Spirit in Action
Scattering Good Down the Mississippi - Paddle for the Planet Students
5 students from Scattergood Friends School are headed down the Mississippi for Paddle for the Planet, a 1-month educational journey of environmental discovery. Colby, Sophia, Sam, Jamiah & Mary have studied renewable energy, river fish, the Gulf's dead zone, phenology & useful plants in preparation.
- Broadcast on:
- 23 May 2010
- Audio Format:
- other
(upbeat music) ♪ Let us sing this song for the healing of the world ♪ ♪ That we may hear as one ♪ ♪ With every voice, with every song ♪ ♪ We will move this world along ♪ ♪ And my lives will feel the echo of our healing ♪ - Welcome to Spirit in Action. My name is Mark helps me. Each week I'll be bringing you stories of people living lives of fruitful service, of peace, community, compassion, creative action and progressive efforts. I'll be tracing the spiritual roots that support and nourish them in their service, hoping to inspire and encourage you to sink deep roots and produce sacred food in your own life. ♪ Let us sing this song for the dreaming of the world ♪ ♪ That we may dream as one ♪ ♪ With every voice, with every song ♪ ♪ We will move this world along ♪ - Just as the month long paddle for the planet event ends, I want to share with you today for a spirit in action, the knowledge and plans of the five students taking part in this quest. What is paddle for the planet? It's a four week, 500 mile journey, starting at the very headwaters of the great Mississippi River, terminating at St. Paul, Minnesota. It's also a month long real life class sponsored by scattered good friends school, a boarding high school located in West Branch in Northeastern, Ohio. Paddle for the planet is experiential science and care for the environment, coupled with the emotional, the physical, spiritual and even communal growth that such an odyssey involves. Hopefully you've been able to join the five students and the two adults for the last leg of paddle for the planet, the journey from St. Cloud down to St. Paul, Minnesota, which is called the River Rally. And maybe today, May 23rd, you've gathered in St. Paul for the final celebration of the event, being held at Friends School of Minnesota with Heart of the Beast, the Raptor Center and with music by Bryce, Yara and Young. But in the meantime, I'd like to pass on questions and comments shared with the five students from over a month ago. Shortly before they began, they're a month long paddle down the Mississippi. I've got some river music to share with you. So let's start out with one that kind of takes the big picture of the river from the Mississippi's humble beginnings on down to the Gulf. The song is "River" by wonderful folk musician, Clay Reinness, River. ♪ Up she will rise and down she will roll ♪ ♪ Over her bank and on she must blow ♪ ♪ First she'll be high and then she'll be low ♪ ♪ It ain't no secret where she wants to go ♪ ♪ It groans out down to the sea ♪ ♪ There's nowhere else that she'd rather be ♪ ♪ Throw her a curve straighten her out ♪ ♪ She must move onward with her weather ♪ ♪ Up she will rise and down she will roll ♪ ♪ Over her bank and on she must blow ♪ ♪ First she'll be high and then she'll be low ♪ ♪ It ain't no secret where she wants to go ♪ ♪ She starts so small in so many ways ♪ ♪ Millions of mysteries add to her fate ♪ ♪ So many miles, so many years ♪ ♪ So many changes, so little fair ♪ ♪ Up she will rise and down she will roll ♪ ♪ Over her bank and on she must blow ♪ ♪ First she'll be high and then she'll be low ♪ ♪ It ain't no secret where she wants to go ♪ (upbeat music) (upbeat music continues) (upbeat music continues) ♪ Out of the rainfall, riparian dream ♪ ♪ Slow in the lowland, rising in steam ♪ ♪ Until the thunder, until the rain ♪ ♪ Swelling her fingers to turn to her again ♪ ♪ Up she will rise and down she will roll ♪ ♪ Over her bank and on she must blow ♪ ♪ First she'll be high and then she'll be low ♪ ♪ It ain't no secret where she wants to go ♪ ♪ Open the gate, let the flow come ♪ ♪ She's got to hopelessly under her tongue ♪ ♪ Though she can easily sweep you away ♪ ♪ You cannot contain her, she cannot stay ♪ ♪ Up she will rise and down she will roll ♪ ♪ Over her bank and on she must blow ♪ ♪ First she'll be high and then she'll be low ♪ ♪ It ain't no secret where she wants to go ♪ ♪ Up she will rise and down she will roll ♪ ♪ Over her bank and on she must blow ♪ ♪ First she'll be high and then she'll be low ♪ ♪ It ain't no secret where she wants to go ♪ (bright music) - That was Clay Rhinus singing his song "River." It's about time to speak to the first of the five spirit and action guests we'll have today, five students from Scattergood Friends School who are part of "Paddle for the Planet" and their website is paddlefortheplanet.net. Let's go to the phone now to speak with Colby. Colby, thanks for joining me for "Spirit and Action." - Thank you for having me. - You're going on this canoe trip, 500 miles. Have you done anything nearly like this before? - Not really, I've done something similar, like one element of this, like I've done boundary water trips or other week to week long trips, but nothing to this scale and not usually with the educational aspect that this one has. - So does having an educational aspect of it does that enhance or detract from the experience? - I'd say it definitely enhances it. It gives it a whole 'nother edge, a whole 'nother thing that you can get involved in. Makes it so you're a little less attentive to the paddling itself and the wilderness