The Hocking River as seen from the Richland Avenue bridge in Athens. The channel has been straight and treeless since the river was moved in the 1970s. Photo by CG Editor-in-Chief Erich Hiner.

By CG Editor-in-Chief Erich Hiner and CG Commentary Editor Maxwell M. Cothrel

With a new academic year about to begin, incoming students are pouring into Athens and Ohio University from across the country. While city and university officials might like newcomers’ first look to include Athens’ historic downtown or OU’s manicured grounds, the sad fact is that many incoming students will have already seen the Hocking River when they arrive.

The Hocking borders Athens on three sides and nearly all the city’s traffic arteries cross it. It meanders and bends like most Appalachian rivers, but it is suspiciously straight, sluggish and cloudy near Athens. The grassy banks, which slope at an unnatural downward angle, are completely barren of trees.

Far from the scenic river new students might envision, the Hocking  near Athens bears a greater resemblance to a shallow, cloudy canal. It should come as no surprise that the channel is manmade. The river itself, which once cut through OU’s campus, was rerouted in the early 1970s as a way to combat frequent flooding. But why are the banks treeless and what are the long-term environmental impacts of such a large, artificial waterway?

Although the river’s move has protected Athens, the project has had and will continue to have profound effects for the city. In an ironic twist of fate, the same project that saved Athens from floods may doom it to flooding in the future.

Prior to the river’s move, floods were frequent in Athens. Mike Holdcroft, secretary treasurer of the Hocking Conservancy District, or HCD, said two major floods occurred within a few days of each other in 1964. The flood waters covered the area between Baker Center and Route 33 and what is now most of West Green. Pictures of the flood show the Convocation Center as one of the few buildings still above water. News reports showed students barricading buildings with sandbags and spurred angry responses from students’ parents. After the floods, then Ohio Gov. Jim Rhodes and President Lyndon B. Johnson visited Athens.

Those men expressed, as Holdcroft called it, “a keen interest in getting that problem solved to protect the state’s property,” meaning the buildings owned by OU, a state school. The university supported the project in order to protect the millions of dollars it had invested in the campus, Holdcroft said.

To see period photos of the flood from the Ohio University archives, click here.

Johnson’s visit helped pave the way for the Hocking River Flood Protection Project at Athens, the name of the Army Corps of Engineers’ effort to move the river. The river’s original path ran through the valley under the Richland Avenue bridge. In fact, Baker Center’s first floor entrance would be underwater if the river had not been moved.

The Army Corps dug a new channel for the river. The new waterway was shortened, widened and moved to its new location along Route 33. The present channel is 1,400 feet shorter than the river’s original path, but roughly 115 feet wider at the bottom. Much of the dirt removed to create the new channel was built up into the embankments that the bike path now sits atop. From the top of the embankment, there’s a 20-foot easement where trees are not allowed to be planted.

“The whole design of this project is to move flood waters through Athens as quickly as possible,” Holdcroft said. “When the river comes up, [tree roots] can create what’s called a piping effect.”

If trees were allowed on the banks, rising flood waters would be forced among the trees’ roots like water through a pipe. Water would push through the underground root network at high pressure and force itself upward and onto campus.

Allowing the planting and growth of trees along the river would defeat the purpose of having a flood-resistant embankment, Holdcroft said. The biggest fear of putting trees on the river is the potential fallout of a “100-year flood,” any flood severe enough to be considered the worst of the century. The river’s manmade embankments would hold such a flood, but any piping effect through them could spell disaster for campus.

Although the barriers have worked thus far, the project has had unintended consequences for the present day.

John Wryst, president of the Hocking River Commission, a non-profit that works to preserve the river, said farmers upstream plant their crops right up to the Hocking’s banks. That lack of trees means an absence of strong roots. No roots mean loose soil, which allows for massive amounts of erosion. Wryst, who wrote his master’s thesis on erosion caused by treeless river banks, said he measured some areas along the Hocking that lost a tenth of an acre a year to erosion by the river.

The farms’ soil sediment was not a major problem before the river was rerouted. Soil used to enter the water and be swept downstream by the Hocking’s current. With the river widened and slowed by the flood prevention project, sediment can no longer be carried by the channel’s natural speed. As a result, the sediment being carried downstream gets to the channel around Athens and drops to the bottom.

The HCD is now forced to dredge the waterway around Athens frequently, using valuable resources and time. More importantly, the buildup of sediment over time could elevate the level of the river. Ironically, the increased sedimentation caused by the flood-resistant embankments could increase the likelihood of future floods.

