Mountain Top Removal Mining Podcast

Here's a podcast of portions of the Mountain Top Removal Mining presentation given at UW-La Crosse on April 30th. It gives you a good overview of the devastation caused by this type of mining from people who live there.

Speakers included Sarah Vig from Appalachian Voices, Howard Branham, a resident of Mingo County West Virgina whose home was directly impacted by a mountain top removal mine and a representative from the Sierra Club's Madison, WI office. The podcast runs about 40 minutes.

Bike to Work Week, May 4-8

After a beautiful weekend for the La Crosse Fitness Festival, it's time to keep the momentum going. Plan to get your bikes out (if you haven't already) and bike to work this week. It's a great way to get some exercise, give your car a rest, save some money and reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Remember to read more about all of the Bike to Work events and opportunities going on this week and log in your bike mileage at CouleeBikes.org.

Mountain Top Removal Coal Mining Presentation

Thursday, April 30th at 6:00 PM in Cartwright room 259

There will be a guest speaker from Appalachian Voices speaking about the evils of mountain top removal coal mining.

This is being organized by the Sierra Club as part of their campaign to convert all state owned coal fired power plants, all of which use coal from mountain top removal. Governor Doyle has mandated that the UW Madison coal plant will be converted from coal to natural gas and biofuels. This presentation will allow UW-L sustainability supporters to network and begin to build a case for switching over UW-L's coal power plant as well.

Earth Week in La Crosse a Success

La Crosse Earth Week events and participation in them definitely entered a new arena in 2009. Many factors making this possible came together including the creation of a new Green La Crosse.com website, an active Earth Week planning committee, and collaboration between a number of organizations in the La Crosse area including UW-La Crosse, Viterbo University, Western Technical College, Gundersen Lutheran, the City and County of La Crosse, the La Crosse Public Library, Three Rivers Waldorf School, Myrick Hixon Ecopark, and Coulee Partners for Sustainability (CPS). Our thanks to all of them for their support and involvement.

While Earth Week has been an annual milestone since 1970, the work being done to promote sustainability on our campus, as well as in our community, state, nation and world, must continue each and every day. There's no time to sit back and rest on our Earth Week accomplishments. Let's expand our sustainability efforts so that on Earth Week 2010 we can look back and marvel at all we have accomplished during another year.

Earth Day Event Focuses on Land and Water Conservation

Our Land and Water: Conservation for a Sustainable Future, sponsored by UW-L’s Joint Committee on Environmental Sustainability, will feature three area land and water conservation experts — Gretchen Benjamin, Tim Jacobson and David Vetrano —who will each give an individual presentation then participate in a panel discussion with questions and answers.

Gretchen Benjamin has spent her career on the Mississippi River working for the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources for almost 25 years and recently moving into the non-profit world of The Nature Conservancy as assistant director of its Upper Mississippi River (UMR) Program. She will discuss the work of the The Nature Conservancy with respect to the Mississippi River and the Gulf of Mexico.

Tim Jacobson is the Executive Director of Mississippi Valley Conservancy, a nonprofit land trust headquartered in La Crosse. He will discuss threats to Wisconsin’s natural landscape and agricultural lands and non-regulatory approaches to protecting and enhancing the best parts of our landscape for future generations.

David Vetrano is a fisheries supervisor for the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources. He is directly responsible for the fisheries on over 1500 miles of rivers and streams and several small lakes in the La Crosse area. Vetrano will provide a short history of how past agricultural land use practices have completely altered the Driftless Area landscape. He will also show how those past practices still affect us and why there is tremendous potential for a much more sustainable future for agriculture and tourism.

La Crosse Area Earth Week Events

There are a number of Earth Week events (April 19-26) planned in the La Crosse area this year. Events include film showings, presentations and panel discussions, dumpster dives, book discussions, hikes, clean-ups, bike rides and much more. You can find a complete schedule of events at http://www.greenlacrosse.com

Trowbridge Hall Wins Chancellor's Energy Challenge

UW-L's Trowbridge Hall is the winner of the 2009 Chancellor's Energy Challenge. The only other residence hall, out of the eleven participating, that was able to conserve electricity over the four week challenge period was Angell Hall. This was the first year of the Energy Challenge. Hopefully it was a valuable learning experience for all of us. The Joint Committee on Environmental Sustainability congratulates Trowbridge Hall on its victory and thanks all of the hall residents who participated in the challenge by taking steps to reduce energy consumption.

While the competition is over, the challenge is not. We must all do whatever we can to reduce energy consumption. Consider doing the following to make a difference:

1. Turn off lights when you leave a room.
2. Use energy efficient compact fluorescent light bulbs.
3. Turn off computers and other electrical devices when not in use.
4. Set up computers to take advantage of power conservation settings during the day.
   
5. Walk, bike or use public transportation whenever possible.
6. Take a shorter shower to conserve hot water.

Only with everyone working together can we help conserve energy and reduce the production of greenhouse gases. Change begins with each of us.