From the (e)Mailbox: Modern Rivers Shaped By Trees

An interesting article about rivers and trees...read on!

Rivers were wide and shallow until the evolution of treelike plants, which got the waterways into line. Christopher Intagliata reports.

| August 24, 2011 | Scientific American

Rivers today have high muddy banks, sandbars and bends. But they didn’t always look that way. Because it wasn’t until the evolution of tree-like plants, some 330 million years ago, that rivers were corralled into their current form. Before that, ancient waters flowed wide and shallow over the land, with little to constrain them other than mountains. So says a study in the journal Nature Geoscience. [Neil S. Davies and Martin R. Gibling, Evolution of fixed-channel alluvial plains in response to Carboniferous vegetation]

Researchers looked through over 400 studies of the Earth’s rock record, and visited nearly 70 field sites. And they found that channel formations in the rock—a signature of modern rivers—didn’t appear until the Carboniferous period, when tree-like plants evolved. That’s because larger plants needed deeper roots, which stabilized river banks and forced rivers into narrower paths. And deep roots helped form sticky clays, which are harder to erode.

All this engineering was to the trees’ advantage, the researchers say. Because river banks provide trees with easy access to water, without the constant risk of flooding. Pretty much what we humans want. Many of our greatest cities formed along river banks—for which we might have trees to thank.

—Christopher Intagliata

Cornell to lead National Environmental Education Program

The following article is was published August 17, 2011 in Cornell University’s Chronicle Online. USEE is one of the state affiliate partners mentioned in the last paragraph.

By Krishna Ramanujan

Cornell has been selected to lead a national, five-year, $10 million Environmental Protection Agency environmental education professional development program.

Every five years, the EPA's Office of Environmental Education requests proposals to lead its national environmental education training program. This year Cornell's Civic Ecology Lab was selected, with funding of around $2 million per year for five years.

Traditionally, environmental educators have focused on pristine, natural environments while teaching in schools, nature centers and outdoor education centers. More recently, a new tradition is emerging in cities, with community development, environmental restoration and social justice groups also teaching environmental education, largely to minority and urban youth. Cornell's "EECapacity" project seeks to link these two types of educators through workshops, online courses and other means, and to create opportunities to exchange ideas, practices and resources.

"Most young people today are going to experience the environment in urban neighborhoods," said Marianne Krasny, professor and chair of the Department of Natural Resources and the project's principal investigator. "In the largest sense, we are trying to redefine environmental education practice within the reality of an urban society."

Across the country, thousands of urban programs use environmental education to reach young people. For example, the community garden movement offers a way for people to steward and create natural settings and ecosystem services in empty lots. Community gardens also provide opportunities for young people to learn about the environment, while working alongside the elder gardeners in their communities. In New York City, oyster restoration projects, where youth and adult volunteers create artificial reefs for oysters to grow, provide similar benefits and opportunities for environmental and civic learning. Krasny refers to community gardening, oyster restoration, community forestry and similar community-based stewardship as civic ecology practices.

"Those are the kinds of practices we are trying to bring into the fold of environmental education," said Krasny.

Through a series of workshops, EECapacity will bring educators together from traditional and nontraditional urban backgrounds to exchange ideas and resources, and form social networks. From there the project will see what innovative ideas emerge. "We are not going to dictate practices," said Krasny. "We want to create an exchange of ideas, and expect that the educators will come up with innovative practices and apply them in the world."

Additionally, there will be a research component to test the notion that diverse groups of educators, given opportunities to share practices and ideas, will develop innovative environmental education practices.

Among more than 30 collaborators, major partners include the North American Association for Environmental Education and its State Affiliate Network; Environmental Education Exchange; Akiima Price Consulting; the Association of Zoos and Aquariums; Cornell Laboratory of Ornithology; Green Guerillas Youth Media Tech Collective; Institute for Learning Innovation; the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration; the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service; and the U.S. Department of Agriculture's People's Garden Initiative.

From the (e)Mailbox: The Eat Local Challenge

Hi All -
I wanted to pass on this email sent to me by USEE member Tara Poelzing. Are you up for the challenge?
_______

Dear Friends, Colleagues, and Folks Who Care About Food,

The 2011 Salt Lake Eat Local Challenge begins on September 10th (9/10/11), and to prepare you for this fun adventure in eating, we've devised a couple of events to help get you prepared.

Our first event of the season takes place this Saturday, August 20th, 9:00 a.m. - 1:00 p.m. at the SLC Downtown Farmers Market.

