COVID-19 Update: Read about the most recent Sierra Club guidelines here.
Tennessee News
Spring Retreat coming up April 28-29 at Fall Creek Falls! This retreat is purely for outdoor fun and camaraderie, with no business meeting. It is during the spring wildflower season and there will be three hikes to different parts of the park led by State Naturalist Randy Hedgepath. The afternoon hike will include pauses for commentary by Dr. Virginia Dale on forest regeneration, Dr. Melanie Mayes on the local geology, and Jerry Thornton on the coal mining that almost ruined the park. Register here on the Chapter website.
Sierra Club Condemns Expulsion Of Tennessee Reps Jones, Pearson.
“The Tennessee Republican Party’s expulsion of Representatives Jones and Pearson are not only racist but undemocratic and unAmerican. There is a reason the First Amendment of the US Constitution explicitly protects the right to peacefully demonstrate, but it does not take a constitutional scholar to understand the motives of the Tennessee GOP in targeting these two Black leaders. The people of Tennessee deserve a state legislature that will listen to their demands and protect children and the public from the ongoing gun violence epidemic - not a state government that attacks our democracy and tries to strip away the rights of their political opponents. The Sierra Club and our members and supporters rise in support of the Tennessee Three, and we call on the Nashville
Metro Council and the Shelby County Commission to reappoint Representatives Jones and Pearson immediately.” Read more - Sierra Club Press Release - April 7, 2023.
Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement Announces More Than $8.6 Million to Revitalize Coal Communities in Tennessee. The announcement allocates "more than $8.6 million in fiscal year 2022 funding from President Biden’s Bipartisan Infrastructure Law to create good-paying union jobs and catalyze economic opportunity by reclaiming abandoned mine lands in Tennessee...Millions of Americans nationwide live less than a mile from an abandoned coal mine." Read more by The Tennessee Tribune - April 3, 2023.
[LISTEN] What is the future of Middle Tennessee’s trash? "We’re less than a decade away from maximum capacity at Middle Point landfill in Rutherford County, where Nashville and Middle Tennessee’s trash goes. What will Middle Tennessee do when the Middle Point landfill reaches capacity?" Scott Banbury and Dr. Jeremy Aber join This Is Nashville for a discussion. Their interview begins about 1/3 of the way through the show. Listen here on WPLN - April 4, 2023.
Tennessee can build a new landfill or expand Middle Point. A better option is to repurpose trash. “The better solution is to figure out how we can divert, anything and everything, that is recyclable and reusable from that landfill waste stream,” said Scott Banbury, the lobbyist for the Sierra Club in Tennessee." Read more by Caroline Eggers - WPLN - April 4, 2023.
Every year, Sierra Club co-sponsors Tennessee Conservation Day on the hill, where members and supporters get the chance to have conversations with lawmakers in Nashville. Attendees here are pictured with Representative Justin J. Pearson on March 1, 2023. Photo credit: Scott Banbury.
Environmental Updates
Marshall/Maury Solid Waste Board rejects application for Duck River landfill.
"The Marshall/Maury Municipal Solid Waste Regional Planning Board drove Monday what could be a final stake in the heart of efforts to place a landfill near the Duck River. In a meeting at Henry Horton State Park, the board voted to deny Barge Design Solutions’ application on behalf of Remedial Holdings and Star Hill Eco Park to place a landfill on site of the old Monsanto factory...Maury County officials have been unwavering in their opposition to the proposed landfill, with the County Commission passing a resolution asking the Tennessee legislature to take action. State Rep. Scott Cepicky’s bill to designate that portion of the Duck River as a Class II scenic river has passed both the House and Senate with bipartisan support and is now awaiting Gov. Bill Lee’s
signature." Read more by Chris Gregory - Main Street Maury - April 10, 2023.
Chemical weapons were buried decades ago along the Duck River. Now a company wants to dig a landfill. "Tennesseans throw away more than 2,000 pounds of trash, on average, every year, and the dumping grounds for this waste are shrinking... But this proposed landfill site once housed an infamous chemical corporation: for half a century, Monsanto mined phosphates there to make fertilizers and chemical weapons." Read more by Caroline Eggers - WPLN - April 24, 2023.
TennGreen Land Conservancy Acquires 15 Acres to Expand Cedars of Lebanon State Park. "'We’re thrilled to be part of another expansion of Cedars of Lebanon,' said Alice Hudson Pell, TennGreen Land Conservancy’s Executive Director. 'This acquisition represents a small but important property at high risk of development.' As more people and businesses move into the region, it’s critical to protect these natural habitats while they still remain. Acquisition of this fifteen-acre property will provide habitat protection for many plants and animals, including the leafy prairie clover (Dalea foliosa), an endangered species in Tennessee."
