The Desert

This past weekend I spent three days in Moab, Utah conducting interviews for the project and frankly enjoying the desert. I made great progress gathering contacts by visiting the Times-Independent headquarters. This is the paper that I have been doing most of my research on. I have read about 200 of the papers so getting to see where they are created was a real treat. My friend, a Moab local, gave me the name of a person who worked there and so I walked in and asked for him. It turned out that Zane Taylor was the publisher of the newspaper and a great help to me. He took me on a tour of the facilities and is now working with me to put together a list of contacts that I will use to conduct more interviews. The hospitality of the Moab people did not stop there however, another one of my friends contacts a woman by the name of Maggie was extremely kind to us when I called and asked if we could borrow a climbing rope. She took my friends and I climbing at some great spots and gave us her gear while she was at work. Below are some pictures I took on this trip.

During my tour of the Time-Independent I got to see some old school printing machinery. 

And the new stuff...

Every newspaper from the last year. 

Newspaper from the 1890's 

We got to have some fun climbing...

And going to the farmers market. 

A desert Oasis

Balanced Rock.

A desert Rainbow

Sunsets

and of course more climbing!

I am looking forward to my next trip to Moab in two weeks. I am going to be doing even more interviews and exploring the natural beauty in the area. Look for some major updates coming soon!

The Park Ranger

Diane Tom 

So I’m a teacher ranger teacher and what this program is is that they invite teachers to apply for a job as a park ranger for eight weeks in the summer and I not only learn about a certain park and the resources but I also am supposed to take that information I have learned and bring it back into the classroom and to share with the students about national parks and the environment so that they understand this heritage that they have here in america because in order to join the program you have to be in a school that have students where the majority receive reduced price lunches so a lot of them don't have access to a national park they are either in the cities or they just don't have the financial means to go on trips so this is the chance for the parks service to reach out to students and teach them about our natural heritage
and is this your first year in the program?This is actually my third year in the program
And how have you brought the information back to the classroom?It's been great I’m actually from Los Angeles and since we don't have a national park close by we have a national recreation area about an hour and a half away from the city I have incorporated some of the videos from the park and the science from the parks because I am a science teacher so that they understand science going on now not science like this is the way the environment is but that its a changing ecosystem so I use some of the resources on the website and also during National Parks week I have my students do a project where they become an expert on one of the Parks Historical or nature related because I want them to see that there is a lot of historical relevance here in the parks and so each one receives a brochure they become an expert on their park and the create sort of a travel poster to advertise their park and what attractions they have. and they also had to picture themselves in the park in the poster somehow so that they could be there and they presented that to the class. My students now have this curiosity about wow thats a neat place I studied and I want to go there or Wow that person talked about this really interesting thing I want to go there and so that's what I did to talk about the parks with my students.
And what year do you teach?I teach seventh grade science
And have you noticed a change at all in the students?You know because I talk too much about the environment  because they know I put my ranger hat in my classroom they realize it's important to me. I did a field trip that parks week and brought about 30 students to the local national recreation area they kind of are getting the idea that these are important places. National Park week happens in April it's hard for me to see after teaching them what the impact was later on but I do get the sense that they are aware of it they get that it's important they do express an interest to go visit the places. Many of them i'm never sure but thats teaching. You never know what seed you have planted.
Have you noticed a difference between the levels of environmental interest between Moab and L.A.?Yes definitely but I have a very limited view because I work at the desk of Canyonlands  the people coming to me already care it's a given but just this environment it seems like with all the recreation opportunity and the outdoors it seems like it naturally fosters that I would imagine in the students here rather than where I come from where  they are so exposed to lets say Hollywood and the computers and texting it's just a different environment I mean I’m really glad I am part of this program to let them see there is more than just the city life and there is something out there that they are not familiar with but it's good to find out more about and experience that too.

Diane at the Moab Farmers Market presenting on the risks of Tamarisk in local parks. 

The Outsider

Dana

So where are you from?I’m from High Falls New York which is in mid Hudson Valley
And you grew up there?I actually grew up in Westchester which is the lower Hudson Valley but the mid Hudson Valley is a pretty unique area in that people flock to it who do care about environmental issues. It's a huge farming hub theres tons of farms I mean you can get local anything you can live entirely on locally raised grass fed meat people raise chickens eggs tons of produce cheese farms
And would you say most people do choose to live that way?Yeah, I think so because the history of the area is that it is a framing area. There are farms that are 300 years old. High Falls was settled in the 1600’s I think that's what people mainly did was farm. It's interesting because there was a period of  time when that wasn’t happening anymore and now its going back to that which is amazing and since there is all this fertile ground that has been farmed for so long people are really protective of the area the fracking issue is interesting because there are a lot of new people coming in it's a very touristy area there's a lot of money there are a lot of people from their area who don't have very much and the problem is that oil companies are offering people a lot of money to drill on their land and people who are not doing so well are willing to take it but they don't realize that it's going to affect the drinking water for everyone so it's kind of this issue where there are these people who are very anti fracking and pro environment  but then there's the other end of the spectrum which is probably true here too im sure theres tons of that here too I mean there's people that have lived here forever and then theres people that come here who seem like environmental activists but they are imports from other areas. So I think that's kind of the case with why certain places are hubs of environmental activism and other places are not. Its because this place, it's not just the people who are from here people flock to the area because of that which is like Newport New York it's this great place the college is there and there is a ton of environmental activism and its because people are drawn to it for that reason.

