My policy on transportation is normally along the lines of, ‘Why zoom on by when you can take it slow and appreciate the scenery,’ but this morning I caved in to a sense that I really ought to try biking somewhere, since it’s what people do around here.  Culture of biking –> positive peer pressure.

Anyway, I guess the TART trails all over town (and connecting counties!!  Now that my confidence has improved a bit, taking the trail all the way to Acme on one end and Suttons Bay on the other is next on my TC bucket list), coupled with all those “bike-friendly community” signs downtown, must have lured me into a false complacency.  Turns out that while Traverse City itself may be wonderfully bike friendly, that civic attitude has a southern boundary right around city limits.  Misinterpreting a map (story of my life) and thinking that the trail along Boardman Lake would connect to the string of trails leading down to the Boardman River Nature Center, I happily and obliviously pedaled south.

Boardman Lake, facing south. My trail-that-didn't-connect-or-even-go-all-the-way-around-the-lake-even-though-I-thought-it-might is on the left bank

And then became confused.  Right at the spot where it would make logical sense for the two trails to combine, if ever they planned to, I found… South Airport Road.  Helpfully marked by a stop sign and a more sinister “two-way divided highway” sign.  After circling around for a few minutes in futile search of an underpass, overpass, trailhead, anything that might suggest that some planner somewhere had taken pity on the pedestrians/nervous newbie bikers hoping to cross the road, I said to hell with it and went ahead.  I proceeded to discover that there are many areas on the other side of S. Airport that, while they appear promising, do not in fact lead you to the aforementioned Nature Center trail.

I gave up and took Cass into downtown.  Amazing how much less intimidating the wonderful one-way(!) TC streets were after that little expedition, though.  Guess I should just bike more often.

1: Thursday’s energy efficiency leadership summit, my first ‘real event’ as an intern.  After working for over a week on registration lists, Facebook publicity, confirmation calls and cold calls, agenda layout, and nametags… I was ready for the thing to happen, already.   Honestly, I was prepared to go, hear ‘inspirational’ speeches about energy efficiency that would be unlikely to elicit any real response from the business and utilities folks in the audience (a considerable turnout), and in the end serve mostly as publicity for our work, possibly including the report we were presenting on the economic benefits of energy efficiency – a really reasonable, convincing (in my opinion) demonstration of why, besides all the other well-documented environmental reasons, it makes good economic sense to invest in efficiency.

Fortunately, I was pretty far off the mark.  Peter Garforth, the keynote speaker (who had been billed as ‘inspirational’, whence much of my concern), gave an amazing presentation that was totally on-target for his audience.  He was deliberately, explicitly politically neutral: he even pointed out at one point, when starting to throw down the numbers, that using cities’ carbon emissions to represent energy efficiency had absolutely nothing to do with environmental concerns over greenhouse gases – a thought that was probably occurring to many skeptics in the room – and everything to do with carbon emissions as one of the best reliable, proven metrics for energy use.  He also discussed what’s known as the ‘loading order’ for reducing energy consumption: improve efficiency first, always, since energy not used is the cleanest possible; heat recovery second (more on that later), since it’s energy already there and going to waste; renewable energy – one of the biggest political messes of the lot – comes third, if and when it makes sense; lastly, working on energy distribution.  It’s funny, because the way I’ve always thought of energy is that the big, important step is switching over to renewable and improving efficiency is just a nice intermediate measure.  Maybe that’s thanks to all the buzz about renewable sources (and of course, eventually we’ll need 100% ‘sustainable’ sources of energy, no matter how much we use or where it’s coming from) – they tend to be at the forefront of discussion and public awareness.  Really, though, it makes a lot of sense to aim for reducing energy use asap… especially since it’s (probably) the easier to implement in contrast to the political firestorm that is windmills, for example.  Not that we should give up on windmills; but as Garforth put it (approximately), “Don’t put a windmill on an inefficient house.  Make the house more efficient first, then if it makes sense, throw the windmill on.”  And where we can, optimally, reduce generation concurrently with switching to alternative sources

The take-home message of the day was that it’s going to cost more not to increase our energy efficiency than to take the plunge and do it (‘our’ meaning communities, businesses, countries, individuals… humanity, basically; although some cities and countries are obviously further ahead than others.  Side note: got even more excited about next semester after learning that Copenhagen is the global benchmark city for energy efficiency – measured in carbon emissions per capita – in large part due to building efficiency.  Danish sustainable design studies, what what).  ‘Energy’, importantly, means not just ‘electricity’ but also heat, oil, natural gas, you name it.  Eating lunch after the summit, I got to hear further discussion about how much more efficient electricity generation would be if all the wasted heat (about 70% of all energy is wasted at the power plant in the production of electricity!!!) were captured and used as the heat source for nearby cities and communities.

