City Living 70% Less Carbon Intensive Than In Suburbs: TreeHugger

This Treehugger.com post was interesting mostly for the cool heat map of transportation-related carbon. It seems fairly obvious that if you live in an urban area and work close to your home (or in your home, if you are lucky), you will have significantly less commuting time, and hence a significantly lower carbon footprint.

What if, however, you live in an urban area and drive to the suburbs or another city to work? Does that happen? Sure it does. I guarantee that my current 4 mile round trip daily commute in a suburban township is much less carbon intensive than the 108 mile round daily round trip when I lived within the City of Akron, Ohio and worked in the City of Painesville, Ohio.

Or, what about this: Live in a rural area and work at home. Live in a suburb and ride your bike to a "sprawl" office complex a few miles away. I think the carbon intensity of these alternatives should compare favorably to urban living.

Maybe the analysis that really matters is not a geographical one. Maybe the choices that people make and how they relate to carbon footprint are just as important as their choice of geography, which in many case is an accident of socioeconomics as much as it is a choice of lifestyle and "green" over unsustainable.

For those of us who can choose where to live, maybe we should select the kind of surroundings that energize us, then figure out how to live there in the least consumptive way possible, whether urban, suburban, or rural.

Countryside Farmers Market opens

Countryside Farmers Market opens

Part of living in harmony with Nature has to be eating locally. Why? Conservation of energy. Health of your own body. Health of our environment. Health of the local economy. It just makes sense on too many levels.

If you live in northern Ohio, check out the two Countryside Conservancy Farmers markets. You can learn about them by following the link to the article above. If you live elsewhere, www.localharvest.org will let you search out sources of locally grown food in your neck of the woods.

Upcoming Class- Living Rivers!

Living Rivers--Arteries of the Eastern Forest, August 16-21, 2009

A five day field course in aquatic ecology & the global significance of the Eastern Forest led by five outstanding field biologists; held at the Arc of Appalachia Preserve System in southern Ohio. David Johnson Microbiologist from Ohio Wesleyan; Greg Lipps, herpetologist; Roger F. Thoma, Eastern US crayfish expert; Mark Kibbey, Curator of Fishes, OSU Museum of Biodiversity; and G. Thomas Watters, freshwater mussels expert, Research Associate, OSU Museum of Biodiversity.

This course will further participants' appreciation of the Eastern forest by studying its lifeblood -- its rivers and streams, and the myriads of life forms that watersheds support. Experts in the fields of botany, mussels, crayfish, fish and salamanders will be leading this course - giving participants a global, cross-disciplinary foundation of knowledge. America's Eastern Forest shares many tree and mammal genera with closely-related forest centers located in Europe and Eastern Asia. However, our native forest has one major feature that, when compared to its sister forests, distinguishes it globally. Quite simply, America's Eastern temperate forest claims the highest aquatic life diversity in the temperate world.

Conservation challenges now make waterways one of the most imperiled of the forest's components throughout the temperate world, so it behooves Eastern US citizens to gain knowledge quickly in this important realm. This course is suitable for any person interested in living systems, regardless of formal educational background and vocation. Limited to 16 participants. For full information: http://www.highlandssanctuary.org/WE/Waterways/waterways.htm

Night Haunt I

May 30, 8PM – 12PM
Pre-registration required

The evening will begin with a program on Ohio’s only flying mammal, the “bat”. The group will then walk through the evening fog to the famous Ceely Rose. In 1896, Ceely Rose murdered her entire family inside of this little Pleasant Valley home. A park naturalist will tell the grizzly true story on the front porch. The night concludes with a rare “candlelight” tour of the Bromfield Mansion where haunted stories will be told.

The fee for this unique experience is $30.00 per participant. This program is not recommended for children under 16 years of age due to its length and content. Dress for weather conditions. Call 419-892-2784 to pre-register. Groups are limited to 25 so register soon to insure your spot.

Malabar Farm is located 12 miles southeast of Mansfield, just one mile west of SR 603 on Pleasant Valley Road. Louis Bromfield, a world-renowned novelist and conservationist, created the farm in the 1940s as a demonstration farm for progressive conservation practices. Malabar Farm State Park is the only working farm in the Ohio State Park system. Programs and special events are offered year-round. For more information about this or other programs, call the park office at 419-892-2784 or visit their Website at malabarfarm.org.

4th Annual Garlic Mustard Pestival!

Get outside and join in the fun at the 4th Annual Garlic Mustard Pestival at the Nature Center at Shaker Lakes on Saturday, May 30th. Please purchase your tickets in advanced as this event will sell out.

4th Annual Garlic Mustard Pestival Saturday, May 30th, 6:00 PM – 8:00 PM

If you can't beat it, eat it!

Join like minded folks for a cocktail reception including creative cuisine made with garlic mustard, an invasive, edible species that volunteers pull from the Nature Center grounds each year.

