The monthly Community Matters newsletter is now available. The newsletter is created by the Sustainable Delaware organization. The newsletter is posted here, under the Sustainability in Delaware tab above.
The monthly Community Matters newsletter is now available. The newsletter is created by the Sustainable Delaware organization. The newsletter is posted here, and under the Sustainability in Delaware tab above.
Sustainable Delaware is always happy to have OWU student, staff or faculty involvement. Check their web pages for more information.
A free, day-long meeting about earth’s climate at Ohio Wesleyan, Saturday, March 31, 2018
Free: Please RSVP here for the event next weekend.
Looking forward to seeing you all there!
Climate Change: What We Know, and What We Can Do
Saturday, 31 March 2018
2nd and 3rd Floors of Merrick Hall
Ohio Wesleyan University
Summary: The Anthropocene, the era in which humans have become the dominating factor to the global climate, is a period in the geologic history. For decades now, the public has heard of the phrases ‘global warming’ and ‘climate change.’ What continues to remain a challenge is the public’s understanding of the processes associated with the current global phenomenon. This workshop, supported by the Mellon Foundation, is an attempt to bring together climate scientists, industry, the public, and our academic institutions into one space to communicate what it means to be living in the Anthropocene. What do we know about it and what can we do about it? We seek to build long-term collaborations and help prepare a new generation of community members and scholars to address these concerns.
Preliminary Schedule
9:00-9:30 Check-in
9:30-9:45 Opening Remarks
9:45 – 11:15 Short Talks (with break)
11:15 – noon Keynote Speaker: Dr. Christopher Karmosky, SUNY Oneonta
Noon – 1:00 Lunch
1:00 – 3:30 Workshops
3:30 – 4:00 Closing Remarks
We are looking for 1 – 2 persons to volunteer to be moderators of the short workshop groups (approximately 6). The idea here is for people to gather by interest and work on defining an agenda or outcome of the workshop. Moderators would be tasked with taking notes and making sure the group is on task. There will be modest financial compensation for moderators.
Please RSVP here ASAP. If you have any question, feel free to ask Dustin (dsbraden@owu.edu) or Nathan (nsamador@owu.edu).
Rain barrels have become increasingly popular. As a community, we can increase this popularity by making them more visually appealing. Businesses, organizations, and individuals have the opportunity to fund a rain barrel with an installation kit for $34. The cost includes sanding, washing, and priming each barrel before it is given for painting.
Since 2014, the City of Delaware has organized the Northern Olentangy Watershed (NOW) Festival that highlights our local, water resources. This summer, the 5th annual NOW Festival will take place on June 16th at Mingo Park (500 E. Lincoln Ave. Delaware, OH) from 12-3 p.m. As part of the festival, the annual rain barrel raffle will occur. Rain barrels provide many stormwater benefits including:
Rain barrels have become increasingly popular. As a community, we can increase this popularity by making them more visually appealing. Businesses, organizations, and individuals have the opportunity to fund a rain barrel with an installation kit for $34. The cost includes sanding, washing, and priming each barrel before it is given for painting. The barrels can be both sponsored and painted by the same entity, or a request can be made for a local art class to paint it. These barrels will be raffled off at the NOW Festival on June 16th at Mingo Park and proceeds will go to help support the Upper Olentangy River Watershed.
See form, below.
Payment must accompany the sponsorship requests. All rain barrel request forms must be received by Friday, April 13th by 4 p.m. The purchase of the rain barrel and kit is non-refundable.
Checks can be made out to “City of Delaware, Public Utilities” and mailed to:
City of Delaware Caroline Cicerchi, Watershed Coordinator 225 Cherry Street Delaware, Ohio 43015
There are a limited number of barrels available for this opportunity. Once that limit has been obtained or the deadline for ordering has been reached the barrels will be distributed to the appropriate painters. Local art programs in the community, including local schools, have been contacted about painting some of these barrels. If you are interested in utilizing one of these programs, please indicate so on the order form. There may be a limit to these programs, so each request will be accommodated on a first-come basis. You will be notified by email once the supplies are available for pickup or delivery. It is expected that the rain barrels will start to be delivered or available for pick up starting Monday, April 2nd as requests are received.
If you are painting the barrel yourself, please use outdoor acrylic paint (same paint that is bought for painting the outside of houses, outdoor fencing, etc.). The rain barrels will need to be decorated by May 31st. Once decorated, you can put them on display at your business either inside or outside leading up to the Northern Olentangy Watershed (NOW) Festival or, if preferred, they can be dropped off at the Wastewater Treatment Plant Facility for the City to put them on display.
