On December 2, 2020, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) celebrated its 50th anniversary. In this bonus episode River Talks we hear from Paul Davis on the challenges, vision, and leadership that launched the EPA. Paul Davis is a member of Cumberland River Compact’s Board of Directors. His career was with Tennessee’s Water Pollution Control Agency where he was state director for 24 years. Since leaving government service, Paul teaches classes on Clean Water Act programs through the National Stormwater Center.

Read the article on our blog: https://cumberlandrivercompact.org/2020/12/02/the-challenges-vision-and-leadership-that-launched-epa-50-years-ago/

Support the Cumberland River Compact: https://cumberlandrivercompact.org/donate/

Nature’s stories are plentiful. From the drama when predator meets prey, to the beauty of spring’s first flower, nature always has something to say. But the story of nature is more than just science. It’s the lattice-work of connections between people and nature. Through storytelling, we can all begin to unravel and share these important stories.

Brooke Jarvis is a writer who tells the complicated stories of nature’s unknowns. She is a contributing writer for the New York Times Magazine and the California Sunday Magazine. Her work has also been featured in the New Yorker, Wired, GQ, Harper’s and more. In this River Talk, Brooke joins me in conversation about how we can tell the story of nature’s wonder, amazingness, complexity, and beauty while also sharing the reality of biodiversity decline and environmental degradation around the world.

Learn more about Brooke: https://www.brookejarvis.net/

Recommendations Mentioned in the Episode

Brooke's Articles:

Books:

Other Recommendations:

Do you know where your favorite food comes from? We all eat, yet people are often disconnected from where their food comes from and how it gets produced. We may not realize the harmful impacts of what we eat on the environment and our climate. But agriculture can also be a powerful tool to protect our environment and mitigate climate change. Through implementation of sustainable best management practices, farms across the world have the power to make a big impact.

In Tennessee, Caney Fork Farms is a leader in carbon farming and other practices to address the climate crisis. In this River Talk, the Cumberland River Compact’s Sustainable Agriculture Program Manager Nicholle Gerde joins Ranan Sokoloff the Vegetable and Agroforestry Manager with Caney Fork Farms to discuss their innovative practices and approach.

Resources shared during the conversation: 

Book Recommendations

Cooperative Farming: 

Articles:

Food Justice: 

Ranan's Recommendations:

Kayaking looks a bit different with elite kayaker, Dane Jackson. Dane is a professional kayaker with a deep appreciation for exploring, enjoying, and protecting our waterways.  He has won the Freestyle World Championships, the Whitewater Grand Prix three times, and kayaked over the second-tallest waterfall ever attempted by a kayaker. His name may also sound familiar; he comes from a family of kayakers including his father, Eric Jackson, who is also a professional kayaker and founder of the local Tennessee company Jackson Kayak.

In this River Talk, Dane is joined by Meg Littman, Nashville-based journalist and writer, to discuss kayaking in Tennessee and beyond. Meg is an avid paddleboard and the founder of Nashville Paddle Company. She is also a former Board member of the Cumberland River Compact and former chair of the Dragon Boat Festival.

Support the Cumberland River Compact's River Talks program: https://cumberlandrivercompact.org/get-involved/donate/

Send us your thoughts on this episode! Email us at [email protected] or leave us a voicemail at 615-933-8837

Learn more about what was mentioned in this episode:

Follow Dane on Instagram & YouTube

Jackson Kayak

Rock Island State Park

Ruins Wave in Ottawa

Learn more about Meg Littman

Find recreation on the Ocoee River

Watch Jojo Rabbit

Find a recreation access point in the Cumberland River basin.

Across Appalachia, thousands of acres of formerly mined land sits barren or has been converted to gravelly grassland. These sites were once home to thriving forest ecosystems and some of our region’s most astounding biodiversity. Through a specific reforestation process known as the Forestry Reclamation Approach, these sites can be improved by removing invasive and non-native plants, loosening compacted soil, and finally planting a mix of native trees. After reforestation, these sites have higher biodiversity, help naturally clean and filter rainwater entering into nearby streams, and provide long-term economic benefits to the communities they surround.

