The Knight Foundation recently released the report of their 2008 Soul of the Community Study to find out just what creates the emotional ties people have to their communities…essentially, what inspires them to root themselves in a particular place. What did they find?

After interviewing close to 28,000 people in 26 communities over two years, the study has found that three main qualities bind people to place: social offerings such as entertainment venues and places to meet – the top factor in 21 of 26 communities, openness (how welcoming a place is) and the area’s aesthetics (its physical beauty and green spaces).

Aberdeen, SD, was one of the communities surveyed, but that isn’t the only reason South Dakotans should be interested the study’s findings. There’s plenty in the report for our state’s communities to consider as they plan for the future. Economic development groups, chambers of commerce, and other civic leaders need to take note of this study (I’m talking to you, Madison, SD!). There’s more than industry and jobs to consider when developing plans for growing our small towns.

Dig into all the information here:  http://www.soulofthecommunity.org/

I just came across an intriguing idea that the Balitmore Office of Promotion and the Arts has been running for the last six months. In January, they used a Flickr photostream (FREE, by the way), the Baltimore Infill Survey, to upload a stock image of a vacant Baltimore lot between two derelict buildings. The photo is reprentative of many parts of the city that have seen a decline in population and subsequent problems in recent years.

The survey invites anyone anywhere to participate by downloading the stock image and creating another image illustrating an idea about how to revitalize the vacant lot and surrounding neighborhood. After participants have completed their images, they send them to BOPA, who then uploads them to the Flickr site.

BIS stock image, courtesy the Baltimore Infill Survey

The results? Well, so far there are about 50 images submitted from architects, designers, artists, and thinkers from all over the world.  Even some from people who live right in the neighborhood and obviously aren’t trained engineers or designers.

It’s a wonderful mix of radical ideas and simple concepts. There’s the downright crazy (the tightrope and the fishtank), the avant garde (the mirror globe and the glacier), and the practical but visionary (the powerplant playground and the vertical farm).

I’m sure it’s no surprise that my personal favorite is the eco-city concept:

BIS proposal no. 33, courtesy the Baltimore Infill Survey

Pretty, isn’t it?

Urban gardens seem like one of the more practical, logical and cost-effective concepts for revitalizing decaying inner cities. Actually, in this case I’d suggest something even bigger. Given that Baltimore has seen a population decline of a few hundred thousand in the last fifty years (according to this article), I’d propose razing derelict buildings–even whole blocks–and consolidating housing (new and/or renovated buildings), leaving much larger tracts of land available for urban agriculture,  something on the scale of what’s happened in Cuba.

But, of course, I don’t live in Baltimore.

What interests me about this project is how it represents one of the most exciting aspects of living in this time: online public participation. The following quote from Jon Popham at takepart.com sums up exactly what I’ve been thinking about this concept over the past couple of years:

Online projects such as the Baltimore Infill Survey provide a glimpse at the new, democratic role ideas from the general public can play in urban planning, public policy and nearly unlimited areas of human endeavor simply by allowing an open exchange over the Internet.  No longer do the ideas of government–or other institutions for that matter–need to be limited to what a few civil servants sitting around a creaky old conference table can muster up.  In this instance architects, designers, urban planners and thinkers from numerous countries, backgrounds, and approaches have brought the City of Baltimore a wealth of ideas as to how to revitalize some of its most impoverished spaces that would have cost thousands upon thousands of dollars if the City had commissioned them outright.  The truth is that people, in all sorts of professions, do care about the world and community around them and are willing and even happy to devote their time and talents to come up with good ideas for causes that interest them (emphasis mine, click here for link).

To be honest, this is a concept I hope my own community decides to embrace, but we’re a long way off from it here in Madison, SD. I think it’s a pretty common perception that to get your ideas heard in this community, you need to own a prominent business, hold a major title in a prominent business, or have someone else with money and influence backing you–not unlike countless other communities across the nation (and Madisonites, if my perception is off-base, feel free to set the record straight). If you have an idea, the proper channels for communicating it are unclear, and rarely do we see the solicitation of or open discussion of ideas from the community at large by those in charge of making and implementing policy.

I think a lot of this boils down to not realizing that the true stakeholders in a community are every last citizen, not just those with political power or financial clout or even the right education. So we tend not to hear from the people who lack that type of influence.

But we lose out tremendously when we fail to listen to those voices. We lose the perspectives of artists and other creative types, of young people, of blue-collar workers, and others. These people have ideas–good ideas–and viewpoints to add to the conversations about how to shape our community and its future.

