For our first and only free weekend, many of us decided to further explore the Pacific Northwest by visiting Seattle. We traveled by bus due to our large group, lack of car, and its cheap price – buses also happen to be one of the most sustainable modes of transportation generating less carbon per passenger mile than any other mode. Upon our arrival, Michael’s mother drove us to their house in Bellevue, WA where we would be staying. For most of the ride there, Michael, Caroline and I eagerly pointed out all the native and invasive plant species we could find. An invasive plant is a plant that has been introduced into an environment in which it did not originate. It therefore lacks enemies and can easily out-compete the native plants.  Invasive plant removal is important because many invasive plants have shallow root systems that provide limited erosion control and they shade out native seedlings resulting in fewer trees. Less shade increases the water temperature making it harder for fish and other aquatic animals to survive.

Everyone was thrilled to be in a house after six weeks in the PSU dorms; especially when Mrs. Migotsky brought out the appetizers. In the next three hours we preceded to eat hummus, bread, crackers, salmon, rice, salad, chocolate cake, and coffee ice cream. For breakfast we ate chocolate chip pancakes with raspberries, blueberries, strawberries, homemade whipped cream, powdered sugar, and various syrup flavors. The Migotsky family truly did spoil us!

After breakfast we went out on their boat to watch the Blue Angels perform. The Blue Angels is the United States Navy’s flight demonstration squadron and they perform 70 shows at 34 locations in the United States each year. Watching them perform was definitely the highlight of the trip for some of us! On Sunday we went to Pike Place, the oldest public farmer’s market in the United States. Just like the Portland State farmer’s market, the market encourages consumers to meet their producers. The local products were different from the Portland farmer’s market in that it sold more seafood and had a lot more craft products. Another interesting thing about Pike Place is that it is a significant provider of low-income housing and social services (housing nearly 500 residents, 90% of which are low-income seniors with subsidized rents). The market provides coupons to low-income tenants and gives unsold Market produce to other Seattle food banks and meal programs. Nearly 1,000 people benefit from the Market’s donations to the food bank every week! The Market also has a senior center which provides hot lunches for low –income seniors, helps them find housing and jobs, and offers a variety of classes.

DukeEngage visits Pike Place

The rest of our trip was a bit rushed, but we managed to visit Maggie Moon’s, the Space Needle, and the Seattle Center before we were on our bus ride back to Portland. After being in Portland for seven weeks, it was interesting to visit Seattle and compare everything from the landscape to the social services offered by each. We were surprised to learn just how much the Pike Place Market does for its local residents and are interested to learn whether smaller Farmer’s Markets like the one at Portland State or even the one in Durham have this same emphasis.

Last weekend we volunteered for a fundraiser event with Charlie’s community partner organization, the Crag Law Center. While enjoying the sunshine, we spent much of day directing and welcoming guests, helping the chef with dinner preparation, and setting up the event. We then enjoyed sharing a dinner that was not only delicious but also selected, served, and disposed of with an eye for sustainability. Despite all of the hard work, we did not forget to have pure and simple fun with lawn games, live music, square dancing, and cake!

Guests arrive for the fundraiser

At the end of the night, as the organizers gave us a sincere, final “thank you,” and told us how important our help was to the event, I was reminded about our role here in Portland to both understand and serve this community. We were warned during DukeEngage Academy that sometimes barging into a new community with naïve notions of civic engagement can do more harm than good. But as we continue to surround ourselves with other volunteers and guests from the community, I feel that we have become more sensitive to the local issues and culture of Portland. Indeed, I believe more strongly than ever in striving to better understand the people of a community and their needs in order to better serve them.

A Portland UGB (Photo: The Boston Globe)

One of the earliest things I learned here is that Portland is often noted as a paradigm of Urban Growth Boundary (UGB) implementation. A UGB defines a limit to the land available for urban development such as shopping malls, parks, and housing. At the same time, the boundary protects the rural farms and forests outside. The proximity of agricultural land to the city has encouraged a local food movement, one we have certainly noticed here and have learned is more environmentally and economically sustainable, among other benefits.

Another outcome of minimizing sprawl is the reduced need for long suburban commutes. This means that most trips are only a few miles or less — in other words, are ideal for walking or biking. In fact, Portland’s mayor has embraced the idea of a “20-minute city” where all the basic and essential amenities, commercial goods, and services are available within a 20-minute walk or bike ride. A 20-minute city achieved through increased bike trips is also part of Portland’s future as envisioned by my community partner, the Bicycle Transportation Alliance (BTA), where I volunteer as an advocacy intern during my time here in Portland.

Bicycle ride along the Willamette River

Understanding my work with the BTA has meant immersing myself in the transportation system of Portland. And what better way to do that than actually riding the streets of Portland? William, Caroline, and I rented bikes here early on, and we’ve been riding them around the city to our various group activities.

