Environmental Restoration

A few weekends ago, I (Sarah) headed for the hills and went hiking, swimming, and camping up in New Hampshire in the White Mountains with some fellow coordinators. I think I’m addicted to the White Mountains, I definitely have a new favorite National Forest. Being above the treeline on a mountain is one of the most exhilarating experiences.

the trail while hiking Mt Lafayette (yes, this was instagrammed…photo cred to Tanner, one of the Homelessness and Housing Coordinators)

Fysoppers who are new to New England- get yourself up there! The BU Outing Club has trips for all sorts of hiking and camping adventures almost every weekend, and if you are willing to shell out a small fee for gear/food/gas (and it’s SO worth it) you can get out of the city to get some fresh air and meet other people who are into the outdoors. Check out their website: http://buoutingclub.com

Our hiking and river-trekking took us into the Pemigewasset Wilderness. From the top of Mount Lafayette, looking across the Wilderness, it’s just trees, mountains, rock faces, rivers, and small lakes in the valleys. There is no sign of development, and the wilderness looks untouched, pristine, and, well, wild. The trail is heavily used as far as wilderness trails go, but all the same you could hike for miles and see nothing but moose, black bear, coyote, fox, and other New Hampshire wildlife.

View of the Pemi from Little Haystack! Photo cred to Tanner http://fysophomelessnessandhousing.wordpress.com

Between 1890 and 1940, many different logging camps placed throughout the region and connected by railroads removed almost ALL of the forest cover. Fires burned out of control, uninhibited by natural ecosystem cycles and regulation.

Many hillsides mirrored this devastation, in this case from fire

It’s hard to wrap my mind around that when I think of the term “wilderness.” But, it’s the same place, and a really powerful story of restoration. The Pemigewasset was designated a Wilderness in 1984, and since then the regeneration is astounding.

Seeing images of environmental degradation and devastation, or doom-and-gloom statistics can be overwhelming.

Through FYSOP, we want to raise of awareness of the need to save the environment. There is a place for scary facts and depressing images- they are a reality check, a wake-up call. It makes us aware. But by themselves, they can be crippling. Whenever I see images like this, I feel pretty powerless. Raising awareness can be pretty useless if we don’t find an outlet for action or figure out how we are connected to the issue. But we are empowered when we realize how we are in a position to do something about the injustice we are witnessing, or seeing that something so lost was restored.

When it comes down to it we believe that change happens through building relationships and connections — through community. (I mean, hey, we are at the Community Service Center).

For the Pemigewasset, restoration came through community activism. Local New Hampshire residents saw what was happening to the forests, witnessed the Pemigewasset river polluted from soil erosion and logging, and they became angry and demanded change. So they did what they could, and rallied for change. Support expanded to Boston, New York City, Washington D.C., and around the country.

The Weeks Act of 1911 enabled the government to buy private land and turn into public land, and White Mountains National Forest was established in 1918 through this process. These processes set the stage for the The Pemigewasset Wilderness to be formally designated a Wilderness Area by the federal government in 1984. Today, the Pemigewasset is managed by four different government agencies, but the restoration wouldn’t have occurred or reached the federal level without the activism that began at the grassroots level.

How could massive deforestation have been acceptable and even encouraged? In the mindset of 19th century Manifest Destiny, of a wild, new, “uninhabited,” continent with unlimited resources, it was the norm. But, it seems obvious in hindsight that cutting down an entire virgin forest is a bad idea.

Seeing the story of the Pemigewasset Wilderness destruction and then restoration makes me think of the question, what injustices are occurring today that we are not aware of simply because we are surrounded by it all the time and can’t imagine things any differently? What systems are we a part of that we accept as normal but are actually completely illogical and destructive? The restoration points out that things can be different if we choose to shift our perspective, get inspired, and be engaged in our communities. That’s what FYSOP is all about.