AgriAdvocates presents this event focusing on the importance of agriculture to all of us in the state of Utah. Visit the Eat Local Challenge booth to learn more about the 2011 Salt Lake Eat Local Challenge. Sample and take home recipes made with ingredients sourced from within 250 miles of Salt Lake City. The Eat Local Challenge will be among 15 educational booths at the event along with a petting zoo, mechanical bull, and great hourly giveaways. Yee Haw!

Start planning your Eat Local Challenge today!

www.localfoodbee.com/the-sl-eat-local-challenge or www.slcfarmersmarket.org

FREE and open to the public

Hope to see you there or at some of our other events!

Tara Poelzing

ELC Organizer

Pledge your participation by visiting www.wasatchgardens.org and following the link.

Join our Group, Salt Lake Eat Local, on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/groups/126237017404164/

Cool New Hiking app from National Geographic

Are you an avid hiker? Do you have an iphone or ipad? If so bring your love of hiking and gadgets together with this cool new app from National Geographic. It's called Trail Maps, and though it doesn't actually provide maps of popular hiking trails, it does give you loads of USGS topographical maps. Everything from the middle-of-nowhere back country to your local urban jungle can be found on a topo map with this app. And don't worry about having access to the internet; the app allows you to download any map you need. You also have a digital compass, the ability to set waypoints, and speed and time calculations to determine when you'll arrive.
For me personally I can see this app being really useful and just plain fun. For instance say I'm romping around the mountains for a day or two, and one one particular stretch I'd like to know how long it will take us to get to that ridge over there. I just type in some calculations and I have an estimate. If I can't make it before dark then I set up camp somewhere else.
Here at usee we are all about the outdoors. This app takes the outdoors and puts a technological spin on it. I'm sure I'm not the only one who's thought of some cool educational applications either. So make your way to the app store and check it out!

REDUCE WATER WEEK

It's our last week of the No Impact Project! This week was Reduce Water Use week! For tips on how you can reduce your water impact take a look at our other blogs this week!

This week Maria reduced her shower time to 5 minutes. This was nothing new since her travels abroad in Australia included limiting shower time to 4 minutes max. In many other countries it is not strange to have rules limiting shower time. "In some of my friends' host houses they had timers in the shower to remind users to not shower over 4 minutes. After a while, you get used to it, and find that 4 or 5 minutes is plenty of time to get clean."

Aaron feels very strongly about water conservation and offers some interesting quick facts on water use that is usually passed over:

Something commonly ignored in water conservation is the consumptive nature of consumer products For example, a pair of jeans requires over 10,000 liters of water to grow and process the cotton and then manufacture the product itself. A modest-sized steak will consume almost 5,000. Even something as insignificant-seeming as a tea bag consumes about 90 liters of water. Taking short showers might make you feel fuzzy inside, but if you want the most water conservation for your effort, data shows that the larger impact can be had by changing your buying habits.

What I did to reduce my water consumption this week is that I drank only water. This sounds stupid, but according to data, this has a MUCH greater environmental impact than any domestic change I could have made.

So let's talk about some common drinks, and how much water it takes to produce them.

1 liter of soda: 250 liters of water
1 liter of milk: 1000 liters of water
1 liter of coffee: 1100 liters of water
1 liter of beer: 300 liters of water
1 liter of wine: 720 liters of water
(Data derived from here)

To give this some context, the average American uses 300-400 liters of water per day in domestic use. Millions of Americans brew a pot of coffee every morning. And get this: that pot of coffee is THREE TIMES more consumptive of water than all the showering, washing flushing and hosing that person will do for the rest of the day.

A five minute shower uses around 40 liters of water. A can of coke uses more than double that. So which would you rather give up? Two showers, or one can of coke? Which do you think is the more effective way to reduce your water footprint?

Here's an extremely simplified estimation of four drinks I consume regularly in a normal week. By not drinking them this week, here is an approximation of how much water I saved:
5 Cups of coffee forgone: 5500 liters of water saved
3 Cups of tea forgone: 270 liters of water saved
3 Liters of soda forgone: 750 liters of water saved
2 Liters of milk forgone: 2000 liters of water saved

The total water I saved is 8,520 liters in one week. The average domestic American water use is under 3,000 liters per week.

So let me be clear. By giving up coffee, milk, soda and tea, and replacing them with regular tap water, I saved nearly TRIPLE the water that I would have by giving up ALL my domestic water use.