“If it ever did roll over its banks and you did have a 100-year flood … you’d have the new Baker Center under water,” Wryst said.

Former OU geological sciences professor Moid Ahmad told the university and the Army Corps that the project would slow down the speed of the river and increase the amount of soil being deposited in the flood-resistant channel. Apparently, his advice fell on deaf ears. The river was rerouted, creating a never-ending maintenance project.

Like many actions that change the natural environment, the rerouting of the Hocking has had unintended consequences throughout the years. The project has been a success so far, but it has also undermined its own purpose.

For now, students and Athenians will have to be content with the city’s murky moat and its bare banks. Despite the best efforts of local, state and national officials, the river remains untamed.



By Daydah Oninku, Ohio Environmental Council

One of the worst kept secrets in Ohio is our poor air quality and the health, environmental and economic consequences of not meeting minimum, federal air quality standards.  We have all been behind that dirty diesel truck or near a construction site where diesel engines belch out black plumes.  If you are like me, you cover your mouth, hold your breath or try to pass as soon as possible. But what is in that black plume and how is it impacting our lives?

But before we explore the impacts, let’s explore the reasons we use diesel engines.  They are an efficient type of engine that lasts 20, 30 or even 40 years.  They drive our economy by transporting goods and students. They help us build bridges, roads, homes and schools.  In fact, Ohio is about to experience a construction boom that it has not seen for decades.  While that puts people back to work, it also reveals diesel engines’ dark, sooty side.

Diesel emissions contain a toxic stew of ingredients that includes formaldehyde, benzene and 40 other known toxins.  Diesel fumes also contain volatile organic compounds such as nitrogen oxides and particulate matter (which can be as thick as one-thirtieth the size of a human hair).  All those things combine to create the No. 1 toxic air risk in the U.S.

The medical research is very clear. According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, diesel fumes are linked to asthma attacks, painful breathing, heart and lung disease, cancer and early death.  The Clean Air Task Force, an advocacy group based in Boston, projects that the fine particles in diesel emissions in 2010 will cause 627 early deaths, 879 non-fatal heart attacks and 18,582 asthma attacks in Ohio. The group also estimates the monetized value of health impacts in Ohio to be $5.1 billion.  People who are most susceptible are children, the elderly and those who work or exercise near diesel equipment.

In addition to the health impacts, diesel exhaust emits black carbon, a substance that contributes to climate change.  As a global warming agent, it is about 2,000 times more potent than the equivalent amount of carbon dioxide over a 20-year period.  The U.S. has the highest per-capita emissions of black carbon in the world, according to the Clean Air Task Force.  Forty-one percent of U.S. black carbon emissions come from on-road diesel engines and 16 percent come from off-road diesel engines.

If the state does not meet federal air quality standards, we could see an expansion of the Ohio E-Check vehicle inspection program or have highway funds withheld from the state.  New air quality standards for ozone pollution will mean that roughly 30 Ohio counties will fail the standard.  That would be a rude awakening for local officials who are not familiar with the problem.  We need to be proactive and not reactive in our approach.

There are steps that we as individuals and as a community can take to improve the air as well as our health, climate and economic competitiveness.  Has your city or college adopted a no-idling policy for their diesel-powered fleet?  Have they adopted a campus-wide or city-wide fuel conservation ordinance to limit the amount of time a driver can idle?  A large city can see a collective reduction in fuel use by nearly 25 million gallons and save almost $60 million in a year.

Does your campus or city have clean construction requirements so any new construction project uses emission control devices that reduce pollution up to 85 percent?  At the federal level, many groups have joined together to encourage U.S. Sen. George Voinovich and other lawmakers to include clean construction requirements in the federal transportation reauthorization bill.

You can take simple steps to reduce your fuel use by carpooling, bundling trips, filling up your car after 6 p.m., riding a bike instead of driving and reducing your idling time.  It only takes 10 seconds of idling to waste more fuel than to turn off the engine.

More information is available from the Ohio Environmental Council at www.theoec.org under the “air” section.

Infographic by CG Lifestyles & People Editor Katherine Bercik

By Katherine Bercik, Lifestyles & People Editor

The environment does not receive much consideration during times of war and it’s not difficult to understand why.

Forgoing bombs for the sake of mountains or ecosystems isn’t the most efficient strategy, but what about the health of the environment and people after the war?

In the case of depleted uranium, or DU, that question has been given disturbingly little thought.