Bicycles here are given the same responsibilities as any other vehicle, and that means signaling and following stop signs, traffic lights, and any other rules of the road. Not having touched a bike for years before coming here, I initially found the thought of riding in the streets alongside traffic terrifying; I am pleased to first inform you though, there is nothing but truth to the phrase “it’s like riding a bike — you never forget!”

A bike box in action (Photo: Greg Raisman)

Cyclists in Portland are also more privileged than most commuters given the many miles of bike infrastructure here, ranging from bike lanes to neighborhood greenways (low-speed and low-traffic streets). The city has also painted green “bike boxes” at the heads of many intersections, where cyclists waiting during a red light are more visible to turning vehicles and also can avoid breathing in vehicle exhaust. Even the traffic lights are coordinated to slow down or “calm” motor traffic and make cycling safer.

The renewed joy of riding a bike certainly made the first rides here memorable, but my favourite experience has to be the scenic and car-free ride down the Waterfront Path along the Willamette River, a tranquil showcasing of a handful of Portland’s many bridges. Biking certainly has a special place in the transportation system here, and the legions of cyclists sharing the roads attest to Portland’s recognition as America’s Bicycle Capital. But in general too, alternative transportation is evidently championed here as in addition to the bike infrastructure, there are busy MAX lines (the light rail system here with a convenient no-fare zone), buses, and a streetcar service.

A mural welcomes cyclists

At the BTA, my main task right now is helping create an updated report of the top 40 bicycle transportation projects in the Portland Metro area, which has involved poring over city transportation plans, developing project selection criteria, incorporating input from city planners, and creating a survey to assess the public’s priorities. During my time here, I’ve learned about the host of benefits that come with choosing to ride a bicycle, such as personal savings, bike tourism economies, green-house-gas reductions, and active lifestyle encouragement. Indeed, my gradual familiarization with Portland’s cycling culture has allowed me to better envision the exciting possibilities of where else it could go. Through immersive community engagement and my time volunteering at the BTA, I have come to see that our goals to serve Portland are just as important as how we get there.

As an intern at Metro, I think I have the absolute best job. I work with Suellen to do outreach to conservation education providers in the region, and we’ve even traveled up to Vancouver for meetings. One of the perks of our job is that Metro has so many functions that there are always new things to explore and learn about. We’ve sat in on a Metro Council meeting and seen how official the procedure is, but also some of the concerns that arise (including removing a derelict barge from a Metro dock). We’ve sat in on the Sustainability Center’s staff meeting and just by talking to our supervisor, Stacey, we’ve learned a ton about the inner workings of Metro. Today, we got a tour of the Metro Paint facility!

Metro Paint!

Metro has always worked towards reducing waste in the region and the Metro Paint facility is the only one of it’s size and technology level in the country. Since February of 1992, Metro has been collecting leftover paint (among other household hazardous wastes) to recycle. The original and low-tech way to recycle the paint (which is what many other governments still do today) meant dumping it into bins to mix colors, making it impossible to produce consistently colored batches over time. No filtration was done and no biocides were added to destroy any bacteria that may cause mold on the walls.

Today, Metro has moved past that into the high-tech version. On our tour of the facility, Jim Quinn took us around and showed us the process. At hazardous waste collection sites around the region, people can easily drop off old household cleaners and paint, among other things. Occasionally, Metro does round-ups where they visit communities to pick up the waste. Before being dumped into vats at the paint facility, the leftover latex paint is given a quick mix, to see if it’s still a decent quality or if it’s too old or watery. (Leftover paint that doesn’t meet the quality standard is recycled by being mixed with the washwater from the facility then trucked to the region’s landfill. To try and reduce the size of the landfill, people are trying to introduce liquids, which help breed bacteria.) 81% of the paint brought is acceptable to be used and recycled.

Once the paint has been checked, it is dumped into one of 18 standard colored vats. Paint

The 18 colors produced - with fancy names like Barn Red and Spring!

that doesn’t quite fit in is sometimes used to make “potpourri” batches, some of which is sold as a seasonal color and some of which is sold overseas where the paint technology is not as good as America’s. The next step involves mixing together 1,000 gallons of a color paint and doing quality control on the color to make sure that it perfectly matches the standard color so that it can be sold consistently. The paint is 100% recycled latex paint, but sometimes the biocides are added as are viscosity agents. After that’s done, the paint is packed into 1-gallon or 5-gallon cans. Most of it is sold to individual consumers, especially through a partnership with Miller Paint, a local and employee-owned paint company that has been around since 1890. The certified paint has been approved by Green Seal and is good to use indoor and outdoor.

