Sustainability House

This year several River Stewards had the opportunity to live in Sustainability Special Interest Housing. Now many people may think that special interest housing is just a nice way to get a house in the south student neighborhood (“the ghetto”), however our groups made an extreme effort to live in a simple, eco-friendly manner. In addition to leading by example, the four houses (22 students) educated other students about environmental issues through events and dinners (free food always encourages participation :))

I lived in “The Treehouse” at 124 Evanston. Six of us reduced our energy and water usage, line dried our clothes, ate locally, gardened, and composted! We lived without air conditioning for those few tortuous weeks in August and September and have been living with little heat for the past couple weeks. We purchased fresh produce and eggs weekly from our friends at Patchwork Gardens as well as grew our own herbs in a garden that was installed behind our house! We installed rain barrels and a compost bin behind our home to water and fertilize the garden. We also held an event in September where we gave out potted herbs and educated other students about the importance of eating locally!

Next semester we will be involved in planning events for Earth Day as well as working with several groups to decrease campus energy usage and potentially installing a green roof on the KU patio! Also we have recently discovered that next year 6 River Stewards will be residing in the Sustainability Special Interest House at 406 Stonemill!

For more information regarding our house you can check-out our blog - http://seetreehouse.blogspot.com/

Happy Holidays! - Milena

Hey everybody!

I just wanted to update everyone on the Rivermobile project. The last meeting went really well and Exhibit Design Concepts is hoping to have a final design for us at the end of January.During the meeting we split into two groups made up of both designers and River Stewards and laid out what we thought the inside of the tractor trailer should look like. At the end of the meeting, we compared the two different pictures. It was amazing how similar the two groups' designs were! I am looking forward to continuing to work on this project next semester.

Have a great break! See you in January.

Taylor Pair

Reflection of the Semester

This semester was another great one to be a river steward! I enjoyed each mini-course and feel like I gained a lot this semester. One particular mini-course that sticks out to me was my cohort's visit to Troy. The City of Troy has done some great things to connect people to the river which include building swings, paths, and the renovation waterside restaurant. The city has many additional plans that are waiting for funding. The actions of the City of Troy give me hope for what we are doing as river stewards. It's great to see others in our corridor striving to create something that will bring members of the community to the river and outdoors. The area we live in is unique and we need to enjoy what Dayton and the surrounding communities have to offer. Being river stewards we are lucky enough to know this, but it's our job to tell others!
Happy holidays! Be sure to take some friends to RiverScape for ice skating next semester!
(More info about Troy can be found at http://www.troyohio.gov/).

Elizabeth Wetzel

Gear Fest

This dates back to early in the semester but it was one of my favorite River Steward experiences so far. Gear Fest happened on the first weekend of October in Eastwood Metro Park. When we got there is was about 40 degrees and raining while we set up our tents. Personally I didn't do much that first night at gear fest beyond watching the slackliners warm up and eat Monchon, a sandwich cart located usually on the dark side (North Student Neighborhood) on the weekends. That night we slept in the tents and it was so cold that about 15 people slept in the same tent for warmth. In the middle of the night I we were woken up by screams because groundhogs were trying to get up out of their holes and we put the tent right on top of them. The next day after welcoming people in the morning I learned what Gear Fest was all about. I watched people mountain biking, running, kayaking, canoeing, and slacklining.

I went around to the booths set up by local organizations and learned about what outdoor activities they were involved with. I got to watch the national championship of slack-lining and for those of you who don't know what slack-lining is, I placed a clip from Gear Fest below. I tried it myself and accidentally bounced off of it doing a back flip onto my butt. Overall it was an exciting experience and I can't wait to go back to it next year under its new name, Midwest Outdoor Experience.

Last weekend I took a break from studying for finals and met some of my family members in Columbus to see my cousins art show. Somehow we got on the topic of the Rivers around Columbus and Dayton and I couldn't help but fill them in on how amazing the Rivers and Dams of Dayton are and how clean Dayton's water is. They were so impressed! Also, I told them about the new Rec bikes at the UD rec center. They couldn't believe that a small group of students were able to put such a large program in place on a college campus. While I was talking to them about the Rivers Institute I couldn't help but find myself falling even more in love with Dayton, its Rivers, and the Rivers Institute.

Tackling Teamwork

It is hard to believe that another semester has already gone by for the 2013 cohort! Looking back though, the one word I could use to describe our semester would be "teamwork." Right off the bat with going to Camp Kern for team-building at the low ropes course, we knew this would be a crucial element for our cohort as we began to brainstorm ideas for our Senior Project. Even though we represent a variety of majors and interests, we have been able to come together and get excited over a common goal and vision we see for UD. We are excited to see our idea become a reality over the next semester and we are ready to get creative and share our knowledge and passion with the rest of the UD campus!
Get excited for what 2012 has in store for the River Stewards!
-Ellen C.
2013 cohort River Steward

My Work in the Lab

Hey everyone,

These past few weeks I have been working in the lab with my adviser. We have multiple experiments happening at one time but two of them have caught my eye.

Two of his lab leaders are doing experiments based solely around a river and how X affects it. I was invited to lab a bit too late to learn about one of the experiments fully but I do know that she was testing and studying the algae growth at different points in the river. The best part is that I was able to go out into the field, or in this case the river, and get my hands wet in frigid waters.
Now, the other experiment is just now starting and she is studying the relationship between Daphnia and how Honeysuckle affects them.

Next semester I will try to keep my blogs about this experiment with updates and such and hopefully it will be pretty interesting.

And one last thing, when I was getting off the plane someone stopped me and said "Nice shirt" and they were referring to my GearFest shirt. Its pretty cool how widespread GearFest is.