Upon creation of the beach clean-up project, I took on the role of Publicity. To use the ubiquity of the internet and its power as an organizing tool, I created a Google Group (http://groups.google.com/group/communityserviceday-beachcleanup?hl=en) for the clean-up. I assumed this would be the best medium to use as it is free and accessible to everyone. Details on how to get involved, be prepared for, and get to the beach clean-up were included and hopefully clearly presented. I further used the internet by posting an invitation on the course webpage and group emails. Just as influential as the internet, word of mouth can generate interest amongst people; I used most group settings as occasions for promoting the beach clean-up. I think that enthusiastic communication is the most contagious and that publicity among peers should always involve it!
After learning that the Community Service Day, orchestrated by the Community Service Commission at UCLA, was hosting a Heal the Bay project, our team of students decided to join the CSC’s project on November 15. I feel very appreciative of the Community Service Commission and Heal the Bay. In setting up the Community Service Day, a significant vehicle of service is granted to many students. By providing the connections with organizations and the transportation to sites, the CSC has made a very easy avenue for busy students. Heal the Bay further facilitated a successful service project by providing the tools (bags, gloves, recording paper) and knowledge to go about the clean-up. My experience of myself and my peers is that we have the desire to provide assistance to our community, but lack the time to do so. When a day of work is organized, it seems a great number of students are able to dedicate their day to service because of the accessibility. Additionally, I imagine many students are further motivated, if not lured to begin with, by the extra incentives that the CSC provided.
Publicity doesn’t stop here. Friends of mine have also expressed interest after hearing about my experience at the beach and I can easily direct them to the group site, through which they can access Heal the Bay’s site and UCLA’s CSA site. As for myself, now that I know how effortlessly anyone can participate in a Clean-Up day with Heal the Bay, I definitely plan on doing it again in the future, and hopefully with others along with me.
- Rebecca Miller
I thoroughly enjoyed Wolfgang Buermann’s discussion about ecological biodiversity. I found the topic to be interesting as well as pertinent to the kind of study I would like to be doing in my post-graduate work. One of the most pressing issues of our time is our incredibly loss of biodiversity in many regions around the world, especially the tropics. The statistics that Professor Buermann brought up about the complete loss of all species in 500-1000 years and one species per hour (simply 2/3 of THIS class time!) if current rates are kept up is a humbling one. The thought that the earth is over 4.5 billion years old, and that vertebrates have been around for over ½ billion years makes this statistic even more boggling and further encourages myself and others to take immediate action. Because the main driving forces to the decrease in biodiversity (whether referring to species or genetic diversity) has been habitat change and loss, invasive species, hunting, and climate change I feel as though it is our responsibility to become proactive and improve environmental conditions. As Buermann discussed, the Endangered Species Act has been a positive step toward that improvement, it is by no means soundproof, and more needs to be done. Unfortunately, the Endangered Species Act of 1973 been pushed aside in many areas simply due to economic and financial reasons. Though I believe this act has done a lot of good (in that it not only protects the species specifically, but also their overall environment), it is also very insufficient in other areas. Buermann’s new approach to researching biodiversity problems through biogeography and the use of satellite images is a great step in the correct direction for the future. Without further work and research towards decreasing the rate of extinction the environmental conditions will worsen and worsen until there is nothing left worth saving. As more and more research, such as Buermann’s is done I think that we will slowly begin to make the right steps toward intelligent conservation.
Filed under: 11505682
On Wednesday November 19, I attended the ESLP Sustainability lecture series. The speaker of the day was a man named Jules Dervaes. He is an environmentalist who is ahead of the times (I should say behind the times) when it comes to sustainability and urban gardens. His philosophy is simple – “go back”. This is exactly what he has done on his fifth of an acre urban homestead in Pasadena California. On the property Jules Dervaes and his children lead a sustainably and healthy lifestyle that is inspiration. They grow six thousand pounds of fruits and vegetables a year in their 100% organic garden. The Dervaes have taken it a step farther than the average home growers; they also equipped their home with DIY solar panels and cook their meals in solar and earth ovens. The property includes a miniature farm, from which they get their eggs and goat’s milk. The family uses petal power to stone grind wheat into flower and hand powered appliances for things like blending, etc. Even the vehicles are powered by bio-diesel. The Dervaes are environmentalism’s dream. There is a youtube video about the Dervaes’, sustainability, and urban gardening called “Homergrown Revolution” and the link is http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mCPEBM5ol0Q. Everyone, especially city dwellers should see this video. Jules Dervaes also has a website called “Path to Freedom” that is packed full of useful information and cool pictures. The link for the website is: www.pathtofreedom.com. During the lecture, Jules also spoke about the dramatic loss of genetic diversity that has spread throughout agriculture worldwide. As you probably know, low genetic diversity in a population, whether it be lemurs in Madagascar or crops of corn in the Midwest, can have devastating affects in the event disease. Jules Dervaes believes that industrial agriculture is the sole source of the problem. It has eliminated the variations of crops that add genetic diversity to the world. Carrots are a common example. Did you know that carrots come in five different colors including white, yellow, red, and purple? – How many different kinds can you find at an average grocery store? Dervaes’ life philosophy of “go back” applies to this problem as well. Traditional farming methods preserve variations of a plant in seed form. This simple act ensures genetic diversity, which in turn protects the crop and the people that rely on it. Jules Dervaes is a very enlightened man who gave an incredible lecture on urban growing and sustainability. It is people like this that can have a major affect on the world in terms of going green.
Kelsey Jimerson
Filed under: Alternative Agriculture and Food | Tags: Alternative Agriculture, CSA, fair trade, local, locavore, organic, South Central Los Angeles Farmers
It is true. UCLA doesn’t have a farm, but farmers are coming to UCLA.