“We abuse land because we regard it as a commodity belonging to us. When we see land as a community to which we belong, we may begin to use it with love and respect.” – Aldo Leopold

“Tell me, I forget. Show me, I remember. Involve me, I understand.”
-Ancient Chinese Proverb

Article about the 100th anniversary of the Weeks Act and the Pemigewasset:

http://www.concordmonitor.com/article/269900/woodland-adventure?SESS66d12d2887fbdb9dfb557e6778a2d61d=google&page=full

Learn more about White Mountain history:

http://www.plymouth.edu/museum-of-the-white-mountains/category/protecting-the-forest/

Plant Trees, Grow Trees, Sell Trees, No Trees

I’ve been seeing something on television recently that’s been really frustrating me. No, it’s not Glee – I’ve already gotten over that.

I keep seeing ads for the home release of The Lorax. Am I the only one seeing the supreme irony of this?
I mean, sure, every theatrical movie gets put out on Blu-ray and DVD eventually. In this case, my frustration with The Lorax is just an aftershock of what I was feeling when the movie came out this past March.

A little backstory: The Lorax was originally a book written by Dr. Seuss in 1972. Seuss is known for his veiled social commentaries masquerading as whimsical, innocent children’s stories, but his message with this book was far more direct. It tells the story of the eponymous creature who lives in a forest that gets ravaged by a greedy entrepreneur. It was adapted into an animated television special in the same year. 

In March, Universal Pictures released a computer-animated re-imagining of the story. With Hollywood production values, a star-studded cast, and a 70 million dollar budget, it’s no surprise that the book’s original message was watered down — buried beneath elaborate musical numbers and 3D nonsense. And, being a huge Hollywood-backed children’s film, of course there were tons of promotional tie-ins with a multitude of companies, the least of which being a disposable diaper company, Hewlett-Packard (for their printers, no less), IHOP, and Mazda. Really?

This kind of cross-promotion is a huge example of  greenwashing — a style of PR and marketing which seeks to make a company look more environmentally friendly than it actually is to win over consumers. Printing pictures of the Lorax on the waistband of diapers doesn’t actually change anything, except for my disdain for the people who green-lit these marketing decisions. (It does add the nice imagery of the film’s marketing being filled with something other than greenwashing, however.)

To add insult to injury, the movie was released on Dr. Seuss’s 108th birthday! No doubt he’s rolling over in his grave.

 

In hindsight, I’m guessing that the people who spearheaded the production of this movie didn’t do it with intent to make some unfortunate decisions, disgracing the original intent of Seuss’s book. But the mis-management of the creation and release of this movie is very indicative of the surface level understanding of the environmental movement, but with a deeper ignorance of what values actually come with that movement — like a parrot repeating words without actually knowing what it’s saying.

I guess what I’m saying is, it’s healthy to be skeptical of “green” companies. And don’t get distracted by the bells and whistles of PR and marketing departments…they’re really only thinking of a different kind of green.

Speaking for the Trees,
Kevin

Musings on Globetrottin’

Hey folks! It’s been a while since my last post. Forgive me, if you will — things have been quite hectic as of late. It’s almost August, and FYSOP is about to kick into overdrive..Sarah and I have been hard at work getting everything in order for our excellent staff and all of the freshmen. We’re excited for you all to experience the things we’ve been planning! There’s a lot in store for you all.

Let’s see, what’s happened since we last spoke?…Oh, I’ve been going on lots of nice trips to peaceful landscapes over the weekends in the past month! At the beginning of July I went to the west coast — Seattle, Washington!

It’s so beautiful out there. The skyline’s one thing, but have you heard of this MOUNT RAINIER? That thing is huge! No matter where I went, it was always visible on the horizon. It was breathtaking and terrifying — mostly because it’s an active volcano. It was a really nice reminder of the fact that humanity is always right under nature’s thumb.

 

I also went hiking along Wallace Falls, this wonderful state park that runs along the side of the Cascade Mountains. It was the first time I’ve ever gone hiking! It was nice to get connected with nature after being holed up in the Community Service Center so often; It’s so easy to lose sight of the world when society puts the blinders on you.

 

That’s not all I’ve been up to, though! Last weekend I went to Onset, in Wareham by Cape Cod. A friend of mine was nice enough to invite me to her summer house on a small, residential island sitting in the middle of the sound. I definitely capitalized on my time there — I’d say I set a new record for painful sunburns I’ve gotten. Totally worth it, though. I hung out, played some guitar (wrote a song!), soaked up sun, and waded in the water. It was a calming little oasis of a getaway.

