September 24, 2024 • 42 mins
Join us this week as we chat with Peggy Anesi about her career in empowering youth about climate change. By keeping it local and empowering them with realistic options for addressing climate change, we can build a citizenry that is equipped face the many challenges presented by our changing climate.
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Episode Transcript
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Erin Garrett (00:06):
Welcome to another episode of the Everyday
Environment podcast where weexplore the environment we see
everyday. I'm your host, ErinGarrett,
Abigail Garofalo (00:13):
and I'm your co host, Abigail Garofalo.
Erin Garrett (00:16):
And today, we are here with Peggy Anesi, who is a
Natural Resources, Environment,and Energy Extension Educator
located in the northern part ofthe state, and we're gonna be
chatting about empowering kidsabout climate change. Welcome,
Peggy.
Peggy Anesi (00:30):
Thank you very much. Glad to be here.
Erin Garrett (00:32):
Awesome. Well, we all work together in Extension,
and we know what you do withyouth. Tell our listeners about
the work that you do with youthand environmental action and
empowerment.
Peggy Anesi (00:45):
So I'm I've been doing environmental education
for 25 years with Extension, andprior to that, I did,
residential outdoor ed. It wasnever my intention. My first
degree is in wildlifemanagement. I guess there was
never, a descriptor on whatwildlife was, but I now manage
wildlife in the form of childrenprobably, 80% of my job. And so
(01:09):
it wasn't what I wanted. Ididn't even wanna talk to
people, but as people know,Extension's job is to
communicate. So when I did, anapprenticeship, I found out what
it meant to have the floor andwent, oh, I can communicate what
I believe and what I love. Sothen I it turned into this long
career watching children and ourcommunities and our environment
(01:30):
change and how that changes withhow we help those kids relate
relate to their space.
Abigail Garofalo (01:37):
Yeah. I feel like you have had this, like,
kind of crazy journey.Extension's a wild job anyways.
Like, you deal with all sorts ofpeople and, all sorts of
different kinds of roles, andall of us kind of do little bit
of different things. And, Peggy,you get a lot of, like, wildlife
questions, but, like, I wouldsay a lot of your job really
does center around youtheducation. Specifically water.
(02:01):
You do a lot of water education,and a lot of water programming,
which is pretty cool. So whenwe're talking about youth or
kids, why is it important toempower them to understand and
take action on climate change?
Peggy Anesi (02:15):
So I'm gonna preface this conversation
because the things I'm gonnatalk about today are simply my
opinion or personal insightsfrom 30 years in of
environmental education. I hopeI never sound hypocritical nor
do I mean to in any way attemptto shape someone else's opinion,
because these topics can getsensitive. I only hope to be a
small catalyst of thought. Sofor those who are who are
(02:40):
listening and and potentiallyrespond in their own way in
their own community. So justwant to put it out there. These
are just things that have cometo mind as I've traveled through
the environment led world. Sojust wanted to make that clear.
Abigail Garofalo (02:53):
Our disclaimer. I totally get it.
Yeah.
Peggy Anesi (02:56):
Well, I think that, and we'll get to that, you know,
the how to do that. Ourgenerations were you know, you
hear it you hear it everygeneration. We're handing over
to the next generation what weleave. Right? But it's not just
that. I'm I'm seeing adults, inour on our county boards who
can't make decisions aboutnatural resources that are
critical and timely because theydon't have the knowledge base.
(03:20):
So in my mind, the more weattach children to the natural
regions around them, we don'thave to go and and blast the
climate change bells. We justhave to have, you know, have to
have time to spend with them,having them relate to their
communities and their space, asit relates to the natural world
so that when they sit on acounty board, they don't have
(03:41):
to, you know, table a topic onwatersheds four times to bring
in specialists to talk aboutthem before they can make a
decision when that decisionmight not have that much time.
So looking at both ends of thespectrum, we have adults who who
haven't had we've had plenty oftime, you guys. We've had all
this time to be blending thisinto our conversations, this
(04:05):
climate education, weatherchanging patterns, and we
haven't done it. We've been soworried about, you know,
pressing the climate change andthe big picture. We've missed
all of our little opportunities,I think. So we need to make up
for that.
Abigail Garofalo (04:19):
Yeah. I definitely see in my
programming, I made a promise tomyself a few years ago that I
was like, everything I teachrelates to climate change. Why
am I not kind of bringing thatconnection in? So I try and
bring that in, you know,anywhere and everywhere that I
can because I noticed peoplearen't attending climate change
(04:39):
programming, unless they're,like, big into the climate
change programming. But it thethe programs that I'm teaching
are all related to climatechange. Somebody comes to my
class about, you know, wildlifefriendly gardening practices,
I'm gonna talk about how climateis going to, change and be
affected, and your garden isgonna be affected by that and
(05:02):
the wildlife within that.Somebody comes to me about a
lawn care class. We kindamentioned how, yeah, you need to
have more resilient plants inyour landscape, and your lawns
need to be more resilientbecause we're gonna be seeing
these larger stress events onyour plants. And so kind of
bringing in those littleopportunities to empower youth
and empower adults too to justkind of help build like, help
(05:23):
scaffold those connections forthemselves. So that way Mhmm.
You don't always have to have anexpert there or you know? Yeah.
Sure. We'll talk to you aboutthe scientific connections and
all those things, but there'ssome basic concepts that you
don't have to know the name ofeverything or the term, but you
need this idea that, like, waterconnects everything in this
concept called a watershed and,like, how our landscape is
(05:46):
connected and how, oh, there areinteractions that occur between
different living things andnonliving things in an
ecosystem. Asking thosequestions about, well, what is
interacting here? Really, andjust having those tools to ask
those questions is so important.
Peggy Anesi (06:01):
And pulling that thread together. Yep.
Definitely. You know what I whenI was saying that that, you
know, we've got some catching upto do. People, all ages, they're
all we're all naturally lifelonglearners, and it's we were
talking about us all workingtogether. It's our charge,
really for those of us in thefield to offer that knowledge,
and that's what we do, right, ina digestible fashion. But we
(06:23):
have windows of opportunity thatwe aren't taking advantage of,
but somebody else will. Whetherit's, you know, everything from
what's on sale to you know, wewe need to market even better.
We need to market our knowledgeeven better because sharing
objective knowledge and havingpassionate non nonjudgmental
conversations, will help toit'll help develop that life
(06:46):
raft. Right now, we need a liferaft for the adults who don't
who've lost that attachment. AndI don't mean it to sound like,
oh, they're horrible. They justthey don't have time to figure
out maybe you know, I gotta paythe bills. I gotta get to work.
I gotta do this.
It doesn't occur to them thatthe paper they they, you know,
that comes in the mail if theystill get a bill is from a tree.
They don't think about theirfuel. One of my favorite moments
(07:07):
was a young adult who came to a,a meeting because we had a a
large oil company that we'regonna put a pipeline right
through our county. And she cameto the meeting in her SUV, full
size, to complain to the oil guyabout a pipeline. Okay. We
aren't even connecting thosedots. She was in his face. I'm
(07:28):
like, how did you get here todayin my car? In my car. I'm like,
I think we need to have aconversation, not a, you know,
one-sided battle. And she hadn'teven thought about that. We we
aren't we're missing so manyconnections as adults because
we're not educating our we'renot I I don't wanna say it like
that. We aren't takingopportunities to educate youth.
Have them stay aware of wheretheir food is coming from, where
(07:51):
their water's coming from, andnarrow it down. It has to be
narrowed down. You know?
In a in in Extension, our team,we had this potential, how to
deliver it. We had a group thatwas that, our leaders saw the
advantage of us getting morecomfortable with the whole lead
idea. Leading is one thing, butwe we gotta fulfill it. And for
(08:11):
our kids, we can assist ourschools in developing curriculum
right now. I mean, we've missedthat. We've missed that boat.
There's always a change. Andteachers are like, I can't get
my kids on a field study becausewe don't have time. We're
teaching to the test in 4thgrade, blah, blah. But what if
we were teaching to the rightquestions on the test that are
relative to meeting thestandards and using those
(08:33):
examples. And one of the thingsthat, you know, Extension is
throughout the US. We are thebest blanket for bringing and
with the next generation sciencestandards being federal, it's
all lining up. Right? And it's aperfect fit. And, you know, I
know you guys know that I'm abig storyteller. Storytelling is
(08:54):
amazing for youth, but if youmake it nonfiction, that's also
a standard they need. They aresupposed to be getting
nonfiction literature. Right?Mhmm. So storytelling is a part
of who we've always been as aculture. And and every culture
has a storytelling component.Why did that work so well?
Because it was relevant. It wasrelevant to who they were, and
(09:18):
if that's all they had, thatstayed with them to create who
they were that grounded them totheir position on the planet.
And it sounds goofy.
My sister one day, she was myolder sister, my favorite hippie
on the planet. Right? And shegoes, well, don't you think
that, eventually all being justwe all be the same, that big
melting pot's a good idea? Isaid, no. I don't. We wouldn't
(09:40):
have our individuality to shareand our cultures to compare and
share if we're all the same, andwe wouldn't have that
connection. You know, I'mnorthern Swede, English, and
Danish. I why do I love theforest so much? Innately, I you
know, genetically, that's what Iknow. And we don't even talk
(10:03):
about why we choose certainthings we choose, why we favor
certain things we favor in thecase of of nature.
And with our kids, we have tominimize. You know, we talked
about watershed. Yes. Until I Iabout said until I die. Oh, my
lord. Until I retire. Samething. Right? I'm focusing on
watershed because I figured outthat with with all education,
(10:25):
especially climate education,you can narrow this down for
children and bring it right intotheir town within a basin,
within a watershed, and now itmatters. You're not talking
about you know, my best example,my son came home from 3rd grade
all yippee skippy. You know? Oh,something good's gonna happen,
and he came in the door. And itwas adorable. He said, mom. I
(10:48):
said, oh, something good's gonnahappen. He goes, we're gonna
make a diarrhea. And I went, I'msorry. What? He go I said, oh,
what? You mean a diorama?Because he said that we need a
shoe box. And I was, like,terrified. He goes, that's what
I said, a diarrhea. I was like,okay. So we're
Abigail Garofalo (11:00):
Duh mom.
