1/21/97 Contact: Ted Bernard, Ohio University, 614/593-1935

Media Advisory: Ted Bernard, professor of geography and environmental studies, will hold a book signing from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. Wednesday (Jan. 22) at Little Professor Book Center in Athens.

ATHENS, Ohio -- The stories of nine U.S. communities collaborating for better resource conservation and working toward sustainable development are detailed in a new book co-authored by Ohio University Professor of Geography Ted Bernard and alumna Jora Young. The book, Ecology of Hope: Communities Collaborate for Sustainability, was published in December by New Society Publishers.

From Maine to California, the stories range from an island community that has developed a renewable lobster fishery to a group of people on the West Coast who joined forces to try to save the king salmon from extinction by restoring their damaged watershed. The book documents both urban and rural efforts, including a collaboration in Southeastern Ohio to reverse acid mine drainage contamination in the Monday Creek watershed.

The book highlights groups that are striving to put into practice an "ethic of sustainability," which Bernard and Young describe as "the responsibility of the present generation to live in such a way that the needs of future generations can still be served. This ethic recognizes that natural resources such as water, air, soil, plants and animals are the basic capital upon which all life, human and otherwise, depends. And that it is wise to learn to live off the interest generated by this capital rather than deplete the basic stores."

The Monday Creek cleanup effort is a joint project of Ohio University faculty and students, local residents, state and federal agencies, and industry representatives. Restoration strategies include creating a new channel for the stream so it bypasses contaminated mine sites, installing limestone diversion wells that reduce the acidity level, and using a waste product from American Electric Power to neutralize acid in the water.

Monday Creek was chosen as one of the case studies for the book, the authors noted, because the project results from "innovative, pragmatic, flexible people working together toward the goal of a fishable and swimmable creek and a restored watershed."

"What we find most hopeful is that, all across this country and in Canada, there is a quiet revolution under way. It is happening at the bottom, at the grassroots," according to Bernard and Young. "It tiptoes into communities desperate for ways to escape decades of bad natural resource conservation. Partnerships power this revolution, partnerships among conventional adversaries such as government agencies and environmentalists, corporations and labor, universities and ordinary people.

"Pride in the place people call home brings people together and propels a new kind of activism, based not on resisting and finger pointing but on healing and working together. This activism, home-grown and home-based, is the foundation for the ecology of hope."

In addition to teaching geography and environmental studies, Bernard is assistant dean of University College at Ohio University. He also is past clerk of the North American Friends Committee on Unity with Nature.

Young received a master's degree in environmental studies in 1983. She is science and stewardship director for the Florida region of the Nature Conservancy, and lectures widely on ecosystem conservation.