Why I chose a major in Environmental Geoscience

http://winona.mndakcirclek.org

I have one more year at WSU and I still have a lot left to learn before graduation. As an Environmental Geoscience major, my field of study was quite broad until recently. I love chemistry, biology, hydrology, watershed science, field and analytical methods, and other classes for my minors in Global Studies and Sustainability (undeclared). After almost four years at Winona State University, I can honestly say that I cannot wait to obtain a career in the science field. I love learning about the environment, how to research and ask questions. I have learned how to take good field notes, what to measure in the field and useful mapping program such as ArcGIS. It is amazing how much I have learned in a relatively short period of time. My short term goals include doing my best in my classes and learning as much as I can this summer while working at the Water Resource Center (WRC).

One of my personal goals is to eventually be more independent and dependable when it comes to stream restoration. As a future scientist, I would like to work efficiently and maybe even help teach to others how to restore streams, check water quality, and understand hydrological geomorphology. I want to have a firm understanding so I do not waste time and money by making mistakes. I hope to work on fulfilling this goal during the summer as I have an internship with the WRC and Trout Unlimited here in Winona. We will be surveying Garvin Brook for the MN DNR and in the years to come other students will work to help restore the stream to a healthier state, especially for the trout populations. With this internship and a month long field camp in Montana through Indiana University, I hope to gain even more hands on experience this summer so I can become a great scientist. I want to create solutions not problems and in order for this to be true, I must equip and challenge myself so I am proficient. I want to be prepared to face the job market after undergraduate school or even to face the challenge of graduate school in the near future.

Spring International Orientation

A career goal is hard to choose at this point, but I have narrowed it down to two main goals. I have been an International Orientation leader since my freshman year at WSU and have been heavily involved with our International students here on campus. These include being the PR and secretary for the International Club and co-leading the International Bible study. I have been in charge of the club's annual International Dinner for the past two years, which taught me a lot about organization, management, and so much more. I have also traveled to Taiwan and Thailand to visit friends from each beautiful country. This was not always a dream of mine, but after coming to Winona State, I have had a growing passion for environmental concerns on a global scale. In the future, I would really love to work in another country to help preserve or conserve our precious natural resources. My main focus right now is water. It is such a crucial part of sustaining life and whether I enter an occupation that concerns water availability or water quality, I know that I will still make an impact on the lives of others. I have donated to the building of wells in Africa, but it would mean so much more to me to actually be a part of the construction process. If not finding out where to best drill a well, then possibly testing water quality and creating resolutions to fix the pollution problems. Waterborne diseases are so prevalent in developing countries and it is rather easy to prevent. I view this goal as the more challenging, but most fulfilling of the two.

In a race to set up our tents.

My second goal would be to simply stay in the States and use my capabilities here where it is also needed. I would love to have a career that has moderate variability so I could continue learning, but I also love teaching and helping others to learn and develop their skills. I have volunteered and worked with kids in the past few years teaching them about nature, survival skills out in the wild, first aid as well as how to fish, canoe, and kayak. Some of this has been done through Winona County's Project GO (Get Outdoors) after school program for kids. I have also been a Regional Science and Engineering Science Fair Judge for the last three years. It has been so encouraging to see how much students retain and how their curiosity sparks a desire to explore the possibilities and experiment to find results. I love to urge these grade school students to stretch their minds and challenge themselves by adding more tests, finding answers to harder questions and other ways to improve for future projects. A few years ago, I saw myself as a park naturalist and although I have not totally ruled this option out, I can see now that I would love to spread awareness about the environment and provide education to farmers, students, businesses, and etcetera. This could include being an environmental consultant for impact assessments, flooding events, or contamination issues. As a scientist, I desire to help create a safer and healthier environment for future generations to live sustainably.

The following pictures are taken from when I taught the Survival class at Grindstone Lake Bible Camp, which I did for about 3 summers. Here we were learning about different types of forts, safe things to eat, how to...
tell direction, tell a poisonous plant from another, build traps, fish, as well as how to complete simple first aid. I have great memories from these experiences and really enjoyed teaching the class as well as being the camp nurse for 4 years.

