Birdhouse Competition at Ogden Nature Center

The Ogden Nature Center is proud to announce its 17th Annual Birdhouse Exhibit, opening on Saturday, April 17 and showing through August 31, 2010. The public is invited to stroll down Birdhouse Lane to view this year’s 24 entries along with the Nature Center’s permanent collection of over 100 birdhouses. The birdhouse competition was designed to demonstrate ways to attract wildlife to backyards by creating unique, aesthetically pleasing habitats. Entries range from whimsical to practical.

Exhibition Display runs from April 17 through August 31, 2010. The Ogden Nature Center is open Monday through Friday 9-5 and Saturday 9-4 Admission is free for Nature Center members $2.00 for children 2-11, $4.00 for adults, and $3.00 for seniors.

Bird on the Run

Bird Yurt

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.)

Caring for Your Poinsettia

This article originally appeared in Utah State University Extension's email newsletter, but I thought there were some of you out there that might like to read about this too!

Caring for Your Poinsettia
-by Maggie Shao, Extension Horticulture Agent

To care for your poinsettia, remember that these plants are grown in high relative humidity and high light intensity. The plants do well when you can try to match these conditions. Tips for poinsettia care:

• Place the plant in a location where it will have the most available sunlight.
• Keep the room temperature between 65-70 degrees during the day.
  
• Remove foil wrap around pot when watering to prevent roots from sitting in water. Keep plants well watered, but not continually wet.
• Grouping plants together on a pebble tray will help raise humidity around the plants themselves.
• Avoid placing plants near doors or heating vents, as extremes of hot and cold will cause leaf drop.

If you would like to learn more about the Utah Botanical Center and the Ogden Botanical Center's resources (such as gardening and plant care tips) and programs, click here to subscribe to their newsletter.

Photo Credit

Happy Halloween!

As many of you know, we operate on a pretty small staff here at USEE. Now we're even smaller with Andree' away on maternity leave, but we're going to keep having fun!

Jason and I decided that we would have an office costume party, even if Jason and I were the only participants.

Jason is an 80's Hockey Player, sporting a nice shiner from the fight he got in during last night's game, nasty mustache, turtleneck, and complete with his vintage Toronto Maple Leafs hat and jersey. The only thing that could make this one any better is a mullet!

I went a little old school as well and to bring back the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. Michelangelo is one of my favorites (I loved the ninja turtles growing up) and I think this one pretty much speaks for itself. Too bad I forgot my nunchucks for these pictures!


Looks like we are very excited about Halloween! What about you? Did anyone else have office parties? Are you dressing up?

Take a Break - Weekend Plans?

I don't know about you, but this week has been a very busy one. We are in the full throes of our Annual Conference preparation, recovering from being gone all last week in Portland, and of course all of the other "life-as-usual" things here at USEE. Needless to say, I am very happy that it is Friday!

I thought it might be nice to write about something other than the usual this afternoon. Something easy, that doesn't require a lot of research, but still might be at least somewhat interesting to read. So how about weekend plans?


This weekend I have a mix of fun, productivity, and relaxation on my list. Tonight I am going to dinner with my family at my uncle's to see his new house. After that, my sister is coming home with me and she will be staying with me for the weekend as she takes a break from her regular life. She owns a photography business, so we are going to visit Andree' to take pictures of Little Olive and the family. Saturday night my sister and I are getting together with an old friend - maybe we will all watch the University of Utah football game together, or maybe we will just laugh the night away after going to dinner. Those plans haven't been completely solidified yet.

Other than that, the rest of my weekend is free to do as I please, other than the regular things like cleaning out my garden area, cleaning the house, and early-morning runs. I hope to get in a good bike ride, or maybe even a hike somewhere below the snowline on Sunday. I feel some studying at the local coffee shop is also on the horizon.

I am definitely feeling the seasons change. Many of my friends have gotten really sick with the flu in the recent weather changes, I feel like I've missed fall completely since the snow fell in the mountains before the leaves had a chance to change, my house is very chilly, and I've pulled out the pumpkin candle, long-sleeved shirts, blankets, and hot tea. Part of me embraces the change. I look forward to the holidays and all of the festivities they entail, getting warm with hot cider under a blanket after cross-country skiing, and wearing slippers again. The other part of me is already nostalgic for late summer vegetables, long evenings on the porch, and flip-flops.

The transition from summer to fall is always a happy one for me, as fall is most definitely my favorite season. But when summer heads straight into winter, I find myself wishing it wouldn't all happen so fast. But don't get me wrong, I am excited to go skiing! And I plan on visiting the Black Diamond Gear swap tomorrow to see if I can get a good deal on some decent skis to justify buying a pre-season ski pass from Solitude. We'll see how that goes. For now, I'm going to try and enjoy the weather as best I can and hopefully I'll be able to get one more rock-climbing day in before the snow really starts to fly.

