THE ECOTONE Spring 2007 The Journal of Environmental Studies The University of Oregon EditorsNote This edition of The Ecotone focuses on the theme of sustainability. Sustainability emerged as a concept to address the tension between environmental protection and economic growth, gaining widespread recognition as a desirable model for human and ecological welfare following the 1992 Rio Summit in Brazil. Since then, sustainability has become a catch-all term that characterizes efforts to accommodate ecological limits as well as human impacts on the environment. Apologists contend that sustainability tempers the environmental costs of economic expansion, while detractors bemoan the term's "greenwashing" of business-as-usual. The contributors to this edition demonstrate the variety of ways sustainability can be conceived, attesting to both the promises and problems of sustainability. The University of Oregon itself is engaged in debates about sustainability. For Earth Day on April 18, University president David Frohnmayer declared that the campus would seek to become "climate-neutral," an important pledge that joins the University in a nation- wide effort to make campuses sustainable. The University established a Sustainability Plan in 2000, indicating the resonance of the term around campus. Some sustainability efforts on campus include the annual Holistic Options for Planet Earth Sustainability (HOPES) conference hosted by the Ecological Design Center in the School of Architecture and Allied Arts, the annual Public Interest Environmental Law Conference hosted by the Law School, a comprehensive and long-standing recycling program, the establishment of a University Sustainability Coordinator position, and a commitment to alternative transportation through the provision of city bus passes and a bike-friendly campus. More close to home, the master's capstone course this year completed a project to assess the University's performance in eleven indicator categories, part of a sustainability report to be presented to administrative heads in the hopes of creating benchmarks by which to judge future progress. You can find out more about this project in this edition and at this year's Joint Campus Conference (JCC), which unites the environmental studies and science programs from UO, Portland State University, and Oregon State University. Reflecting the diversity of sustainability approaches, as well as the scope of the Environmental Studies (ENVS) community, the pieces in this edition include a faculty forum on sustainability and articles written by ENVS graduate students, an ENVS adjunct instructor, and a community member. Shannon Tyman offers a book review of Ephemeral Territories by Erin Manning, demonstrating the relevance of the term across disciplines. This edition also includes community achievements, updates on the Environmental Leadership Program projects, introductions to the new chair, Alan Dickman, and new office manager, RaDonna Aymong, graduating student projects and theses, and new student biographies. The Ecotone The Ecotone is published by the Environmental Studies Program at the University of Oregon. If you have questions or comments, or if you would like to be placed on the mailing list, please contact: The Ecotone Environmental Studies Program 5223 University of Oregon Eugene, OR 97403 (espress@uoregon.edu) Editors Sarah Jaquette, Editor in Chief Rebecca Briggs, Managing Editor Shannon Tyman, Deputy Managing Editor Inside This issue Faculty Forum on Sustaniabilit - The Adequacy of Sustainahifity Brook Muller Articulating Sustainabilitv Galen. Martin Sustainabil .ks Communit y with the Earth ? John Foster A Big Job for Small Islands Taking out the Trash in the Galapagos The Meaning of Sustainahility, and Other Lessons in Fashion Sense Joshua Skov Real Simplicity or Simply Solicitation? An Analysis of Real Simple Magazine Diana fisch4-111 Missed: The Ecological Importance of the Cultural Commons An Education of the Senses.: Reflections of an Ecocritic among Biologists Janet Fiskio Entomological Maginot Line Bennett Huffman Ephemeral Territories: Book Review Channon liman Sustainability Indicators Assesssment: Master's Capstone Project NOV Environmental Studies Program Director: Alan Dickman Graduating Student Theses and Projects Nen. The Environmental Leadership Program: Making Difference in our Community Nero Office Coordinator: RaDonna Aymong CommunitY Achievements Donor List Faculty Forum on Sustainability Each edtion of The Ecotone provides a venue for faculty dialogue about a particular issue, often the theme of that edition. In this edition, faculty from a variety of disciplines weigh in on the concept of sustainability. Their responses reflect their own positions, as well as how their respective disciplines negotiate the term. These responses demonstrate the breadth of approaches within environmental studies to what has become the dominant model, both within American environmental thought and globally. Has the widespread acceptance of the term undermined or validated its salience? Do various disci- plinary uses of the term sharpen or weaken its effectiveness? The following position pieces, written by faculty in Architec- ture, Economics, Environmental Studies, and Sociology, attest to the variety of sustainability's applications. The Adequacy of Sustainability? Brook Muller, Assistant Professor, Architecture Department People, forces and ethical imperatives gather around the term "sustainability." We convene and discuss a range of sustainability related initiatives. We bring to the forum our own understanding of the term, seldom challenge one another as to specifics and semantics, and when we adjourn, we remain confident that our perspective corresponded closely with those of our colleagues. A thick, often heated debate ensues when we get specific. What is it we are hoping to sustain? (My list includes the Townsend's big eared bat, the occasional ability to reflect on matters, and some measure of freedom to travel to see loved ones and the wonders of the world). Are we using the right benchmarks and indicators? Are we promoting policies that are too aggressive and therefore not viable politically, or given the impending collapse of so many of the world's ecosystems, are we not aggressive enough? At our Architecture Department retreat last December devoted to the topic of sustainability, Christine Theodoropolous, our Department Head, asked the faculty to commit to the architect Ed Mazria's imperative "that all projects be designed to engage the environment in a way that dramatically reduces or eliminates the need for fossil fuels." With this very specific initiative on the table, several of my colleagues wondered whether our efforts should be more comprehensive than working to reduce fossil fuel consumption. Should we not also be concerned about the architect's role in ensuring clean air and water, the continuance of indigenous cultural traditions (such as dwelling practices) and the future viability of endangered plant and animal communities? (Do we also wish to sustain an awareness of architectural history and the ability to draw in our digital era?) Tom Wessels, in his recent book "The Myth of Progress," suggests a simple yet practical and compelling way to evaluate our actions: those behaviors that increase entropy and the simplification of complex biological and other systems ought to be avoided whenever possible, and those behaviors that add to the complexity of biological and other systems ought to be practiced whenever possible. And here the term sustainability, although helpful in its powers to coalesce, seems inadequate. Consider for a moment the example of the endangered western pond turtle: if we care about its survival, we must first commit to acts ecological education, then to regimes of (beneficial) ecological disruption that are necessary to ensure the turtle has the range of habitats it requires to complete its life cycle, then we must hope that the turtle finds renewed purchase in restored settings, and lastly we must step aside and let the amphibian live its life. This is not sustainability, but something more like the philosopher John Dewey's birdlike metaphor of human "flights and perchings," rhythmic patterns of urgent engagement followed by observation and contemplation. This offers perhaps a more comprehensive accounting than does sustainability, highlighting prospects of dwelling gracefully and in a manner that can help others reside in their own, particularly poetic manner. "Lillis Solar" by Rebecca Briggs 4 The Ecotone Articulating Sustainability Galen Martin, Adjunct Instructor, Environmental Studies Program The term sustainable as a generalized term referring to environmental maintenance dates back to the early 1980s and roughly corresponds to my own academic career. Over the past twenty five years we have seen extensive discussion regarding its meaning and utility. As a concept born out of idealism, its original purpose was to dissuade us of the false dichotomy of environment and development. Its other major function was, and is, to insist on long- term perspectives. Supporters of sustainable development proposed to broaden the concept of development, itself a highly contested notion, to include the well being of ecosystems that support our very existence on this planet. They wanted to put the eco- back in economics. Sustainable development became the stated objective of nearly every development plan and organization. After all, who would be opposed? The disagreements about sustainability were not so much about objectives but how, and to what extent, the objectives could realistically be achieved. As with any compelling notion receiving widespread usage, the term sustainable development became diluted, disputed, and co-opted. Did organizations as disparate as the World Bank and the World Resources Institute really share the same perspective and goals? Some suggested abandoning the term altogether. But alternative labels such as green and eco- suffer from the same lack of clarity. Sustainable persists with new partners, paired with numerous other objectives. We watched with some suspicion as the term sustainable became even more widely adopted. We witnessed the proclamations of sustainable agriculture, forestry, production, livelihoods, ecosystems, business and cultures, as if the concept alone could make it so. More recently I read about sustainable consumption which, as jolting as it may sound, may be one of the more honest renditions of what we are trying to accomplish in the human economy. While it is easy to identify meaningless and cynical uses of the term sustainable it remains a valuable tool for assessing values and providing leverage for accountability. Any discussion of sustainability raises pragmatic questions?what is it we wish to sustain and what does it require? Sustainable agriculture, for example, grounds our discussion in a non-optional enterprise?we must produce food to survive. The sustainability of this activity is a function of many factors including, of course, how many people need food. Further, sustainability is only one of many objectives of the agriculturalist along with productivity, stability and equitability. The answers to the sustainability questions are complicated by the fact that both human culture and natural systems are dynamic processes experiencing accelerated rates of change. Rapid changes in science and technology further complicate the discussion between advocates of the precautionary principle and technological optimists. Depending on your perspective you may find either comfort or despair in DuBois' reminder that, "Trend is not destiny." The primary and continuing importance of the terms sustainable and sustainability is that they compel us to consider the ethics of our current choices and behavior. What kind of world will we pass off to future generations? Human population growth in the world's poorest countries and consumption rates of the richest both appear to be unsustainable. After several decades of sustainability discourse no single country appears even close to achieving the lofty, yet ultimately necessary, goals as currently articulated. This persistent gap between objectives and accomplishments might suggest that we abandon this well- worn concept. I would contend that the value of the term persists. Despite our frustrations in achieving sustainability in practice, the objectives, by any other name, remain crucial. We are better for the discussion. "Sawtooth Camp" by Andy Emmerson Spring 2007 5 Sustainability as Community with the Earth John Foster, Professor, Sociology Department Sustainability is a relation between nature and society that guarantees to future generations (and species) the same or better natural-material conditions as enjoyed by current generations. Sustainable processes can therefore be defined as those processes that will allow succeeding generations to experience same or greater wealth and diversity of nature as those presently living. Given that both the natural world and the social world are forever changing and coevolving, sustainability can never be equated with simple preservation; rather what is needed is dynamic sustainability or the continued reproduction of fundamental natural-metabolic relations?even if these are in some ways transformed. Sustainability therefore goes against any attempt to dominate nature (including caging it), or to destroy nature; and it is equally opposed to any attempt to monopolize nature. The most radical, because the most uncompromising, conception of sustainability in purely human terms was enunciated by Karl Marx, whose work saw the alienation/expropriation of nature ("total alienation," or as Hannah Arendt called it "earth alienation"), as the ground of the alienation of society. As Marx wrote in Capital: From the standpoint of a higher socio-economic formation, the private property of individuals in the earth will appear just as absurd as the private property of one man in other men. Even an entire society, a nation, or all simultaneously existing societies taken together, are not owners of the earth. They are simply its possessors, its beneficiaries, and have to bequeath it in an improved state to succeeding generations, as boni patres familias [good heads of the household]. For Marx, the present relation of human beings to the earth under private accumulation (a form of monopolization of the earth) could be compared to slavery. Just as "private property of one man in other men" is no longer deemed acceptable, so private ownership of the earth/nature by human beings (even whole countries) must be transcended. The human relation to nature must be regulated democratically and collectively by the associated producers so as to guarantee its existence "in an improved state to succeeding generations." The notion of "good heads of the household" hearkened back to the ancient Greek notion of household or oikos from which we get both "economy" (from oikonomia, or household management) and "ecology" (from oikologia or household study). Marx thus pointed to the necessity of a more radical, sustainable relation of human beings to production, defined as a metabolic exchange of energy and matter between nature and society, in accord with what we would now view as ecological rather than economic notions. "Freedom, in this sphere," the realm of natural necessity, he insisted, "can consist only in this, that socialized man, the associated producers, govern the human metabolism with nature in a rational way, bringing it under their collective control...accomplishing it with the least expenditure of energy." Sustainability does not preclude sustainable development, particularly in those societies where development is most needed. But all attempts to sacrifice genuine sustainability for future generations on the altar of a reified progress (defined in terms of monetary wealth) are socially irrational, and are inevitably rooted in class divisions, dividing whole societies. Capitalism is by nature systematically unsustainable in its operations, geared to the enrichment of a relative few on an ever-expanding scale in ways that guarantee massive present and future destruction. The model of every capitalist is "After me the deluge." A sustainable society, in contrast, needs to be constructed on altogether different terms, as a lasting community with the earth. Real progress in implementing sustainable processes is occurring today mainly in third world societies and communities dominated by revolutionary and left ideas, where a radical restoration of the metabolism between human beings and the earth is seen as a crucial component in meeting genuine human needs: countries and communities such as Cuba, Venezuela, the cities of Curitiba and Porto Alegre in Brazil, and the state of Kerala in India, Although these are mostly poor societies, regions and cities, they are creating conditions of sustainable wealth, redistribution, and reciprocity in community with the earth. They therefore constitute the hope of the world in an age of ecological devastation and social crisis. 6 The Ecotone A Big Job for Small Islands: Taking Out the Trash in the Galapagos Bari Doeffinger A white pickup truck, one of the taxis in Puerto Baquerizo Moreno, the provincial capital of the Galapagos Islands, slides to a stop next to me. "Buenos Bias," I say to the driver. "Al basurero, por favor." "To the dump?" he questions my Spanish language skills. "Yes, the dump," I say, relishing the eccentricity of my request too much to tell him that I am a student of environmental studies who has come to the Galapagos to write about the archipelago's waste management practices. Garbage is a problem just about everywhere on the globe, thanks to manufacturers' increasing use of disposable packaging, but I want to know how the confines of an island exaggerate the problem and how environmental education might be alleviating it. We drive through the town of Puerto Baquerizo Moreno on the island of San Cristobal, past convenience stores and caf?s, and then head up toward the highlands, where ferns, banana trees, and miconia bushes replace cacti, palm trees, and mimosa. The taxi doesn't climb quite high enough to reach the lush vegetation ? after traveling just four kilometers outside of town, the driver turns left onto a gravel road. "Roll up your window," he tells me, motioning with his hand. "There will be lots of flies." I comply, but there don't seem to be that many flies when we reach the dump. I ask the driver to wait tres minutos while I jump out to take pictures. The dump is not so big ? perhaps the size of a basketball court. No heaps of garbage tower above my head, rather the trash carpets the volcanic pebbles up to my hips. A sheet of white smoke, obscures the flames that poke out amidst plastic water bottles, rusty cans, and a host of unidentifiable objects. The landfill stinks, but no more than a high school locker room. Sea gulls and egrets glean tasty morsels of food from organic waste that was tossed in with the inorganic. The birds seem to be the only occupants of the landfill until 1 make the mistake of standing still. In an instant, the flies are upon me, buzzing like a swarm of bees. I snap a few more shots of this perverse landscape then dive back into the taxi. Travel agents tend to omit scenes like this in their brochures of the Galapagos, favoring instead azure seas and shores of sea lions, but in an archipelago whose population is approaching 30,000 and hosts over 100,000 tourists per year, trash is a nuisance that cannot be ignored. On San Cristobal, some materials are shipped back to the mainland and some are brought to the landfill and incinerated, while on the island of Santa Cruz ? the island that tourists favor most ? Metropolitan Touring, Ecuador's largest tourism company, recently established a recycling center. Equipment at the center crushes glass, shreds plastic, and compacts paper and then boats ship the materials to mainland Ecuador, where private recycling companies purchase them. Recycling provides an alternative to the carcinogenic ash created by incineration, but