Peggy Anesi (11:02):
And I said, what are we making a diorama of? He
goes, of the rainforest. Okay.I'm getting ready to do mammal
camp with 7 to 9 year olds.We're doing dioramas of native
Illinois mammals. Right?Habitats. So I'm like, okay.
Yay. We should all know aboutthe rainforest because over 90%
of our birds migrate there.That's my connection. And the
(11:22):
next day, he came home inabsolute tears, just shredded. I
mean, you he barely made it offthe bus into the house, and he
lost it. And I said, buddy, whathappened on the bus? He goes,
nothing. I said, well, what'swrong? He goes, my teacher told
me I'm supposed to save therainforest, mama, and I don't
know how. And I said, well, Idon't think that's what she
means. I think she meant thatyou should remember to turn off
the lights and not run thewater. He goes, no. That's not
(11:44):
the teacher doesn't even knowthe impact. It's not her fault.
But you've taken a child whowants to make something so
special and different and madeit as big as the Amazon. Right?
But what about native habitatsfor insects that feed the birds
in your backyard? Right? Andwhere does climate fall into
that? Every level. Right? Everylevel. So I think
Abigail Garofalo (12:06):
And there's, Peggy, there's a lot of research
too on, like, learning educationand the science of learning
that, like, play space to, like,making it as close to home as
relatable to themselves aspossible, is so effective in
learning. And you mentioned nextgeneration science standards. I
work with a couple of colleagueswho specifically in, if people
(12:29):
didn't know this, that extensionhas educators whose job it is to
train teachers on nextgeneration science standards.
It's a true shift in scienceeducation. Science education
used to be a lot of, like,memorization of, like, this is
what's done, and here's thisexplanation and memorize that
this is what's supposed to bedone for it. And next generation
science standards, and I'mexplaining it the best that I
(12:51):
understand it as someone who'snever who doesn't have a formal
education degree. Right? Like,my degree is in informal
education. He's worked withthese colleagues for several
years. It's more about theprocess of science and
understanding how to askquestions and taking phenomenon
and asking questions about themand discovering the information
(13:11):
because
Peggy Anesi (13:12):
Yeah.
Abigail Garofalo (13:12):
And I tell this to my Master Naturalists
all the time. If you came hereexpecting that I'm gonna teach
you the 30 plants, top plants inin the Cook County region, and
then the 30 top birds or the,you know, whatever top and I'm
just gonna list them to you andtell you about them, and then
you're gonna memorize them. I'mso sorry. You're gonna be very
disappointed in my training.Because what I'm gonna teach you
(13:33):
instead is the tools how to dothose things. I'm gonna give you
the tools to understand andresearch botany language. So
that way you know that if I Ican better, research that, oh,
this is an opposite leavedserrated leaf. Right? Like,
that's gonna tell me a lot morethan just, like, this is Canada
goldenrod or something likethat. But I don't, so this
(13:56):
process learning of, like, whatto ask, how to ask, why to ask,
things like that is is reallythe the the basis for these next
generation science standards andreally a a true shift, a true
cultural shift in scienceeducation.
And so wonderful to see becausefor people who have been, like,
advancing their knowledge on howto teach and how to do
(14:18):
environmental education, we knowthat fire hose lectures don't
work as well. And by that, Imean, you know, okay. Here's
everything you need to knowabout water in Illinois, and
here's I'm gonna talk to you for2 hours about this topic.
Instead, we're gonna all see ademonstration. We're gonna go
out to a river. We're gonnainvestigate. We're gonna get
nets in the water. We might getin the water, and we're gonna
(14:38):
ask questions about the world.And I have some objectives of
what we wanna talk about, and Ihave some things that we're
gonna need to know. And maybeI'll give you a couple of
definitions of things that youcouldn't possibly discover on
your own. Right? All in all,you're kind of going on this
journey of learning, not justreceiving information.
Peggy Anesi (14:57):
Right? And I just did a, it was the best one of my
best you know, all my betterprograms are landing in the end
of my career somehow. Maybe it'sbecause I time and wisdom.
Right? But I just did what Icall the paddle and learn, and I
got teachers to it. You know,they came, they attended, and it
had nothing to do with here's akit and how you teach it. And
they were a little bit thrown.Like you said, they were like,
(15:19):
what what you know? It was allteaching them as lifelong
learners about their watershed.And day 2, one of the 4th grade
teachers came in. We were eatingour morning little things I
provided before we got started,and she said, Peggy, so I have
to tell you. Until yesterday, Ididn't know what a watershed
was, and I had no idea I livedin one. So how do we expect him
(15:42):
to teach? Right? So that's ourrole is to is to continue to
teach.
And if I teach a teacher, I get,what, 25 to 28 more students. I
get it. You know, I'm I'm I'mgoing for the ripple effect at
this point in my career. Andthey were so enamored. They
literally I brought in all thespeakers on all these topics
around watershed, and then atthe end, we put them in the
(16:02):
river. And we went into the RockRiver, and we were applying
everything we learned. And thebest part about it, there was
not a single agricultural space.They found every best management
practice or need for one all inthat urban urbanized space. So
they couldn't say, oh, thefarmers are doing it all, which
we always hear, and it's nottrue. Right? And it was like,
(16:24):
wow. These are like there was aguy mowing the lawn into the
river. There was a random pipepouring, unknown, hasn't been
raining into the water. We hadgeese, solid geese. We had
plantings, and we had raw dirt.We had so many things. And
they're like, and this was justa 2 hour part of one river in
the US. Right? When we got outof the water, one of the other
(16:48):
4th grade teachers on the sameteam, she said, well, I guess
I'm going back today to startrewriting my science curriculum.
I said, really? She goes, yeah.I was using mudslides for
erosion, but now I'm gonna talkabout cover crops.
Abigail Garofalo (17:01):
That's awe because that's what the those
kids are
Peggy Anesi (17:03):
That's what these communities see every day. Yeah.
Communities. And I was like, so,unknowingly to me, it came to
fruition just like I wanted it.Right? It was just all I knew
was I was gonna make sure theyunderstood the watershed from
hydrology to best managementpractices. And in the end, I
only had a few teachers. It wasthe first year. I had one
(17:23):
counselor, a high schoolcounselor, and I said, yeah. You
can join us, and he was the mostenamored. He was on. You'd love
him because he Abigail becausehe was a really into the soils
guy, and he was just on it. Andafterward, he said, I have a a
question if I wanna know ifyou'd be okay if I did
something. I said, what's that?He goes, I'd like to put
together something for all myhigh school teachers, even the
non science ones, and I wannacall it what I did this summer
(17:46):
and tell them what we did sothey know how important this is.
I'm like again, I get chills. Ididn't know what would come out
of this thing, but I knew if Ididn't and then they were like,
well, one teacher was, I kindathought we'd have, like, like,
we do models and differentthings. They said, I can still
do that with you. We live in thesame county. I can give you a
1,000 curriculum off the shelf,and it's gonna go right down on
(18:06):
your shelf. So I'm not doingthat. But I am available to
design your 4th grade, yourmiddle school, your 7 6th grade,
7th grade teachers, your thecounselor who talked to me,
whoever wants to come, they're 6miles away. I'm a resource now.
But yeah. So to the to that whathow NGSS is working, but we have
(18:27):
all these people who wentthrough it before that who are
just rote memory, no content,and, I wanna help them help
their communities and beattached.
Abigail Garofalo (18:37):
I was gonna ask you. Yeah. Peggy, so when it
comes to you know, you'retalking about relevance for
these students, you know, theyyou took them out. You did this
paddling program. So theyactually physically saw these
instead of seeing pictures of,like, a model drawn or
something. They got tophysically see stuff. So what
are ways in and your thoughts onmaking climate education more
(18:59):
relevant?
Peggy Anesi (19:00):
So remember the part where I feel like we're a
little behind on adults. Right?So community, and you wanna
stay. We talked about gettingthat small within your watershed
or within your community withinthat watershed. A couple
examples that I pulled, and Ifound one came over my phone.
The, anthropomorphine magazinecame up, and they had an
example. There was research donein and it came out in Science
(19:22):
Advances this week. If you're inFlorida, here's an example. You
can plant mangrove forests.Right? As a community, like, we
plant trees in our forestpreserve. Depending on your
habitat, you can plant those.Now for them, the reason I
picked them, it was amazing. Thequote in there was mangroves
mangrove forests are climatetreasure chest storing more
(19:43):
carbon per acre than virtuallyany other natural landscape.
Now I'm assuming within theregion they they are provided
in. Right? Not necessarilycomparable to a prairie, but in
the region they are, they areconsidered to be than virtually
any other natural landscape asfar as carbon, storage. So as
one example, if you bring itcloser to home for I went to a
(20:06):
conference in Madison, and themayor spoke. And she said we
were we really needed thisspace, this small space to do,
and I don't remember what shesaid they were gonna do with it.
And this woman said you can't dothat. It's a park now, and
people use it. And she said, butit's it we have all these other
parks, and we need this. So thewoman, just a community member,
went out and found a schoolgroup, like, I don't think it
(20:28):
was middle school, and started abirding program. Birds around
the world.
That's what she called it,birding program, and they
utilized it consistently, like,weekly. They went to that park,
noted noted all the birds thatused it, and she basically set
it up so they couldn't. Thecommunity got behind it and
said, you can't get rid of this.The kids are using it as a
(20:49):
birding location. So instead ofarguing and fighting for just
holding it for no reason, shemade a purpose. She found one of
the many purposes of that greenspace And that's that's insane.
Now Madison, 90 purse 95% of theresidents in Madison are within
10 minute, within a 10 minutewalk, longer if you are a a
person of, you know, withdifferent abilities. The 10
(21:11):
minute walk from any park from apark. They're all within a 10
minute walk. They didn't needthis park, but they actually
provided a you know, this womanprovided a way, an attachment.