All painted barrels will need to be delivered to the City of Delaware’s Wastewater Treatment Plant Facility (225 Cherry St., Delaware, OH) before 4:00 p.m. on Wednesday, June 13th.
Please consider participating in this fun event! The festival will be held at Mingo Park (500 E. Lincoln Ave., Delaware, Ohio) on June 16th from 12:00-3:00 p.m. Raffle ticket sales will begin at 12 p.m. and end at 2:30 p.m. with the winning ticket to be drawn shortly after.
Please contact Caroline Cicerchi, Watershed & Sustainability Coordinator, with any questions at 740-203-1905 or ccicerchi@delawareohio.net.
Kemi Fuentes-George’s (OWU ’01) recent book, Between Preservation and Exploitation: Transnational Networks and Conservation in Developing Countries explores how local justice claims affect states’ abilities to implement their obligations under international environmental agreements.
Post-Slavery Narratives and Conservation in Rural Jamaica:
How Local Culture Affects Global Environmental Governance
Tuesday, Feb. 20th 7:00 p.m. HWCC Benes B
Kemi Fuentes-George (OWU ’01)
Kemi Fuentes-George (OWU ’01) is an Assistant Professor at Middlebury College. His recent book, Between Preservation and Exploitation: Transnational Networks and Conservation in Developing Countries, published by MIT Press, explores how local justice claims affect states’ abilities to implement their obligations under international environmental agreements. He has also published research in Global Environmental Politics Journal, book chapters in Routledge, and written about environmental justice on Salon.com. He is active in his community as a member of the Town of Middlebury Conservation Commission, and as a volunteer for the Vermont chapter of Migrant Justice.
“‘Scrappy” Sustainability at Ohio Wesleyan University” is a recently published book chapter which describes OWU’s sustainability efforts and strategies over the last decade.
Woodrow (Woody) Clark is an OWU alumnus (’67) long involved with environmental and sustainability efforts. The second edition of his Sustainable Cities and Communities Design Handbook (December 2017 info here and here) contains a chapter written by OWU student Emily Howald (OWU, ’18) and Professor of Geography John Krygier.
“‘Scrappy” Sustainability at Ohio Wesleyan University” describes OWU’s sustainability efforts and strategies over the last decade. These efforts have been the work of students, staff, faculty, alumni and community members all working at a grassroots level. These efforts, in practice, have led us to develop a series of strategies, Scrappy Sustainability, which is particularly appropriate for colleges and universities.
The first page of the chapter below. PDF here.
…and a text from the first few pages:
“Scrappy” Sustainability at Ohio Wesleyan University
Emily Howald, John Krygier
Ohio Wesleyan University, Delaware, OH, United States
Chapter Outline
A Grassroots Model for Sustainability in Higher Education 561
The Context of Sustainability at Ohio Wesleyan University 561
Coordinating Sustainability Without a Sustainability Coordinator 564
“Scrappy Sustainability” Outcomes 565
A New Model for Sustainability? 570
A GRASSROOTS MODEL FOR SUSTAINABILITY IN HIGHER EDUCATION
There are colleges and universities with the expertise and financial resources to invest in large-scale, conspicuous sustainability efforts (such as large solar arrays, stylish LEED-certified buildings, and full-time sustainability staff) and there are those who do not. However, those without the funds for conspicuous sustainability are not necessarily excluded from substantive sustainability efforts. Indeed, we suggest that grassroots, “scrappy” sustainability efforts on college campuses and at other institutions may have certain benefits over top-down, high-investment sustainability.
THE CONTEXT OF SUSTAINABILITY AT OHIO WESLEYAN UNIVERSITY
Ohio Wesleyan University (OWU) is a small, private, liberal arts college in central Ohio that serves as a modest showcase for a relatively low-cost, grassroots, and distributed approach to sustainability. The university neither has a sustainability coordinator position nor any other employee with distinct expertise in sustainability. None of the faculty have specializations in the field, and there are no classes taught on the subject. As of yet, there is no official sustainability plan and there are neither funds nor donations set aside specifically for sustainability projects. OWU has, over the last decade, expanded its endowment, raised significant funds for student travel and research, and embarked on a substantial upgrade to campus student housing. These are all fundamentally important and easily justifiable priorities. Given this situation, it is easy for students, faculty, and staff to feel like not enough is being done to foster sustainability on campus. Instead of complaining about the lack of top-down, large-investment sustainability, a group of students, faculty, and staff have embarked on a grassroots effort to make sustainability work at OWU despite limited resources. Ultimately, we argue, sustainability efforts can succeed if those who believe in the value of sustainability actually do something, then persist in furthering the efforts until something takes hold, and then persist in keeping the efforts going. Successes with these smaller, “scrappy” efforts will, hopefully, lead to larger efforts, backed by a spreading culture of sustainability.
