Education Goes Green: Salmon Creek Falls Environmental Education Center in Northern California

Last fall, as part of the Planet Durable team, I entered the Open Architecture Challenge 2009 Design Competition -- a project sponsored by Architecture for Humanity addressing the unique challenges schools face in trying to provide smart, safe and sustainable learning spaces. Our research involved visiting the Salmon Creek Falls Environmental Education Center located in Occidental, Northern California in charming Sonoma County. We were very fortunate to meet Victoria Johnston, a green building professional and life long environmentalist who has been behind this six-year architectural and landscaping initiative at Salmon Creek Charter School and Harmony Elementary School.

Victoria generously provided us with a fun and detailed technical tour of this impressive facility, explaining the logistics of what it takes to form a leading initiative such as this one. We started our tour at the Center’s most innovative piece in green building design, an impressive 6,150 square foot cafeteria with a catering kitchen, auditorium, foyer and two offices. The building integrates passive and active solar, cutting edge non toxic building materials, a living roof and 99% of the rainwater is collected and directed to the 10 acre wetland on site. Experientially, the Center will allow kids to grow organic food in the Outdoor Garden Space that in turn will be used in the cafeteria to prepare healthy locally grown organic meals.

As a volunteer and parent of the Harmony Union School District, Victoria had run the first School wide Garden program for Kindergarten through 5^th grade students teaching organic gardening, cooking the garden space and nutrition. This program transpired into a highly successful ambitious project teaching students, teachers and greater community, the responsibility of land stewardship on fifty acre piece of watershed between a creek and a redwood forest. Thanks to Victoria's relentless persistence and energetic enthusiasm, she was able to raise a grant of $1.2 million from the California Coastal Conservancy and consistently attracted donors to make this $4 million green school project, a dream come true.

We were later guided to the Observation Deck to view the Salmon Creek Falls. We also visited a straw bale greenhouse and discovered the Outdoor Garden Space where gorgeous herbs, vegetables, native plants, flowers and fruit trees were delivering fragrant scents in the early evening breeze. Not far from us, kids were playing, laughing and enjoying life in this unique place. What a dream for a child to be in a school surrounded by the majestic redwood forest, a structure allowing them to experience nature in the classroom!

Learning exactly how Victoria raised funds and managed the creation of the Salmon Creek Falls Environmental Center within her community was very insightful and educational. I received a great deal of wisdom from Victoria who shared a unique philosophy in life full of spontaneity and confidence. ”Ask for Pie in the Sky, visualize it and it will be brought to you if you really want it!” Victoria says with a smile.

Our visit was a very inspirational day for anyone who has dreams they want to see manifest.

I believe cultivating an idea and making it successfully grow comes from a place of strong commitment to preserve and educate our environmental consciousness and is rooted deeply in early life. Victoria’s background reinforces this as her father was one of the first people in the county to use solar hot water system and her mother had a passion for gardening, arts and crafts and living in harmony with nature. Victoria says she owes her “joie de vivre” and dedication to our environment to her nurturing and trusting parents allowing her to follow her heart from birth.

Likewise, in my experience, as a professional educator with many years teaching young children from diverse socio-economic and academic backgrounds, as well as being raised by a strong environmentalist father in France, there is no doubt in my mind that the building foundation of trust in yourself and of your convictions starts as early as possible in life. This inspirational and informative visit has convinced me even more that environmental education should be implemented in schools as early as kindergarten and be sustained throughout elementary grades and high school!

Following this wonderful visit at the Salmon Creek Falls Environmental Center, we were graciously invited at Michael and Victoria’s eco-house that they designed and built together in 1997, before green building was on the radar. The house is an absolute wonder from both aesthetic and eco-building standpoints, perched majestically above the clouds and surrounded by centennial redwoods in the beautiful Sonoma hills. There, in this peaceful and beautiful environment, we made a toast to green education, new friendship and celebration of life.

For more information about the Salmon Creek Falls Environmental Center if you would like a tour, or to contact Victoria for professional consulting send an email to Victoria:

Greenlight Consulting

Victoria Johnston, LEED AP

mvraj@sonic.net or call 707 874-2546

If you want to learn more about Harmony Elementary and Salmon Creek School visit their website @ htp://www.harmony.k12.ca.us

Eco-Art in charming Sonoma County!

