2 GOING GREEN | Sunday, December 5, 2010 commercialappeal.

com

What’s in this issue ...

Two down and
16 one more to go
Wolf River Greenway
closer to completion
with opening of
Shelby Farms bridge

Green holiday
18 shipping tips
Business and
4 conservation Explore nature
working together 21 through books
One nonprofit organization
considers it an integral Winterize the
part of the process 22 lawn for spring
Skip the sweaters and give a gift that
keeps on giving after the holidays ❘ PAGE 8
His world view
Value of conservancy apparent with
with a ‘float’ on the river ❘ PAGE 12
28 through a lens

WE WANT TO HEAR FROM YOU!

Going Green is a special online publication of
The Commercial Appeal. We welcome your comments and suggestions. Follow Going
Green on Twitter at www.twitter.com/GoGreenMemphis.
Editor: Kim Coleman, 529-5243, goinggreen@commercialappeal.com
Community Editor: Emily Adams Keplinger, keplinger@commercialappeal.com

On the cover: iStockphoto.com

The Commercial Appeal Sunday, December 5, 2010 | GOING GREEN 3

The Green Page

Programs
Green greetings: Celebrate
the holiday season with friends
and loved ones this year and
give back to the earth with the
help of the nonprofit Arbor Day
Foundation. Send holiday
greetings and plant a tree by
using the foundation’s
Give-A-Tree Cards.
Give-A-Tree Cards are
unique in that every card
plants a tree in one of the
nation’s forests in honor of
the recipient. By sending
Give-A-Tree Cards, you help
replant forests that have
been devastated by wildfires,
insects and disease.
Give-A-Tree holiday cards
come in 21 varieties, some of
which are available in boxed
sets of five or 10 cards. This
year, you can send Give-A-
Tree Cards using your favorite
picture with the foundation’s
new photo cards.
To purchase holiday gifts
that give back to the earth,
go to arborday.org.

Events
Overton Park hike: There are two
nature hikes scheduled this month in
Overton Park; Dec. 11 and Dec. 26. For each
outing, the public is invited to meet at 10
a.m. at the end of Old Forest Lane, next to
the Rainbow Lake parking lot, for a free
guided 1.5-mile walk through the Old
Forest at Overton Park. The hike will last
about an hour and a half. Kids are welcome.
Questions? Call 278-2396.

Trail Blazin’ at LNC: Trail Blazin’
Saturday will be held Dec. 18 at Lichterman
Nature Center, 5992 Quince, from 9 a.m to
noon. Help LNC maintain its 3 miles of trail
by fixing edge boards, spreading gravel
and clearing overgrowth on the trails.
To help, call 523-2425.
Mike Brown/The Commercial Appeal files
Jimmy Ogle really gets into a tour as
he climbs into a tulip poplar tree
known as the “Gnome Home” while
helping with a free guided hike of the
Old Forest at Overton Park.

Organizations Greater Memphis Greenline

To find out what other “green” events are
happening around the area, visit the websites
of these organizations:
Citizens to Preserve Overton Park
overtonparkforever.org
Clean Memphis
cleanmemphis.org
Coalition of Livable Communities
livablememphis.org/
Friends for Our Riverfront
friendsforourriverfront.org/
greatermemphisgreenline.org/
Lichterman Nature Center
memphismuseums.org/lichterman-overview/
Memphis Botanic Garden
memphisbotanicgarden.com/
Shelby Farms Park Conservancy
shelbyfarmspark.org
Sierra Club — Chickasaw Group
tennessee.sierraclub.org/chickasaw/
Strawberry Plains Audubon Center
strawberryplains.audubon.org/
4 GOING GREEN | Sunday, December 5, 2010 commercialappeal.com

One of The Conservation Fund’s largest projects in Tennessee involved 75,000

acres in East Tennessee known as the Cumberland Forest.

Business of conservation
Dual missions make The Conservation Fund unique
By Suzanne Thompson organization considers business an
Special to Going Green
integral part of the process.
The Conservation Fund (TCF)
CONSERVATION OF LAND AND
uses its considerable resources not
WATER involves much more than
only to protect land and water, but
preserving trees and preventing
also to promote economic
pollution; one nonprofit
development.
The Commercial Appeal Sunday, December 5, 2010 | GOING GREEN 5

“We view it as a
business, and we
approach it as a
business,” said Rex
Boner, vice president of
The Conservation Fund’s
Southeast region.
The organization is
structured differently
from other nonprofit
preservation groups.
“The Conservation
Fund, when we were
founded some 25 years
ago, was uniquely
chartered by the IRS and
we remain the only
nonprofit environmental
organization in the
country that has a
straight-up provision for
conservation, which
primarily takes the form
of land conservation, and as the Cumberland “There were some
a straight-up provision for Forest. The property, pretty innovative things
economic development which was up for sale by The Conservation Fund
and job creation. So, we International Paper in did,” recalled Gary Myers,
are dually purposed,” said 2002, was wedged who retired as executive
TCF chief operating between two large tracts director of the Tennessee
officer Larry Selzer. of already protected land. Wildlife Resources
Since its inception, State officials wanted to Agency in 2009.
TCF has protected 6.5 connect the pieces and “It required us to put
million acres of land. It create a 140,000-acre park together one of the most
was involved in the and recreation area. But creative conservation
largest property transfer the $20 million price tag transactions that I have
in the history of the on the Cumberland Forest ever been part of in my 25
United States and has was much more than the years, and one that
helped preserve land in state had available. remains today, a model of
every state. State officials and how to approach very
One of its largest members of TCF, along complicated properties
projects in Tennessee with representatives from where no single source of
involved 75,000 acres on other public agencies, put capital is sufficient to get
the Cumberland Plateau their heads together to find the job done,” Selzer said.
in East Tennessee known a way to preserve the land. Ironically, TCF saved
6 GOING GREEN | Sunday, December 5, 2010 commercialappeal.com

