Contributed by: Tim Olsen

The 3rd annual Harvest Festival will take place on Saturday September 24, 2011 from 11am-3pm at the Lowell Elementary MST playground in downtown Sioux Falls.    Urban Agriculture Initiatives Inc. will host the event with inflatable toys and free food and beverages donated by Cross Pointe Baptist Church in Sioux Falls with music entertainment provided by Dakota Productions from Lennox, SD.  Local organizations including the Boy Scouts, SDSU Extension, Sanford Health, Sioux Falls Fire and Rescue, Sioux Falls police department, Health Connect, and Augustana College will also be present.  Student –led tours of A Growing Place teaching garden will be featured with children from Lowell Elementary on hand to answer questions about what they are learning and how the garden affects their life.  If there are additional non-profit groups or service organizations that would like to be involved please call Cindy A Heidelberger Larson at 201-5549 or email cindyalarson@gmail.com for more information.

Contributed by: Natalie Eisenberg

Plain Green 2011 Speaker line-up and schedule have been released for this year’s conference on October 14!  Check out details at http://plaingreen.org/

Contributed By Natalie Eisenberg

In Downtown Sioux Falls, we love our summertime, as it brings with it an urban vibe, dining alfresco, special events, music and shopping. You can also now enjoy some big-city transportation while downtown every Friday night June 3-September 2 from 5pm-8:30pm.

Enjoy a bicycle-pulled “cab ride” to your favorite downtown destinations! Every Friday night, weather permitting (except July 10th), you can catch a ride from Harold Christensen of Sioux Falls Pedicab.

The pedicab will be making a continuous loop through downtown between 5-8:30pm, or can be summoned as needed to transport you to your location. Harold’s pedicab can carry two to three passengers at a time. The rate is $8.50 per person per mile ($0.75 per block) and includes 6.00% sales tax.

Call 605-610-9887 for service.

Contributed By Tim Olsen

“I love this place. I feel safe here. Can I come back next summer to be a helper?” These sweet words shared by 12-year old Carolinda summarize the impact of A Growing Place teaching garden on the lives of students attending Lowell MST Elementary School. This school serves the families living in the under-resourced neighborhood of Pettigrew Heights in Sioux Falls. SD. Pettigrew Heights is a neighborhood of about 4,000 residents representing a rich diversity of cultures and ethnic groups.  It is also a neighborhood where 70% of the residents are tenants and more than 80% of the elementary school students receive reduced or free lunches.

During the spring of 2009, ten educational, nonprofit, local government, and faith-based agencies gathered to explore how a garden could be the catalyst to grow hope in a neighborhood where hope seems fleeting. Named by the students of Lowell MST Elementary School, A Growing Place teaching garden was established as an experiment to discover if a garden could become an outdoor classroom that provides a hope-filled opportunity to enhance math, science, language, creative arts and health skills.

Carolinda’s words give testimony that the experiment is working. Her soft voice was nearly overcome by the cacophony of voices of the 600 Pettigrew Heights residents attending the second annual Harvest Festival at the garden. The September event provided food, music, games, and glimpse of hope to neighborhood families.  The teaching garden experiment is achieving its mission.  Funding for the garden has been provided by the gifts of several community organizations such as: Kiwanis Club, United Way, and Master Gardeners.

In response to other schools asking for assistance in the form of teaching gardens, the collaboration known as the Urban Agriculture Task Force determined it was time to become a nonprofit.  The nonprofit currently named Urban Agriculture Initiatives, Inc. has recently received Articles of Incorporation from the State of South Dakota.  The new nonprofit will provide organizational, curriculum, and teaching assistance to schools in Sioux Falls, and area communities, to launch teaching gardens.  In addition, the nonprofit will conduct research to determine if agriculture can create jobs within under-resourced neighborhoods.

Mayor Dave Munson announced the winners of the first annual Mayoral Beautification Awards, as nominated by Sioux Falls Beautiful, at the City Council meeting on April 19th at 7:00pm.

Green Project founding board member Jeff Scherschligt of Howalt+McDowell Insurance was one of three honorees. Congratulations to all the winners!

