Books On Raising Chickens, Green Burials, Plus Some Awards

 Jan Daniels has a new job as the founder/director of Eco Expressions, an environmental writing program based in San Diego, CA and Hailey, ID, that helps solidify the outdoor experience for students with scientific and creative writing. www.EcoExpressions.org

In January, Scribner released Mark Harris' book on green burial, "Grave Matters: A Journey Through the Modern Funeral Industry to a Natural Way of Burial." See review on page 22.

The book follows some dozen families as they pursue more "natural" burial options for their deceased including interment in backyard graveyards and natural cemeteries, scattering of ashes at sea, the sea burial of memorial "reef balls," and cremation, among others. Harris also details the embalming process and the environmental aftermath of the standard funeral.

Christine Heinrich's first book "How To Raise Chickens" (MBI Publishing, St. Paul, MN, $19.95) will be released soon. Heinrich says the book includes sections on rare and historic breeds, traditional breeding methods, and information about natural incubation and hatching chickens. She writes that there are lots of color pictures of beautiful chickens.

Kathleen Regan has contributed a chapter to a book "Creating a Climate for Change: Communicating Climate Change and Facilitating Social Change", eds. Moser, Susannne C. and Lisa Dilling, Cambridge University Press, 2007. Her chapter is titled, "A role for dialogue in communication about climate change." The book is a synthesis that grew out of an interdisciplinary workshop on climate change communication held at NCAR in June 2003. Regan is moving to Germany in February and can be contacted at kath.regan@gmail.com.

Joe Roman's most recent article, "Deep Doo-Doo," profiles Fargo, a detector dog trained to locate whale feces in the Bay of Fundy. Researchers use the samples to study reproduction in the endangered right whale. It appears in New Scientist's Festive Issue, Dec. 23-30, 2006. His book "Whale" (Reaktion Books, 2006) was released in May. Roman is a visiting fellow at the Gund Institute for Ecological Economics at the University of Vermont.

Mike Stark, environmental reporter, the Billings (Mont.) Gazette, was named 2006 Journalist of the Year by the Suburban Newspapers of America. The award was given for a body of work, including stories about climate change, wolf recovery in the Rocky Mountains, threats by grizzly bears, an outbreak of tree-killing bark beetles, and long-running neglect of contaminated groundwater beneath a Billings neighborhood.

Freelance writer JenniferWeeks has become a contributing writer to CQ Researcher, a weekly magazine published by Congressional Quarterly Press. Each issue of CQR is a 24-page overview of a single issue in the news. Weeks published her third CQ Researcher in January 2007 on factory farms.

Matt Weiser, The Sacramento Bee, and coworkers Deb Kollars, Carrie Peyton-Dahlberg and Phillip Reese earned a second place honorable mention from the 2006 John B. Oakes Award for Outstanding Environmental Journalism at Columbia University. The Bee reporters were honored for their series "Tempting Fate" on the flood threat in Sacramento and California's Central Valley. The reporters will share a $1,000 prize. The Los Angeles Times, led by reporter Kenneth R. Weiss, took first place for its "Altered Oceans" series.

Dan Drollette, Northampton, Mass., freelance writer and Joy Horowitz, Santa Monica, Calif., freelance writer are among the 2007 National Tropical Botanical Garden Environmental Journalism Fellows. SEJournal editorial board member JoAnn M. Valenti facilitates the annual NTBG program held in May in Kauai.

Alex Wilson's book, "Your Green Home" was recently published by New Society Publishers, 2006.

Snagged a new job or won an award? Contact Jackleen de La Harpe at jackdelaha@yahoo.com

**From SEJ's quarterly newsletter SEJournal, Spring 2007 issue.