Alumni
After Episcopal
Kenneth Avery Ringle ’57
Retired author and journalist Ken Ringle ’57 never thought bamboo would become a substantial part of his life. However, his cousin E.A. McIlhenney had different plans. McIlhenny was an explorer, ethnologist, botanist, poet, alligator biologist, and planter of over 60 species of bamboo on Avery Island, La. Due to McIlhenney’s infatuation with plants, he harvested a grove of Moso bamboo on Avery Island over a century ago, whichRingle ultimately inherited from his mother. Moso is a popular timber bamboo native to China and Taiwan that can grow three feet a day and 100 feet tall.
“Shortly after her death, my mother divided her 30-acre homesite among me and my two siblings,” Ringle explained. “My 10 acres held this mess of bamboo, and I honestly wasn’t sure what I was going to do with it.”
Avery Island has been in Ringle’s family for over 150 years, with the bamboo growing unchecked until the late 1990s when he received a call from the American Bamboo Society (ABS) reached out with a proposition. The society offered to organize and clean up the grove at no charge, as long as they could retain some of the bamboo that they removed. Ringle agreed, and they created the annual Avery Island Grove Cleanup together, which has grown larger and larger with each passing year.
“This huge, tangled grove became absolutely exquisite. It looked like a cathedral,” he said of the extensive work done by the group. “Since 1999, people from all over the world have joined in the cleanup. In February of this year, people from Madagascar, Japan, Maine, and Chicago joined the fray.”
The tradition has evolved into a weekend complete with food, community, and individual stories about how each volunteer fell in love with tending to bamboo. Ringle cited the stories as “remarkable” and even shared some of the narratives that touched him the most. “There was an Army veteran working off post-traumatic stress disorder, a bamboo-curious petroleum geologist, and a Boy Scout leader lobbying for a bamboo merit badge,” he remembered fondly. “There’s even someone who arranges green Moso on the altar of her church for Palm Sunday.”
The volunteers dedicate one weekend annually to care for the grove, but this two-and-a-half-acre bamboo property has weathered plenty of adversity. The passionate horticulturists have tended to the historic plants through droughts, hurricanes, and sinkholes. For over two decades, ABS members have not only educated Ringle but also the entire Avery Island community on Moso bamboo’s rarity and importance. The new museum and café at the Tabasco factory feature bamboo in the design and the Iberia Parish visitors’ bureau list the ABS grove cleanup as one of its special events.
“Shortly after her death, my mother divided her 30-acre homesite among me and my two siblings,” Ringle explained. “My 10 acres held this mess of bamboo, and I honestly wasn’t sure what I was going to do with it.”
Avery Island has been in Ringle’s family for over 150 years, with the bamboo growing unchecked until the late 1990s when he received a call from the American Bamboo Society (ABS) reached out with a proposition. The society offered to organize and clean up the grove at no charge, as long as they could retain some of the bamboo that they removed. Ringle agreed, and they created the annual Avery Island Grove Cleanup together, which has grown larger and larger with each passing year.
“This huge, tangled grove became absolutely exquisite. It looked like a cathedral,” he said of the extensive work done by the group. “Since 1999, people from all over the world have joined in the cleanup. In February of this year, people from Madagascar, Japan, Maine, and Chicago joined the fray.”
The tradition has evolved into a weekend complete with food, community, and individual stories about how each volunteer fell in love with tending to bamboo. Ringle cited the stories as “remarkable” and even shared some of the narratives that touched him the most. “There was an Army veteran working off post-traumatic stress disorder, a bamboo-curious petroleum geologist, and a Boy Scout leader lobbying for a bamboo merit badge,” he remembered fondly. “There’s even someone who arranges green Moso on the altar of her church for Palm Sunday.”
The volunteers dedicate one weekend annually to care for the grove, but this two-and-a-half-acre bamboo property has weathered plenty of adversity. The passionate horticulturists have tended to the historic plants through droughts, hurricanes, and sinkholes. For over two decades, ABS members have not only educated Ringle but also the entire Avery Island community on Moso bamboo’s rarity and importance. The new museum and café at the Tabasco factory feature bamboo in the design and the Iberia Parish visitors’ bureau list the ABS grove cleanup as one of its special events.
“The greatest revolution has not just been in bamboo growth, but in those who experience it,” Ringle expressed. “This work has rekindled bamboo consciousness in jungle gardens and horticultural meccas. I’m not sure how I can ever repay the American Bamboo Society.”
Learn more about Avery Island Moso Weekend at http://www.bamboocentral.net/averyisland.html.
