For my project, which was to clean up the Fawcett Center and work on removing the invasive species, I did not complete it, since this is not a project that can really be completed. Removing an invasive species is a process that takes years to complete, and it was made especially difficult for this project because of research that was being done. It was discovered after I had begun my project that the Fawcett Center is actually in an area where a research project having to do with birds was taking place. Because a large part of my project was to simply cut out the honey suckle, which was serving as a habitat for some of the birds being studied, continuing as we had previously would have interrupted the research project. Because of this, no more large invasive removal could take place, and the progress of the project had to essentially come to a halt. Because of this, instead of going out and removing species, the project had to become a research project, in which I would research how the area could be restored in the future, or how we could do work without interrupting the research project.  This meant researching things like methods of removal for honeysuckle, new tree species that could be planted and would survive well, and even working on a project proposal through the Ohio State University Office of Energy and Environment. From this research, I have learned a great deal about what types of trees can survive in cold areas, and what other factors their survival depends on, like soil acidity and moisture levels. In addition to this, I have learned of multiple strategies for removing invasive species without destroying the environment and hurting species around them, including safe ways to use herbicides.

If I could go back and start again, the only thing that I would have done differently would be to begin with the focus on creating a project proposal through the OEE. I began my project not knowing that this was an option and therefore my research and efforts were more general and did not have as much of a direction. Once I had seen that this was an option, my research became more directed at the areas necessary to receive funding for an OEE project. While I may not be able to finish the proposal using the research I have done, it is possible for other students to pick up where I have left off. That means that this project could eventually receive significant funding, and something may be able to be worked out with the current research group working on the site,  so that progress toward removing the invasive species can actually be made.

For my second year project, I have chosen to the Fawcett Center restoration project. Unfortunately, I have not started to work on the project yet for two reasons. The first, and largest, reason is that I was unable to meet with either ENR Scholars coordinators until this morning. While I thought I had an idea of what needed to be done, I did not want to begin the project before receiving confirmation of my jobs at the Fawcett Center. As I found out in the meeting this morning, the second reason that I have not begun to work on the project yet is because the area that ENR has been given to clean up also happens to be the site of bird research project through the university. I was informed during my meeting today that when we cut out the large honey suckle bushes, like we did last year, we are actually destroying the habitat for the birds that are being studied. In addition to this, the tree houses set up by ENR near the river, which were meant to attract more birds, ended up altering the researcher’s data because it meant they could no longer monitor the animals in the way that they were able to in their own bird houses. I have been informed that the research group whose work we unintentionally interfered with has been fully supportive of our restoration efforts, and simply wants us to communicate with them before we go out and start cutting things down again. This means that the only difference between last year and this year is that we are not likely to be cutting out large plants, and that we will have to keep our work away from the river banks. Because of this, my primary job when I am actually outside at the Fawcett Center will almost always be to remove invasive species that are small enough to pull out with bare hands, and to tag saplings planted last year to track their progress over the next several months and identify how many survived. Because there may not be enough tasks to do at the Fawcett Center for each member to complete their full 15 hour requirement, and because we got started on the project, which is supposed to be mainly outdoors, so close to winter, some slight changes had to be made. Primarily, the possibility of doing research and compiling comprehensive summaries of findings on topics that relate to the long term sustainability of the project and the efficiency with which it is carried out will now count as part of the required service. Specifically, three areas of research have already been defined as the following:

• Determining robust native species that can be used to replace the growth of the invasive species once they have been removed, and that will contribute to a permanently healthy eco system and not become invasive themselves in the future.
• Monitoring the success of previous efforts, such as sapling planting, to determine what techniques and strategies are most effective and decide how to implement them (for example, figuring out if it is better to ask for a donation of 1000 saplings of all different species, or a donation of 100 healthy, more developed trees with a specific number of each species).
• Finding runoff/herbicide free ways to permanently remove the invasive species, like honey suckle, without damaging the ecosystem or soil. This also applies to the other invasive species, but is particularly applicable to honey suckle due to its ability to come back after being cut to almost any height.