Online public participation is making it more and more difficult to ignore those other voices. It’s now possible to take advantage of absolutely free options like WordPress, Blogger, and Flickr (free, of course, once you have Internet access) to express opinions, offer up ideas, and tell stories. There’s no guarantee that the powers that be will pay attention, but online public participation definitely broadens and deepens the conversation.

Further reading–two great examples:

Reimagine Rural, the blog of the Rural Learning Center, just a few miles down the road in Howard, SD.

Northfield.org from Northfield, MN:  “Community news, citizen produced”

UPDATE 5/21: Click here for the video!

Tune in to the 10:00 news on KSFY tonight for a feature story on Prairie Roots–the blog and the garden!

Life has been a little hectic around our house over the past several months…hence the lack of regular Prairie Roots posting. My husband, Cory, was hard at work finishing his second year of a doctoral degree while working as a research and teaching grad assistant. I officially became a candidate for ordained ministry in the SD synod of the ELCA and was admitted to seminary for last fall. I delayed the start of my studies for one year, though, when an opportunity came up to be a part-time, interim youth director at my church for the rest of the ‘08-’09 school year.

Cory and I were fortunate to be able to work our schedules around caring for our now three-year-old daughter so that one of us was always home with her (with grandma contributing some quality granddaughter time when our schedules conflicted). I juggled my part-time job with church council and Habitat for Humanity board responsibilities along with kid activities like toddler gym and weekly library visits.

So, it’s been a bit crazy, but a couple things are winding down. My youth director position ends this month, since we have a new youth and family minister in my congregation. And I’ll be scaling back a couple of my other activities as I head into the start of studies this fall (distributed learning through Luther Seminary, so I’ll take much of my coursework online from home). I’ll also be the main pre-school teacher for our daughter, since we’re taking care of that at home (but since she already knows her alphabet, most letter sounds, how to count from 1-20, colors, and most shapes, I’d say we’re already in pretty good shape on that front).

Of course, I’m also looking forward to a spring, summer, and fall working in this year’s garden, which is finally underway. I’ve been starting seeds–first onions, scallions, and leeks–since February. Then Brussles sprouts in March. I got tomatoes and peppers started in flats at the beginning of April, and transplanted them into larger containers earlier this month. Spinach got direct-seeded into a raised bed in March, and potatoes went in about two weeks ago.

I’m busy getting clean-up work done in the garden itself, including establishing a main pathway down the middle of the entire garden. I’m mulching the paths by first laying down several layers of newspaper, then covering the newspaper with wood chip mulch (sometimes adding a layer of old grass clippings underneath the wood chips.

Mulching history

I had quite a few seeds left over from last year but still ordered a bunch from Fedco Seeds this year. Here’s what I got:

Luscious Bicolor Sweet Corn
General Lee Slicing Cucumber
Waltham Butternut Squash
Yaya Carrot
Prisma Shallots
Space Spinach
Summer Lettuce Mix
Winter Lettuce Mix
Bright Lights Chard
Watercress
Tres Fine Maraichere Endive
Gigante d’Italia Parsley
Safir Cutting Celery
Glacier Tomato
Cherokee Purple Tomato
Soldacki Tomato
Aunt Ruby’s German Green Tomato
Ruby Gold Tomato
Peacevine Cherry Tomato
Orange Banana Paste Tomato
Amish Paste Tomato
Sun Gold Cherry Tomato
Sweet Chelsea Cherry Tomato
Sweet Basil
Genovese Basil
Caribe Cilantro
Greek Oregano
Winter Savory
German Thyme
Sparky Mix French Dwarf Double Marigold
Tall Climbing Mix Nasturtium
Benary’s Giants Mix Zinnia
Gold Medal Mix Zinnia
Cutflower Mix
Beneficials Mix
Dark Red Norland Potato
German Butterball Potato
Carola Potato

That’s “green” in both the financial and environmental senses. Heidi from Prairie Coteau Farm and Dakota Rural Action emailed recently with news about an Earth Day benefit taking place in Brookings next week:

DRA is hosting “An Evening of Green,” a fundraising dinner held on Earth Day (April 22nd) in Brookings. The event will be catered by our own Cottonwood Bistro, featuring fantastic locally-grown foods. The event will highlight the release of our 2009 South Dakota Local Foods Directory, and will also include a speaker who will talk about alternative energy and green design.

