Staff Retreat: Hardware Ranch

Each winter we set aside a day for a staff retreat. It is full of meetings, goal-making, and excellent discussion. In addition to getting down to business, we also make sure that we get out and do something fun and educational. Most of our work days are spent in the office, so it's a great opportunity for us to get out in the fresh air and remember what all of our sweat and blood is for.

From left to right: Josh, Andree', Michael, Carolyn, Sarah, Charice
Photo by Nicole Thomas

This year we were lucky enough to be invited up to Hardware Ranch Wilderness Management Area where we were greeted by our lovely hostess, Marni Lee. Marni is the Assistant Manager of Hardware Ranch and boy did she have a special treat for us! Marni had arranged for us to feed the elk!

Marni estimated there were between 350 and 400 elk at the refuge that day.
Photo by Nicole Thomas

Checking out the horses: Michael, Josh, Sarah, and Charice
Photo by Nicole Thomas

Hardware Ranch was loaned to the state by the federal government in the '40's and was designated as a wildlife management area to help mitigate the herds of elk that were coming down from their mountain ranges into Cache Valley. The idea was to feed the elk at the ranch to keep them from migrating down into the valley during the cold winters to forage off of farmers' supplies of hay and alfalfa in their search for food. The ranch still continues this practice today. Feeding normally begins in December and continues until the middle of February. In fact, the day of our visit was the last day of winter feeding.

Discussing the intricacies of elk feeding: Andree', Sarah, Charice, and Josh
Photo by Nicole Thomas

How does one feed about 400 elk, you ask? Well, it's more simple than you might think. When we arrived, there was a massive metal trailer on skies loaded with giant bales of grass. The trailer hooks up to a big green tractor which pulls the "sleigh" through the massive field where the elk are waiting for their breakfast. Once out in the field, we needed to cut (and collect) the twine holding the bales together. Then, as the tractor pulled us all along, we flaked off one section of grass at a time and pushed it off the end of the trailer, depositing the flakes about every three feet.

Sarah and Josh hooking up the trailer to the tractor, with direction from Marni.
Photo by Nicole Thomas

Andree' flaking grass to feed the elk!
Photo by Nicole Thomas

The elk came to eat with a vengeance. They followed us closely, eager to munch on the new grass, as we continued to flake section by section off of the giant bales, making a long horseshoe across the field. The staff at Hardware Ranch feed the elk daily, usually around 8:00 in the morning. The bales that are used to feed the elk are composed of native grasses that grow on the acreage owned by Hardware Ranch, making it very nutritious and natural food that is easy to digest for the elk. However, as the weather begins to get warmer and the southern slopes of the mountains become less covered with snow, the ranch stops providing free breakfast to the massive herd. Small groups of elk will then split off from the major herd and begin dispersing back up into the hills and higher elevations.

Carolyn and Sarah Flaking Grass
Photo by Andree' Walker Bravo

Here they come!
Photo by Andree' Walker Bravo

During the elk-feeding season, the ranch sells tickets for sleigh rides out onto the field where the elk stay. Giant sleighs filled with student groups, as well as the general public, are pulled by the biggest horses you have ever seen onto the snowy expanse. The tour guides answer questions and teach about the ranch, the elk, and the other wildlife in the area.

School Group Tour
Photo by Nicole Thomas

Lunch Time!
Photo by Andree' Walker Bravo

Sleigh Horse
Photo by Nicole Thomas

After our amazing adventure with Marni, we ate lunch overlooking the refuge while discussing our progress as an organization over the past year and our goals for the upcoming one. It was very invigorating to be in the mountains contemplating our accomplishments since our last staff retreat and brainstorming where our organizational and personal goals could be by the next time this year. Finally, to finish up a day's hard work, we took a brief walk up a snowy road past Hardware Ranch before heading back to Salt Lake.