Jim told us the three reasons that they only recycle latex paint at this facility (water-based versus oil-based) are:
1. Oil-based paint is flammable. Imagine messing around with 1,000 gallon vats of flammable liquid. Then imagine all of the safety equipment and standards you would need in place to do that.
2. Oil-based paint is full of solvents. When you mix different brands, some of the solvents are incompatible with each other, creating paint with the wrong consistencies.
3. Metro is trying to encourage people to use more latex paint. Why would we want to produce something we’re trying to get rid of?

This is a one-of-a-kind program in America and it’s such an amazing idea. 10% of the paint bought in America is leftover to sit in people’s homes and garages. Rather than pouring it down the drain (which may contaminate the river) or throwing it out, Metro provides a way to recycle and reuse that paint. Other states and governments are definitely looking at the process, so maybe one day, every state will have a recycling paint facility as well!

This past Tuesday, the Duke engage crew met up with Brian Caouette and Julie Kuchepatov from the Wild Salmon Center for dinner at Bamboo Sushi, a restaurant that specializes in sustainable fishing practices. Sushi is a favorite food of mine so naturally this was one of my favorite group activities. The truth is that I enjoyed dinner so much not just because of the food, but because meeting with Brian and Julie gave us the opportunity to explore the world behind the food. Their work at the Wild Salmon Center aims to improve wild salmon habitat and promote our sustainable interaction with fish throughout the world. Working across the Northern Pacific rim, throughout the United States, Canada, Russia, and Japan, allows the WSC to aid conservation and sustainable development on a global level.

Brian and Julie talked about how their work tied in to the efforts of Bamboo Sushi and explained the difference between responsibly harvested fish and practices wildly employed by much of the industry. They explained some of their most influential work restoring habitats and promoting sustainable fisheries in Russia and Japan. In Japan, where the world’s highest proportion of seafood is harvester, the Wild Salmon Center has recently supported the government of Hokkaido in regulation laws to protect Pacific salmonids. In Sakhalin, a large island off of Russia’s eastern coast, the WSC helped a local fishery obtain the ecologically friendly Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) rating.

This certification brought us all together at Bamboo. Conservation groups award the MSC certification to fisheries and restaurants that demonstrate an ecologically friendly approach to fishing and farming salmon. It is a process that allows fish to continue to be produced at sustainable levels while ensuring the health of wild and native fish populations. Bamboo Sushi is one of those restaurants. It was here that Brian and Julie were able to tie their work into the food we were eating. They explained that many restaurants serve fish that are harvested unsustainably, even serving species that are facing historic lows in population size.

The two shared a story where the director of the Wild Salmon Center was asked to leave a high profile sushi restaurant after attempting to educate the restaurant staff of the ecological harm of serving high risk Blue Fin tuna. The incident, also known as sushi-gate to the WSC, shed light on some of our won eating practices. For example, my favorite local sushi restaurant in Virginia serves many species of fish listed as “critical” according to the WSC. Unfortunately some of these fish, like eel, redtail, and octopus, happen to be some of my favorite. It isn’t easy to cut out some of the best-tasting food from a menu, and I’m sure it is as unappealing to the restaurant as it is to patrons. Although some of these fish are delicious, “it’s better to leave out these species now and be able to enjoy them for generations in the future than to fish them to extinction now,” said Julie, “but it’s hard.”  As a sushi lover it is hard to ignore standby favorites, but she makes a good point. Though almost counter-intuitive, it’s because of this foresight that a very highly ranked sushi restaurant would eagerly participate in a program that takes several popular items off the menu.

Bamboo Sushi decided to take their conservation efforts one step further through numerous conservation efforts. One discussed at length by the group was creation of the Berry Islands Marine Preserve in the Bahamas, a 405,000 acre marine reservation that will be used for preservation of local aquatic species and scientific research. The restaurant uses this habitat for more than conservation by harvesting the invasive fish in the preserve. In addition to improving the aquatic habitat in the Bahamas, the invasive and overabundant fish will be served at the restaurant as part of their ecologically friendly menu.

Both Bamboo Sushi and the Wild Salmon Center share remarkably similar goals and strategies towards fish conservation. The differences in their approach however, highlight the numerous paths by which we can learn to live sustainably with fish. At dinner Brian and Julie made us all more aware of the choices made by all ends of the fish system. From the fisheries and fishermen to restaurants, to those of us who eat seafood, we all have the option to support sustainable resource use. In the long run, it may just be our best option for fish health, for the long term health of the sushi business, and for us.

Now that we’ve been here for 5 weeks, we’ve started to think about how we can bring what we’ve learned here in Portland about living sustainably and bring it back to wherever we might find ourselves next, whether it be at home, at Duke, or even abroad.

This cutie might die because of us.