The U.S. military began using depleted uranium in weapons before fully understanding the potential consequences. Now, millions of tons of this radioactive waste have been dispersed in various regions of the world, especially in the Middle East.

As a part of a research project at Ohio University, I researched the potential health effects of depleted uranium and how the government has addressed the issue.The majority of my findings were not encouraging. In many ways, they were downright frustrating.

DU is a byproduct of the uranium enrichment process. It has twice the density of lead and 60 percent of natural uranium’s radioactivity. DU’s high density makes it valuable to the U.S. military, which uses it for counterweights in aircraft and in anti-tank and armor-piercing munitions.

DU is not as radioactive as uranium, a naturally occurring element, but it is very toxic to humans if it enters the body through the lungs, digestive system or blood stream.

When a DU-laden missile strikes a target, the DU can either become gaseous or turn into particulate matter, making it much easier for the material to spread throughout the environment. Once dispersed, the particles can accumulate in an area’s air, water, soil and vegetation.

Dr. Salam Bash al-Maliky, an environmental engineer from Baghdad’s Al-Mustansiriya University, referred to DU as a “ghost.” Given its million-year half-life (the time it takes for a decaying substance to decrease by half), the material is destined to stay in the environment for thousands of generations. While DU is relatively harmless compared to other radioactive waste, it decays into more toxic substances over time.

DU was first used extensively by the U.S. military in the Gulf War. At the time, it was regarded as a safe product that helped shorten the war. Unfortunately, soldiers were unaware of the material’s possible dangers when decommissioning tanks struck by DU missiles.

When some Gulf War veterans began experiencing a series of seemingly unrelated symptoms such as headaches, muscle and joint pain, nausea and rashes – an illness now referred to as Gulf War Syndrome – DU exposure was one of the prime suspects.

Records of DU exposure were not recorded for possible epidemiological purposes and a direct connection could not be established.

The U.S. military still uses DU in its munitions, but officials now require soldiers to follow stricter protocols when handling DU-laden weapons and decommissioning struck tanks. They must also report all forms of DU exposure.

As a part of my project team’s assignment, I analyzed the quality of Gulf War Syndrome-related depleted uranium research conducted by the U.S. Departments of Defense and Veterans Affairs, the groups most responsible for the health of U.S. soldiers.

If the DOD and VA’s treatment of Gulf War Syndrome research is at all telling of how it has addressed DU research, it’s disturbing to think how the government plans to deal with DU once it begins to decay into more hazardous elements.

According to a 2008 report issued by the Research Advisory Committee on Gulf War Veteran’s Illnesses, federally funded studies lacked cohesion and results-focused management. Many studies had “little if anything to do with the health of Gulf War Veterans.” In many studies, those included as test subjects had not even served in the 1990-1991 Gulf War.

Even with those shortfalls in research methodology, the DOD and VA, along with the World Health Organization, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and NATO, have “concluded” that there is not enough evidence to determine whether DU exposure causes diseases such as Gulf War Syndrome, cancer or birth defects. Not very conclusive, but it’s what U.S. and international agencies decided.

That conclusion might have been somewhat comforting if it weren’t for the fact that some diseases caused by radioactive wastes tend to have longer latency periods. The effects of DU exposure probably won’t be fully understood until years or perhaps decades from now.

Also, observations have differed in the areas where DU has been used. Several reports from international media have claimed there is a correlation between higher cancer rates and birth defects in areas where the material has been used – especially in Kosovo, Iraq and Afghanistan.

So what does the use of depleted uranium mean for the U.S.? More specifically, what does it mean for southeastern Ohio?

First of all, anyone who is serving in the military or has a loved one in the military deserves to know exactly what soldiers are being exposed to.

Second, we have learned from the recent oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico that waste and environmental destruction do not recognize international borders. The use of DU is no different. If DU spreads throughout Iraq and Afghanistan, what will keep it from affecting the entire region and the regions beyond?

I’m certainly no expert on this matter and I don’t have any solid solutions, but I know the first step is to understand the issue and acknowledge the potential problem. However, it seems the government has been lazy in terms of taking that first, modest step. It also wouldn’t hurt if we searched for an alternative material.

Thankfully, the DOD and VA have pledged to continue monitoring the health of soldiers exposed to DU. But what about civilians and the environment? In those terms, we need officials who will get their heads out of the sand.

