Locals Share Green Action

Maggie Bailey is the founder and President of We Plant it Forward in Raleigh, North Carolina. The Mission of We Plant it Forward is to preserve and restore the natural environment for the benefit of future generations by providing trees, tools, and help as well as hands-on activities, community engagement, and environmental education.

Maggie Bailey holds a master of science degree in Conflict Analysis and Resolution.  Since 2009 she has led many tree planting volunteer efforts in the Raleigh/Durham area, working with both adults and children in cooperation with a large number of organizations like Habitat for Humanity, the Eno River Association, and many more.  In 2012 she launched We Plant it Forward.  This organization is teaching about: the benefits of trees, how our ecosystems work, and proper tree planting.  Most importantly they are turning knowledge and education into action.  We Plant it Forward has brought over 4,000 trees to the community of Raleigh and Durham. 

http://www.WePlantitForward.org

https://www.linkedin.com/in/WePlantIt4ward/

https://www.facebook.com/WePlantitForward

https://twitter.com/WePlantit4ward

https://www.instagram.com/WePLantit4ward

[email protected]

Today on our podcast we speak with two people from a nonprofit organization that facilitates the stewardship of urban trees in a large city, including a program that facilitates the use of the wood from trees that have to be removed from around the city because of disease, end-of-it’s lifecycle or proximity to structures, etc.

Jennifer Szeliga and Jonathan Gibbs from the Sacramento Tree Foundation work for the Urban Wood Rescue program in Sacramento, CA.  Sacramento Tree Foundation works on educating Sacramentans on how to plant and care for trees and tell the story of how trees make our communities livable and lovable.

Jennifer is the Director of Urban Wood Rescue program and has worked there for 5 years and while helping to write a new chapter in the story of urban trees to make sure they continue benefitting the community even after they’re removed.

Jonathan Gibbs, a native Sacramentan is an Urban Wood Technician working directly for the Urban Wood Rescue program as well. He oversees yard handling of intakes, inventory, milling, drying wood, and essential support for numerous aspects of the operation.  When he’s not working with the Urban Wood Rescue program, he and his wife enjoy the local food scene, music, renovating their new house, fixing cars and going to car events.

This nonprofit is an awesome resource for Sacramento and excellent example of what other cities might want to consider as well.

Jesse and Johanna Boudreau have been operating Zia Energetics Permaculture as a family business for over 20 years.  They create their livelihood as homesteaders, foragers, market growers, mushroom cultivators, beekeepers, cob builders, urban forestry and as herbalists.  They share their wide range of experiences with local and virtual classes and community events teaching permaculture, hosting foraging walks, teaching home herbalism, and fermentation workshops.

Websites:

https://www.ziapermaculture.com/

https://ziaenergetics.wordpress.com/

Local landscape design and maintenance, nutrition and natural living courses

https://www.ziapermaculture.com/book-services-online

Etsy herbal products

https://www.ziapermaculture.com/herbalism-plant-based-medicine

Facebook Page:

https://www.facebook.com/ziapermaculture/

Kaitie Schneider is a wildlife conservation biologist and educator for Boulder County Parks and Open Space, the US Fish and Wildlife Service, and Blue Turtle Sustainable. In her free time, she runs her own business as a digital artist and photographer for environmental organizations and earth-conscious businesses. 

Below are her recommends to learn more about conservation, wildlife biology, as well as the many ways we can get more involved using our own varied skills and interests.

Podcasts:

Impact the Conservation Photography Podcast 

How to Save a Planet

Ologies 

In Defense of Plants 

TED Climate

A Sustainable Mind

Books:

Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer

Animal Kind by Ingrid Newkirk and Gene Stone 

Tom Browns guide to healing the Earth 

Are We Smart Enough to Know how Smart Animals Are? By Frans de Waal

Ways to get involved, no degree required:

Citizen science with https://www.inaturalist.org

https://www.wlrv.org

Volunteer with local wildlife agencies 

Volunteer at animal rescues and sanctuaries

Apply for my Conservation Career Scholarship! 

https://www.theunderstorystudio.com/scholarship

In this episode we have the honor of meeting two young women that are holding a unique local South Dakota event.  “Threads of Green” is a thrifted fashion show being held in a unique venue, to raise money for good causes and roll out a new thrifted clothing sustainable fashion website and app that simplifies thrifting for clothes.

Annie Lien is the lead fashion icon and style curator with FOMENO and Wynter Childers is a Wedding and Event Planner with her business, Created by Wyn (CBWYN).

Together Annie and Wynter are working on raising money and supporting the development of FOMENO - an app and website that offers the simplest thrifting experience, striving to solve the problem of consumption and waste from the fashion industry. 

