Miracles of Restoration

by Betsy Cannon

Last Friday, the Lutheran Volunteer Corps members in the Puget Sound area, including myself, went on a tour of the Lower Duwamish River. This five mile stretch of river in South Seattle is the tribal land of the Duwamish people, an industrial center, and a Superfund site.  

As we boarded the boat, our guide handed each of us a map of the river.  As we unfolded them, we learned that a river once characterized by oxbows follows a nearly straight path today due to channeling.  Several of us identified with the attempt to regulate rivers in our hometowns.  Whether reversing the flow of the Chicago River or diverting the Mississippi away from the Atchafalaya River, we all remembered a time when humans have tried to control nature.

But more than the channelizing of the river, we were devastated to hear of the PCBs in the salmon, the toxins in the sediment, and cranes driven from their home.  An industrial shredder used to rip apart cars and appliances appeared as a monster looming on the bank.  Although the environmental degradation is terrible, it is equally incredible what has been accomplished.  Now, a park sits along a restored riverbank.  Toxic sediments are being removed from the riverbed with pinpoint accuracy.  Industries contain their chemicals, instead of using them in the open.  Cranes and other wildlife are migrating back.

There is still much work to be done.  Toxics in the water are well above health standards.  Pollutants banned decades ago remain in sewers and flow into the river.  The polluted water disproportionally harms minority and low-income communities.  With over 500 outfalls, contamination continues to run directly into the river.  Still, it is important that we claim our successes and remain hopeful.  Dedicated work can lead to recovery. 

On the boat ride back to the dock, I saw two sea lions surface as a kingfisher dove and snatched a couple of fish from the water.  To me, that’s a miracle.

Pickin' Up The Trash

By Chris Olson, Outreach Coordinator

Caroline Bartlett. Her name is probably unfamiliar to most people. I had never heard of her before reading about her this week in Women Pioneers for the Environment, but her efforts in Kalamazoo, Michigan in the early 1900's helped lead to changes in cities around the country. Bartlett's environmental career started after she was ordained as a Unitarian minister. As the leader of a women's study group in her church, she arranged for the group to tour seven local slaughterhouses to learn more about meat inspection. The sanitary conditions the women observed in the slaughterhouses so horrified and appalled them that they took the issue up with city officials and Michigan's Board of Health. After leaders failed to act, Bartlett drafted a bill on meat inspection regulations herself, introduced it to the legislature, and then lobbied for the bill to key elected officials. The bill passed in 1903! From there she went on to become a nationally recognized sanitation expert who, at the request of over sixty cities, performed city-wide inspections and surveys on issues of solid waste collection and disposal practices, the cities' water supplies, and conditions at open markets, grocery stores, public schools, hospitals, and streets and allies. With the help of the Women's Civic Improvement League (which Bartlett created), she designed an new, more effective, and less expensive street-cleaning system for the city of Kalamazoo. Thanks to the leadership of this creation care hero, cities became healthier and cleaner, meat safer to eat, and people around the nation began to recognize the importance of picking up after themselves.

This week the new recycling and composting program goes into effect around Seattle. A tiny, new Food and Yard Waste bin was dropped off at our house a few weeks ago. I have to say I'm kinda in love with it. I'm enrolled in the Master Composter/Soil Builder class with Seattle Tilth and Seattle Public Utilities and in our session last Wednesday we painstakingly picked through a bag of trash and sorted each piece it into the three separate bins: recycling, food and yard waste, and plain old garbage. If you haven't taken a look at what can and what shouldn't be thrown away click on this link to check out a great PDF that lays the new system out for you. The best news is that anything that is food can go in the food and yard waste container. That includes meat and dairy. ALL FOOD! That's fantastic! Consuming less and reducing the amount of trash we each throw away is obviously the best option but making sure that we recycle and compost what we can is equally important in our creation care efforts. My act of love this week is to spend an evening picking up garbage around my neighborhood, throwing away trash and recycling everything else. Hopefully the weather will cooperate when I'm out on my garbage mission channeling the spirit of Caroline Bartlett!

Working for the Earth!

From Maiko Minami, Earth Ministry Intern

Today, I joined the first event for Earth Ministry in Earth Month! I went to Seward Park this morning to pull out invasive weeds, English Ivy. This reminded me of the class where I have learned invasive trees at Seattle University. I did not know that Ivy was a harmful to trees before. So, when I was in Japan, whenever I saw trees covered with Ivy, I thought that they were mysterious and even beautiful with its vines. But, after I learned the fact of invasive weeds' power that kills native trees in class and experienced the hands-on study my view has changed little by little.
Today, I saw trees covered with them differently. I felt really sad about it. I saw these trees as if they were shouting out for the help. They were crying because they did not want to die. So, when I tore the vines off from the these trees, I felt I was saving the life of the trees, which is precious to us and God. All the work I did today was for God. Because it was for God who gave us eternal grace, I could keep doing the work today even among the prickly bush on the maddy land.

Earth Month Restoration Event!

April and Earth Month have definitely arrived. The sun is shining, the cherry trees are blossoming, and yes, the weeds are growing!

Our urban forests and natural spaces are a wonderful treasure, especially for families with children. During the past year, Earth Ministry has partnered with EarthCorps to work on restoration projects in local parks. It has been an extraordinarily gratifying experience to see people of faith getting their hands dirty for the environment! An amazing amount of progress can be made when we join together for a short four-hour session of pulling ivy or planting native shrubs.

This weekend, help Earth Ministry & EarthCorps kick-off Earth Month with a family-oriented restoration event at Seward Park in Seattle!

Earth Ministry participants will gather at 9:30am on Saturday, April 5, for prayer and reflection with Outreach Coordinator Kaitlin Torgerson. The whole group will remove invasive species and work on general forest maintenance from 10:00am-2:00pm, and people are encouraged to bring a light lunch or snack to eat during a short noontime break. Earth Ministry will gather again at the end of the afternoon to give thanks for God’s good Earth and our companionship on the journey.

Sign up by via e-mail (emoffice@earthministry.org) or phone (206.632.2426). It would be great to see lots of Earth Ministry representation on this project!

Directions to April 5 event: Enter Seward Park. Go around the circular drive and past the Environmental Education Center (on your right). Stay to the right and go uphill. Follow the EarthCorps event signs to continue around the paved loop, past all of the picnic shelters to the amphitheater. Park here and look for the Registration tent. Earth Ministry group will meet for reflection in a nearby shelter.