ENVIRONMENTAL NEWS Issue #1 • Summer 1999 • The Newsletter of the Environmental Peak at Middlebury • • Middlebury, VT 05753

or the past 35 years, the We now want to expand our efforts to Environmental Studies Program at include the alumni of the College. IN THIS Middlebury College has worked to ISSUE provide the best curriculum for the Hence, the birth of this newsletter. Its study of humans and their environment purpose is to foster a network of alumni. Building with Green at any liberal arts college in the country. Our goal is to provide a forum for the The Program has grown from a small but exchange of news and ideas. Its specific Certified Wood stable core group of dedicated faculty character will evolve over time in and students to the fourth largest major response to alumni interest and the fur- Rallying for Land on campus, involving 40 faculty and more ther development of the Environmental Conservation than 150 students. Middlebury’s long Peak at Middlebury. history of curriculum development, fac- ulty commitment, campus greening initia- The benefits of such a network are Publishing for the tives, and overwhelming student interest almost limitless; for example; spreading Environment in environmental studies has recently led information about your work or the President McCardell to name the envi- work of your organization, keeping Enhancing Science with ronment as one of the College’s Peaks of abreast of what others are doing, and Community Input Excellence, and the ES Program is proud learning about developments in environ- of the role that it now plays in helping to mental studies at Middlebury. facilitate the development of this Peak. Climate Change Welcome to the network! Research in Alaska One of the hallmarks of the ES Program since its inception has been our effort to Alumni, Faculty and act as a catalyst for environmental educa- Steve Trombulak tion and outreach across the entire cam- Program Director Student News pus, not just within the program itself. Environmental Studies Page 2 • Environmental News • Summer 1999

MIDDLEBURY GOES “GREEN” WITH BICENTENNIAL HALL

The construction of Bicentennial Hall marks the 200-year anniversary of Middlebury College and a new era for the design of academic buildings. The facility is the largest academic structure in the nation to contain green certified wood.

During the 1800s, many of the original structures at the College were built from wood bartered by students as tuition from their families’ nearby wood lots. In a modern environmental twist, the con- struction of Bicentennial Hall marks Middlebury’s return to a reliance on local wood—resulting in the employment of more than 30 foresters, loggers, timber truckers, and sawmill and kiln operators in the College’s home state of .

Middlebury broke ground in 1997 for construction of the building, which is projected to cost the College $47 million dollars. Upon the building’s completion in the fall of 1999, at least half of the design of Bicentennial Hall was lumber, and a less invasive mining Middlebury’s students will enter its doors meant to serve as a new standard for process for the stone. on a weekly basis for classes in the natu- academic lab facilities. ral and social sciences. Bicentennial Hall’s Subjected to as rigorous a screening environmentally sensitive features are The trustees of the College instructed process as applicants to the College, cer- meant to be a fitting tribute to the study the architects, Payette Associates of tified wood is evaluated against more of ecology and related subjects that will Boston, to design an environmentally than 60 criteria to ensure that it comes take place there. safe and efficient facility. The architectur- from forests under environmentally al millwork in public places throughout sound management. “It is a type of Early in the building’s five-year planning Bicentennial Hall will be comprised of forestry that is very careful of water process, College officials identified envi- 125,000 board feet of certified wood. quality, site productivity, and biological ronmentally sound design as a top priori- The building will also incorporate other diversity,” according to David Brynn, ty. Integral to the overall effort to instill environmental design elements - such as Addison County Forester and director of environmental excellence into all campus the use of steel manufacturing by-prod- Vermont Family Forests (VFF), an alliance operations—a directive from the Col- uct for insulation, drywall comprised of of woodlot owners whose forests pro- lege’s President John M. McCardell, Jr.— recyclables, a large amount of plastic vided the timber for this project. Summer 1999 • Environmental News • Page 3

