Sustainable Dillingham

Garden Plan - 2011: Senior Center Community Garden

2011-06-06T15:28:00.002-07:00

Garden Plan - 2011: Senior Center Community Garden

Indoor photos, but outdoors activities

2011-05-19T23:30:00.000-07:00

Tonight was so much fun! A group of us went over to Liboffville to work on the pseudo-community garden over there. Our family (Chet, me, Noah and Lovina) arrived on the scene, with shovels, a rake, and gardening tools in hand, ready to get to work planting. Then, Lilly and Aria showed up - woo hoo! It was definitely a garden work party with those ladies. The kids had a great time, and we actually got a lot of work done. Chet and our garden helpers Lilly and Aria moved the compost bin to the perimeter of the garden (to prevent dogs and other pests from trampling through the garden to sniff something out). Lilly, Aria and I planted several more rows of veggies - turnips, beets, beetberry, radishes, and arugula. We've still got about 3 more rows to plant, and, of course, the back portion of the garden that we cleared this spring. That will be challenging! But, with the introduction of a Mantis roto tiller purchased by Mike Davis, the tilling part should go pretty quick. The garden extension is about as big as the garden that we put in last year, probably about 30 x 40 feet. Should be enough potatoes for 5-6 households this year. Last year we had enough potatoes for about 3 households.

I'm glad that I like the taste of salmon and potatoes, because if the cost of oil continues to rise and food prices follow suit, that might be our best option here in Southwest Alaska. I'm glad that we have access to Jerry's yard and have had the opportunity to grow a nice vegetable garden there.

On another note, here are some pictures of my indoor tomato plants, already bearing fruit! My secret? It's my free fertilizer source, of course! My kids simply pee in a bucket (they love it) and I dilute it down to about 20 parts water to one part pee. Don't be bothered by the human pee ick factor. Simply look up the main ingredient in Miracle Gro sometime - yep, urea. That is the chemical in pee. Plants love it.

Vegetable Garden Planner

2011-04-18T15:46:00.000-07:00

Vegetable Garden Planner

Our 2011 crop plan - lots of veggies!

Composting on a municipal scale - easy and feasible!

2011-04-16T08:12:00.000-07:00

Check this out - the feedstock was food scraps from U.C. San Diego. The city composts it's waste, diverting material from landfills, and creating useful compost.

Community Discussion: EPA and Bristol Bay

2010-10-21T16:10:00.000-07:00

gathering materials for winter

2010-10-17T15:04:00.000-07:00

We have been raking and bagging leaves and grass clippings in anticipation of winter time. Our hope and goal is to make enough dirt to fill one raised bed, simply by composting during the winter months. We have a warm spot in the basement where we have begun to use as a staging area, that will be used to store the composting material in enclosed Rubbermaid totes. Our ingredients will consist of: shredded paper, dead leaves, kitchen scraps, grass clippings, and probably some ash from the steam bath. The weather is remarkably mild for this time of year. It has been raining for the past couple of days, and now it is breezy and overcast. We are going over to Liboffville to turn some more dirt over to prepare for expanding our pseudo-community garden over there in the spring.

1st Southwest Alaska Gardening Symposium a Wild Success!

2010-09-27T17:21:00.000-07:00

The Southwest Alaska Gardening Symposium was this past week. It started on Thursday, September 23 and ran through Saturday, September 25th. There were 54 participants from 10 different Bristol Bay villages sharing on common dream - to produce more locally grown food, starting in our own backyard gardens. It was totally inspiring. Thank you to Michele Masley, who was the driving force and chief organizer of the conference, Rae Belle Whitcomb whose BBNA Workforce Development Program provided travel funding and prizes for the event, and to Hazel Koppenberg from the Marston Foundation.

The perfect cap of the weekend was picking potatoes over at the garden that Chet and I started in front of Mike Davis' house over at Jerry Liboff's place. The potatoes and turnips were beautiful and my son had so much fun digging into the dirt to pull potatoes out. It was definitely the highlight of the weekend, especially since Chet and I were feeling a little frustrated at listening to all of these great gardening ideas and success stories, but are currently in the "landless" class in Dillingham.

