Swing sets, slides and jungle gyms – all typical things to find in a park but this bamboo park is no typical park.  The first bamboo park to open in India is in the state of Tripura and comes with a price tag of $7 million.  But Indian officials aren’t worried about the cost as they see the value in the growing industry of bamboo products.

From clothing to flooring to phones, bamboo is proving to be a versatile, sustainable and sturdy raw material for many countries.  In fact, the United States, in areas of waning economies like the Delta, would be wise to investigate the potential of growing bamboo.

Spearheaded by Tripura’s Forest and Commerce Minister, Jogen Chowdhury, the park is for more than recreational purposes. In a partnership with China’s Nanjing Forestry University, Tripura has formed the Tripura Forest Development and Plantation Corporation and will participate in a technology share with the Bamboo Engineering Research Centre at Nanjing University.

“China is the number one country in the world in production of thousands of value-added bamboo items,”  Chowdhury explains about the partnership between the two countries.  And with 1500 documented applications of bamboo from building material to packaging to musical instruments, Tripura is wise to invest in the fast-growing grass.

Spread over 70 acres, the park will be home to 25 varieties of bamboo, or “green gold” as it’s commonly called, and will provide employment for over 1700 people.  Indirectly, with the expansion of bamboo manufacturing, the park could lead to as many as 10,000 jobs.  Manufacturing plans include bamboo flooring, corrugated roofing sheets and furniture.  For local artisans and those willing to learn, round bamboo will also be produced at the bamboo park.

“The bamboo park would produce hundreds of value-added items and also facilitate export of bamboo products. The thrust of the bamboo park would be to give a fillip to growers who are forced to sell raw bamboo and its products at a cheap rate. Bamboo growers and artisans would gain enormously if value addition is ensured,” Chowdhury added.

For more on how bamboo is changing the world, visit Green Earth News section on Bamboo’s Worldwide Impact.

Bamboo Park: Green Gold In India is a post from: Green Earth News

Okay, so it was a minor upset but the Patriots did have a slight edge going into last night’s game.  I won’t bore you with any more news, analysis, breakdowns or talk of the slightly disappointing crop of Super Bowl ads.  Instead, let’s take a look at how Super Bowl XLVI tried to reduce the environmental impact of such a waste-laden event like the Big Game.

According to a press release sent from the Super Bowl XLVI host committee:  “The NFL Environmental Program, now in its 18th year, develops projects each year to address solid waste, food waste, material reuse, the needs for books and sports equipment for children in need and the overall climate change impact of Super Bowl events.”

A recycling initiative was active throughout all the Super Bowl events as well as a food recovery program to benefit Second Helpings.  1700 trees will be planted in the urban Indianapolis and once grown, according to the committee, will produce enough oxygen each month to sustain all 70,000 fans at Lucas Oil Stadium for the Super Bowl game.  But the largest impact was made through the purchase of renewable energy certificates.  Specifically, 15,000 megawatt-hours supplied by Green Mountain Energy which is as much energy as the 25 million flat screen TVs playing the Super Bowl game.  The wind energy produced by these offsets will displace fossil fuel emissions that weigh as much as 33 million NFL players.

For those unfamiliar with carbon offsets, they are a purchase individuals or groups can make that fund projects that reduce greenhouse gas emissions.   Some projects may promote and enable reforestation projects and some projects update power plants.  Green Mountain chooses wind turbines as their weapon of choice and since its inception claims to have “helped avoid more than 14.8 billion pounds of carbon dioxide emissions.”

Renewable Choice Energy is another such company that sponsors a variety of renewable energy and carbon projects through carbon offset purchases.  Renewable Choice are also fans of wind turbines along with solar panels.  They host a School Power Program that seeks to install wind turbines on campuses across the nation to provide energy for students (Electricity that is.  Students will have to fend for themselves for coffee and other energy boosters.)  Renewable choice also outfits local power plants with the capability to produce energy using local landfills and the gases they produce.

While innovative programs like these are to be applauded, the effectiveness of carbon offsets is yet to be determined.  As with any emerging market, the long-term effects will take years to measure what impact they will have and the quality can vary from project to project.

And while some people do purchase them responsibly, in order to offset necessary travel, there is concern that people will use them to justify any excessive pollution or lifestyle choices instead of working to reduce their carbon footprint.  (I liken that to folks who sin 364 days a year but figure if they get to church on Christmas Day, they’re just fine.)  It’s important to remember that carbon offsets do just that, offset. And we started this game in a significant environmental points deficit.

