by Gretchen Graber, Institute for Applied Ecology

This past August, Stacy Moore from Institute of Applied Ecology, (IAE) gave a presentation on prairie restoration at Coyote Ridge Corrections Center (CRCC) in Connell, WA. The presentation is part of an on-going monthly sustainability lecture series created by the Sustainability in Prisons Project (SPP). IAE and CRCC staff work collaboratively to offer a variety of subjects including soil conservation, fracking, climate change, song birds of the shrub-steppe and monarch migration research.

Inmates ask the best questions and provide great comments about their own experience making the presentation an interactive learning experience. Often inmates ask, “How can I get involved?” to which partnership staff respond by providing additional environmental education materials and information about conservation efforts and future volunteer opportunities.

Each year a group of amphibian experts meets to discuss status, research updates and action items for the recovery of the state endangered and federally threatened Oregon spotted frog (OSF).  This year, the two OSF technicians, who cared for and released 167 frogs in 2015, were able to attend this important meeting and share the critical role they have played in the OSF recovery effort.  The following blog is inmate science technician Mr. Boysen’s reaction to the meeting.  Thank you Mr. Boysen, for sharing your experience and for everything you have contributed to the program.-Sadie Gilliom-Sustainability in Prisons Project OSF and Western Pond Turtle Coordinator

Today my co-worker and I went to the Nisqually Wildlife Refuge.  We left Cedar Creek Corrections Center earlier than I expected and made it to the Refuge a little late.  We were greeted by our boss, Mrs. Gilliom and directed to our seats.  It was a pretty intimidating place at first glance.  There were lots of badges and logos on shirts and hats. I recognized most of them.  There was Northwest Trek, Washington State Department of Fish and Wildlife, Woodland Park Zoo, Oregon Zoo and other people I have seen and given tours of the turtle program to at Cedar Creek.  Seeing familiar faces made it less intimidating.  Right out of the gate, Kelli Bush, the manager at the Sustainability in Prisons Project came up and thanked us for coming and I saw more and more people I’d seen before.

Mr. Boysen giving a tour to zookeepers and veterinarian from Northwest Trek Wildlife Park

The presentations started and I was amazed at the large size of this group of really smart people- these people spend so much of their time and career on these frogs.  There are so many aspects of this project I didn’t really understand were going on behind the scenes.  It was interesting to hear from JBLM about how they haven’t found any egg masses or frogs at the release site.  It was nice to hear that they are finding Oregon spotted frogs in locations around the Black River area that are thriving.  I didn’t recognize how much work was done just to survey the swamps, marshes, and ditches where frogs might be hiding.  Getting to see the maps with the GPS lines that showed where people had actually slogged their way through mud and muck was pretty cool.

Another part of the presentation that I found to be really cool was the different types of work that is being done to restore habitat for the frogs.  The different ways that the reed canary grass is being removed/eradicated was very interesting.  The mats of native plants that were going into production at another prison sound like a good idea.  It was fascinating to see how much work was involved with the restoration of native plants.  They burn, move, weed wack, hand cut and till the soil to allow a more inhabitable place for the frogs to live.

You would never really think all of this was going on to save a frog from extinction. It kind of gives you hope when you really think about it.  If this many people can spend this much time and brainpower on one little frog and one state’s government can spend this much money to stop one species of frog from disappearing then maybe we haven’t become blind to what we have done to the world we live in.  Maybe we can fix the things we have messed up and the damage we have done to our world.

Mr. Boysen holding an OSF that was being raised at Cedar Creek Corrections Center

The most intimidating part of the trip was the presentation we gave.  Now, I’m not a shy person or timid in any way, but when I walked to the front of that room with Mrs. Gilliom and Bill, I was a little surprised with how big the room got.  Having that many intelligent people staring at you is intimidating.  It was trial by fire for Bill and me.  We told the group of leading experts in their field what we were getting from the program and why we wanted to be a part of it.  Neither of us babbled or passed out, so that was cool.  Then after we finished we actually got an applause.  We were there for hours and saw 10 people go up and talk to the group.  We were the only ones that got applause!

Then it was time for us to go, so we hopped into the transport van to go back to prison.  It was an eye opening experience for the both of us.

I’ve been in prison for over half a decade and for that four hours we were there, we were not inside a prison compound and were not surrounded by prisoners and razor wire.  I almost felt like I was a different version of myself, that I had not made the mistakes I made when I was young. It was nice to see that the work we do at Cedar Creek plays a pretty big role in trying to fix a problem we, as our own species, have caused in our environment and planet.

Mr. Boysen cleaning the OSF tank full of tadpoles at Cedar Creek Corrections Center

The following blog is the third article submitted to us by one of SPP’s Western Pond Turtle Inmate Technicians.  Although we may not agree with all he says, we think it is a well thought out and interesting presentation of the challenges and possibilities of building a sustainable world.  We want to thank Mr. Anglemyer for sharing his meaningful perspective.

