As a former student of Bridget’s I am going on this trip to further develop my understanding of conservation photography, teach photography, and to broaden my environmental horizons. However, there are still expenses associated with the trip that I need to pay. I’d love your support — in whatever amount you can afford! In return, I will send you a unique piece of JRP art you can treasure forever. If you can’t financially support me, that is ok! Instead, please follow along with the adventure on my blog and send good travel thoughts my way. Or, bring dinner to Jim while I am gone.

While I am in Patagonia, you can follow my adventures on my blog. If you have been to my website recently, you’ll notice a major change! The focus of my photography is now geared towards documenting the environment. I am finally able to completely merge my ongoing graduate education in Environmental Science and Policy with photography. My adventures are now leading me into the Adirondack Mountains to photograph and understand how climate change is affecting the region, documenting the lives of area farmers for a local conservation non-profit, and helping a new girl’s summer camp with their branding and fundraising (using photography of course!). And, going to school in the middle of it all.

It’s all happening and I wanted to thank you for your love, support and patience along the way. I could not have done it without you. I am asking for just a little bit more support, this time financial to help me fund my trip to Patagonia. I leave in exactly one month! Thankfully, my professors are kind and understanding of my endeavors, since I will be gone March 1 – 14. So time is short to donate to my adventure.

To donate via Paypal, go to this link: https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_s-xclick&hosted_button_id=RGS8CGU3YAUVL
Or, if you’d like to send a check, email me at info@jessicariehl.com and I will send you my address.

Be well and much advanced gratitude,

Jessica

The purpose of her article was to encourage northerners and westerners of the mild and kindly climate Buckingham, Virginia afforded poultry growers. From an environmental perspective her article is interesting for several reasons. First, she discusses how she raises her own feed which is almost a balanced ration. Second, in June she lets the “growing stock and hens” graze the wheat fields which affords them sufficient grain. Third, she promotes a southern climate for raising poultry because it reduces the amount of time the poultry spend locked up in the barn. In my humble opinion, these are self sufficient practices industrial farming does not employ these days. I would like to think that my great grandmother’s farm was sustainable. The practices she discusses are practices I read more everyday, and I can’t help but be hopeful we will continue to find more sustainable farming methods.

The last line is absolutely the best: “This is to give you northern and western poultrymen who labor under disadvantages, a tip as to how you may succeed with poultry here and at much less expense and labor.”

This is, of course, a photography blog so I would be remiss in presenting photographic evidence. I went through the trunks of photographs I have and found a few to share with you. Did I mention the chickens were prize winning? Well, they were and I still have the trophy.

If you would like to read the article, here is the link: http://www.jessicariehl.com/thepoultryitem.pdf

I found the article thanks to Google’s book scanning project…thank you!

This is such a beautiful photograph, I hope that it is my great grandmother, though I don't know for sure.

Prize winners, for sure!

I wonder if this is my great grandmother in the back of the photograph?

The trophy!

But this panel was one that I found as fascinating to watch as it was to listen to what was not said. We were sitting in one of the Santa Fe Community Colleges’ brightly lit classrooms, but honestly we could have been in any classroom across the country. As the panelists entered the room, it became clear we had two individuals on opposite ends of the spectrum.

Mariel Nanasi, the executive director for New Energy Economy, sat closest to the window and Ron Darnell, vice president of regulatory affairs, PNM Resources, sat closest to the door with a clear line of sight to his communications guy. You could feel the tension as soon as Ms. Nanasi introduced herself and gave us one directive and one story. Her directive/story was that we needed to tell the story of how PNM is blocking renewable energy progress in New Mexico. I think I can speak for most of the journalists in the group when I say we were disappointed when she did not offer an alternative, hopeful renewable energy story for New Mexico. It was clear that Marial came to the table with a pair of six shooters aimed at only one person.

I feel like my education in environmental policy gives me great empathy for understanding the battle a small nonprofit faces when confronting the fossil fuel corporate status quo. The issues surrounding our fossil fuel dependence—such as pollution, lack of viable alternatives right now, environmental social injustice, and inadequate wealth distribution (just to name a few)—make this debate extraordinarily complex, monumental, and difficult. I have great respect for single-minded evangelical determination, but we have to think about what story we are telling and who our audience is for that story. Understanding your audience and presenting an interesting, new, critical story/viewpoint will help them latch on to your vision and want to tell it. We know PNM is a habitual air polluter, so why not just provide a simple fact sheet with these details and tell us how we as a state or country can move into the future.