Dana Enjoying her Saturday morning at the farmers market. 

The Teacher

Erik Secrist
The Teacher
Have you in Castle Valley for a while?
Yeah I have been living there for uh, about seven or eight years
Where did you move from?
From Russia, I lived in Russia for about ten years before that and before that Canada
And have you always been in this business? (goat farming)
No I’m a teacher so this is a part time business for me and I’ve been teaching since I finished school but I have only been doing this for four years or so
And have there been any environmental impacts involving your work?Uh not too much so far the part of Castle Valley that we are located in is a sort of in the center in the valley and the wells there are pretty good the quality of water is good and you know we don’t grow our own hay we have small pastures but most hay comes from the farm Castle Valley Farm at the lower end of the valley which grows alfalfa and grass hay so we try to get our hay through them so we don’t have to worry about water or hay
And do you teach there?No I teach here in Moab
Have you used any techniques to get students interested in the environment?Um you know I’m an english teacher so you know I don’t know if i use special techniques but it is something that comes up in discussion a lot and there are certain things we do as a school not personal initiatives on my part but as a school we get the kids acquainted with the environment. There is the garden project, canyonlands field institute which does a program with the kids taking the kids to a camp in the fall we do some trips to National Parks with the kids.
Do you think that living in this specific area helps kids become interested in the environment?
Some of them, some of them definitely but surprisingly there are many of them haven't explored the area but some of them definitely You know I think if their parents have influenced them but even living next to National Parks it's surprising how many students aren't familiar with them or haven't been but I mean then there are a lot that are very much a part of that
And have you noticed a different level of environmental interest here versus places you have lived previously?Definitely, Moab has a definite very large community who are here because they love the place and want to preserve it other places I have lived not so much. Its good here, to see that.
If you could pick just a short phrase to describe Moabs view of the environment what would you say?Ah, In a way something you might think about is that with awareness comes concern. The one thing I notice is that students or people in general who are not aware can not be concerned. So awareness is the first step of familiarity is even more basic. You have to be aware of your environment to be concerned about it and so on. I mean I am sure there is a whole taxonomy out there to describe that growing awareness. I mean I would say for most people If they are not concerned its because they just don’t know. I think when people do know they do get concerned. Having experiences and information.... I don’t know I think I’d have to think about that one for a bit....

Erik hard at work at the Moab Farmers Market where he sells his Goat Cheese and Yogurt every Saturday. 

Overview

As part of a research project started by Jeff Nichols, a history professor at Westminster College, I began to look at the environmental history of Moab. This research consisted of reading through the local Moab newspaper to find articles of environmental interest. Through this process of research I discovered that the level of interest surrounding environmental issues was far greater in Moab than that of places I had lived.

From this observation I began to question where the passion for environmental issues is born. There were obvious reasons why a person in Moab, Utah may care more about the environment than a person just north in Salt Lake City but I wanted to hear first hand from natives of the town what they thought had spurred their own interest in the surrounding natural environment.

After reading many newspapers and collecting names of people most prevalent to environmental issues in the Moab area I decided that the best way to really find out where the passion for environment was born was to conduct personal interviews with members of the Moab community. From National Park rangers to high school students to city officials I would interview them all to find out what makes them care, or not care, about the environment.

When this idea was born and began to take shape I started thinking about my own communities and how I have come to care about the environment. Growing up in a suburb of Chicago was a drastically different upbringing  than that of a child in Moab and yet I somehow found a love of the environment. Moving to Salt Lake City to go to college I noticed a dramatic difference in environmental concern from one city to the next. I became interested in not just Moab, but all cities ability to foster a care for the environment in its citizens.

This interest sparked the idea for a much larger project. Thinking long term I decided that rather than just focus on Moab as my area of interest I would expand the project to include many more cities and towns around the world. This project will take years of time and the research will be extensive but my hope is that by the end of the project I will have made clear distinctions as to what external things can bring a person to be passionate towards the environment and which things turn someone away from caring about environmental issues. Ideally this information could be used to help communities, businesses and schools understand and employ techniques that will raise environmentally conscious citizens.