Thank you Jerry for letting us put up a garden at your place! It made our spring so fun to be able to work outside in the dirt, and now it has made our fall time so invigorating and will continue to fuel our passion for gardening again in the spring. Quyana Chussmuck!

mushroom as big as your head!

2010-09-05T20:01:00.000-07:00

frying up king bolete mushrooms

2010-09-05T19:53:00.000-07:00

King Bolete (Boletus edulis)

2010-09-05T19:51:00.000-07:00

Local harvest for newbies

2010-09-05T19:38:00.000-07:00

We have a new hobby - picking wild mushrooms! Our harvest has been very fruitful because we've focused on only a few key species that are fairly easy to identify - boletus or porcini mushrooms. These are not gilled mushrooms, as the spores are borne on tubes on the underside of the mushroom cap. They are large and only a few mushrooms can practically make an entire meal. So far, we have made mushroom pizza, dried mushrooms (in the oven on low), mushroom soup, and salmon with mushrooms. I'll post some photos for your viewing enjoyment.

more dirt work at our community's garden

2010-05-16T21:34:00.000-07:00

Went to Mike and Jerry's today. Jerry Liboff has graciously given us permission to put in a nice-sized garden over at Liboffville. There hasn't been a garden there in a few years, so we've been prepping the soil, pulling weeds, and loosening up the dirt. It looks quite healthy - nice, black soil under a pile of weeds.

We work in short spurts so that it is not too burdensome.

Blow baby blow

2010-05-05T14:55:00.000-07:00

Breaking News: Large Air Spill at Wind Farm. No Threats Reported. Some Claim to Enjoy the Breeze.

http://i.huffpost.com/gen/162584/AIR-SPILL.jpg

Blow, Baby, Blow!

Greenhouse about to sprout [in New Stuyahok]

2010-04-27T14:41:00.000-07:00

http://www.thebristolbaytimes.com/article/1016greenhouse_about_to_sprout

So exciting - the New Stuyahok school will be installing their geodesic dome greenhouse this summer.

Follow-up to spring planting at the Senior Center

2010-04-22T22:27:00.000-07:00

Well, we had three people show up to the spring planting at the Senior Center, which I'm guessing was three more than they had last year show up to help. We planted all manner of greens, herbs, and vegetables. It was two hours of super-fun! Thank you Carol Hardin, Senior Center Manager for hosting us on this beautiful Earth Day.

Senior Center planting this Earth Day - 1-3 pm

2010-04-19T11:44:00.000-07:00

If you are interested in helping to establish a garden at the Senior Center, come join us this Thursday (Earth Day) from 1 - 3 pm. Feel free to bring any seeds, peat pellets, containers or other planting supplies that you would like to share.

Alaska Agriculture in the Classrooms

2010-04-09T16:12:00.000-07:00

http://www.alaskafb.org/~akaitc/alaskaAITC/teachers/lesson.htm#k_3

The link above will bring you to a page with age-appropriate curriculum for educators to bring agricultural education to their classrooms.

Spring is in the air!

2010-03-19T14:58:00.000-07:00

I planted my onion seeds yesterday. The package said 85 days to harvest, so by my calculations, by mid-June I should have some small onions to eat. I'm just pretending here that I actually like onions, but perhaps if I start growing my own they will have a little more appeal for me.

Tax time means planting time in Alaska. However, some seeds you don't want to start indoors. Carrots do some strange things if you try to start them indoors and move them outside. Better to just sow them directly outdoors after the danger of frost has passed.

If you need soil for your indoor starters, Rae Belle Whitcomb has Pro-Mix available for sale. This is very good quality stuff - complete with vermiculite. The mix is essentially sterilized peat, but it works well with starters, because they are especially vulnerable and may fall prey to any number of hazards in unsterilized soil. If you need liquid fertilizer, just let me know. Our worms are generating a lot of liquid and this is highly concentrated fertilizer, rich in micronutrients and beneficial microbes.

