2 important influences on environmental thinking

John Gardner, founder of Common Cause, Self Renewal his most important book
Rene Dubois: The Wooing of the Earth

Challenge is to find compatibility between humans and other species
Here on the east end: environment = economy and vice versa

Dr. Lee Koppelman, regional planner, argues that limitations on LI development will be dictated by WATER: known resources will support 3.3 million-now we're at 2.8 (Nassau and Suffolk)

New York State Assemblyman Fred Thiele

EAST END: "Peconic County"

Nature Conservancy calls it one of the last great places
Peconics Estuary part of National Estuary Program
Suffolk County - first in agricultural value in NYS
Pine Barrens-unique habitat
Best beaches: Easthampton, Westhampton
Historic villages-quiet communities where people know each other

Efforts already made to protect resources

Purchase of development rights to preserve farmland and open space-
more than any other county
Pine Barrens Preservation Act
Participation in National Estuary Program
Very involved, educated community helps to accomplish these goals

Are we doing enough?

Highest rate of breast cancer is on the east end;
(Cancer cluster mapping is one of his priorities.)
Pesticide contamination in drinking water; gasoline spills, etc;
Traffic diverted through back roads and communities disrupted;
Lands lost to development include Native American lands, other important open spaces.
Lack of affordable housing-we've built more housing in last 20 years but not affordable.
Families that have been here for generations-children can't afford to stay
Deterioration in quality of life

We need to set agenda for next 20-25 years to change status quo to prevent losing what's special about east end. Our action plan should including:

1. South Fork needs a drinking water protection plan-promised years ago.
2. Community Preservation Plan-passed 1998, enacted in 1999 Has raised $80 million so far. Extend real estate tax to buy more land for preservation. State Environmental Facilities Fund-lower interest rates for land purchase. Some zero interest loans for land preservation.
3. Make up for last year-no money available for protection after 9/11.
4. LI Farm Bureau: asking for federal funds to preserve farmland.
5. Traffic and transportation: think about alternative forms. LIRR should provide local East End shuttle trains. Local bus system should provide N-S service. Planning for cars and roads cannot solve the problem-need public transit here.
6. Smart Growth-focus future development in areas where infrastructure already exists (roads, water mains, etc.) Avoid sprawling into pristine areas.
7. Proposal for affordable housing on the east end. Transfer of development rights: use this money for housing. People need predictable plan for Smart Growth that they can see the benefits of. Educate public about creative land use tools.

Panel discussion: "Busting the status quo"
Rob Turner, moderator.

Environmental community of east end: includes building community, fishing community, everyone who impacts the environment; need to work collaboratively. Get away from "us against them"; all share desire for improved quality of life.

North and South Fork-separate in many ways. What can we do better to coordinate?

Peconic Estuary Program unites them-development strategies for both N and S
Agricultural economies differ between N and S. Transportation issues need integration between N and S-now competing for attention of legislators and money-should be regional plan for east end. Can act in spirit as "Peconic County" even without official designation. Nature doesn't distinguish among the townships-water management, fisheries, eelgrass, etc, must be managed collectively by 5 east end towns. Then move on to unite with Suffolk County and eventually the State of NY

How to build that bridge between the east end towns?

Townships have to keep their independence but must have unified body. Bring together community leaders in an Institute.

Energy needs: we use a huge amount of electricity, but we don't generate it here. Local small diesel plants supply peak summer needs, but these are dirty, and old. Rest supplied up-island-need to transition to generating our own. Convert to solar and wind-clean and renewable energy sources LIPA--$6,000 cash rebate per kilowatt of installed solar panels until July 31, 2002

Acute failure of our community: we are not thinking down the road-sustainable future. How can we get the average citizen to make the connection between traffic problems and land use decisions? Each government agency focuses on ONE thing-no integration across agencies and levels of government. Everyone running in their own track-weak interagency communication

What about the culture of the people?

