USO Strikes Again!!!!

This video involves many Christchurch students who are either directly involved in paper reduction or are just bystanders who agreed to participate in a video.

This idea started on the first day I walked into Mr. Smileys class. I had been wondering if I could use the library printer to print something on both sides of the paper. Thus far in my life I had never once done a two-sided print or copy. I realized that we could save so much paper if everyone used two-sided printing. I had no idea that the previous year one of my own peers had started a huge project involving paper reduction in classes and also educating the student body about two-sided printing. That student was actually someone I had played soccer with, Joanna Spotswood, a dedicated member of Sustainability Task Force. She made posters and wrote a petition for the teachers to sign. The petition, once signed, made the teachers promise to use less paper for class and make homework assignments available on line. Last year she dedicated much of her time to this cause, but now that she is a senior she has less time to dedicate. That is where Lilah Beebe and Anna Shaw (myself) come in. We have made a poster to help students like myself who had no idea how to use the high tech printer, we made an announcement in Chapel (many of you could not understand us), and we made a presentation for the bulletin board outside of the student center (look for your picture- if you are there watch out). This video gives a little more information about some of the things that our secret USO organization does. 

By: Lilah Beebe and Anna Shaw 

Recycling for Restoration

We all see people around Christchurch school, mostly our friends, who throw recyclable materials into the trash. Do we ever tell them that what they are doing is wrong? Do we stop them from doing it in the first place?. The answer is NO!. We have not yet understood the importance of recycling in our Christchurch community and when I say "we" I mean both students and faculty. Recycling is the renewing of used materials to prevent waste of useful materials, reduce the use of fresh raw materials, reduce energy usage, reduce air pollution from burning waste materials and water pollution from landfilling by cutting down the need for conventional waste disposal, and lower greenhouse gas emissions as compared to virgin production. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Recycling. The benefits of recycling does not only affect our local community but it also affects the entire world and that is why recycling is a big step in protecting our world.

The most important thing and reason why Christchurch school recycles is cans because since we live right beside the river, the cans help the oysters which filters the river and makes it clean for us. As we all know, Mr. Smiley takes recycling very seriously and kills himself trying to get us to understand the importance of recycling. Cans for oysters is very important to our Christchurch community because for every can we recycle an oyster is saved and when we save the oysters they help clean up our water by filtering it; the oysters filter 50 gallons of water per day that is 2 gallons an hour. Oysters also consume the algae in the water, and provide habitat for different species of aquatic life. 

Eat fresh, Eat local!

Eating as much local food as possible is something every household should try to accomplish. Many produce and meats are shipped around the country to main businesses, some produce is even shipped in from another country. During this process some of the items may develop a bacteria or maybe just a bruise, but eating locally would eliminate this from happening. Eating locally is also a friendly thing to do due to the fact that supporting local farms supports the economy by helping people with their jobs. Eating locally benefits everyone!

            Local food is also something that you can practice at the house, meaning you can grow your own food at home. Produce anyway… My family and I are good participators of supporting local food because my mother and step-dad both provide items in the kitchen that were grown in our garden at home, or that has been killed in a field a few hours away. I am proud to say that I have helped with this because I myself have killed a couple of deer!

Good local food is achieved over time but can be helped by small different things. My mother has a few helpful hints, including her favorite, which is composting. Good local food starts with a good garden. You can make your own soil for your garden by starting a compost pile outside. Put your veggie and fruit scrapes into a specific stop to collect. When your compost is added to your garden it will create a fertilizer full of helpful nutrient. Mr. Smiley also mentioned that composting is a good way to stay sustainable in his blog Snuggle Acres. As your compost garden grows, you will feel better knowing that your loved ones are eating crops harvested with your reused and recycled food. Everything from your home garden will be fresh, local, and trusted.

Sage Dining Service runs Christchurch dining halls food, which is trying to take steps into eating more locally. They are doing this by supporting the garden that was grown by living campus last year, which is located at the lower soccer field. The dining hall also uses lettuce and other vegetables that are grown in the garden. The other day Christchurch organized a local lunch, which included Oysters, pumpkins, zucchini, sweet potatoes, and more.

