Tag Archives: The Evergreen State College

Are you right for the garden & is the garden right for you?

By Carly Rose, Curriculum Development Coordinator at SPP-Evergreen

Gardeners work together at WCCW. Photo by Ricky Osborne.

What makes a garden in prison worth tending, and how does an incarcerated person know that gardening is a good fit for them? The history of agriculture in the U.S. has encompassed both incredible advances in supporting human health while also contributing to historical oppression. Especially given that history, whether or not to garden should be the decision of the gardener. Especially in prison, how does an incarcerated person know that gardening is a worthy part of their journey?

Horticulture students at Washington Corrections Center for Women (WCCW) harvest potatoes. Photo by Joslyn Rose Trivett.

I have created a list of conditions that I believe signify that the person is right for the garden and the garden is right for them. These principles may be considered by any gardener, whether inside or outside of prison.

1. You want to grow plants.

Two gardeners wash and bag bok choi harvested at WCC. Photo by Ricky Osborne.

2. You find joy in growing plants. Gardening is an act of dedication, patience, and surrender, and not everyone finds joy in such a commitment. When you are in the garden, if you lose track of time, if you find yourself reveling in the small details of the garden,  if you find yourself a student of the garden, then the garden is for you.

3. The act of gardening reflects your inner self. You can see yourself in the cycles of the garden.

4. Your body, mind, heart, and spirit want you to tend the garden.

Ben Aseali poses in his garden at Stafford Creek Corrections Center. Photo by Marisa Pushee.

5. Gardening connects you to your community. Whether you produce beautiful flowers and food for people, animals, or insects, aquatic plants to oxygenate bodies of water, shrubs, and trees to oxygenate the air, you will be able to sense the ways that gardening connects you to your world.

6. Gardening connects you to your culture. In almost every culture of the world, people cultivate plants to feed their community. If gardening connects you to your culture, it is a gift to you and your loved ones.

A gardener steps on her shovel at WCCW. Photo by Benj Drummond & Sara Joy Steele.

Gardening is not everyone’s cup of chamomile tea – and it shouldn’t be. As a collective, we are made stronger through a diversity of interests and talents, and gardening is only one. For those of you who are willing, joyful, and overwhelmed with the beauty (ok…and work) at harvest time, I hope the seasons are kind to you this year.

The garden crew shows off a prize cauliflower at Washington Corrections Center. Photo by Don Carlstad.

Like honeybees, we are working together

Honeybees often form chains while they are building honeycomb. Some beekeepers call the chains a “festoon,” suggesting a decorative garland; visually, it is a beautiful metaphor for teamwork.

Text by Carrie Hesch, Beekeeping Liaison for Washington Corrections Center for Women
Photos by Sandy Faranara, President of West Sound Beekeepers Association

Honeybees destined for the program at Washington Corrections Center for Women are settling in well to their temporary foster home. They are under the expert care of foster parent Sandra Fanara, program partner and president of the West Sound Beekeepers Association.

Due to COVID-19, Sandy and the bees have been unable to come into the facility. The incarcerated beekeepers and I are excited for when we can start caring for these new hives. In the meantime, Sandy is adding to our shared story by sending us photos and updates frequently.

The image of the workers forming a chain between the frames makes me think of how we are all working together around a common goal to preserve life. Despite everything, the bees are an iconic view of resilience. Have an inspired week!

The hive’s queen, named the Queen of Diamonds, is labeled with a blue dot (helps beekeepers take special notice of her). You can see some of her eggs in the cells behind her; they look like tiny grains of rice.

An earlier story about this program: Bringing honeybees back to WCCW.

Welcoming the bees back to WCC

Photos by Jenn Bullard, Washington Corrections Center
Text by Joslyn Rose Trivett, SPP-Evergreen, Laurie Pyne, Centralia College, and Jenn Bullard

WCC’s Intensive Bee Management Unit buzzes with new honeybees.

Joslyn Rose Trivett: Last week, Washington Corrections Center (WCC) welcomed bees back to the program. While it is still tough for volunteers and contract staff to give support in-person, this bee program is blessed with experienced beekeepers and supportive corrections staff. April 18th was the day to receive and install the new honeybees; here are a few photos and thoughts from partners.

This is a 3-pound “package” of bees with a queen….a common way to start a new hive. These bees belong to the Italian subspecies known for its calm temperament.