that you're going through, but it provides something to the community. - I'm talking to you right now. You're down at the Friends School at Scattergood and you're taking a class in the afternoons a couple days a week with David. What are you learning in that class? Anything particular light bulbs going on? What are you learning? - Mostly I'm down here at Scattergood Friends School, taking the class, it's a couple times a week and pretty much it's just preparing for the trip, both preparing our paddling skills, our camping skills, planning our food, planning our route, and then also learning about things about the river. Like in my case, I'm focusing on renewables and renewable energy in Minnesota and the river and how that all relates. So it's mostly split pretty much 50, 50, half the time we're doing hands-on kind of preparing for the trip and then it has the time we're doing research and learning more about the river and what's the significance on our lives here? - What's the specific topic you're learning about this renewable energy thing? What are you learning? - Pretty much I'm trying to figure out what the state of renewables are in Minnesota, like how much renewables do we have? How much energy are we using? How many renewable sources would we need to supply that energy? How soon could we have that many renewables? And how the river plays into that? - Of course, you've lived in renewable energy, basically I guess all your life. And so you've experienced it firsthand. What hope is there for the whole state of Minnesota? - I think there's a lot of hope for the whole state of Minnesota growing up in a house that was totally renewable based. We had like a gas stove and a car. Those are about our only non-renewable energy uses. And it really is possible. We lived a colorful life. I go back there on breaks and I can play on the computer, watch movies. I can do all the same kind of things, but the mindset's different. I subconsciously turn off lights when I leave rooms. I don't leave things plugged in. Little things like that can have a really big effect. And part of that is we don't yet have that in the whole state. And we use a lot of electricity and energy that we could reduce very easily with practically no cost. We could cut all of our energy used by like 25, 50%. - And how are we gonna get renewable energy? Is it gonna be solar wind? What kind of sources are best for the state of Minnesota? - Really? I don't think there's any one source that's gonna do it. 'Cause like wind's a really great source and it can really supply a lot of energy fairly cheaply, but it's not always windy. So there is no easy fix for this. We're gonna have to do a combination of wind, hydropower, solar. And there's probably gonna be one that's like dominating the field or something, but it's gonna take all them. There isn't, oh, let's just put up wind towers everywhere and it'll supply all of our electrical needs. It's gonna take, okay, let's put up a bunch of wind towers, but then let's put hydro plants there so that when it's not blowing, we have electricity, so. - And why does this matter to us? Why do we really care if we get all the renewable energy there in the state of Wisconsin? Can't we just keep using oil or nuclear or something like that? - We could keep using oil, nuclear, other non-renewable sources, but just keep in mind that nuclear, we only have a few years left to use. I mean, coal, we only have like 200 years left of coal at our current use and it's going up. So all these resources are not renewable, therefore we will run out at some point. So it's just whether we turn to renewables now or in 100 years and in that 100 years we'll be dealing huge amounts of damage to the planet. And that has a negative effects on us. - And how important is this to you personally? Of course, you've been raised in a renewable household. You've been raised with consciousness of land. How much is this your value or how much does it just, you know, your parents say so? - This is very much a big issue for me personally. Yes, it was introduced to me by my parents and I've grown up with it just kind of a second nature. That almost made it harder for me to take it on as my own like, oh, I really feel led to try to change this and try to fix it because I just grew up thinking like it was normal when I came into places where there was flush toilets and there was lights and other things that you just left on all the time. And it was just blew my mind. It was like, wait, that's not how it works. What's up with that? And the idea of like, oh, we have hot water when the sun's out because the sun heats it up. It was just like, oh yeah, so there's no hot water when there's no sun. And other people just would think that's so weird. So it was liberating growing up with that kind of atmosphere and it made it a lot easier to go from having less to having more, but you can go the other direction. And I think it's very possible for society to make that shift and to be able to live without having hot water 21st of them. - One last thing, Colby. You're at Scattergood Friends School and that's a residential, it's a boarding school and Quaker School down there in Iowa. How have you experienced the community there? Again, you grew up out in the country, got out on this isolated bubble of a farm, a round river farm. How do you experience it living in the wider community down there at Scattergood Friends School? - Scattergood Friends School is a really awesome place. It's small community, there's only about 60 people here right now, 