So if I stopped showering, didn't wash my clothes or dishes and didn't water the lawn for 20 days, this would have the same impact as me giving up unnecessary drinks for 7 days. Let that sink in. Which option do you think gives you more environmental benefit for your effort? To me the decision is obvious. I'll give up coffee before showers any day.


Thanks for following USEE's No Impact Summer, make sure to check out our other weeks including No Trash Week, No Consumption Week, Reduce Electricity Week, and Eat Local Week. We hope our trials will inspire you to try some no impact actions of your own!

Bash Up to Date

Hey all! The bash is getting ever closer and the donations have been pouring in. Just today we picked up some gift cards from Whole Foods. We've also received outdoor equipment from REI including some lightweight packs, a first-aid kit, and trekking poles. What else is there? Let me see... Ah yes, we have plenty of day passes, family passes, and memberships to places like Deer Valley Resort, Momentum Climbing Gym, Utah Museum of Fine Arts, Red Butte Garden, and more. But don't for a minute think that this is all we have in terms of auction items. We still have more than a month to build up our repertoire. It should be a great auction to compliment a great night.

The food is not something to look past either. A friend of one of our staff has volunteered to cater the bash and the menu is looking very tasty. If you come, come hungry! And save room for dessert because there are some very sweet sounding dishes as well. Hope you're looking forward to it as much as I am!

10 Water Saving Tips

It’s Water Conservation Week!

Utah is a desert! Despite all of the rain and snow we have had this year, we all need to find ways to actively reduce the amount of water we waste, and find ways to make smarter water choices. Saving water is crucial to the health of our environment, and it saves money!

Here are ten tips to help reduce water waste:

1) Slow The Flow

Install a low-flow faucet on each of your faucets and a low-flow shower head in the bathroom. You’ll keep the water pressure high, but reduce your average household water usage by up to 45 gallons a day.

2) Flush Smarter

Toilets flush around 3.5 gallons of water per flush. Only flush when you have to! If you’re building a new home or are considering a remodel, there are many great, environmentally friendly options for dual-flush toilets that conserve water with every flush.

For a DIY low-flow version, place 2 plastic bottles weighed down with pebbles and water inside your toilet tank (away from mechanical parts). Just make sure there are at least 3 gallons of water remaining in the tank so it flushes properly - otherwise you’ll have to flush twice and miss the whole point!

3) Put Less In The Drain

Compost food and vegetable waste instead of using water to flush it down the garbage disposal.

4) Turn It Off

This water conservation tip is an oldie, but a goodie - turn off the tap while brushing your teeth. And when shaving, fill up the sink with a few inches of water to rinse off the blade, instead of keeping the faucet running.

5) Dish Washing

If you have a dishwasher, make sure to only run full loads to make good use of all that water. If you’re washing by hand, fill up the sink to conserve water rather than keep the faucet running.

6) Think Ahead

If you like your drinking water cold, keep a water filter pitcher in the refrigerator rather than running the tap until it gets cold each time. That way you’ll stay hydrated and not waste a drop!

7) Check For Leaks

To check if your toilet is leaking, put a few drops of food coloring in your toilet tank. Wait 15 minutes - if you see color in the toilet bowl without flushing, you have a leak!

8) Designate A Glass

Give each person in your household a designated glass or reusable water bottle, so they don’t grab a new glass each time they want a drink. As an added bonus, you'll seriously cut down on the number of dishes you have to wash!

9) Catch What You Can

Place a bucket in the shower with you or under your rain spout to collect water and reuse it to water your plants and lawn.

1 Grow It Out

Raise your lawnmower blade so it doesn’t cut the grass too short. Longer grass shades the soil, so it holds moisture longer. And when you do water your lawn, make sure it's during the cooler morning or evening hours to minimize evaporation and conserve water.

Also, consider installing a drought resistant landscape in your yard!

EAT LOCAL WEEK

USEE Staff had a blast with eat local week. We are very lucky to be in an area with so many local farmer's markets and stores that carry local ingredients. The Sugar House Farmer's Market and Downtown Farmer's Market are just two of the markets in the Salt Lake region. There are also many stores such as Tony Caputo's Market and Deli, Cali's Natural Foods, Liberty Heights Fresh, and Whole Foods that shelve local products. Here's what we did to eat local:

Andree' is on vacation this week, but even on vacation she was able to hit up the local fruit stands and enjoyed local strawberries, white nectarines, watermelon, honey, and apples!

Maria enjoyed spending some extra time at the Downtown Farmer's Market to pick out ingredients for this week. She was able to eat mostly local throughout the week, but had some staple foods such as greek yogurt and bananas that were her downfall.