Eating locally is something that during the last year has really interested me. I think maybe it is due to the fact that I started to care about what I eat, and that I enjoy eating healthy foods such as vegetables, and lean meats such as deer, chicken, and fish. I am proud to say that my mother has not cooked beef in our house in 3 years because we are hunters only eat venison! Many families, if given the choice will choose the most local food to prepare in their kitchen. Eating locally is very good because it is an action that benefits many different people in many different ways. 

By. Hailey Sundeen

Flip the Switch

           How many times have you left a room and not turned the light off? I think that almost all of you answered… “a lot.” Do you realize how easy it is to flip a switch and save energy? Most of you are probably thinking, “Well, if I leave my light on, it’s not going to affect anything right?” Wrong!... if everyone felt that way every light would be on all the time. But, if everyone took the time to flip a little switch we could make a huge difference.

Think about it, if everyone in the world turned the lights off when they left a room, a ton of energy would be saved. Every time you leave the lights on you are wasting energy and money.

Here at Christchurch School we do a pretty good job of conserving energy by turning lights off when they are not needed. But, when we don’t, we are being wasteful. Christchurch could save a great amount of money if we would work harder to make sure lights are turned off when they are not needed.

On dorm, boarders really have issues with leaving lights and TV’s on. They should make more of an effort to make sure their lights and electronics are off when no one is on hall.

I think that CCS should even take the next step and use more natural light. It is shown that students learn better in natural light rather than under harsh lights. So, if possible, teachers should keep the lights off when in class.

Students and teachers should take more interest in helping to reduce the school’s carbon footprint. Turning lights and electronics off when they are not necessary is a big step in helping to reduce that footprint

By: Braden Young

Want to Save Money and Help the Environment?

Here at Christchurch School we have had issues with areas of unused land made up of of only grass. Although people generaly prefer well manicured areas of grass, it is more cost effective and better for the environment to simply leave the areas alone. After awile the idea was proposed to simply let the area be and not mow, hence the title no mow zones. Last week there was a post explaining in greater detail these no mow zones but my goal is to inform about the benefits of more no mow zones, covering a greater area of land. Every last bit of forested land counts.

An extension of the no mow zones could really help the environment and provide a habitat for small animals. The addition of more no mow zones would greatly reduce erosion, while helping to filter any water that runs through that area. The thick brush and grasses that grow will help to trap pollutants. It will reduce the area that has to be mowed, helping to save gas and limit air pollution from the machinery. It can also slow stormwater runoff, which can help prevent erosion. These no mow zones also reduce the workload of the staff responsible for mowing.

It would not be unreasonable to expand the no mow zones five feet from the edge of the woods. In most areas this land is not used anyway and would be much more beneficial to the environment then manicured grass. Here is a link to a video of a no mow zone on a college campus.  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CwrJp-rjZCA

Severall no mow zones are a good thing to have. There are many benefits and virtually no downfalls. With no mow zones you not only save time and money but at the same time you are helping the environment and providing a habitat for small animals. Christchurch is doing a very mature thing by adding no mow zones and should consider expanding them. To everyone outside of CCS you should also consider adding no mow zones to any unused land you may have.

Fertilizers

Fertilizers

What kind of fertilizer does Christchurch School use to fertilize the grass around campus? The fertilizer that we use is an organic fertilizer. The school gets people to bring in the fertilizer and put it on the grass to help grow. The name of the lawn care company is Organic Green Lawn Care. Fertilizers are helpful in a lot of ways but can be harmful in different ways. They are good because they help the plants grow bigger. They are bad because when it rains the runoff can carry the excess fertilizer to waterways, which can end up being bad for the animals in the waterways. It’s bad for the animals because the excess fertilizer can make the algae grow faster and grow more of it. The algae growing fast and growing a lot is bad because having a lot of algae in the water blocks sunlight from getting to the plants in the water and taking a lot of the oxygen in the water. The fertilizer that Organic Green Lawn Care uses is 30% organic and is mainly made up of granulated chicken poop. The three main organic ingredients are nitrogen that is 8%, organic potassium that is also 8%, organic and phosphors that is 5%, organic. When they put down the fertilizer they over lap the paths of the fertilizer so the grass gets an even coating of the nutrients and all the organic materials in the fertilizers. When you keep putting organic material on the ground it strengthens the soil with the nutrients that the plants need to grow.