Jeff Scherschligt – Business and/or Public Space

In recognition for the passion and leadership he displays towards nature conservation and our environment. His involvement in “greening” a commercial building led him to focus on the beautification of a former industrial site and bring a bit of our natural prairie landscape to downtown. He is proud to serve on the boards of the Mary Jo Wegner Arboretum and The South Dakota Game Fish & Parks. Thank you Jeff Scherschligt for making Sioux Falls beautiful.

Marianne Larsen – Homes and Yards

In recognition of her knowledge and practice as a gardener, in taking great care for the soil, water, and using site appropriate plants. The beauty that results from her efforts is a bonus. Gardening connects people, and one can tell a lot about a community by looking at both the public and private gardens. Thank you Marianne Larsen for making Sioux Falls beautiful.

Bruce Eide – Community Leadership

In recognition of his great idea and the financial contribution to make it a reality, he was instrumental in transforming an empty space at the Louise Avenue–I-229 interchange into an attractive entrance to our city. The planting of native trees and complementary landscaping have enhanced this natural area into a pleasing space we hope to emulate throughout our city’s corridors. Thank you Bruce Eide for making Sioux Falls beautiful.

Sioux Falls Beautiful is a non profit group who seeks to beautify and improve the outdoor environment in all areas of the community, and works to enhance the landscape of the city through the creation of attractive new and existing public sites and spaces, the liberal use of color and light in public places, and the encouragement of attractive plantings and green areas.

It’s a new year, and the Green Project wants you to know about a bunch of great green learning opportunities we’ll be a part of in the coming weeks and months. Here’s a run down of the good green education coming up.

• Howalt University: Creating a Greener Workplace on January 19
• Recycling: Demystified on February 9
• Making Compost and Rain Barrels on March 11
• New: Composting for Beginners on March 20 at the Lawn and Garden Show
• Stop Treating Our Soil and Trees Like Dirt on April 6
• Plain Green Conference and Marketplace on April 28-29
• Permaculture Design Course April, 2010-February, 2011
• How to Lose Your Car (and Start Riding the Bus) on May 11
• Custom Green Your Business Workshops available anytime.

Now, for all the details…

Howalt University: Creating a Greener Workplace

This series of workshops from Howalt McDowell Insurance is totally free for anyone. On January 19th from 8:30-10:30 am, Green Project director Joe Bartmann will host “Creating a Greener Workplace,” an interactive class to help you increase your staff awareness of sustainability principles in fun and effective ways. You can be part of the class in person at Cherapa Place, or watch the live webinar online. Click here for more on Howalt U.

Sioux Falls School District Community Education

The Green Project is partnering with Sioux Falls Public Schools to bring a series of affordable green classes to the Community Ed schedule for Spring 2010. Community Ed is a catalog of non-credit courses offered to people of all ages at a very affordable cost. We’ll be hosting these Spring courses

1. HOME545 Recycling: Demystified. Feb. 9, 6:30-8 PM at the Household Hazardous Waste Facility. Fee: $19
   Reduce, Reuse and Recycle! Learn the ropes of recycling in Sioux Falls, from getting rid of the nasty stuff in your garage to discovering easy ways to reduce and reuse materials and resources locally. Get better at saving money and saving our environment by avoiding the landfill.
2. HOME546 Making Compost and Rain Barrels. March 11, 6-8:30 PM at the SD Cooperative Extension Service. Fee: $19
   Turn your back yard into a resource factory and reservoir. Collect rain water to irrigate gardens and trees in dry months. Turn leaves, grass clippings, food scraps and other organic waste into fertilizer and mulch the way nature intended. Hands-on demonstration in building a rain barrel. (Take home your own rain barrel for an extra $25 material fee).
3. HOME547 Stop Treating Our Soil and Trees Like Dirt. April 6, 6:30-9:00 PM at Outdoor Campus. Fee: $19
   There are a lot of factors working against healthy trees in and around Sioux Falls. Find out why our community may lose nearly half of its deciduous trees in coming years! Topics covered are the Emerald Ash Borer, diversifying our community forest, planting trees for prosperity, the importance of healthy topsoil, the “Bathtub Effect” and alternatives to water-guzzling grasses. In Partnership with Sioux Falls Beautiful.
4. HOME548 How to Lose Your Car (and Start Riding the Bus). May 11, 6:30-8:30 PM at Sioux Area Metro Headquarters (formerly Sioux Falls Transit). Fee: $19.
   37 million metric tons of carbon emissions and 4.2 billion gallons of gasoline are saved due to U.S. public transportation use. Learn how to use the Sioux Area Metro (SAM) system. Discover how to read a bus schedule, where the bus can take you, the cost and how to transfer to another bus.