40 students about. And it's a really close, very bonded community and we're all trying to make a difference in the world. So sustainability has been one of the higher concerns at Scattergood for the past few years and we still have a long ways to go, but we recycle a lot of things. We have lots of power strips around to turn things off. So we are trying to make progress to reduce our footprint on the planet and it's a really great community where you can get to know each other really well and have a great bonding with people and at the same time really get inspiration to make a difference in the world and to really put out all that you have to get things done. - Well, thanks so much Colby for joining me for Spirit in Action. ♪ See the sun how bright it shines ♪ ♪ On the nations of the earth ♪ ♪ Oh, share this thing called life ♪ ♪ Celebrate each day's rebirth ♪ ♪ Solar power in expensive energy ♪ ♪ Solar power in expensive energy ♪ ♪ Brother wind we've heard on high ♪ ♪ Sweetly singing or the plain ♪ ♪ And the wind mills in reply ♪ ♪ Echoing their glad refrain ♪ ♪ Solar power in expensive energy ♪ ♪ Solar power in expensive energy ♪ ♪ Sister ever can you give ♪ ♪ How the valley calls you down ♪ ♪ Then your rushing water's near ♪ ♪ And the joyful dunes designed ♪ ♪ Solar power in expensive energy ♪ ♪ Solar power in expensive energy ♪ ♪ Solar power in expensive energy ♪ ♪ How we love complexity ♪ ♪ When the answer's right to the plain ♪ ♪ To the sun in jubilee ♪ ♪ Sing with us this loud refrain ♪ ♪ Solar power in expensive energy ♪ ♪ Solar power in expensive energy ♪ ♪ Solar power in expensive energy ♪ ♪ Solar power in expensive energy ♪ I'm sure you recognize the tune there with alternate lyrics. It's called "Solar Carol" performed by Kim and Reggie Harris. Sure seem like the appropriate tag to follow Colby, the Skatagood student we just spoke with who's been boning up on alternative energy sources as part of his preparation for "Paddle for the Planet." Five students, two adults from Skatagood Friends School, started at the headwaters of the Mississippi a month ago exploring the health, the science, the future and present of this great and long body of water. Today's interview is from five weeks ago when I asked the students about their pending adventure. Let's talk to a second student now. Sophia will be joining us on the phone in just a moment. Sophia, I'm so glad you can join me for spirit and action. Oh yeah, I'm glad to talk to you. How excited are you about this upcoming canoe trip? Oh, I am very excited. Have you done anything like that before? Have you canoeed major distances? Are you an outdoor person? I've actually never canoeed before. This is my first time canoeing. We've been practicing and I've done some outdoor trips. I've been biking with Skatagood Friends School, but besides that this is my first trip, especially such a long trip. It's for a month, so. And I think you're from all over the place. I think North Carolina is where you live now. You've lived in England. Why Iowa? Why Skatagood Friends School? Well, my dad actually, he worked with Quakers and he was looking for a high school for me because we moved around a lot. He's an academic, so he goes to study at lots of different universities. And he would ask them if they knew of any good boarding schools and they told him Skatagood Friends School and he researched it. And I came and visited and just loved it. It is a wonderful place. And I visited there a number of times. You're going on this canoe trip, this whole long ramble 500 miles down the Mississippi River. What's your specific area of expertise or the part that you're supposed to research as part of the class that you're taking right now prior to taking off? I've been researching fish and along with that for the issues that affect fish and also how those issues affect people and the environment and just everything in general. So sort of how it interconnects. I studied the pollution and how that harms the fish but it also harms the people who eat the fish. And a lot of issues that have to do with the fish are related directly to the water quality and contamination. You're going to be starting out this canoe trip right from the very headwaters of the Mississippi River. Isn't it pristine up there or do you know how good or bad the quality is as you go along? Are you going to be testing this as you travel? We will be doing some testing but from what I've studied it starts out very clean at the top of the Mississippi River but when you get to the bottom as it passes through cities and through farms there's a lot of runoff and the water quality just gets worse and worse. What's the worst pollutant that we should be worried about? Is it mercury? Is it the nitrates? What is it that's really bad for people and for animals? There are a lot of pollutants. The main one in the Mississippi River that affects fish are PCBs, they're polyacuronated biphenyls and they were once used in producing products such as hydraulic fluids, carbonless paper, electrical transformers, cutting fluids, just lots of products like that and what happens is these PCBs don't break down very well so they stay in the sediment and they get in the fish. The fish consume them and they pick them up from the water and one of the main problems with this, people who eat a lot of fish, especially women, one of the main problems is developmental problems in children, birth defects and such, caused by people eating the fish and those PCBs coming into their body. That's why each year there's a contamination