Yep, the forest/prairie/wetlands area west of the St. Olaf campus is referred to as the St. Olaf Natural Lands. I took a couple dozen photos there this afternoon. Big surprise?…
Category: <span>Environment</span>
Can we pretend that it’s last Friday and I posted this on Blog Action Day? Actually, Ross’s post that day about the advantages of a “green” business park was both thoughtful and underacknowledged, so let’s revisit that one and consider this the one-week anniversary post. Maybe every Friday can be Eco-Friday… and green is the new black.
A recent article in the UK publication The Independent asks, “Have You Got Green Fatigue?“, and addresses the cynicism that can set in about huge global or systemic issues like climate change, and questions whether an individual’s lifestyle choices really have any impact. Last summer, the New York Times had an article about buying one’s way into eco-heaven, pointing out the conflict implicit in a consumption-based model of “going green”. (According to the NYT article, “Consuming is a significant part of the problem to begin with. Maybe the solution is instead of buying five pairs of organic cotton jeans, buy one pair of regular jeans instead.”)
Why is this particularly relevant to Locally Grown? you may ask. Well, I may be cynical on the outside, but deep down I’m a relentless optimist, and I found a nice silvery lining in the cloud: According to the article in The Independent, part of the solution to the problem of “green fatigue” may be found in local action and involvement:
According to the Strib (“Scattering seeds of change on the web”), today is Blog Action Day. More than 15,000 bloggers are working to raise awareness about environmental issues. I was…
The recent rains have made parts of the Lower Arb impassible. I took the photo on the left of the footbridge near Lyman Lakes on Hwy 19 last Thursday afternoon.…
I was walking in the upper Arb this afternoon, taking in the spectacular fall colors, when I luckily stumbled upon EQC co-chair Suzie Nakasian, her daughter, and Juliane Shibata, Visiting Assistant Professor of Art at Carleton, lending a hand to Minneapolis artist Jim Proctor who was beginning installation of his Buckthorn Menace art project.
Suzie twisted my arm, took away my camera, and made me help Jim. See the album or this slideshow, followed by the email I got from Suzie upon returning home with details on the need for volunteers tomorrow (Friday) and Saturday at both Carleton and St. Olaf locations. The project is a bit behind schedule because of the recent rains limiting the number of volunteers.
Dear Griff:
It was fun to meet you out on the buckthorn fields this afternoon! This is our last week of the project – any help you can provide (on the blog site or radio program or other) to encourage folks to come out to volunteer would be greatly appreciated. The work really is fun – most people who come out end up staying on longer than they intended…even when its pouring rain!
I have taken the liberty of writing up a draft of a blurb (below) that you are welcome to tweek and edit to fit your blog. It includes links to the project web sites and a link to the KSPT-TV news coverage of this project earlier this week.
Thanks again for your interest in this project!
Sincerely,
Suzie Nakasian, Co-Chair
Our studio guest today was Hilary Ziols, Outreach and Development Coordinator, Cannon River Watershed Partnership. Ross and Tracy abandoned me so I enlisted KYMN station manager Jeff Johnson to fill…
According to the weather database at Carleton, we’ve gotten 8.39 inches of rain since Aug. 10. Areas in the Cannon River watershed have received much more, so the Cannon is…
We got this email today from Norman Butler, proprietor of the Contented Cow and Chapati: I understand that the sludge behind the dam was recently tested for pollutants with a…