Editor’s Note: Katherine Bercik is an alumna of the Global Leadership Center, a two-year certificate program at Ohio University that assigns students real-life project charges. For a project titled “Post-War Reconstruction in Iraq,” the GLC researched the effects of depleted uranium in the Middle East.

A gypsy moth caterpillar eating a leaf. Photo courtesy of the Ohio Department of Natural Resources.

By Audrey Rabalais, CG Science Editor

When entomologist Leopold Trouvelot brought gypsy moth larvae from Europe to his home in Medford, Mass. in 1869, he wanted to produce silk. When some of the caterpillars escaped from his backyard, he knew the destruction they would cause.

Within a couple years, the infestation had spread and the gypsy moth caterpillars were devouring trees around the city, said Ohio University Professor Kelly Johnson, who holds a doctorate in entomology.

According to the U.S. Forest Service, gypsy moths began to spread from Massachusetts and across New England in the early 20^th century. By 1994, they entered Pennsylvania, Michigan and Ohio.

The moths move in multiple waves. Males trail-blaze, moving faster than females that are weighed down by abdomens full of eggs. The caterpillars go relatively unnoticed until they begin to satisfy their voracious appetites.

“If you’re noticing defoliation, you’ve already got an outbreak,” Johnson said.

Gypsy moths have been in Athens County for four to five years, said Urban Forester Ann Bonner, who manages Ohio’s Region 2 Forestry Program. Region 2 includes Athens, Hocking, Meigs and 12 other nearby counties. Bonner said the gypsy moth is not a stand-out species in the area because of natural control methods.

“Songbirds eat tremendous amounts of these moths,” Bonner said, adding that natural fungi in the soil also keep the moths in check.

Although there have been no large outbreaks of gypsy moths in Southeast Ohio, caterpillars took advantage of the lush Highbanks Metro Park area in nearby Franklin County. The gypsy moth larvae defoliated 10 to 14 acres of trees last summer, a substantial defoliation, according to Metro Parks Resource Manager John Watts.

The dispersal of the moths is greatly aided by human activity. Because gypsy moth mothers are indiscriminate about hatching locations, egg sacks can be found anywhere from fire wood stacks to vehicle wheel hubs. Even one egg mass is enough to start an outbreak if all the offspring survive a season, Johnson said.

To contain the moth population, the Ohio Department of Agriculture established quarantine areas. Signs are posted at campgrounds and other locations urging campers not to move firewood. The signs also include information about ways to slow the spread of the moth. Athens, Vinton and Hocking counties are included in the quarantine, which covers the entire eastern half of Ohio.

To prevent the effects of the gypsy moth larvae this year, the Department of Agriculture sprayed the previously affected area with Gypchek, a biological pesticide. Gypchek’s main ingredient is a naturally occurring gypsy moth virus known as the nucleopolyhedrovirus. The product is sprayed by a low-flying aircraft onto the treetops when the caterpillars are newly hatched. This is the first time the Highbanks Metro Park has used Gypchek.

Other pesticides are available, such as Bascillus thuringiensis (Bt), an insect bacterial disease. However, Bt is a non-specific pesticide and could kill other species of caterpillars in the area.

“We take a more conservative approach,” Watts said. “We look at a specific target and find the best agent to manage that target.”

White oak and hickory trees fell victim to the larvae more than other trees in the park.

Although last year’s affected area was completely defoliated, Watts said the trees in the Metro Parks seem to be leafing out as usual this year.

Gypsy moths thrive in many trees, but tend to be more productive on deciduous trees and especially oaks, Johnson said.

Most trees can withstand defoliation for a couple years if unstressed, Johnson said. In fact, the gypsy moths, unlike many invasive species, may act as a natural selective force that could strengthen the gene pool of affected tree populations.

“Some people would argue, and have argued, that it’s actually better to just let them sweep through and reach outbreak proportions and basically thin the stands of weak and drought-stressed trees,” Johnson said. “Then what’s left is more robust and can go for years.”

The defoliation can also benefit plants on the forest floor that had previously been out-competed by the larger trees for light or eaten by deer, Watts said. Those plants returned after the defoliation in Franklin County.

The biggest impact of the gypsy moth may not be in its effects on tree populations or other caterpillar species, but to humans expecting a pleasant woodland view in the summer months. As most foresters know, defoliation over a year will not destroy a tree population, but it is a shocking experience for those who have never seen one, Johnson said.

“If you’re there in June or July and all of a sudden you realize there’s green grass on the bottom and none of the trees have leaves on them, it’s startling,” Johnson said. “It’s a huge temporary impact.”

