Udall Legacy Bus Tour Blog: campuses

Showing posts with label campuses. Show all posts

Showing posts with label campuses. Show all posts

Tuesday, August 7, 2007

The Udall Legacy Bus Tour Comes Home

On Aug. 3rd, our bus rolled into Tucson. Home. Not home to any of the riders -- but home to Mo and the Udall Foundation.

Andrew Lee (Scholar '06) leads the welcoming cheer (Photo by Tom Spitz)

And it was definitely a homecoming. We arrived to the loving welcome of the Udall Foundation staff. Not only were we received with open arms -- but also a full on cheer. The cheer on Friday was surpassed only by the cheer the following day from all the 2007 scholars led by Andrew Lee (Scholar 2006) in front of the Foundation's HQ in downtown Tucson.

The end of the tour coincided with the 2007 Udall Scholar Orientation -- the annual gathering of all the recipients of the Morris K. Udall Scholarship. It was an appropriate place to end the tour considering that it was two years ago at this same event that the idea of a big 'ol bus tour was first kicked around.

The energy at Orientation was infectious. It always is. Udallers, as we saw on the tour, and were reminded of again in Tucson -- are incredibly passionate, caring, and engaged. The "small talk" during Orientation is often about organizing a campus, researching a problem, or tackling policy issues head on. I always find it's such a recharge -- which was a great way to end our Tour.

The official finale of the tour included remarks from Carol West (Tucson City Councilor), Ramona Grijalva (who read a message from her husband, Rep. Raul Grijalva), Terry Bracy (Chair of the Foundation), and Anne Udall (Mo's daughter and vice-chair of the Foundation). After Bret, Jen, and I spoke about some of the most memorable moments of the trip we moved into the building where, amidst the mingling, there were photo and video slideshows showing images of the past two months.

Anne Udall speaking at the finale event in Tucson (Photo by Tom Spitz)

The photos and video -- as good as they are -- can't capture the tour fully. This blog can't do it either. Nor do they do a good enough job thanking everyone who made this tour possible: the Udall Foundation Education Team, the many alumni who helped plan stops, and the many friends who opened their doors to a traveling group of public servants. But we hope that all of it - stories, photos, and video -- have been able to convey at least a little bit of those thanks and communicate what the Udall Legacy Bus Tour was.

Thanks for riding with us!

By: Eli Zigas

P.S.
(Stay tuned in the coming weeks for more video posts ...)

Connecting the Dots in (hot hot) Tempe(ture), Ari(d)zona

Because my forte is looking at the big picture and seeing the connections (shameless plug: tell me - what kind of jobs should I be looking for right now?), our time in Tempe, Arizona was a playfield for me. I am going to denote all connections in my head as ‘CXN.’ This will give you an insight into the much sought-after inner workings of my brain.

Our events at Arizona State University were made possible in large part by Rod Groff, the Program Manager at the ASU Global Institute of Sustainability, Kate Widland (’02 Scholar) who now works at the Salt River Project, and to Udall Foundation Trustee Mike Rappoport. Kate joined us for most of our tours, and for dinner.

In exploring how innovative and cutting-edge ASU’s contribution to environmental service is, we stopped first at the Biodesign Institute. After a grueling 10 minute stroll (ah! sun!) that left us sweating and panting, we stepped into the cool air of the Biodesign Institute, Arizona state’s first LEED Platinum certified building.

Kim Ovitt gave us an introduction to the Biodesign Institute, which houses programs which serve to find biological solutions to our shared health and environmental problems. The building’s engineer and architect who worked on the project joined us and talked to us about the concept, design, and certification of the connected buildings, highlighting how they took into account the purpose of the building - glass allows the exchange of light and communications into research labs.

When we walked into our next stop was at the Decision Theater, we were handed 3-D glasses. John Fink, ASU VP for Research and Economic Affairs, showed us what the Decision Theater was all about.

Photo courtesy of: Dustin Hampton, Decision Theater

We filed into a circular room, clothed in 5 floor-to-ceiling screens which supported video-game like simulations of city planning decisions, in real time, in real 3-D.

