In Season: Black Huckleberry

written by Bachelor of Applied Science in Sustainable Practices student Carter Jones

Campus Delight: Discover the Bountiful Black Huckleberry Season! 🌿🍇

Get ready to embark on a delicious adventure as we dive into the world of black huckleberries, their vibrant history, where to find them, and how you can savor these tiny treats. Don’t miss out on this exciting opportunity to connect with nature and satisfy your taste buds – let’s dive into the berry-licious goodness that awaits you!

Description

Meet the Pacific Northwest’s Native Gem: Vaccinium ovatum, more commonly known as black huckleberry, California huckleberry, or evergreen huckleberry. These delightful little wonders are set to tantalize your taste buds! When you sink your teeth into these petite, sweet orbs, they offer a delightful ‘pop’ that’s reminiscent of your favorite popping boba. Their flavor is a close cousin to the beloved blueberry, but here’s the tip: for the ultimate taste adventure, savor a small handful all at once to balance any hint of tartness and dryness. Let’s uncover more about these tiny, berry sensations!

Location

Black Huckleberry can be found in multiple locations around campus: Inside the food forest, outside Discovery Hall, and outside CC3.

Food Forest:  these tall, skinny shrubs will be among the first to greet you as they’re clustered on either side of the main sign, along with several other companion plants.

Discovery Hall: Black Huckleberry abundance lines the walkways all around the parking lot. Seriously, there are so many up here, it’s a berry palooza.

CC3 Building: These bushes have a wider spread than the other ones on campus. They line the pathway from the bus station up to the terraced entryway, making them a great snack on your way to, or from, class!

How to Identify

The black huckleberry plants here on campus are well maintained, so our Vaccinium ovatum bushes appear about 3 ft tall and quite skinny. The stalks range from brown to red in color, and tend to shoot straight up rather than branching out horizontally, though they can do so in the wild. The leaves are about 3-5 cm in length, oval-shaped, and alternate along the stem. The leaflets have a smooth feeling, and are generally a glossy dark green color, sometimes with some red variations. The berries grow very close to the stalk and start out a red color when they begin fruiting. You can tell the berries are ripe and ready to eat when they’ve turned a dark purplish black color.

Indigenous background

The historical uses of black huckleberry by indigenous communities in the Northwestern United States and Canada exemplify the connection between these native peoples and the land they inhabit. Evergreen huckleberry was a valuable resource to tribes in British Columbia and western Washington, like the Sechelt, Comox, Straits, Halkomelem, Lower Nlaka’pamux Salish, Nuu-chah-nulth, and the Quinault tribes. Evergreen huckleberries were the last fruits to be gathered in the season, especially since it’s said that they become even more delectable after freezing temperatures! Traditionally the berries were eaten fresh, often accompanied with oil. They could also be sun or smoke-dried, partially mashed, pressed into cake form, and wrapped in leaves or bark for preservation. It’s more common these days for black huckleberries to be made into jams or jellies, which is exactly what we recommend doing with your harvests!

Recipes

So what exactly can you do with these little berries? 

We’ve got a couple of recipes for you to try!

The simplest and most versatile choice is, of course, jam or jelly.
We recommend this jam recipe by Kimberly Killebrew at The Daring Gourmet. It uses small quantities of ingredients so it’s the perfect choice for folks that don’t want to spend too long picking berries, especially if they’re not sure they’re going to like the result.

If you’re a huge huckleberry fan and you’ve just got a desire to put them in everything, this list provided by Bosky Dell Natives has several tantalizing, mouth-watering recipes to try. Personally, I think I’ll be making that Huckleberry pie to wow my family at Thanksgiving!

Conclusion

As we conclude our black huckleberry exploration, we hope you’re now as excited as we are about this vibrant, seasonal treasure right here on campus. Nature has blessed us with these sweet, petite delights, so why not grab a basket, gather your friends, and embark on a berry-picking adventure on campus? Take a moment to connect with the beauty of nature and indulge your senses in this delightful, seasonal bounty. Don’t wait too long; the season is fleeting, and these delicious huckleberries won’t be around forever. Happy harvesting, fellow foragers, and savor every bite of this incredible campus treasure!

