#julia m

[incorrect-magnus]

Jon, stuck in the cqr with Trevor and Julia: Can you take off the child locks so I can kill myself

[skateisawesome]

there nothing quite like buying a book second hand and going home to google the name of the past owner

shoutout to julia m who owned this book before me!

she drew her dots on her i letter as a little heart!

[atequefloresci-blog]

Eu sinto muito, Sinto tanto, Vem cá que eu cuido, Tô pra qualquer canto.

Você vem pra cá? Senta na beira do mar, Deixa a brisa pra lá, Quero sentir teu amar.

Deixa eu me perder no teu Pacífico, Me afogar no teu Atlântico, Não seja assim, tão romântico, Pois no fundo eu sei que em ti existe um pouco de Índico.

[crazyquotesfromfriends-blog]

Julia: That's a big piece of cake baby.

Logan: Not anymore.

[loboslovebees]

Discussion

Part 4

The outcomes of this venture were positive, as we did apply for the PNM power up grant to help create a campus pollinator garden. However, the project was unable to proceed due to logistics on the university’s side.   In the future, further communication and involvement with campus authority will be needed in order to fully complete a project of this type.  While working on the project, it was made clear that in order to successfully have pollinator spaces on campus, the campus, as a whole needs to support the idea by being a pesticide free campus entirely. If there are pesticides used near the pollinator spaces, the pollinators will be affected. Most farms need at least 100 yards of space in order to even ensure their crops aren’t contaminated by pesticide usage. So when it comes to pollinators, the space needs to at least have the previously mentioned standards met.  Therefore in the future, before pollinator spaces are established, it would be wise to achieve the pesticide free campus status before hand.  Many campuses have managed to achieve the goals of this project and with the cooperation of the university and support of the students, faculty and staff it can also be achieved here in New Mexico. In New York, Aldelphi University has stopped the use of all petroleum-based chemicals and is striving to create a healthy campus ecosystem complete with active microbial soil, and pollinators.  At places like Evergreen College in Washington, it has been the practice and moral for years to abstain from the use of pesticides and keep the grounds clean of toxins. Being pesticide free and supporting the local ecosystem is a step in the direction of sustainability and growth. Evergreen is an amazing example, with their 38,000 sq ft organic garden, of how a seed can grow into something big and beautiful if it has the right nurture (Abercrombie, 2012). We must all work together and strive to nurture our environment so it may continue to nourish us, and the creatures of the earth.

In all, the project shed a lot of light about what is needed to help pollinators and create an environment that supports biodiversity and the sustainability of our communities. Although the project didn’t end up with the outcomes we expected, we learned about the process and are one step closer to being able to help our campus community be a healthy, light, sustainable place to be. 

[loboslovebees]

Discussion

Part 4

The outcomes of this venture were positive, as we did apply for the PNM power up grant to help create a campus pollinator garden. However, the project was unable to proceed due to logistics on the university’s side.   In the future, further communication and involvement with campus authority will be needed in order to fully complete a project of this type.  While working on the project, it was made clear that in order to successfully have pollinator spaces on campus, the campus, as a whole needs to support the idea by being a pesticide free campus entirely. If there are pesticides used near the pollinator spaces, the pollinators will be affected. Most farms need at least 100 yards of space in order to even ensure their crops aren’t contaminated by pesticide usage. So when it comes to pollinators, the space needs to at least have the previously mentioned standards met.  Therefore in the future, before pollinator spaces are established, it would be wise to achieve the pesticide free campus status before hand.  Many campuses have managed to achieve the goals of this project and with the cooperation of the university and support of the students, faculty and staff it can also be achieved here in New Mexico. In New York, Aldelphi University has stopped the use of all petroleum-based chemicals and is striving to create a healthy campus ecosystem complete with active microbial soil, and pollinators.  At places like Evergreen College in Washington, it has been the practice and moral for years to abstain from the use of pesticides and keep the grounds clean of toxins. Being pesticide free and supporting the local ecosystem is a step in the direction of sustainability and growth. Evergreen is an amazing example, with their 38,000 sq ft organic garden, of how a seed can grow into something big and beautiful if it has the right nurture (Abercrombie, 2012). We must all work together and strive to nurture our environment so it may continue to nourish us, and the creatures of the earth.

