PGHIMC - Pittsburgh Independent Media Center

52 Reasons Not To Mow 37 Ways To Help Trees
by Ahimsa Network Monday, May. 28, 2007 at 3:58 AM
plantslovefruitarians@yahoo.com

reduce global warming, reforest, prevent accidents, create oxygen, foster biodiversity, protect habitat etc

52 Reasons Not To Mow 37 Ways To Help Trees
Submitted by Anonymous Indymedia User on Mon, 05/28/2007 - 3:52am.

stopmowing.blogspot.com
greenpeace.org



52 Reasons Not To Mow 37 Ways To Help Trees

Nonmowing turns empty lots
through time into forests
Sometimes the most powerful actions
involve inaction

http://stopmowing.blogspot.com

This was first published in 1973 as '14 Reasons Not To Mow'
and has steadily grown in number

Please print on 100% cotton, rice, recycled, or scrap paper

Ron Howard, director of A Beautiful Mind and many other films,made his first film at age 8.. an anti mowing film which showed the nature of mowers' attacks on lawns.

In 2003 through now, the world has seen drought, floods, famine, fire, mudslides, hurricanes, tornados and other disasters created by the unprecedented destruction of trees around the world. Trees are nature's weather stabilizers. We need trillions of trees.. new trees.

ISAIAH: "BREAK NOT THE BRUISED REED"
THE FIFTH ANGEL OF REVELATION: " HARM NO GREEN LIVING BEING"
BUDDHA: MAY ALL THAT HAVE LIFE BE DELIVERED FROM SUFFERING
BHAGAVAD GITA: OF TREES I AM THE FIG
MAHAVIRA OF THE JAINS: KILL NOT CAUSE NO PAIN TO ANY BEING.
JOEL 1: THE LAND MOURNS THE DESTRUCTION OF PLANTS
JESUS: CONSIDER THE LILIES OF THE
FIELD.. HOW THEY GROW.. THEY
TOIL NOT NOR DO THEY SPIN
JEREMIAH 10:3 FOR THE CUSTOMS OF
THE PEOPLES ARE VANITY. FOR ONE CUTS A TREE OUT OF THE FOREST. THEY
DECK IT WITH SILVER AND GOLD; THEY
FASTEN IT WITH NAILS THAT IT NOT MOVE.

GROW FREE FOOD .PREVENT MOWER ACCIDENTS .PROTECT SAPLING TREES .CREATE OXYGEN .SAVE TIME . CONSERVE FUEL .SAVE MONEY .GUARD FREEDOM .INVOKE RAIN. STABILIZE WEATHER PATTERNS . STOP MUDSLIDES .BUFFER NOISE. PREVENT FLOODS .FOSTER WILDLIFE HABITAT . FILTER AIR

http://www.epa.gov/greenacres http://www.nrdc.org/(not in the order of importance)In the last few years the EPA has joined theenvironmental groups promoting nonmowing. Their site ishttp://www.epa.gov/ .. type in 'natural landscaping' in search tobring upmany sites. The Green Party http://www.greens.org/ and many Libertarians also support nonmowing. In June of 2002, NPR reported that the Congressional Black Caucus has a better record than either white Democrats or white Republicans in environmental issues.
I: ENVIRONMENTAL (THE REDUCTION OF ENVIRONMENTALMANIPULATION)
1. REFORESTATION When one stops mowing, land becomes meadow and then thicket and then woods. reforesting the world.
2. OXYGEN CREATION This extra greenery creates oxygen.The average tree creates 5 pounds of oxygen daily.
3. AIR PURIFICATION More greenery purifies the air through leaf filtration a.particulate matter b. car fumes c. noxious gases d. other airborn toxins. Removal of carbon dioxide by plants ameliorates pollution.
4. TEMPERATURE STABILIZATION TO OFFSET GLOBAL WARMING Warms the world's winters and cools the summers. There is a 50 degree difference between 70 degree equatorial rainforest and 120 degree desert. Each blade of grass is a little air conditioner. A world without drought, flood, famine, freezes, and killer heat can be eliminated by literally covering the world with trees.
5. RAIN INVOCATION Greenery calls down rain. Bayard Webster of the NY Times wrote that each mature tree evaporates 40 gallons of moisture daily (much greater amounts for older trees.) All greenery is involved in the raincycle.The drought and consequent starvation in N. Korea was related to the cutting of nearly all trees for fuel.
6. DEW PRESERVATION More plants preserve dew. Not only do greenspires and leaves act as masts around which dew can gather, but the more greenery the longer the dew lasts.
7. NOISE BUFFERING Leaf volume weaves a noise buffer which screens out unpleasant traffic
8. NOISE PREVENTION Ends the peace-fracturing sound of the lawnmower. Some communities have noise ordinances which prevent mowing during normal sleeping hours.
9. VISUAL BEAUTY Multiplies the beauty of diversity
10. FRAGRANCE Multiplies the fragrance in the air.
11. HEALING GREEN Nonmowing creates optical healing bycreating more greenery. Research has proven that looking on the jadeand forest greens reduces heartbeat and creates peace.
12. LANDFILL ECONOMY Letting lawns grow wild reduces pressure onlandfills..by not adding leaves to overburdenedsystems (and saves the fuel and wages of collectionreleasing workers for the labor of their hearts). (NPR Sept 1:methanegases leach from landfill through water into basements) As the worldevolves away from treekilling, sawdust piles which are a byproductof the lumber industry will be removed, making the earth safer forchildren.
13. FUEL CONSERVATION Conserves fuel a. unused inunused mowersb. As evergreen trees break cold winter winds andshroud dwellings they are natural insulation.
14. HYDROCARBON REDUCTION Prevents hydrocarbon moweremission from polluting the air. Many media outlets are passing ontheEPA recommendation that lawns not bemowed when there is great humidity and heat. Hydrocarbons createozonealerts.
15. CARBON DIOXIDE Greenery which takes in carbondioxide and breathes out oxygen reduces gases toxic to humans.
15a. METHANE GAS and toxic gases are purified by leaf action.
16. TORNADO PREVENTION Unstable heat is the mainfactor in tornados. Greenery which reduces the temperature 30 degreesin forest areas prevents tornados.
17. MUDSLIDE PREVENTION: The roots of living plantsabsorb great amounts of water and prevent mudslides.
18. FLOOD PREVENTION:A. On river banks and everywhere, tree, plant, bush,and vine roots are flood preventers. As David Kidd of Canton, planterofmore than a million trees has stated, the bigger and older the treethemore work it does. (The 900 year old oaks with their huge diametersare a lot more precious to Mother Earth than skinny young trees.http://www.freetree.org/ B. Ohio Public Radio David C. Barnett Sept 9th: reported on reductionof impervious surface by reducing concrete and addinggreenery. (The hard asphalt, concrete, and rooftops create morerunoff and flooding.) C. Bricks and stones in roads are better for theenvironment than are concrete and asphalt. They allow rain through the inter-brick space and have less blistering heat. Angel strips not devilstrips (Planting grape trellises over highways re-greens theearth and creates food.)
19. DESERTIFICATION PREVENTION
Only reforestation canprevent desertification. This is the conclusion of Patrick Velasquezof US Agency For International Development and most other environmentalists. We used to think a pine cone was one seed, but apparently it is hundreds.
20. CHEMICAL POLLUTION REDUCTION Radio network show Public Interest October 7 featuring Rodale author: Chemically treated lawns are grass high on drugs.: Fertilizer has toxic byproducts forthe land and water. Rodale, Emmaus Pennsylvania, USA 18049 is oneleader in the organic movement.
21. FASTEST CLEANUP OF TOXIC DUMPS
Green island sanctuaries of unmolested plants,insects, and wildlife are a protection against the biotechmanipulationsof the environment.
22. WATERSHED PROTECTION The more greenery, plants, vines, trees, and bushes..the more the watershed, reservoirs, and lakes and ponds, brooks andstreams are protected.a. Arsenic is a byproduct of the pressed woodindustry. Arsenic is poisonous in the waters, and likeother industrial pollutants such as mercury, chromiumand polychlorinated biphenols is concentrated in the flesh of fishes.http://www.nofishing.net/ http://www.pcrm.org/ http://www.ivu.org/
23. BIODIVERSITY Nonmowing or letting God be the landscaper createsbiodiversity and its many benefits (and benefirs) rather thanmonoculture. (Loggers last year caused the death of David Chain,Earth First tree activist. Write efmc@a... or call 707 923 2114Andy Caffrey)
24. FIRE PREVENTION In March of 2001, widescale drought in the NW had been reported. Destruction of greenery is one cause of this. Trees'evaporation is necessary in cloud formation. Fires have
destroyed untold tens of thousands
of square miles of green beings
and resident animals.
25. FREE FOOD
Fruit and nut trees with grape and
bean vines spaced among the trees
can yield 450,000 lbs. per acre. Ted
Steinberg writes that in the US
alone an area the size of Florida
is devoted to unproductive lawns.
26. WATER CONSERVATION: Unmowed areas do not need watering.. they are self contained systems. Nor do they need recycling. Most lawns
are watered for growth
and then the growth is cut and
discarded.
27. INSECTICIDE PREVENTION: Carpet lawn enthusiastspollutethe environment with insecticides in some cases.