-Toggle drought and withdrawal scenarios – find out data for groundwater depletion.
-Look at a map of the city, zoom down to a 3-D ground-level view – see what happens when you change building height regulations.
-You will soon be able to go below ground also, so that policy makers can know whether actions will disrupt water mains or electrical wires.

This has cut some city decision processes from months to one hour.

CXN: These simulations resembled stuff happening at Google Earth, where Crystal had been working for a few months.

CXN: John Fink mentioned how many universities the Phoenix area has relative to another city of similar size: Philadelphia, where we had visited. They also did a population projection of the area versus Chicago, where we’d visited, concluding that Phoenix would reach a Chicago size in the next few years, based on the population growth projection models. They showed the other megalopolises modelers have been discussing: Sun Valley or Sun Belt (Las Vegas, Phoenix, Tucson – so long Colorado River!), SoCal, NoCal, Cascadia (Portland, Tacoma, Seattle), Piedmont (Chicago, Milkwaukie, parts of Indiana and Ohio), Peninsula (Florida), Southeast (Louisiana, Houston, etc.), Northeast, I-35 corridor (Dallas, Oklahoma City, Kansas City). We were there - to all except Florida!

CXN: they’re teaming up with the UW and Seattle to build a decision theater, and with China. (woo!)

CXN: My friend sitting next to me – Yuling Jia - had just transferred with her advisor to ASU from Rice, having arrived in Tempe 4 days prior from a visit to friends and family in Chengdu (I met her during my study abroad 3 years ago at Sichuan University in Chengdu). John Fink, our presenter, had been in Chengdu a month prior.

And the world gets even smaller…

CXN: Even my bag that I was carrying was from my friend Kui Li (l, f) I met while working at Earthcorps last year, who also went to Sichuan University, which is how she also knew my friend Jia Yuling (L, F).

Next on our tour was the Arizona Public Service Company (APS) Solar Test and Research (STAR) Center. There, Jim Quaid gave us an introduction to solar power testing in Arizona, and gave us a tour of the grounds. To find more viable alternatives burning fossil fuels to keep our economy running, they are testing new generations of solar arrays which seek to concentrate the sunlight to increase their efficiency, which rotate in 2 ways to follow the sun.

The following day, we visited the Salt River Project (SRP), a power and water utility for the area – 3rd largest in the nation! We were treated generously and guided by Victoria Cummiskey, Sid Friar, Herjinder Hawkins, and Udall Trustee Mike Rappoport. They showed us a utility seeking to establish a community connection, working to ensure that there will be water and a healthy environment for future generations. They have been seeking substitutes and incentives to increase the share of renewable energy sources in their portfolio. I hope that their collaborations with other utilities continue and that we continue to have utilities which support finding viable and sustainable energy solutions.

By: Kayanna Warren

Sunday, July 29, 2007

Sustainability at UDub and Other Happenings in the Emerald City

Merrill Hall was built under unusual circumstances. Merrill Hall, at UW’s Botanic Gardens, was built to replace the Center for Urban Horticulture, which was burned down in May 2001 by arsonists from the Earth Liberation Front. The arsonists set the fire because they believed, incorrectly, that a professor at the center was carrying out research on genetically modified trees. As the university made plans to rebuild at the site, several students encouraged the administration to make the new building a green one. Given the reasons for the fire, one can imagine how receptive the University was to the idea. Professor of Forest Resources Tom Hinckley, however, quickly took up the cause and spearheaded the effort to build green. In 2005, LEED-certified Merrill Hall opened its doors.

Professor Hinckley met with us on the morning of July 23rd to tell us a little bit about the architectural features of Merrill Hall. He emphasized that every feature of the building – every different kind of wood used for the doors, trim, and siding of the building – had a story behind it. Was it more environmentally responsible to use wood from a Forest Stewardship Council certified forest half a world away, or wood from a clear-cut right here in the Northwest? Should the building have incorporated donations of conventional materials in order to allow for more environmental features elsewhere in the building? Collectively, the stories presented both the successes and the difficult trade-offs that were made in attempting to build a sustainable structure.