advisory issue on fish and that sort of tells you in different areas what fish you can eat and which fish you can't eat. - As the group of you travels in these canoes from the headwaters of the Mississippi down to the Twin Cities, Minnesota, where are you going to be getting your water from? Are you hauling it with you? Are you using water there that might be contaminated? - We're using the Mississippi River water after everything we've learned about it is pretty scary but we have been donated from very good water filters that we're going to be carrying with us that remove everything, we actually have two or three so that sort of shows we have to use two filters. - And you're not scared? You're not going to be suffering from mercury poisoning or PCB poisoning, nothing like that's going to happen to you. These filters are going to cover you, huh? - Yeah, they're very powerful filters and our trip leaders very experienced is canoeing so I trust that will be safe. - So why is the study of this environmental stuff? Why is it important to you? Is it a spiritual value, just intellectual value or is it not a value at all? You're just going along 'cause you love the idea of paddling? - I think it's very valuable in many ways. I'm concerned about the health of the planet and the health of everything that lives on the planet and before coming to Scavar Goode's friend school, I wasn't really aware of all of the issues. I mean, sure I had some idea but this education, especially preparing for this trip in class, we've just learned about a wide range of issues and it's really inspired me to go on this trip and to educate people. - Are there things in your life that are changing, have changed, will change because of what you've learned already and what you're planning to do on this trip? Are there things that are going to concretely change that you could say, now I used to do that but now I'll do this? - I've been thinking a lot about the products that I buy just sort of consuming things like where my food comes from. Is it from your local fund that's sustainable? Is it organic? Am I supporting corporations that are polluting the environment when I shop here? Am I, where's the money that I'm spending going? And also, I've been thinking a lot about waste, especially when it comes to purchasing things and do I really need it? 'Cause Skygood Front School promotes sustainability and a lot of these values all carry on with me. - Well, I hope you have a wonderful trip down there. It sounds like a real adventure and I'm sorry I can't do the whole thing with you. Go have a great time and I'll be checking in with you later as you're traveling down. Thanks again for joining me for Spirit in Action. Bye, Sofia. ♪ So ugly, so big, so fat ♪ ♪ It's like a porker, but it looks like a cat ♪ ♪ Well I said, you can't fish ♪ ♪ How can you live like that ♪ ♪ But you just sit ♪ ♪ Everything falls after all ♪ That's all it says. ♪ Everything falls after all ♪ ♪ I asked my baby to meet me here ♪ ♪ Down by the river where the water ran clear ♪ ♪ But the waters run muddy for many a year ♪ ♪ Everything falls after all ♪ ♪ Everything falls after all ♪ (upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music) ♪ Underneath the little flag it was my buddy I found ♪ ♪ Down by the river in the barren ground ♪ ♪ Catfish grinning, swimming round and round ♪ ♪ Everything falls after all ♪ ♪ Everything falls after all ♪ ♪ Now there's far much children looking muddy thin ♪ ♪ With her work and harder than she's ever been ♪ ♪ Catfish grinning with a double chin ♪ ♪ Everything falls after all ♪ ♪ Everything falls after all ♪ ♪ Take a white bread dough ball of a bamboo pole ♪ ♪ Send it to the bottom of the catfish hole ♪ ♪ I'm gonna fry that sucker just to save my soul ♪ ♪ Everything falls after all ♪ ♪ You hear that Mr. Catfish ♪ ♪ Everything falls after all ♪ ♪ How do you like Wonder Bread ♪ (upbeat music) - That was Catfish by Bob Franky. And I chose Catfish because Sophie's assignment was to learn about fish and the issues affecting fish life in the Mississippi in preparation for a battle for the planet which ends today in St. Paul. Next student on deck is Sam. And again, this interview with him was recorded some five weeks ago before the group started on their wandering descent from the very top of the Mississippi River. Sam, I'm glad to have you here on Spirit and Action also. - I'm glad to be here. - What we really is is down in Northeastern Iowa. It's got a good friend's school. How long you been at the school, Sam? - This is actually my first year there. - And what year are you? - I'm an 11th grader. - What took you to a scatter good friend's school wasn't the public school where you lived as of high quality and sustainable also? - Where I lived before I went to a private high school that I liked a lot and it was, it's a great place, but I was looking for something that would really stimulate my thought and growth as a human being and it just being where it was wasn't really cutting it. - So you've done most of a year now there at Scatter Good. Has it lived up your hopes? - It really has. It's been a great experience. - And what got you involved in the idea of doing this big long paddle for the planet down the Mississippi River? - Originally I was going to take one of the other eight month long trips but there was too many people wanting to go on it and then this idea got brought up that we would go on an educational canoe trip down the Mississippi and host like that sounds really great. - Part of the preparation