For more on living a greener lifestyle, make sure to visit Green Earth News Green Is Grand section.

Super Bowl 2012: Upsets And Carbon Offsets is a post from: Green Earth News

The consumer market has already seen a wide variety of iPhone cases and technological accessories made out of bamboo, but now a 23 year-old Middlesex University student named Kieron-Scott Woodhouse has taken the trend a step farther by designing the first smart phone with an all-bamboo casing.

Woodhouse was commissioned to design the new phone for a company called ADzero.  He reports that the external material was not a primary aspect of the design, and that the choice of bamboo grew out of the process of deciding what would be best for the product and the company.  Two considerations led to the genesis of this unique bamboo phone.  Whatever they came up with, ADzero was going to have it manufactured in China, so Woodhouse says that they looked for locally sourced materials.  In that way, ADzero is following the same impulses as the German toymaker Hape, which we reported on earlier.

The second concern, naturally enough, was for the environment.  Those involved in the creation of the bamboo phone wanted to avoid a major environmental impact, and Woodhouse recognized bamboo as being an exceptionally sustainable natural alternative, and found that it could be made just as durable as any plastic.  From there, Woodhouse and ADzero realized the design and manufacture of a smart phone that is already making headlines for its unusual, ecologically friendly construction even before details have been given regarding its release.

What we do know is that it was originally slated to be sold only in China, but that it will now be carried in boutique stores within the United Kingdom as well.  No doubt this is because the creators quickly realized the growing appeal of environmentally sustainable products and of bamboo in particular in Western countries.  Indeed, recognition of the value and diverse applications of bamboo seems to grow on a daily basis.  This latest product goes a long way toward showcasing how much the resource has taken off amongst designers and manufacturers.

Using it for cases and large accessories has demonstrated how it can be creatively used as an alternative wood.  This latest step, however, shows that it can also stand in for plastic and metal.  Using bamboo as a building material allows it to serve as a surrogate for both woods and metals.  The reception of the Bamboo ADzero will make it clearer to what extent consumers are ready to accept slightly less conventional uses of the resource.

It may take a little more time before people widely recognize viscose from bamboo for its value as an alternative to familiar fabrics like cotton, but it seems clear that we are moving in that direction.  Bamboo is coming to be a household word in a widening variety of consumer markets.  The same material can make some of the hardest casings for protection of our devices and the softest towels and sheets for the care and comfort of our bodies.  And in both cases, it does wonders for our conscience or our spirit by serving as both the building material and the clothing of a more sustainable future.

First Bamboo Phone Joins Wide Array Of Bamboo Products is a post from: Green Earth News

Vegetarianism is a lifestyle choice for many Americans.  And while I don’t think that my household will go 100% vegetarian, there are certainly plenty of benefits in trying.  A vegetarian diet helps ward off coronary artery disease, helps with dieting and maintaining a healthy weight and, according to some proponents, will help people live longer.  From an environmental standpoint, the EPA estimates that chemical and waste runoff from factory farms is responsible for 173,000 miles of polluted rivers and streams.  So, in a nod to a diet that fights both disease and pollution, here is a delicious, vegetable-packed recipe to try!

Ingredients:

• 1 tbsp vegetable oil
• 1 small onion, sliced
• 2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
• 1 tbsp ginger root, finely chopped
• 16 oz tofu, drained and cut into cubes
• ½ c. water
• 4 tbsp rice wine vinegar
• 2 tbsp honey
• 2 tbsp soy sauce
• 2 tsp cornstarch, dissolved
• 2 tbsp water
• 1 carrot, peeled and sliced
• 1 green pepper, seeded and cut into strips
• 1 c. baby corn, drained and cut into pieces
• 1 head bok choy, chopped
• 2 c. mushrooms, chopped
• 1 ¼ c. bean sprouts
• 1 c. bamboo shoots, drained and chopped
• ½ tsp. crushed red pepper
• 2 green onions, thinly sliced

Here’s how to make Vegetable, Bamboo and Tofu Stir-fry:

1. In a large skillet, heat oil over medium-high heat.
2. Stir in onions and cook for one minute.
3. Stir in garlic and ginger and cook for 30 seconds.
4. Stir in tofu and cook until golden brown
5. Stir in carrots, green peppers and baby corn, cooking for 2 minutes.
6. Add the bok choy, mushrooms, bean sprouts, bamboo shoots and crushed red pepper.  Heat through.
7. Remove from heat.
8. In a small saucepan, combine water, rice wine vinegar, honey and soy sauce.
9. Bring to a simmer and cook for two minutes.
10. Stir in the cornstarch and water mixture.
11. Simmer until sauce thickens.
12. Pour sauce over vegetables and tofu.
13. Garnish with the green onions.