Happy Harvesting! 🌿🍇

Sources

https://landscapeplants.oregonstate.edu/plants/vaccinium-ovatum
https://www.wnps.org/native-plant-directory/47-vaccinium-ovatum
https://www.daringgourmet.com/wild-huckleberry-jam/
https://www.boskydellnatives.com/description_page/Vaccinium_ovatum.htm

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Read about more foods and plants that are forage-worthy throughout the year! Check out the grounds and food forest sections of our blog – and see what’s In Season! https://cascadiaupdates.wordpress.com/cascadias-cornucopia-and-the-campus-grounds/

Sustainable Elements of Campus Fall 2023 edition

Welcome back to campus for our Fall 2023 quarter! The sustainability committee would like to share updates and reminders, and showcase our campus efforts for new employees and students!

Waste sorting
It’s an important part of campus. We have triple bin stations in the hallways, to sort your trash
-Compost is any food based product or soiled paper towels or napkins – If desired, you can also bring food waste to campus for our worm bins on the south side (LL) of CC1 just outside the doors!
–Please remember to remove any plastic parts – wrappers, packet containers, or plastic straws. They’re 99% non-compostable!
-Recycling – any clean and separated plastics as big as your fist, and glass, paper, cardboard, and aluminum can go in here!
-Landfill – everything else, or if you’re not sure! (Please don’t put things that “might” compost or recycle in those bins!)

–Terracycle boxes – for specialty item recycling! We can currently accept:

• batteries,
• small electronics,
• toothbrushes,
• toothpaste tubes,
• art supplies,
• disposable gloves,
• snack wrappers (ended Dec 2023),
• shampoo containers (small),
• Brita filters (New!!),
• and razor blades and handles.

Please deposit them in the right container and check the lid of each! Sadly, the pens box has ended. One last reminder! Paper towels compost!

Awards, certifications!
Cascadia is a special place for our campus grounds – We have 4 certifications – Salmon Safe, Bee Campus USA, National Wildlife Habitat, and Green Grounds! We’re the first college in the nation to certify for Green Grounds this year in 2023!! Cascadia is also the #1 campus in the nation for Sustainable Grounds since 2018!

Office/Classroom practices
–All printing is in black and white and double sided by default to save paper and ink.
–Please turn lights off, and put computers to sleep at end of shift – remember to turn off all monitors!
–Water refill stations are around for you to refill your own bottles! (points if you can find the secret one on the LL of CC1)

Food forest, and food access
Because we’re a pesticide free, permaculture campus, we have multiple edible campus areas for anyone (including the public) to forage and find food. Our National Award Winning Food Forest has fruit trees from around the world, and the campus farm is often open to picking! There are also two orchards and two herb locations. Plus, check out the planters around campus for other edible plants! Just remember to be 100% sure you know what you’re picking before you eat it!
(new space addition! Go check out the little library we added in the spring to the Food forest! It’s behind the mulberry tree!)

Faculty Climate Justice Institute
Last spring, we had a group of faculty working to design and add Climate Justice to their classes across the curriculum! We’re looking to expand that further, help faculty with the Sustainability Designation for COGs (as desired), and connect with others in the 5-star consortium for adding climate justice to being a core part of education here! This means connecting environment, human equity and inclusion, and economic stability together – (powers combined!) to form Sustainability!

Class visit and workshop offerings to any class!
Faculty, or offices, do you want to learn more about any of these topics, or have a presentation to your class? The Sustainable Practices office can present to you or classes in variable amounts on waste, the wetland/stormwater, sustainability on campus, and general sustainable practices! We offer tours, workshops, campus walks, and class presentations (from 5 min to 1.5 hours!)
–There’s also student opportunities interning or volunteering with stormwater sampling, bee research/managing, and supporting various offices like DEI or Sustainable Practices on campus!
–Many haven’t heard, but we also have a Canvas course to introduce anyone to Sustainability! Come check out the “Sustainability at Cascadia” guide! https://cascadia.instructure.com/courses/2001262

Student Internship: Sustainability Office and Campus Activities

written by student Cory C.

