Washington State Sustainability In Corrections

Rows and rows of small yellow cylinders fill the greenhouse where Daniel works steadily, beads of sweat forming on his round, bald head as he places tiny seeds in each container. He is planting showy fleabane, an endangered variety of prairie groundcover that will eventually produce purple-petaled blooms worthy of their moniker.

His work is part of a federally funded prairie restoration project, an effort to repair the native grasslands of the Pacific Northwest in areas like Fort Lewis, Wash. But Daniel, who asked that his last name not be used, is not your average horticulturalist. For one thing, his greenhouse is on the grounds of a maximum security prison.

Daniel, as well as many of the men tending seedlings around him, is part of the Sustainable Prisons Project at the Stafford Creek Corrections Center in western Washington. The program is a partnership between Evergreen State University and several state correctional facilities that allows offenders to opt in to sustainability-related work projects.


Jason Chandler plants Walla Walla Sweet Onions in the organic garden at Stafford Creek Corrections Center.
Photo: Sarah van SchagenThe liberal-arts university/state penitentiary partnership may sound like an odd pairing—the Evergreen alumni magazine likened it to Maya Angelou dating Dick Cheney—but so far, both parties consider the relationship a success. The scientists get cheap (and eager) labor, while the offenders get the opportunity to participate in meaningful work.

One inmate participating in the pilot program at the Cedar Creek Corrections Center was the senior author of a peer-reviewed paper about the project in an international sustainability journal, and upon his release began pursuing a Ph.D. in biochemistry.

“What I care about is that [the offenders] are exposed to what we can offer in the way of science, the wonder of nature, of thinking critically,” says Nalini Nadkarni, the Evergreen ecologist who helped establish the Sustainable Prisons Project. “Those are all things that when they get back out into society, they will carry with them ... increas[ing] the scientific literacy of our country, and perhaps even more important ... the civic engagement that they have with society.”

The tasks vary across the four prisons that are now part of the sustainability project (administrators hope eventually to expand it statewide), and include tending to organic gardens that provide fresh produce for the kitchen, separating recyclables from the waste stream, beekeeping, and minding composting worms.

The offenders can also participate in a variety of conservation efforts like the prairie restoration, a project being led by The Nature Conservancy. They are also helping breed endangered spotted Oregon frogs and “farm” mosses for the horticultural trade (which aids in preventing unsustainable harvesting from old-growth forests).


Photo: Sarah van SchagenAll of the offenders involved in the program get specialized training and guidance from scientists and other educators working with the corrections centers.

That green-collar job training is key, says Doug Raines, the man behind Stafford Creek’s new beekeeping operation. He knows there are lots of valid reasons to keep bees—honey production, pollination, protection from colony collapse—but he does it to provide job opportunities.

“If I can get one guy a job and he doesn’t come back, then I have paid for everything that we have done, and that’s my reason for having the bees,” Raines says. “It’s one more avenue for employment when they get out of here.”

The offenders aren’t the only ones at the correctional facilities who are benefitting from the project, though. The sustainability efforts are also saving money—a valuable incentive in an economy that has seen significant cuts to the state’s Department of Corrections budget.

When the Cedar Creek facility began to tap out its water supplies, efficiency upgrades like low-flow toilets and showers and a rainwater catchment system helped save 250,000 gallons of water in the summer alone. And the gardening, composting, and recycling efforts are saving the facilities thousands of dollars every year.

“[Correctional facilities] are essentially small cities running 24/7,” says Sustainable Prisons Project Manager Jeff Muse. “If we can make them more sustainable, not only will it save money, save natural resources, and save lives, but it would be an example for all kinds of other institutions, such as military bases, summer camps, hospitals, and schools.”

New Darwin Moth

Yeah, the 'discovery' occured a year ago, but I just heard about it - so it's news to me.

Very cool!

The Reason I'm Absent

It's been one of those months. I just think I'm catching up or even getting ahead and a crisis hits.

My dad fell onto the deck from tripping on a badly laid stone in a gravel walk. So - I've been reworking the walk so that it's as level as possible, with steps built in, and all stone rather than gravel and large stones. I'll be filling in with mortar once the hand rails are in and the edging is in. Hopefully the hand rails will be in tomorrow and the edging started. We can only hope!

The first picture is the initial layout of the longest stretch of the walk.


This second pictures is looking from the deck toward the beginning of the walk


The third picture is looking from the second step of the walk, out toward the longest stretch of the walk.


This final picture is of the final step of the day, leading to the 2 concrete steps to access the neighboring parking lot.

The grinding wheels are the center line of the walk, and were my grandfather's when he was alive. He literally worked in his machine shop until the day he died.


The final aspect of this project will be installing hand rails at each step - 3 new and 2 old, edging so the stones stay in place - I had to raise the entire walk several inches to allow for the leveling process. So, in order for the stones to remain where they are and not migrate, I have to edge it somehow. After those 2 little tidbits are finished, the sand can be watered into to place to make it as firm as possible, and the mortar can be poured in, with another good soaking to work it into all of the nooks and crannies to truly hold the stones in place.

All of the stones were already on the property, and so was just a matter of finding them, pulling them out and setting them in place to the best of their abilities.

I'll need this completed in the next few days since I have another huge project looming that I need to do a fair amount of prep work for - tons of trees being felled by some professionals, and then my sister and I working on them to clean the area up. Joy.