Ticket link: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/threads-of-green-thrifted-fashion-show-tickets-169199286621 

FOMENO website: https://thriftfomeno.com

FOMENO instagram: @thriftfomeno

Created by Wyn website: https://createdbywyn.com 

Created by Wyn instagram: @_cbwyn_

Casey Shiver has been a member of the Buy Nothing Project’s Central Reno group for a couple of years now and started volunteering as an admin in February of 2021. She works full time for UNR, is currently pursuing her Master's degree in Higher Education Administration and spends much of her free time volunteering with local area nonprofits. Her favorite parts of the Buy Nothing Project are getting to know her neighbors and seeing the large number of items being reused rather than entering the landfills.

Liz McFarland has been a member of the Buy Nothing Project’s Central group for a few years. She spent most of her time for the past 8 years as the Lead Volunteer for Project 150 Reno and helping 3,500 homeless, disadvantaged and displaced high school students with basic needs. She is also on the board for the giving group “Thank You Ma’am”, on the board for Women and Children’s Center of the Sierra and for Altrusa of Reno/Sparks. Her favorite part of the project is being able to gift items that others will love, consuming less new products, and keeping items out of the landfill.

The easiest way to join is to go onto the Buy Nothing projects website at:

https://buynothingproject.org/

or if you’re in the Reno/Sparks/Carson/ Tahoe area, you can find a link to the group for your area at https://www.google.com/maps/d/u/0/viewer?fbclid=IwAR1j7xrdHAFzrliiP3UqgqjyiaZOc0l4eBUhbq-mc_FEQc_cUV_PwSsBI4Y&mid=1P-wF7OPrJh2GLgiy-pXnmBKTsjs&ll=39.62177576560294%2C-119.58638278378768&z=10

Ragan Sutterfield is a priest and associate at Christ Episcopal Church in Little Rock, Arkansas. His writings have appeared in a variety of places including The Christian Century, Sojourners, The Oxford American, Plough Online, and The Englewood Review of Books.

Ragan's writing and interests are focused at the intersection of faith and ecology where he brings his background in birding, permaculture, and soil ecology into conversation with philosophy, theology, and the Christian spiritual tradition. 

Ragan is the author of Wendell Berry and the Given Life (Franciscan Media), This is My Body (Convergent/Random House), Cultivating Reality  (Cascade),  and the small collection of essays Farming as a Spiritual Discipline.  Ragan is now at work on a book exploring humus and humility, soil science and Christian spirituality.  

The upcoming community class they are hosting is called “Compost and Creatureliness: The Science and Soul of Soil being held at Dunbar Garden in Little Rock, Arkansas.

Upcoming Class:

https://www.eventbrite.com/e/compost-and-creatureliness-the-science-and-soul-of-soil-tickets-163113168879

Christ Episcopal Church

https://christchurchlr.org/

Dunbar Garden

http://dunbargarden.org/

Zack McCannon is the Urban Farm Project Garden Programmer for the Faulkner County Library, Conway, Arkansas. 

The Urban Farm Project began in the spring of 2010 as a gardening competition between three local colleges. As students and professors turned lawns into thriving gardens it transformed into a collaborative effort that has encouraged sustainability and a greater sense of community with shared local food production.

https://fcl.org/departments/garden/

https://www.facebook.com/fcurbanfarmproject/

Nina Littrell is a graduate of Kansas City Art Institute where she studied textiles and garment construction.  She is a Kansas City based fashion designer that, among other classes, is teaching “Deconstruction/Reconstruction” an upcycling garments class offered at Rightfully sewn where students are training for professional jobs in the garment industry.  

https://rightfullysewn.org/classes - list of public classes (Deconstruction/ Reconstruction ticket information is here ) 

https://rightfullysewn.org/seamstresses - Seamstress Training Program information 

https://rightfullysewn.org/designers- classes for fashion designers 

https://www.instagram.com/rightfullysewn/ - Our instagram 

https://www.instagram.com/softstreet_sustainablefashion/ - Soft Street Sustainable Fashion Instagram (My sustainable brand) 

https://ninalittrell.com - Soft Street Sustainable Fashion

Under Casey’s leadership, Galveston’s Own Farmers Market has increased food-access among high-risk populations on Galveston Island through implementation of SNAP, specialty WIC programming, free cooking classes and a rapidly-growing school gardens program. Since 2017, Casey has also served as a City Councilwoman in the City of La Marque. Her life’s work revolves around the value of the natural environment on community well-being and empowering citizens to take control of their own health and claim their role within their own community.

https://galvestonsownfarmersmarket.com/