Road Trip Adventures: South Carolina Botanical Garden

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Clemson Clay Nest by Nils-Udo 2007

LaChaBenn is expanding territories and for the next few months I'll be posting on cool happenings and random sweet finds throughout the country. First up, a trip down south to Clemson, South Carolina, home of the ACC Tigers, Fort Hill and South Carolina Botanical Gardens (SCBG).

What began in 1958 as a small garden, South Carolina Botanical Gardens has grown to  300 acres of natural landscapes, display gardens, and miles of streams and nature trails. Recently, SCBG was severally damaged due to heavy flooding. As a result, the Natural Heritage Garden trail is closed until spring 2014.However the remainder of this gorgeous Garden and trails remains open.

SCBG, open from dusk til dawn, is free to the public. Perhaps the best part of this is how SCBG combines nature, art and culture. The collection of Nature-Based Sculptures here is amongst the largest in the country.  What is most unique about nature-based sculptures is that they are forever evolving. Some structure stay for years, but some are naturally shaped back into the surrounding landscape. For example, my favorite piece, the Steam Path, was installed in 1998 by Gilles Bruni & Marc Babarit (B/B).

Stream Path's Insulation

here are picture of the final project!

here is a picture of Steam Path in 2001

Also Sittin' Pretty installed by Patrick Dougherty in 1996

and Sitting Pretty in 2007

 

However some structures remain intact over the years for example the Crucible by Herb Parker installed in 1995

and in 2004

Also, Natural Dialogue by Alfio Bonanno installed in 1997

and again 10 years later

 

If you are anywhere near Clemson (i.e.Greenville :-) take the short drive to this beautiful Garden.
You can find more information about the sculptures and the artist by visiting this page.
To learn more about SCBG directions and hours please visit its homepage.
And if you have deep pockets, SCBG is working very hard to raise money to repair the damage it sustained earlier this year.  The picture below is a link to the donation page.

E.C.O. On NPR

Hey today on NPR check out Berwyn friend Vinnie as he is interviewed about Engage Community Offshoots composting projects in College Park, Md.
Mazel Tov Vinnie!

Sent on the Now Network� from my Sprint® BlackBerry

I'm leaving my melons on the land. Watermelon Juice: The New Fuel?

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Watermelon Juice: The New Fuel?

Michael Reilly, Discovery News

 

Aug. 26, 2009 -- A staple of backyard barbecues and summer time snacks, watermelon is also a promising new source of renewable energy.

According to a new study, leftover watermelons from farms' harvests could be converted into up to 9.4 million liters (2.5 million gallons) of clean, renewable ethanol fuel every year destined for your car, truck, or airplane's gas tank.

Agriculturally, watermelon is a peculiar fruit -- each year farmers across the country leave between 20 and 40 percent of their crop to rot on the ground. These are the ugly ducklings of the lot; though perfectly fine on the inside, the misshapen or blemished melons simply won't sell at the grocery store.

"If a crow lands on a melon, takes two pecks at the rind, and then flies away, it's no good," Wayne Fish of the United States Department of Agriculture in Lane, Oklahoma said. "I had farmers telling me, 'I'm leaving one-fifth of my melons on the land. Is there anything I can do with them?'"

Across the United States, he estimated that 360,000 tons of watermelons spoil in fields every year.

Some local growers wondered whether the waste melons could be turned into ethanol, the clean-burning fuel derived from plant sugars. In a series of new experiments published yesterday in the journalBiotechnology for Biofuels, Fish and a team of researchers showed that they can.

What's more, watermelon juice may turn out to be the perfect way to optimize industrial-scale production of ethanol from corn, molasses and sugar cane.

Watermelon juice is about 10 percent sugar by volume, about half the concentration that manufacturers consider right for producing ethanol. But it's chock full of amino acids that provide a crucial source of nitrogen for yeast to feed on during fermentation.

On its own, the team calculated they could make about 2.5 million gallons of ethanol each year from waste melons, a drop in the bucket of an industry that last year produced 9 billion gallons from corn and other feedstock in the United States alone.

But both corn and molasses require lots of water, and sometimes nitrogen supplements to prepare for fermentation. The team suggests that watermelon juice from reject melons could drastically cut down on water usage, supply needed nitrogen, and even add some sugar to the mix, cutting the amount of corn or molasses by up to 15 percent.