From left to right: Sarah, Charice, Carolyn, Josh, Nicole, Michael
Photo by Andree' Walker Bravo

From left to right: Sarah, Nicole, Michael, Charice, Carolyn, Josh, Andree'
Photo by Marni Lee

To see more of our staff retreat adventure, check out our Facebook album, A Day at the Ranch! We would also like to thank Marni and the rest of her staff at Hardware Ranch for such a spectacular day - we will never forget it!

Happy Trails

Dear Utah Environmental Education Community,

After nearly 3 years of working with you all, today is my last day as the Programs Coordinator at the Utah Society for Environmental Education. Next week I am moving to Toronto, Canada, to continue my education where I will be attending York University for the next two years to obtain my master’s degree in Environmental Studies with an emphasis in Business and Sustainability.

As I make my preparations for leaving this awesome state, which has always been my home, I look forward to the opportunities awaiting me in Canada. I have grown so much since I started at USEE as a hopeful intern. I have greatly enjoyed getting to know the EE community in Utah and I thank you so much for the opportunity to work with you all.

I have loved working with USEE members, the staff and board, and volunteers tremendously. Thank you all for this wonderful experience!

Cheers,

Nicole Thomas

Member Highlight: Uinta-Wasatch-Cache National Forest

Earlier this month I met with Loyal Clark who is the Public Affairs Specialist for the Uinta-Wasatch-Cache National Forest. I visited this USEE Institutional Member’s offices in Provo, UT, to find out more about the programs and services that they offer.

Loyal took me on a tour of their offices, which are located in the Will J. Robinson Federal Building, and I was able to meet most of the staff that works for the Uinta-Wasatch-Cache National Forest. There are quite a few people who work there, including civil engineers, cartographers, biologists, and administrative staff. It was very eye-opening for me because, though I know there are a lot of things happening in National Forests with many different career options, the Forest Service so often means forest rangers and fire fighters to me. I also learned about the services the Forest Service provides such as fire and forest management, campground and infrastructure maintenance, hunting information, maps (for trails and for other things such as grazing and water sheds), fire safety information, and all things Smokey Bear.

In addition to touring the building and talking with the staff, Loyal also showed me all of the different environmental education programs that the Uinta-Wasatch-Cache National Forest houses and they have some cool stuff! The staff often do school visits on request to talk about the forest. Most of these requests are from 3rd-5th grade teachers, but can accommodate any grade level. They also receive a lot of requests from high schools as well to talk about the different career opportunities within the Forest Service.

They also house educational displays that teachers can check out to use to teach their students about various environmental education topics such as climate change, watersheds, and others. They also have educational boxes that have curriculum, books, games, and specimens that teachers can check out for 2 weeks at a time to take back to their classrooms. Currently they have boxes about bats, insects, and tread lightly. Loyal is currently working to develop three new boxes in addition to the three they already have: climate change, the water cycle, and bark beetles.

Uinta-Wasatch-Cache also has more environmental and science education on their website. Just look for the “Learning Center” tab on the right hand side. There are pages about various outdoor education experiences, conservation education, the history and culture of the forest, outdoor safety and ethics, and pages for kids and teachers and parents.

Another excellent program the Uinta-Wasatch-Cache National Forest houses is the Diamond Fork Youth Forest. This outdoor learning environment is a natural outdoor laboratory where students are directly involved with a wide range of recreational and educational projects. For more information about the Uinta-Wasatch-Cache National Forest’s educational programs or the Diamond Fork Youth forest, visit their websites below:

Uinta-Wasatch-Cache National Forest
Diamond Fork Youth Forest

Thank you so much Loyal and the staff at the Provo office for letting me come and spend a day learning about your programs!
Photo Credits:

Wellsville Mountains - Becky Blankenship
Kids in the Snowy Woods - Cottonwood Canyons Foundation

Member Highlight: The Nature Conservancy - Great Salt Lake Shorelands Preserve

Last week I had the opportunity to visit The Nature Conservancy's Great Salt Lake Shorelands Preserve. Heidi Nedreberg, who is the head of the education and outreach programs at the preserve, let me tag along for one of their volunteer training days.