its high energy use and transportation costs may not keep the program afloat. Still, environmental education that accompanies the recycling program offers hope that islanders and tourists will not allow the islands to drown in trash. The Galapagos Islands, located six hundred miles west of their mother country, Ecuador, have hosted the evolution of some of the world's most curious animal species. Jet-black marine iguanas bask in perfect camouflage on igneous rocks, and blue-footed boobies, reptilian-faced birds with feet that match the sky, plummet from the air to capture fish. On San Cristobal, sea lions are the main attraction. They flop up and down the beaches and undulate through the waves, undeterred, if not intrigued, by human sunbathers and snorkelers. The opportunity to view such creatures is the reason that most tourists set foot upon the Galapagos. Thousands of residents from mainland Ecuador have migrated here in the past twenty years to enjoy the relatively high wages oiThred by the Galapagos tourism industry. According to the census, there were only about 10,000 people living in Spring 2007 7 the Galapagos in 1990, compared to 20,000 just ten years later. These figures do not include the thousands of illegal immigrants who take advantage of the lax enforcement of migration limits established by the Galapagos Special Law of 1998. The Special Law was passed in order to protect the islands' resources and ecosystems; among many provisions, it restricts residency to descendants of inhabitants and to those who have already spent at least five years on the islands, extends the marine protected area, bans industrial fishing of sharks and sea cucumbers, and enacts a quarantine system. As in many developing countries, the resources allocated to enforce such laws and regulations in the Galapagos do not always end up at their intended destinations. The increase in the islands' population has brought an accompanying increase in trash, particularly visible on a walk through Puerto Baquerizo Moreno, the provincial capital of the Galapagos. This town of 6,000 occupies the southern coast of the island with its numerous bars, cafes, and souvenir shops. The buildings, like the animals of the island, are in a perpetual state of evolution. Homeowners anticipating more prosperous times leave the rebar sticking out of their roofs in order to be able to add a second story. Bamboo scaffolding supports renovation and construction projects, and taxis belonging to three different cooperatives zoom back and forth, charging occupants a dollar a ride. In between these signs of so-called progress are the vacant lots, devoid of homes but full of Styrofoam cups, discarded plastic water bottles, and food wrappers. Trash lines every drainage ditch and huddles against chain link fences, calling attention away from the hibiscus and trumpet flowers. At Muana caf?, which would overlook the beach if not for a construction wall that blocks the view, I ask the owner, Diego Bonilla, a slim, angular-featured native of Quito, why trash is such a problem on this island. The young people, be replies, don't understand the consequences of their actions, and in general, immigrants to the Galapagos haven't yet grasped the differences between life in a sprawling city and on an isolated island. Simply put, the problem is lack of education. Bonilla, an immigrant to the islands with plenty of education, moved to the Galapagos fourteen years ago to work as sub-director and then director of the Galapagos National Park. Now owner of the caf?, a civil servant no more, he knows firsthand what a nuisance waste management can be. He turns to the woman at the bar to ask her how many bottles she serves a day. "About forty." Customers generate an additional 25-30 kilograms (about 60 pounds) of trash in his caf? on a daily basis. Each day, on average, each resident of San Cristobal contributes 0.93 kilograms ? about two pounds ? of inorganic waste, on Santa Cruz, about 1.6 pounds. Bonilla describes how one dilapidated truck collects garbage from around the island and brings it to the basurero, the town dump. There, everything from medical waste to nonnative plants confiscated at the airport, is burned out in the open. Incineration is a handy solution because digging deep into the hard volcanic rock for landfill space is not an option, and burning trash is cheaper than transporting it to the mainland. But the incineration of inorganic wastes, particularly plastics, is also toxic. The smoke, especially when the temperature is not carefully regulated, releases persistent organic pollutants, or POPs, like dioxins, which can cause cancer. The ash leftover from incineration is also hazardous, and must be disposed of somewhere, usually in landfills. Bonilla and Jaime Ortiz, the director of the environment on San Cristobal, say that new equipment is on the way. At the end of the summer, the island will receive a new trash compactor and an efficient incinerator. Workers will separate plastic, paper, and metal and send the recyclables to Guayaquil for resale to private recycling companies. Residents recently received flyers explaining which materials may be recycled, which composted, and which must be thrown away. The upcoming recycling project on San Cristobal is not the first step the island has taken to confront the waste problem. Those who purchase beverages in glass bottles must either put down a dollar deposit for each one or drink the contents on the premises to guarantee its return for refilling. In 2003, a law (Reglamento para el no ingreso de bebidas y cervesas y embases de cartables) was passed throughout the Galapagos that prohibits the sale of beer and soda in nonrefillable containers. But despite these measures, single-use bottles and cans are still widely available in convenience stores because no one enforces the law. A few days later I transfer to the island of Santa Cruz. Santa Cruz, with a population of nearly 15,000, is the most popular tourist destination in the Galapagos. Here in the town of Puerto Ayora you actually have to wait for traffic to pass before crossing the street. On Santa Cruz, you don't see piles of Styrofoam cups or plastic water bottles. But Santa Cruz is also different from San Cristobal because its islanders already have a recycling program up and running. "Travel agents tend to omit scenes like this in their brochures of the Galapagos, favoring instead azure seas and shores of sea lions, but ... trash is a nuisance that cannot be ignored." 8 The Ecotone The Centro de Reciclaje Fabricio Valverde, located in the hills a few kilometers outside of Puerto Ayora, was constructed in 1998 with funding from Fundacion Galapagos, a nonprofit created by Metropolitan Touring Company, the largest touring company in the Galapagos, and the European Community. Since then, Kraft Foods, Coca Cola, Wild Aid, and Celebrity Cruises have also supported the effort. In the meantime, the membership of Fundacion Galapagos has expanded to include four other tourism companies: Quazar Nautica, Surtrek, Rolf Wittmer, and Islas Galapagos Turismo y Vapores. Even with all of these sponsors, the center is modest. Compacted cardboard, awaiting transportation to the mainland, nearly fills a pavilion up to its fifteen feet high roof. Adjacent to the pavilion two machines, a glass crusher and a plastic crusher, lie dormant in the late afternoon. In the corner rest stacks of patio blocks, hexagonal and square, red, gray, blue, and yellow. One of two workers present, wearing white shorts, an orange tank top, and a baseball cap on backwards, proudly displays the bricks before calling it a day. During business hours, four workers sort the materials, operate the machinery, and mind the organic compost yard, which looks more like a patch of earth decorated with fruit peels than a crucible for the production of fertile soil. The most impressive feature of the recycling facility is its interpretation center. Completed in 2004 with about S 15,000 from Coca Cola, it is packed with colorful illustrations and photographs, maps, facts about waste, and tips for reducing it. According to Veronica Santamaria, Fundacion Galapagos coordinator of the recycling program, the interpretation center was designed to educate children and adults, residents and tourists, and is the destination of local field trips throughout the school year. But on this day in July, I am the only visitor perusing the bilingual panels and running my fingers through the samples of shredded plastic. I want to know more about just how effective recycling is in the Galapagos, so the following week in Quito, I talk to Sebastien Cruz, a native of the archipelago and a student of ecology at the Universidad San Francisco de Quito. "Recycling in the Galapagos is a farce," he says, "It is a farce in so much as it's not economically viable or environmentally viable." He has a point. According to environmental theorists Paul Hawken and Amory and L. Hunter Lovins, it is usually not cost or energy efficient to ship recyclables farther than 250 kilometers, or a little over 100 miles. The Galapagos lie 600 miles from the mainland; it costs Metropolitan Touring 52,000 just to ship one boatload of recyclables to the coastal city of Guayaquil. Additionally, the materials shipped from the islands do not necessarily end their journey in Ecuador. For instance, much of the ground plastic is exported to China, where workers transform it into sweaters. If the program continues to expand, securing more funds could prove tricky. Is the recycling program worth the energy and money it requires? Someone at Fundacion Galapagos, located in Metropolitan Touring Headquarters in Quito, ought to know, so I pay them a visit. The cab driver drops me off in front of the Metropolitan Touring Building, a tall white edifice with a steeply slanting roof I enter a lobby full of sunlight, hardwood floors, and leather chairs, and approach the receptionist. In my best Spanish, I ask to speak with someone from the Fundacion Galapagos regarding the recycling program on Santa Cruz. "No hay Fundacion Galapagos." There is no Fundacion Galapagos, the receptionist replies. "But I have this address and this phone number from the website..." I stammer as my makeshift Spanish dissolves upon contact with my confusion. The receptionist shrugs but picks up her phone and makes a call. A slight man in dress pants and a button-down shirt arrives and whisks me in an elevator to the seventh floor, where the pony-tailed assistant of CEO Roque Sevilla meets me. After informing me that Sevilla, one of the most powerful men of Quito, "is terribly busy ? I'm so sorry," J am able to make an appointment to speak with Paulina l3urbano, Metropolitan's Vice President of Sales and Marketing. I take the elevator to the ninth floor and sit in the Spring 2007 9 hallway as young women scurry around me, and men in their late 20s swivel in their desk chairs, typing emails and cracking jokes with one another over a faint reggae beat. From behind a glass cubicle steps Paulina Burbano, trim and poised in a white blouse and black slacks, her dark wavy hair filling just past her chin. Very few people within the company, she admits, know about Fundacion Galapagos, because it is a small operation, and in the two or three years following September 11, Metropolitan has had to focus on recovering from a dive in profits rather than engaging in philanthropy. Now that business is picking up again, Burbano hopes to publicize the foundation and begin collecting more donations from their cruise passengers. And they could use donations, because the recycling program is growing. Burbano and Sevilla have returned from a visit to the recycling center in the past week. Two years ago, Burbano says, the island of Santa Cruz recycled only eighteen percent of its glass, plastic, and paper. As of mid- 2006, that figure stands at about forty percent, and for 2007, the recycling center has set a target of seventy percent. The pickup of materials recently extended beyond the downtown area into residences in the highlands. In 2004, workers on Santa Cruz collected nearly 104,000 kilograms of recyclable plastic, glass, cardboard, paper, and batteries. In 2005, that number dropped to just over 71,000 kilograms ? ostensibly due to a decrease in nonrefillable, recyclable containers. But compared to the mere 12,000 kilograms collected in 2000 two years after the center opened, the program does seem to be flourishing. The program is becoming so successful that the Metropolitan-owned ship that ferries recyclables to the mainland once every three weeks cannot keep up with the quantity of materials delivered to the recycling center. Burbano says that while the mayor of Puerto Ayora seeks a more permanent transportation solution, Metropolitan has hired a few other private ships to haul the recyclables on a volunteer basis. According to Burbano, the owners of one of the "volunteer" ships recently pocketed the revenue from the sale of the materials, rather than feed it back into the recycling program. Burbano was dismayed. But does she believe the project is in trouble financially? "No, no, not at all. li's a matter of using the money wisely." But what constitutes wise use? Gunther Reck, the bearded, bespectacled Director of the Institute of I (...olov and Prol'essor of Natural Resource Management at the I I niversidad San Francisco de Quito, has lived in the ( ialapagos for thirty three years and thinks that the recycling program is not feasible in the long run because of the cost of fuel. "You can reduce waste from the beginning," says Reck, advocating that islanders incorporate more materials locally and ship back fewer to the mainland, as they now do with glass. Reck sees a correlation between the methods of disposal ? landfilling or incineration versus reusing or recycling ? and the amount of value Galapagos residents place on the quality of their environment. But "environment" can be a four-letter word in the archipelago because residents witness international organizations channeling funds into programs to save iguanas or tortoises rather than programs to build schools or improve medical care. Some islanders see the recycling program as another effort to conserve charismatic four- legged creatures, but Reck insists that humans reap the most benefits. Waste management has "nothing to do with conservation of biodiversity. [It] has to do with living quality. This is much more of a human health problem." Reck, as a part-time resident of Santa Cruz, received his own recycling bins this spring. Even though he doesn't think recycling is a long-term solution, he believes that the recycling program is valuable because it increases awareness of the problem of inorganic waste. "We could still doubt the economic value of such a program, but I would not doubt the kind of potential educational value...Recycling is obviously something very positive." Veronica Santamaria, the recycling coordinator, does not doubt the educational value, either. She says that the European Community has paid for stickers and flyers, and television and radio spots extolling the benefits of recycling. According to Santamaria, these efforts are producing a visible difference in the landscape. "Santa Cruz looks very clean. The Special Law does not allow disposable bottles of beer and Coke. We now have less bottles of discardable beer and Coke. The people in the town are very educated about this. They don't throw garbage in the streets like they do on the other islands and on the mainland. Normally we have problems with people who have just arrived. They just trash the garbage in the streets. But especially in the center there is a big change." Some of the efforts to promote recycling are more hands-on. Every summer, the children of Puerto Ayora have the opportunity to attend a summer day camp called "Happy Vacations," sponsored by the Charles Darwin Research Station, the Galapagos National Park Service, Waste management has "nothing to do with conservation of biodiversity. 114 has to do with living quality. This is much more of a human health problem." I The Ecotone INGALA (the National Institute for the Galapagos) and the Santa Cruz Municipality. In 2005, the camp's theme was "Human Population in Galapagos," and the activities emphasized recycling. Students visited the recycling center, made crafts from recycled materials, and performed skits downtown. In 2007, La Casa de Cultura of Santa Cruz is sponsoring a four-month workshop for children in the use of recycled materials. While crafts and skits alone can't solve a waste management problem, they are steps in the right direction. In an archipelago where resources are so limited that residents do not always have enough clean water to drink, small steps may be the only way to reach big improvements. The next step is to launch the recycling program and install the new incinerator on the island of San Cristobal. On the small Galapagos island of Floreana (population 100), some residents want to collaborate with Fundacion Galapagos to recycle their materials, too. Metropolitan Touring's Paulina Burbano is excited about the future of recycling in the Galapagos and beyond. "I believe that now this project can become a model for other islands," she says. As long as the money keeps flowing and the educators keep teaching, the islands will keep recycling. Bari Doeffinger is a master :s student in Environmental Studies. In the summer of 2006, she traveled to the Galapagos with journalism professor Carol Ann Bassett Environmental Writing class, where she fell in love with giant tortoises and decided to focus her final project on the social and environmental issues she encountered. Photographs by Bari Doeffinger Spring 2007 11 d has acquired a favored brand couture " "The buzzwor cache, much like in haute The Meaning of Sustainability, and Other Lessons in Fashion Sense Joshua Skov I have a particular view of sustainability because, when I'm not on campus at UO, I'm a sustainability consultant. The phrase "I'm a consultant" generally means roughly, "People hire me to think for them because they are too busy or simply confused." The phrase "I'm a sustainability consultant" is a rare variation, more or less connoting "People hire me because they want to prepare for and feel better about impending doom." As a sustainability consultant, I've come to see sustainability in three ways that I'll share with you: integrated thinking, hard constraints, and fashion. Let's consider each in turn. What does "sustainability" mean? We should try to be clear about this word that has gained such currency and momentum in recent years. I most regularly hear it used as a synonym for "environment," its adjective "sustainable" seemingly a synonym for "environmental" or "green." To many, it is simply another way to talk about energy efficiency, organic food, or recycling. But if that is the case, why do we need a new buzzword? "Environment" and "environmental" still work, and we still use them. So what value do these newer words of "sustainable" and "sustainability" really have? I think these new words have spread like wildfire in recent years because they represent new ideas and a growing awareness, an awareness that our environmental impacts are not about the "environment," something that is separate from us; rather, the "environment" is about our health and well being, our jobs and the economy, our communities and our social fabric, our treatment of other peoples and other cultures. The quest for a more sustainable future is the quest to meet our environmental, economic and social goals at the same time. This word ? sustainability ? captures this growing understanding that we must take on our new challenges with a new way of thinking, one that understands our interdependence and that solves problems holistically and collaboratively. This thinking has caught on in corporations and government to an astonishing degree. Parallel lingo -- notably the "triple bottom line" and the "three-legged stool" captures the same idea. The metaphors spring from the same emerging sense that our systems of meeting our needs and wants are broken in ways that render the disl inetitms among, environment, society and economy irrelevant. The triple bottom line may pose accounting challenges that make it less appealing and operationalizable than the nefarious single bottom line, but the appearance of the new language should encourage us. Many readers of The Ecotone will probably roll their eyes or shrug or wince. Isn't this integrated thinking precisely what we've been calling for under the banner of "environment" for a long time? Isn't this "sustainability" craze merely the kernel of that ecocentrism so ardently posed by Leopold and Capra, by deep ecologists and contributors to Orion? Is the revolution about to be televised? And on PBS to boot? Not so fast. As I get it, an ecocentric outlook begins with an assessment of where we stand and what the earth can handle, and human beings usually fail on that count. At its best ? indeed, at its most scientifically and quantitatively rigorous ? sustainability is about the hard constraints we face as a species and as a co-inhabitant of planet earth. Climate? The atmosphere can hold only so much CO2, methane and other greenhouse gases. Water? An aquifer can give for only so long when sucked dry faster than recharge, and a watershed provides only as long as the infrastructure of the hydrologic cycle is intact. And so forth. Clear thinkers grasp this notion, but most people don't because it's a very big idea. Alas, most actors under the sustainability banner focus on the babiest of baby steps. The vast majority of plans, policies, declarations and job descriptions bearing the S- word focus on incremental change without a clear sense of where we need to go or of the hard physical constraints that we transgress at our peril. (Still, I refuse to call myself an "incremental change consultant" ? can you blame me?) An example: ultimately, the question of climate action hinges not on whether we can reduce greenhouse gas emissions by some arbitrary increment relative to an arbitrary baseline ? say, 50% below a 1990 baseline. Rather, climate action success will be in reducing atmospheric CO2 to levels that prevent catastrophic changes. In other words, we have to start not from our own frame of reference but from the earth's. This is difficult because the yardstick for reasonableness among humans is whatever is reasonable and normal today. In an outrageously and morbidly anthropocentric society ? like America in 2007, in which a 1985 Honda Accord is already a "small" car with "no power" ? this frame of reference is itself the barrier to change. 