Wet n’ Wild at Monterey Bay

I think at one point or another every kid has wanted to become a marine biologist. All throughout elementary and middle school, I used to dream of working with whales, dolphins, and sharks, where I’d spend my days out on the ocean – a dream I thought had sailed away as I developed new interests. Although we didn’t see any whales or dolphins on Monday, I once again had a little taste of that desire.

Before heading to Yosemite National Park, the tour took a short detour to Monterey, California to visit the internationally-acclaimed Monterey Bay Aquarium for a private tour of the facility and its award-winning exhibits.

As we arrived at the aquarium’s entrance, we were greeted by Ed and Rod – our morning’s extremely friendly and knowledgeable tour guides – who split us up into two groups and led us through some of the displays, including the Kelp Forest, Sandy Shore & Aviary, Outer Bay, Splash Zone, and Wild About Otters(you gotta love that charismatic megafauna!).

Marine life is abundant both inside and outside of the walls of this “aquarium along the bay shore.” Inside, more than 550 different species of marine plants and animals, including sea turtles, sharks, rays, birds, jellyfish, giant kelp, and more, are on exhibit. Outside, cormorants and harbor seals make daily appearances. We were told that whales and dolphins are also occasionally seen from the outside of the aquarium. Even more impressive, however, was learning that just several days before our visit, a blue whale (the largest living mammal on Earth) was spotted just outside of the bay – a truly rare sighting.

In addition to natural history, our guides talked to us about the aquarium’s history, as well as, some of their current collaborative conservation and marine education efforts.

Since its opening in 1984, the Monterey Bay Aquarium’s mission has been to “inspire the conservation of oceans” through educating the public. This is a big job, considering they receive an average of 1.8 million visitors annually. However, they are making a huge effort to outreach to even those who are not able to physically visit the Bay.

On their website, you can find a lot of great information about each of the aquarium’s exhibits. You can also check out several web cams for an “inside look” into the life behind the 3 to 15-inch thick glass.

What you’re probably most familiar with, however, is the Monterey Bay Aquarium’s Seafood Watch program, an outreach tool designed to teach the public about making more sustainable seafood choices.

In addition to their interactive, digital “Real Cost Café” (that lets you chose a seafood dish from a screen and then provides detail to tell you if you made a good choice and why) and the little wallet-sized brochures they produce (and have available in the aquarium), you can also find an online version – specific to your region – West Coast, Northeast, Southeast, Central US, Southwest, and even Hawaii! The guides break down popular seafood choices into three categories – (1) avoid, (2) good alternatives and (3) best choices. The online resource even provides links to each species for an individual profile on what makes the choice good or bad.

For more information on their Seafood Watch program, click here.

Our visit to the Monterey Bay Aquarium, although short, was a great opportunity for the crew to tour a facility that is making great strides in marine research and public education. And although I don’t expect that I’ll be spending my days diving with dolphins or locked up in a shark cage anytime soon, my visit to the aquarium has reenergized my youthful interests in marine conservation and education.

By: Bret Muter

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Raving about Redwoods

Thursday morning the crew awoke to the distant sounds of barking sea lions, and to the fresh smells of the cool, salty, northern California coast. The day was already off to a great start…

That afternoon, Jessica, Savanna, Bob, Jen Baldwin and I hopped on the Legacy Bus to pick up a group from the Crescent City Extension Boys and Girls Club for the tour’s final “snack-sized” Parks in Focus program. As we rolled up to the front of the Clubhouse, we were greeted by 13 excited youth ready to go on their first photographic safari of the majestic coastal redwood groves found in Jedediah Smith Redwoods State Park, one of the parks within Redwood National and State Parks (a unique management cooperative between the National Park Service and the California Department of Parks and Recreation).

In route to the park, we talked to the kids about the fascinating trees – known to have grown as tall as 379 feet and have lived as long as 2,000 years. We also goofed around and danced in our seats to some Oldies music, acting like trees (yeah, I get it, we’re a little weird; but the kids had fun)!

When we arrived at Jedediah Smith Redwoods State Park, the group took a couple minutes to stretch their shutter fingers, and then listened to Bob as he gave introductory lessons on camera safety and basics, before embarking down the beautiful Mill Creek Trail.

Shortly after crossing a long, narrow, wooden footbridge across the Smith River, we stopped briefly and paired the kids off. There, alongside the water, they participated in the day’s first photographic exercise – a photo shoot. The kids took turns posing and taking pictures, practicing a variety techniques, angles and features into their shots.