OWU has a rocky history with sustainability efforts. Many higher education institutions believe that they must be leaders in finding solutions to the environmental crisis by developing and promoting the knowledge, tools, and technologies needed to transition to a sustainable society. As the environmental movement emerged and developed in the 1960s and the 1970s, OWU established an Environmental Studies major, the first such program in an academic institution in Ohio. In its nearly 40-year existence, the program has produced hundreds of majors that have gone on to successful careers related to the environment. In 2009, a Sustainability Task Force was created to evaluate the President’s Climate Commitment (PCC), which 80% of students voted to support. Despite the lack of any direct negative consequences for not meeting the PCC goals, the Task Force was concerned about the capital investments and employee time needed to implement and monitor the necessary energy efficiency upgrades to campus facilities, and recommended that a sustainability coordinator be hired (rather than signing the PCC). In 2011, an American Recovery and Reinvestment Act grant funded a 2-year sustainability coordinator position. The university hired Sean Kinghorn for the position, and his efforts generated significant rebate funds for the university, as well as energy-saving efforts and dozens of sustainability projects (many led by students). In 2013, Kinghorn’s position ended, after the failure of several grants intended to acquire additional funds for the position. A student protest later that year demonstrated student commitment to the sustainability coordinator position. With the decision not to sign the PCC and the lack of funds to continue the sustainability coordinator position, one might expect the prospects for sustainability on campus to fade. At that point, the campus Sustainability Task Force set out on an effort to encourage grassroots sustainability efforts and create a campus sustainability plan, despite the setbacks.
Check out the possibilities for campus living in on of OWU’s Student Living Units.
TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 6TH
Interfaith House (5-7pm) @ 118A Rowland Ave
Citizens of the World House (6-8pm) @ 88 Oak Hill Ave:
CoW’s, Cheese, Cards, and Crafts
https://www.facebook.com/events/401638533625550/
WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 7TH
Cupcakes and Valentines with the Sexuality and Gender Equality House
(5-7pm) @ 118B RowlandAve
https://www.facebook.com/events/808592395993977/?ti=cl
House of Spiritual Athletes (6-8 pm) @ 110B Rowland Ave
Get to Gnome the Tree House (6-8pm) @ 110A Rowland Ave
https://www.facebook.com/events/163814351008963/
THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 8TH
Out of This World Shrinky Dinks with Peace and Justice House!
(6:30-8pm) @ 94B Rowland Ave
https://www.facebook.com/events/573646919638205/
House of Linguistic Diversity (8-9pm) @ 94A Rowland Ave
This is a “How to get a Land Management Job for summer of 2018” i.e. work for the Forest Service or Park Service where the mountains are your office…
OWU Students,
This is a “How to get a Land Management Job for summer of 2018” i.e. work for the Forest Service or Park Service where the mountains are your office…
A little about me: My name’s Aaron McCown, I graduated from OWU in spring of 2011, and headed out to Montana to do a season with Montana Conservation Corps. I wanted an adventure and I got it. Within 2 weeks of leaving Delaware, OH, I was deep in the Northern Rockies. I spent the next 5 months in the Bob Marshall Wilderness that summer digging trails, swinging an ax, sawing logs with crosscut saws, and living in a tent – it was awesome. As much as I loved trail work, I saw the writing on the wall (thanks to my OWU education) and so I went off to the frontlines of climate change as a wildland firefighter the next summer, where I have been ever since. I’m currently a career employee on the Bitterroot National Forest and I really like my job:) Accordingly, I want to help current OWU students explore the world of Land Management via passing along some summer job opportunities, or rather, how to find those jobs and get them.
The vast public lands of the western US are managed by the US Forest Service, National Park Service, Bureau of Land Management, the US Fish and Wildlife Service, and numerous state agencies with help from a growing number of non-profit Americorps-funded Conservation Corps. Their workforce is mostly composed of temporary seasonal employees – in other words, the perfect summer jobs for college students!
What kind of jobs are there?
– trail maintenance
– maintaining and improving campgrounds
– marking timber for logging operations
– collecting data from field sites
– fighting wildfires
– spraying weeds
Admittedly, most of these entry-level jobs are fairly menial, but you will also use the skills you’ve learned at OWU. Reading maps, using GIS, measuring fuel samples (moisture content of vegetation), and inventorying the forest are all part of my regular duties. Also, this is the Federal Government we’re talking about and once you get your foot in the door, a nice benefits package including a pension, healthcare, matching retirement, etc does await you. So really, taking a job like this could be viewed as a decently paid internship.
