Man vs Nature
Submitted by Jenny Kaylor on Wed, 2017-07-12 00:00
It has been a long informative day and yet I find my list of questions has only grown.
Our first visit of the day was to a research site for the Intermountain Bird Observatory located along the Boise River. It was fascinating to watch them catch, measure, and band various bird species and to learn of what their studies have revealed so far. One positive observation is that some species of birds have been returning to the Treasure Valley earlier each year in response to climate change. This is encouraging as it means they are adapting to changes in the environment at a rate that will hopefully enable them to survive.
Our next stop was to the Suez plant for drinking water treatment. The process designed to remove specific matter, including pathogens, from our drinking water was interesting. I was surprised that this plant does not employ the use of UV light but discovered that other parts of the process rendered the need for such as unecessary. It was also interesting to discover that after the terrorist attacks of 9/11, Suez switched from purchasing and storing large amounts of chlorine on site to making their own chlorine as needed-apparently a wise homeland security measure instated by the federal government for all of the nation's water treatment plants. Who knew? However, my question regarding the occurence of chemicals in our drinking water remains unanswered.
After the plant tour we sat admist a pollinator garden located in front of Roosevelt Elementary school. The implementation of this garden enlisted a great deal of community input and involvement (including students of course) and utilized plant species native to Idaho. The garden replaced an area of lawn and although irrigated, interestingly enough was faring pretty well despite (unintentionally) not being watered since the school year ended! Not only is this garden a more asthetically pleasing alternative as well as a pollination promoting environment, it requires far less water than its predecessor. The combination of learning that 70% of the water treated by the Suez water plant goes to water lawns in the valley, and experiencing this beautiful and ecologically friendly garden makes me wonder how long before HOA's switch from requiring manicured lawns to mandating xeriscaping instead.
The finale of the day was a tour of Cottonwood Creek which flows out of the foothills towards Fort Boise and the Reserve. After two flash flooding incidents that occured in 1905 and 1909 resulting in a great deal of damage to downtown Boise, citizens decided to drastically divert the flow towards Warm Springs and then towards the Boise River through underground channels. Trout Unlimited, along with a number of other organizations, are combining efforts to complete a "daylighting" project designed to "reopen" the last 400 feet of the creek upstream of its confluence with the Boise River where, unknown to many, it currently flows under Julia Davis Park. Amongst the many positive outcomes of restoring the creek to a more natural state of flow is that it will once again become an inviting environment to trout. Hearing the history of Cottonwood Creek made me question why the pioneers chose to interrupt the creek with their city buildings in the first place. I suppose it could be for the same reasons that people continue to build upon the Boise River flood plains? I hope that one day we will learn from our past and start thinking about the possible repercussions of our actions BEFORE we take them. Just because we CAN often manipulate nature, doesn't mean we should.
Comments
Human Impact
It seems like most of today focused around human impact on the WaterShed (okay... maybe this whole week is about that). I was unaware that 70% of the Suez water plant went to lawn care. That's wild! It seems as though gardens that implement native plants would be a much better alternative. Not only do they look better (in my opinion) than grass, but from what I can tell from your post, they are more water efficient and help the bee population. I wonder how difficult it would be to get the funding to plant a similar garden at my school (and ensure it was watered over the summer!). I know in more desertous areas like Las Vegas many HOAs have alredy switched to xeriscaping (although this often results in purely rock lawns).
For the most part, I have been considering teaching multiple perspectives with the information all of the in-person learners have been posting about. It has encouraged me to make sure to include more local information into my unit on argument/food process systems. Is there a way you could implement what you learned today in any of your units?
Man vs Nature
It is Interesting that the Suez Water Treatment plant produces their own chlorine as needed as stockpiling chlorine has been deemed a threat by Homeland Security. I will definitely incorporate this tidbit of information into our yearly lesson regarding bioterrorism in AP Bio. Another connection between my curriculum and water treatment plants is the threat of an avian flu outbreak. Experts have suggested that because the flu is expected to impact the 20-40 year olds (the bulk of the workforce) most significantly, one of the major issues of there were to be an outbreak would be drinking water due to the fact that there would not be enough truck drivers to haul chlorine to treatment plants. Maybe this is no longer an issue since these facilities are producing their own chlorine but I wonder about the materials needed to make the chlorine in the first place. Would they quickly run out of these materials and what would be the impact on local drinking water?
I love the idea of a pollination garden! In SP Bio we discuss the impact of declining bee populations on food supply. We also discuss how simple human actions (such as using pesticides & herbicids in our yards) may be impacting bee populations. I received a bit of money in the form of a donation in 2016 and actually proposed to plant pollination garden on the southwest corner of Rocky Mountain HS but unfortunately, the maintenance department declined my request based on having to reroute sprinklers in order to place the garden. It would be interesting to know how other schools have been able to gain approval. Maybe we should revisit this idea at Rocky next year? I would love to implement a more thought-provoking lesson/unit on the importance of pollinators. In addition, the garden could be used as a resource to other classrooms including environmental science, ag science, or even serve in an aesthetic sense to English or Art students.