UW Sustainability Panelists J.R. Fulton, Anite Bowers, and Clara Simon

Our tour of the building was brief, however, as the focus of the morning was a panel addressing the sustainability initiatives at the University of Washington. Our panelists included Anita Bowers, Assistant Director of Housing and Food Services; Clara Simon, Sustainability Manager for Capital Projects; Tony Guerrero, Director of Facility Services for UW Bothell; A.J. Van Wallendael, Programs Operations Specialist for the Environmental Programs Office; Sterling Luke, Shop Safety Representative for Facility Services; and JR Fulton, Capital Planning and Sustainability Manager for Housing and Food Services. The topics addressed during the panel ranged widely from local food in the dining halls and biodiesel in the power washers, to corn husk buildings and the use of goats to manage weeds on the Bothell campus.

The weed-whacking goats on the Bothell campus were just one of many examples of how progressive the new UW campus is. At Bothell, the facilities staff use Green Seal certified cleaning products and only organic fertilizers – including compost tea from their on-site vermicompost project. The campus also manages its own stormwater through bioswales and the on-campus wetlands. As of July 1, 2006, the Bothell campus became herbicide free. In August, the campus will be reviewed for its Salmon Safe certification. I was amazed by these and other achievements at this relatively new campus. I was particularly impressed because these progressive programs were driven primarily by the staff of the college, not by the students. The same cannot be said for sustainability initiatives at many other colleges.

Equally impressive were the efforts of Food Services on UW’s main campus in Seattle. In the dining halls, conventional french fries have been replaced with fries from local, organic potatoes, and all the beef now comes from grass-fed cows. Tully’s Coffee even developed its own organic, fair-trade regular coffee, decaf coffee, and espresso to sell in the campus cafés – oh, the advantages of an $18 million food budget! So many colleges – including my own – have no such sway when it comes to food orders. My favorite of the food initiatives on campus was that regarding water. Sales of bottled water at UW are high, but the enormously detrimental environmental consequences of bottled water have moved Food Services to replace this product. Beginning this fall, the dining halls and cafés will no longer sell bottled water. Instead, they will sell reusable water bottles that can be filled with filtered tap water. Bottled water was not widely sold even ten years ago, but now we take it for granted. As customers we demand it and food suppliers are loathe to deny us what many believe to be a healthy alternative to soda. But, if you ask me, bottled water is something akin to clean coal: fine – perhaps – for the consumer, but a disaster – undeniably – for the source. I commend UW for having the conscience to make the switch.

Bill Rodgers and Eric Eberhard with Bret M.

After our wonderfully informative panel on sustainability, we headed back to the heart of campus to meet with Eric Eberhard and Bill Rodgers. Eberhard is a partner at Dorsey & Whitney in Seattle, as well as a member of the Udall Foundation’s Board of Trustees. Rodgers is a professor at UW Law School. Between them, Eberhard and Rodgers have over eighty years of experience with Indian law. We all enjoyed a tasty lunch while listening to the men’s stories about Mo Udall, issues in Indian Country, and some of their past cases. As there are several members of the crew interested in the law, and Indian law in particular, the luncheon offered a fabulous opportunity to ask questions we have not been able to present to other guests.
That afternoon we bid farewell to the Emerald City, clicked our ruby slippers, and glided down the yellow brick – read: black asphalt – road to the City of Roses and Bridges. We haven’t been in Kansas for weeks!

By: Savanna Ferguson

What’s Up Sea-town What’s Up? (artist from Seattle)

Friday, July 20, 2007 (“Seattle or Bust”)

After a meeting on the bus that lasted from Sprague to North Bend, we got out and stopped at the Cedar River Watershed to stretch the legs, smell some fresh just-rained forest air, and learn about the protected source of Seattle’s drinking water. The best parts of the education center, aside from the displays and the LEED building, were definitely the water drum garden and the ripe thimbleberries.

When we arrived in Seattle, we were on our own for dinner. I made sure to grab some pho while I was in town, as well as some bread from Flying Apron, a vegan, wheat-free bakery. Others went to go to the release parties for The Book That Shall Not Be Named (I’m on page 382, by the way – no comments that spoil the ending, please!!).

Saturday, July 21, 2007 (“Bob, Bret S, and Eli’s trio debut”)

We were welcomed officially to the University of Washington early Saturday morning on campus…with style!!