Forestry operations are certified as being College will benefit from reduced oper- well-managed by SmartWood, a pro- ating costs resulting from certain environ- BEING “GREEN” gram of the Rainforest Alliance in New mental features, such as energy conser- IMPROVES York City. SmartWood is accredited by vation. the international nonprofit organization, THE ECONOMY the Forest Stewardship Council. The The project also proved that it is possible “Rather than being a colony that ships National Wildlife Federation, to use a wide and natural range of their products all over the globe,” says David Brynn from VFF, “Vermont Family SmartWood’s Northeast regional part- species. Originally, the whole building Forests can sell their wood regionally for ner, carried out the VFF certification, was designed to be red oak. However, projects like Bicentennial Hall.” making VFF the first source of certified sustainably-harvested red oak can be dif- Brynn explains why landowners find this wood in the state of Vermont. ficult to obtain so instead the planners appealing. “All of them were excited decided to use several woods, with each about the notion of having a local market Not only is VFF the first source of certi- where they can actually go to see their trees as a finished product,” he says. fied wood from Vermont, but it is the first group of small landowners in the Richard Miller of Natural Forest country to band together for certifica- Products, the Burlington, Vermont-based Bicentennial Hall is the firm that supplied the College with certi- tion. The Middlebury College project fied wood, says he located VFF coinci- allows VFF landowners to use certifica- largest academic structure dentally about the same time as being asked by the College to supply this type tion and direct marketing of the forest in the nation to contain of wood. products to obtain a higher price. “Brokers often make more on logs than green certified wood. Not only are the logs straight from Vermont forests, but most of the profit the land stewards who took years to from this project will stay within the grow them,” says Brynn. “Bypassing bro- state. kers allows savings to be passed on to Managing the harvesting, processing, and the forest steward.” VFF landowners will variety identifying a corridor. There will milling, Natural Forest Products is work- make 50 to 100 percent more for their be an “oak corridor,” a “cherry corri- ing with 35 companies, 80 percent of trees than what they had historically, dor,” a “maple corridor,” and so on. them in Vermont. At least 85 percent of the kiln-drying and 50 percent of the according to Brynn. In Middlebury’s case, Says Bob Schaeffner of Payette sawing is taking place in Vermont, and all this close relationship has already proven Associates, “It sounds corny, yet when the loggers and truckers are Vermont residents. Milling is the only operation beneficial. With the building scheduled you walk into the forest, how many that must take place outside of Vermont, for full use by next fall, the College had times is the forest just one type of because there are few facilities with to buy the trees directly from the forest wood? That’s why it is called the appropriate certification in the state. instead of waiting to choose the wood in ‘woods.’” By keeping most operations local, “The a warehouse. “The woods served as the end-user is much more directly in touch warehouse,”says Brynn. “The trees were Schaeffner finds that the wood industry, with the source,” according to Miller. being sawed right after they were on the whole, is migrating towards The Bicentennial Hall project has been a logged.” adopting environmentally responsible teaching experience for all involved - strategies. Whether or not national including the College itself. Environmental design elements will now be considered While speed of delivery was one con- trends follow its lead, Middlebury for future building projects at the cern for the College, another was cost. College intends to continue to support College. Middlebury paid Payette Associates a the certified wood indusùtry. Rumor has Editor’s note: This article is adapted from slightly higher than normal fee in order it that the expanded library–already in “Certified Wood Reaches Campus” by Amy to achieve the goal of an environmentally the planning stages–will contain certified Seif from In Business, Vol.21, No.1, p.31-33. friendly design but, over time, the wood. Page 4 • Environmental News • Summer 1999