In addition to fertilizer application, the groundkeepers of CCS also leave the clippings of grass that they cut there so the grass decays and becomes natural fertilizer. Leaving the grass clippings is also important because it gives a natural fertilizer that is good because it is a natural decaying substance that occurs even when the grass doesn’t get cut by humans. The clipping are left exactly where they were cut so it helps the grass grow back faster and thicker and also greener. Using this type of fertilizer is good because it is safe for the animals that live here and it doesn’t pollute the waterways as bad as non-organic fertilizer.

www.organicgreenlawn.com is the webpage for the company if you need any organic lawn cares done.

No Mow Zones

On our campus we have designated areas as no mow zones. This is because when these areas were mowed they would frequently get the tractors stuck. This was due to the wet ground. Also since these areas were not used there was no need for them to be mowed. These places are across the road from the soccer field and behind the soccer field. These areas are important for lessoning our impact on the river because they take out excess nutrients and sediment before they can enter our river. This is important before excess nutrients cause algae blooms that reduce visibility in the river, preventing sunlight from reaching the bottom. This kills aquatic grasses and therefore kills larger animals up the food chain. The excess sediment causes reduced visibility that kills even more underwater grasses. Also when the sediment settles it can cover kills oyster reefs and kill them. When this happens it kills more animals farther up the food chain as well. Also these areas slow run off. This allows for ground water recharge. Another benefit of these now mow zones is that they produce habitat for a variety of species. This fits in to the three E’s of sustainability. Those E’s are Environment, Economics and Equity. For the environment no mows zones provide habitat, ground water recharge, reduces run off and reduces excess nutrients and sediments entering our river. For economics it saves christchurch money by reduceing fuel costs and payroll for the time it take employees to mow. For equity no mow zones reduce employees work load. It is important to educate people about no mow zones because despite all the benefits of them many people do not like them because society teaches us to want to keep our yards neat and mowed. In the future we could increase the no mow zones on campus by bringing the tree line around campus in about five feet. This would create much more habitat and in most places would be easy to do and not affect anyone.

No mow zones on our campus:

The above picture shows the no mow zone behind the soccer field. The arrows show the direction that run off travels. Here you can see you how no mow zone slow down run off to increase ground water recharge and filter out excess nutrients and sediments.

Written By: Carter Little

The CCS Garden

The CCS Garden

Did you know that CCS has a Garden? Well it does. Living Campus has planted onions, mixed greens and arugula this fall. Most of the seeds have germinated and there are lots of sprouts showing themselves. You may ask why do we have a garden? Well, there is not just one answer to that, there are many: they are fun to work on, they are very rewarding to see what you can grow and just how big or cool looking your greens can be. A garden is one thing we should do if we want to become more sustainable. If we continue to work and expand the garden we could grow enough food to provide the salad bar with greens. This would save the school a little money but also local fruits and vegetables taste better than ones grown thousands of miles away that are shipped in from other countries. It also gives us a connection to the land and environment. The garden also provides hands on learning experience that cannot be found in a classroom and would be nice if eventually all classes incorporate the garden into their curriculum. This can be helpful because everybody learns differently. The hands on approach are what some kids need and a garden can provide that method. The garden also provides chances to work on team building and sustainability. The garden here at school can help the environment by providing pollen for bees and other insects. Now you may ask why should I care about the garden. Well its simple, it is good and easy sustainable project that’s fun to work on but also helpful to the community.

Written By: Brendan McCarthy