Weyburn Terrace welcomes the South Central Farmers Association! Get over to Weyburn Terrace, meet the residents and the South Central Los Angeles Farmers.
What’s a CSA? It’s community supported agriculture. It’s direct trade between you and the farmers. It’s a face to face producer-consumer relationship. You’ll meet and know who plans and plants, who cultivates and grows your food, and where and how your food is grown.
At the CSA, you can order baskets of produce on a weekly basis. First drop-off scheduled for Thanksgiving week. For further info, visit the Weyburn Terrace CSA Facebook site.
See something of the South Central Farmers’ history; view the documentary film The Garden.
Video Trailer
Associated Links
Sustainable Farmers blogsite.
Filed under: Watershed Restoration | Tags: ivy, Restoration, stone canyon creek, wandering jew
Stone Canyon Creek Restoration
On Saturday I participated in the Stone Canyon Creek Restoration activity. I had actually never been to this particular part of campus, only heard about it, and it was really interesting to see what it was all about. We got there early and our mission was to remove all of the invasive species in the area and eventually replant the area with all native California species. The two species that we were interested in eradicating were the Wandering Jew and Ivy. Both were nuisances in the area, so we began work with our pitchforks clearing the area and transporting all of the weeds to a dump truck. Myself along with a group of classmates cleared a massive section of Ivy and surprisingly it was much more difficult than expected because the root system for the Ivy was fairly deep, and not to mention had thick roots. After we cleared that area we had to make sure we got most/all of the roots removed so we “turned” the soil and then sifted it to get rid of all the deeper roots. I thought this was a very interesting project to be going on but definitely a very worthwhile one. We need to restore more areas like these with a natural flow of water back to a state that is representative of native California vegetation and landscape. Overall I had a great experience working on the restoration of Stone Canyon Creek and hope I can volunteer again sometime soon!
Filed under: Santa Monica Bay | Tags: bus, cigarette, community service, green, Heal the Bay, venice beach, Venice Beach Clean Up
Christine Nguyen, Nancy Tseng, and Cassandra Vasquez – the Green Team.
The beach clean up on Saturday had many pros and cons to how environmentally friendly it was. Since it was organized through CSC and Heal the Bay, we were already being green by taking a bus with them for transportation. This cut down on gas emissions since each of us did not take our own cars. On the other hand, since the event was so disorganized, we ended up emitting a lot of gas because the bus driver had no idea where to pick us up.
Heal the Bay also gave out the tools needed to clean the beach. One of these things included a recyclable plastic bag that listed all the many sponsers that support Heal the bay. This is a pretty good idea until we found out that the actual amount of trash to pick up on the beach was just a handful compared to the huge plastic bag. This produced more waste than was actually needed, especially since many volunteers had come to do community service. Each group of volunteers was handed a bag, and not only were there too many people picking up trash, but the most exciting thing to pick up was a small part of a cigarrette butt. Heal the Bay should obviously come up with a better way to pick up trash or move to a different site that has more trash to pick up. At the end, we saw that only one or two plastic bags were filled with more stuff than the rest, but those people may have just gone digging through a trashcan or they picked up a lot of kelp and sand. We suggest that Heal the Bay should use biodegradable bags, or they should have a dumpster on site to throw away the trash picked up and reuse the plastic bag for their next event. If that’s too unsanitary, then they should at least use smaller bags.
A few other green things we did included using latex gloves that seemed old (Heal the Bay obviously didn’t buy new gloves for their volunteers), using recycled paper to record the trash we picked up, and we recycled the plastic bottles given to us by CSC in the morning.
Overall, the event could have been more green. We also felt that we wasted most of the day waiting around and trying to figure out what was going on. In reality, our time could have been better spent picking up trash on the streets around Venice Beach.
Filed under: Watershed Restoration | Tags: bruincast, community service, podcast, stone canyon creek, vodpod
Restoration work in progress
This past weekend (November 15th) after taking part in the Stone Canyon Creek restoration process I have a new appreciation of the creek on campus. I think it’s interesting that so few students are even aware of the fact that there’s a creek located anywhere near us, let alone just behind Anderson. When asking my coworkers if they were aware of Stone Canyon creek they each replied “huh?” and after explaining about the creek only 2 of the 5 of them were aware of its existence. I think the steps that the Santa Monica Baykeepers are taking to restore the creek are great, but I also think there should be more of a push for awareness on campus. After informing friends and colleagues of Stone Canyon they became increasingly interested in visiting the creek and helping with the restoration process, and I think the simple act of raising awareness would greatly increase the effectiveness of the project. After spending a few hours pulling out weeds, grass, and vines along the creek’s bed I was also disappointed in the fact that we weren’t able to completely remove the vines due to the objection Anderson would have to it. I found it ironic that they were so adamant that we remove the vines and all of the roots, but we still had to leave a huge strip of vines behind to appease Anderson for visual effect. I feel as though our work may go to waste once the invasive vine species is once again allowed to spread because of the stuff we left behind. Obviously this isn’t the fault of the Baykeepers, but rather Anderson, but it still bothered me. Other than that I found the experience to be useful as well as enjoyable, and the final payoff of removing all we could of the invasive exotic species and planting the native species was a positive one.
–Sarah Y
Filed under: Watershed Restoration
Community Service Day and Environment 170 students engaged a day of uprooting ivy vines and planting native species along the Stone Canyon Creek Watershed.
Turning soil and planting natives along the creeks' eastern bank. Adjacent to the Anderson School
Turning the soil, planting natives
Native berries in
Site for information on California natives
The Theodore Payne Foundation