ALUMNI NEWS RALLYING AROUND LAND CONSERVATION

It was an unlikely place to bump into College and has more than 10 years in the Northwest regional office of the Middlebury alums - on an isthmus in experience in capital campaigns and National Land Trust Alliance in Seattle, Wisconsin - until they discovered a shared planned giving. He also has served as a Washington. passion. At this past October’s National planned giving consultant to a variety of Land Trust Rally in Madison, Wisconsin, organizations and is on the board of the Middlebury’s Director of Environmental eight Middlebury alumni found that, per- Vermont Land Trust. At the Rally, his Affairs and Planning, Nan Jenks-Jay, was haps not coincidentally, they were all workshop gave participants techniques also a presenter at the Rally, sharing her committed to land protection. to build endowments and conserve land thoughts on the importance of place. through planned giving techniques. Nan was founding director of the Hans Neuhauser ‘64 directs the Georgia Williamstown Rural Lands Foundation Land Trust Service Center and manages Tom Howe ‘79 has worked with hun- (MA). She currently serves on the board the Georgia Wetlands Trust Fund. He dreds of landowners during his 14 years of The Vermont Nature Conservancy. serves on the Land Trust Alliances’s in land conservation. He has served as National Land Trust Council and is treas- the executive director of a young land If our suspicions are correct, than there urer of the Oconee River Land Trust in trust in New Hampshire and is now sen- must be more of you land protection Georgia. Hans formerly chaired the board ior land protection specialist at the specialists out there who hail from of the Land Trust Alliance. At the Rally, he Society for the Protection of New Middlebury College as your alma mater. presented on strategic wetlands acquisition Hampshire Forests. At the Rally, he pre- Please, join us on October 14-17, 1999 and mitigation. sented sessions on basic landowner at next year’s National Land Trust Rally negotiations and drafting conservation in Snowmass Village, Colorado, for an Stefan Nagel ‘69 is counsel with the Law easements. informal alumni gathering. Let Nan Office of Stephen J. Small, Esq. in Jenks-Jay know if you or other Boston. Stefan previously was associate Andrew C. Dana ‘81 practices real estate Middlebury alums will be attending the general counsel for the National Trust law and open space land conservation ‘99 Rally so we can begin to plan a get for Historic Preservation and national law in Bozeman, Montana, and provides together in Colorado. Nan can be staff attorney for The Nature legal assistance to several land trusts. He reached at 802-443-5090 or at Conservancy. At the Rally, he presented is renowned for his expertise in conser- [email protected]. For on legal considerations in managing a vation law in the western states. At the more information on the Rally, contact nonprofit land trust. He also motivated Rally, he presented a workshop titled the Land Trust Alliance at 202-638-4725 many of us to start thinking about a “Conservation Easements on Trial.” or www.lta.org. gathering of Middlebury alumni at the next Land Trust Rally. Richard Cochran ‘91 is executive director We celebrate that Middlebury alumni of Chagrin River Land Conservancy in are among the dedicated individuals who Katharine Roser ‘70 is the Executive Ohio. Rich serves as a trustee of several have helped to protect more than Director of La Plata Open Space other land conservation entities. At the 4.7 million acres of land in the nation Conservancy in Colorado. Rally he presented “The Small Land and have contributed to the exponential Trust’s Common Sense Guide to Building growth of the land conservation move- Michael Schoenfeld ‘73 is Dean of and Maintaining Membership.” ment. Enrollment Planning at Middlebury Alison Volbracht ‘96 is currently working Summer 1999 • Environmental News • Page 5

ALUMNI PROFILE PUBLICATION WINS “BEST NEW TITLE”

became an Assistant Editor for Orion and about his efforts to try and preserve magazine, another of the Orion Society’s the trees. The Nature Conservancy saw publications which showcases classic the article in Orion Afield and decided nature writing, poetry, art, and photogra- they would try to help,” she explains phy. Now, she runs the show with the excitedly. “The author called last month Jennifer Sahn, a ‘92 Middlebury alumna, Society’s newest publication. Orion and said ‘It’s happening, the trees are has taken her undergraduate interests Afield is only two years old with seven going to be protected!’” in nature writing and environmental issues under its belt. She is also the education afield, to Orion Afield. This Assistant Director for the Orion Society, For more information on the Orion magazine, published by the Orion Contributing Editor to Orion magazine, Society or Orion Afield, go to Society, profiles inspirational stories of and Series Editor of the Nature Literacy http://www. orionsociety.org. grass-roots environmental activism. Series, a collection of environmental Sahn serves as the Managing Editor for education books and monographs. the publication, which recently won Obviously, Sahn is or has at some point “Best New Title” from the Utne Reader been involved with just about everything Alternative Press Awards. at the Orion Society. Alumni of Environmental Studies and other majors at Middlebury “I feel really proud to be doing what In whatever little free time she has, the College...What have you been up to I’m doing,” says Sahn. “What we’re editor hikes around the Berkshire Hills in lately? Your friends and colleagues publishing has been really useful to our Western Massachusetts with her dog and from your days at Middlebury want readers...we began Orion Afield because dabbles in her own nature writing. Her to know! we saw a lot of ‘bad news’ environmen- essays have been published in Wild Earth tal journalism and not enough about and The Trumpeter. We want to profile the solutions.” environmentally related activities While Environmental Studies majors at of alumni in future newsletters. Quickly rising to the top of her profes- Middlebury are characterized by an inter- Please send us a note about sion, Sahn began working for the Orion est in making a positive difference in the your endeavors that involve the Society only seven years ago as an intern world, not all graduates may be fortu- environment. right out of Middlebury’s Environmental nate enough to see the results of their Studies Program. She credits Professor actions so soon after graduating. Sahn is Send any news to: John Elder, who sits on the Society’s one of the lucky ones. [email protected] or to Board of Directors, with originally con- Editor, Environmental News, necting her to the organization. As a “I hear from people about the difference Farrell House, Middlebury College, Middlebury student, Sahn worked with Orion Afield is making,” says the alumna. Middlebury VT 05753. Elder on her senior essay and on a stu- “This fellow in Washington State wrote dent-led J-term class on nature writing. about a stand of Old Growth cedar Middlebury College’s Directly after her internship, Sahn trees owned by an insurance company Page 6 • Environmental News • Summer 1999

