Lots of people there, lots of local fresh produce, artists selling crafts, small scale crafters of food (cheese, pickles, etc.) and the local color you get from this sort of community event.

Cows doing what they should be -- eating grass (from the Three Cowgirls Facebook page).

A hi-light was talking with Michelle from Three Cowgirls 100% Grass-Fed Beef (see the on the web or Facebook).  Her family has a farm in South Dakota that is a great example of the best in sustainability — family owned, organic, sustainable, and working with animals in a humane and sustainable way.

If you’ve read Omnivore’s Dilemma or seen Food, Inc. , you’ve read about the struggle small farmers have gone through to bring real food to the table — not the over industrialized products stuffed with corn and hormones that passes for food, and is correctly identified as unsustainable and ecologically harmful.

Like Joel Salatin of Polyface Farms, Three Cowgirls practices farming as it should be — sequestering carbon in the soil and grasses, and working with the ecosystems of fields and grasses rather than against them. The beef doesn’t just taste better, but is higher in Omega 3s and is free of the hormones and other additives (including the effects of stress) that industrial animal production creates.

Here are some thoughts from Joe Salatin from Yes! Magazine:

I think we need to go back to localized diets, and in North America, yes, we can really grow perennials, so there would be a lot of herbivore—lamb, beef—in a diet. And our fruits and vegetables, which have a high water content, would be grown close to home, preferably in our backyards. In 1945, 40 percent of all vegetables consumed in the United States were grown in backyards.

I think a local diet would have an indigenous flair. If you’re along the coast, you’d eat more seafood. If you’re inland, you would eat more herbivore and vegetables. If you’re in Florida, you would eat more citrus. Historically, it’s not about the relationship of meat to vegetables or whatever. It’s more about, what does this area grow well with a minimum of inputs?

So we bought some steaks, happy to support a family farm practicing sustainable farming, and happy to have a chance to enjoy grass fed beef. Thanks Michelle!

UPDATE: The steaks were outstanding!

We were able to paddle the Mekong River, travel into Laos and see some of the dams being built there, meet with activists, local communities, villagers, government officials, engineers building dams, and others.

We were fortunate to have a professional photographer traveling with us, so a big thanks to Josh Dick for his photography (you can see more on his website www.joshdickphoto.com).

This is an amazing course, with students living with and learning from remote highland communities in Mae Hong Son province.  Students travel out to MHS by bus, and then spend the next three weeks backpacking to each village (using the traditional trails the communities are trying to preserve — some of which have been in use for over 100 years), living with Karen tribal families, working in their fields, studying how the manage and care for the forest, and immersing themselves in the lives of the villages.

The ecology is amazing (remote and dense forests and jungle, wild orchids in the trees), steep mountain trails, lots of river crossings, and sitting around the fires in the village at night drying out and drinking tea, listening to the sounds of village life, and talking with host moms and dads, brothers and sisters, about their lives in the village, their hopes for the future, and their struggles to live a sustainable live in the mountains.

Here are just a few photos to give you an idea of what the course is like:

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This week they are switching focus to the Oceans course, and the islands, reefs and mangroves of Southern Thailand.

More from the New York Times:

Extreme Heat Bleaches Coral, and Threat Is Seen

This year’s extreme heat is putting the world’s coral reefs under such severe stress that scientists fear widespread die-offs, endangering not only the richest ecosystems in the ocean but also fisheries that feed millions of people…

What is unfolding this year is only the second known global bleaching of coral reefs. Scientists are holding out hope that this year will not be as bad, over all, as 1998, the hottest year in the historical record, when an estimated 16 percent of the world’s shallow-water reefs died. But in some places, including Thailand, the situation is looking worse than in 1998…

According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the first eight months of 2010 matched 1998 as the hottest January to August period on record. High ocean temperatures are taxing the organisms most sensitive to them, the shallow-water corals that create some of the world’s most vibrant and colorful seascapes…

“It is a lot easier for oceans to heat up above the corals’ thresholds for bleaching when climate change is warming the baseline temperatures,” said C. Mark Eakin, who runs a program called Coral Reef Watch for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. “If you get an event like El Niño or you just get a hot summer, it’s going to be on top of the warmest temperatures we’ve ever seen.”