On to the jobs…
Federal jobs are a little tricky to apply for. There is a certain dance you have to do. Right now, applying on time via USAJobs.gov is the most important step. Many seasonal jobs for the USFS in Idaho, Montana, and North Dakota are closing soon (on January 9th)! Most opportunities in the Southwest have already closed, because believe it or not, their field season is rapidly approaching! If I were you, I’d focus on Utah, Idaho, Montana, Wyoming, Oregon, and Washington. Those area’s field seasons run much more inline with your summer break away (mid-May through the fall, but student employees are common, so fret not!).
Step 1: What do you want to do? And where do you want to work?
You need to figure out roughly what you want to do (dig trail, inventory vegetation, spray weeds, fight fire, etc) and the associated job. You will likely only qualify as a GS-03 or GS-04 grade employee as a college student.
Most of these jobs are going to be called “Forestry Technician,” “Forestry Aid,” “Range Technician,” and “Range Aid.” So you need to get on USAJobs.gov and search those positions.
Also figure out where roughly you want to work, e.g. Colorado or the Northern Rockies or Yellowstone National Park, because later you will need to call those places and talk to the hiring official. Here’s a list of National Forests to get you started. https://www.fs.fed.us/recreation/map/state_list.shtml
Another option, is to use this website: https://fsoutreach.gdcii.com/Outreach
I’d recommend setting the search functions to: Opportunity > Temporary Appointment; Series > 0462 Forestry Technician; Grade > 03 or 04; and Within State > Utah/Idaho/Montana/North Dakota/Wyoming, etc
If you really want to go spend next summer working for the Land Management Agencies, I’d recommend applying to 30+ positions.
Step 2: USAJOBS.GOV
All Federal hiring goes through USAJobs.gov and it can be a real pain!
Your USAJobs application must be very thorough. Unlike many lines of work, the Feds want LONG RESUMES. Like pages and pages of info. Include very detailed accounts (e.g. several paragraph essays) of each job/work experience you’ve had. Also include any and all relevant skills and experiences including sports, outdoor hobbies, any 1st Aid/CPR training you’ve ever had, and relevant classes you’ve taken.
Also upload a short cover letter saying why you want to get a summer job in Land Management and include a short “normal” resume (and label it as such), which some hiring officials may prefer.
The reason for the excessively long USAJOB resume is that basically a computer screens it before any human. It’s a good idea to include “buzz words” and phrases from the description of the job to which you are applying.
When you’re done, make sure you application is actually submitted and it’s on time.
Step 3: Calling People – THE MOST IMPORTANT STEP
You need to call and talk to people at Yellowstone NP or wherever you want a job. Applying online is basically only a formality. You need to CALL the various parks/forests you’ve just applied to (use google & call the front desk) and ask to talk to the hiring person for trails/fire/weeds/range/timber/recreation. You can call before you submit an application, but again, time is ticking for the 2018 field season!
Just call the front desk and ask for whoever does the hiring for “fire” or “trails” or “weeds” or “recreation.”
Have a few lines rehearsed about why you want the job and why youre worth hiring. Ask questions about their program, the local area, what you’d be doing if you got hired, if they have housing, when you’d start work. Hiring officials keep “score” of who called, when, and how good they sounded. You can leave a message and hiring officials will usually call you back.
Have a resume ready to email them and offer to do so.
It also helps to keep a spreadsheet or at least notes of all the places you’ve called, and who you talked to, etc
Step 4: Await your fate…
Although the Fed’s are currently taking applications, it might be a few months before they tell anyone that they have a job. Basically, your application is going to go into a massive system and it will take weeks of screening before it gets to those hiring officials who you need to call. Once it gets to them via a Referral List, they can then choose who they hire. So you need to make the list and call those folks they choose your name off the list.
Step 5: Managing job offers.
Come late February/March/April, you’ll start hearing back from those folks who you called… Here’s my advice:
* Accept your 1st offer no matter what.
* Accept all subsequent offers that you are interested in.
* Finally, go with the offer that you’re most interested in and call everyone else and tell them that you’ve taken a different job. It’s no skin off their back and you will not be black listed.
Final advice… Getting your foot in the door is important, but this is temporary seasonal work… there’s always next summer. It took me 3 years to get a job with the USFS Forest Service. I’m from the East Coast and was hired for my 1st firefighter job in Idaho while vacationing in Costa Rica. Yup, I was calling back to the US and begging for jobs on the beach and it worked out just fine. Did my hiring packet in a computer in Nicaragua…
But if you don’t get a job with the Feds this year, there’s always Americorps.
