Nature! - Environmental Year in Review and 2016 Goals

This week is all about looking back on this year and seeing where we have been and where we are at currently, while forecasting what is to come in 2016.  There have been major changes in my family's lifestyle since the start of 2015 and we will be continuing to build on those changes in 2016.  (See the Food! post from Dec 28, 2015 and the Let's Learn! post from Dec 29, 2015.)  Surprisingly, even with my background tied to the environment, I have learned of some new environmental issues which I was not aware of previously.  "Cowspiracy: The Sustainability Secret" has made an impact on my life and is shaping, reinforcing, confirming how I think about the environment and will be a guiding force as I post about nature related topics in 2016.

As I wrote about in previous Nature! posts (Growing Up In Nature, Maturing In Nature, and Living In Nature) I have always enjoyed the great outdoors!  From spending time exploring and playing outside as a child to working to helping reduce our impact on the environment in my professional work, my love and enjoyment of nature continues to grow.  With our children, my husband and I promote outdoor play and exploration.  We pick up trash and recycling on our walks and our children usually recognize recyclable products.  We ID birds and fish and spend a lot of time checking them out at the bird feeders, around the lake and catching fish.  My husband is better at it than I, but we try to minimize the amount of electricity and water we use on a daily basis.  Overall, we have a pretty solid foundation of sustainability and environmental awareness for our children to build on.

Of course there are some areas we need to work on.  For 2016, I would like to set three (3) nature based/environmental goals for my family to achieve.  The first goal is to continue spreading the word of "Cowspiracy".  Animal agriculture is destroying the planet far faster than any individual water, electricity, and fuel saving measures we attempt to implement in order to slow the destruction.  The second goal is to have a more successful garden in 2016.  Our 2015 garden started out promising with starting seeds indoors, but ended up being quite a let down as one thing after another happened and we only harvested a small amount of tomatoes and a few tiny green peppers.  The third goal is to explore more of the natural features close to home.  Every year I want to take the children to nearby nature spots (State Parks, Nature Preserves, Historic Sites, etc.) but usually only make it to one or two.  Now that I am publishing my goals for 2016, I intend to hold myself responsible for them.  Starting with three goals is doable.  Each year I hope to have at least three environmental/nature based goals to work towards.

To start 2016, I will expound on each of the goals and future posts will document our progress.  Of course there will be some Nature! posts not directly related to the goals.  If I seem to not be posting regularly about the goals, please ask about them! I'm looking forward to building off of what I have learned in 2015 and sharing my experiences with my readers in hopes that they will see that if I can do it, so can they!  

What are your nature based/environmental goals for 2016???

NATURE! - LIVING IN NATURE!

Now it is time for me to Live In Nature with my family!  I've grown up, learned a lot/matured and now I'm ready to share my love of nature and the environment with my children.  (Read my previous two posts to get a full background of how I reached this point - Growing up in Nature and Maturing in Nature.)  Luckily, my three children love being outdoors!  Maybe it's genetic, maybe it's not.  Regardless, I am going to do what I can to help encourage and strengthen that love of nature!  We explore, create, play and restore.  Sometimes with the seasons in the Midwest, that can be challenging, but we do our best!

In the spring, the kids are always excited to get outside and start playing on the beach again or fishing.  From March through November, if the weather cooperates you will find us outside!  Our oldest, D, loves fishing.  And we encourage that as much as possible!  As soon as the ice begins to melt off the lake, D wants to get out and start fishing again!  We love his dedication!  J (#2) is always anxious to start building, digging and playing with his construction equipment on the beach!  There's a chance we have a future civil engineer, landscape architect or construction manager on our hands!  C (our youngest) just loves being in the mix.  She tries to fish with D and build with J.  She is also the first one to want to go into the water!

As the trees and flowers come to life and then go dormant in the fall, we enjoy walking around our property checking out what is new and talking about how it all works.  I will identify the plants with the children and if they want to pick flowers, I let them!  Plus, it melts my heart that my young ones want to pick flowers for me and they are so excited and proud too!  We check out all the different leaves, nuts and fruits/seeds that fall from the trees.  It's great to be hands on with nature!  This past spring we started vegetable seeds inside with hopes of having a successful garden.  The children enjoyed helping me set it all up and watching the seeds sprout and grow.  However, things didn't go quite as planned with the vegetable garden... (See my Massive Pepper Harvest post)

There are creatures galore around here!  We have bird feeders that we try to keep filled in the front and in the back and a bird identification book that has gotten lots of use.  There are song birds, falcons and water fowl!  The kids have fun checking out and researching all the different bugs we find too and since we are on the lake, there are fish!  D knows all the species in our lake and many more!