Trout Unlimited

Trout Unlimited Win-Cres Chapter has been around since June 1977. It is one of many chapters made up of community members and devout fishermen to "protect and conserve the Southeast Minnesota trout streams." Since this important trout fishery is located in the Driftless Area and is flourishing, it is a regional treasure. Numerous trout improvement projects, clean up days, and "take a kid fishing" days have been successful community building opportunities as well as improving this valuable resource. I'm going to focus on the long stream called Garvin Brook near Stockton, MN which includes populations of brook and brown trout.

To see the Garvin Brook Project Outline click HERE. On the right side of the screen is a Google Earth map download for you to see the project area.

A GIS map made by Heidi Breid, a Geoscience major at WSU depicting the biodiversity and land management in the watershed.

This summer, Trout Unlimited along with students from the Water Resource Center, will begin surveying this 6,100 ft stream. This survey will focus on the geomorphology of streambed instability and with the help of a monitoring device they will be able to measure discharge. These surveys will be necessary to know how the stream is influenced and what the best restoration method would be. The end result will include a longitudinal cross section as well as a plethora of data to determine this.

Example of Longitudinal Profile taken from Rosgen, David L., 1994, A Classification of Natural Rivers: Catena, v. 22, p. 169-199.

Many things and events influence the flow and health of a stream. I can think of quite a few including:

Large Woody Debris

http://ohiodnr.com/Portals/7/pubs/fs_st/stfs21.pdf

Many do not know this, but logs that have fallen into a streambed is not necessarily a bad thing. Actually, it is a very good thing in many cases. According to the Ohio Stream Management Guide, large woody debris (LWD) is essential for food and shelter for macroinvertebrates, aka: insects. As the tree decays it gives of nutrients and encourages biodiversity. In order for a stream to remain healthy, it's ecosystem benefits with a variety of plant and animals species and available habitats. Fallen trees provide not only shelter to hide from predators, but also a resting place with a slower discharge. Another thing I learned from this paper as well as my professor, Dr. Dogwiler in Advanced Geomorphology, is that logs also change flow patterns and increases diversity in the streambed. These may include more pools, riffles, meanders, erosion, deposition, etc. (definitions: HERE). This variability creates a more diverse habitat for the many organisms that live in the stream. In the case of LWDs, they aren't useful in every situation, but rather when streams have a low gradient.

www.reuters.com 

Also, for those of you who were not here in 2007 when Winona County got that big flood, Garvin Brook was affected in a major way. Check out Historical Flood Event. This major event had a huge impact on the geomorphology of the stream and the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources (MN DNR) is sponsoring a project to figure out the best management and restoration practices need to be in place for the continuation of a healthy habitat for wildlife.

You might be asking, "how does this all relate to hazardous waste?"

Well, I haven't mentioned much in terms of surface runoff from agriculture and even Garvin Brook here in Winona, MN encounters pollutants. After the 2007 flood, several invasive species were introduced to the watershed and have threatened the native species. These include Garlic Mustard, Wild Parsnip, and Buckthorn. Eventually, this recent Garvin Brook project will help remove the invasive plant species from this heavily disturbed area.

Taken from my power point for the Garvin Brook Watershed Characterization. 

Since this area is 67% cropland, agricultural runoff is also serious issue.

Taken from my power point for my research project.

The main pollution sources in this area come from:

• Nitrogen fertilizers
• Animal operations (mostly dairy farming)
• Pesticides

Nitrate pollution can come from barnyards and/or feedlots as well as misuse of fertilizer on lawns that are too close to shallow aquifers. One of the best ways to combat this is education. There is an important point where adding too much fertilizer can be more harmful than helpful and education can help fertilizer users to know about this distinction and gain a greater yield.

Other main pollutants include:

• Bacteria
• Sedimentation
• Turbidity

Now WAIT a minute here...sediments are considered pollution?
Yep. Too much sediment transport can cause a number of problems including the difficulty for fish and other animals to see food, prevents the sun from reaching plants located underwater, it can clog fish gills and lower growth rates as well as reduce resistance to disease, it can also alter the flow and depth of a stream. The EPA has labeled sediment pollution as one of the most common pollutants in rivers, streams, lakes, etc. and it causes $16 billion in environmental damage every year. Sediments can also carry many nutrients and create conditions of eutrophication, which occurs in the Gulf of Mexico in the form of hypoxic zones. For more read: Sediment Pollution.