Local Chefs and their Creative Cuisine include:

Dante Boccuzzi of Dante: Leg of Lamb with Garlic Mustard Salsa Verde

Sergio Abramof of Sergio/Sarava: Chilled Gazpacho with Garlic-Mustard Pesto Swirl

Ben Bebenroth of Spice of Life Catering: Fettuccini with sauté of Garlic mustard greens, French country sausage, caramelized ramps and Mackenzie creamery goat cheese, Manodori balsamic, fresh basil and extra virgin olive oil

Scott Kim of SaSa: Ceviche with Scallops, Shrimp and Red Snapper in a Japanese Garlic Mustard Citrus sauce

John Pistone of J. Pistone Market: Grilled Bay of Fundy Salmon & Garlic Mustard Aioli with Red White and Green Lentil Salad

Dessert courtesy of A Cookie and A Cupcake and Mularo's Gourmet Ice Cream

Wines donated by Wines LLC and Beer donated by Indigo Imp Brewery.

Tickets in Advance: Member $35/Non-Member $45. Tickets at the Door: Member $40/Non-Member $50. Reservations highly recommended.

Call 216-321-5935 for more information or visit the website at www.shakerlakes.org. Tickets purchased in advance for the Pestival can be applied toward the Cultural, Edible and Medicinal Uses of Plants in the Doan Brook hike on Saturday, May 30, from 1 to 4 p.m.

WTF is a Ramp and Why Shouldn't I Eat Them? : TreeHugger

Check out this Treehugger article. It touches the surface of the ethics of eating wild food. When people over-collect anything in Nature, bad things happen. Just like oil is being depleted, so are plant communities impacted by our unwise use.

We can't expect to feed billions of people the way thousands of people were fed in hunter-gatherer times.

On the other hand, as long as harvesting is done in a way that allows both humans and nature to thrive, eating wild can be a good thing good. More pure, more vital, less fossil fuel and water use.

If you do harvest wild foods or medicinal herbs, please don't pick every ramp in a patch. Don't dig all of the goldenseal you find. Spread the seeds of ginseng before you take the roots. Don't dig them in commercial quantities.

I personally love ramps, but do not harvest them because most of the ones I know about are in parks. But, what about when we do know about edible plants on private land that can be harvested? Is is it acceptable, in a "sustainability" sense, to harvest these, or should we ban even small scale collection for personal use?

Western Cuyahoga Audubon Society to host 31-mile bird watching walk May 23

Western Cuyahoga Audubon Society to host 31-mile bird watching walk May 23 - Cleveland.com: "The entire length of the 31-mile route is part of the Rocky River Important Bird Area. Walkers are seeking pledges to help them finish their 5-year survey of birds in the area, which is being done in hopes of securing funds for Cleveland Metroparks to buy additional parcels of land in the valley so they can be protected from development."

What a wonderful way to support Cleveland Metroparks and enjoy a day-long outdoor adventure with experienced birders. Check this out and expand your horizons.

For more information: visit the Western Cuyahoga Audubon Society's web page.

Spring Plowing Days

Visit Malabar Farm on May 16 & 17, 2009 from 11AM – 4PM for this free event.

Malabar Farm’s Spring Plowing Days features the beautiful and majestic draft animals which once were the mainstay of farming in early Ohio. The setting for this event is the rich rolling countryside of Pleasant Valley where agriculture has played an important role since the 1820’s. Malabar Farm State Park and the Central Ohio Draft Horse Association will once again host Annual Spring Plowing Days. Spring Plowing Days will feature teamsters and draft teams testing their skills in competition. All competitors must be members of the Central Ohio Draft Horse Association. This is just one of the opportunities Malabar offers visitors to reflect on and experience many things which have changed as well as a few which have stayed the same.

Sunday’s events include adult classes for men and women in the box-wagon obstacle course. The log skidding contest begins at 11:00 a.m. and the weekend’s activities wrap up with the fun pull. Teamsters pit the strength of their teams against their competition to see which team can pull the greatest load over a distance of 25 feet.

The Malabar Farm Restaurant is open Tuesdays through Thursdays 11:00 a.m. to 8:00pm; Fridays & Saturdays 11:00 a.m. to 9:00 p.m.; and Sundays 11:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m. year around. For reservations or more information call 419-938-5205. Additionally, the Malabar Farm Hostelling International, will be holding their Annual Open house from 12 noon till 4pm both days. Call 419-892-2055 for more information.

Malabar Farm is located 12 miles southeast of Mansfield, one mile west of SR 603 on Pleasant Valley Road. Louis Bromfield, a world-renowned novelist and conservationist, created the farm in the 1940s as a demonstration farm for progressive conservation practices. Malabar Farm State Park is the only working farm in the Ohio State Park system. Programs and special events are offered year-round. For more information about this or other programs, call the park office at 419-892-2784 or visit our Website at malabarfarm.org.

While you are in the area, check out the Butternut Loop Trail at Malabar Farm State Park.

Symbolic river may be removed from polluted river list

Ohio.com - Groups working to get Cuyahoga River off pollution list: "The once-dead and still-symbolic Cuyahoga River might be removed from an international list of polluted Great Lakes hot spots."

The burning river that spurred on the environmental movement is clean enough in some places to be removed from the list of polluted rivers. Where once no fish could live, now dozens of species of fish thrive.

