USEE :: Utah Society for Environmental Education

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USEE Member Highlights

Welcome to the USEE Member Highlights page. We strive to visit one member a month and highlight their incredible work in our USEE Enewsletter and on the USEE Blog. You can watch and read about our visits below:

Member Highlight Videos

Member Highlight Articles

To learn more about becoming an Institutional Member of USEE, visit our membership page. If you are already a USEE Institutional Member and would like to participate in a member highlight opportunity, please contact Charice by calling 801-328-1549 or by email at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

Tara Poelzing (Local Food Bee)

(June 2011)

By Maria Tarduno

Tara

Our summer member highlight video adventures brought USEE staff to the residence of Tara Poelzing, author of the Local Food Bee blog. Tara first became interested in eating locally when her friends told her about an article they read about an eat local challenge. She then decided to do her own 250 mile challenge, where for a month she ate food that only came from 250 miles or less from her home. What she was most frustrated about during this challenge was that it was so hard to find places that offered local food. She wanted a place where she could go to look up organizations that sold local food without having to run all around town to look for a simple ingredient. This inspired her to start a blog that has a collection of resources for eating locally.

Tara explains that “we have to eat”. We may have a choice about driving or purchasing clothes and other goods, but as humans we need to eat to survive and every time we decide to put something in our bodies it is a choice. This is why eating locally is so prominent, because we are faced with this decision multiple times a day and eating locally is something you can do that is both healthy for your body and the environment. So why would you choose anything but the best?

Tara admits that it isn’t always easy to eat locally. She explains that sometimes there are foods that aren’t possible to get locally that one may want or need for a healthy diet. For example, she wants her son to have a healthy, diverse diet, which is hard if she is restricting his diet to only local foods. Tara admits that she has a weakness for coffee, which she does give up during the Eat Local Challenge. She notes that there are also seasonal difficulties like when all of the preserves for the winter are gone that also may make buying nonlocally a necessity. This is why she focuses on practicality in her blog. She believes that if people think eating locally is an all or nothing effort that people will not be inclined to try it and that is not what eating locally is about. Tara believes any kind of effort to eat more local food is a step in the right direction. Tara suggests making the move towards a local diet “little by little”. Making a sweeping change isn’t practical for most people and therefore will not last very long. For her, however, as she did the Eat Local Challenge year after year and continuously focuses on buying local when she can, eating local has become integrated into her normal lifestyle. She also notes that eating local is catching on. She, as I’m sure many of you are starting to realize that there is more advertisement for local foods in magazines, newspapers, and a variety of stores and restraunts that are offering local food.

Tara appreciates the continuous networking opportunities and support given by USEE. She also received her Environmental Education Teacher Certification through USEE and explains that she is so greatful to have been given a mentor to guide her through her goals and who understands her work and whom she is still in contact with. In 2009, Tara was recognized by USEE as the Vern A. Fridley Enviornmental Educator of the year. She expresses that this not only made her feel important, but also supported by a group of people who were willing to fight for the beliefs she shares.

Tara is proof that you do not need to be a food scientist or expert to maintain a sustainable diet. Tara has an academic background in Environmental Education but when it comes to food, she explains it is all on the job learning. She has done her own research on where to find local sources from resources such as edible Wasatch, but she explains many of the resources on her blog were things that she found by taking the time to go into stores and markets and ask around.

Lucilly for us, we have Tara’s blog, which has an extensive list of businesses that carry local food organized by food group on her blog!

TRACY AVIARY

(May 2009)

by Alaina Caudillo

tracyaviaryfrontbuilding A few weeks ago on a sunny day in May, Andree', Nicole, TJ, and I went to the Tracy Aviary. Though I have been to Liberty Park more times than I can count, somehow I had never been to this wonderful place, tucked in the Southwest corner of the park. Walking in, there are little painted bird tracks that lead up to the visitor booth, where friendly employees are ready to greet you and collect the affordable $5 fee. Right away there are opportunities for visitors and kids to interact with the ducks, feeding them pellets. Peacocks wander about flashing their myriad of colors to instantly entertain the eye. Kids run excitedly from bird to bird, marveling at the opportunity to see something they might never have seen before. Learning is fun here, and each bird has a story to tell.

Open to the public since 1938, Tracy Aviary maintains a collection of approximately 400 birds representing about 135 species. Many of these birds are considered rare or endangered. Many of the birds living at Tracy Aviary have been rescued, though some of the visitors are still wild. The Feathered Friends Feeder Yards, behind the Chase Mill and at the southeast corner of the Aviary, encourage visits by numerous species of sparrows, chickadees, starlings and finches.

The USEE staff was happy to enjoy a potluck lunch with the Director or Education, the Education Manager, and the rest of the education staff, followed by an informative tour of the facility. The employees are very knowledgeable and encouraged our questions while providing a wealth of information to absorb. We were able to see the new Destination Argentina! exhibit. Destination Argentina! opened July 15, 2005. The exhibit brings a little bit of Argentina to Utah, so you can see where some of our Utah birds go when they migrate. Every year, hundreds of thousands of shorebirds from Utah's Great Salt Lake fly south to winter in Argentina. So the next time you're looking for a fun educational adventure, fly by the Aviary and treat yourself to a mini vacation.

