How to get involved:

Donate
Become a Corporate Sponsor
Volunteer
Become an Intern
Organize a Tree planting
Organize a tour
Submit Materials
Link us to your web site and network

Donate
CHE is a 501c-3 non-profit charitable educational organization. To make a donation to any of CHE’s current projects, please click on the donation form. It’s easy and should only take a few minutes.

Become a Corporate Sponsor
Sponsor our general administrative costs and get your logo on our website and in our brochures. Sponsor a particular event that we’re organizing and get your logo displayed at the event and included in all our event advertising. Sponsor a particular project and get your logo on the project’s main web page and on printed project materials.

For recognition in our advertising, sponsors must donate a minimum of $500.

We highly recommend that you make contact with someone from CHE during the process of becoming a corporate sponsor.

Organization or Company Name
Contact Person
Contact Information

Amount of Contribution
Contribution Specification

Note: Please e-mail us your corporate logo and business name as you wish for it to appear in our publications. If you are sponsoring an event we will also need you to mail your corporate logo on a sign (please contact CHE at info@holisticecology.org for sign dimensions). Please mail the contribution to:
Center for a Holistic Ecology, PO Box 451, Hohenwald, TN 38462

Volunteer
CHE frequently needs volunteers to help with events, tree plantings and advertising efforts. We also have occasional land clean-up days and natural building days at Solar Springs. To become a volunteer send us an e-mail with “volunteer” in the subject line and we’ll put you on our volunteer e-mail list which will alert you to times that we need help.

Become an Intern
We have the following openings for interns:

CHE – seeks interns to assist with fundraising, advertising, and administration. TCGN – seeks interns to locate more businesses, organizations and resources to add to our network; conduct local consumer research, assist with printed Directory and Journal. Seven Sisters Project – seeks interns to research links opportunities and resources for women; gather tools and resources for actionism, assist with event organizing, and sort through project submissions. LEDGE – seeks interns to help organize bioregional gatherings, relocalization conference, local events and tradeshows, as well as conducting research on advertising and media opportunities. CAN – seeks interns to help create resource tool kits for climate action, help disseminate this information, and organize carbon-calculating events. TFT – seeks interns to help with tree care, planting and digging, care of nursery, and organization of tree planting and carbon calculation events. Solar Springs – seeks interns to help with nursery, natural building, animals, agroforestry, and appropriate technology. Wholeco – seeks interns to help gather information on green business and help to disseminate this information.

Interns do straight work trade for knowledge and CHE certificate. Interns receive deep discounts to CHE programs. Select Interns are eligible for accommodations, board and/or stipend. To apply for an internship please fill out this application:
Name:
Current Address:
Phone:
E-Mail:
Gender: Date of Birth:
Internship preferred and why:
Briefly answer the following questions:
What are your long term goals related to your interest in this internship?
What skills do you have to contribute?
What do you hope to gain from this opportunity?
When are you available and for how long?
Anything else you’d like to share?
Please note that we may ask for a resume, references and phone interview before final acceptance into the program.

Organize a Tree Planting Project
Solar Springs Nursery grows tree seedlings for statewide tree plantings. Our tree selection is hardy, so as to better withstand climatic changes predicted for our area. Our tree planting program is a unique, three-tiered system of fundraising to benefit you, Solar Springs, and the environment. Here’s how it works:

1. You organize a carbon offset event in your community.
2. Participants at the event calculate their carbon footprints using the carbon calculator we provide for your use.
3. Participants donate funds to purchase trees in order to offset some or all of their carbon footprints and help you fundraise for the tree planting.
5. We deliver your trees with detailed information on how to plant them and tips on land restoration and basic tree care.
6. You organize the tree planting day.
7. Upon receiving photos from your event, we send you a certificate with the amount of carbon you sequestered from the atmosphere through your tree planting project.


Some of the funds from your fundraiser will go to Trees for Tennessee to pay for our trees and the educational materials, the rest will go to you, to help pay for the event and tree planting project. If you would like to organize a tree planting, please contact us with your project specifications. Occasionally, we are available to give presentations at events.

Organize a tour
For many years, the American Solar Energy Society (ASES) has facilitated solar tours in communities across the nation. For our third year, CHE and the Global Village Institute for Appropriate Technology have joined this effort by coordinating a tour in southern Middle Tennessee. Our current tour listings are:

This year's tour on Sunday June 8, 2008 will showcase off-grid and grid-tie homes in Lewis, Wayne, Hickman, and Lawrence counties, passive solar, solar hot water heaters, a windmill, alternative vehicles, natural buildings, water catchment systems, organic gardens and more! The tour is free to residents of Middle Tennessee. Donations are encouraged. Costs apply if accommodations, meals or transportation are needed. Lodging, meals and shuttles are available nearby. You can contact inn@thefarm.org for details. The tour fee for non-Tennessee residents is $25/day. Ride sharing recommended. Registration preferred. We will also have a tour in October date TBA.