the land by, in a sense, splitting it up — reintroduce elk, which once roamed
but vertically, not horizontally. freely in the high part of the
Selzer likened the concept to a layer Appalachian Mountains but disappeared
cake of value. One layer consists of the decades ago.
dirt (the land itself). Other layers Because TCF was successful in
include the timber on the land, the helping to protect the entire 75,000
recreational and development rights, acres, which was renamed the Sundquist
and the rights to the coal, natural gas or Wildlife Management Area, a herd of
other minerals beneath the surface. about 450 elk now roam the countryside.
“You can actually sell Repopulating the elk
one layer and keep the has also benefited what
rest,” he said. Selzer calls one of the
“What we did on this fastest growing
property is, we found segments of outdoor
different buyers for economics — “watchful
different layers of this wildlife,” referring to
property. That had visitors who go into
never been done before forests or parks just to
to that extent.” observe the flora and
The land went to the fauna.
state of Tennessee, The Cumberland
along with the Forest land
recreational and conservation project is
development rights. just one of thousands
Mineral rights went to that TCF has
another buyer and the participated in.
timber went to a third. Wade Payne/Knoxville News Sentinel
In the 1990s, the
The development rights organization was
apply only to specific A bull elk grazes with a cow instrumental in
conservation-related at the Sundquist Wildlife protecting the Ghost
purposes, such as Management Area. River part of the Wolf
farming or forestry; the River.
land can never be subdivided into lots Forestry is a main focus of TCF and it
for housing or shopping centers. manages to fulfill both aspects of its
“That was one of the most charter by not only protecting land, but
complicated, but ultimately ensuring that forests are managed in a
spectacularly successful projects that sustainable way. That helps people
clearly demonstrated how you could use whose livelihoods depend on the logging
the economic value and the economic industry to prosper and be safe.
interest in a property to achieve a Boner said TCF remains neutral on
conservation outcome,” Selzer said. the issue of clear cutting. “We don’t have
Another goal of state officials in a position on management positions,” he
consolidating the properties was to said. “On our land we use the acceptable
create an environment where they could techniques and we have sustainably
The Commercial Appeal Sunday, December 5, 2010 | GOING GREEN 7

Projects in Tennessee
So far nearly 280,000 acres essential to outdoor enthusiasts and wildlife have been
preserved for the enjoyment of future generations. Below is a list of ongoing projects
The Conservation Fund is involved in.
FIERY GIZZARD County. The plan will be a road map for the
The Conservation Fund has partnered strategic conservation and creation of
with The Land Trust for Tennessee, with green spaces in an effort to protect the
support of the Friends of the South unique landscape of Middle Tennessee.
Cumberland State Recreation Area, to The recent flooding in Nashville illustrates
purchase and protect over 6,200 acres how important the strength of natural
of the western bluff of Fiery Gizzard infrastructure is to the well-being of a
Cove and over a mile and a half of the community.
Fiery Gizzard trail system. ROCKY FORK
OPEN SPACE PLAN FOR DAVIDSON A nearly 10,000-acre expanse of forests,
COUNTY trout streams, and mountainous ridges is
Nashville Mayor Karl Dean and The Land the largest unprotected tract of land in the
Trust for Tennessee selected The southern Appalachian Mountains.
Conservation Fund to lead a team to Source: conservationfund.org/
develop an Open Space Plan for Davidson southeast/tennessee

approved and managed federal, state and local being used in its Natural
plans for these forests.” agencies and other Capital Investment Fund,
TCF, which depends on nonprofit organizations one of the programs
donations from with conservation Boner designed, to help
individuals and corporate projects. growing conservation
sponsors to raise capital, “We’re sort of problem businesses by loaning
will purchase property solvers in the them money or becoming
outright, if necessary, conservation movement,” their partners.
from its $100 million Boner said. “It is both an equity
average balance. In determining which and a debt investment.
“We are most projects to undertake, So, we make loans and we
productive when our TCF tries to identify the take equity positions in
working capital is in the most important natural resource-based
ground and not in the properties for companies. These are not
bank, anyway,” Boner environmental, start-ups but companies
said. recreational and future that could successfully go
The organization economic value. to the next level, but they
doesn’t initiate projects Some of the cannot get financing from
independently, but assists organization’s money is the bank to add more
8 GOING GREEN | Sunday, December 5, 2010
Todd Warshaw/Getty Images
NASCAR star Ryan Newman
is working with The
Conservation Fund to
promote the protection of
wildlife habitat.
equipment, more staff and so
forth,” Selzer said.
The Natural Capital
Investment Fund is one of
several programs TCF has
developed to assist in a
variety of conservation
efforts.
Boner helped launch a
program with NASCAR driver
Ryan Newman called “Racing
for Wildlife,” to promote
protection of wildlife habitat
within the community of 75
million NASCAR fans, many
of whom are nature
enthusiasts.
“We are creative and work
in a lot of different ways,”
Boner said. “There’s not just
one cookie-cutter approach to
conservation.”
For more information about
The Conservation Fund, visit
conservationfund.org. To learn
more about the Racing for Wildlife
program, go to
racing forwildlife.org.
commercialappeal.com
Options abound
for giving green
By Suzanne Thompson
Special to Going Green
When it comes to charitable giving, there
are a seemingly infinite number of worthy
causes in need of funds, including many that
deal with projects to help the environment.
An organization called Charity Navigator
evaluates and ranks all types of 501(c)(3) (tax
deductible status) charitable organizations.
There are many options for donors who are
looking to support environmental or
conservation groups in the United States or
around the world. To find out more, visit the
Charity Navigator website
(charitynavigator.org) and click on
Environment.
The Conservation Fund
One of the highest rated green charities on
the Charity Navigator site is The Conservation
Fund, which is dedicated to protecting
America’s landscapes and waterways.
According to Charity Navigator, 97 percent of
the funds raised are allocated to program
expenses.
The Conservation Fund is different from
other conservation or environmental
organizations because it has a dual-purpose
charter, explained Rex Boner, vice president of
the organization’s Southeast region. The
Conservation Fund’s purposes are land and
water conservation and economic
development.
“We really are about the business of
conservation,” Boner said. “We fill that niche
The Commercial Appeal Sunday, December 5, 2010 | GOING GREEN 9