Jenn Bullard: What a great afternoon! The sun was wonderful, the air was fresh, and the bees were absolutely amazing! They were calm and collected, which was great. ☺

After pouring a package of bees into the hive, a beekeeper carefully places the frames. Notice the queen cage sitting on the edge of the hive box (upper left), waiting to be installed next.
Beekeepers placed added quart jars of sugar syrup to the hives. These will feed the bees while they get established in their new home.

The 4 incarcerated beekeepers did a great job installing the hives–each one got to empty the box into the hive, and they all did a fantastic job!

Laurie Pyne: It’s a very jazzy thing to install a package of 10,000 bees into a hive on your own…and a real confidence builder.

Thank you, Jenn and Andy [Williams], for all you did on the ground there to make today happen. I so appreciate you both and the ongoing support for the beekeeping programming at WCC.

Another beekeeper eases frames into a newly-populated hive.

Letter to in-prison partners

By Erica Benoit, Kelli Bush, Carl Elliott, and Joslyn Rose Trivett, SPP-Evergreen

As is true for so many folks, recent weeks have been demanding. Responding to the 2019 Novel Coronavirus Outbreak (COVID-19) in Washington State has presented challenges. Every SPP program is a partnership, but maintaining these partnerships and programs is more difficult from a distance. Despite this, we continue to find innovative ways to maintain our commitment to SPP programs and maintain our partnerships with staff and incarcerated individuals.

To provide some insight on how SPP is adapting during this time, we share a letter sent to corrections partners. This general letter was also adapted for different partners and programs to provide next steps for each programs. As has been the case generally, our plans will likely continue to evolve as the situation changes. If you have specific questions related to SPP programs at this time, please contact spp@evergreen.edu.

Dear SPP technicians, students, educators, and corrections staff,

We want you to know that we are thinking of all of you during this challenging time. Your safety and well-being are our highest priorities. To reduce the risk of spreading infection to you and in alignment with Governor Inslee’s executive order to “stay home,” SPP staff program visits with incarcerated people have been suspended. We will resume our in-prison interactions when it becomes clear that we can do so safely, and based on advisement from Centers for Disease Control and WA Corrections Administration.

During hive cleanup in early March, bee program liaison Carrie Hesch holds a piece of honeycomb that broke off in a heart shape. Can’t think of a more fitting recipient — her approach to teamwork is compassionate, life-affirming, and productive. Photo by Shohei Morita.

Over the years and in partnership with many of you, we have found ways to offer innovative science and sustainability education programs in prisons. We care deeply about our shared efforts and your role in this partnership. We don’t want to lose what we’ve created together. These challenging times call for further innovation, compassion, and resilience.

To make the best of the current situation, we are turning our attention to developing more education and training materials.  We are working to identify safe ways to continue education and program operation as we can. For most programs, we plan to follow up with ideas for projects you can be involved with, as you are in good health and available to participate.

In a photo from last year: a member of the lawn and garden crew at Stafford Creek shows care one of his peers. Photo by Shauna Bittle.

We welcome your ideas for safely maintaining programs, education, and partnerships. We’ll do our best to respond to letters and other communications from you as quickly as we can. 

Thank you for your understanding and patience in this uncertain time. We are thinking of you and your well-being.

Sincerely,

Sustainability in Prisons Project Staff at Evergreen

Bringing honeybees back to WCCW

Text and photos by Shohei Morita, SPP Bee Programs Coordinator

Kathleen Humphrey proudly holds her personalized bee-themed bookmark, presented to all student beekeepers to use during their future studies. (Her official certificate will arrive in the mail soon.)

Last week, we celebrated 16 incarcerated and 5 staff students who just completed Washington State Beekeepers Association (WASBA)’s beginning beekeeper course. Program partners gathered to celebrate at Washington State Corrections Center for Women (WCCW). Taught by expert beekeeper Sandra Fanara of West Sound Beekeepers Association, the students learned the basics of beekeeping. This prepares them for more advanced study and the hands-on field work involved in the apprentice level course. After completing the course, there was a celebration to recognize their accomplishment with bee themed cupcakes. Students will also receive an official certificate from WASBA.

To celebrate, I brought bee-themed cupcakes complete with tiny edible bees and flowers! They were unusually delicious.  🙂

This was the first time since 2017 that WCCW has hosted the WASBA course. We are excited that many of these students plan to immediately advance apprentice course, which will start as soon as the bees arrive in April. In prepare, students, staff, and expert beekeeper will clean all the equipment and prepare the new apiary. Then they will be ready to dive in and experience working with honeybees. We are so excited to see this program flourish and provide therapeutic and empowering experience to the students.