In Thailand, “there some signs of recovery in places,” said James True, a biologist at Prince of Songkla University. But in other spots, he said, corals were hit so hard that it was not clear young polyps would be available from nearby areas to repopulate dead reefs.

We expected that eventually the reefs at our study sites would be hit with the impact of global warming.  We just didn’t expect it this soon.

From what we have heard, we think that the archipelago is one of the places where we will see recovery.  Studying this change will be an important part of the course this semester.

The students learned about the fish hatchery, and then go to work helping clear ponds, collect fish eggs (tilapia are mouth brooders), and harvest fish.  They also had a great lunch of VERY fresh fish!

Click through to the photos for more!

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Here’s a description:

Chris Malloy’s film strikes so deeply into the heart of Patagonia’s wilderness we come to feel at home there. 180° South: Conquerors of the Useless follows Jeff Johnson as he retraces the epic 1968 journey of his heroes Yvon Chouinard and Doug Tompkins to Patagonia. Along the way he gets shipwrecked off Easter Island, surfs the longest wave of his life – and prepares himself for a rare ascent of Cerro Corcovado. Jeff’s life turns when he meets up in a rainy hut with Chouinard and Tompkins who, once driven purely by a love of climbing and surfing, now value above all the experience of raw nature – and have come to Patagonia to spend their fortunes to protect it.

What we found useful in the film is the deeper story about sustainability.  Going to Rapa Nui (Easter Island) can’t help but bring up questions about sustainability. Like our own students on study abroad at ISDSI, Jeff Johnson is on a journey — getting to know interesting people, and experiencing first-hand a different way of life .

We used the film as a jumping off point to discuss sustainability and its challenges, and think that this film can be a great way to start thinking about culture and ecology — the core of what we care about at ISDSI.

Here’s the trailer:

Here are some of the questions we used for the film:

• Who are the actors / people / groups in the movie?
• What resources are they interested in / do they have a stake in?
• What is the connection to the natural world do different people / groups have?
• What key issues / questions / problems of sustainability does the film address?
• What expedition / leadership skill are demonstrated during the film?

We then followed up the rest of the week with reading papers and articles related to the sustainability themes in the film. Some of the topics we focused on were:

• Consumerism
• Resource use / management
• Views of nature / people in nature
• Corporate responsibility / sustainable business
• Individual responsibility
• Local costs / distant benefits (externalities)
• Ecological footprints
• Marginalization and sustainability

So yes, it is a fun journey movie, and entertaining.  But there is a deeper message there if you think about it.

Go see it if you can.

For more information go to 18oSouth.com and for information on showings see Patagonia.com.

The Nokero bulb at night. One GREAT feature is that it turns itself off in bright light -- so you could leave it on and hanging up, and it would go on at night when it gets dark.

We just got in three Nokero solar light bulbs today, and they are amazing.  I heard about this a few weeks ago, and contacted the company and ordered three to check out.

It is a very simple design — four small solar cells collecting energy, with a NiMH battery to store the power in, and a 5 LED “bulb”.  It looks (and feels) very rugged, and super durable.  I hung it outside today, and then turned it on this evening and it is decently bright — certainly enough to read by if you need to, or carry out other jobs at night.

This would be great on our expedition field courses — just clip it to a pack or canopy of a longtail boat during the day, and hang it up at night for light. As a study abroad program working in remote areas, these look to be a great addition to our bag of tricks.

We’re going to be stress testing it over the course of the next few months, but we can already see some great applications beyond just our own expedition field courses:

• Imagine airlifting thousands of these into places hit by a natural disaster (like Haiti) where the grid is down…
• Handing them out to IDPs (Internally Displaced Persons) in Burma or other war zones…
• Giving them as gifts to village host families who are away from the grid…

I’ve camped in the jungle at night, and it is REALLY dark.  Just think about how much better than trying to keep a fire burning for light one of these would be if you’re an IDP fleeing to the border?  No fire to worry about, no worries about running out of fuel, no need to buy batteries.  Getting them out there isn’t going to be easy — but it IS possible.

