Final Blog Post

I do not recommend the removal of any topics covered in this online course. I appreciated that we covered many different aspects of environmental science and felt consistently interested in the material we discussed. A few topics that I have enjoyed learning about in the past that could be interesting to explore in greater depth in this course are different forms of energy and their benefits/drawbacks, the process of cleaning drinking water, and GMOs.

I truly feel that each assignment related to some aspect of my personal life in some form--sometimes merely by making me a more informed environmental advocate. I found there to be numerous philosophical insights revealed in the assignments that stuck with me and which I have adopted. Further, each assignment provided me with content that will inform my decisions in the future in some regard. Whether I am determining the best way to preserve/harvest water, choosing which sustainable foods I should shop, or even planning for a family, I am certain I will utilize the information which I collected throughout this semester. From this course I even became understanding and less afraid of Mountain Lions, a species I had feared for a large portion of my life!

I felt most provoked to learn more during the research assignment where we explored our relationship to food. I also really enjoyed learning more about the benefits of shopping locally.

I am not currently considering pursuing a career in environmental science; though, I am sure that I will apply the principles of environmental resilience covered in this course to my personal and professional life throughout my future.

Thank you for such a great semester and first experience with online classes! I hope you have an incredible and peaceful retirement--it's well deserved!!

Personal Resilience Guide

It can be overwhelming thinking of learning about the many changes we may encounter in the future. With economic, environmental, and energy challenges in store, what can we do to prepare ourselves and our families for this changing world and where can we begin? Author Christ Martenson helps us with that question with his six concepts for the basics of preparing which include becoming resilient, acknowledging that our actions are both very necessary but simultaneously insufficient, setting realistic goals, preparing yourself, taking small steps towards change, and working with your community.

*The essence of resilience is having multiple sources and systems in place to provide for a needed item so that we are not dependent on only one source. This can be seen with water in having multiple sources such as an existing well, a shallow well, and rainwater basins. One should strive to make decisions based on what would increase their resilience.

*The second concept of preparation is that actions are both necessary and insufficient. We must become the change that we wish to see. With that in mind, we should acknowledge that any action that we take will be insufficient but very necessary.

*The third concept of preparation is to set realistic goals. It is important to be realistic with your goals, given the amount of money and time that you have to devote. You can only do so much and whatever you can do is a great change in and of itself.

*The fourth concept of preparation is that your community needs you to get yourself prepared. Should a crisis occur, there will inevitably many people who are scrambling, unprepared and desperate to meet their needs. You should consider it your duty to not be among those people. This will enable you to be a good community member and put yourself in the position to be an asset to your community.

*The fifth concept of preparation is to start with small steps. To make your transition into preparedness easy, you should find the smallest and easiest thing you can do and then do it. This minor act will lead you to bigger acts. Small acts could be buying a bit more food each week so you can stock up your pantry or simply reading about how to increase your resilience with something that you deem important to your future such as food, water, or energy. The action itself is not as important as the fact that you've taken action.

*The sixth concept of preparation is that community is essential. Communities can provide invaluable support in transforming your life into one of resilience. By working with your community members you can find people whom you can count on in an emergency, rely on for support and guidance, and even perhaps know who will look after your family should you be out of town if when something goes awry. Further, by working with your community members to develop resilience, your community as a whole will become more favoring towards resilience and that will beneficial to you.

If you're looking for ways to take action towards your resilience and preparedness, Christ Martenson has some tips for that, as well. Some ideas include increasing your food storage, increasing your use of locally sourced foods, developing a backup plan for water, making your house as efficient and self-sustaining as possible, and increasing your resilience with your sourcing of electricity.

For food storage, Christ recommends that everyone has at least three months of food stores up. While many people find the concept of saving up food to be a little paranoid, if you consider the fact that most communities have, at most, a total of three to five days' worth of food on hand in their local grocery stores and supermarkets, it becomes more understandable. It only takes one thing to disrupt the food distribution chain. To start building your food supply, try stocking up your pantry with some foods that you already eat that have a shelf life of at least a year. An easy way to increase your use of locally sourced food is to take up gardening or reach out to some local farmers that you know of in your area. To become more resilient with your water sourcing, you can consider a water storage system or, in the interest of starting small, perhaps invest in a ceramic filter. If you'd like to increase the resilience and energy efficiency of your house, you can look into obtaining additional ways of heating your home and water or make sure that your house is as insulated and airtight as possible. If you want to increase your resilience with regard to your sourcing of electricity, one way of doing this would be to get solar photovoltaic arrays to create a modest amount of electricity and a modest battery bank for limited storage. 

For more information, read the article which this information was gathered from:

https://www.scribd.com/document/63670448/RESILIENCE-Personal-Preparation-by-Chris-Martenson

Mountain Lions

Mountain lions are misunderstood animals that are feared, hunted, and thought to be heartless and savage. Mountain Lions, though widely feared, have only confirmedly killed 6 humans since 1890. Recently, in the Wyoming Wind River range, biologists have placed motion cameras in dens and other secluded areas. Through these lenses, we can see into the lives of these animals and view their close family ties and how social, interdependent, and caring they are. Mountain lions face a variety of threats in their upbringing. Some of the threats that mountain lions face are predators, such as wolves, habitat loss, trophy hunters, and harsh winters. They face so many difficulties that fewer than one in five kittens survive to raise a family in the Wind River range of Wyoming.

