Fall 2013 Newsletter

Organic Food Shopping Survey

OMR is looking for participants for a study about Organic Food.

This study is with non-parents age 19-25 (who are not living at home with their parents).  

This 90 minute focus group is about shopping and organic food.  The group will be held in OMR's DC location on 08/14 and there is a $125 honorarium for anyone who is qualified and participates. 

If interested please call 301-441-4660 and speak to Michelle.

Volunteers Needed for Storm Drain Marker Project

Reposted from ARLnow:

by Katie Pyzyk | June 5, 2013 at 3:00 pm 

It’s that time of year when Sherlock Shad (pictured left) begins appearing more frequently in Arlington neighborhoods. But the county needs help attaching the storm drain markers bearing his likeness.

Arlington marks many of its more than 10,000 storm drains as a reminder that anything going into a drain heads directly to local streams that flow into the Potomac River. The river is the source of tap water for Arlington and much of the D.C. metro area.

Nothing should be dumped into storm drains, per Arlington County Code Section 26-5, which reads: “…it shall be unlawful for any person to discharge directly or indirectly into the storm sewer system or state waters, any substance likely, in the opinion of the County Manager, to have an adverse effect on the storm sewer system or state waters.”

Arlington partners with the neighboring jurisdictions of Fairfax County and Alexandria to all order the same style of markers. Ordering the markers in bulk helps each jurisdiction keep costs down. The costs vary each year based on how many markers need to be attached.

Arlington County Department of Environmental Services Stormwater Outreach Specialist Jen McDonnell said in addition to affixing the markers to currently unmarked drains, volunteers replace some markers that are damaged or have come loose from the pavement.

(more at ARLnow)

Leadership Through Landscape: Exploring the Power of Place and Its Influence on Public Leadership and Sustainability Policy

June 6, 2013 ~ 6:00 PM

Artisphere ~ 1101 Wilson Boulevard ~ Arlington VA 22209

Join Virginia Tech’s Metropolitan Institute (MI) and the Arlington Economic Development (AED) in welcoming back Sir Robert Harvey to Arlington, VA. Introduction from the Right Honorable Michael Moore, New Zealand Ambassador to the United States. For the past 25 years Bob Harvey (still known affectionately as Mayor Bob) has infused the diverse dimensions of sustainability throughout his work as an elected official, international peace envoy, President of the New Zealand Labour Party, businessman, and most recently Chairman of the Auckland waterfront authority. A charismatic speaker and visionary thinker, Harvey came to sustainability through his strong personal and professional bond with the amazing landscape of Auckland’s west region. As a young leader of a local surf club at Karekare Beach, Harvey’s respect and reverence for Waitakere’s rugged coastline and temperate rainforest set the foundation for one of his first political activities — advocating for national legislation that permanently protects the Waitakere Rainforest and Ranges from encroaching suburban development. For Mayor Bob, Leadership through Landscape does not end with acts of conservation and preservation, but becomes a starting point for a dialogue with nature, understanding the landscape, listening to the landscape, and learning from the landscape in ways that reflect the values of New Zealand’s indigenous Maori culture. Building on these themes, Mayor Bob will offer his insights and observations on how sustainability leaders in the US can leverage their own landscapes to support their work in making sustainable communities. MI and AED welcomes the Right Honorable Michael Moore, New Zealand Ambassador to the US, for introducing Mayor Bob; and commentators, Jay Fisette, Vice Chair, Arlington County Board and Susannah Drake, ASLA, AIA, Principal, delandstudio, New York City. The full flier is available here.  Please RSVP at http://sirrobertharveylecture.eventbrite.com/ by June 4th.

Audubon’s New Online Bird Guide Now Available

from Audubon Magazine:

By Emma Bryce
05/15/2013

 Photo by Katey Nicosia / CC BY-NC-ND 2.0

For the days when hauling around a tome for identifying birds just won’t do, Audubon comes to the rescue with its new online guide to North American birds, available for $2.99 on the iPhone, Android, iPad, NOOK or Kindle through the Audubon Birds app. One screen pretty much holds it all, displaying information about birding, conservation, even avian anatomy. The guide categorizes more than 800 species by family, common name, or general shape, allowing users to pick the most appropriate identification route.
The third display option is particularly innovative. This category directs users to the quick guide, offering the ability to search the stout, slim, long-legged, and sleek-beaked contours of many birds. It presents a gallery of shapes: There are duck-like birds (think ducks, grebes, loons, pelicans, and swans), perching birds (groups like larks, flycatchers, thrushes, and wrens), or my favorite, chicken-like marsh birds (encompassing rails, coots, jacanas, and gallinules). Others include those cut like sandpipers, birds with the arrow-like anatomy of swallows, and those that feature the same, watchful upright stance as a hawk.
The guide’s homepage also lists aspects of birding beyond identification, from the most basic—such as ‘How to Bird’—to the more technical aspects of classification as well as bird plumage and molting habits. Everything is explained in straightforward terms, making this tool usable for birders of any skill level.
There are tips for beginning birders, and guidelines for selecting the perfect set of binoculars. There’s even a section that describes “stealth”—what any birder intent on spying skittish creatures must master. For the more advanced users, one link opens up a colorful and detailed display about bird anatomy and some of the more technical aspects of this hobby.
Importantly, one section of the guide is dedicated to conservation and endangered species. It includes a list of struggling birds, the threats they face, the changes wrought by climate change, and ways that users can help.
Perhaps best of all, the new Audubon guide lets birders record and then share sightings with others on the lookout for avian beauties. That’s a win for birds and bird lovers alike.

Vital stats:
Guide: Online Guide to North American Birds
Available: National Audubon Society website, iPhone, iPad, Kindle, Android, NOOK
Cost: $2.99
What it includes: 800 bird species from 74 families

Where tree seedlings come from...

Northern Virginia Urban Forestry Quarterly Roundtable

Nuts and Bolts of Urban Forestry

Thursday, May 23, 2013   9:30 – 2PM

Arlington County Department of Parks and Natural Resources

2700 S Taylor Street, Arlington, VA 22206

This is the story of how a seed at a production nursery becomes a tree in the landscape; how the industrialization of the process has ignored the biology of the trees to the detriment of trees and the consumers; and some of the things we are doing to improve.

FREE – ($10 if you want lunch provided)  If you’ve ever wondered why the trees we plant have so many problems, this will help answer.  Great opportunity to meet other jurisdictions Tree Stewards and forestry staff.   Register on line at:
  http://treesvirginia.org/joomla/index.php?option=com_rsform&formId=23

The Best State for Eating Locally - Vermont

from Takepart.com FOOD

Vermont takes the top spot in the 2013 Locavore Index.

By Willy Blackmore

April 9, 2013

Comment

Do you shop at the farmers market or subscribe to a CSA? See where your state ranks. (Photo: Digital Vision/Getty Images)

Martin Langeveld insists that the numbers weren’t rigged: Vermont is now officially, quantitatively the number one state in the union for local foods two years running, according to Strolling of the Heifers’ 2013 Locavore Index.

The annual ranking, which the Vermont-based nonprofit started compiling last year, looks at the number of farmers markets, food hubs and CSAprograms per capita in all 50 states and the District of Columbia. “We certainly didn’t set out to put a spotlight on Vermont,” Langeveld, the index coordinator, told me in a phone interview. “The real reason is to sort of let everyone compare” the local food systems that exist around the country, and to “provide a little incentive to get people thinking about it.”

Maine, New Hampshire, North Dakota and Iowa round out the top five in the 2013 index—an unlikely quartet, especially considering that California, which has more than 800 markets, the most in the country, is number 42 on the list. Who else is at the bottom? Texas came in dead last, with Nevada, Arizona, Louisiana and Florida ranked 47 through 50, respectively.  

“A state that is significantly urbanized will be at somewhat of a disadvantage,” Langerveld offered as both an explanation and admission of the rural-state bias that comes from considering local food systems in relationship to population. But the very challenge of quantifying the presence and significance of the non-globalized food trade has inadvertently become part of the point of the index.

“At this point, for all of the hoopla that local foods have gotten over the past ten years or so, the measuring it is very, very difficult. There just aren’t good, consistent metrics that are comparable across all 50 states,” Langerveld says.

The USDA keeps track of farmers markets and food hubs, but Heifers had to turn to the website Local Harvest for CSA numbers. In 2014 there will be a trove of new data to work into the ranking calculations, thanks to the upcoming release of the 2012 Census of Agriculture—but that survey is only conducted every five years.

But just as the rank of a given state might help provoke a conversation about the success or failures of nurturing the small farms and food production in, say, Connecticut (29th in the country), talking about the list on the micro level eventually shifts into a macro discussion—about local food nationwide and local food as an idea alike.

“One other thing that’s a problem in doing solid metrics is what’s the definition: what is local food?” wonders Langerveld. Data sources and methodologies and weigthed scores are disclosed, but Heifers doesn’t put forth it’s own definition of “local.”—that’s something to hash out while arguing over who (like California) got screwed.