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ALSO
IN THIS ISSUE Championship Turf Tender Sounds of Success New Home in Urban Village In the Spirit of the Season Pace Yourself Fill 'er Up With Fries Chancellor's Column Development News Factoids Newsmakers Accomplishments by faculty and staff… |
COVER STORY Green Cuisine The
San Diego Zoo and the San Diego Community College District are in a partnership
defying a long-standing, posted rule, with––apologies to the
late Henny Youngman––a new slogan: Feed the animals, please. The
college district’s tree crew and the horticultural department at
the world-famous zoo have teamed up in an everybody-wins endeavor. For
several months, the district tree crew has been donating excess materials
cleared on college grounds to the zoo. Those materials are used for animal
food, also called “browse,” and perches, or animal furniture.
Branches once destined for overcrowded green waste landfills are now available
for browsing by some of the most exotic creatures in the world. The
arrangement began when Kim Stillson, a grounds crew leader responsible
for district tree trimming, completed her studies at Cuyamaca College
in Simpson’s arboriculture program. Stillson, who had already been
thinking of ways trimmed trees at the district’s colleges could be
put to better use, proposed sending someof the college’s excess greenery
to the zoo. The zoo was happy to accept the offer. “Dan
and I started talking about browse and realized the colleges in the district
had materials the zoo could use,” Stillson said. “We took a
tour of four college campuses to see what was available. We discovered
a lot of ficus, acacia and eucalyptus, just the kind of materials the
zoo was looking for.” The
informal program has been so successful that both parties look forward
to a long-term, formal arrangement. The zoo is preparing a list of appropriate
plant material for browse that may be planted in selected areas throughout
the district. This
material would promote enhanced aesthetics at district locations, while
providing needed browse and perch material for the zoo. “When
we have to take down a tree, that’s something sad,” Stillson
said. “But when we can use that tree for beneficial purposes, such
as donation to the zoo, that changes the entire perspective. Now at least
it’s going to a good cause.” There
are more than 4,000 trees on the district’s campuses, and the fact
is, Stillson said, those trees can overgrow and cause hazards, or they
can become infested by insects and must be removed. “For
every tree we cut down, though, another is planted in its place,”
Stillson said. “We want to make sure people know we are tree huggers,
not tree killers.” When
greenery was recently removed along 12th Avenue at City College, making
way for the new Educational Technology Center, there was concern among
students that nature had been paved over for progress. Truth is, nature
is indeed the victim of progress, but these particular pieces of nature
were put to good use. The tree limbs went to the zoo for perches, the
branches for browse, tree trunks for firewood and other scraps went toward
the district’s ambitious and effective mulch program. “The
nice thing about working with City College is that it’s close by,”
the zoo’s Simpson said. “Over time, we’re looking to schedule
pickups at optimum harvest periods. If the program works, we’re hoping
it will encourage other corporate entities in San Diego to also donate
some of their greenery to the zoo.” Pending
the start of a formal agreement, the zoo and district personnel will eventually
begin harvesting selected trees at several of the district’s colleges. “This
is the latest aspect of a long-time tradition involving the zoo and the
city,” Simpson explained. “There was a Victory Gardens in Mission
Valley during World War II that also provided materials. We’ve always
enjoyed good relationships with our civic partners.” Meanwhile,
Stillson and the tree crew are always looking at new ways to protect the
environment at the colleges, while dealing with the necessity of change
and expansion. The mulch program, advanced water conservation and other
programs have served as environmental tools of the trade. Stillson says
she would like to implement a computer software program that would monitor
the tree maintenance,removal and growth at the colleges. She is also exploring
a milling program for tree trunks. Stillson
recently became a certified arborist. “It gave me a new perspective,
seeing the tree while being inside the tree, and surveying the grounds
from that viewpoint,” Stillson said. “I’m
excited about the future of our grounds, and the partnership with the
zoo. We recently did some work with trees at City College that provided
a breathtaking view of the Coronado Bay Bridge. Every time I see that
view, I know what we do is worth the effort.” Purple to Green The
sports turf at Hourglass Park is “green” in more ways than one.
That lush, verdant color is achieved with environmentally friendly reclaimed
water. Costing
10 percent less than ordinary tap water, reclaimed water is sewer wastewater
that has been cleaned in a three-step filtration process then disinfected
at the North City Water Reclamation Plant near the college campus. Instead
of being dumped into the ocean, it can be used for irrigation and industry. Reclaimed
water started flowing from the filtration plant in September 1997. An
average of 7 million gallons of reclaimed water a day is piped to customers
in northern San Diego city, from Torrey Pines to Scripps Ranch, via 45
miles of purple pipes. Hourglass
Park, with its ball fields, has 20 acres of sports turf, a relentlessly
thirsty ground cover, that drank up 800,000 gallons of water in October
2000. The warm months of April-September demand even more irrigation.
While that is a lot of water compared with typical domestic use, it’s
only a tenth as much as the 325 acre-feet of water the Torrey Pines Golf
Course, one of the largest users of reclaimed water, guzzles in a year. Hourglass
Park is the only district location currently using reclaimed water. Tracey
Berry, grounds crewleader at Miramar College, cautions that while using
reclaimed water is the right thing to do environmentally, it is not always
the easiest. There are strict regulations about its use, since the water
has not been purified to the point of being drinkable. For example, there
can be no puddles of reclaimed water in the daytime. And if for some reason
the water needs to be turned on during daylight hours, such as to test
the system, a groundskeeper must be present to keep people away from the
water. Nevertheless, in San Diego where we have to import 90 percent of our water, it’s nice to know the community can have an attractive park with green grass that doesn’t squander precious drinking water. |
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