for the paddle for the planet trip is you've got a month long class with David Abaz down there right now it's got a good friend's school. So one of the things you've been studying is the dead zone. What is the dead zone? - You can't really say what is the dead zone. A dead zone is an area of water and usually in the oceans where the oxygen level has been, has gone down below the healthy levels and all the life in that area has died or left. The dead zone that I am currently studying is the dead zone in the Gulf of Mexico which runs along the edge of the Gulf of Mexico near Louisiana and Florida and all the southern estates. - And how serious or how important is this dead zone? Is it really nothing lives in there or only seaweed or what lives there? - Really nothing. - Why this is so important is because it is because of the Mississippi River and all the agriculture, the huge agribusiness that's up here in the Midwest, all that is causing this huge area in the Gulf of Mexico where really nothing lives. - So you're saying that this problem happening down past Louisiana is caused at least in significant part by what's happening up in Minnesota and Iowa as the Mississippi passes through? - Yeah. - And how serious is it? I mean, I suppose Missouri is contributing to and everyone else or is it that really the growing that's happening up in Minnesota is particularly lethal? - Well, it really is mostly the growing because what causes it is always really nitrogen rich fertilizers that people use to make lots and lots of corn. They get into the water and they go down into the Gulf of Mexico and what they do is there's all this really rich water that is lighter than the seawater that floats on top and then there's all these nutrients in that water which creates algae growth on top of the water in really thick amounts which prevents oxygen from getting through the water into the deeper seawater below and so that really kills everything below that level. - So it is possible really to have too many nutrients, too many nutrients is a bad thing? - In this situation, yes, because the fresh water and the salt water don't mix. - When I spoke earlier to Sophia, she told me that as you're canoeing down the river, you're gonna be drinking the water out of that. These nutrients, the phosphates, other things that are in the water, these aren't a problem for you. - Not where we're gonna be canoeing. Most of it comes into the river, Southern Minnesota, Iowa, Wisconsin, Illinois, all the states in the corn belt really. We're gonna be canoeing above Minneapolis and St. Paul's so it won't be that bad for us at least. - This dead zone, how wide is it? Does it vary by seasons? Is it like the hole in the ozone level that it grows and contracts? Is it seasonal, that kind of thing? - Well, actually, yes. With different seasons, it gets smaller and bigger. If there's wind affects it a lot as well because if there's a really strong wind on the ocean, more oxygen will get forced through the layer of this algae and it also fluctuates with heavy sunlight because that will, if there's not much sunlight, then less algae will grow so more oxygen can get through that as well. - You know, I guess I'm used to thinking of plants as producing oxygen and so we need trees here to regenerate the carbon dioxide that we breathe out. Does algae use up the oxygen in the water? - I guess I should be more specific. I'll make grows and then it dies and then it sinks a little bit below the surface and as it's decaying, it absorbs the oxygen. - So Sam, learning that there is this dead zone. Does it change anything in your life? Does it change how you plan to live your life that you know about this dead zone, that the agriculture in the upper Mississippi is causing on this area in the Gulf of Mexico? - It doesn't personally change my life much because I have sort of lived my entire life in a family that is very conscious about this sort of stuff but it definitely changes my attitude towards telling other people about it and getting the word out that this is a problem that we need to address. - Any particular goals you have as being part of this canoe trip, I mean, you're gonna be traveling for 500 miles. Maybe you wanna be the one who's in the bow or any particular personal goals that you have with respect to this canoe trip? - What I'd really like is to just be proud of myself and have it be a really great learning experience for me and for my fellow canoe trippers. - It sounds like a great opportunity. I wish I could do the trip with you. Thanks so much for joining me, Sam, for spirit and action. ♪ We all live downstream ♪ ♪ From somebody ♪ ♪ We all live upstream ♪ ♪ From somebody to we can be kind to ♪ ♪ All neighbors downstream to onto others ♪ ♪ As you would have them do ♪ ♪ Onto you ♪ ♪ We all live downwind ♪ ♪ From somebody ♪ ♪ We all live upwind ♪ ♪ From somebody to we can be kind to ♪ ♪ All neighbors downstream to onto others ♪ ♪ As you would have them do ♪ ♪ Onto you ♪ ♪ Life is not a line but a circle ♪ ♪ It goes round and comes round to you ♪ ♪ Whatever we give to the rest of the world ♪ ♪ Comes back to me and you ♪ ♪ We all live downstream ♪ ♪ From somebody ♪ ♪ We all live upstream ♪ ♪ From somebody to we can be kind to ♪ ♪ All neighbors downstream to onto others ♪ ♪ As you would have them do ♪ ♪ Onto you ♪ That beautiful voice with a message was Earth Mama. It's called Downstream. Just before we were talking with Sam, whose study in preparation for Paddle for the Planet involved the dead zone we've created in the Gulf of