Archive Page 2-043009
Newsletter Articles & Photo/Video Gallery
Afterward, Van Jones autographs his book for an audience member outside the MSI auditorium.
(Photo by Kevin P. Murphy)
CSI WEBSITE GALLERY SECTION:
Included below is a photographic and videographic sampling of recent activities performed by CSI Member Organizations who work at cleaning up, restoring and maintaining Calumet Region environmental treasures, preserving, recording and transmitting the culture of the region, and developing its economy in environmentally responsible ways.
Note: Videos that have been displayed on this site are still available for viewing via the following link: http://www.youtube.com/user/calumetstewardship
OTHER PAGES ON THIS SITE:
Newsletter Articles & Photo/Video Gallery
Guest Articles
Environmental Education Programs
Links to other, related Organizations
CONTACT US: kevinmurphy1532@mac.com
Articles from the CSI Winter-Spring 2009 Newsletter:
Aerial photos show uniqueness of the Calumet Region
by Rod Sellers and Nicole Kamins
On August 20, 2008, we were incredibly lucky to experience flying over the Calumet area in a helicopter to shoot video footage for a documentary program to be used at the Ford Calumet Environmental Center at Hegewisch Marsh. The goal was to obtain footage of the fascinating juxtaposition of nature, industry and community that make the Calumet region so unique. When complete, the ten-minute documentary will provide Center visitors with a brief introduction to the Calumet region, and the initiative to simultaneously restore both industry and ecology.
Lake Calumet Grain Elevators. (Photo by Rod Sellers)
Rod took advantage of the opportunity to snap many photographs from the Vietnam-era helicopter, which had the doors removed to facilitate filming. This allowed for exceptional views. The 7 am departure made for a breezy and chilly ride. The adventure departed from Schaumburg Airport and flew east to Lake Michigan and then along the lakeshore to the Calumet area. The photographs and video taken that day provide a most interesting birds-eye perspective of our wonderful City, and particularly the Calumet area. It was truly breathtaking.
Hegewisch Marsh and the Little Calumet River--looking southwest. (Photo by Rod Sellers)
Looking Forward to Partnering
By Joan Podkul, CSI Chair
Along with our regularly scheduled events for the coming year, we look forward to CSI partnering with the Burnham Plan Centennial, the 2nd Annual 10th Ward Green Summit, the Indiana Dunes Bio-Blitz, Chicago Artists' Month in October and the No Child Left Inside Program. Above all, we hold dear our member organizations and gratefully acknowledge their collective and continuing efforts toward preserving the cultural and environmental treasures of the Calumet.
The trip focused on the Calumet River, natural areas in the Calumet region and the Hegewisch Marsh site. Other places of interest included the South Works site, Lake Calumet, Wolf Lake, the Pullman neighborhood and other former industrial sites. The weather was perfect for filming, sunny and almost cloudless. Excellent video was secured of the invaluable open spaces, including Hegewisch Marsh, Indian Ridge Marsh, Heron Pond, Big Marsh, Lake Calumet, Hyde Lake Wetlands, Wolf Lake, Powderhorn Lake, Eggers Woods, and Van Vlissingen Prairie, among others.
There are several photos of the Hulett Automatic Ore Unloaders, huge machines that reduced the unloading time of vessels bringing steelmaking materials from days to hours. The Huletts on the Calumet River, at the former LTV / Republic Steel plant, are the last two of their kind in the world, and are slated for demolition.
There are some very good pictures of the John Sherwin, a lake boat that had been docked at the Lake Calumet grain elevators since September 2006 and was being used as a grain storage barge. Two days after photographing the Sherwin at Lake Calumet on August 20, the ship had departed. There are also excellent pictures of the decommissioned Coast Guard cutter, Acacia, currently docked in the North Slip at the former South Works site.
The pictures taken that day and others of local interest are accessible from the Southeast Chicago Historical Society web site at: http://www.neiu.edu/~reseller/sephotoalbumsintro.html
Indiana Bus Tour
By Linda Cook, CSI Membership Chair
On September 22, 2008, Chicago Department of Environment organized a bus tour to visit ecologically significant natural areas in northwest Indiana, in the interest of increasing bi-state cooperation. The tour began at the Southeast Environmental Task Force office and was led by Paul Labus (The Nature Conservancy) and Daniel Goldfarb (Wildlife Habitat Council).
Along Cline Avenue, we passed a dredging area in Indiana Harbor on the south and BP Oil to the north. Arcelor Mittal Steel came up next - the steel giant is incorporating its Great Lakes Watershed Program to restore open spaces.
We hiked trails in the Miller Woods from the beach to the Paul Douglas Nature Center. Guide Christine Gerlach, with the National Park Service, pointed out the famous Mount Baldy in the distance just opposite swales. Closer by, we viewed paper birch, Jack pine, white and black oak , sand blowouts, a lagoon bordered by a slag fill, a threatened pan, invasive Phragmites, and various native wildflowers. Christine explained that some 600 native plant species are extinct due to brush fires from the old trains in the 19th and 20th centuries.