Our journey continued as we followed the trail into a thick patch of ferns that opened up into one of the coastal redwood groves. The kids echoed one another’s “ooh’s” and “ah’s” as we examined every new redwood around each new bend in the path. I also found myself in awe.

Jessica and Savanna talked a little more about the redwoods and their physiology, as well as, about some of the other interesting species of plants and animals that inhabit these unique forests.

For our final activity, we sent the kids on a photo-scavenger hunt – providing a list of 30 different tasks (photos) they needed to complete that recapped the day’s photography lessons and tips.

On the way back to the Clubhouse that evening, we quizzed the kids about some of the day’s lessons, where correct answers resulted in yummy treats. We recapped the day’s discussions, and I finished by asking if everyone had a good time. We were all blown away with the response: a synchronous, and almost harmonious, “YEEESSSSS!!!” The sound was almost deafening, but it made us all feel good knowing that were able to instill a little appreciation for the natural environment – and particularly appreciation for the coastal redwoods found in their own “backyard” – among a group of energetic and enthusiastic youth.

We ended our outing back at the Clubhouse with a group picture in front of the bus, and said goodbye as we each received hugs from the kids as they individually thanked each of us – a picture perfect end to our day in the park.

As we pulled away and waved farewell to the Crescent City crew, Jessica, Savanna, Bob, Jen and I looked at each other in agreement – today had been a great day.

By: Bret Muter

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Journey into Yellowstone

After a relaxing visit to the Grand Tetons, and another sad farewell as Melissa ended her short stay with us, the crew headed on to explore another one of nature’s public wonders – Yellowstone National Park, a stop I had been anticipating for quite some time.

Before arriving at the park, I had been mostly looking forward to seeing the abundant wildlife – particularly elk and bison – that frequent the park; however, after visiting, I found myself equally, if not more, impressed with the bizarre geologic activity found throughout the entire park – from geysers and mud pots to steam vents and hot springs.

Although we only had one day to see and travel through the park, we were able to witness some of Yellowstone’s most impressive landscapes in action, including Old Faithful, the Fountain Paint Pot, and Mammoth Hot Springs.

Bewildered by each of the Park’s mysterious treasures, I couldn’t help but to try to take a memory of every color, texture and sound I encountered.

So here are a few of my favorite pictures from our journey…

The Legacy Bus cruises through Yellowstone



Old Faithful puts on another encore performance.


Bacteria mat, yummy…


Another geyser erupts near Old Faithful


Morning Glory Pool


What a view!


An array of colors at Mammoth Hot Springs…

By: Bret Muter

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Life Still Ain't Easy in "The Big Easy"

Over the last month the Udall Legacy Crew has had the opportunity to meet with a lot of really amazing people. While conversing with these individuals at special events, project sites and during meals, we often find ourselves being asked which stop we’ve enjoyed the most. Obviously, this answer will be different for each of the riders; but I personally have a really, really hard time answering.

Each stop has truly been incredible. I can’t even begin to tell you how much I’ve learned about environmental and Native American issues in the last month. Even more importantly, it’s been really great meeting with individuals, organizations and communities who are finding ways to address and solve these important issues. There really is a lot of good happening out there!

However, what I can tell you is that our recent visit to New Orleans was one of the most emotionally intense experiences of my life.

It seems hard to believe that it has been almost two years since Hurricane Katrina wrecked havoc on the Gulf Coast. I was a senior at Ferris at the time and can easily recall seeing the devastation on the news. Yes, it was disturbing and I immediately wanted to help – I had volunteered with several Hurricane Relief efforts at my university and even chaired one fundraiser with a couple friends - but I never actually got down to NOLA to pitch in, and that was something I regretted.

When we arrived at our hotel in the downtown-area the first evening, a few of us took a walk around the French Quarter and down Bourbon Street, where I foolishly asked myself, “Where’s all of the damage from the Hurricane I had seen on the news?” It seemed to me the city had fully recovered.

The next day, however, when I had a chance to leave the tourist-heavy areas of New Orleans, I realized how ignorant I had been.

A few days before, Juana Ibanez, our faculty representative from the University of New Orleans, had contacted me and said she’d like to give some of the riders a tour of the city. I gladly took her up on the offer, as I thought this would be a good opportunity to see other areas of the city that we were unable to walk to from our hotel.

On July 4, Juana picked Jessica, Sapna, Jen Baldwin and I up at our hotel and drove us all around the city, showing us the city’s public housing projects, Lake Pontchartrain, some of the areas where the levies had breached, the Ninth Ward and even her own neighborhood near Gentilly Ridge.