I have been fortunate to work on an internship here at Cascadia College with Stephan. My learning outcomes were focused on gaining some experience in supporting an organization to spread sustainability awareness and foster a welcoming, inclusive, educational, and healthy environment for all visitors. When I reflect on the last few weeks, I find myself with a renewed drive to devote my work life toward sustainability and shape a future that will support the generations to come. I have spent my time working with Stephan tackling various projects around Cascadia and it has provided me with a better understanding of all the work there is to do in the field of sustainability. First and foremost, about teaching others.

I understand that most folks aren’t thinking about their actions and how they have the power to influence change. Both on a small scale (like changing small personal behavior at home and on campus) and a larger one (using their buying power to support organizations that are actively applying sustainable practices to their business model). On a whole, I believe people are so focused on the task at hand that they lose sight of the bigger picture. I am guilty of this myself. The responsibilities of the day can outshine the needs of our environment.  But bringing sustainability to the forefront can inspire change. Through this internship, I see that there is so much work to be done in educating others about sustainability. Education and awareness may urge people to work towards improving the environment and maybe help others to do so.

By compiling some community resources and building some blogs during my work in this internship, another revelation I have had during this time is how important social justice and an equitable economy are to sustainability.  When people are struggling to keep food on the table and are fighting battles for their civil liberties, they won’t have any energy left to care about the environment OR their fellow humans. They will only focus on their immediate needs. Putting these together reminded me that there are people working to ease the burden on students to help them focus on their educational goals. This reduces their stress and might give them an opportunity to become stewards to an environmental or social cause. At times I have lost my hope and see this as an uphill, unwinnable battle, but the work I have been doing these last few weeks has renewed my optimism and hope for humanity. I see the work that Stephan, the Sustainability Office, and the groups working to build resources for students are making a big impact on the greater Cascadia Community.

Stormwater sampling (as a portion of my internship) was a fantastic experience because it provided an opportunity for me to rub elbows with others. I met some wonderful people who gave me a lot of insight into the BASSP program and what I could expect if I choose to enroll in the program. Additionally, stormwater sampling gave me some experience in a lab and following procedures to receive accurate results. I see big benefits for students in this region by gaining this experience. There is so much opportunity for improvement in this area and with our rainy climate, there is a big need for working on creating solutions for stormwater to surface water pollution. I am grateful for the experience and eager to do more stormwater sampling in the future!

I also feel very fortunate to be able to volunteer at the Green Infrastructure Summit. I found myself a little out of my depth in the beginning. However, all the experts who attended were welcoming and approachable. They were all very passionate about the summit and the community they were building. Throughout the summit, I experienced a theme of solidarity, and everyone seemed eager to share knowledge and generate excitement in the work that they were doing. I witnessed people supporting and cheering each other on. In the end, I feel encouraged by the experience of volunteering at this event and I feel reinvigorated to follow this path into sustainability. I believe I can add something to this community and support the progress these amazing people are making.

During this internship, when the information I was coming across became too technical, there were times I found myself losing focus and interest. However, this made me realize where I want to focus my attention when I establish a career in sustainability. Sharing knowledge and advocating for social and environmental justice. Even something as simple as editing captions of the sustainability videos was work that I felt was adding to inclusion and helping others to learn. And if I can transfer my appreciation for that into a career it would be a huge win!

Our Bachelor of Applied Science students get real hands on field experience, and opportunities to learn in a variety of interested careers! For more information on BASSP, please go to https://www.cascadia.edu/programs/degrees/bassp.aspx or check out other student stories on the main Sustainability page!

Student Internship: UW Bothell/ Cascadia Student Gardener

written by BASSP student Kate Foreman

I started working on the grounds team at UW Bothell in October 2022, where I was assigned to the wetland crew with Gabe Barnes and another intern. Throughout the winter, we were subject to a broad spectrum of weather, ranging from freezing rain, snow, and hail, to harsh winds, and bitter cold, to the occasional sunny day where temperatures rose above 35 degrees. Rain or shine, we worked outside, performing wetland restoration and maintenance tasks; and I looked forward to coming in each day.