"This is not going to replace corn. In that sense it will remain a niche source of biofuel," said Jim Rausch, president of the College Station, Texas-based company Common Sense Agriculture, LLC, which is developing a prototype watermelon juice-to-ethanol processing plant.

"But unlike algae biodiesel or cellulosic ethanol, it's a right now thing. There's no new technology that needs to be developed to make it economical."

UMD students Rally to save 9 acres

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Davey Rogner (left) and Clark DeLong in the wooded area the university plans to clear. (Baltimore Sun photo / May 6, 2009)

The University of Maryland, College Park aspires to be one of the "greenest" institutions of higher education in the country and plans to celebrate Friday its designation as an arboretum and "tree campus."But some students and professors say the administration is missing the forest for the trees by planning to bulldoze nearly 9 acres of woods on the sprawling 1,400-acre campus to make way for maintenance sheds, a mail-handling depot and a parking lot for the university's buses and trucks.

"The university says they're going to become carbon neutral by 2050, but they make a decision to cut down 9 acres of forest on the campus," said Davey Rogner, a senior from Silver Spring who's majoring in environmental restoration.He and others plan to stage what one student leader called a "protestabration" Friday at the arboretum festivities, to highlight their concerns about how the loss of the woods conflicts with the university's commitment to the environment.

University officials say they need to use most of the 15-acre wooded hill behind the Comcast Center to relocate support facilities that are to be displaced by the redevelopment on east campus that will bring more stores, eateries, entertainment and graduate student housing. They say putting the maintenance operations anywhere but on the wooded tract would be too costly or pose too many environmental problems.

Anne G. Wylie, vice president for administrative affairs, suggests it's the critics, not the administration, who might need a refresher class in sustainability."This is a very complicated problem," she said, adding that she sees no conflict between bulldozing woods and the university's campaign to be rated one of the nation's greenest schools. The overall aim is to develop a more compact, walkable campus and reduce the amount of driving by students, faculty and staff, she explained. "It's not just about preserving trees."

A delegation of students, faculty and outside environmentalists met with Wylie on Wednesday afternoon, and she said afterward that she's willing to consider any alternatives they suggest. The bulldozer is "many, many months away," she said, though the university is nearing an agreement with a developer to proceed with the east campus project.

The campus festivities Friday will mark the first year of the college's arboretum designation, awarded by the American Public Gardens Association, that recognizes commitment to public education about trees and their value; and a "tree campus" designation from the Arbor Day Foundation.In addition, College Park currently is in second place in a nationwide contest to be declared "America's Greenest Campus." The competition, sponsored by a pair of green companies, aims to get students, faculty and staff to reduce their carbon footprint and use less energy.The east campus redevelopment has been in planning for years, but the fate of the woods became an issue in February, when some students learned of the facility relocation plan and questioned it. The student government association unanimously adopted a resolution calling for an independent review of the issue."It's in our strategic plan, in our climate action plan, in our facilities plan that we will preserve green space and will do everything we can to have carbon-neutral development," said Joanna Calabrese, student government senior vice president and a junior from Columbia. "This goes against everything we stand for - at least as far as we can tell."Some professors and students say the woods are a valuable teaching laboratory as well as a precious natural resource.Ray Weil, a professor of soil science, said he takes his classes to the woods to study the soil and how it functions in an ecosystem. The university dug him a "soil pit" there a few years ago so students could examine the layers of dirt beneath the surface. The ground contains Sassafras soil, Maryland's official state soil, Weil said."There are very little of the natural woods left," said Weil. "It does seem like a shame to put yet more paved parking surface on campus when we have so much of it."Joe Sullivan, associate professor of plant science and landscape architecture, said he holds class behind Comcast as well to let students see how forests grow and how they recover from natural catastrophes. A tornado that ripped through campus in 2001, killing two students, tore out and damaged trees."It's very nice to have a lab within walking distance where we can go out and see native species, the forest growth pattern and the structure of the [tree] canopy," he said.Sullivan said he and other faculty members intend to join students Saturday for a teach-in of sorts about the ecological functions and values of the woods.Other faculty members are trying to steer clear of the controversy.