Summer Harvest

Ahh, the joys of summer. It's harvest time! Woo! LOL While I love it, it does make for an exhausting day, week, month.

Today, I harvested my dill. I have 2 pint bags full of dill leaves that are going in the freezer. I'll put the heads out in areas I want it to volunteer for next year, since I have enough bloom heads for my pickles awaiting me in the fridge.

I also harvested beans. The first planting of wax beans will now go to shell. I suppose my green ones will too, since the second planting of both are just starting to come on. I have enough in the freezer for the next full year, but we like them fresh, and I like to give them away, so I'll pick them for awhile before letting them go to shell too. Basically, "going to shell" is letting them grow as big as possible and the shell gets dry and leather. Then, you pick them and shell them and either freeze or can. They are far superior to kidney beans for chili or soups.

I harvested spinach. My spinach didn't do much this year. I hate spinach. LOL But, we've had several meals and tonight's will be as a salad. None to freeze, but I'll live.

And bell peppers. Those will turn into stuffed peppers and frozen to be cooked at a later date.

Onions - I've pulled them, but am letting them dry in the garden some before I bring them in. I planted them mainly for bread and butter pickles, but will keep some for use throughout the winter. I'm not an onion lover, so these would last me a year. However, they won't last for Mom. She uses a LOT of onions.

My tomatoes got ripped out on Monday - Late Blight nailed them. Very sad and frustrating, but it doesn't hit the entire garden, so I just can't argue. And in all honesty, I can't argue too much about the tomatoes. I was actually dreading dealing with them this year. I enjoy canning them, but it does take a lot of time and that's something I tend to have in short supply. And while I LOVE home grown tomatoes, I'll live without them for a year. It'll just make next year's that much better!

Within the next few days will be another 4 pints of beets. They come on about every 10 days, so it's pretty easy to plan around them.

I have coriander galore since I never harvested it as cilantro. I may do a very small bag of leaves, but may not too. I think I'll harvest the seed and see if anyone wants any. Just because I can!

So, with all of that done, I shouldn't need to deal with the garden again for another 3 days, which means I'll be able to focus on the flower beds, 2 of which are in serious need. 1, Mom wants replanted entirely, and another needs weeding.

Summer Time And The Living Is Easy

I don't know that it's easy, but it's not cold. That's about all I'll give it for now. LOL

I am in the process of canning a bushel of peaches. I've gotten 14 pints finished thus far, and probably about that again in the next few days. Plus, a batch of peach nectar jelly and peach jam.

Am going to try a new way of canning. It's the same method, just a different syrup. Since I boil the skins, pits and bruised areas for jelly anyway, I thought I'd use part of a batch of that as the syrup base, rather than plain water. Add the sugar at the concentration I'd like - usually a light syrup - heat it to boiling and add it to the jars just like regular syrup.

The peaches should be a nicer color, and have a far better flavor than being watered down by plain syrup. I'll try it for the rest of this bushel, but no more than that since, if it doesn't work, that's an awful lot of mediocre peaches to eat.

And yes, the whole process is time consuming. And HOT. But it's enjoyable. And when you see an entire shelf of peaches glowing at you, it is SO worth it!

This year, the savings will be double that of last year. A bushel last year was $50. This year, only $20. They were smaller ones - well, I don't need huge peaches just to can and make jam! I don't care! I'm not canning for the state fair, and slice them up anyway. Why use the huge dinner peaches?

And the savings to the environment - HUGE. Less than 100 miles to get them here. Virtually no chemicals used in growing them. And my processing, which uses the microwave as much as possible to cut down on the heat in the kitchen. Process as much as you can at once to take advantage of the water already boiling and you're using even less. I would guess we're no worse than even - 1 calorie of energy to produce for 1 calorie of eating. Standard energy consumption for industrial food in the US is 10-20 calories of energy to produce 1 calorie for eating.

I'm liking life. It may not be Porgy and Bess easy, but it could be a whole lot worse.

Rain Water Never Felt So Good

Here in the North East US, we hardly need any more rain. Entire crops are ruined due to how much rain we get and the frequency with which we are getting it. Or, are we just spoiled from many years off average?

To look at my great great grandmother's diaries (yes, we have them! 1894-1924), the frequency of rain was twice what we have been averaging for at least the last decade. And the creek across the road from my house proves it.

Growing up, that creek never ran dry. Ever. It always ran fast and quite often, mid-shin depth. There used to be a ferry across the Susquehanna just down the road - Harper's Ferry. Now, the creek is barely above the top of a person's foot, even with 4" of rain in July and 3/4" of rain the first 2 days of August. The ferry? Long gone. Even if we didn't have bridges every few miles, the water is so low no ferry could think about crossing. Most places, the water is no more than knee deep.

That tells me 2 things - we aren't getting enough rain, and we've overdeveloped our land. For another article that goes more in depth about this, click here. I have theories on droughts and drought monitoring that you might wish to explore - and even discuss!
I'm all ears and would love to hear view points after you read this...

So yes, we've had a rainy slightly below average temperature summer thus far. It's sad that our crops are drowning, rotting, molding in the fields. There are many factors that created the issue. But it doesn't successfully create an argument about not collecting rain water and not trying to keep it on the land, rather than usher it away as quickly as possible. Look at the ways I've discussed in collecting rain water or using the water from your roof and driveway without actually collecting it. It makes life far easier, greener and healthier for all.