Spend your summer at Red Butte Garden!

By Ayrel Clark-Proffitt, Office of Sustainability

Summer is here! Take some time to get outdoors and enjoy the events at the University of Utah’s Red Butte Garden! The garden’s mission is to cultivate the human connection with the beauty of living landscapes and create a community that understands, values, protects and is enriched by the world of plants. Red Butte Garden is located on the west side of campus near Red Butte Creek and the Bonneville Shoreline Trail. Special event pricing indicated, otherwise events are free with admission or membership. Go to http://www.redbuttegarden.org for hours and admission costs or call 801-585-0556.

 

MONDAY FAMILY NIGHTS

Bring your family and a picnic dinner to Red Butte Garden and enjoy cool summer evenings filled with diverse cultural entertainment, crafts, and activities. There are two performances per night at 6pm and again at 7pm in the Red Butte Garden Amphitheatre.
Regular Garden admission. Special price $38 for a family of six (2 adults & 4 kids). Garden Members free.

• June 10 – Native American Flute Circle
• June 17 – Best of Africa Cultural Group
• July 1 – Divya School of Dance (Bollywood)
• July 8 – Red Desert Ramblers
• July 22 – Salt Lake Scots

ART EXHIBITS

• May 24 – June 16: YEVGENIY ZOLOTSEV OIL & WATERCOLOR. In the tradition of all masters, Zolotsev’s work brings to life his dramatic visions of nature.
• June 21 – July 14: JEANNE HANSEN. Jeanne is primarily a Modernist painter depending on the subject matter and what she wishes to create. Artist reception June 22 from 3-6pm.

GARDEN TOURS

1) Early Morning Bird Watching: Bring your binoculars and join us for a guided morning walk when the Garden is cool and full of birds.

• Saturdays: June 1-29 from 9-11:30am
• Tuesday, June 4; Thursday, June 13; & Tuesday, June 18 from 9-11:30am

2) Evening Exploration: Garden Tour: Join us for an exploration of what’s blooming throughout the Garden with one of our fabulous Garden Guides and take an intimate look at the Garden and see how it changes throughout the season.

• Thursday, June 6 from 7-8:30pm

3) Evening Exploration: Natural Hike Area: Join us for an exploration of what’s blooming in our “back forty” with a trained volunteer to take a closer look at our Natural Area and see how it changes throughout the season. Wear comfortable clothes and walking shoes.

• Tuesday, June 11 from 6:30-8:30pm

4) Getting to Know Lichens: Did you know that hummingbirds gather lichens to build their nests or that some are used as fabric dye? There’s probably a lot you don’t know about those unassuming lichens, so join us for a informative walk through the Garden as we take a closer look at many “likeable lichens” common to our area.

• Saturday, June 22 from 10am-Noon

FREE LECTURE SERIES
Monday, June 24 from 6:30-7:30pm

2013 HORTICULTURE SPOTLIGHT LECTURE SERIES: “Creating a Native Pollinator Garden”
Bees, wasps, butterflies, moths, flies, hummingbirds, some bats and beetles pollinate more than 70 percent of flowering plants. Unfortunately, North America’s native pollinators face multiple threats to their health and habitat. This presentation is a guide for restoring native pollinator communities that are beautiful and naturally diverse.

Admission is FREE but please register at: http://extension.usu.edu/saltlake. This is the third in a series of six free lectures sponsored by the Utah State University Cooperative Extension.

CLASSES & WORKSHOPS

PLEIN-AIR LANDSCAPE WATERCOLOR WORKSHOP
Thursdays: May 23, 30, June 6, 13, 20, 27 from 5:30-8:30pm
Create small-scale landscape paintings in this 6-week workshop. Instruction in composition, positive and negative space, value studies, and color theory will round out the offering. Painting topics will include landscapes, still life, and water reflections. Co-sponsored by the University of Utah Continuing Education Lifelong Learning program. Register at 801-587-5433 or online at http://www.continue.utah.edu

