Spring has Sprung

The following is a write-up from resident bird-watcher and aviary expert, John van der Linden:

The birds are FLOCKING -- and I don't mean our campus chickens! The first migrant wild birds of spring are starting to arrive on campus. Several people have been noticing the feisty robins flying around and making noise!
Last week American woodcocks were doing their aerial displays at dusk just southwest of Old Main, near the new hoophouse. Also the red-winged blackbirds can now be heard, singing in a large group nearby.

And, to top it all off -- a phoebe was calling this morning from the dead tree south of the gardens! (If you stand in the gardens and listen you might hear it -- "free-bee, free-bee, free-biscuits" -- this is lower and more nasally than the high whistled "fee-bee" we've been hearing from the chickadees recently.)

Phoebes like to nest under eaves (maybe they'll choose one of our campus sheds!) AND they are very beneficial -- they're a type of "flycatcher" that eats LOTS of bugs on the wing.

I think it's nice to know when the spring migrants are coming in, so we can have hope that warm temps and thawed ground are almost here!

Who is Your Farmer?

On Monday, March 28, Happy Dancing Turtle hosted a kickoff meeting for the Food and Water Security Advisor Corps. Local farmers, permaculture experts and local educators were in attendance. The goal of the advisor corps is to be a sounding board for Happy Dancing Turtle in their endeavors to promote education and best practices surrounding sustainability.

Talks swirled from previous HDT events and their outcomes to possible future ventures that HDT should focus their attention on. The majority of the discussions gravitated around the possibility of an online organic gardening symposium. HDT's goal is not to enrich only those in the local area and hosting an online event would bring the ideas of sustainability and permaculture to many more people.
The final goal of fostering these ideas across a much larger geographical area was decided on being an attainable goal.

The main outcome of the meeting was the decision to embrace technology to foster these goals. An idea engaged in was to create an iPhone app to instruct what food was growing when and where. Another idea was to find a way to use Facebook to encourage outside learning. One of the most popular interactive games on Facebook, Farmville, has over 50 million active users. If HDT could promote sustainable practices through this same method, many more people, it was figured, would be open to the ideas of organic gardening or starting their own square foot garden.

But, regardless of how these sustainable ideas get out there, the main goal decided upon during this kickoff meeting was that education and action are the primary goals.

Best Practices Chosen for Pine River

The GreenStep Task Force met on Thursday to discuss and evaluate progress from last brainstorming meeting.

With six of the best practices mandated from the MN Pollution Control Agency, Pine River had the ability to hand pick six more best practices that they feel would benefit the city best.

The task force chose the following:

1) Establish a farmer's market and a community garden (Already Completed)

2) Install private and public-sector renewable energy systems

3) Make traffic signals and street lights more energy efficient

4) Improve the surface water quality

5) Create efficient highway-oriented development

6) Promote alternatives to single-occupancy car travel

There was also discussions of finding the energy use of public buildings (ie heat, water use). This would give the city a place to start looking at not only environmentally changing their practices, but to perhaps also save money.

Encouraging the city to change their 90 plus street lights from a mercury vapor lightbulb to a more energy efficient bulb (ie sodium vapor or metal halide) was discussed. The current practice is to change out the bulb if it needs replacing. It was suggested a report should be formed to show the cost and eventual cost savings of replacing the bulbs en masse.
The next meeting will be on April 21, 2011 at 8am at the HUG campus.

Back to Basics Pictures

It's been a while, but here are some long-awaited pics from Back to Basics!





So much information from such knowledgeable speakers!


Another tasty lunch from Brenda and her fabulous staff!


Healthy snacks class.


A sampling of some of the amazing wares for sale.


Fun was had by all ages!



Thanks again to all who participated in this year's Back to Basics!
We hope to see you all next year!

Scaling up Local Foods

The Sustainable Community Meeting hosted by the Clean Energy Resource Teams (CERT) in Detroit Lakes proved to be very informative. There were many discussions ranging from long term road development to possible ways to make cities more "green." However, the discussion gravitated mainly on the local foods movement.

With the state percentage of directly purchased local food at under .05%, it was made clear that there is much room for expansion. Some proposed increasing the food to school projects, which would allow local school districts the freedom to purchase from local farms. Others offered that crop share programs were the best way to increase local foods awareness. With near 60 CSA's in MN, they are well on there way to bringing local foods to the people.

With all of these wonderful ideas to increase local foods awareness, the most difficult idea to gain momentum also seems to be the most simple to implement. It was discussed that if each family was able to grow a simple garden on their property, the benefits of eating local foods would be seen at personal level, which, in turn, would bring a broader understanding of the importance of eating locally.

Greensteps Task Force Meets

On Thursday Quinn and John hosted a meeting for the Pine River Greensteps Task Force.

With representatives from the Initiative Foundation, the public works of Pine River and Mayor Jim Sabas in attendance, the meeting's goal was to decide how the city should proceed with its goal of Greensteps Designation.

Greensteps designation will demonstrate that the city of Pine River wants to improve quality of life and promote sustainable growth for the future.

The MN Pollution Control Agency specifies six "Best Practices" that all candidate cities are required to complete while Pine River must choose six more out of a list of 28. The meeting was intended to choose what the final 6 should be.

Pine River has already got a start on these six:

1) Community Involvement

Report Greensteps progress to the community

2) Improve Public Buildings

Introduce energy and sustainability improvements to public buildings.

3) Comprehensive Plan

Tie regulatory and zoning ordinances into the sustainability plan

4) Purchasing

City must adopt a plan to choose sustainable products and services

5) Urban Forests

Increase tree cover in the city

6) Green Business Development

Launch a "buy local" campaign and support sustainable business practices

For a full list of "Best Practices," go to http://greenstep.pca.state.mn.us/bestpractices.cfm

It's a Wrap

Thanks to all who made Back to Basics 2011 a huge success! We were delighted with the turnout and all that was contributed by vendors, exhibitors, persevered, and participants. A special thanks to all of the wonderful volunteers who helped make the day a success. Stay tuned pictures will be posted soon.