Read more - Rutherford Source - April 5, 2023.
Southeast Bumble Bee Atlas launches. The Xerces Society and regional partners are launching the Southeast Bumble Bee Atlas (SEBBA), a region-wide community science project aimed at tracking and conserving bumble bees in North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, and Tennessee. Anyone can get involved in this community science endeavor- no experience is necessary! Learn more and sign up here!
Photo credit: TennGreen Land Conservancy.
Health & Justice
The Struggle Dr. King Gave His Life For: Remembering the lessons of racial division and unity. "This week in 1968, Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated leading a bold effort to teach America an urgent lesson: Racism is not just the boot on the neck of people of color; it is also the great wedge that divides Americans. And everyone who gets divided loses...It’s telling that after all he had been through fighting Jim Crow and segregation—the bus boycott, the first March on Washington, passage of the Civil Rights Act—King was murdered fighting to unite working people across racial lines."
Read more by Ben Jealous, Executive Director, Sierra Club - April 7, 2023.
The Tennessee GOP's Many Connections to White Supremacy. "Last week, audio emerged of Republican state representatives fighting behind closed doors in a meeting with no staff present. (You can read a transcription of the leaked recording right here)...Rep. Jason Zachary expressed outrage and disgust at state Republicans being called racist. But here are the receipts."
Read more by Betsy Phillips - Nashville Scene - April 17, 2023.
“Moral Monday” event draws thousands to Tennessee Capitol.
"More than 1,000 people marched to the Tennessee Capitol on Monday as part of Bishop William Barber’s 'Moral Monday' movement to press lawmakers to pass safe gun laws. Barber, who began leading similar events in North Carolina in 2013, joined with Rep. Justin Jones, D-Nashville, for Monday’s event. The two have been close since meeting while Jones was a student at Nashville’s Fisk University. Group members gathered in downtown Nashville’s McKendree Methodist Church before walking the three blocks from the church to the Capitol, carrying six coffins — three child-sized — symbolizing the six victims of the March 27 mass shooting at the Covenant School in Nashville’s Green Hills neighborhood. Three of the shooting victims were 9-year-old
students; the other three were staff members." Read more by John Partipilo - Tennessee Lookout - April 18, 2023.
"Rep. Justin Jones, D-Nashville, and Bishop William Barber, II, attempt to bring a coffin into the Tennessee House of Representatives chambers" on Monday, April 17. Photo credit: John Partipilo - Tennessee Lookout.
Events
Statewide environmental events listed chronologically.
Do you have an event you'd like publicized?
Send it to Enews.sierratn@gmail.com.
May 1st is International Workers Day! International Workers Day began in 1889 as a commemoration of the fight for an 8 hour workday. During the Haymarket Affair of 1886, labor activists in Chicago were wrongfully executed after a violent clash with police. Many years later, President Grover Cleveland designated an official holiday, Labor Day, to honor workers. Uneasy with the socialist origins of the cause, Cleveland designated Labor Day to be in September, and not May 1st. You can explore the primary documents of leftist political and social movements in 19th and 20th century America with PRISM ( Political & Rights Issues & Social M
ovements), a collaborative digitization project of Florida Atlantic University and University of Central Florida libraries and special collections departments. Browse the collection here.
TVA Listening Session & Board Meeting on Tues., May 9 & Wed., May 10 in Norris, TN (location TBD). Sierra Club - Tennessee Chapter and
Bull Run Neighbors, along with many other groups, are urging supporters to come and comment at TVA’s Listening Session and Board Meeting. TVA will provide details on the location and time of the Listening Session. Commenters are allowed 3 minutes to speak (roughly 450 words) before being cut off. TVA no longer televises Listening Sessions. Sierra Club and others wi
ll provide guidelines and talking points for commenting.
RSVP herefor the TVA board listening session and board meeting, which will be followed by a community gathering/dinner. Please share this link with your friends and networks! And sign this petition to tell TVA to invest in renewables, not dirty energy!
May 18th is Global Accessibility Awareness Day (GAAD)!GAAD was launched twelve years ago with the goal of getting everyone “talking, thinking and learning about digital access and inclusion, and the more than one billion people with disabilities/impairments.” Over one billion people in the world have a disability, which is about 1 in 6 people (World Health Organization). In Tennessee, that number is 1 in 3 adults, according to the CDC. Held on the third Thursday of May, GAAD aims to make accessibility a core requirement in tech culture.
Learn more about GAAD here.
Tennessee Native Plant Society Field Trip at Caney Fork River. Join Dennis Horn and Louise Gregory to explore the native plants along the banks and bluffs at Caney Fork River below Center Hill Dam in DeKalb County, Tenn. Event held Sat. May 20th at 10:00 am Central. Bring a lunch. More info available here.