One main topic on everyone’s mind around world is the future of energy. While we are currently very addicted to oil, more and more, we are seeing the very negative effects that our addiction has caused. From the record high temperatures being set around the United States and the world, to the melting of ice at an alarming rate, to the rapid rate of species extinction, it has become very evident that things need to change, and hopefully change quickly. Major focus has since been placed on what new forms of energy we can harness, beyond those we have been using for years and years, such as coal and oil.

So many choices.

An article that very deftly summarized many of the possibilities for the energy of the future is this one from National Geographic. While it is a little old, from 2005, it still brings up some points that still ring very true today. First of all, its main conclusion that there won’t just be one single type of “silver bullet” that solves all of our energy needs. Instead, all of the possibilities have their own pros and cons, and we most likely will have to diversify, using a little bit of solar, wind, hydroelectric, etc. as we move forward. In fact, when I asked everyone in our group which type of alternative energy was their favorite, wind, solar, hydroelectric, and nuclear were all named, which just reinforces the idea that we will need to invest in many technologies in order to properly ready ourselves. However, this has not and will not be easy. There are many political, technological, and environmental obstacles that must be faced in the installation of green technology, and one must consider all the issue at hand to make a proper decision.

Dump No Waste.

Beyond these more high-tech of “going green,” there are many more low-tech yet equally effective ways to reduce our environmental impact and hopefully help preserve, or even improve, the environment. Many of these methods are part of “green infrastructure,” using more natural methods to help properly build and run cities, beyond just building newer and more effective facilities or technologies. This last week, we worked with one such green infrastructure program with the Portland Bureau of Environmental Services(BES). We helped mark storm drains in order to alert and educate homeowners about how their storm water, the water that runs off from the street into the drains, runs directly into the Willamette. Thus, any harmful substances they pour into those drains, like oil or paint or soap from washing the car, can go directly into the native habitats of a whole milieu of animals and can easily disrupt the natural ecosystem. I actually really enjoyed marking the storm drain. The whole process, cleaning off the curb, then putting the glue onto the little decals, then affixing those decals to the curb and making sure the glue was sufficiently surrounding the plaque, was strangely really fun and relaxing. Though our group of Caroline, Emma, and I did have some issues like the top of our glue tube breaking or having to stop every time we saw a cat so Emma could take a picture with it, we felt like we had accomplished something, even if it does only have a little impact. But a whole lot of people each having a little impact and end up making a quite big impact in this world.

Expert storm drain markers + cat

Use your brain. Install CFLs.

Going green is not limited to giant wind turbines and solar panels and storm drains and city planning. There are plenty of things that just about everyone can do in order to help reduce their own carbon footprint and even make a bigger impact beyond just one’s home. First, there are many simple technologies that can help reduce the amount of energy used, from using compact fluorescent light bulbs to installing low-flow showerheads or having as many of your appliances be Energy Star compliant as possible. Also, simple changes to one’s daily routine can easily save energy, water, and ultimately money for the homeowner, like making sure to always turn off lights when not in use and not running water while brushing your teeth.

Xeriscaping is beautiful!

Again, much like the bigger technologies, you can easily make some substantial changes in your household without having to buy fancy new gadgets, instead focusing a little on what is outside the house: the lawn. The standard lawn consists mainly of a large swath of grass surrounded by a few trees, flowers, and other plants. This uses up a ton of water, a lot of which just ends up draining back into the storm water drains. Instead, you can easily reduce the amount of water you use and waste by planting native plants and having a smaller lawn area, which is called xeriscaping. As detailed in this Seattle Times article, xeriscaping is a way of gardening that emphasizes having to water as little as possible. And who doesn’t want to have to water their plants less? While originally intended mainly for drought-prone areas like the Southwest, xeriscaping is currently a viable way to landscape just about everywhere, especially with increasing world temperatures and terrible droughts like the one so many are experiencing right now. Landscapes that follow these principles can still be very beautiful and end up using much less water. We all have heard the motto “Reduce, Reuse, Recycle,” and here you have the chance to really reduce the amount of resources you use.

So amazing.

Another very easy and beautiful way to reduce the amount of water that goes back into the steams and rivers and to have that water does drain be clean and pollutant-free is to plant trees! Trees are not just beautiful plants that can provide shade, fall colors, fruit, and many other enjoyments to everyone big and small. Their roots help to absorb pollutants from the water that end up back in the water with salmon and other organisms in the ecosystem, in addition to removing pollutants and carbon dioxide from the air. In addition to that, trees help add value to a property, tree-lined streets tend to have lower crime rates and slower moving cars, and the shade from trees can help cut energy spending during the hot summer months. It just so happens that there is an organization here in Portland that will help you plant trees! Friends of Trees (where I just so happen to be interning this summer) is an amazing organization that, for a price cheaper than buying and planting yourself, will help you pick out, plant, and care for a tree, either along the street or in a yard. In fact, Friends of Trees has been working with BES in helping to build “green infrastructure” to help reduce the amount of storm drain runoff by planting more trees to absorb that excess water. Seriously, trees are awesome. While not every city has Friends of Trees, many do have similar organizations that help to plant trees. And even if your city doesn’t, the concepts used by Friends of Trees can be applied anywhere around the world.

