Posts tagged guest blog
Learning New Things Related to Sustainable Living
Oct 23rd
GreenTreks Network has been lucky to have volunteer David Hecht on board since June 2012. Dave is working with GreenTreks Network as part of the GlaxoSmithKline Pulse Volunteer Program. Today, Dave is guest-blogging to share some of his recent experiences being in Philadelphia.
Over the years I have heard about the increase interest in the green infrastructure. We saw stories on television related to the greening of the Seattle and Portland, Oregon, areas. I am fortunate to volunteer through the GlaxoSmithKline Pulse program at GreenTreks Network Inc. They help tell stories that change the world. I have lived in Philadelphia over the last 3 months and have learned that this city is moving towards being a better sustainable city. Some private organizations have also been driven to this environmental goal. Over the last three weeks I have had a great opportunity to see two unique locations in the Philadelphia area. The first is at the Morris Arboretum and the second is the PECO office building in Center City Philadelphia. Both of the organizations have decided to work on having LEED-certified buildings.
The Morris Arboretum [featured in our Porous Pavement video] has a building that is Platinum-rated LEED Certified. Some of their buildings that impressed me were the green roofed storage/garage facilities. The two roofs grow different flora on them. The type flora grown is related to the depth of the soil. One roof is 2500 sq. ft with 4 inches of soil while the other is 3750 sq. ft with 8 inches of soil. Sedum is a typical growth since it is drought and temperature resistant.
A comparator roof is found on the 8th floor of the PECO building. This roof is much larger than the Morris roofs. It is 45,000 sq. ft of surface space with 4 inches thick with soil. It also has sedum and other flora growing on it.
The primary idea with having a roof with natural plant growth is stormwater management. The water that normally gets on roofs goes down the storm drain into our water supplies. Often there is waste or slit going in to the system along with the rain water. We know that we need to decrease the amount of runoff to help the waterways of our country.
With the videos that GreenTreks produces we help show stories like these to give others a positive educational experience.
For the PECO Green Roof fact sheet, click here. It’s fascinating stuff!
To learn more about green infrastructure and stormwater management, visit StormwaterPA.org.
PA Master Naturalist Guest Blog: Alaska!
Oct 17th
In this PA Master Naturalist Guest Blog, John McGlaughlin shares notes and a video from his trip to Alaska.
Howdy y’all! I’m happy to report that my capstone presentation went off without a hitch and was well received by the panel of specialists and my cohort of fellow trainees alike! With all the preparation through I’m finally gearing up to take my capstone project to the streets over the next few months by featuring some local environmental organizations on this here blog. Stay tuned!
I must admit that after the capstone presentation I was pretty wiped out and ready for a little vacation. Luckily, my fiancé and I had a few greenbacks in our bank account so we decided to plan a trip that would be an escape from our daily rigmarole (and also an opportunity to solidify some of my newly minted naturalist knowledge!) After relentlessly spinning the globe and carefully crafting our budget we finally decided on a destination… ALASKA!
The name Alaska instantly evokes tales of wild adventure, outdoor excitement and pressing ecological issues in my mind. Nicknamed ‘The Last Frontier”, Alaska’s mythical appeal continues to draw over 1.5 million adventurous spirits each year to its endless natural wonders and rugged frontier culture. With a landmass greater than Texas, Montana and California combined and only a handful of roads, this majestic behemoth of a state is ripe for outdoor exploration. And exploring we did!
Renting a car out of Anchorage, we immediately headed south to the Kenai Peninsula and the stunning coastal town of Seward. The Peninsula has been dubbed “Alaska’s Playground” due to its close proximity to Anchorage and wealth of outdoor opportunities. After a few days hiking around glaciers and whale watching in Resurrection Bay, we drove from Seward to Valdez along the magnificent Glen Highway and Richardson Highway to witness some salmon spawning in action. We were in awe of the shear size of this annual migration and had the chance to see bear, sea lions and bald eagles take part in this annual feeding and reproduction frenzy. We rounded out the trip by traveled along the famously desolate McCarthy Highway, spending the night in the land of the midnight sun in Fairbanks, and hiking among arctic squirrels and caribou in Denali National Park.
It’s impossible to capture the splendor of Alaska without being there in the flesh and blood but I created a little travelogue video of some of the highlights from our travels to aid your imagination. Happy Trails!
PA Master Naturalist Guest Blog: Chester Environmental Partnership Video and Capstone Project
Sep 11th
In another installment of PA Master Naturalist Guest Blogs, John McGlaughlin shares his documentary of the Chester Environmental Partnership and discusses his Master Naturalist Capstone Project.
My, oh my, how the time flies! After a month and a half of non-stop environmental action, the learning component of the PA Master Naturalist program is drawing to a close. While it will be sad to bid adieu to our exciting weekly learning sessions, I am looking forward to putting some of my newly minted knowledge to good use…the real fun is about to begin!