WILDFLOWER PHOTOGRAPHY WORKSHOP
Saturday, June 1 & 8 from 9am-Noon
Join us as we cover the compositional elements of photographing wildflowers in both portrait and landscape mode along with discussion of macrophotography. Co-sponsored by the University of Utah Continuing Education Lifelong Learning program.Register at 801-587-5433 or online at http://www.continue.utah.edu

GARDEN MAINTENANCE
Tuesdays, June 11, 18 & 25 from 7-9pm
With a little maintenance know-how, you can extend the bloom of some favorite perennials, get a second bloom from others, control invasive plantings, prop or strengthen weak stems, and overall neaten your summer and fall garden Co-sponsored by the University of Utah Continuing Education Lifelong Learning program. Register at 801-587-5433 or online at http://www.continue.utah.edu

YOGA IN THE GARDEN
Tuesdays & Thursdays, June 11-July 18 from 7:30-8:30am
Increase your flexibility; feel rejuvenated and ready for your day! Join instructor Kristin Vance of Fluid Heart Yoga in the Red Butte Garden Greenhouse for this 6-week Vinyasa Yoga course. Beginners to experts Welcome. Registration required at 801-581-8454 or http://www.redbuttegarden.org/yoga_garden

VERTICAL GARDENING
Thursday, June 13 from 6-9pm
Take your garden to the next level by discovering its vertical spaces. This class will highlight a range of vertical gardening ideas from living walls, to upright vegetable gardens. Each participant will plant a small Woolly Pocket™ to take home and begin a vertical gardening adventure. Co-sponsored by the University of Utah Continuing Education Lifelong Learning program. Register at 801-587-5433 or online at http://www.continue.utah.edu

COOKING IN THE GARDEN
Thursday, June 13 from 6:30-8:30pm
Join instructor Purnima Gandhi in the Herb Garden as she prepares delicious Indian cuisine while providing step-by-step instructions for each dish. Participants will also receive a personal recipe packet to take home. Registration required at 801-581-8454 or http://www.redbuttegarden.org

GARDEN TREASURES: SALT LAKE TOUR
Saturday, June 15 from 9am-3pm
We’ll leisurely wonder through five or more gardens in the Salt Lake area discussing garden design, plant selection, water features, outdoor living spaces, container plants, and more. Special fee includes a box lunch and van transportation. Co-sponsored with Lifelong Learning. Register at 801-587-5433 or online at http://www.continue.utah.edu

FOR THE KIDS

1) SUMMER CAMP: It’s not too late to sign up! Registration is required. Call 801-581-8454 or http://www.redbuttegarden.org. Half-day and full-day camps available. Prices vary per class

2) GARDEN ADVENTURES: Garden Adventures are Saturday kid’s classes held in Em’s Sprout House. Ages 4-12 are welcome with a caregiver (registration cost not required for caregiver). Class is from 10-11:30AM. Register at 801-581-8454 or http://www.redbuttegarden.org. $5 Garden Members, and $7 for the general public.

3)  ECO-ART (June 15): Guests will create their own moss “paint” and use it to illustrate an image of their own design. Take your work home and watch it grow into a living work of art!

4) A ROSE IS A ROSE IS A ROSE (June 29): Expand your knowledge of roses as we meet with expert horticulturist Crystal Reece and go on a sensory exploration of roses in the Garden.

5) FRIDAY NIGHT CAMPOUT: Bring your tent, camping gear and a picnic dinner for an unbelievable night in the Garden! Friday night campouts include games, s’mores, a guided tour of the Garden and a late night movie. We’ll also provide a scrumptious catered breakfast Saturday morning for all participants. Gates open at 5:30pm; activities begin at 7pm. All ages welcome. Registration begins May 20 and space is limited to 120 participants. Registration not required for children under the age of 3. Cost is $30 for Garden Members and $35 for General Public.

• June 21, 5:30pm – June 22, 8:30am
• August 9, 5:30pm – August 10, 8:30am

OUTDOOR CONCERTS

For current Outdoor Concert Series information please visit: http://redbuttegarden.org/concerts

Green Teams

by Annie Gilliland

I recently attended a talk by Carol Werner, a professor of Psychology at the University of Utah, on the motivations behind creating green initiatives in the work place and how to improve what already exists. “There is no silver bullet for behavioral change,” she started out.