By Mr. Anglemyer, Western Pond Turtle Inmate Technician

Simulation done by NASA showing CO2 in the earth’s atmosphere.

The following is my attempt to put the climate crisis into an analogy that defines the seriousness of the problem and how easy it is to become distracted from it by short term goals, wants and the ostensible necessities that we all seem to be obsessed with.

Nothing seems more important to people nowadays than their phones, so I’ve decided to use a phone analogy in order to be as relevant as possible. Let’s say that: Everyone has a cell phone that runs off the same communal battery. This battery has been around forever; before phones and even people. It belongs to no one and everyone (including non-human animals) at the same time. This battery has a really long life–four to five billion years or so. Unfortunately, this battery has no gauge to tell how much of a charge it has left; it is impossible to tell when it will run out. The battery can recharge itself to a limited degree, yet it never recharges faster than its optimum potential and it will recharge slower (or even to the point where the recharging is not sufficient to stop the battery from depleting) depending on the amount of use.  Moreover, its recharging capacity will become permanently damaged by extreme over use.

All the phones will die if the battery is depleted completely. The battery cannot recharge itself if it is drained below half of its capacity. Once it passes the threshold of half charged to below half charged, that’s it. It will run down its last half charge and then go out forever, done, dead, kaput!

As long as the battery is kept charged above half full, it will continue to recharge itself and will be around for a very long time– the aforesaid five billion years. The problem is, although the battery will continue to hold a charge for a long time, the time that it takes for it to go from above half charged to below half-charged will happen in an instant. Because there is not a battery gauge it is necessary to be conservative with phone use and liberal in regards of charging the phone, right? That seems rational, does it not?

Let’s think of the planet as analogous with the phone/battery described above; a phone that will last for eons; a phone that we depend on.  It is the only phone that we’ll ever have access to.  The phone just needs to be kept charged above half at all times.  This means that it is our duty to conserve use and be careful with how we use the phone.  If we hand the phone over to our children only half-charged they will not be able to recharge it. It will last them and their children, and their children’s children (maybe longer, maybe not, definitely not equally in terms of quality); but it will never be recharged again. It will have a lifespan that is a small fraction of the four to five billion years.

The ability of the battery to recharge in this analogy is similar to how the planet’s ecosystems work to keep the planet healthy. The degradation of the battery represents the degradation of the ecosystems which sustain the planet in a livable form. The air, water, and soil are all necessary for life. Their degradation to a point which they are unable to regenerate themselves is the end of…well…the end of everything (at least as far as we’re concerned). These elements regenerate as long as the plants and animals that support their health are not destroyed, poisoned, or overharvested past the point of their own ability to replenish themselves. Once the soil and the animals that contribute to its ability to regenerate die out forever–it’s, as they say in showbiz, a wrap.

No more phones — forever. No more planet–forever.  All that had to be done to prevent this tragedy was for people to take a stance on the side of caution, dial down their consumption, and put an end to their wastefulness; thusly, allowing the ecosystems to heal.  Instead it looks like our species (and many others, thanks to our myopic actions) is soon to be evicted from this world–like loud, destructive, and messy tenets from a rental (and rightly so, if we don’t change our ways).

I know this is an oversimplified analogy. I’ve probably failed to put it down in an articulate way–the way it made sense in my head.  I’m not a professional writer. I’m not a professional scientist. I’m not a philosopher. I’m just some dude in prison with lots of time to think.  I may be wrong. The climate might not be becoming unlivable; the animals may not be becoming extinct; and, if they are, our species’ activities might not be the cause. But, if, there’s the slightest chance that they are, and we are causing it, wouldn’t it be sensible to be extremely cautious with regards to the impacts we impose upon them?

Anglemyer holding a federally threatened Oregon spotted frog. Photo credit: Sadie Gilliom

The thing that worries me though is that if I have come to these conclusions about playing it safe when it comes to our planet: why haven’t most of the extensively smart and caring individuals that have been elected to represent us in the legislature come to the same conclusions?

I’m sure that many of them would say that I’ve been brainwashed by environmentalist propaganda.  They’d say that I’m anti-business, or even anti-American.  Others might just make excuses for how change happens slowly, or how we’re just not ready to make the jump to a “green lifestyle/economy.” I’d retort by accusing them of being the lapdogs of industrialism and imperialism.  But sadly, they’re not alone.  We’ve all been enchanted by the spell of industrialism.  We all live and depend on the conveniences and privileges that Industrialism and Imperialism force upon us–privileges and conveniences that addicted us to an extremely unsustainable and wasteful lifestyle.

Recently, we had some people come out and give an estimate of what it would take to set up a solar powered shack. They gave a well-researched, thorough presentation. I felt so discouraged when it was over; Thousands of dollars for initial setup and one huge battery to run only four 100 watt heat lamps. At the time I remember thinking: “What a bummer! I really thought that solar power had come much further than that.” I had fallen victim to the energy addiction that industrialism has to offer. In reality, 400 watts of power is a lot of power. It is plenty to reasonably light a house, but it’s not enough to keep up with our excessive demand for energy.