Jason has informed me that he plans to do an 18 mile run tomorrow in preparation for the marathon he is running in a few months, followed by a short bare-foot relaxation run around the park on Sunday.

So what are you doing this weekend? Getting outside? Going for a run? Spending time with your family and friends? Enjoying life? I hope so!

Photos by Mallory Platt

Take a Break - Lake Blanche

Over Labor Day weekend I finally hiked to Lake Blanche. Lake Blanche is 3 miles up a side canyon up Big Cottonwood Canyon, just below the big S-curves. I regret to say that I have lived in Salt Lake City my entire life and this is the first time I have ventured here. I have been missing out! The trail is incredibly steep, which is part of the reason why I have shied away from it for so long, but it actually wasn't as bad as I was expecting.

The trail is absolutely beautiful and winds mostly through mixed pine and aspen trees. At the top there is steep red rock ridge that runs across the canyon. Lake Blanche is perched just over the ridge and Sundial peak (about another hour and a half to the top) looms above the lake. If you keep hiking west along the ridgeline, there are two smaller lakes beyond Lake Blanche. A small waterfall cascades from Lake Blanche into the first lake, and a slightly larger waterfall comes out of the last, and smallest, lake into the river that runs down the canyon.

As I was hiking up the trail, a few hundred yards from the top of the ridge, a friendly hiker informed me that there were some mountain goats on the cliffs past the smaller lakes. After resting up and eating my lunch, I set off to find them. After exploring for about an hour, I finally found them high on the cliffs above the lakes. Unfortunately, they were too small to see with my camera - so no pictures of them, but I enjoyed watching them bound up and down the cliffs with the greatest of ease - definitely a treat to see.

The trail switches back through many aspen groves.

First view of Lake Blanche

Lake Blanche with Sundial Peak high above.

The two smaller lakes west of Lake Blanche.

View down the canyon from the ridge line - the trail goes up this canyon.

Even though it took me way too long to get up there, I'm glad I finally did now rather than later. If you live in the Salt Lake Valley, or close by, I highly recommend this gorgeous excursion.

Take a Break - Snowbird Hike

Several weeks ago USEE received a few Tram tickets for tabling Snowbird's National Get Outdoors Day festival. We took a staff meeting field trip to ride the Tram and hike down from the peak. Here are some pictures from our fun outing:

View of Big Cottonwood Canyon from Snowbird Tram

View from the Snowbird Tram, going up.

From left to right: TJ, Jason, Andree', and Nicole
Picture taken from the top of the Tram at Snowbird

Looking West from the top of the Tram

From left to right: Jason, Andree', and Nicole
Hiking down from the Tram

From left to right: Jason, Andree', and Nicole
Still hiking down, Fun!

A special thank you goes out to T.J. for taking these pictures on this fun day!
Photo credits: All photos are courtesy of T.J. Adamson

Happy Independence Day!

Happy 4th of July from the USEE staff!

Photo Credit

Take a Break Friday!

Take a break, it's Friday! We don't normally post things like this on the blog, but this story is definitely fun and provides some interesting insight into what, exactly, is an educator?

What is an Educator?

According to a news report, a private school in Washington was recently faced with a unique problem. A number of 12-year-old girls were beginning to use lipstick and would put it on in the bathroom. That was fine, but after they put on their lip stick, they would press their lips to the mirror leaving dozens of little lip prints. Every night the maintenance man would remove them, and the next day the girls would put them back.

Finally the principal decided that something had to be done. She called all the 12 year old girls to the bathroom and met them there with the maintenance man. She explained that all these lip prints were causing a major problem for the custodian who had to clean the mirrors every night.

To demonstrate how difficult it had been to clean the mirrors, she asked the maintenance man to show the girls how much effort was required. He took out a long-handled squeegee, dipped it in the toilet, and cleaned the mirror with it. Since then, there have been no lip prints on the mirror. There are teachers ... and then there are educators.

Happy Memorial Day weekend and be safe during any travels you may be embarking upon!

Take a Break! -- Utah Scenery

This slide show was one of the first features on Green Fork. Photos from the slide show were submitted by USEE's institutional members as well as USEE staff. The slide show usually resides at the bottom of the blog, but in light of our new look we wanted to bring it to the top today as a highlight for all of our new readers. Enjoy!



If you have any pictures you would like to submit for the "Take a Break!" series, please send them to nicole@usee.org and we would be happy to put them in future slide shows.