Why the sudden interest in trout and Garvin Brook?

I have an internship this summer with Winona State's Water Resource Center who is partnering with Trout Unlimited and the MN DNR this summer to survey Garvin Brook and monitor things such as pH, temperature, velocity, etc. It is a pretty cool process and I have been blessed to have the opportunity to see how the monitoring system works, how the data is collected and processed, and to have been involved with the installation process (pictures below). As I am also a senior at Winona State University, I will use this internship to also fulfill my research requirement. I have made the following examples of how much we will need to physically survey and record in the following photos.

We will be using a total station and will have to literally get in the stream to do a pebble count and measure depths.

The dots in orange represent where we will have to take readings/measurements in and along the stream.

An example of how we survey can easily be seen in the following image:

Taken from Rosgen 1996,  ©  Wildland Hydrology 

I hope more people become interested in how land use affects the environment and how we can help to reduce those negative impacts. I will probably blog about surface runoff in more depth later.

Read More:
WinCrest January Newsletter
http://www.wincrestu.org/wp-content/gallery//2010/11/Newsletter_TU_Vol3sm.pdf
Fly Fishing
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LgScCiQht_c&feature=player_embedded#!
Large Woody Debris Fact Sheet
http://www.ct.gov/dep/lib/dep/fishing/restoration/largewoodydebrisfactsheet.pdf

Plastic Plastic Plastic!

Have you ever heard of "The Garbage Patch" or the "Great Pacific Trash Island"? 

Well, here are some videos I would recommend to learn about it:

(you can find more on youtube.com)

Important quotes: "3.9 million tons of floating trash."

"Estimated to be twice the size of Texas."

"Stretches from the coast of California all the way to Japan."

"In some places the man-made debris is 90 feet deep." 

"90% ... is all plastic."

"80% is litter."

The Garbage Patch is located in the center of some revolving currents called the North Pacific Gyre. In the middle of this Gyre is kind of a "meteorological phenomenon" as it consists of high pressure north of the Hawaiian Islands and the currents are weak so the ocean surface is as undisturbed as lake water.

http://www.examiner.com/going-green-in-san-francisco/map-of-north-pacific-gyre-photo

http://gcaptain.com/great-pacific-garbage-patch/?2007

http://www.flickr.com/search/?q=coastalcleanupday2011#page=2

In California, they have a "Coastal Cleanup Day," which is an annual beach and waterway cleanup. Support is volunteer-based and in 2010, over "82,500 volunteers removed more than 1.2 million pounds of trash and recyclables."

For more information on what things you can recycle such as corks, floppy disks, videos, computers, glasses, CDs, packing peanuts, smoke detectors, cameras, etc. click Recycling More Obscure Materials and Commonly Recycled Materials.

http://www.good.is/post/transparency-the-great-pacific-garbage-patch/

Important Quotes: "We use two million plastic bottles every 5 minutes (in the US)." For information on what household wastes to recycle click: Resources for Recycling Household Hazardous Waste.

"Four month old Albatross died with this in it's stomach (photo below)."

"Stomachs are full of bottle caps and other rubbish like cigarette lighters."

There is also a "HUGE GARBAGE PATCH" in the Atlantic Ocean.

This area in the Atlantic has been ignored by many and is situated a few hundred miles east of us here in the U.S. According to National Geographic, it is "roughly the distance from Cuba to Virginia".

When I was in Taiwan, we went to the Northern coast and had fun on the beach. When we went further away from the swimming area to catch some crabs, I could see a HUGE amount of trash. I didn't want to take many photos because I wanted everyone who saw my pictures to see how beautiful Taiwan was, but I was able to dig through my pictures and find one that I took on my way to where the crabs were. 

This was only on the way, but the further we got away from the tourist attraction, the more and more trash we found on the shore. It was awful! On the way back I was hoping to find a plastic bag to carry stuff back with no luck. My Taiwanese friends and I carried a few things back, but I would have loved spending the rest of my afternoon cleaning it up. From all of these examples of coastlines swamped with trash and plastic, I think it is safe to assume many other coastlines all around the globe have this severe problem and we need to get off of our butts and do something about it. We also need to think positively and know that even though we may never remove everything from our oceans, we can still make an impact by reducing our waste and cleaning up via vacuuming, etc. 

