Orion Magazine - March-April 2008

Often I received the inevitable reply: “Seeing the stars is nice but I want my security. Lights attract business and reduce vandalism.” But in fact, nonglaring light with appropriate wattage increases security. Try this: shield your eyes from a glaring light—and notice greatly improved visibility.

Arti>cial light has in many ways served us well, but we have been lax in pondering the possible negative consequences. I >nally found reference to a conference at the Boston Museum of Science that brought together health professionals, environmentalists, criminologists, lighting engineers, lawmakers, manufacturers, and members of the International Dark-Sky Association to learn how arti>cial outdoor light a=ects us in ways perhaps never imagined.

Today’s outdated outdoor night lights waste over $2 billion a year in energy costs in the U.S. alone. They produce glare that law enforcement agencies know is unsafe. Millions of migrating songbirds die each year by slamming into brightly lit buildings. Most disturbing, these lights can negatively a=ect our health in ways we are only recently beginning to explore.

Armed with research and visual aids— thanks to a grant from the University of Minnesota—I started to share information with city councils, planning commissions, county boards, and service clubs. At >rst people were perturbed: “Who is this woman? And what is she talking about?” Then, after a while, people sighed and rolled their eyes: “Oh, it’s her.” I became known as the Night Lady.

But after over eighty->ve presentations, something began to happen. At planning meetings when the issue of outdoor lighting came up, someone would say, “Let’s make sure we have proper downlighting.” And the Night Lady was nowhere around. A new, large, local subdivision proudly installed elegant,

full-cuto= streetlights (which point the light down rather than out and upward). The University of Minnesota put downlighting of street lamps in their long-range plan.

When we built a home on forty acres in rural Minnesota, we recessed the lights on our front porch and used nonglaring lights on the garage. We put our land in perpetual conservation with the Minnesota Land Trust, and outdoor lighting language is now part of their easements and discussed with landowners.

Yes, we bene>t from arti>cial outdoor lights. But we need to get rid of the outdated models and keep working to preserve everyone’s birthright of being able to gape at that awesome, mysterious, star->lled sky.

Tine Thevenin

Lake City, Minnesota

TREECYCLE

I grew up on a farm in Iron Station, North Carolina, and as a teenager I split a lot of wood to feed the stove that kept our house warm. As a result, I quickly gained an appreciation for deadfall trees. Many times I went with my father to visit a sawmill down the road. Watching the old circle sawmill, I often thought of what it would be like to saw wood for a living. Later in life, when I began to notice the number of trees that were thrown into land>lls, I decided to start a business sawing lumber from “waste” trees.

The goal of “treecyling” is twofold: to reduce waste in the land>ll and to create higher end-value from what was once considered good only for >rewood or mulch.

I estimate that close to 2 million board feet of lumber is wasted annually in the local land>lls in the Charlotte metro area due to storms, land clearing, maintenance, or disease. This is approximately eight thousand tons of waste in the Charlotte area alone. I recycle only a small portion of this material, but reducing waste a little at a time can make a di=erence.

At our family farm, I process approximately 15,000 to 20,000 board feet a year of local urban lumber from private land for use in homes, sheds, barns, farms, or woodworking projects. Homeowners or tree services load up the usable wood and transport it to our mill. There is a charge for sawing and drying the wood and for further processing if needed. Waste slabs, limbs, and crooked trees that can be used for heating are provided at no cost to anyone in the community who needs >rewood. I also process very large trees into slabs for use in live-edge furniture in the Nakashima tradition, which attempts to incorporate the natural form and character of the wood into the func-tionality of the piece.

Since my company, Edwards Sawmill & Lumber ( www.sawmillnc.com), was started, we have sawed 100,000 board feet of lumber for various uses, and approximately double that amount has been used as cordwood. That’s about twelve hundred tons of wood diverted from the waste stream. I have to believe that treecycling this urban and suburban wood could, on some level, also reduce demands on our national and state forests.

Kyle Edwards

Iron Station, North Carolina

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