X LATE - Beth, Teddi, Dex, Rachel X REALLY LATE - MAtthew
Evergreen Conservation Corps - Christina - good facilitation - moving intro discussion forward
(Red, you don't want to discuss too much detail on intro slides - it's hard for audience to pay
attention)
Good organization, good trade-off of narration, Christina contributing to Red
3 factors in trail sustainability - ecological, physical sustainability, and engendering stewardship
Emmet - trail map, with erosion marked - from 2001 - needs update
Christina - proposed closing some social trails to reduce impact
Examples to follow - SCA - USFS - NPS - Red worked with Dept of Ag on trails
GOALS - create ECC - are there outside resources for this?
- work in community
- learn, be a gateway - maintain pathways by hand
Low impact solutions- turnpike - use fallen logs on the side, rocks in the middle (how do you haul in
rocks?)
Cecelia - medium for outdoor education - interpretive trails - appreciation for nature and
community, cycles of Earth - CAH - leave no trace
Budget - materials, tools, safety gear
Partner with RAD (have you talked with Scott)
CONTINUITY - Service days - environmental stewardship - safety liabilities - advocacy - comm
*** Suggest EDUCATION aspect - signage on trails will also contribute to community buy-in to
conservation & sustainability
Talk with Scott Morgan and CLUC?
X Ben Crew - if social trails are heavily used, consider maintaining those - Emmet (little)
Brian - challenge you to block social trails an keep them protected (whoa!) - block entrance with
soil and etc. Get rid of treehouses... Christina - good that people are getting outside - evaluate
uses of trails and destination, recreation... Red - balance between social attitudes and impacts
William Z - trailhead maps outdated and confusing
*********
Graham sick - posted presentation - going home - excused
**********
Hydroponics and traditional agriculture - Garry, Evan Imwalle, Michaela, Antonio
Q: Environmental - not using as much land - growing up instead of out - Evan
- is food of equal quality?
- viable replacement ?
- Could this benefit places with poor soil?
No pesticides (many hydroponics farmers use fungicides)
If we use "pink house farming" we can save electricity (full spectrum light)
Garry - how to build our systems - cheaper with more sunlight - need artificial light in WA
Pink: switch between black, red, blue lights
Michaela - budget $330 - Um - what system are you proposing, exactly?
$118 for lights
Garry - lettuce and basil - easy and valuable – grows in roughly 30 days
control experiment - also grow in soil – good idea (can you grow soil control crop in the same
greenhouse, for temperature /environmental control too?)
Antonio - problems we might encounter - Baceria - fungal diseases
- root disease
- bug - aphids - mites
- learning curve, first time mistakes
- finding space for the system - contact Joe Martino (RAD already has a system? use theirs!)
Z - where is the hydroponics systems on campus? Emmet - there's one on the Farm ! ***
Bret - how will you track the amount of energy used? Garry - we don't know
There's a local support group online for hydroponics farmers – sharing tips on how to deal with
fungal problems, etc.
NEED MORE PLANNING
*************
Kristen Henderson & Amelia Withrow - DUAL Flush Toilets
Q - Which can be converted? Focus in Sem2
Hypotheses - would conserve water and save money
Surveyed all the toilets on campus - some can be
Youtube to install them - easy!
50 toilets in Sem2, $2000
grant.gov
** PSE funding?
** who will install them
** who will maintain them?
** union plumbers on campus?
Calculate total water and $ savings... - you are halfway there!
*** Let's sit down and make an Excel sheet – done after class – double check these assumptions
and calculations- if correct, they are amazing
CAB is all dual flush - let's look at their water bill - but it's more complicated... food service
Awareness - most people flush down out of habit – should FLUSH UP for #1
*** are there handles that FLUSH DOWN for low flush? (Yes, Monica's idea too)
Great research, you have surveyed all the toilets on campus and learned a lot!
***************
Cattle farming - Aimee Bessette - A sustainable agricultue
Oh no, please don't read your slides to us...
Agriculture emits 18% of greenhouse gases - more than transportation? What's your source?
How much of that is cattle farming? What fraction is due to cattle emissions?
How much is rice farming and other crops?
How much is from energy use for irrigation?
How much is due to use of fossil fuels, pesticides, and fertilizers on farms?
How much is from production of pesticides and fertilizers?
NO2 is from fertilizer, not manure
Ammonia is from fertilizer as well as urine. It is not a primary cause of acid rain. That’s SO2.
Please be careful with your facts! You can be more effective and credible when you have more
knowledge.
"It's bad for the land." "A lot of the manure runs off into surrounding water systems." That's
prohibited in the US - if it does, the farmer gets shut down. Check your facts.
Primary source of methane emission from cattle is BURPS (and dairy manure lagoons.)
"it's really bad for the land, causes degradation of the land." What is? How, exactly? This is
vague and inaccurate as it stands. You can be more accurate if you are more specific.