Werner continuously stressed that the physical environment and social network of a place must support and encourage a desired behavior. Convenience is important, and we need to focus on making it “easier to be green than brown.” Consider public transportation: a physical and social environment that promote ease and popularity will most likely increase ridership.  Werner expanded on an interesting concept surrounding transportation, though: a free transit pass is not always helpful. If you’re used to living somewhere where it’s free and then you move somewhere where it’s not, you are less likely to continue to use public transportation. People need to learn to think about the behavior and why they like doing it, beyond the most obvious reasons like cost.

We learned about the power of social norms. People are heavily influenced by what’s popular with others around them. Werner says that if you work with people who are interested and willing to change, the naysayers will eventually feel social pressure and most likely change, as well. This can even help break unwanted but longstanding habits. Institutionalizing is important to making sure changes last: again, the more people doing something, the easier it may be to influence those who have not yet changed.

People also like to feel validated. They like to know what they’re doing is important and they like to have their stress or frustration recognized. Werner said that for an example, she and her students had tried posting several versions of a sign that said, “Please recycle. It’s important.” While the signs were up, more people recycled. But as soon as they were removed the behavior stopped, and people reverted back to throwing most things in the trash. When they tried a sign that said, “We know recycling can be inconvenient, but it’s important!” the behavioral changes lasted for much longer after the sign was removed.

Werner left us with three main points: consider your physical environment and pay attention to things like placement and size, do not give up, and always emphasize the positive.

Readers, what are some ways you have tried to influence environmentally responsible behavior in people around you?

Annie Gilliland is an MS student in Environmental Humanities at the University of Utah, and works for the Office of Sustainability.

Beekeeping at the U

(first published in the Office of Sustainability’s newsletter, reposted with permission)

by Annie Gilliland

Several thousand honey bees live on the fourth floor patio of the Ray Olpin Student Union.

The bees were installed last year by Thomas Bench, an undergraduate student in Environmental and Sustainability Studies, as part of a Sustainable Campus Initiative Fund (SCIF) project. The bees are kept in boxes – hives – on a balcony separated from the hall by glass doors near the Crimson Room. The hive and the project continue to grow.

Bench began the project partially for personal reasons. He has long had an interest in beekeeping, having helped with a hive at his grandmother-in-law’s house. He wanted to share his interest with other students and provide them with opportunities to learn the skills involved in beekeeping and teach them the importance of bees in an ecosystem.

These bees help pollinate the Edible Campus Gardens, produce local honey that will be sold in next season’s Farmers Market, and provide research and educational experiences. Bench’s vision now has the support of other students who want to take advantage of the bee hives on campus. Anyone may volunteer to help with the maintenance of the hives. There is also a new group on campus, the University of Utah Beekeeper’s Association, dedicated to sustaining this project.

Kirstie Kandaris was one of the first volunteers and has stayed passionately involved. She likes that anyone can be involved, learn new skills, and “feel like they’re contributing something, however small, to the environment and awareness of bees and what they do for us.”

Faculty and instructors are also beginning to incorporate the hives into their classes. An entomology class and an environmental education class both are planning to use the beehives for educational purposes. Bench hopes that in the future the U might have a class or a researcher specializing strictly in honey bees in order to conduct more in-depth classes and research.

Stephen Stanko, an undergraduate in Anthropology, has helped to bring more research potential to the bee boxes. Stanko is setting up a hive study, which will begin next season when the hive is more established. He will use a scale with a weather station and an attached brooder thermometer to measure the weight of the hive, study current weather conditions, and take note of changes associated with any alterations made by volunteers. The goal is to watch how honey bees and local nectar flows respond to weather changes. This research will be part of a nationwide, longitudinal study lead by NASA. Eventually, the results will help researchers understand how climate change affects nectar flows and bees.