So, again, you're not talkingabout climate change, but
there's a cooling space. Right?And and another article that
came out, I don't know if I havethat one cited, but it was in
(21:31):
London, and they they did allthis data collection. And
they're the white roofs highquantity of white roofs actually
do better than green roofs ifyou have them en masse. And then
they said, but trees do betterthan whatever, but the green
roofs are better.
But what we have to also do isthen say, but what's the carbon
sequestration? Like, don't juststop at one thing, which is what
(21:53):
this article did. I'm like,yeah. But what you're forgetting
is the trees don't just cool.They hold. You know? So then
there's a layer you could teach.I talk about it. My favorite new
space relative to this in Boise,Idaho, and they're transforming
into the into the nation's 1stwater and climate education
center. And this woman spoke,and she goes, I gotta tell you,
(22:15):
there's just one icky spot inthe whole in this whole Climate
Watershed Center, one icky spotwith the graphs that terrify.
The rest is, how do we how do wewanna sustain Boise, bringing it
down to their community? Sothey're teaching about their
community. We might have we havea little water issue coming up.
How do we address this? Oh,well, we could do this and this
and this.
There goes your NGSS. You know?Right? So you're including youth
(22:39):
with big big decisions and withadults who are trying to catch
up and get on the ball, and theyhave this whole 7 step climate
action plan now. And number 7is, engagement, investing in
engagement. And I'm like, okay.It's not that hard. We just need
but the problem is sometimes wewait too long because now we
have an emergency. We don't needto wait. You know? We don't need
(23:02):
to wait at all. Yeah. I justthink it's a great opportunity.
Erin Garrett (23:06):
And it can seem like really big problems to
address. Right? With everythingwe've been talking about, this
season with climate change, itcan feel like too much. But
bringing it down to thatcommunity level as well, what
can we do as a community? Andthen those stories too, those
success stories are superimportant for, like, inspiring
others. Right? And I I lovehearing about, you know, action
(23:30):
that students are able to takein their school and then they
bring it out into theircommunity as well. And then, you
know, inspiring, other communityefforts as well, in their area
and then in other areas. Andthen it always seems like at
least, you know, 1 or 2 of thosekids ends up making that their
career. So, really important tohave that exposure right into
(23:51):
all these different areas.
And especially with, like,climate change, you know, it's
affecting a lot of differentthings. So there's a lot of
different actions that we cantake in ways that we can help
and and ways to empower kids toknow a little bit more and then
just be more informed. Right?Like you said, and more ready to
help and have information andanswers and thoughts and ideas
(24:13):
to help as we move forward withwith dealing with whatever
climate change brings. Right?
Peggy Anesi (24:18):
Yeah. And my main reference is to bring the
climate wordage, the vocabulary,you know, the the vernacular in
after as an after effect. Here'sall these things we just did,
and, oh, by the way, it helps uswith climate change. Mhmm. What?
You know, because if we put itin the forefront, it becomes
like, I don't know because we'vealready we've already over
overused. We've already thrownit too hard in people's faces.
(24:40):
Not we, us, but they didn't youknow, we didn't we didn't get
this we didn't get it from thescientists to digest it forever.
You know, help them bedigestible, and I bring it in I
bring it in last. So they'relike, oh, it didn't it didn't
hurt me. You know?
Abigail Garofalo (24:53):
Yeah. I think that term too can feel very
obscure and somewhere elsesometimes. It's not just about
the way it's been thrown in.It's also about the oh, it's
climate. Like, what am Isupposed to do about that?
I have as much control over thatas the weather that it's gonna
be that day. Right? Like, and sothat feels very overwhelming and
(25:16):
out of control for peopleversus, like, what can my
community do to respond to theflooding that's occurring in my
area? Not that over the courseof the year, the average
temperature change and sayshigher 2 degrees. Right? Like,
that's a much more obscure. Iwas gonna add to Erin's point
too about the the careers iswhat I also love is and what
(25:39):
I've realized a lot in this jobis, you know, we don't just need
researchers. We don't just needscientists. We need people who
are good at graphic design andgood at communicating with
people about climate change, andwe need people who, have lots of
different jobs when it comes toclimate change, and not even
related jobs. Like, they're in acompany, but they're somebody
(26:01):
who cares a lot and wants tohead up their their local green
team or whatever, or is acommunity member and wants to
head up some some differentaspects and and, you know,
they're also someone who is avoice in their community. So
it's not just about going intothe job. It's about the mindset
that you bring into the everydaychoices of your life and the the
(26:25):
way that you talk to peopleabout these grand challenges
that we're facing.
Peggy Anesi (26:29):
Well and I used to tell people 15 years ago was my
big my big takeaway for kids wasthe jobs you were you could have
aren't even don't even havetitles yet. I used that for
years because they weren't.There wasn't titles yet, but
they could go into theenvironmental studies, and there
would be a job. We don't knowwhat the title's gonna be. Now
I'm thinking, wait a minute.There should be. We should be at
(26:50):
the other end of this educationpiece putting together like what
Boise has and look for all thejobs, the computer person, the
person who does, you know, landmanagement, the person who does
graphic design. We should be atthe other end of that designing
what those positions look likeby community, small, medium, and
(27:11):
large so that when they get outof school, they're aiming at
something. You know? But it'sfunny how 30 years in the field,
and they should go, oh, that wasreally cool to say back then,
but now we probably should beputting those jobs there so they
have a a target and stay on stayon target.
Right? But that was a that cameto mind, like, a week ago, and I
(27:33):
was like, because I'm thinkingabout this. I'm like, we need
something for them to aim at,and communities need to know
they need these people. Right?And start putting that in their
budgets and, funding and lookingfor, you know, federal support
or whatever it is that supportsknowledge and this stuff. This
stuff, you guys will have tolook it up. This this
boisewatershed.org stuff is isawesome. It's just really
(27:57):
awesome.
Erin Garrett (27:58):
That's great. And those have been some really good
examples, you know, kind offorward thinking of what, we can
kind of set kids up to do in thefuture. But can you talk about
programs that kids can getinvolved in now to address real
world environmental issues?
Peggy Anesi (28:16):
Yeah. You know, my, what I do with with my group, we
we have a pretty active forestpreserve. And what I like is the
family effect because we'regetting those those people that
are now having children. Thereused to be my campers, and
they're bringing me theirchildren now. Right? Good lord.
And so I'm like, okay. If theyif if if they that that age
group just will given these appgiven the opportunities are not
(28:39):
shared, you know, this is howyou do it. Right? Sometimes
we're just going a 100 miles anhour.
So get that family out thereand, you know, do the tree
plantings. We have a lot ofcommunity science things that
they can do together. Yourbigger kids, take them to a city
meeting, you know, that has awater issue or something going
on so they can see what bigpeople are dealing with and that
(29:01):
they care enough to deal withit. With middle school, my
middle school group I did forthe last 3 years, these girls
are all heading toward biologyenvironment because they were
given a voice on how to reducethe run you know, reduce the
runoff off of their schoolgrounds, my G Force Girls' STEM
club. And we just finalized, andwe just got their how to be a
(29:22):
good neighbor to their watershedsign that they that was their
final step to the basin theyplanted.
It is 30 inches high by 7 feetwide, and I as I drive into
town, I see people reading thesign. It's that big. You can see
people standing there, andthey're reading it like it's a
ginormous book. The kids can nowgo back there and see that they
made an impact. And the the kidswho are who were 8th graders at
(29:46):
the time said the reason theythe no. They were the 7th
graders. They said, we were toldin 5th grade when we walked over
here, they let us plant prairieplants to attach us to our soon
to be middle school, and thenthey mowed it over. Okay. That
made it it hurt them, and nobodythought it that it mattered. So
they gave them something thatmattered and then took it away.
(30:08):
So we fixed it, and we fixed itso big nobody can get rid of it
because it has a 30 inch by 7foot sign in front of it. Right?
And they're happy. So we need tohelp them. They're members of
our community, but we treat themlike, oh, it's okay.
They won't know or they don'tget it. You guys, my kids at
camp I looked at my kids lastweek at camp. We do a free time,
(30:29):
and it's nature thematic daycare. Their their emotional and
physical safety are my firstpriority. The environmental
scene that brings them there isthe 3rd, and then we try to fill
their days with withinformation. And these kids, I'm
looking around at our free time.We give them physical
boundaries, and then we standout of their way and watch. We
don't have a toy. We don't evenhave a bandana. They have
(30:50):
nothing, and they know how to goand play. But for some reason,
they don't know how to get outof their house into their yard.
And it's like, there's nothing.There's not a toy. And these
kids are just and finally, we'rejust like, you know what? Let's
just let them forget the 30minutes. It was 45 minutes, an
hour, and they're like, when arewe done with free time? I'm
like, we're done now. We can bedone now. Because I realized how
(31:13):
important that was to them notto have to listen to us talkie,
talkie, talkie. We have the mostchatty group of 7 to 9 year
olds. And let me tell you, theykilled us with their joy last
week. 37 and a half hours of joyevery every week, ladies. And,
so it just made me feel like,okay. We all innately know how
this works and how attacked weare. We just have lost kind of
(31:37):
the contact. And And when wemake contact, that's when we can
make change with climate andmake change with sustainability
and make those things happen.
Abigail Garofalo (31:45):
Yeah. I'll add. I, I interview Master
Naturalists every year. We dotraining every year. And I end
up inter 1 I used to interview,like, 70 to 90. Now I'm not so
crazy. Now I do more like 50.And so every year, I always ask
them. And even in theapplication, we ask them, you
know, what? Tell us about yourinterest in nature.
(32:06):
What, you know, what was yourfirst memory of nature even? And
I always get connections frompeople. I I very rarely get ones
that are like, I visited thiscrazy place elsewhere, and
that's what did it for me. It's98% of the time people who are
like, I grew up doing x, y, andz, and I did this with my
(32:30):
family, or I did this with thisreally close mentor person to
me. And it's never about thatthey learned the names of
things. It's never about yeah.There are this other
Peggy Anesi (32:43):
summer with my grandparents. That was I get
that one.
