January 2018: Classes, Trainings, and Community

Basic Winter Fruit Tree Pruning Workshop
Learn the goals and techniques of pruning fruit trees in this lecture and demonstration workshop. Get hands-on pointers on how to prune your fruit trees to maximize health and production. This class will be held at the UCSC Farm on January 13th at 9:30am. For more information click here.

Free Bike Maintenance at OPERS
The TAPS Bicycle Program co-sponsors a weekly bicycle maintenance clinic with OPERS to assist UC affiliates with keeping their bikes in safe operating condition. Drop-in bicycle maintenance is offered on Thursdays at the Recreation Office Porch located at the East Field House, from 2:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m. For more information click here.

Friends of Community Agroecology Network Meeting (FoCAN)
FoCAN is a student-initiated, student-led community that promotes sustainable, community-based development, solidarity economies, and interdisciplinary conversations amongst students at the University of California, Santa Cruz. FoCAN's leadership team meets every Wednesday at 5pm above Global Village Cafe in McHenry library; these meetings are open to students interested in interning and/or getting involved. These meetings, called Cultivating a Daily Revolution, create spaces that foster dialogue and experiential learning about the global food system and sustainability. For more information click here.

Fruit Tree Q&A Session
Come join Matthew Sutton, owner of Orchard Keepers, and Orin Martin of the Alan Chadwick Gardens for a free talk and Q&A session on fruit trees. This event takes place on January 20th at the San Lorenzo Garden Center in Santa Cruz. For more information on this event click here.

Santa Cruz Warf Eco-Tours
Enjoy a self-guided tour with the Santa Cruz Eco-Tour Green Spot App or a guided tour offered Saturdays and Sundays at 1:00 PM and 3:00 PM for thirty minutes each. Learn about marine research, sea lions, red tides, sustainable energy, and view wildlife from a 1/2 mile out to sea without leaving shore. For more information click here.

Sun-Work Rooftop Solar Energy Training: January 13th
A free three-hour training session about rooftop solar energy will be offered on Saturday, January 13th at 12:30pm in Berkeley. This training is being sponsored by SunWork, a Bay-Area nonprofit that installs rooftop PV systems on small-energy-footprint homes with the help of volunteers. Register for the training here.

UC Natural Reserve System Field Studies Summer Program: California Ecology, and Conservation
The UC Natural Reserve System is now accepting applications for the Summer 2018 Field Studies Program: California Ecology and Conservation. Students from across the UC system have gained strong independent scientific research skills while immersed in the training grounds of the UC natural reserves of Big Sur, the Mojave Desert, coastal redwoods, California grasslands, and among the high altitude bristlecone pines. Check out this video and the article Non-stop Nature to get a glimpse of what students are calling the most rewarding experience of their undergraduate careers. Applications are due February 5th, 2018.

Women/Trans Bike Church Workshop
Bicycle maintenance has traditionally been an overwhelmingly male-dominated area. This workshop provides a safer space for women and trans-identified folks to work on their bikes and learn new skills. Workshops are facilitated by female and non-binary mechanics and occur every 1st and 3rd Sunday of the month from 12-3pm. For more information click here.

January 2018: Internships, Employment and Volunteering

Biological Science Technician
This position is part of the Uvalde National Fish Hatchery. As a Biological Science Technician you will be responsible for planning and carry out daily aquatic animal husbandry duties such as, but not limited to, specimen collection, aquatic holding system design, construction, and maintenance, feeding, breeding, and rearing aquatic species, implementation of standard biosecurity and health practices including disease treatment if needed. For more information, visit this website.

Fish & Wildlife Scientific Aid
Aid in monitoring the success of habitat management activities on California Department of Fish and Wildlife (CDFW) managed wildlife areas and lands enrolled in private land incentive programs by quantifying the ecological benefits of various management activities. For more information, visit this website.