Scientists agree that habitat loss and overhunting are the major threats to mountain lion populations. While cougars are one of the most adaptable of the large carnivores, their populations are vulnerable to extinction. A keystone species in California, mountain lions play a critical role in maintaining the state’s ecosystem. This means that the abundance of mountain lions disproportionately effects their environment compared to other animals. Mountain lions play a critical role in maintaining the structure of their ecological community, affecting many other organisms in their ecosystems and helping to determine the types and numbers of various other species in their community. Without mountain lions, the ecosystem would be dramatically different or cease to exist altogether.

WildFutures is one organization that is dedicated to protecting and preserving mountain lions. They work with scientists and wildlife agencies to understand and convey the role that top predators, such as wild lions, play in their landscapes. Their fight for the protection of wild lions is done with a combination of education, media, and science. They provide training resources materials and coaching for organizations agencies and scientists. Other organizations that are helping to maintain our mountain lion population are the Mountain Lion Foundation and the Mountain Lion Conservation organization.

With help from you, we can work to guarantee Mountain Lions' safe and rightful place and ensure that these remarkable, affectionate, caring, and critical animals are around long into the future.

If you would like to watch the story of a family of mountain lions and learn more about their journey, follow the link below!

https://www.wildfutures.us/video--the-secret-life-of-mountain-lions.html

Siuslaw National Forest

• Trees in steams slow rushing waters during floods, protect young fish and other species, create pools and trap gravels for spawning fish, and hold onto smaller organic debris that nourishes the entire web of life.
• We used to take the trees out of streams, but now we must put them back.
• This was done in the Siuslaw national forest.
• The 1993 forest summit resulted in the Northwest Forest Plan which designated certain areas as habitat reserve and other areas that remained open to logging.
• This didn't curve deforestation much in forests like the Siuslaw national forest since it also designated buffer zones along streams with salmon, which the Siuslaw forest had a lot of. 
• The road system of the Siuslaw forest went unmaintained. After a storm in 1996, much of the road system was destroyed.
• Road building and clearcutting on mountainous landscapes increases severity of landslides. 
• After storm, Siuslaw forest decommissioned rods, removed culverts, replaced existing culverts, and determined which roads would not longer be necessary. 
• Thinning done in Siuslaw forest generated money which was used to restore watersheds, streams and salmon. 
• Today Siuslaw is a model for collaborative groups designing successful restoration projects, generating funds to accomplish restoration work, and focusing on projects and work that translate into local jobs and economic benefits. 

If you would like to watch a video where you can learn much more about the changes at the Siuslaw forest, follow the link below:

https://vimeo.com/125160364

Life Cycle of Salmon

The life cycle for salmon begins in freshwater, when a redd, or female's nest of eggs is fertilized by the male salmon. These eggs remain in the gravel throughout the winter as the embryos develop. Cold, clean water is essential for healthy growth and survival of the egg. Water flowing through the gravel delivers oxygen to developing eggs. In the spring, the eggs hatch and alevins emerge. Alevins stay close to the redd for a few months. Once they have grown in size and consumed the yolk sac attached to their stomachs, they emerge from and gravel and are now considered fry. The fry swim to the surface of the water and begin to feed. The survival of fry is dependent on the quality of the stream habitat which they are in. Boulders, logs, shade, and access to side channels are important in allowing fry to hide from predators and prevent them from getting flushed downstream during floods. When the fry are one inch long, they are called fingerlings. The tiny fingerlings grow in backwaters and stream margins. As the fingerlings grow, they move to the main channel. Carried downstream by the spring thaw, salmon begin the amazing changes called smolting. Smolting is triggered mainly by the increasing daylight hours and rising water temperatures of spring. Individual territorial behavior gives way to more cooperative schooling behavior, gravel colored markings change to a silvery hue, internal changing mostly affecting the kidneys allow for the transition from fresh to saltwater. Estuaries provide a mix of fresh and saltwater habitats in which salmon smolts prepare for entering the ocean. Swimming with the tide, young salmon leave their home rivers, moving around the pacific ocean in varying migratory patterns, they live in the ocean for anywhere from 2-5 years, growing and maturing. Ocean life means escaping predators as well as avoiding fisherman. To preserve the dwelling fish runs, fishing limits are set on all takings of salmon. Researchers have found that while in the ocean, salmon often travel phenomenal distances for food. During this time, they increase in weight--often more than 100 fold. Temperature and food conditions can be highly variable from year to year. A large percentage of fish do not survive the difficult ocean passage. Eventually an instinctive trigger tells mature salmon the time has come to return to their home streams and reproduce. Triggered by an irresistible instinct to spawn, salmon find their way back to the river mouth, then head upstream with great determination. While dams block their way, many have fish ladders that allow fish to swim around the dams. The homeward bound salmon no longer eat, living off of stored fat, pausing only occasionally to rest. They endure weeks of struggle against powerful currents up hundreds of miles of river. Bruised and battered, wearing tooth marks from unsuccessful predators, they swim on to the headwaters, their health declining rapidly. Even after spawning, the cycle is not quite complete. Salmon carcasses give food to the forests, the predators, and the insects.

