Earth Odyssey November 2009 by Earth Odyssey

Vol. 2, No. 3

November 2009

An Educational Guide

to Sustainability and Spiritual Well-being

River debris inspired found-object artist INSIDE:

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10 Educational day sparks intense competition 6 Ringing Rocks Foundation to close at year’s end 13 Sustainable Business of the Month: Kuhles 9 Recycling helps ﬁght climate change Page 1 Earth Odyssey • www.EarthOdysseyOnline.com November 2009

Earth Odysseyâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;Reaching an educated audience across Arizona and beyond

AshFork

Dewey Humboldt Mayer

Strawberry Pine

Earth Odyssey is available in these towns and communities across the state of Arizona. Earth Odyssey is also available in Washington State. Visit www.EarthOdysseyOnline.com for a detailed list of establishments that carry Earth Odyssey. Page 2

Earth Odyssey â&#x20AC;˘ www.EarthOdysseyOnline.com

November 2009

Columns Vol. 2, No. 3

November 2009

News and Features

Cover Story: River debris inspired found-object artist 16 5 High quality, affordable living standards make Auckland

Heirloom Garden Seeds & Stories by Cindy and Stephen Scott

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attractive option for students

6 Ringing Rocks Foundation to close at year’s end By Sarah McLean

8 Three correctional facilities bitten by the ‘green’ bug Page 19

9 Recycling helps ﬁght climate change 9 EPA to begin monitoring greenhouse gas emissions in January 2010 15 Fermi Space Telescope probes dozens of pulsars 18 Incandescent bulbs soon to be obsolete: Mandatory phase-out begins in 2012 Page 20

19 Authors to read aloud from book 21 Telepathic animal communication: Creating deeper understanding between species

32 Kartchner Caverns celebrates 10 years

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10 Educational day sparks

intense peer competition

Columns and Entertainment 4 13 23 24 25 26 28 30 31

This ’N That by Ann Haver-Allen Sustainable Business of the Month: Kuhles Salvage Organized Living by Tanya Allason Tracks Across Your Horizon by Bob Matthews Puzzle Page Calendar of Events Holistic Medicine by Timothy A. Patterson Staying Healthy the Natural Way by Leilah Breitler Yes! You Can Recycle That by Patricia Melchi

By Michael Davis

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photography awards

ON THE COVER: Steven Brock has been creating art out of found objects and reclaimed materials since the early ’90s. He is shown here welding in his shop. See story on page 16. Photo by Jason Allen November 2009

Movie Reviews

14 EO staffers garner

Earth Odyssey • www.EarthOdysseyOnline.com

by Jason Allen

Movies that won’t make you dumber

Page 29 Page 3

Conferences, calendar and courtesy Inside Earth Odyssey In this issue, Earth Odyssey is beginning a new monthly feature titled Sustainable Business of the Month. The businesses profiled in this series will be those who walk the sustainable walk. Launching our series is Kuhles Salvage of Prescott. Be sure to read more about this sustainable, Earth-friendly business on page 13. If you would like to nominate a business to be considered for this feature, send your suggestion to editor@ EarthOdysseyOnline.com.

This ’N That

Out and About The end of September and the month of October were very busy for Earth Odyssey.

By Ann Haver-Allen Publisher/Editor of Earth Odyssey

featured more than 35 workshops, including Grinding Grains into Flour and Cereals, lead by Christina Barker-Roybal; Rainwater Harvesting Tanks and Barrels for Beginners, lead by Josh Robinson; and Organic Gardening and Planting, lead by Kim Costion and Joe Costion. For more information about the Northern AZ Sustainable Living Association, see www.nazsla.org/. At the Northern AZ Sustainable Living Workshop, we held a drawing for a free 1/4page color ad in the December issue. The winner of that drawing was WallPanels Inc. Be sure to look for the winning ad in next month’s issue of Earth Odyssey.

We participated in a number of conferences throughout the state of Arizona. Three of the highlights are presented here. ooooooooooooooooo Earth Odyssey was a gold-level sponsor of the Creative Energy Fair, held Sept. 26, at Tim’s Toyota Arena in Prescott Valley. Many readers stopped by the Earth Odyssey booth to say hello and chat with us. Quite a few told us that they attended the Creative Energy Fair because they read about it in Earth Odyssey. Readers came from all over the state, attracted by the prospect of exploring more sustainable living ideas. We thank the readers who made time in their day to visit the Creative Energy Fair and stopped by to say hello. At the Creative Energy Fair, we held a drawing for a free 1/4-page color advertisement in the November issue. The winner of that drawing was Absolute Wind Power LLC. Look for the winning ad on page 30 of this issue.

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ooooooooooooooooo We had a booth Oct. 16, at the 49th Annual Diocesan Convention of the Episcopal Church in Phoenix. The Episcopal Diocese of Arizona has a Nature and Spirituality Program that resonates with Earth Odyssey’s mission. “There is no way we can separate ourselves from the rest of the Earth and her living creatures, or even the rest of the universe,” the church writes in its literature. “Together, we are all part of the divine community.” Parishioners are encouraged to get outside and explore nature, observe wildlife, enjoy the sunrise and sunset and learn about nature. We agree and hope you will also. ooooooooooooooooo Earth Odyssey traveled to Flagstaff Oct. 24, for the Northern AZ Sustainable Living Workshop, organized by the Northern AZ Sustainable Living Association. Earth Odyssey was an Environment Benefactor sponsor of this one-day, hands-on educational event that

Our Mission The mission of Earth Odyssey is to encourage individuals to develop a sustainable lifestyle and healthier well-being by providing educational information needed to make wiser choices. We envision an extended community of individuals who care passionately about their environment and their own spiritual well-being and recognize the symbiotic relationship between the two.

Courtesy Rules

Magazine Staff

Arizona could easily close the state’s budget gap—and create a surplus—by passing and enforcing a Keep Right Except to Pass law. The potential income, however, is small when compared to the number of traffic accidents that could be avoided. Many drivers in Arizona travel indefinitely in the left lane (below the speed limit) to avoid the inconvenience of having to pay attention and change lanes with traffic flow. But their refusal to drive courteously is a serious traffic hazard as drivers who opt to travel at the speed limit are forced to weave in and around these left-lane huggers. Society should attach a hefty fee for such inconsiderate selfishness.

Publisher/Editor Ann Haver-Allen Photographer, Photo Editor, Web Master and PR Director Pia Wyer Advertising Art Director Distribution Manager Jason Allen Advertising Representatives Bill Allen Jo Ann Johnson Pia Wyer

My Soapbox

Photo by Ann Haver-Allen Earth Odyssey advertising representatives Jo Ann Johnson and Bill Allen visit with a reader at the Creative Energy Fair, held in Prescott Valley, Sept. 26.

An educational guide to sustainability and spiritual well-being

The word of the month is “free.” Everyone seems to think everything is free when it comes to a printed publication. People have no problem understanding that to acquire something from a department store, you must pay for it. If you want food from the grocery store, you must pay for it. Treats from the candy or ice cream store must be purchased. In other words, businesses are in business to supply services for a fee. That’s what makes them a business. I have never tried to convince my printer to print Earth Odyssey for free. Every month he charges me a fee for his service. Printing is his business and to stay in business he must charge for the service he provides. I understand that. What I don’t understand is why, almost every day, I get requests from people asking me to print their event information for free in the calendar. Sometimes the request for free promotion will be for an event that has a steep “registration” or “course” fee, but the submitter balks at having to pay a modest fee to have the notice printed in Earth Odyssey. Calendar listings in Earth Odyssey are $10 for five lines. That’s a token for printing an item that reaches thousands of educated, informed readers across the country. But it helps me stay in business and helps pay my vendors for their services. It’s really a simple concept. Think about it. Your comments and viewpoints are welcome. Send them to editor@EarthOdysseyOnline.com. Put “Letter to the Editor” in the subject line.

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Contributors Tanya Allason Leilah Breitler Michael Davis Tobias Hughes Jo Ann Johnson Bob Matthews Sarah McLean Patricia Melchi Kimberley Paterson Timothy A. Patterson Cindy Scott Stephen Scott Dominique Shilling Debra J. White Pia Wyer Earth Odyssey is published monthly by Pinon Pine Press LLC and is available online at earthodysseyonline.com. Send comments and suggestions to: editor@earthodysseyonline.com OR via U.S. mail to: Editor 1042 Willow Creek Road Ste A101-PMB 486 Prescott, AZ 86301 Phone: (928) 778-1782 The opinions expressed in this publication are not necessarily those of the publisher or advertisers. Copyright © 2009. Pinon Pine Press LLC. All rights reserved. Reproduction, in whole or in part, is prohibited without written permission. For photo reprints, contact Pia Wyer at pia@animistarts.com. Printed by Prescott Newspapers Inc. 8249 East State Rt. 69 Prescott Valley, AZ 86314

Earth Odyssey is printed on recycled paper using soy inks.

November 2009

Courtesy photo This 90 degree panoramic view was taken from the sky deck of Sky Tower, Auckland, New Zealand.

High quality, affordable living standards make Auckland attractive option for students By Kimberley Paterson Earth Odyssey Correspondent

high quality of living, but cheap day-to-day costs; easy opportunities to be in nature; a strong cultural heart and big-city amenities with a small-town feel, all give the lead city in a small Pacific country the perfect mix for foreign students wanting to train for a new life in a time of global recession. Auckland, New Zealand—“City of Sails,” a place of sparkling harbours, flat white coffees, great food, good wine, wild beaches and dormant volcanoes—has come in near top in a clutch of international “best of ” living awards. Auckland tied for fourth place (with Vancouver, Canada) in Mercer’s 2009 Quality of Living survey, which examined 215 cities worldwide on 39 criteria. But not only does Auckland rank near top in the quality-of-living stakes, it also came in near the bottom of the world’s most expensive cities. Living in Auckland is cheap compared with other major cities measured in Mercer’s “costly city” global survey. Of 143 cities measured, Auckland came in 138th in terms of cost of housing, transport, food and other goods. Especially when compared to the likes of Tokyo, Osaka, Moscow, Geneva, Hong Kong, London and even Australia’s Sydney—Auckland makes for a competitive destination for global students. Saudi Arabia, Brazil, Germany, Thailand, Vietnam, South Korea, Japan, China and India are all sending large numbers of young people to train on Auckland’s sunny shores. Nearly 30,000 fee-paying students visited in the past year. Auckland also placed well in the Economist’s intelligence unit livability survey, coming in at number 12 as one of the nicest places on the planet to live (Vancouver, Canada, won top place: Harare, Zimbabwe, at number 140, the worst). The award takes into account issues such as stability, healthcare, environment, culture,

November 2009

education and city infrastructure. Then, there’s the fact that New Zealand has just been voted the world’s “most peaceful country” by the Global Peace Index. The index was collated for a new think tank called the Institute for Economics and Peace, which measures 23 criteria, including respect for human rights, number of murders, foreign wars, internal conflicts, number of people in jail, degrees of democracy and the arms trade. The award has traditionally gone to Northern European countries such as Denmark, Iceland and Norway—but New Zealand is now in the top position after being listed in the top four countries since 2007. New Zealand has been completely nuclear free since 1984, has a low population, a stable political system and is isolated from other countries. Essentially, New Zealand is an egalitarian country. It was the first to give women the vote (they head many of the biggest companies); it has been working hard at implementing land treaties with indigenous Maori population for decades and sees itself as a welcoming place for immigrants and refugees. A population of just 3.5 million means plenty of open space and “Kiwis”—as New Zealanders are colloquially known—are dyed-in-the-wool travellers, meaning the country has an entrenched global outlook. Deeply proud of their anti-nuclear stance, New Zealanders have a deep love affair with the land and expect easy access to beaches, rural areas and remote mountains as a birthright worth protecting. New Zealand was also a founding member of the United Nations and takes a leading role in issues such as global warming. Wellpark College of Natural Therapies has seen demand for its training programs in aromatherapy, Ayuverda, naturopathy, nutrition, herbal medicine, yoga, massage and cranio sacral therapy have grown in recent years. Along with its 40 academic tutors (many

Courtesy photo Rangitoto Island as seen from the path around North Head in Auckland, New Zealand.

Courtesy photo Mt. Eden, in Auckland, New Zealand, as viewed from One Tree Hill.

from overseas—including medical doctors) is a 300-strong domestic and international campus of students from America, Britain, Germany, Italy, Japan, China, Korea and Australia (www.wellpark.co.nz). “In 2009 a qualification in natural healing equals job security for the long-term future,” said College principal Phillip Cottingham, who first began teaching natural health 30 years ago in a room of his house. Wellpark graduates now

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works in hospitals, research, manufacturing, retail and in private clinics and spas. “People feel drawn to study healing in New Zealand,” he said. “Students and faculty staff who have chosen to settle here repeatedly tell me that New Zealand is a thoroughly fantastic place to live. Kimberley Paterson is New Zealand’s leading mind/body/spirit writer and can be reached at www.soulpr.com.

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Casualty of the economy

Ringing Rocks Foundation to close at year’s end By Ann Haver-Allen Earth Odyssey Editor

hile news reports tout that the nation is emerging from the recession, the recovery is coming too late for many, including Ringing Rocks Foundation in Sedona. Ringing Rocks will close its doors at the end of December, succumbing to the harsh economic climate. The organization worked tirelessly for 14 years to bridge the traditions of indigenous wisdom keepers to the modern world. Ringing Rocks Foundation was inaugurated in 1995 by Nancy Connor. She recruited professor Bradford Keeney, noted psychotherapist, shaman and author, and together they initiated the “Profiles of Healing” book series, created various cultural archive preservation projects and organized special cultural events. “We’re a private nonprofit and we have one funder, who has put millions of dollars into this foundation and can no longer do it,” said Arcania Blystone, Executive Director of Ringing Rocks Foundation. “Everybody is competing for the same dollars and we hold a very specific little niche. And when you are talking about people’s survival, food, shelter, domestic violence, children’s rights and all those things—which are extremely important—our little niche doesn’t necessarily feel that important to people.” No matter how small the niche may seem to others, Blystone said she believes that the work Ringing Rocks Foundation does underlie the very essence of humanity. “I know that we have touched tens of thousands, if not hundreds of thousands, of people around the world,” she said. “We have opened a place in their heart so that they can appreciate the beautiful tapestry of life and have respect for what indigenous cultures bring to the table.” In the Foundation’s closing announcement, Stephen DeNorscia, Program and Communications Director, said that Ringing Rocks Foundation has meant many things to many people. “To the wisdom keepers of the indigenous communities, Ringing Rocks Foundation has been a bridge between their traditions and the modern world,” he said. “To the members of the indigenous communities, it has been a reminder of the importance of preserving their unique heritage. To the folks who have read our publications or experienced our events, it has been a teacher. To the children who have been given the rare opportunity to learn directly from indigenous wisdom keepers, it has been a provider of a deeper learning experience in a time of constricting educational budgets.” Blystone and DeNorscia have begun exploring ways to preserve the knowledge collected over the years by the Foundation. “It would be such a shame to have accumulated all this information, knowledge and wisdom and have the books all go into

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Photos by Pia Wyer Above, Ringing Rocks Foundation Executive Director Arcania Blystone and Program and Communications Director Stephen DeNorscia enjoy resources in the Healing Nautilus at the Foundation’s headquarters in Sedona. Below, the Healing Nautilus represents many diﬀerent indigenous cultures and healers.