For more delicious bamboo recipes, visit Green Earth News Bamboo Flavors section!

Vegetable, Bamboo And Tofu Stir-fry Recipe is a post from: Green Earth News

Every one of the remaining GOP presidential candidates utilizes national debt rhetoric as a way of decrying government spending, but paradoxically each one of them champions extensive tax cuts for the wealthy that can only serve to worsen the debt even in the event of a commitment to powerful austerity.  The necessary consequences of an insistence on both debt reduction and the preservation or extension of needlessly low tax rates for the upper class are drastic sets of spending cuts and the virtual inability to invest in the emerging needs of the future.

Talk of financial responsibility wins political points for Romney, Gingrich, Santorum, and Paul, but evidently the concept of responsibility to our children and to society as a whole doesn’t do the same.  Given that fact, a Republican presidency in coming years would mean government revenue being reduced even below current levels while entire broad categories of policy are ignored.  Chances are that these would be the same subjects that are already ignored on the campaign trail and that thus don’t serve the political ends of either the current candidate or the would-be elected official.

Environmental issues achieve very little traction in the current campaign cycle.  The subject of the Keystone XL pipeline, for instance, provides a fairly good view of the existing emphasis in public debate.  Media Matters reports that in broadcast television coverage of it, 67 percent of stories mentioned job creation potential, while only 17 percent referred to environmental issues.  In cable coverage, job creation was addressed in 77 percent of stories and the environment in 34.  Given that the topic is decidedly an environmental issue, these facts rather clearly indicate an expectation that the public is not as likely to be swayed by reference to the environment as by reference to certain other concerns.

I’m personally quite certain that that doesn’t mean that people don’t care about clean water, biodiversity loss, climate change, and so on.  It only indicates that those topics don’t seem as immediate and aren’t as likely to manipulate people’s votes as are things like fears about an out-of-control debt and concerns over national security.  Both of these are crucial to Republican platforms and in fact Mitt Romney’s stump speeches frequently pair an emphasis on debt reduction with the promise of a military that is so large and powerful that “no one would think of challenging it.”

There are other issues that may fall in the middle ground, that a Republican president would not be quick to spend money on but might sometimes find politically useful, but environmental issues have no place whatsoever in the existing campaign, so it is hard to imagine them ever being viewed as significant or popular enough to warrant exceptions to the usually expedient commitment to avoiding government spending.

But political popularity and expedience says little to nothing about the objective importance of a policy issue.  In the long run, few things are as important as key environmental issues, which speak to the health and longevity of our very planet.  The fact that they seem less immediate than the nation’s credit rating or the potential for new foreign wars only means that they aren’t as easily exploited.  It doesn’t mean that citizens wouldn’t respond favorably if it they were told that careful investments in bamboo, green technologies and the like would create jobs and generate future income at the same time that they would help to curtail climate change and preserve the planet for our children.

But unfortunately modern politics and the Republican Party in particular are not all that concerned with patient explanations of responsible choices.  All too often, politics is not something that’s practiced for the good of a constituency, but rather something that’s utilized for the good of the politician.  And coming from that climate of candidacy, we can expect that a Gingrich or Romney presidency would mean no spending on anything that isn’t easily exploitable, even if it could save the world.

Republican Tax Policy: Consequences For Taxpayers And Mother Earth is a post from: Green Earth News

JC Penney has announced some interesting changes to its pricing structure.  It is effectively eliminating sales, except for seasonal price reductions on certain types of items and clearance for things that haven’t sold after a certain period.  I think this kind of move is long overdue.  I’m not much of a shopper, but I’ve noticed the tendency for many retailers to wildly mark up their prices and then try to move merchandise in large batches by offering sale prices that better represent the actual value of the product.