"Nature deficit disorder"

2010-03-11T16:43:00.001-08:00

I recently read a wonderful book by Richard Louv entitled, "Last Child in the Woods." The book delves into the notion that a majority of today's children are suffering from a modern-day deficiency that he terms "nature deficit disorder."

The book inspired me to attempt to engage my 6-year old son in journaling about nature. In the quest to become more educated on the natural world around us, I have been searching high and low for a taxonomic reference book on natural history. For anybody who grew up in the 20th century, you may remember this type of education from the old school books - you know: kingdom, phyla, order, . . . Well, in my quest for the perfect book to learn and to share knowledge about the natural world, I have discovered that this is no longer the knowledge du jour. This absence of knowledge and deficiency of books on this vast body of knowledge begs the question, if today's students are not learning natural history, are we really teaching them the information that will bring them closer to the natural world?

I am afraid that I am losing this knowledge. While reading a book about mushrooms, I couldn't recall where mushrooms fit in the taxonomic family tree of life. Are they a plant, or an animal? Come to find out, they are somewhere in between. However, I would not have discerned this fact absent the reading of a 400-page book on mycelium. In our obsession with specialization and intense scrutiny of life at the molecular and biochemical level, are we missing the broader picture of life as we know it, or used to know it? Is the loss of knowledge of taxonomy and where animals, plants, bacteria and fungi fit in the grand scheme of the natural world being lost? I fear that my son may grow up without really knowing where certain organisms fit and what differentiates them from their brethren in the web of life.

As I was perused both the Barnes and Noble and Borders Bookstores, I realized that there was a whole section of Manga, the Japanese cartoon drawings, but not a single book that depicted the natural history of our ever-shrinking biological world. Perhaps by the time my son reaches an age where this knowledge may have some relevance to him, the sheer number of species will be largely reduced, by roughly half. At the rate that we are going, this is the projected outcome. However, how can we instill a sense of environmental stewardship in our youth when they are not being taught the natural order of life?

One possible solution is to bolster my own knowledge of the natural world, and share that learning with my son through walks and field trips. Spending more time outdoors is a welcome solution, and as the Alaskan days lengthen, this seems like the obvious solution for both of us. Another encouraging prospect for other parents or adults interested in lifelong learning or students wishing to pursue a science degree, is to sign up for a class through the University of Alaska Fairbanks. The UAF Bristol Bay Campus offers "Natural History of Alaska" and "Introduction to Environmental Science," taught this semester by Todd Radenbaugh. Yet another feasible solution to the problem of "nature deficit disorder" is to involve children in Scouting. My husband and I are rekindling the scouting tradition here in Dillingham, for the youngest scouting age - Tiger Cub Scouts. Sharon Clavette is a den leader for the older Webelos Scouts. If you are interested in Boy Scouts, feel free to check out www.scoutingalaska.org or send the Rural Director, Jay Goold an email at jgoold@bsamail.org. There is also a Girl Scout Troop in Dillingham, for our young lady naturalists. For parents or teens that aren't into scouting, we have an opportunity to start a 4-H Club. If you are interested in learning more about 4-H, please feel free to contact me at izetta.chambers@alaska.edu.

Everybody Eats!

2010-02-08T12:14:00.001-08:00

Here is a really nice poster from YES! magazine called Everybody Eats!

http://www.yesmagazine.org/issues/food-for-everyone/everybody-eats-how-a-community-food-system-works

There is a downloadable version of it as well.

Intentional living - I wonder if this model could work in Dillingham?