In just this pretty long blog post, I have shown many ways, both bigger picture and smaller personal changes, that technology, both high- and low-tech, can be used to help reduce your carbon footprint and help preserve this amazing environment we all are lucky enough to inhabit.

Every.

Single.

Cat.

Practicing our hoeing technique

like weeding kale and squash as opposed to potatoes! In all honesty, though, it was another good teambuilding experience. We all had only a few hours of sleep (Emma having 15min of sleep) from the Dark Knight Rises premier the previous night (which was completely awesome and worth it) and we were all a bit sluggish. Squash turned out to be a very unfriendly vegetable with its many sharp thorns, and I could feel the bond forming within the group as we all rallied against the squash. It was ok in the end, though, because we went to Olive Garden for dinner. We started the next day bright and early at 7:45 and made our way to the Cascade Head Preserve with our food and camping gear. After a couple hours of attempting to take pictures of each other sleeping in the car, we finally arrived to the party only to trek a long 2 ½ miles through mud puddles up the mountain. Everyone was exhausted by the time we reached the top but all of it didn’t matter once we saw the breathtaking view (and also the gang of elk).

Cascade Head

The weather was sunny and perfect so we could see and enjoy the entirety of beautiful ocean and landscape as we sat and ate lunch. Of course, we didn’t go there just to enjoy the scenery. Our supervisor got us quickly to work and gave us some tough landscaping projects to widen the hiking trail at certain marked spots up and down the mountain. I got to use a pulaski for the first time which proved to be useful both in slicing up the earth as well as relieving stress. Our trek down the mountain after an exhausting day’s work was thankfully a lot easier, and I was able to pick a few yummy salmonberries along the trail. Later that night we got to show our true colors of how bad we were at camping as Charlie

I blame the bad design

This is an otter

broke one of the sticks to our tent (which was honestly more of a mistake on REI’s part), Michael initially couldn’t use a lighter, and no one except Kaola could turn on our mini gas stove. Both Michael and Charlie redeemed themselves though since Michael eventually learned how to use a lighter consistently and Charlie started our campfire. We concluded our two weeks of vegetarianism with potato soup, vegetarian chili, rice, and, of course, smores that night, and after an expert analysis on vertical farming, we went on to play chubby bunny. This is a very strategic and complex game where you take a bag or two of marshmallows and stuff your mouth with as many of them as you can while trying to say “chubby bunny” after each marshmallow you shove into your mouth (I did not participate in this prestigious game). Sunday was otter day because we went to the Oregon Coast Museum and watched the adorable otters swim, roll over, rub their faces, and eat off their bellies. There were seals, crab, and sharks as well, but there were also otters.Being on the coast, we had to visit the beach at least once before we went back so we spent a good 15min on the beach before hurrying to the magical Tillamook Cheese Factory. Personally I’m not a big fan of cheese, but Tillamook made me rethink my decision. With a sampling bar for cheese and a viewing area of where the cheese is actually made, the cheese factory was a very intuitive idea that made a great cheese company even better. Of course, the highlight of our stay was the unbelievable ice cream that could easily rival Cold

awwww yeeeaaaa!

Stone, and as a group consensus, we would probably all agree that the Marionberry Pie is the first flavor you should try if you’ve never had Tillamook Ice Cream. Finally, with the skilled intuition and driving skills from Kaola, we ended the day returning all our camping gear, broken tent and all, to REI a second before it closed. All in all, our showers back home felt amazing.

This week unfortunately marked the half way point for our Duke Engage program but thankfully also marked the conclusion of our two week vegetarianism bout. While not eating meat was a struggle for some of us (cough cough Charlie), I found it much easier than expected due to the fact that Portland is such a vegetarian friendly city. Of course, we also had to give vegan food a try, so for our weekly group dinner we ate at a “raw” restaurant called Blossoming Lotus. I ordered a falafel wrap that was vegan, gluten free, and completely uncooked. I must admit, the food was much more satiating (and expensive) than I expected.

Here is a list of some other unexpected findings after four weeks of living and working in Portland.

1. I ran a red light while riding a bike (Mom–don’t worry, I’m still alive).
2. Tofu is actually starting to taste good.
3. I ate at my first Olive Garden. Their bread sticks are delicious.
4. I can now identify over twenty different species of invasive and native plants.
5. Working at SOLVE can be quite dangerous. I stepped on a bumble bee hive while monitoring in the field.