12 The Ecoton0 Changing the frame of reference is no mean feat, but it is fundamental to facilitating more-than-incremental change. I see encouraging signs here and there: goals of zero waste, events aiming to be carbon neutral, water use planning grounded in what a watershed can provide. These limits ? sometimes local, sometimes global ? must be our compass for what is reasonable and desirable. This leads me inexorably to my final point on sustainability: fashion sense. The buzzword has acquired cache, much like a favored brand in haute couture. Many people revere it, purists disdain its sloppy and inappropriate use, some careers are built on its credibility and mystique, and the rays of beauty and truth at its core draw crowds. Of course, it isn't all beauty and truth. A few years back,l heard a New York advertising consultant observe, commenting on the rise of environmental chic, that "green is the new black!" Now I know you're cringing ? and so am I, just thinking of the faddish attraction to things that should garner respect for the "right" reasons. The mad rush to be (or seem) green has surely resulted in some ugly opportunism. Yet therein lie the lessons in fashion sense. Just as a dapper outfit communicates an empathy with a certain crowd, we must take advantage of the rise of our ideas in the condensed but nonetheless genuine form of a few choice words. "Sustainability" and its brethren are the cloth of our garments, and we're finding that our everyday attire has an allure where it didn't before. spare you an extended metaphor involving sweatshop garments of conventionally grown cotton, but only if you promise to test out your outfits where you normally don't hang. I have been pleasantly surprised by my successes in bringing gently eco-centric ideas to new contexts in a respectful manner. Best case scenario: this is how fashion leads to new healthy habits. Ultimately, this newly popular language forms a bridge to a widening range of professional, government and corporate settings to which our ideas had no bridge just a few years back. My hope is that we can sneak a few bigger ideas across that bridge. Let's sneak 'em across together. Joshua Skov is a doctoral student in Environmental Science, Studies and Policy and in the Department of Economics, and adjunct faculty in the Department of Planning, Public Policy and Management. He is a co-founder and principal of Good Company, a sustainability research and consulting firm based in Eugene. "Banff- by Sarah Jaquette Spring 2007 13 Real Simplicity or Simply Solicitation? An Analysis of Real Simple Magazine, Diana Fischetti The words simple and simplicity are common parlance as buzz words marketing everything from credit cards to cosmetics. Simplicity, however, also refers to the lifestyle associated with the search for a more simple existence. Called 'voluntary simplicity,' this lifestyle prioritizes the non-purchase and non-material ways of meeting needs. However, advertising encourages the purchasing of goods and services as a means to finding fulfillment, meaning, identity, happiness, and 'the good life.' The popular magazine Real Simple, in circulation since 2000, exemplifies this contradictory treatment of simplicity. While appealing to the desire of many Americans for a social and economic shift away from consumerism, Real Simple reinforces and promotes the dominant paradigm of consumerism. Real Simple conveys the message that identity, meaning, happiness, and the good life can be found through purchases that are purported to simplify the consumer's life, but this message contradicts the connotation of simplicity represented by voluntary simplicity. The Relationship between Capitalism and Materialism The capitalist system of exchange, aided by advertising, fosters materialism. In "Environmental Harm and the Political Economy of Consumption," (2002) Rob White explains that tackling capitalism as a social and cultural structure must "include consideration of neoliberalism as an ideology and practice" (98). He argues that the expansion of capitalism promotes material consumption, the creation of a desire to consume, and the substitution of true freedom with the freedom to choose between products. Perceptions of desire are replaced with perceptions of need, which results in socially-constructed 'needs' and in a cycle of increased consumerism. White holds that "the nature of consumption under capitalism is inseparable from the nature of production," llicani?g that consumer patterns are results of decisions made by producers (86). These decisions are driven by capitalist interests rather than the interests of consumers or ..overtuitents. White contends that through consumption choices, consumers construct a sense of identity, a relationship in which advertising plays a key role. Extending Karl Marx's notion of 'commodity fetishism,' t sx (:N)04 ), in "Geography of Consumption I," argues Mat identity is constructed by consumption. This leads consumers to ignore the impacts of their choices on producers of the products they purchase, as well as impacts on the environment. The Relationship between Materialism and Well-Being If consumption, as structured by capitalism, results in the production of consumers' sense of personal identity and the construction of meaning, then the ability of consumption to enhance personal identity, provide satisfaction, or deliver happiness must be questioned. Consumers' ability to gain satisfaction from consumption actually decreases with each incremental increase in consumption. Eventually, a point is reached in which each additional unit of consumption actually decreases satisfaction or happiness, resulting in what I term the `law of diminishing marginal happiness'. For example, in "Voluntary Simplicity: A New Social Movement?" sociologist Amitai Etzioni (1999) argues that studies "seem to support the notion that income does not significantly affect contentment, with the important exception of the poor" (114). Etzioni explains that for the affluent, there is an inverse relationship between income and happiness and "that the more concerned people are with their financial well-being, the less likely they are to be happy" (115). Further, in "Consumerism in World History", historian Peter N. Steams (2001) refers to recent social science findings that: Major consumer gains in a society [...1 initially causes a definitive jump in measurable happiness. But after that and in more established consumer settings, consumerism is irrelevant to claimed satisfaction, and people enmeshed in milder forms of consumerism may be happier than consumerist zealots. (142) Psychologist David Myers (2004), in "What is the Good Life?" explains that there is only a feeble link between wealth and well-being. He describes the law of diminishing marginal happiness': Our becoming better off materially has not made us better off psychologically [...] The conclusion startles because it challenges modem materialism' Economic growth in affluent countries has provided no apparent boost to human morale 1., .1 1 ,1 The Ecoton0 It is further striking that those who strive most for wealth tend to live with lower well-being. (15) Tim Kasser and collaborating authors are the most prolific social psychologists studying the relationship between materialism and well-being. These authors describe the negative personal, psychological, and environmental impacts of externally motivated goals, such as the pursuit of money, fame, image, power, possessions, status, popularity, and attractiveness. These strivings instead diminish well-being, promote distress, damage interpersonal relationships, reduce quality of life, increase antisocial behavior, promote greed, and promote the overconsumption of resources. Conversely, a focus on intrinsic values promotes greater personal, social, and ecological well-being. Materialism negatively affects not only peoples' well-being, but also the well-being of social interactions, the community, and the environment. Rather than attaining happiness through the extrinsic goals promoted by the capitalist American Dream, Kasser et al. 's research shows that attaining happiness is more likely to be found through pursuits that do not require consumption or environmental degradation. Conversely, voluntary simplicity demonstrates the correlation between intrinsic orientation, well-being, and ecological sustainability. The Relationship between Consumerism and Voluntary Simplicity In Voluntary Simplicity: Toward a Way of Life That is Outwardly Simple, Inwardly Rich, Duane Elgin (1993) defines the term: We can describe voluntary simplicity as a manner of living that is outwardly more simple and inwardly more rich, a way of being in which our most authentic and alive self is brought into direct and conscious contact with living [...] The objective is not dogmatically to live with less, but is a more demanding intention of living with balance in order to find a life of greater purpose, fulfillment, and satisfaction. (25) Kasser (2002) categories voluntary simplicity as a social movement "to abandon the high-paying, high-stress lifestyle necessary to support high levels of consumption, and focus instead on personal growth, nurturing relationships, and helping others" (99). Amitai Etzioni (1999) describes voluntary simplicity as "the decision to limit expenditures on consumer goods and services and to cultivate nonmaterialistic sources of satisfaction and meaning, out of free will rather than out of coercion by poverty, government austerity programs, or imprisonment" (109). Further, Etzioni tells us that "the simplicity-oriented philosophies are explicitly anticonsumerist" (113, emphasis added). Three components to voluntary simplicity emerge: (1) the rejection of consumerism, (2) the cultivation of spirituality, and (3) the ability to freely choose this lifestyle. The rejection of consumerism involves not only an attempt to alleviate the negative social, cultural, political, and environmental impacts of consumerism, but also to alleviate its psychological impacts. In his chapter, "In Search of Consumptive Resistance: The Voluntary Simplicity Movement," Michael Maniates (2002) tells us that the factors that draw people to voluntary simplicity include "job stress" (212) and the preservation of family and self-esteem (216). Etzioni echoes these sentiments, explaining that the rejection of consumerism derives from the "environmental, psychological, and other issues raised by consumerism" and the fact that "capitalism does not address spiritual concerns" (109). Many Americans feel that capitalist pursuits are not meaningful or fulfilling. Simplifying offers an opportunity to abandon the money-intensive, stressful, and disconnected life that is a part of modem, capitalist America. The Spread of Consumerism Peter N. Steams explains that the search for fulfillment, meaning, and happiness through consumerism is not new, but rather has accompanied consumerism through its proliferation. He argues that, historically, "the combination of three components ? manipulation [through advertisement], fulfillment of social and personal needs [such as identity formation], and habituation -- serves as consumerism's incubator and ongoing support" (2001, 138). As consumerism propagated, increases in material standards of living resulted in the creation of "a set of new problems with other goals in life, associated both with work and with homemaking, which pushed consumerism as a surrogate compensation" (57). New desires were created and people believed these desires could be met through consumption. Joyce Appleby (1999), in "Consumption in Early Modern Social Thought" discusses the role of consumption in "the elaboration of personal identity." She continues, "consumption offers people objects to incorporate into their lives and their presentation of sel' (142). "Materialism negatively affects not only people well-being, but also the well-being of social interactions, the community, and the environment." Spring 2007 15 Consumerism exists precisely due to its importance in the creation of personal identity combined with its skillful promotion by marketers, as Stearns argues: Consumerism exists partly because so many clever people promote it, with increasingly sophisticated techniques, but consumerism also exists because it meets other needs. Its role in responding to blurrings of identity is crucial. (138) `Needs' With the creation of new desires, it has become difficult to determine what a 'need' is. Jean Baudrillard (1999), in "Consumer Society," discusses the elusive definition of a 'need': The infernal round of consumption is based on the celebration of needs that are purported to be `psychological.' These are distinguished from `physiological' needs since they are supposedly established through a 'discretionary income' and the freedom of choice, and consequently manipulable at will. (42) Similarly, Michael Schudson (1999) in "Delectable Materialism: Second Thoughts on Consumer Culture" touches on the difficulty defining a need, noting that humans need both meaning and survival (343). The challenge lies in the subjective determination of which needs are legitimate, and which needs are only desires. Schudson answers this challenge, stating that "human life is by definition social and cultural, human needs are relative across societies, and what counts as necessary in a given society has to be defined somehow in relation to what the poorest members of a society require for credible social standing" (344). Needs are socially constructed, relative, and involved in determining social standing. Baudrillard puts forth the thesis that "the system of needs is the product of the system of production" (44); that is, needs arc socially constructed en masse and have little to do with the interaction individuals have with particular objects. Baudrillard explains that: I f we acknowledge that a need is not a need for a particular object as much as it is a 'need' for difference (the desire for social meaning), only then will we understand that satisfaction can never be lir/filled, and consequently that there can never he a de/inition of needs" (47). In addition to the system of needs being a 'product of the system (il' production,' "consumption...is [also] afunction of production and not a function of pleasure" (47). Pleasure becomes a duty in consumer culture, rather than the joyful satisfaction of the search for fulfillment, meaning, happiness, and identity: Man-as-consumer considers the experience of pleasure an obligation, like an enterprise of pleasure and satisfaction; one is obliged to be happy, to be in love, to be adulating/adulated, seducing/seduced, participating, euphoric, and dynamic. (49) The obligation to find pleasure and happiness becomes a preoccupation and continual quest. Advertising suggests that this quest can be satisfied with the purchase of goods and services, but advertising's own survival relies on the impossibility of achieving happiness through consumerism. Advertising and the Satisfaction of Needs Raymond Williams (1980), in "Advertising: The Magic System" articulates how objects of consumption never fulfill needs: "it is impossible to look at modern advertising without realizing that the material object being sold is never enough" and because of this, the object "must be validated, if only in fantasy, by association with social and personal meanings which in a different cultural pattern might be more directly available" (par. 40). Advertising preys on the paradoxical relationship between acquisition and happiness. Williams argues that advertisers attempt to create the illusion of needs satisfaction using the magic of advertising, but that consumption can never fulfill this need. He explains that: If the meanings and values generally operative in the society give no answers to, no means of negotiating, problems of death, loneliness, frustration, the need for identity and respect, then the magical system must come, mixing its charms and expedients with reality in easily available forms, and binding the weakness to the condition which has created it. Advertising is then no longer merely a way of selling goods, it is a true part of the culture of a confused society. (par. 53) Blinded by attempts to satisfy their needs through consumption, and provided no support for doing so in other ways, consumers lose sight of ways to find genuine fulfillment, meaning, happiness, and identity. Regardless of how a need is defined, and regardless of subjective determinations of the legitimacy of various needs, people unarguably have them and seek to meet them. Rather than completely discounting consumerism, Schudson believes that: 16 The Ecotone We should recognize that there is dignity and rationality in people's desire for material goods. We should then seek to reconstruct an understanding of the moral and political value of consumption that we and others can decently live with. (354) This idea of tempered consumption is attractive to many consumers. As Stearns points out, there are "many ordinary individuals worried about their own engagement in consumerism, seeking to find some outlet for real guilt about indulgence even as they continue to indulge" (62). Real Simple Niche The magazine Real Simple appeals to consumers interested in pursuing tempered consumerism of various forms and relieving the guilt of consumerism. People looking to pursue thoughtful and tempered consumerism are, in part, the target audience of the publication. However, in "Making Sense of Advertisements," Daniel Pope (2003) explains that "in more recent decades [...] marketeering's emphasis has been on segmentation ? fitting a product and its marketing strategy to the interests and needs of a distinct subgroup" (par. 13). Real Simple has targeted a 'distinct subgroup' that includes affluent, married women who want to not only simplify, but also to organize . and manage their lives. Rather than targeting people wanting to reduce consumerism, who are less likely to make a purchase or to choose a material object to meet a need, Real Simple has targeted an audience that is extremely likely to make a purchase or choose a material object to meet a need. According to Tony Case (2003), the magazine has "a young, affluent following ? the median age of its readership is 39, with an average household income of more than S79,000." Journalist John Fine commended Real Simple for reaching its audience in an unprecedented, yet aesthetic way: Real Simple is a very 21" century magazine: a new, sophisticate's approach to a women's service magazine; a magazine launched with very specific aims that are grandiose in their modesty. II's also very good at what it sets out to do [...I it touches on aspects of spirituality as a sort of respite for its audience of oversubscribed 25-to-54-year-old women. And Real Simple's de-stressing message is underscored in its look. Real Simple Success with Its Target Audience According to reviews provided by loyal readers on arnazon.com, Real Simple is not only reaching its target audience, but also completing its mission by making life easier for its audience. Reader reviews typify the target audience: affluent married women, and illustrate that Real Simple is affecting its mission; the information provided in the magazine is applicable to the lives of many readers who feel that it can help them to streamline, organize, and better manage their lives. In addition to reaching its target audience with its mission, Real Simple is also influencing the purchase decisions of its readership. Supportive readers welcome the presence of 'product information' as yet another way in which Real Simple helps them to simplify, organize, and manage their lives. However, some might argue that this 'product information' is not useful knowledge, but rather disguised advertising 'magic,' as described by Raymond Williams, who explains that: "magic is always an unsuccessful attempt to provide meanings and values, but it is often very difficult to distinguish magic from genuine knowledge and from art" (par. 40). Indeed, many amazon.com reviewers criticize the magazine of camouflaging advertisements. However, other amazon.com reviewers defend the idea that 'product information' is more useful than harmful. This difference of opinion among readers stems from the difficulty of determining exactly what a need is, as well as the difficulty determining exactly what simplicity is or how many Americans are making efforts to simplify their lives. While some readers believe a magazine guiding them towards simplicity should avoid dedicating a solid portion of its content to 'product information' and advertisements, other readers view this information as helpful in their efforts to simplify, organize, and manage their lives. Other criticisms of Real Simple stem from its focus on affluence and the ways in which this portrayal conflicts with the idea of simplicity. Daniel Pope (2003) explains that this image of affluence is not uncommon in advertising: Advertising images consistently show scenes of prosperity, material comfort, even luxury well beyond the conditions of life of most Americans. The advertising industry prefers to picture the world that consumers aspire to, not the one they actually inhabit. (par. 23) "Rather than targeting people wanting to reduce consumerism ... Real Simple has targeted an audience that is extremely likely to make a purchase or choose a material object to meet a eed." Spring 2007 17 Whether the magazine is targeting its affluent readership or using images of affluence to tap into its readers' unattainable aspirations, many Real Simple readers object to this portrayal of privilege. Numerous readers object to the idea that simplifying one's life involves the purchase of expensive consumer goods, much less having the disposable income to make such purchases. Many readers interested in simplifying, organizing, and more effectively managing their lives recognize that reducing consumer debt by reducing spending is one component of this effort. Co-opting Simplicity While the magazine's popularity, acclaim, and financial achievements have increased, there have been persistent criticisms of the way in which Real Simple has contributed to the co-optation of the simplicity movement. Dissatisfied readers notice that Real Simple's focus on `product information', its steady increase in advertising content, and its focus on affluence have emerged over time, and were not present in earlier issues of the magazine. Early issues of the magazine were perhaps more closely aligned with the concept of 'simplicity' embodied in voluntary simplicity. A 'Letter to the Editor' posted on salon.com in 2000 criticized the magazine's conflation of advertising and simplification: Just when I think I have seen it all, along comes another amusing example of the relentlessness of American commercial interests. Many Americans do want to simplify their lives, which you would think would dismay the consumer products industry, but with the spunk and resourcefulness that is the hallmark of American commerce, they just cheerfully start marketing products to the living simply crowd.' In 2003, this criticism had only multiplied; journalist Susan Fitzgerald (2003) in The Washington Post noted: I ing hack to 1981 with Duane Elgin's book 0)1aniat:) Simplicity, simple has turned into an industry all its own. This lofty goal is increasingly being peddled and branded. From Elgin's tome of balance to today's glossy Real Simple magazine, 'simple' is the mantra of books, magazines and talk shows as the answer to putting family life back into perspective. ft t . i(fors and critics alike have consistently commented on Reid Simple :v co-optation, manipulation, and marketing of he ide m of 'simplicity,' and its commandeered spirit of voluntary simplicity. David Steigerwald (2006) explains that when a challenge to the dominant cultural paradigm becomes incorporated into that dominant paradigm, the challenge becomes neutralized: Indeed, at least part of the reason why consumer capitalism has won out is that the more culture is manufactured, the more irrelevant cultural challenges are to how power works; where culture is mass produced and mass consumed, it too suffers from the inflation effect and no longer effectively `speaks to power.' (par. 45) As Real Simple has used to its advantage the meaning of the words simple and simplicity, it has co-opted the concept. More importantly, in doing so, the magazine has stripped the notion of simplicity of its power to challenge the dominant paradigm of consumerism. An evaluation of the use of the word 'real' in Real Simple is indicated. Notes 1 This paper is adapted from a longer paper written for Professor Daniel Pope's Fall 2006 course entitled "History of Consumer Culture." 2 Retrieved 12/2/06 from http://archive.salon.com/letters/ daily/2000/05/22/real_simple/index.html Works Cited Appleby, Joyce. 1999. "Consumption in Early Modern Social Thought." Pp. 130-144 in Consumer Society in American History: A Reader, edited by L. B. Glickman. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press. Arndt, Jamie, Sheldon Solomon, Tim Kasser, and Kennon M. Sheldon. 2004a. "The Urge to Splurge Revisited: Further Reflections on Applying Terror Management Theory to Materialism and Consumer Behavior." Journal of Consumer Psychology 14:225-229. 2004b. "The Urge to Splurge: A Terror Management Account of Materialism and Consumer Behavior." Journal of Consumer Psycholog y 14:198-212. Baudrillard, Jean. 1999. "Consumer Society." Pp. 33-56 in Consumer Society in American History: A Reader, edited by L. B. Glickman. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press. Brown, Kirk Wan-en and Tim Kasser. 2005. "Are Psychological and Ecological Well-Being Compatible? The Role of Values, Mindfulness, and Lifestyle." Social Indicators Research 74:349-368. Case, Tony. 2003. "Real Success." Brandweek 44(10): SR4. Elgin, Duane. 1993. Voluntary Simplicity: Toward a Way of Life that is Outwardly Simple, Inwardly Rich. New York, NY: William Morrow and Company, Inc. Etzioni, Amitai. 1999. "Voluntary Simplicity: A New Social Movement?" Pp. 107-128 in 21st Century Economics: Perspectives of Socioeconomics for a Changing World, edited by W. E, Halal and K. B. Taylor. New York, NY: St. Martin's Press. Goss, Jon. 2004. "Geography of Consumption I." Progress in Human Geography 28:369-380. Kasser, Tim and Allen D. Kanner. 2004. Psychology and Consumer Culture: The Struggle for a Good Life in a Materialistic World Washington, D.C.: American Psychological Association. 18 The Ecotone Kasser, Tim and Richard M. Ryan. 1993. "A Dark Side of the American Dream: Correlates of Financial Success as a Central Life Aspiration." Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 65:410-422. ?, 1996, "Further Examining the American Dream: Differential Correlates of Intrinsic and Extrinsic Goals." Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin 22:280-287. Kasser, Tim, Richard M. Ryan, Charles E. Couchman, and Kennon M. Sheldon. 2004. "2: Materialistic Values: Their Causes and Consequences." Pp. 11-28 in Psychology and Consumer Culture: The Struggle for a Good Life in a Materialistic World, edited by T. Kasser and A. D. Kanner. Washington, D.C.: American Psychological Association. Kasser, Tim and Kennon M. Sheldon. 2000. "Of Wealth and Death: Materialism, Mortality Salience, and Consumption Behavior." Psychological Science 11:348-351. Maniates, Michael. 2002. "9: In Search of Consumptive Resistance: The Voluntary Simplicity Movement." Pp. 199-235 in Confronting Consumption, edited by T. Princen, M. Maniates, and K. Conca. Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press. Myers, David G. 2004. "What is the Good Life?" Yes! Magazine, Summer 2004. Kasser, Tim. 2002. The High Price of Materialism. Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press. Pope, Daniel. 2003. "Making Sense of Advertisements." History Matters: The U.S. Survey Course on the Web http://historymatters.gmu.edu/rnse/Ads/. Schudson, Michael. 1999. "Delectable Materialism: Second Thoughts on Consumer Culture." Pp. 341-358 in Consumer Society in American History: A Reader, edited by L. B. Glickman. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press. Sheldon, Kennon M., Andrew J. Elliot, Youngmee Kim, and Tim Kasser. 2001. "What is Satisfying About Satisfying Events? Testing 10 Candidate Psychological Needs." Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 80:325-339. Sheldon, Kennon M. and Tim Kasser. 2001. "Goals, Congruence, and Positive Well-Being: New Empirical Support for Humanistic Theories." Journal of Humanistic Psychology 4/ :30-50. Stearns, Peter N. 2001. Consumerism in World History: The Global Transformation of De.sire, Edited by P. N. Stearns. New York, NY: Routledge. Steigerwald, David. 2006. "All Hail the Republic of Choice: Consumer History as Contemporary Thought." The Journal of American History 93:385403. White, Rob. 2002. "Environmental Harm and the Political Economy of Consumption." Social Justice 29:82-102. Williams, Raymond. 1980. "Advertising: The Magic System." Pp. 170-195 in Problems in Materialism and Culture. London. Diana Fischetti is a dual masters degree candi- date in Environmental Studies and Geography. She is also pursuing a Certcate in Not-for-Profit Management. Diana is currently working on her Master's thesis research, which examines the nega- tive impacts of consumer culture and the ways in which ecovillages embody this rejection. "Mt. Jefferson" by Rebecca Briggs Spring 2007 19 Concentrics Shannon Tyman # 20 The Ecotone N t4i 0 C./1 What Al Gore Missed: The Ecological Importance of the Cultural Commons Chet Bowers, Adjunct. The recommendations for reducing consumerism that appear at the end of Al Gore's book, An Inconvenient Truth, represent how language may contribute to enclosing the cultural commons. No one can deny that Gore's list of behaviors for reducing consumerism is sound common sense. But a list of what thoughtful people are already doing, such as buying things that last, composting, buying local, and bagging groceries in a reusable tote bag, is tio substitute for suggesting a more radical approach to reducing our dependence upon the consumerism that is contributing to global warming?which his book documents so well. Gore does not mention the diversity of the world's cultural commons, and how the intergenerational knowledge, skills, and mentoring relationships that are the basis of many of these commons represent community- centered alternatives to being dependent upon industrial food, entertainment, agricultural practices, healing, and other aspects of daily life that have been monetized. Gore's silence about the ecological importance of the cultural commons should not be taken as a sign of his disagreement with this pre and post-industrial pathway of human history. A more plausible explanation is that his formal education failed to provide the language necessary for making explicit the local cultural commons- based experiences that are largely taken-for-granted. As most people reading his list of consumer- reducing recommendations are likely to be unaware of the importance of the cultural commons he overlooks, the question arises about the culpability of our public schools and universities. If the educational process does not provide students with the language necessary for naming and thus making explicit the cultural commons they will otherwise take-for-granted, they will be less likely to recognize when different aspects of the commons have been enclosed by market forces, and by a government moving closer to equating resistance to the market liberal agenda of economic globalization with terrorism.The formal education of most Americans has left them in the double bind where participation in the daily practices and relationships of their local cultural commons have been relegated to the area of conceptual silence, while the language reinforced in public schools and universities is the language of the market place, technological innovation, expert systems, and media hype. Evidence of how widespread the public's inability to name the different aspects of the cultural commons, and to explain why they are important in terms of the narratives that are often (but not always) sources of moral guidance, traditions of civil liberties, and skills and mutual supportive relationships that are alternatives to consumerism can be found by asking classroom teachers and most university professors what they understand about the nature of the cultural commons. I have found that most of them respond with blank stares to any attempt to discuss the cultural commons. A few books are now being written about the importance of the environmental commons, as well as many articles that examine how different cultures are managing what remains of their environmental commons. This renewed interest in the commons has not influenced what is being taught in public schools and universities, as they are still in the grip of linguistic traditions that were either silent about the cultural commons?or were prejudiced toward them. To take the cultural commons seriously is to identify with what universities continue to designate as low-status and as the source of superstition and backwardness. What is generally not understood is that the metaphorical nature of language carries forward over many generations the analogs that prevailed at an earlier time of metaphorical thinking of how to understand something new. An example is the way in which E. 0. Wilson and Richard Dawkins continue to reproduce in their writings the misconceptions of Newton and Kepler who assumed wrongly that all aspects of life could be understood as having the same properties as a machine. Few professors and even fewer classroom teachers understand how the metaphorical nature of the language they rely upon carries forward the misconceptions of the past. Unfortunately, many of these misconceptions are responsible for the "Few professors and even fewer classroom teachers understand how the metaphorical nature of the language they rely upon carries forward the misconceptions of the past." 22 The Ecotone silences and prejudices that characterize many people's relationships with their local cultural commons. In recent months we have witnessed important aspects of the cultural commons, such as the traditions of habeas corpus and the right to privacy, being enclosed with little or no reaction from the general public. Narratives of social justice struggles, as well as ethnic traditions related to the sharing of food and mutual support, are also being enclosed by the increasing reliance on technologically mediated communication and entertainment (e.g. cell phones, iPods, computer gaming, etc.). If we examine the ideas, silences, and prejudices of influential thinkers in the West, such as Plato, Descartes, Locke, Smith, Spencer, and more recent philosophers, we find that they viewed local knowledge as a source of backwardness. They shared a prejudice that marginalized the knowledge systems of other cultures?which also reduced the possibility that we would understand the ecological importance of their cultural commons. What Plato, Descartes, and Locke reinforced is that there is nothing to be learned from traditions; and they, along with Smith, Spencer and recent philosophers such as Richard Rorty, reinforced the idea that words have universal meanings?quite separate from their cultural context. In effect, these early philosophers and political theorists elevated the use of abstract language over the vernacular languages built up over generations of place-based experiences. This legacy of abstract language and thinking is now used to justify the enclosure of the cultural commons around the world. This abstract language includes such words as individualism, private property, free markets, critical inquiry, progress, competition?which is the. vocabulary of market liberalism. This liberal vocabulary is based on cultural assumptions still reinforced in most university courses. What this vocabulary marginalizes are the words essential to understanding the nature and importance of the cultural commons as representing alternatives to economic globalization. This alternative vocabulary includes a more culturally informed understanding of tradition, conserving an intergenerationally connected form of individualism, non- monetized activities and patterns of mutual support, moral reciprocity between the human and non-human world. It is, in essence, the vocabulary of connectedness and interdependency that is basic to how we participate in our local cultural and environmental commons. Another way in which the language reinforced in our educational institutions contributes to the silence found in Gore's list of recommendations is that, contrary to the conduit view of language, the languaging systems of a culture reproduce its moral templates. Thus, learning the language of the culture also involves acquiring the moral templates shared by other members of the culture. Languaging processes are about how relationships should be understood and morally conducted. Key to this process is how words encode what is understood by members of the culture about the attributes of the participants in the relationships. To make this as simple as possible, if the word "woman" is understood as not having the attributes of intelligence and strength, then the moral code of the culture allows treating women as inferior to men. If the words "weed", "wilderness", and "desert" are understood as lacking positive attributes, then it is morally sound to eradiate the weed, exploit the wilderness, and to use the desert as a toxic waste site. The fate of the cultural