I consider this internship one of the most rewarding and enjoyable experiences of my adult career thus far.

            Working in the wetlands, there are always signs of our hardworking ecosystem engineers, the resident beavers. Despite the havoc they can inflict on the trees, it is well understood the value they provide to ecosystems, and I would consider them to be partners of the wetlands crew, as they work diligently helping to cut up the fast-growing, pioneer trees like willows and poplars, which often fall over in the wind. I was able to gain experience repairing a bridge with a fallen tree we pulled out of the river, which a beaver so kindly de-barked and chewed to size. We spent time wrapping trees to protect them from beavers, planting trees such as Douglas firs, grand-firs, Sitka spruce, and shore pines. We also planted numerous species of berries, including Snowberry, Thimbleberry, Huckleberry, Osoberry, Salmonberry, Mock-Orange, Trailing Raspberry, Gooseberry, and Saskatoon. I learned how to plant saplings and starts, plant cuttings, up-pot, identify native species, identify and safely remove invasive species, repair and maintain trails, and how to be a steward of our beautiful wetlands and grounds.

 I believe what made my experience so valuable was having Gabe, the wetland crew leader, as my supervisor. He is the embodiment of a dedicated wetland steward, and also has a wealth of knowledge about the history and ecology of the campus wetland, native flora and fauna, restoration practices and gardening, trail construction and maintenance, geology, mycology, carpentry, just to name a few. He gave detailed answers to all of my questions, and in just a few months I have filled half of my journal with notes from the information he shared.

Our Bachelor of Applied Science students get real hands on field experience, and opportunities to learn in a variety of interested careers! For more information on BASSP, please go to https://www.cascadia.edu/programs/degrees/bassp.aspx or check out other student stories on the main Sustainability page!

Sustainability is No Secret: Harmoniously Herbaceous

Well, hello again. Glad to have you back! Spring is in the air and a new quarter is in full swing here at Cascadia College. We’re so happy you found some time in your busy academic schedule for some more juicy sustainability secrets! But unlike gossip you might hear around the water cooler; these are secrets we encourage you to share. Tell all your friends and neighbors about all of Cascadia’s not-so-top-secret sustainability tidbits!

The first secret we slipped to you in this blog was about the work the Cascadia/UW Bothell community is doing to help native bees flourish around campus. Keep your eyes open for those prodigious pollinators around campus. This time of year, they’re buzzing around working hard to fill up their”pollen baskets,” or corbicula. So, if you see some flower petals dancing around, it might not be the breeze; it could be one of those incredible little bees, pollinating the native plants around our campus!

And in the previous blog, we let the cat out of the bag on a core sustainability concept is a framework called the Triple Bottom Line (TBL). You might recall, the Triple Bottom Line focuses on People (Social action/Equity) – fairness and opportunity for all humans, Planet (Environment) – pushing our actions to not further harm or damage animals or the natural spaces, and Profit (Economy) – making long term, sustainable actions to maintain our practices. The TBL focuses on a harmonious balance between these three areas AND where they intersect. This is one area in which Cascadia really shines.

“To plant a garden is to believe in tomorrow.” – Audrey Hepburn

An exciting way that the Cascadia/UW Bothell community has brought Equity and the Environment together is through our edible campus locations! Our efforts to be an “Edible Campus” highlights how our community is working at creating a healthier, more accessible, and sustainable environment for our students.

Why is food a part of sustainability? Access to healthy food is one place where Equity and Environment overlap. We need to protect the environmental conditions needed to sustain food production and ensure those who need food have access to it. Food is one of the main topics that sustainable practices can impact – locally, personally, on campus, and beyond. Food availability might be a challenge on campus, but it’s an important issue for more than just where to find lunch or coffee! There is growing information about food-insecure students and there are support services to help.

Our Cascadia Cornucopia Food Forest features an edible landscape of trees and planter areas. Before spring break in 2015, it was a rarely used expanse of grass. Now it is home to dozens of species of edible plants, shrubs, and trees from around the world. It features food-bearing plants open to the campus community and public to harvest! It serves as an example of the integrated learning opportunities at Cascadia. Students enrolled in various science, social science, and English classes have explored the food forest as part of their education.  The fruit trees are ready for harvest primarily in late summer and early fall, but the food forest shows how urban farming and permaculture can meet to provide food sustainability to the local area!