Bench says that although some people initially felt nervous about having a large number of bees on campus, “They saw other people’s responses and saw the value in it. They were excited and everyone’s been so supportive.”

Bench, Kandaris, and Stanko are counting on that support as they move forward. The reasons for their interest vary, but they all want to share something they care about with the rest of the student body. “Bees are inspiring,” says Kandaris. “They work so hard together. If we can give them a little push, that can go a long way.”

Stanko hopes to spread awareness of the challenges bees currently face. “Bees are heavily threatened,” he says. “Industrial agriculture and economics work against the health of the whole system. Without bees the whole environment would suffer.”

Bench hopes the bees help people to become more self-aware. “Hopefully people will think about pesticides, what they buy, and what farms they support. We need backyard beekeepers for genetic diversity.”

More volunteers are always welcome. If you are interested in learning more about beekeeping or  helping out with the hive, contact Bench, Stanko, or Kandaris.

Additionally, the University of Utah Beekeeper’s Association hosted a screening of The Vanishing of the Bees, about colony collapse disorder, on Wednesday, April 10. Afterward, Chris Rodesch, the Salt Lake City bee health inspector, and a representative from a local honey company spoke to the audience about laws, challenges, and interest surrounding beekeeping.

University Student Clean Air Network

USCAN

University Student Clean Air Network

by Carl Ingwell

Inversion over Salt Lake City Valley, Photo Credit: Tom Smart, Deseret Morning News (from http://www.airquality.utah.gov/clean_air/archive/inversion.htm)

USCAN is a University of Utah student group that gets students involved in university and government policies that both directly and indirectly affect Utah’s air quality. Activities will possibly include attending/organizing protests and rallies, lobbying, hosting educational events with the goal of raising awareness, legislator letter campaigns, and other related activities.

This winter I’ve been working very hard on various air quality issues along the Wasatch Front.  In working with other air quality groups, we decided that students weren’t well represented in the air quality dialogue.  I decided that there needed to be a student group to get students active in air quality issues in Salt Lake.

I had already began the process of forming a student group when I met the group’s co-chair Emma Zink.  After talking about air quality in class, Emma approached me and said that we should begin a letter campaign that targeted our local government for their inaction on air quality.  I thought this was a great idea, and probably something that a budding student group could work on.  A couple days later, after figuring out that Emma was serious about the issue, I invited her to help found the group USCAN.

We are a brand new group, but we have many exciting opportunities in the near future.  We are working on the above mentioned letter campaign to let our legislators know that we are getting frustrated with their inaction on the issue.  We’re also working on increasing UTA ridership and taking other forms of alternative transportation to the University.  Our last short-term goal is to start working on the “Change Our Air” fundraiser to raise funds to meet our minimal needs.

Students can get involved by either taking on leadership roles within the network to serve as organizers or by contributing through regular participation in said events. We are currently looking for people to fill the Public Relations and Group Coordinator positions.  The Public Relations position would be in charge of manning our online operations and digital media, and reaching out to students, local media, and the surrounding community.  The Group Coordinator position would be in charge of coordinating and planning, membership drives, letter campaigns, political actions, and other events to get group members and students involved.  To get involved contact Carl Ingwell at carlingwell@gmail.com or Emma Zink at ezink29@gmail.com.

Currently USCAN is working on the letter campaign to make air quality a current and urgent priority in Utah legislature, increasing TRAX/bus ridership to the U, completing the “Change the Air” campaign, working on blocking the West Davis Corridor (a major north-south freeway that would further compound air quality problems along the Wasatch Front), and understanding the true respective contributions to pollution from various entities. Any and all ot these current projects have many opportunities available for other people to become involved now.

Climbing in Southwest Utah and the Value of Wilderness Protection

Reblogged from Synergic Living:

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My friends and I camp at the trailhead to Welcome Springs, on the edge of the Beaver Dam Mountains. I melt into my fold-up chair, thankful for the coolness of a beer, straight from a pool of creek water, on my dirty and slightly bloody hands.