commons has similarly been influenced by the moral templates reproduced in the high-status vocabulary reinforced in our educational institutions. If the phrase "cultural commons" has no discernable positive attributes, then it has no moral standing?and attention will be focused on the language that identifies the many manifestations of material progress?even though this form of progress is undermining the ecosystems that we and future generations rely upon. Gore's oversight must not be viewed as his failure to learn from his professors; his failure is in taking them too seriously and in reproducing their silences, Chet Bowers' most recent works include Mindful Con- servatism: Rethinking the Ideological and Educational Basis of an Ecologically Sustainable Future, published in 2003, and The False Promises of Constructivist Theories of Learning: A Global and Ecological Cri- tique, published in 2005. His new book Revitalizing the Commons: Cultural and Educational Sites of Resis- tance and Affirmation came out in 2006. "Saguaros" by Rebecca Briggs Spring 2007 23 An Education of the Senses: Reflections of an Ecocritic among Biologists Janet Fiskio As an ecocritic among biologists on a Neotropical Ecology program in Ecuador, I was not only observing the natural world as a scientist would; I was also observing myself observing, and watching my reactions to the nonhuman world. Ecocriticism is the study of literature and environment; my doctoral program combines literature, biology, and philosophy. Ecocritics tend to sing laments about our modern alienation from nature, but as I prepared for the program in Ecuador, I had a feeling that the insects and pathogens of the equator might send me running back to the tamer temperate zone. Transitions Our first location was the sustainable lodge El Monte in cloudforest at about 1200 meters on the western slope of the Andes, lush and luxuriant with epiphytes. The weather was gentle at this elevation, sunny and fresh, with little rain in the dry season. The architecture at El Monte eased my transition into a life lived mainly outdoors. The main lodge was open, with a roof but no exterior walls. The hammocks that swung back and forth over both floor and grass on the edge of the structure quickly became coveted spaces. The insects were not intrusive; the windows had no screens, and there were no bright electric lights to draw insects when we ate our meals. There were no harsh transitions from inside to outside. My friend Brook Muller, a green architect, says that we need to think about buildings as organisms with breathing, permeable membranes, rather than machines with rigid walls and climate-controlled interiors (2005). I wonder how I could transform my own dwelling to blur these boundaries that are as much psychological as physical. When we left El Monte, as soon as I had a screen, I found myself closing the door to keep things out; as soon as I had electric lights, I turned them on to brush my teeth before bed. The high ceilings and open walls and candles of El Monte gave a different way of structuring my relationship to the natural world, of blurring the line between indoors and outdoors, between culture and nature. One night as we sat bird watching before dinner, Brian yelled "MONKEY!" and pointed. Johnny, who was swinging on one of the hammocks, flipped out of it, landed on his knees, and dashed for the edge of the lodge. It wasn't a monkey (and if it was, we would probably have scared it into Peru). But we did see tanagers, agouti, and fireflies, all from "inside" our dwelling. Learning to See In Phenomenology of Perception, Maurice Merleau-Ponty describes perception as a dialogue between the body and its environment. In order to perceive, my body must find a way of responding to "a question which is obscurely expressed" by the world (249). This process of synchrony and resonance between my body and the world takes place at an anonymous or impersonal level; it is not something I control or choose: "The person who sees and the one who touches is not exactly myself [, .] these [visible beings] are at the disposal of my gaze in virtue of a kind of primordial contract and through a gift of nature, with no effort made on my part; from which it follows that vision is prepersonal" (251). For Merleau-Ponty, this perceptual dialogue is the foundation of all my other explorations of the world, including science (ix). Our first day at Tiputini Station, in the primary lowland rainforest, we hiked with a guide from the local Quechua community named Santiago. Frequently he would stop to listen and gesture toward the canopy, naming a bird; his identifications were almost all from song. He focused mainly on medicinal plants used by the indigenous peoples of the Amazon during our walk. Then he peeled back a swollen twig on an understory tree, revealing lemon ants (Myrmelachista schumanni). Lemon ants live in association with the tree Duroia hirsute, forming monocultures known as "devil's gardens" by injecting formic acid into competitor plant species (Frederickson et al. 495). Some of these gardens are believed to be 800 years old ? an example of niche construction (Frederickson et al. 495-96). The lemon ants are constructing and expanding their nesting habitat through their herbicide campaign. This benefits D. hirsute as well, since it eliminates competitors 24 The Ecotone and allows the tree to expand its area. Santiago held the twig out. "i,Para corner?" I asked, not trusting my understanding of his Spanish. I placed an ant on my tongue, turned my attention inward to explore the taste, and felt a sharp pain. As a semi-lapsed vegetarian, I suppose it is fitting that my food bit me back. How is Merleau-Ponty's anonymous level of perception shaped by the environment in which we live? If it is the things themselves that teach us how to see them, then how is the perceptual dialogue influenced by place? Can this dialogue have a dialect? This is not a question of how culture "constructs" nature. Rather, what I wonder is how the world in which we live influences how and what we are able to see?how we are shaped by our place. Someone who grows up in a rainforest lives with different voices of the world beckoning her senses, calling them into dialogue and teaching her body how to perceive. In the same way that language shapes not only how but even what we are able to think, perhaps our place shapes our perceptual capacities. Merleau-Ponty emphasizes repeatedly that every view is a view from somewhere; we do not have access to a view from above that is detached and universal. Part of our perceptual situation, it seems to me, is the capacities that our environment has offered to us. Our perceptual style is not some pre-determined capacity within us or inscribed by an independent world outside of us, but something that we live into. In the rainforest, observation meant learning to synchronize my perceptions with a new environment that was overwhelming in its wall of green and its population of fast-moving and sometimes intimidating organisms. quickly learned to identify army ants (Eciton burchelli), nomadic tribes that devour all invertebrates in their path, and to get out of the way of the river of dark bodies crossing the trail. I really was a tourist: the rainforest is not the environment that has educated my body to see and taste, to walk and listen. Learning how to see in this new environment was the most uncomfortable aspect of the trip, worse than mosquitoes or heat and humidity. Back before leaving, Peter, our trip leader, had warned us about the frustrations of learning to use binoculars. On the first day we met at 6:30 am (4:30 am Oregon time) and walked through the abrupt equatorial dawn to look for birds across the Rio Mindo. My body, anonymous or otherwise, screamed its complaints: lack of sleep, lack of caffeine, sore neck from the weight of the binoculars. I looked through the binoculars and saw nothing. My more experienced classmates called out their observations. By the time I moved my binoculars to where they pointed, the bird was gone. Or I failed to see the movement among the foliage. Even when I found a bird with my binoculars, I couldn't see. My classmates detailed their perceptions: yellow beak, green shoulders, black eyestripe. All I could see was a dark silhouette. Learning to see requires a practice of perception, an attunement of my body with the movement of the world around it. This deliberate practice is different from the anonymous level of perception described by Merleau-Ponty, but at the same time intertwined with it; it is not a process over which I have complete control. Frog Songs The equator harbors the highest levels of biodiversity in the world; the Amazon basin, where we stayed in the second part of the program, is one of the centers of this diversity. Ecuador is about the size of Oregon and also has a Pacific coast and a mountain range, the Andes, that runs North-South. But in spite of these similarities, Ecuador has over 1300 species of birds, while Oregon has about 360 (Forsyth and Miyata 2, Marshall et al. xv). There are different theories as to why the Tropics and Neotropics are so diverse. The historical theory argues that the temperate zones have not had time for species to diversify and occupy all the potential niches because of repeated extinctions during glacial periods (MacDonald 416). This is related to the stability-time hypothesis, which argues that the tropics have had long periods with a stable environment, allowing for speciation and keeping extinction rates low (ibid.). However, climate change also occurred in the Tropics and Neotropics during the Pleistocene; our guide Florian pointed out a glacially-carved valley in the Andes when we visited the paramo at 4000 meters. The refuge theory suggests that during these periods of cooler and drier climates, rainforest species migrated to upland regions with higher rainfall, and this geographic isolation of populations resulted in allopatric speciation (Forsyth and Miyata 202-3). This means that disturbance and change, rather than stability, provided the conditions for the wealth of diversity I can see (or not) today. Studying biogeography and palynology has shifted my perceptions: when I look at the rainforest, I have an image of the trees slowly walking toward the uplands. Merleau-Ponty argues that science is an abstraction from primordial perception, but without this scientific knowledge of long-term ecosystem change, my understanding of the ecosystem "Here in the rainforest I become aware of the world of the canopy, where monkeys follow regular paths without the aid of maps, and pollinators and seed dispersers never come to the forest floor." Spring 2007 25 "I might want to step into imaginatively, but I do no its world as food the world of the insect t want to become part of and habitat." around me and its current diversity would be even more limited by my temporal and spatial scale (ix). At the same time, I can sense the diversity of the rainforest in an immediate way: every centimeter seems to be inhabited by something, or more than one thing. I have to stop myself from grabbing tree trunks when I slip in the mud. Not only are some of the trees armed with defensive thorns to deter herbivores, but what I am really afraid of is Conga ants (Paraponera clavata), whose sting will reportedly leave a northerner like me feverish and vomiting for two days: "One of the most painful nonlethal experiences a person can endure is the sting of the giant ant Paraponera clavata. These ants, with their glistening black bodies over an inch long, sport massive hypodermic syringes and large venom reservoirs [. . .] and they are easily offended" (Forsyth and Miyata 108). A leaf we stop to look at turns out to be on a liana climbing a tree trunk; on the underside of the leaf is larva; the vegetation supports a spider web. Forest Biology taught me that there is a whole world of fungi and microorganisms in the soil under my feet: a spatial division. Here in the rainforest I become aware of the world of the canopy, where monkeys follow regular paths without the aid of maps, and pollinators and seed dispersers never come to the forest floor. We climb up into the canopy on the swinging walkways or the wooden tower and enter another world. The Conga ants are here, too?frustrating my desire to hang on for dear life. Another world I become aware of is created by a temporal division: the nocturnal. Watching a barred owl one afternoon, Henry David Thoreau mused: "when he launched himself off and flapped through the pines, spreading his wings to unexpected breadth, I could not hear the slightest sound from them. Thus, guided amid the pine boughs rather by a delicate sense of their neighborhood than by sight, feeling his twilight way as it were with his sensitive pinions, he found a new perch, where he might in peace await the dawning of his day" (177). What Thoreau senses is that the world has meaning for the owl, but one that is inverted: dawn for the owl is our dusk. While I have to feel my way through the dark, trying to avoid slipping in the mud, the owl feels his way through the day. Even in the tern erate zone, I am unfamiliar with the nocturnal world. Just as I spend little time outdoors on a daily basis when I'm home, I also spend almost no time out at night. In the rainforest we were regularly out after dark fell at about 6:30?returning from dinner and lectures, doing nature walks, and most exciting of all, night floats in the canoes. The Milky Way flooded the sky. There was no light pollutions for miles, and I had never seen it so brilliant, not even in the mountains on a cold, dry night. I had a sense of the true strangeness of the Amazon at night. Most of the time I was buffered from the sense of the vastness of the forest, and the isolation of Tiputini Station, by the presence of a bunch of noisy students. At night I became aware of the sounds of the forest. During one workshop, I learned that song is the key to locating and identifying nocturnal frogs. When you know the song, you can predict where the frog might be?in the water, on a tree, in the vegetation near a pond. Sounds are a perceptual resonance, another way to attune myself to the overlapping worlds of the organisms in the rainforest. Learning to be Seen I found myself repeatedly caught by the gaze of animals on this trip. First were the howler monkeys (Alouatta seniculus) in the eloudforest: one monkey hung by her prehensile tail and ate leaves while watching us upside-down. Then, in the canoe on the way to Tiputini, a young jaguar (Panthera onca) turned and glared at us before slipping back into the forest. In a canoe at Sani, a giant otter (Pteronura brasiliensis) popped its head up and looked right at us. Being seen is even more exciting than seeing. I am undoubtedly falling prey to the romance of the charismatic megafauna, though, since it is just as striking that ants completely ignored us. We must not be an important part of their world. In the rainforest, army ants speed across human trails, ignoring the vibrations of our feet, even when we stepped in the middle of them. At Sani . Lodge, also in the rainforest, leafcutter ants (Atta) had built highways that circle the cabins. I was enchanted by these fungi farmers and tried to capture a sense of their paths on film, but failed. Leafcutter ants bring leaves down to their nests, which they feed to a fungus that they in turn eat. The 26 The Ecotone ants also form an association with a bacterium that hinders the growth of Escovopsis, a fungal pathogen (Schowatte 244). I had no idea that ants would be so fascinating back in Oregon. In fact, I avoided the ant research groups, assuming that observing them would be monotonous and might expose me to being stung. But at Sani I spent time crouched by their paths, watching the parade of ants with green flags on their backs. They ignored me. I have a feeling that I am not so much seen by the insect world as smelled. During our preparation for the program, Peter showed us a video of a botfly larva (Dermatobia hominis) squirming under his skin. Botflies are parasites whose larva matures under your skin. They are not dangerous (and even secrete an anti-bacterial substance that protects their host from infection)... unless you try to remove them (Forsyth and Miyata 155), When I first learned about this organism, I felt nauseating panic. My desire to dissolve nature/culture boundaries only goes so far: not so far as to be willing to host a larval parasite. I might want to step into the world of the insect imaginatively, but I do not want to become a part of its world as food and habitat. In The Triple Helix, Richard Lewontin says that we need to "reconsider the relationship of inside and outside, of organism and environment" (47). He argues that organisms are not passive objects determined by genes or environment but instead actively shape their worlds, like the lemon ants cultivating their devil's garden (47). Neither is the environment an independent entity out there; instead, it is changed by the organisms that inhabit it (48). And the world that appears to an organism is one that is meaningful for it: rocks are of no interest to a phoebe, Lewontin notes, and therefore do not exist in the phoebe's world (51). But rocks are a part of the world of the thrush who uses them to crack open snails (51-52). The ethologist Jakob von Uexki111 wrote in 1934 that rather than thinking of animals as machines we need to understand that each organism has an environment, or Umwelt, "filled with perceptions that it alone knows" and that when we step into this Umwelt by imagining it from the animals' perspective, "a new world comes into being" (5). What I love about biology is this glimpse into the worlds of animal others. The rainforest offers the opportunity to be caught by the gaze of the animal other and to find myself as the one who is seen as well as the subject who sees, to shift my perceptions not only of the worlds around me, but of my place within them. Works Cited Forsyth, Adrian and Ken Miyata. Tropical Nature.- Life and Death in the Rain Forests of Central and South America. New York: Touchstone, 1984. Frederickson, Megan E., Michael J. Greene, and Deborah M. Gordon. "Devil's Gardens Bedevilled by Ants." Nature 437 (22 September 2005): 495-496. Lewontin, Richard. The Triple Helix: Gene, Organism, and Environment. Cambridge: Harvard U P, 2000. MacDonald, Glen. Biogeography: Introduction to Space, Time, and Life. New York: John Wiley and Sons, 2003. Marshall, David B., Matthew G. Hunter, and Alan L. Contreras, eds. Birds of Oregon: A General Reference. Corvallis, OR: Oregon State U P, 2003. Merleau-Ponty, Maurice. Phenomenology of Perception. Trans. Colin Smith. New York: Routledge, 2002. Muller, Brook. "Architecture as Organism (Watermark): Metaphor, Environmental Receptivity and Design." International Association of Environmental Philosophy. Salt Lake City, October 2005. Schowalter, Timothy D. Insect Ecology: An Ecosystem Approach. 2?1 Ed. San Francisco: Elsevier P, 2006. Thoreau, Henry David. Walden and Resistance to Civil Government: Authoritative Texts, Journal, Reviews, and Essays in Criticism. Ed. Owen Thomas and William Rossi. New York: Norton, 1991. von Uexklill, Jakob. "A Stroll Through the Worlds of Animals and Men: A Picture Book of Invisible Worlds." Instinctive Behavior: The Development of a Modern Concept. Ed. and trans. Clare Schiller. New York: International U P,1957. 