Mike Martin and

Monica Clutch
of The Nature
Conservancy
canoe the
Hatchie River to
help monitor its
ecological
condition.
The Commercial
Appeal file photo

of understanding the economics and The Conservation Fund helped

we focus a lot on helping and
working with local communities on
the economic side through
conservation.”
Boner said The Conservation Fund
rarely spearheads projects
independently. “We always work in
partnership with others. We are in a
partnership mode of helping others,”
he said.
Some of those groups include local
communities, family foundations,
local, state and federal governments,
and other nonprofit organizations.
The Conservation Fund plays a
behind-the-scenes role, Boner said.
“We don’t have a membership, so we
don’t need to grab headlines to show
our members we are doing good
work.”
In 1995, when the Wolf River
Conservancy set out to protect the
Ghost River section of the Wolf
River near La Grange, Tenn., that
organization reached out to The
Conservation Fund for help.
local conservationists, the Wolf River
Conservancy and two Tennessee
government agencies save 4,500
acres the river ran through from
land and timber auctions.
The Nature Conservancy
The Nature Conservancy, one of
the world’s largest eco-charities, has
protected more than 119 million
acres of land
and more
than 5,000
miles of
rivers
worldwide.
Since its
inception in 1951, the organization
has gained more than a million
members.
The Nature Conservancy has
worked in every U.S. state and in more
than 30 countries.
One of its current initiatives is
“Plant a Billion Trees.” One dollar
buys one tree. As of September, the
10 GOING GREEN | Sunday, December 5, 2010 commercialappeal.com

group had planted more than 7.5 “One of the things that Memphis
million trees. runs up against now is the problem
The Nature Conservancy has with tires. Tires are dumped in
designed other programs like illegal dumps, they end up in
“Adopt an Acre, ” which uses streams. We’ve found it very
supporters’ money to protect an difficult to set up a recycling center.
acre of endangered habitat in a There’s a company in the Midwest
location of the donor’s choosing. that takes old tires and makes
Since the program began in 1991, bricks out of them, but there aren’t
more than 30,000 any resources like that
individuals, schools here,” Brannon said.
and organizations have
contributed more than Greenpeace
$22 million. International
Greenpeace
The Sierra Club International, founded
The oldest and in 1970, uses peaceful
largest grass-roots tactics to fight threats
green charity in the to ecology from global
U.S., The Sierra Club warming to toxic
strives to protect waste.
communities, While it is
wilderness and the predominately a
environment globally. campaigning group, its
The Tennessee members do take
Chapter of the Sierra nonviolent action when
Club has several circumstances demand
groups. The Chickasaw it.
Group in Memphis is Greenpeace members
chaired by longtime sailed ships into
Sierra Club member nuclear test sites in
Nancy Brannon. France to stop nuclear bombs
“We are involved in a lot of things, during the 1970s, and pressured the
from air-quality issues to water International Whaling Commission
issues,” she said. “It’s real easy to get to issue a moratorium on whaling
contamination in your streams either by interrupting whale hunts in the
from trash that people throw out or ’80s. To stop ocean dumping,
oil that is dumped into drains.” members boarded the Brent Spar, a
Another water-pollution issue The Shell-owned oil storage facility in
Sierra Club addresses is the illegal the North Sea before the worn-out
dumping of tires. unit was sunk.
The Commercial Appeal
Earthjustice
Earthjustice also earned a high
rating at Charity Nativator.
Originally founded as The Sierra
Club Defense Fund in 1971,
Earthjustice helps environmentalists
with legal issues at no cost. It
adopted its current name in 1997.
From community-based
organizations to the Wilderness
Society, Earthjustice has
represented more than 700 clients.
Its employees work in regional
offices around the country with
headquarters in California.
SolarAid
An international charity that
focuses on alleviating poverty by
using solar power, SolarAid seeks to
ensure that everyone has access to
clean, affordable power.
Two billion people in the world
do not have the infrastructure
necessary for electricity, according
to the website of SolarAid, which is
MORE INFORMATION
Charity Navigator: charitynavigator.org
The Conservation Fund: conservationfund.org
The Nature Conservancy: nature.org
Greenpeace International: greenpeace.org
Earthjustice: earthjustice.org
The Sierra Club Tennessee Chapter: tennessee.sierraclub.org
SolarAid: solar-aid.org
Sunday, December 5, 2010 | GOING GREEN 11
based in the United Kingdom.
Given the name Sunny Money, the
group’s innovative solar products give
entrepreneurs in underdeveloped
countries a way to lift themselves out
of poverty by becoming franchisees.
“The main focus is poverty
alleviation. In terms of microsolar, we
do this by developing businesses from
a base level, training entrepreneurs
with the marketing and sales skills to
generate income
as Sunny Money
franchisees,” said
Ralph Greenland,
marketing
assistant at
SolarAid. The
goal is to provide
power by using solar panels as a
source of energy.
SolarAid focuses mostly on
Africa, where most of the
impoverished people in rural areas
use kerosene lamps, which heavily
pollute the atmosphere with carbon
dioxide. Some resources also fund
programs in South America.
Individual or corporate donors
can choose a specific project to
which they dedicate their resources.
12 GOING GREEN | Sunday, December 5, 2010 commercialappeal.com

River riches

Photos by Frank A. Gibson

The natural beauty of the Ghost River was stunning, especially as the fall
colors were starting to peak.

Journey By Emily Adams Keplinger

keplinger@commercialappeal.com
down
Recently I set off in a canoe for the first time since
Ghost, Wolf I was a teenager at summer camp in East Tennessee.
teaches Unlike the placid lakes of my youth, this trek was on
the demanding Ghost River section of the Wolf
value, River.
In a trip planned by the Wolf River Conservancy,
conservancy the adventure began from a seldom-used site in
Fayette County near Moscow, Tenn. Our guide was
Keith Kirkland, the conservancy’s director of
The Commercial Appeal Sunday, December 5, 2010 | GOING GREEN 13