The agencies respond to that. Healthy conflict between politicians and people can be a way to get things done
BNL: sewage treatment plant fixed, Superfund site fixed. At first agencies tend to deny that a problem exists. To get to the truth, invite the public to participate-find out who's in charge. Changing public behavior requires education and outreach efforts. People don't always act rationally, don't have time to get informed on all issues. Another arena to influence behavior: laws, zoning codes, ordinances, etc. Minimum energy efficiency standards set by govt. These should be changed to promote energy efficiency. Could use a variety of tools more effectively-changing building codes, etc.

What is the failure of all past master plans-never implemented?

Southampton town plan took 7 years, $600 million? First problem-public energy spent on creating document;
Nothing left to spend on enforcement and follow up. Need to pick out items from these plans and force government action on them. Local zoning boards easily undo all these decisions. Politicians don't have to do anything if plan is signed. Everyone responds to crises-rather than proactive action.

Comprehensive planning is outdated. Now we expect immediate action. We have information overload-we measure ppm, etc. More flexible program required-work within existing organizations rather than creating new ones that take time to staff, finance, publicize.

Another problem is that much of time and money is taken up with litigation. Wealthy homeowners impose own agenda on east end this way.

Remarks by Prof. Scott Carlin
"Southampton Graduate Campus as a Nexus for Environmental Research and Education"

Through Southampton Graduate Campus' Greenprint programs, we have been working to strengthen the College's commitment to environmental reforms.
New Wind Turbine on Campus.
Expanding Recycling Programs.
Hiring an Energy Conservation and Recycling Coordinator (Fall 2002)
Planning a new Solar Aquatic Sewage Treatment Facility/Environmental Center
Reviewing campus curricula.
Expanding Partnerships with Suffolk County organizations

Building a Commitment to "Community-Based Research"
Principles of Community-Based Research (from: depts.washington.edu/sphcm/research/community.htm):

1. Community partners should be involved at the earliest stages of the project.
2. Community partners should have real influence on project direction.
3. Research processes and outcomes should benefit the community.
4. Community members should be part of the analysis and interpretation of data and should have input into how the results are distributed.
5. Productive partnerships between researchers and community members should be encouraged to last beyond the life of the project.
6. Community members should be empowered to initiate their own research projects, which address needs they identify themselves.

Plans for a "Center for Environmental Conservation." Our current goals for the building are to:

1. Provide a model for how technology and people can work together to enhance the natural environment and promote stronger, more vibrant communities.
2. Be energy self-sufficient.
3. Be rated as a LEED platinum building, thus ensuring the environmental quality of the building.
4. Promote regional environmental sustainability. The Center will employ innovative wastewater management and aggressive recycling programs to minimize its impact on the natural environment.
5. Emphasize collaborative and experiential learning modes in the study of how humans can live in an environmentally sustainable way.
6. Develop a regional understanding and appreciation of the East End as a dynamic, evolving environment.
7. Emphasize multicultural perspectives on living in the environment.

More information about the Center for Environmental Conservation can be found on the Southamton College web page: http://www.southampton.liu.edu/marine_enviro

What we'd like to do today is have you split up into "break-out" groups focused on the following topics:

1. Energy conservation and generation.
2. Environmental education and outreach.
3. Environmental monitoring and analysis.
4. Land and water planning and management.
5. Planning for EcoTourism

In each group you we'd like you to discuss the following set of issues and questions:

Discussion Questions for Breakout Groups

1. Generate a prioritized list of needs in this topic area that can be addressed via collaborative initiatives.
2. ...

   a) How can the college and students participate in achieving these goals?
   b) Develop a list of specific projects that students could participate in.

3. How can the proposed Center For Environmental Conservation facilitate achieving these goals?
4. What coursework and skills are you looking for in a student employee/assistant?
5. Better name for the new building? Any and all ideas?