In 2001, the population of coho in the Russian River was down to less than 100 fish--potentially down to a population of around 10. Stream flows are elevated to around 7 times above the natural flow level on the Russian River. We can't reduce the flows because of the demand for water, but we can spread the flows to reduce the velocities. One method of doing this is creating channels for the fish where the waters will not move at such a high velocity. This creates the ideal rearing habitat for coho salmon. When there are winter floods and the flow goes up and the fish need to get out of the way of the high water, they can go into channels that are built. With small tags plants in juvenile fish, you can use antennas to detect when the fish enter the habitat features so you can know when the fish are coming and going from the habitat features. Fish stay in these habitats during high flood events for up to a week at a time.

"The Story of Bottled Water"

When you test bottled water against tap water, the water is not consistently cleaner. In many ways, bottled water is less regulated than tap water. Further, in taste tests across the country people consistently choose tap water over bottled water. Bottled water costs about 2000x as much as tap water. People in the U.S. buy more than half a billion bottles of water every week. The origin story of the water bottle explains how bottles became such a ubiquitous item in our society.

In the 1970s soft drink companies got worried when they saw their sales leveling off. In response to this, they started selling water bottles. People initially dismissed water bottles as a fad thinking the concept was ridiculous since they had access to free water. Water bottle companies then began to manufacture demand. They did this by making people scared, seducing them, and misleading them. They made ads to promote their products and dismiss tap water. They then hid the reality of their products behind fantasies of mountain streams and pristine nature. One third of all bottled water comes from tap water including Dasani and Aquafina. Nestle continued the misleading in proclaiming that bottled water is the most environmentally responsible consumer product in the world, which is a blatant lie.

Oil is used to make water bottles. Each year, making the amount of water bottles used in the U.S. takes enough oil and energy to fuel a million cars. Additional energy and oil is used to ship the bottles around the planet. Afterwards, the bottles must be disposed of. Eighty percent of all water bottles end up in landfills where they will sit for thousands of years or they are put in incinerators where they're burned releasing toxic pollution. The rest gets collected for recycling. The water bottles that are collected for recycling are often downcycled into lower quality products which will be thrown away later. The parts that can't be downcycled are thrown away.

Another aspect of the misleading, scaring and seducing of consumers that water bottle companies have undertaken is slandering the other product--tap water. These companies want us to think that tap water is dirty and that bottled water is the best alternative. The irony of this is that not only is that claim unfounded, since it has been proven that water bottles generally don't have consistently cleaner water, but in the intances where the water is polluted, making water bottles a safer alternative, water bottle companies are partially to blame for this water pollution.

If you would like to learn more, view the following video:
https://vimeo.com/10441794

Soil and Symbiosis

One incredibly beneficial and all-too-often overlooked method of farming is permaculture farming. Permaculture farming involves the development of agricultural ecosystems that are intended to be sustainable and self-sufficient. One farm which abides by permaculture methods of farming is the Polyface Farm located in Swoope, Virginia. At this farm, the cows, pigs, sheep, chickens, rabbits, and turkeys have a symbiotic relationship in which they all perform ecological services for one another. To illustrate this, on the farm, three days after the cows have grazed the field, the chickens are released onto the field where they dig through the cow patties, eating the maggots, larvae, and flies, spreading the manure out, and releasing nitrogenous manure. This all allows for the enrichment of the soil. This process produces incredible yields. On only 100 acres of land, the Polyface Farm produces 40,000 lbs of beef, 30,000 lbs of pork, 25,000 dozen eggs, 20,000 broilers, 1,000 turkeys, and 1,000 rabbits worth of food. This is the product of permaculture farming. In addition to this, when the cows graze the grass, a lot of leaf mass is lost. After this, the grass, in order to keep the root mass to leaf mass ratio correct, sheds some of its roots. The species in the soil then chew through those roots and decompose them, resulting in new soil.

Keeping with the discussion of soil and sustainability, another overlooked aspect of sustainability is the importance and potential of soil as a carbon pool. Carbon rich soils act like giant sponges, absorbing water during floods and providing it to plants in times of drought. Further, adding carbon to soil makes the land much more productive. If we were to to increase soil carbon by 0.4% per year we could store 75% of global greenhouse gas emissions. Land management practices increase potential to store carbon- practices like keeping soil covered with plants, increasing crop diversity, composting, and carefully planned grazing are proven ways to put carbon back into the soil.

To learn more about the information addressed in this blog, watch the following videos:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NxqBzrx9yIE

https://www.ted.com/talks/michael_pollan_gives_a_plant_s_eye_view