way for paddlers through

the disorienting maze of
willow, cypress, tupelos
and stunted pumpkin ash.
In 1997 the river was
designated an American
Heritage River by
presidential proclamation
under a special United
States Environmental
Protection Agency
program. According to
the Wolf River
Conservancy, the Wolf
Blue trail markers, posted on trees, showed the River serves the Mid-
way for paddlers through the disorienting maze of South in four distinct
willow, cypress, tupelos and stunted pumpkin ash ways:
as they floated down the Wolf River. Flood/erosion control:
During heavy rains, the
Wolf River’s floodplain
membership and outreach distinct eco-areas; first a and wetlands temporarily
programs. bottomland hardwood store floodwaters.
A genuine enthusiast forest, then a cypress Without an adequate
for the wonders of the swamp reminiscent of a floodplain, floodwaters
river, Kirkland had more Louisiana bayou, and and the erosion caused by
than a scenic route in finally through open them threaten property,
mind when he planned wetland meadows. transportation and lives.
this trip. He hoped to The natural beauty was Water quality: The
enlighten participants stunning, with fall colors Greater Memphis area
about the threatened starting to peak. Blue and other Mid-South
wilderness of the Wolf trail markers showed the communities receive
River, and encourage
renewed interest in its Keith
conservation. Kirkland
Our group included 10 takes
people in four canoes. We Jerry and
were counted off into our Bobbi
respective canoes, and Gillis for
with Kirkland in the lead, an
we began paddling afternoon
through the "float."
unchannelized river
section. Our journey
meandered through three
14 GOING GREEN | Sunday, December 5, 2010
As the day's
outing came to
an end,
members of
the Wolf River
Conservancy
hoped paddlers
on a recent
"float" had
gained new
insights about
the wonders of
the Wolf River
and the need
to protect this
threatened
wilderness.
drinking water from a pure
underground aquifer beneath the Wolf
River basin. The Wolf’s fragile wetlands
hold water long enough for it to be
absorbed into the ground and serve as
natural filters to cleanse polluted waters
before they reach the aquifer.
Wildlife habitat: The Wolf River
supports a variety of animals and
waterfowl. Some of the wildlife that call
the Wolf River area home are deer,
otter, mink, bobcat, fox, coyote, turkey
and beavers, as evidenced by the dam
and lodge that we spied. We also saw
white egrets, and bald eagles have been
spotted along the river as well.
Low-impact recreation: While
civilization has long surrounded the
Wolf River’s floodplain, its wetland and
bottomland trails provide Mid-
Southerners with scenic wilderness
experiences from the Holly Springs
National Forest all the way to
Downtown Memphis. Hikers, runners,
sportsmen, cyclists and paddlers
commercialappeal.com
experience nature on or near the river
every day.
Kirkland adds, “The Ghost River
section of the Wolf River is also home
to large trees, include cherrybark, water,
willow and swamp chestnut. The low
ridges above the river bottoms support
tulip poplar, beech and white oak with
northern red oak infrequently occurring.
The natural area also includes other
ecologically significant uplands and
sandy hills adjacent to the floodplain.”
Although these trees are easily found
elsewhere, this area is a watery, mature
forest growth, with numerous older,
undisturbed trees. And their future has
been in question. In 1995, a 4,000-acre
section was purchased by a timber
development company and a
subdivision development company.
At the time, the Wolf River
Conservancy approached the companies
to buy the land back in hopes of
conserving it. The state of Tennessee
pledged $3 million (the property value),
The Commercial Appeal Sunday, December 5, 2010 | GOING GREEN 15

Make every step count: New app promotes land conservation

Like to hike and give back? There’s an app
for that. Green Boot Media recently launched
the Green Boot app, available for download on
the iTunes website. This new app functions as
a pedometer for users while simultaneously
allowing them to put their steps to good use.
The more steps you accumulate through
Green Boot, the more you can
donate to a land trust, nature
preserve, or conservation
organization of your choice.
Just how does the Green Boot
app work? The user starts the
app while running, hiking or
walking in the wilderness or even
on the treadmill. The app records
the steps as a pedometer. Once
finished, the user submits his or
her steps and chooses the
program that should benefit from
the donation. As Green Boot tells
it, “There are no actual funds
given by the user. The funds are
donated from the proceeds from the ad
stream that is running while the user is signed
in to the program. Therefore, the more users
using the app, the more possible donations
there are for organizations that really need it.”
Green Boot is a media company supporting
green initiatives and charities through
interactive media exposure. By promoting land
and fitness conservation through technology,
the company allocates 15 percent of its annual
proceeds to protecting parks, wetlands and
more.
John Kelly is the founder and CEO of the
company. He says that even
though the Green Boot iPhone app
went public just over a month ago,
it already offers donations to more
than 75 organizations. Further, the
company intends to have local
organizations across the country
register with Green Boot so that
users will be able to find a
beneficiary in their local area.
The Green Boot app is not the
only eco-initiative for the iPhone.
The National Parks Conservation
Association App provides a
complete view of park wildlife, as
well as a comprehensive
ecosystem review of 50 national parks. Project
NOAH offers an app to help turn your
handheld device into a wildlife-spotting tool.
And there’s even an app to help people with
their recycling.
— Katherine Butler, Mother Nature Network

with the stipulation that
the conservancy raise the
remaining $1 million.
Babe Howard, former
owner of the Millington
Telephone Company, came
forward with a loan to
make the deal successful.
Then Scott Ledbetter led a
campaign to raise the
money necessary to repay
Howard.
That’s how the pristine
section of the Wolf River
was “saved.” But the fight
continues today.
Although an additional
3,000 acres has been
added to the original
acreage, making the total
area 7,000 acres, there
are still 2 miles of river
bank that are not yet
protected. The
conservancy’s goal is to
protect the entire length
of the Wolf River
waterway, from its source
in Holly Springs National
Forest to its mouth where
it flows into the
Mississippi River at the
north end of Mud Island
— nearly 100 miles.
For more information
on how you can help,
contact the Wolf River
Conservancy at 452-6500
or visit wolfriver.org.
16 GOING GREEN | Sunday, December 5, 2010 commercialappeal.com

Greenway Phase 2 opens

Flooding left project under water, behind schedule
By Lela Garlington a reality, Planning and
garlington@yourappeal.com Development
administrator Mike
WHEN CYCLIST JIMMY REED hops on Flowers with Memphis
Park Services is taking
his bike from his home on Shady Grove Road, aim at Phase 3 of the
he often ends up checking out the Wolf River greenway where it left
off at Shady Grove.
Greenway and the new Shelby Farms bridge When construction
that crosses the Wolf. starts next summer,
Flowers said, “We will
stop our trail at the
“Once this greenway Grove and Shady Grove Germantown city
opens, it will get a ton roads and parallels limits.” Phase 3 should
of use,” the 54-year-old Humphreys. be finished by early
Reed predicted before Wolf River Greenway 2012.
last week’s opening of a Phase 2 took longer Germantown Parks
new 11/2-mile greenway than expected. and Recreation director
section. Dignitaries broke Pam Beasley said she
Those who live near ground in February for will include the
Humphreys and Wolf the $1.4 million six- greenway’s missing link
River boulevards now month project. Flooding as a part of her
have a new section of from the rainy month of department’s proposed
the greenway to walk, May left the greenway 7- capital improvement
run or bike on. In feet underwater and programs for next
addition to the paved behind schedule. year’s budget. The
pathway, Shelby Farms The greenway Germantown Greenway
today is opening a opened on Wednesday. is now 2.3 miles long.
pedestrian bridge Officials with Shelby Germantown will need
across the Wolf with Farms plan to open the to pave a pathway
the new section that new 200-foot span several hundred feet to
leads to myriad dirt pedestrian bridge connect to the
and gravel trails in its today. The bridge and Memphis section.
4,500 acre park. the connector trails “This has been almost
The paved pathway cost $1.85 million. a decade in the making,”
sits between Walnut Now that Phase 2 is Flowers said. Once
The Commercial Appeal Sunday, December 5, 2010 | GOING GREEN 17

Wolf River Greenway

A new 1½ mile greenway section and a pedestrian bridge leading to Shelby Farms is now open.
Memphis will finish another mile-long section by early 2012 ending at Germantown’s city limits.

