Geography of the James (Earth Lodge)

In order to motivate people to change their behavior, they must first have a sense of community. They must then gain awareness of the problem and appraise the situation. Only then will they be motivated to activism.
This is the model of behavior is promoted by Dr. Forsythe. Throughout this course I have noticed it to be true in my own behavior and the behavior of others. In class, we talked about a survey that demonstrates this quite effectively. It showed that individuals who knew that they lived in the Upham brook watershed and knew that it was polluted were more likely to be willing to help in watershed cleanup activities. Furthermore, while many of them said that they thought streams were important to the environment, few seemed aware of the connection between the health of the watershed and the health of streams.
Dr. Forsythe’s model has been true in my own thinking throughout the course of this class. Although I was aware of watersheds I had not appraised their importance or thought much about my place. This change has motivated many of us to action, for example I never would have chosen to spend my volunteer hours cleaning up on a small island in the middle of the James River. I would not have known that such a place existed. Furthermore I would not have understood the extent to which the trash on the island affects the health of the entire river downstream.
The clean up made me aware of a whole new set of issues. I had not thought about the poverty or homelessness problems in Richmond and had never thought about how difficult a problem it was to solve. I talked about this in my own blog. In Jenni’s blog, she says “When someone new moves in, Ralph White said, he approaches them and explains how the volunteer cleanups work and asks them to do their part–inevitably, this gesture of respect forges a friendly relationship between the homeless community and the park system.” This is evidence of a case in which with a sense of community and recognition of the problem it is possible to change people’s behavior.
This idea of spreading awareness and appraisal was also important to my other volunteer work. When Anne and I volunteered for the Sierra Club at the Environmental Film Festival at the Byrd, I realized that spreading such awareness was what the festival was all about. By putting these films in such an easily accessible form we were enabling people to have important discussions as they walked through the lobby. This experience also made me aware of how important it is to be conscientious in your appraisal of a situation. The film The Atomic States of America explained both sides of the problem. It discussed the benefits of clean nuclear power but condemned the nuclear power plants that leeched toxic chemicals into the surrounding environment. This reminded me that there are many sides to any story. Through trying to make clean nuclear power affordable, the reactors are under regulated and sometimes in bad locations. This is the case with one reactor on the unstable fall line outside New York City. One thing I did not like about this genre of film is the manipulative emotional appeals. In particular, this documentary showcased a dad whose daughter got cancer from the chemicals leeched by a power plant. It followed his fight for justice against the plant in order to motivate the viewer. Although this is an effective persuasive technique I feel the extended focus on this segment of the documentary distracts from the real issues involved in the regulation of nuclear power plants. It is important to appraise a situation for yourself, to do independent research before acting on an issue.
We got an opportunity to do such research when working on our group project. As a non-bike rider I was initially not aware of the issues associated with biking on our campus. Now we are in the process of appraising the issues. At first it seems simple. Bikes: good. Cars and fossil fuels: bad. However, the actual implementation of a plan to improve the bike program is difficult. First we ran into the obstacles of our limitations as students. When I interviewed Margaret Moore who has worked on the problem of bikes on campus last year, she reconfirmed what we had though about the difficulties in working with anyone form the City of Richmond, telling stories of cancelled meetings. What it comes down to is that the government already employs city planners to work on these exact problems. She encouraged us to focus our efforts to what we can do on campus.
On campus we found that there is no cut and dry answer either. At first it seemed simple to try to improve the green bike program. We are looking into making a program like this one, which uses high quality bikes and introduces an aspect of accountability, however the cost of implementing such a program may be prohibitively expensive. Furthermore, insurance costs would prohibit any bike rental program that would allow students to take bikes off campus. Because of these shortcomings, we wonder if our initial inclination toward improving the green bikes program needs revision. Perhaps the schools money would be more effectively spent on an annual used bike sale like at some other schools. This could provide students with affordable bikes that they can take off campus which will be of higher quality than the green bikes. I feel that this process of thinking critically about a real world problem and appraising my personal power to improve the situation is important to activism.
In his synthesis blog, Kenta says “I’ve realized that environmentalism isn’t something one can really give up once they’ve become privy to it. I’ve realized that environmentalism is largely a state of mind, a perspective and a lifestyle.” This is something that I think that we can all say that we have taken away from our experience in Earth lodge. Next year, I will be living in an apartment and will miss living in this community. However, I will bring my bike to get to class. Because of my project I will choose to bike instead of driving when I go downtown. Once you become aware of the earth, of your watershed, of the poverty in your community, of the state of biking, these things become part of your state of mind.