2010-02-03T11:02:00.000-08:00

Check out this sweet little youtube video on an intentional community in Northern California. Would anybody here in Dillingham be interested in this concept? You would definitely have to have good synergy with those who live near and share communal spaces with.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fyeaTLi3EsI

High Tunnel Program Through USDA

2010-01-31T18:12:00.000-08:00

Interested in obtaining a high tunnel? Check out this great program through USDA:
USDA NRCS High Tunnel Program

Community Gardening Links

2010-01-27T16:27:00.000-08:00

American Community Gardening Association

Worms on tour

2010-01-22T09:51:00.000-08:00

On Monday, January 18th, my husband, Chet and I took the worms and the worm bin on a tour to both Dillingham schools. We showed the worms and explained how they are used to recycle nutrients into soil and how they can be used to recycle newspaper.

The teachers were very grateful for some stimulating hands-on life sciences demonstration, and the kids asked a lot of questions. One of the teachers told me that her students were talking about it for the rest of the day! We will be working with the high science class to install and help to troubleshoot their own worm bin, thanks to the University of Alaska Fairbanks.

We at the University are very excited about this outreach opportunity and hope to work directly with the teachers and students to encourage more learning opportunities in the future.

Transition Town Dillingham?

2009-12-04T12:06:00.000-08:00

Climate Change and the Peak Oil crisis have jettisoned hundreds of towns, villages, and cities across the globe to adopt a strategy for dealing with the changes. These towns are called Transition Towns and many of them have opted to follow the training program and utilize the resources available through Transition Towns - an online wiki site that aims to raise awareness of the issues surrounding Peak Oil and climate change, as well as providing a toolkit for community leaders and change agents to aid in the transition from a petroleum-based economy to an economy based on principles of sustainability.

Would anybody in Dillingham be interested in the Transition Towns model and working on a community adaptation plan?

My Post-Carbon Present

2009-12-03T12:10:00.000-08:00

Our car wouldn't start (again) this morning. So, I bundled up, packed my lunch and a change of clothes in my panier, lowered the seat, and headed out on my husband's bicycle. It seems ironic to me that last night I had a strange dream about the gasoline running out, and cars being stuck on the highway. People were mad at being forced to leave their cars on the highway, but some just started walking.

The synchronicity here is almost eerie. As a handful of our UAF Rural Development students attend the climate change talks in Copenhagen, I ponder my own post-carbon life. How will life in Dillingham look when we run out of oil? Many economists have already named the time period that we are currently in as "peak oil." What does Peak Oil mean exactly? If you google peak oil, you are likely to be overwhelmed by the amount of information on this topic - some of it a little apocalyptic, some if it a little optimistic, and some of it downright scary.

Here is the definition of Peak Oil, according to the omniscient source, Wikipedia:

Peak oil is the point in time when the maximum rate of global petroleum extraction is reached, after which the rate of production enters terminal decline. The concept is based on the observed production rates of individual oil wells, and the combined production rate of a field of related oil wells. The aggregate production rate from an oil field over time usually grows exponentially until the rate peaks and then declines—sometimes rapidly—until the field is depleted. This concept is derived from the Hubbert curve, and has been shown to be applicable to the sum of a nation’s domestic production rate, and is similarly applied to the global rate of petroleum production. Peak oil is often confused with oil depletion; peak oil is the point of maximum production while depletion refers to a period of falling reserves and supply.

When I think of what Peak Oil implies for life in our little village of Dillingham, Alaska, I am a little heartened by a few key insights. First, Dillingham was a town prior to the advent of the combustion engine. Yes, it was a small, predominantly Native village (and still is today). Villagers traveled by dog sled or boat, if they traveled at all. My ancestors, some of them still living, told me stories about cutting over 100 salmon in a day to feed their dogs during the winter months. I'm not advocating for turning back the clock - that would be impossible anyway. What I would like to see is a discussion the what a post-carbon future looks like for Dillingham. Our residents and community leaders need to come together to have this ongoing discussion. In other cities across the globe, there is a movement toward resiliency and adaptation as strategies in the post-carbon end game.

Here is an interesting TED talk on the post-carbon future by Rob Hopkins: http://www.ted.com/talks/view/id/696.

Earth-friendly Christmas options

2009-12-01T12:22:00.000-08:00

Christmas with no presents?

