I had never seen an Eastern Grey squirrel until I moved to Chicago thirteen years ago. To be honest, I didn’t know what to make of it. Coming from Guangzhou province in China, this grey furry species of squirrels don’t expand into the humid southern weather, where I use lived. It’s been years since I have moved to Illinois and these squirrels are now a common sight. Since the time I began my college career at the University of Illinois, I have noticed squirrels play large part of students’ interaction with nature and wildlife on campus.

The Eastern Grey squirrel (Sciurus carolinensis) is a tree squirrel, a native species from the Midwest to the East Coast states. From far away this species of squirrel might resemble a large rat with a fluffy tail that runs across the trees and shrubs in the quad. Reaching adulthood, a Grey Squirrel will stabilize around one pound in weight and range about 17 to 18 inches in whole body length. Upon getting closer, you can see that the squirrel has a gradation in its fur, going from grey to white, starting from the belly where it’s mostly white to grey on its back. At times you will hear this creature sneak around in the bushes and trees before seeing them, as they scour for food and seek sanctuary from predators.

The average lifespan of the Eastern Grey Squirrel is one to two years.

Interestingly, while the Eastern Grey squirrel is native to the local Urbana-Champaign area, the abundance of Grey squirrels that we see today is actually the result of administration decisions from University of Illinois back in the early 1900’s. In 1847, Philadelphia released three squirrels in Philadelphia’s Franklin Square and with that drew the attention of many visitors. Ever since, squirrels became an attraction in public parks and recreation areas in Philadelphia, Boston, and New Haven. In light of the growing trend in the early 1900’s, the University of Illinois decided introduce the disappeared population of Eastern Grey Squirrel to campus. The main contributor to the reintroduction of squirrel is Dr. Charles W. Rolfe, a Geology Professor, stated in his letter to University President Andrew S. Draper , “I think I shall be able to secure a few… that have been bred in the city and are not afraid of people.” With support from University President Draper, began the reign of Eastern Grey Squirrels on campus. The population of these creatures have certainly flourished over the course of urbanization in the last hundred years.

You might ask, over the course of the past hundred years or so, how has Eastern Grey squirrels become incorporated into our society? And more importantly, what role in biodiversity do they play in our everyday life today? Eastern Grey squirrels have created their place in the urban setting with many interactions interwoven with their food source and habitat. As it turns out, a squirrel’s diet can consist of a wide variety of foods. They can eat acorns, walnuts, tree bark, berries, seeds, and sometimes even fungi. In addition to the natural food sources, children and adults alike, take part in feeding squirrels all around campus. While trees, plants, and humans are food sources for these fluffy creatures, they are also part of the food chain as prey to larger creatures such as cooper hawks, possums, raccoons, coyotes, and foxes. A cycle of life where they play their part as predator and prey.

The deforestation of natural and rural areas destroyed many of the original habitats that squirrels resided in. For most animals, taking away their natural habitat is detrimental to their survival. However, according to Jean Mengelkoch, Mammologist at the Illinois Natural History Survey, “ Eastern Grey squirrels have adapted well to urbanization.” The development in urbanization has benefited squirrels in surprising ways. In fact, some argues that the development of city spaces have eliminated many large predators that prey on squirrels, making it easier for squirrels to thrive in an urban environment. The interaction between people and squirrels is certainly of cultural significance throughout the years and is “one of the mammals you most often seen on campus” during the day. Their food collection provides a method for spreading acorn and walnut tree seeds across the area through the process of burial. Eastern Grey squirrels store food for the winter by burying them in the ground. There are occasions when the seeds are not retrieved by the squirrels, they often sprout into treelings.

If all the squirrels are taken away tomorrow, I would find something missing on the Quad at U of I. Squirrels have become an integrated part of the city’s and the University’s biodiversity that it would strange to not have run into it on my walk to class or my run in the afternoon. So when you see a squirrel next time, maybe think a little more about their history and how they came to be on this very campus. It is after all, humans’ decision in the past that led to their pervasiveness in urban environment all over American cities today.

Questions for guest interviews:

What drew your attention to the career you have now? Did the interests develop in your time in school or completely outside?

How did you go about looking for the job that you want? How did your personal values and beliefs fall in line with your current job?

Tell me a story about your perfect day at work? Or a largest challenge that you have overcame at work?

What is the most important skill for you to have at your current job? Academically or personal skill?

What surprises you about the career path that you are on now versus the one that you had initially planned?

I have never seen an Eastern Grey squirrel until I moved to Chicago thirteen years ago. To be honest, I didn’t know what to make of it. Coming from Guangzhou province in China, this grey furry species of squirrels don’t expand into the humid southern weather, where I use lived. It’s been years since I have moved to Illinois and these squirrels are now a common sight. Since the time I began my college career at the University of Illinois, I have noticed squirrels play large part of students’ interaction with nature and wildlife on campus.

