Turn the Tide

with Laren Leland

Turn the Tide hopes to inspire listeners to engage in environmental betterment. Topics include conservation, green living, social justice, and activism. Turn the Tide suggests that we ask ourselves everyday: what can I do to contribute to positive change?

Leland is an artist, native bee conservationist, aspiring farmer, and real estate broker. She lives and dreams on Yachats River Road at Blossomwood Farmstead – bee sanctuary and permaculture.  Leland volunteers with the Pollinator Restoration Project and 350.org. To find out more about her work, please visit Leland at Advantage Real Estate.

 

Most recent show:

Interview with Debra Fant. Debra has lived in Lincoln County 39 years after growing up in Minnesota and earning a BSN (Bach. of Science in Nursing) degree at St. Olaf College, Northfield MN. Parent of two adults, widowed, & retired she shares her life in the forest overlooking the Alsea River with dog companions and good friends. Activism is her avocation and passion, speaking for those beings without a voice in how the Natural world is to be treated by human beings. (August 2018)

Previous shows:

Interview with Nathan Bernard, owner of the Yachats Brewing + Farmstore. We talk about how the restaurant’s building design and menu both reflect sustainable values. Nathan also fills us in on what permaculture is and how he uses permaculture design concepts on his five acre farm, which is located up Yachats River Rd. There are so many things we could have talked about, we ran out of time in the 28 minutes! (July 2018)

Interview with Maxine Centala about the Pollinator Restoration Project – a corridor along 25 miles of Highway 101, great plants for pollinators, and native bee biology. Maxine has a background in the natural sciences. In the early 1980’s she moved to the Pacific Northwest, living first in Seattle and then on the central Coast since 2001. A long time gardener and native plant enthusiast, she became involved with environmental issues and in 2005 co-founded the local group Concerned Citizens for Clean Air. (June 2018)

Interview with Jan Kenyon and Maria Sause of Lincoln County Community Rights. Janice Kenyon has spent her life studying what it means to be human. She was introduced to the wonder of the natural world by her parents, taught the nuts and bolts of the human body in Medical School, looked for how we tick as a psychoanalyst, and had the honor of listening to Native elders who taught her the meaning of home. She is grateful to them all. They have made her the caretaker and warrior she is today. Maria Sause was born in Chile of Czech immigrants, refugees fleeing from Nazi persecution in Europe.  She has spent half of her adult life in the US and half in Chile. She is a high school English teacher, ESL teacher, translator, painter, and a member of the Community Rights movement. (May 2018)

Interview with Bill Kucha. Bill is a longtime resident and artist here in Lincoln County. He’s participated in volunteer environmental work since his arrival in the 70’s.  He was a charter member of the Oregon Peace Works and involved in getting the Trojan Nuclear Power plant closed. More recently he found a chapter of 350occ.org (Oregon Central Coast). He’s also a member of 350PDX, working at a local, state, and national levels to combat green house gas emissions.

Please listen below. (April 2018)

Interview with E. G. Vallianatos about his book Poison Spring: The Secret History of Pollution and the EPA.

From the back cover, “For twenty-five years E.G. Vallianatos saw the EPA from the inside, with rising dismay over how pressure from politicians and threats from huge corporations were turning it from the public’s watchdog into a ‘polluter’s protection agency.’ Based on his own experience, the testimony of colleagues, and hundreds of documents Vallianatos collected inside the EPA, Poison Spring reveals how the agency has continually reinforced the chemical-industrial complex.”

Please listen below. (March 2018)

Interview with Joanne Kitell and Leland shares quotes from Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: a Year of Food Life by Barbara Kingsolver.

Joanne Kitell is Chair of a local non-profit organization called View the Future. She is also the author of a few books about Yachats’ early days, including one which she wrote with oversight by local tribes entitled, Early Yachats History: Yachats Indians, Origins of the Name and the Reservation Years. She volunteers with Yachats Trails, where she helps with development. She is possibly best well known for her work on the Amanda Trail. (Feb 2018)

Please listen below, or follow this link for a written transcription.

Interview with Robert Kentta and Leland talks about the book Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge, and the Teaching of Plants by Robin Wall Kimmerer.

Robert Kentta has worked as the Siletz Tribal Cultural Resources Director for over 20 years, and has concurrently served as an elected member of the Tribal Council of the Confederated Tribes of the Siletz Indians for the past 9 years. He is active in supporting Siletz languages, ceremonial and cultural events, cultural/sacred site protection, archaeological and archival research, and history/cultural education. He is a traditional artist who specializes in regalia and baskets. He grew up in his Tribal community of Siletz, Oregon, and attended the Institute of American Indians Arts in Santa Fe, New Mexico. He is active on behalf of all Siletz Tribal members in matters of fairness/equality, and is able to advocate regionally/nationally as well through inter-Tribal regional/national organizations.

Please listen below, or follow this link for a written transcription. (Jan 2018)

 

Interview with Dr. Tom Kerns on the Declaration on Human Rights and Climate Change and Leland reads her written piece, “How to be an environmentalist.”

Dr. Kerns is author of Environmentally Induced Illnesses: Ethics, Risk Assessment and Human Rights (McFarland, 2001). He has lectured at the World Health Organization headquarters in Geneva on human rights issues in HIV vaccine research, and he has served as commissioner on the New Zealand People’s Inquiry into Aerial Pesticide Sprays Over Auckland (2006). Tom also serves as a Board member of Beyond Toxics, and of Concerned Citizens for Clean Air. He is on the Steering Group for the Permanent Peoples’ Tribunal on the Human Rights Impacts of Fracking and is a member of the Drafting Group for the Declaration on Human Rights and Climate Change.

Mentioned in the interview: Our Children’s Trust, Eugene

*content note Newport’s 350.org usually meets the first Sunday of each month, but please check the web site for updated information in case of changes.

Please listen below, or follow this link for a written transcription.