At the Bioneers Conference there are speakers, workshops, performances by local musicians, etc. The central hub is in San Rafael, California and the local hubs have live viewings of the main speakers. Unfortunately for various reasons I couldn't attend the conference this year but my friend Audrey Menninga did. She didn't get to go with us (the Environmental Science Organization) last year so this was her first. The branch that she attended was The Great Lakes Bioneers hub in Traverse City, Michigan. This hub celebrated its 10th anniversary.
As a favor Audrey has written a guest blog:
Going to Bioneers was a great experience for me. I attended seminars, watched speakers who are making a difference in our world, and became inspired myself.
A couple of friends and I started the conference off by going on a field trip out to the Nature Conservancy. Matthew, our guide for the trip, explained a lot about what the Conservancy was doing. Right now they’re focusing on fighting off the invasive species that have invaded the areas around Traverse City.
While teaching us about how invasive species get into forests and how they spread, they also showed us some cool things about their building. The walls were built specially, so that in the winter they can heat the building off of the electronics they use and the body heat they give off and in the summer, it helps keep the building cool. I can’t say exactly how it worked, but they showed us what the walls looked like and it was two slabs of Styrofoam with metal support beams between the two. The inside area was filled with concrete.
One of the really inspiring things that I learned about was creating sustainable landscapes. Pete Muñoz, co-founder of SEEDS. SEEDS is a nonprofit organization established to foster local solutions to global issues. Muñoz used different systems to help create a flowing system of energy throughout the landscape and to help cut down on energy costs of the buildings. Systems included things like catching their own rainwater and using hydroponics to grow plants that would filter water that could then be used for toilet water and that could clean bodies of water.
One of the projects he told us about was taking place in the Baltimore Harbor, where massive piles of bottles float. The city wanted to clean its waters, but they didn’t have money or ideas. Muñoz offered a solution—take the bottles, wash and cap them, and use them to build floating wetlands. The plants will help filter the water, making it cleaner. As for the workers that Baltimore couldn’t afford to hire? They took children and made a school project out of it, effectively getting the community involved.
