Geography of the James (Earth Lodge)

Wildness reminds us what it means to be human, what we are connected to rather than what we are separate from.” – Terry Williams

From the first day we spent together in the classroom, one of the main themes we have discussed and experienced first hand through various field trips, guest lectures, and our own personal reflections, is the concept of connectivity. We spent the first lecture in class talking about the ideas of place and region, and jumped right into the definitions and meanings of a watershed. During these lectures and discussions, I was particularly drawn to the idea that watersheds vary in size, and can be as localized as the bathtub in your bathroom, or as vast as the oceans. But what was most interesting to me was learning about how watersheds are a way for us to both define boundaries, and understand how connected this campus, this city, this state, this country, and so on, are with each other. For instance, before this course, I never really thought about where the water in the Westhampton Lake came from, or where the water in the lake drains to, and this was a common thought throughout our class as seen in the majority of our first blog posts. In Geography of the James River Watershed, we not only have learned the facts about the hydrologic cycle, riparian zones, conservation buffers, and so on, but we have gained a better understanding of how all of these elements are connected, and how they add to the ecological health and success of watersheds, and natural habitats in general.

Looking over my past few blog post entries, I can easily see how the themes of my posts relate to this idea of connectivity. In my last reflection post (Spring has Come), I commented about the area where the small creek feeds into the lake and the houses that are perched on the upslope of the hill meet, and how that strongly resembles the riparian zones that we talked extensively about in class. I could imagine the runoff of water coming down the hill during times of heavy rain and during storms, and how this area of sand, rocks, and trees can act as a buffer in its ability to help filter some of the waste and substances that are picked up along the way during a storm. A similar theme was also prevalent in my first blog post (Lake Walk) at the beginning of the year, when I reflected on the fact that I had never actually ventured to the point past K lot where the small stream flows into the lake, even though I have been living on this campus for three semesters. I was able to appreciate how our campus is much more connected to the nearby neighborhoods and the city of Richmond than I previously thought.

My second to last post (Volunteering on the James) this year was about my experiences volunteering with Ralph White near the section of the James River by the 14^th street bridge. A group of lodgers and I spent the afternoon picking up garbage and cleaning a small island on the James that also acted as a homeless camp. While we were clearing the island of trash and debris, Ralph and a couple of local boaters talked to us about the uniqueness of the James and what it means and represents for the city. Ralph explained that the James has the power to bring people of all age, race, gender, and social class together, simply for the enjoyment of the water, and that by keeping the river healthy and accessible to everyone, it can continue in this tradition and bring about even more enjoyment for future generations. Ralph was saying that the river is a way for everyone in the city to connect with each other and share what is has to offer. The James is a great resource that allows locals to connect with nature, and temporarily “get away,” even in a bustling city environment such as Richmond. A similar concept is seen in Thomas Perry’s post (Reflection 2) when he talks about his reflection spot near the Frisbee golf course, and how the course resembles the James River Park system in that it allows golfers to enjoy the nature and small patch of woods that we are lucky to have on campus, and connect with their environment. This concept of “being away,” but at the same time staying connected with your environment also brought me back to the articles we read regarding designing small parks. In this article, we learned about some of the benefits of small parks, especially in urban environments, such as the protection of some types of species of plants and animals, and how small parks can act as “stepping stones” for species dispersal.

My last blog post (William Byrd Center Volunteering) was about my experiences volunteering for the William Byrd Community Center’s urban farmlet, where a few lodgers and I helped set up composting bins, spent time weeding invasive grass species, and prepared gardens for the springtime. I was immediately inspired when I discovered that the William Byrd Center put on a farmers market in the summertime once a week, and how they help out low-income families and allow the use of food stamps at their market so that these families can have access to fresh produce and can eat healthy foods. This farmers market, which is run by volunteers, is a great example of how the William Byrd Center is reaching out to the community and providing more of a connection throughout the city by allowing people to take advantage of this urban farmlet.

Another interesting way the concept of connectivity presented itself in our classroom was the guest lecture by Jakob Helmboldt, the bicycle and trails coordinator for the city of Richmond. His proposed plans on making the city of Richmond a more bike-friendly city would allow for more connections throughout the city, because it would allow more inhabitants of Richmond an easier and more affordable way to travel throughout the city. Not only would it be safer and more cost effective if more and more people would ride their bikes to work everyday, but it would also be extremely healthy for the environment. I would bet that if there were more bike trails surrounding our campus to areas of Richmond such as downtown and the James River, students and members of the community alike would surely take advantage of those resources, which would provide more connections throughout the city.