University Housing and Food Services provided us with a breakfast of local and organic fruits, yogurts, juices, pastries, and fair-trade, shade-grown coffee from Tully’s. And you thought Seattle was only Starbucks! Think again. The nectarines and Rainier cherries were in season, they were juicy, and they were delicious. I hear that the leftover fruit not eaten on Monday was given to us as a care package, to boot. (PS…Housing and Food Services also provided breakfast for the riders on Sun and Mon morning, as well as refreshments for our panels on Monday)

UW Provost Phyllis Wise greeted us warmly and enthusiastically, as did other important administration and staff, including:

- Mona Pitre-Collins, UW Scholarship Office
- Anita Bowers, Housing and Food Services
- Barbara Smith, Housing and Food Services
- Clara Simon, UW Capital Projects
- Stevan Harrell, Department of Anthropology
- David Fluharty, School of Marine Affairs
- John Sahr, representative of Asst Dean Taylor's office

Following this warm welcome, we proceeded to a volunteer event with Earthcorps, a Seattle organization that combines local restoration with global leadership. We worked on maintaining a site which had been restored to native vegetation – good for urban wildlife, slope stabilization, the future of trees in Seattle - at Me-Kwa-Mooks Park in West Seattle. We worked alongside Earthcorps members from all over the US (and all over the world), and also over 20 community members, who came to pitch in for 4 hours of ivy-thrashing, bucket-slinging fun. We had a great view of the Puget Sound.

In the afternoon, I brought Bret M. and Savanna to the Burke Museum, where I worked for 5 months. Professor Stevan Harrell, my old advisor for my studies in China who was also a curator of the museum, met us there and gave us an introduction to the In the Spirit of the Ancestors exhibit, which features Northwest Coast Contemporary Native Art. We also found their special exhibit Yellowstone to Yukon, with wildlife photos from the Rockies, captivating as well.

In the evening, we all went down to Agua Verde, a UW-area staple, for an alumni meetup, but not before we had some afternoon entertainment!
**….maybe that should remain on our private blog. Sapna got a good bachelorette send off, so apologies to the future side job aspirations of Bob, Bret S, and Eli, but I think what happens in McMahon Hall stays in McMahon Hall.**

At Agua Verde, we heard about the sustainability pursuits of the restaurant from Owner Bill, got to sit on the deck, and met up with Jocelyn Lin (’01 Scholar), and Courtney Carothers, (Udall Fellow ’07).

For some awesome news coverage of our events in Seattle, orchestrated largely by my friend Meghan Peters, see below:

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/lifestyle/325057_udallbus26.html
and
http://thedaily.washington.edu/article/2007/7/25/udallBusTourPromotesGreenLiving

By: Kayanna Warren

Friday, July 27, 2007

Missoula and Pablo -- What a Place to Call Home !

What a place to call home, the northern Rockies! I sound like a nature writer already! I really enjoyed our time spent in Missoula and on the Flathead Reservation north of Missoula. Throughout college I spent a lot of time studying agriculture and working on different farms in northern Wisconsin, and I feel pretty passionate about the role food can play in fostering a positive environmental ethic, as well as the importance of reinvesting in rural America. In this vein, it was so wonderful to hear about the efforts of the Farm to College program, which is instituting major changes in how both the University of Montana (UM) and Salish Kootenai College (SKC) purchase food for its dining halls.

UM is currently spending 14.6% of their annual budget on local and regional foods, and available that day were cherries from Flathead, along with local chicken, tortillas, lettuce, tomatoes, safflower oil, salsa, honey, and regional beef, bread, and cheese. Products and produce from the state of Montana are considered local, and regional is defined as agricultural products grown or produced in Idaho, Washington, Oregon, Wyoming, North Dakota, and South Dakota—which is a pretty huge region. The program is about 4 years old and focuses on the importance of local economy (cycling 14.6% of the total $3 million spent annually by the school within the region is pretty huge), the greater reliability of local food sources, along with the strengthening of community that comes with knowing where your food comes from and building local partnerships. And as Marc LaPoco (pictured at left), head of UM’s dining services put it, the research on the nutrition of fresh food is rolling in, and, as many have intuitively known, fresh food, and organic foods, are typically higher in nutritional value than conventionally grown foods.