The sun sets the rolling horizon into a frenzy of 80’s spandex pinks and oranges.

Read more… 2,156 more words

Another post from fellow Environmental Humanities student, Kelsey Sather. Kelsey recently went climbing in St. George, took some beautiful photograph, and interviewed another student in our program, Jesse Peterson. Jesse recently spent some time in Washington DC lobbying for Utah wilderness and learning how nonprofit groups work to convince legislators to protect wilderness. Check out both of their thoughts on the value of wild places.

Beyond Ski Link

by Annie Gilliland

I have to be honest – as a recent transplant to Utah, I do not have a complete understanding of the complex issues surrounding Ski Link. I know that it is a proposal to connect Canyons Resort and Solitude Mountain Resort by gondola, in an attempt to limit car traffic in the Canyons area. I know that most environmentally-minded people I know are against its construction. Yesterday, I attended a student-led panel discussion on the potential impacts and benefits of Ski Link hoping to learn more.

The discussion was hosted by students and the Wallace Stegner Center at the SJ Quinney College of Law. The panel consisted of Laura Briefer, Water Resources Manager of the Salt Lake City Corporation, Jason Davis, Regional Director of Transportation for the Wasatch Front in UDOT, and Carl Fischer, Executive Director of Save Our Canyons.

The panel began by discussing transportation difficulties in the canyons. Davis explained how difficult it is to safely manage the amount of car traffic frequently on the narrow canyon roads, especially on a fresh powder day. And fewer cars would mean less greenhouse gas emissions.

Fischer weighed in to say that Save Our Canyons understands the transportation difficulties, but that people are driving into the canyons year-round. He feels that transportation systems need to function for the entire year, protect public values, serve multiple-use groups, reduce greenhouse gases, protect the land, connect population centers, and be reliable. Moving people into and throughout the canyons is therefore a complicated community issue.

Laura Briefer looks at the proposal in terms of watershed impact. She explained that the canyons provide the majority of water used in the city. She knows that with further development and climate change, the availability of the resource will become scarcer. Heavier use could degrade the water quality. Briefer strongly emphasized the need for a comprehensive decision-making process that would listen to all issues and viewpoints, letting the many diverse stakeholders have a say.

The uncertainty of a future affected by climate change makes the issue even more difficult. Whatever is done, I know that we must keep the future of land, wildlife, and people at the forefront of our thoughts. A temperature increase will lead to less water coming from the canyons. Is adding development to a shrinking resource a suitable idea at this time? How many more people would come into the canyons if Ski Link were constructed? How much more management would this extra usage require? And what would the impacts be?

Jason Davis was understandably concerned that those against the construction of Ski Link do not want to improve anything and have no interest in solving transportation problems.

Briefer answered that demand will always be increasing, anyway. Again, she stressed a broad conversation to find solutions that work for both congestion and the future of the watershed. Fischer stated his disappointment in what has happened so far very directly. He called the legislation an insult to most of us, a statement which earned cheers from the audience. He feels that there has not been a good, inclusive process of decision-making.

He pointed to the fact that wilderness bills with wide community support frequently end up going nowhere, while proposals like this, with less support, get much more traction. As someone who is admittedly not an expert on the issue, this is something in which I strongly agree with Fischer. It is disappointing and jading to watch as the concerns of many people are often pushed aside by louder, wealthier voices.

Towards the end of the discussion, Fischer asserted that Save Our Canyons will do everything they can to make sure Ski Link is not approved. Briefer asked once more for balanced conversations, explaining that stakeholder meetings have already begun. And Davis said he believes that bringing together so many different experts means that in the end, someone will come up with something better. Nothing has been decided, yet.

I tend to care more about protecting natural resources and ecosystems than expanding recreational uses anywhere. Utahns, what do you think?

Included in the hyperlinks above is relevant information on both sides of the issue: the official Ski Link site: http://skilink.com/, and Save Our Canyons’ site: http://saveourcanyons.org/

Annie Gilliland is a graduate student in Environmental Humanities at the University of Utah. She is working on a fellowship with the Office of Sustainability.