http://www.mcall.com/news/local/easton/mc-pictures-eastons-40fruit-tree-finds-new-home-20161117-photogallery.html

We’re on the Morning Call! I’m only a little bit bitter that the picture of Alaina, Prisca, and I attempting to dig a hole didn’t make the cut…

Our projects may be at the point where we’re zoomed into the details, but the outcome of this election has forced us to zoom out. President Elect Trump has already announced that the Keystone XL Pipeline will be constructed, the rest of our coal reserves will be mined and burned, and all contributions from the United States to global climate mitigation will end. The outcome of Tuesday’s election resulted in the worst possible scenario for the environment. We face an unexpected and potentially catastrophic situation. Now, we must to reassess our roles and motivations as environmentalists as we craft our proposals for the end of the semester as well as our life plans for the end of next semester.

I have had three profound thoughts regarding this reassessment that I would like to share with you all:

1. Our role as avoiders of climate disaster has just shifted to adapters to climate disaster. If the Trump administration follows through with the aforementioned actions – a likely situation given the glaring red which now characterizes our federal government – fossil fuel emissions will increase rapidly. Climate change is happening and, during the next four years, will progress at a rate faster than “business as usual.” Think back to Lawrence’s Climate Change class. You know what this means – the worst case scenario. How will we make the market for renewable energies such that cheap gas and coal doesn’t dominate? How will we protect endangered species given altered seasons and rising sea levels? How will we house climate refugees from our coast, our deserts, and all over the world?  How will we ensure that our agriculture remains in enough intact to feed the increasing number of mouths? These are the questions that the world is counting on us to answer. They are daunting and numerous, but this is the reality of a Trump presidency.
2. Our fight must be constant and broad. Every four years is not nearly enough. Buying LED lights and going vegetarian is no longer enough. Donating a few dollars after a major oil spill or environmental disaster is not enough. We can no longer count on our federal government to do the heavy lifting. We must work tirelessly to create an infrastructure separate from our federal government that promotes renewables, energy conservation, greenhouse gas mitigation, conservation of species, etc. Work with your cities and states to adopt climate policy, incentivize renewable development and mandate energy conservation. Pressure your future employers to strive for carbon neutrality. Make donations to WWF or Conservation International in lieu of holiday gifts. Spend your free time volunteering with one of many environmental and social justice organizations. Our social norms and comfortable routines no longer take priority over this fight.
3. The fight for our earth cannot operate in isolation from other progressive fights. I hope that everyone understands this by now, but I emphasize it because this is more important now than ever. The right to a clean, safe, healthy environment is a human right. The right to marry whomever you love is a human right. The right to living through a police encounter is a human right. The right to feel as though you can leave your home without fearing assault, abuse, discrimination, or death is a human right. All of these rights, that should be characteristic of a civilized society, are currently at risk. The fights for these rights do not exist in vacuums. We cannot protect any of these rights without fighting to protect them all. I urge you to open lines of communication with activists fighting for all of these rights, especially on this campus, and connect our efforts.

This shit is difficult. We are all emotional. Know that I have immense faith in all of you guys despite the faith I’ve lost in this past 24 hours. We are in this fight together.

I have been in contact with Steven Nowroski from the Easton Codes Department and he is incredibly supportive of our green roof idea. According to him and someone from the zoning department, there is no zoning permits needed, but a LOT of codes that must be followed. In addition to sending me links to massive books of codes (http://codes.iccsafe.org/I-Codes.html), he told me that this kind of project would require a PA registered design professional to fill out all the necessary paperwork and prepare construction documents. For this reason, I am wondering how deep into the codes we should go for this project. I have a few questions that the rest of you could perhaps weigh in on regarding this topic:

-Should we read through the codes and find out exactly which paperwork we need?

-Should we just try to find out the cost incurred by following the codes and paying the professional to prepare the paperwork?

-Should we continue trying to find the contractor that the school would use in hopes that they know how to deal with all of this?

-Should we just include a section in our proposal that says something like “there are codes that must be followed, but a PA registered design professional has to go through them and prepare the construction documents?

-Bushkill project, are you going into codes and zoning at all for your project proposal?

