Friday, February 10, 2012

Summer calendar

The Sagehen summer events calendar is beginning to fill up. This year, we have some great new programs in addition to old favorites like our Summer Science Speaker Series, Geomorphology Workshop and Kid Zone Family Camp.

Take a look at our events page for more details about new programs like:

  • Land Ethic Leadership Workshop;
  • Youth Fishing Camp;
  • California Naturalist Training;
  • Road Ecology Workshop.
Some of these are already booking up, so get busy and sign up! Other courses will have more information posted soon.

Thursday, February 02, 2012

Burning slash.

Finally got a weather window to burn some slash piles around the station today: 2 at the Leopold Cabin, 2 at the Lower Camp.

This year has been so dry and snowless, it's been impossible to light a fire.



Thursday, January 12, 2012

Land Ethic Leadership course

Just before Christmas, Jeff, Amy Horne and I visited Baraboo, WI to meet with the Aldo Leopold Foundation folks and see their visitor center and the Shack.

Here are some photos of our visit to Baraboo and Madison, including John Muir's remarkable desk.

While there, we also attended the Aldo Leopold Foundation's "Land Ethic Leadership Workshop".

From the website:

"Learn to help your community think about complex and changing environmental issues and new ways to discuss our collective values and vision."

We will be hosting a session of this workshop here at Sagehen June 1-3, 2012.















Monday, October 17, 2011

Sagehen Master Plan meeting

Team Meets to Discuss Path Forward for Sagehen Creek Field Station Project

Sept. 29, 2011: Inna Gritsak, The Boldt Company


One day the Sagehen Creek Field Station North of Truckee, California may become the greenest facility in the world. Making that dream a reality was the topic of discussion at a planning session September 26.

Since the project is in the very early stages of planning, the primary goal of the meeting was to identify the project’s path forward and discuss funding options.

Present at the meeting were Jay Harris and Cormwell Burgos from Boldt, Jeff Brown and Faerthen Felix from Sagehen, Don Clark and James Molder from Cathexes, Violet Nakayama from UC Berkeley, and Jonathan Long from the USDA Forest Service Pacific Southwest Research Station.

Currently, the Sagehen Creek Field Station is a year-round natural laboratory managed by the University of California, Berkeley in collaboration with the Tahoe National Forest and the Forest Service Pacific Southwest Research Station. The alliance works together for the common goal of promoting excellence in research and education in a natural environmentally-functioning eco-system.

Current conditions of the facility, however, are aging, poorly sited and no longer meet current and projected user needs for offices, classrooms, storage space, research facilities and housing.

The September 26 meeting was the fourth meeting for the project.

An important topic on the meeting agenda was how to locate the financial resources for the project since most funding needs to come from private donors.

Other items on the agenda included the vision for the project’s design, contract method, entitlements, preliminary work, conditions of satisfaction, corporate participation, target budget business drivers, documentation, and participation from contributors.

Boldt was invited to participate in the project due to the company’s experience with Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) and its offer to assist with pursuing project funding.

“Boldt is very passionate about sustainability and being a good steward of the environment so this is the kind of project Tom Boldt would be very excited to see his company participate in,” Harris said. 

Boldt was the contractor for the Leopold Center in Fairfield, Wisconsin, which is known as the first carbon neutral building certified by LEED. This means annual operations of the facility account for no net gain in carbon dioxide emissions. The LEED program awarded the Leopold Center 61 out of 69 possible points, which happens to be more than any other building in the United States.

The goal of the Sagehen Creek Field Station project is to get all 69 points from LEED.

Besides locating the funds for this project, the other challenge lies in designing it to be the greenest building in the world.

The goal is to make the facility as self-sufficient as possible. Bio mass power, use of local materials, solid waste management and recycling will be integrated into the project.

Cathexes, the designer and architect for the project, plans to design the building to reflect the imagery and feeling of the place, use indigenous materials and ultimately, make a home in the wild. The essence of the design should reflect the concept of earth, sun and water.

The US Forest Service also has influence on the project’s design and construction. Although UC Berkeley owns and operates the Sagehen Creek Field Station facility, the land on which it stands is owned by the US Forest Service. The field station is instrumental in assisting the US Forest Service research in forest management. The Forest Service will start harvesting logs next summer as part of their forest thinning program and the logs will be stored on site for later use in constructing the facility.

Confirming the project’s program and scope of work was also an item on the agenda; however, there remain too many unknowns to establish the entire program. 

Harris also presented an overview of Boldt’s philosophy of Integrated Lean Project Delivery (ILPD), which would be the preferred delivery method for designing and building the project. Clark presented an overview of the Cathexes design.

All in all, the meeting was productive and all meeting agenda points were addressed.

Most importantly, a path forward was determined. Harris, Brown and Clark will continue to hold weekly conference calls or meetings to discuss project developments. At the same time, Brown will be asking George Nolte, a supporter of the Sagehen project and Leopold board member, to coordinate with Tom Boldt, Chairman of the Leopold board to determine Leopold’s participation in this project.  Planning meetings will continue on an as-needed basis.  

Thursday, October 13, 2011

Global science project

Sagehen is one of the contributing sites for a global-scale, paradigm-shifting study appearing in Science this month.
Upending an entrenched model, the study "shows no clear relationship between productivity and the number of plant species in small study plots."

Researchers Dan Gruner and Louie Yang added the NutNet sites used as part of the global assessment to Sagehen several years ago.

More info.

Friday, October 07, 2011

Force Majeur at Sagehen

There are some exciting and very interesting convergences happening with the Force Majeure Sagehen art project:


"...generate long-term research projects that address the emerging stresses of the Earth’s largest ecosystems by co-joining the processes of art-making and the Sciences within the uniquely and specifically-framed perspective of work by Helen Mayer Harrison and Newton Harrison, understood as the Harrison Studio. The scope of mission of the Center includes work beyond typical categories and is in support of an evolving Art/Science hybrid form."

  • The Harrisons also recently finished a project in the Yuba watershed that is part of their "Sierra Nevada: An Adaptation" exhibit currently showing at the Nevada Museum of Art. More info.

They used Aldo Leopold's challenge of "Thinking Like A Mountain" as a point of departure to examine land use decisions made in the watershed. See photos, below | Read text




Wednesday, August 24, 2011

Collections assistance

Erica Krimmel is a museum curator looking to keep her skills sharp while living in Truckee, so she volunteered to help us with our collections.

Erica is digitizing the Sagehen botany collection, available on-line soon.

She also repaired our bear mount's nose!

You can learn more about Sagehen volunteers and opportunities here.

Scientific Illustrator at Sagehen

Scientific Illustrator Stephanie Rozzo is spending a few weeks at Sagehen, creating graphics to help us better communicate concepts behind some of our projects.

Tuesday, August 23, 2011

Aldo Leopold Week

Sagehen is hosting "Aldo Leopold Week", with outdoor screenings of "Green Fire", the Aldo Leopold Foundation's new documentary on Leopold's life.

Watch a preview at Sagehen TV.

We are also showing a new Sagehen-produced documentary: "The Leopold Family Legacy at Sagehen Creek". This short film explains the connection between Sagehen Creek Field Station and Aldo Leopold.

Friday was the opening of the event and Sagehen's 60th birthday celebration. Steve and Ann Dunsky, the filmmakers, generously provided a Q&A after the film. On Saturday night, the Sierra Business Council sponsored the next screening.

There are two more screenings this week. The US Forest Service is hosting a screening on Tuesday, Aug. 23 for the general public. And the Truckee River Watershed Council hosts a screening on Wednesday night, Aug. 24.