Great Salt Lake Shorelands Preserve Pavillion

Photo by Nicole Thomas

If you have never been to the Great Salt Lake Shorelands Preserve, I highly recommend it. The preserve is located on the eastern shore of the Great Salt Lake, in the Layton area, and features over a mile of boardwalks that loop through the wetlands. There is a massive outdoor pavilion with educational signs about the various birds that live on and migrate though the preserve. There is also a look-out tower at the far end of the boardwalk perfect for bird-watching.

On my visit, I got to interact with some of the volunteer naturalists that lead the tours that come to the preserve. Most of these groups are participating in the Wings and Water Program, an award-winning, hands-on wetlands education program designed to meet state science core curriculum standards for 4th grade students. Part of the Wings and Water Program is a visit to the preserve where students can discover the wetlands in a naturalist guided tour.

Bird Migration Signs at the Great Salt Lake Shorelands Preserve

Photo by Nicole Thomas

While we were out discussing various techniques of engaging students in different areas along the boardwalk, we also saw many different birds out in the wetlands and marshes. Red winged black birds, a blue heron, mallards, pelicans and several other flocks that I wasn't quick enough to catch their names. We found a garter snake near the supply shed and we even heard several frogs singing as we were packing up to head home.

So if you are looking for a fun place to take your family for a little outdoor discovery, a field trip for your 4th graders, a place to bird-watch and discover the migratory birds that come through the Salt Lake fly-way, or somewhere peaceful to stretch your legs and get outside, come and check out the Great Salt Lake Shorelands Preserve! The preserve is always open, and the new visitor's center is now open every day from 7am - 8pm.  Hope to see you there!

Credits: All photos courtesy and copyright of Nicole Thomas

American Kestrel in my Front Yard

Last Saturday was a beautiful day! The sun was shining brightly and when I went on my run after completing a PLT workshop that afternoon, I was able to go in shorts and a t-shirt. Yes, it was indeed February.

As I was drinking some water, resting, and cooling out on my front porch, a swarm of LBB's (little brown birds) was flying down my street. As they got closer, weaving in and out of houses and around trees, I noticed a larger bird chasing them. Usually this happens in the spring time when the magpies are wreaking havoc on the other neighborhood birds, but this time it was an American Kestrel.

Soon, the Kestrel caught one of the LBB's. It was an amazing and a little disturbing site to watch the Kestrel carry the bird off. The LBB squawked and squealed for about 10 seconds and then it was gone. The Kestrel landed on my neighbor's roof, where it plucked the feathers from the bird and devoured it in less than two minutes.

According to the Utah Department of Wildlife Resources, American Kestrels are common throughout all of Utah. "Nests are made in natural holes in trees, abandoned woodpecker holes, cliffs, and nest-boxes. Usually four or five eggs are laid and incubated, mainly by female, for 29 to 31 days. Young are tended by both parents and leave the nest about 29 to 31 days after hatching. Young may stay with the parents for an additional four weeks or more. If a clutch is lost, a pair will readily lay a replacement clutch. In summer, this hawk feeds mainly on insects, especially grasshoppers and crickets, and small vertebrates. During the winter, its foods are mainly birds and mice. American kestrels often hover while foraging, and are frequently seen using this technique along highways."

Sometimes I think we believe we need to go out deep into the wild mountains or deserts to see these kinds of events and interactions, but even when living in downtown Salt Lake City, there is plenty of nature to see! Sometimes you can find it when you're looking for it, and sometimes it happens right in front of you. We just have to pay attention.

Photo Credit

Non-Profit Day on the Hill

Last Thursday, USEE partnered with the Utah Nonprofits Association, Utah Afterschool Network, and Utah Cultural Alliance to sponsor "Non-Profit Day on the Hill" where 33 non-profit organizations gathered to speak to legislators.

Marta and I represented USEE and even in the craziness of it all, we were able to speak to 7 different senators and representatives. We made some great contacts with many legislators, some of whom were already familiar with USEE, some were not but were interested to learn more, and a few were very excited about cultivating partnerships with us after the legislative session ends.