Here's some ideas from her week:

Local breakfast buffet-Scrambled eggs, whole grain spelt bread, peach fruit preserves, and an apricot

All ingredients found at the downtown farmers market.




Egg-in-a-hole

Method:
1. Heat butter in a skillet
2. Hollow out a hole in the middle of a piece of bread (I got mine from the Community Food Co-op)
3. Crack egg into the hole, cook both sides until lightly browned


Zucchini Fritters (adapted from Tara Poelzing's fritter recipe)

Ingredients:
2 medium zucchini, coarsely grated
1 large egg
2 scallions, finely chopped
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 cup grape seed oil or olive oil

Method:
1. After grating the zucchini, press excess moisture by pressing with paper towels.
2. Whisk the egg in a large bowl.
3. Add the zucchini, flour, and scallions. Mix to combine well.
4. Heat oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Drop six mounds of batter (2 Tbsp each) onto the skillet. Flatten slightly. Cook, turning once, until browned (4-6 minutes) on each side. Transfer to a paper towel-lined plate. Repeat with remaining batter.
5. Serve with a dollop of sour cream or plain yogurt, I served with a slice of tomato

Aaron enjoyed a week with plenty Crumb Brothers bread! He also had some delicious local corn and has been eating less meat. Check out this article about meat reduction vs. eating local:

http://blogs.hbr.org/winston/2011/06/local-food-or-less-meat-data-t.html

He also spent time in the garden gathering vegetables:
"In our garden the tomatoes are coming in, but they're not quite ready to pick. I helped my friend and neighbor Zoe pick carrots and beets from her garden. What we did was just thin it out, removing about half the veggies to make space, so that the remaining ones can get huge and delicious. The end result was about 5 pounds cute miniature beets and carrots, and this isn't even the real harvest yet; later in fall they'll have more like 10 pounds of each. The carrots were excellent. We spent the afternoon eating them right out of the soil, and Zoe used the beets to make borscht."

He also ate at the Copper Onion which uses many local ingredients in their dishes. His favorite was the Baked Parmesan balls.

Crystal and her family did not eat out this week. They bought some produce from a local farm stand in Tooele as well as ate from their garden:
"Needless to say we ate A LOT of tomatoes and cucumbers because that seems to be what's growing really good for us so far this year!"

As far as recipes, they mainly just ate fresh veggies cut up and Crystal stir fried a few nights
"My kids loved the vegetarian stew I made from the farm stand goodies! No recipe just a
lot of eye balling :) all in all it was a good week of food, it required more planning and time but was completely worth it... For my kids, our health and that of the planet and my community!"


So whether you support eating local by visiting the farmers market, picking up products from stores that source locally, eat at cafe's that use local ingredients, or get produce right from your own yard, you are helping to reduce the environmental impact of industrial agriculture and are most likely leading a more healthy lifestyle as well!

Buon Appetito

We are so fortunate to have two incredible chefs for this year's Benefit Bash Adam Kreisel and Jason Sanders! These two local chefs have unique histories that have brought them together to create a spectacular menu for our Bash following our autumnal theme featuring local ingredients!


Adam Kreisel
Adam’s experience in the restaurant industry has been brief (14 years) but eventful. The bulk of his culinary education was gleaned in San Francisco, where he worked first as a line cook under chefs Reed Heron at Black Cat and Brenda Buenviaje at Oritalia, and did an apprenticeship under Suzette Gresham at Aqcuarello. Following these stints, Adam was the tournant at Oritalia, this time under the tutelage of chef John Nelson, and then the executive sous-chef at Mecca Restaurant under chef Mike Fennelly. Adam’s cooking knowledge is a composition of training at the California Culinary Academy and time spent at the aforementioned establishments where cuisines had Asian, Italian, Creole, and Southwestern influences. Major influence has also come from years of travel abroad to over 20 countries, as well as copious time spent specifically in Italy as both a student (studying architecture in Florence from June ’92 – January ’93) and a chef (cooking in Chianti for 3 weeks during the summer of 2005 and working as the exclusive private chef to Dick Ebersol and the NBC Executives during the 2006 Winter Olympics in Torino). Additionally, Adam was chosen to be one of three chefs to cook the prestigious opening James Beard Foundation Dinner for the IOC delegates to inaugurate the 2002 Winter Olympics.