Temporary seems to be the key word in how the government and forest agencies are treating the gypsy moth. Much like unwanted house guests, the moths move in and cause manageable damage. Like any visitors, however, they eventually move on.

By Anna Moore, CG Lifestyles & People

Badger Johnson, 23, an Ohio University junior studying applied ecology, adds to his collection of goods recovered from local trash bins. Johnson is a "freegan" and searches trash for reusable items. Photo by CG Photo Editor Elizabeth Linares.

It’s nighttime and local businesses are shutting down for the day. In the back alleyways of Athens, Ohio, a small group of people meet in the shadows, equipped with recyclable bags and excitement.

As they begin their night’s work, they descend into large metal trash bins in search of the unknown. Who are these nocturnal scavengers?  They are freegans and they have found their way to Athens.

The word “freeganism” is a combination of the words “vegan” and “free.” Vegans, who do not consume any meat or animal products, are usually concerned with animal suffering and the environmental effects of animal products. Freegans look beyond the food industry and live to combat consumerism in all aspects of life by scavenging for food, clothing, furniture and whatever else they need.

As practitioners of “Dumpster diving,” foraging, and environmentalism, freegans are finding new ways to reduce their impact on the earth. They are proving that living simply can still mean living fully.

Badger Johnson, 23, an Ohio University junior studying applied ecology, looks like an average college student with his unruly brown hair and a lime green T-shirt decorated with a “Beyond Coal” pin. However, there is more to him than meets the eye.

Johnson is a freegan and has been thriving off other people’s garbage since age 18. He discovered the art of Dumpster diving in the book “Recipes for Disaster,” which he describes as a collection of ideas for the “young, aspiring, lifestyle anarchist.”

One man’s waste is another man’s sustenance, and the U.S. produces enough waste to sustain more than the freegan subculture. According to the Environmental Protection Agency, Americans throw away 38 million tons of waste annually, leaving plenty of goods and food to go around.

Discarded food differs only slightly from what is sold on store shelves. Supermarkets cannot legally sell food that has met its use-by date, so they are forced to toss food that is still edible.

“Anything they sell in front, they throw away out back,” Johnson said.

The negative stigma attached to Dumpster diving does not seem to affect Johnson, who has become desensitized to the unpleasant aspects of the waste bin itself.

“Freegans celebrate the Dumpster,” he said, adding jokingly that his love of the trash bins is so great that he wishes to “conceive his first child in a Dumpster.”

Badger Johnson, 23, an Ohio University junior applied ecology major, jumps out of a local Dumpster with scavanged goods in hand. Photo by CG Photo Editor Elizabeth Linares.

When asked if he has ever found anything unusual in the trash, Johnson smiled as he reminisced about past jackpots. Among other things, Johnson has found a three-pound bag of pink sprinkles, cash and new Nike tennis shoes.

“If you find a real good score, then you are always curious what is in that Dumpster,” he said.

While talking about life as a freegan, Johnson was careful not to disclose too much information about the whereabouts of his favorite scavenging sites.

“If I told you I would have to kill you, or compete with you,” he joked.

Johnson said one misconception about freegans is that they live solely on old, stale food.

“I am a selective eater,” Johnson said. “I eat a low-gluten diet, with no bread, which is the easiest thing to get. Mostly fresh vegetables, fine cheeses, chocolate, fruit and eggs.”

A self-proclaimed “fine chocolate addict,” Johnson once found a trove of Endangered Species brand organic chocolate that lasted him three months with extra to give away. Beggars can indeed be choosers if they know where to look and who to ask.

Ronald Herzer, 21, a junior applied ecology and plant biology major at OU, is another local freegan. He advised would-be freegans to ignore the sideways glances of passersby.

“Sure you may look goofy peaking or diving in Dumpsters, but they are the crazy ones for not diving in or throwing perfectly good things away,” Herzer said.

Herzer also said to disregard horror stories about stepping on hypodermic needles or getting crushed by trash compactors. Those stories only exist to scare people away from the freegan lifestyle.  Herzer said he has never gotten sick from eating food he has scavenged from trash bins.

Andrew Ghiloni, 21, an OU junior studying plant biology and new freegan, has been casually practicing freeganism for a year and wants to encourage others to try it.

“For those that want to start ‘Dumpstering,’ you will need a headlight or flashlight, a pair of gloves and the self assurance that there is nothing wrong with saving great things from going to waste,” Ghiloni said.