II HUMAN RIGHTS: (Numbers 19 through 31)

1. FEEDING THE HUNGRY: FOOD CREATION Prevents famineby giving a cornucopia of free food to the planet Orchards are 450times as productive per acre as slaughterhouses..Dr. Faust,former chief of the USDA Fruit Labs, cited centenarian orchards ofapple trees dropping two tons each of food. This is 400,000 lbs peracreas compared to 100 to 1000 lbs of food for meat, 10,000 lbs fordairy, 80,000 lbs. for acre. The 400 to l ratio is only the firststep. Trilevel agriculture.. with bean and other vines around thetree trunks and other foodyielding plants in the interarborealspaces.. yield even more. This also can be multiplied by those areaswhich have 2 or 3 growing seasons..e.g. Southern California. Becausecertain economic systems promote scarcity based profit, these orchardsystems have been deemphasized.
2. PREVENTION OF DEATH AND INJURY 2a. Prevents in the U.S. alone, 75,000 accidents and some fatalities annually caused bymowers and harvesters, and around the world millions of accidentseliminated. NPR reported May 17, 2002 that tractor rollovers are the leading cause of death among farmers, and that farming in general is the 2nd most hazardous occupation (after commercial fishing).
2b. Ravines are generally more protected from mowing,as there is wider recognition of the danger of mowing.
2c. When grass is mowed on hillsides, when wet orexceedingly dry it can cause slipping accidents.
2d, There have even been drownings
from lawnmower accidents as teens
and adults drop into unseen septic
tanks.
2e. One of every 5 lawnmower or
machine harvester deaths, says
the Consumer Product Safety
Commissions, involves a child.