Laure Pengelly Drake gives the riders a tour of UM's Native American Journalism program

Interestingly, one problem that both schools face is helping make it affordable and feasible for farmers to sell to the schools at wholesale prices, not prices found at farmers markets, the main venue for smaller market farms. Organized by Udall alumna Lauren Caldwell, the Farm to College Program at SKC in Pablo is in its second year and already the school is purchasing 10% of its food from local sources. At SKC, local has been defined as being from within the reservation. This is a pretty important difference between the two programs. While many of the growers living on the res are themselves not members of the confederated tribes, I hope that having a program like Farm to College can encourage new growers by providing a reliable place to sell their products. The Three Wolves cafeteria at SKC is more like a diner, where you can order individual items, and I wonder if this may make it easier to purchase local foods if there are fewer issues with waste, as it isn’t buffet style. At the same time, the vegetables found at most diner type places include salads, lettuce, and tomatoes, which are available for a few months in the year. We ate lunch at Three Wolves and most everyone, myself included, had an Indian taco, some for the first time. The frybread was made with regional flour and then topped with local beef, tomatoes, salsa, and cheese, among other fixings. It was definitely delicious (though I didn’t eat the beef…).

Riders and SKC students on Salish Kootenai College's campus

We did so much during our time in the northern Rockies, in addition to learning about the Farm to College programs. We toured the schools, learned a little about Native American Journalism at UM; met with two potential Udall scholars from SKC, the Marceau brothers, who told us about their work and gave us a tour of the biochemistry lab; we saw the art gallery at SKC; and the new and huge community garden. We picked up trash in a park along Flathead Lake before jumping in. Our alumni meet-up

the night before was at a park in Missoula, where we were guests of the Bridges to Baccalaureate and Project TRAIN programs, both programs that provide research and internship opportunities for American Indians working in a wide range of science and health fields. We met lots of really cool people there and were the judges for a side-dish tasting competition (the winners got some fancy Udall t-shirts). All in all I thought it was a ton of fun and we learned so much about the different communities living in Missoula and in Flathead.

I just wanted to say thank you to everyone who made our stop possible. I’m moving to the Missoula area after the trip (having made the decision last February ;)) and I am nothing but excited to be there again.

By Jenny Vazquez

Sunday, July 15, 2007

A Kansas Limerick

There once was a Kansan who frowned
He frowned because his oil was browned.
It was leftover grease
The supply never ceased
And into the drain it got downed

Then someone at KU got smart:
“With dependences on oil we’ll part!
we don’t need no soy oil
just bring brown grease to boil
And biodiesel vats we’ll start!”

And so today we got the spiel
About their new biodiesel
Clear as water
But burns way hotter
You can’t deny it’s golden appeal.

(The KU Biodiesel Initiative gave us a talk about their biodiesel production. Associate Professor Susan Stagg-Williams and Ilya Tabakh presented to us. For more information, check out the KU media write-up.

STUDENT CO-OP TEASER TRAILER:

And then we went to visit Ad ASTRA, one of 3 coops administered by KU Student Coops. This tour was led by Dustin Jensen (Scholar ’06 & ’07), and Laura Adams (Scholar ’05) - pictured on the right.

It was a glimpse into communal living in an environment where 10 different people with different skills to contribute – from finding ways to improve building insulation to constructing recycled metal sculptures – to create a sustainable living space. For more resources, you’ll have to sit tight till August (when I’ll post my final project).

By: Kayanna Warren

Saturday, July 7, 2007

Vanderbilt

I hate to sound unfaithful to my school, but daaaaaang Vanderbilt’s new dorms are attractive – green buildings, built to encourage socializing, House style.

And they’re building a biodiesel production facility on campus too – an initiative started by students! Our green tour of Vanderbilt – home of some Udall alumni – was led by Derek Riley.

Look for more resources when I post my final project in mid-August!

By: Kayanna Warren

Friday, June 29, 2007

Gneiss, Gneiss, Baby - a.k.a Purdue Rocks!