Check it out (click to enlarge):

And did you catch that website at the bottom of the poster? That’s the new “Green Brookings Revolution” wiki! It’s a great space for “anyone with an interest in keeping Brookings, South Dakota, green,” with listings of Earth Day events, Earth-friendly business, recycling info, and a local forum.

This morning I received an email with membership information from the newly formed Buy Fresh Buy Local South Dakota chapter. The mission of BFBLSD is simply “to increase the awareness and consumption of local foods in South Dakota”.

I’m betting that most producers and local food-oriented businesses already have BFBLSD on their radars. So I’d like to send out encouragement to the rest of us–the consumers–to consider putting just a few of your dollars to very good use by becoming a member of an organization that will soon make finding and purchasing local foods much easier for South Dakotans.

From the email I received:

The 2009 annual fees for the two consumer levels of membership are:
Cultivator
$15.00

Harvester
$30.00

Each fee payment supports the mission statement of the South Dakota Chapter and receives a BUY FRESH BUY LOCAL bumper sticker. Harvester receives in addition a canvas shopping bag with the BFBL logo.

Send payments to Patrick Garrity, 1505 Jo Lane Drive, Yankton, SD 57078. All checks payable to South Dakota Specialty Producers Association – BFBL.

Click below for more info (PDF alert):
bfbl-fees

I’ve been keeping up with City Farmer in Vancouver ever since I took an organic gardening workshop there almost four years ago. City Farmer is a demonstration urban garden in the gorgeous Kitsilano neighborhood of Vancouver (trivia for the day: Kitsilano is where Greanpeace started), where they….well, demonstrate stuff . Like an organic food garden, composting (including a composting toilet), and a cob building with a green roof. While browsing their blog yesterday I came across another ingenious idea they’re incorporating, the keyhole garden.

Photo courtesy Send A Cow

City Farmer’s keyhole garden comes to them by way of the UK organization Send A Cow, which among other things, fights malnutrition in Africa with gardens. The basic concept of their keyhole garden is a round, raised bed (about 3 1/2 feet high) garden with one section left out to allow gardeners easy access to the entire space. The central shaft of the garden is essentially a compost pile, where gardeners can throw any kitchen scraps and other compost, as well as gray water. This design helps both water and nutrients leach into vegetable roots as the water seeps down through the compost. Layers of straw in the soil plus a final layer of mulch on top also conserve water.

Check out the video to see how it’s done:

It’s a brilliant idea obviously well-suited to drought-stricken areas of Africa, but I think it would translate pretty well to South Dakota. Although we usually have enough water for our gardens, we have our share of dry spells with watering restrictions. After all, South Dakota is a “semi-arid state with somewhat light rainfall in the range of 10-20 inches per year,” according to the state’s Conservation Districts, and water conservation is becoming more important to us here, especially West River and in the fast-growing Sioux Falls/Lincoln County area. The keyhole garden is also perfect for people who live in town and don’t have room for large gardens.

It might seem like jumping the gun just a little to be talking gardens in December with the blizzardy, subzero weather we’ve been having, but thinking ahead to my next garden is one thing that gets me through South Dakota winters. Plus, a couple seed catalogs (Fedco and Seed Savers Exchange) have already arrived, and the beginning of seed-starting (onions and leeks) is only a couple months away…thank goodness!

Click here for more about building your own keyhole garden.

Photo courtesy Skystreamenergy.com

One of the dreams my husband and I have for our land is to put up a residential wind turbine. I’ve been fascinated with the Skystream since I read about it in Mother Earth News about a year ago. It looks like the best residential wind power option to come along so far for people like us with the land and wind to make it a viable way to power our home with clean, renewable energy. And it only costs about $15,000 for the entire system, including transportation and installation. Now that’s about $15,000 more than we have at the moment to invest in wind power, but it’s not out of the realm of the possible for us in the future. We think it would be worth the investment.

I haven’t heard of anyone in South Dakota with a Skystream yet (although I’ve enjoyed keeping up with this Iowa family and their recent Skystream addition), so I was very excited to find the following email in my inbox this morning, posted here in its entirety:

Skystream Open House Saturday

Yankton county family embraces small wind and solar technology as they host a demonstration open house

WHEN: 10:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m., Saturday, October 25, 2008
WHERE: 42948 300th Street, Lesterville, SD 57040 (1/2 mile west of Lesterville, SD)
HOSTS: The Douglas and Lynette Auch Family and D & Z Energy Systems

To RSVP or for more information contact us at 605-364-7318, 605-660-5731 or email: dzenergysystems@gmail.com.