Abigail Garofalo (32:46):
Yes. Yeah. There's, like, this familial
inner love connection thatpeople have with this space that
they just feel just, like, heartcracked wide open, and we're
talking people who are paying totake a course and then to be a
long term volunteer with us.Like, that's to me like, that's
commitment. Yeah. I think aboutthat a lot. It's like, that's a
(33:10):
very common theme, and I'd beinterested to actually if any
researchers are listening tothis and would like access to
some of that data to see how youknow, what are some common
themes we see in buildingconnections with nature,
because, yeah, I just feel likewe see those common themes of
Yeah. How we do that, and and itusually starts with youth. And
if we get people who started asan adult, they didn't have that
(33:32):
experience as a youth, and thenthey were able to foster it
either with their kids or theyfound it, in, you know, a point
of stress in their life. And Ijust yeah. It's it's so valuable
to see that.
Peggy Anesi (33:44):
So you always get the ones I get the ones that
say, I'm doing this because thisis what I always wished I had
done for a career, but I was anurse and I was a this. Yeah.
Abigail Garofalo (33:52):
Yeah. I get that one a lot, or I'm looking
for a career change. We get acouple of younger folks up here
who are like, yeah. I went intothis, and I always really just
liked birds, and then I I didn'tthen I didn't think it was
plausible. And now I'm doingthis. And so I'm like, welcome.
Peggy Anesi (34:07):
I see feel valid in what I chose to do for a living
when they do that. I'm like,see, I knew I couldn't be a
surgeon. I should be a surgeon.Okay. There was some educational
issues there too. Right? But,yeah, I always love when I hear
that because and a lot of themare like I get nurses and
chemists and, radiologists. Iget I get these really, I could
(34:27):
never have been these people,and they're like, this is really
what I wanted to do. I'm like,oh, this is cool because this is
what I do. You know?
Erin Garrett (34:36):
Thanks so much, Peggy, for sharing your
knowledge about how we canempower kids, but not only kids,
everyone around us, ourcommunities. Right? To think
about climate and think abouthow that impacts us on our day
to day basis and what we can doto just be more in tune with our
environment. Right? So on thatnote, we're going to finish our
(34:58):
episode with our everydayobservation where we highlight
the mundane and normal of ourenvironment that's actually
really interesting, which isright on theme with our
discussion today. So, Abigail,what is your everyday
observation?
Abigail Garofalo (35:12):
Yeah. So for a couple of years, I would notice
just in the morning, if I cameout in the morning before, like,
the sun was really hot oranything, these little mushrooms
that were growing just kind oflike anywhere in my yard, but I
mainly noticed them in themulch. And then this like, a
couple of days ago, I noticedthem in my lawn, and I was like,
you know what? I'm a scientist.I am an educator in natural
(35:35):
resources. I have the tools andthe power to discover what this
is.
And I had already, like,noticed. I was like, they're
gone by the afternoon. So that'slike a really interesting weird
thing, but makes sense becausefungus like moisture and usually
dries out by then. So I finally,you know, went on iNaturalist
and did some looking, and it's amilky cone cap mushroom. Very
(35:57):
funny name apparently. So Ihave, like, other names. I
haven't done too much researchon it to learn what it is other
than you just can't eat it. Andthen the really what spurred me
to look into it was, like, is itsafe for my children to pick it?
Because now they're old enoughto be like, what's this? And,
like, grab it out of the groundand pick it around and stuff.
So I just wanted to make surebecause I'm not a mycologist. I
don't know much about mushroomsand fungus, and I wanted to make
(36:18):
sure, is it safe to touch?That's really where I was at
with my point. And I thoughtthat it is, but, yeah, they're,
like, not ideal for for eating.And I was like, sure. Wasn't go
wasn't
Peggy Anesi (36:26):
Not ideal?
Abigail Garofalo (36:28):
Like, I was like, I don't know what that
means, but maybe just don't eatit. Will it kill me? I don't
know. But what should I so
Peggy Anesi (36:35):
That that that sounds like it could do
something, but not take you out.But it could be
Abigail Garofalo (36:40):
Yeah. Yes. So, but, yeah, they were like, it's
a it's it's common, but it's,like, telling of that particular
mushroom that it just disappearsin the afternoon because of it
just is more of a morning and asthe sun comes up and it it goes
away and then new fungus formovernight. And so or new new,
like, fruiting bodies formovernight. And so I just thought
(37:00):
it was really interesting andjust a cool part of my yard to
have. So
Peggy Anesi (37:05):
Awesome. Don't lick them. You never know.
Erin Garrett (37:08):
Alright, next up. Peggy? What's your everyday
observation?
Peggy Anesi (37:13):
It it brought me great joy the other day. I see
it every summer, and it's alwaysrobins in my yard. So there's,
they're anting, and thisconsidered they're passive
anting. A lot of birds do thisanting thing. They find an ant
hill. They disrupt it. Activeanting is where the bird will
pick it up and actually, like,rub it on their body, but the
robins tend to, like, flip theirtail under themselves. It's this
(37:36):
funniest thing. And, basically,they're they're irritating the
ant to attack, and it's acertain subfamily of ants I've,
from my understanding, from myfriend Pam.
And they because they literallyspray or ex excuse, formic acid.
So there's a lot of theories. Sothese are all theories, but my
favorite one that makes the mostsense to my head is, lice
(37:57):
control. So they can get rid ofpests on their own body because
what they do when they pass anant is they let they get them
angry. The ants are all puttingout you know, they're basically
it's like a pheromone, but it'sit's formic acid as they crawl
through their feathers.
So they're making the lice wantto leave their body. So they're
they're they're taking care ofthemselves by de-licing
themselves, making the antsangry. They don't often, eat
(38:20):
them. You'll see them kind ofpinch some to get them really
rocking and bad because they'relike, come on, go. And then they
just sit there and shufflearound, and they're just covered
in ants. And then pretty soon,they start picking them and
pushing them off. And I don'tknow if they eat some of them,
but then they leave. But I justthink it's and sure enough,
every time they do it, I gosomewhere and I go check-in the
yard, and there's an anthill.And there are different ant that
the ones that keep getting in myyard in my house this year,
(38:42):
which are the odiferous ones,and they do stink, when you
squish them. Sorry. I did squishone to see if it was them, and
it is them. They're stinkers.There's plenty more. This one.
Right? Darn ants.
Abigail Garofalo (38:55):
I Peggy, I don't know. Again, audio medium.
I Erin and I are just looking soshocked. I don't know, Erin,
about you, but I'm not I knowyou're not a bird person either.
I'm definitely not a birdperson. Don't know much about
birds, but I did not know thiswas a thing. Never
Peggy Anesi (39:12):
Really? Oh my gosh. I'm glad.
Abigail Garofalo (39:15):
So Glad it's I'm so excited to observe it.
Yeah.
Peggy Anesi (39:19):
I love it. Every year, I stop what I'm doing and
go, that is the coolest thing.No matter if it's right or wrong
about you know, one of thesuggestions is, you know, that
they're de-licing because it'sformic acid. I like that answer.
I think that's I think theyshould know how to take care of
themselves. Right? Oh, I'm soexcited to share something
different.
Abigail Garofalo (39:36):
Now that we all need to process this
information and go find it innature a little bit more, Erin,
why don't you close this out?
Erin Garrett (39:42):
Alright. So I have been teaching a summer library
program about oak trees thisyear. So, each summer I develop
a new program for, like,elementary age kids, and then I
take it around to all of ourlocal libraries. And this year
we chose oak trees, becausethey're awesome as hopefully you
(40:06):
heard on a previous podcastepisode. But one of the things
that I do is where I am insouthern Illinois, we have,
depending on which county you'rein, between like 16 19 different
oak species that you can find inan individual county. And we
have a huge number of the,biggest oaks in their species
(40:26):
also that you can find in thebig tree register which is run
through Illinois Extension. Buta lot of the kids that we have
around here, this is whathappens when you grow up in a
place. You don't necessarilyrealize what's in your backyard
and how backyard, meaningnatural areas nearby, and how
awesome it is. One of the thingsthat we did is take a tape
(40:48):
measure and put it on the groundto show the diameter of the
biggest tree in the biggest oaktree in their county where the
program is at.
So in a few of the counties,it's like 8 and a half feet
diameter is how big these oaktrees are. So we put the tape
measure out and we make a circlewith our hands to show how big
(41:08):
the tree is. And the kids cannothandle it or believe that that's
true. And I'm like, it's rightit's 10 minutes from where we
are right here. You can gohiking on this trail. You can
find this tree. You could take apicture hugging it. Got a big
sign by it with theircertificate and, that's been
really fun. Also too, becausethen, you know, all the adults
in the room were like, oh, I hadno idea. We're gonna, like, take
(41:30):
our family out and go explorethat area.
But it's been really fun to it'sjust another, you know, really
cool thing that you can do withyour family and go see. And
they're throughout the state. Soand I'm sure other I don't know
if other states do this too, butit's something definitely for
our listeners to look into andcheck out. And if you're going
on a vacation or a trip to astate park, there's a lot of
(41:50):
them that are there. Some ofthem are on private property so
you can't actually get to thelocation, but there's a lot of
different trees that you canexplore. And it's another thing
that gets kids excited, right,about finding something outside,
like going on like a scavengerhunt, right, to try to find the
big trees. So that's been myobservation this summer, just,
working with kids and gettingthem excited about trees.
Abigail Garofalo (42:10):
That's a great activity. I'm gonna steal it.
Erin Garrett (42:13):
Do it. Alright. Well, thanks again, Peggy. It's
always a joy to have you on thepodcast. We always love chatting
with you, and, I'm sure we'llhave you back soon.
Peggy Anesi (42:25):
Well, I appreciate your time.
Erin Garrett (42:26):
Well, this has been another episode on the
Everyday Environment podcast.Check us out next week where we
talk with Sarah Sellars allabout carbon markets.
