Posts Tagged ‘policy’

IENE – the Infra Eco Network Europe

Posted by
P1080407

Yes, but what is an IENE, you ask???

IENE is a biennal gathering of folks interested in mitigating the deleterious effects of infrastructure on the habitats we build it in and on.

And what does that mean???

We have built infrastructure--roads, railways, power transmission lines, pipelines--in a way that creates barriers to the daily, seasonal or breeding migration of all sorts of animals, including humans. The most obvious indication of the habitat infringement and fragmentation this creates is roadkill.

In areas without measures to assist in crossing infrastructure barriers, all kinds of animals are squashed daily, and nightly, from beetles, snakes and turtles to deer, herons and bats. Less obviously, some animals stop attempting to cross these barriers, and the resulting land for daily foraging, and for seasonal mating, gets systematically diminished as we build more roads and develop more residential and industrial areas.

This year the IENE conference was held in Potsdam, Germany, and included presentations, posters and field trips. The images below are from a bus trip to view various sites that are part of an ecological network in the state of Brandenburg, including a just-completed wildlife overpass on the A9 with establishing vegetation and motion-activated video cameras powered by solar panels.

P1080441
Pano_bridgecrossing2_sm
P1080468

Conference attendees include biologists, highway engineers, ecologists, designers and project managers interested in creating robust ecological habitats in the midst of infrastructures that fragment the landscape. Folks came from all over Europe, as well as countries in Asia, South America, and North America, to discuss research, strategies and projects.

P1080609
P1080822

Cynthia presented two posters, one on the class she teaches in the Netherlands about water, ecology and infrastructure to emerging professionals, and one about an ongoing documentation of a site where a habitat corridor is planned near Almere, also in the Netherlands.

Iene_edemergingprofess_poster_3
Iene_oostvdswldphotoproj_poster

Meteek hopes to spport and participate in projects that reconnect our fragmented habitats, for other animals and for humans.

There is a complementary biennial conference in North America, ICOET, which was held in Duluth in 2009. At that conference, filmmaker Eric Bendick showed his award-winning documentary "Division Street," on how roads can fragment habitat and featuring projects that are mitigating these effects in Florida, Montana and Canada.

Here is the trailer for Division Street:

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0mPnUu84osE?wmode=transparent]

Duluth Graduate Design Studio

Posted by

Duluthstudio_brightonbeach

How does Duluth create more resilient physical, economic and social infrastructures? What might Duluth need in the next 20, 50 or 100 years? These are a few of the complex questions a group of graduate students from the UMN Minneapolis campus will address this semsester as they use Duluth as their design focus.

Duluthstudio_engerhill
Duluthstudio_hawkridge_03

We hosted the group of 36 students and three instructors from Landscape Architecture and Architecture during their three-day visit of the city and environs. They toured the landscape and structure of the city, and heard presentations from the Port Authority, city officials including Mayor Don Ness, UMD campus planning, and about the underlying geomorphology of the area.

Duluthstudio_harbortour
Duluthstudio_umd_tour_01
Duluthstudio_bayside

The students have much to think about for their upcoming analysis of Duluth. This information will then be used in teams on selected projects and sites within Duluth, culminating in design presentations at the end of the semester. We are looking forward to seeing what they create!

Duluthstudio_hawkridge_02
Duluthstudio_hawkridge_01

Thanks to all the presenters and folks who assisted in organizing the visit. At the City: Mayor Don Ness, Jessica Tillman, Chris Kleist, DyAnn Andybur, Chuck Froseth, Steven Robertson, Pakou Ly. At the Port Authority, Ron Johnson and Adele Yorde. At UMD, John Rashid, John Green, Erik Brown and Christine Strom.

Duluthstudio_northshore

Dark Sky Duluth

Posted by

Darksky_logo_sm

This week at our latest Meteek Workshop event we rolled out a vision for establishing Duluth as a "Dark Sky" city. We hosted a presentation by Tom Nelson and Eric Norland from the Arrowhead Astronomical Society about the Milky Way and light pollution, and talked about a vision for making Duluth a city where more stars are visible.

Here is an info sheet we generated

Darksky_duluth

Besides the presentation, we had live DJ music from MAR (http://soundcloud.com/marmusics) and a new show up in the gallery, mandalas from Cynthia Lapp. We were having so much fun we forgot to take any photographs of the event. Below are some of the gallery. Enjoy!

P1070375_print
P1070372_print
P1070382_print
P1070371_print

and a link to the Arrowhead Astronomical Soceity's website
http://www.duluthaas.com/

Supporting Energy Innovation

Posted by

Meteek was featured in a PEW foundation project highlighting energy leadership from various businesses in Minnesota. "Economic and Job Growth Starts with Policy" is their nationwide effort to influence energy policymakers to adpot energy policies that create jobs and attract private investment.

Andy Hoffmann, Laura Larson, Randy Larson and Molly in the Meteek meadow

11_07_15_meteek_pewphoto

You can go to the link below and click on Minnesota to see the feature on Meteek:
http://www.pewenvironment.org/news-room/other-resources/economic-and-job-grow...

Pew_meteek_listing