For information about innovative ways to reduce plastic in our oceans found at Plans to Reduce Waste.

Waste Reduction Initiatives

Yesterday, there was a photo release of the honored facilities of Northrop Grumman Corporation in Woodland Hills, CA for their outstanding efforts to reduce paper, cardboard, and other recyclables. They have been awarded by the California Department of Resources, Recycling, and Recovery through the Waste Reduction Awards Program (WRAP).

http://media.globenewswire.com/cache/189/hires/12504.jpg

Northrop Grumman is a leading company in the global security sector. Their job is to provide innovative systems, products and solutions to the government and commercial corporations around the world. These include various electronics, information systems, technical services, etc.

http://www.epa.gov/region9/mediacenter/nodischarge/images/IMG_3376.jpg

Also, on February 9th the EPA finalized their decision to approve California's sewage ban to prevent large ships, such as cruise ships, from dumping sewage into the Pacific Ocean. This new ban makes it the largest coastal no-discharge zone here in the US. The coastline is about 1,624 miles all the way from Mexico to Oregon and doesn't exclude the major islands surrounding California. This is a huge step forward in keeping our coast marine life safe and clean. According to the article entitled Feds approve California sewage ban and create largest coastal no-discharge zone in the nation,

"More than 20 million gallons of vessel sewage" will be prohibited from entering the state's coastal waters.

This proactive ban will help a large quantity of marine species as well as tourists and the fish industry. Previously in my post called "Cruise Ship Waste" we talked about the various hazardous waste materials dumped without any regulation from large ships. More on the California news at EPA Media Kit.

Read more at:
Ocean Dumping Ban Act
http://www.pollutionissues.com/Na-Ph/Ocean-Dumping-Ban-Act.html#b
Clean Harbors
http://www.cleanharbors.com/browse_by_industry/healthcare/pharmaceutical-waste-management.html?gclid=CNWS4JqDn64CFUcCQAodqFR64A

Also:

Valentines Day at the Sewage Plant

Today in Brooklyn, NY more than 100 people went to the Newtown Creek Wastewater Treatment Plant for a free tour. THAT IS SOOOO AWESOME! CBS and other news reported that New York City has 14 treatment plants and every day they process 1.5 million gallons of waste!!! On the tour, people learned about sludge while eating free Hershey's chocolate.

Waterborne Diseases

Waterborne diseases are a HUGE problem facing the world today, many in developing countries. Not only is it a problem to find clean water (as 2.4 billion people are estimated to have no basic access to drinking water sources according to the World Health Organization), but much of the water available is so contaminated that 3.4 million + adults and children die every year because of diseases from this hazardous drinking water. Most of these diseases are linked to areas of no sewage treatment or mismanaged sewage disposal facilities as microorganism contaminants cause intestinal diarrhea, cholera, typhoid fever, and dysentery.

Water-borne diseases are the second leading cause of death in children below the age of five years.

Childhood mortality rates from acute respiratory infections is first.

Limitations of water resources and the fact that much of our remaining water is contaminated makes it very difficult to reach our full potential for sustaining life around the globe. Water plays a HUGE role in our every day life including: 

• cleaning
• drinking
• travel
• production of goods
• keeping living organisms alive and healthy
• etc.

http://ga.water.usgs.gov/edu/waterdistribution.html

Earth is a BIG waterbody with 70% of its surface covered with water. This may seem a lot, but the amount of freshwater is a bigger concern. According to Coleridge:

• 97.5% of all water on Earth is salt water, leaving only 2.5% as fresh water
• Nearly 70% of that fresh water is frozen in the icecaps of Antarctica and Greenland; most of the remainder is present as soil moisture, or lies in deep underground aquifers as groundwater not accessible to human use.
• < 1% of the world's fresh water (~0.007% of all water on earth) is accessible for direct human uses. This is the water found in lakes, rivers, reservoirs and those underground sources that are shallow enough to be tapped at an affordable cost. Only this amount is regularly renewed by rain and snowfall, and is therefore available on a sustainable basis.