(19 through 39 are human rights
reasons)
3. PREVENTION OF HEART ATTACKS As non shoveling of snow can prevent winter heart attacks nonmowing can sometimes prevent summer ones.
4. FREEDOM Health departments are reducing the forcedcrewcutting of lawns and the rending ofMother Nature's garments . See below for further info.
5. EMPTY JAILS Saves money otherwise spent on jailing people (seeabove)
6. PRIVACY Creates a privacy screen. Ways to avoidgrass (a transitional plant unless land is constantly mowed) includea. pachysandra b. myrtle and other ground cover c. grape vinetrellises d. evergreen trees and shrubs as natural fences e.berry bushes as natural boundaries.
7. HERBAL REMEDIES Nonmowing allows healing extracts and seeds to flourish, e.g. milkthistle seeds, which regenerate cirrhosis-afflicted livers. The active ingredient is silymarin. (Herbology studentembyrne@s... is a non mower) Work against those who seek to patentthe world's pre-existing seeds. http://www.purefood.org/ (see Monsantofile.)
8. KEEPS WASPS FRIENDLY prevents wasp stings and hiveattacks as their homes are destroyed.
9. ECONOMICS a. saves money otherwise spent on fuel b. Saves money otherwise spent on young trees.c. Fruit trees ave money spent on food.
Seth Godin says 17 billion a year
is spent on this waste.
10. TIME ECONOMY frees human time hours for enjoyablepriorities a. no gas procurement time, no mowing time, no rakingtime.
11. AMERICAN HERITAGE: The Native American culturenever spent time mowing Mother Earth. Her green cover is her garment.Lawn mowing is a fairly recent thing. The original lawn mowers weresheep and other animals later slaughtered for their flesh. The TimeLifeGardening Yearbook mentions the 'chipped monotypiclayer of bluegrass', the crewcut which is called alawn. Other ecologists speak about the hazards of monoculture.
12. FREE CONCERTS Cicadas and crickets will give freeconcerts, as will woodpeckers, songbirds whose habitats are restored.Fireflies will put on silent fireworks. Buttercupswill save chalices of dew for butterflies who in turn will coolthe earth with the slight breeze from their fanning wings.
13. WEED KILLER OR HERBICIDE use (Diane Rehm Show Sept1) causes childhood and other environmental pollutant basedcancers. Some leaches into the water system. Some is directly smearedonto skin.
14. INSECTICIDE BASED CANCERS: Insecticides weredeveloped as weapons in WW 2. At the end of the war, chemicalcompanies wanted new markets. These insecticides cause cancer. (NPRSept 1) Animal products concentrate insecticides at 21 times theintensity they occur in fruits and vegetables, since a 1000 lb.cow ate 21,000 lbs. of food with nondegradable insecticides remainingin the muscle cells.
15. PREVENTION OF ASTHMA
While the chief physical cause of asthma
is the mucus lining in the respiratory
tract created by meat, fish and dairy
products and the prime spiritual
cause is fear or emotional stress,
land allowed to grow gradually
into fields and then thickets and
finally woods provides less pollen.
16. HEALING: Studies of recovering gall bladder patients reveal that those looking on a garden heal faster than those not. (BJ 6 6 2000) There are now herbal therapists at Univ of Kansas, Rutgers, Texas A&M, and Virginia Tech. Those who look on living green have reduced blood pressure. The plant yarrow makes children in its proximity less agressive within a few moments. An ancient vedic parable says that to be healed one should look upongreen. Rather than paint the world that color, a sage says'put on green glasses'. (The best green glasses are living in an environment of green.)
(Plant rights advocates to not support
the killing of plants for herbs.)
17. PREVENTION OF GUN ACCIDENTS
There has been at least one shooting
caused by an irate reaction to
the noise of the lawnmower.
(Above are reasons 19 through 36)
18. PREVENTION OF MENTAL ILLNESS
Is it a form of control freakdom
to want to mow down what God
greengrows?
19. PREVENTION OF NEIGHBOR FIGHTS
Countless fights have been caused when someone's mower cuts down
his neighbor's flowers or shrubs.
20. HERBICIDES used by ChemLawn
and other lawn treatment companies
are poisoning the earth's waters,
causing cancer deaths to people,
animals, fishes, and plants.
21. BOREDOM Lawns are boring.

COTTON PAPER LASTS FOUR HUNDRED FIFTY YEARS. TREEPAPER LASTS SIXY YEARS.

III ANIMAL RIGHTS:

1. WILDLIFE HABITAT Reprovides a home for wildlife,both those not endangered and those which are.Keeps birds from flying away when the power motors are started.
2 ANIMAL RIGHTS Protects insects, redwinged blackbirdsand other living creatures nesting in ground cover, and preventsthe mastication deaths of millions of small fieldanimals chewed up in harvesters.. (Sometimes the tiny feet of theseanimals can be seen in cans of food.) In Numbers 22, God causes a donkey to speak about the beatings of her human 'owner'.Along Lake Michigan in parts of Chicago are new signs indicating not mowing is done to give birds long grasses in which to nest.
3 PRESERVE WILDLIFE FOOD SUPPLY: Not removing acorns leaves food for squirrels and other wildlife during the winter as well as providing new sapling oaks in the spring. Not removing leaves provides more thermal shelter for northern animals.
4. SONGBIRDS ATTRACTED TO WILD AREAS...............James Marcus: Dandelions: they must be God's favorite flower for He plants them everywhere.

IV: PLANT RIGHTS .

1 PLANTS' RIGHTS Protect the rights of sentient plants whose feelingshave been documented by Dr. Chandra Bose, knighted by theQueen of England for his laboratory measurement of plantconsciousness. Other scientists who have proven or written of plantconsciousness ares are Clive Baxter, Luther Burbank, The Secret Life Of Plants writers,, the owner to whose rights, Isaac Tigrett, sold all the Hard Rock Cafes he founded after becoming a vegetarian. http://www.geocities.com/Heartland/...97/tigrett.html
Pachysandra, myrtle, snow on themountain,and camomile are some ground covers which do not offend moreconservative neighbors.
2: WILDFLOWER SANCTUARY Those like Lady Bird Johnsonwho have worked to foster protection of wildflowers know thenecessityof more wild places.
3: ENDING BOTANICAL RACISM E.Woodford is the first person who has spoken of botanical racism. This phrase means different things to different people. To us it means that weeds have as much right to exist as do plants with cultivated blooms.The spirit-filled volunteers called weeds are usually stronger, more and more prolific than cultivated plants.
V: DIVINE RIGHT:
1. Mother Earth blesses those who abandon controlling and manipulating her.
2. God does not like lawnmowers. (Joel 1: The land mourns the destruction of plants.) (Isaiah: Break not the bruised reed.)
3. George Bernard Shaw: I love little children, but I don't cutoff their heads and stick them in vases.IF YOU WILL JOIN THE EVERGREEN NETWORK PLEASE EMAIL USSO AT freelibrary27@y... There is no financial, action, orother obligation. In an editorial on March 19, 1977, the WashingtonPosteditorialized:"the tall grass can only benefit the citizens who seekthe beauty of Rock Creek Park". That year the NationalPark Service instituted a 'meadows' program to let some areasreturn to nature. The Post mentioned the federal court casevictory of an Akron citizen who fought the city's compulsorylawnmowing ordinance. "Nature is ready to cooperate.Some citizen cooperation is next." In addition the Post's RichardCohen reported on a lawn mowed by a guinea pig named Bijou.Phil Shenon of the New York Times has covered no-mow activistssuch as Alice Herrington, then president of Friends ofAnimals. The BBC, NPR, and Australian Broadcasting are someinternational networks which have covered theadvantages of nonmowing. The Los Angeles Times also editorialized infavor of not mowing. The Atlanta Constitution outlined reasonsnot to mow in an article by Lewis Regenstein. Omni Magazine, TheChristian Science Monitor, Organic Gardening, AnitaManning of USA Today, Vegetarian Times, OMNI magazine, Germannewspapers, and many other publications have promotedthe idea of nonmowing.Patrick Velasquez of the US Agency For InternationalDevelopment studied Senegalese forest. He said the cost ofplanting other country exotics there was $25 to $50 per tree,with 19% survival rate whereas natural regeneration (which occursfromnonmowing) is free. The USDA in 1998 has signed onto the NationalWildlife Federation's Backyard Conservation plan.. whichencourages people to let the area behind their homes grow wild forthesake of the environment.Even these corporate media and hunting promotiongroups are promoting the environment. 'Corn on the curb' is anincreasingly visible thing.

