I suffered a great loss this summer when my beautiful and precious Camille died of heart failure. Her devotion and joyful spirit were only two of the characteristics about her that will make her a lasting memory for me and all her friends. I will be in training with my next canine companion in July. I'm having another girl!!
I hope to return to UVM to speak in classes and to visit my friends as soon as I adjust to my new job. Thank you all for teaching me so much and so well! - Laura
I don't have an address yet in London, but please check with Sue by mid-August. I expect those of you crossing through London to look me up, unless you have a great excuse not to! - Subir
During the past year, Rick has attended several regional and national conferences where he has presented papers and participated in panel discussions on such topics as exotic species control in natural areas; the effects of landscape fragmentation in rural areas; professional development opportunities for land conservationists; and the effects of development activities in high elevation ecosystems in New England.
Most recently, Rick and Steve Libby are under contract with the Conservation Fund to develop an intensive training workshop on land stewardship for land trust staff. After a pilot test this fall in the Northeast, it will be available nationally.
This spring semester, students in Tom Hudspeth's "Creating Environmentally Sustainable Communities" course produced videotapes on individuals and groups in the Burlington area which serve as role models for living more sustainably. Their programs—on such topics as bicycle commuting, organic farms, community supported agriculture, and the Wildlands Project—were broadcast over the local cable access television station.
Again this fall semester, Tom's "Environmental Interpretation" class developed interpretive media (exhibits, signs, brochures, self-guided auto tours) for Island Pond in the Northeast Kingdom. Their work—dealing with Moose Bog, Bluff Mountain, birds, moose, etc.—will be incorporated into a viewing guide for watchable wildlife for the Island Pond area that Tom is developing with funding from the McConnell Foundation. Tom continues to involve ENVS undergraduate and Natural Resource graduate students in leading tours for middle and high school students at the Living Machine in South Burlington. The Living Machine utilizes artificial wetlands vegetation enclosed in a greenhouse to treat organic wastes. This summer Tom will again offer an institute for Burlington teachers on integrating Lake Champlain Basin related topics—especially concerning wetlands—into their curricula.
Colette Jones is celebrating a recent acquisition of 28.79 acres in Monkton where bobolinks are currently nesting. "Bobolink numbers declined in the last century due to fewer hay fields, earlier mowing and use of modern cutting and raking equipment. They are now on the watch list and I feel privileged to have them in our field. Tree swallows occupying blue bird boxes are a delight to watch in flight and often venture close up. Of course, we would love to welcome bluebirds in the future. We continue to embellish our perennial gardens and wildlife plantings."
The New England Environmental Policy Center Board of Directors has reelected Jean Richardson as President and CEO, and Carl Reidel as Vice President. Founded three years ago, NEEPC has received grants exceeding $1 million from eight national foundations for research on dioxin in agriculture; the establishment of a national forestry certification system; and other projects.
Carl Reidel is participating in a national study with the Pinchot Institute for Conservation which will review forestry programs at U.S. colleges and universities, examining ways to better incorporate sustainable forestry principles in professional forestry education. The project will pay particular attention to how schools are revising their strategic plans for curriculum development, faculty appointments, and outside financial support.
Carl has been appointed Tree Warden for Ferrisburgh by the Select Board, a town office created early in the century, with a wide range of forest-related authorities. Carl notes that "the tree warden can work effectively with Town Conservation Commissions and park departments to encourage good forestry practices on town and private lands." Jean received a grant of $1,500,000 from the W.K. Kellogg Foundation to continue her research on rural community development, and to complete a book on this subject from a national perspective to be published by Island Press of Washington D.C. and California (see EPIC article, page 7).
In January, Jean appeared with Vermont Senator, Patrick Leahy, as the keynoters for the international teleconference, "The Health Care Industry's Impact on the Environment: Strategies for Global Change." The program was viewed by health professionals at over 500 sites in Canada and the U.S. Video tapes of the conference are available: Sue Bean is now the proud grandmother of four grandsons. The fourth, Joshua James, was born Feb. 9, 1997. She's been the Environmental Program secretary for 13 years. "I welcome new ENVS majors and minors, congratulate the new graduates and would love to stay in better touch with our alumni."