Bus tour participants enjoying a view from the top of a sand dune near Miller Woods. (Photo by Daniel Goldfarb)
Next was the 90-acre Ivanhoe Nature Preserve in Gary. It was purchased in the 1980s from the South Shore Railroad. Paul Labus and John Drake lead two separate groups east and west to see the biodiversity of the preserve. Select trees were removed to make trails and allow prairie plants to flourish. Lupine grows well in the preserve providing food for the Karner Blue Butterfly, whose numbers have increased successfully over the years. In the fall, indigo plants growing widely in the open canopy areas are good indicators of the success of the restoration. We then traveled to Gibson Woods Nature Preserve to eat lunch. Park manager Joy Bower was on hand for questions concerning the plant and animal diversity of the preserve.
Our last stop was Hoosier Prairie in Griffith. Tom Post (Indiana Department of Natural Resources) told us that the site is a state preserve, has national preserve status, and is part of the Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore System. It is protected by federal and state governments as well as The Nature Conservancy. The prairie sits between Ridge Road (Calumet Beach) and U. S. 30 (Glenwood Beach). Seasonal controlled burns are complicated by the preserve’s neighbors, nearby oil storage structures, and natural gas caverns and oil pipe lines below the prairie. In addition, three town governments must give permission for the burns every year.
Overall, participants enjoyed a day of discovery, experiencing some of the jewels of Northwest Indiana. I would join another tour of more NWI treasures in a heartbeat, and we look forward to the next tour, when Illinois folks invite Indiana folks to explore key sites.
(Editor’s Note: Video from this event can be seen on Archive Page 1--kpm}
Calumet Stewardship Initiative Members Meet to Plan 2009 Projects
Representatives of CSI member organizations met on January 27, 2009, at the offices of the Southeast Environmental Task Force. Key business included the acceptance of 5 new member organizations to CSI: Calumet Watersheds Action Committee, Dunes Learning Center, Golden Apple Foundation, Taltree Arboretum and Gardens (Valparaiso, IN), and United Urban Network, Inc. (Gary, IN).
Representatives of CSI member organizations meet at SETF offices in Hegewisch to plan projects for 2009. (Photo by Kevin P. Murphy)
Calumet Heritage Partnership President, Dr. Mark Bouman, discusses the map that will be included in the upcoming edition of Chicago Wilderness Magazine, which will be devoted extensively to the Calumet Region. (Photo by Joann Podkul)
Above: Volunteers build a "hoop house." (Photos courtesy of Gregory Bratton and his volunteer co-workers.)
Below: The hoop house worked through the winter. (Photos courtesy of Gregory Bratton and his volunteer co-workers.)
Does Neighborhood Gardening Matter?
by Kevin P. Murphy
Community Garden Coordinator, Gregory Bratton, is a persuasive advocate for his craft and, especially, for the creations of community residents who, under this Master Gardener's skilled guidance, have wrestled with trash-dominated vacant city lots and made them productively green.
Working collaboratively with the support of such concerned entities as Chicago Department of Environment, the Bush Homeowners and Tenants Association, and Healthy Southeast Chicago, Bratton has been able to acquire desolate spaces and, with willing community volunteers, turn them into food-producing engines for their neighborhood.
Under Bratton's direction, those residents not only grow the products for their ultimate consumption, they become knowledgeable gardeners, themselves, working at several locations, including the Buffalo Senior Inspirational Community Garden, 8250 S. Buffalo; Bush Community Garden of Hope, at 8559 S. Buffalo; and the Hot Wheels Senior Community Garden plots, at 8900 S. Brandon. This last, street-front, space is a gift from the adjacent Artists Garden and is intended specifically for seniors with mobility problems, who cannot readily navigate through a more traditionally laid out garden.
Plants each garden expects to share this year include: onions; leeks; red cabbage; eggplant dusky and snowy white; bell peppers; Georgia greens; tomatoes: Beef Master/Better Boy/Big Boy/Cluster Grande; potatoes; melons; squash; cucumbers; lettuce; sweet and hot peppers/chiles; chives; basil; and thyme.
These neighborhood gardens are recognized achievers, some having won City of Chicago First Place awards in 2005, 2006, 2007, and Second Place in 2008.
Operating on a shoestring, Bratton has learned how to maximize any resources that come his way. In this series of photos, we see him guiding neighborhood volunteers, in warmer weather, in the construction--from plastic rods and sheeting--of a mini-greenhouse structure that Bratton calls a "hoop-house." With this relatively simple-looking structure, the community is able to turn a seasonal bonus into a year-round resource.
In an era when heads of state are rapidly becoming poster boys for lunacy, and captains of economic disaster work at making the sinking of the Titanic look like a small boating event, Gregory Bratton helps his community to navigate productively past the hazards of high prices, low quality, and scarcity, to a healthier existence than they would ever have realized had those abandoned city lots been permitted to house only trash and its associated vermin, while sickening residents' souls with the pervasive blight.
What do you think? Does neighborhood gardening matter?