Hi from Indiana! On Wednesday morning, Cristina Carbajo (Scholar ’05) led us on a really gneiss tour of Purdue’s campus erratics. (sorry, I know, I know, the geology puns). They’ve put together a Geology Walking Tour to get folks interested in geology and the natural world. I learned that there are large, well-valued limestone deposits in Indiana that are used extensively in East Coast architecture. I related everything I remembered about crystals to Crystal. (man, I’m on a roll – but it’s true!) We also went on a walking tour of trees and saw what I think was a locust tree, with ginormous curly bean/seed pods. Jen pointed out that they were curly like Savanna’s hair (but not nearly as awesome, I might add).

Off to Chicago!

By: Kayanna Warren

Legacy Riders Explore PSU’s Happy Valley

Happy Valley??? Is there really a place named Happy Valley? And does it live up to its name? The Legacy riders are happy to report that, yes, Happy Valley exists – it lies between Bald Eagle Ridge, Nittany Mountain, and Tussey Mountain in Central Pennsylvania and is home to Penn State University. And, we’re also happy to report that the Happy Valley name fits! The forested hills, agricultural valley floors, kind spirit of the residents, great ice cream, and innovative environmental initiatives made for a very happy, educational stop.

We have to send a BIG thank you to Penn State University and the Department of Landscape Architecture! Through the generous support of Tineke Cunning (Director of PSU’s Fellowship Office) and Brian Orland (Head of the Department of Landscape Architecture), all housing and meals were compliments of the University! Eating our meals as a group at the Pollock Dining Commons conjured memories of freshman year for all of us: Fifteen (yeah Joel!) newly made friends grouped around a table, chatting, laughing, and eating everything from potatoes au gratin, to Tofu Pups, to elaborate ice cream/cereal concoctions! The dining commons staff outshined some of our previous dining experiences creating custom-made meals to accommodate our food preferences and even searching out the locations of the different types of fish on the menu! At the end of each meal we contributed our food scraps and napkins to the university’s large scale composting operation (remember PSU is a land grant university!).

At the Department of Landscape Architecture, Brian Orland gave us an in-depth account of designing, constructing, and occupying the LEED gold certified School of Architecture and Landscape Architecture (SALA) building. Aside from the sheer size of the structure (imagine 500+ design students busily working together in one massive studio space), the most memorable features of the building tour were the locally quarried blue stone walls inside and out, the well designed parking lot preserving mature oak trees and incorporating bioswales, and innovative use of sustainable materials in the interior.

Our tour of the SALA building was followed by a lunch with guest speakers Jennifer Shuey, executive director of the Clear Water Conservancy and Bob Cameron of PSU’s Center for Sustainability. Both speakers presented their organizations’ environmental initiatives within the university and region.

Following lunch we helped Louise Comas, a restoration ecologist working with both the Clearwater Conservancy and the Center for Sustainability, initiate a riparian restoration program. Half of us rolled-up our sleeves, dug post holes, and spread mulch for a shaded propagation structure. The other half of the group potted bare-rooted plant cuttings of riparian plant species locally collected. After two hours of hard work, we had potted over two hundred and fifty plants, and provided a big start to the construction of the shade structure. To thank us for our help, Bob Cameron provided us with Penn State Creamery Ice Cream all produced on campus by Penn State cows! My favorite flavor was ‘Coffee Break,’ but I admit eating bowls of ‘Peachy Paterno’ and ‘Dark Chocolate Cherry Torte’ as well!

Ice cream, public service, green architecture, a great university and town – we couldn’t be happier!

By: Matt McMahon

Wednesday, June 27, 2007

Ithaca in Photos

A photo essay of our time in Ithaca (If you like these, there are LOTS more on our Flickr site)

Controls for the slideshow are above and below the picture window.

About that first McDonalds shot... umm... it's an exercise in contrast... errr..

Photos by Bob Filbin

Ithaca Hospitality – I’m Homesick for Cornell Already, New York!

For Beth Fiori, Scott Perez, and Ding Kong.

After days of travel, Cornell welcomed the Udall Legacy Tour with high energy and friendly smiles. Traveling to different stops almost everyday is an amazing opportunity and adventure. It is motivating to be a part of the Morris K. Udall Legacy. It is also inspiring to travel around the country, highlighting and working towards solutions to pressing environmental and Native American issues. I have had the opportunity to meet so many wonderful new people, I have observed fascinating new places, and I have already gained a great deal both personally and intellectually….. to think we have only been on tour for less than two weeks! I can only imagine how special the upcoming weeks will be.