In order to help promote awareness and connectivity throughout our campus, my group for the Earth Lodge final project (Kenta, Taylor, Lauren, and I) are designing interpretive signs to be placed around the lake which will provide information about tree species on campus, the species of fauna found around areas of the lake, and information about the watershed of the Westhampton Lake. We are hoping that the implementation of these signs will increase the students, the faculty, and visitors awareness and understanding of what is around them as they walk through campus, and will hopefully serve as a way to better educate everyone about their immediate environment, which according to Dr. Forsythe, might help members of the school and the greater community to take better care of our campus, and want to get more actively involved in helping maintain the health of our campus.

I feel as though the concepts and skills that I have learned and gained in this course have carried over and will continue to influence my approach to many others aspects of my life. I strive to take more time to simply sit down, take in, and reflect upon what is around me, and question how certain elements of my environment are connected. I also have discovered a greater passion to go out into the community and learn first hand about my immediate environment and what I can do to make a greater positive impact through service. This course has given me a greater appreciation of how this campus, this community, and this city are all connected and part of a greater whole, and I hope to uncover more of these connections throughout the rest of my time here.

Stepping back onto campus after just one weekend away was like stepping onto a whole new world. This past Friday, before leaving for the Quidditch World Cup in Kissimmee Florida, campus had looked much the same as it had over the entirety of the semester; bleak and void of most signs of life. When I returned, however, it was as if spring had exploded out of nowhere. Flowers and green buds covered all the limbs of bushes and trees that had been barren not three days earlier, and there was an undeniable feeling in the air that said summer was just around the corner. The time I have spent in this class and outside of class doing work seems to have flown by in a largely undistinguishable blur of lectures, speakers, observation logs, service outings and trips to the river, but this recent change in the weather and campus flora seems to have brought everything to a sharper focus, and I can only imagine that everything will become even clearer as the semester winds down in the next couple of weeks.

I am certainly not the only one who has noticed the increasing signs of spring throughout the past several weeks. Nearly all fellow-lodgers have commented on the sunnier, warmer weather, the budding foliage and even the sudden appearance of bugs in their most recent blog posts. I guess the general consensus must be true: spring has arrived. Spring may be here, but I have to keep reminding myself that the presence of a few more colors than I am used to seeing does not mean that our campus was devoid of life until this point. Anne had a similar experience in one of her reflection posts about the budding of life, and wrote, “I appreciated the beauty of the campus and the lake in the fall and spring, but neglected to appreciate the natural beauty and resilience of this ecosystem in the winter”. It may not always be apparent to all of us, myself included, but the lake and its watershed are just as exciting and lively in the winter as they are in the spring, regardless of what our senses may tell us.

As I write this last, overarching reflection of the semester’s activities, I pause every couple of minutes or so to stare out across the lake from my position at a table outside of the commons. Seeing perhaps the most iconic natural vista of our campus laid out before my eyes in its full springtime glory somehow brings everything we’ve learned this semester into a sharper, more-connected focus. Not only is the lake a geographic center of our campus, but to many students, it is also a sort of psychological center as well. It ties various aspects of our social and academic lives together because we are constantly crossing over it or walking along its shores as we move about with our lives. Whether all students, faculty and staff realize it or not, the lake is an integral part of our lives and we would all be amiss without it. The lake connects each and every one of us, not only to each other, but to our watershed and to the natural world as well.

Many of my classmates’ reflection spots are situated at different points around the lake and it is easy to understand why. This relatively small body of water embodies all the themes we have been learning about in class, such as the importance of riparian buffers, connectivity, water quality, watershed health, and place awareness, and it does so in a way that is easily accessible and aesthetically pleasing. In fact, I think our lake is an ideal tool for teaching people about the importance of watershed health because it already draws people to its banks for so many other reasons. Taylor, Kenta, Lauren and Bill have already realized and taken advantage of this fact by deciding to place signs around the lake, educating its visitors about the flora and fauna, and I am extremely excited to see these in place when I return to campus in the fall.

After pausing again to survey the slowly rippling waters in front of me, I am reminded suddenly of the service work our class did recently at the James and at the William Byrd Community House. While the work we did at these locations was undeniably useful, I cannot help but think that it might have been more effective and more beneficial to our immediate community, if we had done cleanups on campus instead. Yes, the University of Richmond has a facilities staff that works tirelessly to ensure that our campus remains pristine and aesthetically perfect 24/7, but shouldn’t we, as individuals, feel a need to make our home a better place? Wouldn’t cleanups at the lake, for example, increase place awareness in students at the University of Richmond and cause people to start caring more about their watershed? The James is just outside of our campus boundaries, but given the confusing spider-web of neighborhoods and constantly bustling roads, it might as well be miles away. Our campus truly is a bubble for many people and a large number of students do not feel any connection to the river, despite the fact that it is so very close. The lake, unlike the river, is a commonality and constant presence for everyone on campus. Perhaps it might be worth considering making the lake a bigger part of the Earth Lodge class in the future, so that we can promote its ecological importance to the rest of the school.