Abigail Garofalo (42:39):
This podcast is a University of Illinois
Extension production, hosted andedited by Abigail Garofalo, Erin
Garrett, and Amy Lefringhouse.
Matt Wiley (42:50):
University of Illinois Extension.
Welcome to another episode of the Everyday
Environment podcast where weexplore the environment we see
everyday. I'm your host, ErinGarrett,
Abigail Garofalo (00:13):
and I'm your co host, Abigail Garofalo.
Erin Garrett (00:16):
And today, we are here with Peggy Anesi, who is a
Natural Resources, Environment,and Energy Extension Educator
located in the northern part ofthe state, and we're gonna be
chatting about empowering kidsabout climate change. Welcome,
Peggy.
Peggy Anesi (00:30):
Thank you very much. Glad to be here.
Erin Garrett (00:32):
Awesome. Well, we all work together in Extension,
and we know what you do withyouth. Tell our listeners about
the work that you do with youthand environmental action and
empowerment.
Peggy Anesi (00:45):
So I'm I've been doing environmental education
for 25 years with Extension, andprior to that, I did,
residential outdoor ed. It wasnever my intention. My first
degree is in wildlifemanagement. I guess there was
never, a descriptor on whatwildlife was, but I now manage
wildlife in the form of childrenprobably, 80% of my job. And so
(01:09):
it wasn't what I wanted. Ididn't even wanna talk to
people, but as people know,Extension's job is to
communicate. So when I did, anapprenticeship, I found out what
it meant to have the floor andwent, oh, I can communicate what
I believe and what I love. Sothen I it turned into this long
career watching children and ourcommunities and our environment
(01:30):
change and how that changes withhow we help those kids relate
relate to their space.
Abigail Garofalo (01:37):
Yeah. I feel like you have had this, like,
kind of crazy journey.Extension's a wild job anyways.
Like, you deal with all sorts ofpeople and, all sorts of
different kinds of roles, andall of us kind of do little bit
of different things. And, Peggy,you get a lot of, like, wildlife
questions, but, like, I wouldsay a lot of your job really
does center around youtheducation. Specifically water.
(02:01):
You do a lot of water education,and a lot of water programming,
which is pretty cool. So whenwe're talking about youth or
kids, why is it important toempower them to understand and
take action on climate change?
Peggy Anesi (02:15):
So I'm gonna preface this conversation
because the things I'm gonnatalk about today are simply my
opinion or personal insightsfrom 30 years in of
environmental education. I hopeI never sound hypocritical nor
do I mean to in any way attemptto shape someone else's opinion,
because these topics can getsensitive. I only hope to be a
small catalyst of thought. Sofor those who are who are
(02:40):
listening and and potentiallyrespond in their own way in
their own community. So justwant to put it out there. These
are just things that have cometo mind as I've traveled through
the environment led world. Sojust wanted to make that clear.
Abigail Garofalo (02:53):
Our disclaimer. I totally get it.
Yeah.
Peggy Anesi (02:56):
Well, I think that, and we'll get to that, you know,
the how to do that. Ourgenerations were you know, you
hear it you hear it everygeneration. We're handing over
to the next generation what weleave. Right? But it's not just
that. I'm I'm seeing adults, inour on our county boards who
can't make decisions aboutnatural resources that are
critical and timely because theydon't have the knowledge base.
(03:20):
So in my mind, the more weattach children to the natural
regions around them, we don'thave to go and and blast the
climate change bells. We justhave to have, you know, have to
have time to spend with them,having them relate to their
communities and their space, asit relates to the natural world
so that when they sit on acounty board, they don't have
(03:41):
to, you know, table a topic onwatersheds four times to bring
in specialists to talk aboutthem before they can make a
decision when that decisionmight not have that much time.
So looking at both ends of thespectrum, we have adults who who
haven't had we've had plenty oftime, you guys. We've had all
this time to be blending thisinto our conversations, this
(04:05):
climate education, weatherchanging patterns, and we
haven't done it. We've been soworried about, you know,
pressing the climate change andthe big picture. We've missed
all of our little opportunities,I think. So we need to make up
for that.
Abigail Garofalo (04:19):
Yeah. I definitely see in my
programming, I made a promise tomyself a few years ago that I
was like, everything I teachrelates to climate change. Why
am I not kind of bringing thatconnection in? So I try and
bring that in, you know,anywhere and everywhere that I
can because I noticed peoplearen't attending climate change
(04:39):
programming, unless they're,like, big into the climate
change programming. But it thethe programs that I'm teaching
are all related to climatechange. Somebody comes to my
class about, you know, wildlifefriendly gardening practices,
I'm gonna talk about how climateis going to, change and be
affected, and your garden isgonna be affected by that and
(05:02):
the wildlife within that.Somebody comes to me about a
lawn care class. We kindamentioned how, yeah, you need to
have more resilient plants inyour landscape, and your lawns
need to be more resilientbecause we're gonna be seeing
these larger stress events onyour plants. And so kind of
bringing in those littleopportunities to empower youth
and empower adults too to justkind of help build like, help
(05:23):
scaffold those connections forthemselves. So that way Mhmm.
You don't always have to have anexpert there or you know? Yeah.
Sure. We'll talk to you aboutthe scientific connections and
all those things, but there'ssome basic concepts that you
don't have to know the name ofeverything or the term, but you
need this idea that, like, waterconnects everything in this
concept called a watershed and,like, how our landscape is
(05:46):
connected and how, oh, there areinteractions that occur between
different living things andnonliving things in an
ecosystem. Asking thosequestions about, well, what is
interacting here? Really, andjust having those tools to ask
those questions is so important.
Peggy Anesi (06:01):
And pulling that thread together. Yep.
Definitely. You know what I whenI was saying that that, you
know, we've got some catching upto do. People, all ages, they're
all we're all naturally lifelonglearners, and it's we were
talking about us all workingtogether. It's our charge,
really for those of us in thefield to offer that knowledge,
and that's what we do, right, ina digestible fashion. But we
(06:23):
have windows of opportunity thatwe aren't taking advantage of,
but somebody else will. Whetherit's, you know, everything from
what's on sale to you know, wewe need to market even better.
We need to market our knowledgeeven better because sharing
objective knowledge and havingpassionate non nonjudgmental
conversations, will help toit'll help develop that life
(06:46):
raft. Right now, we need a liferaft for the adults who don't
who've lost that attachment. AndI don't mean it to sound like,
oh, they're horrible. They justthey don't have time to figure
out maybe you know, I gotta paythe bills. I gotta get to work.
I gotta do this.
It doesn't occur to them thatthe paper they they, you know,
that comes in the mail if theystill get a bill is from a tree.
They don't think about theirfuel. One of my favorite moments
(07:07):
was a young adult who came to a,a meeting because we had a a
large oil company that we'regonna put a pipeline right
through our county. And she cameto the meeting in her SUV, full
size, to complain to the oil guyabout a pipeline. Okay. We
aren't even connecting thosedots. She was in his face. I'm
(07:28):
like, how did you get here todayin my car? In my car. I'm like,
I think we need to have aconversation, not a, you know,
one-sided battle. And she hadn'teven thought about that. We we
aren't we're missing so manyconnections as adults because
we're not educating our we'renot I I don't wanna say it like
that. We aren't takingopportunities to educate youth.
Have them stay aware of wheretheir food is coming from, where
(07:51):
their water's coming from, andnarrow it down. It has to be
narrowed down. You know?
In a in in Extension, our team,we had this potential, how to
deliver it. We had a group thatwas that, our leaders saw the
advantage of us getting morecomfortable with the whole lead
idea. Leading is one thing, butwe we gotta fulfill it. And for
(08:11):
our kids, we can assist ourschools in developing curriculum
right now. I mean, we've missedthat. We've missed that boat.
There's always a change. Andteachers are like, I can't get
my kids on a field study becausewe don't have time. We're
teaching to the test in 4thgrade, blah, blah. But what if
we were teaching to the rightquestions on the test that are
relative to meeting thestandards and using those
(08:33):
examples. And one of the thingsthat, you know, Extension is
throughout the US. We are thebest blanket for bringing and
with the next generation sciencestandards being federal, it's
all lining up. Right? And it's aperfect fit. And, you know, I
know you guys know that I'm abig storyteller. Storytelling is
(08:54):
amazing for youth, but if youmake it nonfiction, that's also
a standard they need. They aresupposed to be getting
nonfiction literature. Right?Mhmm. So storytelling is a part
of who we've always been as aculture. And and every culture
has a storytelling component.Why did that work so well?
Because it was relevant. It wasrelevant to who they were, and
(09:18):
if that's all they had, thatstayed with them to create who
they were that grounded them totheir position on the planet.
And it sounds goofy.
My sister one day, she was myolder sister, my favorite hippie
on the planet. Right? And shegoes, well, don't you think
that, eventually all being justwe all be the same, that big
melting pot's a good idea? Isaid, no. I don't. We wouldn't
(09:40):
have our individuality to shareand our cultures to compare and
share if we're all the same, andwe wouldn't have that
connection. You know, I'mnorthern Swede, English, and
Danish. I why do I love theforest so much? Innately, I you
know, genetically, that's what Iknow. And we don't even talk
(10:03):
about why we choose certainthings we choose, why we favor
certain things we favor in thecase of of nature.
And with our kids, we have tominimize. You know, we talked
about watershed. Yes. Until I Iabout said until I die. Oh, my
lord. Until I retire. Samething. Right? I'm focusing on
watershed because I figured outthat with with all education,
(10:25):
especially climate education,you can narrow this down for
children and bring it right intotheir town within a basin,
within a watershed, and now itmatters. You're not talking
about you know, my best example,my son came home from 3rd grade
all yippee skippy. You know? Oh,something good's gonna happen,
and he came in the door. And itwas adorable. He said, mom. I
(10:48):
said, oh, something good's gonnahappen. He goes, we're gonna
make a diarrhea. And I went, I'msorry. What? He go I said, oh,
what? You mean a diorama?Because he said that we need a
shoe box. And I was, like,terrified. He goes, that's what
I said, a diarrhea. I was like,okay. So we're
Abigail Garofalo (11:00):
Duh mom.