Earth Odyssey • www.EarthOdysseyOnline.com

November 2009

a storeroom and that’s it,” Blystone said. “That’s the last thing we want to happen. We want to be able to keep that knowledge—even if the physical place of Ringing Rocks has to go away. How do we keep the information alive?” Blystone said she in not making postFoundation plans. “I don’t make plans,” she said. “I believe in staying present and taking care of what’s right in front of you. I don’t need to know what the next step is. God knows where I live and the Universe knows where I am. “I still believe that at the very last moment a miracle is possible,” Blystone continued. “And maybe this won’t go away. Or maybe it’s meant to go away and be transmuted into something else. I don’t believe it is for naught.” Ringing Rocks Foundation expresses sincere gratitude to the following people without whose passion, generosity and total dedication to the mission its work would not have been possible: Pilisa Connor, founder of Ringing Rocks; board of directors; Bradford Keeney; focus group members; staff, past and present; the wisdom keepers who have shared their sacred knowledge and understanding; the wonderful people of Sedona; and everyone who has experienced the work either through one of the Foundation’s publications, first-hand at one of the events or through the Web site. While this chapter in the history of Ringing Rocks may be coming to a close, it is through the continued interest in indigenous cultures that we may all help protect them into the future.

Courtesy photo Diné Medicine Woman Walking Thunder

Final events Diné Medicine Woman Walking Thunder will lead a closing ceremony at 7 p.m., Friday, Nov. 13, in the Foundation’s Healing Nautilus, 3190 W. Hwy. 89A, Suite 100 in Sedona. Walking Thunder has known she was destined to be a healer ever since she was a small child. Over the years she trained with many of the most powerful healers in the Diné nation. Today, she is widely respected both within the Diné community and in the world at large. The event is free and open to everyone. Seating is limited, however, and reservations are required. Call 928-282-1298. Blystone said Walking Thunder was the first healer with whom Ringing Rocks Foundation worked, so it’s fitting that Walking Thunder leads the closing ceremony.

Photo by Marisol Villanueva, courtesy of the Grandmothers Council The International Council of 13 Indigenous Grandmothers in Assisi in the summer, 2008.

International Council of 13 Indigenous Grandmothers—At 6 p.m., Friday, Dec. 4, Ringing Rocks Foundation is hosting the International Council of 13 Indigenous Grandmothers for a very special evening of stories, traditional songs, blessings and prayers at the Sedona Creative Life Center. The 13 grandmothers’ mission is to come together in council every year from

all around the world to share their wisdom and work toward creating a global alliance of prayer, education and healing for all people. Tickets are $20 in advance and $25 the day of the show. Sedona Creative Life Center is located at 333 Schnebly Hill Road in Sedona. For more information, or to buy tickets, call 928-282-1298 or e-mail sladriere@ ringingrocks.org.

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Three correctional facilities bitten by the ‘green’ bug By Debra J. White Earth Odyssey Correspondent

veryone is going green—oil and gas companies, supermarket chains, animal shelters—and now jails. National statistics about jail recycling are scarce, but three county jails—Allegheny, Multnomah and Brevard—instituted programs that contribute to a healthier environment and greener jails. Photos courtesy of the Broward County Jail in Florida Brevard County Jail Complex in South Florida has an extensive paper recycling program. Glass and plastics from the medical unit are also recycled.

In Oregon

Take the Multnomah County Sheriff ’s Office (MCSO) Waste Prevention and Recycling Plan, adopted in 2001, as an example. The largest county jail in Oregon, Portland-based MCSO provides daily supervision for about 1,500 inmates in two facilities: The Multnomah County Justice Center and the Inverness Jail. To be environmentally friendly, MCSO set a goal next year to reduce jail waste by 65 percent. According to Lt. Rachel Getman, sustainability team leader, other eco-friendly activities at MCSO include: • Diversion of nearly 500 inmate mattresses annually to a recycler instead of the county landfill. • Reduce the approximately 210,000 Styrofoam® cups currently used, and reduce and/or recycle all plastic containers. • Eliminate hazardous waste by sending old computers and electronic equipment to a recycler instead of a landfill. • Expand the correctional kitchen compost collection program. • Educate all staff, individually and as a group, to take an active role in the MCSO sustainability movement. “Our deputies are constantly coming up with ideas to become more sustainable,” Getman said.

In Pennsylvania

Across the country in Pittsburgh, Penn., the Allegheny County jail supervises up to 2,000 inmates with a capacity for 2,400. Allegheny took a green turn in January 2009. “More than 805 light fixtures were replaced with high-efficiency LED lights,” said Major Jim Donis. “They consume less energy and have a projected cost savings of about $178,000 in just the first year.” LED fixtures last about 20 to 25 years. Major Donis said other green projects include the use of green sanitizers, eliminating harsh cleansers. Office paper and cardboard are also recycled. “We serve nearly 9,000 meals a day,” Donis said. “Much of that gets shipped in via cardboard that we no longer throw out.” Office paper is shredded and cardboard is compacted, which all then goes to a recycler. Donis has a personal interest in recycling and said it’s the right thing to do at home and at the jail. “We all have to help the environment,” he said. The jail project boosted the local economy, even if in a small way. Fixtures were purchased from the Appalachian Lighting Systems in Ellwood City, Penn. A local energy solutions company, ImbuTec Inc., a minority business

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enterprise, served as the project manager.

In Florida

The Brevard County Jail Complex in South Florida houses 1,500 to 1,800 inmates every month. “That’s a lot of waste created every month,” said Jeffrey Jarvis, accreditation manager. “We decided to make changes.” Research of disposal records reveals that each person generates 360 pounds of waste paper per year. Jarvis applied that data to BCSO and estimated they generate 84 tons of paper annually that could be recycled. So they instituted an extensive paper recycling program. Glass and plastics from the medical unit are also recycled. Jarvis isn’t done there. He wants to expand the program to include: • All recyclables from food service • Aluminum cans • Install LED lighting Staff and inmate workers deliver the collected material weekly to the Brevard County Landfill recycling bins. Using staff and inmates, instead of a waste hauler, cuts down on fees. Jarvis said they already donate used ink cartridges to the county humane society. Other recyclable cartridges not redeemable for cash are returned to the manufacturer. In the direct supervision housing section, eco-friendly changes include use of reusable tumblers and eating utensils. “The jail is focusing efforts and research into better energy and water conservation measurers, more efficient internal and external lighting,” Jarvis said. All jails have limitations with recycling and conservation programs. Employee and inmate safety is a jail’s primary concern, so some items cannot be substituted. For example, glassware and silverware simply cannot replace Styrofoam® cups and plastic cutlery. Automatic sensors are not possible because darkened rooms pose potential problems. But these three jail programs demonstrate that corrections can become eco-friendly and save money at the same time. Debra J. White had a life changing experience on Jan. 6, 1994. While walking her dogs after work, a car rammed into her, leaving her in a ditch, unconscious. After a lengthy recovery, she took up creative writing. Today, she is an award-winning writer who regularly contributes to a number of publications, including Earth Odyssey.

November 2009

Recycling helps ﬁght climate change

new report finds that 42 percent of U.S. greenhouse gas emissions are influenced by materials management policies, including impacts from extracting raw materials, food processing and manufacturing and transporting and disposing of products. Building heating and air conditioning and lighting account for 25 percent of the U.S greenhouse gas emissions (see chart). Another 25 percent of emissions are associated with land management policies, which include emissions from passenger transportation, construction and from lost vegetation when greenfields are cleared for development. In addition, the equivalent of 13 percent of U.S. emissions is absorbed by soil and vegetation and can also be protected or enhanced through land management policies. The report, titled “Opportunities to Reduce Greenhouse Gas Emissions through Materials and Land Management Practices,” was recently released by the Environmental Protection Agency. “The purpose of this document is to increase the understanding of how materials and land management practices relate to greenhouse gas emissions and show a new way of thinking about materials and land management as part of the solution to the climate change,” the report states. “There is a strong link between U.S. greenhouse gas

emissions and the management of materials and land. EPA, along with its partners, can help address the challenges of global climate change through materials and land management programs.” Through its materials management and land cleanup programs, EPA’s Office of Solid Waste and Emergency Response (OSWER) addresses climate change to reduce U.S. greenhouse gas emissions and has a community-level perspective on the response to climate change. OSWER implements environmental programs with a range of objectives to support communities and protect human health and the environment. These programs can be broadly categorized into three areas: • Materials management, through resource conservation and recovery, waste prevention and safe waste disposal; • Land management through activities that prevent pollutant releases, and encourage cleanup and reuse of contaminated and potentially contaminated sites; and • Emergency response to, and preparedness for, contaminant releases and other threats to public health. The report lists some of the materials and land management activities that have the potential to decrease emissions. These include: • Reducing the use of nonpackaging paper products • Increasing municipal recycling, and recycling of construction and demolition

U.S. Greenhouse Gas Emissions (2006) Provision of Food 13% Use of Appliances 8%

Provision of Goods 29%

Building HVAC & Lighting 25% Other Passenger Transport 9%

Local Passenger Transport 15%

debris • Reusing land, including redevelopment of formerly contaminated lands • Reusing formerly contaminated lands for renewable energy development • Encouraging smart growth The report suggests that land manage-

Infrastructure 1%

Source: U.S. EPA report “Opportunities to Reduce Greenhouse Gas Emissions through Materials and Land Management Practices,” 2009.

ment and materials management approaches should be part of the nation’s toolbox to meet the target of an 83 percent reduction in greenhouse gas emissions by 2050. The complete report is available as a downloadable PDF on the Earth Odyssey Web site at EarthOdysseyOnline.com.

EPA to begin monitoring greenhouse gas emissions in January 2010

n Jan. 1, 2010, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency will, for the first time, require large emitters of heat-trapping emissions to begin collecting greenhouse gas data under a new reporting system. This new program will cover approximately 85 percent of the nation’s greenhouse gas emissions and apply to roughly 10,000 facilities. “This is a major step forward in our effort to address the greenhouse gases polluting our skies,” said EPA Administrator Lisa P. Jackson. “For the first time, we begin collecting data from the largest facilities in this country, ones that account for approximately 85 percent of the total U.S. emissions. The American public, and industry itself, will finally gain critically important knowledge and with this information we can determine how best to reduce those emissions.” EPA’s new reporting system will provide a better understanding of where greenhouse gasses are coming from and will guide development of the best possible policies and programs to reduce emissions. The data will also allow businesses to track their own emissions, compare them

November 2009

to similar facilities and provide assistance in identifying cost effective ways to reduce emissions in the future. This comprehensive, nationwide emissions data will help in the fight against climate change. Greenhouse gases, like carbon dioxide, are produced by burning fossil fuels and through industrial and biological processes. Fossil fuel and industrial greenhouse gas suppliers, motor vehicle and engine manufacturers and facilities that emit 25,000 metric tons or more of CO2 equivalent per year will be required to report greenhouse gas emissions data to EPA annually. This threshold is equivalent to about the annual greenhouse gas emissions from 4,600 passenger vehicles. The first annual reports for the largest emitting facilities, covering calendar year 2010, will be submitted to EPA in 2011. Vehicle and engine manufacturers outside of the light-duty sector will begin phasing in greenhouse gas reporting with model year 2011. Some source categories included in the proposed rule are still under review. More information on the new reporting system and reporting requirements is available on line at www.epa.gov/climatechange/ emissions/ghgrulemaking.html.

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Educational day sparks intense peer competition By Tobias Hughes Earth Odyssey Youth Reporter

his event caught me in a very good mood. I didn’t have to wake up very early, and it was the morning after the fair. Who wouldn’t be happy the day after the fair? We departed for Chino Valley in good spirits. We were headed to Freeman Farms, owned by Arizona Game and Fish Commissioner Norm Freeman, who was hosting an educational day in conjunction with the farm’s annual Pumpkin Festival. I arrived, paid the admission and walked in to see a petting zoo to the left, a pumpkin patch to the right and an archery course straight ahead. Summer Allen, Jadyn Batch-

elor and I quickly signed up for the archery. We are good archers, so we thought it would be a blast. Little did I know how competitive we would be. We had around a half an hour to kill before our archery time, so we went to the petting zoo. It had multiple goats (those of you who read my last article know of my friendship with goats) and a javelina. We stayed there for a little while, then moved to the Arizona Game and Fish Adobe Mountain Wildlife Center kiosk. There were owls, prairie dogs, hawks and more. When animals are too injured to survive in the wild, they go into the Wildlife Center’s care. After this, we went to the archery activities. The instructors were from the Arizona Game and Fish Department and the Arizona Bowhunters Association. We used

Photos by Ann Haver-Allen Above, Tobias Hughes, Summer Allen and Jadyn Batchelor practice their archery skills at Freeman Farms. At right, Toby demonstrates his kayaking prowess.

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November 2009

Photos by Ann Haver-Allen Above, Tobias Hughes and Jadyn Batchelor are ready for the hayride to begin at Freeman Farms. Below, a kestrel closely eyes the photographer.

compound bows. We went through the class with Summer completing the challenge of hitting all three balloons, therefore, winning the competition. After this, we went into a corn maze, where I got lost many times. There were many misleading signs to get you even more lost. We left the maze to go on a tractor ride, which

November 2009

took us around the farm. I got a few pictures of Granite Mountain on the tractor ride, which are, in my opinion, very good pictures. Later, after eating lunch, we decided to try out kayaking, which was accompanied by Arizona Game and Fish instructors to teach water safety before entering your kayak. Summer and I went out and paddled for a

little while. After Summer got off the water, I decided to put my awesome kayaking skills to the test. I paddled very fast, then turned around while still moving, then paddle backwards for a while, all before turning back forward to finish the run. This was a fun event filled with constant joy, competition and my awesome kayaking

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powers. In tradition, here are my three things learned: • I will meet nice goats wherever I go! • Freeman Farms has a great view of Granite Mountain. • Never compete with Summer in archery skills and never compete with me in kayaking skills.

