CalWood Overnight

We spent the weekend at CalWood Education Center, hiking, camping, and practicing wilderness survival skills.  Students hiked 2 miles in to the campsite, set up a wide range of shelters (tarp shelter, tent, schwag), and, after some lunch

we hit the trail again to do some wildfire mitigation.

Students braved a cold night, using hot water bottles at their feet to stay warm, and loving the fire early in the morning.

After a second group hike to see a waterfall and mountain lion’s winter cave,

After another delicious lunch, everyone piled into the van and headed for home.

Many thanks to our co-instructor Kelly Grebe for her assistance and expertise of the local flora, fauna, and landscape.

Click here to see all the weekend’s pictures

Gear Check!

Students spent the day in the park across from PS1 learning the ins and outs of backpacking gear.  Topics included strategies for staying warm while sleeping, how to layer insulating clothing, water filtration, stove use, backcountry cooking, and packing strategies. 

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Water Sentinels

PS1 staff and students spent a chilly Wednesday along Bear Creek on the 16th of April collecting water samples for the Sierra Club’s Water Sentinels Program.  Kirk Cunningham, Bill Myers, and Dan Ridgeway  of the Sierra Club facilitated the outing.  Students collected samples that will be laboratory tested for the presence of E coli, Selenium, Nitrogen, Phosphate, and Copper, as well as taking and recording measurements of water temperature, conductivity, and dissolved oxygen content.  The Water Sentinels Program is an important grass-roots way for the public to monitor the health of their waterways, and to make sure our governmental agencies are doing all they can to keep our watershed clean.

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Celebrate Earth Day at the Green Apple Festival Sunday, April 20th!

On Sunday, April 20, in Denver’s City Park, Cottonwood Institute will be participating in the largest Earth Day celebration in the history of the Front Range!  The 1st Annual Green Apple Music Festival will occur from Noon to 6 p.m., and will feature a wide variety of green businesses, organic and natural food vendors, nonprofit organizations, speakers, and music by local and national bands such as the Neville Brothers, Rose Hill Drive, and the Duo.  The Green Apple Music Festival is FREE and will be occurring simultaneously in eight US Cities, making it America’s largest Earth Day Festival.  Come be part of the fun as we celebrate the beauty and majesty of Mother Earth.

The Cottonwood Institute is looking for CAP and CI Alumni to help volunteer at the Green Apple Music Festival at City Park. We need help representing the Cottonwood Institute at our booth, while soaking in some rays and listing to great live music. If you can make it down to Denver for an hour or two to help us out, please email Jamie Dent: jamie@cottonwoodinstitute.org.

For more information about the event, go to Green Apple Festival Website.

Smoke, no fire…yet.

The CAP class spent Tuesday’s session at the park across the street working some bow drill skills, with special guest instructor and Cottonwood Institute founder Ford Church lending a hand.  Although the bow drill is an extremely difficult skill to learn and master, the students pushed through their difficulties and kept working at it even after many frustrating setbacks.  Most students/groups got at least a bit of smoke today, a great start, and one that we’ll build off as the quarter goes on.

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Cordage and Tea

Students spent class today researching and utilizing Stinging Nettle, a plant well-known to native people for its nutritive properties, its medicinal uses and for producing the strongest plant-fiber cordage in the natural world.   Students sampled Nettle leaf tea, and discussed The Sacred Question.

Special thanks to Jessie and JJ (our newest TA) for their assistance as we learned cordage.

How Green are Solar Panels?

In many circumstances, the products we use in our efforts to be more
sustainable have a bigger footprint than we think. Recent articles in
the Washington Post and from the Worldwatch Institute
show how the production of large amounts of polysilicon in China are
dumping toxic wastes on the surrounding landscape—the homes of poor
Chinese villagers. The byproducts from these industrial processes
include silicon tetrachloride, which ruins the soil chemistry and
releases poisonous fumes. The situation is ironically inconsistent with
the end use of this valuable product, which is usually for photovoltaic
solar panels, which turn solar energy into "green, renewable"
electricity. This is actually only one example of the ways that efforts
by the developed world to become sustainable only result in more
environmental degradation and socio-economic disparities.

The
situation in [one Chinese] village points to the environmental
trade-offs the world is making as it races to head off a dwindling
supply of fossil fuels. Forests are being cleared to grow biofuels like
palm oil, but scientists argue that the disappearance of such huge
swaths of forests is contributing to climate change. Hydropower dams
are being constructed to replace coal-fired power plants, but they are
submerging whole ecosystems under water. –washingtonpost.com

Producing
polysilicon is extremely profitable due to high demand, and the Chinese
manufacturers are increasing their profits by refusing to invest in
recycling technology, which is available now. The manufacturers
apparently have the law on their side. They maintain that their
practices are in keeping with all Chinese environmental restrictions,
and while formal complaints have been made to portions of the
government responsible for environmental protection, no action has been
taken.

Guiding Questions:

To what extent is the industrial production of a product the
responsibility of the various stake holders: the government, the
impacted villagers, the company producing the material, the companies
that buy the materials to produce the  end product, and the eventual
consumer? Also, what can a potential consumer (or just a concerned
individual) in the US do to oppose this kind of situation?

Survivorman Movie Night

One man – alone in the wilderness for seven days. No food, no shelter, no fresh water, no tools. Survivorman star Les Stroud has what it takes to survive, do you? To find out, join the Cottonwood Institute and REI this Thursday, April 3, 2008 as we host a Survivorman Movie Night. We will watch an episode of the hit television show Survivorman and hold an informal discussion to share survival priorities, tips, strategies, and techniques. This free clinic will be held at 7pm at the REI store in Boulder.

New quarter, new instructor…

The CAP class at PS1 started the new quarter with new instructor Steve McCue, who will be taking over for Megan to finish off the year.  The class spent the day discussing the import of Awareness, a skill absolutely essential for survival in both natural and urban settings.  The class finished the day with rehearsal for tomorrow’s convocation presentation.