5-80. Janet Fiskio is a doctoral student in Environmental Studies and English. She is currently working on her dissertation, which examines the ecotone of literature and science in the work of Thoreau, Zora Neale Hurston, and Gary Paul Nabhan. Photographs by Janet Fiskio Spring 2007 27 Entomological Maginot Line Bennett Huffman Ducks bubble up out of the edge of the universe, and I have water, food, and a topographical map of this hill, wonder where is the water to which they are attracted. In which I refuse to look at out of pride and confidence. In summertime I work as an Insect Survey Technician for the woods so dense I had to push sideways with my shoulders Oregon Department of Agriculture. Today we are a crew of to pass through I have never been lost. The only place on five setting gypsy moth traps in a tight grid down the side the planet ever able to confuse my internal compass was of a steep, heavily foliated mountain. My supervisor, Wayne, and I break off to the east along the ridge, leaving the others behind. The morning Scotch Broom seed pods crackle as we brush them; as the heat of the day urges their opening. Snakes slither away from us in the grass, both green and dry. It is the first hot morning of summer, after the clouds of spring have retreated and the rains of winter have a long wait before they can move in from the ocean. A spar- row hawk, lazy from the suddenness of this season, descends from its naked snag perch and picks a grasshop- per from atop an old Douglas fir stump for its breakfast. Wayne leads the way through the stumps and brush. For a moment I am unaware of the type of vegeta- tion around us, but not for long. This hill, more of a cliff, faces south and bakes in high summer. The sea of poison oak stretches across every foot of the expanse of terrain not replanted a hundred years ago when the big trees were taken. We continue through the sea at the edge of second growth, avoiding the sumac, but I notice the red and green leaves brush freely across the backs of Wayne's hands; catching at the seams of his clothes. For some time I fol- low saying nothing, simply being more careful than my senior. Wayne bends down gracefully, and swoops up a tiny lichen covered frog for me to see. Out in the valley to the south a cow bellows low and long. imagine a small pod of them, white and black, in their bald pasture. They stand close together. Moving toward what little shade an old oak along the eastern fence- line provides till afternoon. They lick the salt from one another's short coats or defecate casually on their neigh- bors. Regardless of what they actually do, I will not see it myself, or know, until afternoon comes and I climb down the mountain. When I came to the project the spraying was all In my small pack I carry four orange Jackson delta done. Trapping to see what gypsy moths survived the insect traps baited with gypsy moth pheromone. I also spraying, or what new introductions have ?eared, is the "The way I see it is this: the environment, let on its own, can take care of itself. But this is our own fault, human fault that the harmful insects are moving into areas where the ecosystem is not hardened to its particular assault." Tokyo while I still suffered the drain of jet lag. Moving at the edge of red maple I spot bear sign on the trunk of a young fir. This is a thing Wayne himself has taught me to see clearly in the woods. I tap him cm the shoulder and point out my finding. In his calm, unfathom- able way he kneels down at the bottom of the tree and runs his worn fingers along the scored lines made by the bear's claws. The bear has removed the bark from all around the trunk, killing this tree, though it doesn't even know it yet. Wayne turns to me and knows that I know it. In 1953, after sew- ing in the Korean War, Wayne spent a long summer living entirely alone in the wilderness. He was a fire lookout in a very empty Idaho, and lived. see a single other human being for four solid months. He walked the brush around his mountain hunting grouse with a German Luger for fresh meat. This summer of solitude, after the conflicts of war, solidified his soul in a permanent, mysterious way. The gypsy moth, Lymantria dispar, was originally imported purposefully into Massachusetts from Europe in 1869 for silk production experiments. Some of the moths were accidentally released, and established themselves in the woods nearby. They have spread, in the hundred years since their escape, as far west as Michigan and cover the East Coast from Maine to Virginia. In 1979 gypsy moths were detected in Oregon. Wayne had worked with helicopters in Korea and came to the gypsy moth project through his experience there. In the 1980's effective eradication programs were implemented using various insecticides including acephate, carbaryl and the non-toxic, naturally occurring bacteria (that affects only the stomach walls of certain insects in their caterpillar stage, and is totally harmless to humans) Bacillus thuringi- ens is variety kurstaki, all of which are sprayed via helicop- ter. 28 The Ecotone project Wayne oversees. Individual trappers take care of 100 square miles of city and suburbs, farms and woods. They create an entomological Maginot line, a web of pheromone sex smell of the female gypsy moth. The web covers the land ?in some places dense and mean, where the male moths are likely to be found; in other places it is left open where no moth is likely to survive. On the East Coast the moth has established itself so thoroughly that the authorities have given up hope of ever ridding themselves of the pest. In Oregon, on the other hand, all counties but one (composed mostly of sand) have trappers forming the web from May to mid-July in an effort to save and preserve a state made up of mostly wilderness. Wayne moves from the bear sign, and we continue along the ridge. The first of the year's thunderheads rise high and distant above the Cascades to the east. They will not venture into the Willamette Valley for another month. The clouds remind me of my first meeting with Wayne. When he interviewed me for this job he asked me first off why I would be interested in such work as trapping insects. "I think it will be the best way for me to he an ac- tive environmentalist," I said. "But we're the people who do the nasty spray proj- ects everyone complains about," Wayne said. "The way I see it is this: the environment, let on its own, can take care of itself But this is our own fault, human's fault that the harmful insects are moving into areas where the ecosystem is not hardened to its particular assault. What little insecticides we use in Oregon to keep harmful pests out of the state is nothing compared to the damage the gypsy moth would do if it established itself here." The future of environmentalism all boils down to issues of management. We will only be as successful as we can manage industry's use of natural resources, vacationer's use of wilderness, and developing nations' consumption of rain forests. I consider myself fortunate to have been hired on with no trapping experience to Wayne's crew. He is more comfortable in the forest than any other person 1 have ever met. After a one day orientation, where Wayne and his field representatives explained the program in clear, succinct terms, I went out in the woods with him. In one morning with Wayne I learned to be as good as any trapper on his crew, and any other trapper in the rest of the state. I didn't really realize that fact until I was exposed to other trappers in Oregon, and that is to Wayne's credit, not my own. In our walking we step over orange-brown newts, looking for shelter from the sun. Growing used to the tightrope walkingness of avoiding the poison oak, I venture to ask Wayne about it. I, myself, am immune to the effects of the plant, but I am always afraid that my immunity will wear off someday. "How do you avoid touching the poison oak when you work in brush this dense," I ask. He slows and approaches a large plant nearby. "I'm immune, so I don't avoid it," he says, grab- bing a green, oily leaf from the bush with his bare hand. "Wayne," I gasp. He rubs the poison leaf between his fingers, and then casually places it in his mouth and begins chewing it up like bubble gum. "Aren't you afraid?" I ask. "Immune is immune," he says. "The oil has no effect; not even on the most sensitive of skin. You're im- mune, right? Why don't you try it?" He picks another leaf and holds it out to me. "No, thanks." He lets the leaf fall. We walk on in silence. Wayne sets his first trap in one of the vine maple at the edge of the woods, and fills out a trap card to go with it. "See you at the bottom," Wayne says. He moves off through the poison oak down the steep incline toward the cows far below. I hike a quarter mile, 1,000 feet or so, farther along the ridge before setting my own first trap in the fir forest. I work my way down the mountain paralleling Wayne's progress, though I can neither see nor hear him. I avoid the poison oak with a passion despite my senior's display. Through the dense brush I encounter the sounds of other creatures, birds, and squirrels, and deer, but I see nothing. At the bottom of the incline I wait for the others and a nice, lazy, high altitude feeling creeps over me. I close my eyes and see nothing but the pattern of poison oak leaves. Bennett Huff-Man is a Natural Resource Specialist with the Oregon Department of Agriculture. He has had writing published in Organization & Environment, Northwest Passage, and The Environmental Tradition in English Literature: from the Canterbury Tales to Ecothrillers. He has taught at the University of Oregon, Western Oregon University, and Portland State Univer- sity Spring 2007 29 Ephemeral Territories: A Book Review Shannon Tyman Ephemeral Territories: Representing Nation, Home, and Identity in Canada by Erin Manning University of Minnesota Press, 2003, 187 pages. In an unstable world of warscapes and ecological destruction, environmental writers Barry Lopez and Wendell Berry have hinted that returning 'home' will offer peaceful condolences. The landscape, they hint, provides a `horneground' upon which one might pursue an implaced self Erin Manning, though, suggests that such accommodations obscure political realities and thus perpetuate the very horrors from which we attempt escape. In her book, Ephemeral Territories, she explores the interwoven implications of culture within and without political sovereignty. Home, homelessness, nation, identity, territory, and ethnic singularity are portrayed as dynamic entities that do not imply an ontological certitude. Nor can we simply do away with community, the desire to be accommodated, or the inevitable struggles to communicate language. Rather, Manning, using the rhizomatic analysis' of respective, French philosopher and psychoanalyst, Gilles Deleuze and Felix Guattari, suggests that we attend more closely to our cultural narrative and treat our readings as performative; she suggests we confront our fear of the Other by doing away with fixed identities and strictly- defined borders. Erin Manning is a bi-lingual native of Quebec. Within Canadian borders, Quebec is the only French- speaking province, distancing itself from its surrounding nation-state. From her personal experience weaving in and out of English, French, national, and cultural borders, Manning questions the ability of any borders to accurately contain or delimit identity. Ultimately, Manning portrays a Canada whose normative politics obscure the complexity of the cultural landscape and myriad identities especially those of immigrant Others. Borders and distinctions fail to recognize the permeable actualities of the people who live in the country and thus fail to offer a welcoming home. Though her discussion is grounded in the particularities of Canadian identity, Manning's discussion permeates all nation-state borders and resonates across disciplinary discourses. In Manning's language it might be called a cultural study of political Being-incommon. She traverses these boundaries using what she terms 'errant politics,' whereupon: the political is not envisaged as the organizational element of the state apparatus, but becomes, rather, a mobile vehicle that acts as a hinge between time and space, rearticulating our understanding of the political through nomadic [a term also used by Deleuze and Guattari] vocabularies of resistance.' The dichotomous relations between inclusion and exclusion, security and insecurity are uncovered and abandoned for more complex interstices. Manning approaches the divisions of race, class, gender, and citizenship concretely through art. She juxtaposes traditional Canadian landscape art with two exhibits that treat absence as an excluded presence. Political landscapes are not determined by their aesthetic beauty, but rather by their ethnic and cultural affiliations. Manning deconstructs (in)security as a justification for the need of 'home,' using Anne Michaels' novel Fugitive Pieces, and two films, Atom Egoyan's The Adjuster and Bruce Beresford's The Fringe Dwellers. She engages Charles Biname's Eldorado and Clement Virgo's Rude in a dialogic reading of "blackness," "whiteness," and "Canadianness." Srinivas Krishna's Lulu, a film shown at the Toronto film festival but never released to a wider audience, receives extensive treatment on the topic of the facing, effacement, and the facelessness of biopolitics. Finally, Manning discusses the politics of language, a point of contention between Canadians and Quebecois Robert Lepage's films, NO and Le Polygraphe. These cultural works lend depth and personal character to her discussion of the political landscape. Manning invokes Derridian deconstruction (with)in her post-structuralist analysis and her language follows suit; Ephemeral Territories waxes and wanes poetically. She invents descriptive neo-logisms and phrases through putting-together. Her vernacular includes such differentiations as being-in-common and being incommon. Certain phrases hang upon the tongue of the mind's eye: "feeding the famished fundamentalist mouths," "imperfect, protean, geohistorical surfaces," and "space speaks time and allows time to speak, forging a fissure in space and time." Her language, as in her content, rather than attempting to present 'Truth' or truths, is constantly engaged in a finding-out. Ephemeral Territories is a beautifully written exploration of provocative questions that, as Erin Manning perceptively points out, are provocative precisely because they are not particularly palatable or easily confronted. Her most troubling conclusion of all is that 'homes' might not 30 The Ecotone be not the comfortable places which they are imagined. She is not the first to suggest this, though. Following in the footsteps of Freud and Heidegger, Edward Casey, an American philosopher, writes, "entire cultures can become profoundly averse to the places they inhabit, feeling atopic and displaced within their own implacements."3 As a citizen of the United States, I find myself translating Manning's commentary to my own c identification as a white female citizen wielding the most oft-spoke language in the world. This, I presume, is not to Manning's dislike. It is precisely in this disconcerting historical moment of never-ending war and global climate collapse, that I must rewrite my space, poetically invent a counternarrative, and challenge my conception of 'home.' But I must also attend to the Other. Immigrant voices are silenced by deaf ears. Non-human creatures live among us with little reflection on our part. I am stuck pondering how we, the homeless, might dwell differently together. Admitting that our territories are ephemeral constructions iE to seek a dialogic polyvocality between Self and Other, but. strangely, I am left lonely in my desire to accommodate multiplicities. Board by board, bit by bit, as if unearthing an ancient secret, Manning asks us to reconstruct our landscapes with fluidity. Boxes can no longer contain the rhizomatic complexities of global wor(1)d4 Notes I In A Thousand Plateaus: Capitalism and Schizophrenia ( University of Minnesota Press, 1987), Deleuze and Guattari use a rhizomatic analysis to describe connection, heterogeneity, and multiplicity. 2 See "Introduction," xxvii. 3 Casey, Edward. Getting Back into Place: Toward a Renewed Understanding of the Place-World. California: University of California Press, 1993: 34. 4 This conflation of world and word is used by Erin Manning throughout Ephemeral Territories. "Flotsam" by Rebecca Briggs Spring 2007 31 University of Oregon Campus Sustainability Assessment: Master Capstone Project For their capstone seminar, the second-year Environmental Studies master's students researched and wrote the 2007 University of Oregon Campus Sustainability Assessment, which they will officially present to senior University administrators on May 30, 2007. This report represents the first comprehensive assessment of sustainability efforts at the University of Oregon. It provides an opportunity to reflect on the University's environmental footprint as well as the institution's efforts to prepare society for the changes that are coming. This report is especially timely given President David Frohnmayer's recent signature of the Climate Challenge which commits the University to a carbon neutral future. The project was initiated by the University's Sustainability Coordinator, Steve Mital, with the support of George Hecht, Director of Campus Operations. Financial support was provided by Frances Dyke, Vice President of Finance and Administration. The graduate student team compiled and evaluated data for eleven indicator areas, each comprised of several measurements, which together assess the University's performance in and progress towards sustainability. Governance: focuses on the extent to which sustainability has been prioritized at the highest levels of the University administration. Endowment Investment: assesses the extent to which university endowment funds are invested according to environmental sustainability criteria. Academics and Culture: investigates the emphasis placed on sustainability by the student community, curriculum, research, and public outreach. Materials Management: assesses the extent to which the University incorporates sustainability into the procurement and disposal of packaging, office supplies, furniture, computer equipment, and chemicals for custodial, landscaping, research, and teaching use. Food: assesses the extent to which the University incorporates sustainability into food procurement and disposal decisions. Greenhouse Gas (GHG) Emissions: examines overall University greenhouse gas emissions produced through transportation, energy use, and chemical use. Energy: examines the use of electricity as purchased from Eugene Water and Electric Board (EWEB) and generated at the University's Central Power Station. Transportation: assesses the ways in which students and faculty travel to and from campus, as well as the ways in which the University promotes and supports alternative transportation. Water: assesses the University's use of water for campus operations, including steam, irrigation, and domestic use. Landscape: investigates the extent to which the University has incorporated sustainability goals into landscape design and maintenance, as well as whether the University is meeting those goals. Building: assesses the extent to which the University has incorporated green building and design goals into existing buildings and new construction projects, as well as whether the University is meeting those goals. The aim of this assessment is to recognize opportunities for improvement, leadership, and action in the area of environmental sustainability. Through this report, the team hopes to recognize existing campus sustainability efforts and to create the impetus for changes in policies and practices that foster genuine progress towards sustainability. "Johnson Hall" by Rebecca Briggs 32 The Ecotone New Environmental Studies Program Director: Alan Dickman In June 2006, the Environmental Studies Program welcomed Alan Dickman as its new Director. Dr. Dickman is a Senior Instructor and Research Associate Professor in the Biology Department. Alan Dickman graduated from the University of California at Santa Cruz in 1976 with undergraduate majors in Environmental Studies and Biology. He decided that strengthening his scientific knowledge and credentials would be important for successful work in the environmental field, and therefore chose to go to graduate school in biology, completing a PhD at the University of Oregon in 1984 working under Stanton Cook. In one sense, assuming the Directorship of the Environmental Studies Program was a return to a field Dr. Dickman left thirty years ago. However, for him, a