The Spanish poet Lorca,assassinated byFranco:"They cut timber and lioness teats as easily as if they were bakingbread". Sterling North: We are but the ephemera of the moment,the brief custodians of redwoods which were ancient when Christ wasborn. Recently the governor of one of the largest states in thecountrypromised to plant l million trees in his state andsaid that trees, do indeed, call down rain. (Those areas with themostdevastation this winter from icestorms, mudslides, flood and tornadowere for the most part places which had cut downtens of thousands of trees in the last 20 years.). The Nicaraguan Network Environmental Task Forcecalls on multinationals to stop devastating Atlantic forests.. linkedtoHurricane Mitch-The bombing of Afghanistan has been a factor in the drought..as trees which invoke rain were destroyed and river coursesaltered. Napalm burned the trees of Vietnam. At presentherbicides are being dropped in Colombia and Ecuador borders.Richard St Barbe Baker convinced Franklin Roosevelt, US president, toplant billions of trees.Garrison Kieler of Prairie Home Companion recently wrote a pieceabout a family which had decided not to mow.Other sites: http://www.mad-cow.org/ http://www.mccruelty.com/http://indymedia.org/ http://www.sierraclub.org/http://ww...t/fruitarian---(The city of Takoma Park, Maryland is one of many communitiesor countries which prohibit the cutting of trees of a certainage without a permit. India, Thailand .. which has bannedall lumber.. the UK are some tree respecting countries.)--- End forwarded message ---Mowing destroys animal habitat.last revised June 24, 2003

THIRTY SEVEN WAYS TO HELP TREES
http://www.egroups.com/messages/nom...t/fruitarianWhy is the area of most heat and light, theequator, only 70 degrees in equatorial rainforest and 130 degrees intemperate zone desert? Trillions of Trees. Trees as nature's weatherstabilizers, trees, accounting for a 60 degree difference betweenrainforest on the equator and temperate zone desert, have been felledat an unprecedented rate. Harming trees causes fire, flood, famine,tornado and hurricane. 29 ways to help trees:1. plant trees Work for city, state, country and UN tree plantinghttp://www.freetree.org/ 2. stop mowing http://www.epa.gov/greenacreshttp:/...sages/nomow/266 http://www.nrdc.org/These websites have files on not mowing3. eat tree products.. fruits and nuts.. say yes to orchard growershttp://www.acorn.net/fruitarian4. build with stone stucco brick and block not wood. You will a.prevent termite destruction nonviolently, b save the $,time, and environmental damage of paint, c have natural insulationwith its energy savings, d. prevent rotting woode. have better insulation in summer & winter f. end thedisease related to living near the mold from rotting wood g.reduce the arsenic in the watersystems, flowing in from pressedwood factories and h. have increasing rather than decreasing equityin your home. Use natural barriers such as bushes, or chain link,rather than wood fencing. http://www.greenpeaceusa.org/5. cancel daily newspaper..and magazines and newsletters printedon felled trees, as 72% of the young have get your news on the webhttp://www.protest.net/ Daily newspapers account for trillions oftrees slaughtered annually and most promote anti environmentcorporations.6. Print on cotton, recycled or scrap paper in downloading7. Use a water spray instead of toilet paper8. Buy food naturally packaged.. nuts in nut shells,bananas inpeels.. buy in bulk. Fruit is nature's most perfectly packaged food.How many trees go into cereal boxeshttp://www.goveg.com/meetmeat.html9. Use canvas bags for shopping.. neither plastic nor paperhttp://www.sierraclub.org/10. Stop eating meat, since cutting forests for cattlegrazing is a major cause of deforestation.. Animal fleshyields a maximum of 1000 lbs an acre. Tri level agriculture (fruittrees, vines and fruit bearing plants) yields over 450,000 lbs. peracre.) Meat's trioxypurine is more addictive than caffein'sdioxypurine.11. Work for peace.. work for an end to giving 10 million a dayto violent governments, for the outlawing of membership on armsmerchant boards by government officials (Lynne Cheney on theboard of Lockheed which wants to keep a 70 billion dollar planecontract) and elsewhere radically affecting weather patterns.. work for an end to CIA, Army and other weathermanipulation. In 1972 Seymour Hersh reported in the NY Timesthe CIA's attempts through cloud seeding to cause flooding inN Vietnam. [url]http://www.peta.net/feat/
Posted by sb11 on 02-25-2004 03:48 AM:

12. Save fruit seeds and scatter them in wild places
http://www.ran.org The average evaporation of mature trees is 42
gallons a day..which becomes mist, then clouds, and then rain,
eliminating drought.
13. Buy books and greeting cards published on cotton, rice, or other
nontree paper.
14. Purchase furniture which is used and refurbish it
or buy metal furniture with cotton padding. There are many nontree
furniture options. The furniture, lumber, and construction businesses
have lobbied for the cutting down of US forests, whereas the UK, some
cities in Maryland and California require a permit to cut down
old trees.
15. Vote out earth abusers.. Vote out the GOP which sometimes
receives 10 times the political contributions from earth abusers
that any other party receives. Vote in
Democrats or Greens or Libertarians depending on the situation
http://www.truthout.org
http://www.greens.org http://www.democrats.org (in some instances)
16. Avoid fast food places which deforest for their
packaging and create litter which fills dumpsites and requires
labor pickup http://www.vegdining.com http://www.mccruelty.com
17. visualize sun and green trees everywhere
18. pray
19. Outlaw junk mail (as telemarketers have been). File a form with
the main post office in your area. Return to sender. The GOP & junk
mailers are requiring you to subsidize their treekilling and
invasive practices as your postal rates go from 34 cents to
37 cents, an 8.1 cent inflation rate.
20. Recycle cardboard cartons at commerical establishments. Recycle
your own scrap paper.
21. Replace the purchase of dead Christmas trees which
cause many fires annually.. with artificial trees.. or
living ones planted each year in the year. Oregon is the biggest
Christmas tree killer with 7 billion a year in slaughter sales.
22. Save seeds of trees, vines, bushes, plants and
scatter them where mowing does not occur
23. Ban the cutting of trees entirely as Thailand has
down.(The United Kingdom has banned the cutting of trees
after they reach a certain width.. while Takoma Park Maryland in
the US and other cities have required a permit to cut older
trees. The United States is still a land of skinny trees, because
of present control of the Forest Svc. and National Park Service
by lumber mining oil and cattle interests) In Mumbai elephants
are threatened by logging, as well as by poaching and war.
24. Stop through lawsuits, networking etc. the 'controlled fires'
deliberately set by the US Park
Service and the Forest Svc... fires which often are made more lethal
by the unpredictable wind.. fires which at their best destroy
trees, animals, insects.
25. Work for workplace, home, library and other printouts
on cotton, recycled, or the back sides of already printed paper.
26. stop the control of national and state executive branch,
legislatures and courts by corporate contractors
27. network with other environmentalists
28. Disinvest mutual funds, pension funds from earth abusing
corporations such as Georgia Pacific and other tree killers.
29. Replace paper towels with washed cotton rags.
30. Contact the USPO to give you a Direct Marketing Assoc. form
.. which will stop both commercial and nonprofit junk mail
delivered to your home http://www.the-dma.org/
ADVO is the world's largest junk
mailer, killing trees both at the
beginning and at the end as
trees are bulldozed to make more
landfill in which to put ADVO junk
31. Fax gives trees the ax... phone and email are more direct
32. Toilet paper used for urine only can be put in paper
recyclers.
33.
please boycott insurance companies which mandate
the killing of trees... (sometimes land speculators buy homes
just long enough to put them on the market and profiteer
from the sale... after axing centenarian trees...
health departments too have joined in this anti health measure)
34. Legislate underground power lines to save trees. This is
done in several countries in Europe.
35. Clearcutting lumber and mining
companies have caused flash
floods around the world. One such
began over the destruction of
5000 homes near Beckley W. Va.
36. Lumber companies have put
a variety of poisons into the waters.
37. Lumber companies have
caused fires from dust accumulation
such as the one occurring in
Schofield Wisconsin in Oct. of 2005.
Fire chief Doug Jennings: "It is
my belief (the fire was caused by)
a dust explosion."
38. Using metal spiral staircases
rather than wooden ones

Raking leaves
1. wastes time 2. fills landfills 3. costs communities money
4. removes blanketing leaves from Mother Earth during winter
5. removes nuts which feed squirrels

http://www.keeper.org RFK suing the EPA over Buckeye in Ohio
which is giving cattle parts to chickens
http://www.ran.org Rainforest Action Network
http://www.greenpeace.org
http://www.sierraclub.org
http://www.mad-cow.org
http://www.paperretriever.com/ puts huge bins in parks
and elsewhere to collect newspaper, magazine, junk mail
and other paper waste

Father Mother God make the earth warm where it is cold
and cool it down in Indian areas in which it is too
hot. Make earth weather gentle and nonviolent now and forever.
Cause all to obey Your commands not to kill animals.. not to
kill plants. Genesis 1 29

Revised: Nov 23, 1926
Ron Howard, director of A Beautiful Mind and many other films,
made his first film at age 8.. an anti mowing film which
showed the nature of mowers' attacks on lawns.

-----------
houses built with wood do not last in a tornado
as well as brick, stone, stucco, block homes

wood houses are painted.. painters often dump
their leftover toxins into the streams

COURT CASES

In 1976 a federal court in Cleveland
Ohio ruled that the Akron Health
Department's forced mowing of
a woman's lawn violated her
1st Amendment freedom of religion
since it is impossible to mow without
killing beings. Attorneys William
Whitaker and Beverly Rose wrought
a $500 judgment against the
Health Dept.

Staff of the pre Bush EPA of Chicago (Atty Rappoport
and others) have developed supportive
briefs for those wishing to challenge
compulsory mowing ordinances.

BOOKS

In 2006 Ted Steinberg, an
environmental historian in Cleveland,
published American Green.

The Wild Lawn Handbook: Alternatives to the Traditional Front Lawn
by Stevie Daniels

A number of newspapers
and magazines have done
stories on not mowing. Lew Regenstein
wrote an article for the Atlanta
Constitution, Richard Cohen for
the Washington Post, whlie
Organic Gardening published
a version of this post.

GROUPS

CALMM of Takoma Park Maryland
works to promote lawn alternatives.
Takoma Park is also a tree protecting
city.

The National Wildlife Federation
which promotes the killing of animals
by hunters nevertheless also
promotes wildlife habitat, with
special emphasis on making the back
yard wild.

The Fruitarian Network of Akron Ohio
works for all aspects of plant rights
and nonviolence.
***********************

Robert Frost, Robert Redford, Ted Steinberg & Others

Utah resident Robert Redford said Ohioans are really into lawnmowers. This
is still true of a majority of landowners,
but Ohioans have won federal and local court victories
against compulsory lawnmowing.
*
Alice Herrington, deceased president
of Friends of Animals: re her unmowed
acreage: 'the bunnies like it'.
*
Femka R: Our Serbian trees were
burned in bombing by the US regime.
*

Ted Steinberg, Cleveland environmental historian and author of American
Green: (re the American
obsession with a crewcut layer
of monotypic chipped blue grass)
Long Island or Lawn Guyland as it
is sometimes called.

(While scythes too can kill toads
and butterflies and sapling trees,
they don't kill as many as machine
harvesters)
The Scythe Book: Mowing Hay, Cutting Weeds, and Harvesting Small Grains, With Hand Tools (Paperback)
by David Tresemer

*
Edward G Bulwer-Lytton:

"Love thou the rose, yet leave it on its stem."
*
Stephen King in The Lawn Mower Man:

"The neighbor's dog chased the cat under the mower...
they cleaned off the blades. Harold decied to get rid of the mower."

.... "the mower spat out the mole..
in a series of entrails"

"The lawnmower was tearing through the unfortunate grass like an
avenging devil from hell."
*
------
Walt Whitman:
We are the journeywork of the stars, no less than the leaves of grass."