If you can’t come to one of these tours you can: Organize a tour in your area and we’ll help you advertise; Contact us and we will prepare a tour in southern Middle Tennessee for your university, school, church, or organization.

If you have a sustainable home and would like it to be showcased in one of our tours, please send us your name, address, and detailed description of what makes your home sustainable. Photos are much appreciated when possible. Go to the tours page.

Submit Materials
Be a part of our Seven Sisters Project by producing a creative piece that shows what you as a woman are doing for the earth. This can be presented as written word—poetry or narrative—video, audio or photo submissions. Submitted materials will not be returned.

-Submit an article to our Green Living Journal

-Take out an advertisement in our Green Living Journal, CHE website, or TCGN website.

The Green Living Journal of Middle Tennessee is an eco-solution based journal that highlights solutions for green development in the area and shares local success stories from those living and teaching others to live green lifestyles.

Publication months: March, June, September, December

Where can you get the Green Living Journal? Stop by your local health food store and see if they have a copy of our free journal. If not, ask them to contact us for copies. You can also have the journal mailed to your home when you become a member of the Tennessee Cumberland Green Network (link to TCGN).

Submit an article:
Articles can be 500-700 words. Pictures related to the article are welcome as jpg's. Articles can be on almost any topic of green living as long as it relates to Middle Tennessee. Examples of topics include food production, food and energy, home power, natural building, bioregionalism, relocalization, green investment/economics, health care—green fitness, diet, relaxation—, arts and crafts, green transportation, climate change, peak oil, conservation, green events—past or future—, success stories, water quality, pollution, etc. Keep in mind that the journal is solution-based. Note that if your article is accepted and published, the journal may publish the article in local papers as part of our green living column.

We have a few back issues. Let us know if you'd like a back issue mailed to you.

Advertisements: Since the journal is free, it is reliant on advertising revenue to cover production costs. Consider supporting the journal by advertising your business or organization. The normal price is $25 for a business card size black and white ad. Prices for larger ad spaces and color ads are available upon request.

Steps to submit an article and advertisement:
For publication months: March June September December Submit by this month:
Step 1 January 22 April 22 July 22 October 22
Step 2 February 11 May 11 August 11 November 11
Step 1:
- the writer’s name
- the topic of the article
- request for advertising space
Step 2:
- the final edited version of your article of 500-700 words
- any jpg pictures to accompany your article
- your name as you wish to be recognized in our contributors column
- short bio of approximately 50 character spaces
- head shot jpg picture of yourself
- the final edited version of your advertisement


All the above should be sent as a jpg or mailed to PO Box 451, Hohenwald, TN 38462

Join one of our Network Do you represent a green business, nonprofit organization, or agency in the Middle Tennessee Region? Link up with our Tennessee Cumberland Green Network (TCGN) and combine forces with other green visionaries from multiple areas of expertise and industry across the Middle Tennessee bioregion.

Link us to your web site and network

Organize a Course (the following info is repeated like 3 times so you’ll need to know where it’s home is and then link each time) CHE currently offers courses in permaculture, agroforestry, natural building, water catchments, appropriate technology and bamboo. Our current course schedule is: courses at our affiliated sites are: In addition to these courses, we are willing to travel and offer courses or teach at conferences or events for individuals and organizations interested in long-term sustainability. If you would like to host us, please note that we expect you to take care of associated administrative services and advertising.

We offer courses in:

Permaculture is focused primarily on permanent agriculture and integrated living systems but encompasses all aspects of human culture as it interacts with the world as a whole. Its aim is to bring balance back into our lives and the ecological environments within which we sustain ourselves.

Permaculture principles and tools help us learn to integrate rather than segregate ourselves from our needs and resources, since everything in life is connected. We learn to live more harmoniously within our environment first through observation—and lots of it—followed by analysis of natural systems and proposed or existing human-made systems. By cultivating a habit of ongoing, careful observation and analysis coupled with informed action, we are constantly monitoring what works well and what does not—for human needs and those of the surrounding ecosystem.

We offer a variety of permaculture courses and consulting services. We can help the beginning student understand the basics of permaculture principles and techniques, assist a homeowner in designing their backyard, or offer guidance in more comprehensive, broad-scale home and farm designs.