second semester with a lunchtime talk by Both Klyza and Bedford are confident ENVIRONMENTAL Norm Cushman of Facilities that the new series is already a success. NEWS Management about the College’s state of Klyza notes a better connection between the art waste management program. faculty. Remarks Bedford, “The impres- Environmental Newsletter sion I get is that faculty are certainly very According to Professor Chris McGrory happy to attend to feel more a part of Office: Klyza, one of the founders, the the ES Program, and the students are Farrell House Colloquium aims to build community excited also.” Middlebury College among ES students and faculty. Klyza Middlebury VT 05753 identifies the physically scattered nature The ES Colloquium Series takes place of the ES Program to be the main every Thursday at lunchtime except Phone: 802-443-5043 impetus for needing to further develop during J-term and the summer. All are Fax: 802-443-2458 such a community. welcome. Email: [email protected] Website: www.middlebury.edu/~es The series began last semester with an A complete list of speakers is posted on impressive array of speakers that includ- the Internet at http://www.middlebury.edu/ Mission ed John DeVillars, the ~es /colloquium.html. The Program in Environmental Studies Regional Director of the Environmental By Steve Trombulak at Middlebury College provides stu- Protection Agency, and Karen Sheldon of dents with an interdisciplinary, liberal Vermont . ES faculty spoke arts education. It focuses on diverse about their research, and students ended MACCRACKEN facets of the relationship between the semester with Senior Thesis presen- The 1999 Scott Margolin Annual humans and the environment through- tations. Environmental Affairs Lecturer study in breadth and depth. Gretchen Hund, a class of ‘79 geology Michael MacCracken, the Executive Administration major now a Senior Research Scientist at Director of the National Assessment Stephen Trombulak, Battelle Environmental Policy Coordination Director of Environmental Studies Management in Seattle, spoke in the Office of the US Global Change Nan Jenks-Jay, Director of spring. While on campus, Gretchen also Research Program Environmental Affairs and Planning gave a lecture to an Environmental (USCCP), was the Geology class and met with students to Scott Margolin ES Steering Committee give career advice. Annual Bob Churchill, Geography Environmental Affairs Lecturer. He John Elder, English and ES This year’s Colloquium Coordinator and spoke on “Global Warming; The Nan Jenks-Jay, ES Geography Professor Dan Bedford, with Increasing Effects of Human Activities on Climate” at Middlebury Kathryn Morse, History the assistance of the ES Program College. The USGCRP is studying David Stoll, Sociology/Anthro Academic Coordinator Janet Wiseman, the consequences of climate change Steve Trombulak, Biology and ES hopes to attract more townspeople to for the nation and examining possible the Colloquium, which is open to any- coping mechanisms. Newsletter one. “I think it’s really important to build For more information on USGCRP Amy Seif, Editor a sense of community. I would really like or the Coordination Office see http: //www.nacc.usgcrp.gov/. Janet Wiseman, Assistant to open our doors as much as possible The ES Colloquium Series began its to people from the town,” says Bedford. More than Just Summer 1999 • Environmental News • Page 7