Mexico, flushing our garbage and contaminants down the Mississippi River. Sam and four other students from Scattergood Friends School are sharing with us today for Spirit and Action. I'm your host, Mark Helpsmeet, and this is a Northern Spirit Radio production. Website NorthernSpiritRadio.org. While this program goes out across the nation and beyond, home is Wisconsin's Chippewa Valley and W-H-Y-S-L-P-O-Claire. We've got two more of the high school students to talk to, also part of this 170 league, and that's 500 miles more or less, adventure from the birthplace of the Mississippi River down to the Twin Cities. Let's go on to Jamaya, the fourth of our five high schoolers to share on Paddle for the Planet. Website PaddleForThePlanet.net. Well, Jamaya, I'm glad you could join me for Spirit and Action. - I'm glad to be here. - Could you give me a little thumbnail sketch of your background with Scattergood Friends School? What year you are when you came there? What got you to the school? - Well, what got me here was, well, this is my first year here, so I'm a junior. One of the teachers who's dad lives down the road from a sentence he kept telling us, come check out this school, it's a really cool place. So we're finally like, okay, let's come check it out. I've come to school my whole life before this, so then we came down and saw it, and decided it was a pretty cool place to try it out, and so far it's been pretty great. - So you're right from I/O, you live right in the area of West Branch? - No, I'm from Northern Wisconsin, up on Lake Superior. So yeah, about a nine hour drive or so. - Well, I'm glad you're enjoying your time there. What got you to sign up for the Paddle For The Planet canoe trip, what was the motivating factor for you? - Well, I like being outside a lot, and I was originally signed up for a biking trip, but it's pretty full and so I decided I'll just, I like the canoe trip a lot too, so I was pretty much half and half on what you all wanted to do, so that was a really cool idea. - You've been taking a class for the past month or so with David Abaz, what have you been learning specifically? I understand each of you has an area of expertise that you've been building. - Yeah, I've been studying kind of useful plants, like that kind of like herbs and like plants you can eat and stuff up in the kind of Northern area, like probably around the Mississippi, so herbs and edible plants. - This wasn't an area of expertise for you before, did you know how to forage out in the woods? - Well, I've lived in the country my whole life and like practically in the woods, so I've pretty savvy to the woods, but I've never really learned how to like forage or figure out where I've been learning about different types of plants and their uses to this. - So what kind of things can give me a couple of examples of plants you've learned about? Dietary or medicinal? - Yeah, yeah, there's a couple of things, like one of the really neat things I've learned about, I just kind of chanced upon this guy, Paul Stamat, he's been working with my Celia, like fungi and stuff. One thing I think Kim and some of the people discovered was how they can use it to like clean up the environment, like run off from farms and stuff, which would go into the river. What they basically do is they make these like biodegradable bags that are like inoculated with the my Celia, and they kind of make a line of it downstream from the farm, and then as my Celia grows, it starts catching all the runoff stuff and kind of eats it up, and basically cleans it up. They did this experiment where they had like three piles of like gravel and concrete and stuff, that was just full of kerosene and gasoline, and one of the piles they inoculated with my Celia, and the other is they didn't, so they covered them up with tarpes, and after a while they took them off, and like the first two piles, they were completely dead, nothing changed, but the third pile had tons of like fungi and mushrooms growing all over it, logs came and laid their eggs on it, and that attracted birds, and then pretty soon, it was like a waste that was traded, and then it became like a green pile of clean dirt, and that's kind of one of the biggest things I've been focusing on, and it was like, some pretty neat plants, like medicinal and food related plants, there's the cat tail, there's a really cool plant, you can eat a lot of it, you can make flour out of the roots in the spring, you can pick the shoots and be able to meet the inside's raw, or you can cook it like vegetables, and there's like a lot of medicinal uses too, you can use it for like bug bites and poison ivy, I think, there's a lot of stuff, and then there's a really cool other type of fungus that goes on birch trees, it's called True to Nerfungus, or it's also called Chaga, that looks kind of like a big black burnt wealth on the side of a birch tree, but you chop it off, and it's like kind of all corky inside, it's really cool for making a tinder, like starting a fire, 'cause all you have to do is dry it and it holds the spark really well, but you can also make tea out of it. In Siberia, they drink this kind of like we drink coffee, and they're like a really low cancer rate, so it's really helpful with cancer, it's kind of immune system booster, and I think it helps with diabetes a little, and there's just a lot more stuff that you can do with it. - So are you going to be gathering or foraging any of this stuff, gathering samples of it as you're coming down the river? - Yeah, I hope to like, I'm expecting