Announcements

For Day of the Dead, Nov. 2, 2009, this mandala was created in Missoula's Caras Park by community members including some EVST alums and students. The nontoxic colored sawdust was later composted. This is part of a Global Mandala of 32 nations. To learn more or to contribute towards the cost of making a short film on Missoula's Manadala, go to www.missoulamandala.wordpress.com

EVST ALUM RECOGNIZED AS ECO-DAREDEVIL
EVST alum Katie Makarowski ('09) has been selected as one of two recipients of the second-annual Eco-Daredevil award. The national award was inspired by Evel Knievel, the daredevil, who hitchhiked from Montana to Washington DC with a huge bull elk rack to protest the culling of elk in Yellowstone in 1961. The award was created to recognize young people who take risks and make a difference for the environment. Katie was nominated by EVST faculty Vicki Watson and Robin Saha and her fellow student Amy Edgerton. The nomination letters told of her life long environmental activism, her tenacity in dealing with reluctant participants in environmental studies -- from cows to bureaucrats -- her carless, meatless, reuse-oriented life style. More about the award at http://ecodaredevil.blogspot.com/
Congratulations, Katie!

Congratulations 2009 Graduates!  Keep making a difference!   Scroll down for more pix.

Congratulations Outstanding Seniors of 2009!

Shannon Kuhn, Martha Sample, Rustin Mitchell, Brant Cebulla, Saara Snow, Belinda Hays

photos by Dan Spencer

MORE AWARDS FOR EVSTers

Congratulations to Phil Condon and Jessie Davie for being named the Missoula Sustainable Business Council (SBC) Advocates of the year for 2008 for work on the UM Greenhouse Gas Inventory. 

EVST undergrad, Laura Mahoney, recently won the Outstanding Volunteer of the Year Award from the UM Office of Civic Engagement for her volunteer work with homeWORD.

WATERSHED CLINIC STREAM TEAM DEBUTS ON YOUTUBE
The UM Watershed Clinic's Stream Team has covered a lot of Montana territory in the past 8 years as they helped the Montana Department of Environmental Quality characterize Montana's streams. A few of the recent stream encounters are recorded on this youtube video. The stars of this video are Amy Edgerton, Katie Makarowski, Nebojsa Vlajic, and the Montana landscape. Don't you wish you were there?

AWARDS FOR EVSTers

At UM's 116th Birthday party on February 12, 2009, EVST grad student Jessie Davie, ASUM's sustainability coordinator, received the ASUM Student Service Award. AND EVST professor Phil Condon received the UM Panther Award (doesn't he look like a panther?) No wait.. it's the UM Pantzer Award! Which means he's a great humanitarian! Congratulations Jessie & Phil.

UM's GREEN INITIATIVES
UM made some important strides towards sustainability in 2008, often under the leadership of EVST students and faculty who serve on UM Sustainability & Recycling Committees. UM hired a full time Recycling Coordinator and a full time Sustainability Coordinator (see here). In addition, UM student government has a student sustainability coordinator, and Dining Services has a sustainability coordinator. UM is making more use of green building design principles, and the new Native American Studies Center will be LEED-certified. A Greenhouse Gas Inventory was conducted (by Jessie Davie of EVST) to identify where UM could best reduce its carbon emissions, and UM will be working hard to meet the MT Governor's call for all state agencies to reduce energy use by 20% by 2010. In the area of teaching, UM will be offering a climate change minor and is also initiating a Green Thread Curriculum to weave sustainability throughout the UM curriculum. EVST students provided UM with information on green cleaning products and initiated a program to remodel some UM housing to provide demonstration sites in green living (see UM FLAT).
For more on Greening UM (including contact info for those working on UM sustainability) see www.umt.edu/greeningUM.