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What are heirloom seeds and why are they important?

any people are discovering, or rediscovering, heirloom varieties of vegetables and seeds. Most get their first taste of heirlooms from a neighbor’s tomato or farmers market sample and love the amazingly rich, full-bodied flavor. They then realize what they have been missing and want to know more. Where can they buy them, can they grow them, are there more varieties out there? We will look at the world of heirlooms, from seeds to vegetables, herbs and flowers—what they are, where they came from and why they are becoming sought after in gardening. Heirloom seeds are simply old varieties that have been saved and passed down for many years. As one person described it, “Heirloom seeds are living antiques passed down from one generation to another. Our inheritance is their flavor and beauty from the past for the future.” Most are food plants or food-related plants like vegetables, fruits or herbs, but not all. Heirloom flowers are becoming very popular, as the unique colors, scents and adaptability are better known again. Some heirlooms are very ancient, having recorded history in pre-Christian, Greek or Roman times. Many have traveled great distances over time, starting in India, Afghanistan or the foot of the Himalayas, but are very well known and common now. The term heirloom didn’t come into use until the past 20 years or so. Prior to that they were just known as seeds. The accepted definition is a variety that existed prior to World War II. The reason for this distinction is that large-scale hybridization and early genetic engineering started soon after WWII ended. Heirloom seeds are from varieties that people saved for various reasons—earliest or latest fruit, best with heat or cold, or most productive. One of the biggest factors in every heirloom is flavor or taste. Due to their age and travels, heirlooms are very adaptable. They have grown in many different climates, altitudes and temperatures over long periods of time and have adapted to that region before moving on. This reinforced adaptability is one of their strongest benefits. If a gardener saves their seeds from

Heirloom Garden Seeds & Stories by Cindy and Stephen Scott the best of their plants, replants them and repeats this process, the adaptability of the heirlooms will shine through. They will quickly adapt to the specific growing conditions and climate of the garden and soon out perform any other variety, as they will have the “home turf advantage.” No hybrid can match the wide spectrum performance of the heirloom after it has “nativized” to a location. Hybrids, often only identified by “F1” in a catalog, are selected for certain traits, such as specific disease or pest resistance, uniform ripening times or resistance to transport shock for the fruits. Flavor and taste are not at the top of the list, as hybrids are usually commercially developed with a profit potential in mind. Heirlooms are the opposite, as flavor is paramount to the family gardener and the need for transport or uniform ripening are not considerations. Another benefit is the amount of diversity of the many varieties. As an example, there are more than 7,500 varieties of heirloom tomatoes! Compare this with the amount of available hybrid tomatoes, and it is easy to see how heirlooms have adapted to many different environments and growing conditions throughout the world. The major benefit of diversity is that there are many examples of a variety that will grow well in a specific climate, allowing several to be planted for food. The true advantage shows up when disease or pests arrive, as some may be damaged, but not all. Therefore, a good harvest is still

possible despite losses, in contrast to a single hybrid variety that, if susceptible, will fail completely with no crop harvest whatsoever. This is why old farms had multiple varieties of a crop planted, as they couldn’t afford to lose all of it to a disease or pest. The importance of heirlooms are varied. Some of the benefits mentioned above relate to their importance—the diversity and adaptability. A more diverse gene pool gives more chance of survival, in this case of the food crop. A highly adaptable plant is more likely to survive and pass on its genes. Something often overlooked in heirlooms is the fact that no one owns any rights or patents to the variety, in direct opposition to genetically engineered types. The heirlooms cannot be controlled or forced into a market position. Seed saving is possible only with heirlooms or open-pollinated varieties. Hybrid seeds cannot be saved and replanted, as they will not grow true to the parent types. Genetically engineered seeds cannot be saved without a lawsuit from the patenting company. Saving seeds gives a person opportunities unavailable to the hybrid or genetically engineered grower. Creating a personal seed bank of family favorites or storing seeds from a particularly delicious type of fruit is possible, thus allowing one to replant and regrow that wonderful flavor. As mentioned before, flavor is usually better in an heirloom, as that is one of the major considerations in saving seeds for a variety. Nutrition is often better, for the same reasons as flavor. Another reason heirlooms have become more important is that people are realizing how much we have lost in the past 100 years. Prior to 1920, there were more than 3,000 small, regional seed companies across the United States. They all sold only heirloom and open-pollinated seeds, the only kind available at the time. Today, there are fewer than 15 companies selling only heirloom seeds. Most seed companies have a few heirlooms, with the majority being hybrids. The older and larger seed companies that introduced many of our favorite heirlooms in the late 1800s and early 1900s don’t even sell their own introductions anymore! Other more specialized heirloom seed

companies sell them. From 1900 to 2000, over 90 percent of the commonly available varieties of vegetable, herb and flower seeds were lost; mostly due to hybridization, which created more income for the larger seed companies. That’s a huge loss in genetic diversity, with a resulting loss of food availability. We now have to depend on fewer varieties to supply more of our food. At a time when genetic engineering companies are buying up seed companies and consolidating their dominance in the seed markets, heirloom seeds are becoming better known and more sought out than ever before. This is great news as this keeps more seeds in the public domain and not owned by a corporation. In the past 20 years, the agricultural segment that has seen the most gain yearafter-year in the small market segment. This includes farmers markets, Consumer Supported Agriculture (CSA), local organic growers, local food systems and backyard gardeners. People want real taste, flavor and nutrition in their food and are doing something active and positive about it. The trend is gaining speed, growing faster in the past couple of years. Word has spread, and people are interested in real food again. Heirloom seeds are enjoying a resurgence in attention. More people find out about heirlooms everyday, and learn how to eat better, both in taste and nutrition. Fresh, healthy and wholesome food is easier to get than ever before, as more people are growing for CSAs, farmers markets and even neighborhood veggie swaps. It seems fitting to see the return of the small local grower, along with the value the community places on local food, after what some have called the 50-year commercial petrochemical agribusiness experiment. We are returning to a smaller, sustainable and healthier way of producing our food; one that has fed mankind for the past 12,000 years, and heirloom seeds are playing a central role. Stephen and Cindy Scott are the owners of Terroir Seeds LLC, home of Underwood Gardens. They supply the finest heirloom vegetable, flower and herb garden seeds, unique books and great tools. They can be reached at 888-8785247 or www.underwoodgardens.com.

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November 2009

Photos by Ann Haver-Allen Warren Kuhles stands beside an aluminum block, weighing about 1,000 pounds, that was previously a mobile home and awning. At right, Kuhles Salvage is a family business. Wife Patty and son Trevor join Warren in front of the machine used to crush and compact aluminum. It was purchased used, like most of the equipment Kuhles uses.

Kuhles Salvage: Ultimate thrift store for DIY By Ann Haver-Allen Earth Odyssey Editor

uhles Salvage is the ultimate thrift store for the doit-yourself types. Do you need ceramic tile? Kuhles has it. How about a desk or a chair? Kuhles has it. Lumber, plumbing and wiring—Kuhles has all that, too. Located on one and a quarter acres in Prescott, Kuhles has just about everything. But like other thrift stores, inventory is subject to change and varies frequently. “One old-timer gave me a good piece of advice,” said owner Warren Kuhles. “He said, ‘If you need anything for your shop or your business, wait and it will come.’ And it does always seem to show up at my doorstep.” Kuhles Salvage is a family operated business with wife Patty and son Trevor helping out in the office and the yard. Salvaging, recycling and reusing is not only their business, it’s their way of life. Warren has been recycling and reusing for more than 20 years. He told the story of someone bringing in 20 boxes of little baggies that were originally intended for returning ink cartridges. “They had no more use for them, so they brought them in,” Warren said. “I use them for my lunch. There are so many things that we could reuse instead of just throwing them away.” He added that he is amazed at what

November 2009

Business of the Month other countries are able to do with America’s waste. Kuhles operates a successful demolition business, recycles and does a brisk retail business. “We buy, sell and trade shipping damaged materials or discards from people who are downsizing their lives,” Warren said. “We just put it back out there for the next person.” Patty said that the country’s previous period of economic prosperity encouraged people to go out and buy everything new and consumption became a measure of personal worth. The value of a single dollar diminished. “I think this recession has brought people back down to a more conscious way of living,” Patty said. “We shouldn’t be such a

disposable society. We need to energetically start living the consciousness that a dollar is a dollar, you work for it, you earn it, and it means a dollar bill, not a plastic card.” Warren thinks we need to relearn respect for our money and work ethic. He believes that we could benefit from the knowledge of those who lived through the depression of the 1920s. “I think we are spoiled,” he said. “We have been spoiled rotten. A lot of ineffective people are in the workforce. We have to learn better consciousness of production and value added to everything that we do. The world does not owe us a living. We have too much dead weight in corporate America. This recession is a wake-up call that people have to be more productive to earn a good living. And you have to always be giving to society in some beneficial way. Not just hanging on for a free ride.” Kuhles recycles about 50 percent of everything that comes in through the demolition operations. Warren said recycling and scrap metal are lagging indicators of society versus leading indicators. “We are always at the lag of economic downturns or economic upturns,” Warren said. “The market is saturated with recyclables now. Big companies, like General Motors or the automobile industry or appliance manufacturers are slow now. When those industries slow down, they stop gobbling up the recyclables.” When asked to name the strangest thing

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that has ended up in his yard, Warren remembered a 727 fuselage and forms for concrete coffin vaults. Patty recalled that they once had autopsy tables and Trevor remembered having the castle from Castle Golf when it closed down. A few things are not accepted at Kuhles. They don’t take glass, fibers, paper or cardboard. Warren explains why. “I don’t believe as wholeheartedly in recycling glass as I do metal,” he said. “Glass is made from sand and it’s pretty much a universal resource and it doesn’t hurt the landfill. I stay away from fibers, paper and cardboard because they are flammable and we work with metals and cutting torches. We do, however, recycle the cardboard that we generate.” He said recycling metals makes the most sense to him because metals are among the most cost-intensive products in our society. Extracting metals from the earth is expensive and takes a toll on the environment. “An aluminum beverage can will be purchased, its contents drunk, recycled, remelted and refilled with soda in as few as 60 days,” he said. “Iron, too, can pretty much flip right back around and come to us again.” Kuhles Salvage is located at 219 E. Navajo Drive in Prescott. They are open Monday through Friday from 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. and on Saturday from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. Kuhles buys all scrap metals and is also a licensed wrecking contractor. For more information, call 928-445-1064.

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Photos by Pia Wyer Above, this photo of a Great Horned Owl won ﬁrst place in the Arizona Game & Fish Department’s annual calendar photography contest. Below, the Northern Cardinal shot received an honorable mention.

Photos by Ann Haver-Allen These two photos each received a ﬁrst place award in the 2009 Yavapai County Fair Photography Competition in October.

EO staffers garner photography awards

veryone who enjoys Earth Odyssey no doubt appreciates the high quality of photography throughout the publication. Therefore, it should come as no surprise that Earth Odyssey staff members made good showings in recent photography competitions. Pia Wyer, freelance photographer, photo editor and web master for Earth Odyssey, was one of 12 first-place winners in the Arizona Game & Fish Department’s annual calendar photography contest. Additionally, Wyer received one of 54 honorable mentions. Wyer’s first-place photo of a great horned owl is featured on the 2010 Game & Fish calendar, which is available at all offices of the Arizona Game and Fish Department.

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An order form may be downloaded from www.azgfd.gov/photocontest, printed and mailed to Arizona Game and Fish Department, 5000 W. Carefree Hwy., Phoenix, AZ 85086-5000. The calendar is available for $3 while supplies last. Wyer’s photo of a Northern Cardinal received an honorable mention and is available for viewing in a slide show on the AZG&F Web site. Wyer’s professional background includes photography, photo editing, web editing, marketing, program development, art and design. She has a master’s degree in culture and spirituality, and has spent many years studying and practicing an integrative, holistic approach to spirituality and creative process, with an emphasis on hospice-related care. Wyer also writes for Earth Odyssey and

works as an advertising sales consultant. Ann Haver-Allen, founder, publisher and editor of Earth Odyssey, won seven photography awards in the 2009 Yavapai County Fair Photography Competition. Her winnings include two first place, three second place and two third place ribbons. Additionally, she won a second place for an original lapis luzuli necklace and earring set.

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Haver-Allen is listed in “Who’s Who in the World” (2005-2010), “Who’s Who in America” (2004-2010), “Who’s Who of American Women” (2004-2010) and other biographical publications. She has received more than 50 professional awards during her career. Haver-Allen has a bachelor’s degree in journalism from Thomas Edison State College in Trenton, N.J.

November 2009

Fermi Space Telescope probes dozens of pulsars

ith NASA’s Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope, astronomers now are getting their best look at those whirling stellar cinders known as pulsars. Fermi is the first spacecraft able to identify pulsars by their gamma-ray emission alone and has discovered 16 previously unknown pulsars. A pulsar is the rapidly spinning and highly magnetized core left behind when a massive star explodes. Most of the 1,800 cataloged pulsars were found through their periodic radio emissions. Astronomers believe these pulses are caused by narrow, lighthouse-like radio beams emanating from the pulsar’s magnetic poles. “Fermi has truly unprecedented power for discovering and studying gamma-ray pulsars,” said Paul Ray of the Naval Research Laboratory in Washington. “Since the demise of the Compton Gamma Ray Observatory a decade ago, we’ve wondered about the nature of unidentified gamma-ray sources it detected in our galaxy. These studies from Fermi lift the veil on many of them.” The Vela pulsar, which spins 11 times a second, is the brightest persistent source of gamma rays in the sky. Yet gamma rays—the most energetic form of light—are few and far between. Even Fermi’s Large Area Telescope sees only about one gamma-ray photon from Vela every two minutes. “That’s about one photon for every thousand Vela rotations,” said Marcus Ziegler, a member of the team reporting on the new pulsars at the University of California, Santa Cruz. “From the faintest pulsar we studied, we see only two gamma-ray photons a day.” Radio telescopes on Earth can detect a pulsar easily only if one of the narrow radio beams happens to swing our way. If not, the pulsar can remain hidden. A pulsar’s radio beams represent only a few parts per million of its total power, whereas its gamma rays account for 10 percent or more. Somehow, pulsars are able to accelerate particles to speeds near that of light. These particles emit a broad beam of gamma rays as they arc along curved magnetic field lines. The new pulsars were discovered as part of a comprehensive search for periodic gammaray fluctuations using five months of Fermi

November 2009

Photo illustration courtesy NASA/DOE/Fermi LAT Collaboration This all-sky map shows the positions and names of 16 new pulsars (yellow) and eight millisecond pulsars (magenta) studied using Fermi’s LAT. The famous Vela, Crab and Geminga pulsars (right) are the brightest ones Fermi sees. The pulsars Taz, Eel and Rabbit have taken the nicknames of nebulae they are now known to power. The Gamma Cygni pulsar resides within a supernova remnant of the same name.

Large Area Telescope data and new computational techniques. “Before launch, some predicted Fermi might uncover a handful of new pulsars during its mission,” Ziegler added. “To discover 16 in its first five months of operation is really beyond our wildest dreams.” Like spinning tops, pulsars slow down as they lose energy. Eventually, they spin too slowly to power their characteristic emissions and become undetectable. But pair a slowed dormant pulsar with a normal star, and a stream of stellar matter from the companion can spill onto the pulsar and increase its spin. At rotation periods between 100 and 1,000 times a second, ancient pulsars can resume the activity of their youth. In the second study, Fermi scientists examined gamma rays from eight of these “born-again” pulsars, all of which were previously discovered at radio wavelengths. “Before Fermi launched, it wasn’t clear that pulsars with millisecond periods could

emit gamma rays at all,” said Lucas Guillemot at the Center for Nuclear Studies in Gradignan, near Bordeaux, France. “Now we know they do. It’s also clear that, despite their differences, both normal and millisecond pulsars share similar mechanisms for emitting gamma rays.” NASA’s Fermi Gammaray Space Telescope is an astrophysics and particle physics partnership, developed in collaboration with the U.S. Department of Energy, along with important contributions from academic institutions and partners in France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Sweden and the United States.

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Photo illustration by ESA/NASA/AVO/Paolo Padovani This artist’s concept shows the core of an active galaxy, where a feeding supermassive black hole drives oppositely directed particle jets.

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Photo by Steven Brock At right, Discovery Works specializes in custom steel work, such as handrails, gates and decorative walls that incorporate found steel into the designs. The wall pictured here is at the Windsong Medical Center in Prescott Valley. Photos by Jason Allen Far right, Wrestlers, 2009. Below, Steven Brock spends a lot of time collecting and organizing the vast amount of materials needed to work in found object media. To create one piece of art, one must have a large selection of raw materials to choose from before any one thing comes together.

River debris Steven Brock By Jason Allen Earth Odyssey staﬀ

teven Brock has been creating art out of found objects and reclaimed materials since the early ’90s. He started in his West Virginia hometown, which is in the Appalachian foothills. Brock was drawn to the field by the Muskingum River. He lived just down stream from a dam. “The dam had created a big eddy in the river so that all the trash washed onto the riverbank,” he said. “Whole communities seemed to come ashore, especially after a big storm or flood.” In this sea of trash, he saw an endless resource to create art. He began collecting the trash discarded by a community and assembled it into interesting forms and designs. Under the cover of night, he would return the reformed trash back to the community as sculptures, placing them in the parks and public spaces. This guerrilla type artistic approach earned him the recognition of a local newspaper and also gained the interest of others. “This not only started my love for that which was discarded, but also it started my collaboration with other artists,” Brock said. “We began having similar visions due to the similar objects that we found. “One project I remember was a large ball of Styrofoam® that we started on the riverbank,” he continued. “It was Styrofoam® and coat hangers and stood about 4 or 5 feet tall.” Steven moved to Prescott, Ariz., in 1997, and founded Discovery Works a couple of years later.