Energy Group

Existing Collaborative Projects

• Solar Pioneer Project/LI Solar Roofs
• LIPA offshore Wind Project
• Sustainable Energy Alliance of LI
• Develop LI Energy Plan
• LIPA developing a LI Energy Plan too.
• EH Town Energy Advisory Committee
• None in Southampton!
• LIPA, Farm Bureau - Wind Turbines

LIPA Programs

• EnergyEfficiency Program
• Work with distributors, retailers, manufacturers
• Energy Star Programs
• PV Rebate Program
• Offshore Wind Proposal
• LI Energy Plan

College Initiatives

• On-going database of the wind turbine; develop curricula for schools related to our turbine
• Small store outreach - energy efficiency
• Work with Hampton estates on the need for them to participate in energy efficiency programs
• LIPA Edge (central air/pool pump regulation via internet)
• Work with local pool contractors
• (LIPA does that already)
• Building Envelop
• Heating systems in buildings
• Overall Energy budgets in buildings
• Natural Gas
• Solar Thermal
• Oil Heat
• These issues aren't being addressed well b/c not part of LIPA electric focus

Wind Turbines Offshore

• College Marine Program
• Marine Impacts
• Geo-crustal studies
• Outreach to commercial fishing industry
• Outreach to shoreline homeowners and businesses re: visual preferences
• Arrange meeting with Marine coordinator of LIPA

CEC - Southampton

• Meet with LIPA Technical Advisor for free consultations on energy efficiency
• DOE - Zero Energy Program - promote net energy production (building can produce more than it consumes)
• DOE Software - model energy consumption of the bldg
• Make building adaptable (movable walls) to reduce premature demolition of bldg
• Make Bldg a regional center: LI Center for Sustainable Energy/LI Sustainable Energy Association
• Use PV for compost on campus
• Promote PV for gardens/agriculture on East End
• Education on Energy Star products esp. pay back calculations

Environmental Education and Outreach

Poetry as an environmental force - Read a poem at a public hearing!

Cultural values that we hold are not sustainable. How do we deal with hypocrisy: environmentalists driving SUVs, etc. We are nature-we're here to preserve ourselves

All education should be environmental. How do we foster EO Wilson's biophilia? How to get schools to embrace this throughout the curriculum?

Service learning is a good method for embracing Env. Ed.- community service to local environment. Children born at one with nature-our culture divorces them from this. We need to nuture this instinct in children, rather than re-teaching it later. We are taught to purchase and consume rather than conserve and protect. Expand pilot projects for service learning:

Teach kids the value of ecosystems by taking them there for a tour of beach debris, endangered species (plovers, etc.). Each school should have its own rack of seed clams-5th graders. Competition among schools for which can grow the biggest clams.

Have students do Demonstration at organic farms and/or teach about caring for residential environments. Get into school systems and establish curriculum. Work with farms to build up the physical plant.

College can host concerts, conferences, act as a funnel for money to fund education programs-grant writing agent to assist little organizations.

Peconic estuary Program-sample 27 stations every other week. Huge data base. Need interns for this fall for data analysis.

Students at the college-outreach to high schools and middle schools. As part of course work, or community service.

Help young children to connect with nature. Create situations where less fortunate kids can have that experience-pair up with Southampton students to interest them in nature-working together outside on a project.

Environmental Monitoring

Needs/Ideas

• More effective educational outreach
• Student Assistants
• Better coordinated sampling (US Fish and Wildlife, NYDEC, EPA, USGS, Towns, Suffolk County Water Resources, Suffolk
• County Water Authority, Southampton Graduate Campus, SUNY Stony Brook), identify overlap
• Sharing, publishing data

College Meta Monitoring Website to link to and publicize various data sets on web

• Students digitize data?
• Develop online clearinghouse with USGS
• Can then better investigate how to make monitoring programs more coordinated, efficient

Pilot projects

• Focus on shallow groundwater resources
• Focus on biotic resources

PEP has large, historic data set pulled together - What is it? Can we get it in digital format?