You can download a PDF course catalog (find the green courses on page 17) or click here to register online.

Sioux Falls Lawn and Garden Show

New! Green Project director Joe Bartmann and City of Sioux Falls Sustainability Coordinator Aimee House Ladonski will host a workshop at the Sioux Falls Lawn and Garden Show on March 20, 2010 from 11am to 12pm. Learn how to turn kitchen waste into “black gold” for your plants and garden at Composting for Beginners. More details coming soon.

Plain Green Conference and Marketplace 2010

The Sioux Falls Green Project is the host of this year’s Plain Green, April 28-29 at the Washington Pavilion of Arts and Science. Plain Green is a two-day conference and marketplace advancing sustainability in the Northern Plains. Connect, learn and take action with hundreds of other leaders in green design, cities, business and ideas. Enjoy star-power keynotes, two floors of green exhibitors, and two days of workshops, breakout sessions and panels covering topics like conservation design planning, green marketing strategies, green healthcare, eco-affordable home building, green office makeovers, LEED, straw bale construction, EPA compliance and much more.

We’ll be launching a shiny new Plain Green website and opening registration very soon. Plus, hold on to your hats for the big announcement of our 2010 keynote speakers, coming soon. Plain Green was founded by South Dakota State University and Koch Hazard Architects. Register here.

Permaculture Design Course

credit: glaciallakespermaculture.org/

Glacial Lakes Permaculture is hosting an all-seasons Permaculture Design Course starting in April 2010 in Sioux Falls. Learn about permaculture throughout the seasons, with a focus on cold climates. This team-taught course covers the standard PDC curriculum commonly taught all over the world, but will include extra information tailored to the colder climate of the northern plains, as well as practical, hands-on components to spur active learning about permaculture processes and design.

The course will take place over 12 weekends, meeting one full weekend (Saturday and Sunday) in April 2010, but only on Saturday during the rest of the year-long course. Come learn how to apply permaculture to your home, farm, and life throughout the four seasons!

Learn more or register for PDC here (save money by registering early!).

Custom Green Your Business Workshops

The Green Project hosts free custom-designed workshops for partner companies and organizations. To learn more, contact us.

A little update from Green Project intern Karin Costin, a senior at Augustana College.

Augustana College Ecology students led by Dr. Craig Spencer have made their mark at Newton Hills State Park. Over the course of the past semester, twelve students (including me) and one professor have made three trips to an area of Newton Hills in order to restore the prairie ecosystem.

“After studying and teaching about the decline in prairie ecosystems, I decided this year we would actually do something about it,” says Spencer, 48, a passionate conservationist and teacher. “If any group could begin this project it was going to be this group.”

Our group made up of ten males and two females has grown quite close over their many hours of classes at Augustana. Many of us have taken numerous biology and chemistry courses together, this course being the first where service-learning was incorporated into the curriculum. Service is one of Augustana’s five core values.

The problem was evident to the students in the class after studying the effects of invasive species within the larger context of a major theme in ecology known as ecological succession. Ecological succession is the process of one species replacing another species. Following a major disturbance such as an ice age or forest fires, species will regrow in a characteristic pattern. Due to the historical lack of fire, the forest ecosystem at Newton Hills is being overtaken by pioneer species of trees and shrubs such as Eastern Red Cedar. Native prairie grasses are quickly being replaced by the trees and other invasive species.

Current research is being conducted by USGS and Oklahoma State University to examine the effects of Easter Red Cedar on the water levels. Chris Zou, a professor in Natural Resource Ecology and Management states, “Using Oklahoma as an example, of the 17 million acres of rangeland including prairie, eight million acres are currently overgrown with Eastern Red Cedar. That number is increasing at an alarming rate equivalent to 762 acres per day.” The rate of change is astounding. If current trends continue, it is possible for the prairie ecosystems to disappear in the next couple decades. The Nature Conservancy estimates that only 4% of the original tallgrass prairie remains today.