Land Restoration
For the past four years we have been conducting land restoration at Solar Springs. Clear-cutting has harmed much of the area around us and many of the natural buffers that protect our waters from agricultural runoff and erosion have been damaged. To counter this, we apply ecologically sensitive measures such as stabilization and enhancement of soils through plantings of carefully selected tree and perennial plant species in vulnerable areas. We also design appropriate technologies such as water catchments, bamboo, and agroforestry to catalyze restoration of the land.

One of the key components of land restoration is building up the soil food web, which is the natural interaction of living organisms in the soil including bacteria, fungus, nematodes, arthropods and earthworm’s which work together to create healthy soils. The use of chemical fertilizers, herbicides and excessive tilling or/or planting all have negative effects on soil biology and result in loss of nutrients, increased run off, lower water holding capacity and stressed plants.

Our method is to support the food web and toward that aim we make natural preparations of native microbes and soil fungus that are beneficial to plants and trees and help hold and build soil. We then spray these preparations on soils or foliage and coat them onto seeds to assist in root inoculation and growth. We also inoculate soil with microbes and native seeds, form them into clay balls and then cast them out onto disturbed areas of land. When it rains the soil holds the organic matter so that it has time to sprout and take hold to the eroded land.

By working with and supporting the soil’s living communities, we can speed up and enhance the natural restoration of our soils, plants and trees. In addition to the methods described above, we work with this soil community by adding organic material, preparing microbe teas, and limiting tillage and plowing through no-till crop plantings. To assist others in conducting their own land restoration work, we offer information and consultation on land restoration practices and the soil food web.

Appropriate technologies are tools, equipment, processes, ideas, or practices that are compatible with local materials, labor, and energy resources while offering the fulfillment and satisfaction of human needs. At Solar Springs Research Farm use of and research into appropriate technologies is a leading focus. While many appropriate technologies have been developed for the developing world they are equally adaptable to many situations in developed countries—especially for small farms.

Appropriate technologies currently in use at Solar Springs include rainwater catchments; solar electricity for energy production and water pumping; wind power for energy production; and natural building with local clay, straw and timber. New technologies in process of integration this year include solar water heating, solar food dehydration, biofuels (home scale ethanol production) use of waste vegetable oil to run our vehicles, and micro-drip irrigation. We offer support, consultations, and information on building, purchasing, selection, and implementation of appropriate technologies.

Water catchments are a key area of development at Solar Springs. We currently have about 17,000 gallons of rainwater storage in poly vinyl and steel tanks. We are always adding new storage with the goal of capturing the maximum amount of water off of all our buildings. We also utilize practices that enhance water storage in the soil—the most economical method and where most of the water we store ends up. We utilize organic mulches, living mulches, swales (trenches on contour), ponds, contour plantings, and water retention fences—brush fences laid on contour, where the wood acts as a sponge and slows runoff. We offer consultations in sizing, selecting, and setting up water catchments in tanks and soil.

Agroforestry is the integration of trees with agricultural and pastoral products. Agroforestry techniques include the following—wind breaks: for structures, livestock and crops; alley cropping: rows of trees widely spaced to allow alleys to be farmed or grazed; silvopasture: trees incorporated into livestock pasture for shade, forage, seed and fruit; forest farming: utilization of existing forest to produce non-timber forest products along with selective timber products such as honey, mushrooms, ginseng or grape vines; and riparian buffer strips: trees planted along water ways to protect and enhance water quality, reduce runoff and provide tree products.

At Solar Springs we are utilizing all of these agroforestry techniques and propagating tree and bamboo species in our nursery to grow a diversity of products throughout the year that should adapt well to a variable and changing climate. We offer on-site consultations as well as providing trees and other nursery stock useful in establishing these systems.

Natural building is the use of locally or regionally available natural materials like clay, straw, stone and wood to build our homes. Most natural building techniques can be traced back many thousands of years to early human settlements across the globe, but they are resilient and adaptable to modern aesthetic tastes.

The current industrial model of house construction using concrete, stick frame, and chip wood panels has only been around since World War II and has introduced hundreds of industrial chemicals and products into our homes and environments. As a result, many people now suffer from toxic home syndrome and are affected by the off-gassing of modern building materials.

Natural buildings like strawbale, cob, and timber frame with light clay are becoming increasingly popular as more people want homes that are environmentally conscious, use local materials, are healthy to live in, and can be built by the homeowners themselves.

The Lodge at Solar Springs is naturally built with local timber and various mixtures of clay, sand, straw and wood. The walls have been finished with natural plasters and the entire structure has a living, breathing feel to it. Drawing on our experience building the Lodge as well as multiple natural buildings in the state, we offer consulting, support, resources and workshops on natural building techniques that work well in Tennessee.