In all, the project shed a lot of light about what is needed to help pollinators and create an environment that supports biodiversity and the sustainability of our communities. Although the project didn’t end up with the outcomes we expected, we learned about the process and are one step closer to being able to help our campus community be a healthy, light, sustainable place to be. 

[loboslovebees]

Methods

Our project’s goals/activities included a lot of outreach partnerships and research. Our objective was to encourage and welcome pollinators to UNM’s campus by banning current pesticides use. We first went about accomplishing these goals by researching all pesticides use on campus. We got a list of over 40 different pesticides used. We also researched native pollinator friendly plants to incorporate into the already excising landscape. We partnered up with New Mexico State and used their already existing research of native plants that attracts bees. (http://www.nmbeekeepers.org/page/planting-guides-for-bees) We then wanted to dedicate a part of campus to a pesticide free pollinator friendly educational outdoor classroom to model the benefits and hopefully become adopted by the rest of the campus. We did this by applying for the PNM Power Up Grant. We wrote a proposal and are waiting to here back about the funding of $15.000. By documenting all of our work in a blog will also allow future sustainability classes to pick up were we left off and accomplish their goals.   

[loboslovebees]

We are Better With bees.

 Entry #1

Our world is delicate, and is constantly trying to maintain a balance of energy. In our industrialized world, this energy can take on many alter-egos such as money or commodities, water and food. In nature, the balance can be seen as an exchange of carbon and nutrients that ultimately benefit all.  The survival of our species and many others depends on this balance being maintained.  Pollinators are one of the keys to maintaining the balance of nature. Pollinators are responsible for up to 80% of wildflowers seed and fruiting ability (Potts et al, 2010). Pollinators also create diversity among plants and sustain the production of plants through their very being. With at least 75% of plants benefitting from increased pollinator interaction, the conservation of pollinators is very important (Bartomeus et al. 2014).  One study found that pollinator diversity and abundance could even increase healthy fruit yields (Vergara et al, 2012), which benefits us. Honey bees in particular, can increase yields in over 96% of animal pollinated crops (Potts et al, 2010).  Declines in pollinators can be seen all over the world and mitigating these declines is crucial to the health of the food system. Honey bees are an essential pollinator that has decreased from around 6,000 managed hives in the US, to only 2,000 in the years spanning from 1945 to 2012(SINNATHAMBY et al, 2013). Commercial, conventional agricultural practices are a huge weight within the balance of the carbon exchange of the earth.  These practices give and take from the system, but often what they take is irreplaceable. Pollinators have suffered greatly with the rise of pesticide use in the US and all over the world. It has been determined that even the larvae of honey bees have altered expressions in their RNA as a result of interaction with pesticide contaminants (Derecka et al, 2013). We must consider these organisms’ importance to our ecosystem, and strive towards a system that can better serve our world and our species.  The societal shift towards being more eco friendly is alive, and has encouraged a movement towards being closer to nature, as we are part of her. With the rise of earth conscious thinking, the amount of effort towards conservation and mitigation has also risen.  With these thoughts in mind, the goals for this project were born. To create a space that is a medium for ecological diversity and health, on a college campus, in order to make a statement to the members of the college community and make a small difference in the health of our ecosystem.  Since land use is one of the main influences on pollinator declines and diversity (Weimer et al, 2014), the hope that using a small piece of our campus land to increase biodiversity was the main goal of this project.  A proposal was composed in order to achieve this goal, and although the project did get funding it was not completed.  Another goal of this effort was to work towards making The University of New Mexico a pesticide free campus, however the focus of this entry will be mainly about the campus space.