The event was featured on the Utah Senate Democrats blog. One of the photos features Marta and I talking to Senator Ben McAdams...well it features the back of our heads at least!

Photo Credit

PLT Early Childhood Guides Have Arrived

Project Learning Tree's highly awaited Early Childhood guides arrived at our offices yesterday afternoon! We will be putting together a training session soon, now that we have the books, and we will keep you posted for when we schedule them!

For now, check out what the national PLT office released about the guides:

Just as more attention is being focused on the need to connect students to nature at a younger age, Project Learning Tree® (PLT) releases a new curriculum guide and music CD to engage children ages 3 to 6 in outdoor exploration and play. Eleven field-tested, hands-on activities showcase over 130 "early childhood experiences" which integrate investigations of nature with art, literature, math, music, and movement. Early childhood educators and caregivers can obtain a copy of PLT's Environmental Experiences for Early Childhood curriculum by attending a PLT professional development workshop in their area.

"Exploring nature is a complete sensory experience, and early experiences with the natural world excite children's imaginations and foster their inborn sense of wonder and curiosity-important motivators for lifelong learning," says Kathy McGlauflin, Director of Project Learning Tree and Senior Vice President of Education for the American Forest Foundation, the national sponsor of PLT.

"Increasing environmental literacy is a proven way to encourage scientific inquiry, and PLT's Environmental Experiences for Early Childhood provides an introduction to environmental education at a key developmental period in children's lives," adds McGlauflin.

Since 1993, PLT has provided environmental education training and academic curricula for pre-kindergarten and kindergarten educators to assist in their educational programming with young people. In response to a huge demand for more activities that use developmentally-appropriate approaches for reaching young learners, PLT has created a new early childhood curriculum and produced an accompanying music CD to provide a valuable resource designed specifically for early childhood educators.

"PLT's Early Childhood program encourages young children to learn about the natural world around them using their senses, the seasons, and neighborhood trees," says Al Stenstrup, Director of Education Programs at the American Forest Foundation. "The experiences in PLT's Early Childhood guide encourage children to explore, discover, and communicate in expressive ways. They emphasize outdoor adventure, support children having fun while learning, and utilize each child's imagination and creativity to provide opportunities for learning in groups or as individuals," he says.

The activities highlight the importance of kinetic learning and differentiated instruction, including opportunities to incorporate music and movement using the CD to encourage children to sing and dance. The music selections include instrumentals with different rhythms and cultural connections, nature sounds, classical music, and fun songs with educational lyrics from children's music artist Billy B. Brennan.

PLT's Environmental Experiences for Early Childhood guide includes background information on facilitating experiences for the early childhood learner, how to guide children in learning about nature both indoors and outdoors, and clear objectives and benchmarks to assess learning. It also includes suggestions for activities that families and friends can conduct to enhance their child's learning experiences at home.

PLT's Environmental Experiences for Early Childhood guide has been correlated to national standards for preschool education by three major early childhood accreditation programs. All activities meet the National Association for the Education of Young Children criteria for curriculum, the North American Association for Environmental Education's Early Childhood Environmental Education Guidelines for Excellence, and the Head Start's Child Outcomes Framework.

Educators receive training and PLT's Environmental Experiences for Early Childhood materials by attending a professional development workshop. PLT's 50-state network trains 30,000 PreK-12 educators every year through 1,500 workshops held across the country. Contact information for each PLT state program can be found at www.plt.org, along with additional resources and correlations to academic standards and guidelines.

Welcome to our new Outreach Coordinator!

Charice Bourdeaux is USEE's newest staff member! She will be with us for the next 10 months or so as the Outreach Coordinator VISTA. Charice started earlier this week and so far is doing a fantastic job getting the Green Bag program off the ground. We are extremely excited to have her here at USEE!

