Author Archives: Emily Passarelli

Many Reasons to Celebrate

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The Sustainable Prisons Project has a lot to celebrate these days.  Our contract – between The Evergreen State College and Washington Department of Corrections – was recently renewed, providing two more years of funding.  We’ve hired two more graduate students, rounding out a strong team.  We’ve hired our new Project Manager, Kelli Bush, who will make sure we keep all the pieces of the project flowing and growing smoothly.  And we’re preparing to launch several new (or revived) pieces of the project.  In sum, we have a lot to celebrate.

Even as we hire more staff, we know that this small team represents only a fraction of the work being done.  The Sustainable Prisons Project could not succeed without all of the support we receive. A few examples include:

  • Classification Counselors, Officers, Environmental Planners, and others at the prisons that spend time coaching offenders in gardening, horticulture, and frog rearing projects.
  • Officers and others that take time out of their duties to escort our staff and speakers through the prisons.
  • Department of Corrections administrative staff that schedule and coordinate our events at the prisons.
  • Evergreen State College staff that interpret our budget documents, process grant documents, and make sure that our students get paid.
  • A diverse group of presenters, including scientists, academics, and state agency and non-profit employees who have presented intriguing subjects to offenders.

On last Monday night (July 19) we brought just a few of those partners, participants, and others together at Mercato Ristorante in downtown Olympia – not for a meeting, but to celebrate. Although we’ve created this web of scientists, Department of Corrections staff, Evergreen State College staff, and others through the years, we rarely gather in the same room.  It was great to see biologists from Fort Lewis talking with secretaries from the college, and students chatting with prison superintendents.  We were also very fortunate to have Governor Gregoire stop by to acknowledge the work we’ve been doing, and remark on how relatively small efforts such as ours have big echoes in the halls of government.

Energized by recent events, and this gathering, our team is in the trenches, eagerly charting new paths for the Sustainable Prisons Project.  Who knows what successes we may be celebrating at our next gathering!

Thanks again to Mercato Ristorante in Olympia for graciously donating the space, hors d’oevers, and staff time to help us create wonderful celebration.

From Parks to Prisons

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in Education Science

After six seasons as a ranger in the National Parks and Forests, and three years in graduate school, I joined the Sustainable Prisons Project team, as the interim project manager, back in March.  Over the past few months I’ve managed the project largely from the sidelines, from my keyboard and telephone.  I’ve had a few ventures to the prisons we’re active in.  After one of my visits, I returned to a staff meeting and frankly I begged to be included on the lecture schedule.

This week I had the fortune of presenting talks on bear biology both at Washington Corrections Center for Women and McNeil Island Corrections Center.  Although I’ve presented many an evening program in my days as a park ranger, and I’ve talked with a lot of different audiences, presenting in a prison is a unique experience.

The first challenge in preparing was to decide on my topic.  As a park ranger I’ve studied volcanoes, bears, caves, marine mammals, and other subjects.  Being in the Northwest, a landscape of mountains and public lands, bears seemed to be a perfect topic.  The next challenge was to decide which aspect of bears the talk should focus on. There are just too many options!  Rather than focusing on one subject I hoped to show offenders that you can study something seemingly simple, an animal such as the bear, from many perspectives.  I crammed basic bear biology, ecosystem ecology, conservation, and my favorite nature literature that has focused on bears, into 50 PowerPoint slides, and hoped for the best.  An ambitious lecture indeed, but I’ve been consistently impressed by how much information offenders eagerly and ambitiously absorb.

Last Wednesday, at the Washington Corrections Center for Women, I found an enthusiastic audience of about 30 women.  They were particularly interested to understand the life cycles of bears, and the ways that humans interact with bears.  My stories of daily life in Katmai National Park and Preserve, when I was a ranger, and how those stories relate to bear biology were hits.

On Thursday, after a quick tour of McNeil Island, our DOC staff escort led our staff to the visiting room for the lecture.  We scrambled to set up the room for the 90 offenders who signed up for the lecture, and I ticked through my PowerPoint slides, hoping I had enough material to keep the offenders occupied and engaged for nearly 90 minutes.  Quickly I realized I had no reason to worry about time, as within five minutes, offenders hands were raised as they asked intriguing and creative questions about bear foods, life cycles, biology, and the implications of climate change and habitat fragmentation.  I was floored by the depth and intelligence of the questions I was asked.  A few offenders had very good and valid ideas about how to recover imperiled brown bear populations in the lower-48.  If I knew how good the questions would be, I probably would have read just a few more scientific articles before the lecture!

