- 01/22/2010 REFORESTING BURN CANYON - A CASE STUDY
- Narrative Description: The Burn Canyon area was a vibrant
community of trees, shrubs, forbs, and wildlife with the
ponderosa pine reigning supreme in this forest community.
That was until a lightning bolt in the early afternoon of
July 9, 2002 changed it all. By the time the fire was
officially declared out, over 30,000 acres evolved into a
charred landscape. The flames, making no distinction
between boundaries, passed through Forest Service, Bureau of
Land Management (BLM) and private lands. In all, 10,397
acres of the Norwood Ranger District, 11,445 acres of BLM,
and 6,976 acres of private lands were burned. Revegetation
activities on the Norwood District began shortly after the
fire. The Forest Service also moved forward with planning
and implementing two salvage timber sales. In the Burn
Canyon and Bucktail Salvage and Reforestation Environmental
Assessment, the Forest Service stated its intention to
“accelerate the ecological restoration of the burned
areas” by planting ponderosa pine seedlings in all of the
salvage sale units. Additionally, up to 2,116 acres of
unharvested burned Forest Service lands would be planted
with ponderosa pine seedlings. Local ponderosa pine seed,
collected prior to and in 2003, was used to grow seedlings
at Forest Service nurseries in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho and
Bessey, Nebraska. In the Black and Decker Salvage Sales,
the timber sale purchasers were required to cut and leave
dead trees which were smaller than those designated for
removal. The intention was to use these down trees to
create microsites favorable for the survival and growth of
the planted ponderosa pine seedlings. After being felled,
the trees were placed in an east-west direction. The
seedlings would then be planted on the north side of the
logs where shade and moisture prevails. Read more >>
- 10/21/2011 THS Community Service Day
- This past Tuesday Oct 18th TNCC joined up with the Telluride
High School for their annual volunteer day. Thirteen
students, from Freshmen to Juniors set to work on the
school greenhouses, the community gardens, and the
garden created by the 2011 grads. The students
enthusiastically tackled jobs including emptying the
recycled tire material that had been previously used as the
greenhouse floor and replaced it with sweet smelling juniper
wood chips. They were able to practice their construction
skills by rebuilding tables to increase storage and growing
capacity, and caulking, sealing, and insulating the
greenhouses in order to enhance their heat retaining
performance for the upcoming winter months. By the end of
the day, the greenhouses had been completely overhauled and
re- planted. Read more >>
- 11/21/2011 GREEN HOME AND BUSINESS TOURS - LOCAL EXAMPLES OF GREEN INITIATIVES
- *GREEN HOME AND BUSINESS TOURS - * Read more >>
- 07/19/2011 Mill Creek Treatment and Waste Water Treatment Plant Tour
- If you're asked where exactly your water comes from, or
where it goes.... do you know the answer? On July 13th 2011
17 people from the Telluride and surrounding areas joined
Bill Goldsworthy, Stan Kierstzyn, and TNCC for a tour of the
Mill Creek treatment facility and the Wastewater treatment
facility to find out exactly that. Read more >>
- 09/27/2011 350.org Moving Planet Day
- This past September 24th 2011 was 350.org's moving planet
day. Marketed as "A day to move beyond fossil fuels", moving
planet was a truly global event with over 2000 events in 175
different countries. Here in Telluride, some community
members gathered early Saturday morning at society turn with
pickets in hand to ride into town to stir up traffic a
little bit and share the movement with those people driving
into town that day. On the record, TNCC along with the
Wilkinson Public Library and University Centers of San
Miguel held an event at the Wilkinson Public Library for
concerned citizens looking to join the discussion about
climate change. The meeting started out with a brief
overview from the recently completed Greenhouse Gas
Inventory recently completed by TNCC in order to share with
the community exactly what the emission levels are for our
region, and how we are contributing to the current 391 ppm
of CO2 in the atmosphere. Next there was a screening of
Russel Evens' movie, previously screened at MountainFilm
2011, made by students of Montrose High School about their
350.org day initiatives. Participants were then asked to
pick one action from a list of simple actions individuals
can take in order to reduce their energy use. In total, 18
people pledged to take some action including avoiding the
use of single use products, buying unpackaged and
unprocessed foods, install better insulated window coverings
and blinds, and most importantly to engage neighbors and the
larger community. The meeting concluded with a screening of
another MountainFilm movie "Chasing Waters" made by National
Geographic photographer Peter McBride. Read more >>
- 12/09/2011 December GBR Recap - Creating Hydrogen from Plants
- Last weeks Green Business Roundtable featuring Tim Erdman,
CEO and Board Memeber of Virent Inc. discussed a new
catalytic technology that has the capacity to reform all
cellulose matter from plants into gasoline. In addition to
developing a fuel source that does not rely on the banked
fossil fuels, the technology developed by Erdman's company
is working with a major soda manufacturer to use plant
matter to make paraxylene plastics, which may replace the
way all plastics eventually are manufactured. Also, Erdman
has his eye on a new technology for solar panels that have
proven to increase their efficiency to over 50% absorption.
For more information you can visit the article posted in the
Telluride Daily
Planet[http://www.telluridenews.com/articles/2011/12/09/news/doc4ed9945c4c78f610030490.txt]. Read more >>
- 12/15/2011 Cool Use of Recycled Bottles
- Interesting use of plastic bottles: Read more >>
- 01/03/2012 EcoAction Turns 1! - Highlights From the Past Year of Efficiency
- EcoAction Turns 1! Birthday Cake Read more >>
- 01/23/2012 MLK Day Winterization Workshop
- Read more >>
- 02/01/2012 Renewable Energy for Educators
- Read more >>
- 02/07/2012 Transition Colorado and Slow Money
- Read more >>
- 02/22/2012 Saving Energy - Saving $: 12 Businesses and Non-Profits in TNCC’s 2011 MSEI program. Celebrate Success and Join the Action!
- Read more >>
- 03/12/2012 Americorps Week - March 10-18, 2012
- Read more >>
- 03/05/2012 March GBR Update - Local Businesses Saving Energy Saving Money
- This past Friday March 2nd 2012 TNCC put together a Green
Business Roundtable all about the recent completion of the
Main Street Efficiency Initiative in which 12 businesses and
non-profits participated in full energy audits or lighting
audits in which have according to estimates saved 12
businesses in both San Miguel and Ouray counties 47,000
kilowatts of electricity, 1,120 therms of natural gas, and
$27,000 in utility bill savings. Read more >>
- 04/03/2012 EcoAction Initiative Compared to San Miguel Power Partners: Two distinctly different yet compatible programs
- Read more >>