NEWS OF THE HOMEFRONT ES PROGRAM CONTINUES TO EVOLVE

As is always true, there has been a great assumption. “Religious and Philosophical deal of development of the environmen- Perspectives,” and allows students to go tal curriculum at Middlebury recently. Other new or significantly revised cours- into depth in one or both of these disci- The most apparent ES course we have es with environmental themes are plines. The redesign reflects our growing added this year is a new junior-level Environmental Geochemistry (CH/GL awareness that both religious and philo- environmental science practicum course 283), Plant Ecology Seminar (BI 490), sophical perspectives on our relationship (ES 360). Currently being taught by and Religion, Ethics, and the Environment with the earth transcend more than just Mary Gaudette, the ES Program’s (RE 395). the domain of ethics, and include such Assistant-in-Instruction, ES 360 is intend- important fields as theology and the phi- ed to provide students an experience in We have also made some changes in the losophy of science and technology. participating in a group research project major. Perhaps most notably has been on an interdisciplinary question in the the addition of a new focus in the MICHAEL environmental sciences. Alumni from Creative Arts. This focus, developed by the late 1980s and early1990s might Andrea Olsen (Dance) and Kit Wilson recognize this as one of the goals of the (Studio Art) is designed to serve earliest incarnations of ES 401, which students who are interested in the ways ENVIRONMENTAL FOCUS INTERNSHIPS: remains our senior capstone seminar. in which the creative arts inform and EXPLORING NEW WORLDS However, the tremendous growth in the express our understanding of the ES major during the 1990s made it relationship between humans and the During Winter Term 1999, thirteen Middlebury students participated in the impossible to maintain the in-depth environment. One of the most essential environmental focus internship pro- group research experience in ES 401 as elements of the focus is the requirement gram. These students are Emily Billo, Chase Budell, Janeen Hetzler, Caitrin class size doubled and tripled each year. of three studio courses in one discipline, Higgins, Yuki Iwatani, Rebecca As ES 401 has evolved to meet changing followed by an independent study in that Kaufman, Thomas Knauer, Mike demands, ES 360 was created to retain same field. The focus is written so as Koehler, Karen Moore, Daniel Rosenfeld, Elise Snider, Tracy Vermatt, the interdisciplinary environmental to allow students to pursue the focus in and Elana Wilson. science research opportunity. disciplines for which current faculty are affiliated with the ES Program (currently They conducted their internships, respectively, at Forest Watch This year, Mary Gaudette’s class is inves- dance and studio art) but can be expand- (Montpelier), McLean Open Space tigating the impact on Otter Creek from ed easily to take advantage of developing Alliance (Belmont, MA), USDA Forest the Town of Middlebury’s recent separa- faculty interest in other areas (hopefully Service (Middlebury), Forest Watch (Montpelier), Ripley’s Aquarium tion of their storm water system from to eventually include theater, film/video, (Myrtle Beach, SC), Greater the septic sewage system. Since 1995, and music). Yellowstone Coalition (Bozeman, MT), City of Burlington Dept of Parks storm water from the “urban” part of (Burlington), Northern Cartographic town has been piped untreated directly We have also significantly modified what (South Burlington), Students of Human into Otter Creek, on the theory that had been called the “environmental Ecology (Middlebury), Massachusetts Environmental Collaborative (Boston, run-off from city streets and houses ethics” focus. Under the supervision of MA), Hi-Desert Nature Museum will not adversely affect water quality. Rebecca Gould (Religion) and Heidi (Yucca Valley, CA), Environmental Through systematic analysis of Grasswick (Philosophy), two new mem- Learning Center (West Granby, CT), and the Great Lakes Chapter Sierra the composition of the run-off, the bers of the college’s faculty and the ES Club (Madison, WI). students in ES 360 are testing this Program, the focus has been renamed Page 8 • Environmental News • Summer 1999

STUDENT NEWS SENIOR STUDENT PROJECTS

area and habitat diversity in species accu- mining targets for future ecosystem pro- Making the Grades mulation curves in the U.S. tection and restoration.