 

But…

I learned while I was there that they don’t recycle! I was shocked and upset, but my friends and I took initiative to recycle all of the things we had used all weekend. It wasn’t that the people on the island didn’t care, it was just too much of a difficulty since the only transport to and from the island is in the form of little dinghies with motors in the back of them. It was a big example of the way that the comfortability that people have in their own routines and lifestyles sometimes interfere with progress in environmental thought and action. It’s sad, but it’s the way things are sometimes. The same way that litter cleaned up today might be replaced by more litter the next day, surface level solutions just aren’t permanent. Did the products that we recycled outweigh the average consumption by other residents of the island? Probably not. It’s an unfortunate trend that fosters a sense of futility, but it’s important not to get discouraged. If we can affect change at a deeper level — even just by spreading awareness and knowledge — we can change the way things work their roots and cure the need for surface level solutions at all!

 

P.S. The other day, I saw a girl throw half a hot dog in a recycling bin. I was too slow to stop her. I’m still recovering.

Between Sobs,
Kevin

Boston Nature Center and Environmental Education

On a sunny Friday afternoon, Kevin and I left the Community Service Center, which is the approximate daily temperature of a cave, to go frolic in meadows at the urban sanctuary of the Boston Nature Center, located in Mattapan. This place kind of blew our minds. Trading the glow of the computer screens for real live summer sunshine was pretty awesome, and there were meadows there with lots of little yellow wildflowers and blue bird boxes. But besides the chirping of birds and bubbling of brooks, there is some pretty cool stuff happening.

The Boston Nature Center and Wildlife Sanctuary is one of many areas protected by the Massachusetts Audubon Society, a non-profit that oversees many environmental protection, research, and advocacy programs in MA.

The Nature Center building was constructed in partnership with the City of Boston as the first LEED certified municipal building in Boston to serve as a model. LEED stands for Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design, and promotes a different way of thinking about buildings- a “whole-building approach to sustainability” that focuses on sustainability from site selection to the construction materials and process to the energy systems used to run the building throughout its use.

The building serves as a center for community and environmental education programs, and is connected by short trails to the Clark-Cooper Community gardens, one of the oldest and biggest community gardens in Boston.

It was pretty easy to feel like we were far away from the city even though we were right between some pretty population dense neighborhoods like Mattapan and Dorchester. The small wildlife sanctuary has meadows, marsh, and woodlands, and used to be the location of a Boston State Hospital. Interestingly, this connection between former hospitals and current parks/urban wilds is found with other public spaces in Boston- like the Boston Harbor Islands and Franklin Park in the Emerald Necklace.

It can seem that wild, natural spaces haven’t changed or been impacted by human activity, but a closer look at the history of the Boston landscape reveals that nature really isn’t that separate from people. Most Americans who care about the environment really value pristine wilderness- hence the basis of many environmental movements in the idea of “preservation” and “conservation” saving what we have now from future destruction before it’s gone forever. Even the “untouched,” “pristine” national parks out West were home to Native Americans for centuries. Ignoring this aspect of environmental history has human rights implications. Hence, the idea of cultural landscapes advocates for the protection of areas where the environment is interconnected with culture. How we see the environment reveals cultural mindsets, and a really big part of caring for the environment means changing the way people think about the environment through education. When we see nature as separate from people it can be easy to ignore the way we impact the environment in destructive ways. When we are more aware of how people and the environment have been interconnected throughout environmental history, it can be more clear how we are impacting the environment today and feel more empowered to take action. We see FYSOP as a time to spark these discussions.

Environmental education programs also serve to bridge that gap. One of my favorite things at the center was the Nature Nook. The nature nook is basically a glorified playground, but made of natural materials instead of plastic and asphalt. For kids who aren’t used to playing outside, I think this could be a pretty good way of transitioning to the outdoors. The environmental education programs of the nature center serves Boston Public Schools weekly during the school year, and when we were visiting there were kids there for a summer camp.