These issues, although they are not as hands on as the Fawcett Center projects were before, will provide a clear guidance for the direction of the restoration and will lead to the long term success of the project.

The project that I plan to complete for my second year project is the Fawcett Center Ecological Restoration project. The work that I plan to do on this project may include some invasive species removal similar to what was done last year, but the main objective for this year will be to focus on planting new, native species. The reason that I would like to complete this project rather than any of the others is because I was able to get a taste of what it was like while volunteering on the weekends to help one of the previous sophomores make progress on their project last year. During my volunteer time, I removed quite a few honeysuckle plants, some callery pear, and planted many trees. I would usually go out on the weekends with my roommates and together we would take on the task of removing the largest plants we could find. We worked very efficiently and would usually end up helping other groups when we ran out of invasive species to remove. Not only did I leave feeling productive and like I had made a difference after these experiences, but I also had a lot of fun. The second reason that I would like to take this on as my second year project is because I have a very busy schedule this year, including on the weekends. Because of this, having to attend regularly scheduled meetings, or having to work, for example, only when the site engineer could be there, would be inconvenient. Instead, it would work well for me to be able to simply head out to the Fawcett Center whenever I have some free time and get as much approved work done as possible that day.

The main benefactor of this project will be the wildlife living near the Fawcett Center because having fewer invasive species and more native ones will create a better environment for the animals and plants that are supposed to live there. Additionally, if other students working on this project and I can fully or nearly fully restore that section of the Olentangy to the way it was before invasive species were introduced, then it can serve as an example for how the rest of the Olentangy can be cleaned up. Finally, I will benefit from this project for two main reasons. The first is that planting and removing species will be excellent physical exercise, which will be good for me. The second reason is because I love being outdoors but always seem to find an excuse to stay in instead of doing something outside. This project will push me to spend more time away from the stuffy interior or Morill Tower and actually go outside.

Finally, there are a few things that I hope to learn from this project. The first thing I hope to learn is what species along the Olentangy and in other areas of the state are actually invasive and which belong there. The second thing that I hope to learn is what the most effective way to remove these species are because I have heard that simply cutting them will not work for some, like honeysuckle. Finally, I would like to gain more knowledge about the general river ecosystem because I simply find the subject interesting.

After completing the first part of the To Do List at Mission coffee, I was excited to try some of the other shops in the area. Coffee is one of my favorite drinks, but I rarely ever get it from specialty or artisan shops simply because there are none near where I live in Cleveland and I usually prefer to just make my own at home. This assignment provided me with a reason to expand my experience with coffee and visit Impero, One Line, Kafe Kerouac, and Boston Stoker.

One Line

One Line was the first coffee shop that I visited for this portion f he Columbus To Do List, however this was not the first time I had been there. Last time I went, I got one of their pour over coffees and did not love it, so this time I decided to get a cappuccino. The drink was delicious and the atmosphere of the shop was nice, with some standing desks and sitting areas in the back, however there was not a lot of room. This would be a good place to come and meet someone, but because the space is somewhat limited, doing homework there would probably not work well. Overall, I would recommend this shop to a friend, however I would not recommend their pour over unless you like strange flavors in coffee.

Boston Stoker

One of my favorite things about this shop was that, in addition to having different beans, they also had a selection of ways to have the coffee prepared. I decided to take advantage of this and have one of their coffees made in a french press, which I thought was very cool. Unfortunately, however, the coffee was not great. During my visits to all of the coffee shops, I noticed that there seemed to be a trend of having very strange flavors in the drinks. When looking at the descriptions of all of the different beans they have, the flavors would be something like, “blackberry with smoke” and that simply does not sound appealing to me. While this shop did not specify the flavors, it did taste similar to some of the other shops that had very exotic, and in my opinion bad, coffee. Other than this, the shop had a lot of room to sit and desks to work at and I would recommend it to a friend mainly because they have smoothies as well, which is something many coffee shops do not serve.