As our team sat on the boat venturing back to the mainland (McNeil Island Corrections Center is indeed on an island as the name implies, with the prison operating ferry boats for staff and visitors), I found myself reflecting.   For six seasons I talked about bears, volcanoes, caves, and wildlife around campfires and amidst wild land.  These days I find myself behind numerous gates and fences presenting to offenders, and yet the offenders still manage to deeply appreciate nature and science, even from a distance.  Although it’s easy to miss the campfires and hikes of working in our National Parks, I’m developing a deep appreciation for interacting with offenders. Their deep intellect and curiosity persists, even as they serve (often long) sentences for crimes that are painful to think about. 

Our next staff meeting is on Tuesday and I think I’ll probably ask to speak at another prison.  I really appreciate the ideas that offenders brought forth, and I hope they continue to ask questions that send me to the books and journals seeking answers.

Growing Plants and Potential: Stafford Creek Nursery Project

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in Education Science

Carl Elliott, one of our Graduate student Research Associates, has been documenting his work with the project since April.  The following are a few of his entries.
Introduction

4/01/2010

Throughout the spring of 2010, the Cargill Fellowship supported the Sustainable Prisons Project staffing in the nursery at Stafford Creek Corrections Center.  We wanted to create a learning environment where incarcerated men gain the knowledge, skills and confidence necessary to participate in the emerging green economy.  The nursery project provides a framework to clearly explain important ecological principles related to sustainability.  Additionally, the nursery skills provided in the training can be transferred to numerous other job pathways after the inmate’s release. Inmates also build significant confidence as they produce real products that will assist other agencies in restoring a threatened landscape. The concrete success in growing plants for restoration is inspiring for incarcerated individuals who have not often had many concrete successes in their lives. 1.CNTRGRD_6_17

Seed Cleaning

4/18/2010
The Sustainable Prisons Project developed a curriculum for offenders curriculum for the offenders involved in the nursery program, which complimented the production schedule of the nursery.  Before offenders could understand the importance of nursery work, they needed to understand the context of why restoration is needed on south Puget Sound prairies. We held a number of informal workshops this month where we cleaned seed or prepared the sowing flats and soil.  This allowed a lot of time just to discuss restoration and humans impact on natural ecosystems.  The offenders discussed and debated amongst themselves, questioning “what is the definition of ecological restoration?”  This discussion led to lead to questions about why restoration is even needed. The South Puget Sound prairies are anthropogenic ecosystems, affected by human activities.  Though soil, climate and biotic factors play a role in the ecosystem, the primary driver influencing the prairie ecosystem state is periodic fires, lit by humans.  With a return to prairie burn regimes on South Puget Sound prairies instituted by The Nature Conservancy and Joint Base Fort Lewis McChord, the nursery project will be able to supply need plants and seed to return forb diversity to the prairies. 2.Riparian_Seeds.jpg

Practical Nursery Techniques

5/19/2010

The offenders, DOC staff and SPP staff worked on practical nursery techniques this month.  The details of cultivating wild plants provide a lesson in patience that growing that pansies and petunias do not.  Wild plants do not germinate with the same regularity and consistency as cultivated plants and their germination and stratification protocols are not as well documented as the economically important cultivated species. This year over 380,000 prairie and riparian plants of 30 species are being sown, germinated and cultivated at Stafford Creek.  Each species has unique stratification, handling, sowing and cultivation requirements.  This diversity of protocols has presented challenges in communication and documentation and both offenders and staff have shown that they are up to the task.  Everyone involved has learned there is both an art and a science to cultivating wild plant species.  We have been greatly assisted by our partners at The Nature Conservancy of Washington, who have provided protocols developed at their Shotwell’s Landing Nursery.  TNC staff came out this month to do a workshop and provide quality control to make sure that all the prairie plants are being grown to their specifications.

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Plants Up and Growing

6/17/2010

Our nursery work has progressed well this spring. We are about one halfway through the sowing process.  Most of the plants sown to date are slow growing and erratic germinators. Prairie forbs such as Lomatium nudicale, Lomatium utriculatum, Viola adunca and Castilleja hispida have germinated at rates around 20% and we should expect twice that rate over the next four to six weeks.  The majority of plants will go into the restoration sites from October to January when the rains come (of course this year as of June, the rains have not stopped). The offenders are monitoring germination rates between the plants in the green house that have temperatures higher temperatures than the hoop house which also has a greater range of temperatures from daytime to nighttime.  The process of detailed record keeping coupled with producing almost 400, 000 plants has been a challenge. SPP staff has provided templates and education on keeping accurate field journals to each offender.  As a project, we hope to collectively create documented plant production protocols that would raise the inmate’s participation from simply labor to one of being active stakeholders in the restoration process.  This is also providing interesting data that helps us understand which plants grow faster, in what environments. 