In this River Talk, Cumberland River Compact Executive Director Mekayle Houghton and Senior Program Manager of Watershed Planning, Jed Grubbs, join Dr. Chris Barton with Green Forests Work to discuss this approach in the region. Chris Barton is the Founder and President of Green Forests Work, a non-profit restoration group, and also a professor of forestry hydrology and watershed management at the University of Kentucky. Through these dual roles, Chris leads research efforts and on-the-ground action to restore mine lands throughout Appalachia.

Support the Cumberland River Compact's River Talks program: https://cumberlandrivercompact.org/get-involved/donate/

Send us your thoughts on this episode! Email us at [email protected] or leave us a voicemail at 615-933-8837

Learn more about what was shared in this episode. 

Chris Barton’s Research

Forest Reclamation Act

Green Jobs

Blue Heron Historic Mining Community

Kentucky Coal Museum 

American Chestnut Foundation 

Cumberland River Compact’s Recreation Map

Big South Fork 

How to Grow Truffles 

The cool shade of a tree is a welcome relief on a hot day. But in cities across the United States, tree cover is not equally distributed between neighborhoods. All cities experience the urban heat island effect, where cities are warmer than the surrounding rural areas due to the way urban surfaces, like parking lots and buildings, absorb heat. However, within cities themselves, some neighborhoods are hotter, and this discrepancy is often directly linked to urban tree cover. A recent study further linked today’s hottest neighborhoods to the historic and inequitable practice of redlining. 

In this River Talk, the Cumberland River Compact’s Root Nashville Campaign Manager Meg Morgan joins Dr. Jeremy Hoffman, Chief Scientist with the Science Museum of Virginia, to learn about his groundbreaking work on the connections between historic redlining, urban heat, and urban trees, and the implications for how we make equitable, inclusive, and just decisions for our community moving forward.

Dr. Jeremy Hoffman is the Chief Scientist at the Science Museum of Virginia and an Affiliate Faculty in the L. Douglas Wilder School of Government and Public Affairs and the Center for Environmental Studies at Virginia Commonwealth University. Jeremy specializes in Earth science communication, data-driven and community-based participatory science, and science center exhibit content development. His work has been written about in the New York Times, National Public Radio (NPR), Richmond Magazine, the Richmond Times Dispatch, UPWORTHY, and many others.

Support the Cumberland River Compact's River Talks program: https://cumberlandrivercompact.org/get-involved/donate/

Send us your thoughts on this episode! Email us at [email protected] or leave us a voicemail at 615-933-8837

Learn more about the resources mentioned in this episode:

Redlining Map of Nashville

Article: “How Decades of Racist Housing Policy Left Neighborhoods Sweltering” 

NASA and Groundwork Map Climate Vulnerability 

Video: Urban Heat Islands

Community Science and Urban Heat Project 

Park in a Truck City of Philadelphia 

Root Nashville Neighborhood Planting Captain program 

99 Percent Invisible, Podcast 

Not Built for Us, Podcast 

Heat Wave: A Social Autopsy of Disaster in Chicago 

Cooked: Survival by Zip Code, Documentary

In May 2020, George Floyd was murdered by police in Minnesota. Within the same week, Christian Cooper, a Black man, avid birder, and member of the New York City Audubon Society was birding in Central Park when a white woman called the New York City police on him after he asked her to leash her dog. In her phone call to police, she portrayed Cooper as a threatening black man. As these events unfolded simultaneously, many people working in outdoor and environmental spaces reckoned with the traditional centering of white experiences in nature and the role that systemic racism has played in the environmental movement.

In her book, “Black Faces, White Spaces: Reimagining the Relationship of African Americans to the Great Outdoors”, Dr. Carolyn Finney explores why African Americans are underrepresented in environmental movements.