Baptist
Memorial Walnut Grove Rd. Wolf River Greenway phases
Hospital Phase 2 is complete
B Phase 3 construction expected to begin
summer 2011 and open early in 2012
Shelby Farms Existing 2.3 miles of Germantown
B
Greenway that runs to Nashoba Park
past Germantown Road
Wo

P B
lf

Parking Pedestrian/bikeway
Ri

bridge
ve
r

H
d
E. Shad Grove R .
um

y
Missing link
phr

between
ey
s

Blvd
. greenways
Wolf R P
Kirby

iver Blvd.
P

Sources: Cities of Memphis and Germantown, Shelby Farms and the Wolf River Conservancy

Shane McDermott/The Commercial Appeal

Memphis and Buchanan. woods along

Germantown are Within a projected Humphreys. “Enjoy the
connected, users will six to seven years, local scenic view,” he
have almost 5 miles of officials want the Wolf insisted, “from the trail.”
paved greenway. River Greenway to run What is exciting for
Germantown completed 22 miles from the Reed is that the
its first section in 1999. Mississippi River greenway is connecting
“The trail will extend Downtown to Forest with Shady Grove,
an opportunity for Hill-Irene Road in which is a major cycling
many to see nature up Germantown. east-west route. “A
close and personal for Technically, the biker can hop across
the first time, with just greenway is not Humphreys, get on the
a few steps from their parkland. Instead, it is a Wolf River Greenway
neighborhoods. We conservation easement. and bam — there you
expect to have a lot While there will be are at Shelby Farms.
citizens use this trail limited parking, Flowers This is opening up the
for exercise as well as a said residents need to park. The psyche of the
place to simply enjoy,” stick to the trails and not city is changing.”
said Memphis Park camp, fish or wander off — Lela Garlington:
Services director Cindy into the privately owned 529-2349
18 GOING GREEN | Sunday, December 5, 2010 commercialappeal.com

GREENING UP THE HOLIDAYS

Lisa Poole/Associated Press files

Wal-Mart Stores Inc. is going for the jugular in the holiday retailing war. It is
offering free shipping on nearly 60,000 online items.

Eco-savvy ways to ship

By Jim Coleman
Special to Going Green
Shipping “green” this year will be
easier than ever.
Several of the largest retailers are
waging a campaign for consumer dollars
and free shipping is the bait they are
using to lure customers.
Free-shipping offers are a great way
to reduce your carbon footprint this
holiday season. Buying online reduces
the use of fuels when items are shipped
from local stores. It also eliminates a lot
of the packaging material usually need-
ed to ensure that your packages arrive
intact. Much of the common packaging
materials like plastic bubble wrap and
The Commercial Appeal
polystyrene peanuts are made from
petroleum and don’t biodegrade.
Leading the way is the world’s
largest retailer, Wal-Mart Stores Inc.
The big-box giant is offering free ship-
ping on more than 60,000 holiday
items, with a heavy emphasis on elec-
tronics and toys. The offer extends
through Dec. 20.
Online retailer Amazon recently said
that it would match or beat any free-
shipping offer on a limited number of
items.
Other retailers like Best Buy and
Toys R’ Us are also offering compet-
itive free-shipping incentives this year,
so deals are to be had for those looking
to save a few bucks this Christmas.
“This year we expect shoppers to
take advantage of the free-shipping
deals more than any year. The offers
are better this year than ever,” said
Luke Knowles, founder of the website
Freeshipping.org.
Started in 2008, the website is a
clearing house of free-shipping offers
and other incentives that retailers are
offering this year. Over 1,000 mer-
chants have signed up to take part in
the website’s “Free Shipping Day”.
If online purchasing is not an option,
or if you just like the personal touch of
hand-wrapped gifts, here a few tips to
get started with:
1. Always reuse packaging materials,
if possible. This not only saves you
money, it also prevents new materials
from being produced, so don’t throw
away those peanuts and bubble wrap if
you have them. Old boxes, if in good
enough shape, can also be reused.
2. Look for items around the house
to use. Crumpling newspaper and stuff-
Sunday, December 5, 2010 | GOING GREEN 19
ing it in a plastic grocery bag is a great
way to reuse and goes a long way. After
you’ve done this, simply tie off the bag
and it’s good to go. These materials are
also common recyclables, making them
easy to get rid of on the other end.
3. Use the smallest box possible.
This reduces the need for packaging
materials and ships more efficiently, al-
lowing the carrier more packages per
load.
4. If possible, use the gift as pack-
aging material. Some clothing, like that
Christmas sweater Aunt Peggy knitted,
works just as well as bubble wrap. Why
not use it?
5. Popcorn is lightweight and makes
good packing material for smaller items.
It also tastes great with salt and butter.
If you need to purchase new ma-
terials, boxes made from recycled ma-
terials and biodegradable peanuts, for
example, are available at many retailers
and online.
Once you’ve packed everything away
snugly and have taped up your boxes,
it’s time to give some thought to car-
riers.
Although all major shipping compa-
nies have made efforts to become more
efficient and environmentally friendly,
some stand out more than others.
Memphis-based shipping giant
FedEx, for example, was recently rated
No. 2 among shipping companies by
Climate Counts, a nonprofit environ-
mental advocacy group that rates cor-
porations on their efforts to reduce
their environmental footprints. So it
makes good sense to keep those dollars
in Memphis and go with the local com-
pany. Just don’t forget that the deadline
for shipping is Dec. 23.
20 GOING GREEN | Sunday, December 5, 2010
Finding safe toys for the holidays
By Jenn Savedge
Mother Nature Network
Every year it’s the same thing.
Zillions of toys crowd store shelves in
the hopes of grabbing my attention
and finding their way home to my
kids. I don’t know if it’s the eggnog
or the holiday music blasting
through the store, but every year, I
fall into the trap of believing that if a
toy is made for a child, it will be
manufactured with materials that are
safe for a child.
But then the caroling fades, the
eggnog wears off, and I
remember that as much
as I wish that were
true, it’s simply not
always the case.
So how can we all
make sure that the
toys we purchase
this year for the
holidays won’t show
up on January’s toy
recall list? Here are a few tips for
finding safer toys for your kids this
holiday season:
Do look for toys made with
natural materials, such as unpainted
wood, and natural fabrics such as
wool and cotton.
Do look for products that are
painted with nontoxic paints or dyes.
Do take a quick look at web
sites like Healthystuff.org and
Goodguide.com to find out which
toys to avoid. You can also sign up
to get e-mail alerts of recent toy
commercialappeal.com
recalls at the Consumer Product
Safety Commission.
Don’t buy costume jewelry for
children. It might contain either lead
or an equally toxic cousin, cadmium.
Don’t purchase toys made with
vinyl products, or PVC (for polyvinyl
chloride). According to safety
advocates like HealthyStuff.org,
PVC is more likely to contain
hazardous additives compared with
other plastics. Items made with
synthetic leather, such as kids’ book
bags and baseball gloves, and other
flexible items like certain balls
and bracelets may contain
vinyl. Some vinyl
products are labeled with
a recycling triangle
that includes a “3’’
with a “V’’
underneath the
symbol.
Don’t buy
brightly colored
plastics that could contain
lead, cadmium or toxic pigments.
Don’t buy products bearing the
California Proposition 65 label with
wording similar to this: “Warning:
This product contains chemicals
known to the State of California to
cause cancer and birth defects or
other reproductive harm.”
Don’t purchase toys with small
magnets that can be swallowed.
Jenn Savedge has written three books
on eco-friendly living. Read more on her
green parenting blog: mnn.com/featured-
blogs/greenparenting.
The Commercial Appeal
Exploring the
world, one
book at a time
By William Hageman
Chicago Tribune
One of the joys of parenting is
seeing wonder in the eyes of a child
discovering something new. One of
the most fertile areas for discovery
is nature. With the right book as a
guide, a kid can enter and explore
a new world and become
captivated. Here are four
recently published nature-
related books worth exploring.
“Nature Explorer” (DK, $14.99):
Birds, stars, the weather and more
are covered here. There are lessons
(why are birds’ eyes on the side of
their heads?) and interesting projects,
including how to make your own fossils.
Parental assistance is recommended,
making the projects something an entire
family can work on.
Explore this: A section looks at fungi
and explains how to make a spore print or
a semipermanent record of a mushroom.
“The Nature Connection” (Storey,
$14.95): By Clare Walker Leslie and
subtitled “An Outdoor Workbook for
Kids, Families and Classrooms,” this
book encourages young people to
become naturalists. The year is divided
into months, giving kids a plethora of
topics to study year-round. There’s also
room for notes and sketches. “The
Nature Connection” is aimed at ages 8-
Sunday, December 5, 2010 | GOING GREEN 21
13; younger ones will
benefit with help from an
adult or older sibling.
Explore this: Younger kids
can walk through their
neighborhood and choose a
favorite tree. Then, over the
course of the year, visit it
regularly to see and document
the seasonal changes that occur.
“The Practical Naturalist”
(DK, $19.95): A bit beyond the
reach of small children, but
perfect for older kids and
parents, this book is packed
with good information. It
begins with tips on equipment,
safety and recording
observations, then gets to the
heart of the matter: visiting
various settings (grasslands,
bogs, your backyard) and
teaching about the plants and
animals they’ll encounter.
Explore this: Visit a lake
regularly to see how the
freshwater wildlife changes.
The still water of lowland lakes
is especially rich in plants and animals.
“Natural History: The Ultimate Visual
Guide to Everything on Earth” (DK,
$50): Starting with an overview of Earth
and climbing the evolutionary ladder for
648 glossy pages, this reference book
presents thousands of plant and animal
species. In addition to a photo, a short
copy block offers descriptions and tells
where they’re found.
Explore this: This is an explorer’s
delight, the type of book that can
captivate kids for life. Today they’re
poring over 14 pages of frogs and toads;
tomorrow they’re studying the
splashback poison frog in Brazil.
22 GOING GREEN | Sunday, December 5, 2010 commercialappeal.com