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Offenders take college credit at Evergreen

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in Education Science

Posted by Graduate Research Associate Liesl Plomski

Cedar Creek Correction Center inmate, Charles Butts, recently completed a 2 credit research paper on photovoltaic cells with The Evergreen State College. Charles is our first incarcerated student to construct an independent learning contract through The Evergreen State College. Under the guidance of faculty sponsor, Peter Impara, Charles was able to author a paper on the history and current technology of photovoltaic cells. Charles has a background as an electrician and hopes to continue to study solar energy and to open his own business installing energy saving products upon his release. This accomplishment could not have been achieved without the support of Correctional Counselor, Marko Anderson.

Liesl Plomski (SPP staff), Charles Butts (offender and student), Peter Impara (Evergeren State College faculty) and Marko Anderson (Cedar Creek Correctional Center staff) celebrate as Charles completes requirements to receive college credits

Liesl Plomski (SPP Student & Staff), Charles Butts (offender and student), Peter Impara (Evergreen State College faculty) and Marko Anderson (Cedar Creek Corrections Center staff) celebrate as Marko finishes his coursework and receives college credits

 

Charles has opened to door for more incarcerated students to follow. An incarcerated student from the Washington Corrections Center for Women will begin an independent learning contract on recycling this summer, under the guidance of faculty sponsor, Karen Gaul. The Sustainable Prisons Project hopes to support more incarcerated students in the pursuit of sustainable knowledge in the future.

The Early Bird Gets the Worm

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in Science

Posted by undergraduate research assistant Sarelle Caicedo

It’s 6 AM, and while most people are still sleeping at this point, this is the prime time of the day for bird enthusiasts. As an undergraduate senior, who truly enjoys the luxury of a good ‘sleeping in’ I (undergraduate research assistant, Sarelle Caicedo) recently gave up that luxury for a day to meet with vital Sustainable Prisons Project partners Jim Lynch, a Fish and Wildlife Biologist for the Fort Lewis Wildlife Program, and Gary Slater, research director of the Ecostudies Institute.

This meeting was a significant milestone of work to-date with the bird box project.  The goal of the morning was to load Gary’s pick up truck with as many Western Bluebird boxes as possible so he could take the ferry up north to the San Juan Islands and deliver each one to environmentally concerned land owners who requested boxes, as well as the San Juan Preservation Trust.

Because of the stunningly large amount of donated lumber and the willingness of the inmates and staff at Stafford Creek, there was an excess number of Western Bluebird boxes produced! This outcome came as a surprise to all involved, and are SO pleased to have the extra boxes to distribute to individuals eager to support bird conservation.

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Gary Slater showed up with his pickup truck, and on the passenger seat was a small cage with a blanket on it. Inside the cage was a male and female western bluebird, which he was going to take to the San Juan Islands to jumpstart the population. As we arrived at a storage unit near the Fort grounds, it was impressive to see the hundreds of built boxes in storage, ready to be delivered.

As we loaded bird boxes, Jim, Gary and I discussed the future of the bird box project, and that next time boxes are delivered, the whole team may travel together, so we can all see the project from its earliest stages of hauling lumber to the prisons, to its final stages of installing boxes on trees and upright structures.  By ten AM the truck was fully loaded, Gary was ready to go, and Jim offered a brief tour of areas of the Fort where restoration projects are taking place.

It feels good to be a part of the early morning club!

Earth Day, Sustainable Prisons Project Style

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in Education Prison Life

Posted by undergraduate research associate Sarelle Caicedo.

Earth Day is here! People are often very creative in the ways they celebrate, and there seems to be no exception with Washington Corrections Centers. The Stafford Creek Corrections Center (SCCC)  held their Earth Day celebration event on April 14, 2010, and the Sustainable Prisons Project was there.

About 10 different environmental organizations and businesses set up information tables in a large visiting room in the Corrections Center.  This was the 3rd annual Earth Day at SCCC, and it was a great success. The inmates and the staff had very positive responses to the various information tables.

