Ridgewind Band

Want to go?

Eco Jam ’08 benefit concert

• When: 7 p.m. Saturday
• Where: Winter Sun Music Hall, 302 S. Locust St., Floyd
• What: The concert will feature the Single Tree Band, the Wiebe Family Band, AAR Punk, and the Ridgewind Band with special guest Michael Kovick.
• Cost: $10. All proceeds benefit the Healing Harvest Forest Foundation
• Contact: 651-6355 or healingharvestforestfoundation.org or myspace.com/ridgewind

FLOYD -- This weekend, area forestry will get a boost from rock music during the second annual Eco Jam.

Eco Jam '08, taking place Saturday at the Sun Music Hall in Floyd, will benefit the Healing Harvest Forest Foundation, a Floyd-based nonprofit organization whose mission focuses on addressing human forestry needs while promoting coexistence between humans and the forest.

The "treeroots" force behind the foundation is a father-and-son team, Jason Rutledge and Jagger Ian.

The idea for a benefit concert came from the fact that both have played music for years, and the simple need to get the word out and raise money for the foundation, Rutledge said.

"We can't always depend on charitable giving, especially in these economic times," Rutledge said. "So that's why we decided to help ourselves by organizing a concert."

Bringing people to a concert is also a good way to spread the word about their cause and enjoy music with others. The Ridgewind Band performs only original music, about 60 percent of which is written by Ian.

There have been many forms of the Ridgewind Band over the years that have included both Rutledge and Ian, but Saturday will be the first time the band will perform in public with its current members -- Rutledge, Ian, Matthew Snare, Eric Marchon and special guest Michael Kovick-- playing all original, progressive acoustic rock music.

The crowd will learn about the Healing Harvest Forest Foundation's mission in between sets, but the focus of the night will be entertainment, with the money going to a good cause, Rutledge said.

"I get to do forestry every day, but I don't get to play my original songs every day in front of a crowd," Ian said. "It's the debut of something I've been working on for five years."

Sharon Harris of Copper Hill Animal Clinic, who is also Rutledge's neighbor, has heard some of the music that will be played Saturday and said she thinks the quality of the music is "amazing."

"My eyes have been opened by watching them work; I've learned about things that never occur to you as a regular person," Harris said. "Eco Jam is a way for them to get that out."

Ian doesn't want to downplay the importance of the foundation's mission, however. Both Rutledge and Ian travel around the country explaining the concepts of carbon-positive forestry and ecological capitalism when not working on their Floyd farm.

"They're complex issues, and they're not easy to explain in a little sound bite," Rutledge said. "But I hope I can attract attention or curiosity because people will say, 'I don't know what that means,' and come to learn about it."

Carbon-positive forestry includes the practice of harvesting the "worst first," meaning single, small trees are selected to be harvested, leaving the larger trees to grow and never cutting more than one third of the forest at a time.

This allows the larger, healthier trees to grow more and store carbon, which helps offset carbon in the environment, Rutledge said.

Animal labor is also used, rather than a fossil fuel-powered machines, which release carbon into the environment.

"It's much slower and labor-intensive and dangerous, but logging is dangerous anyway," Rutledge said. "We're not going to get rich doing this, but it's for the greater good, which is what a nonprofit organization is about."

Ecological capitalism is paying the people who work in an eco-friendly way more money to sustain the land, Rutledge said.

The money the foundation raises goes toward educating the public about natural resource management. Rutledge and Ian also train people to become "biological woodsmen," or practitioners of this eco-friendly forestry, and give money to those farms.

One of the products produced at the Rutledge farm is called draftwood, which is used to make ecologically friendly log homes called Draftwood log homes.

"By buying these certified products, people are paying a little more but buying into a quality life experience," Rutledge said. "It's called bottom-up change -- educating the workers from the ground up to change the industry."