Seth Godin:
The reason for a lawn? To demonstrate wastefulness. A lawn tells your neighbors you can afford to waste land, waste water and have a team of servants to keep it all pretty.. 17 billion
a year business
*
Frank Hyman:
1
"Aside from the costs, some folks have more of an aesthetic opposition to lawns. They consider them boring."
2
"I come here not to bury the American lawn, but to shrink it."

*
Cyberspace Anon:

Now let me get this straight. They fertilize grass so it will grow. And when it does grow, they cut it off and pay to throw it away?
***

Robert Frost has several poems
on not mowing:

THE TUFT OF FLOWERS

I went to turn the grass once after one
Who mowed it in the dew before the sun.
The dew was gone that made his blade so keen
Before I came to view the levelled scene.
I looked for him behind an isle of trees;
I listened for his whetstone on the breeze.
But he had gone his way, the grass all mown,
And I must be, as he had been -- alone,
'As all must be,' I said within my heart,
'Whether they work together or apart.'
But as I said it, swift there passed me by
On noiseless wing a bewildered butterfly,
Seeking with memories grown dim o'er night
Some resting flower of yesterday's delight.
And once I marked his flight go round and round,
As where some flower lay withering on the ground.
And then he flew as far as eye could see,
And then on tremulous wing came back to me.
I thought of questions that have no reply,
And would have turned to toss the grass to dry;
But he turned first, and led my eye to look
At a tall tuft of flowers beside a brook,
A leaping tongue of bloom the scythe had spared
Beside a reedy brook the scythe had bared.
The mower in the dew had loved them thus,
By leaving them to flourish, not for us,
Nor yet to draw one thought of ours to him.
But from sheer morning gladness at the brim.
The butterfly and I had lit upon,
Nevertheless, a message from the dawn,
That made me hear the wakening birds around,
And hear his long scythe whispering to the ground,
And feel a spirit kindred to my own,
So that henceforth I worked no more alone;
But glad with him, I worked as with his aid,
And weary, sought at noon with him the shade;
And dreaming, as it were, held brotherly speech
With one whose thought I had not hoped to reach.
'Men work together,' I told him from the heart,
'Whether they work together or apart.'

(The Tuft Of Flowers was included in a 1929
collection of the world's most famous poems)

WEST-RUNNING BROOK
'Fred, where is north?'
'North? North is there, my love.
The brook runs west.'
'West-running Brook then call it.'
(West-Running Brook men call it to this day.)
'What does it think k's doing running west
When all the other country brooks flow east
To reach the ocean? It must be the brook
Can trust itself to go by contraries
The way I can with you -- and you with me --
Because we're -- we're -- I don't know what we are.
What are we?'
'Young or new?'
'We must be something.
We've said we two. Let's change that to we three.
As you and I are married to each other,
We'll both be married to the brook. We'll build
Our bridge across it, and the bridge shall be
Our arm thrown over it asleep beside it.
Look, look, it's waving to us with a wave
To let us know it hears me.'
' 'Why, my dear,
That wave's been standing off this jut of shore --'
(The black stream, catching a sunken rock,
Flung backward on itself in one white wave,
And the white water rode the black forever,
Not gaining but not losing, like a bird
White feathers from the struggle of whose breast
Flecked the dark stream and flecked the darker pool
Below the point, and were at last driven wrinkled
In a white scarf against the far shore alders.)
'That wave's been standing off this jut of shore
Ever since rivers, I was going to say,'
Were made in heaven. It wasn't waved to us.'
'It wasn't, yet it was. If not to you
It was to me -- in an annunciation.'
'Oh, if you take it off to lady-land,
As't were the country of the Amazons
We men must see you to the confines of
And leave you there, ourselves forbid to enter,-
It is your brook! I have no more to say.'
'Yes, you have, too. Go on. You thought of something.'
'Speaking of contraries, see how the brook
In that white wave runs counter to itself.
It is from that in water we were from
Long, long before we were from any creature.
Here we, in our impatience of the steps,
Get back to the beginning of beginnings,
The stream of everything that runs away.
Some say existence like a Pirouot
And Pirouette, forever in one place,
Stands still and dances, but it runs away,
It seriously, sadly, runs away
To fill the abyss' void with emptiness.
It flows beside us in this water brook,
But it flows over us. It flows between us
To separate us for a panic moment.
It flows between us, over us, and with us.
And it is time, strength, tone, light, life and love-
And even substance lapsing unsubstantial;
The universal cataract of death
That spends to nothingness -- and unresisted,
Save by some strange resistance in itself,
Not just a swerving, but a throwing back,
As if regret were in it and were sacred.
It has this throwing backward on itself
So that the fall of most of it is always
Raising a little, sending up a little.
Our life runs down in sending up the clock.
The brook runs down in sending up our life.
The sun runs down in sending up the brook.
And there is something sending up the sun.
It is this backward motion toward the source,
Against the stream, that most we see ourselves in,
The tribute of the current to the source.
It is from this in nature we are from.
It is most us.'
'To-day will be the day....You said so.'
'No, to-day will be the day
You said the brook was called West-running Brook.'
'To-day will be the day of what we both said.')
http://members.greenpeace.org/gpblog/?blog=10525
http://www.comptechdoc.org/humor/garden/
God and St Francis dialogue on lawns
Mayor of Kentucky stops mowing
http://chronicle.com/weekly/v53/i03/03a00403.htm
http://www.luminarium.org/sevenlit/marvell/damonmow.htm
Damon the Mower
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/03/10/b...=rssnyt&emc=rss
Ted Steinberg, author of a book
American Green, on the absurdity of
mowing
http://engforum.pravda.ru/showthread.php3?postid=667478

LINKS
Food Not Lawns and Wild Urban Gardeners
http://www.culturechange.org
http://www.sierraclub.org/compass/2...ower-nation.asp
http://fruitarians.blogspot.com
http://www.epa.gov
http://www.nwf.org/backyardwildlifehabitat/
(NWF is not an antihunting group)
http://www.planttrees.org/
http://www.environmentalhealth.ca/june01creator.html
http://sethgodin.typepad.com/seths_...llion_a_ye.html
http://www.margonaut.com/lawns.htm

