Each month of this quarter, July, August, and September, is very different from the next for the PFI staff. During June of this past summer, PFI offered two workshops: Earth and Environmental Science (EES) for Middle and High School Teachers during June 15-20, and EES for Elementary Teachers June 22-27. Both workshops were packed with participants. EES for Middle and High-School Teachers had 26 participants, and 28 participants took EES for Elementary Teachers. During July, PFI offered three more workshops. Recycling and Composting in the Classroom was offered July 13-15, and was also packed with 28 participants. In addition, staff members from Brevard College attended several of the presentations to learn about recycling and composting as the College considers implementing more programs along these lines. We were bursting at the seams for some of the presentations!

Because PFI is funded by the USDA Forest Service, we implemented a new workshop that focused on one of the four threats that have been identified as major concerns. Our workshop titled Forest Invasives, offered from July 16-18, focused on invasive species of plants, animals, and other organisms (mainly fungi) that threaten the health of native forest ecosystems in the southern Appalachians. The 19 participants who completed the workshop learned how to identify and control invasive species, and they learned why invasive species are so damaging and of great concern to forest health. Our last workshop of the season was Forest Ecology from July 20-25 with 18 participants. We traveled to several different locations to compare the abiotic and biotic features of different types of forests. We visited a high-elevation spruce-fir forest, a granitic rockface, a grassy bald, and several other forest types. A highlight of the workshop was an off-trail hike to the world’s largest Tulip Tree (Liriodendron tulipifera) in a region of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park.

After completing these workshops, PFI staff began to summarize the data we collected. PFI served a total of 140 participants (including 21 participants in the Distance Learning Workshop, EES for Middle and High-School Teachers) during 2008. 90% of the participants were from 41 different counties in North Carolina. The remaining 10% came from other states including Ohio, Virginia, Georgia, Tennessee, Florida, South Carolina, and Texas. Four participants earned undergraduate credit through Brevard College.

PFI staff also prepared a summary document detailing our expenses for the workshops. We separated direct workshop expenses from indirect costs and accounted for in-kind contributions as well. By clarifying our expenditures in a single document, we were able to compare costs between workshops and within each workshop, allowing us to make decisions on future workshops based on their anticipated costs and benefits.

For the 2009 season, we will again offer the Distance Learning version of EES for Middle and High School Teachers Feb 21-April 20. We are adding a 1-day , Saturday workshop March 7 on Astronomy in conjunction with the Pisgah Astronomical Research Institute. EES for Middle and High School Teachers will run July 12-17, and EES for Elementary Teachers will run July 19-24. Two new 3-day workshops will conclude the season. Magnificent Mushrooms will be offered July 26-28 and Measuring Air Quality will be offered July 29-31.

According to the evaluations we collected for each workshop, all our workshops were well-received by participants. Summaries for each workshop included the following quotes: “The workshop was absolutely fantastic! I have been recommending it to many of my science co-workers!” “I’ve been to many workshops for science teachers and environmental education. This is by far the best I have ever attended.” “This is one of the best workshops I have ever attended in my 16 years of teaching.” “Well done. One thing I like about these workshops compared to some others is the science given behind everything. Some others [workshops] you just learn activities, but don’t really increase your own knowledge—here you do!”

. Keystone College Environmental Education Institute

Keystone College Environmental Education Institute

KceeI wrapped its summer course offerings with Forests and Society (July 13-18) and Climate Change and the Energy Challenge (July 20-25), the newest course. Combined, 42 teachers took part in these two courses which were a great success.

Jim Nelson was the Keynote Speaker for the Forests and Society course for the fifth year in a row. He is always very well received by the teachers. KceeI brought back many of the same presenters that we have in the past because they do such a wonderful job. The hands-on aspect of this course is one of the most exciting for the teachers along with the field trips. This year the teachers visited Woodbourne Wildlife Sanctuary, Deer Park Lumber, a recently timbered plot of land, Grey Towers National Historic Site and the Delaware Water Gap National Recreation Area.

Overall, the Forests and Society course was a great success. This is evidenced through some of the comments included in the evaluations:

“A fantastic opportunity at a unique location providing lessons not as well fully understood within a classroom environment.”

“So much to do and learn in such a great format. The more you put into it, the more you’ll get out of it.”

“This was the best science course I’ve ever had! We had hands-on experiences outside as well as interesting and knowledgeable presenters in the classroom.”

Climate Change and the Energy Challenge is the newest course offering for KceeI and it was a phenomenal success. Dr. Lewis Ziska, an ecologist with the USDA’s Agricultural Research Service in Beltsville, MD, was the keynote speaker for the evening. This was Dr. Ziska’s third time as a presenter for KceeI. Currently, Dr. Ziska is studying the impacts of rising carbon dioxide and global climate change on weed biology in managed and natural eco-systems specifically the role of rising carbon dioxide and changing climate on weed-crop competition, invasive/noxious weeds and weeds and public health. Dr. Ziska’s research has appeared in National Geographic, The New York Times, USA Today, The Washington Post, Newsweek, U.S. News and World Report and CNN Headline News. The topic of his presentation was Climate Change and food Security.