Bill Eddy spent September and October 1997 in Nepal working with Stobie Fairfield '92 and Stuart Hawkins at the invitation of the School for International Training to help them redesign the curriculum for the College Semester Abroad Program there. "I enjoyed working with them and with the marvelous group of 18 students." The new program they designed is already being implemented.
In late May, Bill returned to Nepal to climb onto the Tibetan plateau into the ancient Buddhist Kingdom of Lo. The three others who joined him on the pilgrimage into Southwestern Tibet in 1996 to circumambulate the Holy Mountain of Kailas were with him again: Bill's son Cam UVM '97, his nephew Mac Davidson, and Stobie. "It seemed a special way to celebrate my turning 70."
Bill will return to UVM in the fall to undertake a series of seven lectures called, "The Evolution of Evolution." This one- credit course, for students from a wide cross-section of academic disciplines, aims to trace the evolution of human consciousness over 60,000 years.
Laura McArthur is working with two ENVS students, Frances Grady '99 and Rachel Rosenberg '01, to survey UVM students regarding how closely their eating habits comply with the dietary advice included in the Food Guide Pyramid. They will distinguish between on-campus and off-campus students, and will test their knowledge about the Pyramid. They plan to publish their results.
Stephanie Kaza enjoyed her new fall course, "American Nature Philosophers," and will probably offer follow-up seminars on some of the people they studied. She continued her work through March as Cochair of the Environmental Council. Now she's in California on a year's sabbatical until January 1998.
Stephanie published a number of articles this past year. Among them: "The Not-So-Hidden Costs of Consumption" in the Winter 1997-98 issue of Wild Earth. She presented the lead paper, "Overcoming the Grip of Consumerism," at the International Buddhist-Christian Dialogue conference, focusing on the environment, in Indianapolis this spring. She hopes soon to teach a course on "unlearning consumerism."
Stephanie anticipates she'll submit her manuscript of her book-in-progress, Green Buddha Walking: an Environmental Interpretation of Buddhist Philosophy in 1999. As editor, together with Kenneth Kraft, she is also working on Dharma Rain: Sources of Buddhist Environmentalism, a comprehensive anthology of the Green Buddhism discussion.
This May Stephanie presented "Breakthrough to Liberation: Gary Snyder's Mountains and Rivers Without End," a symposium talk for a forum celebrating Snyder's recent release of a major 40-year work in the making. "It was a thrill for me to spend a day with Gary. The next day we joined him and others on a 15-mile circumambulation of California's Mt. Tamalpais, following a route he first did in the 1960's with Jack Kerouac and Allen Ginsberg, chanting at all the same sacred spots along the way."
"Nature Drawing" was so popular this fall that Davis TeSelle taught two sections of it. He enjoyed taking his students to draw in many beautiful sites in Vermont. His prints of trees and landscapes were shown this year in several galleries in Vermont and California , as well as our very own Bittersweet House. Davis' illustrations appeared in Wild Earth, Tricycle Magazine, Earth Matters, the Northwest Environmental Institute newsletter, and the UVM Environmental Council Report.
Davis has been given a fellowship to attend the Japanese Arts Seminar this August at the Green Gulch Zen Center in Muir Beach California, where he will study Japanese pottery, tea ceremony, martial arts, and theatre. He hopes the experience will inform his interests in east-west art aesthetic relations.
As an adjunct professor, Walter Poleman has offered ENVS 195 "Landscape Natural History" for the past three semesters. This integrated field science course explores the natural history of Vermont and provides students with a framework for understanding why the surrounding landscape looks the way it does. Walter teaches an interdisciplinary approach to landscape assessment that stresses not only inventorying the biotic and physical components (pieces), but examining how these pieces are distributed in the landscape (patterns) and what forces drive these patterns (processes).
Walter also serves as the Associate Director of the Field Naturalist Graduate Program in the UVM botany department, and teaches adult natural history workshops at Shelburne Farms. He and his wife, Pat, live in Richmond, Vermont, with their two daughters.