The campus community is invited to visit The Food Forest to see what’s growing! But keep in mind, to maintain a sustainable food forest, please harvest responsibly.  Take what you can eat but save some for future visitors and pay attention to the “harvest me” signs to ensure that you are getting to taste the fruit at its peak ripeness.

The Campus Farm is also open to students and staff who are interested in learning how to grow their own food. This space is one of the few co-managed spaces on campus, through a strong partnership between Cascadia and UW Bothell. The missionof the Campus Farm is to provide an outdoor learning space designed to engage our campus community in experiential learning and best practices surrounding sustainable land use and food production. Excess food harvested from the farm gets donated to the Kodiak Cave and Husky Pantry, but the farm is actually open to anyone on campus who is brave enough to pick from it. If you are interested in gardening but don’t know how to get started, we are hosting a series of lunches at the farm where you can learn introductory gardening skills during the spring quarter.

Our Herb Walk is at the south end of campus, near the W sign. The community is invited to peruse the herbs growing there starting in the spring and learn about types of herbs.  Herbs are a win-win for humans and pollinators alike.  Our campus pollinators enjoy the lavender, rosemary, chives, and other herbs more than we do.

And we must mention the Apple Orchard located next to the Chase House on the south end of campus which has been here since before the campus was created!

Plant guides are located in each of these spaces, and feature information about each plant, how and when to harvest, as well as recipes for use. The Grounds Department, which has designed and maintained all of these landscapes, encourages the campus community to explore, taste and engage with these areas.

So get out and explore all the sustainable projects and features the Cascadia/UW Bothell Campus and Community has to offer! Like our stormwater management, Rain Gardens, the LEED Platinum Mobius Hall (CC3), Waste Sorting Signs, and more! These were all carefully curated to foster a welcoming, educational, healthy, accessible, and sustainable environment for all visitors. And get the secret out there!

We hope you’ll come out to join us for all the Earth Month 2023 events!

To learn more about Sustainability at Cascadia Follow our sustainability department on social media!

Also be sure to check out the Common Caws Podcast!

Common Caws – Podcast | Facebook | Instagram | Twitter | Newsletter subscription

Also, visit this page and our outdoor sustainability efforts page regularly to see what our students, faculty and staff are thinking about, talking about, planning, and putting into action.  We hope you’ll join us!

We’d love to hear from you! BASSP advisor: Stephan Classen

Friday Letter, 4-22-22

EM Note: Today’s letter is brought to you by Stephan Classen, Assistant Director of Sustainable Practices.

April always includes a busy, exciting, and inspiring week that we, on our campus, call Earth Week.  We’re excited to be able to celebrate our accomplishments, as well pause and take a look at our progress and the path ahead.  We celebrate our planet, our earth, and our people this week to take a hard look at what we, as a society have done and what we can do better. Hopefully, you can join us for some various events today or the rest of this month, for Earth Day. 

Cascadia College, in a sense, is somewhat of a hidden jewel of a campus and community.  I moved across an ocean to join our college and did not discover many of the special things and sustainable focus of the campus until much later.  We’re a campus with 58 acres of land set aside for wildlife (almost no other universities or colleges would ever think of doing this), we have a food access area of our award-winning Food Forest, we have been pesticide free since 2006.  But our community also shines – we work towards equity and inclusion, and we serve students whose lives we can transform for the better.  These efforts have worked to reduce our impact, improve access to education for students, and help us all learn actively, even outside of classes.