Oddly, most of the consumers I’ve encountered seem to revel in this situation.  It gives the impression that when they spot sale items they are securing tremendous discounts over the expected price.  But as JC Penney is tacitly admitting by changing its pricing structure, retailers never truly expected merchandise to move at those prices in the first place.

I don’t know exactly what market research or projections Ron Johnson, CEO of JC Penney’s parent company Apple, based this decision on.  It could be that the company has determined that more consumers are interested in reliable pricing than are interested in the illusory feeling of having scored a great deal.  Or maybe they are gambling on this transition on the expectation that if they can get customers used to that change it will be better for their bottom line in the long run.

Either way, I personally hope that this signals a positive change in consumer behavior – a shift away from making purchasing decisions based on savings and towards making them based on value.  Consumers risk allowing themselves to be manipulated if they get excited over buying something at fifty percent off, when the normal price was double what it should have been.  The thrill of discovery can override the rationality that might otherwise make you stop and consider whether what you’re paying for was worth the inflated price, and whether it’s even worth the price of the sale.

If you want to buy something, it should be based on what the product is, not on how the momentary act of acquiring it makes you feel.  It is the same with bargain hunters as it is with some people who choose to buy sustainable products or items touting themselves as being green alternatives.  If you make such a purchasing decision because you derive a sense of superiority or individuality from the tags and buzzwords attached to a product, you’re doing it for the wrong reason.  If you buy green on the basis of feelings rather than information, you risk being manipulated by greenwashing of products that do nothing, or that do harm.

Whether you buy sale items or take advantage of new, more reliable pricing structures, you’d better have a sense of the true value of the product.  Similarly, if you buy green, you’d better make sure that the specific products you spend your money on will do legitimate good for the environment.  Don’t buy bamboo just because it seems new and because the people in your social circle are all buying it.  Rather, buy it because of what its growth rate says about its sustainability and the amount of output possible with limited use of arable land and relatively little energy.  Buy it because of the ability of the crop to help reverse global warming.  And once you’re confident in those reasons, buy it because it’s also a great product.

None of this is intended to say that you shouldn’t feel good when you buy something.  But that should be secondary to a rational assessment of a product’s value.  And doesn’t that make the good feelings all that much more gratifying?  If you find a sale price and you’re sure that the item is worth much more than that, wouldn’t you feel better about your savings?  If you bought a green product that you know really does for the planet what its packaging claims, wouldn’t you feel better about yourself?  Making intelligent purchasing decisions and feeling good about them should never be mutually exclusive.  A consumer should feel best buying what really is best.

It’s my hope either that this new JC Penney pricing structure indicates that consumers are already starting to shop based on rationality instead of feeling, or that it pushes them towards doing so.  If you’re a customer of theirs, I don’t quite know which to expect, or how quickly you’ll come around to a better way of shopping.  However, if you’re a customer of Green Earth Bamboo, I like to think that you already know the true value of the things you buy.

JC Penney: New Pricing For New Consumer Trends is a post from: Green Earth News

Do we have a spiritual responsibility to help the environment?  No matter your faith, is there a moral obligation stated in the scripture to live sustainability and pursue environmental justice?  Religions believe, naturally, that their God did create the world for us and while we’ve already managed to evict ourselves from Eden, are we also ignoring our role in this world as stewards of the earth.  After all, of all God’s creature, humans are the one with the power to disrupt Creation.

GreenFaith Fellowship, an interfaith organization, believes so, and has developed environmental training programs based on diverse traditions of every faith.  Citing the scriptures of major world religions, GreenFaith translates environmentalism into a religious value and makes environmental stewardship a moral responsibility.

And for every faith, there is a reference to environmental stewardship:

Lutheran theologians, Joseph Stitler and H. Paul Santmire, wrote in Caring for Creation:  Vision, Hope and Justice:  “Christian concern for the environment is shaped by the Word of God spoken in creation, the Love of God hanging on a cross, the Breath of God daily renewing the face of the earth.”

The Atharva Veda states:  “Let there be peace in the heavens, the Earth, the atmosphere, the water, the herbs, the vegetation, among the divine beings and in Brahman, the absolute reality. Let everything be at peace and in peace. Only then will we find peace.”

And in the Torah, wasting resources violates the mitzvah of Bal Taschit, “Do not destroy.”

His Excellency Dr. Abdullah Omar Naseef reminds Muslims that they are “Allah’s stewards and agents on Earth.”  Continuing, he says:  “We are not masters of this Earth; it does not belong to us to do what we wish. It belongs to Allah and He has entrusted us with its safekeeping.”