Christos Astaras assessed genetic diver- Kate LaRiche conducted a biotic invento- sity in the creek chub, a small ry of lands on the Breadloaf Campus ES SENIOR minnow found widely throughout the originally part of the grant of lands to northeast, and analyzed his results with the college by Joseph Battell. Kate’s IDENTIFIES AN respect to the ease of dispersal of indi- work will be influential in helping to UNEXPLORED viduals from one watershed to another. establish curricular opportunities in the BRANCH OF area. Abby Bradbury grew cold-tolerant salad FOREST greens in an unheated greenhouse using Using a GIS analysis, John-Alex Mason RESEARCH the College’s compost. Her greens were developed an alternative management served in the Crest Room salad bar. She plan for the Northern Unit of the Green While the observations and concerns of has proposed to the college to build a Mountain National Forest (GMNF) that non-scientists can often be overlooked in larger greenhouse for salad green pro- is based on watershed units. John-Alex academic inquiries, John Mauro, a senior duction for dining and catering. hopes to have his alternative considered ES major, finds the connection between during the upcoming discussions on the scientists and community members nec- Nina Gawne developed a proposal for revision of the GMNF Management Plan. essary for good science. “I see science the creation of a wetland complex to be and the public as necessary partners. associated with the new Bicentennial Natsu Morioka, a double major in ES and Science is for everybody, and making Hall. The wetland would serve both Japanese, is designing and building a tradi- observations is something that every- educational and water-quality improve- tional Japanese garden on campus. body does, not just scientists,” says ment goals. Mauro. Nic Tuff recently produced a video called From the Abtao Sector of the Great “A Prayer for the Wild,” about the fight Last summer, with support from the Island of Chiloe off the coast of to save the northern Rockies. Nic has Ronald H. Brown Class of ‘62 Program, southern Chile, David Grass studied been awarded the Morris K. Udall $5000 Mauro spent two weeks in isolated nutrient uptake and release in the scholarship, which encourages outstand- Alaskan villages which surround research tree-dwelling vegetation of an old- ing students to pursue careers related to sites. He asked the villagers, mostly growth temperate rain forest. He environmental public policy and to foster Iñupiag Eskimos, about their interest in presented his results at the Institute for excellence in the field. the nearby climate change research being Ecosystem Studies. David will return to conducted by Middlebury researchers. Chile on a Fulbright scholarship. Using surveyors’ records from the late He also developed and presented a 1700s, Paul Woodworth used a GIS multi-media slide show on the research Using information on the known avifauna analysis to match the geographic charac- to four community schools and gave pre- of each state in the continental U.S. as teristics of the locations of specific trees sentations for the National Park Service. well as GIS-derived information on distri- in the pre-colonial forest of northern Continued on page 10 butions of ecoregions in each state, Buffy Vermont. This work will be used by the According to Andi Lloyd, a Biology pro- Hastings looked at the influence of both Vermont Biodiversity Project for deter- fessor affiliated with the Environmental Summer 1999 • Environmental News • Page 9

FACULTY PROFILE CLIMATE CHANGE RESEARCH TAKES FACULTY AND STUDENTS TO THE ARCTIC

“Both teaching and research are really central. I think my teaching would suffer if I wasn’t researching,” says Andi, who understands that students are the key to the synthesis between these two, often separate, pursuits.

Last summer, four Middlebury students and one student from the University of Wyoming accompanied Andi and her co- investigator Chris Fastie on their adven- tures in the boreal forests of the Seward Peninsula and Alaska Range of Alaska. Over a seven-week period, the students spent a series of three to 10 day camp- ing trips coring trees and collecting soil samples. This summer, only three stu- dents will travel to Alaska because of passenger limitations in the tiny Cessna Studies Program, “the most important ing most rewarding, gaining instant feed- plane that will carry them into remote thing to learn as a student of science is back and great energy,” explains Andi. areas of the Peninsula. how to think like a scientist.” Andi’s stu- dents get first-hand experience on how It is easy to see how someone in Andi’s The students are helping Andi look for to “think like a scientist,” whether they shoes might choose to abandon teaching evidence of changes in the boreal forest are flying over the forests of Alaska in a in order to dedicate themselves to the over the last 100 years and how those Cessna plane or examining soil samples thrills of high profile research. Last year, changes correspond to both natural and in a Vermont swamp. Being a scientist Andi received a three-year National human-caused climate variations. The seems to come naturally to Andi, who Science Foundation (NSF) grant from their boreal forest, explains Andi, covers most explains with rapid fervor the details of Office of Polar Programs to research the of northern North America, Eurasia and her research methods. However, it is her effects climate change will have on Arctic Siberia, is dominated by conifers, and is interest in teaching science that brought ecosystems. She is part of a multi-investi- the last forest before tundra. Andi’s the- her to Middlebury College in the Fall of gator project titled “Arctic Transitions in sis is that climate change can affect the 1996. the Land-Atmosphere System (ATLAS)” process of invasion of forest into tundra and is the only researcher from areas; the boundary between forest and “In graduate school, I was in a track to Middlebury on the project. Although Andi tundra is largely determined by tempera- be a professor at a big research universi- loves being an educator, her enthusiasm in ture and therefore higher temperatures ty, but I really love to teach. I find teach- being a scientist is apparent. may push the tree line upward in eleva- Page 10 • Environmental News • Summer 1999