During my trip in the Sonoma County last week, I stayed a few nights at Sebastopol, a fantastic little town surrounded by majestic rolling hills in the diverse landscape of a rich agricultural heritage located just a few miles away from the Redwood forest. Amongst the other gorgeous towns I discovered was the picturesque Occidental village. I am always struck by people’s ecological awareness and education in this area: Eco-houses, organic menus at restaurants, sustainable residential and business conservation methods reflect the green conscious choice that most people have made to preserve the environment.

How can one not be an environmentalist when every corner of this charming country side stands as a gem in the middle of nature, wildlife and friendly local people? Every angle of landscape was worth stopping for a picture and meditation in the silence of beauty.

What made my trip also very special was that even artists choose to be environmentally friendly! I was especially amused by discovering unusual junk sculptures found all along my trip in front of businesses or churches, sometimes towered high into the air in front of famous vineyards villas or decorating the front of a residential house yard.

Was this town having a community sculpture contest?

How intriguing and imaginative! I had so much fun capturing these magical art inventions in my camera, wondering who and how this art has been created. It was only during my last day in Sebastopol while heading back to the 12 freeway on my way back to Los Angeles that I decided to conduct a thorough investigation in Sebastopol about this curious artist that had triggered my interest for eco-art during my entire trip.

I discovered more delightful sculptures on almost every house front yards of Florence Street. A few hundred yards away from where I parked my car, I had the privilege to find one of the artists behind this inventive piece of art in her own house at Florence Street. Brigitte, an energetic French Canadian woman explained to me that her husband, Patrick Amoit the “other
half of the artist ”and she, collect garbage cans, pipes, mailboxes, cooking pans from neighbors, junk yard and turn them into these colorful and imaginative one of a kind pieces of art. She said she was very fortunate to have found this very special community where they can live off their art while raising their daughters and enjoying a relaxed feel of the gorgeous country side.

In the middle of our lively conversation, a neighbor stopped by to drop off a couple of old cooking pans which made me realize that Patrick Amoit and Brigitte’s whimsical art has become a collective community experience celebrated all across the beautiful region. And they even raise money for local schools with their beautiful folk art calendars!

If you get a chance to travel in the Sonoma County, I highly recommend you to take this unique sculpture tour. You can follow their map and add some more creative spice to your journey in this beautiful countryside. For more information visit their websites@:

folkartforschools.com

patrickamiot-brigittelaurent.com

I don't need a plastic bag!!!

One of the ways I contribute to the protection and conservation of our lovely planet is to bring my canvas and other cotton bags regularly with me when I go shopping. Don’t feel bad, it took me years to have the routine worked out automatically. I used to forget to put the bags in my trunk or even if I had them in the car, I would forget to take them with me at the store and felt lazy to go back to the car and bring them back to the store. After many “hit and missed” experiences, my brain got accustomed to the good habit and I even got my long term partner, Will, to get into the same habit.

Behind this conscious behavior modification, these shocking and unacceptable facts have motivated me to commit to the change…

· Each year, an estimated 500 billion to 1 trillion plastic bags are consumed worldwide. That comes out to over one million per minute. Billions end up as litter each year.

The greenest art form in L.A.

After teaching and producing children theater plays for many years, and standing “behind the scene”, I decided last winter that I wanted to be back on stage. In my twenties, I had enjoyed a lot of stage experience as a musician and actor. I wanted to renew the experience and I started doing some research for acting classes. I tried a few classes in Los Angeles and none of them suited my needs. All I wanted to do was having fun while expressing my artistic potential, being part of an amazing group of people and creating art together. Well, persistence always pays off! One day, my boyfriend invited me to go and check out a free Improv Comedy class at IO West Theatre in Hollywood. My first reaction was: ‘What? Comedy? That's scary! ‘ “ Well, it doesn’t cost anything to try” he replied. So we went and attended the workshop. And what a terrific blast we had! Thanks to my boyfriend's spontaneity, I have not only found the ideal place to practice acting but I have also discovered one of the greenest art form ever experienced before.

First of all, on the functional aspect, less is more at IO West: You don’t use any props, costumes or theatre set. All you need in your art is your acting skills. If you need objects and environment settings, you mime it! Improv comedy is just a pure sustainable art form composed of a strong human group mind! That’s all it takes to entertain people!