The week was packed with many various topics like: Thermal Emission and greenhouse gases, timescales of climate change, carbon sources and sinks, measuring your carbon footprint, impacts to biodiversity, fossil fuels, solar, wind and hydroelectric energy, conservation and efficiency and many others.

A large potion of this course concentrated on exploring alternative energy sources. Dr. Joe Falcone, Keystone College Professor, gave an interesting presentation on active and passive solar energy. KceeI brought in Steven Sullivan from GEOS Global LLC, a Saratoga Springs-based public relations firm that focuses on serving the growing communications needs of the green energy sector, presented on wind power. Joel Anstrom of the Hydrogen and Hybrid Vehicle Lab in State College gave an excellent presentation on transportation issues.

Two facilitators from Columbia University, Dr. Linda Sohl and Dr. Mark Chandler, came to demonstrate software they developed to model different climate change scenarios. It is called Educational Global Climate Modeling Project (EdGCM). It develops and distributes a research-quality global climate model (GCM) with a user-friendly interface that runs on desktop computers. Anyone can explore the subject of climate change using the same methods and tools that scientists employ. The software allows users to experience the full scientific process including: designing experiments, setting up and running computer simulations, post-processing output, using scientific visualization to display results, and creating scientific manuscripts ready for publishing to the web.

As always, the field trips were a highlight of this course. The first stop was to the Lake Wallenpaupack Preserve to view the hydroelectric generation plant and hear a presentation on nuclear power. After lunch it was off to the Windmills in Waymart, PA for a guided tour. It was a fantastic day and the teachers really enjoyed it.

One final highlight of the course was the electric car demonstration. Dr. David Turock, a graduate of Keystone College, drove one of his electric vehicles from his home in New Jersey to Keystone for the day. He was also accompanied by Chelsea Sexton, electric vehicle advocate and featured on the film, Who Killed the Electric Car? After a showing of the film and a question and answer session with Ms. Sexton, the teachers were given the opportunity to test drive the electric car around campus. It was a very impressive course! This is evidenced through some of the comments included in the evaluations:

“Driving the EV was one of the most exhilarating experiences of my life! It was so quiet!”

“The Climate Change and the Energy Challenge course gives teachers the tools to impact the world in explosive ways.”

“I truly enjoyed this course. It has regenerated me, a 20 year veteran teacher, as if it were my first year again. I am eager to fill my student’s minds with knowledge that they will see the need to use again in their lives.”

KceeI hosted the third annual Director’s Conference on October 9-10, 2008. As expected, it was another great opportunity to interact and share ideas with the other institutes. Each institute can learn from one another because we are very alike, but so different in many ways. KceeI appreciated the input that was shared from the other institutes. Thank you to John Hunter and Tanya Bruce of ERC, Jennifer and Kevin from Pisgah Forest Institute, and Mark and Mary from the Pacific Forest Institute. It was great to see everyone again!

In other news, Tim Eichner, Assistant Director of KceeI, recently accepted a position in Kalispell, Montana as a Water Resource Specialist for the state. Congratulations, Tim! You will be sorely missed but we wish you the best.

Just a reminder…

• To view KceeI’s 2008 brochure:

http://kceei.keystone.edu/Documents/webBrochure.pdf

• To visit the Tunkhannock Creek Watershed Atlas website: http://atlas.keystone.edu/

• To view the current weather station conditions at Keystone College: http://www.atlas.keystone.edu/weather/atlas_weather.htm

• To visit the Willary Water Resource Center’s website: http://wrc.keystone.edu/

KceeI’s website is located at www.KceeI.keystone.edu

PACIFIC FOREST INSTITUTE

PFI CA Report 9/30/2008 by Mark McReynolds, Director

July

We spend many hours preparing for the week-long summer Sierra Forest Ecology workshops for teachers. What we had not planned on was a fierce summer fire season. In late June hundreds of lightning strikes started wildfires of various sizes in the Sierra and our area of California was severely impacted, as well as our July Sierra Forest Ecology workshop. Our workshop is designed so that participants get an overview of forest ecology and issues in the first few days to lay a groundwork for field experiences later in the week at Hidden Lakes – a beautiful retreat center at 6400 ft. in the Sierra. Unfortunately due to an uncontrolled wildfire nearby, Hidden Lakes was wreathed in a thick layer of smoke, so much so, that we decided to cancel our trip up there and rearrange the week. Air quality at our university location was deemed hazardous by the local air quality board and air quality at Hidden Lakes was much worse. Fortunately we had a great group of teachers who were flexible and able to adapt to a new schedule. We finished the week on Wednesday afternoon after covering most of the topics and evaluations were uniformly quite positive. One teacher in response to the evaluation question “Would you recommend this workshop to others” wrote: “Absolutely! The amount of materials [handouts], the excellent quality, the organization, accommodations, food, lectures, activities - outstanding! Just very sad we couldn't go to Hidden Lakes.”