The Eastern Grey squirrel (Sciurus carolinensis) is unsurprisingly, a tree squirrel. It is a native species from the Midwest to the East Coast states. Interestingly, while the Eastern Grey squirrel is native to the local Urbana-Champaign area, the abundance of Grey squirrels that we see today is actually the result of administration decisions back in the early 1900’s. An unexplained attraction and trend for squirrels in public parks began in the mid-1800’s, where squirrels became immensely popular amongst visitors in city parks in Philadelphia, Boston, and New Haven. In light of the lack of squirrels on campus in 1901,  Dr. Charles W. Rolfe, a Geology Professor, stated in his letter to University President Andrew S. Draper , “I think I shall be able to secure a few… that have been bred in the city and are not afraid of people.” With the support from the University President Draper, thus began the reign of the squirrels on campus.

Well, over the course of the past hundred years or so, how has Eastern Grey squirrels become incorporated into our society? And more importantly, what role in biodiversity do they play in our everyday life? Eastern Grey squirrels have created their place in the urban setting with many interactions interwoven with their food source and habitat. As it turns out, a squirrel’s diet can consist of a wide variety of foods. Some of the things they eat are not so much different than what people put on their dinner table. Children and adults alike, take part in feeding the squirrels running around campus.

Fluffy grey tails. Ears that stiffens up when they hear your footsteps. They run in blurs across the quad on campus. Most of the time, they either hide under the summer shade or just sit out in the open sun eating crackers someone dropped. Perhaps it is every creature’s first priority, food is always an important commodity and Eastern Grey Squirrels are no exceptions. Their dash for the last bits of acorn before winter is quite like people shopping on Black Friday, fighting over that last TV at Walmart.

Looking closer at the squirrels on campus, they’re mostly of the single variety, the Eastern Grey (Sciurus carolinensis) species. The average size of such as squirrel grows to approximately a foot and a half in length, surprisingly long for an animal that sometimes see so swiftly running on the quad’s grass field.  The average life span for the squirrel is around 11 to 12 months.  Most squirrels of this type has grey fur on its back and the belly is composed of white fur. There is a gradation of colors going from white to grey for the species.

Food sources are important to the Eastern Grey squirrel. Because they are predominantly active east of the Mississippi River, they have a varying degree of adaptability to the weather. Especially in Illinois, squirrels will learn to store food for the winter. Eastern grey squirrel will preserve food through the process of burial.

As humans there are many systems in which out society is looped within each other. Arguably, all of these systems involves the existence of another subset of living species other than mankind. If we do not preserve organisms of other kind in the world, we will be attempting to live in a society all by ourselves. To me this picture of the existence of the human culture alone itself is unnatural. Even though the human past had shown that we are disruptive of the natural environment, we have always had interactions with our environment and surrounding species. This is definitely something that we should keep alive.

Designing Sustainably

“We shape our buildings; thereafter they shape us,” said Winston Churchill in 1943. We have known for a very long time that the environment that we work in impacts the result of our work. Having made much advancement in technology, architecture, and innovation, the next level of challenges in building designs is to create buildings that are sustainable over their lifetime using current technology.

At the University of Illinois, we unveiled the new Electrical Computer Engineering (ECE) building in the fall of 2014. The building has an overall red brick exterior with a steel extension frame on the south end of the building. Entering through the Bardeen Quad entrance, you will first step into the lobby, which features a high ceiling, twelve tables for student studying and a spacious open design, all giving the building interior a modern gleam compared to its predecessor, the Everitt Laboratory. Having been to Everitt many times for class, the new ECE building struck me with its contrasting open space design and transparency of the classrooms and laboratories. To the left of the entrance is the Grainger Auditorium, which installed wooden and glass panels in place of solid walls to showcase the instructional facility. Similarly, to the right is the Texas Instrument Student Center with glass panels, providing transparency to student activities. While the architectural aspects of the building were impressive, I wondered what are the sustainable features that highlight the building? And where are they?

It turns out that the sustainable and energy saving features is hidden in the materials used and the architectural design of the building. Unlike traditional designs, where the exteriors were first drafted and then worked on to include the functions within the architectural feasibility, the ECE building has instead incorporated functions into form, meaning the design of the building was shaped around the sustainable functions and energy saving goals (Krein, 2011). On a tour in the ECE building with Ankit Jain, a Masters student in Electrical Computer Engineering, he described the building as a “clear step forward” for the department of University of Illinois.