Impero

The first thing that I noticed when walking into this shop was that it was very small. There did not seem to be a lot of room to sit around or study, but this was more than made up for by the fact that they seemed to serve normal coffee. They had a selection of frozen drinks, some food, and most importantly coffee that did not, “have hints of chocolate and rose.” I had been trying to get the drip or pour over coffee at the places I went because that tends to have a more distinct flavor from shop to shop, and this one was the best of them all because it was just simple, normal coffee. Out of all of the shops that I visited, this is the one I would most recommend for someone who actually wanted coffee.

Kafe Kerouac

Out of all of the coffee shops, Kafe Kerouac had a different feeling than the rest. The others, for the most part, felt like they were there for you to come in and get coffee, then leave. There was usually room for a few people to it and maybe for one or two to do work, but that was about it. This shop felt much more like they wanted you to come in and stay for the whole day because of the numerous books, board games, and even the fact that they have poetry readings. Unfortunately, it is pretty far away from my dorm and I am not a big fan of poetry, but for someone who was closer, it would be a very nice place to come and hang out. Another downside that I noticed was that their coffee seemed to have the strange taste that I noticed in most of the other specialty shops, so I would not get it again. Even though the coffee was not great, I would still recommend this shop to a friend because of the great atmosphere and abundant desk space.

During the final week of my Earth Month challenge, my goal was to take the stairs rather than the elevator all but three times throughout the week. This was a particular challenge for me because I live on the tenth floor of Morill Tower, therefore it is very time and energy consuming to climb up or down that many stairs. While the challenge was difficult to complete, it saved more energy than any of my other challenges because I come and go from my dorm multiple times each day and used to use the elevator every time.

One thing that I learned from this challenge is that, while I already get a lot of physical exercise, I am never really too tired to take the stairs. There were several days where it seemed like after all of the walking I had already done that day, I would not be able to make it all the way up to the tenth floor. On these days, I convinced myself that I should at least try and every time I made it all the way up. This showed me that the largest part of this challenge, contrary to what I thought coming into it, is actually the metal aspect.

Overall, while it was intended to be the most involved of my challenges, it was not the most difficult. This is because I am much more motivated after I have had a little bit of time to wake up and I typically do not mind physical activity, therefore the stairs were not too bad. The challenge that ended up being the most difficult was by far week three, which was to take cold showers, and this was challenging only because I had to work on it immediately after waking up in the morning.

For the third week of the Earth Moth Challenge, my goal was to take cold showers and to make them shorter. So far this has been the most difficult challenge by far because it has been difficult to convince myself to make the water cold when I am still tired and just got out of a warm bed. Another challenging aspect was that I would sometimes simply forget that I was trying to complete a challenge because it takes a little while for me to wake up completely in the morning, and I usually shower as soon as I get out of bed. The way that I found to stop myself from forgetting was writing “cold shower” on the palm of my hand in marker or pen each night before going to bed so that I would see it when I woke up in the morning. This worked fairly well and helped me get into the habit of paying attention to the temperature of my shower. As I stated previously, it was very difficult to convince myself to follow through with this challenge, however I did find one strategy that helped quite a bit. This strategy was to start the shower out warm when I first got in, and then within the first few minutes slowly turn the heat down until it was all the way cold. While this could be considered “cheating” on my challenge, I do not think I would have followed through with the challenge if I had not done it, and taking showers that are cold almost the whole time is still much more environmentally sustainable than keeping it hot the whole time.

After completing my challenge this week and seeing how difficult it was, I believe that my week four challenge will be much easier. While walking up ten flights of stairs multiple times per day is certainly not an easy task, I much prefer physical activity to simply being cold, so it will be much easier for me to do.