It may have only been recently that I truly came to realize the importance of the lake as an aspect of our community, but I would not have come to this realization had it not been for what we learned in class all semester and for the series of blog posts that allowed me to steadily and consistently record my thoughts. As I looked back at the posts before writing this final piece, I noticed not necessarily how my writing style or ideas had evolved over time, but how each piece fit together to make a more complete experience. The hands-on learning from our trips and service work combined with the information from our lectures always came into a clearer focus after I had the chance to reflect on them in a blog post, and looking back over all of the logs from the semester just brought everything together in as succinct a manner as I can imagine.

As a Jepson student every semester I take multiple leadership courses in which I am asked to analyze historical leaders or identify behavioral qualities of a leader in an effort to understand leadership from many perspectives.  When the topic of leadership came up in one of our readings for Geography of the James I was very intrigued.  The article broke down the elements of an effective environmental leader into three parts: knowledge, power, and passion.  Perhaps this is simply the leadership studies major in me, but I feel that throughout the course of the semester the class Geography of the James and the experiences in the Earth Lodge community has provided each of us with the means of becoming successful environmental leaders.

Knowledge is certainly one area in which we have all improved.  The class itself was academically rigorous and included readings and lectures that improved our knowledge of watersheds, environmental issues, and the history of our local area.  By using the James River as a case study, we learned about larger issues through their connection with the James.  For example, learning about the Kepone disaster served as an excellent lens into the environmental issue of superfund sites.  The readings we had provided us with scholarly information that also related to what we experienced and observed around us.

The class also emphasized gaining knowledge through exploring in the field.  Through our class field trips, walks around campus, and time at my reflection spot I learned so much more about the ecology and geography of the Richmond area than I previously knew.  In my last blog post I mentioned how I noticed the change in the life found in our lake ecosystem during the winter and into the spring.  However, if our class had not required me to stop and reflect on what I was seeing I doubt I would have been able to see past the aesthetics and start to question how our campus community impacts the lake ecosystem.  The little things that I have begun to notice and question are a direct result of spending time in the field learning rather than simply learning through lectures and readings.

The many guest speakers we interacted with during the semester also gave us an inside scoop on current projects and ideas that are in the works.  This gave us information that few individuals have access to.  For example, getting the chance to hear directly from the University architect about the upcoming construction plans on campus let us understand what the future of the campus will look like more than the average student is aware of.  I also found it really interesting to hear from him that the University only tries to achieve the basic components of a LEED Certified building.  Also, being able to visit the James River with Ralph White was an extraordinary experience.  He has so much knowledge of the James and the park system and we really couldn’t have found a better source of information than learning directly from him.

The second aspect of an environmental leader is power.  Most college students do not have much power or influence in their communities, however Geography of the James gave us an opportunity to get involved and make positive changes in manageable ways.  Through our service hours we became involved with organizations or groups that set out to achieve similar goals as us.  During my time volunteering at the Environmental Film Festival I met many people who were making personal changes in their lifestyles to be more environmentally responsible.  Talking to these individuals was truly empowering because they gave me so much hope that as one person I had the ability to make a difference.

Another way that we as students have been able to develop small roles of power is through our group projects.  Each group is able to make a significant contribution to an ongoing community project and take the lead on an aspect of the project.  For example, my group is developing a geo-story to raise awareness about the ecology of pony pasture.  We are in charge of developing content and compiling the website with the goal of increasing public understanding of the necessity of parks like Pony Pasture.

The final element of a successful environmental leader is passion.  Obviously passion for the environment was a main reason that each of us joined earth lodge, however, my passion has changed and grown during my time in Geography of the James.  I no longer feel that being at Richmond separates me from nature.  I can now recognize the natural ecosystems that are all around me and I feel responsible for making sure that they stay healthy and protected.  This class has given me a greater understanding of the geography of Richmond and what parks and trails are nearby.  Getting involved in the outdoor community in Richmond makes this place feel much more like home for me and I have grown to love the James River and surrounding area.  The combination of increased knowledge, power, and passion for the James River from our class has instilled in me a sense of community and stewardship that I hope to carry with me for the rest of my time here at Richmond.

“Knowledge, Power, Passion”  “Knowledge, Power, Passion”

-It was a chant that I performed before every Geography of the James quiz, hoping it would bring me luck from the environmentalist gods.

Other than its use for pre-quiz rituals, “Knowledge, Power, Passion” has resonated in my mind as an effective principle for leaders to live by.  A person of influence MUST have knowledge on their subject, motivational power to others, and passion for their cause.  Each of these traits are keystones for highly effective leaders.  They all work together synergistically.

