Our August Presentation:
The Impact of Climate Change on Soils
Tuesday, August 27, 6:30 pm,
Anacortes Senior Center, 1701 22nd St.
Join Transition Fidalgo & Friends for our Monthly Gathering. Hear and share community announcements and events; connect with fellow friends.
Agriculture is expected to play a key role in climate change mitigation and adaptation, much of which is driven by soil management. In this presentation we’ll discuss agricultural sources of greenhouse gas emissions, opportunities to mitigate these emissions (and emissions from other sectors), and potential adaptation strategies. In particular, we’ll look at soils through the lens of soil health, explore how climate change may impact soil health, and discuss the potential and limitations of soil health-building practices to mitigate and adapt to climate change.
Presented by:
Gabe LaHue is an Assistant Professor of Soil Science at Washington State University based in Mt. Vernon. He focuses on soil-water relations, soil fertility, and water-nutrient interactions. Currently his projects include determining irrigation thresholds for spinach seed production, quantifying nitrogen release from soil organic matter to inform fertilization for blueberries, and evaluating regulated deficit irrigation in cider apples for improved water use efficiency and fruit quality. Gabe received his Ph.D. in Soils and Biogeochemistry from the University of California, Davis where his research focused on evaluating alternative water management to reduce methane emissions from rice fields, quantifying subsurface water flows in rice fields, and exploring the legacy effects of nitrogen fertilization on nitrous oxide emissions.
Our July Presentation:
Mini-Houses in Anacortes
– Cost effective answer to the local housing crisis.
Question: How can Anacortes provide low cost housing options for our community?
Answer: The “Mini-House”
Bud Anderson and Brian Scott believe that there is an option to provide low cost housing in Anacortes that is COST EFFECTIVE. The concept is to change existing garage space into a separate, livable home. By moving past the concept of living in a “Mega-House”, you can live simply, cheaply, and be super energy efficient. The total construction costs is about 20% of new construction in addition to the facts that the long term utility costs become insignificant. Bud & Brian are presently working on their third home in Anacortes with several others in the planning stages.
Presented by:
Bud Anderson, PE retired Electrical Engineer, owner of WA Electric, an electrical contracting company in Anacortes and a licensed Electrician in Washington.
Brian Scott, Carpenter, with 35 years of Carpenter experience remodeling and building new homes.
Our June 2019 Presentation:
“Net-Zero”
Come hear Kevin Maas describe what he has learned while developing a six-house net-zero community in Mount Vernon and also setting a course for net-zero-energy with an existing house.”Net-Zero” is not a perfect concept, but it seeks to balance dirty emissions with excess clean energy over the course of a year; the final impact to the planet should be neutral. Using solar electricity and efficiency measures, it is possible to make a new or existing house “net-zero-energy” at minimal additional cost today.
Kevin Maas is an experienced developer of sustainable energy projects, with a deep understanding of the financial aspects of bringing concepts to reality. His portfolio includes five manure-to-electricity digesters and an even larger number of community solar arrays. Kevin lives in Mount Vernon with his family, where he is now working on sustainable housing.
Our Monthly Gatherings include a sharing time and programs to help build local resilience and reduce carbon dependency. Everyone is welcome!
Our May Presentation:
Thanks to the generous work of John Bowey of Transmedia Vision, this presentation was recorded in front of the live audience for you to view and review. Click on the image below to be taken to this presentation.
The Truffle, the Centipede and the Moth:
what hidden forest partnerships tell us about our global economy
Our local forests are full of hidden ecological partnerships that strongly impact the overall productivity, diversity, physical structure, and health of the forest. Since forests provide many critical benefits (or “ecosystem services”) to humans, those forest partnerships are important to us. Using examples of how trees partner with organisms in the soil and in their canopy, we will explore the concept of “ecosystem services” and why healthy ecosystems are the foundation of the global economy.
Our presenter:
Roger Fuller coordinates the habitat restoration and stewardship program for Padilla Bay National Estuarine Research Reserve and is an adjunct faculty with Western Washington University’s Huxley College of the Environment.
Our April Gathering:
Paris to Pittsburgh
April 30, 2019: 6:30 pm at the Anacortes Senior Center
From coastal cities to America’s heartland, Paris to Pittsburgh celebrates how Americans are demanding and developing real solutions in the face of climate change. And as the weather grows more deadly and destructive, they aren’t waiting on Washington to act.
“The American government may have pulled out of the Paris Agreement, but the American people are committed to its goals and there is nothing Washington can do to stop us.”
— Michael R. Bloomberg, United Nations Special Envoy for Climate Action
Our March Gathering presentation:
Marine Debris, presented by Hillary Burgess. Watch it here.
We apologize for the frustrations you may have experienced with our live broadcast of Dr. Brooke Love’s February presentation on Ocean Acidification. HOWEVER, you can now view it on YouTube with no buffering issues (at least not at our end). She presents some detailed science as well as many insights into what we can expect for the near future.
View it here, or click on the image below.
Our January presentation, entitled “Earth’s Bi-Polar Disorder: Why Climate Breakdown Matters and how to talk about it”, is now available on YouTube. Click on the image below.
This 74-minute recording of the presentation was made possible by generous specific donations of several individuals, and the talented production work of John Bowey of Transmedia Vision.
Ocean Acidification and the Salish Sea Food Web: from phytoplankton to forage fish
February 26, 2019
6:30 p.m.
Anacortes Senior Center
Ocean acidification, sometimes called the evil twin of climate change, has the potential to give some organisms an advantage, and cause difficulties for others. What do we know about how local food webs might respond to these changes? What role will plankton, eelgrass, shellfish, herring and other key organisms play as this story unfolds? What are the next steps in exploring these questions?
Presented by Dr. Brooke Love of the Shannon Point Marine Labs.
Faces of TF&F
Transition Fidalgo and Friends’ mission: to raise awareness of and develop solutions to the challenges of climate change, energy uncertainty, and economic instability. Transition Fidalgo & Friends promotes a move away from fossil fuels through decreasing demand, increasing efficiency, supporting renewable energy, and fostering the local production of food, energy, and goods.