Living Sustainably: It’s all about global “weirding”

By Sarah Irvin, Naturalist at DeGraaf Nature Center Climate is defined as the weather in a particular area over a large time period, which unveils patterns when recorded, allowing us to create models that mimic and make predictions. Unfortunately, climate trends will become increasingly more challenging to predict as temperatures and precipitation events shift; the phenomenon that we …

Living Sustainably: Session will tell about saving our lakes from runoff

By Kyle Hart and Matt Belanger, West Michigan Environmental Action Council The Great Lakes contain 20 percent of all available freshwater on the surface of the Earth, and stormwater pollution is the number one threat to the quality of that water. In February, the Living Sustainably Along the Lakeshore series will start off the year with a presentation …

Living Sustainably: New Park Passport encourages nature exploration with prizes

By Dan Callam ’09, Outdoor Discovery Center Macatawa Greenway Has your family been on an adventure recently? There’s no need to wait until spring break or for a road trip to a warm, far-off destination. Your local nature centers are encouraging families to explore spaces around them in 2019 by visiting nearby parks with their new Park Passport …

Hope College Student Research Presentations at MACC’s Annual Meeting

Hope College Student Research Presentations Holland Sentinel “Living Sustainably Column” Article. “Four groups of Hope College Advanced Environmental Seminar students presented the results of their semester long research projects on December 6 at the Macatawa Watershed Annual Meeting. All student groups focused on some aspect of heavy metals. Copies of their presentations are available here. The …

STUDENT RESEARCH WINS FIRST PLACE AT NATIONAL GEOLOGY CONFERENCE

November 12, 2018 — by Greg Olgers A research presentation by two Hope College students won a first-place award during the recent annual national meeting of the Geological Society of America. Juniors Chelsea Moore of Muskegon and Amy Olgers of Holland were honored for their poster presentation of their research project “Reconnaissance of Microplastic Distribution in …

Living Sustainabily: Food Waste Film – Just Eat It

By Ken Freestone and Lisa Uganski, GreenMichigan.org and Ottawa Food The issue of food waste is about more than disposal of food scraps from our tables at home or uneaten food at restaurants. It is about hungry families and individuals, about wasting environmental resources during growing and processing, about over-purchasing, and about creating methane in landfills. There are at …

Living Sustainably: Elephants in the room – Plastic waste is a big issue

By Madison Ostrander ’18 and Eighth Day Farm Intern Try to picture just over 1 billion elephants roaming around. Maybe at first the elephants would be a fun novelty, but I’d be willing to bet after a short while we’d have had enough, with things getting dangerous and crowded. This bizarre scenario relates to the dilemma our …

Living Sustainably: Celebrate Your Watershed at this year’s Water Festival

By Ashley Van Zee, Outdoor Discovery Center It’s time to celebrate your watershed! Yes, we all live in a watershed. If you live in the Holland and Zeeland area, you live in the Macatawa watershed. A watershed is an area of land that drains into a certain stream, river, or lake. It’s like a bathtub – all the …

June 2018 Sustainability News

June 2018 Sustainability News June 30, 2018 – Parks enrich children’s lives June 30, 2018 – ‘Task force’ quietly planning James DeYoung vision process June 30, 2018 – The Annual Macatawa Water Festival is right around the corner, Saturday, July 14! June 30, 2018 – Trump claims Saudi Arabia will boost oil production June 30, 2018 – What will become …

Living Sustainably: Summer is time to spur kids’ natural curiosity

By Susan Ipri Brown, Hope College – Center for Exploratory Learning “Nature is our kindest friend,” said the famous British scientist Michael Faraday. Place-based environmental learning is a powerful tool for improving students’ knowledge of the world around them and sustaining their natural curiosity. Summer is the perfect time to put this natural curiosity into play as families …