Available renewable fresh water:

• Fossil ground water can be tapped but is non-replenishable.
• Terrestrial replenishable fw supply (RFWS land).
• RFWSland = ppte on land.
• Pland = evapotranspiration from the land (ETland) and runoff to sea (R).
• Estimates of annual runoff range from 33,500 to 47,00 km^3

http://www.globalchange.umich.edu/globalchange2/current/lectures/freshwater_supply/freshwater.html

Water is so vitally important and I wish more people were aware of how we are taking it for granted. It is a natural resource, but it is also finite. As we are taking it out of the hydrologic cycle, the availability significantly decreases. In 1972, the Clean Water Act was passed because we realized that we needed to protect our water resources, but are we still doing enough to act sustainably? I believe we are using it "consumptively", where water is taken from it's original source (lake or river) and moved to agricultural irrigation fields, etc. I could go on and on about agricultural run-off, but I will leave that for a later post. 

Water in bottles is another subject as well, but it is also a big problem in wasting water. If you look all the way down in my "Hazardous Wastes" blog you will see a photo describing the process and dangers of water bottles, but here is a short part of it:

http://www.onlineeducation.net/bottled_water

We need to be more sustainable with our water usage because there will be wars over water control and we can indeed conserve this resource with better planning, management, and technology. Coleridge also mentions a list of steps we need to prioritize when figuring out how to manage water.

1. Basic human needs for water should be fully acknowledged as a top international priority.
2. Water-related diseases, including Guinea worm, diarrhea, onchocerciasis, malaria, and typhoid should be brought under control.
3. Agricultural water should be efficiently used and allocated.
4. Basic ecosystem water needs should be identified and met.
5. Serious water-related conflicts should be resolved through formal negotiations.

Many water sources have been contaminated with heavy metals from industrial waste, pesticides from surface runoff, chemicals from agriculture, etc. These stay in the environment for a long time and bioaccumulate in the food web (example: mercury). Severe diseases occur from consumption of these toxic chemicals, as well as cancer. Many problems result from having bad water supplies including the E. Coli bacteria. 

http://www.allianceforthelostboys.com/health-handout.html

Composting

California News about City Farm

City Farm is a college's organic urban farm with students using this plot of land to experiment and learn about recycling organic waste in a natural way and creating a "healthy, valuable, nutrient-rich compost for the next growing season". The soil they have available to them is quite "dead" as it is nutrient deficient and dry. Composting is a very useful and helpful process of reusing waste. Many schools and communities are making gardens using the simple concept of composting. For those of you who do not know what it is or how it's made I will share a bit here. 

http://ladpw.org/epd/sg/bc.cfm

Composting is simply food or plant remnants that are being decomposed and can be mixed with soil to produce a richer organic soil that is good for gardening. It is a natural process that happens on its own, but is also becoming a trend today. 

Take a peak in your trash can and estimate how much is actually trash. 

Some of it may be recyclable (such as glass, aluminum, plastic, cardboard, paper, or anything you can rip), but I'm sure a lot of it is leftovers from dinner. A useful way to reduce the amount of garbage you need to carry out to the dumpster as well as needlessly send to landfills, is simply to recycle it. You can do this by throwing all of your organic yard and kitchen waste into a separate bin or even create a small mound on the ground.

http://idreamofeden.wordpress.com/2011/05/10/composting-for-dummies-myself-included/

It may smell, but if turned and mixed it should have a naturally rich, earthy smell so that may factor in on where you want to store it. I worked at a bible camp called Grindstone Lake Bible Camp during the summer of my early undergrad years and we had the compost bins right in the cafeteria. The smell was not overpowering as they would be taken out after supper every day and dumped in a pile on the other side of the camp. I thought it was a great idea and we can see from this that you could store it outside or in a cupboard/closet type place like my family does.

The problem some people face is "Winter Composting". One solution would be to simply forego this practice until Spring or to build your own compost dumpster/bin. To learn how to compost visit: Howtocompost.org. 

http://green.wikia.com/wiki/Compost

My Biology class here at Winona State University is composting in our lab and will be observing the change from dry soil to rich soil as we add items such as egg shells, orange and banana peelings, apple cores, unused or moldy bread etc.

For learning how to compost at home, one of the best sources I've found comes from Cornell Waste Management Institute, Dept of Crop and Soil Sciences, which you can find at Home Composting.


For a video showing how to build one click Start Composting.

For an interactive way to learn composting techniques click RECYCLENOW.