Before enrolling in Geography of the James during the first semester, there was a night where Kenta, Brian Strehlow, and I went to Manchester climbing wall to hang out, meet people, and climb for the day. Towards the end of our day, we all climbed on top of the wall to see a spectacular view of the sun setting behind our city. As we were sitting there staring at the beautiful site before us, we exclaimed and rejoiced at how much we love Richmond and how interesting the city is. As with most exclamations and realizations that I have had about the city, it has always been a pleasant surprise to feel the way I do. Coming from St. Francisville, I do not think I realized what it meant to be proud of the place that you come from or are living. I understood that St. Francisville was a neat little nook of the world, but never have I had the same compassion that I have for Richmond, Virginia. Part of this is due to Earthlodge and Geography of the James. Learning about the relevant and interesting history of the place that I am living while learning about its’ watershed and its’ relation to other watersheds makes me feel more in touch with the city and more connected to the world around me.

Looking back at last four blog posts, I realized that my main focus has been on connectivity. In my second reflection post, I talked about Ralph White and his vision of the park system and how it relates to the city. In my community based learning post, I described the first hand experience I had in seeing mountain top removal and the direct consequences that coal mining has on the communities that surround it. Thirdly, I used my free post to relive riding around campus after the release of the green bikes and to explore the future effects of what the University’s planned construction will do. Lastly, in my final reflection post, I spent time attempting to make sense of why we, as a student body, are not more aware of the environmental impacts that we have and the causal relationship that should not fall far from the other lessons the University strives to teach us.

The idea of connectivity has been one of the most important lessons that the Earth lodge experience has helped me realize. Connectivity is something so simple in concept, yet it is often the very thing that people do not realize. When I speak or write about connectivity, I feel like I most often reference it in terms of our connection with nature around us, but I think it is important to also see the connectivity we have with each other. As I was walking along the river with Grace at Pony Pasture today, we saw some fellow UR students. As we passed, we excitedly said hello. After a minute, we both laughed and realized that those very people that we were excited to say hello to were people we had never actually talked to. We had only seen them around campus.  It was the connection that we both had to the University of Richmond that spurred us to engage each other. You and me, on an individual level, make up the greater community that is UofR. As Helen Keller cheesily, yet beautifully put: “I am only one, but still I am one. I cannot do everything, but still I can do something; and because I cannot do everything, I will not refuse to do something that I can do.” In a community where I think a lot of people often feel out of place, I think this quote is reflective of our effect on the greater.

When we met with Michelle Kokolis, we looked at ways in which people often look to reduce the footprint they have on the watershed. Whether it be through the installation of rain barrels, rain gardens, or more planting of native species in a garden, arguably, her most important and extending message to the people she educated was that even though they alone may not make a huge impact on improving the health of the watershed, it was with the participation of others in their community that change would be achieved. Through being connected with nature and with the surrounding community, one is able to make a difference.

In George Appling’s post about community based learning, he talked about his experience in volunteering with Ralph White to cover up some graffiti. At the beginning of his post, he mentioned how he normally does not think of volunteering as particularly exciting. His incident with Ralph White proved otherwise. The crossing of the train tracks, the exciting conversation, and the extensive understanding of what they were doing and why allowed for George to have a positive experience. It was the ability to communicate, his passion, and his knowledge (the ingredients for a good environmental leader) that allowed Ralph to reach out and create a positive change and connection. His connectivity with the park system he was in charge of and his ability to relate that back to others who were not as aware is part of what made Ralph White become such an instrumental role in developing the park system in Richmond.

When we leave the University of Richmond, this lesson of connectivity that Geography of the James has taught us will hopefully stick with us. Yes, we will have expanded our knowledge on watersheds and the history of Richmond, Virginia, but the ability to realize where people come from, their path in life, and being able to empathize will be one of the more valuable skills in life.