CSI Member organization, BIG: Blacks in Green, participated in the "Black Creativity 2009: Green Revolution" exhibit at the Museum of Science and Industry (MSI) , through February 28, 2009. On Saturday, February 7, BIG Founder & President, Naomi Davis, hosted a workshop at MSI featuring guest speakers Van Jones (environmentalist--author of The Green Collar Economy), and Julian Dawson (Architect/Engineer, designer of Hybrid House I), in her session on "The 8 Principles of Green-Village-Building."
BIG President, Naomi Davis, welcomes audience to workshop. (Photo by Joann M. Podkul)
Van Jones discusses The Green Collar Economy with the audience.
(Photo by Joann M. Podkul)
Architect, Julian Dawson, explains how his “Hybrid House I” design is a step toward a more viable, more affordable housing future.
(Photo by Kevin P. Murphy)
On Friday, Feb. 6, 2009, Calumet is My Back Yard (CIMBY), held environmental workshops in collaboration with Field Museum’s Calumet Environmental Education Program (CEEP), J. F. New (JFN), National Park Service (NPS), Chicago Department of Environment (CDOE), and the Southeast Environmental Task Force, at Chicago Park District’s Rainbow Beach Field House. Students from schools across the city participated in the environmentally-focused workshop, to learn how their subject matter connects with contemporary environmental issues, and how they can make an environmental difference via environmentally intelligent approaches to their own living habits.
SETF’s Jessica Cañas provides background information on environmental issue before starting team project. (Photo by Kevin P. Murphy)
CDOE’s Jerry Attere prepares his group for their learning experience.
Samuel Villaseñor, from Little Village Environmental Justice Organization, gets “down to Earth” with his group of students. (Photo by Joann M. Podkul)
NPS Ranger, Kip Walton, tells his group about the May BioBlitz scheduled for the Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore. (Photo by Joann M. Podkul)
On March 16, 2009, the Calumet Stewardship Initiative hosted a Special General Membership Meeting at the Calumet Park Field House, in Chicago, where members discussed the issue of Community Outreach as a critical part of environmental education.
Calumet Stewardship Initiative Chairperson, Joann Podkul (top center of photo), calls the meeting to order. (Photo by Kevin Murphy)
More than 30 representatives of member organizations participated in the planning meeting. (Photo by Kevin Murphy)
Dan Plath, Founder and President of the Northwest Indiana Paddling Association (standing, upper left), tells group about the upcoming Marquette to Burnham Expedition, to be conducted June 13th & 14th 2009. (Photo by Kevin Murphy)
CSI member organization, the Southeast Chicago Historical Society, held its Annual Business Meeting at the Calumet Park Field House on Saturday, March 28, 2009. Reports highlighted the many partnerships in which SECHS participates, and described upcoming events that SECHS will be sponsoring, and/or participating in with partner organizations, underscoring the fact that this is a highly active--and exciting--period in the society's own history.
Barney Janecki presents his President’s Report to the SECHS members. (Photo by Kevin Murphy)
Treasurer, Carolyn Mulac, reports on the organization’s bank account. (Photo by Kevin Murphy)
Nominating Committee Chairperson, Lucille Waszkiewicz, presents the 2010 nominations for SECHS officers to the members. (Photo by Kevin Murphy)
On April 4, 2009, Jessica Cañas, Southeast Environmental Task Force (SETF) Community Educator, and John Pastirik, Steward, and Treekeeper, of the Calumet Ecological Park Association (CEPA), conducted a mini-tree training session at Calumet Park, 9801 S. Avenue G, in Chicago. Volunteers were taught the basics of tree care and Spring tree identification in the hands-on session, sponsored by Friends of the Parks, SETF and the Chicago Park District.
SETF’s Jessica Cañas explains the purpose and procedures for mulching trees. (Photo by Joann Podkul)
John Pastirik instructs the group on tree identification. (Photo by Kevin Murphy)
On April 7, 2009, Superintendent Constantine J. Dillon, of the National Park Service's Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore, appeared at the Hegewisch Branch of the Chicago Public Library System, to discuss dunes history, the challenges associated with increased human use of the park, and the implications of nearby development for its viability.
Supt. Dillon addressing audience at Hegewisch Library. (Photo by Kevin Murphy)
Supt. Dillon answers a question from the audience. (Photo by Kevin Murphy)
Audience member’s comment delights Supt. Dillon. (Photo by Kevin Murphy)
Carl Sandburg quote regarding the importance of the Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore to the region. (Photo by Kevin Murphy)
On Thursday, April 16, 2009, the Association for the Wolf Lake Initiative (AWLI) hosted a wine and cheese reception at the Hammond Environmental Education Center to to honor those who donated to the $2500 challenge of the Legacy Foundation. During the past 12 months, almost half of the funds received came through canisters displayed by retailers. Other funds were donated by corporations and individuals, as listed. More than $3,000 was actually donated specifically to meet the challenge.
As part of that event, BP employee and AWLI member, Joseph Kruczek, announced the awarding of a BP Fabric of America Fund check to AWLI. (Photos by Kevin Murphy.)
Kruczek presented the BP Fabric of America Fund check to AWLI President, Bob Victor. (Photos by Kevin Murphy.)