While traveling on the Udall tour is exciting, adventurous, and encouraging….. it is also very busy, and sometimes exhausting.

I was incredibly thankful when we visited Ithaca – their generous hospitality left us feeling rejuvenated for another 5+ weeks of travel. In honor of those who made our stay at Ithaca and Cornell so wonderful, I have put together the following:

The top ten things about Ithaca Hospitality during the Udall tour visit:

1. Our Udall family/hosts that share the vision of the Udall Legacy – Beth Fiori (Cornell Fellowship Coordinator & Udall Faculty Representative), Scott Perez (Cornell Graduate Student & ’99 Scholar), and Ding Kong (Cornell Undergraduate Student & ’07 Scholar) we love you!

2. Meeting Carolyn Peterson, the Mayor of Ithaca, and her grandson Sebastian.

3. Banquet Dinner with Cornell Community members - Faculty, Staff, and Students (Thank you Cornell for hosting this wonderful evening!).

4. Orientation material with organic dark chocolate included and a Moosewood dinner for the Udall Riders upon arrival to Cornell (Thank you again Cornell! Excellent organization, food, and company!).

5. Max at the Farmers Market – One of the cutest children we’ve met on the tour who visited the Udall Motor Coach with his father at the Farmers Market. Max would say “Biodiesel” and “Welcome to Ithaca” in an oh-so-cute voice.

The crew doing outreach at the Ithaca Farmer's Market

6. Ithaca Farmers Market – Great community, zero waste (everything at the market was either recyclable or compostable), plus lots of great food: Samosas, Lemonade, Strawberries, and much much more. Yum.

7. Single Rooms at Cornell with Recycling Bins (We all are great friends, but with living and working together 24/7, everyone enjoyed a little privacy)!

8. & Single Bathrooms.