Likewise, the philosophy of modern Improvisational Theatre at IO West, inspired by his founder, Del Close (1934- 1999), is based on the idea that “On stage we need ecological thinking; nothing goes to waste.... Every decision is relevant, ecological and holistic.” In other words, Del thinks that being a good improviser involves paying detailed attention to every word and move that your partner says and does on stage so that he can build on it and create a solid interaction with his partners on stage. Every thing that is offered to the improviser is an opportunity to play and should not be dismissed. In order to achieve that, actors need to learn to listen to each other in ways sometimes people don’t even do in real life. It involves reaching a higher level of communication between comedians, establishing trust, support and adaptability.

In this modern improvisational theater, acting becomes an organic art form where comedians follow each other’s ideas without controlling or pushing an idea and bringing authentic characters on stage. Actors find an artistic outlet to express what they are and what they do in real life, bringing it on stage and creating comedy organically inspired by life. Using Del Close words, to be a good improviser you need to “bring the energy of your life into your work. Don’t put the energy of your work into your life: ground that energy. Return it to the earth and muses from whence it came.”

Improvisation comedy at IO West also embraces the idea that living in the moment, in a simplistic and truthful way is what brings laughs in the audience and makes the magic happen. In the same manner, in real life, instead of spending time and energy consuming and abusing our natural resources, I have chosen to make simple choices that bring more meaningful relationships with others and less impact on the environment.

In this theater, I have found not only a safe place for creative growth with wonderful actors and staff but also a place to develop important life skills rooted by a true ecological philosophy.

If you wish to take classes at IOWEST in Hollywood, here is their contact information:

http://west.ioimprov.com/classes
IO West Theatre & Training Center

6366 Hollywood Blvd.
Los Angeles, CA 90028

L.A. Green Drinks

Last Thursday, 15th of May, I went to my first L.A. Green Drinks event in West Hollywood. I had heard of this meeting at the Sustainable Works Workshops in Santa Monica last Fall. Barent Roth, our residential green living instructor was there and I ran into a few other people I had met there.

The meeting took place at Cisco Home, a green interior design store whose motto is “Built Locally to last Globally', located on 440 N.La Brea Blvd. The organic yet trendy decor for the meeting was a perfect environment to gather people who want to network, make new friends and keep informed about the green movement.

Our gracious host, Lorenna, Cisco Home's Sales Director invited me to sign in and introduced me to a couple of people. Refreshments and drinks were offered for a small donation of $5.00.

Around 9:00Pm, we listened to our special guest,Tom O'Leary, the Communications and Development Specialist at Forest Ethics. The organization's mission is to protect endangered forests and hold corporations publicly accountable for their damage to the environment with protests, email campaigns and national advertisements. Tom addressed two main pressing issues that Forest Ethics is actively campaigning against: The Tar sand in Canada which is the fastest growing source of greenhouse gas emission and the largest fossil fuel project in the world; the overwhelming junk mail we are regularly assaulted with in our home. He said that by the time we died we would have spent eight months of our life opening junk mail and that more than 100 million trees a year are logged to produce all that mail and almost half of it goes to landfills!

Tom and some of us in the audience talked about ways to make a stop to junk mail by subscribing to for profit or non profit companies that help consumers to be removed off commercial mail listings. Some of them are: Greendimes.com, 41 pounds, Directmail.com.

My personal experience has not been very successful with Green dimes. For $10.00, Visa cards mail advertisement has been a bit reduced but overall you need to work at it on a regular basis, keeping Green dimes notify about new companies addresses. It feels like the process never ends because as soon as Green Dimes manages to remove you off some commercial mail listings, other new companies start sending you their advertisement. I had more success with 41pound.org.

Finally, I left around 10:00PM, quite happy with my first L.A Green Drinks meeting both inspired about Tom O'Leary's speech and excited about making new friends, who just like me, are determined to improve their sustainable and eco-friendly lifestyle. It was a very fun and green educational night out that I will definitely repeat soon again!

For more information and schedule about LA Green Drinks, go to www.LAgreendrinks.org

To learn more about Forest Ethics campaign against junk mail, you can visit their website at http://www.forestethics.org/)