Juana’s home had been destroyed by the flood waters, and she had just finished clearing it out with her husband. We walked through their empty home, and then through her neighbor’s home, which hadn’t been touched since the flood waters receded almost two years ago. We walked through, stepping over ruined carpet and clothing, warped floorboards, soda cans, and broken and scattered toys and household items. A doll house, clothes and other items were stuck up in the home’s support beams, carried up to the ceiling by the ten feet of water that once flooded their home.

No one had begun to clean it up. It had been abandoned.

I spent most of the tour in silence with my mouth hanging wide-open. Feelings of guilt ran through me, as I kept thinking of ways I could have done more, and how I should have spent the spring break of my senior year in New Orleans trying to help instead of having an unproductive week in Myrtle Beach. I kept asking myself how I could have been so selfish…


But, what was even more moving was listening to Juana talk about how the Hurricane impacted her, her family and her community, and how they plan to rebuild.

She told us about how uplifting it was to see so many people from across the country reaching out to the residents of New Orleans and the surrounding communities – in a variety of ways – from donating money and goods to actually volunteering to gut homes and help rebuild. All of this assistance helped, a lot.

Now, it also seems that those residents who decided to come back to New Orleans are also playing a big role in the rebuilding. Neighbors are helping each other out. The city has also seen a flock of new residents since the Hurricanes, many who have decided to make a permanent move to help in the city’s rebuilding efforts.

It’s clear that change is happening within the city, especially on the grassroots level.

During our short visit, we had the opportunity to work with several great organizations like the Alliance for Affordable Energy (which we worked with on July 3 to celebrate energy independence by installing compact fluorescent light bulbs in homes and educating the public about how to make their homes more energy efficient) who are playing a big part in rebuilding and revitalizing the community.

On Thursday, we volunteered with another great grassroots effort - Replant New Orleans - a local nonprofit dedicated to restoring NOLA's urban vegetation.

Their mission is simple - "to provide trees and shrubs, healthy soil, and education outreach services to the residents of New Orleans at no cost" - but without a doubt, is successfully helping to remediate one of the largest and most complex environmental effects of Katrina.

Theo Eliezer of Replant New Orleans with a compost pile

We met with the organization's ultimate duo, Hillary Strobel and Theo Eliezer, who serve as co-executive directors of the group. They talked to us about how the city’s soil had been contaminated with heavy metals and other toxins by the floods. In fact, in most cases, the soil can not be used by residents who want to have gardens and grow their own produce, because it is unsafe. However, Replant New Orleans is also using the process of bioremediation (applying compost and compost teas), to restore the health of the soil.

So, the Legacy Crew spent the morning and early afternoon helping them begin the construction of a composting cooperative in the Marigny Neighborhood. Unfortunately, we were interrupted by a thunderstorm early that afternoon, so we had to cut our time with them a little short; however, we helped give them a great start to this new cooperative.

Hillary and Theo, with the help of a lot of great Replant New Orleans volunteers (many of whom are residents of the city), will continue their efforts to remediate the local environment and help rebuild their communities - another great example of how even a small grassroots effort, can have a big impact.

Yes, the City of New Orleans has a long way to go before it is completely rebuilt. It’s not something that’s going to happen overnight, or even over the next couple years. And yes, NOLA could still use your help – and I encourage anyone who can, to do so. But I’m confident that these strong communities will continue to build relationships and work with each other to rebuild their city, and that New Orleans will come out stronger than ever.

By: Bret Muter

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Design-Your-Coach

While in Chicago last week, Motor Coach Industries – the Schaumburg, Illinois-based motor coach company that provided our stylish ride for the summer – treated the Legacy Crew to an evening of famous Chicago-style pizza at Gino’s East.

At dinner we met with Brent Maitland, MCI’s VP of New Markets, and talked about our coach, as well as the future of the motor coach industry.

If you’ve read up on the tour a little bit, you probably know that our coach was the first certified by the University of Vermont’s Green Coach Certification program, due to its use of a B-20/ultra-low sulfur diesel blend, it’s 2007 Caterpillar engine, and the use of carbon-offsets. UVM’s new program is just starting to take off and is a great start to move the commercial motor coach industry forward in providing more eco-friendly transportation for its customers.

But MCI is hoping to take the phrase “green coach” even further in the near future. Brent asked the crew about what we’d like to see if we were able to design a coach. So we shared some ideas – some realistic and practical, while others were a little more of a stretch – on how one’s motor coach experience can be even greener.

So, in the spirit of having fun and sharing ideas, I have a question for you all. If you were to design your perfect “green” motor coach, what types of things would you incorporate in your interior and exterior design?