9. Fresh fruit and Breakfast (in the same building as our housing!).

10. Free Laundry and Detergent – the machines were even more sustainable front loading washers.

~~~~

By: Jessica Fagan

Thursday, June 21, 2007

Acadian Days and Rhythms

On Tuesday, the Riders of the Storm were ready to call the tour quits and settle down on the sunny coast of Maine. If there was one thing we all agreed on as our stay at College of the Atlantic came to a close, it was that we loved Bar Harbor. Though we were sorry to leave, Acadia National Park was the perfect spot for our last hours in the “the way life should be” state. Jessica, Bret M., Bob, Martina, and I met in the park that morning with kids from the Penobscot Nation Boys & Girls Club for the second mini Parks in Focus program of the tour. We were provided with essential assistance and local knowledge by College of the Atlantic students John Deans (Udall Scholar ’06) and Jasmine.

We were enormously grateful for their helping hands not only because they allowed us to include a couple more young activists in one of the most fantastic parts of the Legacy Tour, but also because, of the five riders helping in Acadia, only Bob had ever before visited the park. Jasmine and John agreed to help us out at the very last minute, and we could not have run the program without them. Both provided us with transportation and the ecological knowledge necessary for the environmental education component of Parks in Focus. For the digital photography side of the program, our trusty Bob took the lead – Bob also knows more than a little bit about the geology of Acadia. For Jessica, Martina, Bret, and me, the day was, well, a walk in the park.

We met the Boys & Girls Club group at Otter Point in the southeast section of the island where Jasmine took us down to the water’s edge and opened our eyes to the botanical and animal wonders of the tide pools. For the second half of the program we took the group inland to the Gorham Mountain Trail where Bob taught us all about the geologic history of the park. On the trail, the kids learned a few more techniques for taking photos. Though the program ran for a solid four hours, the time came quickly to a close and we said goodbye to the kids, rewarding their efforts and attentiveness with a plethora of Udall goodies and some Clif bars. We soon found ourselves lying on Sand Beach alongside the other riders who had spent the early afternoon clearing drainage on the park’s carriage roads with help from Acadia’s Volunteer Coordinator Jonathan Gormley and other park volunteers. The riders who volunteered were also lucky enough to meet with the Deputy Superintendent of Acadia National Park.

With our projects done for the day, most of us took the time to relax and get a bit sunburned on Sand Beach while a handful of the riders climbed a steep mountain known as the Beehive for a fabulous view of the island and surrounding ocean.

We left the park that evening and drove late into the night to arrive in Portland for a mere nine-hour hotel stay. As I drifted quickly to sleep that night, I thought back on our wonderful and far too brief stop in Maine. Did you know that COA has a masters program? For those of us on the bus who see this tour as a great way to explore potential future places of residence, Bar Harbor has made the first cut.

By: Savanna Ferguson

Thank You Maine!

Stepping off the bus in Bar Harbor, Maine, we all found a haven and a welcome change from the frenetic pace of DC, Philly, NYC, and Boston all in the previous 5 days.

Why would anyone come to College of the Atlantic and Bar Harbor, Maine?

Take a good look around, and you’ll know why – proximity to Acadia National Park and its trails and beaches. (Of course, some 300 come for the school program – all students major in Human Ecology, but with different emphases. Talk about a school focused on the environment!)

We were treated to sea kayaking our first morning there. It was my first time in a kayak and my first time touching the Atlantic Ocean, as far as I can remember. Jenny and I paddled our boat alongside a number of our busmates, and College of the Atlantic (CoA) Udall fac rep Ken Cline, Udall alumni John Deans (’06) and Henry Steinberg (’04, ’05) led us around two of the closest islands. We saw clouds of jellyfish, caught up with alumni we knew from Orientations past, played a bit of bumper kayak, and fought the assailing winds, high tide, and growing swells back to shore.

In the afternoon, some folks went on a hike up Beehive, and others took the time to relax (O so welcome!) and catch up, taking in what Maine has to offer.

In the evening, some of us got the opportunity to cook, using as many ingredients we could find that were local and organic. A highlight, other than the respite for our wallets, was LOBSTER!

Maine lobster, folks. It’s listed on the ‘good alternatives’ of the Monterey Bay Aquarium’s Seafood Watch list. We got a spirited lesson on how to eat lobster by New England local Jasmine, who also helped with the Parks in Focus event the next day. It was a grand ol’ exoskeleton cracking, lobster juice spurting, and leg gnawing time. Those were some delicious lobsters! My favorite piece was the claw.

I took the time to talk to John Deans about sustainability at CoA, which I will include in the How to Green Your Campus resource guide available through the Udall’s website after the tour. It was definitely interesting to hear the perspective from a small school about the process of identifying places for improvement, spreading awareness, and making those changes – apparently, big schools are not the only ones facing those challenges.

All us riders say Thank You Maine!

By: Kayanna Warren

Wednesday, June 20, 2007

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

Wednesday, May 23, 2007

Welcome to the Udall Legacy Bus Tour Blog

The Countdown Begins.

On June 12th, thirteen crazy Udallers are hoppin' on a ride so pimped out -- it would make Arnold Schwarzenegger jealous. We're taking our motor coach coast-to-coast highlighting people -- especially young people -- who are finding solutions to pressing environmental and Native American issues (full itinerary). And we're going to be documenting the whole trip -- with text, photo, and video -- right here.

We want you to join us; There are a couple of ways to do it

Join our email list. On the right hand navigation bar, a little bit down, there's an easy place to sign up for it. We'll be sending updates from the road with news from the communities we visit, links to stories about the tour, and links back to the blog. We promise not to flood your inbox (i.e. no more than two emails/week).

If you're tech savvy -- sign up for our RSS feed. See the button at the bottom of our blog or copy this link into your feed reader.

If you hate computers but love Mo & Udallers, just bookmark our site and keep checking back here: blogs.udall.gov

We also want your help spreading the word.

If you're on Facebook, MySpace, or have your own blog/website -- please link to us. The bookmark button at the bottom of our blog makes it easy.

Send your friends and family a link to our blog. We all know there are problems out there. Our tour --and blog -- will be highlighting some of the solutions.

And, if you really want to be our favorite person ever -- tell any reporter you know about our tour and point 'em in the direction of our media resources.

While we're posting updates from the road, we hope to get your feedback. At the end of every post there's a link that says 'comments.' Just click on that link to leave your thoughts. If you've got any suggestions for the blogs, drop us a line at : legacybustour@udall.gov

THREE WEEKS 'TILL KICK-OFF IN D.C.

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