tion and to more northern latitudes. previous academic experiences, teaching says with determination. holds such high importance. For Andi, it is While ATLAS investigators study the as if one of the most important goals of FACULTY entire ecosystem for climate affects, her research is to improve her teaching. Andi’s part is to examine how future warming will affect the boreal forest, in In the Senior Seminar in Paleoecology, particular. Unable to directly observe which she taught for the first time this future changes, because, as Andi good- spring, students participated first-hand in ES SENIOR naturally explains, “the trees will last the kind of research that is taking place IDENTIFIES longer than I do,” she is researching in Alaska. They continued a study of changes over the last 100 years and forest history started by a colleague of BRANCH OF extrapolating what might happen in the Andi’s in the Battell Research Forest, an RESEARCH future. uncut hemlock forest in Vermont owned by Middlebury College. Because she is Continued from Page 8 “I am doing tree coring to show how old new to Vermont ecology, Andi learns Mauro’s thesis project, which he says has trees are and how fast the trees have alongside her students how to conduct become an “obsession,” grows from his been growing and from those data am paleoecological research in Vermont’s work with communities in Alaska. reconstructing what the forest looked ecoregion. Enabling continuous dialogue between like and where the tree line was,” researchers and community members, explains the ecologist, who is also col- Andi’s style of teaching aims to be as Mauro is developing an interactive web lecting evidence of past disturbances, experiential as possible, which echoes page http://www.middlebury. edu/~mauro. such as fire, in order to identify the sepa- her belief that the only way to learn The purpose of the site is to involve rate effects of disturbance from climate about science is to learn how to think scientists and communities of western change. like a scientist. According to the profes- Alaska in a meaningful dialogue regarding sor, “the only way to do this is to go out current climate change issues. This study, the first big research project on your own, scratch your head, and ask since her dissertation, neatly follows in ‘how can I do this?’” Fueled by his own inquisitiveness, Mauro the vein of Andi’s Ph.D. research at the has identified a valuable source of University of Arizona, which focused on Andi regularly teaches Introduction to information for climate change research. how climate variation affects the forests Ecology (BIO190) and Plant Ecology of the Sierra Nevada. (BIO323). In these classes, students also “I became really interested in the idea get an introduction to thinking like a sci- that scientists, the public, and decision- Andi’s choice of research location also entist by carrying out both group and makers are part of an on-going dia- does not happen by chance. Having independent field research projects. logue,” explains Mauro. “More than us formed a deep appreciation for Arctic Apparent in the way Andi teaches her coming in and telling them what science environments and a sense of place when students, scientific research holds her is, it is more a dialogue and a sharing, working on her Master’s degree at the utmost respect. with all of us learning from each other.” University of Alaska, she is particularly interested in Alaska. “Alaska is an amaz- She, however, has no regrets about Mauro is also a recent recipient of the ing place, a landscape that I absolutely choosing a small liberal-arts college over newly established Scott A. Margolin adore that is near and dear to my heart,” a big research university, where her work Environmental Studies Award and the explains Andi. in Alaska might have taken precedence Thomas J. Watson $19,000 Fellowship, It is not surprising that for someone who over teaching. “The two are really inte- for focused independent study and travel has been so personally affected by her grated activities in my own mind,” she abroad. Summer 1999 • Environmental News • Page 11