Active in the environmental field for twenty years, John Quinney teaches "Environmental Entrepreneurship," a course that's cross-listed with the Business School. He closed Simply Better, an environmental store, in 1997, and began working as an environmental consultant to companies like Gardener's Supply, Magic Hat, and Green Mountain Power. Currently, John is a consultant to Green Mountain Energy Resources, a Vermont company that is offering renewable electricity through California and Pennsylvania markets, where residents can choose the source of their electricity. John sees this as a huge opportunity for business and the environment, since with one simple action—choosing renewable electricity—consumers can begin changing the way power is produced. John lives in Charlotte with his wife Colleen Armstrong, manager of the UVM greenhouses, and their two children, Linden and Sam.
Leslie King shares, "After returning from British Columbia in August and slipping back into UVM as though I had never left, I've had a stimulating and rewarding year. Most of the rewards came from student projects. The grad students in my planning class undertook planning the university farms and forests and presented an excellent report to the university. The students in 'Environmental Thought' all did wonderful creative pieces on their encounters with nature. The NR 105 students studied food services on campus in the fall and alternative energy sources at UVM in the Spring.
'Ecological Economics' students completed a footprint analysis of UVM's use of resources and we travelled to Dartmouth to present our results to the author of the footprint technique, Bill Rees, and to a Dartmouth class and professors. That took real courage and the students did a great job! With the assistance of our ten wonderful T.A.s, the students in ENVS 2 put on an Earth Day/Global Summit extravaganza in front of the library with booths, demonstrations, presentations, music, and videos. It was well attended, extremely educational, spectacularly effective and fun! Finally, the students in my summer course, 'Thoreau and Environmentally Sustainable Lifestyles,' built (nearly) an updated, more environmentally sound Thoreauvian cabin on my land on the shores of Lake Champlain. We visited Yestermorrow, Sarah Flack and her husband, Remy's, great hand-built houses as well as Thoreau's site and the replica of his cabin at Walden. We all learned a tremendous amount—about building, the environment, and ourselves!
This summer, I am travelling to Alaska for a meeting of ARCUS (Arctic Research Consortium of the US ) of which I am a board member, and also to Australia for a meeting of the Scientific Planning Committee for the Institutional Dimensions of Global Change at the Australian Institute for Marine Science on the Great Barrier Reef! I am part of a teaching team for a course, 'Conservation History and Practice' for National Park Service Trainees to be held here at UVM and also at the new Marsh-Billings National Historic Park in Woodstock, Vermont."
Ian Worley continues active chairmanship of the State Endangered Species Committee. This summer he'll participate in a mini-course for S.E.A. Semester advisors and directors, sponsored by the Sea Education Association in Woods Hole aboard the SSV Westward.
Over the past several years Steve Libby has increased his academic responsibilities teaching at the University as well as the Vermont Law School. In addition to private consulting work in land conservation he is now active with the Preservation Trust of Vermont travelling around Vermont and working with local preservation groups to preserve important historic buildings and landscapes. Spare time work includes chairing the Vermont River Conservancy and raising two boys.
Ibit Getchell keeps happily busy with Environmental Program Student Services responsibilities. This spring she launched a course through the UVM Division of Continuing Education, "Exploring Nature Writing." "I had a wonderful group of committed students. It was rewarding to act on the dream I'd had for many years. I'll teach it again next fall, and then I plan to collaborate on a new course with Camy Davis in the UVM art department in 1999.
If you followed Tom Hudspeth around for a day, you would observe a dedicated professor actively involved with his students; a knowledgeable professional with a wealth of experience; and an essential citizen whose concerns lead to high environmental standards. There's a good chance that you'll find Tom at any given public lecture, conference or local event. For him, learning is a lifelong pursuit. Tom's upbeat attitude and approachable manner make him immediately likable, but this is only a first glimpse. The path Tom has chosen to walk is far more valiant than one might suspect from his unpretentious and laid-back manner.
Tom participated in the Student Conservation Association's (SCA) high school work program in Olympic National Park: "In 1964 we did trail work in Washington's Queets River Rainforest along the Pacific, and restored an old homestead in a remote area of the park." Tom also became a student assistant for a new SCA program in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park where his group "built shelters along the Appalachian Trail and maintained trails."