For this year’s Earth Day, I’d like to communicate some of the other things we work on for sustainability (hopefully clearly):

• Our Sustainability Bachelor’s degree (and Mobile Apps Dev too!) – allows students to continue from their associate degree with us or offer retraining for professionals into the field.  Many have gotten exciting jobs – including one alumnus, Atlas Turner, who is now working at O’Brien360 as the lead on managing our sustainability features of the STEM4 building!
• Our STARS (Sustainability Tracking, Assessment & Rating System) report resulted in a Silver rating, (up from Bronze in 2018), and has provided a tracking pathway to improvements and ways to do better – from equity and access, to staff and faculty training, to carbon footprint and waste production and many more.  We’ll need help from everyone in the next few years in various areas for data, and I’m looking forward to interacting with so many of you to think up new creative (and hopefully not too complex) ideas! 
• A campus podcast has been created– Common Caws for Sustainability, where we feature student voices on various issues, and also talk about efforts on our joint campus.
• Our pens and whiteboard markers initiative – we have refillable pens in the office and check out options for refillable whiteboard markers for faculty!  Please ask us if you’d like to participate!
• Waste ambassadors – we are starting training on waste sorting again and have various ways to reduce waste on campus; ideas come from everywhere – thank you, for instance, to the Foundation, which eliminated plastic water bottles in vending machines!
• And just this month we were featured in Herbicide-Free Campus’ report on how our grounds team’s management style not only saves money, but creates a healthier, water and cost saving campus! 

Above all however, I would like a moment to think about our students – we’re here to help them become resilient, educated, and successful members of society. They’re worried about the pandemic and climate crisis, housing issues and job prospects.  Let’s help give them the opportunity to learn and grow with Cascadia College and integrate both equity and sustainability throughout their time here. 

SHOUT OUTS

A Shout Out today to Jeff Brown, a Wildlife Naturalist from PAWS (www.paws.orgs). We received this email from him on Tuesday:

We rescued a pair of great horned owlets from a construction site on campus yesterday. One appears to have a minor injury on its chest the other is ready to return to its family. We are hoping to install an artificial nest in one of the trees nearby where it was found. We do this every year and have great success. There is no guarantee the owl wont eventually jump out again, but if we find a tree with plenty of branches that allow upward and downward mobility for a pre-fledged owl, then they tend to stay off the ground and out of trouble. We have an artificial nest that is the bottom 1/3 of a large plastic barrel. We would secure the nest to the tree on top of some branches and screw it to the trunk with some unused deck screws. We would also install a trail camera to help monitor the nest. The camera is helpful to ensure the parents have found the owlet and continue to feed it. Great horned owls are especially good at finding their young and caring for them wherever they go. Let us know if this is okay. If approved, we will install the nest today. It is best to get the young back with the family as soon as possible.

I’m happy to say…this was approved. If we get access to the cam feed, we’ll let you know.

Future Shoutouts can be sent to: FLShoutouts@cascadia.edu.

Have a great weekend.

Winning a Campus Sustainability Achievement Award

Cascadia has won a 2021 Campus Sustainability Achievement Award, from the Association for Advancement of Sustainability at Higher Education (AASHE), an international certifying organization for sustainability. We’re so honored to receive this award recognizing the amazing effort our campus community has put in to create, preserve, and use the Cornucopia Food Forest!

When the Food Forest was first envisioned, it was an idea to create more engaging outdoor space, and what better way to connect people than with food they may recognize, and teach them about edible plants.  Fruit and berries on over 30 trees and shrubs creates a space for people to explore, forage, and pick food from all over the world!  Since we planted our Permaculture Cornucopia Food Forest, it’s quickly become a loved portion of campus; as faculty use it in their classes, staff eat their lunches there, and excess fruit can support our campus food pantries. 

We have to also thank all our amazing partners at University of Washington Bothell, particularly in Grounds and Facilities, for their incredible support for this and all our projects!  For Cascadia, we’re such a small college, it’s a huge honor to be recognized with an award on our progress – I hope it can inspire others across the world that local and individual actions truly make a difference in people’s lives and communities!

If you’d like to watch the award ceremony recording, you can see it here on YouTube:

And read more about our case study and the other award winners for 2021 and the past here: https://www.aashe.org/get-involved/awards/winners/?utm_source=Higher%20Logic%20Marketing%20Automation&utm_medium=Email&utm_campaign=Marketing&_zs=OaJta&_zl=fRCs2

We were the winners in the Associate College level category, specifically for Campus Programs achievements – for sustainability. There are categories in Racial Equity and Sustainability and Campus Sustainability Student Leadership, so more of our work could be recognized in the future!