Our family just doesn't stay at home enjoying nature, although we could!  The boys play organized baseball, we all participate in water sports, and the children like to do all other sports and activities too!  Bike riding, running, basketball, soccer, football and playing tag, hide and go seek and other fun games keep them entertained and happy outside.  This summer we explored underground caves, checked out new lakes for fishing and had a lot of family fun!  As we travel my husband and I are always pointing out interesting features to the children.  Windmill farms, natural sand dunes along Lake Michigan, rivers and wetlands, farms and fields, forests and new development along with many other topics are discussed and explained.  


In the colder months, there are still fun things to do to keep the children focused on nature.  The boys enjoy riding on their little snowmobiles and ice fishing.  There are also snowmen to be made and icicles to eat.  When we can't get outside the kids will watch PBS nature documentaries and other animal and nature based shows such as Wild Kratts, Dinosaur Train and Octonauts.


Our children have an inherent desire to learn and we do our best to help them understand how systems are connected and how humans impact the environment.  We stress the importance of the environment and natural systems and hope that in doing so, we are raising children who care about those things.  Even though our children are still young, by their actions, questions and observations it is evident that it is working!  They are interested in nature and the environment and tread lightly - stewards of the land already!        

My Nature! posts will cover a wide range of environmental topics including much of what I mentioned in previous posts as well as other interests not directly related to my career.  I'll be discussing gardening, recycling, rain water capture, landscape maintenance tips, native, introduced and invasive plant species, fishing, hunting, birds and other fauna, spending time outdoors with my family, tips for being outside with kids and more!  If you have any type of nature related topic that you would like me to cover, please let me know!  I'll be happy to fit it into the schedule.

NATURE! - MATURING IN NATURE

Here is part 2 of my posts concerning my love, appreciation and knowledge of Nature.  (Read the first post, Growing Up In Nature.)  College is where I (and most people) really grew up and figured out what we wanted to do with our lives.  I had a wonderful experience at Ball State.  The College of Architecture and Planning (CAP) was tough, but with support from professors, family and friends, I got through it and even have a degree to prove it!   

There have been turning points in my life and some having to do with my career choice stick out well.  I was fortunate enough to go on a spring break my first year of college to Arizona with some girlfriends to visit and stay with one of the girl's grandparents.  Her grandparents took us all over central AZ!  I vividly remember a boat ride on Canyon Lake somewhere outside of Phoenix and contemplating what branch of architecture I wanted to per sue.  I had to chose my major when we returned from spring break!  My choices were: Architecture (buildings, section details, hard materials), Landscape Architecture (nature, outdoors, soft and hard materials) and Urban Planning (cities, numbers, calculations).  While on the boat ride I decided that nature was too beautiful and amazing that I had to chose Landscape Architecture.  I couldn't be stuck at a desk constantly as I envisioned architects and urban planners.  What a ride Landscape Architecture was! 

Due to various family losses and stress, I considered changing majors to Natural Resources and Environment Management at one point.  After much thought, consideration and discussion, I decided to stay in Landscape Architecture.  My favorite courses in college were plant and environment focused.  I dominated the Plant ID classes and completed studies in sustainable agriculture and outdoor recreation (among many other courses).  I obtained a minor in Natural Resources and Environmental Management and a Bachelors of Landscape Architecture and was very proud of my accomplishments.

Finding a job outside of college that combined Landscape Architecture and Natural Resources was not an easy task!  It took me two different jobs and about three years to work my way into the field that I had long dreamed about.  No one understood what I wanted to do until I expanded my knowledge base and learned the bad, unsustainable, way of doing things.  Once at Williams Creek Consulting, I was happy with the work that our company was doing and I was learning so much about utilizing natural resources to manage stormwater!

Since becoming a part of the Williams Creek Consulting (WCC) team in 2006, I have acquired my Landscape Architecture Registration and my United States Green Building Council Leadership in Environmental and Energy Design (LEED) Accredited Professional (AP) designation with a focus on Building Design and Construction (BD +C).  Both require continuing education, so I am still learning!  Which is great because in my new role as a mostly Stay at Home Mom it is easy to forget about my professional career, but having to keep up with obtaining CEU's forces me to get out occasionally and catch up on what is going on in the Landscape Architecture and Sustainability world!


I have had the privilege to work on some cutting edge sustainability projects while at WCC.  I have learned so much about native plants, what they can do for the environment, how to use them and when best to use them.  I have spent hours researching Low Impact Development.  I have designed and redesigned sites to minimize stormwater infrastructure costs and to preserve as much green space as possible on a project.  I've worked on preserving wetlands, streams and tributaries.  I have even helped mitigate for unavoidable environmental impacts.  I've generated stormwater pollution prevention plans (SWPPP) and then watched what happened when those plans weren't implemented properly.  I understand and am well aware of the toll that development takes on the environment.  I also know that there are things that we can all do to help lessen our impact.