In the summers between years at Williams College, Tom worked as a seasonal naturalist, or interpreter, at various national parks, such as Zion in Utah and the Great Smoky Mountains in Tennessee. Working at the visitor center and leading nature walks and hikes by day, Tom also presented evening programs in the campgrounds. Because of his early experiences with wildlife and the outdoors, Tom always assumed he would become an ecological field researcher after he graduated.
Continuing with his Master's degree, Tom became a teaching assistant for a very large introductory course similar to our "Introduction to Environmental Studies." (Later, at UVM, this would serve as a model for the design of ENVS 1.) As a summer field naturalist with the National Park Service, Tom slowly realized that "maybe I wasn't made to be a reclusive field scientist. I preferred to be interacting with people in educational settings."
Tom earned two Master's degrees in "Environmental Education and Interpretation" and "Ecology and Animal Behavior" at the University of Michigan's School of Natural Resources. In 1972, he applied for a position in UVM's new university-wide undergraduate Environmental Program, was hired, and left Michigan for Vermont.
While in Vermont, through the University of Michigan, in 1982, Tom completed a Doctorate in "Environmental Psychology and Citizen Participation," which revealed "what Burlington citizens wanted for their waterfront, including: visible and physical accessibility for all the public—not just tourists and wealthy condominium owners; and a variety of recreational opportunities (bike paths, parks, marinas, an outdoor amphitheater, and other community amenities)."
Tom's academic appointment is split between the Environmental Program (EP) and the School of Natural Resources (SNR). Through the EP he teaches "Environmental Education," "Environmental Problem Solving," "Environmental Heroes and Heroines," and "Sustainable Communities." In SNR his classes include "Environmental Interpretation," and "International Natural Resource Problems."
Tom reflects on the events that occurred after his doctoral research, "Citizen's groups were formed to implement specific goals. Eventually—especially after Bernie Sanders' election as Burlington's mayor—our efforts were embraced by politicians." Tom worked hard to keep the Burlington Waterfront project "people-focused" and remarks that "it's been exciting to see the bike path, Waterfront Park, Lake Champlain Basin Science Center, Lake Champlain Aquarium, and more, come into being."
Tom has also traveled extensively, both professionally and with his family. He has trained environmental educators and interpreters in India, Japan, Latvia, Lithuania, Malaysia, and the United Kingdom. Another of his projects abroad was the "development of an interpretive plan for Ruhunu National Park in Sri Lanka."
On Earth Day, 1998, Tom received the Environmental Merit Award by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) "in recognition of his exceptional work and commitment to the environment, as an outstanding environmental advocate who has made significant contributions toward preserving and protecting our natural resources."
After 27 years at UVM, Tom's optimism, passion, and drive are still strong. In the same league as those about whom he writes, Tom is a hero, worthy of high recognition in the environmental arena, exemplifying creative thinking and passionate activism. We're lucky he found his way to Vermont and to UVM!
EPIC—Environmental Programs/Partnerships in Communities, begun in 1992, has flourished with generous support primarily from the W.K. Kellogg Foundation ($1,500,000). EPIC is a comprehensive, integrating, community-based rural development project. By this I mean that our goals from the beginning were to provide resources and other assistance to communities, encouraging community leaders to undertake innovative projects that they believed were important. We were not out-of-town experts with programs to deliver. We wanted to involve the university, its faculty from all across campus, and our students, graduate and undergraduate, with community efforts. Some faculty and students conducted research, others provided service to communities. Our hope was that we would be a catalyst in encouraging local ideas to take root and flourish, and that the communities would be the focus, not the University. We did not establish an office on campus, and have no plans for an institutional structure. We wanted to "give away" ideas and seed grant funding.
Readers should be reminded that the facades of rural America, including Vermont, often mask declining rural towns, low family incomes and a host of complex socioeconomic challenges. Most women with young children work in the nearest city, leaving children in day care in the city. Rural towns are bedroom suburbs in effect, rarely with community centers or services, and village stores close down in response to cheaper superstores near the city. Farmers are isolated, barns in poor repair, marketing of village products and other assets is limited, and leadership is often lacking.