We’ve gotten SO MUCH positive feedback about the summit and about Mr. Garforth’s presentation, from just about every area interest represented at the event, which really makes it feel worthwhile.  My role in organizing was fairly small, comparatively, but it’s nice to think that maybe I helped nab one or two of the companies and elected representatives with my little bit of outreach!  (Still getting into the whole confidence in cold-calling thing – not my favorite activity, and it’s going to be a very slow work in progress, haha…)

Check out our (MLUI’s) write-up of the event and Peter Garforth’s slides:

mlui.org/blogs/?p=3042

2: Yesterday, my first farm Friday – I spent the morning and part of the afternoon lending a hand at Birch Point Farm in Leelanau County.  I met the dog, cats, chickens (and six Muscovy ducks, who hyperventilate rather than quack, not actually ducks but more closely related to geese), and the interns’ goats; helped harvest baby salad, lettuce, dill, green garlic, and miscellaneous ‘braising greens’; and pulled out and re-prepped what had been a spinach bed.  The farm is certified organic, and just about everything is done by hand – I left while the two interns there were setting up irrigation tape, which involved punching holes manually into the plastic tubes.  Fridays from here on out will be a whole different world of work, that’s for sure!!

Before taking off, Michelle (the owner) loaded me with some of the lettuce and garlic we’d harvested, plus a bunch of rhubarb and some garlic scapes.  I discovered garlic scapes two weeks ago at the farmer’s market, where they served as hair ornaments as well as produce (I now know a lady who works at SEEDS, another area nonprofit, who wears them as crazy, curly earrings).  If I can convince my roommates to another house barbeque sometime soon, I’ll throw them on the grill and see what happens…

3: This morning.  Paid in rhubarb = I have rhubarb = strawberry rhubarb pie.  First and only rhubarb lesson from my childhood.  If there were ever other ways to employ rhubarb, they must not have been important (really, how can you improve on pie?)  Grabbed some local strawberries (seasonal fruits, what’s up with that??? Turns out they’re delicious.  Things I never learned at the supermarket, #117) and the family cookbook and am currently waiting for the thing to finish baking.  After that, it’s probably a beach day!  I have been shamefully few times to the lake thus far.  Fixing that.

Here’s a picture of my first local food masterpiece!  (Ignore the cookies, my roommate’s.)  Now I feel like a cooking blogger… but hey, food & farming intern, right?  Isn’t it my job to plug the good stuff??

Mary (the thriving communities intern at MLUI), Branden (the intern at one of our partner organizations SEEDS), and I loaded into a gold minivan, threw our sleeping bags on top of the EzUp Tent and headed up to Bliss, MI.  Passing miles of hay fields, cherry orchards, and small towns we turned right, left, then left again and finally found ourselves in Bliss. The aptly name middle-of-no-where town is home to Bliss Fest – a folk music festival. But the remote location didn’t stop the approximately 6-8 thousand people from making the trek for a little weekend of Bliss, “camping,” and awesome music.

2011 Bliss Fest Poster

We made our way to the Non-Profit section and set up shop; arriving Saturday (rather than Friday) meant we were less than 50 feet away from the main stage, arguably one of the best seats in the “house”. The music was playing, vendors were selling everything from clothing and jewelry to Pot Heads (statues of people with flower pots as heads), and people were dancing. We were ready to talk about MLUI and Bioneers (a national conference about environmental issues and social justice) to anyone who was interested.

And they were!

People signed up for more information, talked to us about work they were doing, were enthusiastic about our work, and interrogated us about energy policy. We were ready to listen and talk to anyone who found themselves under our new tent.

Learning what people in the area were thinking about energy in their state was great! And so was the music. Though talking land use for an entire weekend was fun – so was packing up the booklets and brochures and heading out into the fest.

We camped Saturday night with Mary’s family, explored the Christmas light lit woods, listened to over a dozen bands, and experienced all three stages.  When we packed up our stuff late Sunday Mary’s dad drove and the three of us fell asleep, blissful and exhausted from a great Northern MI weekend.

I mentioned my first reporting project, but there is a whole OTHER side of energy and efficiency I get to think about.