Hello everyone! My name is Charice Bourdeaux and I am the new Outreach Coordinator for USEE. I will be working through AmeriCorps as a Utah Conservation Corp volunteer. I am a senior at the University of Utah majoring in Environmental Education and I will be graduating this spring. What I am most excited about working for USEE is the opportunity to connect with the public and help Utahans enhance their knowledge of environmental concepts through workshops, community discussions, and events. This will be a great learning experience and I am excited to gain many new skills while working here. So here are some quick favorites of mine just to let you know a little bit more about me, ready…. Food: fruit snacks, place: Uintah Mountains and activities: backpacking, running, reading.

Member Highlight: Momentum Recycling

A couple of months ago, I had the opportunity to visit a local glass recycling plant as well as the insulation factory across the road from the glass recycling plant. This trip was part of a tour that Jeff Whitbeck, co-owner of Momentum Recycling (a USEE Institutional Member) and one of our newest USEE Board Members.

Momentum Recycling is a local business dedicated to helping organizations move toward zero waste. They do this by providing waste-stream assessments, helping each organization develop a custom recycling program, and then implementing the customized program. Part of each recycling program is setting up a comprehensive recycling collections procedure for each client. Momentum Recycling also provides educational tools for the employees, clients, residents, and guests of each organization to help them understand the importance of an organization's commitment to zero waste. Once these steps have been implemented, Momentum Recycling also works to publicize each organization's commitment to move toward zero waste.

Momentum Recycling

Different organizations have different recycling plans depending on their goals and the facilities used by each organization, and Momentum Recycling has many different ways to help each organization move toward zero waste. There are mixed recyclables bins, cardboard and white office paper, glass, organic waste, and electronic waste options. In order to manage all of the recyclables generated by organizations, Momentum Recycling works with several government agencies, non-profit groups, and material recovery facilities and recycling facilities across the Wasatch Front.

As part of Momentum Recycling's commitment to education, they schedule some occasional site visits to help inform their clients about where the recyclables are going. One of these visits was to the glass recycling plant and the fiberglass insulation factory. It was fascinating to learn about the different kinds of glass that can be recycled, the history of the plant, and where most of the recycled glass goes when it's done being processed. Most of the glass that Momentum Recycling processes for their clients goes to the glass recycling site near Owens Corning, which is the fiberglass insulation manufacturer across the street. Most of the glass at this plant gets ground back down into sand so that Owens Corning may use the recycled glass in the manufacture of fiberglass insulation. It was certainly a treat to learn about this process. Thank you Momentum Recycling for setting it up!

To learn more about becoming an Institutional Member of USEE, visit our membership page. If you are already a USEE Institutional Member and would like to participate in the member highlight opportunity, please contact Nicole by calling 801-328-1549 or by email at nicole@usee.org.

Let's Move Initiative

Earlier this week, the First Lady appeared on Larry King Live to discuss her Let's Move Initiative, which is the same day that her Let's Move task force on childhood obesity was launched. The Let's Move Initiative has an ambitious, but critically important goal to "solve the epidemic of childhood obesity within a generation."

Let's Move says that "Childhood obesity or excess weight threatens the healthy future of one third of American children. We spend $150 billion every year to treat obesity-related conditions, and that number is growing. Obesity rates tripled in the past 30 years, a trend that means, for the first time in our history, American children may face a shorter expected lifespan than their parents."

As far as I'm concerned, this is a problem of epic proportions with drastic consequences. Especially when it concerns so many quality of life issues. Unfortunately, I haven't seen anything about getting kids outdoors and as an environmental educator, this seems like a natural fit. I would love to see some kind of a partnership between the No Child Left Inside Coalition (which in addition to getting kids outdoors to play and combat obesity, also promotes investigative and integrated learning through environmental education) and Let's Move. But this initiative is definitely a step in the right direction, and I am anxious to see where it will go from here.

Let's Move has identified 4 ways in which to accomplish the goal to "Raise a Healthier Generation of Kids"

1. Helping parents make healthy family choices;
2. Creating healthier schools;
3. Encouraging physical activity; and
4. Widening access to healthy and affordable food.