Comstock

Prepare now for next year’s lawn

By Suzanne Thompson
Special to Going Green
Everyone with a yard wants
it to look lush and beautiful,
and to help achieve that goal,
it’s important to care for your
lawn properly to prepare it for
the winter months ahead.
Ben Hamza, director of technical
services for TruGreen, said fall
fertilization is especially important
this year because of the drought in
late summer.
“Fall fertilization is going to help the
lawns recovery very quickly from the
Soil testing drought, and pull up nutrients,
kits are and store them up as reserves
available for the following season. Next
February, or early March,
at UT when the lawns start greening
Extension up, they use reserves that were
Office presented in the fall to grow
healthier and better.
“That’s really the purpose of fall
fertilization.”
Most of TruGreen’s customers use
one or two applications in the fall,
which are measured based on the
pounds of nitrogen per 1,000 square
feet.
Chris Cooper, horticulture agent for
The Commercial Appeal
the University of
Tennessee Extension
Office, said before people
do anything to their
lawns, it’s best to test the
soil’s pH level.
Soil testing kits are
available at the extension
office, located inside the
B-Wing of the Agricenter,
for $7.
“I tell people it’s the
best $7 investment for
your lawn,” Cooper said.
“We don’t want you
running out buying some
kind of fertilizer when you
might not need to buy
any. We’re all about saving
the customer money.”
Once a soil sample is
boxed and ready to go —
the kits are just a little
larger than a school milk
carton — they need to be
mailed to the lab in
Nashville.
Fall is the ideal time to
test soil, because in the
spring, farmers are
sending their soil samples
in and theirs are given top
priority, Cooper said.
Results for samples
sent in during fall may be
back within the same
week they are mailed,
while spring sample
results may take weeks.
The results, and what
to do with them, are very
specific, Cooper said.
“When you get the soil
analysis back, it will tell
Sunday, December 5, 2010 | GOING GREEN
you what you need to do.
It will let you know if you
need to add lime or
fertilizer and it actually
tells you what kind of
fertilizer you need to go
and get,” he said.
A neutral soil has a pH
of 7. Soil for growing
plants and shrubs needs a
pH balance of between
6.0 and 6.5.
To lower the pH, sulfur
should be applied in the
form of a fertilizer
containing sulfate.
Raising the pH requires
an application of lime,
Cooper said.
Fall is the best time to
put lime on the lawn,
because it takes four to
five months for the lime
to be fully incorporated
into the soil and the yard
will be primed for spring
greening .
Hamza said even
though fall seems like a
time of endless raking,
keeping leaves and pine
needles off the grass, it’s a
vital part of readying
lawns for winter.
“In the winter, they mat
down and prevent the
grass from greening up
early in the spring.
Sometimes, consumers
kind of give up on their
lawns, as they start going
dormant. Raking all the
leaves and put them in a
compost pile or a mulch
23
pile would be the
recommended practice,”
Hamza said.
Cooper said the leaves
do need to be dealt with,
but what to do with them
depends partially on what
kind of grass is growing
in the lawn.
If a lawn contains
warm-weather grass, such
as Bermuda or Zoysia,
Cooper said the leaves
can be a great source of
nutrition.
“You can grind the
leaves up,” he said. “It
adds nitrogen to the soil.”
Grinding can be
accomplished by simply
moving over the leaves a
couple of times, Cooper
said.
“I did that just a couple
of weeks ago with my
own yard,” he said.
If uncertain what kind
of grass is in the lawn,
simply take a sample to
the extension office and
someone on the staff will
identify it at no charge.
One other piece of
advice Cooper offers is to
remember that when
winter comes, don’t hang
up the hose and put away
the sprinkler, because
grass needs watering
year-round.
Lawns still need to be
watered during the
winter, just not as often,
Cooper said.
24 GOING GREEN | Sunday, December 5, 2010 commercialappeal.com