Besides being one of the most interesting Richmonders I have ever met, Ralph White is a unique example of someone who embodies this trifecta of leaderships skills.  His knowledge, power, and passion which he has for the James River is what makes him such an influential environmental leader and activist.  It is practically contagious.  I think that few people out there demonstrate all three of these effective-leader traits.  Ralph White is one of them.

I think that Dr. Forsythe’s model regarding awareness can also be applied to Ralph White.  I think the majority of his career as the manager of the James River Park System revolved around him spreading awareness and promoting activism among the James River watershed community.  Ralph White, during his 30+ years as the manager of the JRPS, transformed the James from something nobody thought twice about to something everyone knew and cared about.  He still continues to give tours and spread awareness to the Richmond community.

Our final projects are allowing us to exercise these principles of Knowledge, Power, and Passion as well as the Awareness Model.  I think it is good that we are given this opportunity to reach out to resources and strive to meet certain goals.  We have been provided the knowledge, we just need to work on the power and passion.

We have learned so much in our Geography of the James class in a very holistic manner.  From basic hydrology to the history of the James as depicted in “In River Time,” we have almost covered it all.  What was just simply a pine before is now a Loblolly.  What was a sad, drowning branch is now a Snag.

My favorite part of Earth Lodge was our outdoor educational trips.  The Fall Break trip in North and South Carolina was absolutely amazing.  Climbing to the top of Mount Mitchell’s 6,683 foot peak was surreal.  I am extremely afraid of heights but for some reason I felt extremely ecstatic the second we reached the glorious peak.  No, I did not yell the clichéd “I’M ON TOP OF THE WORLD!!!” but I was one of those people who were felt like they were “living now” and “conquering their fears.”

We did some pretty intense hiking after that, and I am honestly shocked that nobody was seriously injured.  Really, though how did we all do that so well?

South Carolina was wonderful.  I am considering making it my home one day.  It was really cool to see how much the Columbia River is like our own James.  I mean, it is on the fall line!  The giant loblolly that we saw/touched/hugged/stared at/took pictures with/tried to name was something that my eyes took a while to process.  I see loblollies everywhere but WOW 169 feet tall?  Honestly the numbers do not mean anything until you witness the trees there for yourself.  It was like we all turned into garden fairies like in “Honey I Shrunk the Kids.”  The sight was a very Alice in Wonderland Syndrome experience.  I cannot wait to go back to Congaree National Park and show people these majestic trees.

The pipeline walk we took with Ralph White is also one of my favorite activities that we did together.  I had no idea that this existed.  The best part of the pipeline walk was being able to observe the Great Blue Herons in their “Rookery.”  The Rookery was so mystic and undisturbed that it served as the secret gem of the pipeline walk.

Our canoe trip on the James a few weekends ago was a great experience.  We learned the benefits of marsh and beheld Thomas and George as they smeared it on their faces.  Taylor was a great canoe-captain.  He put up with my indecisiveness of which side to paddle on and my persistent eating in the canoe.  I really enjoyed our guide, Allen.  He kept mentioning the Prothonotary Warbler Project being conducted by VCU’s ecology researchers.  I actually attended a seminar last semester at the University of Richmond given by one of the members of their research team.  It is so interesting how they are used as indicator species for climate change.  I am also jealous that their lab gets to canoe as part of their data collection.

Our lunch-break science experiment on water-quality allowed us to measure certain levels of ammonia, dissolved oxygen, pH, and temperature in the water that we had been canoeing on.  What Allen told us about the ammonia was shocking to me.  The fact that the methods used by poultry farms can have that much of an impact on the waterways is mind-blowing.  I am glad we all have this information now.  He went over many cause-and-effects that impact certain water quality levels in the James.  Lucky for us, our results came out as “good.”

As we all know, Earth Lodge has been very fun and educational.  It has added much to my collection of fond memories at the University of Richmond.  Most of these memories involve things that our class did outdoors, and Mary Brickle’s awesome mom.  I love being outdoors- along with everyone else in this program; however, our outdoor experiences were beyond awesome.  We have learned so much in Earth Lodge and it is all very useful and diverse information.  I think that everyone in this program has had something that really stuck to them and meant something to them.  I know I can say that for myself at least.  It has been a great year.

As we are approaching the end of the year in Earth Lodge, I’ve been reflecting on the many things we’ve learned from the class.  I learned so much about the city of Richmond, the James River, the entire James River watershed, and geography in general.  I’ve also learned a lot about myself and what I am capable of as a student, but also as a human being.  While much of my newfound knowledge has come from Professor Lookingbill, my peers, and my own personal reflection, I believe that one of my greatest teachers this year was the nature surrounding me.