“I’ll start small with 8 washington farms” – what are you doing, or what do you propose to do with
them?
Farmers MIGHT be interested in specific information that could be useful to them – especially if
you have first-hand experience. Do you have anything like that?
Aimee, if you are talking directly to farmers, please do not mention us, as your opinions and
“information” do not seem to be academically informed by us, at this point.
***** Matthew Strickland - Information collection and distribution
Some of your projects have been done already!
- Bring similar projects together - community building
- green by 2020
Sustainability homepage and CEC homepage - tiny links - hard to find connections
- old projects would never get lost
William - good question - what exactly are you planning to do - make that really clear right up front
Ken - good question - how are you going to organize this? by year? by topic searchable all
ways?
Nancy - great idea - Consider this- different people may do work on the same topic and come up
with new insights.
People need to do their own new discovery. Don't want to short-circuit people's learning.
*************
Mycofiltration B - Sean, Olivia, Darien the Vegetarian
The Big Picture - we shared a common ancestor - Fungi went underground and pool resources
Fungi are the grand molecular decomposers - "Plants do not exist without fungi" - up to 90% of
plants form mycorrhizal fungi
Plants are big solar panels - they divert 80% of energy into the ground - energy is not lost
Revolutionary study circa 1995 - birch trees are one big community sharing resources
Olivia - 4 categories... - reading a few slides that someone else wrote D&S - mushroom life cycle - spores have power in numbers - powerful ejection
Paul Stamets is their guru - "The interconnectedness of life is an obvious truth that we ignore at
our peril
True believers in the saving power of fungi - revival
FUNGI CAN HELP - penicillin - cures cancer - improves soil ...
Mycorrhizal Diversity is important - drought resistance - pathogen protection - protection from high
temps
Our number one water quality problem in the national forests is roads - Jim Lyons 2000 Under
Secretary of Agriculture
Decommission roads - heal erosion, compaction, rebuild soils... costs up to $15,000 per mile
Mycofiltration is half the price (what does mycofiltration do?)
SAY MORE ABOUT WHAT IT DOES and how?
improves roots and soil
Applications - farms - storm drains - roads - watersheds -
National Parks road - before and after The Magic of Mycofiltration - they claim that was the only
intervention - not plausible - erosion was physically repaired, obstacles were removed
Q&A - what exactly happens? D - you have to buy these things, do those things... put it on the
side of the roads and it will grow, promote growth of other thigns
Joshua - do you have to be careful what types you use? D& S- they are all good, as long as they
are native
Tashina - what about wood chips and straw? organic, introuced, how do you choose what
materials?
D - maybe stuff from breweries, hay...
Red - has anyone observed how long this required for roads to return to normal?
D&S guessing and sound authoritative - weeks, months, years... probably maybe
******* Mycofiltration A *********
Brendan Nick Kinzie Wiilliam
Storm drains (SD) on campus - could they benefit from mycofiltration?
Historically, SD combined with sewer systems
separation of SD and sewers to control waste and water quality
Common pollutants - oil - detergents - heavy metals (toxic) - excess nutrients (can cause algae
blooms)
(Good trade-off of narration, good specific information, good pacing, easy to understand)
Map of SD at TESC - no filtration
Recent pressure washing between CAB and CRC  oil down SD for hours
TESC Storm Water management plan - to educate community - is this happening?
GUIDING QUESIONS - how much can mycofiltrationnsystem reduce SW pollution
Kinzie: pollutant-extracting fungi - 5 identified
Wiliam - Hypotheses - will they work in high flow situation?
*** Also investigate whether they survive / thrive
Structural design - reference? has this been used elsewhere? reason to expect this to work?
Challenges and Questions - maintenance - risk of backup/flooding - which are most effective? how
to test toxin levels in fungi? how to text pollution levels in water?
LAB tests or FIELD tests?
GOOD, lab tests first. Good plan. You've identified 2 fungi you can get. Bret - consider using
spores from fungi already growing locally
Q - Teddi - flow... Brian - native fungi only. Red - how to do lab tests? Thinking about it...
Brendan - could collect actual water from storm drains
Bret - 2 kinds - oil vs heavy metals - when mushroom dies it will release toxins
Brendan - layers in trays that can be replaced - GOOD
Ken - maintenance in parking lots - Nick, that's why we want to do lab tests first
Phase 1 - lab
Phase 2 - test structure plan in controlled field trials
Phase 3 - limited implementation
ResearchProjectFeedback
Rachel – tumbling Rocks - Let's take a closer look at power needs - good comment from Bret - AC
or DC?
*************************
Monica, Ken, Ben B - car charger - 34 kWhr per year? how many kW?,
Meter 21448 kWhr per yr (which one?)
