2009 Quaker Earthcare Witness Mini-Grant Projects

Quaker Earthcare WitnessMini-grants 2009

Ruth Hamilton, QEW Mini-grants Clerk

Chapel Hill Friends Meeting

Piedmont Friends Fellowship

QEW Mini-Grants• Environmental matching grants for

meetings and Quaker groups• Meetings match the $250 grant from the

budget or by fund-raising• Everyone participating reported success

with the project and appreciation to QEW

Albuquerque (N.M.) Monthly Mtg.

• In April, 2009 restored habitat in Cebolla Canyon, N.M.

• Canyon area overgrazed and canyon walls were eroding

• BLM, Trout Unlimited, N.M. Wildness Alliance, and volunteers came together to build up the canyon with sand bags

• Project will restore the spring for wildlife. There are only 3 springs in this area of N.M.

Volunteers at Cebolla Canyon

Cebolla Spring

York (Pa.) Monthly Meeting

• In 2008, York Friends Mtg. reached out to inner-city school children

• “Science Ladies” taught ecology in 4th-grade classrooms

• Brought in wildlife programs • Led environmental field trips

Owl visits York, Pa., classroom

Classroom meets Skunk

Intermountain Yearly Meeting Camp

IMYM Quaker Summer Camp

• Started by a group of Young Friends in Intermountain Yearly Meeting (IMYM)

• Pilot program will start summer 2010. • Young Adults are searching for a

permanent site as they start campership fund for low-income families, including local Native Americans.

• Will have sustainable off-grid building & “plork” (play+work) garden experiences.

Chapel Hill (N.C.) Friends Mtg. Community Garden &Composter

• Uses a raccoon-proof composter that works by allowing maximum aeration and exposure to the elements

• Layers of food and grass cuttings, soil and dried leaves are added.

• Method is developed by John Jeavons, a French biodynamic intensive mini-farming resource. Compost cooks, has no smell, and doesn’t need turning.

Chapel Hill Mtg. Composter

Lead removal at Burlington,Vt., Mtg.

What is Phytoremediation ?

• Is the use of plants which mitigate the environmental problem without the need to excavate the contaminant material and dispose of it elsewhere.

• At Burlington Mtg. soil at a children’s building had 2100 times the accepted lead level. Citrosa geraniums were planted near the building foundation to absorb the lead.

• In the fall, the leaves were removed and sent to the landfill. Plants are removed & stored for the winter. A new lead test is done. The geraniums will be replanted in the Spring.

Ruth Ann Hamilton

Mini-grant project for Burlington Friends Meeting, Burlington, VermontThe 2009 QEW Mini-grant funds were used to purchase and plant specially bred geranium plants next to the foundation of a building owned by Burlington Friends Meeting, in order to abate high levels of lead contamination in the soil next to the foundation. The soil had become contaminated over the years due to flaking of several coats of lead-based paint that had been applied to the brick surface prior to 1978, when U.S. paint manufacturers were prohibited from including lead in their products.Lead can cause neurological harm, particular to fetuses and children under the age of seven. One significant source of exposure is dirt particles that are tracked indoors and ingested through children’s normal hand-to-mouth contact. The traditional method of abating this kind of lead hazard is to remove the soil from around the foundation and to transport it to an official hazardous waste disposal site, then bring in uncontaminated soil. This process can be very disruptive and expensive. A recently developed lead abatement method uses certain plants, including scented geraniums, that actually absorb lead and other heavy metals from soil in significant amounts. At the end of the growing season, the plants are pulled up, placed in plastic bags, and sent to an approved disposal site. This innovative method is known in scientific terms as “phytoremediation,” which means simply plant-based treatment.The idea for using phytoremediation came from Susannah McCandless, a past member of the QEW Steering Committee and past member of Burlington, Vt., Friends Meeting. She was involved in a similar lead-abatement project in Worcester, Mass., in 2005, while attending Clark University in Worcester. She suggested phytoremediation to her father, Christopher McCandless, when she learned that he, as clerk of the Property Committee for Burlington Friends Meeting, was interested in applying for a QEW Mini-grant to help with lead hazard abatement on the Meeting property.

Ruth Ann Hamilton

A metallophyte is a plant that can tolerate high levels of heavy metals such as lead. Such plants range between "obligate metallophytes" (which can only survive in the presence of these metals), and "facultative metallophytes" which can tolerate such conditions but are not confined to them.[1]European examples include Alpine Pennycress, the Zinc Violet (Viola calaminaria), Spring Sandwort (Minuartia verna), Sea Thrift, Cochlearia, Common Bent (Agrostis capillaris) and Plantain (Plantago lanceolata).[2]Metallophytes commonly exist as specialised flora found on spoil heaps of mines.Such plants have potential for use for phytoremediation of contaminated ground.

Susannah McCandless brought this project to Burlington Friends Meeting. She had worked on a lead-removal project in Worcester, Mass. as a student at Clark University.

Smithfield, R.I., Meeting Cemetery Restoration

• Cemetery that had gone back to nature is now accessible.

• Built a meandering walkway and made a destination spot for meditation and appreciation of the natural world

• Friends’ graves from the 18th and 19th centuries, including a Revolutionary War drummer and a 19th century woman doctor.

Weed Wrench for clearing the historic cemetery at Smithfield Meeting.

Bloomington, Ind., Friends get Energy Star Refrigeration

Frigidaire 18.2 cubic feet, 383 kWh estimated yearly electricity use

Durham (N.C.) Friends Meeting installed a point of use hot water heater in an updated educational building.

Decorah (Iowa) Mtg. installs storm windows

Milwaukee (Wis.) Friends Meeting will restore Anita Koenen Land

Preserve

• Milwaukee Friends Meeting worships in a Meetinghouse constructed on the Anita and Jacob Koenen Land Preserve

• Goal is to build a healthy woodlands ecosystem and a place for spiritual nurturance.

• Project will restore the 3.17-acre tract and rid the invasive plants by restoring the land to its indigenous flora and fauna.

Scattergood Friends School Class

Energy ClassScattergood (Iowa) Friends School juniors &

seniors will have an energy conservation class March-May of 2010, led by energy specialist David Abazs. At the end of April the class will head to northern Minnesota and canoe down the Mississippi River. The group expects to give presentations along the way to schools, churches and other interested groups. The canoe trip will culminate with a river rally in the southern part of Minnesota.

Oak Park, Ill., Mtg. Creates Sustainable Native Garden in Forest Preserve

• This summer Oak Park planted a native wildflower garden in the Cook County Community Trailside Museum.

• Is a multigenerational collaboration with Downers Grove Friends Mtg.

• The garden is prepared for the winter, and Cook County is placing signs.

Gwynedd, Pa., Meeting gets an Energy Star refrigerator. It will cost only $45 a year to operate.

Richmond (Ind.) Friends School

All 35 students at the school (grades K-6th) will be involved in a community effort of planting the garden, managing and caring for the garden, and harvesting. With the use of the tumbler composter and the worm bin, the whole school would participate in the daily recycling of their food scraps.

How you can help:• Contribute to the mini-grant fund with a fund-

raiser or by adding a targeted amount to your QEW donation. For $20 monthly, you can sponsor the matching funds for a mini-grant.

• QEW funds now support 6 grants. Contributions of carbon offsets for trips and individual donations sponsor 4 more grants.

• Plan an environmental project for your Quaker meeting, church, or group. Application is at <www.quakerearthcare.org>. Deadline: May 1, 2010.

Self Improvement

2009 Quaker Earthcare Witness Mini-Grant Projects