After our classroom ‘graduation’, my classmates and I will be designated as official Master Naturalist Trainees. In order to shed the Trainee status and become a real-deal Master Naturalist, each of us will have to complete 30 service hours and 8 hours of advanced training over the next year. This is the point in the initiation process where the pledge must prove his worth… kind of like in a cheesy martial arts movie where the young samurai must steal the emperor’s diamond to be fully accepted into the clandestine warrior guild.
Subsequently, the last assignment for our final class is to develop an outline for a potential service project. This outline is like the blueprints of a real project that could be implemented once us ‘Trainees’ get out into the field. The assignment, entitled the ‘Capstone Project’, will be presented before a panel of environmental experts and current Master Naturalists. After the presentation the panel decides whether to feed you to the lion by giving you a thumb up or a thumb down (just joshing). In reality, the panel and our peers will then offer criticism about the merit and feasibility of the prospective service project to the presenter. And then we will all have a Naturalist party with cupcakes and soda (not joshing).
I’ve already spoken to a few of my peers about their capstone projects and heard some pretty cool ideas so far, including:
- Creating a rain garden on the grounds of a local library
- Leading an urban birding walk through an 19th century cemetery
- Coordinating volunteer efforts to clear invasive plants from a local reservoir
The inspiration for my capstone project actually stemmed from thinking about how cool my classmates ideas were. Here was the thought process…
- hmm, these service projects are cool
- People should know about these service projects
- hmm, I got a camera and I (kind of) know how to use it
- Voila! I’ll make videos about these service projects and show them to people!
After revising and expanded my project a bit, I came up with the following outline:
- Create 5-minute videos that focus on an environmental issue and a nonprofit organization addressing the issue.
- Partner with an independent media outlet (such as GreenTreks) to broadcast the video to a wide audience
- Apply this template to other environmental organizations and repeat
What’s more, I actually made a video last spring about a nonprofit organization in Chester that can serve as a template for my capstone project. The video features an environmental justice nonprofit named ‘The Chester Environmental Partnership’ and was made in effort to promote the organization’s mission and accomplishments. Below is a link to the video if you would like to get a better understanding of what I’m going for. For now I’m getting all jazzed up for my upcoming presentation and am praying I don’t get fed to the lion. I’ll let you know how it went next time…hopefully! Until then, adios!
Guest Blog: Introducing Master Naturalist Donna Long
Aug 13th
In our last post, we introduced you to PA Master Naturalist-in-training John McGlaughlin. We are continuing on with our Guest Blog series with PA Master Naturalist program. Meet Donna Long, another Master Naturalist living locally in Philadelphia.
Living in the Delaware Valley, I eat food grown in its soil, drink water from the Schuylkill and live in a house built of Wissahickon field stone. This land gives me my life; I owe it. I wanted to know and understand where I live. I wanted to know its flat places and hills and its rivers and small streams. I became a Pennsylvania Master Naturalist for these very reasons. Attending the program workshops and field trips knit together the bits and pieces of knowledge I knew about the place I call home. And I share what I’ve learned with others. Being a Master Naturalist helps me to give back to the land.
Guest Blog: Introducing Master Naturalist John McGlaughlin
Jul 25th
As mentioned in our last post, we are beginning our series of Guest Blogs with PA Master Naturalists. Here Naturalist-in-training John introduces himself and shares his video: “Birds, Arthropods, and Herpetology“.
Hi all,
My name is John McGlaughlin and I am a PA Master Naturalist in training. I hail from the Roxborough section of Philadelphia and am a Public Defender by day and a Naturalist by night. I live a stone’s throw away from Fairmount park and spent much of my life ‘back the crick’ enjoying the many splendors of the great outdoors. The Schuylkill Center for Environmental Education is another great resource that is also right around the corner from my house. I was even lucky enough to intern with the environmental education department of the Schuylkill Center during my college days at Temple University. Roxborough has so many outdoor opportunities that it’s earned the nickname Philbilladelphia.
The PA Master Naturalist program has been nothing short of amazing so far. I heard about the program back in January by way of e-mail and had my application sent out the following week. I worked as an environmental educator a few years back at the Schuylkill Center and another place called the Ashokan Field Campus up in the Catskills. But then law school disrupted most of my environmental ed. opportunities and I’ve been hankering to get back into the field ever sine. I’m hoping to use my newfound Naturalist position to get back into teaching young people and sharing some of the great things I’m learning in the program.
So, everybody asks ‘What do you do in the Master Naturalist program?’ Well, so far we’ve done a whole lot. The course consists of weekly ecological readings, in-class lectures with environmental professionals, full day field trips and periodic nature journaling. Our coursework will culminate in a capstone project where each Naturalist develops a service project and then presents their idea to a panel of environmental experts.
This past week we focused on arthropods and ornithology but previous Naturalist topics included Wissahickon Geology, Biodiversity, Upland Habitats, Watersheds and Natural Selection. To get a better sense of the hands-on component of the Naturalist Program I brought my camera along for our ornithology/herpetology/arthropods session this past weekend to capture some of our adventures from the field.
Enjoy!