August

In August we were able to put on our second week-long Sierra Forest Ecology workshop – without having forest fires rearrange the schedule for us. The week went very well and some highlights were a field tour of the Yuba Gap Fire, well done by Tahoe National Forest staff, and the Sierra Pacific Mill tour. Evaluations were again uniformly very good and our Hidden Lakes site was praised as “beautiful”, “Fantastic views and place to have workshop”, “great!”, “could not get any better, breathtaking”, “gorgeous!”, “Unbelievably beautiful natural setting”, and “Perfect, perfect, perfect”. We are thankful a number of participants recognized the effort that was put into making sure that all points of view were well represented when controversial forest management issues were discussed. One teacher wrote in her evaluation, “I thought the workshop was excellent: it sought to show all sides of the issues, informed thoroughly, and was life changing”.

September

After a full summer, PFI staff regrouped and went back to work on facilities. PFI has been planning interpretive signs and a trail for University Pond, on our university’s campus. The pond is an important lab component of our school-year weekend teacher education workshops and in the summer Forest Ecology workshops. Previously we had gone through a long and thorough interpretive planning process led by a former USFS interpretive designer and it was with joy that this month we put the final touches on the interpretive panels and the files went to the sign fabrication company. We should have the interpretive signs in about six weeks. We also approved the trail construction plans and bid them out this month. Construction of the interpretive sites and linking trail should begin in November and be finished in December. The end result will be a quality interpretive site beneficial to the teacher workshops of PFI, the university and the local community. A Flying WILD workshop for teachers in October will highlight bird education and we will be using the pond as a bird viewing area.

What’s Coming Up?

October will bring the Flying Wild Workshop and planning and promotion of the Spring series of one day weekend teacher workshops. In November, PFI staff will attend a training conference at our sister institution, the Keystone College Environmental Education Institute, sponsored by The Education and Research Consortium of the Western Carolinas. Also in November, construction of the interpretive sites and trail should commence. In December we will finish the interpretive site and trail and plan for a big community ribbon-cutting celebration in January or February when the pond and waterfowl are most impressive.

Draft of Interpretive Panel for PFI CA’s Preserve

Pacific Forest Institute's website is located at: http://www.jessup.edu/academics/pacificforestinstitute.

7/17/08 Hunter Goosmann attended a North Carolina Technology Association meeting in Asheville related to expanding the technology focused opportunities in the state and how NCTA drives policy and much more.

7/30/08 Hunter Goosmann participated in a Duke University Non-Profit Management class about Securing Business Support

7/31/08 Deborah Roberts and Hunter Goosmann participated in a Western North Carolina Local Government regional meeting hosted by the Eastern Band of the Cherokee Indians in Cherokee.

8/5/08 Hunter Goosmann, General Manager of ERC Broadband, was profiled in the Asheville Citizen-Times

8/5/08 Mark Haney, Senior Systems Administrator, presented at the Saber Networks 'Network Security Luncheon' at the Asheville-Buncombe Technical Community College Small Business Incubator on Tuesday, August 5th. The title of the presentation was 'Network Security in a Regional ISP' and covered topics such as how to maximize network security with a small staff, how to utilize open source software to promote and determine correct network security, and how governmental regulations (such as HIPAA) impact off-site storage of critical data.

8/12/08 Hunter Goosmann participated in a Duke University Non-Profit Management class about Creative Problem Solving

8/20/08 Deborah Roberts, Business Development Manager, was in Hickory for the Duke University Non-Profit Management Special Events class, as part of the certificate program curriculum

8/28/08 Hunter Goosmann participated in a Duke University Non-Profit Management class: Effective Facilitator

9/11/08 Hunter Goosmann and Deborah Roberts attended the AdvantageWest Carolina Connect conference at the Grove Park Inn. ERC Broadband was a sponsor of the event by supplying lanyards for each of the 300 entrepreneurial attendees

9/15/08 Hunter Goosmann attended the e-NC Baller Herbst report in Charlotte

9/16/08 - Lou Vasquez and Deborah Roberts were at Western Carolina University on September 16th for the regional E-NC Baller Herbst report meeting that focused on how e-NC could help with broadband implementation to rural areas.

9/16/08 Hunter Goosmann attended the Joint Legislative Oversight Committee meeting on Internet Technology in Raleigh

6/2/2008 Asheville Sustainability…Mr. Goosmann regularly attends meetings discussing sustainability options for downtown Asheville and Buncombe County, including sustainable housing, the I-26 corridor and Westgate bridge project, as well as the Downtown Master Plan.

9/18/08 Hunter Goosmann, General Manager, gave a presentation on Disaster Recovery at the RIO Technical Consulting Disaster Recovery Luncheon at the Commerce Club in Greenville, SC. Other ERC Broadband employees at the event were Mark Haney, Theo Lavis and Deborah Roberts

9/23-9/24/08 Hunter Goosmann attended the North Carolina Technology Association National Leaders Symposium in Washington, DC

9/25/2008 As a member of the Buncombe County Economic Development Coalition, Hunter Goosmann attended the monthly meeting