In this River Talk, Cumberland River Compact Executive Director Mekayle Houghton joins Carolyn Finney for a conversation on the historic and lived experiences that have brought us to where the environmental movement is today and how we can build a more inclusive, equitable and just future.

Dr. Carolyn Finney is a storyteller, author and a cultural geographer whose work aims to develop greater cultural competency within environmental organizations, challenge media outlets on their representation of difference, and increase awareness of how privilege shapes who gets to speak to environmental issues and determine policy and action.  She is currently a scholar-in-residence at Middlebury College’s Franklin Environmental Center.

Read more about Carolyn Finney and purchase her book at her website: https://www.carolynfinney.com/

Support the Cumberland River Compact's River Talks program: https://cumberlandrivercompact.org/get-involved/donate/

Send us your thoughts on this episode! Email us at [email protected] or leave us a voicemail at 615-933-8837

Learn More about the Resources Dr. Carolyn Finney Shared:

Carolyn Finney's TED Talk

MaVynee Betsch / The Beach Lady  

John Francis

Audrey and Frank Peterman

Rue Mapp and Outdoor Afro

Angelou Ezeilo and Greening Youth

Lovecraft Country

Sundown Towns

Orion Magazine

"I Am Not Your Negro" Documentary Film

Article: "Liberal, progressive — and racist? The Sierra Club faces its white-supremacist history."

Robert Hanna's Podcast with Carolyn Finney

The Cumberland River experiences a high concentration of litter after rainfall events. This litter eventually degrades into microplastics which can negatively impact wildlife and human health. Most of this litter flows into the Cumberland River through smaller streams. The Cumberland River Compact worked with Vanderbilt School of Engineering students to design a device that can be placed in smaller streams in Nashville to capture surface litter before it ever reaches the Cumberland. In this interview, we hear from the students about the creation of the device, lessons learned, and next steps for implementation. 

Student Team:

Support the Cumberland River Compact's River Talks program: https://cumberlandrivercompact.org/get-involved/donate/

SHOW NOTES:

See photos from the project in this slideshow.

Get involved in the Compact's Adopt-a-Stream program.

Contact Ross Miller for more information: [email protected]

Archaeology is all around us in Middle Tennessee, whether we know it or not. Join us as the Tennessee Division of Archaeology's pre-historic archaeologist Aaron Deter-Wolf shares about the unique history of our region. Aaron will share about the history of Mound Bottom, the impact of the 2010 flood on ancient sites, how we know about plague in the historic record, and the crucial importance of our waterways through time.

Support the Cumberland River Compact's River Talks program: https://cumberlandrivercompact.org/get-involved/donate/

Learn more about the Tennessee Division of Archaeology:

https://www.facebook.com/TNArchaeology/

Harpeth River State Park: https://www.facebook.com/HarpethRiverStatePark/

Mound Bottom: https://www.facebook.com/MoundBottomTN/

Contact the Division of Archaeology: https://www.tn.gov/environment/program-areas/arch-archaeology.html

Solar energy continues to grow in Nashville and beyond as a viable alternative to traditional sources of energy. Jason Carney with Energy Electives and the Tennessee Solar Energy Association has been a leader in developing solar across Tennessee for over 10 years. In this interview, Carney will share about the current and future of solar energy in Tennessee. He will also share his work to ensure that communities of color will not miss out on the economic and environmental benefits of clean energy and solar power.

Support the Cumberland River Compact's River Talks program: https://cumberlandrivercompact.org/get-involved/donate/

SHOW NOTES:

Learn more about Energy Electives: http://energyelectives.com/

Get involved with the Tennessee Solar Energy Association: https://www.tnsolarenergy.org/  

Check out the Tennessee Solar Energy Industries Association: https://tenneseiasolar.com/ 

Read about Jason's project at Whites Creek High School: http://energyelectives.com/wchs/