Spring 08
Vol. 15/ No. 1

Danielle Maness

“We own a car, but we use it like a tool — only when we need its. Typically we ride bikes wherever we go.” ~Danielle Maness

When you are sitting 90 feet up in an old growth forest trying to save it from destruction, your future can become as clear as the eagle-eye view you have of the West Coast as old as the United States.

This is literally where Danielle Maness stared into the face of her future husband. Laughingly, Maness remembers meeting Chad as they sat in a tree for two days in Mount Hood National Forest outside Portland, Oregon.

The centered, serene 26-year-old mother of two little girls has been as passionate about protecting the Earth as well as the people who inhabit it since 1999.

“As kids, my brothers and I loved backpacking and camping. When I enrolled at MU, my brothers got me involved with environmentalism,” Maness recalls. “Over the years, I've tried to incorporate those values into every aspect of my life, especially now that I have children.”

Maness and her family live simply. They've completely renovated their central-Columbia home with either green or salvaged materials and all-natural, non-toxic finishes. With the use of Chad 's skills and art education, their bowling alley kitchen counters are the highlight of the house.

“Chad has done everything himself – all the woodworking, carpentry,” Maness says proudly. “He can do anything, he's amazing.”

They built and use four raised garden beds to grown vegetables, purchase food from the local farmer's market along with some wild game, use a wood stove for heat, a clothes line for drying clothes, cloth diapers are found on their 8-month old, a solar panel to power their computer and a non-electric push mower.

“We own a car, but we use it like a tool — only when we need it,” the non-traditional nursing student says. “Typically we ride bikes wherever we go.”

Maness approaches her views about health care with the same reverence. She is passionate about fighting for the right of women to choose the birthing place and methods they are comfortable with.

“Birth and labor are a natural part of life,” she states, “and culturally our daughters are being brought up to believe birth is scary and painful. We should honor women's choices for this incredible experience.”

As a labor and post-partum doulah, Maness has found herself surrounded by very supportive home-birth individuals. So after the birth of Ukiah, 3 years, and, Anahli Grove, 8 months, Maness has taken time off her career path to be there for them. They are both being home schooled even though they aren't quite school age, Maness says. “Ukiah knows bird calls and tree species, and of course, she knows all about the birthing process,” she says.

Trying to find her niche in the world and the nursing profession has been a path Maness has been willing to explore. She feels as though her physical place in this world is in West Virginia. The lure of this eastern mountainous state grabbed hold of both Manesses as they experienced the devastation of mountaintop removal first hand. Countless volunteer hours in a little coal mining town an hour south of Charleston opened their eyes to the destruction of the environment and human life.

“It's like terrorism in our own country,” she says. “It's injustice after injustice, and once I was aware of it I just couldn't turn on the light switch and not think about it.”

For someone so invested in Mother Earth and all things natural, the unimaginable things happening in her own country has been almost unbearable. Near mountaintop removal mines, water is not drinkable, homes do not stand on stable foundations, unstable boulders fall and crush individuals, homes are unsellable, and the health of individuals and communities are deteriorating at an alarming rate.

“We lived in these small communities for the summer months talking with the local people about their health and educating the public about the issues of mountaintop removal,” Maness says. “We are part of what is called ‘ground truthing.' We watch the coal removal sites to see if the companies are upholding their end of the contracts and attend public meetings.”

It is in these same mountains that Maness wants to establish her dream clinic. She is driven to assist the women there in obtaining and maintaining health in all areas of lives as well as healing the environment. Many of her goals, including becoming a Family Nurse Practitioner and nurse midwife, will start firming up after she graduates from the BSN program.