October. AND STAFF David Rosenberg’s “Environmental NEWS Steve Trombulak, Program Director, was Pollution around the South China Sea: invited to make a presentation at the Developing a Regional Response to a Governor’s Conference on Green Space Regional Problem,” is published through Conferences and Other News last October. His talk focused on the the Resource Management in Asia-Pacific relationship of ecological reserves to the Working Paper Series, 1999/02. The In June, John Elder, Professor of English, overall intent of plans that seek to bal- Series is published by the Australian will be speaking at the Association for ance many competing social demands on National University of Canberra. The the Study of Literature and the land use. article is available online at Environment’s meeting in Kalamazoo, http://coombs.anu.edu.au /Depts/ Michigan, which will focus on responses Faculty Publications RSPAS/RMAP/rosenberg.html. David also to nature in long-settled areas. He will published “ASEAN’s Response to also be speaking at “Fire and Grit,” a Reading the Mountains of Home, a new Environmental Pollution around the meeting sponsored by the Orion Society, book by John Elder, connects a South China Sea” in the April 1999 that will be held at the Fish and Wildlife reading of Robert Frost’s poem Journal of Contemporary Southeast Asia. Service’s new center in West Virginia. It “Directive” with the environmental will focus on efforts by community history of the Green Mountains. The Steve Trombulak and Chris Frissell organizers and watershed activists from book is organized as a series of hikes and wrote “The Ecological Impacts of Roads around the country. narratives from Ripton, where Frost on Terrestrial and Aquatic Ecosystems: A had a home, to Bristol where John Elder Review,” published in Conservation At the New England Board of Higher lives with his family. Biology. Education Conference on the Future of Environmental Higher Education, Nan Nan Jenks-Jay contributed a chapter Jenks-Jay presented “The Connection entitled “Learning Through the Between Environmental Studies and Community: The Southern California Janet Wiseman celebrates her first year Today’s Market Place.” She also present- Experience” to the American Association as the Environmental Studies Academic ed at Tufts University’s Fletcher School of Higher Education Monograph Series Program Coordinator this July. Janet on “Climate Change and Civil Society” on Service Learning. brings to the program a variety of for- and at the Harvard University Graduate mer experiences in the environmental School of Education Research Chris McGrory Klyza and Steve field, which include working on an organ- Conference plenary panel “Towards an Trombulak co-authored a new book, The ic farm and participating in a sustainable Ecology of Education: Building Story of Vermont: A Natural and forestry organization. Janet’s responsibili- Communities Across Disciplines.” Cultural History, published by the ties touch all aspects of the ES Program, University Press of New England. Chris from doing the legwork for the David Rosenberg, Professor of Political also wrote a book chapter titled Colloquium to working one-on-one with Science, is on leave this year, doing “Bioregional Possibilities in Vermont” in students. She says, “What I like best is research in the Department of Political & Bioregionalism, published by Routledge seeing the enthusiasm and dedication Social Change in the Research School of Press. His book reviews appeared in the that the students have towards the Pacific and Asian Studies at The Journal of Policy History and Wild Earth. environment. They have a very different Australian National University in An annotated chronology titled “Land attitude than the students did when I Canberra. Protection in the United States, 1864- went to college in the mid-eighties.” Chris McGrory Klyza welcomed his sec- 1997” by Chris was also published in ond daughter, Caroline, to the world in Wild Earth. ENVIRONMENTAL NEWS Non-Profit Organization Farrell House, Middlebury College U.S. Postage Middlebury, Vermont 05753 PAID Middlebury College ADDRESS SERVICE REQUESTED

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NEWS FROM THE MIDDLEBURY COLLEGE ALUMNI! SEND ENVIRONMENTAL COUNCIL ENVIRONMENTAL Middlebury College and the National of environmental projects on campus. NEWS Wildlife Federation partnered this April For more information, contact James YOUR NEWS! to present a unique clinic on the role that Sharp of the National Wildlife Please include your name, any campus purchasing can play in protecting Federation’s Campus Ecology at nickname used while in college, the environment. “Consuming with 802-229-0650 or at [email protected]. your graduating year, your current Conscience: Sustainable Procurement on profession and involvement in the Campuses” kicked off with a keynote Participants included faculty, staff, stu- environment. Send any information address given by Gary Hirshberg, dents and administrators from a variety you wish to have published in President/CEO of Stoneyfield Farm of colleges and universities in the north- ENVIRONMENTAL NEWS to: Yogurt and a nationally recognized leader east. Among the clinic participants was of social and environmental corporate Peter Christianson, a ‘79 Middlebury Editor responsibility. alum and Director of Environmental ENVIRONMENTAL NEWS Programs at Tuft University’s new Farrell House Other highlights of the 2-day clinic Institute on the Environment. Peter was Middlebury College included workshops focusing on ways to formally with the Living on Earth Middlebury, Vermont 05753 institutionalize green purchasing, a ven- National Public Radio program. or E-mail: [email protected] dor display of green products, and a tour