Looking back over my past blog posts, many of them tended to talk about the lessons nature teaches.  In one of my reflection posts, I reflected on the fact that although I was so stressed out from my schoolwork, the wildlife around me just focused on living.  Thinking about how wildlife lives simply and survives daily causes our concerns and stress to seem petty and unimportant.  It makes me question why I worry about controlling my own life.  Although I can control a lot of what goes on in my life, most of the time things will just happen to me and I will have to deal with them as they come.  With this perspective, there is no need for stress or worry.  This is one of the most important and useful lessons nature has taught me this year.

Another lesson that I’ve learned is that, while exploring the natural world, humans can seem so small and insignificant.  The fall break trip showed me this, but the backpacking trip that me and Molly went on showed me this to the extreme.  Walking on slippery rocks on narrow ledges frightened me because it was like seeing my life flash before my eyes.  A wrong step could’ve sent me over the edge, and it would have had tragic results.  The rocks and trees would not try to prevent my fall.  They would keep on being rocks and trees and watch silently, no matter what kind of a person you were by the standards of our society.  That image of taking a wrong step constantly flashed through my mind during that trip and showed me just how dangerous nature could be.  None of the challenges I faced had to do with human machinations.  It was simply surviving in the wilderness.  Stepping out of my comfort zone like that caused me to see just how awesome the natural world is and how it cannot be controlled by humans.

Now that I am able to see the lessons that nature continuously teaches us, I am confident that I will keep being taught new lessons.  Through my community service opportunities, I have also been able to learn how nature brings people together.  While volunteering with Ralph White, it was easy to see the clear dichotomy between the richest of the rich living by the river in fancy apartments and the homeless people living right on the river bank in makeshift homes.  The beauty of the river and its environment attracts any and all kinds of people to it.  When Ralph White spoke of different socioeconomic classes all fishing on the river, I could see again how the geography brings people together to create a community.  Our community of Earth Lodge has also benefited from this quality of nature through our volunteering experiences together.  Me and my Earth Lodge peers worked toward a common goal of cleaning up graffiti and trash to allow the natural beauty of the river to shine once again.  Not only does the beauty of nature bring people together to appreciate it, but also to take care of it.

Because the natural world does teach us all of these different lessons about life and community, it is very important to keep it healthy.  If volunteers and workers didn’t help to clean up, maintain, and teach about wilderness areas and places of natural beauty, these places wouldn’t attract people to them. Those people would then never have an experience that they could learn these lessons from.  The Chesapeake Bay Foundation has done a wonderful job of providing educational opportunities for people who want to learn about their bay and the environment surrounding it.  Our canoe field trip with the Foundation taught me so much about the ecosystems within the nooks and crannies of the bay and the bay’s inhabitants.  I learned what characteristics constitute a healthy waterway, such as high dissolved oxygen levels, and found that the James is a fairly healthy river.

Another organization that focuses specifically on the James River watershed is Envision the James. My group’s final project is a GeoStory on the Envision the James website that teaches the public about Pony Pasture Park, a specific area on the river.  Our GeoStory will explain the key geological and biological features of Pony Pasture, as well as illustrate the importance of riparian buffers and the conservation of the park.  We hope that this project will make people more aware of the natural environment of the park and keep it clean.  This way even more people will be able to experience the wilderness of Pony Pasture and learn the same kinds of lessons that I have learned from the natural world.

Wilderness is everywhere, as William Cronon suggests in his article.  I believe that I have learned just as much from the nature at my reflection spot in the gazebo as I have from my backpacking trip in the Smokies.  The fact that nature is inherently wild, no matter what is around it or where it is located, allows nature to constantly teach humans lessons about life and give us a new perspective.  Nature is so vitally important because of its capacity to teach us that it is imperative that we return the favor by keeping it alive and healthy.  Now that I have had experiences within the context of Earth Lodge, I hope that I can take the lessons I’ve learned with me as I continue college and through the rest of my life.

“Sometimes, if you stand on the bottom rail of a bridge and lean over to watch the river slipping slowly away beneath you, you will suddenly know everything there is to be known.” Winnie the Pooh really knew what he was talking about when said this, because it’s exactly how I feel whenever I see the James. Whether I am running on the road parallel to the river at Pony Pasture, basking in the sun on the rocks at Belle Isle, or cautiously meandering my way across the Mayo Island railroad bridge, watching the water of the James rush by offers me, and I’m sure all of us, a sense of clarity and solace that is quite difficult to find anywhere else. Each time I head down to the river, I am reminded of all that I have learned this year in Earth Lodge; whether it be the scientific material, such as how to calculate the water budget and why nitrogen and phosphorous are detrimental to the water, or the historical material, such as how industrial owners used the force of the river to power their flour mills, or the philosophical material, such as how the idea of “wilderness” can be considered a social construct – they all seem to follow the same premise. Going through my old blog posts and reflecting on what we have learned this year, I have found that, similar to the way all the water and materials in a watershed drain to a single point, everything we’ve learned this year seems to come together to a single point, a common theme – connectivity.