Need to know how many kW = POWER needed
Ken - can build charger for $1500 - wind + solar + battery + inverter (and tie into grid)
FB- PSE will have to tie into grid
campus solar lamppost costs $5000 - how much power?
Amazon wind + solar $1500 - 150W
HAWT vs VAWT - 4 ft diam HAWT 72 W/hr, less for VAWT
- easy, educational, can be made with recycled materials
-
anybody can make these
we DO have enough wind. There's more inside the trees than on top of buildings (X)
PV: monocrystallin expensive, higher efficiency, black, lasts longer
polycrystalline looks shattered, lower e, doesn't last as long
film PV experimenta
Wind - Cape Wind Project - people worried about bird and bat mortality - Audubon says more are
killed (not by cars, but by fossil fuels)
Ben on wind - 2 m/s from the south not ... continuous - best on the coast Wind Power Resources
0.61 km/hr. "Sustainable wind speeds". What does that mean?
William - not convinced wind speeds are adequate. Units quoted are not consistent.
Z: yes, William is quite right, about both units and wind speeds.
Cite solar systems' POWER (kw), not energy (kw-hr). Power tells you the strength. Energy
depends on the time over which the system operates.
*******
Tashina and Jeff - Sustainable dog feces disposable?
Wolf haven - bio fence - give wolf feces to rranchers to discourage wild wolf packs
Could we compost dog feces on campus?
Jeff - dog waste has issues - various nutrients - some plants could take over
- pathogens
- runoff can affect shellfish
- TC advises against composting pet waste
Tashina - Use it for landscaping, potted plants, mulch
gas powered dog waste composter at Landfill
Alaska dog mushers compost waste - need 3/4 lb per day, can reduce volume by 50%
They BURN the feces? NO, they compost hot (if done right – this is not easy).
Q - minimum number of dogs per day required for hot compost?
Q - Monica Szarvas - how would you collect it? T - plastic collector bins? Do a survey first?
Choose the highest concentration locations?
Q - NK - observe where people run their dogs... - kiosks with biodegradable bags - educational
component
Q - does disposal area get contaminated?
Gotta cook the compost
Talk with SWWAB - is this legal in Thurston County
*******
Water Turbines and that Pesky Rain - Jess, Megan Lande, Shania
Micro-hydro - convert stormwater runoff to energy
Can be efficient, cost-effective, low-maintenance
Megan - financially sustainable? low energy producers... - good Q&H
Pluvia gutter system - from UNM students - pump pushes water thru gutter system - pump requires
too much electricity
Evergreen experience - Andrew Cannard - ideas to improve - bigger building, better wheel...
Downspout - little power, because we don't have downpours
Megan - CRC (gym) or CAB (Greenery) - have big roofs
Budget - but what's your idea? You just said none of these ideas were good?
They propose to construct turbine
Q - Brian - how can we figure out if it's financially sensible?
Nick - how about redirecting the flow, and concentrating it? Shania - yes, they did that at our HW
William - could maximize energy output with multiple turbines, conform to shape of gutter, have
more flags
Z - let's find that turbine that Andrew Cannard's group bought. Think about using rooftop tank, as
WZ suggested earlier
Bret - flywheel can store energy (Z - in lots of mechanical systems)
*************
Urban forest - C sequestration - TREES
Monica Szarvas, Bethany, Sarah W, Julia M, Elise V, Fletcher K
CS - removal from atmosphere and held in liquid or solid form
UN Declaration of Human Rights - put it in eerspective
Clean Air Act 1970 authorized EPA to establish Nation clean air standards
Evergreen's Carbon Neutrality by 2020 proposal
Goal 3 - offsets and sequestration - we can help!
Q: How effective are trees on campus in sequestering C? Old, young, diverse...
Can more effective trees be planted on campus?
H: - about species
H - Consider ages and growth rates (z)
MAP - create a planting plan - Species report 2007
Different kinds of CS - biogeochemical, manufactured, and BIOTIC
Bethany - trees do it by creating rings (Z - wood!) - we want to make this more effective
BUDGET - wait, how are you going to do this? What are you going to do?
Fletcher - do trees sequester more carbon in their native environments?
- levels of ecosystem productivity
- urban trees in smaller groups
- mycelium and communication
Downed trees - how much C goes into atmosphere? how much into ground?
Z - TIME - growth rates and CS rates of old and new trees now
survival rates in the future
Brian - ivy? slow killer
Monica - would you consider planting non-natives? maybe, but nott invasives
Dex - any tax benefits from CS?
McKinzie - concern about mycelium? Fletcher - good answer, Monica S - doug fir needs mycelium
to germinate - Beth - symbiotic relationship, repeat answer
William - diff between trees
Sean - difference between micorrhizal relations with difference trees
Bret - whole tree is C - eventually gets returned - you want trees to grow forever Z - no more doug firs here in 50 yrs? what should we plant? See UW CIG (Climate Impacts
Group) tree projections