Re "Wild violet a very persistent weed in lawns"

they scotch these
purple fragilities
with thoughtless
facility
************

It is because animals like sheep
and cows who graze and are
then slaughtered have
created clipped green that
animal enslaving countries
find mown areas esthetically
pleasing
*

US Forest Service
makes US a land of skinny trees
by allowing logging 3 times or
more of national forests
*

The state of Florida spends $30 million a year mowing medians and right of ways along highways," he said. "Wouldn't it be nice if we had something out here beside mowed grass? Why not turn them into water retention areas or at the very least natural vegetation that does not need mowing? I'm actually working on that one." a Floridian politician working on cutting spending
*

Food Not Lawns and Wild Urban Gardeners!
http://www.culturechange.org

Food Not Lawns creates useful biodiverse environments to grow food and native plants and trees instead of lawns. The network of people consists of those with gardening and farming experience and those with land. Beyond simply tearing up lawns to plant potatoes, for example, Food Not Lawns offers tool lending, seed sharing, compost, greenhouse building and educational information.

In Arcata, Humboldt County, Calif., Wild Urban Gardeners! is the local group waving the banner of Food Not Lawns. WUG works out of our office, spreading awareness of petroleum-based food production and distribution. This context for growing food within neighborhoods, with no gasoline- or diesel-delivery, provides relevance for today's historic crisis of energy.

It was lawn conversions and depaving upon which the Victory Gardens of World War II were based. Food, not lawns! Can you dig it? No need for motors! Get your bike carts tuned!

Begun in the radical town of Eugene, Oregon, Food Not Lawns turned lawns into food gardens. Now, in Arcata, northern California, activists and students have started a group effort to do more than convert a few lawns into gardens. Following are the early working documents for Community Agriculture Network. Photos and documents will be posted to this website soon.

Wild Urban Gardeners! (WUG!)
Objectives

T To promote the growing of food, native plant species, and perennial organic gardens instead of lawns by forming a network of people that are willing to help each other build community gardens on private property.
T To help the community form a network of people who have gardening and farming experience, land, and/or time to volunteer. WUG will create a comprehensive telephone directory for the Six Rivers bioregion to overcome communication barriers. We might join efforts with the new community currency project.
T Work with city government to help Arcata and other towns develop gardens instead of lawns.
T To organize a movement that has the strength to accomplish these goals by working with the Sustainable Energy Institute to write grants and have office/meeting space at the Redwood Peace and Justice Center.
T To build a web page so that WUG will be more accessible to the global community. (It's becoming real!)
T To contact the Jacoby Creek Land Trust and establish a connection so that our group can start a Seed Bank for Humboldt County at their location.
T Help Abreall to establish his garden at his communal living house.
T This summer, we hope to build a tree nursery, greenhouse, and herb garden at Jo Mahmoudi's house.
T Build a tool lending library.

. Establish a compost collection service.

The Organization of Wild Urban Gardeners

Organizational Considerations
We broke up the larger group into more manageable working groups:
T Design
People knowledgeable about gardening and landscape design work with landowners to design the yard to be functional yet esthetically pleasing. The consultants teach apprentices to transfer knowledge.
T Infrastructure
The design group tells the infrastructure group what they need so that supplies can be gathered and prices of products are researched.
T Outreach
The responsibility of this group is to distribute and gathering information, keep contact and email lists updated and finding events to table at.
T City Government
Maintaining a relationship with the city government of Arcata is important so that we can take advantage of any funds or projects that the city has. This group is also responsible for investigating any rules or regulations that may prohibit our activities.
Budget
We need to research the costs involved so that we can write a grant to get started. So far we need:
T Tools such as shovels, picks, forks, a wheelbarrow, dirt, and recycled wood.
T Money to pay the main organizers. Some of this money will come from people that we help.
T Money to pay the bills for our phone, email and web page.
Constituents
We have started to compile a list of people and businesses that have skills that they can offer to the community.
T Humboldt Permaculture Guild
T Arcata Community Supported Agriculture
T Blue Lake Community Supported Agriculture
T North Coast Growers Association
T Sam at the Purple House
T Mendocino Organic Network
T The Carrotistas (Eugene's Food Not Lawns)
Emphasis
The World Trade Organization is our main area of concern as they try to invade agriculture by supporting agribusinesses such as Monsanto.
Tactics
By inspiring people to wage revolution through growing our own food, if this notion is spread, WUG will have a large impact on agribusiness. Hopefully we will be joining many others to protest agribusiness in June at the WTO Ministerial meeting in the state capital.

The Bicycle Tour and Filling in the Raised Beds

March 30, 2003 and May 3, 2003

Objectives
WUG! established our first garden at Abreall's house so that we have a model to show potential landowners that would like to participate in our network. The goal of the bicycle tour was to show the group the potential place to establish our first garden and filling in the raised beds event was to help finish our project at Abreall Goodwin's house so that planting could begin. We did not want to create pollution and contribute to the oil war during transportation, so we decided that biking would be the best method.

For more information on Food Not Lawns and WUG!, email us at can@culturechange.org, or write to us at P.O. Box 4347, Arcata, CA 95518 USA. Volunteer opportunities exist for this season to lay the groundwork for following seasons and other towns. Grant writing for disseminating the concept is needed, and if you can help at our Arcata office or from your location, call 1-707-826-2565. Donations to Food Not Lawns/WUG are tax-deductible if written to Sustainable Energy Institute at the above address (memo line: WUG).

To email Food Not Lawns in Eugene, Oregon, email
foodnotlawns@yahoo.com
Website can be reached through
Food Not Lawns, Eugene, Oregon

For an essay on Food Not Lawns on the Economads website, see http://libaware.economads.com/fnldigit.php

For Culture Change Letter editions on food security and land use, see Archive.

See Jan VanderTuin's Center for Appropriate Transport website
Are you ready for the FALL OF PETROLEUM CIVILIZATION?

Articles of interest:
Anti-globalization protest grows, with tangible results. WTO protests page

Tax fossil-fuel energy easily by Peter Salonius

UK leader calls War on Terror "bogus"

Argentina bleeds toward healing by Raul Riutor

The oil industry has plans for you: blow-back by Jan Lundberg

It's not a war for oil? by Adam Khan

How to create a pedestrian mall by Michelle Wallar

The Cuban bike revolution by Christian Huot

How GM destroyed the U.S. rail system excerpts from the film "Taken for a Ride".