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November 2009

inspired found-object artist creates art using society’s trash Discovery Works specializes in custom steel work, such as handrails, gates and decorative walls that incorporate found steel into the designs. An example of his work can be found at the Raven Café in downtown Prescott. Aside from using found objects in his business work, it is also an integral part of his personal work, which includes, but is not limited to, steel sculpture, wood sculpture, painting and photography. Brock spends a lot of time collecting and organizing the vast amount of materials needed to work in found object media. To create one piece of art, one must have a large selection of raw materials to choose from before any one thing comes together. “You never know what objects are going to present themselves,” he said, “or what you’re going to have to work with.” Organization is a very important part of the process because being able to see one’s inventory is of the utmost importance. Having the perfect part to complete a piece of art under a big pile is just like not having that part at all. “When using and collecting found materials one must stay somewhat organized, and have a fair amount of space to allow them to pile up,” he said. “The working studio of someone who practices life through discard often appears to be chaos and filth. Really, these are just projects waiting for the right piece to surface.” To do many of his paintings, Brock uses discarded paint, as well as other pigmented products. “Sometimes, I will paint in a mixed media format using things like shoe polish, makeup or any other of the world’s commonly discarded items,

November 2009

which leave a mark,” he said. In this media, the use of discarded supplies allows the artist to focus concern only upon the work, disregarding the cost of supplies. “There is no worry of wasting materials because they are waste,” Brock said. “This helps to create a more free, or less inhibited type of expression, which seems positive.” He used to have a community collection point at his studio for discarded paint, which was overwhelmingly popular. But, he no longer accepts paint because now he has enough for a few years. The community can play a helpful role to anyone looking to reuse materials. I, myself, have been planning for a while to build Earthships, which are made using earth-rammed tires as block for the walls. I put up a sign and in a couple of weeks had enough tires to make my first Earthship. Just ask and ye shall receive. Steve’s artistic path has been one of evolution. “The evolution of my process happened due to my understanding of a historical perspective, and through my ability to connect different objects,” he said. “Having the know-how and having the tools, along with the desire and ability are essential.” As anyone who enjoys life knows, the journey is the important part, not any perceived destination. “I see myself evolving into new media,” Brock said when asked how he sees himself evolving as an artist. “I would like to be the first to paint in zero gravity, the first space artist.” But in the meantime, before he makes it to space and beyond, he has a show in the Prescott

College Art Gallery at Sam Hill Warehouse, 232 North Granite St. in Prescott on Dec. 1, with Andrew Secundy, who is a glass artist. The opening reception is 6 p.m. to 9 p.m. Their collaborative work— blown glass with steel worked together —will be on display. I’ve seen the working sketches, and cannot wait to see the finished product. It will certainly be a show worth seeing. For more information, contact the gallery at 928-776-5258. Brock can be reached at 928533-9302.

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Photos by Jason Allen Above left, Umbilical Cord is a painting using discarded oil paints and rooﬁng tar, 2008. Above right, Tooth is a sculpture made from found steel, 2009. Above, Vessel 3, is a sculpture made from found steel, 2009.

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Incandescent bulbs soon to be obsolete Two-year Shop at the mandatory $L?MB?MN phase-out OMCH?MM in Olde Town begins in â&#x20AC;&#x2122;12

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By Ann Haver-Allen Earth Odyssey Editor

ore and more environmentally conscious consumers are replacing their incandescent bulbs with compact fluorescent lamps (CFLs). But, how many consumers realize that by 2014 incandescent bulbs will no longer be available for purchase? A two-year phaseout of inefficient incandescent bulbsâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;mandated by the 2007 Clean Energy Actâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;begins in 2012. New efficiency standards for lighting passed as part of the Clean Energy Act will render Thomas Edisonâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s iconic incandescent bulb essentially obsolete. Lighting accounts for one-fifth of U.S. energy consumption, according to the Department of Energy, cementing the $37 billion sectorâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s role as a significant part of Americaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s â&#x20AC;&#x153;greenerâ&#x20AC;? future. The typical incandescent light bulb devotes only five percent of its energy use to creating light, with the rest lost on heat.

Not all green CFLs, however, have their own negative environmental impact. CFLs contain the neurotoxin mercury and burnt-out lamps present an immense environmental hazard if not disposed of properly. CFLs that are tossed into the garbage will release mercury into the environment. Mercury is a potent poison and exposure to excessive levels can permanently damage or fatally injure the brain and kidneys. Exposures to very small amounts of mercury can result in devastating neurological damage and death.

Courtesy photo Compact ďŹ&#x201A;uorescent lamps (CFLs) and light emitting diodes (LEDs) will be the only bulb choices after 2014. The 2007 Clean Energy Act mandates a phase-out of incandescent bulbs beginning in 2012.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency says that the small amount of mercury sealed within the CFL glass tubing averages 4 milligrams. The EPA compares that amount to older thermometers, which contain about 500 milligrams of mercury, or the equivalent of about 125 CFLs. No mercury is released as long as the bulb remains intact. The EPA advises consumers to contact their local municipal solid waste agency to identify local recycling options for CFLs. Two searchable databases are online at www. epa.gov/bulbrecycling or www.earth911.org. If a recycling option does not exist and local laws allow CLFs to be placed in the garbage, the EPA advises consumers to double-bag and seal burnt-out bulbs before placing them in the garbage. CLFs and other products that contain mercury should never be incinerated. The EPA has suggested guidelines for proper cleanup of a broken CFL. The fact sheet is available as a downloadable PDF from www.EarthOdysseyOnline.com.

Consumer awareness A survey conducted by Sylvania in December 2008 revealed that 78 percent of Ameri-

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cans were unaware of the federal legislation to phase out incandescent light bulbs and replace them with energy-efficient options, such as CFLs and light-emitting diodes (LEDs). Despite a lack of knowledge regarding the incandescent phase out, most Americans are adopting a â&#x20AC;&#x153;greenâ&#x20AC;? mind-set and realizing cost-savings associated with switching bulbs. Other findings of the survey include: â&#x20AC;˘ 88 percent of consumers consider how much energy the bulb uses before purchasing a light bulb. â&#x20AC;˘ 85 percent of consumers are aware that CFLs use less energy than incandescent bulbs â&#x20AC;˘ 78 percent of consumers believe that CFLs are less expensive than traditional light bulbs over the lifetime of the bulb â&#x20AC;˘ 77 percent of consumers are aware that CFLs last 10 times longer than traditional light bulbs â&#x20AC;˘ 68 percent of consumers are early adopters of CFLs, with 76 percent willing to switch to CFLs in the future â&#x20AC;˘ 21 percent of consumers use light emitting diodes (LEDs) as their lighting option in their homes.

November 2009

Everyone beneﬁts by developing better listening skills

istening to each other, listening to yourself, and listening to your own wisdom is what we emphasize in the Yoga of Writing retreat (the one in Sedona just ended.) Listening is rarer than it seems. Recently, a friend asked me to come to California to watch her perform in a show. Unfortunately, the performance was scheduled for a weekend that I’d made another important commitment. She got pretty upset when I told her I wouldn’t be there and why. She had the belief that my keeping the previous commitment meant that I didn’t care enough for her and her work. I realized she could’ve avoided the pain if she had simply listened, literally, to what I was saying. I began to notice how I and others listen to each other. Or rather, don’t listen to each other. Sometimes when people seem like they’re listening, they’re actually doing something else while you are talking. They could be: • Projecting what they think you are going to say next, then interrupt and finish your sentence for you, i.e., a mind-reading practice. • Filtering out what they don’t want to hear, i.e., not loving “what is.” • Looking for a way to be right or to give advice, i.e., not connecting.

By Sarah McLean

• Reinterpreting what you are saying because of your tone, or body language, or some historical event in their own lives, verses listening to the actual words you are saying, i.e., making stuff up. • Coming up with a brilliant idea of what to say next, i.e., competing. • Drifting into the past or future because of something you said, i.e., daydreaming. • Feeling insecure and want you to like them so they interrupt with something they deem more important, i.e., being self-centered. • Thinking of something totally different

and are missing the moment with you, i.e. distracted. • Trying to figure out a way to “save” you so you don’t have to ask for what you want or need, i.e., taking your power away. • Getting ready to ask never-ending questions to shift the focus off of you and onto them, i.e., attention-grabbing. This doesn’t just apply to those who are listening to us—I know I do some of the same things. M. Scott Peck said, “You cannot truly listen to anyone and do anything else at the same time.” Texting wasn’t even around when he said that! There’s a brilliant woman who is an advocate for literal listening. Her name is Byron Katie and she’s the founder what she calls The Work—an inquiry practice to use when we have thoughts that cause us suffering. The Work is a set of four basic questions that we can ask ourselves or have others ask us when we have a thought that causes us stress. These questions work to examine our thought, to find out if what we are telling ourselves is true or not. Katie, as people call her, is also an advocate of literal listening. She suggests that we, “Practice listening to others in the most literal

Authors to read aloud from book Eight wisdom keepers will share personal spiritual experience

ive local authors will come together to read aloud from their new collaborative volume: “Celebrating Divine Presence: Journeys into God” (London: Companion Books, 2008) on Saturday, Nov. 7, from 4 p.m. to 6 p.m. at the Northern Arizona Yoga Center. The authors will be joined by two special guests: Norm Shrewsbury, a local Tibetan Buddhist, and Rev. Konrad Kaserer, a minister of the Unity church in Flagstaff. In the current socio-political and multicultural global economy, there can be no doubt that building bridges of compassion and understanding between faiths is the great need of our time. As the winds of change sweep this land clean of prejudice and usher in a time of unprecedented hope, many will benefit from listening to these wisdom keepers share from the depth of their personal spiritual experience: • Konrad Kaserer, Christianity • Norm Shrewsbury, Tibetan Buddhism • Karl Moeller, Sufism with Rumi and Hafiz • Ameeta Vora, Jain: Radical Intent • Thomas M. Knoles, Exploring the Ancient Veda • Kelly McCabe, Hindu Spirituality with Mother Durga • Haring Singh Khalsa, Sikh Dharma • Laurent Weichberger, Modern Mysticism with Avatar Meher Baba

November 2009

Photo by Betsey Bruner Six of the nine contributing authors to “Celebrating Divine Presence: Journeys into God,” come together at the Temple of the Divine Mother in Flagstaﬀ. Pictured from left are Kelly McCabe (Hindu), Ameeta Vora (Jain), Laurent Weichberger (Meher Baba), Thom Knoles (Vedantic), Esther Stewart (Christian) and Haring Singh Khalsa (Sikh).

Northern Arizona Yoga Center is located at 113 S. San Francisco St. in Flagstaff. A question and answer section will follow the personal readings and sharing. Books will be on sale at the event, and a signing will conclude the time together. For more information, contact Laurent Weichberger at 928-600-8898 or laurent@ ompoint.com.

sense, believing exactly what they say without attaching a future to it, and do your best to resist falling into your own interpretations about the information they share with you.” She uses this example: “Someone might give you a compliment, and you interpret that to mean that the person has ulterior motives. Our interpretations of what we hear people say to us are often far more painful or frightening than what people actually say. We can hurt ourselves with our misconceptions and our thinking for others.” A practice she often teaches in her workshops is to, “Try trusting that what they say is exactly what they mean: not more, not less.” You can see Byron Katie at the Celebrate Your Life event in Phoenix in November. How are your literal listening skills? Literal listening is good for you. It definitely creates more silence in the mind, and more harmony with others. It cuts down on the drama when we hear what is actually said and when we allow the other to complete their thoughts without interruption. Not only is literal listening good for you, it’s a gift you give others. It’s more than just being silent when another person is speaking. Listening creates the space for someone to be who they are, and to be heard. Sometimes they might have to ask for something that is difficult for them, or say something that they’ve been meaning to say to you. When you let them, they get to be powerful. It’s in the listening that people become more alive, clear and beautiful. And truly being listened to is a fabulous experience. Listening is said to nurture the soul, and we all desire the connection that communication creates. Sometimes the deepest insights of our creative mind emerge if someone can simply be present to you and listen to you deeply. Perhaps this is why counselors are perpetually popular. Someone once said, without the listening, there would be no music, no poetry and no prayer (if you know who that was, please e-mail me). Sarah McLean is the director of Sedona Meditation Training & Retreats and is certified and recommended by Dr. Deepak Chopra. She can be reached via e-mail at sarah@sedonameditation.com, phone at 928-204-0067 or fax at 866-654-1705. You can also visit online at www.SedonaMeditation.com.

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Soul work, responsibility, trust and transformation

ight falls sooner now that we are past the Autumnal Equinox. Even in Arizona, there is color in the trees and the world looks changed. As when snow falls to blanket the land in sound-absorbing stillness, autumn signals a transformation we can integrate into our own lives. This time when the nights become longer and nature prepares for her sojourn in the dormant underworld, is a time for introspection and reflection. Samhain (Halloween) is a threshold time between one year and the next, a time of magic, ritual and metaphor. It is a time for reconciliation and release, a time to honor those who have crossed over from this life to another, a time to descend the darkened hallways of our own psyches—it is a time for soul work. Ideally, soul work is something we engage in throughout the year, although it is a practice seldom taught in the culture-at-large. Those of us in recovery have an advantage because we come to learn about it through 12-Step program practice, although it takes a lifetime to really understand and develop. Addictions (of all kinds) are what happen when a person represses, denies or projects their own suffering and develops compensatory behaviors to numb the pain. Soul work is the art of living from an authentic, imaginative, depth perspective. It is also the discipline of leaning into one’s own pain to discover and integrate the inherent teaching gift. It is the process of disarming the false self and creating a safe environment for one’s deep soul nature to emerge. Soul work brings the recognition that our original wound (the “hole in the soul” to quote Jung) and subsequent wounding, carry within them the seeds of healing and wholeness. Soul work, from a healing perspective, explores levels of spiritual pain in the four main areas of meaning, relatedness, hope and forgiveness. Learning to recognize, befriend, integrate and transform our own spiritual pain allows us to serve others in a meaningful way, and hold sacred space for them as they explore their own experience. Many talk of the archetype of the wounded healer yet miss the essential point that it is not enough merely to be wounded. It is essential to have done enough soul work to recognize, embrace and transform one’s wounding into insight and compassion. It is alarming to me that so many people enter the so-called “helping professions” with little or no depth training in soul work. It is not enough to graduate a relatively short program in a singular focus seminary. It is not enough to get a degree in social work. It is not enough to get a degree in psychology or any other discipline. If a person has not engaged in deep and transformative soul work, that person transmits his or her pain (conscious and unconscious) to others. The human ego is a deceptive thing.