Photo courtesy Joe Lamp'l/Scripps Howard News Service

One of the central techniques contributing to the success of the Thomas
Jefferson garden is the focus on soil health and fertility by regular additions of
organic matter.

Gardeners
By Joe Lamp’l
Scripps Howard News Service

Vegetable gardeners have discovered it’s not

learn from
necessary to arm yourself with an arsenal of
chemicals to grow great produce. As many of
us have realized, we need to be more en-
vironmentally conscious both inside and out-

Jefferson’s side our homes.

Gardens are living systems. A healthy gar-
den starts from the ground up. In our quest to
find examples of eco-friendly gardens around

example the country for my PBS show, “Growing a

Greener World,” we featured the garden of
one of America’s most famous organic gar-
The Commercial Appeal
deners, Thomas Jefferson.
Monticello is on a mountaintop,
just outside Charlottesville, Va. Jef-
ferson’s 5,000-acre plantation served
not only as his food supply, but also
as a living laboratory. Jefferson grew
plants from all over the world, in-
cluding interesting vegetables such as
sea kale, cardoon, Caracalla beans,
Florence fennel, fava beans and crow-
der peas.
While we can learn many lessons
from Jefferson’s gardening tech-
niques, a central principle involves
regularly adding organic matter for
soil health and fertility. Think of soil
rich in organic matter as a savings
account for your plants. The nutrients
you deposit are released back to your
plants much like a steady income.
Regular additions are necessary to
meet the demand. Nutrients found in
organic matter stay in the soil longer
than water-soluble synthetics, which
rapidly leach well beyond the root
zone.
Jefferson was one of the first to
make the connection between healthy
soil and healthy plants. Monticello’s
kitchen garden is legendary for the
variety and scope of its vegetable pro-
duction. Jefferson’s garden was sit-
uated on a sunny southern slope. He
took meticulous notes about every-
thing, including when he sowed his
crops and when they were harvested.
He noted crop conditions, observed
pests and diseases and recorded how
he solved problems. Jefferson had
many failures, but this did not deter
him from continuing to work in his
beloved garden.
Jefferson was willing to experi-
Sunday, December 5, 2010 | GOING GREEN 25
ment. While he grew 330 varieties of
vegetables and 170 varieties of fruit,
they weren’t all successes. Jefferson
was not afraid of failure. He believed
that if one thing failed, it is replaced
by the success of another. In fact, he
embraced every failure as a learning
opportunity — something we mod-
ern-day gardeners should appreciate
as well.
Jefferson believed in adding soil-
building components such as com-
post, manure and decomposing leaves
to his soil because he noticed that the
plants flourished in that environment,
suffered from fewer pests and dis-
eases, and were more drought-resis-
tant. Today we know that organic
matter promotes healthy biological ac-
tivity within the soil, a complex web
of life ranging from microbes to earth-
worms.
We can learn a lot about organic
gardening from various resources: the
Web, an organic garden gardening
club, a lecture or your gardening
neighbor.
Jefferson has educated us on a va-
riety of techniques still used today.
But it all begins with healthy soil and
a positive can-do attitude. In spite of
many challenges, Jefferson showed us
that while some of our gardening en-
deavors may fail, others would flour-
ish — as long as we persevered and
learned every step of the way. That’s
a great philosophy we can all use in
our everyday lives.
Joe Lamp’l, host of “Growing a Greener
World” on PBS, is a Master Gardener and
author. For more information visit
joegardener.com.
26 GOING GREEN | Sunday, December 5, 2010 commercialappeal.com

Lessons from the gulf

Americans believe
business leaders need
to be well-versed in
sustainability
Associated Press

MADISON, Wis. — Long af-

ter the gulf crisis reached an
end, the ripple effects continue
on local beaches and
economies as well as in Amer-
ica’s waning confidence about
the readiness of corporate lead-
ership to respond to environ-
mental issues. A recent nation-
al survey shows that only 13
percent of U.S. adults are con-
fident that corporate America
has the knowledge to make de-
cisions that consider long-term
impacts on the environment.
The Sustainable Leadership
Census was conducted by tele-
phone within the United States
by Harris Interactive on behalf
of the University of Wisconsin
among 1,006 U.S. adults.
“It’s becoming increasingly
apparent that sustainable man-
agement is not confined to a
limited segment of ‘green jobs’.
Every job confronts sustainabil-
Gerald Herbert/Associated Press
ity issues,” said David
The Deepwater Horizon oil rig burns after an Schejbal, dean of the Univer-
explosion last April in the Gulf of Mexico, off sity of Wisconsin-Extension
the southeast tip of Louisiana. Continuing Education, Out-
The Commercial Appeal Sunday, December 5, 2010 | GOING GREEN 27

Crews work to
clean up oil from
the Deepwater
Horizon oil spill
washed ashore at
Pensacola Beach
in Pensacola, Fla.
The Obama
administration
says it will not
pursue offshore
drilling in East
Coast waters,
including the
eastern Gulf of
Mexico, for at
least the next
seven years.
Michael Spooneybarger
Associated Press files

reach and E-Learning division. “Edu-
cating all business executives about pro-
tecting the environment — not just
those in ‘green jobs’ — is the key to our
sustainable future.”
The Sustainable Leadership Census
shows the American public supports the
need to retool and learn more about the
environment:
A vast majority (82 percent) of U.S.
adults agree that company leaders need
to learn more about the environment in
order to make better decisions.
Nearly four out of five U.S. adults
(78 percent) agree that it’s time for
corporate America to go back to school
and retrain in the basics of how to
protect the environment.
About four out of five people (82
percent) agree that educating business
executives about sustainable manage-
ment will help America remain com-
petitive with the rest of the world.
Only one-third (32 percent) of the
employed respondents reported that
their managers have had some training
on the subject of sustainable manage-
ment business practices.
“To compete as this new economy
surges forward, today’s corporate lead-
ers must be environmentally agile, eco-
literate, and able to respond quickly,”
said Schejbal. “We must educate ex-
ecutives already on the job. Future suc-
cess rises and falls on access to ed-
ucation. Our job as educators now is to
focus on delivering environmental and
sustainability education to leaders
across a company — not just to those in
‘green jobs.’ ”
Visit sustain.wisconsin.edu for more
information.
28 GOING GREEN | Sunday, December 5, 2010 commercialappeal.com

