Tracy Aviary's Transformation

Tracy Aviary, a member organization of USEE, was praised in the Tribune for its transformation over the past few years.  A new building was completed in January, and as a result of the aviary's new look, funded by a $19.6M bond passed by Salt Lake City's voters, visitation is up 20%.

The aviary has effectively "[renewed] its position as one of Salt Lake City's most prized assets."

Spring is only 20 days away, and Tracy Aviary is an excellent attraction with many upcoming events, summer camps, daily activities, and membership options.

To view the Salt Lake Tribune article: http://www.sltrib.com/sltrib/outdoors/53568770-117/aviary-tracy-lake-salt.html.csp?page=1

For a list of Tracy Aviary's renovation projects: http://www.tracyaviary.org/history/

-Aaron

Easy Green Cleaning Tips

Photo Credit

I always have my staples when it comes to cleaning supplies.I must have Soft Scrub for the bathroom, I use Wetjet for the floor and I love my Swiffer dust cloths. However, this weekend while visiting my parents I didn’t have that.

I wanted to dust off the scanner to scan some old pictures,and after looking in every cupboard and closet I could finally asked “Don’t you have any Swiffer cloths??!”

My Dad answered “No, but here’s a dryer sheet.”

In response to my confused “What??” he handed me a torn pagefrom this February’s edition of the Reader’s Digest. On it was a list of 13 “Cleaning Tips You Haven’t Heard Before” and the first tip was: dusting with an old dryersheet.

I read the rest of the tips on there and I thought, these tips are not just easy, but actually pretty environmentally friendly. Most of them ask you to use common household items, either eliminating the need to use chemicals, or reusing something you would have otherwise thrown away.

My favorite tips are:

• To clean blinds: close them and wipe them up and down with an old dryer sheet
• After a shower, spray it down with vinegar and water to get rid of musty odors
• Use a wet pumice stone to clean your oven instead of any spray-on product
• Clean the microwave oven by microwaving a cup of baking soda and water until it boils, then wipe clean
• Use an old tube sock on a yard stick to clean under refrigerators,ovens and overhead cobwebs
• To remove stains in your toilet, drop in a bubbling denture tablet and leave it for at least 30 minutes or overnight, then swish with a brush.

To see a complete list go the Reader's Digest article: "Cleaning Tips You Haven't Heard Before"

Sometimes it’s just the simple small things in our day today living that can help us make a big change in the long run.

If you'd like to learn more Green Living Tips, check out the upcoming Green Bag at the Jordan River Water Conservancy District Gardens. March 7th at 6pm.

-Holly

Arbor Day Poster Contest

Teachers! Looking for a great way to motivate your students to learn about the environment? Need an exciting culminating activity? Want to spice up your spring lessons??

Well you are in luck!

Every year the Utah division of Forestry, Fire and State Lands holds a state wide K-6 grade Arbor Day poster contest, and there is still time to enter! Deadline this year is Feb. 29th.

After teaching your students about Arbor Day and this year’s theme: “Trees are Terrific. . . useful in so many ways!” your student will then create posters and compete in school wide, regional, and state competitions and win prizes for themselves and your school!

Prizes include $500 for your school, $50 towards planting a tree at your school, nursery gift certificates and signed awards by the governor for the students, and more!

What’s even better is that USEE has partnered with Utah’s Forestry Division to make special professional development workshops for teachers. These workshops will highlight activities in our Project Learning Tree manual that you can use as part of your lesson planning for Arbor Day. Remember all of USEE’s PLT activities are correlated to Utah’s Core Curriculum standards.“We All Need Trees” on page 65 of the PLT preK–8 activity guide, is just one of the many activities you could use to get started on exploring why trees are so useful. This activity has students sort pictures, or actual products that may or may not come from trees. First they must guess what products do come from trees and then sort them into three categories: wood, food and paper. Some of the products include carpeting, chewing gum, soap and cellophane! After seeing the abundance of different products, you lead your class into a discussion about conservation practices.

My favorite part of this activity is the extensions, especially the “Treasure Tree” idea. What you do is take an old Christmas tree or large tree limb with lots of branches and make ornaments to hang on it that represents all the different kinds of tree products. Older students could include information about what part of the tree is used to make that product. What an awesome way to display the objective of the lesson, and I think it would look great in the hallway or lobby of a school, for everyone to learn from.

Another idea I had after doing this activity is surveying the classroom or school and gathering data about how many things are used in school that are or aren’t made from trees, and then display the data using a bar graph. You could compare and contrast tree products vs. not trees products, the three categories listed in the lesson, or which classrooms use more or less tree products.

For those who have already gone to a PLT workshop and own the activity guide here is a complete list of Arbor Day activities from the PLT activity guide word doc.

I greatly encourage going to one of our PLT Arbor Day workshops and/or registering for the Arbor Day poster contest, your students will have so much fun!

-Holly

The date for the upcoming Arbor Day PLT workshop is:

Feb 25th at the Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge (2155 W Forest St, Brigham City, UT)

Workshops are eligible for .5 USOE Credits. Cost: $25

Click here to register

Click here for more information about Project Learning Tree

Bioregional Consciousness

A bioregion is an area that is defined by naturally occurring physical environmental features, as opposed to politically mapped boundaries, for example, a watershed, pictured below.



The watershed that the nearly 1 million residents of the Salt Lake Valley live in is called the Jordan River Watershed. It is bounded from the east by the Wasatch Mountains, from the south by the Traverse Range, from the West by the Oquirrh Mountains, and the north-flowing Jordan River drains into its northern boundary, the Great Salt Lake.



According to Peter Berg, who is credited with coining the term in the 1970s, "Bioregionalism is a significant step beyond either conservationist or environmentalist thinking." The importance of bioregionalism's environmental strategy is that its focus is immediately local. "There is no way to ensure the survival of the biosphere without saving each bioregion, and it is especially important for anyone living within industrial society to begin cultivating bioregional consciousness."

Understanding your bioregion, as described by the watershed information above, is a good starting point. Continue by asking yourself simple bioregional questions, such as:

Where does my water come from?
Where does my wastewater go?
Where does my garbage go?
What are the native edible plants in my bioregion?
How long is the growing season here?
Are there any endangered species in my bioregion?
Does the food I eat come from my bioregion?
How can I help?

The Jordan River Watershed is currently threatened. According to the Jordan River Watershed Council, this watershed suffers from "impaired fish populations," "metals and toxic chemicals," "failing septic systems," "industrial discharges," and "illegal dumping."

After developing a bioregional consciousness one may begin purposeful work in the local community for a sustainable future for the beautiful Jordan River Watershed.



Fortunately, Utah's Watershed Restoration Initiative works to maintain healthy watersheds. The benefits include: "clean drinking water," "irrigation for farms and ranches," "healthier rangeland," "improved air quality," and "decreased fire frequency."

For more information please visit:
http://www.watershed.slco.org/jrwc/index.html
http://wildlife.utah.gov/pdf/fact_sheets/watershed_restoration.pdf

Aaron