The link above will direct you to an article in Yes! magazine about one man's quest for a stress-free holiday season (no presents = no credit card debt = no stress).

Here are a few other "green" options for the Christmas holiday season:
*Decorate with natural (preferably local) materials - spruce boughs can add a nice touch the interior of your home and bring a nice fragrance indoors
*Don't purchase a bunch of tinsel and other throwaway holiday stuff that will only end up in a landfill
*Instead of focusing on gifts and material objects, try to shift the focus to spending quality time with family - Christmas caroling, playing games (charades, anyone?), cooking together (preferably local foods), and other low-impact activities
*Try making your own wrapping paper - we use recycled packaging paper at our house and let the kids color it with markers, crayons and paint. It's a fun activity and it is more cost-effective than buying wrapping paper.

If you have other ideas for spreading earth-friendly holiday cheer, please feel free to add them to the comments section (below) and I will update this list.

Happy holidays!

Dillingham planting goals 2010 growing season

2009-11-30T08:58:00.000-08:00

Although there is about a foot of snow outside on the ground, with the solstice coming up and the inevitable lengthening of days, the middle of winter seems like as good a time as any to memorialize some goals about the upcoming planting season.

Jerry Liboff, my friend since I was a small child, has generously given us permission to put in a garden at Liboffville. Here's what we had in mind:
Potatoes - 150 plants
Kale - 40-60 plants
Turnips - 50 plants
Beets - 50 plants
Rutabegas - 50 plants
Lettuce and mesclun salad mix - one 4x10 foot plot

Because we are going to have to build the soil all in one year, we were going to introduce lime to the soil, and incorporate the existing organic material into the land as soon as the weather thaws the plants and topsoil enough to cut them and work them into the topsoil. Jerry has offered to purchase a used roto-tiller, but it probably won't arrive until late April or May. So, we will be reduced to good, old-fashioned hand tools, such as shovels, rakes, and hoes.

We will also be making some starters indoors, such as cabbage starters and perhaps broccoli.

Can climate change lead to better cooperation?

2009-11-18T14:33:00.000-08:00

Climate Change as a Tool for Increased Inter-Governmental Cooperation - written for the Bristol Bay Times 11/26/09 issue

In 2007 a storm hit the town of Kivalina. Half the town decided to self-evacuate due to the storm surge. This prompted the State to form a working group into action on this issue. The State of Alaska Sub-Cabinet on Climate Change consists of the following groups: 1) Immediate Action Work Group, 2) Mitigation, 3) Adaptation, and 4) Research Needs. Now, there are six communities that the Immediate Action Group is working with - Kivalina, Koyukuk, Unalakleet, Shaktoolik, Shishmaref, and Newtok. The strategies of the Sub-Cabinet include: 1) building the state’s knowledge of the actual and foreseeable effects of climate warming in Alaska; 2) developing appropriate measures and policies to prepare communities in Alaska for the anticipated impacts from climate change; and 3) providing guidance regarding Alaska’s participation in regional and national efforts addressing causes and effects of climate change. I learned about this group and a number of other agencies and collaborative efforts during my recent Alaska Community-Based Climate Change Adaptation Outreach Program training held in Fairbanks November 16-18.

How do we engage communities at the local level in a meaningful process that aims to identify potential problems, issues and opportunities associated with climate change? Whether you saw Al Gore’s “An Inconvenient Truth” or not, the issue is much bigger than whether an individual believes in global climate change or not. There are so many examples of climate change, and those who refute the fact that our world is changing should perhaps talk to one of 20 million worldwide environmental refugees identified by the Institute for Environment and Human Security (UNU-EHS), a group of experts affiliated with the United Nations.[1] The eco-refugees have had to relocate due to climate change related storms and events, such as flooding, rising sea levels, salt water inundation, etc. And the number is only expected to increase to 50 million by 2010 and as much as 150 million by 2050.

