tanoma ochre : december ’22
Contributor Dana O’Driscoll writes: “Tanoma Ochre comes from the Tanoma Acid Mine Drainage (AMD) Remediation site near Indiana, Pennsylvania. Like thousands of miles of streams throughout Pennsylvania, the Crooked Creek Watershed is polluted from abandoned mines that were closed in the 1950’s and 1960’s. While legislation in the 1970’s required companies to contain polluted mine drainage, several thousand miles of streams currently have mine pollution in Pennsylvania alone from before 1970. These streams run into the Mississippi and Chesapeake watersheds. At least 2 billion gallons of iron-polluted water have been released from the mines at Tanoma alone. The Tanoma AMD Site was established in 1995 to filter out heavy amounts of iron oxide using settling ponds, aerobic wetlands, and a hydraulic air trompe system. One of the byproducts of this process is this beautiful iron oxide pigment, already settled into a very fine pigment in the pools at Tanoma. A group of committed community volunteers in the Evergreen Conservancy maintain the site.”
contributor: Dana O’Driscoll
Dana O’Driscoll is an artist, animist druid, herbalist, and permaculture practitioner residing in the beautiful Allegheny Mountains of Western Pennsylvania. Dana specializes in three disciplines: watercolor, leatherwork, and natural arts. Dana first discovered natural pigments after a visit to the Tanoma AMD (Acid Mine Drainage) site in 2017. Because the challenges surrounding resource extraction and environmental degradation are so numerous, she is committed to land healing, raising awareness, and reconnecting people with nature. She is the author and illustrator of the Tarot of Trees, Plant Spirit Oracle (using Tanoma Ochre in some paintings), the TreeLore Oracle, and Sacred Actions: Living the Wheel of the Year through Earth-Centered Sustainable Practices. Dana lives at a 5-acre homestead in rural western Pennsylvania with her partner and a host of feathered and furred friends. Her work can be found at the Druids Garden www.thedruidsgarden.com and on Instagram @druidsgardenart.
Image by Dana O’Driscoll. Photo courtesy of Dana O’Driscoll.
Photo courtesy of Dana O’Driscoll.
22% donation recipient : Evergreen Conservancy
Evergreen Conservancy is a 501.c.3 all-volunteer organization on the front lines of conservation and environmental restoration activities in Indiana County in Western Pennsylvania. While Evergreen Conservancy is focused on a small bioregion, our watershed feeds into the Mississippi River, thus, any pollution in Pennsylvania streams has nationwide impact. Evergreen Conservancy has worked to restore Crooked Creek, Ramsey Run, and Laurel Run streams, has over 30 dataloggers in many local streams, and maintains two Acid Mine Remediation sites (Tanoma and Bear Run). They also provide environmental education, community sustainability awards, and help landowners with land trusts to support conservation. Evergreen Conservancy works in a region of the United States that does not have a population committed to sustainability and stewardship—making their work all the more critical. More about this amazing organization can be found at: www.evergreenconservancy.org