Connectivity is something that I did not have a firm grasp on before this year. Sure I figured that lots of entities must be connected, but I never realized just how strong these connections could be. I had no conception of the connection between the amount of impervious surfaces fifteen minutes from any water source and the nutrient level in that water, the connection between the riparian forest along a river and the temperature of that river, the connection between a small park and the migration of a small mammal, and the connection between the quantity of trees in an area and the hydrologic cycle – I could go on forever. Developing insight into these countless connections has helped me to better appreciate the world around me and to notice things I never would have noticed before, such as the water sources of the island of Kauai stemming from Mount Wai’ale’ale that I noted in my blog post “Overflowing Water” or how our campus appeared to be a “stepping stone” for the migration of visiting birds (which I have recently determined to be cormorants) that  I noted in my blog post Spring Visitors. Learning more about ecological services, watersheds, and Richmond’s relationship to our watershed, has not only allowed me to identify countless connections exhibited in my surroundings, but it has allowed me to develop a strong relationship and connection with those surroundings.

One of the most important things that has helped me connect with both UR’s campus and the city of Richmond has been being cured of my place blindness. Place blindness refers to the idea of being unmindful of what makes the region one occupies a “place” and taking granted the important characteristics that define that place. Before this year, I was most definitely feel victim to this type of blindness. It was not until my place blindness was pointed out to me in Earth Lodge and I began to learn about my “place”  that I began to make strong connections with it.

One connection that I have developed over this past year and that perhaps I foresaw the least is the relationship I have cultivated with UR’s campus. While the fact that I’d be learning about Richmond and the James were a little more obvious to me considering I was enrolling in the class “Geography of the James River Watershed,” the chance to learn about the place I was beginning to call my second home was something I had not predicted. However, it is something that I would not give up for the world. This connection really began to blossom after our first class this semester. I remember being completely baffled when we were led to Little Westham Creek, something I had neglected to notice for the whole year and a half I had been living on campus. Like Kevin Alloway, getting to learn about the smaller watershed of our campus “showed me how our campus – which often seems incredibly isolated – clearly connects to the outside world via water systems” (A Secret Stream). Also, learning about the significance of the Gambles Mill Trail, a trail that had always been part of my running route but I had no idea even had a name, and spending time at my reflection spot, observing the changes that occur on campus with the progression of time, have both helped reinforce my relationship with UR’s campus (The Giving Tree).

Another process that has really helped strengthen my connection with UR’s campus has been working on our final project. For part of our final project, Kenta, Taylor, Bill, and I are creating interpretive signs that provide information on the ecology and geography of the Westhampton Lake and Forest.The sign that I have been put in charge of designing concerns the different species that inhabit both the lake and the land around it. Researching and learning more about these species has really helped me to understand better why they do certain things and why our campus is the perfect habitat for them. For example, I have learned that mallard ducks are dabbling ducks. This means that instead of diving into the water for food, they feed on the algae and plants near the surface, which explains why they are always congregated around the edges of the lake instead of in the center like the cormorants and mergansers. I hope that putting these signs up will help give other students and faculty a better understanding of our campus and allow them to strengthen their connection with campus like we all have.

