Pickin’ and planting: Andy Koehnke is a small guy with a big dream: using music festivals populated by local funk, bluegrass and honky-tonk bands to raise dough to raise a new forest of trees.
He’s lined up a roster of about 20 hometown faves to play Ramble on the River on Friday, Saturday and May 20 at the Mishawaka Amphitheater in Poudre Canyon, west of Fort Collins, and is spreading the forest and festival gospel any way he can.
He’s got postcards and MySpace, and he isn’t above crashing through the public gardens on Colorado State University’s campus to snatch a few blooms to hand out, one at a time, to people he thinks might enjoy the music next weekend and the trees in the future.
Obsessed with trees since he was 10 years old, when his family walked from Fort Collins to Masonville and back, now 41-year-old
Koehnke hopes to “involve 20 million people in forest conservation by 2012. It’s easy: All you have to do is come to a show.”
Those who hit the show next weekend get a pack of tree seeds to sow where they may, a seedling to plant as they leave the legendary outdoor performance space, and a buck from the sale of every ticket goes to a forest-conservation organization.
Check out the line up at myspace.com/rambleontheriver. WhiteWater Ramble, a high-octane jamgrass band from Fort Collins, headlines Friday; catch Oakhurst late Saturday night, and Halden Wofford and the Hi-Beams at 4:30 p.m. Sunday.
Tickets are $20 for Friday; $15 for Saturday; and $10 for Sunday. Discounted two- and three-day passes are available.
Get plastered: Boulder-based EcoBuild has been hard at work creating a “Zero Net Impact Home” to help define “low-impact, high-performance homes.” What that means is that this single-family home a block south of North Boulder Park will have zero net ecological impact and zero net fossil fuel energy use.
Built from straw bales and powered by photovoltaics, the house will take the energy of some ec0-minded volunteers to get completed.
Builder David Adelai Adamson put out the call for help applying plaster to the exterior walls, 9 a.m.- 5 p.m. Saturday and May 20.
If you’ve got time and energy to spare, drop Adamson an e-mail at david@eco-build.com so he knows you’re there to help.
