Dallas Sierra Club: Compost Contribution & Poison Ivy - Farmers Branch

The Compost Contribution: How gardeners' black gold can help protect the planet

You do two good things when you make a pile of brown leaves and assorted green waste, then encourage it to rot: You prolong the life of your landfill, and you produce something that contributes to a healthier environment.  And you can do this at any scale and in any number of ways, using a remarkable range of ingredients.  You can compost as a community garden, a city, a county, a business, or just as one person.
Few activities encompass such a wide range of raw materials, methods, and personal styles.  And surely there aren't many products, homemade or industrial, that can help with everything from methane reduction to habitat restoration.
The presentation will include a little history, a brief look at methods, and examples of uses, particularly those beneficial to the environment.  All this as seen through the eyes of John Darling, a backyard composter / tree hugger who fell into a job as campus composter for UT Arlington.

Poison Ivy

In this subversively funny talk, Amy Martin, author of Itchy Business: How to Treat the Poison Ivy and Poison Oak Rash, Prevent Exposure and Eradicate the Plant (www.Itchy.Biz), will share her deep knowledge gleaned from 12 years working in wildlife habitat management. Martin breaks the rash into 4 stages for her unique approach, each with a different tactic using the 3 Cs of rash relief: calm, cool and constrict. Home remedies are ranked and rated, as are a world of unique herbal and mineral rash products. The many ways to practice safe scratch are revealed. She details how to prevent the poison ivy allergen urushiol from reaching the skin and the right way to remove it if it does. Martin shares the weird (urushiol mummies, poison lacquer, and trees that fume urushiol) and the wonderful (poison ivy's excellence for wildlife and erosion control) in a talk that will leave you itching for more.

DIRECTIONS: http://www.dallassierraclub.org/page.htm?generalmeeting
Info: Kirk Miller, 972-699-1687 or KirkMiller@DallasSierraClub.org