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It likes to fly under the radar masquerading as truth, compassion, and all manner of pretty shiny things. It is the old joke of someone being proud of his or her humility. It is probably safe to say that all humans are wounded to some degree—some more than others. Sadly, it is also probably safe to say that many, many people have their wounds exacerbated by those from whom they have sought healing and solace. If a person has not adequately traversed the labyrinthine paths of their own brokenness, they are not qualified to take the lead in others’ lives. If they have not adequately faced their own pain, the pain of others will trigger an ego-driven, defensive reaction resulting in projection and an unconscious attempt to slay one’s own dragons in the form of the other person. This is not to say that anyone, however well versed in soul work, ever graduates from the inconsistencies and paradoxes of the human condition. However, a person can become self aware and conscious enough to resist acting out their own inner conflicts in the lives of others, at the very least when they are active in their role as healer/helper. This is not easy by any means. Even the best intentions do not negate the need of personal transformation before offering assistance to others. This process is ongoing throughout a person’s life, but a minimal level of mastery is necessary to avoid compounding personal and collective pain. A person in a position of leadership, be that spiritual, psychological or any other, must learn adequate boundaries and psycho-spiritual self-care so that they are able to set their own issues aside and listen deeply to another from a place of conscious presence. Humans have many layers of consciousness through which to engage the world, many cloaks with which to hide and protect vulnerability. Deep wounding lives in the most vulnerable part of the human psyche. In order for this deep wounding to be revealed and offered to another for healing, radical trust is essential. The soul is shy and fragile; trust takes a long time to be established, yet can easily be destroyed. Riding roughshod over another’s trust is a form of spiritual abuse. Often, systems that operate through hierarchy behave as though the levels of

Photo by Pia Wyer There are places in the natural world so glorious, our soul comes alive in wonder and profound gratitude. These are the true cathedrals, where idols, egos and fears dissolve into authentic presence and worship.

hierarchy represent levels of power rather than degrees of responsibility. In truth, the higher one’s place in the hierarchy, the greater one’s need of accountability, humility and grace. Being king of the pond is not the same as being the river. It is a sacred trust to be invited into the inner life of another person. One that should neither be given nor received lightly. So, as we pack away the Halloween decorations, let us look at the skeletons in our own closet before we go out into the world. Let us make time to be still and listen to the voice of our own soul, to nurture that voice and disarm our ego enough for true healing integration of mind-body-spirit. Only then can we be fully human. Only then are we even remotely qualified to offer sustenance and healing to others. True relationship is nonlinear; it is an interdependent, conscious, listening presence. We affect one another in equal measure, in our imperfections and our grace, and we

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need one another to move more deeply into wholeness and insight. If we ask for a fish and someone offers us a stone, let us go to the river ourselves. Let us ask the river to share its bountiful wisdom and return to the stone maker to offer him a fish. If he dismisses our fish out of hand, then perhaps he is not of the river and we should move on. Pia has been a part of Earth Odyssey since the beginning. She has a Master’s degree in Culture and Spirituality from Holy Names University, Oakland, Calif., and is a recent graduate of the two-year Anamcara apprenticeship program through the Sacred art of Living Center in Bend, Ore. She is a freelance photographer, artist and writer based in Payson, Ariz. She can be reached through her photography and design business, Animist Arts, e-mail pia@animistarts.com, website www. animistarts.com and through Earth Odyssey, e-mail pia@earthodysseyonline.com.

November 2009

Telepathic animal communication

Creating deeper understanding between species By Nancy Windheart Earth Odyssey Contributor

n my work as an animal communicator, I am often asked about what I do, how telepathic animal communication works, what it is like to be able to hear and understand the animals and how I teach others to develop this ability. This article addresses some of the most commonly asked questions about telepathic animal communication.

How did you become an animal communicator? Since childhood, I have had a passion for animals, and a fascination for understanding how other beings think, feel and view the world. I communicated with and understood animals telepathically when I was young, and then reconnected with this ability after I adopted my first dog as an adult. I have done extensive training to develop and hone my skills, and to learn to use them professionally to assist others with their animal companions. I continue to deepen in my practice and learn from the animals every day, particularly my own animal family of dogs, cats, horses and chickens, who are my best teachers.

What is telepathic animal communication? Telepathic communication is a way of understanding others through images, feelings, sensations, thoughts or deep knowing that is not based on verbal language. Telepathic communication is the universal language—the way that all beings communicate that is “underneath” the specific language of each species. Humans, particularly in Western societies, have often lost this ability through our culture’s emphasis on verbal and written language, and favoring mental “thinking” over communication from the heart. Telepathic communication is not complicated, or reserved for a “gifted” few. I believe that this type of communication is our natural birthright, and one that anyone can rediscover and reclaim if they are willing to

Many animal communicators adhere to a professional code of ethics formulated by Penelope Smith, which is available on her Web site at www.animaltalk.net. devote some time and energy to the process. One of my greatest joys is helping others to re-awaken this natural ability through the courses that I teach, and seeing people begin to hear and appreciate their animal friends in new and deeper ways. Telepathy is a simple and direct form of communication that is available to all of us if we are simply willing to be open and pay attention to it.

What is an animal communication consultation? A telepathic animal communication consultation is an opportunity for you to have direct two-way communication with your animal friend. You can ask questions about matters that are important to you or problems you may be having in your relationship. I view my role as that of “translator”—I create a connection between you and your animal friend so that you may better understand each other. I communicate your animal’s viewpoints, feelings, perspectives and other relevant information that can help to create more cooperation and a deeper relationship between you. Animals are generally very grateful to have their people understand their point of view, and this may give a whole new perspective on how to handle issues you may be having with them. We work together to resolve misunderstandings, behavior problems, resolve past traumas and other difficulties. I work with all species of animals, both domestic and wild. I have found that each species has their own unique way of experiencing their lives and viewing the world and their place in it, and also that each individual within the species has their own perspective,

understanding and viewpoint. It is impossible to make generalizations about any species or type of animal that hold true for all. I am often asked how long-distance telepathic communication works. Because telepathy is “feeling across a distance,” it does not matter if the distance involved is 2 inches or 2,000 miles. Much the same as you may know what a close friend is feeling on the telephone, although you may be many miles apart, I can “hear” what your animal wishes to communicate to you, whether or not I am physically present with you or your animal friend. I establish a link with your animal through your description or a photo, and your intention to communicate with him or her. It is somewhat like tuning into the right radio channel or frequency. It is important to understand that animal communication is not a substitute for veterinary care, consistent and humane training, proper nutrition and good exercise. I regularly refer my clients to other professionals when it is appropriate. Animal communication can provide a clearer understanding of what is happening from the animal’s perspective, which can then lead to knowing which other resources may be effective in helping to resolve the situation.

Is there proof? I am also often asked about whether or not there is “proof ” that telepathic communication exists and whether it is effective. Many available resources, written by animal behaviorists and scientists as well as animal communicators, now address this question. I like to use a direct way of determining whether or not an animal communication session has “worked,” and that is by looking at the results. Did the animal’s behavior change? Did the human-animal relationship improve? Did the household become more harmonious? For example, if a dog stops urinating on the floor after a person fully understands the reasons for the behavior and has made any appropriate adjustments, it is a good indication that an understanding has been reached

and that the telepathic communication was a success. I have had many experiences in my own practice of telepathic communication making a significant difference for the people and animals I work with. One of my favorite stories is about a client who had a huge infestation of ants in his home. We worked to communicate with the ants, find out why they were there, understand their point of view and take steps to encourage them to leave, including explaining to them why they couldn’t remain in the home, removing their food sources and offering an alternative (temporary) food source outside. My client was amazed to see the ants literally reverse direction and head in a line out the door after our communication. Last I heard, they had not ever returned.

Choosing an animal communicator Each animal communicator has particular specialties, training and experience. The field has grown enormously in the last 30 years, with the early pioneers paving the way for those of us in practice now. When choosing an animal communicator to work with, it is important to find someone with whom you feel comfortable and compatible. I encourage people to read the article, “How to Choose an Animal Communicator” on Penelope Smith’s Web site at www. animaltalk.net. Many animal communicators in the profession also adhere to a professional code of ethics, formulated by Smith, and also available on her Web site. I also have the code of ethics on my Web site at www.CommunicateWithYourAnimals.com. Nancy Windheart is an animal communicator who lives in Prescott, Ariz. She offers in-person and long-distance animal communication consultations, and teaches basic and advanced courses in animal communication. Her professional training has been with Penelope Smith, founding pioneer in the field.Contact Nancy at www.CommunicateWithYourAnimals.com, nancy@commuicatewithyouranimals.com or 928-776-0082.

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Monthly horoscope from Dominique Read your Sun, Ascending and Moon sign. An astrologer can help you find all of the planets places on the day that you were born. h Scorpio—October 24–November 22 You may be noticing favorable changes in your surroundings. People seem to like you more and more. This is a good time to ask for something you have been wanting. Later in the month, your mind could be on finances. Next month brings improvement in this area. i Sagittarius—November 23–December 22 Changes around your home are possible now. Start work toward something you have been wanting. Your mind could be on something that happened in the recent past. Use this in a way that will benefit you by focusing on the good that has happened so far. j Capricorn—December 23–January 20 Your intuition is strong now, trust it! Changes are coming. Home is comfortable, but don’t forget to play. Have some fun! Someone tells you a secret. You are changing so gradually you may not notice it until next year. Pluto in your sign and could have you looking to transform and renew. k Aquarius—January 21–February 19 You may get back something that belongs

Dominique Shilling, MAFA, is a counselor and astrologer with a practice in the Valley. For an appointment, contact her at Way to the Light Within, (602) 279-2941 or check out her Web site at www.way2light.com. to you. Keep your eyes open for lucrative situations. You attract what you believe you deserve. Your mind may be on plans for the future. This is an especially good time to work toward long-term goals. l Pisces—February 20–March 20 Have you taken that trip yet? Started any new classes? You may be getting more

responsibilities. You can handle it! You have put a lot behind you. Are you moving in the direction of where you want to be? Spirituality, education and/or travel are highlighted for you now. a Aries—March 21–April 19 Lessons come through relationships with others. You have magnetic energy. Attract to you what you want. If someone or something seems to be working against you, check and see if you are working against yourself in some other way. It is OK to do something just for yourself. b Taurus—April 20–May 20 You will feel better as the year winds down. Have you made an agreement with a loved one? Relationships of all kinds are important at this time. Change is possible around your home. Take control by deciding what you want to change. Now is a good time to start the process. c Gemini—May 22–June 21 Your mind could be on your health. Are you taking better care of yourself lately? Your ability to find creative solutions could help you improve your life and your feeling of well being. Take time to do something good for yourself. Spend time with pets or in nature to calm and soothe yourself.

d Cancer—June 22–July 23 Use your talents of communication and creativity to get what you want. Romance is likely. This is also a good time to make any improvements around your home. If you are traveling, you are likely to encounter the unusual and the unexpected. This energy would be good for pleasure trips. e Leo—July 24–August 23 Focus may be on family or your beginnings. See what you can learn from your past. Home and security are highlighted this month. Trust your intuition about relationship with significant other. Mars in your sign is good for physical energy. f Virgo—August 24–September 23 Changes are possible in the romance area. Ask for what you want. Your earnings and value could increase in the next two and a half years. Saturn has moved out of your sign and on to Libra for a while. You may notice unusual situations with others in your life. g Libra—September 24–October 23 Remember, what you focus on expands. Count your blessings. Keep up the great work. You are respected and admired. Value, money and possessions are likely to be your focus now. Put your attention on what has—and is—working. More of the same will come to you!

Dominique takes an in-depth look at the stars

verall, this month we will have a balance of positive and negative relationships between the planets. As the personal planets make connections with outer planets, they affect us on an individual as well as world level. There are many opportunities for growth ahead. Saturn continues its square to Pluto. It started back in late October. This challenging relationship will be in effect for November, December, January and February and then will ease up a bit until August, when Pluto’s retrograde brings the two into square again. Then, in early September 2010, Saturn will have moved on. Look at your natal chart for any planets in early degrees (0 to 5) of Capricorn, Aries, Cancer and/or Libra to see where these planets will touch your life. Pluto transforms and Saturn brings structure, form and organization. Venus’s positive aspect to Neptune early in the month helps remind us of abilities that we were born with and are just recently waking up to. More and more souls on this Earth are reaching an enlightened state. Starting mid month, Mercury, Sun—and nearer to end of month, Venus—will each be making positive (trine) aspects to Uranus. These connections can intensify originality, independence, innovative ideas, amazing beauty and the unexpected!

conceited and arrogant hunter. No matter how hard he tried Orion could not defeat the scorpion. When Orion was trying to escape, the scorpion stung him to death with its poisonous tail. As a reward for its service, Gaia placed the scorpion’s image in the nighttime sky. To this day, it looks as if the scorpion is always chasing after Orion, which is a very bright star associated with this constellation. In New Zealand, the constellation is not seen as a scorpion, but as a heavenly fishhook. The Mayas of Central America named Scorpio “the sign of the Death-God.” The Romans at one time called Scorpio “the Lurking One.” The ancient people of Asia called the evil Scorpio “the Grave Digger of Caravans.” The Chinese looked on Scorpio as a star to be worshiped as a safeguard against fire. They named the star Huo Shing, meaning “the Fire Star.”

Scorpio Constellation Mythology

The following report is broken down by weeks.

Orion, who was a famed hunter, claimed that there was nothing that he could not kill or that could escape him. Of course, the Earth Goddess Gaia was not pleased with his intention. So she sent a giant scorpion to kill the

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This month’s retrograde planets We only have two planets in retrograde motion this month. Uranus went retrograde back on July 1st at 26 Pisces. It is at 23 degrees at the start of this month and will end the month at 22 degrees. It will start moving forward on the 30th of this month. Neptune is at 23 degrees Aquarius. It will go direct on the 3rd of this month.

Sunday the first: Mercury Scorpio square Mars Leo could heighten tempers. This month’s full moon is in Taurus and will be at its peak at 12:14 p.m. MST on the 2nd. A

Taurus full moon helps roots grow deeper. Its energy is tenacious, earthy and sensual. We also have Venus Libra trine Neptune Aquarius. This combination can enhance imagination, inspiration or even the desire to escape reality. On Wednesday Neptune goes direct at 23 Aquarius. The next day with Mercury conjunct Sun Scorpio, people could be more talkative. Venus goes into the sign of the Scorpion at 5:24 p.m. MST on Saturday the 7th. With Mercury Scorpio square Jupiter Aquarius decisions or solutions may end up having to be rethought. Jupiter energy in this aspect tends to exaggerate or overdo. On the same day, Venus Scorpio sextile Pluto Capricorn is a positive connection that can be good for research and discovering hidden information. It is also good for finding bargains! Tuesday has the Sun Scorpio square Jupiter Aquarius. Wait for another time if you need to make requests or to seek approval from elders or authorities. On the 11th, with Mercury trine Uranus, it is possible that you could hear from—or run into—someone you have not connected with for awhile. Mercury square Neptune could make it hard to tell the difference between truth and illusion. One may want to put off important purchases or making commitments for another day. Saturday the 14th has Sun Scorpio trine Uranus Pisces. This would be a perfect time to go out and do something different, take a break from the usual. The Saturn Libra square to Pluto Capricorn aspect (as mentioned in the second paragraph) is exact on Sunday the 15th. On

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a personal level, this could bring up sensitive issues, or put emotions on edge. We also have Sun Scorpio square Neptune Aquarius, which could make it harder to get things done due to emotion or confusion. Mercury goes into Sagittarius 5:28 p.m. MST. Then, on Monday the 16th the new moon in Scorpio turns us inward. It will be exact at 12:15 p.m. MST. Mercury Sagittarius sextile Saturn Libra makes this a good day to take care of details, as mental discipline comes more easily under this positive combination. Venus Scorpio square Mars Leo on Thursday would not make this a good time for romance. The Sun goes into Sagittarius 9:23 p.m. MST on the 21st. Monday the 23rd’s Venus Scorpio square Jupiter Aquarius puts two planets that usually bring beneficial things to us, in a hard relationship to each other! People are more likely to overdo at this time. It is like indulging in too much of a good thing. The next day’s Sun Sagittarius sextile Saturn Libra makes it easier to tackle tasks that require discipline and/or organization. Wednesday’s Venus Scorpio trine Uranus Pisces makes it a good day to do something completely different for a change. On Thursday Mercury Sagittarius trine Mars Leo enhances mental ability as well making it easier to feel and understand the emotions of others. Also, on this day (26th), we have Venus Scorpio square Neptune Aquarius. One could tend to be unrealistic in matters of money or love. The 29th with Mercury Sagittarius sextile Jupiter Aquarius is good for mental clarity and would be a perfect time to communicate goals, or make decisions.