I have kept a journal since the beginning of my time at Richmond, and it has become an essential part of the way I process my experiences and observe my own growth. I had never thought to keep track of my development that way within one class—but my blogs for Geography of the James have become a sub-journal for me. Re-reading them now is an eye-opening indication of the impact the course has had on my conception of my ecological role, my sense of place, and my general understanding of the environmental movement. I notice two major trends in my blogs. The first is an expansion outward of my focus on human relationships with habitat, primarily addressing my own experience of my surroundings at first but developing an awareness and a curiosity about others’ involvement with nature as the semester went on. The second is the development of a fuller sense of what is necessary for environmental groups to achieve meaningful changes and for their leaders to work effectively.
In my first blog posts (http://blog.richmond.edu/james/?p=1765, http://blog.richmond.edu/james/?p=1858), I discussed the sense of welcomeness I experienced on a walk along Little Westham Creek and the pleasure I experience in my reflection spot on the Commons bridge. Thoughtful consideration of my place in my habitat was nothing new for me—I spend a great deal of time outside, and I try always to be aware of my impact and the fullness of my reliance on the life forms I’m observing. In retrospect, though, I neglected throughout this particular outdoor encounter to see beyond my own experience, to watch how my peers were interacting with their surroundings and to learn from them. I am most often outdoors alone, so maybe I was unaccustomed to the opportunity for thoughtful observation of not only my natural surroundings but my human surroundings as well. I recognize this inward focus now to have been a fault, to an extent, in my approach to thinking about nature.
Then I responded to a Collegian article expressing an ungrounded fear and a profound lack of understanding of the James and its critical role in our community (http://blog.richmond.edu/james/?p=1946). I was thoroughly incensed, so my first blog directed toward other community members’ experience of our habitat probably came off somewhat negatively. But the most significant factor I took away from the topic was that I consider it Earth Lodge’s responsibility to serve as an effective liason between our campus community and the watershed in which we reside. I am very proud of the ways I see Lodgers carry out this role, in conversations about outdoor activities with our peers, in sharing our enthusiasm for the projects we are working on in class, and in promoting the Lodge to next year’s class of ecological liasons. I look forward to watching the community continue to impact our campus’s relation to its habitat.
Other elements of our campus’s place in its ecology surfaced in later blogs about the campus’s somewhat empty “green” aesthetic and students’ destructive misunderstandings about plastic water bottles, recycling, and the significance of our impact on our watershed (http://blog.richmond.edu/james/?p=2553, http://blog.richmond.edu/james/?p=2782). This has been a common thread throughout my peers’ blogs, as well. “It’s strange,” Kenta wrote of UR’s approach to creating a campus, “that such an intentional development, one that has such unusually high intellectual and monetary resources, is still so environmentally irresponsible.” (http://blog.richmond.edu/james/2013/03/31/clean-campus-contaminated-creeks/) These outward approaches to blogging are distinctly different from my earlier posts in their focus on learning from my observations of other humans’ interactions with their place. I am so glad to notice this unconscious shift in my thinking and the development of a fuller curiosity about human impacts on hydrology. And these are both areas in which student voices will be critical in moving UR toward a more harmonious relationship with its habitat—this awareness will fundamentally impact my approach to the push for increased bike friendliness, for example, in addition to all of Green UR’s efforts. Observing other students’ interactions with their environment also continually heightens my awareness that I understand relatively little about my own impact on hydrology, and about hydrology itself. I expressed my excitement about the prospect of developing a fuller sense of place in that regard—and after taking the final exam and reflecting on what we have accomplished in class, I am very pleased to realize how much I have grown in my understanding of my habitat.
The other branch of the lessons that my blogs have illuminated for me took root in my community-based learning experiences. First I volunteered at the Sierra Club’s Environmental Film Festival, where I interacted with members of one of the nation’s largest environmental organizations (http://blog.richmond.edu/james/?p=2057). I learned about the Sierra Club’s hierarchical structure, which was almost an exact replica of the hydrologic unit model we had just learned about in class. I also discovered that the Club’s local chapter and Green UR had been facing similar challenges, and the dialogue that resulted from those shared experiences was constructive for both of us. It is essential, I realized, for environmental groups to focus not just on functioning well individually but on establishing cooperative relationships with other organizations, in order to have the most genuine impact possible.
My learning culminated, it seems, in my encounters with three dynamic leaders: Brenda and Dr. Mike in Louisiana (http://blog.richmond.edu/james/?p=2657), and Ralph White (http://blog.richmond.edu/james/?p=2553, http://blog.richmond.edu/james/wp-admin/post.php?post=2897&action=edit) here in Richmond. Brenda and Dr. Mike are hugely inspirational leaders within the Houma nation in the bayou region, but both of their efforts—Brenda’s for federal tribe recognition and Dr. Mike’s for a healthy community in the aftermath of the oil spill—center around the tribe’s relationship with its habitat. They spoke to us with passion, well-researched evidence, and experience, and they opened my eyes to the need for effective environmental leadership not just from environmentally-focused leaders, but also from political and other community leaders. Ralph White, as we have concluded in class, is a quintessential effective environmental leader—he knows the James and park management intimately, his motivation has stemmed from a deeply rooted passion for all the decades of his work, and he expresses that passion eloquently and convincingly. It was particularly his respect for the street art and the homeless communities that have sprung up in the James River Park System that struck me most about Ralph—behind all of the traits that make him a powerful leader is his profound sense of humanity, and his unwavering faith that given the knowledge and the support, humans genuinely desire to establish a positive relationship with their habitat.
I came into this course expecting to learn about water and land, but I have learned as much about human beings as about the places where they live. My blogs depict a clear trajectory toward a drive to understand not just the spaces I occupy, but how other people occupy those spaces. I also see in my blogs the development of a keener sense of what the environmental movement needs: connectedness, positivity, and collaboration between all kinds of groups. I am as excited as I expected I would be to understand my habitat itself more concretely, but these unexpected new understandings are perhaps even more invigorating. On the brink of our final project presentations, I look forward to seeing how we will make our student voices heard and how our collaborations will pay off. As the year comes to a close, then, I anticipate a continually positive and enriching experience for subsequent groups of Lodgers, and I hope to remain involved in the community that has impacted me so much more personally than I imagined it would. With our blogs as a valuable archive of our growth, we really have developed as a community that learns and lives together, and I know we will all continue to learn and live with a newfound sense of place always in mind.