In Buddhist teachings, the Reverence for Life by Thich Nhat Hanh pledges:  “Aware of the suffering caused by the destruction of life, I undertake to cultivate compassion and learn ways to protect the lives of people, animals, plants, and minerals. I am determined not to kill, not to let others kill, and not to condone any act of killing in the world, in my thinking, and in my way of life.”

GreenFaith Fellowship has a mission “to inspire, educate and mobilize people of diverse religious backgrounds for environmental leadership.”  Citing the scriptures of major world religions, GreenFaith translates environmentalism into a religious value citing that environmental stewardship is a moral responsibility.

The three core values of the organization are Spirit for which leaders are trained to lead environmentally-themed worship to strengthen members’ connection with the earth; Stewardship which teaches that consumption habits can play a key role in restoring the earth; and Justice which encompasses the social justice belief that ALL people, regardless of race and income, deserve a healthy environment.

No matter where your pew is located, perhaps it’s time to take a spiritual look at our responsibility to the environment.  For living green tips and ideas, make sure to visit Green Earth News Green Is Grand section.

Faith Saving The Environment is a post from: Green Earth News

With the official results contradicting the original reports in Iowa and a candidate who had seemed discounted now winning South Carolina it looks like we’ll be enjoying an extended stay from the circus that is the Republican Primaries.  It will come complete with more character assassination, negative advertising, and vitriol.  In fact, let me do my part to contribute to it with this mean spirited takedown of the subject of the Republican Party’s latest short-term win.

Everyone’s speaking ill of Newt Gingrich since his second wife’s television interview.  I hate to merely jump onto a bandwagon, but in cases like this I worry that people get caught up in their morbid fascination with the details of a story and neglect to give fair time to thinking about the potential implications, or to reading into the story and thinking of it as a metaphor.

I tend to not care a bit about a politician’s personal life if I believe he can still govern effectively, but I’m not sure that the two can be separated in the case of Gingrich.  I find myself wondering what his private behavior says about how he would treat his duties and responsibilities if he were elected to high office.

I don’t think that I’m particularly inclined to be unfair to Newt Gingrich.  I took the fact that he wrote the book, A Contract with the Earth to mean that he was the only Republican candidate who might actually take environmental issues seriously.  I guess I thought that maybe we’d find he wore a bamboo t-shirt under his ridiculously expensive suit, and that even as he championed many of the same detestable Republican causes he would at least be genuinely committed to promoting sustainable resources and the like.

But now my concern is that even if he was in earnest about our responsibilities for the environment, we couldn’t possibly trust him to abide by a contract with the Earth, because we’ve been afforded a sense of just how earnestly Gingrich treats the contracts into which he enters.  It’s not sufficient that a Republican simply fail to ignore the seriousness of environmental issues.  If he does no more than pay lip service to them and neglect them later, he may as well have kept silent with the rest of his party.

I sometimes find it meaningful to anthropomorphize the world and think of global warming as a fever.  Between that and overall pollution, population crisis and so on, our planet is sick, and any person who enters into a position of power upon it ought to recognize exactly what a solemn duty he has for its care and to give it terrific respect even in its uncommonly fragile state.  Precisely what we do not need in our present ecological situation is a man who has the gall to take up with a new woman and leave his wife in a hospital bed, recovering from cancer.

It wouldn’t do us any good to have a man in power that can pretend at commitment to a relationship and to vows, but then years later ask to be permitted to cheat with impunity, especially if such behavior stands in direct opposition to his public rhetoric.  If a man can so readily turn his back on a spouse, how much harder could it be for him to turn his back on his ideals or his other, less concrete responsibilities?

What is so bothersome about Gingrich’s behavior is not just the personal distastefulness of it, but rather what it says about how little his constituency should trust him.  A man for whom betrayal is such second nature is a politician who is prone to make a career-long promise to bamboo forestry, but then immediately leap into bed with oil pipelines and unregulated automobile and logging companies.  Granted, these are not things that Republican voters would tend to care about, but just like anyone who wishes to see their interests represented in government, they ought to care deeply about trustworthiness and sincerity.