There is more information on the Let's Move website about how the task force will be moving on these steps for combating childhood obesity. We'll see if anything in the outdoor education world develops along with Let's Move, but for now, check out Michelle Obama's interview with Larry King about childhood obesity:

Student Voices - Energy Principles and Perspectives

Joe Andrade, who has presented both at USEE Green Bags and at the 2009 Annual Utah EE Conference, worked with 7th and 8th grade students at the Salt Lake Center for Science Education (SLCSE) to produce these videos about Energy Principles and Perspectives. Check out some of the student perspectives below in the SLCSE Energy Videos below!

Appetite for Energy

Green Magic



Induction and Electricity

More SLCSE energy videos can be found on YouTube! We did not have room to post them all here, but check out these other videos by using the links below.

Introduction: SLCSE Energy Videos

Hot Stuff

Sun Fuel

Burn Baby Burn

Diary of Energy

Making of SLCSE Energy Education Videos

7 Spectacular Seed Starting Tips

Here are seven tried and true tips to successfully get your seeds ready to be planted outside this spring! This was originally published in Wasatch Community Gardens' e-newsletter (USEE Institutional Members).

1. Keep a garden notebook. Keeping records from year to year will help you remember which seeds you ordered, which plants you grew and which were successful. You'll thank yourself next growing season.

2. Start with a seed starter mix. Generally, it is best to use a soiless seed starting mix that doesn't contain fertilizer to grow seedlings. It is not recommended that you re-use potting soil or use soil from your garden for starting seedlings because soil will hold too much water and these may contain bacteria or fungal organisms that might be harmful to your plants.

3. Generously and gently water. If you have a ton of plants, a watering can is helpful. However, a simple plastic cup with small holes poked in the bottom is a great, gentle way to water your seedlings indoors.

4. Thinning out. After the seedlings have all emerged, remove all but one seedling in each cell of the cell pack. Cut or pinch the stems of the seedlings you are removing; DON'T pull the seedlings from the soil. Pulling unwanted seedlings will disturb the roots of the seedling you do want. How you know if your seeds are ready to be thinned out brings us to step number five.

5. True leaves. The first set of leaves seedlings sprout are not "true" leaves, so do not thin out at this time. The first set of leaves are called cotyledons and they will wither when the first "true" leaves form (really, the second set of leaves). This step is important to note because the growth of the "true" leaves marks the start of photosynthesis for your plant.

6. Warmth for germination, sun for seedlings. Best practices says to keep seeds that are germinating warm and give your successful seedlings plenty of sun.

7. Toughen up your seedlings. Prepare your seeds for the unsympathetic outdoors by gently running your fingers over your seedlings or placing a fan near your seedlings to simulate wind and to strengthen the stems of your plants.

With these seven spectacular seed starting tips: go, plant, germinate, grow! Do you have more questions or yearn for more information? Are you not sure which seeds to start? Learn so much more at Wasatch Community Garden's Seed Starting and Heirloom Selecting Workshop on February 6th from 10am-noon. Visit their website to learn more or to RSVP for this workshop at wasatchgardens.org today!

Conference 2009 Photos - Finally!

Here are pictures from all of the fun that we had at the 2009 conference. All of these pictures were submitted by conference attendees. If you have photos that you would like to contribute email me at nicole@usee.org!

Heidi Nedreberg kicks off the Shorelands Preserve Field Trip
submitted by Tina Bagley

Vern Fridley and Tim Brown
submitted by Autumn Garrison

The Nature Conservancy's Shorelands Preserve
submitted by Tina Bagley

Hangin' out at the Share Fair
submitted by Jason Taylor

Learning at the Shorelands Nature Preserve
submitted by Tina Bagley

Having fun at the Share Fair
submitted by Jason Taylor


Shorelands Preserve Field Trip
submitted by Tina Bagley

And Autumn Garrison also submitted these videos from the Reperatory Dance Theater's Green Mapping field trip. Enjoy!

Bicycle Path Part 1



Bicycle Path Part 2



Mining Site

Take a Break - Environmental Quiz

What is your environmental IQ? Take the quiz today - then challenge your friends, classmates, or co-workers to try their hand as well.