Austin, William, and I rented bikes for the summer so that we could explore downtown more easily. I cannot believe how bike friendly (and just plain old friendly) Portland is, especially compared to my hometown of Los Angeles. There are actually specific streets designated for only bikers and buses. Portland has also designed some of their streets to create a safer distance between bikers and moving vehicles by using parked cars as a buffer. What baffled me most though was that drivers will actually stop to allow bikers to pass in front of them. Portland natives are some of the nicest people I’ve met. When trying to load my bike onto the Max (the light rail), I’ve had multiple people get up out of their seats just to help me with my unruly bike. While commuting to work one day, Emma accidentally left her wallet on the Max, but thankfully someone chased her down to give it back to her. Oh, and did I mention cars will also stop to let people J-walk? (Not that I’ve ever tried that before…) We even had one man profusely apologize to us about stopping his car in part of the crosswalk.

There were many “firsts” to be had this week for some people in our group, including first midnight movie premiere, first time stepping foot into the Pacific Ocean (west coast best coast), and first time camping.

Our view of the Oregon coast

On Thursday night we got in line at 10 pm to see the midnight showing of The Dark Knight Rises, which was well worth it despite being exhausted and nearly delirious for work the next morning. On Friday, we volunteered with Zenger Farm, helping them weed chard and butternut squash. We were glad to see that the potatoes we had hilled a few weeks before were doing quite well! Saturday morning we drove to the coast to a place called Cascade Head to help The Nature Conservancy maintain their hiking trails. After hiking 3 miles up the hill, we had an absolutely gorgeous view of the ocean from the top which was well worth it. We even saw elk grazing along the way!

After a hard day of work and another hour worth of driving and listening to Call Me Maybe and One Direction, we finally set up camp at Siuslaw National Forest. While the boys struggled with putting up their tent (they even had an Eagle Scout amongst them), I’m proud to say that we set up our tent in no time.

My beautiful creation

For our last vegetarian dinner, we ate chili, potato soup, and rice. Naturally, to conclude our camping experience we roasted marshmallows over a fire and made s’mores. We miscalculated how many marshmallows we would need so we decided to play a game called chubby bunny with the extras. Emma and Suellen tied! (Teams SOLVE and METRO are now neck and neck).

After a not-so-good nights sleep, we packed up camp and drove to the Oregon Coast Aquarium where we saw sharks, seals, and sea anemones. The highlight of the trip was finding the “Hairy Otter” shirts in the gift store. For lunch, we stopped at Rogue Ales Public House for our first meat dish in two weeks. Emma and I ordered clam chowder, fish and chips, and a side of bacon to top it off. Oddly enough, while everyone was handed a fork and knife for their meal, the waiter gave Austin a pair of chopsticks to eat his hamburger with. Last but not least, we drove to the famed Tillamook Cheese Factory where we sampled many different types of cheese and of course tried their delicious marionberry pie ice cream. The most interesting/frightening fact I learned at the factory was that their blocks of cheddar cheese pass through a metal detector for extra security. I can’t wait to see what other adventures are in store for us in the next few weeks!

Having never been to the Pacific Northwest (or even the West Coast), just about every day is a new adventure for me. I’ve gone on my first hike, slept in my first cabin (and bunk bed!), sawed my first tree… The list goes on and on. This weekend was particularly exciting for me. I got to “climb” my first mountain and visit my first waterfall!

Under the eyes of the National Park Service... better be careful!

We started off the morning driving to Timberline Lodge. Don’t ask me how, but our group is now addicted to Sporcle and we were fiendishly playing in the car. We arrived at the lodge, located at 6,000 feet above sea level. Timberline Lodge is famous for being used as the exterior of the Overlook Hotel in The Shining. But here’s a quick history lesson (Sorry, I’m a history major…). The lodge was built by the WPA during the Great Depression in 15 months because FDR had agreed to fly out and dedicate the lodge. The lodge struggled financially for a long time, due to mismanagement, but Richard Kohnstamm turned things around in the 50′s, just in time for skiing to become a popular sport in America. Today, Timberline has the longest ski season in America.

We had a quick tour of the lodge and learned a lot about the interior and preservation. My lens in Portland is sustainable living, and it’s really fascinating to see how little things can be done to reuse materials. For example, chains hanging in front of the fire grate came from old snow tire chains from the trucks that carried materials to the lodge. Old railroad tracks were also hammered into railings by the fireplace. Even considering the fact that that was done during the Great Depression, it was a smart way to use what resources were available.