November 2009

Legal issues for the unlicensed healing practitioner

o energy healers need a governmental license or certification to practice? The prevailing opinion is that the unlicensed healing practitioner needs no such license or approval. As a spiritual healer and former practicing attorney, I suspect I bring a rather unique view to this issue. And the answer to this question is much more complicated than many believe. Most energetic healers practicing today are “unlicensed.” That is, they hold no state authority or certification to do energy work. They are often Reiki practitioners, or massage therapists doing energy work, or people, like me, who have discovered their gifts almost “accidentally” through one of the myriad workshops and techniques that are being taught today. Some are chiropractors or psychologists or even doctors who have shifted toward energy healing in their work. But there is no license in Arizona to do energy work. Arizona is a rather unique jurisdiction. Like California, alternative forms of healing are celebrated and encouraged here. We have state boards for homeopathy, naturopathy and acupuncture, the dental board has taken a strong stand in favor of biological (mercury free) dentistry, one of the few places in the country, and the University of Arizona has celebrated leaders in the alternative health fields like Drs. Andrew Weil and Gary Schwartz.

By Michael Davis Let’s first look at the definition of the practice of medicine in Arizona: “‘Practice of medicine’ means the diagnosis, the treatment or the correction of or the attempt or the claim to be able to diagnose, treat or correct any and all human diseases, injuries, ailments, infirmities, deformities, physical and mental, real or imaginary, by any means, methods, devises or instrumentalities…” Wow. If you are like me, you see this as a very broad definition! And if you fall within this definition, you must be “licensed” to practice. But we can’t stop there. The most unique facet of Arizona, however, is that we have state statutes that directly speak to these legal issues; this isn’t surprising in light of the

progressive thinking in this state. State law, for instance, specifically exempts from licensure to practice medicine, “the practice of religion, treatment by prayer or the laying on of hands as a religious rite or ordinance.” It also exempts “the practice of any of the healing arts of and by the Indian tribes in this state.” In addition, state law specifically exempts from licensure under massage therapy, “techniques that are specifically intended to affect the human energy field,” so long as the client is fully clothed. These are very enlightened laws and they suggest that it is the intention of the legislature to allow and even encourage spiritual and energetic healing. As any lawyer will tell you, however, these statutes mean nothing until a court tells us what they really mean. This may strike you as odd, but this is the most common mistake that a layperson makes in trying to interpret the law. The language in these statutes is very vague and there has been no reported Arizona court case defining these terms. What is the “human energy field?” Or “healing arts?” Or “the practice of religion?” Is a massage therapist allowed to practice Reiki with his or her clients only when they are “fully clothed?” And what exactly does “fully clothed” mean? I hope you see the problem, and while this analysis may seem very narrow, such is the way of the law. And keep in mind that the

Organized approach to conquering your clutter

hen the day-to-day stress of home and work collide, individuals look to restore balance and order in both areas. The first step toward harmony and less stress is to reduce clutter. Being organized assists you in making better decisions, as well as facilitating effective time management in your daily life. When you organize, you create a way to maximize every inch of your home or office. If you’re stressed about your mess, overwhelmed with paperwork and have piles instead of files, want to find room to park the car in the garage, or are simply looking to downsize and purge your life of clutter, a professional organizer can put systems in place to organize your space. At the beginning of any organizing project jot down: The areas you want to organize. As you write them down, what thoughts or feelings come up with regard to the items to be sorted and the actual process of organizing? Describe the current state of the area that you want to organize and define your goals for organizing that area. This process will help you gain a sense of whether you can do it alone or need help, a time frame of how long it could take and possibly motivate you to begin the project. As you go through the items to be organized, ask yourself these five questions:

November 2009

• Do I keep this “just in case” I may need it someday? • When was the last time I used this? • Am I storing things that don’t belong to me? • Is it easily replaceable? • Is it beautiful, useful or loved? Wow! Conquering your clutter is quite a task! Here are some sorting tips to help you through the process. Set up labeled boxes to help sort as you go through each area: • “KEEP” (items you know you love and use) • “RETURN” (doesn’t belong to you and needs to go back) • “GIVE AWAY” (serviceable items to be donated) • “NEEDS REPAIR” (requires some work before it can be used) • “SELL” (valuable items to consign or sell)

• “TRASH” (items that can’t be repaired or used) • “NOT SURE” (don’t know if you want it or aren’t ready to let it go). Tape shut the “not sure” box and label it with the date and contents, put it in the garage, storage unit or basement. Make a note to check back in six to 12 months; if you haven’t needed anything in the box in that time, you can get rid of it. For more information on organizing and “how to organize” eBooks, contact Tanya, the Professional Organizer via e-mail at: tanya@idealsimplicity.com or www.idealsimplicity.com.

people construing this language, lawyers and judges, may be unaware of, or even hostile to, energy healing. I, therefore, feel very safe in declaring that we don’t know the answers to these legal questions. And with the coming of national health insurance, I fear these questions will no longer be hypothetical. Many energy healers have attempted to use consent forms to address many of these issues. And this is wise. But the exact language becomes critical, and since these state statutes have never been defined by a court, we are all operating in the dark. Certainly, an unlicensed healing practitioner should refrain from diagnosing health conditions or claiming cures. Others have become ordained via the Internet in order to seek cover under the religious exemptions. Believe it or not, such ordinations are completely valid and recognized under the law! But if one gets ordained and never mentions it again, or has no overtly religious or spiritual aspects to their practices, can they safely describe themselves as “religious practitioners” under the state statute? Could this not be seen as a sham? I do believe, however, that the legitimate practice of religious healing will always be exempt from the law. This is why I describe myself as a spiritual healer (and in fact I believe this is the mechanism by which healing occurs; it is not my work.) Hopefully, you can see that this issue is much more complicated than it looks. Indeed, it is safe to say that we cannot safely answer this question today. My charitable foundation, which can be found at EnergyMedicineFoundation.org, is having its third annual conference on Nov. 6 and 7 in Phoenix. I will be addressing this issue in depth on the second day. Come join me if these legal issues concern you. And come join the wonderful doctors and practitioners of the healing arts who will be there that weekend. Michael Davis is CEO of Energy Medicine Foundation and a member of the Mountain Spirit Co-Op in Prescott. He is the creator of Vibrational Realignment, a unique approach to spiritual healing, and can be reached at 928862-0594 or at VibrationalRealignment.com.

Come celebrate with us at the new location of PAHHs ReStore at 103 E. Hwy. 260 Thanks to your donations and contributions we have a larger retail store and full service business office to serve our friends, families and community. Join us on Wednesday, November 11th, 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. for the Grand Re-Opening celebration. Help us Build Homes, Build Hope.

928-474-4247

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Photo by Charles J. Sharp The hyrax is the smallest skeletal cousin to the Asian elephant. The hyrax looks somewhat like an overweight guinea pig.

Photo by Derek Hilton Ibex are wild mountain goats distinguished by the male’s large recurved horns, which are transversely ridged in front. Ibex are found in Eurasia, North and East Africa.

Adventure to Ein Gedi to glimpse leopard

he Ein Gedi reserve in Israel, located on the eastern border of the Judean Desert on the Dead Sea coast, is one of the most obscure nature reserves in the world. It is located in the hottest desert at the lowest surface point of our planet. Ein Gedi is a spring of wonderful clean fresh water, a respite from a harsh landscape of saline rock and more saline water. This spring has been kept free of all the wars for 2,000 years. Green is the most expected color around water, but at Ein Gedi, orange and brown are the predominant colors, with only a few tips of green. Green in the Judea, however, is always in stark contrast. The reason for my visit to this place resulted from hearing stories of leopardis Judea—the last known leopards with access to the European continent or population. My first act upon arrival was to locate the Bedouin who live in the hills around the springs. The Bedouin gave me directions to a pool of water up in a shallow basin in Ein Gedi Wadi [canyon]. “If you go and watch the area you will most likely see the cats,” I was told. It was a pleasant stroll on a well used goat trail. I took my time in the balmy 110 degree heat, walking past stands of acacia and bamboo. This area is home to the smallest skeletal cousin to the Asian elephant, known as the Hyrax, which looks somewhat like an overweight guinea pig. It was barely a mile into the stroll when I was startled by a click on rock. It was an Ibex—the Asian variation to the bighorn sheep. The Ibex suddenly topped a boulder right above me. It was in the shade and matched the background. It took five hours of steady walking to reach the pool of water. Oh, what a surprise

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By Bob Matthews for the traveler! Nestled in this dusty place was an arena of cool flowing water bordered by healthy and turgid greens. After refreshing myself a while, I realized several facts about my position. The reserve would close for the night, so mine would be an all-night vigil. My nerves were in for a workout, sitting alone in the leopards watering spot. Would they smell my presence? And, in the morning, I would have to sneak out in case the ranger realized that a visitor had spent the night. That evening was to live in my special zone of life experiences. For four long hours I sat watching the dark grow like a cover of paint on the canyon walls, slipping down to the source of all life-giving. All body parts and senses were on edge. Sounds were all around..click..click..rattle.. click. Ibex came as a family unit, each drank, each guarded, then they were away full and heavy, back up the canyons walls. To wait for a cat, the thing to do is to listen for alarm calls as hiding hyrax sentries pass the word..chat..chat..snitch! For they are not wanting to be an hors d’oeuvre to a quick hunter. The call has not happened yet! I wait. Still thoughts flit here and there like confused butterflies loose in my skull. Not a sound, but a feeling, close to me an animal is standing at the back of the pool, but I

cannot see it. Waiting, watching, feeling my nerves about to snap. It is still there. The sound split…splat on the water surface—the lapping sound of a cat slaking thirst. I see nothing. About five hours later, with the sounds of the night now familiar, I heard a deep scream from further down the canyon. An owl caught an elephant’s cousin; it was quick. The night was beginning to be defeated by the sun’s rays coming back to claim the Judea. I took another chance, moving slowly away from my hiding place, to move further up the canyon to gain a better vantage point. Then, within 20 feet, a small group of stones rolled down the slope behind me, stopping at my heal. There was plenty of dense cover, mostly brittle vegetation, with space underneath. The light was still poor. Being in a place you are not supposed to be, doing dumb things is extra. It was silly, but my concern was not to get tagged by the leopard because it would be embarrassing to be caught by the rangers. Positioning myself so as to have the rock wall at my back, I sat down again and waited. There was still something under the brush. I could just hear soft, relaxed breathing. My heart was far from relaxed, just holding in the very special place where the flight or fight can kick in.

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In the vagueness of pre-dawn light, my eyes were getting better. I could now see for about 30 yards in the soft hazy light. Looking above where I could hear the breathing I could just discern a trail used by the Ibex and other sure-footed residents of the Judea. It was only after looking away—and then back—that I realized I was looking at a section of fur that was mostly black. It was curling and uncurling slowly, as if on auto pilot. My quarry of the night was right there. The next sound nearly gave me a heart attack—a rapid series of gun shots from way down the canyon. Bang! Bang! That reverberated off the walls. It was the rangers, who have a routine of firing blank loud rounds first thing in the mornings to get the leopards to run and hide before tourists arrive. I, too, knew it was time to head out. I went back the way the Bedouin had directed me. I spotted some leopard. Sorry, bad humor. It was only about four inches of fur, but WOW! This was as close as I got to the leopard. The night was long, but a souvenir was gained. Drinking the water that night was fine, but two weeks later my vigil was repeated in a bathroom for four nights and days. In that time, I lost more than 30 pounds. At times, the condition repeats and my dysentery reoccurs. Each time, memories of God’s Pool at the Ein Gedi are returned to that night I did not see any of the cats for which my quest was made. Some have their photo albums, but I am quite content to have my own souvenirs. Bob Matthews likes to spend time out in wild places. Arizona is his choice for home and the United States is his choice for country of citizenship. He was born in England. “My planet is yours, but my world is what I try to share.”

November 2009

Sudoku!

Fill in the grid so that every row, every column and every 3x3 box contains numbers 1 through 9. The puzzle has only one solution. The solution is on page 28.

Word Power

Lapidate (verb) Pronunciation: [‘læp-ê-deyt] Definition: To stone, to throw stones at, to stone to death. Usage: The process noun is “lapidation” and someone who throws stones is a lapidator. “Lapidary” is the adjective meaning “related to stones” and lapidable means “may be stoned (for),” as a lapidable offense. This word keeps arising in Nigeria, Iran and a few other countries, where this Old Tes-

tament and Islamic form of the death penalty is applied to adulterers, most often women. Suggested Usage: Most of us live in countries that abandoned this form of execution, freeing the word for other uses: “Those who live in glass houses should not lapidate others.” In civilized nations, lapidation is a game played mostly by children, “Nothing evokes lapidation from a child like the sight of a lake.

Courtney is hosting Thanksgiving this year. She invited her family (Jordan, Cameron, Benjamin, Emily, Alexander, Abigail, Shelby and Alexandra) to her house. Her grandfather, her brother, her sister, her grandmother, her father, her mother, her uncle and her aunt all had a great time at her house! Figure out how each person is related to Courtney and make a family tree. 1. Jordan is Cameron’s brother. 2. Cameron is Courtney’s father. 3. Shelby is not Courtney’s grandmother. 4. In the afternoon, all of the men were watching football. Shelby, Abigail, Emily, and Alexandra were talking and not watching football. 5. Abigail is Courtney’s aunt.

6. Alexandra is not Courtney’s mother. 7. Benjamin has no children. 8. Benjamin is Alexandra’s brother. 9. Shelby is Alexandra’s mother.

Solution on page 28 November 2009

Solutions on page 28 Earth Odyssey • www.EarthOdysseyOnline.com

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Renowned Diné Medicine Woman to share traditions

alking Thunder, renowned Diné (Navajo) Medicine Woman from New Mexico, will be in Prescott on Nov. 14 and 15 to share traditional medicine ways of her people. On Saturday, Nov. 14 under “The Chakaruna’s Offering,” Walking Thunder will present a talk on “What Does It Mean to be a Medicine Woman in Today’s World?” from 7 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. at the Smoki Museum of American Indian Art and Culture, 147 N. Arizona Ave. in Prescott. The “Spirit Keeper’s Circle,” a follow-on gathering on “Teaching/Training for Healers” will be offered on Sunday, Nov. 15 from 1 p.m. to 6 p.m. at the Center for Spiritual Living, 3755 Willow Creek Road. The Sunday gathering will also include a demonstration of sand painting and how they are traditionally used. You do not have to be a healing practitioner to attend either event. “Through native Wisdom Keepers, we can rediscover commonalities and develop a greater respect for one another, a chance to enhance our lives,” said Carla Woody, MA, founding president of Kenosis Spirit Keepers. “In these times, there are indigenous healers who act as a bridge and unite cultures. In the Quechua language of the Andes, a person who under-

takes this role is called a chakaruna. They help us remember what we already know.” These are the final season events of the Fall Spirit Keepers Series offered by Kenosis Spirit Keepers, a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization based in Prescott whose mission is to honor and preserve the integrity of indigenous wisdom and sacred cultural practices. The Spirit Keepers Series is presented in cooperation with the Ringing Rocks Foundation of Sedona. Discounts are available for advance ticket sales and savings for full-time students with valid ID and seniors 65 or over. Purchase tickets in advance online at www.kenosisspiritkeepers.org via PayPal. Limited availability at the door. Also purchase tickets by Nov. 13 at: Adventure Travel, 130 Grove Ave., in Prescott, or by calling 928-771-0144. For more information, visit www.kenosisspiritkeepers.org, e-mail info@kenosisspiritkeepers.org or call 928-778-1058. Walking Thunder is featured in the books “Shamans of the World” and “Profiles of Healing” and known as a living library of wisdom. Shaman’s Drum Magazine highlighted her on its cover in 2002.