Student Preparation
USGS perspective - Chemistry, Chemistry, Chemistry
Also Earth sciences, math, computer literacy
Hands-on experience
Can use basic instrumentation
Willingness to do field work and get dirty.
Other skills: being handy, troubleshooting in the field - construction, electronics

Student Opportunities

• Suffolk County Dept. of Health, Water Resources - more Co-ops than internships. Could use field technicians. Don't have anything in place at this time, but could happen.
• US Geological Survey - Could potentially use both interns and co-ops. Already have a co-op deal set.
• Peconic Estuary Program - Want to set up 2 internships for the fall. Laura Bavarro of PEP is contact. Has discussed with R. Turner and Pam Jackson.
• Opportunities with Towns (Southampton, East Hampton, etc.), BNL, Plum Island, etc.
  Land and Water Planning/Management

Goal of session: Determine needs and objectives of land and water planning and management and how Southampton Graduate Campus can contribute to these objectives.

Three overall needs defined

Need for current research on Planning and Zoning
Networking
Data Archives

Research needed

Document on South Fork zoning town codes look at and pull out environmental friendly codes.

Archive and networking should be set up on website

Website with common access to
History of sustainable development.
Center for environmental conservation
Co-op and internship availability for students
Web site development

Southampton could initiate consortium of Colleges and Universities.
Focuses on problems on Long Island
West end legislatures work with east end in order to integrate issues.
Coordinated access to information.
Each college assumes responsibility for data compilation.
Electronic dialog could be ongoing.

Data is needed to impress legislature. Input from various integrated community information.

Issues

Pine Barrens data on lawsuits, Central Suffolk clearinghouse, when a conservation easement is filed it should go onto map. Keep track of buying credits.

Policy and planning knowledge is currently disseminated among many levels of government. The county level alone had 10 agencies, such as the DEC that have information on water issues.

Objective

Track the decision-making process. Brookhaven and other town board meetings present significant information that should be catalogued. Students could attend and record these meetings.

Determine the cumulative impact on zoning from town board meeting.

Problem: For university researchers, local environmental issues do not count toward tenure.

County has an underutilized laboratory. They produce 3 annual reports on pesticides. There is a lot of data there that could be published. (It is not a trivial matter to compile data and identify someone to properly complete that task.)

Envision a briefing book on environmental issues for candidates. The political candidates are more receptive to learning the environmental issues than are the elected officials.

The term "open space" should be replaced by "managed landscape" so that we can define the role of this space within our community with terms that more accurately reflect our relationship to this land. The need is to redefine the vernacular we use so that duties and responsibilities of society are defined. Present uses should be defined in terminology. Current uses for "open space" include for example, areas where invasive visitations are limited or areas where there are trail systems, conservatories, horse farms, and vineyards. Developing is based on these definitions. College would focus on defining these developed uses, multi vs. single zone. Seminal role for students and college is to effect change with vocabulary change, shift public understanding.

Waste treatment is significant control on development. Planning and zoning, especially on the North fork, depends on waste management.

Center for conservation would be central hub for information, centerpiece for this kind of broadcast. College campus is a good forum for this centralization and dissemination of information.

A skill students should develop to be effective contributors to land and water planning & management is the ability to read and process information correctly. Students should also have motivation to contribute to planning and management of resources.
Eco-Tourism

1. Tourism Industry on LI is $5.5 billion, one of the largest industries on Long Island.
2. Identify the ecotourism - this is pretty much done.
   a. Have identified 16 catagories.
   i. examples - biking, whales, seals, flowers wineries butterflies, birdwatching.
   
   
3. Where is each activity and what it is
   a. need more research about where to do these areas.
   
   
4. Create a booklet that is organized by regions
   a. Students could help gather information on these topics as a research project.
   
   
5. Enhance the Website by adding ecotourism information Funonli.com
   a. Web site currently gets 600,000 hits per month
   b. Biggest areas of hits include
   i. What to do
   ii. Calendar of events
   iii. Where to stay
   c. Improve the usage of the website by the LI area
   d. Design web pages for ecotoursim information.
   