Marla McIntosh, a professor of urban forestry and director of the university's arboretum and botanical garden, said she's focused on researching the thousands of trees on campus and developing them better as a teaching tool. So far, some 7,000 trees have been identified, she said, and school officials are putting up signs to identify 56 different ones along a marked "tree walk."McIntosh said she hasn't become involved in the university's development plans but doesn't see a disconnect between leveling the woods and being committed to sustainability."As an urban forester, the concept of wanting to keep contiguous space I wholly believe in," she said. "But sometimes things just don't work out."

Ecospot Third Place

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To: Brianne-and all others who "don't care" about recycling.

Ecspot Second Place Winner

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Earth Day line up

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EP's favorite day of the year.
The concept of Earth Day was proposed in September 1969 by Senator Gaylord Nelson of Wisconsin. He called for a spring time grassroots movement to support and call attention to the environment. On April 22, 1970 20 million people participated in the world's first "with a goal of healthy sustainable environment."


I won't be doing a Hump Day Laugh Today, Instead today will concentrate on Earth Day facts, info, events, and Ecospots-a promo from Current T.V. and the Alliance for Climate Protection.



For More Info Check out these sites

• http://www.sierraclub.org/earthday/

• http://www.epa.gov/earthday/events.htm

• http://earthday.envirolink.org/

• http://www.earthday.net/

EPD Environmental Poser Disorder

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By LaChaBenn for LaChaBenn.com

Environmental Poser Disorder: (noun) \in-ˈvī-rə(n-mənt(n)-'tal\ \ˈpō-zər\ orgin lachabenn

Environmental posers are the biggest threat to the environment. EPs commit to sporadic "large" acts towards helping the planet but do not make changes in everyday life. It is easy to over come EPD. In some cases EPD can be treated by simple changes in habits. In moderate to severe cases of EPD intervention is needed. Its time for every individual to take responsibility and action to protect this planet. Confront a friend, or confront self.

Side effects to EPD include

• leaving the faucets on while brushing teeth,

• passing by/ignoring liter in the neighborhood

• leaving bathroom fans on and house lights on upwards to 12 hours for zero reason

• throwing cigarette butts out of car windows and into lawns

• Using large amounts of waste products: access toilet paper, paper towels, doing access laundry runs at high temps and water levels
  

There is Help

~Take a Leave No Trace Course

~Don't leave the water on full pressure for anything- leave the water running for one minute full pressure you are using up to five gallons of clean H2O.

~Turn lights off when you leave the room don't run unnecessary appliance for unnecessary amounts of time. If you own a home invest in energy efficient appliances and receive a tax credit at the end of the year AND save money and energy every month. If you rent trying buying fluorescent bulb. They use a fifth of energy and a tenth of the heat to generate the same amount of light as traditional incandescent bulb
~Keep a cigarette butt container near your popular smoking areas, use the container NOT mother
earth. Cigarettes are not Biodegradable. EVER


~Commit to a Conservation Corps (like MCC, CYCC, SCC) or a clean up project at a local water way or park

~Use Cloth bags at the grocery store. You already have a ton of plastic bags at home? Some markets collect and recycle used plastic bags.

Don't Pose, admit if you are unclear on what steps you can take to save the environment for that is the first step!

peace!

Water Conservation!

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Here is a trick to save half a gallon to a gallon of water per FLUSH!

1. take an empty plasti 16.9 oz water bottle.
2. fill it with a heavy item, rocks, sand, salt etc.
3. place filled bottle in the TANK not the BOWL (the back part)

BAM!
You are saving Mother Earth!

Earth Hour

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but remember it will take a lot more than this
la

Dear Camel,

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I appreciate the coupons in the mail,
They save me much needed green.
But the coupons inside of an empty camel pack inside an empty box within a box is just to much,
Thank you for saving me money, but please save some trees.
Send me my coupons in an envelope please.

Sincerely,
LaChaBenn

Rain Rain Come and Stay

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I feel as if Georgia and perhaps the entire south east has taken a new approach to precipitation. We look forward to days where the Earth around us become saturated. We drive slower, and thank our higher Being for what is perceived as a blessing. Maybe in the back of our heads we blame ourselves for the drought across the land. We are understanding first hand the consequences of our parasitical behavior with Mother Nature. Could All of this really be are fault?
Is it to late for conservation?