Recurring Events Celiac (gluten free) Support Group, Payson. We will provide important resources and information for people on gluten-free diets. Snacks will be provided from Gluten Free creations bakery in Phoenix! Contact Christine for more information 928-595-2379. Monday nights, 7 p.m.—Self Search/Channeled Readings, The Way To The Light Within, Phoenix. This class has been going on for over 12 years now. In the first part of the class, Dominique uses her psychic ability and StarWheel™ tiles to give each participant a mini reading. Bring your questions about anything you want to know, because in the second part of the class Dominique connects to her own as well as your guides, to get answers and guidance for you. Dominique is also a medium and can connect with and give you information from departed loved ones or friends. $20, Call 602-279-2941 to reserve your place. Thursdays, Vibrational Realignment, a unique form of spiritual healing, with Mike Davis at Mountain Spirit Co-Op, 107 N. Cortez St., Suite 100, Prescott. For more info or an appointment, call 928-862-0594.

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Fridays–Sundays, 9 a.m.–4:30 p.m., Prescott Valley—Third Eye Scents Free Meditation Introduction. A quick explanation of how meditating benefits your spiritual and physical health. Lower your blood pressure, take years off your appearance, relax and enjoy your beautiful gift of life. Third Eye Scents 7359 E. 2nd St.. [inside the Indoor Swap Meet]. Every weekend during October. Free 11” incense stick to all inquirers. Saturdays, 9 a.m., Cottonwood, Prescott Valley, Scottsdale, Flagstaff and Kingman—Saturday Solar Seminars presented by Arizona Solar Power. Learn about solar energy for your home. Listen to a presentation on the most up-to-date products, how they work, and how they can save homeowners and even businesses money! Question and answer session follows, so you’re sure to leave with a greater knowledge of solar and how it can be one of the smartest investments you’ll make for yourself and the future. Call to reserve your place at either of our great locations: Cottonwood telephone 928-6347341, Prescott Valley/Dewey telephone 928-632-5525, Scottsdale telephone 480-607-5339, Flagstaff telephone 928-774-0753, Kingman telephone 877-496-0167. Saturdays, Nov. 7 and 14, 12:30 p.m. to 5 p.m.—Law

of Attraction/Vision Board Workshop with Patti Stanley, Soul Coach®, A Vision board is a road map of the goals you wish to create in your life. Using images and graphics from magazines and photos, you’ll create a personalized collage poster as a constant reminder of your increasing abundance. Participation in this 4½ hour repeating class will change your life. Cost is $45. Contact Patti Stanley, CSC, at 602-568-4458 or Soul2sole.us.

Nonrecurring Events Nov. 6 and 7, 8 a.m.–5 p.m., Phoenix—Third Annual Energy Medicine Conference “Preventive Medicine: The New Frontier” and Holistic Wellness Fair 2009, Crowne Plaza Phoenix. Friday’s theme is “Finding Solutions Beyond Rx” and Saturday will be “Holistic Health Pioneers Blaze the Trail.” For more info, call 602-996-9753 or see www.energymedicinefoundation.org/events. Nov. 7, Black Canyon City—CommUnity FunFest and Veteran’s Day Celebration. Events begin with a pancake breakfast at the VFW Hall from 7 a.m. to 9 a.m. and conclude with a fireworks display at dusk and an evening dance at Kid Chilleen’s Steakhouse. Events throughout the day include a car show (10 a.m.–2 p.m.), a kid’s bake sale (10 a.m.–2 p.m.), Native American

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dancing (Noon and 2 p.m.) and a wine tasting (Noon-4 p.m.). For more info, call the Black Canyon City Chamber at 632-374-9797. Nov. 7, 8 a.m.–Noon, Chandler—Monthly Family Bird Walk. Volunteers from the Desert Rivers Audubon Society will lead guided bird walks through Veterans Oasis Park. Free. City of Chandler Environmental Education Center. For more info, call 480-782-2890, or visit www.chandleraz.gov/veterans-oasis. Nov. 7, 9 a.m.–10 a.m., Chandler—Birdwatching for Kids. Veterans Oasis Park. Fee. Preregistration required. City of Chandler Environmental Education Center. For more info, call 480-782-2890, or visit www.chandleraz. gov/veterans-oasis. Nov. 7, 10 a.m.–1 p.m., Chandler—Fire by Friction. Ages 10 and older. Veterans Oasis Park. Fee. Preregistration required. City of Chandler Environmental Education Center. For more info, call 480-782-2890, or visit www.chandleraz.gov/veterans-oasis. Nov.7, 4 p.m.-6 p.m., Flagstaff—Five local authors will read aloud from their new collaborative volume:

November 2009

“Celebrating Divine Presence: Journeys into God” (London: Companion Books, 2008) with two special guests: Norm Shrewsbury, a local Tibetan Buddhist, and Rev. Konrad Kaserer, a minister of the Unity church in Flagstaff. At the Northern Arizona Yoga Center, 113 S. San Francisco St., Flagstaff. For more info, see story on page 19, or contact Laurent Weichberger at 928-6008898 or Laurent@ompoint.com. Nov. 11, 9 a.m. to 9 p.m., Payson—Grand Re-Opening celebration at the new location of the Payson Area Habitat for Humanity’s ReStore at 103 E. Hwy. 260. For more info, call 928-474-4247. Nov. 13–15, Friday 5 p.m. to 9 p.m., Saturday 5 p.m. to 9 p.m. and Sunday 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., Santa Fe— The Recycle Santa Fe Art Festival at El Museo Cultural. More than 50 artists using a minimum of 75 percent recycled materials to create their work will be displaying and offering these wonders for sale in our art market and juried art exhibit. The show features artists from not only Santa Fe and around New Mexico, but also Colorado, Illinois, Alaska, Arizona, Texas and Wyoming. Admission to the Art Market is $5 on Friday night and $10 to both the Art Market and Trash Fashion Show and is free on Saturday and Sunday. For more info, see www.recyclesantafe.org. Nov. 14, Noon–4 p.m., Prescott—Mountain Spinners and Weavers Guild 2009 fundraiser, a catered Fall Fashion

Show and Tea at the Prescott Adult Center. Funds raised support continuing education and provide tuition assistance for students to attend weaving classes at Yavapai College. The Guild is dedicated to preserving hand-weaving and hand-spinning traditions as well as exploring other types of fiber art. Tickets are available at Studio Three, 1440 West Gurley St. and A Good Yarn, 220 W. Goodwin in the Firehouse Plaza, or by calling Marilyn Smith 928-775-2909 and Barbara Gray 928-776-7889. For more info, contact Mary Jane Hoff at 928-443-8696. Nov. 14, 6 p.m.–10 p.m., Prescott—Prescott Area Habitat for Humanity’s annual Toolbelts and Tuxedos gala event takes place at the Prescott Resort. Live jazz, delicious dining, an entertaining live auction and an abundance of silent auction items. Tickets are $75 per person and $650 for a table of 10. Raffle tickets are also available at one for $5, five for $20 and 13 for $50. Among the numerous prizes is the grand prize of $2,000 cash. To purchase tickets, or for more info, contact Christine Wallace at 928-445-8003, Ext. 15. Nov. 14, 7 p.m.–8:30 p.m., Prescott—Walking Thunder Diné Medicine Woman from New Mexico, The Chakaruna’s Offering (see story on page 26). For more info, see www.kenosisspiritkeepers.org/events.html, or call 928-778-1058. Nov. 15, 1 p.m.–6 p.m., Prescott—Walking Thunder Diné Medicine Woman from New Mexico, The Spirit Keeper’s Circle: An experiential opportunity on “Teach-

ing/Training for Healers.” Center for Spiritual Living, 3755 Willow Creek Road, Prescott. Discounts for advance ticket sales, seniors 65 and older, and full-time students. Advance tickets available at Adventure Travel at 130 Grove St. in Prescott until Friday, Nov. 13 at 4 p.m. Available online until Saturday, Nov. 15 at noon. Mail-in (downloadable brochure on Web site) reservations must be received no later than Nov. 13. For more info, see www.kenosisspiritkeepers.org/events.html, or call 928-778-1058. Nov. 21, Prescott—A Day of Healing at On the Mesa, 3390 N. Hwy. 89, in the Granite Dells. Mini sessions: Healings, Lectures and Meditations. Reserve your spot if you are a teacher, healer or student wanting to participate. All services and classes by donation. For more info, call 928-776-7671. Nov. 21, 2 p.m.–4 p.m., Pine—Workshop with PAO at the Crystal Lotus Gallery, Pine Needle Basket Weaving. Learn to create baskets from what you rake up in your yard! Materials and tools will be supplied. Call for details, Crystal Lotus Gallery, 3950 N Hwy. 87, Pine, Ariz. Phone: 928-476-3410. Nov. 27, 6 p.m.-8:30 p.m., Prescott—Arts Prescott Gallery Cooperative Gallery, 16th Annual Holiday Party

Fundraiser “Art to celebrate the kids in our lives,” 134 S. Montezuma St., Prescott. All proceeds will benefit The Child Haven Crisis Nursery. For more info, call 928776-7717, or see www.artsprescott.com. Dec. 5, Prescott—Event at On the Mesa, 3390 N. Hwy. 89, in the Granite Dells. Artisans and healers wanted. For more info, call 928-776-7671. Saturdays, Dec. 5 and 12, 12:30 p.m. to 5 p.m.—Law of Attraction/Vision Board Workshop with Patti Stanley, Soul Coach®, A Vision board is a road map of the goals you wish to create in your life. Using images and graphics from magazines and photos, you’ll create a personalized collage poster as a constant reminder of your increasing abundance. Participation in this 4½ hour repeating class will change your life. Cost is $45. Contact Patti Stanley, CSC, at 602-568-4458 or Soul2sole.us. Jan. 5-16, 2010—Entering the Maya Mysteries. Spiritual travel to Mexico and Guatemala visiting hidden sacred places and nearly extinct ceremonies with the last Spirit Keeper of the Lacandón Maya. Hopi elders travel as invited guests. Limited number partial young adult sponsorships. A portion of tuition tax-deductible. For info, go to events page at www.kenosisspiritkeepers.org or call 928-778-1058.

Earth Odyssey Send info to: editor@earthodysseyonline.com. Provide a telephone number or other contact information. Put “calendar submission” in the subject line. The deadline is the 20th of the month for publication the following month (Nov. 20 for December publication). Payment, which is due at the time of submission, can be made online via PayPal, or mail a check payable to Pinon Pine Press to: Editor, 1042 Willow Creek Road, Ste A101-PMB 486, Prescott, AZ 86301. November 2009

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Page 27

Laser therapy: More than the eye can see

aser therapy aims to bio-stimulate injured and dysfunctional tissues. Clinical studies and trials of laser therapy technology indicate that it has beneficial effects on tissues and cells. Some of these effects include: accelerated tissue repair and cell growth, faster wound healing, reduced fibrous tissue formation, antiinflammation, anti-pain, improved vascular activity, increased metabolic activity, improved nerve function and immunoregulation.

Faster wound healing Laser light stimulates fibroblast development (fibroblasts are the building blocks of collagen, which is predominant in wound healing) in

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Slow recovery of nerve function in damaged tissue can result in numbness and impaired limbs. Laser light will speed up the process of nerve cell reconnection and increase the amplitude of action potentials to optimize muscle action.

Laser light therapy has an anti-edema effect (reduction of swelling) as it causes vasodilatation (dilation of blood vessels), but also because it activates the lymphatic drainage system (drains swollen areas). As a result, there is a reduction in swelling caused by bruising or inflammation.

Anti-pain (analgesic)

By Timothy A. Patterson, DVM, CVA, VCP damaged tissue. Collagen is the essential protein required to replace old tissue or to repair tissue injuries. As a result, laser therapy is effective on healing open wounds and burns.

EPA helps supermarkets save money, reduce greenhouse gases wo supermarkets with stores in the Southwest received partner awards from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s GreenChill Advanced Refrigeration Partnership recently. Sprouts Farmers Market received a New Partner Award and Whole Foods received GreenChill’s Most Improved Emissions Rate Award. Sprouts Farmers Market and Whole Foods were acknowledged for going above and beyond regulatory requirements by measuring and tracking refrigerant emissions that affect climate change and the Earth’s ozone layer. “The public wants to do business with companies that share their environmental values,” said Keilly Witman, GreenChill Program Manager. “By joining GreenChill, Sprouts Farmers Market is proving to consumers that they care about the Earth’s ozone layer and climate system.” “Whole Foods has really focused on reducing refrigerant emissions this past year, and this award is the result of that effort,” Witman said. “As a GreenChill Founding Partner, Whole Foods shares GreenChill’s mission to minimize supermarkets’ impact on the Earth’s ozone layer and on climate change.” Launched in November 2007, the GreenChill Advanced Refrigeration Partnership works with supermarkets to reduce their emissions of ozone-depleting and greenhouse gas refrigerants. The program now includes more than 6,500 stores in 47 states. In 2008, partners reduced their aggregate total emissions by 8.5 percent.

Improved nerve function

Laser therapy reduces the formation of scar tissue following tissue damage from cuts, scratches, burns or surgery.

Anti-inﬂammation

Accelerated tissue repair and cell growth Photons of light from lasers penetrate deeply into tissue and accelerate cellular reproduction and growth. The laser light increases the energy available to the cell so that the cell can take on nutrients faster and get rid of waste products. As a result of exposure to laser light, the cells of tendons, ligaments and muscles are repaired faster.

Reduced ﬁbrous tissue formation

“This is the beginning of a partnership that is going to help us reduce significant amounts of ozone depleting refrigerant and other emissions, cut costs for supermarkets and consumers, and protect our health and the environment, “ said Gina McCarthy, assistant administrator for EPA’s Office of Air and Radiation. “EPA will continue working to find a path forward that rewards the mutual interests of our supermarkets and the environmental health of the communities they serve.” Compared to the supermarket industry as a whole, GreenChill partners emit significantly fewer ozone-depleting refrigerant emissions and greenhouse gases, and save money at the same time. EPA officials estimate that if all U.S. supermarkets reduced emissions to the current GreenChill average, the nation could save the equivalent of 22 million metric tons of carbon dioxide and 240 ozone-depleting potential tons each year—equal to the annual emissions from more than 4 million cars. This carries a cost savings of $108 million in refrigerant expenses annually. To highlight the program’s top-performing participants, GreenChill recently implemented a Store Certification Awards Program. This component recognizes retail stores that achieve at least a 50 percent reduction in refrigerant charge and a 75 percent reduction in refrigerant emissions, resulting in either gold- or silver-level certification. To date, eight stores have been awarded GreenChill gold, and four stores have been awarded the silver. For a complete list of GreenChill partners, see www.epa.gov/ozone/partnerships/greenchill/gcpartners.html.

Laser therapy has a high beneficial effect on nerve cells. It blocks pain transmitted by these cells to the brain and decreases nerve sensitivity. Also, due to less inflammation, there is less swelling and less pain. Another pain blocking mechanism involves the production of high levels of pain killing chemicals, such as endorphins and enkephalins, from the brain and adrenal gland. These chemicals are hundreds of times more powerful than typical painkillers.

Improved vascular activity Laser light will significantly increase the formation of new capillaries in damaged tissue; this speeds up the healing process, closes wounds quickly and reduces scar tissue. Additional benefits include acceleration of angiogenesis (growth of new blood vessels from pre-existing vessels), which causes temporary vasodilatation, an increase in the diameter of blood vessels.

Increased metabolic activity Laser therapy creates higher outputs of specific enzymes, greater oxygen and food particle loads for blood cells. Laser therapy also stimulates photoreceptors on the mitochondria of cells and induces them to produce more DNA. Thus, these photo-stimulated cells replicate faster.

