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Introduction
Thanks
Special thanks go to all those who helped create and edit this project:
Deborah Tolman’s Natural Resource Topics class in the Department of
Geography at Portland State University (PSU) that included Jason
Buxrude, Marius Dogar, Bob Kucera, Michelle Lasley, Sally Maier, Patty
Mayer, Joe Parker, Linda Parrish, Rich Prentice, Katherine Schmitt,
Simon Skiles, Aleisha Smith, and Melisa Teuscher, and to Karin Waller
and Martha Works for facilitating this project. Thank you also goes to
the editors: Beth Chappell, Shannon Hubler, Janet Jackson, Peter
Lasley, Dan Parker, Elizabeth Rose Parker, Lisa Rein, Craig Revels, and
Steve Shervais who gave their time by making valuable comments. And
finally, we’d like to thank Dianne Tolman for her contribution to the
cover illustration. PSU’s Department of Geography, the PSU Faculty
Association, and New Horizons Career Center provided us with the space,
the funds, and the printer, for which we are truly grateful. Thanks to
all of you.
Introduction
This Resource Guide was compiled for the purpose of making accessible new information that would help us move away from practices that are harmful to people and the environment and towards those that accommodate natural cycles and systems; appropriately called sustainable living. Organized and annotated practices within this booklet are more than 230 descriptions of practices found in current books, peer-reviewed journals, technical documents, popular journals, magazines, newspapers, technical manuals, brochures, and websites. They are distilled into a format that is easily accessible and understandable, helping any Portlander who wants to shift from traditional home, garden and landscaping practices to more sustainable living.
It is our belief that the environmental problems (including issues of
human health, environmental hazards, global warming, population growth,
and decline in biodiversity) have to do with the way we connect to
nature. It is, in other words, all too often about the way we depend on
finite resources in ways that cannot be sustained by the environment.
We believe that if we look at environmental problems with a
systems-wide, holistic, approach, we will better understand the
challenges of creating a sustainable future, and develop workable
solutions. Taking a pro-active sustainable living approach, this
Resource Guide is for anyone who wants practical knowledge on how to
live with a more gentle impact on Earth.
Format, Organization, and Citations
The guide is organized as water, air, soil, energy, food gardening, biodiversity, and a section called processes. In this section we have included mulching, composting, recycling, and saying no to chemicals as these foster or promote necessary natural processes. These are human resources that should be included in the larger ecosystem.
Each entry contains a citation to enable the reader to access the entire document. References could be anything from websites and brochures, to groups of newsletters put out by the USDA or a university extension office. With this in mind, we have provided you with the most current of sources, and all of the information that was available to us at the time of publication (in the case of websites, the latest update). With regard to the internet sources, online linkages do break down; people change providers, search engines vary in their connective linkages, and universities and agencies restructure their websites from time to time. In all cases, the full URL or web address is included.
In a guide of this sort, overlap is inevitable. Compost could have been put in the soil section but we felt it was directly related to a process; hence it resides in the processes section. Hopefully, you will find the time to look through this entire guide and locate all that you need, but since we understand that that may be an impossible feat for folks with busy lives, we include a comprehensive index to help you locate what you need.
Cover: Illustration by Dianne Tolman, a small business owner of Big Pine Native Plants.
© 2008 Deborah Tolman, Ph.D., Michelle Lasley, and Joe Parker