Gingrich And Mother Earth: Contract Is Void is a post from: Green Earth News

In an effort to make its products sustainable and ecologically friendly, German-based toymaker Hape has been manufacturing toys made largely from bamboo.  Additionally, the company claims to avoid plastic in its packaging, utilize organic inks, and so on.  There’s really no way to tell to what extent such measures are based on an earnest sense of duty among corporate executives.  But Hape and any other company that undertakes similar green initiatives are certain to do so on the basis of some mixture of genuine concern for the environment and simply for their profit margins.  It’s only natural.

Anyone who reads this site regularly will already understand the environmental benefits to be had from the promotion of bamboo as a base for manufactured products.  That applies to Hape as to any other topic that has been covered here.  But what is of particular interest in this case is the potential socio-economic benefit of utilizing bamboo in overseas manufacturing operations.

As an example of the usual straightforward interest in what’s best for the profitability of the business, Hape, like many Western manufacturers, has its production done in China, where labor is often shockingly cheap.  Over the course of years, there have been numerous reports on terrible working conditions in Chinese factories, and quite recently workers at the Foxconn electronics manufacturer threatened mass suicide in reaction to pay disputes amidst such conditions.

Any company responsible for outsourcing to a place where they risk contributing to that sort of climate is morally suspect.  But an investment in local bamboo, like that of Hape, might help to undercut some of the concerns that might be raised about a company’s influence on the local workforce.  While Western exploitation of foreign employees is a fact of the global economy, it is not a strictly necessary outcome of doing business overseas.  Forging relationships with local suppliers and supporting the more profitable aspects of the region’s economy can demonstrate an unusual interest in safeguarding the welfare of a population that could otherwise be viewed as nothing but cheap labor.

A fifth of the world’s bamboo grows in China, and for those Chinese farmers who wish to grow it for sale and processing it generally proves to be quite profitable.  Consequently, it is a crucial part of certain rural economies within the nation, being responsible for as much as a third of the total revenue in certain counties.

In Anji county, which relies enormously on bamboo growing, the per capita income even as far back as 1995 was over thirty percent more than that of the national average for rural households.  There were meaningful gains in the socio-economic position of locals as bamboo output exploded over the course of the preceding decade.  Apart from generally increased income, processing of the commercial bamboo provides rare jobs for rural women.

If companies that outsource to China also provide a new market for continued increase in the output of Chinese bamboo, the result could well be a win-win situation.  Western companies get cheap labor, but Chinese agricultural workers receive heightened revenues in turn.  Over time, better lives on the farms will necessitate better lives in the factories.

It is one thing to take advantage of low wages, but it’s absolutely unconscionable to sidestep raw materials and local skill sets in order to keep an outsourced workforce locked into a diminished socio-economic position. I hope that by using Chinese bamboo at the same time that it uses Chinese workers Hape is doing right by the country that hosts its operations at the same time that it is doing right by its shareholders.  There is an essential compromise to be had there.  It is the same between business and labor as it is between economics and environmentalism.  In one way or another, bamboo supports all of these.

Balancing Outsourcing With Bamboo is a post from: Green Earth News

Most birds are still hunkered down in the sunny South for the winter but be proactive in preparing for their return this Spring.  Using bamboo and power tools, anyone can create a welcoming, natural birdhouse for our feathered friends!

Here’s what you need to create a Bamboo Bird House:

• Moso bamboo column (any height)
• Exterior paint (opt for low VOC paint)
• Permanent marker
• Paintbrush
• Tape measure
• Electric drill
• 3-inch hole saw drill bit
• ¼ inch drill bit
• 2 feet of weather-resistant chain or cable

Here’s how to make you Bamboo Bird House:

1. Paint the top and the bottom nodes of the bamboo column.
2. On the remaining nodes, mark the center of each with the permanent marker.
3. Using the 3-inch drill bit, place the drill at the center of a “X” on a node.
4. Drill a hole that is 2”x4” in diameter.  This is your entrance for the birds.
5. Repeat on the remaining nodes except for the top and bottom ones.
6. On the back side of the bamboo (non-entrance side), mark each node 1-2 inches from the edge of each node.
7. Drill a small hole on each of the marks you just made.
8. Thread the wire/cable through each hole, looping through the interior of the nodes.
9. Tie securely and hang from your favorite tree or on your porch!

For more fun bamboo craft projects, visit Green Earth News section on Bamboo Crafts!

How To Make A Bamboo Bird House is a post from: Green Earth News