Americorps Conservation Corps
I’m not going to go into nearly as much detail with the Conservation Corps, as each one is different and their websites and application processes are much more straight forward. Basically, they are all modern day spin-offs of the Civilian Conservation Corps from the New Deal, but nowadays they’re all non-profit corporations that get funding through Americorps (which is a big Federal fund of money) so long as they meet certain criteria.
Admittedly, the pay with Conservation Corps is much less, as these are truly internship, but they are VERY FUN experiences. You will make some great friends and build a solid resume if a career in Land Management truly interests you. I’ve worked for both Montana Conservation Corps and Arizona Conservation Corps (formerly Southwest CC). Both were great organizations and I have nothing but good things to say about them. Anyhoo, here’s a brief list for ya:
Arizona Conservation Corps
California Conservation Corps
Montana Conservation Corps
Northwest Youth Corps
(^ just Google these, I’m not gonna bother with links)
There are definitely more out there, I believe Vermont has one, but again, these organizations are much easier to find and apply to online. There’s not quite the dance as there is with the Feds.
Ohio Wesleyan University students volunteered to go door to door in the city of Delaware promoting a levy on the November 7, 2017 ballot to fund our Delaware Preservation Parks system.
Ohio Wesleyan University students, who are also Environmental Studies majors and members of our campus Environment and Wildlife Club, volunteered to go door to door in the city of Delaware promoting a levy on the November 7, 2017 ballot to fund our Delaware Preservation Parks system.
The students were briefed by Steve Berry, a Delaware resident and volunteer with Preservation Parks. Emily Howald (second from left) helped organize the effort, and knocked on doors with Daniel Delatte (left), Nina Codrington-White (second from right) and Holly Keating.
The monthly Community Matters newsletter is now available. The newsletter is created by the Sustainable Delaware organization. The newsletter is posted here, under the Sustainability in Delaware tab above.
The monthly Community Matters newsletter is now available. The newsletter is created by the Sustainable Delaware organization. The newsletter is posted here, under the Sustainability in Delaware tab above.
Sustainable Delaware is always happy to have OWU student, staff or faculty involvement. Check their web pages for more information.
OWU’s Dining Services in Smith Hall now provides hyper-local produce from MTSO’s Seminary Hill Farm, an organic farm just a few miles south of campus.
OWU’s Dining Services in Smith Hall now provides hyper-local produce from MTSO’s Seminary Hill Farm, an organic farm just a few miles south of campus. Seminary Hill Farm emphasizes making fresh organic produce available to everyone in the community and works with the Yellow Bird FoodShed to provide fresh produce to members. The farm also teaches students in MTSO’s ministry program to value ecosystems and practice sustainable living.
Seminary Hill produce is now available as part of campus salad bars and will be used in other dishes served by Chartwells during the Fall Semester of 2017. Recipes from Seminary Hill Farm were featured during Farm Fresh Week (September 11th through 15th). Student Ellen Sizer (’18) has been the driving force behind this new culinary addition to campus and describes her motivations and progress:
This project was inspired by the continuous and hard work I have put in to make OWU’s campus more vegan and vegetarian (“veg”) friendly. I have been meeting with representatives for OWU’s food service provider Chartwells on a bi-weekly basis for the last year to discuss ways in which I can turn my ambitions into a reality. Through this collaboration with Chartwells I was able to implement small changes in the menu here at OWU. There are more tofu options, an abundance of soymilk, and tofurky has been added to the rotation in weekly dishes. The proposed Local Food Sourced Salad Bar, to be located in the Smith Dining Hall, is an ambitious next step in accommodating the needs of veg students and promoting local foods. The local Seminary Hill Farm will supply salad and vegetables for the salad bar: this is the foundation for the “local” theme of the salad bar. Much of the food in the salad bar will be vegetarian and vegan. I also envision the proposed salad bar as a location to offer and promote local veg food. However, I do not think only vegetarians and vegans will use the salad bar, and then it is not necessary to advertise the salad bar as vegetarian and vegan. Ultimately, the proposed salad bar will be appetizing and healthy and appealing to all students. In other words, I propose a stealth expansion of local and vegan and vegetarian food on campus through the Local Food Sourced Salad Bar.
I held a discussion/tasting on April 22nd, 2017 with Tadd Peterson and Noelle Deehr from Seminary Hill Farm, as well as Chartwells staff, and Del Sroufe who is co-owner at Wellness Forum Foods. For this tasting, I also invited some students with similar ambitions such as mine to make OWU more vegan and vegetarian friendly. The food was received well and Chartwells was impressed.