more accurate assessment would be that he never really left Environmental Studies. Over the past twenty years as a faculty member in the biology department at the University of Oregon, most of the classes he has taught, from freshman level Global Ecology to upper division Forest Biology are, in essence, environmental studies courses. He has been on several Environmental Studies committees including the Executive Committee, Program Committee, Graduate Admissions Committee, and has been the Student Initiated Project Supervisor and Acting Director of the Graduate Internship Program. He has attended most of the Environmental Studies Graduation ceremonies and was twice an invited speaker. Alan has served as an advisor to several environmental studies master's students over the past fifteen years, and contributes to the wider environmental community by giving public talks on issues such as forest health, and by serving on the Governor's Oregon Natural Heritage Advisory Council. From 1995 to 2006, Alan was Curriculum Director for the Biology Department, and was responsible for organizing all aspects of teaching in the department. Alan says he loves his job as program director and especially enjoys being able to interact with a dedicated am energetic group of students, staff, and faculty. He's looking forward to more of the same, and to bringing in a strong group of eleven graduate students next Fall. Off campus, he enjoys canoeing, hiking, fly-fishing biking, cooking, gardening, woodworking, and learning to play the piano. He and his wife, Sue, have raised three boys, and will celebrate their 30th wedding anniversary this summer. "Beach Shadows . Spring 2007 33 Graduating Student Theses and Projects Coeylen Barry Concentration Areas: non-profit management, sustainable business, sustainable development The average school district spends over $100,000 annually on wasted energy. This has serious ramifications on both a local and global scale. The majority of schools are on a tight budget. Many schools have had to cut electives, lay off valuable teachers, or are teaching core classes out of temporary classrooms for years on end. On a global scale, wasted energy contributes to some of the largest problems society will face in the coming years. Rising energy prices and the potential threats of global warming have the potential to drastically alter our current economy, society and the natural world. Saving energy in schools is a high leverage approach to addressing these problems. I have written a business plan for an organization that will address the issues of saving schools money and developing an energy conscious generation by adopting a two-tiered approach to educating for sustainability. The organization will work with the administration to adopt sustainable practices in the facilities and operations such as energy efficiency retrofitting, recycling and school gardens. Concurrently, we will work with the teachers to integrate the sustainable campus practices into the curriculum. Throughout the process of retrofitting the school we will involve students and teachers as much as possible. Involvement will range from student participation in some of the planning and monitoring of new projects, to school wide workshops explaining what is happening at the school and why. Rebecca Briggs Concentration Areas: environmental planning and policy, environmental politics and economics The focus of my thesis research is the effectiveness over time of Oregon's agricultural lands preservation policy in the Willamette Valley. The Willamette Valley possesses some of the nation's most fertile and diverse farmland, but yet population pressures are also great in this region. In fact, concerns about growth and farmland conversion in this region provided the foundation for the passage of Oregon's comprehensive land use legislation in 1973. The goal of the resulting agricultural preservation policy is stated in Goal 3 ? one of nineteen statewide land Use planning goals ? as economic goals, policymakers have justified the Goal 3 policy and related laws over the years as necessary for the health of the agricultural economy. To assess the effectiveness of this policy, I analyze county land use data compiled by the Oregon Department of Land Conservation and Development ("DLCD") from 1987 to the present and federal statistics relating to agricultural land use and economics in Oregon. This analysis illuminates trends in land use and agriculture in the Willamette Valley that may result from the increasingly stricter requirements of the agricultural lands preservation laws. It also allows for comparison of trends in land use and the agricultural economy for assessment of the ways in which the two interrelate. Bari Doeffinger Concentration Areas: geography, environmental education/ communication My final project is titled "The Galapagos Islands: Stories of Human Adaptation." This project includes two articles about recycling and two essays (one personal essay and one historical essay about the human settling of the Galapagos). The various pieces of this project are based on research and interviews conducted before, during, and after my trip to the Galapagos in the summer of 2006 with Carol Ann Bassett's Environmental Writing class. I am also putting together a photographic essay. Chris Jones Concentration Areas: hydrology and watersheds, riparian biology and ecology, public policy and applications A riparian ecological restoration project at Howard Buford Recreation Area, Eugene, Oregon, sought to increase hydrological connectivity between a river and its floodplain and restore a floodplain forest by planting trees and removing exotic invasive species. I evaluate the project's planning and implementation, using recommendations from recent scientific literature. Restoration projects should include the following: planning, implementation, monitoring, adaptive management, and communication. This project's planning was extensive, though short on measurable ecological objectives. Implementation was slower than planned, primarily because the project's coordinator, a non-profit group, lacked control over the county-owned project site. The channel reconstruction failed to achieve hydrological goals, 34 The Ecotone due to design and implementation problems. Remediation is needed. Unlike most projects, this project is being monitored, although inadequate baseline monitoring led to implementation problems. Adaptive management and communication are adequate. The project was delayed repeatedly by county staff; these delays decreased ecological success and increased project costs. Meghan Murphy Concentration Areas: ecology, environmental policy Oregon white oak savanna was the dominant ecosystem of the Willamette Valley prior to European settlement. The open structure of the savanna was maintained by fire. Fire suppression became a prominant land management strategy, resulting in conifer invasion and higher tree densities. Some areas have maintained their savanna structure, while others have experienced succession. My research focuses on relating soil characteristics to successional dynamics in former oak savanna in the Willamette Valley. An understanding of how soil conditions have influenced succession will help to inform restoration strategies. degradation, the fair trade coffee system, and fair trade coffee products ? are related to support for fair trade coffee. In my thesis research, I examine the relationships between these attitudinal factors, certain socio-demographic characteristics, and levels of support for fair trade coffee among coffee consumers in Eugene, Oregon. Because of the prevalence of an "attitude-behavior gap" among "ethical consumers," it is important to distinguish between two kinds of support: attitudinal support, or the expression of general agreement and ideological alignment with the fair trade coffee system, and behavioral support, or the frequent purchasing of fair trade coffee instead of other coffee. Along with an analysis of how attitudinal factors are related to levels of support for fair trade coffee, I study the relationship between socio-demographic characteristics ? such as age, sex, race/ethnicity, level of education, income, and religious affiliation ? and support for fair trade coffee. An analysis of both the attitudinal and socio-demographic factors underlying coffee consumer opinions and behavior forms offers, I hope, a more complete picture of why people do or do not support fair trade coffee and its goals of social and environmental change through their attitudes and actions. Rebecca Silver Concentration Areas: environment and development in Latin America, not-for-profit management I am interested in studying how attitudinal factors such as values, attitudes, beliefs, and perceptions about social and economic (in)equality, environmental protection and "Overlooking the Rogue" by Rebecca Briggs Spring 2007 35 New Graduate Students Nicole Menard Dual degree: M.S. in Environmental Studies and MA. in International Studies Concentration areas: ecology, conservation planning, sustainable development I worked for four years as a field ecologist conducting research to inform the conservation and management plans of USFWS, USGS, and the Smithsonian Institution among others. I served as a Peace Corps Volunteer in the Parks and Wildlife division in Madagascar. I am interested in the relationship between the environment and development in sub-Saharan Africa and the role of collaboration and community-based planning as an approach to contentious conservation issues. William Truce Concentration Areas: human and wildlife ecology, GIS My life-long passion is for wildlife and habitat preservation. Yet, I am taking a non-traditional and interdisciplinary approach towards pushing forth this effort. I am striving to synergize physical geography, ecology, and environmental policy, along with an enveloping understanding of the socio-cultural 'reality' that the preservation issue of focus is embedded in. Though, this may sound like a Herculean task, I find particular aspects of these fields to be necessary ingredients for the recipe of effective preservation management strategies. My particular research interests cover the gamete of preservation tasks, including: population viability, habitat/ecosystem status, stakeholder concerns, but are ultimately focused on developing holistic management strategies that attempt to mediate the concerns of all stakeholders (i.e. human and non-human). Shannon Tyman Concentration Areas: landscape architecture, ecocriticism My undergraduate work was focused on urban spaces and here my interests remain. Currently over 50% of the population lives in cities. In the face of decreasing 'wild' land and increasing urban sprawl, the reuse of abandoned urban spaces is becoming a topic of increasing interest and necessity. Reclaiming urban space as productive, beautiful territory is a dream of mine. Other eco-isms I continuously explore include eco-poetics and eco-feminism. 36 The Ecotone Stacy Vynne Concentration Areas: international relations, ecology, nature, and society During undergrad, I worked on campus greening programs and conducted fieldwork on ecological impacts of the tsetse fly in Botswana. Following undergrad, I worked three and a half years for an international NGO implementing and managing a biodiversity monitoring program in over twenty countries. I am interested in China's impact on wildlife and natural areas in other Asian countries. My area of focus is on the illegal trade of wildlife in Asia, specifically species used in Traditional Chinese Medicine. Above: Will Truce, Nicole Menard, Bari Doeffinger, Adam Novick, Rebecca Silver, and Matt Peterson enjoy the Oregon Coast in September 2006 during new graduate student orientation. "Paitlina Lake" by Rebecca Briggs Spring 2007 37 The Environmental Leadership Program: Making a Difference in our Community The Environmental Leadership Program (ELP) provides innovative, hands-on learning opportunities to undergraduates at the University of Oregon. Housed in the Environmental Studies Program, the ELP gets students out of the classroom and into the community to address real-world environmental issues. As one ELP student noted, "The opportunity to apply what I've been learning in the classroom to help address real community issues is why I wanted to participate in the ELP. I want to make a difference in the world." Each project typically recruits a team of four to eight undergraduates who work together to complete a project for a community partner. A graduate teaching fellow serves as the project manager for each team, and one of the ELP Coordinators (Katie Lynch or Steve Mital) provides oversight on each project. Regardless of the specifics of the project work, the development of professional skills ? such as public speaking, website design, and report writing ? is a main focus. As another ELP student noted, "I feel like I gained a great deal of skills on things like audio [production], powerpoint, and web design, as well as actually getting off campus and connecting with the community. This will be very valuable knowledge to take with me." In 2006-2007, over 50 students participated in eight ELP teams. Read below to learn more about the environmental challenges these teams are tackling, and check out their websites to get more information: http://uoregon.edu/ ?ecostudy/elp/. If you are interested in getting involved yourself, either as a team member or a community partner, contact Katie Lynch (klynch@uoregon.edu) or Steve Mital (smital@uoregon.edu). Corporate Sustainability Team (Fall 06 - Winter 07) In collaboration with a major corporate bank, the Corporate Sustainability Team (CST) developed and implemented a survey to measure the knowledge, attitudes, and behaviors of hank employees regarding: 1) transportation, 2) energy use, 3) water use, 4) waste and recycling, 5) IT hardware life-cycle management and 6) paper procurement and use. The team used social science research to identify practical solutions to help the bank, and the individuals working there, to reduce their impacts in these areas. The team analyzed the survey data to identify barriers to promoting sustainability within office practices and to articulate strategies for overcoming these barriers. CST members also created "Quick Hits," as well as an in-depth "Resource Guide" designed to facilitate implementation of sustainability practices in the workplace. The team was invited to San Francisco to present their final recommendations to top executives in March and received immediate positive feedback. One executive noted, "Thanks for all the effort and work. Very helpful and on target." ELP Coordinator: Kathryn Lynch Team members: Rebecca Silver (Project Manager), Richard Burton, Lauren Cover, Luke Annala-Kinne, and Lindsay Riddell. Project Illuminate (Winter 07) The goal of Project Illuminate is to educate the youth of the Eugene community about energy conservation and the future of energy resources. Project Illuminate consists of four undergraduate students interested in energy management and environmental education. During the winter term of 2007, the team visited three different fifth 38 The Ecotone grade classes: two at Gilham Elementary School and one at Meadowlark Elementary School. During the week team members spent one hour each day in the classroom discussing how energy is produced, maintained, and conserved. The members of Project Illuminate also each profiled a local business that is known for its leading role in energy conservation and sustainability. Each business was presented to the fifth grade students, who in turn voted for the most energy responsible business. The winning business received the Energy Pioneers for a Cleaner Future award, The enthusiasm in this project by both teachers and students has resulted in a continuation of the program into the spring term of 2007. The team hopes that the Energy Pioneers award will continue to generate interest from schools and businesses, and that it will prompt further energy conservation efforts throughout the community. ELP Coordinator: Steve Mital Team members: Coeylen Barry (Project Manager), Angie Duncan, Alex Comet Pangrac, Aaron Sidder, and Rusty Stewart. Restoration Stewardship Team (Winter - Spring 07) Since it was created in 2005, the Environmental Leadership Project's Restoration Stewardship team has worked with the Long Tom, McKenzie, and Middle Fork Willamette Watershed Councils and the Mohawk Watershed Partnership to monitor riparian restoration sites throughout the Willamette basin. In winter term, the team monitored over 350 native trees and shrubs and completed a yearly progress report for six restoration sites. The team will continue monitoring work throughout spring term, while also working on some exciting new projects including a (HS mapping project, an extended data analysis project, and plant identification book featuring the native trees and shrubs and the invasive weeds at the restoration sites. The team will also be leading a one credit field studies class designed to help students get hands on experience doing watershed restoration work. S' Coordinator: Steve Mital 'ream niembers: Matt Peterson (Project Manager), Lynn Dean. Noelle Harden, Moksha Rainbowlight, Jordan Sehaefner, and Phillip Sprague. Turtle Habitat Monitoring Team (Spring 07) The mission of-the Turtle Habitat Monitoring Team is to further restoration efforts by creating baseline knowledge of potential habitat resources for the Western Pond Turtle on 131,M lands. The student volunteers provide invaluable help to the I3LM in planning future restoration efforts for this critically sensitive species. The Northwestern Pond Turtle is listed as a critical species in Oregon. As a critical species it is pertinent that an effort be made lo stop the decline of the population before it becomes threatened or endangered. The BLM has trained students to go into the field to collect baseline habitat data, using sophisticated GPS units. With this data the HEM can use (;IS, geographical information systems, to analyze and create maps of the areas found that are in need of attention, Future restoration efforts will then be focused in the areas where suitable living and breeding habitat was documented. 