These statistics are alarming and the group saw this as an opportunity that we could not pass up.  Initially I was skeptical about what we would be doing and how much work there was to be done, but once we got to Newton Hills and everyone was working together, it really was amazing how much work can get done in a short amount of time. My work this past summer with the Sioux Falls Green Project has deepened my appreciation for conservation work and actually doing something about a foreseen problem was really rewarding.

The work included thinning out and eventually eliminating thick patches of Sumac, a flowering plant, by cutting the individual shrub-like trees and disposing of them in the forest downhill. A few students thinned an invasive species called Buckthorn by collecting the berries for disposal in order to prevent spreading. Other individuals working out at Newton Hills cut down large Eastern Red Cedars across a the ridgetop expanse.

The crew revisited the site the second time and this time we collected native tallgrass and forb seeds such as Big Bluestem, Little Bluestem, Indian Grass, Switchgrass, and Milkweed. After filling 5 gallon buckets full of seeds, we spread what we had collected in patches across the ridge, focusing our efforts in order to halt the effects of succession.

The group seemed to enjoy the work as many found it enjoyable to cut down as many large trees as possible, always remembering that having a little fun makes service learning a lot more enjoyable.  I think that getting out there, working with your hands, connecting to something in nature can be beneficial and even a therapeutic remedy that has the ability to counter the stressful academic load.

It was especially meaningful to do the work after we had learned about the issues, after our third trip to Newton Hills this fall. Students had visited Newton Hills earlier in the semester, obtained data on the current state of Newton Hills and tracked the change over the course of the last century.

Spencer plans to continue this work at Newton Hills in future ecology courses. “Service learning is a way for me to more deeply connect with the students and is something I really enjoy. I hope that future groups will be just as excited as this group was about the project. They really embraced it,” he said. He hopes to take the group there this spring to track the change.

With a little luck this spring and the continued efforts of Spencer and Augustana students, a portion of Newton Hills may begin to resemble the native grassland that existed a century ago across the Midwest.

With our friends The MinusCar Project, we co-hosted a special community screening of the No Impact Man movie last night at Augustana College (see our big announcement here). Due to the season’s first blizzard hitting in the afternoon, we figured turn out would be pretty low. That was crazy…

Fifty-three green-minded souls braved the cold, wind and snow to share in the movie experience. So, the reviews? Really good show, and an engaging message. So engaging, many movie-goers stuck around for an hour after the show ended to discuss it. We talked about what we learned, what surprised us, and what inspired us. We also talked about what we’ll do about it as individuals. Really good stuff.

Before the movie started, we connected with Green Project intern Jamie Horter, live via Skype video from the Copenhagen Climate Conference. It was our first update on her experience, and the movie crowd asked some great questions. Jamie also made a short video for us (see it below).

Big thanks to Michael Christensen, Karin Costin and Brian Rieger for making this whole thing work. If you’d like to see the No Impact Man movie, it’s available at Siouxland Public Libraries, thanks to a grant by The MinusCar Project. We also have a copy in the Green Project library you can borrow.

With our greenest transportation pal The MinusCar Project, we’re hosting a special community screening of the documentary film No Impact Man, right here in Sioux Falls, on December 8. It’s free, and we hope you’ll join us for a movie and discussion about  getting more of what matters out of this holiday season.

You can RSVP on our Facebook page, or by scrolling down to “Sioux Falls” here.

What is No Impact Man? It’s a documentary that tells the story of Colin Beavan’s decision to completely eliminate his personal impact on the environment for a full year. It means eating vegetarian, buying only local food, and turning off the refrigerator. It also means no elevators, no television, no cars, busses, or airplanes, no toxic cleaning products, no electricity, no material consumption, and no garbage. No problem – at least for Colin – but he and his family live in Manhattan. So when his espresso-guzzling, retail-worshipping wife Michelle and their two-year-old daughter are dragged into the fray, the No Impact Project has an unforeseen impact of its own.

Watch the No Impact Man movie trailer.