Thank you to our expert beekeeper Sandy Fanara, and to our DOC liaisons Carrie Hesch and Muriah Albin for their commitment and dedication to reviving this program. Most importantly, thank you and congratulations to the newly certified student beekeepers!

Fall Flowers

Text and photos by Graham Klag, SPP Prairie Conservation Nursery Coordinator

Showy Fleabane (Erigeron speciosus) shows off in the nursery yard. Photo by Graham Klag. 

Stafford Creek Corrections Center has hosted a prairie conservation nursery since 2009 — that’s ten years. Considering how many partners are involved and the challenges of growing rare and endangered species, a decade of success is impressive, to say the least!

In 2019, the team grew 35 different species of plants to restore and enhance precious prairie ecosystems in Washington and Oregon. Here are some of the flowers of fall, blooming inside the prison nursery. 

Could there be a better dark orange than the flowers of harsh Indian paintbrush (Castilleja hispida)?!
This is bluebell bellflower (Campanula rotundifolia). 
This is a wider view of the nursery yard.

What’s in a thesis

Text by Bethany Shepler, SPP Green Track Program Coordinator

Note: please be aware that individuals featured in this story and in these images have victims who are concerned about re-victimization; any sharing or promoting should keep that risk in mind.

I presented this copy of my thesis to the advisor team at Stafford Creek Corrections Center, represented here by Kelly Peterson and David Duhaime. Photo by Erica Benoit.

This past June Dr. Tyrus Smith signed my thesis. He was my thesis advisor and his signature validated all of my hard work over the last year-and-a-half. Suffice it to say, I was ecstatic! My thesis process was more difficult than I imagined it would be, took longer than I expected, and I am truly proud of the end product.

Following completion of my thesis, I returned to SCCC to present on the process and findings. Photo by Erica Benoit.

Before we move on, I could not have gotten to that moment of completion without the support of Evergreen Master of Environmental Studies faculty (Dr. Tyrus Smith, Dr. Kevin Francis, and Dr. Shawn Hazboun), my friends and family, my classmates, the people who participated in my study, the loggers that answered all of my questions, and the constant support from incarcerated and staff advisors at Stafford Creek Corrections Center (SCCC). Thank you all!!

Thank you to everyone who supported me and made this research possible! That’s me presenting my thesis to the community at The Evergreen State College. Photo credit: Joslyn Rose Trivett.

Thesis advisors in prison

From the very beginning of my thesis process, I knew I wanted to work with incarcerated individuals and SPP supported me in making this possible. So, I invited environmental studies experts housed at SCCC to work with me as advisors. I worked with the Roots of Success instructors and the Roots liaison at the facility, Kelly Peterson. A photo of me and the advisors is shown below.

These advisors helped me formulate the roots from which my thesis grew and greatly contributed to the process, too. From left to right: Cyril Walrond, Steven Allgoewer, David Duhaime (top), Anthony Powers, Kelly Peterson, and myself. Photo credit: SPP Staff.

Over the past two years, we met on multiple occasions. To develop a deeper understanding of the subject matter, the incarcerated advisors studied the articles and references I provided; they read peer-reviewed academic articles, research planning guides, newspaper articles, and other publications. They offered feedback and ideas on several aspects of the research including topic selection, philosophical framework, research design, study population, survey design, and presentation of the topic.

Seminar

This past February, Kelly Peterson helped me set up a seminar with a larger group, and included Dr. Smith. We asked all participants to read four pieces beforehand, to prepare for the discussion. Two were data-heavy, very dense, dry academic articles describing the theoretical framework I used for my thesis. Another was a piece President Roosevelt wrote after visiting the Pacific Northwest, in which he proposed a forest plan. And the last was an academic article about common predictors of environmental attitudes.

Here’s a group photo of the people who participated in the thesis seminar. Photo by Bethany Shepler.

I remember being nervous that no one would want to talk and I could not have been more wrong! They had all clearly done deep dives into the reading and made interesting connections I had missed in my own review of the literature. Everyone had thoughtful input and suggestions for things to explore and add to my thesis. The seminar was lively and thoughtful and there was never a quiet moment.

What is my thesis about?

My completed thesis is titled: A critique of the New Ecological Paradigm: Stewardship and a case study of the Pacific Northwest logging industry. It explores the concept of stewardship and how it fits into the New Ecological Paradigm. The study population was people actively working in the logging industry in the Pacific Northwest.

I presented my thesis as part of the Environmental Engagement Workshop Series at SCCC. Photo by Erica Benoit.