Immunoregulation Laser light has a direct effect on immunity status by stimulation of immunoglobulins and lymphocytes. Laser therapy is absorbed by chromophones (molecule enzymes) that react to laser light. The enzyme flavomononucleotide is activated and starts the production of ATP (adenosine-tri-phosphate), which is the major carrier of cell energy and the energy source for all chemical reactions in the cells. As a result of these beneficial effects on tissues and cells, laser therapy is a viable option for many conditions. High-power laser therapy (HPLT) is dramatically improving the treatment of many conditions previously refractive to traditional care. Using the highpower laser therapy device, practitioners are now able to offer their patients a safe, painless, and nonsurgical treatment procedure for even the toughest musculoskeletal, orthopedic and neurological maladies. Applications that a Class IV Therapeutic Laser work on effectively include: arthritis (degenerative joint disease), muscle, ligament and tendon injuries, sports injuries, back and hip pain, neck and shoulder pain, foot and heel pain, knee pain, sprains and strains, ulcerations and open wounds, post-surgical and soft tissue trauma, neuromuscular disease, fibromyalgia, TMJ, achy/stiff joints, trigger points and muscle spasms, sciatica (leg pain), herniated discs, poor circulation, stress fractures and nerve pain. Timothy A. Patterson, DVM, CVA, VCP is an independent veterinarian, specializing in holistic and herbal medicine and laser therapy. He offers mobile small animal and equine services and can be reached by phone at 928951-5261.

Puzzle Solutions

Logic Puzzle Solution: Shelby is Courtney’s mother. Cameron is Courtney’s father. Benjamin is Courtney’s brother. Alexandra is Courtney’s sister. Alexander is Courtney’s grandfather. Emily is Courtney’s grandmother. Jordan is Courtney’s uncle. Abigail is Courtney’s aunt.

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November 2009

Exposé traces origins of Swine Flu

was planning to review the new Michael Moore movie, but it came out just as our last month’s issue came out. By the time this comes out, it’ll be old news, and anyone who wanted to see it will have already seen it. So, I figured I’d chose another film related to bad business practice in America. I initially chose “The End of America,” which is basically a film adaptation of Noami Wolf ’s book by the same name. Although it was informative and recent, it had very little new information that I had not already covered in previous movie reviews. It pertained to the Bush administration’s full-on assault of our civil liberties, which although no work has been done as yet to restore them, I hope this will soon be an outdated topic. I then came across a new resource for informative materials, and there I found “The Swine Flu Vaccination Hoax Exposed,” and thought to myself “Now there’s a current and relevant topic.” So here we are. “The Swine Flu Vaccination Hoax” is the first film I’ve reviewed that I can confidently classify as “underground.” The entire film is an interview between two people, which took place on April 29, 2009, and while they speak, still images related to the subject matter—such as web pages and photos—show. I would guess that the film cost about $50 to make, but the information therein is priceless. First, is the formation and purposes of viruses and how they are created by an organism for a purpose. Since they are customdesigned by the organism, they can only affect that species. This is a really important point: Viruses cannot cross species. The swine flu last showed its face in 1976 when David Rockefeller (A Bilderberg group globalist) made the push to President Gerald Ford for the vaccine to be given to all of America. The vaccine was made by the pharmaceutical company of which Rockefeller was the vice president. That vaccine killed hundreds—three of whom died right on the spot after receiving

November 2009

Movie Reviews by Jason Allen

Movies that won’t make you dumber the “vaccine,” which was little more than the virus itself. The only way to introduce a foreign virus into a different species is by injecting it directly into the body. I’m sure you all remember that this new version of the swine flu started in Mexico. In 1976 they put this deadly vaccine in a vault—as they do with all viruses for some reason. Well, they pulled it out of the vault and gave it to the Mexican government, which then administered “free flu shots.” We know what happened next. Surely this is all ancient history—no such sinister plot could occur today, right? Today’s vaccine is Tamiflu. It is alleged to cause younger people to act very strange, as if they were on a hallucinogen. It is also alleged to be deadly. Tamiflu is manufactured by Gilead Sciences, a company in which Donald Rumsfeld has a controlling interest. Sound familiar? So how does this keep happening? Well, in the 1960s, Henry Kissinger (another Bilderburger) was tasked to write a paper on overpopulation, in which he states that the best way to solve overpopulation is to inject people with contaminated medications. The National Security Agency (NSA) then adopted and passed regulations to enable it to use American citizens as test subjects for biological warfare. The film then goes into some history of similar type occurrences, such as how AIDS

was created in a UCLA lab in ’61-’62 by combining lymphomic virus of a sheep and leukemic virus of a bovine in order to give lab animals cancer so that it could be studied. At least that was the official story. AIDS was then cleared by the NSA and the war department to be used in experi-

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ments on “undesirable” humans. It was decided homosexuals would be targeted. They discovered that in Los Angeles, New York, Houston and San Francisco, 90 percent of the people who were being treated for hepatitis were homosexuals, so they put AIDS into the Hepatitis B vaccine. Internationally, they (the United States and Great Britain) put AIDS into small pox vaccines that they donated to African countries. Those countries were then debted with the medical treatments, which resulted in 27 African countries having to turn over the rights to their natural resources to the World Bank. I’m out of space, but there’s also another story related to polio. I wouldn’t really call this film a documentary, since it’s just one interview, and documentaries need several interviews from both sides of an issue. This film is really more of an exposé. This one really got to me, and made me check a bit of this out for myself. I recommend every one of you research this, especially before you poison yourself or your children, please.

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Vibrational Essences heal negative emotions

obert had Hepatitis C and wanted to know if any herbs would be helpful to heal his liver. After doing some research, he decided to take an herbal combination of milk thistle, schizandra and dandelion root, as well as amalaki, a type of gooseberry. Within a few days he started to feel better and had more energy. His doctor was pleased with the lab results and encouraged him to continue with this herbal program. Faithfully, every two or three months, he’d come in to purchase his supply of herbs. We got into conversations about his life, health and all the changes he had made to live a healthier life. As a Vietnam War veteran, I thought he was coping very well with all life had dished up on him. But Robert was hiding his bitterness and anger about his experiences in Vietnam. He was trapped in a vicious circle of anger, rage and guilt. One day he asked me: “How long will I need to take the herbs to overcome my illness?” Without hesitating I said: “Until you are ready to let go of anger and bitterness. Anger and bitterness injure the liver.” I did not see Robert for a while. One day

he called me and asked if I could suggest some Vibrational Essences to help him with his anger. With the support from herbs, Vibrational Essences and some counseling, today Robert is free from Hepatitis C, anger and bitterness. Medical researchers have confirmed the connection between negative emotions and disease. Negative emotions cause the disruption of nervous system functions, hormone levels and immunological response. Vibrational Essences are exceptionally supportive in healing negative emotions.

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What are Vibrational Essences? Vibrational Essences are homeopathic style liquid preparations to restore inner harmony. They have long been used as a healing system, but were made popular in the 1930s by Dr. Edward Bach, a well-respected physician specializing in bacteriology at a major London hospital. Dr. Bach believed that “true healing cannot occur unless there is a change in outlook, peace of mind and inner happiness.” He discovered 38 flower essences to heal the emotions, including the famous “Rescue Remedy.”

How Do They Work? Vibrational Essences use the emotional system as an access point to bring harmony to body, heart and mind. They not only treat the symptoms of an illness, but also they reach the emotions and spirit of the deeper causes of an illness. Specific essences can address particular emotional imbalances. For example, by holding in anger, many people experience stomach and liver ailments. When they free themselves of anger with the appropriate essence, healing occurs in the gastro-intestinal system. Your thoughts and your feelings are programmed in the mind, similar to a computer program. This program releases neuropeptides into the system, which then imprints into the fluids of the body. Thus, your body is imprinted by your views about your life. Each essence holds its own vibration and the vibration impacts upon the cellular level,

or the fluid programming, if you want. When you ingest an essence into your body, it is absorbed through the mucous membranes of the mouth into the fluids of the body. Now, imagine it like a light spreading throughout your body. This light spreads throughout your body with its own natural vibration. It doesn’t reprogram—it programs its own signature. It is not in opposition to your natural body and flow, such as antibiotics, for example, being in opposition to your actual immune system. If you take, for example, an Herb Stop essence “Embracing Wealth,” this essence amplifies that programmed aspect within yourself, the sense of security, abundance, self worth, etc. It brings it out to the forefront, strengthens it, enhancing what is already there. Fundamentally, what Vibrational Essences do, is target a very specific area of programming, enlighten it, (that is why I say it is like a light spreading throughout your body), enhance they and bring it forward in vibration. They do not override, but overwhelm all other programming and amplify that aspect naturally within your mind, emotion and body. Vibrational Essences are very safe for everyone and can be used in conjunction with other therapies to enhance the healing process. They can also be helpful in dealing with issues relating, for example, to career, money, relationships, future goals and ambitions. If you are coping with a physical imbalance, emotional turbulence, job burnout, relationship stress, or maybe you are at a crossroads in your life, facing a challenging situation, Vibrational Essences could be instrumental in helping you regain your balance. The herbs discussed in this article can be purchased at The Herb Stop located in Pine, 4004 N. Hwy. 87. If you have any questions, Leilah can be reached at 928-476-4144 or by e-mail at herbstop@gmail.com. The FDA has not approved these statements. The information given is not meant to act as a prescription, medical advice or therapeutic advice. Consult your healthcare professional prior to using botanicals discussed in this column.

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November 2009

Anything goes in creative recycling

his past weekend was spent going through the stuff accumulated in the garage. I found many old and unused items, including a peg board in miscellaneous sizes. Other treasures included tubs and tubs of unused fabric, glue—Elmer’s Glue®, wood glue, shoe glue, gorilla glue…EEK…glue was showing up in every corner of the garage! I decided a sense of order was needed to get back on track, so I put all 11 bottles of glue neatly on a shelf. In the past, if I could not find what I was looking for, I would just run down to the local store and purchase what I needed. Now, I have more than enough and need to unload my excess stuff. I found all my paints and neatly put them together on another shelf and on and so forth until finally order appeared. The garage now housed everything and anything that could be reused, recycled or renewed. I started with a old, rundown handmade paper book shelf. I found some old paint and painted the inside of the shelf a hunter green. Then, with other leftover paint, I painted the outside a sage green. The shelves in their natural beauty were a honey color, so I trimmed out the edges of the shelves with a honey-colored paint. I then gathered some pieces of cloth and glued them to the outside of the shelf creating usable pockets on each side of my shelf. Without much thought, I created a beautiful pedestal bookshelf that had a functional purpose as a piece of art. My next project consisted of taking the peg board and creating a piece of art to go with my new pedestal bookshelf. So, off I went to my neat, organized garage to pick things that I could use to recycle some more. I got out more fabric, more glue, an old bottle of Mod Podge®, and off I went creating another piece of art. I cut my fabric and place it all down to create my final piece before I glued anything, just in case I wanted to move things around. Then, after I placed everything where I wanted it, I glued down my pieces. After I glued down my pieces and everything was dry, I put a coat of Mod Podge® over the entire piece, including the exposed peg holes. To fill in the exposed holes in the peg board, I took old yarn and jute, made a large knot, slipped the other end through the hole and tied off another large knot on the back and cut off the excess yarn. In no time I had created another beautiful piece of art. In one day, I created two lovely pieces of art that I could easily market for about $350. Or, I could give them as a gifts, or just keep them and enjoy them myself. I think I will sell them just to know that I not only recycled stuff that was collecting as junk, but also I was able to reap extra holiday money from my efforts. Win, win. That is what I call creative recycling. Patricia Melchi is a writer, artist and avid recycler who lives in Strawberry, Ariz. She can be reached via e-mail at patriciamelchi@yahoo.com.

November 2009

Photos by Patricia Melchi An old handmade paper book shelf is turned into a beautiful piece of art with the application of paint, fabric and found materials. An accompanying piece of art (above, right) was created using fabric, yarn and jute. The creation is ﬁnished with an application of Mod Podge® over the entire piece, including the exposed peg holes. Both pieces were created using materials that had been stored in the garage.

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Page 31

Photo Courtesy of Arizona State Parks A trail runs through Kartchner Caverns State Park in southeastern Arizona, which is marking its 10th anniversary. State oﬃcials, scientists and area residents say the park has been a boon to the park system, the local economy and research.

Kartchner Caverns State Park celebrates 10 years By Chrystall Kanyuck Cronkite News Service

o scientists, the caves at Kartchner Caverns State Park are fertile ground for research on subjects such as microscopic food chains. “We have an amazing diversity of bacteria in this cave,” said Bob Casavant, park research and science manager at Arizona State Parks. “It’s all kinds of different bacteria and fungi and then the bugs and the bats.” To Brian Dinwiddie, the caverns mean more customers at his Horseshoe Cafe down the road in Benson. “This used to be a place for locals to eat on weekends,” he said. “Now it’s where a lot of people eat before or after visiting the caves.” And, for the state parks system, Kartchner Caverns is a source of income that helps offset budget cuts. “The funds we bring in at Kartchner are crucial,” said Ellen Bilbrey, public information officer for Arizona State Parks. “That supports the rest of the state park system as well.” This month marks 10 years since the Kartchner Caverns State Park opened to the pub-

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lic. Arizona State Parks is offering activities and presentations on Saturday and Sunday, Nov. 7 and 8, to mark the 10th anniversary of Kartchner Caverns State Park. The presentations include retrospectives by members of the Kartchner family, who owned the land where the park is now located, and Gary Tenen, co-discoverer of the caverns. In the 10 years Kartchner Caverns have been open to the public, about 2 million people have wondered at the Throne Room, the Big Room and other features of what’s called a living cave, one whose stalactites, stalagmites and other calcite formations are still growing.

more than 10 years of careful construction to get the caves ready for the public. A path had to be blasted using the same technology used to implode large buildings. Volunteers used buckets to pour concrete walkways inside the caves. Workers installed airlocks at entrances and exits to maintain the cave’s naturally high humidity. On a recent weekday, visitors said all of those preparations create a unique experience. “It’s just phenomenal, almost spiritual,” Ruth Blazek said of the Throne Room, home to a redwood-sized column of limestone that discoverers named Kubla Khan.

The beginning

Economic beneﬁts

The story of the caverns’ discovery remains almost as big a part of the experience as going underground. Tour guides tell it this way: Gary Tenen and Randy Tufts found the caves on property owned by the Kartchner family in 1974. They spent the next few years exploring in secret and a few more years meeting with the landowners to discuss the best way to preserve what they’d found. In 1988, state officials purchased the property to turn it into a state park, but it took

About 150,000 people visit the caverns each year, with adults paying $18.95 or $22.95 depending on the tour. The park limits the number of people in the cave and recommends reserving spots. Visitors often stay in Benson, said Bob Nilsen, Benson’s tourism supervisor. “We’re like the gateway to the park. A lot of visitors stay here while they explore the area,” he said. It works much the same way at other state parks, Bilbrey said.

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“State parks are economic engines for rural areas,” she said. “All national and state parks are that way.” In fact, a report from Northern Arizona University’s Arizona Hospitality Research and Resource Center found that per person spending by people who visit state parks is about $70 per day. Scientists benefit from the caverns as well, studying everything from cave science to climate change to fossils to microbes. NASA, looking toward establishing colonies beyond Earth, visited to see how the caverns’ environment is preserved, Bilbrey said. “There’s so much opportunity when you have a pristine environment to study science,” she said. Perhaps more valuable than science and economic impact, Bilbrey said, is that as a state park Kartchner Caverns is preserved for future generations. “We’re protecting a valuable natural and cultural resource,” she said. Visitors can reserve cave tours by calling 520-586-2283. More information on the anniversary events is available on the Kartchner Caverns section of www.azstateparks.gov.

November 2009