The Douglas Auch Family will become a Yankton County Leader in consumer-scale renewable energy use as it erects a 45 ft. wind turbine at its residence, rural Lesterville, SD. The turbine, believed to be the first of its kind in Yankton County, is called the Skystream 3.7, produced by Flagstaff, AZ-based Southwest Windpower. It has a 2.4 kW rating with an interactive computer kiosk that will show real-time statistics about what the mini-turbine is producing. The turbine will generate electricity to provide power to the Auch home and electricity cost savings.

The two solar heating panels on the south side of the Auch home kept teh 2007-2008 winter chill out of their home on sunny days, saving on winter heating costs. These panels were produced by Your Solar Home Inc., Vaughan, ON, Canada. Eventually the Auch’s hope to incorporate a “hybrid-system” which includes solar-generated electricity with battery back-up for either or both wind and solar generated electricity.

Although the wind turbine will provide only a portion of the home’s energy requirements, the Auch Family hopes to use the mini-turbine and solar heating panels as educational tools so that interested residents can see the ‘how’ and the ‘what’ of turbines and solar heating panels. They too can embrace small wind and solar technologies to save themselves money and become more self-reliant.

The Auch Family and D & Z Energy Systems will host a DEMONSTRATION OPEN HOUSE featuring this RENEWABLE RESOURCE TECHNOLOGY at their home.

WHAT: Demonstration Open House of a small-scale wind turbine, the Skystream 3.7, and solar heating panels. This is part of a national trend in residents, farms, and small businesses adopting small-scale renewable energy technologies.

WHEN: 10am to 3pm, Saturday, October 25, 2008

WHERE: 42948 300th Street, Lesterville, SD 57040 (1/2 mile west of Lesterville, SD)

For more information contact the Auch’s at 605-364-7318 or email at dzenergysystems@gmail.com.

Unfortunately, I won’t be able to attend this open house, but I highly encourage anyone in the southeastern part of South Dakota to check it out!

It’s worth it.

Back to regular programming in a couple weeks!

I hadn’t heard of Scott Russell Sanders when I wrote this last year. So all my talk in that essay of “I’m staying home” and “we’ll do something profoundly counter-cultural: stay put” wasn’t at all influenced by Sanders’ book Staying Put, but it might as well have been.

I came across mention of Sanders’ work while reading my recently-arrived, long-awaited copy of Beyond Homelessness, which was just released. Expect updates on that book, but for just a bit I’m taking a little detour to read through Staying Put.

Sanders writes of the place where he has stayed put for more than thirty years, Bloomington, Indiana. While that’s not my place of permanence, I admire his careful study of the history, culture, and ecology of that area, and I especially appreciate his focus on the Midwest, something I can obviously relate to. Here’s one quote (a lengthy one) from the book that intrigued me:

When we figure our addresses, we might do better to forget zip codes and consider where the rain goes after it falls outside our windows. We need such knowledge, need to feel as intimate with the branching and gathering of the earth’s veins as we do with the veins in our own wrists. The tilt of land that snares the rain also defines where we are more profoundly than any state line or city limit. States often draw their borders along rivers, yet that is false to the land because rivers join rather than divide their two shores. My rumpled neighborhood in southern Indiana has more to do with the hill country across the river in Kentucky than it does with the glacial plains of northern Indiana. Nature ignores our political boundaries. Birds migrate up and down the valleys, seeds ride the currents, plants colonize outward from the banks, and all manner of beasts–including humans–seek homes and food and one another along the paths of rivers. A true map of our continent would show a pattern of curving watersheds stitched together along high ridges, like a paisley fabric.

Since my family lives on a lake, we’re a bit more tuned into water issues than the average person. But Sanders still got me wondering about what my corner of the world looks like and more specifically about my particular watershed. Well, it’s not a map of the entire continent, but here’s what South Dakota looks like when viewed from the perspective of watersheds:

Map from the EPA

I did a little further research and found that I’m located in the Lower Big Sioux watershed. The EPA has a great site called Surf Your Watershed where you can find your watershed and lots of information about it. You can zoom in to your area even closer on the U.S. Geological Survey’s site, Science in Your Watershed. And just in case you can’t get enough of watersheds, the Watershed Information Network provides a ton of information, too.

So I’m going to try thinking about my place a little less politically (defined by town, county, state, national borders) and a little more in relation to my watershed. Now that I know the name of it. What about you, readers? Leave me a comment and tell me the name of your watershed!