Ghiloni said he finds searching through trash to be like a “treasure hunt” that is an exciting way to do something “for the greater good.”

Although Dumpster diving can lead to great finds, it’s not without its drawbacks.

Going through another person’s garbage is illegal if the trash’s generator deems the search an invasion of privacy and some businesses are not too keen on the idea of giving away their garbage. Garbage laws vary from state to state, and the line between private property and public domain is easily blurred.

Some people try to stop freegans from scrounging by sealing off trash bins or by calling the police to report trespassers. It is important for freegans not to get overzealous, Johnson said. He recommended forming relationships with business owners before foraging.

OU applied ecology junior and freegan Badger Johnson, 23, rummages through a trash bin. Photo by CG Photo Editor Elizabeth Linares.

Herzer has dealt with angry business managers who open meat packages and cover the food with yogurt and eggs to ward off foragers. He believes that what is in the trash should become public property.

“It is ridiculous that there are starving people and [businesses] have the nerve to keep them from it,” Herzer said.

Although urban freegans are skilled Dumpster divers, their lifestyle does not stop there. There are other practices that go beyond salvaging items from the trash.

Freegans cultivate their own sustainable food in local gardens and with the help of local farmers. They shop at thrift stores, barter for goods and live off the land.

Johnson said it is helpful to know the edible plants that grow naturally in one’s area.  As Johnson explained the bounty of nature, he plucked a small flower from the ground and said “This guy here, chickweed, high in omega-3 fatty acids, like flax seed, fish oil, and it is tasty.”

The freegan lifestyle may seem extreme, but its adherents see rampant consumerism as no less excessive. A simple and less wasteful lifestyle can be very fulfilling, Johnson said.

“I am never going back, and why would you?”

Ohio University Student Senate presidential candidates Emily Hanford of the PEAR ticket and Jesse Neader of SOUND. Photos by CG Photo Editor Elizabeth Linares

With Student Senate elections only days away, the PEAR (Prepare to Engage, Act and Respond) and SOUND tickets find themselves differing starkly on one issue: sustainability.

PEAR will strive to make the campus coal free, while SOUND wants to ensure that new and renovated buildings will be environmentally friendly.

Emily Hanford, presidential candidate for PEAR, said her ticket wants to make OU a leader in sustainability issues by educating students about those issues.

“Everyone says, ‘we want to be more sustainable,’ but they don’t necessarily know what that means,” Hanford said.

Hanford said PEAR has educated its senatorial candidates about sustainability issues, but that is only the first step.

“After that, it’s working with student organizations, like Beyond Coal and the Sierra Coalition, to see what they’re doing and see how our goals kind of work together,” Hanford said.

PEAR’s plans include working with Residence Life to help incoming freshmen learn about sustainable practices. PEAR would also speak at classes in the University College, Hanford said. University College classes attract a diverse group of students and would work well as an educational forum, she added.

PEAR’s main goal is to rid OU of its dependency on coal-powered heat. Ohio University’s Lausche Heating Plant currently has three coal-fired burners and one natural gas boiler that provide heat to the university. In 2007, Lausche received 31,164 tons of coal, according to OU Office of Sustainability’s website.

Senate would work with Beyond Coal, a subgroup of the Sierra Club. Such a collaboration would help Beyond Coal achieve its goal of ensuring that OU President Roderick McDavis follows through with his stated commitment to end OU’s coal dependency, Hanford said.

PEAR also plans on implementing several smaller ideas that could make a larger impact when taken together, Hanford said. Those ideas include making course evaluations and students’ DARS reports available online to save money and paper as well as giving students with super meal plans reusable grocery bags for use in on-campus markets.

Jesse Neader, presidential candidate for the SOUND ticket, places sustainability under his platform plank of preservation.

“It’s all about maintaining what we have,” Neader said, referring to OU’s sustainability programs and the growth of programs such as Recyclemania, an intercollegiate recycling competition that started at OU.

SOUND’s plans also include working with the Public Private Partnership Initiative, a campus program that plans on renovating dorms and building new ones with the help of private developers. Senate can look at the building contracts before selection and make recommendations to the initiative, Neader said. SOUND could use that involvement to help make sure new dorms are built sustainably.

“It’s being very practical and making sure we’re going with companies that are going to use natural light instead of electricity in their new building models,” Neader said.

SOUND would directly lobby the university if OU doesn’t act on sustainability issues, Neader said. Senate should embrace its potential as a student advocacy group, he said.