This tool has been found to be extremely useful in stimulating discussion about forest and environmental trends. It is a short environmental quiz that was developed at the University of Minnesota in 1991. Focusing on topics from world and U.S. population to raw material
consumption trends, forest growth and harvest, and paper recycling, the quiz actively engages those who participate in filing it out, stimulates comparison of answers and interaction among participants after the quiz is completed, and provides an entrée to informal discussion and further questions as correct answers are shared.

Over 10,000 college and high school students, boy scouts, general audiences of adults, forest industry employees, and even community and legislative leaders have taken the quiz over the past 18 years. Now available on-line as an interactive tool, the quiz is easier than ever
to use. Those who take the online version receive immediate feedback upon completion. The environmental quiz and an associated answer sheet are also available in the form of pdf files for download and printing.

So what are you waiting for? Take the quiz today and see what you know!

I got a B when I took the quiz - How did you do?

http://www.proprofs.com/quiz-school/story.php?title=environmental-quiz_3

Nature Education on Sesame Street

This year marks the 40th season of Sesame Street and it sure is going to be a great year! The first episode of the season was titled My World is Green and Growing, and kicked off a two-year science initiative "to help support children's innate sense of awe, wonder, and curiosity about nature."

The 40th season focuses on "Nature Education, through the lens of scientific investigation, [where] new songs, story-lines, and animations are designed to stimulate a child's knowledge and appreciation for the natural environments around them....Each episode will feature nature curriculum in one or more components of the show."

The three main goals of Sesame Street’s environmental focus are to "increase positive attitudes towards nature, deepen children’s knowledge about the natural world, and encourage behavior that shows respect and care for the environment. Through these overarching goals, children learn to actively explore and discover the world around them as they become true scientific thinkers and investigators."

Nature Education on Sesame Street? Sounds good to me! And this is also very exciting timing wise, as both Project Learning Tree and Project WILD have just released their Early Childhood Development curriculum guides. USEE is eagerly awaiting our new PLT guides to arrive any day now and will be starting workshops soon!

As part of the Nature Education Curriculum that Sesame Street is incorporating, Jason Mraz appeared as a guest on the show, rewriting the lyrics to his popular song "I'm Yours" to create a new song called "Outdoors." It's kind of catchy, if you ask me. Enjoy!

(sorry about the goofy formatting - this is the smallest size I could find to embed.)

Where do Honey Bees go in Winter?

As I was walking from my house to my car on my way to work this morning, I noticed a honey bee lying on my sidewalk. Two days previous, I had seen a dead honey bee on the window sill right above this spot on the sidewalk, so I checked to see if maybe this bee had fallen from its perch. It had not. The bee on the window sill and the bee on the sidewalk were both honey bees, and both had met their demise near my front door.

This got me to thinking. Where do honey bees go in the winter time? Why had these bees unfortunately strayed too far from warmth and safety and perished in front of my home?

It may come as no surprise that honey bees spend the cold winter months in their hives. But what they don't do is hibernate. Instead the bees form what is called a "winter cluster." The worker bees huddle and swarm around the queen bee, who is at the center of the cluster, and shiver in order to keep the center warm. The worker bees move in and out of this cluster so that no bee gets too cold in the outer layers of the cluster. I suppose this is similar to a March of the Penguins style when the males watching the eggs during the coldest months of antarctic winter form a rotating huddle and move in and out of the huddle to keep each other warm.

Studies of over-wintering honey bees have shown that the hive consumes about 30 pounds of stored honey during the winter months. The honey that bees work so vigorously to store during the spring, summer, and fall makes the hive's survival possible. Heat energy is produced by the oxidation of the stored honey and this heat is circulated throughout the winter cluster by the wing-fanning of worker bees. The center of the cluster hovers around 80 degrees Fahrenheit, and the outer edge stays around 46-48 degrees Fahrenheit. The colder it gets outside, the tight the cluster becomes to keep everyone warm.