This is another part of what has made Cascadia College truly an incredible place to go to school, to work, and to teach at – for our living laboratory of our campus grounds, which of course has been recognized as the #1 sustainable campus grounds in the nation for four years now. We’ll be putting up the plaque on campus, and adding that to our other certifications and recognitions, such as the Bee Campus USA certification, National Wildlife Habitat Certification, and Salmon Safe certification (all shared with UWB, of course!). To be nationally recognized hopefully puts Cascadia on the map for students interested in studying sustainability, and will come to our campus to gain accessible, equitable, and superior education, integrate their experience with us, and inspire them to lifelong learning.

Thank you all so much – staff, faculty, students, this award is truly for you – for the love of the Food Forest you’ve shown through use, exploration, and meandering, but also with support and enjoyment throughout it’s 6 year existence! You all make Cascadia special.

AASHE also put together this word cloud of congratulations that was being created during the ceremony!

Sustainability choices on campus, and the award ceremony!

Award Ceremony

Want to watch to see if Cascadia wins the Sustainability Award for our Campus Permaculture Cornucopia Food Forest? You can attend on December 9th, 8:45am at this link with the 2021 AASHE Sustainability Awards! https://www.aashe.org/calendar/2021-awards-ceremony/
You can read up on all the finalists for the awards here! https://www.aashe.org/news/meet-the-2021-sustainability-award-finalists/ The other finalists for our category (Associate level, less than 10K students) were Suffolk County Community College and Western Dakota Technical College for their projects submitted!

New Soft Plastic recycling

Most people know about the recycling bins at grocery stores, where you can take disposable soft plastics – usually plastic bags, amazon bubble mailers, or things like bread bags. Cascadia is partnering with UWB Environmental Health and Safety to create a drop off for soft plastics! We’ll have several around campus at various offices, and will describe more in a future blog!

Recent Guest Presentation on the Energy needs of a Green New Deal in the US!

The student sustainability club and the WE Engineers clubs helped host a guest speaker on Zoom – Dr. James Conca, who spoke on the types and energy needed to transition to a zero carbon emissions energy industry in the US. If you’d like to see the recording, you can watch it on the Campus Sustainability YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCbEdalABY91QzjWqafTXevQ

You can also watch our Food Forest Video, on the main Cascadia YouTube Channel! Our campus is so proud of our Food Forest and other grounds choices – like our no-mow pollinator meadow in between CC3 and CC2! These management choices have helped us maintain four years of being #1 in the nation for Sustainable Grounds!

Sustainability Award Nomination Finalist – for our Food Forest (and our grounds recognition)!

Today we’re excited to announce that we’ve been chosen as a finalist for a 2021 AASHE Campus Sustainability Achievement Award – recognizing our Cascadia Cornucopia Food Forest!

“The Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education (AASHE) Sustainability Awards provide global recognition to the individuals and organizations leading the higher education sustainability movement. With the help of volunteer judges, this program raises the visibility of high-impact projects, pioneering research, and student leadership that helps to disseminate innovations and inspire continued progress toward environmental, social and economic health.“

Our Cornucopia Food Forest was submitted as a case study for AASHE’s activities this year, “Cascadia Cornucopia Food Forest as a prototype for food permaculture areas on campuses”, talking about our successes, and love from the campus culture, and community engagement, plus success analysis and use on campus. You can read the case study here (with a login): https://hub.aashe.org/browse/casestudy/24648/Cascadia-Cornucopia-Food-Forest-as-a-prototype-for-food-permaculture-areas-on-campuses

Food Forest image from May 2020.