11.P oordinator: Steve Mital Team members: Meghan Murphy (Project Manager), Angela Bliss, Colette Constant, Ian Crawford, Snake larrington, Michelle Hawkins, Mark Head, Spencer. Johnson, Allison Knapp, Emily Moore, and Caleb Rice. ytIvirotimentai Education initiative lime 1011owing lour projects are part of the Environmental I c.lticittion Initiative within ELP. Environmental education has become a key part of the conservation agenda on both national and international levels. Governmental orgaiiii,ations charged with the management of natural resources, as well as non-governmental organizations, have all become involved in environmental education and outreach in one form or another. Thus, a need exists for qualified, well-trained educators. At the UO, we currently have over 350 students in the Environmental Studies and 1: Spring 2007 39 these students arc interested in environmental education. Our alumni often go to work for the National Park Service, Forest Service, State Parks, non-profit education centers, local school districts, and camps. They give tours, lead field trips, and are involved in implementing state- mandated environmental education requirements for K- 12. Yet, before this project all were leaving UO with no pedagogical training or supervised teaching experience. The Environmental Education Initiative focuses specifically on addressing this gap in both course offerings and hands- on experiential learning opportunities in environmental education. Students interested in participating in this new environmental education initiative first complete at least one course pertaining to a specific ecosystem where they will later work. Students choose between forest, wetlands, marine and stream ecosystems. Our goal is to create service learning opportunities that build on this academic foundation in the natural sciences. Students then take a course entitled "Environmental Education in Theory and Practice" which provides them with the skills to effectively translate their knowledge of the sciences into engaging environmental education. In this class, students gain an understanding of the "Awareness to Action" framework that is the foundation of environmental education. Class visits by practitioners provides a real-world feel for how current environmental education programs are planned and delivered. Once students have completed these courses, they put their new knowledge and skills to practice in the field during the spring term. In all cases, whether the team teaches about wetlands, forests, streams, or marine ecosystems, they are involved in translating their classroom knowledge and teaching skills into effective and scientifically rigorous outreach programs for the community. Forest Team (Winter - Spring 07) The Forest Team is working with H. J. Andrews Experimental Forest, a leader in the analysis of forest and stream ecosystem dynamics. The Andrews site, which is located in the Blue River watershed in the Willamette National Forest, is a long-term ecological research site that produces high quality research that influences forest management practices. The Forest Team is designing an interpretive trail brochure and supplemental lesson plans for the Lookout Creek trail, both of which will promote both the Lookout Creek interpretive trail and the work that is occurring at the H.J. Andrews Experimental Forest. This brochure will educate the visiting public about old growth forest structure and management practices. Supplemental lesson plans will allow educators to facilitate further discussion of old growth forests. ELP Coordinator: Kathryn Lynch Team members: Bari Doe finger (Project Manager), Richard Burton, Heather Canapary, Nick Gillespie, Rithy Khut, and Katie MacDiarmid. Marine Team (Winter - Spring 07) As our impact on the natural world advances at a rapidly increasing rate, our need for environmental education becomes ever more pressing. The rocky shores of the Oregon coast are a place of extraordinary natural beauty and biological diversity. It is no wonder that it sparks the imagination and curiosity of such a broad spectrum of visitors. The marine team will assist the Oregon State Park system by serving as environmental educators and interpreters in the rocky intertidal ecosystem within Sunset Bay and Cape Arago State Parks. We will be prepared for any park visitor, yet we are primarily working with K-12 students out on field trips from regional public schools. To further our knowledge of local marine ecosystems, we 40 The Ecotone are attending classes at the Oregon Institute of Marine Biology. This environmental leadership project is a unique opportunity to advance our own knowledge while providing a service to the surrounding communities. ELP Coordinator: Kathryn Lynch Team members: Kathryn Lynch (Project Manager), Megan Copley, Alexa Jefferis, Nathan Liebenstein, and Evan Smith. Wetlands Team (Winter - Spring 07) The Wetlands Educational Team is working with the Willamette Resources and Educational Network (WREN) to strengthen the organization's existing educational programs. Located in the West Eugene Wetlands, WREN is a non-profit organization that encourages environmental stewardship through programs both in the wetlands and local classrooms. During the winter term, the six undergraduate team members created lesson plans that focus on various wetland themes. They presented these programs at a public event on May 19 as part of WREN 's annual celebration of American Wetlands Month. The team's goal is to help create adaptive curriculum for primary school students, assist with and facilitate outreach programs, and conduct field activities for students visiting the wetlands. The team will also provide interpretive roving at the wetlands for the broader Eugene community. ELP Coordinator: Kathryn Lynch Team members: Rebecca Briggs (Project Manager), Amanda Atkins, Kate Bullard, Terra Chancy, Andrew Hirtle, Steve Jang, and Chelsea Prine. X-Stream Team (Winter - Spring 07) In this collaboration with the Middle Fork Ranger District of the Willamette National Forest, the X-Stream Team is helping the U.S. Forest Service build their outreach and education programs. Using a stream simulator developed by Ernie Ledbetter, the team developed lesson plans to teach stream ecology to grades K-12 in Lane County Schools. The stream simulator, acting as a watershed model, can be manipulated by students to demonstrate processes such as stream bank erosion and ideal organism habitat. For example, in the "Yes P.L.E.A.S.E. Trees" project developed by team member Jamie Messenger, one of the learning objectives is to identify the plants and animals that inhabit riparian areas of the Willamette River. The project also illustrates human impacts on streams. Through the workshops, participants learn ways in which they can minimize their ecological footprint on stream ecosystems. The team's ultimate goal with this project is to link environmental awareness to action. ('00nlinator: Kathryn Lynch Team nhers: Shannon Tyman (Project Manager), 'arolynne Bohannon, Amanda Fay, Vanessa Lamers, Jamie Messenger?lerri Moro, and Ryan Warner-Steel. Spring 2007 41 New Office Coordinator: RaDonna Aymong The Environmental Studies Program welcomed RaDonna Aymong as its new Office Coordinator in the summer of 2006. Prior to joining the Program, RaDonna worked on campus as the office coordinator for the Comparative Literature Program and as the accounting technician for the Department of Biology. When she's not busy creating minor miracles for the faculty, staff, and students in the Program, she loves to travel, camp, and work in her yard. She especially treasures her family time, noting that because her family members all live in the area, they can spend a lot of fun, quality time together. RaDonna looks forward to working with the students, faculty and staff in the Environmental Studies Program. She says, "We have a great program and some wonderful folks who have a deep commitment to making our environment better, and I enjoy learning more about what I can do to help." Already RaDonna's energy and expertise is felt throughout the Program, and graduate students in particular are deeply grateful for her efforts to upgrade and improve their two office spaces, 6 Pacific and 240 Columbia. "Organ Pipe Cactus" by Sarah Jaquette 42 The Ecotone Community Achievements Addl Amos (Assistant Professor, Law, and Director of the Environmental and Natural Resources Law Program) published "The Use of State Instream Flow Laws for Federal Lands: Respecting State Control while Meeting Federal Purposes" 36:4 Environmental Law, December 2006; "More Dam Process: Relicensing of Dams and the 2005 Energy Policy Act," co-authored with Rick Eichstaedt and Rebecca Sherman, Idaho Bar Journal, Spring 2007. She published "Environmental Law Teachers' Perspectives on Preparing New Lawyers for Practice," co-authored with Sean B. Hecht and Janice L. Weis, for the American Bar Association 36th Conference on Environmental Law Published Proceedings, held at Keystone, Colorado, March 8-11, 2007. This paper was awarded a Certificate of Recognition for "Best Paper at 36th Annual Conference on Environmental Law." Amos also participated in a panel discussion on "Water Distribution Rights and Profit," at the HOPES 13: Confluence, Eco-Design Conference at the University of Oregon, School of Architecture, April 19-22, 2007. On March 9-10, 2007, she was a workshop participant on "Preparing Green Lawyers for Practice in a Changing Environment," Dialogue and Workshop, at the ABA's 36 th Annual Conference on Environmental Law in Keystone, Colorado (March 8-11, 2007). At the 25th Annual Public Interest Environmental Law Conference, Amos spoke on "Protecting Instream Flow and Aquatic Habitat" and "Legal Implications of Exempt Wells in Oregon and Washington," Eugene, Oregon (March 1-4, 2007). RaDonna Ayr/long (Office Coordinator, Environmental Studies Program) married Mark Koble on March 9, 2007. Mark works for the City of Eugene as a distributed control system coordinator and also as an internal environmental auditor, Matthew Booker (1997 graduate of the ENVS master's program), Assistant Professor of American Environmental History at North Carolina State University, gave a seminar as the first of the environmental studies speaker series. His talk was entitled, "San Francisco Bay's Immigrant Oyster, 1860s-1920s: how they got there, why they disappeared, and why this history matters." The program will continue this series, bringing a few speakers to campus each year. Scott Bridgham (Associate Professor, Biology and Environmental Studies) participated as a panel member for the EPA STAR graduate fellowship program (microbiology panel) in March 2007. In 2006, he published "The carbon balance of North American wetlands," with J. P. Megonigal, J. K. Keller, N. B. Bliss, and C. Trettin. 2006. in Wetlands 26:889-916. He also has a pending publication: Bridgham, S. D., J. P. Megonigal, J. K. Keller", C. Trettin, and N. B. Bliss "In State of the Carbon Cycle Report ? North America, Synthesis and Assessment Product 2.2, U.S. Climate Change Program" in Wetlands. In April 2007, Scott presented "The carbon balance of North American wetlands" with J. P. Megonigal, J. K. Keller, N. B. Bliss, and C. Trettin at the International Symposium on Wetland Biogeochemistry in Annapolis, Maryland and at the International Symposium: Wetlands 2006: Applying Scientific, Legal and Management Tools to the Great Lakes and Beyond, at the Association of State Wetland Managers conference in Traverse City, Michigan. Scott also presented at the Eugene Audubon Chapter Meeting on Wetlands and Climate Change in January 2007. Rebecca Briggs (Second-year master's student, Environmental Studies) assisted the Willamette Farm and Food Coalition by designing the 2007 edition of Locally Grown, a 56-page directory of locally grown food and wines distributed in the Eugene Weekly. Janet Fiskio (Doctoral student, ESSP and English) was awarded a Risa Palm Graduate Fellowship. This award is given to graduate students who show exceptional promise for achievement in their chosen academic field as evidenced by grade point average, originality of research, publication, and teaching evaluations. In June 2006 Janet won the university-wide Donald and Darrell Stein Award for Graduate Teaching. She then presented "The Practice of Perception: Thoreau's Philosophy of Science" at the Thoreau Society Annual Gathering in July. During July and August 2006 she participated in the Neotropical Ecology Program in Ecuador. In December 2006, with great relief, she passed her Oral Comprehensive Exams with distinction. This spring the Teaching Effectiveness Program will interview her about teaching for a podcast. In June 2007 she will present "Epistemology and Voice in Environmental Justice Literature" at the Association for the Study of Literature and Environment. Finally, in June and July this summer she will travel to Arizona and Mexico to do fieldwork with and interview Dr. Gary Paul Nabhan. Sarah Jaquette (Doctoral student, ESSP and English) was a recipient of the Center on Diversity and Community's Summer Research Grant for research in Arizona on immigration and the environment along the border. Sarah presented a paper based on that research last September at the Association of Pacific Coast Geographer's conference in Eugene, and presented another version at the Association of American Geographer's conference in San Francisco Spring 2007 43 April 21, 2007. A panel she arranged on "Corporeal Environmental Justices" was accepted for the Association for the Study of Literature and the Environment conference in June in South Carolina, where she will also be presenting a paper "Wheelchair Wilderness," as well as a paper on "Ecological Legitimacy" for an Environmental Justice/ Environmental Identities roundtable. In March of 2007, Chris Jones (2007 graduate, Environmental Studies) began his seventh year as a board member of the Friends of Buford Park and Mt. Pisgah (www.bufordpark.org), a Eugene-based non-profit organization whose mission is to protect and restore native ecosystems and compatible recreation in the Mt. Pisgah area. Chris has served as the president of the board since 2004. Alissa Kirkpatrick (Undergraduate Coordinator, Environmental Studies) married Andy Kirkpatrick on July 22, 2006 in Eugene. Alissa also recently received a volunteer award from Nearby Nature. Anthony Leiserowitz (2003 graduate, Environmental Studies) accepted a position as the Director of Strategic Initiatives at the School of Forestry and Environmental Studies at Yale University. He is also a principal investigator in the Center for Research on Environmental Decisions at Columbia University. In March, the Natural History Museum at the University of Oregon showed a documentary by Steve Mital (2001 graduate, Environmental Studies, and Undergraduate Co-Advisor, ELP Co-Coordinator, and Sustainability Coordinator), titled "Echo of Water Against Rocks: Remembering Celilo Falls." Ronald Mitchell (Professor, Political Science) helped to edit Global Environmental Assessments: Information and Influence, published in September 2006 by the MIT Press. Meghan Murphy (Second-year master's student, Environmental Studies) married Patrick Murphy on September 9, 2006 at Belknap Hot Springs on the McKenzie River. Adam Novick (Continuing master's student, Environmental Studies) gave an invited presentation at the annual meeting of the Pacific Northwest Political Science Association (titled "Looking for common ground: an analysis of policy and politics of conserving the Willamette Valley's oak savanna through the regulation of species"). He prsetned at Lewis and Clark College's annual Symposium of Environmental Affairs ("Rethinking the regulation of species: seeds of an alternate approach in the Willamette Valley's oak savanna?"); and at Managing Biodiversity in Pacific Northwest Forests: Strategies and Opportunities, a conference co-sponsored by the US Forest Service ("Expanding the range of regulatory strategies for conserving biodiversity: implications of the Willamette Valley's oak savanna"). With the generous participation of Matt Peterson (Second-year concurrent master's student, Environmental Studies and Community and Regional Planning) as moderator, Adam also organized and participated in a panel discussion at Oregon Planning Institute 2007 ("Expanding regulators' options for conserving species"). In addition, Adam will present at the annual meeting of the Oregon Chapter of The Wildlife Society ("A war of musical chairs: What have we done to Leopold's land ethic? (And what else can we do?)") amd at the annual meeting of the Association of American Geographers ("Aldo Leopold: ethicist or political ecologist?"); and at ISSRM 2007 ("Implications of disequilibrium ecology for the conservation of biodiversity on private land: a political ecology of the Willamette Valley's oak savanna"). Through public comment on rule making for three oak-associated species in the Willamette Valley, with the generous cooperation of the US Fish and Wildlife Service, Adam also got the Service to acknowledge in the Federal Register that the Service presently perceives no duty to consider harm to species . from their regulation; Adam hopes that the Service's acknowledgement might help lead to further refinement in the regulation of species. Jason Schreiner (2007 graduate, Environmental Studies) successfully defended his Master's Thesis on February 23, 2007, and graduated Winter 2007 with an M.S. in Environmental Studies. Jason's thesis is entitled "The Roots of Life: Marx's Concept of Social Metabolism and the Dialectics of Corporeal Praxis." Jason's committee included John Bellamy Foster (Chair), sociology; Joseph Fracchia, Honors College and History; and Ted Toadvine, Environmental Studies and Philosophy. Rebecca Silver (Second-year master's student, Environmental Studies) married Jacob Sackin on Sept 9, 2006 in the Marin headlands, northern California. Their wedding was carbon-neutral and they chose handmade wooden rings in order to avoid contributing to the devastating social and environmental impacts of the gold mining industry. Their wedding was included in a story about "green weddings" in the Eugene Weekly. This spring, Ted Toadvine (Assistant Professor, Philosophy and Environmental Studies) was named to the Board of Directors of the Center for Advanced Research in Phenomenology, Inc., and became editor of the Series in Continental Thought published by Ohio University Press. 44 The Ecotone In February, he visited Seoul, Korea, where he presented a paper on ecophenomenology and wilderness at The Second Conference of Phenomenology as Bridge between East and West. In the fall, Ted will become managing editor of the journal Environmental Philosophy, which is moving to the University of Oregon from its current home at the University of Toronto. Environmental Philosophy is the official journal of the International Association for Environmental Philosophy, and its publication here will be a joint venture of the Philosophy Department and the Environmental Studies Program. In October, he will participate in a conference on Spaces and Places: Tensions of a Paradigm hosted by the German Society for Phenomeology in Darmstadt. For 2008, Ted has received invitations to speak in Paris, Basel, and Lisbon in commemoration of the centennial of the birth of French philosopher Maurice Merleau-Ponty. He is also organizing a conference at the University of Oregon on the theme "Thinking Through Nature: Philosophy for an Endangered World," scheduled for June 26-29, 2008. Confirmed keynote speakers at the conference include Gary Paul Nabhan and Donna Haraway. Shannon Tyman (First-year master's student, Environmental Studies) presented "Wasting Away" at Waste and Abundance: Criticals Readings at the Wasteland hosted by Queen's College in Belfast, Ireland in April 2007. Peter Walker (Assistant Professor, Geography and Environmental Studies) welcomed a new baby on January 3, 2007. Paul Walker, named after Peter's father, was born at Sacred Heart Hospital in Eugene. Peter is also currently spending much of his time working by remote on a research project in Malawi on the impacts of the HIV/AIDS crisis on small farmer food security. The Environmental Studies Program is proud to report that the Environmental Leadership Program (ELP) will soon pass the S1 million mark in fundraising and spending. A number of ELP projects took place during the 2006-2007 academic year; these projects are explained in more detail on pages 38 to 41. "Dead Trees" by Rebecca Briggs Spring 2007 45 "Unfirrling". ht . 46 The Ecotone the following honor roll donors who gave generously 1. 7G. Biggs rs.Nitle S. Carter s;: ross -J.Darby Mr,:-._.Murray-DeBates Mt Stephen M. Ellis ;Dr =Tcss Galati Ms :1 Ms.; Mr::-Thomas.L. Gray ... Ms . -:Dr MS Lyin g E. Korus Mr.'..'EDayid J. Kozak Mr.-: Mr. Brian J. Lokkesmoe Ms, Shirley Martin McGrath Mrs, J'Anny Thacker Nelson Mr. Robert F. Price Mr. Daniel J. Puffinburger Ms. Gale Q. Reber Ms. Pamela L. Reber, Robert & Catherine Miller Fd Ms. Esther Schmidgall Ms. Christine G. Scholey Ms. Monique P. Schoustra Dr, Kuppe G. Shankar Mr. Michael H. Slocumb Mr. Mark J. Stiles Ms. Sarah K. Thomas Mr. Breck A. Wilson Spring 2007 47 THE ECOTONE Nonprofit UNIVERSITY OF OREGON OrganizationU.S. Postage ENVIRONMENTAL STUDIES PROGRAM PAID 5223 UNIVERSITY OF OREGON Eugene ORPermit No. 63 EUGENE, OR 97403-5223 ECOTONE: A transition zone between two adjacent communities, such as a forest or grassland. It has some of the characteristics of each bordering community and often contains species not found in the overlapping com- munities. An ecotone may exist along a broad belt or in a small pocket, such as a forest clearing, where two local communities blend together. The influence of the two bordering communities is known as the edge effect. An ecotonal area often has a higher density of organisms and a greater number of species than are found in either flanking community.