As you can see, my relationship and connection with nature and the environment is deep and goes way back.  I have spent a lot of time in nature and a lot of time studying and observing nature and human impacts.  Now it is time for me to Live In Nature with my family!  My next post will discuss how my children are adapting to a life growing up in nature in the 21st century.   

What are some things that you can do to help lessen your impact on the environment?

Emily E Kusz, RLA, LEEDAP BD+C

NATURE! - GROWING UP IN NATURE

Nature!  Another topic that I jumped the gun on last week.  I should have explained my connection and desire to write about nature and the environment before posting on this subject!  Grant it, my "Massive Pepper Harvest" was not a whole lot of info, so I'm taking advantage of this only being week 2 of following my blog schedule and doing a little backtracking.

I have always loved nature and being outside!  (I totally wish that I had a picture of myself as a child playing outside, but those are at my parents' house still...)  My siblings and I and our neighborhood friends would play outside ALL THE TIME!  Or at least it seemed like it!  I remember massive snow forts, playing in the sandbox for hours, swinging as high as we could to go over the "swing set shadow" and then jumping off, making habitats in an old plastic baby pool for the crayfish and toads that we would find, going on bike rides way farther away from home than we probably should have gone, exploring trails and abandoned trains, spending so much time at my best friend's house and in their pool that I called her parents "mom and dad" and my baby brother (who I took everywhere) called her dad "Uncle Daddy!" (hilarious in my opinion!), collecting wildflower bouquets for mom, playing flashlight tag in the connecting backyards with the neighbor kids, climbing trees and getting dangerously high, riding dirt bikes without helmets, jumping in huge piles of leaves, yelling across the backyards to make plans with my friends, and so much more!


Every summer my family would vacation for two weeks in The Great North Woods!  This was very special for us because my maternal grandfather began vacationing in the same area, on the same chain of lakes when he was a young child. He continued the tradition with his children and my mom and dad continued the tradition with my siblings.  Now my husband and I are taking our children up there!  While vacationing up there, we would go on walks through the woods, long bike rides and long boat rides.  We would go out driving around at night "hunting"/looking for deer, make campfires with s'mores and try to find constellations in the clear dark sky.  We would count shooting stars and even experienced the Northern Lights!  We'd swim and play on the beach, waterski, tube and enjoy time together as a family.  I even remember my brother would try to get as close as possible to the little chipmunks and try to take their pictures!
 
In highschool I kept myself busy in sports.  Fall - volleyball, Winter - basketball, and Spring - softball.  I met so many great friends.  I'll never forget them and some I still know well today!  I was able to take two different biology courses in high school and two or three Drafting classes! At least one was before it was technically Computer Aided Drafting (CAD).  That ages me!  It was through my CAD class Junior year that I found out about Ball State University's High School Summer Program for the College of Architecture and Planning.  (It has since evolved over the years into the DesignWorks Summer Academy.)  My friend and I went to Ball State for two weeks between our Junior year and Senior year of High School.  It was awesome!  We learned so much about Architecture, Landscape Architecture and Urban Planning and met so many great people and professors that we both knew we needed get into the College of Architecture and Planning after graduation from high school.  We applied super early in our Senior year of high school and both got in!!!

More about how I matured in nature next week.

What were your favorite things to do in nature when you were younger?

FOOD! - SUSTAINABLE EATING

I think that last week I jumped the gun a bit.  I was so excited to start using my new blog schedule to make posts, that I didn't really give a good overview of why I was going to be posting on said topics!  I apologize.  So let me rewind for a minute and explain the why I am dedicating a post once a week to FOOD!

A couple months ago my brother told me to watch "Cowspiracy: The Sustainability Secret" on Netflix.  I read an overview of "Cowspiracy" and thought it sounded interesting and planned on watching it at some point.  Before I even had a chance to mention it to my husband, I found him watching it one night while I was working!  I came in at the very end of the movie.  My husband was a bit in awe and told me that if the facts stated in Cowspiracy are indeed true, we should really consider making some changes to our eating habits.  If an environmental movie moved him that much, than I certainly needed to make time to watch it!  The next evening after the kids were put to bed, I turned it on.  My husband stopped what he was doing to watch it again!  I was also moved and inspired to make some changes to our diet.  One of the quotes that resonated the most was, "You can't call yourself and environmentalist and still eat meat."  I do consider myself an environmentalist of sorts, a conservative one.  I love nature and the environment.  By education and career, I am a steward of the land, a Landscape Architect.  My career took on a much sought after sustainable twist when I began working for Williams Creek Consulting, an ecological engineering and design firm in 2006.  Now aware of the environmental impacts of consuming beef, pork, chicken, fish, dairy and egg products, what were we going to do???