The challenge that I did for my second week of Earth month was to go outside as much as possible instead of watching TV or playing video games. While doing this challenge, I found that the hardest part was that going outside to do something is much more of a commitment in terms of time and energy than staying in is. I found that if I had homework but wanted to take a short break before doing it, I would always worry about how long it would take for me to go out and do something because that almost always requires me to walk somewhere first and shower after. I also found myself considering whether or not I would have the energy left to do my work if I went and did something active, but after convincing myself to actually try it, I found that being tired was not too much of an issue.

I also found that time seems to move much more slowly when you are active and moving around; when I used to sit inside for an afternoon, it would fly by and seem like the blink of an eye. When going outside, I found that I would feel satisfied with my break in a much shorter amount of time and I would also feel like I had actually accomplished something after, so even though I would have to shower after, it actually took less time and I felt better after.

Over the course of the week, I was able to do some of my favorite activities such as skateboarding and rock climbing much more frequently than I usually do, which made the week very enjoyable. My next challenge, which is to take colder showers, will not be nearly as fun. It is going to be extremely difficult to convince my tired self to get out of bed ad into a cold shower in the morning, but I am hoping that once I do it, I will get out much faster and therefore have a little more time in my day. This time could be spent outside, doing homework, or even sleeping, but no matter what it will be better spent outside of the shower.

For the first week of my Earth Month Challenge, I made an effort to remember to turn lights and appliances off and unplug them when they were not being used. Over the course of the week, there were several thigs that I noticed. The first was that my roommates and I are very forgetful and oblivious to the fact that we leave lights on all the time. Even with stickers over all of the light switches, I still found that the lights to the common room, bathroom, and study rooms were constantly left on with no one in the room. Fortunately, a few of my roommates had the same challenge for week one as I did so we were able to pick up most of the slack. Another thing that being conscious of which lights are on and which are off made me notice is that there are a significant amount of lights in Morill which can never be turned off. For example, the lights in the hallway are always on at all times of the day. While it would probably not work to have a light switch in the hallways, some kind of motion detector could save a lot of energy. Additionally, the light in the center room which connects all of the study areas to the common room and bathroom remains on at all times and there is no switch for it. Unlike the hallway light, having this light on at all times is unnecessary and having a switch could easily fix it. Other than this, the challenge went well and I was able to keep lights off for the most part and remembered to unplug my phone and laptop when I was not using them. The first two weeks of my challenge are relatively easy tasks and can be done without too much effort, so I expect things to go well next week, but after that it will get much more difficult.

For my Earth Month Challenge area, I am doing energy and transportation. In order to save energy, I will be completing four cumulative challenges, adding one each week, with increasing difficulty and energy savings. For the first week, my challenge is simply to turn off lights whenever I am not in a room and to unplug appliances, like my phone ad laptop, when I am not using them. The only thing that I foresee being difficult about this challenge is that I am very forgetful so it is easy for me to walk out of a room without realizing that I left a light on. One resource that I plan to use to help with this are stickers that go over light switch panels that were given out at a presentation on Morill Tower energy usage which say, “turn off,” and will remind me to turn off the lights.

For the second week, my challenge is to go outside and do something active rather than watching TV or playing video games in order to minimize my usage of electronics. The only thing that I see being challenging about this is that it may be time consuming because outdoor activities tend to require more of a time commitment, however this issue can be resolved by simply planning my activities in advance.

For the third week, the challenge I will be completing is to take colder, shorter showers to save energy used to heat the water and get it all the way up to the tenth floor where I live. The most challenging part of this will be getting used to having the shower being cold because I am so used to hot showers, but at the same time this will make me want to get out sooner and only shower when I need it instead of when I am stressed or just need to wake up.

Finally, for the fourth week, my challenge is to use the stairs. The most difficult aspect of this challenge, other than the obvious physical aspect, is that it will be time consuming. Because I live on the tenth floor of Morill, already have a long walk home after class, and sometimes need to come back very quickly to grab something before leaving, I am going to give myself three elevator uses for the week, which can only be used on the way up. This way if I need to get something quickly, I will not have to be late or run to class after going up and back down ten flights of stairs, but I will still be significantly reducing the energy needed to take me to and from my room.