"Iraqi oil not enough for US: Last days of America?"

Depaving the world by Richard Register

Roadkill: Driving animals to their graves by Mark Matthew Braunstein

The Hydrogen fuel cell technofix: Spencer Abraham's hydrogen dream.

Ancient Forest Protection in Northern California. Forest defenders climb trees to save them.

Daniel Quinn's thoughts on this website.

A case study in unsustainable development is the ongoing crisis in Palestine and Israel.

Renewable and alternative energy information.

Conserving energy at home (Calif. Title 24)

Culture Change/Sustainable Energy Institute mailing address: P.O. Box 4347, Arcata, California 95518 USA
Telephone 1-215-243-3144 FAX 1-603- 825-2696
Web: http://www.culturechange.org
E-Mail info@culturechange.org
*

Organizations:

The Earth Day Network

Earth Day Network is the coordinating body of worldwide Earth Day activities. Their goal is to promote a healthy environment and a peaceful, just, sustainable world by organizing events, activities, and annual campaigns. Lots of resources, a daily newsletter and all the latest news. http://www.earthday.net

ICORE, The International Consortium on Religion and Ecology

ICORE is an organization those of you who enjoy interfaith work should consider joining It is an ecumenical and interfaith non-profit organization that helps individuals and interfaith based organizations learn about and participate in the environmental movement. http://www.caringforcreation.net

Greenpeace

Greepeace is probably the best-known environmental activist organization in the world. They've been doing this work for over 25 years now. 'Nuff said. http://www.greenpeace.org

Bioneers

"It's all alive. It's all intelligent. It's all connected. It's all relatives." Barbara suggested this site to us. Thanks, Barbara! http://www.bioneers.org

Friends of the Earth

Friends of the Earth is a national environmental organization dedicated to preserving the health and diversity of the planet for future generations. As the largest international environmental network in the world with affiliates in 63 countries, Friends of the Earth empowers citizens to have an influential voice in decisions affecting their environment. http://www.foe.org

The Nature Conservancy

This international organization protects the earth by setting up privately run nature preserves. Currently, they manage over 11 million acres in the US alone. They use a non-confrontational approach, and have several different ways people can help (including volunteer opportunities). http://www.tnc.org

Natural Resources Defense Council

NRDC uses law, science, and the support of more than 500,000 members nationwide to protect the planet's wildlife and wild places and to ensure a safe and healthy environment for all living things. This nonprofit does it all: protects wildlife and parks, works for clean air and energy, works to prevent nuclear waste, etc. They offer the opportunity to help through active writing campaigns available from their website (with prewritten emails-- grassroots work at the click of your mouse) or through membership newsletters. http://www.nrdc.org

The Union of Concerned Scientists

UCS is an independent nonprofit alliance of 50,000 concerned citizens and scientists across the country. They augment rigorous scientific analysis with innovative thinking and committed citizen advocacy to build a cleaner, healthier environment and a safer world. http://www.ucsusa.org

Wildlife Rescue

Wildlife Rescue is a non-profit organization that helps to educate communities about wildlife rescue and rehabilitation. This site was suggested to us by Denise of Snapdragon Gifts. Snapdragon's website. has a ton of other environmental resources listed. Thanks, Denise! http://www.batnet.com/wildlife

The Wilderness Society

The Wilderness Society works to protect America's wilderness and to develop a nation-wide network of wild lands. At their Take Action site, help defend national parks and wild areas throughout the US. http://www.wilderness.org/takeaction

Canary Coalition

Canary Coalition is a non-profit grassroots organization based in North Carolina that works for clean air. http://www.canarycoalition.org

Books:

Betrayal of Science and Reason: How Anti-Environmental Rhetoric Threatens Our Future by Anne H. Ehrlich and Paul R. Ehrlich. Island Press, 1996

There's a lot of squabbling in the media over who's right about various environmental issues ranging from global warming to ozone depletion. For every scientist that says there is a problem, you'll hear another scientist loudly proclaiming the opposite. The reason for this is that the media thrives on opposition and will search high and low to find people with differing points of view. Unfortunately, this leaves us with the impression that there is no consensus within the scientific community. Often, that isn't true. Anne and Paul Erhlich give us a unique insight into the scientific process and the current state of environmental science in a highly readable book that addresses the layperson without talking down to them.

The Unsettlling of America: Culture and Agriculture by Wendell Berry. Sierra Club Books, 1977.

Diotima sez:
Wendell Berry has long been one of my favorite writers. This lucid explanation of the nature of agribusiness and its effect on our earth and society is still pertinent a quarter of a century later. He is an insightful and poetic writer, but don't take my word for it—here's a quote from the book:
"If we are to have a culture as resilient and competent in the face of necessity as it needs to be, then it must somehow involve within itself a ceremonious generosity toward the wilderness of natural force and instinct. The farm must yield a place to the forest, not as a wood lot, or even as a necessary agricultural principle, but as a sacred grove—a place where the Creation is let alone, to serve as instruction, example, refuge; a place for people to go, free of work and presumption, to let themselves alone."

How To Shit In the Woods: An Environmentally Sound Approach to a Lost Art by Kathleen Meyer. Ten Speed Press, 1994

Here's an essential guide for hikers and backcountry travelers. In the author's own words:

For the Novice, the Seasoned, and the Planet
This book grew, rather organically, out of my first years of guiding whitewater rafting trips in the 1970's. My aim was twofold: first, to offer badly needed succor to backcountry travelers struggling with things like balance, bugs, embarrassment, and yellowing tennis shoes (I often encountered neophyte rafters who without the bathroom door to close and lock behind them opted for a week of cramps and constipation); and second, to provide practical and environmental methods for keeping wild places pristine, esthetically and bacterially.

Today, in heavily trafficked river corridors, "packing it out"Öyes, poop!Öis required. And a growing number of regulatory agencies that oversee other high-use areas (trekking trails, climbing routes, beaches frequented by sea kayakers) are encouraging or instituting pack-it-out programs. The rest of the world's wild landsÖand the health of these ever-shrinking placesÖremains dependent on the sojourner's mastery of environmentally sound "one-sit-hole" burials. If you plan on straying far from your urban flush commode, plan also on a degree in higher learning in the disposal of your own poop.

stopmowing.blogspot.com

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