So we’re going to see about doing that, and maybe set up a way for folks to sponsor solar light bulbs for IDPs in Burma through ISDSI…

For more information (or to order one yourself) go to www.nokero.com.

Here are a few photos taken by our instructor, Pi Ben, to give you a bit of a feel of what the course is like.

The prow of a new longtail boat on Mook island.

Krissy and Nikki paddling in on a double seakayak.

Ben sea kaking, leaving the beach for the crossing to Mook island.

Ben and Karen, leaders of the day, explaining the day's route by sea kayak.

Ben landing on the beach and pulling up his kayak. The ISDSI support boat in the background.

Dinner with a view. Camping on the beach in Trang.

Karen padding into the beach.

A longtail crossing by after a storm.

Karen and Ben, leaders of the day, sorting out the kayaks after a day's paddle.

Riley identifying different types of seagrass during a study of seagrass ecology and dugong feeding behavior.

A real pirate cave -- a great location for a seminar by Bang Hed, a village elder, about mangroves and community. (The pirates have been gone for a long time... at least that's what Bang Hed says...)

Jack and his host family, Baan Iet, Ja Mai, Nong Chock, and Nong Lin.

Pi Noi, usually in the office, but also working the occasional field course, and Pi Toto, field instructor.

The host families of Jao Mai village with their students.

Mid-course seminar with Ajaan Mark. ISDSI field seminar rooms don't have WiFi, but we like them!

Ben watching the sunset over the Andaman Sea.

]]> http://www.isdsi.org/2010/05/coastal-ecology-and-culture/feed/ 0 http://www.isdsi.org/2010/03/ecotourism-sustainability-and-climbing/ http://www.isdsi.org/2010/03/ecotourism-sustainability-and-climbing/#comments Mon, 15 Mar 2010 00:53:18 +0000 mark http://www.isdsi.org/?p=2008

Pi Kat, businesswoman, climber and occasional ISDSI Field Instructor, climbing at Crazy Horse. (Photo credit: Josh and Dan Morris)

A core part of what we do at ISDSI is to teach students about teamwork, leadership, and decision making. We believe that part of creating a more sustainable world is equipping students with practical skills in how to work and lead, so that their passion for sustainability can be transformed into action.

A great way to combine these lessons is through the challenge of rock climbing. We are fortunate to be near a world-class climbing destination, and have helped a bit over the years to develop Crazy Horse, from crag clean-ups to trail building to some initial meetings with local officals. Crazy Horse is a community effort spearheaded by the folks at Chiang Mai Rock Climbing Adventures.  Each semester, ISDSI students go out to Crazy Horse to climb and have an amazing time. Josh Morris and Khaetthaleeya Uppakham (Pi Kat) have done a great job developing the crag into not only a world-class climbing destination, but also an example of how to develop a sustainable ecotourism destination. We’ve worked with both Josh and Kat, and Kat is a field instructor for ISDSI when she has time.

Climbing Magazine has featured them in an article, The Other Thailand, talking not just about the climbing, but also the history and unique development of Crazy Horse.

Leave behind Thailand’s farang-packed Tonsai, and you’ll discover Crazy Horse, a quiet crag that’s redefining sustainable tourism in Asia…

Crazy Horse Buttress rises above rice paddies 25 miles from the culturally vibrant city Chiang Mai. Named for its principal formation’s striking resemblance to an equine head, Crazy Horse comprises a cluster of 15 quiet cliffs first climbed in 1998 and now boasting 97 single-pitch and 15 multi-pitch routes. Spanning 5.6 to 5.13c, the climbs tackle everything from technical slabs, to overhanging tufas, to multi-chambered, stalactite-dripping caves — not to mention the wealth of untapped rock.

However, the cliff’s true essence lies in the tight-knit community of locals and foreigners who’ve developed it. With an emphasis on social and ecological sustainability, the motley Crazy Horse crew has endeavored to keep this a quality destination for the long haul. In fact, many climbers now hold up Crazy Horse as a case study on how climbing tourism can positively affect a foreign community. Turns out, one of the most important factors is for the locals to come to love climbing, too.

If you’re interested in sustainability, ecotourism and (of course) climbing, jump over and read “The Other Thailand.”