Coordinator - Sustainability Certification
The primary responsibilities of the Coordinator include managing audit projects and administrative tasks related to communications, expense reports, invoices, audit scheduling, trip planning, report review and application processing. The Coordinator is also responsible for documentation of all the aforementioned activities on an ongoing basis in SCS’ database. For more information, visit this website.

Park Rangers - Kings Canyon, Sequioa National Park
Experience your America and build a fulfilling career by joining the National Park Service, as we continue our second century of Stewardship and Engagement. Become a part of our mission to connect with our past and create important connections to the future by building a rich and lasting legacy for the next generation of park visitors, supporters, and advocates. For more information, visit this website.

Air Pollution Specialist
The selected candidate will apply scientific principles to the development of base and future year emissions inventories and develop emission inventory summarization and quality assurance tools. Specific tasks may include the design of database queries to extract relevant information from the emission databases; design of database quality assurance routines; development and automation of reports summarizing emission estimates including future emission trends; and working with staff to prepare detailed documentation of methodologies for estimating emissions for various sources; and development of area source methodologies. For more information, visit this website.

December 2017 Sustainability Profile: Kevin Bell

Each month, our newsletter features a person or group on campus that is working towards a more sustainable world. This month, we had the privilege to interview Kevin Bell, a Professor at the University Of California Santa Cruz. He has done research in urbanizing watershed management, outcomes of the Pacific Northwest Power Planning Act of 1980, and the Sustainable Water Resource Policy. He has worked in various locations in which he was Principal, Convergence Research 1992-current. Policy Director, Northwest Energy Coalition, 1990-1992. Field Hydrologist, King County Surface Water Utility, 1989-1990. During the interview, we asked how Professor Bell promotes sustainability.

What does sustainability mean to you?

"Sustainability means to give everyone, 10 Billion people, a life where they have enough food, shelter, healthcare, safety, and clean water. Even though we are experiencing planet crisis, we have to go through the inevitable social classes; to have people give the earth a chance to recover in order to have the modern life we desire."

What sustainable practice do you live by in your daily life?

 "I live in a tiny house where I try to grow my own food and do extreme recycling, like in Seattle where the recycling is much better than it is here. I buy products that will last and keep my carbon footprint as small as possible. I practice this because it is more of a religious ritual because it doesn't change many things unless everyone were to do it. I do things personally because I believe in it but I also know it won't make a difference unless we do something about it."

How did sustainability become your passion?

"I was in college in Washington, where I am from. In the late 1970's and early 1980's, the Pacific Northwest was in the middle of the most ambitious nuclear power construction program ever. I was taking a class in energy engineering. Two things were happening: the first thing the research on how passive and active solar energy could go to a point where we could design a system that would work to build a system to make it from basic materials. The Pacific Northwest did not have enough money to build this idea. It costs more money at the end of the year than it did when we started to build the system. I was  part of a group of 1000 plus people to create a product that produces less damage and uses sustainable energy. All of this got me into doing research and I have been doing this ever since... . The second thing was when I was working on a hydroelectric project and made various surveys in Washington, which led me to work for many agencies in the future."

What does your program do?

" IDEASS is a program which was created to give students the skills and opportunities to  solve problems they haven't seen before  and have them think of new ways and various solutions to their objective. To have them obtain critical skills in their research. To show students how to grow food on their own with minimal amount of work and cost. To have students understand that grades are not worth much if you haven't learn any skills for your future"

 A lot of people involved in sustainability have brought up the question of how to have challenging conversations with friends, family members, and roommates that may not be as aware or interested in sustainability. How do you deal with those challenging conversations?

" Usually, I begin by telling them to think of their life in 50 years. What I have noticed is more people think its technology that will discover the answer to a sustainable life. One of my pet peeve is people believe technology will save us from our own destruction. It won't happen because physical actions will do more than us hoping technology will help us all. A lot of big corporations believe this is the solution."

What is your long-term vision for sustainability at UCSC?
 " Get serious, talk less and do more!"