   
6. Some completed research projects include
   a. What's in the south shore estuary,
   b. Glacial effects on the south shore line of the north fork.
   
   
7. Hold a half-day meeting out here.
   a. Presentation of things to do and what's coming up in the next season
   b. People will want to come see what you are talking about.
   
   
8. We could be on the committee and input into the committee.
   
   
9. Educate people in ecotourism.
   
   
10. Can we tailor this to the "shoulder" seasons?
    
    
11. Travelguide has a 76% conversion rate.
    
    
12. What are the magazines that these people read.
    
    
13. What are the right words to attract these people.
    
    
14. Studying natural history - nomenclature that would work for this - is wildlife watching include plants?
    
    
15. Use the Center as an information source.
    
    
16. Help build the network.
    
    
17. Get 60 phone calls and 60 to 70 emails a day.
    
    
18. Are cognizant of the impact some trip are limited, for example 20 people per hike.
    
    
19. Birds recorded on LI are1/2 of all birds recorded in the lower 48 states.
    
    
20. The excitement the links to other places link to literature and history.
    
    
21. A center for LI ecotourism.
    
    
22. Internships at the bureau
    a. Usually they are project based.
    
    
23. Does do a research project with other university's courses where the students go do the research.

Green Building Principles: Student Presentations
Economics of Green Building Course
Liz Granitz and her students
Non-renewable resources are out of date
We have proven technology for renewable energy-need to implement more
Critical elements for building design: proposal to the board

Solar energy: renewable resource
Daylighting-using natural sunlight to supplement or replace artificial
Low energy use saves money in the long run
Ventilation-use prevailing breezes when designing building
Use sun to heat, shade trees in front of windows-drop leaves in winter
Windows in higher places-get light into deep recesses
Reflect off light shelves

Photovoltaics-solar panels-in use all over Europe and US-proven efficiency
Protect environment at no inconvenience to daily life
Daylighting in schools-improved performance and attendance
Construction costs 15% higher but pays for itself within 3-5 years
Health benefits of using fresh air over closed system

Financial incentives: rebates, tax credits, grants for implementing renewable energy

Energy Efficient lighting options: for after sunset.
Compact fluorescent light bulbs-much less heat generated
Last much longer. (13 watt bulb = 75 watt incandescent)
Financial savings per fixture per year: over $200
Photocells-self-adjusting to incoming light levels
Ultrasonic sensor-incorporates infrared and ultrasonic
Adjust to movements-where light needed
Dimming ballast-dim fluorescent bulbs down to 10% of max,
Increase life of bulbs
Grafik eye-one touch control over entire building plus individual control
for presentations in separate parts of each room
Integrates with security systems-emergency exit lighting, etc.
Motorized window shades provide additional savings
Energy star certified machines-more efficient than older ones

Flooring products: 3 considered: rubber, concrete and linoleum
Rubber and linoleum last 30+ years
Cost/benefit analysis: Rubber is cheapest; concrete is about $100,000 more
Maintenance is low for both rubber and concrete, higher for linoleum
Rubber wins!

Straw bale building: one example of sustainable building
Energy conserving, aesthetically pleasing, flexible
Insulation in walls that is environmentally friendly
No size limits-Large commercial buildings, chapels, etc.
Low cost materials, do-it-yourself, environmental benefits
Concerns: fire, moisture, strength?
Very compact, no diff from wood
Sealed compartments prevent rot, rats, etc.
Suitable to any climate-good insulation in cold climate
Building as a community-group effort, unskilled workers can do much of it
Versatile design-molded to fit different shapes
Non-toxic material, energy efficient (10x insulation capacity of brick or cement)
Inexpensive to manufacture, saves up to 75% of heating/cooling costs
Insurance incentives for straw-bale construction
Southampton students working on this in Australia-propose for new building
Tool for education and center for the community