For more information about ideas behind environmental education and cultural landscapes, check out these websites:

Cultural Landscapes around the globe through UNESCO:
http://whc.unesco.org/en/culturallandscape/

Excerpt from Richard Louv’s book Last Child in the Woods about “nature-deficit disorder”
http://richardlouv.com/books/last-child/excerpt/

We have some other sites that are involved with environmental education, so stay tuned!

peas and love,

Sarah

Redefining Environmentalism

Hey everybody!
For FYSOP 23, we are really interested in the intersection of the environment and social justice. Environmental issues don’t just affect wildlife and trees, they impact people. Even if you don’t like doing yoga on mountaintops or cuddling with baby sea turtles (and that’s okay if you do), being conscious of the environment is still relevant because protecting the environment means protecting the resources we depend on- our water, air, and food. We want to move beyond the stereotype of environmentalism where people think caring about the environment means saving pristine nature at the expense of jobs or economic progress. We don’t think the relationship between the environment and people is a zero-sum game like that. We want to explore how environmental degradation impacts people in the communities where it occurs, in Boston and worldwide.

Of course, there are a lot of things you can do as an individual activist to help the environment- you know you’ve heard them before. Turning the water off when you brush your teeth, eating less meat, using a reusable coffee mug, etc. These things do matter and are important to practice because they add up, but they are all symptoms of deeper systematic issues. All of these solutions revolve around consumption. When it comes down to it, the solution sounds like- “consume less.” To flesh this out further, overconsumption depends on disposability. It’s so easy for us to overconsume because it’s really easy to dispose of things we have already used or don’t really care about, like plastic water bottles. In the TED talk below by Van Jones, he really expands on this idea of disposability and identifies it as the root of our environmental and social problems to show how it affects people.

The side effects of overconsumption and disposability impact our society in so many ways that go beyond the environment, and once we start to see issues in terms of systems, it becomes clear that solutions cannot stay at the individual level. When it stays at the individual level, caring for environment sometimes turns into about a self-righteous competition about who can consume less. We need to go beyond that to realize how the environment connects people from all social, political, and economic backgrounds.

So, check out this Van Jones TED talk!

-Sarah

Moving Forward

Hey everyone! We’re into our third week in the office and FYCO-ing is going smoothly. We’re continuing to get in touch with lots of interesting and educational sites for all of you to volunteer at and it’s exciting to watch all of the pieces fall into place.

Today, Sarah and I are reflecting on our ideas for moving forward. If you’ve ever tried to tackle a larger-than-life issue, you know that it can sometimes be hard to whittle things down to a manageable, digestible size. This is certainly true for all of FYSOP’s issue areas — there’s no quick and easy solution for solving (or fully understanding) any of the problems we face. We believe, however, that the first step is changing your way of thinking; re-orienting yourself and approaching the problem in a new way means understanding the causes and preventing them from happening in the future. (Think of what could happen if a whole generation did this!)

So we have to ask ourselves, what does this mean in the context of Environment? There are more problems to be solved than we have time to address — but when a sailboat is leaking, do you keep on sailing, bailing water out of the boat? No! You stop, and change your way of thinking about that boat and the leaks will stop! (Okay, so this isn’t a perfect metaphor.)

Joking aside, we’re working on simplifying our representations of the issues we feel are important so that we can think about them more practically. Our hope is that, through educating others on a broader perspective, we can make the issues more approachable, foster a sense of caring and willingness to affect change, and motivate people to further educate themselves independently and become part of the solution. Start broad, get specific! Like Google Earth when you zoom in on your house.

We’re really excited to continue researching and making Environment great this year. Here’s to a clarity of mind and purpose while moving forward.

- Kevin

Don’t Call it a Comeback

 

Hey everyone!! Welcome to the shiny new-and-improved FYSOP blog for the Environment Issue Area! Now you can get all of your FYSOP news in one place! The “Issue Areas” tab on the navigation bar at the top of the page connects all of the Issue Area pages together, the “About” tab has lots of cool information about us and the Environment Issue Area, and the “Home” tab can re-direct you to the main FYSOP blog for all things FYSOP! Neat, huh? But enough techno-babble! Let’s get down to business.

All of us in the Community Service Center are SO EXCITED for FYSOP this year! We’ve got a lot of exciting stuff planned for the Environment Issue Area and we’re bringing all of our excitement and passion to the table. Stay tuned to this blog! Lots more information to come!

Green Thumbs and Big Hearts,
Kevin and Sarah