Webinar about Climate Change and Children's Health in the U.S. The EPA will be hosting a webinar to present its report about Climate Change and Children’s Health and Well-Being in the U.S. Webinar will be May 22, from 2:30-3:30 pm ET. The report "quantifies future health risks to children for a sub-set of climate stressors." More information here.
Tennessee Chapter Fundraising Corner with Mac Post
If you have legacy planning on your to-do list, remember that you can support the Sierra Club Foundation for many years to come by contacting the gift planning resources below.
Special Features
Dear Eartha: Advice from an Eco-Guru
Dear Eartha,
Years ago friends told me about a green burial site in Sumner County, about an hour’s drive from Nashville. I’d never heard of green burial but being an environmentally conscious citizen, I was curious. I’m also in my mid-seventies and want to take care of funeral arrangements so my children needn’t have to bother with it. Or pay for it. Can you tell me what you know about this practice in the U.S.? — A Mortal Being in Tennessee
Dear Mortal Being,
You bet! I’ve been thinking similar thoughts myself and was glad for your query. I, too, had close friends who shared some information about the place you reference. It’s called Larkspur Conservation at Taylor Hollow. I checked out their website and found further information about green burial in Maine as well, where I now live.
I learned that what is called “natural burial” is a historic method used to care for our bodies when we die—both safe for the environment and for workers who prepare humans for burial since no chemicals of any kind are used. The body is kept refrigerated or on dry ice for a week or longer with no embalming needed as the family members assemble for the burial.
Larkspur uses handmade willow caskets, simple wooden caskets, or handmade shrouds to cover the body before burial. Each burial is different, but the main aspect is that no chemicals, metals, plastics, or concrete are ever part of the laying to rest of ourselves or our loved ones. Sounds miraculous, but it was the common practice until before the Civil War. The body is reabsorbed into the soil without harming the natural environment in any way.
Larkspur’s land is owned by the The Nature Conservancy under a “conservation easement” which prevents clearcutting, subdivision property development, and mining on the conserved land. Larkspur is “open to the entire community as a public green space,” which is fantastic news and very much like most cemeteries where anyone can go for peace and quiet outdoors. The property’s trails, trees, ponds, and open sky are part of the deed restriction forever protecting the land; this preserves native plants and animals while providing an area for nature walks and an outdoor classroom for student learning.
A vast decrease in carbon sequestration—25 pounds of carbon in green burials versus 250 pounds of carbon in non-green burials.
Body decomposition releases nutrients back into the soil, including carbon, nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium.
Prevention of the leaching of iron, copper, lead, zinc, and cobalt into the soil in non-green burials.
Elimination of 4.3 million gallons of embalming fluid, 20 million board feet of hardwoods, including rainforest woods, 1.6 million tons of concrete, and 64,500 tons of steel used every year in non-green burials in the U.S.
Cremation is eliminated, too, which means not using 28 gallons of fuel or adding carbon monoxide and sulfur dioxide into the atmosphere.
Saves money. In both Tennessee and New England the cost of a green burial is somewhere between $1,000-4,000 dollars. The cost generally for burials and viewings in a funeral home in New England are between $7,000-8,000 dollars.
One of the downsides seems to be the scarcity of green burial land conservation sites in the U.S. and the problem of getting the remains to the site within a week or so. But the movement is building, and education helps immensely in fighting the cemetery and mortuary resistance to conserving land in municipalities across the nation. When people bury their loved ones on conservation burial sites, they are more likely to fight for the protection of that land. Burying loved ones on protected conservation land allows for more protected open space overall. And that is a very good thing right now and in the future.
Thank you for the question, dear Mortal Being. I learned a lot!
Stay active! There’s still so much to do. Eartha
Submit your questions and comments to the Sierra E-News Editor [Enews.sierratn@gmail.com].Dear Eartha is penned by Rita Bullinger.
Species Spotlight
This month's featured species is: Dandelion (Taraxacum officinale)
Dandelions in different stages of life in Chattanooga, Tenn. It takes between 9 - 15 days for a dandelion to go from blooming beauty to puffy seed head. Photo credit: Allie Stafford (April 23, 2023).
Considered a weed by many, dandelions are an early spring source of pollen and nectar for pollinators. Hummingbirds use the puffy white down to insulate their nests.
Dandelions are not native to North America, and it depends on who you ask whether they are considered invasive. Dandelions hail from Eurasia and have been used for thousands of years for medicinal purposes, including treatment for liver problems, upset stomach, inflammation, fever, and more.
Dandelions are entirely edible, from root to flower. They are highly nutritious and full of vitamins A, B, C, and D, and also minerals like iron, potassium, and zinc.
The name Dandelion is said to derive from the French phrase ‘dents de lion’, or lion tooth, because of the pointy shape of the plant’s leaves.
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