A model of the proposed solar power unit for the turtle shed. Photo credit: Sadie Gilliom

We’re going to have to say goodbye to lots of the things we have become reliant on, before a sustainable—and healed—world is possible. This means that instead of depending on others to feed us, we are going to have to become responsible for growing our own food. This means cities will have to transform drastically from their current state of existence. This means that, our economy is going to have to change as well. We’re going to have to figure out new ways to feed and entertain ourselves, hopefully we can. We all might become more responsible family members, friends, neighbors (as people connected to their land bases usually are) … you know, better HUMANS, more connected to each other than with our stuff.

These changes are going to be fought against by many of us. “What do you mean I can’t have bacon and cheese on everything!? What do you mean I can’t have avocados in February? What do you mean I can’t drive a monster truck that gets 6 miles to the gallon? I’m an American! Which means that I can have whatever I want whenever I want it, and do whatever I want whenever I want to!” I can hear it now. Indeed, I do hear it now—it seems to be the attitude that many people have when told that things they have become accustomed to are destroying the planet’s ability to sustain life.

Switching back to the phone/battery metaphor, people with the above attitudes want to use their phones more and more. More data, more apps, more Google searches for meaningless trivia or celebrity gossip, more and more till the battery is drained past half and can never be recharged.

So when you hear some politician or plutocrat and their commercials spouting slogans like “energy independence,” “economic stability,” “more middle-class jobs,” “make America great again,” realize that they’re peddling the destruction of everything and everyone in the future in order to make gluttons of themselves in the present. They want to run the battery out as quickly as possible. They want to bleed the planet dry as quickly as possible, and they are relying on us to be complicit (or at least complaisant) in the waste. They are selling what we have been buying for centuries; the same myopic idea of utilitarian use and pervasive domination that got us into our current crisis.

It is an easy sell. Change towards a sustainable world is going to be hard work. I mean literally and figuratively. It will entail the literal, hard physical, work of growing food and raising animals and tearing up parking lots and renovating office buildings into more useful structures. It will entail the figurative, mental and emotional work of reimagining social organizations and power structures. (So much more could be written about these aspects, but this is a blog, not a book.) It’s a shameful fact that the hard physical work that sustains our agriculture and construction industries has been consigned, for the most part, to the most vulnerable of our population—the undocumented and uneducated, the marginalized and the poverty-stricken. If sustainability is to become a reality everyone is going to have to do their share of labor (real labor that produces needed things). The changing of deeply ingrained ideas is going to be a lot harder. It may take a very long time; and, it may never be completely finished.

So instead of running down the battery watching NASCAR on your 60 inch television, playing fantasy football, immersing in presidential politics, becoming obsessed with the latest exercise or diet fad—or some other wholly insane and preposterous activity, try thinking about what you have been buying all these years and why you need it (or don’t). Realize that it’s been easy for sellers to peddle these things/attitudes to you, because irresponsibility and gluttony sell themselves—especially when their disguised as inevitabilities that are going to be bought with or without your consent.

By Mr. Anglemyer, inmate technician for the SPP Frog and Turtle Program

The dog days of summer have almost gone which means that it is harvest time for some of the vegetables that are growing here at Cedar Creek Corrections Center.

The gardens are tended by inmates and all the food grown goes to the institution’s kitchen for inmates to eat. Broccoli, cabbage, carrots, corn, peppers, lettuce, beans, squash and pumpkins are all being prepared in the kitchen. There’ll even be a small amount of tomatoes and strawberries.

Cedar Creek Gardens Ready to Harvest. Photo by Joslyn Trivett.

Last year inmates grew close to twenty thousand pounds of produce. All this food will never see the inside of a can. It has all been grown organically — no pesticides or chemical fertilizers have been used in the growing process. Most of the compost used to amend the soil was made at the prison using leftover kitchen scraps (except for a layer of mushroom compost that was obtained locally).

Adding Cedar Creek Compost to the Soil. Photo by SPP Staff.

The food will be a welcome change from the normal fare of processed, frozen, canned or bagged produce that is the norm in prisons. It is unfortunate that fresh produce only lasts for a few months, but three months is better than zero months; especially when some inmates among the population haven’t had access to fresh food for years — or even decades. The difference between organically grown garden fresh produce and the frozen, dyed, and chemically grown/preserved stuff is night and day.

Rhubarb Growing Along the Fence. Photo by Sadie Gilliom.

There are some extra challenges this year due to the drought. We’re worried about water usage here just like everybody else on the west coast, but hopefully the lack of water won’t have a huge effect on crop yields. The inmates are doing a great job of using water efficiently and of recapturing where they can.

Many of us in the population are extremely grateful to the guys from the horticulture program whom work in the gardens, as well as the people at Centralia College and the Sustainability in Prisons Project who do their part in making the gardens possible. Fresh food makes the late summer and fall seasons here at Cedar Creek a special time.