In Alaska, we are already starting to see the impacts of climate warming, such as coastal erosion, increased storm effects, sea ice retreat and permafrost melt. Shishmaref, Kivalina, and Newtok have already begun relocation plans. The Army Corps of Engineers has already identified over 160 rural communities threatened by erosion. This number doesn’t include those villages that may be potentially affected by flooding.

So, how do we protect our communities from some of the more drastic and immediate effects of climate change that could potentially force us from our homes? The question needs to be asked at the local and regional level, and involve many key players at the discussion. The Marine Advisory Program can facilitate a climate change adaptation planning session. This could be an important component of a village or city’s comprehensive community long-term strategic planning process. If you are interested in this process, please contact your local MAP office.

Some issues, such as ocean acidification are so large and global in nature, that individuals are really going to need to put pressure on our leaders at all levels – local, regional, state and international, in order to mitigate and attempt to reverse current trends. Because ocean acidification is such a huge issue, and involves the future of our sustainable fisheries, this will be a topic for another article – so stay tuned for that article.

While most people view potential effects of climate change as detrimental to Alaskan communities, there may also be potential opportunities. One of the industries that will likely see great strides is agriculture. As Alaska warms and permafrost in the southern portion of the state diminishes, we will see a longer growing season and increased yields. Additionally, as some of the lower-48 croplands shift from food production to production of biofuels, the itinerant rise in food costs may coincide nicely with more local food production, and, lower costs of locally-grown foods. Another opportunity may exist for Alaska Native Corporations to participate in carbon sequestration programs on their lands through planting of trees and other efforts to “capture” atmospheric carbon, generating carbon credits that can then be traded on an international carbon exchange.

For more information, go to: www.climatechange.alaska.gov. If you would like more information on climate change and what it could mean to your community, or if you would like a community-based climate change adaptation workshop in your community, feel free to contact me at izetta.chambers@alaska.edu or (907) 842-8323.

[1] Stefan Lovgren, Climate Change Creating Millions of "Eco Refugees," UN Warns (National Geographic News, Nov. 18, 2005).

Slogging through

2009-11-04T16:49:00.000-08:00

It was a rough ride this morning - I think I could have made it to work on foot faster than riding my bike. But, it was an adventure, to say the least. I was biking in about 3 inches of half-melted snow from yesterday. No, I don't have studded tires, but after today I will probably order some. It was a fun ride though - what a workout!

I kept waving at the snow plowers as they were making multiple passes at the carbon-emitting vehicle portion of the road, while our poor pedal-powered bike path got buried in ever more snow from the snow plow. It's still the best part of my day though. I'm not going to let a little snow get in my way if I can help it.

Follow up on Community Garden

2009-11-01T08:46:00.000-08:00

Well, I spoke with the superintendent at the Dillingham City School District, who informed me that she discussed the community gardening idea with the City of Dillingham. After their discussion, they essentially decided that it was not something that they wanted to participate in, and recommend that I pursue the idea with Grandma's House, an assisted living located downtown.

Needless to say, I was a bit disappointed that the school didn't want anything to do with a gardening project, as I think it would be a tremendous asset to the school. However, the manager at Grandma's House was very encouraging and seemed genuinely excited.

I sent a letter to Grandma's House with a brief proposal of the idea, and am in the process of writing follow-up letters to both school principals, the superintendent, and the City Planning Office. I am attempting to remove some of my feelings of disappointment from the letter, and to keep the process positive.

I will be posting updates to this blog as the project transpires.

the gears are turning . . .

2009-10-23T14:40:00.000-07:00

Community garden in Dillingham?

Perhaps someday this will become a reality. To date, I have discussed the idea with the City of Dillingham Planner, Planning Commission, the Dillingham City School District Superintendent, Darlene Triplet, and the Elementary School Principal, Marilyn Rosen.

All of the above-mentioned individuals and organizations seems positive and upbeat about the endeavor, as long as there is committed and continued involvement from elsewhere.

I hope to provide that involvement, and will likely pitch the ideas as an after-school program.

Future developments on this project will be posted to this blog, as well as other musings and some diatribes.