Daily events include:

Amazon Adventure: Now open where you can feed the flock of sun conures. These beautiful and endangered South American parrots will eat right from your hand! Feeding times are 10:30, 11:30, 12:30, 1:30 & 2:30 daily.
Cuckoo Corner: Now open to the public where you can feed the guira cuckoos! The friendly and funny cuckoos are specially trained to flock to a perch so you can get an up close and personal view as you feed them a tasty treat. Feeding times are 10:00 & 12:00 daily.
Kennecott Wetland Immersion Experience: Now open to the public, housing 12 wetland bird species, 6732 gallons of water and about 30 varieties of Utah native plants. This 30-foot high elliptical building was created for Aviary visitors to experience a wetland habitat without having to leave downtown Salt Lake City.

Other Daily Events:

Birdshow Daily at 11:00, 1:00, 3:00
Pelican Feeding at 2:00

USU WATER QUALITY EXTENSION

(2009)

by Andree' Walker Bravo

nancy Congratulations to Nancy Mesner and USU Water Quality Extension!

Congratulations to Nancy Mesner of our member organization Utah State University Water Quality Extension for receiving the division’s 2009 Calvin K. Sudweeks Water Quality Award in an April 1 ceremony at the Utah Water Environmental Association’s annual meeting in St. George.

“Nancy has developed this exemplary extension program, while also maintaining an active research program in the influence of land use on water quality and in teaching courses on oceanography, water quality and pollution,” said Walt Baker, UDWQ director. “As part of the Western Regional Water Quality Extension Team, she has become well known for her expertise, good humor and high energy in both the regional and national water quality programs.”

Mesner, an associate professor in the Department of Watershed Sciences and program leader for USU Natural Resources Extension, has coordinated statewide educational efforts in water quality assessment and monitoring along with the statewide volunteer monitoring program Utah Lake Watch. Read the entire article here.

UTAH MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY

(August 2008)

by Andree' Walker Bravo

umnh Last week, Jason and I had the opportunity to visit with Madlyn Runburg, Director of School Programs, at the Utah Museum of Natural History. Being new to Utah, Jason had never been there, and though I’ve been in Utah for many years, I hadn’t been there either so Madlyn was gracious enough to show us around. A few highlights from our tour were watching the Museum volunteers casting dinosaur bones, the amazing Native American bead work, the massive skeletons, and the beautiful minerals.

Not only does the Museum provide wonderful exhibits in their building, but they provide quality programming as well. They have in-house school programs, which include self guided tours and Junior Science Academy classes for students. They also have a Museum on the Move program that travels to 4th grade classes across the state to teach a variety of science topics using an inquiry based approach. Additional programs are also offered that provide extensive resources for teachers; Teaching Toolboxes, Professional Development, Ask The Scientist and Scientist in the Spotlight. For the general public, they offer a lecture series, a book club, movie nights, gallery programs, camps and more.

One of the most impressive programs the Museum runs is their Youth Teaching Youth Program. For this program, middle school students apply, interview and are trained to teach outreach programs in 4th grade classes at underserved Salt Lake City schools. The middle school students can teach until they reach high school and then have the option of mentoring the new teaching recruits. The high school students also get assistance with internships, college visits, scholarship applications, etc. What a wonderful way to involve students in teaching science and prolonging that experience for them to make it meaningful and lasting.

When we asked Madlyn her favorite thing about working for the Utah Museum of Natural History she replied that she enjoyed the many different interests and skills of employees at the Museum – from marketing to scientists, everyone has their place. She also loves to see the skills and passion that back up their work. Most of all she said that everyone works from a set of shared values and goals for the Museum and does all that they can to support those values.

After our visit, I took my family back to the museum. I was again impressed and agree with all that Madlyn said. With their new building underway it is clear that UMNH is poised to continue offering quality programs that serve a diverse audience.

FOUR CORNERS

(February 2008)

by Jason Taylor

The 8th Annual Colorado Plateau Bioregional Outdoor Education Conference was held in Blanding, UT February 29-March 2. USEE's Executive Director Jason Taylor attended the event along with participants from across the four corners including teachers, non-formal educators and exhibitors. The pre-conference workshop "Children Deserve Wild Spaces" focused on integrating language arts and science standards through outdoor exploration. The featured speaker, Craig Childs, explored desert ecology with excerpts from his book "House of Rain: Tracking A Vanished Civilization Across The Southwest". The remainder of the conference consisted of a variety of concurrent sessions, including a discussion of how to involve current events in the classroom.

OGDEN NATURE CENTER

(January 2008)

By Andree’ Walker Bravo

ONC building Last month, Jason and I visited Mary McKinley and April Phillips at the Ogden Nature Center (ONC). What a wonderful place! I've been to the ONC many times before, but have always been teaching a workshop or caught up in something else for work. It was a wonderful experience to be able to walk the grounds, visit with the birds in the Mews (especially Cronk, the Raven who likes to do tricks for the students coming to see him), tour the Green Buildings and chat with Mary and April.

The Mission of the ONC is to affect change to the point where they have created an environmentally sustainable community. I was blown away as Mary and April described the many programs that they have for youth to adults, ranging from school programs to day camps to evening concerts and more. They reach over 12,000 youth through their school programs, and countless community members. Another impressive fact I learned about ONC is that they have 300 active volunteers! The programs at ONC never seem to end….

As we were wrapping up our time at ONC, I asked both Mary and April their favorite parts of the nature center. Mary replied that she loves the property, just the feel of it. She also enjoys all the people involved in the nature center – the staff, the visitors and the volunteers. "It's a pleasure to be here every day" she said. April commented on the sense of wonder that surrounds the nature center, especially working with children. She loves having that sense of wonder herself everyday as well as seeing it in the children she teaches.

I would encourage everyone to visit the Ogden Nature Center and experience that sense of wonder for themselves. But watch out, you might stumble upon the three resident turkeys Tom, Thomas and Tommie! If you do, tell them hi from the USEE staff.

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