The ECE building is an impressive structure with 236,000 square feet of floor space, where 122,000 square feet are net assignable space for classrooms, offices, and collaboration space, providing students and faculty with ample space to do their daily work (Krein, 2014). The ECE building currently headlines as the largest LEED Platinum certified building in the world by floor space, making it the “most energy -efficient engineering building in the world.” (Krein, 2011) LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environment Design) certification is awarded through a complex point system based on different levels of sustainability elements determined by the U.S Green Council. This point award system looks at a variety of factors such as meter system to monitor efficient water use, building on reclaimed landscapes and even restriction on inefficient or dangerous fluids used in heating system (US Green Council, 2013).

Qualities of the ECE Building include many facets ranging from the installation of showers in the basement to the choice of LED light fixtures. Recycled glass material also made its way into flooring used in the first and second floor of the building, providing aesthetic and structural stability for the users of the building. To encourage students and faculty members to use alternative transportation to travel to the ECE building, such as biking and public transit instead of personal cars, showers were mandated as part of the LEED certification process. The building itself is located conveniently across from the Teal, Red, and Yellow bus stop on White and Wright Street.

Of course, being certified LEED Platinum isn’t all the new ECE building has to offer, part of its design to have net-zero energy consumption on an annual basis. There have been many controversies over the years regarding the idea of net-zero energy, in the science and engineering fields. There are still disagreements about what the definition of net-zero energy means and its role in future buildings. The most commonly accepted interpretation of net-zero is a building generates the same or more of the amount of energy used by the building annually. The design includes space for solar panels to be installed on the roof on the ECE building and the parking garage adjacent to the building, which be a system capable of generating 1500 kW. The energy generated from these solar panels will reduce traditional building energy consumption by 55%. Important factors in the reduction of energy lost are also crucial to the design of a net-zero energy building. This includes passive solar techniques that filters out UV rays yet uses the natural lighting to the building’s advantage (Krein, 2014).

So you might ask why is it so important for a building to be sustainable? Sustainable buildings are the future to accommodating population growth. The Population Reference Bureau projected global population will reach nine billion by 2050 and more homes and buildings are necessary to house these individuals. Integrating sustainability into architecture is key for the future building to effectively provide indoor space and shelter. It is, after all, in our hands how our future will look. The effects of our actions today will shape the faces of the future.

Connecting to Local Foods

It is that time of the week again; you look in the fridge and realize that you’re low on groceries. A few minutes later the you hop into your car and starts driving down to your local supermarket. While walking down the aisle, you see many products with familiar logos sitting on rows upon rows of organized shelves. You might pick up a can of corn and read the nutritional label to see the fat, sugar, and carb content. But what about the origin of this corn? Or who slaughtered the cows and chickens to produce the neatly packaged meat in the refrigerator aisle? Or how long did it take the farmers to grow the carrots in the produce section? The process of meat and vegetable production is very much hidden from the modern consumer. In fact, this problem was unveiled by a short documentary in 2008 called Food, Inc. It revealed that 80% of the modern beef industry is controlled by four large corporations, awakening further problems that are caused by the large scale industrialization of foods.

In Illinois, about 80% of the state’s land is dedicated to the production of crop commodities (Facts of Illinois Agriculture).While rows of corn crops might dominate the scenery, in Urbana-Champaign, there are examples of local farmers who are practicing alternative farming. One example is the Student Sustainable Farm in the south side of the University of Illinois campus, situated in the Fruit Research Farm. This project was started as a collaboration between the University Dining Services and the Department of Crop Sciences at the University of Illinois with the funds from Student Sustainable Committee. Started in 2009, the Student Sustainable Farm (SSF) is now in its sixth growing season (Grant, 2014). While industrial farming tends to grow the same crops on large fields, ranging from 1,100 acres to five or ten times that size, the SSF consists of only about seven acres of land, which is five and a half American football fields (MacDonald, 2014). The SSF also practices fallow crop rotation where only half of the total acres are in used while the other half is fallow.

While the size of the SSF may be insubstantial compared to the large industrial farms, Zack Grant, project Manager and Director of the SSF, said that “you don’t need a lot of land to be a successful farmer.” What is unique and sometimes surprising about local farming is the variety of crops that can be planted on a relatively small area of land. The SSF grows about thirty to thirty-five types of crops on its field throughout the growing seasons. Even though crops are not certified organic by the USDA, it is cultivated using organic methods. Modern technology such as high tunnels helps to extend the growing season for cold resistant crops, such as kale, by making use of the passive solar greenhouse effect which keeps the soil from freezing even in the coldest months.

The labor required to maintain the SSF is drawn upon full time paid workers and also from volunteer efforts for seed-starting, transplanting, cultivation, high tunnel work and harvesting throughout the growing season (Student Sustainable Farm, 2014). Because of technology, the annual growing seasons are extended six to eight weeks before normal growing seasons and weeks past first frost. Volunteers gain experience by learning the daily operations on the farm and also become more connected to the food that we eat. Eighty-five percent of the crops raised on the SSF are used in dining services, providing students with food grown on the university’s property while the remaining fifteen percent are sold directly to local consumers through a market stand on the quad (Grant, 2014).