to find quite a few cat tails on the way, so I'll probably see what I can find if those, and you know, just keeping out for other, it's like the wild ramp that's an early growing, like a wild onion. - So why is this stuff important? Why should we know about these plants? Can't we just ignore them? They take care of themselves, right? We don't have to grow them. - Right, so if we kind of learn what plants go to locally, that can be useful like a lot of foods, and stuff like the wild ramp is kind of like a wild onion, so we could maybe try and incorporate that into farms up in the northern areas, and be just better than driving seeds all the way from wherever to get up to here, to other growers, a non-native plant, and so it'd be kind of more sustainable to try and maybe farm with more native plants. Then also with medicinal uses, like there's a lot of herbs up there that aren't really recognized for their, how potent they are, like they can really help. But like the really big thing would be with the macheleon stuff, the fungi, is that's a really easy way to clean up their environment and like detoxify things, 'cause I used to like inoculate these bags and like let the fungi grow, and so they take care of themselves there, and it's a little better on the earth. - Well, that's a noble goal, and it's something that we should be pursuing. I hope you have a great time on the canoe trip, Jamaya. Go out and have a great time and make that water clean. Thanks so much again for joining me for a spirit in action. ♪ Am I as a science, as life be I ♪ ♪ Am I as a science, as life be I ♪ ♪ Am I as a science, as life be I ♪ ♪ Come down the river ♪ ♪ Or the houseboat home ♪ ♪ Follow the blood through the homeless heart ♪ ♪ Follow the riddle ♪ ♪ Follow the riddle to the sea ♪ ♪ Follow the riddle ♪ ♪ Am I as a science, as life be I ♪ ♪ Am I as a science, as life be I ♪ ♪ Am I as a science, as life be I ♪ ♪ Drift between the great white bluster ♪ ♪ Slide beside large beaver lodges ♪ ♪ In and out of the lily paddled goose ♪ ♪ And follow the riddle ♪ ♪ Follow the riddle to the sea ♪ ♪ Follow the riddle ♪ ♪ Am I as a science, as life be I ♪ ♪ Am I as a science, as life be I ♪ ♪ Am I as a science, as life be I ♪ (upbeat music) (upbeat music) ♪ Follow the riddle ♪ ♪ Follow the riddle to the sea ♪ ♪ Follow the riddle ♪ ♪ Am I as a science, as life be I ♪ ♪ Am I as a science, as life be I ♪ ♪ Am I as a science, as life be I ♪ ♪ Follow the river past the years of abuse ♪ ♪ Follow the river through the tears and racism ♪ ♪ Follow the river into the flow of forgiveness ♪ ♪ Follow the river ♪ ♪ Follow the river through the sea ♪ ♪ Follow the river ♪ ♪ Down the New Orleans ♪ ♪ Am I as a science, as life be I ♪ ♪ Am I as a science, as life be I ♪ ♪ Am I as a science, as life be I ♪ ♪ Am I as a science, as life be I ♪ Mississippi River Chant, a song by Yara, who today is among the entertainers and assembled crowd, welcoming the participants of "Paddle for the Planet" in its last leg, to St. Paul, Minnesota on Sunday, May 23rd. They started from Lake Itasca, headwaters of Mississippi shortly after Earth Day, a month ago, and covered the first 500 miles of the river in that time. We've got one more of the five student participants to talk to, each of them learned about one of the aspects of the environment surrounding the river as part of their prep for the outing. Last up from Scattergood Friends School is Mary. And as I said, this interview was recorded five weeks ago, shortly before Mary and the other folks began their odyssey. Now I think I've got Mary here. Welcome to "Spirit and Action, Mary." - Thank you, glad to be here. - You're one of the five students who are part of this trip, "Paddle for the Planet." Are you getting pledges and earning money? Is that part of what you're doing, or are there people doing that? How is that going? - There are other people getting pledges. I've sent out a couple of emails and letters to my family to support this trip and other environmental actions. And yeah, that's pretty much all I'm involved in this, but my sponsor, Sam and David, are doing a lot more of the financial stuff. - What got you involved in the idea of participating in "Paddle for the Planet"? Are you a canoeist yourself? - I've done some canoeing in the past. I've done some at camps and some of my own in the summer, but mostly what got me interested in it was doing something hard. I went on a pretty intense backpacking trip last year with Scattergood and wanted to do something else that would be challenging. And this seemed like a perfect opportunity for me to be on the water and I love the water, being in it and canoeing on it. So, but this would be a good way to get out in nature and also do something good to promote green issues. - Are green issues of particularly importance to you? - Well, I feel like the world that we live in, and it's bad that in a lot of ways it's being turned into growth, chemicalized, disgustingness. I don't know, another way to describe it, but it's mostly just important to preserve what we have at this point and this trip kind of helps me be able to express that desire. - Where's home for you? You're at Scattergood there in Northeastern Iowa, but what's home for you when you're not on campus? - Columbia, Missouri. - If you're from Missouri, which is of course downstream from Minnesota and Iowa and all of this, do we see the effects of the pollution of the Mississippi on Missouri? Or maybe you don't see that because Columbia is a waste off of Mississippi? - I don't really see it