EPIC tried to quietly permit local people to address their own needs, and the results continue to be marvelously rewarding. Over the first five years, in response to community requests, we conducted demonstration projects in intensive pasture management, rural heritage and barn conservation, leadership development workshops, and marketing studies; ran two Youth Environmental Summits; helped in town planning and in setting up conservation commissions; and gave away hundreds of small seed grants to communities for many different local projects. Once a year we held an open house on campus where citizens— EPIC grantees and any others—could come to share ideas, and soon the EPIC concepts and participants became melded into reinvigorated communities, growing and changing in many ways.
It is not clear how many people in Vermont took part in EPIC during the first five years. Our mailing list soon exceeded one thousand Vermonters, as well as community leaders in the surrounding states, south into Maryland and out west where EPIC projects suited to local conditions are now growing.
We have many lessons to share from the EPIC story. We have been evaluating our work from the beginning and can see the results. Our goal over the next two years is to capture some of those lessons learned both on a video and in a book. And once again the W.K. Kellogg Foundation has provided generous funding to support this activity. So stay in touch and follow the story.
The "Great Ice Storm of 1998" had its way with the manicured landscape of the UVM campus and greater Burlington area, and left behind a legacy of change at several UVM Natural Areas. Initial assessments in Chittenden County indicate that Centennial Woods, East Woods, and Pease Mountain Natural Areas were most affected. Trees, coated with more than an inch of ice, were left bent over touching the ground or lost numerous limbs and even trunks. A number of larger trees, notably white pines and some hardwoods, were entirely uprooted or snapped in half creating impenetrable thickets in some areas. Post-storm cleanup has consisted of removing material from the main trails in these Natural Areas. There is also the possibility of not reopening some of the side trails to help reduce impacts in sensitive areas. Financial assistance for the cleanup is being provided by UVM's central administration as part of a campus-wide effort that is eligible for federal disaster relief funds. Disaster or not, the ice storm is a periodic natural disturbance that is providing field ecologists and other researchers with an uncommon and invaluable opportunity to study the effects of such perturbations on forested landscapes.
A group of students in Walter Poleman's "Environmental Problem Solving" class developed a site conservation plan for Shelburne Pond Natural Area. This plan will assist both The Nature Conservancy and UVM in prioritizing future land acquisitions at this notable natural area, and identifying pressing management needs and stewardship activities.
Pease Mountain Natural Area received some much-needed attention this semester as ENVS major Ken Rybkiewicz '98 , developed a trail master plan for the area as part of his senior thesis. Ken designed a trail system for Pease Mountain, taking into consideration the variety of notable features and natural communities of the area as well as avoiding sensitive sites such as low, wet areas and rare plant populations. His plan included specific trail maintenance procedures and long-term monitoring protocols to help ensure minimal impact to the natural area. Ken brought to this project several years of trail design, construction and maintenance work experience with Rocky Mountain National Park, in addition to coursework in landscape architecture at Colorado State University before he transferred to UVM.
Mount Mansfield Natural Area continues to attract considerable attention as telecommunications interests make attempts to move forward with their proposal to construct new towers and support facilities on the mountain's ridgeline. The concerns that have surfaced as a result of this proposal include: aesthetic impacts of several large freestanding towers; placement of these towers and associated buildings within a sensitive alpine environment; human health effects of the radiation emitted from these facilities; and whether any construction on UVM mountain property would violate the language of the original deed conveying the land to UVM more than a century ago.
The UVM Natural Areas Center sponsored the Fourth Annual Summer Land Conservation Program on campus from June 1-12, 1998. The Program consisted of one and two day courses designed for students and professionals in the land conservation field. This year's topics included land conservation tools and techniques, real estate law, and Vermont landscape conservation. Workshops in field ecology, forest inventory techniques, and creating and maintaining a "sense of place" were also offered.