Mr. Darnell, to my surprise, clearly demonstrated his nervousness as he read a prepared statement about PNM. He was constantly looking at his communications guy sitting against the wall in the back. But that nervousness seemed to go away as the conversation progressed and I postulate it was because Ms. Nanasi did not present anything new. One of our wizened energy reporters asked Mr. Darnell a simple question, “What’s your policy on climate change?” Mr. Darnell responded with, “Well, I don’t know what the web site says, I’ll need to do some research on that.” Seriously? That is what the vice president of regulatory affairs has to offer us? Let me hitch my wagon to that star, I am sure I’ll plop soundly in the middle of an acidified ocean.

I will be the first to admit that I am a seriously “green” journalist, and in all truth, only a photojournalist. I have never written for publication, although I do have dreams of writing more, soon. So, I have to thank my fellow Institutes of Journalism and Natural Resources journalists for enlightening me on the finer points of watching such a conversation. I also learned from them (as any good journalist could have told me) to approach every subject with skepticism. As much as I want to jump on the bandwagon of the “David” side of the battle (being the optimistic and trusting gal that I am), I know that to further the environmental movement, caution and restraint in judgment are required.

You know what was the most disheartening part of this panel? We only had a few minutes to hear from the two people who really seem to be reaching across the divide between parties and trying to find solutions. This just reiterates how polarizing these issues are and how difficult it is for those pushing for real resolutions to rise above the fray. I hope at the next panel, the boxers step out of the ring for a moment to take stock of the situation. It’s not all about you.

To Sandra Begay-Campbell, director of Native Communities Energy Program, and Brendan Miller from New Mexico Independent Power Producers, I look forward to learning more about your organizations.

Ron Darnell, vice president, regulatory affairs, PNM Resources.

Mariel Nanasi, executive director, New Energy Economy

Sandra Begay-Campbell, director, Native Communities Energy Program, Sandia.

Brendan Miller, NM Independent Power Producers.

Frank Barbera, director of reliability assurance, Tres Amigas LLC. I didn't mention Frank and his organization, well, because I don't feel I have enough information at the moment to really say much.

Fellow journalist, Zulima Palacio, television producer, Voices of America filmed our panel.

During this particular trip I focused on water and leaves while using my 16-35 mm lens on the Canon 5D Mk I. All of my images here are hand held or braced against a stick or on a rock. Of course, silly me, I didn’t bring the tripod.

As a current masters student, I love learning about ways in which we can educate ourselves about environmental issues. Our first stop was the Santa Fe Community College Sustainable Technologies Center. Their mission is to “integrate 21st century trades with advanced technologies and green curricula to promote a sustainable economy.”  Randy Grissom, the director of the center, was our tour guide and explained the center was developed with community input to provide the types of skill sets it felt it would need moving forward.

While the building is certainly high tech and well on its way to carbon neutrality, its greatest feature is as a teaching tool. The guts of the building are completely exposed and identified, allowing it to be used as an operational classroom. Everything is labeled, from pipes to circuit breaker panels. I felt like I was walking back on a Navy ship and should get ready to trace out a few systems. As someone who has spent hours and hours doing exactly that, there is nothing like an easily accessible (and marked) system.

I was interested to learn that about half of the students enrolled in the technology center courses, certificates and degree programs already have a master’s degree. Students are coming back to gain technical skills in LEED certification, biofuels, solar, weatherization, and energy auditing to name a few. These skills are combined with traditional vocational programs such as plumbing, electrical, and water treatment.  When I think about what types of skills needed in the Adirondacks, weatherization and energy auditing tops the list. When ADK CAP had its conference in May 2010, the Building Committee estimated there were considerably lower numbers of the type of specialists required to fulfill their expected energy auditing and weatherization needs. a As we move forward into a different type of energy economy many of the skills will become critical and SFCC is leading the country in developing these programs. They could serve as a model for bringing practical green technology education to regions around the country we we try and craft regional energy policies.

Randy Grissom discusses how each facet of the building is an educational tool for the students.

SFCC's biofuel samples.

SFCC students are researching and learning to develop fuel from algae.

Randy Grissom, the director of SFCC's Sustainable Technologies Center.

SFCC's weatherization classroom.

Santa Fe Community College solar panels dusted with a light snow.

IJNR participants check out the 1 megawatt solar array on top of the Santa Fe Community College Sustainable Technologies Center.

Journalist Lindsey Hoshaw feels copper pipes warmed by solar heating.

I will still be available for portraiture if you just have to have a JRP portrait. However, most of my work will now be environmentally focused. I will have a special gallery title Children in Nature and future children’s portrait sessions will be naturally focused.

Please join me in my new photographic start. I invite you to check out the new galleries under the portfolio menu tab and stayed tuned for future JRP excitement!

Looking forward to the future…