy Network. 

The Southeast Climate and Energy Network has a mission to confront the climate crisis by creating strategic alignment, growing capacity, and building power among member organizations and their communities in the Southeast. They have a huge focus on grassroots work that prioritizes and uses the knowledge that southerners already have. They know that there are challenges in the South, but there are people on the ground who have the solutions.

Contact: [email protected] and [email protected] 

All the information we talked about can be found: https://www.scen-us.org/

Carlton Turner is the Co-Director / Co-Founder at Sipp Culture. Based in the rural South, “Sipp Culture” is honoring the history and building the future of their community in Utica, MS. 

Sipp Culture supports community development from the ground up through cultural production focused on self-determination and agency designed by them and for them. They believe that history, culture, and food affirm their individual and collective humanity. So, they are strengthening our local food system, advancing health equity, and supporting rural artistic voices – while activating the power of story – all to promote the legacy and vision of our hometown.

With Carlton we talk about SIPPs mission, current projects and the significance of land, stories, and local food.

Erica Hall is Executive Director and Board Chair at Florida Food Policy Council. Executive Committee Member of the Sierra Club, Florida Chapter. As well as a National Board of Director Member of the National Sierra Club. 

The Florida Food Policy Council (FLFPC) works to address gaps and affect policy within the food system through integrity and collaboration for the benefit of all Floridians and the environment. 

Food Policy Councils (FPCs) provide a unique forum for diverse stakeholders to come together and address common concerns regarding food policy including food systems, food security, farm policy, food regulations, health, and nutrition. Stakeholders include people such as farmers, city and state officials, non-profit organizations, chefs, food distributors, food justice advocates, educators, health professionals, and concerned citizens. 

With Erica, we talk about the intersections of her work, challenges in the food systems today, the importance of land, urban agriculture, and their impact in the community. Erica also mentions the Farm Bill, which urgently needs support. 

Contact: https://flfpc.wildapricot.org/ 

Farm Bill: https://www.fsa.usda.gov/programs-and-services/farm-bill/index

Hi everyone, we’re back with Debbie Clemens who is with the Outreach Coordinator for Orangutan Outreach. In this episode we talk all about palm oil and its effects. The sourcing of palm oil causes conflict because it has been produced illegally or under conditions associated with labor or human rights violations, ongoing destruction of rainforests, or expansion on carbon-rich peatlands.  

One of the most pressing concerns associated with Palm Oil is its environmental impact. The expansion of palm oil plantations has been linked to deforestation, habitat destruction, and biodiversity loss. In many cases, pristine rainforests are cleared to make way for these plantations, leading to the loss of critical habitat for endangered species like orangutans, tigers, and rhinoceroses. Deforestation also contributes to climate change by releasing stored carbon dioxide into the atmosphere.

With Debbie we talk about what palm oil is, where you can commonly find it, the ethics around it, and more.

Contact and connect with Debbie: [email protected] 

https://redapes.org/ 

 https://palmdoneright.com/what-is-conflict-palm-oil/ 

In this episode I continue my conversation with Debbie Clemens who is the Outreach Coordinator for Orangutan Outreach. We talk about the behind the scenes work that goes into making field work possible for these creatures. Tune in for the last episode of the series in two weeks.

Contact and connect with Debbie: [email protected] 

https://redapes.org/ 

 https://palmdoneright.com/what-is-conflict-palm-oil/ 

Debbie Clemens is the Outreach Coordinator for Orangutan Outreach. They are a US based charity that focuses on raising awareness and raising funds for their partners in Indonesia. They are personally not doing the orangutan rescue and rehabilitation work themselves, but are supporting those who are. 

Mankind may be one of the orangutans' closest relatives but humans are also the greatest threat to the orangutans' survival. Clear cutting, forest fires and hunting are reducing orangutan numbers to alarmingly low levels. Never before has their very existence been threatened so severely.

Orangutans used to live in many different parts of Southeast Asia, but the places where they can thrive and find food are quickly vanishing. In Borneo and Sumatra, their last remaining homes, large parts of the old growth rainforest are gone, ripped up for farmland, palm oil plantations and urban development. And the precious little forest that is left is disappearing rapidly as palm oil companies continue to illegally clearcut enormous areas of forest.

With Debbie we talk about the behind the scenes work that goes into making field work possible for these creatures. Although we ultimately talk about how saving  orangutans is actually saving ourselves. This is a three part series so - look out for the next episodes in the coming weeks.

Contact and connect with Debbie: [email protected] 

https://redapes.org/ 

 https://palmdoneright.com/what-is-conflict-palm-oil/

Leif Cocks is the Founder of The Orangutan Project. They are a passionate group of people based in Australia and are dedicated to saving the orangutan. They are led by an experienced set of wildlife experts that have been working for over 20 years to protect this species and their environment. And together they are working to protect orangutans from extinction. 

Orangutans are the most intelligent beings on the planet after human beings, and they adapt to the environment by passing on culture through each generation. They are a self-aware being and as intelligent as a six year old child. Also being the slowest reproducing species in the world, they are highly prone to extinction, so if we do not act now we could lose them in our lifetime.

Contact and connect with Leif: [email protected] 

The Orangutan Project: https://www.theorangutanproject.org/

Ben Frition is the Founder of The REED Center which is a Maryland-based nonprofit that seeks to repair the holistic connection of humans and their environment through research, engaging communities in farm programming, developing self-perpetuating ecosystems, and designing natural landscapes on residential and commercial scales. They strive to inspire and empower humanity to reconnect with Nature and co-create a more resilient, equitable, and abundant future for all communities on the planet.

They also have a Food Forest, that seeks to develop scalable diversified agro-ecosystems to produce both the maximized productively of land in both volume of food, as well as the more important bionutrient density of said food. Ben's work spawned from seeing the failures of reforestation projects that get cut down as the needs of people are unmet. He's been developing agricultural models that meet both the environmental imperative of biodiversity & resilience AND the acute needs of humans.Transitioning from almost three centuries of conventional agriculture into a diverse nature mimicking polyculture, the food forest offers a unique opportunity to study, document, and record the rejuvenation of this land over time. They intend to use this relatively standard agricultural canvas to collect key data, iterate on best practices, and pioneer novel methodologies for regenerative land management.

Contact and connect with Ben: [email protected] 

REED Center: https://thereedcenter.org/