The Clean Water Act calls for swimable, fishable water. The Cuyahoga River is to the point where it is fishable. Continued problems with combined sewer outflows on the middle and lower Cuyahoga keep it from being considered swimable, and canoeing is not recommended, but this is real progress. I have canoed the lower Cuyahoga and it is a wonderful, peaceful, wild experience. I can't wait until the day the bacteria levels from combined sewers and other sources are low enough that someone decides to open a canoe livery.

What a wonderful success story that is coming together.

Do your Part

Comment on pending decisions in your National Park!

Ever wonder how major environmental decisions are made? Well, the National Park Service, and other federal agencies, must comply with the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) when deciding about “major federal actions having a significant effect on the environment.” Essentially, a federal agency has to consider reasonable alternatives to any proposal that might significantly effect the environment, and gather public input while doing so.

They are not necessarily constrained to choose the alternative with the least impact. They are, however, required to make a statement about it and are subject to public scrutiny. Such statements are called Environmental Impact Statements. They are created when it is fairly clear that there will be significant impacts. When the implications of an action are not as clear, and Environmental Assessment (EA) may be completed. An EA is less comprehensive than an EIS, but analyzes whether an EIS must be done or not.

When preparing an EA or EIS, agencies are required to seek public input, both early in the process (called scoping) and when they have formulated the alternatives and are ready to make a decision. How does the public get involved? How can you and I make a difference?

Well, since this blog is mostly interested in parks, here is a link to the National Park Service's site where you can find opportunities to comment on current decisions being considered. For those of you in northeast Ohio like me, here is a link to find what decisions are being made at Cuyahoga Valley National Park.

If you care about parks and the environment, you have an obligation to keep up on the decisions our public employees are making, and to tell them how you feel. If you support the decisions they are making, tell them so. If you don't support their path, tell them that too, and tell them what they ought to do and why. After all, maybe your comment will be the one that saves a precious resource that would otherwise have been lost.

So, keep tabs on what is going on in your National Park, and get outside and get to know the nature of the parks so that when the time comes to defend it, you know what you value about your parks!

Bird Watching in Cleveland and NE Ohio | Ohio Birding - cleveland.com

Bird Watching in Cleveland and NE Ohio | Ohio Birding - cleveland.com: "The trees appeared to be dripping with yellow-rumped warblers, whose wheezy songs echoed all around us. The most common of songbirds were accompanied by a wave of early-arriving warblers: Northern parula, prothonotary, black-throated blue, black-throated green, ovenbird, blue-winged, pine, Blackburnian, black-and-white, Tennessee, Nashville, hooded and both waterthrushes, Northern and Louisiana."

This article may inspire a few couch potatoes to get out and explore nature. I sure hope it does. Take a look at the article, then look at our beginning birding page to get some ideas about how to find and identify our fine feathered friends.

GET OUTSIDE!

Cuyahoga Heights: Storytellers will tell tales Saturday in Ohio & Erie Canal Reservation - Sun Courier

Cuyahoga Heights: Storytellers will tell tales Saturday in Ohio & Erie Canal Reservation - Sun Courier

Here's an opportunity to support an under-used communication medium and show your kids how people entertained one another in the past. Traditional story telling!

Portage Park District Plans Morning and Moonlight Hikes

Our friends at the Portage Park District have announced some interesting, fun and informative activities. Check them out:

Early Morning Bird Hike
at Dix Park

Did you ever hear the saying early bird gets the worm? Saturday May 9 at 8:00 am Join our Park Naturalist for an informative, bird-filled morning walk! Dix Park consists of 103 acres of woods and wetlands with hiking trails-at this time of year the woods are filled with a variety of migrating songbirds. Located at 7318 State Route 44, RavennaTownship. Directions: From the intersection with SR 14 go North on SR 44 about 3/4 of a mile to park entrance on east side.

Full Moon
Bike Ride
on the PORTAGE Bike & Hike Trail

Sat May 9th. Meet at 8:15 pm in the Towner's Woods parking lot for an easy 4 mile round-trip ride to experience the natural sights and sounds of a spring dusk--helmets and lights are recommended.
Towner's Woods Park is located at 2296 Ravenna Road, Franklin Township. From SR 43, turn east onto Ravenna Rd., go 2 miles to the park entrance.

Mother's Day at the Park
Spring Wildflower Hike

Sunday May 10th 9:00 a.m. Grab Mom and bring her to Dix Park to enjoy the beautiful woodland wildflowers before they're gone. Dix Park consists of 103 acres of woods and wetlands with hiking trails at 7318 State Route 44, Ravenna Township Directions: From the intersection with SR 14 go North on SR 44 about 3/4 of a mile to park entrance on east side.

The Portage Park District was formed by the action of the Portage County Commissioners in 1991 as an independent government agency. It is overseen by an unpaid, five-member Board of Park Commissioners appointed by the County Probate Judge according to Ohio Revised Code 1545.

Contact Info:
Portage Park District
128 North Prospect Street
Ravenna, Ohio 44266
330-297-7728