Peggy Anesi (11:02):
And I said, what are we making a diorama of? He
goes, of the rainforest. Okay.I'm getting ready to do mammal
camp with 7 to 9 year olds.We're doing dioramas of native
Illinois mammals. Right?Habitats. So I'm like, okay.
Yay. We should all know aboutthe rainforest because over 90%
of our birds migrate there.That's my connection. And the
(11:22):
next day, he came home inabsolute tears, just shredded. I
mean, you he barely made it offthe bus into the house, and he
lost it. And I said, buddy, whathappened on the bus? He goes,
nothing. I said, well, what'swrong? He goes, my teacher told
me I'm supposed to save therainforest, mama, and I don't
know how. And I said, well, Idon't think that's what she
means. I think she meant thatyou should remember to turn off
the lights and not run thewater. He goes, no. That's not
(11:44):
the teacher doesn't even knowthe impact. It's not her fault.
But you've taken a child whowants to make something so
special and different and madeit as big as the Amazon. Right?
But what about native habitatsfor insects that feed the birds
in your backyard? Right? Andwhere does climate fall into
that? Every level. Right? Everylevel. So I think
Abigail Garofalo (12:06):
And there's, Peggy, there's a lot of research
too on, like, learning educationand the science of learning
that, like, play space to, like,making it as close to home as
relatable to themselves aspossible, is so effective in
learning. And you mentioned nextgeneration science standards. I
work with a couple of colleagueswho specifically in, if people
(12:29):
didn't know this, that extensionhas educators whose job it is to
train teachers on nextgeneration science standards.
It's a true shift in scienceeducation. Science education
used to be a lot of, like,memorization of, like, this is
what's done, and here's thisexplanation and memorize that
this is what's supposed to bedone for it. And next generation
science standards, and I'mexplaining it the best that I
(12:51):
understand it as someone who'snever who doesn't have a formal
education degree. Right? Like,my degree is in informal
education. He's worked withthese colleagues for several
years. It's more about theprocess of science and
understanding how to askquestions and taking phenomenon
and asking questions about themand discovering the information
(13:11):
because
Peggy Anesi (13:12):
Yeah.
Abigail Garofalo (13:12):
And I tell this to my Master Naturalists
all the time. If you came hereexpecting that I'm gonna teach
you the 30 plants, top plants inin the Cook County region, and
then the 30 top birds or the,you know, whatever top and I'm
just gonna list them to you andtell you about them, and then
you're gonna memorize them. I'mso sorry. You're gonna be very
disappointed in my training.Because what I'm gonna teach you
(13:33):
instead is the tools how to dothose things. I'm gonna give you
the tools to understand andresearch botany language. So
that way you know that if I Ican better, research that, oh,
this is an opposite leavedserrated leaf. Right? Like,
that's gonna tell me a lot morethan just, like, this is Canada
goldenrod or something likethat. But I don't, so this
(13:56):
process learning of, like, whatto ask, how to ask, why to ask,
things like that is is reallythe the the basis for these next
generation science standards andreally a a true shift, a true
cultural shift in scienceeducation.
And so wonderful to see becausefor people who have been, like,
advancing their knowledge on howto teach and how to do
(14:18):
environmental education, we knowthat fire hose lectures don't
work as well. And by that, Imean, you know, okay. Here's
everything you need to knowabout water in Illinois, and
here's I'm gonna talk to you for2 hours about this topic.
Instead, we're gonna all see ademonstration. We're gonna go
out to a river. We're gonnainvestigate. We're gonna get
nets in the water. We might getin the water, and we're gonna
(14:38):
ask questions about the world.And I have some objectives of
what we wanna talk about, and Ihave some things that we're
gonna need to know. And maybeI'll give you a couple of
definitions of things that youcouldn't possibly discover on
your own. Right? All in all,you're kind of going on this
journey of learning, not justreceiving information.
Peggy Anesi (14:57):
Right? And I just did a, it was the best one of my
best you know, all my betterprograms are landing in the end
of my career somehow. Maybe it'sbecause I time and wisdom.
Right? But I just did what Icall the paddle and learn, and I
got teachers to it. You know,they came, they attended, and it
had nothing to do with here's akit and how you teach it. And
they were a little bit thrown.Like you said, they were like,
(15:19):
what what you know? It was allteaching them as lifelong
learners about their watershed.And day 2, one of the 4th grade
teachers came in. We were eatingour morning little things I
provided before we got started,and she said, Peggy, so I have
to tell you. Until yesterday, Ididn't know what a watershed
was, and I had no idea I livedin one. So how do we expect him
(15:42):
to teach? Right? So that's ourrole is to is to continue to
teach.
And if I teach a teacher, I get,what, 25 to 28 more students. I
get it. You know, I'm I'm I'mgoing for the ripple effect at
this point in my career. Andthey were so enamored. They
literally I brought in all thespeakers on all these topics
around watershed, and then atthe end, we put them in the
(16:02):
river. And we went into the RockRiver, and we were applying
everything we learned. And thebest part about it, there was
not a single agricultural space.They found every best management
practice or need for one all inthat urban urbanized space. So
they couldn't say, oh, thefarmers are doing it all, which
we always hear, and it's nottrue. Right? And it was like,
(16:24):
wow. These are like there was aguy mowing the lawn into the
river. There was a random pipepouring, unknown, hasn't been
raining into the water. We hadgeese, solid geese. We had
plantings, and we had raw dirt.We had so many things. And
they're like, and this was justa 2 hour part of one river in
the US. Right? When we got outof the water, one of the other
(16:48):
4th grade teachers on the sameteam, she said, well, I guess
I'm going back today to startrewriting my science curriculum.
I said, really? She goes, yeah.I was using mudslides for
erosion, but now I'm gonna talkabout cover crops.
Abigail Garofalo (17:01):
That's awe because that's what the those
kids are
Peggy Anesi (17:03):
That's what these communities see every day. Yeah.
Communities. And I was like, so,unknowingly to me, it came to
fruition just like I wanted it.Right? It was just all I knew
was I was gonna make sure theyunderstood the watershed from
hydrology to best managementpractices. And in the end, I
only had a few teachers. It wasthe first year. I had one
(17:23):
counselor, a high schoolcounselor, and I said, yeah. You
can join us, and he was the mostenamored. He was on. You'd love
him because he Abigail becausehe was a really into the soils
guy, and he was just on it. Andafterward, he said, I have a a
question if I wanna know ifyou'd be okay if I did
something. I said, what's that?He goes, I'd like to put
together something for all myhigh school teachers, even the
non science ones, and I wannacall it what I did this summer
(17:46):
and tell them what we did sothey know how important this is.
I'm like again, I get chills. Ididn't know what would come out
of this thing, but I knew if Ididn't and then they were like,
well, one teacher was, I kindathought we'd have, like, like,
we do models and differentthings. They said, I can still
do that with you. We live in thesame county. I can give you a
1,000 curriculum off the shelf,and it's gonna go right down on
(18:06):
your shelf. So I'm not doingthat. But I am available to
design your 4th grade, yourmiddle school, your 7 6th grade,
7th grade teachers, your thecounselor who talked to me,
whoever wants to come, they're 6miles away. I'm a resource now.
But yeah. So to the to that whathow NGSS is working, but we have
(18:27):
all these people who wentthrough it before that who are
just rote memory, no content,and, I wanna help them help
their communities and beattached.
Abigail Garofalo (18:37):
I was gonna ask you. Yeah. Peggy, so when it
comes to you know, you'retalking about relevance for
these students, you know, theyyou took them out. You did this
paddling program. So theyactually physically saw these
instead of seeing pictures of,like, a model drawn or
something. They got tophysically see stuff. So what
are ways in and your thoughts onmaking climate education more
(18:59):
relevant?
Peggy Anesi (19:00):
So remember the part where I feel like we're a
little behind on adults. Right?So community, and you wanna
stay. We talked about gettingthat small within your watershed
or within your community withinthat watershed. A couple
examples that I pulled, and Ifound one came over my phone.
The, anthropomorphine magazinecame up, and they had an
example. There was research donein and it came out in Science
(19:22):
Advances this week. If you're inFlorida, here's an example. You
can plant mangrove forests.Right? As a community, like, we
plant trees in our forestpreserve. Depending on your
habitat, you can plant those.Now for them, the reason I
picked them, it was amazing. Thequote in there was mangroves
mangrove forests are climatetreasure chest storing more
(19:43):
carbon per acre than virtuallyany other natural landscape.
Now I'm assuming within theregion they they are provided
in. Right? Not necessarilycomparable to a prairie, but in
the region they are, they areconsidered to be than virtually
any other natural landscape asfar as carbon, storage. So as
one example, if you bring itcloser to home for I went to a
(20:06):
conference in Madison, and themayor spoke. And she said we
were we really needed thisspace, this small space to do,
and I don't remember what shesaid they were gonna do with it.
And this woman said you can't dothat. It's a park now, and
people use it. And she said, butit's it we have all these other
parks, and we need this. So thewoman, just a community member,
went out and found a schoolgroup, like, I don't think it
(20:28):
was middle school, and started abirding program. Birds around
the world.
That's what she called it,birding program, and they
utilized it consistently, like,weekly. They went to that park,
noted noted all the birds thatused it, and she basically set
it up so they couldn't. Thecommunity got behind it and
said, you can't get rid of this.The kids are using it as a
(20:49):
birding location. So instead ofarguing and fighting for just
holding it for no reason, shemade a purpose. She found one of
the many purposes of that greenspace And that's that's insane.
Now Madison, 90 purse 95% of theresidents in Madison are within
10 minute, within a 10 minutewalk, longer if you are a a
person of, you know, withdifferent abilities. The 10
(21:11):
minute walk from any park from apark. They're all within a 10
minute walk. They didn't needthis park, but they actually
provided a you know, this womanprovided a way, an attachment.