For those who don’t know, the Food Forest was created in 2015 with partnership from faculty, the campus grounds team, and administration to create an intentional edible growing space. The Food forest (when not impacted by construction) is a space for quiet use outside of classes for students, many staff eat lunch there, and the public is welcome to forage from the numerous plants and trees – many of which feature foods not commonly found in the grocery store. Our history is more documented in our history article here: https://cascadiaupdates.wordpress.com/2020/05/18/food-forest-cascadias-cornucopia-history/

Many classes use parts of the food forest for inspiration, tours, or meeting places as well, some science classes have used the trees for leaf or plant ID, and English Foundations classes used it for things like terminology, connecting to food experiences, and out of classroom learning. We’ve had many visitors come to campus and enjoy the shade from the trees, and students from international programs have recognized foods from their home countries (mainly Red Sun Chinese Hawthorn and Medlar!). It has become a gathering place of a park on campus, and our staff, faculty, and students truly love the space. We look forward to STEM4 being completed, so it can once again become that fully accessible park space.

To learn more about AASHE’s Sustainability Awards programs, please visit http://www.aashe.org/get-involved/awards/.

We hope to have good news for the campus on December 9th, when the Awards are announced! If you’d like to learn more about the food forest, or get involved, have a tour, please contact us at bas@cascadiaoutreach

#1 in the Nation for Sustainable Grounds – 4th year running

This week as well, we were announced to be once again the #1 campus in sustainable grounds in the nation by the 2021 AASHE Sustainable Campus Index, through STARS. STARS (Sustainability Tracking, Assessment & Rating System) is a program of AASHE, the Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education. This is the fourth year that Cascadia has received this recognition, in part due to our many green spaces, edible campus locations, restored wetland, and of course, our amazing grounds team and their policies. You can see the whole index here: https://www.aashe.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/SCI-Nov-2021.pdf

The campus has been pesticide free since 2005, and Salmon Safe certified since 2008, the first campus in the state to be certified this way. This past year (2020/21) we also achieved certifications as a Bee Campus USA, and as a National Wildlife Habitat. Our campus wetland is home to research and education, and is visited by classes and the public alike. Cascadia has been a leader of the area to preserve green space, encourage reduced mowing (see our Pollinator meadow in the middle of campus!), and increase plantings of tree (particularly fruit trees) on campus!

Sustainability on campus – events, engagement, and sharing (and cider)!

This week, we’re sharing a bit of how we’re getting back to campus and continuing our work on Sustainability here at Cascadia College!

We have a Cider Pressing event this Thursday, to showcase the Campus Farm. Bring your own apples and a cider container and come learn to press apples into cider! It will be held on October 14th, 12:30p-2pm,
on the UWB Promenade in front of Discovery Hall, and all UWB and Cascadia Students and Staff welcome!! The grounds team has a cider press – if you bring your own apples or jar/cup, you can see how apple cider is made, or use some of the apples and cups we will provide! (More sustainable to bring jars or cups to drink!) NOTE: we moved from the Campus Farm hosting, as there’s a UWB engagement event on the promenade, and so will have more student access!

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Photos from the 2019 cider pressing event! We’d love to have you stop by and enjoy!

You can stop by any time, and we’ll be happy to chat cider and apples, and the campus farm! The farm is located between the North Garage and the campus sports field – so you can find it and forage at your own time!

Native Plantings to support Pollinators

In the next few weeks we’ll be planing native plants around campus, and you can join us for those events too! The Washington Native Plant Society (WNPS) gave us a grant to support pollinators and close bloom gaps on campus (periods of time where there aren’t any flowers blooming – so bees and butterflies may starve in those weeks!), and we have three locations where we are planting on campus! Thank you very very much to the WNPS for their support!

Oct 19th, 9a-11am, we’ll be planting at the pollinator mounds near the Campus Farm, by the North Garage!

Oct 26th we’ll be planting at the Discovery Forest (behind UW2/Discovery hall, across from the physical plant – to add to the small forest there! 9am-11am!

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These images are from our summer planting, by the flagpole! You can see the plants establishing themselves there!

Also, as we are returning to campus, I’d like to reopen the Sustainability suggestions form! You can submit it anonymously, and tell us about what you’re already doing, what we could improve on, or how we can include more people, groups, or you! Please feel free to use this here, or email us directly too!
https://forms.gle/mQJGkH7MTGPxtSC86 We are here to help, work with you, and find a path forwards together!!

Finally, check out this new Food Forest feature video, created by a Cascadia BASSP student!