June 3, 2004
The Durango Herald

Local radio show aims for inspiring stories on environment

By Dale Rodebaugh
Herald Staff Writer

Tom Bartels, left, and Gary Lewin sit Wednesday in the Cosmix Sound Studio, where they record the Good Dirt Radio program.

On the premise that good news creates a chain reaction that provides wide, lasting benefits, seven Durango residents have crafted a five-minute program - Good Dirt Radio - focusing on cheerful, environmentally oriented news.

"There is no subject we won't consider, but it can't be fluff, pie in the sky," said Tom Bartels, former owner of the Abbey Theatre and one of the seven-member board. "It has to be positive, inspiring and show that what's being done works and that it works for the environment."

So far the group has produced paeans to biodiesel fuel, compact fluorescent light bulbs, nontoxic means of dealing with the West Nile virus and an organic spray to combat the Ips beetle. Bartels and Tami Graham, executive director of the Animas Conservancy, host the show.

The programs air monthly or bi-monthly on La Plata County stations KSUT-FM (90.1) and KDUR-FM (91.9). But plans call for approaching the 30-station High Country Community Radio Coalition - of which KDUR is a member - about spreading the good word on stations in New Mexico and Utah as well as Colorado.

If Good Dirt Radio gains a foothold in the Rockies, organizers plan to approach the 1,100 public radio stations across the country next year. They say they need a dozen programs in the can to show what they can do.

"Good Dirt is about digging up good news … for a change," said Gary Lewin, a Durango real estate broker and owner of Cosmix Sound Studio. Lewin conceived the program as a way to use the media to get involved in issues needing change.

Good Dirt Radio programs, which condense 40 hours of research, interviewing, writing, editing and producing into five minutes of air time, show how environmentally effective efforts can be applied by everyone, Bartels said.

Take global warming, Bartels said. Individuals understand the consequences intellectually, but the problem seems so overwhelming they may end up doing nothing. On the contrary, Good Dirt Radio deals with issues that can be taken on locally and that can produce observable results, he said.

Bartels cited the Good Dirt Radio program on how Fort Lewis College is swapping incandescent light bulbs for compact fluorescent ones.

The effort started with Ray Vigil, an employee at the college's physical plant. Vigil, one of whose ongoing jobs was changing burned-out incandescent light bulbs, noted the frequency with which he made his rounds. With a cost/benefit analysis made with the help of the college's environmental center, Vigil persuaded his boss, Al Mages, to start retrofitting.

Mages was quoted on Good Dirt Radio as saying that the compact fluorescent bulbs not only cost less to use, but also last eight to 10 times longer than incandescent bulbs.

Good Dirt Radio tackled another ongoing, readily visible phenomenon - the thousands of dead or dying piñon pines across the Four Corners.

The program interviewee was Bill Ruth, an Arizona businessman, who by trial and error produced an organic solution to combat the Ips beetle, the scourge of pinons. Ruth recommends the plant nutrient be used as a foliar spray as well as an ingredient in the mixture used to irrigate the tree.

A Prescott, Ariz., pest-control firm has switched from chemical sprays to Ruth's product, and Friends of the Trees, in Albuquerque, is testing the product. Arborist Hans Hartman of Affordable Fellers, in Durango, also is using the organic spray, which fortifies the tree against assault by the Ips beetle.

Lewin and Bartels are quick to point out the benefits of Ruth's organic spray. It doesn't kill bees or butterflies - as chemical sprays do. The nutrient helps the tree maintain its health by retaining water and building capillary pressure to expel intruders. The Ips beetle, like any invader, prefers easy prey.

"If chemicals drift, they're still a problem," Bartels said. "Organic spray solves a problem without creating new ones."

Good Dirt Radio also has told the story of biodiesel fuel, a topic dear to Katrina Blair, an educator, founder of Turtle Lake Refuge and a board member. Blair has taken traditional biodiesel a step further, outfitting a 1984 diesel truck to operate on filtered vegetable oil donated from restaurants.

The Good Dirt show points out that Rudolph Diesel, the inventor of the engine named after him, designed the engine to operate on peanut oil.

In addition to Lewin, Bartels and Blair, the Good Dirt Radio board is comprised of Ron Margolis, an activist and retired environmental lawyer; Michael Rendon, from the Fort Lewis College environmental center; Jude Terry, a psychotherapist; and Nancy Jacques, an environmentalist and writer whose column appears in the Herald.

Upcoming Good Dirt programs take a look at:

"Green" hotels, those that recycle, use bulk soaps and shampoos instead of individual dispensers and try to save natural resources, energy and waste by offering guests staying more than one night the option of not having their bed linen and towels changed every day.

Bio-mimicry, which basically is humans learning from nature. Bartels and Lewin cited British scientists who developed water-collecting methods in arid areas by observing a South African beetle. The beetle survives in the Namib Desert, one of the most inhospitable regions on Earth, by capturing water from dense fog that blows in from the Atlantic Ocean in the early morning.

The November elections, which at first glance wouldn't appear to be an environmentally oriented topic. But Bartels makes the point that environmental issues could see different resolutions, depending on who wins. Good Dirt wants everyone to get out and vote.

Slow food, which Lewin defined as "taking the junk out of fast food."

"Green" buildings, a look at practical, cost-effective alternatives available to architects and builders to replace outdated, energy-inefficient materials and techniques.

Almost any topic - energy use, food production, recycling - has an environmental angle, Bartels said. It's just a matter of developing it.

"We're overloaded with bad news," Lewin said. "We're trying to create a niche that provides positive examples and good news � for a change."

Reach Staff Writer Dale Rodebaugh here.

View the original Herald article.

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