So, again, you're not talkingabout climate change, but
there's a cooling space. Right?And and another article that
came out, I don't know if I havethat one cited, but it was in
(21:31):
London, and they they did allthis data collection. And
they're the white roofs highquantity of white roofs actually
do better than green roofs ifyou have them en masse. And then
they said, but trees do betterthan whatever, but the green
roofs are better.
But what we have to also do isthen say, but what's the carbon
sequestration? Like, don't juststop at one thing, which is what
(21:53):
this article did. I'm like,yeah. But what you're forgetting
is the trees don't just cool.They hold. You know? So then
there's a layer you could teach.I talk about it. My favorite new
space relative to this in Boise,Idaho, and they're transforming
into the into the nation's 1stwater and climate education
center. And this woman spoke,and she goes, I gotta tell you,
(22:15):
there's just one icky spot inthe whole in this whole Climate
Watershed Center, one icky spotwith the graphs that terrify.
The rest is, how do we how do wewanna sustain Boise, bringing it
down to their community? Sothey're teaching about their
community. We might have we havea little water issue coming up.
How do we address this? Oh,well, we could do this and this
and this.
There goes your NGSS. You know?Right? So you're including youth
(22:39):
with big big decisions and withadults who are trying to catch
up and get on the ball, and theyhave this whole 7 step climate
action plan now. And number 7is, engagement, investing in
engagement. And I'm like, okay.It's not that hard. We just need
but the problem is sometimes wewait too long because now we
have an emergency. We don't needto wait. You know? We don't need
(23:02):
to wait at all. Yeah. I justthink it's a great opportunity.
Erin Garrett (23:06):
And it can seem like really big problems to
address. Right? With everythingwe've been talking about, this
season with climate change, itcan feel like too much. But
bringing it down to thatcommunity level as well, what
can we do as a community? Andthen those stories too, those
success stories are superimportant for, like, inspiring
others. Right? And I I lovehearing about, you know, action
(23:30):
that students are able to takein their school and then they
bring it out into theircommunity as well. And then, you
know, inspiring, other communityefforts as well, in their area
and then in other areas. Andthen it always seems like at
least, you know, 1 or 2 of thosekids ends up making that their
career. So, really important tohave that exposure right into
(23:51):
all these different areas.
And especially with, like,climate change, you know, it's
affecting a lot of differentthings. So there's a lot of
different actions that we cantake in ways that we can help
and and ways to empower kids toknow a little bit more and then
just be more informed. Right?Like you said, and more ready to
help and have information andanswers and thoughts and ideas
(24:13):
to help as we move forward withwith dealing with whatever
climate change brings. Right?
Peggy Anesi (24:18):
Yeah. And my main reference is to bring the
climate wordage, the vocabulary,you know, the the vernacular in
after as an after effect. Here'sall these things we just did,
and, oh, by the way, it helps uswith climate change. Mhmm. What?
You know, because if we put itin the forefront, it becomes
like, I don't know because we'vealready we've already over
overused. We've already thrownit too hard in people's faces.
(24:40):
Not we, us, but they didn't youknow, we didn't we didn't get
this we didn't get it from thescientists to digest it forever.
You know, help them bedigestible, and I bring it in I
bring it in last. So they'relike, oh, it didn't it didn't
hurt me. You know?
Abigail Garofalo (24:53):
Yeah. I think that term too can feel very
obscure and somewhere elsesometimes. It's not just about
the way it's been thrown in.It's also about the oh, it's
climate. Like, what am Isupposed to do about that?
I have as much control over thatas the weather that it's gonna
be that day. Right? Like, and sothat feels very overwhelming and
(25:16):
out of control for peopleversus, like, what can my
community do to respond to theflooding that's occurring in my
area? Not that over the courseof the year, the average
temperature change and sayshigher 2 degrees. Right? Like,
that's a much more obscure. Iwas gonna add to Erin's point
too about the the careers iswhat I also love is and what
(25:39):
I've realized a lot in this jobis, you know, we don't just need
researchers. We don't just needscientists. We need people who
are good at graphic design andgood at communicating with
people about climate change, andwe need people who, have lots of
different jobs when it comes toclimate change, and not even
related jobs. Like, they're in acompany, but they're somebody
(26:01):
who cares a lot and wants tohead up their their local green
team or whatever, or is acommunity member and wants to
head up some some differentaspects and and, you know,
they're also someone who is avoice in their community. So
it's not just about going intothe job. It's about the mindset
that you bring into the everydaychoices of your life and the the
(26:25):
way that you talk to peopleabout these grand challenges
that we're facing.
Peggy Anesi (26:29):
Well and I used to tell people 15 years ago was my
big my big takeaway for kids wasthe jobs you were you could have
aren't even don't even havetitles yet. I used that for
years because they weren't.There wasn't titles yet, but
they could go into theenvironmental studies, and there
would be a job. We don't knowwhat the title's gonna be. Now
I'm thinking, wait a minute.There should be. We should be at
(26:50):
the other end of this educationpiece putting together like what
Boise has and look for all thejobs, the computer person, the
person who does, you know, landmanagement, the person who does
graphic design. We should be atthe other end of that designing
what those positions look likeby community, small, medium, and
(27:11):
large so that when they get outof school, they're aiming at
something. You know? But it'sfunny how 30 years in the field,
and they should go, oh, that wasreally cool to say back then,
but now we probably should beputting those jobs there so they
have a a target and stay on stayon target.
Right? But that was a that cameto mind, like, a week ago, and I
(27:33):
was like, because I'm thinkingabout this. I'm like, we need
something for them to aim at,and communities need to know
they need these people. Right?And start putting that in their
budgets and, funding and lookingfor, you know, federal support
or whatever it is that supportsknowledge and this stuff. This
stuff, you guys will have tolook it up. This this
boisewatershed.org stuff is isawesome. It's just really
(27:57):
awesome.
Erin Garrett (27:58):
That's great. And those have been some really good
examples, you know, kind offorward thinking of what, we can
kind of set kids up to do in thefuture. But can you talk about
programs that kids can getinvolved in now to address real
world environmental issues?
Peggy Anesi (28:16):
Yeah. You know, my, what I do with with my group, we
we have a pretty active forestpreserve. And what I like is the
family effect because we'regetting those those people that
are now having children. Thereused to be my campers, and
they're bringing me theirchildren now. Right? Good lord.
And so I'm like, okay. If theyif if if they that that age
group just will given these appgiven the opportunities are not
(28:39):
shared, you know, this is howyou do it. Right? Sometimes
we're just going a 100 miles anhour.
So get that family out thereand, you know, do the tree
plantings. We have a lot ofcommunity science things that
they can do together. Yourbigger kids, take them to a city
meeting, you know, that has awater issue or something going
on so they can see what bigpeople are dealing with and that
(29:01):
they care enough to deal withit. With middle school, my
middle school group I did forthe last 3 years, these girls
are all heading toward biologyenvironment because they were
given a voice on how to reducethe run you know, reduce the
runoff off of their schoolgrounds, my G Force Girls' STEM
club. And we just finalized, andwe just got their how to be a
(29:22):
good neighbor to their watershedsign that they that was their
final step to the basin theyplanted.
It is 30 inches high by 7 feetwide, and I as I drive into
town, I see people reading thesign. It's that big. You can see
people standing there, andthey're reading it like it's a
ginormous book. The kids can nowgo back there and see that they
made an impact. And the the kidswho are who were 8th graders at
(29:46):
the time said the reason theythe no. They were the 7th
graders. They said, we were toldin 5th grade when we walked over
here, they let us plant prairieplants to attach us to our soon
to be middle school, and thenthey mowed it over. Okay. That
made it it hurt them, and nobodythought it that it mattered. So
they gave them something thatmattered and then took it away.
(30:08):
So we fixed it, and we fixed itso big nobody can get rid of it
because it has a 30 inch by 7foot sign in front of it. Right?
And they're happy. So we need tohelp them. They're members of
our community, but we treat themlike, oh, it's okay.
They won't know or they don'tget it. You guys, my kids at
camp I looked at my kids lastweek at camp. We do a free time,
(30:29):
and it's nature thematic daycare. Their their emotional and
physical safety are my firstpriority. The environmental
scene that brings them there isthe 3rd, and then we try to fill
their days with withinformation. And these kids, I'm
looking around at our free time.We give them physical
boundaries, and then we standout of their way and watch. We
don't have a toy. We don't evenhave a bandana. They have
(30:50):
nothing, and they know how to goand play. But for some reason,
they don't know how to get outof their house into their yard.
And it's like, there's nothing.There's not a toy. And these
kids are just and finally, we'rejust like, you know what? Let's
just let them forget the 30minutes. It was 45 minutes, an
hour, and they're like, when arewe done with free time? I'm
like, we're done now. We can bedone now. Because I realized how
(31:13):
important that was to them notto have to listen to us talkie,
talkie, talkie. We have the mostchatty group of 7 to 9 year
olds. And let me tell you, theykilled us with their joy last
week. 37 and a half hours of joyevery every week, ladies. And,
so it just made me feel like,okay. We all innately know how
this works and how attacked weare. We just have lost kind of
(31:37):
the contact. And And when wemake contact, that's when we can
make change with climate andmake change with sustainability
and make those things happen.
Abigail Garofalo (31:45):
Yeah. I'll add. I, I interview Master
Naturalists every year. We dotraining every year. And I end
up inter 1 I used to interview,like, 70 to 90. Now I'm not so
crazy. Now I do more like 50.And so every year, I always ask
them. And even in theapplication, we ask them, you
know, what? Tell us about yourinterest in nature.
(32:06):
What, you know, what was yourfirst memory of nature even? And
I always get connections frompeople. I I very rarely get ones
that are like, I visited thiscrazy place elsewhere, and
that's what did it for me. It's98% of the time people who are
like, I grew up doing x, y, andz, and I did this with my
(32:30):
family, or I did this with thisreally close mentor person to
me. And it's never about thatthey learned the names of
things. It's never about yeah.There are this other
Peggy Anesi (32:43):
summer with my grandparents. That was I get
that one.