Greg Falxa explains a "bat condo," one of many constructed at Stafford Creek

Greg Falxa explains a "bat condo," one of many constructed at Stafford Creek

Greg Falxa, a bat biologist at Cascadia Research, came to the event with Sarah Clarke and Sarelle Caicedo, Sustainable Prisons Project student Research Associates. Greg will be giving the May scientific lecture on bat biology and conservation on May 12 at SCCC, so this visit enabled him to promote his upcoming talk with inmates and staff and build enthusiasm. Inspired by the growing success of the bird box project, inmates are now constructing bat boxes (known by the inmates as “bat condos”), and Greg was able to display a recently built bat box.  

Project Research Associates Sarelle Caicedo and Sarah Clarke with SCCC Superintendent Pat Glebe

Project Research Associates Sarelle Caicedo and Sarah Clarke with SCCC Superintendent Pat Glebe

Pat Glebe, Stafford Creek superintendent, was present, continuing to motivate and steer Stafford Creek’s efforts to be a leading practitioner of sustainability. 

Next week, on April 28th, Graduate Research Associate Carl Elliott and undergraduate assistant, Sarelle Caicedo will be giving a joint lecture at SCCC, and they are very excited! The topic of the talk will be prairie plant conservation and conservation of the Purple Martin and Western Bluebird. This talk has been of keen interest to he inmates because they have been involved in hands on projects concerning both prairie plants and these two species of birds. Carl and Sarelle have worked together in the past, propagating plants with The Nature Conservancy, and feel that their joint talk will go well. Stay tuned for details next week on how it goes, and happy Earth week!

New Frogs Have Arrived!

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Posted by Graduate Research Associate Liesl Plomski

Cedar Creek Correction Center kicked off their 2010 Oregon spotted frog rearing season in late March. Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife delivered around 80 larvae from the Black River in Thurston County to the Prison. Since then the frogs have been moved from 6-quart containers indoors to a 300-gallon tank outside. Many of the tadpoles have begun metamorphoses and are developing front legs. They are developing much faster than last year.  The inmates prepare a “Popeye” food mash of romaine lettuce, kale, and spirulina to feed to the tadpoles four times a day.  We’re impressed by how quickly the frogs are growing and maturing; so far things are on track to match the success of the 2009 season.

Frog Project Receives Grant from Oregon Zoo Foundation

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in Ecological Research Science

Posted by Graduate Research Associate Liesl Plomski

This April, Cedar Creek Correction Center was awarded a $4,375 grant from the Oregon Zoo Foundation to expand the Oregon spotted frog captive rearing program at the prison. This is the first time the grant has ever been awarded to the Department of Corrections, or to an institution that is not solely dedicated to scientific research.  This will allow the prison to expand from the current capacity of 75 frogs to a future capacity of 300 frogs. Right now the project buys thousands of crickets which are shipped from Alabama – this grant will also help expand the cricket rearing area, which was started with $500 from the Department of Fish and Wildlife. Crickets are the main diet of captive reared Oregon spotted frogs after their complete metamorphoses (from larvae to early adult-hood). 

In its first year of the project, Cedar Creek Correction Center reared 67 of 78 larvae to adulthood. They hope to use these funds to increase the number of frogs release back into the wild in the 2011 rearing season.

Bird Conservation Project Taking Flight at Stafford Creek Corrections Center

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in Ecological Research Education Science

Blog post by undergraduate research assistant Sarelle Caicedo.

Purple Martins and Western bluebirds are two of the most charismatic birds of the Pacific Northwest. As the newest hands-on project of the Sustainable Prisons Project, inmates at Stafford Creek are constructing bird houses that will serve as habitats for the threatened Purple Martin and Western Bluebirds. The inmates have been enthusiastic about constructing the boxes and learning about the birds they are helping to preserve. To date, 16 Purple Martin boxes have been made and taken to Northwest Trek, where they will be installed and monitored for long-term conservation use. 150 Western Bluebird boxes have already been made and will soon be installed and monitored at various locations. Local lumber retailers (Tumwater Home Depot, Mary’s River Lumber Co., and Windfall Lumber) have donated all of the wood being used to make the boxes, making this project possible.

On April 28th, undergraduate research assistant Sarelle Caicedo and graduate research assistant Carl Elliott will be giving a joint educational lecture at Stafford Creek on Western bluebird and Purple Martin Conservation and Northwest prairie plant ecology. We are hoping that this lecture will increase interest in ornithology and the environment, and that this will kick start a series of future lectures given by undergraduates specializing in ecology and environmental studies at Evergreen.