Contact activities@earthcareonline.org or (706) 278-3979 

Workshop leader – Charlene Nash: Charlene has a BA from Erskine College in Biology and Education and a Masters in Agriculture from Clemson University. She began training in Soil, Plant and Animal Nutrition in 1978 to learn how to balance rations and soil to create health in people and animals. Charlene has worked on an agricultural research farm and has owned her own landscape nursery and consulting business. She joined the Tennessee Aquarium as horticulturist in 1992 and continues to do consulting on the side. She is a certified permaculture design consultant and has completed the Soil Food Web course as well. Charlene currently goes to Africa on assignment for the Farmer to Farmer program to teach soil improvement and other topics, such as nutrition, herbal medicine, and conservation farming. 

Topics include: (1) What roles do microbes, insects, and other organisms have in the soil and how can bacteria help plants uptake nutrients from the soil? (2) How can these microbes and insects be destroyed by such agents as chemical fertilizer, chemical spills, overuse, and polluted water? (3) How can the balance of beneficial microbes in the soil be restored and maintained? (4) How can ecosystems be upset or destroyed by soil pollution, soil erosion, destruction of soil microbes, diseases, and depletion of nutrients? (5) How do healthy ecosystems depend on various amounts of moisture, types of soil structure, organic matter, and fertility? (6) What are some wider ecological and ethical issues involving soil, such as the problem with the cleared rainforest soils, rejuvenating former superfund sites, and feeding the poor in 3rd world countries?