Afterward, we went up to Mt. Hood by taking the Magic Mile ski lift up. I’m a Floridian at heart, so it was baffling to see snow around me and to be crunching (and slipping) through it in my sneakers in July. The ride up in the lift was breathtaking. (Did I mention that this was my first ski lift ride ever?) Seeing the blinding white snow, feeling the cold wind, and watching my feet dangle was a whole new experience. At the top, we clambered out and messed around in the snow. Boulders were scaled (and pictures duly taken), a snowball was thrown (Thanks, Charlie), and snow was laid in. When the fun was over, we headed back to the lodge and started off for Multnomah Falls.

Smile! Group Picture!

At the falls, we agreed to hike to the top and see the view. It was a little bit crowded in the park, but it was also a beautiful summer day, so who can blame them? The path uphill was a winding one and it was a brisk climb up. When we got to the top, the view was breathtaking (in more ways than one). The mist was refreshing after our hike and we paused to take lots of pictures and to enjoy the view.

The walk back downhill was much easier. At the bottom of the waterfall, we got delicious fudge samples! I’ve definitely noticed that many of the highlights of our trips around Portland revolve around food…
It was an awesome weekend and I’m definitely excited for more outdoor adventures to come!

We’ve been in Portland for almost 4 weeks now and are quickly approaching the half-way point. We all agree that it’s going by very quickly. Having been here long enough to feel comfortable has engaged us more in our placements as we really start to get into the thick of our work. My time at the Crag Law Center has already resulted in the completion of a number of projects including website updates, working on a manuscript for a book on Oregon’s land use laws, and completing a comment letter on a proposed dam that would disrupt fish habitat in Southern Oregon. It feels good to be in full swing.

As our 2 week vegetarian experiment continues, we’ve gotten comfortable eating out and cooking for ourselves while avoiding meat. Though many in the group expressed some degree of initial apprehension at the idea of abandoning the likes of cheeseburgers, chicken parmesan, and (most importantly) bacon, we’re adapting quickly. Especially in Portland, finding good vegetarian food isn’t hard, and that’s good news for a group that loves to eat. Better yet, we’ve been successful:  if anyone’s cheated, I don’t know about it. Tonight we’ll even test our veggie fueled enthusiasm with dinner at an all-vegan, raw food restaurant.

Last Wednesday, our fascination with food brought us appropriately to a food policy meeting to try and learn what about food goes on at the regional government level. From what we gathered in our meeting, sometimes it’s not much. You see, the local food policy group is at a crossroads, stuck between a successful past that focused on making food policy a noticeable regional issue and a future that lacks clear direction. Unfortunately for us, our short exposure to the working group included this more strategic discussion concerning the role of the group and didn’t really include much about food policy directly. Nevertheless we managed to gain important insight about what the role of the group has been in the past, and about how policy decision are made (and why policy takes so long!).

In spite of our underwhelming exposure we continued our discussion on food policy at the scenic Timberline Lodge on Mount Hood on Saturday. Through various examples we discussed the relevance of food policy in almost every aspect of modern life. Food subsidies affect how many crops are grown for which purpose, food stamps and benefits provide meals to the underprivileged, and healthy eating campaigns aim to better our health care and society. What I think we gained was a more thorough appreciation for the pervasiveness and interconnectedness of food in our lives. While it’s not usually a national hot-button issue, food policy ripples through almost every sector of modern society.

We transitioned into discussing possible suggestions for changes and the potential benefits that might be associated with those changes. An amped up and healthier school lunch policy might lower the cost of health care and provide more consistent benefits for the underprivileged, a shift in food subsidies might encourage more local growers and fewer large-scale industrial farms, and even reducing the amount of meat we consume as a society could have lasting beneficial outcomes. Working in a law firm, it pays to see forest through the trees, and I think our discussion helped us put all of our own smaller projects and actions into a larger perspective.  I hope our conclusions reflect some of those revelations, even if those include the formerly heretical idea that eating less bacon is probably a good idea.

Hi! I’m Michael, and I’m placed this summer at Friends of Trees, a non-profit focused on building communities through tree and green space plantings. If anyone is in the Portland area in the winter and has some free time on the weekend, they are always looking for volunteers for their plantings. Meet your neighbors and help Portland (or Vancouver or Eugene) become a little greener! You might even meet Garry Oak…

Très délicieux!

Now done with our second full week in Portland, I think all of us have really gotten used to our placements and the city of Portland itself, already feeling comfortable with the city and knowing our way around. We had a pretty busy and eventful week this week. Tuesday, we had our first group dinner at Le Happy, a wonderful little crêperie. While we all loved our savory crêpes (I had a tasty pesto chicken crêpe), the desert crêpes were to die for. And as someone who has taken French for 7 years and who has probably had a crêpe at every French party I’ve had, I’ve had my fair share of crêpes. And these were très très magnifique. Between the chocolate fudge brownie, blueberry honey, and flambé crêpes we shared, we all left feel very satisfied. It has been a recurring theme throughout our time here that dessert is the most important meal of the day.