The Natural Areas Center sponsored a program during spring break on wetland and riparian habitat restoration. Over 150 participants from northern New England and upstate New York assembled for two days of presentations, panel discussions, and networking activities designed to promote partnerships in habitat restoration. The workshop highlighted funding sources and expertise to carry out restoration projects and techniques for field implementation. Carl Reidel gave a well received keynote address on the importance of partnerships and taking an ecosystem approach to habitat restoration.
Also this spring, the Natural Areas Center and several other UVM sponsors brought noted conservation biologist Michael Soulé to campus for an evening presentation, titled "Rewilding North America: The Morality and the Science." Dr. Soulé discussed the root causes of global biological diversity loss and the reasons why establishing large wild reserves offers hope in stemming this loss. The Society for Conservation Biology's co-founder and current president of the Wildlands Project described this vision of "Rewilding North America" as a system of large interconnected ecological reserves throughout the continent. "Our efforts to date are not working. We continue to lose species because of habitat fragmentation. Even in our national parks and other protected areas, species are going extinct because of isolation." He went on to explain why we need to think in broader spatial and temporal scales when designing reserve networks and why it's important to protect populations of large carnivores.
Other projects of the Center, past and future, include: hosting a conference on campus this June concerning bird conservation in Vermont; developing internship opportunities with local land conservation organizations for students; and a land stewardship training workshop for the Land Trust Alliance to be held this fall. For more information on these and other activities, contact the Natural Areas Center at the Environmental Program.
Profile:
Our Own Green Hero: Tom Hudspeth
BY JESSICA BARTENHAGEN '99 AND LUCINDA NEWMAN '99Tom's Outdoor Classrooms
Tom grew up in Houston, Texas where he was exposed to the natural world at a very young age. He describes his childhood place as having hundreds of acres of woods just beyond his backyard with "all the poisonous snakes," including water moccasins, rattlesnakes, coral snakes, and copperheads. He also discovered less threatening creatures: possums, raccoons, crows, skunks, armadillos, and turtles (At one time he kept over a hundred box turtles!).
From Research to Education and Advocacy
However, while Tom developed his Master's thesis, focusing on "productivity of estuaries and marshes in Chesapeake Bay and the Gulf Coast" at the University of Michigan, his plans changed. Tom discovered that experts had already realized the ecological value of estuaries and saltwater wetlands. Yet dredging, draining, and polluting continued. He felt a "sense of urgent advocacy to do something about it."
Local NGO Activism
In addition to calling students' attention to environmental and resource issues and solutions, Tom acts locally through a variety of non-governmental organizations, addressing topics of pollution, preservation, and environmental sustainability. Tom has also cofounded three NGO's: Citizen's Waterfront Group, Burlington Waterfront Central, and Project Renaissance, all of which concern themselves with celebrating and enhancing the rich recreational, natural, and cultural resources of Lake Champlain. Other professional affiliations include: the Green Mountain Audubon Society (of which he has been on the Board of Directors), the Lake Champlain Committee, Shelburne Farms, Vermont Natural Resources Council, and the Lake Champlain Basin Science Center. Regarding activism, Tom says, "I think it's important to 'practice what you preach.' Part of the reason that I'm in Vermont is because I can make a difference." He adds, "There is a general sense of community responsibility here."
Devoted Family Man
Despite Tom's obligations and involvements, he never loses sight of his top priorities—his wife, Ginny, and two teenage daughters, Bonnie and Kate. He spends his summers with them bicycling, canoeing, and gardening, and in the winter he skis, skates, and attends his daughters' ice hockey games. "I love to go to their games—they're really fun to watch. I love just being with my family."
Tom Receives EPA Award
Tom is writing a book, Green Heroes and Heroines From the Green Mountain State, in which he profiles people who would not be covered by the mainstream media, "people and groups that have made a big difference and can serve as role models for others to emulate, to follow, to make a change." Some of these profiles include UVM alumni.
EPIC—Changing Rural America
BY JEAN RICHARD, ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR, AND EPIC DIRECTOR
Natural Area News
BY RICK PARADIS, LECTURER AND NATURAL AREAS CENTER DIRECTOR
Report from the Natural Areas Center
BY RICK PARADISReturn to Bittersweet Vine Spring/Summer 1998 menu