“In the past we haven’t had people actively writing letters and using that advocacy body that we are,” he added. “We’ve kind of turned into a programming body and we need to move away from that.”

However, all lobbying needs to be done within reason to avoid “burning bridges,” Neader said. Working with the OU administration is vital for making any advances, and it is nearly impossible to get anything done if ties are broken, he said.

The winning presidential candidate will appoint an environmental liaison to the university, Hanford said.

Part of the liaison’s duty will be to work with the Office of Sustainability, sit on the President’s Council for Sustainability Planning and promote sustainability in Senate, Neader said.

Senate elections will be held online Thursday. Students can cast their votes on the OU student page.

More than 150 students and Athens community members took to the streets May 9 to take part in the 2010 Athens Beautification Day, a community-wide cleanup effort.

Participants swept streets, picked up litter and cleaned the fronts of local businesses near Court, Elliot and Palmer Streets in Athens. The event is designed to promote environmental awareness and civic involvement, according to the Athens Beautification Day website.

The event focuses on different projects each year. This year’s projects involved cleaning up several city streets and the area around Athens’ East Elementary School. Some student groups, including the SOUND student senate campaign, helped with the day’s projects.

The event was originally started in 2005 by the OU Men’s Water Polo Club. It became an independently scheduled, annual event in 2009, according to the organization’s website. Local businesses fund the project while students and residents volunteer their time and labor. The Athens city government and the OU administration also cooperate to lead and organize the event.

Photos by CG Photo Editor Elizabeth Linares. Video by CG Multimedia Producer Michael Geuy. CG Editor-in-Chief Erich Hiner served as editing assistant.

Everyone at Ohio University knows what’s coming in just a few weeks: the chaos of move-out weekend.

Cars line the streets, parents wander aimlessly and dumpster upon dumpster overflows with bedding, futons, clothes and other unwanted items.

Imagine that scene multiplied by thousands, occurring at colleges nationwide – so many full dumpsters and so much trash soon to be poured into local landfills.

Although the OU Office of Recycling and Refuse helps deliver students’ unwanted items to new homes through its move-out program at the end of every academic year, many items can still go to waste.

This is where Freecycle steps in.

Freecycle is a nonprofit, online organization that runs year-round and works in a way similar to Craig’s List. Unlike Craig’s List, however, all the items listed on Freecycle are free. By helping users give away unwanted possessions, the network saves many items from being thrown away.

The network is divided into geographic regions with their own online groups. Members must first become a part of their respective group before they are able to offer or accept any items. That makes the transfer of items much easier. Once acquiring membership, members are able to post messages either offering or requesting specific things.

According to the Freecycle website, the organization’s current member count is 7,208,000 people worldwide, split among 4,793 geographic groups. That number is impressive, considering Freecycle has been operating for less than 10 years — its seventh anniversary was May 1.

Athens currently has a group of 2,211 members that is owned by Brenda Thompson, who runs the group with the help of two volunteer moderators. Thompson, who began as a moderator herself, saved the group from being shut down in 2007 when the previous owner quit.

“Being the owner basically means I’m like the mother of the group,” Thompson said. “I owned my own group [previously] … and I didn’t want this one to close down completely.”

Thompson and the other two moderators, Donna and Rhonda Holbrook, check the group page daily for spam and offensive or rule-breaking messages.

Chart created by Sarah DeCarlo

Because the moderators must volunteer their time, they are hard to come by. Alan Kennedy, a Nelsonville resident and Athens Freecycle member, said he has only one complaint concerning the organization.

“There’s just not enough moderators,” he said. “Somebody might submit something at nine in the morning and they might not get around to posting it until later that afternoon.”

Thompson said the network has other issues such as having too few members and the occasional case of cyber harassment of moderators by upset group members.

Other than those issues, Thompson said the Freecycle network does not have many flaws.

The rules of Freecycle are simple: 1) No politics or spam. 2) Unless an e-mail states your intentions, you cannot receive an item if you have the intention to sell it elsewhere. 3) Be careful when using Freecycle to find new homes for pets. 4) Items must be free of charge. 5) No trading. 6) Arrange the picking up of items as you like (generally the first to respond is the first to receive). 7) Send responses only to the person offering the item. 8 ) Limit “wanted” postings to two per person per week. 9) Be kind and respectful to the website’s moderators as they are all volunteers.

By Katherine Bercik, CG News

An Ohio University professor and several environmental groups will kick off a series of weekly film screenings today that will highlight trends in energy waste.