Abigail Garofalo (32:46):
Yes. Yeah. There's, like, this familial
inner love connection thatpeople have with this space that
they just feel just, like, heartcracked wide open, and we're
talking people who are paying totake a course and then to be a
long term volunteer with us.Like, that's to me like, that's
commitment. Yeah. I think aboutthat a lot. It's like, that's a
(33:10):
very common theme, and I'd beinterested to actually if any
researchers are listening tothis and would like access to
some of that data to see how youknow, what are some common
themes we see in buildingconnections with nature,
because, yeah, I just feel likewe see those common themes of
Yeah. How we do that, and and itusually starts with youth. And
if we get people who started asan adult, they didn't have that
(33:32):
experience as a youth, and thenthey were able to foster it
either with their kids or theyfound it, in, you know, a point
of stress in their life. And Ijust yeah. It's it's so valuable
to see that.
Peggy Anesi (33:44):
So you always get the ones I get the ones that
say, I'm doing this because thisis what I always wished I had
done for a career, but I was anurse and I was a this. Yeah.
Abigail Garofalo (33:52):
Yeah. I get that one a lot, or I'm looking
for a career change. We get acouple of younger folks up here
who are like, yeah. I went intothis, and I always really just
liked birds, and then I I didn'tthen I didn't think it was
plausible. And now I'm doingthis. And so I'm like, welcome.
Peggy Anesi (34:07):
I see feel valid in what I chose to do for a living
when they do that. I'm like,see, I knew I couldn't be a
surgeon. I should be a surgeon.Okay. There was some educational
issues there too. Right? But,yeah, I always love when I hear
that because and a lot of themare like I get nurses and
chemists and, radiologists. Iget I get these really, I could
(34:27):
never have been these people,and they're like, this is really
what I wanted to do. I'm like,oh, this is cool because this is
what I do. You know?
Erin Garrett (34:36):
Thanks so much, Peggy, for sharing your
knowledge about how we canempower kids, but not only kids,
everyone around us, ourcommunities. Right? To think
about climate and think abouthow that impacts us on our day
to day basis and what we can doto just be more in tune with our
environment. Right? So on thatnote, we're going to finish our
(34:58):
episode with our everydayobservation where we highlight
the mundane and normal of ourenvironment that's actually
really interesting, which isright on theme with our
discussion today. So, Abigail,what is your everyday
observation?
Abigail Garofalo (35:12):
Yeah. So for a couple of years, I would notice
just in the morning, if I cameout in the morning before, like,
the sun was really hot oranything, these little mushrooms
that were growing just kind oflike anywhere in my yard, but I
mainly noticed them in themulch. And then this like, a
couple of days ago, I noticedthem in my lawn, and I was like,
you know what? I'm a scientist.I am an educator in natural
(35:35):
resources. I have the tools andthe power to discover what this
is.
And I had already, like,noticed. I was like, they're
gone by the afternoon. So that'slike a really interesting weird
thing, but makes sense becausefungus like moisture and usually
dries out by then. So I finally,you know, went on iNaturalist
and did some looking, and it's amilky cone cap mushroom. Very
(35:57):
funny name apparently. So Ihave, like, other names. I
haven't done too much researchon it to learn what it is other
than you just can't eat it. Andthen the really what spurred me
to look into it was, like, is itsafe for my children to pick it?
Because now they're old enoughto be like, what's this? And,
like, grab it out of the groundand pick it around and stuff.
So I just wanted to make surebecause I'm not a mycologist. I
don't know much about mushroomsand fungus, and I wanted to make
(36:18):
sure, is it safe to touch?That's really where I was at
with my point. And I thoughtthat it is, but, yeah, they're,
like, not ideal for for eating.And I was like, sure. Wasn't go
wasn't
Peggy Anesi (36:26):
Not ideal?
Abigail Garofalo (36:28):
Like, I was like, I don't know what that
means, but maybe just don't eatit. Will it kill me? I don't
know. But what should I so
Peggy Anesi (36:35):
That that that sounds like it could do
something, but not take you out.But it could be
Abigail Garofalo (36:40):
Yeah. Yes. So, but, yeah, they were like, it's
a it's it's common, but it's,like, telling of that particular
mushroom that it just disappearsin the afternoon because of it
just is more of a morning and asthe sun comes up and it it goes
away and then new fungus formovernight. And so or new new,
like, fruiting bodies formovernight. And so I just thought
(37:00):
it was really interesting andjust a cool part of my yard to
have. So
Peggy Anesi (37:05):
Awesome. Don't lick them. You never know.
Erin Garrett (37:08):
Alright, next up. Peggy? What's your everyday
observation?
Peggy Anesi (37:13):
It it brought me great joy the other day. I see
it every summer, and it's alwaysrobins in my yard. So there's,
they're anting, and thisconsidered they're passive
anting. A lot of birds do thisanting thing. They find an ant
hill. They disrupt it. Activeanting is where the bird will
pick it up and actually, like,rub it on their body, but the
robins tend to, like, flip theirtail under themselves. It's this
(37:36):
funniest thing. And, basically,they're they're irritating the
ant to attack, and it's acertain subfamily of ants I've,
from my understanding, from myfriend Pam.
And they because they literallyspray or ex excuse, formic acid.
So there's a lot of theories. Sothese are all theories, but my
favorite one that makes the mostsense to my head is, lice
(37:57):
control. So they can get rid ofpests on their own body because
what they do when they pass anant is they let they get them
angry. The ants are all puttingout you know, they're basically
it's like a pheromone, but it'sit's formic acid as they crawl
through their feathers.
So they're making the lice wantto leave their body. So they're
they're they're taking care ofthemselves by de-licing
themselves, making the antsangry. They don't often, eat
(38:20):
them. You'll see them kind ofpinch some to get them really
rocking and bad because they'relike, come on, go. And then they
just sit there and shufflearound, and they're just covered
in ants. And then pretty soon,they start picking them and
pushing them off. And I don'tknow if they eat some of them,
but then they leave. But I justthink it's and sure enough,
every time they do it, I gosomewhere and I go check-in the
yard, and there's an anthill.And there are different ant that
the ones that keep getting in myyard in my house this year,
(38:42):
which are the odiferous ones,and they do stink, when you
squish them. Sorry. I did squishone to see if it was them, and
it is them. They're stinkers.There's plenty more. This one.
Right? Darn ants.
Abigail Garofalo (38:55):
I Peggy, I don't know. Again, audio medium.
I Erin and I are just looking soshocked. I don't know, Erin,
about you, but I'm not I knowyou're not a bird person either.
I'm definitely not a birdperson. Don't know much about
birds, but I did not know thiswas a thing. Never
Peggy Anesi (39:12):
Really? Oh my gosh. I'm glad.
Abigail Garofalo (39:15):
So Glad it's I'm so excited to observe it.
Yeah.
Peggy Anesi (39:19):
I love it. Every year, I stop what I'm doing and
go, that is the coolest thing.No matter if it's right or wrong
about you know, one of thesuggestions is, you know, that
they're de-licing because it'sformic acid. I like that answer.
I think that's I think theyshould know how to take care of
themselves. Right? Oh, I'm soexcited to share something
different.
Abigail Garofalo (39:36):
Now that we all need to process this
information and go find it innature a little bit more, Erin,
why don't you close this out?
Erin Garrett (39:42):
Alright. So I have been teaching a summer library
program about oak trees thisyear. So, each summer I develop
a new program for, like,elementary age kids, and then I
take it around to all of ourlocal libraries. And this year
we chose oak trees, becausethey're awesome as hopefully you
(40:06):
heard on a previous podcastepisode. But one of the things
that I do is where I am insouthern Illinois, we have,
depending on which county you'rein, between like 16 19 different
oak species that you can find inan individual county. And we
have a huge number of the,biggest oaks in their species
(40:26):
also that you can find in thebig tree register which is run
through Illinois Extension. Buta lot of the kids that we have
around here, this is whathappens when you grow up in a
place. You don't necessarilyrealize what's in your backyard
and how backyard, meaningnatural areas nearby, and how
awesome it is. One of the thingsthat we did is take a tape
(40:48):
measure and put it on the groundto show the diameter of the
biggest tree in the biggest oaktree in their county where the
program is at.
So in a few of the counties,it's like 8 and a half feet
diameter is how big these oaktrees are. So we put the tape
measure out and we make a circlewith our hands to show how big
(41:08):
the tree is. And the kids cannothandle it or believe that that's
true. And I'm like, it's rightit's 10 minutes from where we
are right here. You can gohiking on this trail. You can
find this tree. You could take apicture hugging it. Got a big
sign by it with theircertificate and, that's been
really fun. Also too, becausethen, you know, all the adults
in the room were like, oh, I hadno idea. We're gonna, like, take
(41:30):
our family out and go explorethat area.
But it's been really fun to it'sjust another, you know, really
cool thing that you can do withyour family and go see. And
they're throughout the state. Soand I'm sure other I don't know
if other states do this too, butit's something definitely for
our listeners to look into andcheck out. And if you're going
on a vacation or a trip to astate park, there's a lot of
(41:50):
them that are there. Some ofthem are on private property so
you can't actually get to thelocation, but there's a lot of
different trees that you canexplore. And it's another thing
that gets kids excited, right,about finding something outside,
like going on like a scavengerhunt, right, to try to find the
big trees. So that's been myobservation this summer, just,
working with kids and gettingthem excited about trees.
Abigail Garofalo (42:10):
That's a great activity. I'm gonna steal it.
Erin Garrett (42:13):
Do it. Alright. Well, thanks again, Peggy. It's
always a joy to have you on thepodcast. We always love chatting
with you, and, I'm sure we'llhave you back soon.
Peggy Anesi (42:25):
Well, I appreciate your time.
Erin Garrett (42:26):
Well, this has been another episode on the
Everyday Environment podcast.Check us out next week where we
talk with Sarah Sellars allabout carbon markets.
Abigail Garofalo (42:39):
This podcast is a University of Illinois
Extension production, hosted andedited by Abigail Garofalo, Erin
Garrett, and Amy Lefringhouse.
Matt Wiley (42:50):
University of Illinois Extension.
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