Adam now owns Chaia Cucina, which translates roughly (as a combination of Hebrew and Italian) to “lifegiving kitchen”, a short phrase that poignantly describes the cooking environment he always strives to create. It is through this medium that Adam chooses to engage all components of the kitchen environment for his clients. Adam also teaches intermittent courses in the culinary program at the Art Institute International of Salt Lake and is involved in Slow Food. He currently owns a residence and lives with his 4 year-old daughter and willing food tester, Chaia, in the Sugarhouse section of the city. He and Chaia love to ski, hike, camp, and of course, eat.

Click here for a full bio and more information about Chaia Cucina.



Jason Sanders

Jason graduated Le Cordon Bleu in Portland, Oregon in 2007. He completed his externship at the Heathman Hotel in Portland under Phillipe Boulot, (knighted by France for his cooking skills!). Jason has been cooking for roughly 20 years. He first met Adam at Redbones where they both were just lowly prep cooks about 16 years ago. Over time he has worked with Adam at Globe By Moonlight, Acme Burger Company, and various other side projects on top of traveling across the country with him at times to see concerts. Jason am married with one son. He currently is the Executive Chef at Stoneground. He enjoys golfing, has traveled the country seeing various musical acts, and loves to work on his vintage car and motorcycle.

Helping USEE Eat Local

As part of our member highlights, USEE staff traveled to Tara Poelzing's residence to interview her on her extensive blog about eating local as well as share a delicious local salad! During USEE's eat local week, Tara's blog is especially helpful! Her blog offers recipes and resources for finding local food in Utah.

Tara first became interested in eating locally when her friends told her about an article they read about an eat local challenge. She then decided to do her own 250 mile challenge, where for a month, she ate food that only came from 250 miles or less from her home. What she was most frustrated about during this challenge was that it was so hard to find places that offered local food. She wanted a place where she could go to look up organizations that sold local food without having to run all around town to look for a simple ingredient. This inspired her to start a blog that has a collection of resources for eating locally.

Tara explains that “we have to eat”. We may have a choice about driving or purchasing clothes and other goods, but as humans we need to eat to survive and every time we decide to put something in our bodies IT IS A CHOICE. This is why eating locally is so prominent, because we are faced with this decision multiple times a day and eating locally is something you can do that is both healthy for your body and the environment. So why would you choose anything but the best?

Tara admits that it isn’t always easy to eat locally. She explains that sometimes there are foods that aren’t possible to get locally that one may want or need for a healthy diet. For example, she wants her ­­­­son to have a healthy, diverse diet, which is hard if she is restricting his diet to only local foods. Tara admits that she has a weakness for coffee, which she does give up during the Eat Local Challenge. She notes that there are also seasonal difficulties like when all of the preserves for the winter are gone that also may make buying non-locally a necessity. This is why she focuses on practicality in her blog. She believes that if people think eating locally is an all or nothing effort that people will not be inclined to try it and that is not what eating locally is about. Tara believes any kind of effort to eat more local food is a step in the right direction. Tara suggests making the move towards a local diet “little by little”. Making a sweeping change isn’t practical for most people and therefore will not last very long. For her, however, as she did the Eat Local Challenge year after year and continuously focuses on buying local when she can, eating local has become integrated into her normal lifestyle. She also notes that eating local is catching on. She, as I’m sure many of you are starting to realize that there is more advertisement for local foods in magazines, newspapers, and a variety of stores and restraunts that are offering local food.

Tara appreciates the continuous networking opportunities and support given by USEE. She also received her Environmental Education Teacher Certification through USEE and explains that she is so greatful to have been given a mentor to guide her through her goals and who understands her work and whom she is still in contact with. In 2009, Tara was recognized by USEE as the Vern A. Fridley Enviornmental Educator of the year. She expresses that this not only made her feel important, but also supported by a group of people who were willing to fight for the beliefs she shares.

Tara is proof that you do not need to be a food scientist or expert to maintain a sustainable diet. Tara has an academic background in Environmental Education, but when it comes to food, she explains it is all on the job learning. She has done her own research on where to find local sources from resources such as edible Wasatch, but she explains many of the resources on her blog were things that she found by taking the time to go into stores and markets and ask around.

Lucilly for us, we have Tara’s blog, which has an extensive list of businesses that carry local food organized by food group on her blog.

Why is it important to eat locally? Look up her top 6 on her blog

Upcoming events

9/10/11 Eat Local Challenge (Tomato Sandwich Party with Wasatch Community Gardens 11-2)

8/23/11 Green Drinks, Eat Local Challenge Kick Off

9/14/11 Pasta Making Party with Slow Food Utah 630-830pm

9/17/11 1 week party at the Downtown Farmers Market