The series, “Wasted Energy,” will feature a documentary at 8 p.m. every Wednesday this month in room 306 of Bentley Hall. The series will begin tonight with a screening of Burning the Future: Coal in America, a look into the human and environmental costs of coal. Each documentary will be followed by a discussion.

The goal of the screenings is to promote awareness about energy consumption issues and the hidden costs of energy use. Every documentary will also focus on the media’s role in informing the public about energy issues.

The series is organized by journalism professor Bernhard Debatin, faculty adviser to College Green Magazine, with the support of the OU Office of Sustainability, Sierra Club Athens, OU Beyond Coal and Service Living.

The first three films deal with energy. Burning the Future will look at coal, Crude Impact will deal with oil and Everything Nuclear will explore the effects of nuclear energy. The fourth documentary, Trashed, will look at waste management issues.

While the fourth film doesn’t strictly focus on energy issues, it explores society’s wastefulness, which ties into overall energy consumption habits, Debatin said.

Debatin said he hopes the series will shed light on conventional energy sources, especially nuclear energy.

“It’s particularly striking that people say it has a small [environmental] impact,” Debatin said, adding that producing nuclear fuel is very oil-intensive and generates a lot of toxic waste.

Getting participants to think about alternative forms of energy is another goal of the series, Debatin said.

Click here for a list of film descriptions, show times and other details.

Eco-chef Bryant Terry prepares collard greens for a cooking demonstration. Photo by Aaron Diebold

By Aaron Diebold, CG News

Eco-chef and food activist Bryant Terry presented at Ohio University’s Baker Center Thursday, outlining African American soul food culture and its links to social justice issues. The discussion and cooking demonstration was the finale to this year’s Earth Month, a series of sustainability events arranged by the OU Office of Sustainability and other organizations.

Author of Vegan Soul Kitchen, Terry founded the “b-healthy!” campaign in 2001. It stands for “Build Healthy Eating and Lifestyles to Help Youth.” Based in lower Manhattan, the program aims to educate residents of low income areas on alternatives to fast food and unhealthy options. Terry’s book, Vegan Soul Kitchen, highlights the broad potential of African American food culture, incorporating the genre’s strong influences from music and family. Vegan Soul Kitchen provides simple, refreshing takes on classic soul foods. Each recipe is paired with Terry’s personal music selections.

Terry said he hopes his modern take on soul food can revitalize a tradition that has been largely narrowed into stereotypes and misconceptions. Soul food, he said, has been overtaken by industrialization and globalization, to the point that it is now largely viewed as unhealthy, over-processed and flat. “This is not what people eat,” Terry said, referring to the misconception that southern cooking only consists of fried chicken and red-velvet cake. “When I was growing up, these are things we had on celebrations … but on an everyday basis the foods we ate were simple, healthy, whole food, good food.”

To work toward the b-healthy! campaign’s goals, Terry explained a vision he established with the co-author of his first book, Anna Lappé. They wanted to project a positive, healthy goal to counter the largely negative views on modern food, a goal he epitomizes with “grub.” “Grub means food that’s local, that’s seasonal, that’s sustainable, that’s produced fairly, that treats the farmers and the farm-workers fairly, and that’s accessible to everyone, regardless of income, neighborhood, economic status, [or] skin color,” Terry said. Historically, low-income areas have had less access to healthy, quality food. Terry encourages programs that enable such areas not only to buy, but to produce their own healthy options.

Pulling from his childhood in Memphis, TN, Terry illustrated a culture thick with independence and self-reliance, traits that had a huge impact on the development of soul food. “One thing that I remember so vividly is my grandfather telling me that you have to be in control of growing your food. … If you don’t know how to grow your own food, and produce good food to feed your family, it’s dis-empowering.” Without such independence and accessibility, low-income residents may fall back on unhealthy options, or go hungry.

In 1968, Terry said, the Oakland chapter of the Black Panthers started the Free Breakfast for Children program, and also held large-scale grocery giveaways. Now, he explained, West Oakland is a “food desert.”

“In West Oakland, California, there are 53 corner stores/liquor stores. How many supermarkets do you think they had in West Oakland, California? … None.”

Food inequality and inaccessibility create strong negative consequences for low-income areas. These areas have high rates of obesity, diabetes and hypertension, Terry said, problems that can be relieved by a healthier, if not vegan, diet.

While Terry addressed serious issues of food equality, he also performed a quick cooking demonstration, preparing collard greens in olive oil and squeezed orange juice. The samplings provided visitors with a taste of real soul food.