Part of the UpNorth Energy Saver Interface

I am working of completing an “UpNorth Energy Saver Guide” – an online data base for residents in a 9 county region in North West (lower) MI. The guide will function as a “one-stop shop” for energy efficiency and will point people to 1) advice about how to easily be more energy efficient  2) existing online data bases about the subsidies and tax breaks available 3) contractors and retailers in the area who can help make a home (or business) more energy efficient.

Having this be “my project” means making hundreds of phone calls, standardizing data, and working with a 10 book excel spread sheet, each book with “a – v” columns. Basically, its an exercise in being organized, talking to people on the phone, and data collection. But, the result will be pretty helpful I think. Then again, maybe I’m biased.

MLUI, the Michigan Land Use Institute, was founded in 1995 by Keith Schneider (a Haverford alumni!), and has grown from 3 employees to around 16.  There are three main areas where we work: Food and Farming, Thriving Communities, and Energy and Environment.  I am working in “Energy and Environment” but hopefully will be able to write about the fascinating things the others are doing as well.

Right now the foci of “Energy and Environment” are promoting energy efficiency, working to encourage smart renewable energy plans for the state, fighting the Michigan “coal rush,” and generally being tuned into energy (and environment) policies and programs.

So what does this mean for me?

Well, it meant learning A LOT more about MI than ever before. Trying to navigate my way through the policies of a state I had never been to before July took some work – but I have been wrapping my head around it with the help of Jim and Brian (my bosses).

MI is in a unique place in terms of energy. The previous governor (Jennifer Granholm) really promoted expanding renewable energy and bringing more of it to the state. But unlike states where that might JUST mean encouraging installing wind and solar – in MI this means manufacturing and designing it.  Having been hit hard by the recession and the decline in the automotive industry, MI had a lot of un-used potential. There is a great capacity for R&D, it is the largest producer of engineering degrees per capita than any other state, and there is a “heritage of production” here. AND it’s a swing state.

Many people, including the former governor, see this huge capacity as a reason to emphasize the renewable energy industry in the state: a chance to diversify the economy, create jobs, and help propel MI to the future.

Others are skeptical about putting too much emphasis on renewables and think that “forcing” the market toward “green” industries is not sustainable or helpful. The new governor, Governor Snyder, has reduced the corporate tax for ALL industries, and has eliminated many of the incentives and programs set up by Granholm. He has only been in office for 6 months, but his failure to show sincere interest in the renewable energy and related industry is a cause for concern amongst many.

And that’s where I find project number one. I have been working on trying to better understand the information available about Snyder’s reorganization of the government and about the programs created by Granholm.  It is still unclear whether or not Snyder’s “economic gardening” approach will attract the same volume of renewable companies to the state and what this will mean for MI in the future. Right now I am trying to see what the actual businesses – the ones impacted by the changing tax rate and loss of funding for certain programs – think about the shifts.  Within the next little while the research and interviews will turn into advocacy articles talking about the innovative, exciting work already being done by MI based renewable energy companies AND about the lessened focus on renewable energy in the new administration. I have never been a “journalist” before, let alone written advocacy articles – so this process has been delightfully NEW for me.

Check out our website:  www.mlui.org/

I had never given much thought to our national “cherry capital” but that’s because I had never had the opportunity to spend time in Traverse City Michigan. You don’t have to be here long to realize that Traverse City is just that, the cherry capital of the country and, therefore, host to the National Cherry Festival. If you didn’t notice from the Google searches, the cherry souvenirs in all the gift shops, or the street banners on every street light, you would certainly have to notice now. Now that the festival has officially begun.

There is everything: cherry socks, cherry peanut butter, cherry spreads, cherry shirts, cherry jam, cherry aprons, cherry ice cream, cherry pie, even cherry underwear, if you can imagine it, probably you can find it here with a cherry on it. But what is surprisingly difficult to find are actual Michigan cherries. Or at least that is what I hear.

Apparently, cherry festival was once later during the cherry harvests, but was moved years ago to take advantage of the fourth of July tourism.  And it worked. Today the streets were packed, the beaches were more crowded than I have seen in a month, and Saturday Farmers Market was relocated to make way for the largest collection of fair rides I have ever seen. (Yes, there are TWO Ferris Wheels)

So after I made my way through the neon lights and over to the two stages, vender area, and beaches, I had gotten over my initial surprise about eating potentially WA grown cherries in an area of MI so focused on local food. I bought myself a cup of cherries and happily weaved my way through the sweaty crowds. I am sure there will be more festival related adventures in the next week, but taking my first handful of cherries for the summer, was certainly a good way to start.