Fireworks Finale

Wednesday was Fourth of July, which meant no work! Or for Emma and Caroline, just another day of no work (they went shopping at Nordstrom for four hours on Tuesday while we were all still at work, though they have since worked very hard since). We went to the Waterfront Blues Festival for a little while, where I won a free movie ticket! It was a little too busy for all eight of us to find a place to sit together, so we decided to go to the movies and saw Ted. After that, we went back to the waterfront to watch the fireworks. It was quite a spectacle, and being so close to them really upped the excitement factor. I was able to snap quite a few pictures of the fireworks, including this one with the Hawthorne bridge casting a shadow on the finale. Friday we worked with Hand on Portland at the ReBuilding Center. You can read all about it in Caroline’s post!

FIRE!!!!

However, the most eventful day for us was Saturday, when we went to Oxbow Park to learn how to make FIRE!!! using only friction. Ranger Dan gave us each kits of only tools fashioned out of cedar wood and one piece of string. But before we could actually make fire, we had to make a tinder bundle by taking the underbark of the cedar bark and pulling it apart into a fine, soft bundle of fibers that would provide the kindling for the fires we were about to start. It was the consensus among our group that mine was the best, being the softest and looking like golden angel hair. I was Dan’s assistant for the demonstration, and unfortunately I was pulling on the bow too high up, and I did not make fire. Yet. We then partnered up and tried making fire for ourselves. It involved basically having two people pull on the bow connected to the spindle stick, spinning it quickly over a fire board, itself over a piece of cedar. Eventually, after enough tiring spinning, a small coal forms, which can then be placed on the tinder bundle, which, with a few blows, bursts into a full-fledged fire. After splitting into partners, some other kid and his dad were the first to make fire, but Charlie and I were the first out of our group to make fire, shown above. It was so satisfying to finally see our hard work pay off and know that I can create something as basic but necessary as fire without matches. The pairings of Suellen/Kitman and Austin/William also made fire. Unfortunately, Caroline and Emma were not able to fully make a fire, and thus would die first in the Hunger Games that is DukeEngage Portland. They have been duly mocked for their failure every day since. After making fires, we made our own kits to take home with us. I for one cannot wait to try it out at home and impress my family by showing off my new fire-making skills. Once we were finished with the tiring work of making fires and fire kits, we cooled off in the creek, which was very, very cold, but actually felt pretty nice on a hot day (Summer doesn’t begin in the Pacific Northwest until the Fourth of July).

Because we as a group decided to go completely vegetarian for two weeks, as well as discuss the pros and cons sustainability-wise of a meatless diet, and because those two weeks started this Sunday, we decided to have one big last meat dinner on Saturday. That night, we all went to dinner together at Mother’s, a restaurant that served as a very worthy last meat supper. Caroline and I split a grilled salmon with ratatouille (like the movie!), steak frites, and bacon mac-and-cheese. Like I said, we love to eat. For once, we were too fully to even have dessert, which never happens. Though we did look at the dessert menu.

A hair -raising fun time at OMSI

And so we began Sunday, our first day of vegetarianism, by going to OMSI, the Oregon Museum of Science of Industry, which was a ton of fun for all of us and our inner children. We spent just about the whole day there, solving (or, sometimes, trying to solve and giving up) puzzles, learning about the Earth, human body, animals, natural disasters, and just about anything else you can think of. I have always loved science centers, being a frequent visitor  of the Pacific Science Center of Seattle, where I’m from. And OMSI did not disappoint. Even though I already knew a lot of the information there, the interactivity and just all-around fun of the whole experience made my day. Also, it seemed like the entire group was really into it, whether it was comparing grip strength or flexibility to spending over ten minutes on trying to solve a puzzle. I even ended up buying a syringe pen from the gift store.

Team building via arch building

And so we continued being vegetarian. While it has only been three days now, I think we have all been OK with it. None of us has cheated and had meat, and we all seem to be doing just fine, having lots of pizza and pasta and vegetables. I think the biggest challenge so far is just remembering not to have or order meat, when it can be so easy to forget. I’m actually kind of excited about it and exploring some more meatless dishes. I hope to maybe learn a bit more about a vegetarian vs. omnivore diet, and how what I eat impacts the environment. Also, I’m interested in how I feel after the two weeks, whether I feel hungrier or healthier or different in any way. I’ve heard from a few people that they feel much healthier after going vegetarian, whether more energetic or clearer skin or no more migraines, and I’m curious to see what, if anything, happens to me.

And so we continue this great adventure…