Recycled carpeting? Solar panels on the roof? Composting toilets?

Leave a post with your ideas!

By: Bret Muter

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Mo’ Than Your Average Birthday Party

It’s not often that one celebrates a birthday by planting trees, removing invasives and leading a classroom full of excited fourth graders on an expedition in a local park, but I probably don’t need to remind you that Udallers are far from ordinary people. On Friday (June 15), we celebrated what would have been Mo’s 85th Birthday in a BIG way – by teaming up with several local organizations in the Bronx to host a day-long celebration of environmental events and public service activities. In the tradition of all great birthdays, however, we did end the day with a cake!

The day began quite early and proved to be a great work out, as we had to carry our luggage (and supplies for the day’s events) on the metro, as we headed from our hostel in Manhattan into the South Bronx to our first site – Shoelace Park, a small park that borders a portion of the Bronx River.

While there, the crew met with Teresa Crimmens, Dart Westphal and others from the Bronx River Alliance and joined them for a morning of invasive removal and planting native species.

At the same time, myself and several others (including ’03 and ’04 Scholar Marcos Orozco!) hosted a mini-Parks in Focus program with 23 fourth grade students from Public School 304 in the Bronx to explore the flora and fauna, as well as the art of photography, in Shoelace Park.

After wrapping up with our morning activities, we jumped back onto the metro (again with all of our luggage) and headed to Bronx Community College to attend an alternative energy forum, which emphasized the use of compact fluorescent lighting in both homes and businesses.

To conclude the day’s festivities, we jumped on the bus to head to Barretto Point Park (a former brownfields site that is now a gorgeous public park) for a picnic with folks from Congressman Serrano’s office, as well as other community leaders.

Unfortunately, the Congressman was held up in DC and was unable to attend our event; however, we had the opportunity to meet with some incredible people from his office and the Bronx Green Workers Cooperative, Nos Quedamos, MUD/BONE Collective, Inc., The Point Community Development Corporation, Transfiguration Lutheran Church and the South Bronx Food Cooperative.

For me, June 15 was more than a day of celebrating public service. Visiting the Bronx was an eye-opening and personally inspirational experience. Before I had begun planning this stop, I had been very unaware of all the great initiatives and all of the amazing work already taking place within the Bronx. And even though I had read a lot about the community’s environmental success stories over the past couple months - it was great to see and experience some of them firsthand.

For example, a few months ago I never would have imagined that there was flourishing riparian ecosystem within the Bronx, but the Bronx River and its bordering parks are now frequented with lush vegetation, and amazing wildlife. It wasn’t long after we arrived at Shoelace Park before we were watching mallards, egrets and other birds utilizing the river – a truly amazing site, considering we were virtually footsteps away from the hustle and bustle of the city. You may also know that the Bronx now has its first resident beaver in more than 200 years – named Jose, after Congressman Serrano, in recognition for his commitment to revitalizing the Bronx River.

And perhaps equally important – the change is being noticed within the community…

Probably the day’s most heartening experience, took place that morning. Most of our group had ventured down to the bank of the river to begin their planting and invasive removal efforts, while the handful of us running the mini-Parks in Focus program were waiting for the class to arrive, when a man running by stopped to ask us if we were “the group” responsible for the park. Of course, we weren’t; however, we pointed out Teresa and the Bronx River Alliance for revitalizing and maintaining the park.

Immediately, the man piped up and said, “Well, whatever it is you’re doing, keep doing it.” He then went on to tell us about how great it is to have the park in the neighborhood and how happy he is that the area has been revitalized. He lit up as he told us how he enjoys taking his grandson there to watch all of the birds and other wildlife. At one point he even referred to one area of the park as an “enchanted forest.”

Similar sentiments of appreciation were a common thread throughout the day…
While listening to some of community members’ stories at the picnic and at the day’s other events – their failures and successes, as well as their battles as they continue to plan for a more environmentally, economic and socially sustainable future – I began to realize that as large as the Bronx is, it really has a “small-town,” feel. The people we met with who live there have a strong passion and sense of commitment and responsibility to improving their local community for themselves, their families and their neighbors.

Our visit to the Bronx is one that has left a lasting impression on me, and I do really hope that I will have the opportunity to visit again soon to offer a pair of able hands.

I can’t think of a better way or a better place that we could have spent Mo’s birthday. I’m sure Mo would have loved this.

****
(Immediately following our picnic in the Bronx, the group headed back to Manhattan for an evening out where we met up with ’06 Scholars Betsy Scherzer and Seth Silverman. G7 was representing!)

By: Bret Muter

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