Dominique Bayne from Emory Knoll Farms replied to my inquiry about the use of native plants on a green roof basically saying that eastern US natives do not usually do well on roofs, but putting some natives and pollinator plants in as accents around sedums is definitely doable. She specifically mentioned some eastern natives. Below, I’ve written the name as well as included the link to some information about the plant:

• Nodding Onion
  • http://www.missouribotanicalgarden.org/PlantFinder/PlantFinderDetails.aspx?kempercode=z580
• Nuttall’s rayless goldenrod
  • https://plants.usda.gov/core/profile?symbol=BINU2
• Butterfly weed
  • http://www.missouribotanicalgarden.org/PlantFinder/PlantFinderDetails.aspx?kempercode=b490
• Eastern prickly pear
  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Opuntia_humifusa

Dominique also included three informative sheets about good sedum plants for green roofs. These will prove very helpful in choosing what plants can go on the green roof.

Last week, Prisca, Alaina, and I met with John Wilson to interrogate him about his chicken operation. We learned an INCREDIBLE amount including the fact that raising chickens is incredibly involved. I have enough raw information in the recording of our interview to write a much longer blog post than any of you would like to read, but I just want to point out some highlights and take aways that I particularly found interesting/helpful.

1. We do not need a rooster! Chickens will lay eggs even if they’re not fertilized. If we plan on hatching chickens, we would need a rooster, but if we’re just going to keep buying baby chicks or chickens that are a few months old, this isn’t a concern.
2. We will most definitely need more paid positions. The amount of daily labor that chickens require is definitely more than what can be done by just Sarah or Sarah and a few volunteers. Successfully raising chickens would require multiple part-time student employees or one full time employee. This would require us to get more funding – likely from grants.
3. Chickens need raw protein and some sort of calcium in their feed. The protein is because chickens are omnivorous and need the protein as a foundation for their eggs. They need the calcium so the shells that they lay can be strong. Prof. Wilson grinds his own feed out of corn, raw animal fat, and oyster shells. We would likely be purchasing feed, but now we know we have to look for this!
4. There are different breeds of birds that are bred to produce eggs or meat – not usually both. We want to look for laying chickens rather than meat chickens. An implication of this is that if we have to kill our flock for some reason (potential for disease, age, etc.) we would have to find a use for the dead bird that wasn’t direct consumption. Perhaps we could add this to compost once that gets back up and running.
5. Know your customer – if we want to sell these eggs, we have to have a really good sense of how much Gilbert’s, students, faculty, or a farmers market shopper would pay for eggs from LaFarm.
6. Chickens can be trained! We would actually have to train them to go back into their coop after roaming around LaFarm for fertilization purposes and to lay eggs. Hopefully, we our coop will have attractive enough roosts where our chickens will want to go there to lay their eggs. Otherwise, we could unexpectedly come upon eggs throughout LaFarm!

I know focusing on native plants is central to ecological sustainability on our campus, but unfortunately, it looks like there are not many species native to our area that would thrive on a green roof. Since a roof can be a fairly hostile environment, the plants that do the best up there are alpine, desert plants that do well in rocky, thin soiled environments. Additionally, greenroofplants.com says that any eastern US native plants would require extra shading. Buck Hall is not shaded at all by trees which would make it even more difficult for native plants to thrive on the roof. We could perhaps include some native plants in the third tier idea since, in that tier, we’re committing to more maintenance anyway.

Fortunately, many of the plants we could use are incredibly attractive, such as wildflowers and succulents, and require little maintenance after planting. Based on what I have learned in Conservation Biology so far this semester, I am fairly confident that plants native to the American Southwest and other desert type habitats would not thrive on the ground and would thus not invade on pre-existing ecosystems surrounding Buck Hall.

I have an email out to GreenRoofPlants asking for some consultation for more specifics about the kind of plants we could use and will report back upon receiving a response.

Here are the links with which I consulted:

http://inhabitat.com/top-10-plants-for-a-living-roof/

http://www.greenroofplants.com/green-roof-technology/green-roof-faqs/#Can%20people%20walk%20on%20the%20green%20roof

Minimum one post per week – something interesting you found related to your projects. Don’t forget to check one of the “category” boxes on the lower right panel