Beauty in the most

tragic sense

By Tyrone Beason Beltra spotted

The Seattle Times this river boat
stuck on a sand
Seattle conservation photographer Daniel bank east of
Beltra’s work is so visually stunning that it always Barreirinha,
begs a second glance. Brazil, in 2005
It is only then, once you’re seduced by the sheer during one of the
beauty of the pictures, the mesmerizing play on worst droughts
patterns both natural and man-made, the bird’s-eye ever recorded in
sense of scale, that you’re struck with the outrage the Amazon.
he’s really trying to provoke. Courtesy of Daniel Beltra
The Commercial Appeal Sunday, December 5, 2010 | GOING GREEN 29

That picturesque shipwreck

in a patch of sand? Look
again. It’s a functioning boat
mired in silt where the
mighty Amazon River would
be, were it not for drought
attributed to climate change.
That psychedelic expanse
of June-bug greens and
midnight blues with perfect
waves of rust-colored streaks
running across it? Mother
Nature had nothing to do
with it. That’s oil from the
BP undersea pipeline rupture
in the Gulf of Mexico.
Beltra, 45, has made a
career out of traveling to the
world’s precious ecosystems
to document settings most of
us conjure only in daydreams.
From the thick rain forests of
Indonesia to the icy reaches
of the Arctic to the sweltering
waterways of Brazil to the
labyrinthine marshes of Courtesy of Daniel Beltra
Louisiana, his subjects are Oil-soaked pelicans huddle at a bird rescue
the stuff of travel adventures. and research center in Fort Jackson, La., this
But his images of those past summer, victims of the BP oil disaster in
places are beautiful in the the Gulf of Mexico. The center was one of
most tragic sense. many locations conservation photographer
They are snapshots of raw Daniel Beltra visited to document the oil's
nature hobbled by the folly of impacts on the fragile gulf ecosystem.
man, scenes of environmental
devastation so artful in their
composition that they take on “It’s very easy to convince a certain
a bizarre loveliness.
Beltra’s work isn’t intended segment of society on certain issues
to make you visit these
places. He wants you to help
that are probably much closer to my
save them. way of thinking, but I’m more
Beltra himself is an
unassuming man, not so interested in convincing the other side.”
30 GOING GREEN | Sunday, December 5, 2010 commercialappeal.com

much an agent provocateur as a humble
craftsman who lets his work speak.
He’s on assignment six to nine
months a year, an absence from home
that happens with the blessing of his
wife, Shoshana Beltra, an ultrasound
technician from Seattle.
In the field, Beltra says he’s a “single-
man band,” lacking a crew of assistants.
Actually, “in the field” isn’t quite
accurate. Some of his most famous images
were taken high above the scene from an
airplane or helicopter, which allows him
to pan out and capture the scope of clear
cuts, forest burns and melting ice. Aerial
photos have been his signature since an
assignment in Spain in the mid-’90s, not
long after he stumbled into
photojournalism by shooting amateur
pictures of a Basque-separatist bombing
scene in Madrid when he lived there.
“Something clicked in my brain — I
was very comfortable up there, and I
could see things differently, in a way
that was really appealing to me,” he
says of that first aerial shoot. “I also
figured out rapidly that people respond
very well to those images.”
His physical distance from the ground
or water works in his favor, revealing to

Courtesy of Daniel Beltra

Deforestation has been used to create new palm-oil plantations like this one shot
from the air over Kuala Kuayan in Indonesia. Felled trees litter the scene. “I don’t
pretend to be objective — I try to be fair,” Beltra says. “I hope that people see
what I see and feel they need to do something. But I don’t want to tell them what.”
The Commercial Appeal
him illustrative patterns, textures and
color variations that the photographer
on foot can’t possibly detect.
At ground level, a forest being burned
down to make way for agriculture looks
like a wilderness on fire. But seen from
above, the deforested blackness menaces
the landscape like a slow-moving monster.
With his work on the Amazon, the
scale depicted in the aerial shots
becomes a part of the story. “The
images take on their own life,” he says.
“It’s sometimes scary, really scary, how
much power the images can have.”
The scenes that unfold in Beltra’s
viewfinder do not make him sad about
the trade-offs we accept for energy, food
and economic development.
“I get more pissed than depressed,”
he says.
The possibility of making a difference
serves as motivation.
This summer, Beltra and colleagues in
the International League of
Conservation Photographers (ILCP)
traveled to northern British Columbia to
capture the landscapes, wildlife and
people of a region threatened by a
planned transcontinental oil pipeline
that will bring millions of barrels of oil
from the tar sands of Alberta through the
Great Bear Rainforest for pickup by
tankers plying the narrow passages along
the coast.
Beltra was assigned to document
vulnerable B.C. waterways from the air.
“Daniel is one of those
photojournalists who’s not
compromising about what he does; he’s
not out to make pretty pictures,” ILCP
president Cristina Mittermeir says. “He’s
a journalist in the real sense of the word,
and he’s defining how conservation
Sunday, December 5, 2010 | GOING GREEN 31
Gavin Newman
Daniel Beltra poses while on the job in
the Southern Ocean.
photography should be done.”
On his first and second trips to the
gulf, assignments sponsored by
Greenpeace, Beltra snapped about
27,000 images, mostly during four-hour
stints in a low-flying airplane.
Through his oil-spill work and other
projects funded by Greenpeace, Beltra
has a constant international platform to
raise awareness about conservation. In
fact, his pictures have been used in
nearly every major Greenpeace
campaign for the past 20 years, says
Tim Aubry, visual communications
director for Greenpeace’s American
division.
“One thing that stands out almost
more than any other environmental
photographer’s work is his work brings
an element of art — he brings another
dimension to it,” Aubry says. “It’s
striking, and that’s what brings you in
and makes you wonder what’s going on.”