myself, but I'm sure there are some effects that I just am not aware of. I'd be surprised if there weren't. - Well, each of you who are going on this trip has a specific area of expertise that you've been building up. What's your area? - Mine is phenology, the study of timing of various natural events. - Like what kind of events, spring and fall or other events? - Like when the things start to bloom, when certain plants start to appear, when we start to hear different birds, when the ice out date is just all sorts of different things than when this happens and why it happens then. - Any particular interesting ones that you found out about? - Well, I did learn that there's over 50 species of mosquitoes in Minnesota, which I didn't even know there were 50 different types of mosquitoes in the world. And there are actually 3000 just in North America. That was a really interesting fact for me to find out and kind of weird, but interesting. - I'm guessing that you wish there were a lot fewer species and that they wouldn't be eating you the entire trip down. You guys are taking off at the end of April. So do they emerge early enough so that they're gonna be biting you all along the way? - We might have issues with them later in the trip, but we probably won't have too many issues with them towards the beginning of the trip. But another interesting fact about mosquitoes is that the males are vegetarians and they don't bite you. So it's only the females that are biting us. So half the mosquito population is just being harmless. - So other things you've learned, any particular plants that you're gonna be aware of as you go down, I mean, you're starting the end of April. So if phenology, you've learned what dates the plants come up. What are you expecting to find along the way? - I'm definitely going to be looking for when the maple trees start to bloom and flower and start to leaf out. And in particular, the sugar maple because that's where we get most of our delicious pancake syrup from, which everybody likes that. So I will definitely be looking for that, paying attention to the mosquitoes. David said that the ice will most likely be gone by then because it's a warmer spring. And I'm looking forward to learning about more things along the way as I go as well. I don't have any super intense expectations of what to find, but just keep my eyes open and pay attention. - This whole study of phenology and this attunement, I guess, to the ways of nature, do you have any background with it? Or is this totally new stuff for you? - This is totally new. Two weeks ago, I didn't even know what phenology was, but liking it, that's good. - And by the time the whole trip ends, I'm imagining you're going to write a book on it. - We'll see about that, but I'll definitely know more than I do right now. - This paddle for the planet is intended to help improve the world. You've already done some preparation to get ready. You've been learning about the plants and the seasons and all this. Is there anything in your life that you think will be changed because of participating in this trip and of what you've learned? - There are several things that I think I'm going to learn from this trip. One of them, I'm sure I'm gonna learn a lot about my personal limits and my own emotional integrity, I guess, bigger word. Just trying to figure out how I can cope when things get tough. There's gonna be a lot of challenging days on the river when I'm not gonna wanna canoe and I'm gonna be cold, but I'm just gonna have to. And it's gonna be good for me because it'll build character. And also, I'll just get stronger. I'm really looking forward to coming back with nice Michelle Obama arms. That's sort of one of my little funny goals, but also I'm just really looking forward to learning and connecting with nature in a way that I haven't before because I've been to summer camps and things, but we've always had cabins and there's always been ways to sort of ignore nature, but I'm not really going to be able to on this trip, which is a really good thing. And I'll be thinking about nature a lot and just thinking about the world that we live in and the impact that humans living on this Earth have. - Sounds like some wonderful lessons you're gonna be taking in. I hope you have a great time of us. You go down the river, Mary, and I hope that you learn valuable things to pass on to future generations. - Thanks so much for joining me for Spirit in Action. - Thank you. - Mary was the last of the five students from Skatagood Friends School of Iowa who were my guests today because of their part in "Paddle for the Planet" as it descended the first 500 miles, the Mississippi, a clear spirit in action journey. They ended up in St. Paul, Minnesota today, and their website is paddlefortheplanet.net. - The theme music for this program is "Turning of the World," performed by Sarah Thompson. This Spirit in Action program is an effort of Northern Spirit radio. You can listen to our programs and find links and information about us and our guests on our website, northernspiritradio.org. Thank you for listening. I am your host, Mark Helpsmeet, and I welcome your comments and stories of those leading lives of spiritual fruit. May you find deep roots to support you and grow steadily toward the light. This is Spirit in Action. (upbeat music) ♪ With every voice ♪ ♪ With every song ♪ ♪ We will move this world along ♪ ♪ With every voice ♪ ♪ With every song ♪ ♪ We will move this world along ♪ ♪ And our lives will feel the echo of our healing ♪ ♪ I'm feeling ♪