So why were there two dead honey bees near my front porch this morning? Honey bees stop flying from the hive when the temperature reaches around 50 degrees Fahrenheit. At this time the temperature gets too cold for the bees to be able venture far from the hive without risking death of exposure. There is also not much reason for the bees to leave the hive because there are no flowers in bloom from which to collect nectar. But the bees still need to be able to eliminate their bodily waste, as bees are very tidy creatures. On warmer days, the bees will venture out of the hive to do this. These flights are very short and the bees generally do not venture far because they can't make it back to the hive if they get too cold.

This must be what happened to my resident honey bees. It did get rather warm on Sunday afternoon and yesterday afternoon and the bees were probably taking advantage of the few hours of radiant sunlight. There must be a hive somewhere near my house, but a bit too far for the bees to make it back safely. Hopefully these two will be the last that make it this far before heading back home to the life-sustaining warmth of their hive.

References:

Bug Info - Where Do Insects Go in the Winter? - text

Dave's Garden - text and hive diagram

Honey Bee Photo

2010 Green Bag Series Feedback

Help USEE improve and strengthen the Green Bag Professional Development Series by taking this quick survey! We are looking for feedback and ideas for our 2010 Green Bag Professional Development Series. Please take a moment to respond to this extremely quick survey (less than 5 minutes). Click the link below to provide your input for the 2010 line-up!

2010 Green Bag Professional Development Series Survey

What is the USEE Green Bag Professional Development Series?

The USEE Green Bag Series is part of the Utah Environmental Education Certification Program. The Utah EE Certification Program is part of a national initiative to establish guidelines and standards for the professional practice of environmental educators and to further professionalize the field of EE. For this national initiative, USEE has developed a state level, competency-based certification program for environmental educators. This program, now in its eighth year, has served to pull the environmental education community in Utah together and to whet their appetite for professional development opportunities.

USEE’s Green Bag Professional Development series serves these non-formal environmental educators by offering presentations and discussions that provide guidance for certification applicants and other interested individuals. Anyone is welcome to attend the Green Bag Professional Development series. For more information, call Nicole at 801-328-1549 or email nicole@usee.org.

Thank you for your support!

Happy Holidays!

The USEE staff would like to wish you a lovely holiday season! We hope the season brings you much joy and is full of family and friends. May the New Year fill your heart with love, your heart with hope, and the world with peace.

We thank you for all of your support this year. The USEE staff will be out of the office for the rest of the holiday season. Make sure to check back the first week of January for more great blog posts and EE information. Happy Holidays!

New Chicken Ordinance

For those of you out there with Urban Chickens, or thinking about getting some, you'll be happy to know that Salt Lake City Council passed the new chicken ordinance.

This ordinance has changes about where the chickens can be, how far the coop is from your house and neighboring buildings, and how many chickens you can keep on your lot. There are many positive changes for urban chicken owners, so check out the New Chicken Ordinance to find out how this might affect you, your neighbors, and the chickens in your neighborhood.

Photo Credit

Christmas Tree Debate

Yesterday, Linda Kervin from the Bridgerland Audubon Society on Wild About Utah "re-purposes" her Christmas tree for the birds in her yard. This got me to thinking about one of the posts that Andree' put up last year about the infamous Christmas Tree Debate.

Real or fake? What are the benefits of each? The cons? What is the environmental impact? I think it would probably be safe to argue that the best bet is to simply do with out the tree, rather than worry about the transportation of the live trees down from Canada, or the chemicals used in the fake trees, and the degradation of both in the landfills. But traditions die hard.

In my own family, we have a fake tree. We have had this tree for probably 15 years or so, or at least as long as when we moved into the house my parents own. The Christmas tree debate doesn't really happen in our house any more because we got the tree before it was "cool to be green" and now that we have it, there's no reason to not use it. I also have a small fake tree that I found in my parent's garage. I have no idea where it came from, but I've used it every year since I moved out.

My Family's Tree
Photo Credit: Cath Edvalson

The debate continues in sustainability circles, but if your traditions die hard on this matter, I encourage you to read Andree's post from last year, and to think about providing a safe haven for your local bird populations as Linda does if you do get a real tree.