As a lifelong omnivore who believes that God gave us animals for our use and consumption, how could I suddenly make a drastic switch to a vegan lifestyle???  It is evident that as a population, we have over-exploited the use and consumption of certain animals, namely, cows, pigs and chickens.  I care about and feel responsible for the land that God has also given to us for our use.  But these practices are destroying the world quickly!  We aren't taking care of God's creation living this way!  After completing some research with the help of a vegan friend, I came across a phrase that I felt comfortable with applying to the dietary changes that my family and I were going to be implementing.  We are going to practice "Sustainable Eating".    

Sustainable Eating, as I have defined it, is minimizing meat, dairy and egg consumption.  I say minimizing because for now, we are still emptying our freezer of previously purchased meat and using up the rest of our dairy based foods, parmesan cheese, ranch dressing, etc and eggs.  I do not intend to purchase any more beef, pork, chicken or seafood from the grocery store.  Nor do I intend to buy much dairy or eggs.  For the most part we will be following a vegan diet, yet we are not vegan.   I can't even promise that we are going to be following a 100% vegetarian diet.    

Here are my reasons for not wanting to be labeled as vegan or even vegetarian.  In my opinion, animals were put on the earth for our use and consumption (if desired).  Maybe my family will begin hunting deer, wild turkeys, geese and ducks during specific hunting seasons in order to have meat.  Currently we do not have any of the proper equipment for that sport, but I am open to the idea.  We live on a small lake that is filled with catfish.  My oldest son was introduced to fishing at four years old.  He has been hooked ever since!  This summer we even kept all the big catfish that he caught over a two day period and then my husband, filleted them and cooked them up for us!  It was more than enough for one meal for a family of five.  Yum!  If he catches fish of a substantial size, we will keep them and eat them.  A friend of mine, Fox Trail Apiary, keeps bees and they bottle the honey and sell it.  Honey has many health benefits and I love it and when purchasing from my friend, it is local!  At family functions, where the menu is out of our control, we will not demand a non-meat option and maybe we will even eat what has already been purchased and prepared for us.  If given a vegetarian or vegan option, we will chose those.  I still have three young children at home who are very used to drinking organic 2% milk with their meals.  At this point in their lives, I do not want to remove that completely, even though I know realize that cows and all milk producing creatures (humans included) were designed to create milk for their own offspring and no other creatures!  And travelling with three small kids is difficult enough, let alone trying to find vegan or vegetarian options at fast food restaurants.  I'm not going to make them eat pounds of french fries just because they are vegan.  

So what have we done in the first month or so of transitioning to Sustainable Eating?  We have cut our milk consumption in half, if not more!  We went from drinking about 4 gallons of 2% organic milk every week to about 2 gallons!  We are using Almond Milk in cereal, smoothies, baking, cooking, etc.  I have not purchased lunch meat or sandwich cheese.  Thankfully, my oldest son has been preferring peanut butter and jelly every day and my younger two have accepted that for school lunches as well.  We are eating lots of vegetables and grains for our meals.  Meals primarily consist of beans, quinoa or rice, other vegetables and seasonsings.  We are buying calcium fortified orange juice, low sugar organic juice drinks, vegan cream cheese, sour cream and butter, dry beans of all types (because it is cheaper to buy dry beans and prepare them yourself than cans and cans of prepared beans) and breads without dairy and egg.  We continue to eat lots of nuts, fruit and vegetables.  And I have bought but yet have to experiment with Chia Seeds.  My children didn't really like the coconut milk yogurt, but maybe over time they will.  Organic yogurt was a staple in their daily meals!

Sustainable Eating is making me get creative with meals and try new things!  My Monday FOOD! posts will go through sustainable eating tips and tricks that I have found and will showcase recipes that my family has enjoyed.  By spreading the word about the over-exploitation of farm animals leading to the destruction of our environment and modifying my family's diet and sharing our experiences, I hope that many of you will consider making some changes too.  It is something that we have to do if we want to provide a healthy environment for our future generations.  (And I haven't even touched on the health benefits of following a diet like this!)

I'd like to hear from you!  What can you do to help your family eat more sustainably?

Check out the Cowspiracy Facts.

 http://www.cowspiracy.com/facts/     

To help you get started making some dietary changes, check out The Physicians Committee on Responsible Medicine.

http://www.pcrm.org/