Just sharing some Sustainable thoughts
“When we try to pick out anything by itself, we find it hitched to everything else in the universe.”
~John Muir
One of my favorite quotes…it not only inspires my continued appreciation for the natural world, but it also clarifies my thoughts on Sustainability.
*I took this photo at Shaw Nature Reserve in Gray Summit, MO this Spring.
When I see Virginia Bluebells (Mertensia virginica), I know that, despite the calendar date, Spring has truly arrived!
I took a 4-mile hike yesterday with some friends along Pickle Creek in Hawn State Park, near Ste. Genevieve, Missouri. Spring is finally springing, though I’ve yet to see many spring ephemerals popping up yet. Can’t wait for the bluebells (see previous post)!!
Along part of the hiking path, we saw the charred ground and trees of a recent fire. A prescribed fire, in this neck of the woods, is not destructive; occasional fires and floods are ecologically healthy for these ecosystems. Fire helps keep the highlands from accumulating too much detritus and understory flora (and adding fuel for more-difficult-to-control wildfires). Occasional prescribed burns affect insect populations, provide additional habitat, accommodate the perpetuation of more native plants and trees, and help curb the spread of weedy or invasive plants.
Of course, always be prepared and safe when conducting prescribed burns!!
Just after Christmas, I took some friends on a day hike south of St. Louis, Missouri. Winter hikes are the best…no ticks or mosquitoes! And the weather this day was particularly pleasant.
We visited Hick
ory Canyons Natural Area, in Ste Genevieve County, which features box canyons and sandstone cliffs. During the right winter conditions, icicles form throughout the canyons. I call the sight ‘God’s Pipe Organ.’ At any rate, we visited on a day above freezing. In the silence and solitude of sandstone, ferns, lichen, and moss, an icy stalactite would occasionally crash down into the valley below.
One icicle must have impaled the soft ground, melted, and refroze. The result was an ice globe.
Don’t give up on the outdoors when the leaves on the trees have fallen and the flowers aren’t in bloom (Actually…Witch Hazel). Nature gives you entertainment and enchantment year-round!
More photos on my Flickr.
Are you a college student or a recent graduate? Have you followed the educational path to a shiny new sustainability or environmental degree? (If so, bless you and your commitment!) But are you ready to look for work in this field?? Are you looking to network? As a part of your search, I bet you’re planning to hit up some career fairs. Should be helpful, right? Unfortunately, for aspiring sustainability and environmental professionals, this may not be so easy.
Career fairs exist to give potential employees face time with employers. They give us a opportunity to socialize, make important contacts, and perhaps even make acquaintances in similar fields.
Career fairs are hosted all the time. Unfortunately, many career fairs that I have attended (or planned to attend before viewing the exhibitor list) were filled with exhibitors that may not have been there to recruit sustainability and environmental professionals: financial institutions, insurance companies, major corporations, retailers, grocers, etc. (It’s certainly true that these companies NEED Environmental Specialists and Sustainability Coordinators, whether they know it yet or not.)
But for us ‘green’ folks out there, opportunities to connect in-person are few and far between: monthly meetings (Sierra Club, Green Drinks, USGBC, etc.), occasional seminars/conferences/fairs, and, of course, annual Earth Day events. (See ‘Getting Sustainably Involved in St. Louis.’) Now I’m no social butterfly, but I could certainly use more frequent opportunities to mingle with my local tree-huggers.
Currently, however, it seems like many Earth Day and green events are geared toward education and outreach (excellent goals!), not recruiting and hiring. They may not be expecting you to ask about a job.
We green folks need the face time to educate one another, lift each other up, connect with each other, and bring about that change we wish to see in the world.
I have been taking in the magnificence of the mini-series “The National Parks: America’s Best Idea” via Netflix. It has inspired me to be thankful for the wonderful places I have seen and the great experiences I have had. I am thankful for John Muir, who pioneered the idea of conservation in his eloquent, descriptive writings and helped to form Theodore Roosevelt’s opinion on protecting the country’s gems. I am very thankful to my family and my step-father, who passed away this summer, for roadtripping with me to these magnificent spectacles as a young boy, and for instilling in me the fire to explore and seek out natural settings today.
Our gems require protection. Our past ecological mistakes require restoration!
I have visited:
Jewel Cave National Park SD Cave bacon!
Wind Cave National Park SD Boxwork!
Mount Rushmore National Monument SD Great Faces!
Rocky Mountain National Park CO Rocky.
Mammoth Cave National Park KY Huge, beautiful cave.
Carlsbad Caverns National Park NM Windy in New Mexico, beautiful cave
Great Sand Dunes National Park CO Very diverse area.
Yellowstone National Park WY, MT, ID Just awesome!
Devil’s Tower National Monument WY A giant bear totally didn’t claw the side of a mountain.
Grand Teton National Park WY Beautiful
Craters of the Moon National Monument ID Beyond this world cool!
Dinosaur National Monument CO I made it out alive.
Bryce Canyon National Park UT Gorgeous in the snow
Zion National Park UT Ditto
Grand Canyon National Park AZ Definitely grand
Petrified Forest National Park AZ …and lots of petroglyphs!
Death Valley National Park CA Try it in February!
Yosemite National Park CA Thank you, John Muir.
Mt. Rainier National Park WA Stunning in the snow.
Glacier National Park MT See ’em before they melt!
Wrangell St. Elias National Park AK This is wilderness.
Kenai Fjords National Park AK Blue glaciers.
Denali National Park AK Unspoiled, Mt. McKinley is quite a sight.
Great Smoky Mountains National Park TN, NC Relax and enjoy it.
Took this a couple weeks ago at Shaw Nature Reserve. This is Purple Coneflower (Echinacea purpurea), a native prairie flower that is popular in area landscaping. This is one of those flowers that traditional landscapers/gardeners are really beginning to embrace. That’s good! because as Coneflower ripens, it provides food for birds and maintains interest throughout the fall.
Read more from Missouri’s Grow Native organization on native landscaping: http://grownative.org/landscape-guide/easy-landscape-plans/
I actually took this photo back in July, and the Blazing Star (probably Liatris pycnostrachya) has pretty much gone to seed at this point. Nonetheless, I just wanted to share this with you.This field of Blazing Star inhabited really rocky soils, leftovers from a lead/zinc mining industry that has left messes all over Southwest Missouri, SE Kansas, and NE Oklahoma (Familiar with Picher?).
“Life finds a way” ~Ian Malcolm
No worries. I haven’t stopped taking pictures of nature and I haven’t stopped advocating for environmental sustainability. Anywho, I continue to take advantage of the natural areas and native landscaping at Shaw Nature Reserve.This is a Pearl Crescent Butterfly on a Purple Coneflower (Echinacea purpurea).
stewardsofearth 