In order to motivate people to change their behavior, they must first have a sense of community. They must then gain awareness of the problem and appraise the situation. Only then will they be motivated to activism.
This is the model of behavior is promoted by Dr. Forsythe. Throughout this course I have noticed it to be true in my own behavior and the behavior of others. In class, we talked about a survey that demonstrates this quite effectively. It showed that individuals who knew that they lived in the Upham brook watershed and knew that it was polluted were more likely to be willing to help in watershed cleanup activities. Furthermore, while many of them said that they thought streams were important to the environment, few seemed aware of the connection between the health of the watershed and the health of streams.
Dr. Forsythe’s model has been true in my own thinking throughout the course of this class. Although I was aware of watersheds I had not appraised their importance or thought much about my place. This change has motivated many of us to action, for example I never would have chosen to spend my volunteer hours cleaning up on a small island in the middle of the James River. I would not have known that such a place existed. Furthermore I would not have understood the extent to which the trash on the island affects the health of the entire river downstream.
The clean up made me aware of a whole new set of issues. I had not thought about the poverty or homelessness problems in Richmond and had never thought about how difficult a problem it was to solve. I talked about this in my own blog. In Jenni’s blog, she says “When someone new moves in, Ralph White said, he approaches them and explains how the volunteer cleanups work and asks them to do their part–inevitably, this gesture of respect forges a friendly relationship between the homeless community and the park system.” This is evidence of a case in which with a sense of community and recognition of the problem it is possible to change people’s behavior.
This idea of spreading awareness and appraisal was also important to my other volunteer work. When Anne and I volunteered for the Sierra Club at the Environmental Film Festival at the Byrd, I realized that spreading such awareness was what the festival was all about. By putting these films in such an easily accessible form we were enabling people to have important discussions as they walked through the lobby. This experience also made me aware of how important it is to be conscientious in your appraisal of a situation. The film The Atomic States of America explained both sides of the problem. It discussed the benefits of clean nuclear power but condemned the nuclear power plants that leeched toxic chemicals into the surrounding environment. This reminded me that there are many sides to any story. Through trying to make clean nuclear power affordable, the reactors are under regulated and sometimes in bad locations. This is the case with one reactor on the unstable fall line outside New York City. One thing I did not like about this genre of film is the manipulative emotional appeals. In particular, this documentary showcased a dad whose daughter got cancer from the chemicals leeched by a power plant. It followed his fight for justice against the plant in order to motivate the viewer. Although this is an effective persuasive technique I feel the extended focus on this segment of the documentary distracts from the real issues involved in the regulation of nuclear power plants. It is important to appraise a situation for yourself, to do independent research before acting on an issue.
We got an opportunity to do such research when working on our group project. As a non-bike rider I was initially not aware of the issues associated with biking on our campus. Now we are in the process of appraising the issues. At first it seems simple. Bikes: good. Cars and fossil fuels: bad. However, the actual implementation of a plan to improve the bike program is difficult. First we ran into the obstacles of our limitations as students. When I interviewed Margaret Moore who has worked on the problem of bikes on campus last year, she reconfirmed what we had though about the difficulties in working with anyone form the City of Richmond, telling stories of cancelled meetings. What it comes down to is that the government already employs city planners to work on these exact problems. She encouraged us to focus our efforts to what we can do on campus.
On campus we found that there is no cut and dry answer either. At first it seemed simple to try to improve the green bike program. We are looking into making a program like this one, which uses high quality bikes and introduces an aspect of accountability, however the cost of implementing such a program may be prohibitively expensive. Furthermore, insurance costs would prohibit any bike rental program that would allow students to take bikes off campus. Because of these shortcomings, we wonder if our initial inclination toward improving the green bikes program needs revision. Perhaps the schools money would be more effectively spent on an annual used bike sale like at some other schools. This could provide students with affordable bikes that they can take off campus which will be of higher quality than the green bikes. I feel that this process of thinking critically about a real world problem and appraising my personal power to improve the situation is important to activism.
In his synthesis blog, Kenta says “I’ve realized that environmentalism isn’t something one can really give up once they’ve become privy to it. I’ve realized that environmentalism is largely a state of mind, a perspective and a lifestyle.” This is something that I think that we can all say that we have taken away from our experience in Earth lodge. Next year, I will be living in an apartment and will miss living in this community. However, I will bring my bike to get to class. Because of my project I will choose to bike instead of driving when I go downtown. Once you become aware of the earth, of your watershed, of the poverty in your community, of the state of biking, these things become part of your state of mind.