This research project was an exploratory study designed to document the ecological attitudes of loggers in the Pacific Northwest. As an exploratory study, I sought to contribute to a gap in the empirical literature: how loggers view the environment. I gathered their responses to the New Ecological Paradigm questionnaire, a measure of their ecological attitudes. Also, I collected information about each participant’s experiences in nature and their socioeconomic and demographic backgrounds.

Hanging out with loggers

Over the summer Pulley Corporation, an FSC®-Certified logging company agreed to let me shadow them for a day. This was an incredible opportunity for me and I am so grateful to everyone for answering all of my questions. Being able to speak with loggers who work in the field expanded my background knowledge on logging in the Pacific Northwest, and helped inform the survey I used to gather data. From these interactions, and many others, I noticed two attributes shared by all: a stewardship mindset and pro-ecological attitudes.

Regardless of their obvious pro-ecological attitudes, the sample population scored lower on the New Environmental Paradigm than most Washington State residents. This suggested to me that the New Environmental Paradigm measures attitudes using a socially-exclusionary lens.

When I shadowed the crew for the day, Pulley Corporation was working at Mt. St. Helens repairing and restoring an elk migration path for the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife. Photo by Bethany Shepler.

So, what’s in a thesis? Well, in my case, a thesis is a collaboration of very diverse groups of people, all environmentally inspired and dedicated, and all willing to support me as a graduate student. I am lucky to have all their brilliance and input in those pages.

Rolling out wetland plants for the Samish Indian Nation

By Anna Duron and Carl Elliott, Coordinator and Manager for the Emergent Vegetated Mat (EVM) program

EVM technicians at Stafford Creek Corrections Center loaded up jelly-rolled mats for delivery to the Samish Indian Nation. Photo by Anna Duron.

This year, the Emergent Vegetated Mat (EVM) program grew fifty mats for the Samish Indian Nation. Each mats was 15-feet-long and embedded with native wetland species Carex exsiccata, Glyceria elata, and Juncus supiniformis. Program technicians were instrumental in improving germination protocols, resulting in early spring plant growth. These young plants were ready for transplanting into the coconut mats by early summer. Again thanks to improved cultivation techniques, the plants grew vigorously; by September, the lush growth covered 80% of the mats’ surface. 

In mid-July, Josh Hieronymus, Graham Klag, Joseph Oddo, and Anna Duron check on wetland plants growing in the EVM nursery. Photo by Shauna Bittle.

We rolled up the mats in October, put them in a 24-foot truck without good shocks, and drove them to the Samish Indian Nation–a bit of a loud and  bouncy ride. Access to the planting site was by water, so we unloaded the mats into a warehouse and drove back south.

The mats were loaded onto boats to reach their destination across the Samish River. Photo provided by the Samish Indian Nation.
The Samish Indian Nation team shuttled the mats by boat. Photo by Charles Biles.

The restoration site is along the Samish River in an area recently confirmed as inhabited by the state-endangered Oregon spotted frog. Employees and volunteers from the Samish Indian Nation boated the mats to the site. They unrolled each mat and staked it in place. With the help of our prison-grown mats, they hope to improve the site’s native plant communities and create a better home for Oregon spotted frogs.

They placed the mats in a habitat recovery area. Photo provided by the Samish Indian Nation.
The mats were successfully put into place by these hard workers. Photo provided by the Samish Indian Nation
Oregon spotted frog seen checking out the newly placed mats. Photo provided by the Samish Indian Nation.

See Go Skagit’s news coverage of the project here.

Fly Like An Eagle to the Sea, No More I See

By Daniel Keen, writer incarcerated at Stafford Creek Corrections Center, written for submission to Humans and Nature‘s Minding Nature

Photo of Mt Tahoma from flickr.
Photo of an adolescent bald eagle from flickr.

From the day as a chick,
I have always been free.
From glacier cap mountains,
To sea to coral sea.

Brother species who play and breed below,
Across fields and up rivers Migrating they flow.
For thousand years Mother Earth grows,
For thousand years climate change is slow.

For today my chick hasn’t a tree,
Clear-cuts and mudslides left only for me.
Snow cap mountains glaciers retreat,
Dead baron seas with dried up reefs.

Polar bears, salmon, star fish, little honey bees,
Man-kind harvest only greed selfish to you and me.
In one hundred years Mother Earth slowly dies,
In one hundred years climate change super sizes.

Bald eagle preparing to fly. Photo from wikipedia.