The success of the SSF teaches us that local farms are very much a business of the present. It can generate food on a small amount of land in contrasts to what we think of now when most of our foods in the supermarket come from an industrial size agricultural farm. In order to reach out to nurture the next generation of local sustainable farmers, the SSF works in conjunction through a program funded by a USDA grant to provide classes to train new farmers. Farmers are taught in classrooms about the principles of farming and also gain hands-on experience through the demonstrations at the SSF.

When you have finished reading this paper, you might wonder where you fit into the picture for this local farming movement? For some people living in the 21st century, farming is a foreign and unfamiliar concept. However, Zack from SSF said, local farming is really a “multidisciplinary” effort. While the main purpose of the farm is to provide produce, it also serves as a hub for innovation. Farming requires a lot of resources and innovation from all people. One example would be the the tractor used to plow the fields. Students at U of I converted an old tractor to an electric vehicle that is charged by the solar panels located at the Student Sustainable Farm. Other individuals including engineers who designed the market cart that is used at the University quad every Thursday in the summer and graphic designers who took part in advertising. Other students also volunteer to help with the sale of produce on the quad. At the end of the day, it takes everyone’s effort and creativity to grow our food and deliver it to the marketplace. Who knew?

Works Cited

Facts About Illinois Agriculture. Illinois Department of Agriculture, Web 14 October 2014.

Food, Inc. Dir. Robert Kenner. Magnolia Pictures, 2008. Film.

Grant, Zack. University of Illinois. Student Sustainable Farm, IL. 30 Sep. 2014.

MacDonald, James M., Penni Korb, Robert A. Hoppe. “Farm Size and the Organization of U.S. Crop Farming.” United States Department of Agriculture. PDF file.

Student Sustainable Farm. University of Illinois, Web 14 Oct. 2014

ESE 360 Paper 3 Assignment

Purpose: To inform alumni of sustainability in buildings. Through this paper, I plan to use the ECE building as an example to showcase the next generation of instructional facilities and net-zero energy buildings.

Rough Outline:

Introduce why sustainable buildings are important to future development of architecture. Discuss how it is relevant to people’s daily lives.

The “standards” for types of sustainable buildings, such examples will include LEED certifications, designs for a Passive House, and net-zero energy buildings. Discuss why these standards/goals are important to defining a sustainable building.

Introduce the ECE building as a model of new sustainability standard at U of I. Discuss the advantages of the sustainable concepts incorporated in its design, maintenance, and daily functions.

• LEED Platinum certification
  • Environmental transportation (anything other than cars)
  • Recycled materials used in its construction
  • Lighting takes advantage of open glass
  • Low E glass (??)
• Heating and cooling system: “chilled beam” system, uses water to heat the building
  • Insulation using terracotta (which also happens to be completely recyclable)
  • Circulation for each individual seat in the Grainger auditorium, which much more efficient for heating and cooling than the traditional large scale ventilation
    • Thin LED light strip (energy efficient)
  • Net-zero energy

Efforts in making a sustainable building includes a combined effort

• Discuss U of I iCAP plans to retrofitting building
• Future plans to build LEED Gold and Platinum certified buildings

Conclude with discussing the importance of the conversion to sustainable buildings

• Connect real world advantages to the conversion to sustainable buildings
• Discuss ways to retrofit buildings to make them more sustainable

Discovering the Prairie at U of I

Thanks to the advancement in technology today, we have a convenient way of connecting to the world of digital imaging and especially satellite. If we pull up the satellite map of Illinois, we can see that a large amount of the state is covered in the green. But zoom in a little and we can see that the green area is divided into rectangular patches. When we zoom in even closer, we realize that they are just brown patches with rows upon rows of vegetable plantations. In fact, if we looked down close enough, we can see that a majority of the land in Illinois has been converted to row-crop agriculture and some developed into urban areas. If we went back in time to 1820, we would see that as much as 60% of Illinois was dominated by tall prairie grass plants and wild flowers. However, because of agricultural and industrial purposes, all but 0.01% of the original twenty million acres of prairie were destroyed or converted for human uses (Ellis, 16).

Ever since the beginning of European settlements in the 1800’s, large scale conversion of prairie land accompanied by the development of new farming technology, crafted the landscape that we see in Illinois today. Rich soil deposited in central North America by the last two glaciation events made Illinois a great location for agricultural cultivation and thus the prairie habitats were removed to implement farms (Ellis, 6). Dr. Ken Robertson, a retired professor from the University of Illinois and a botanist at the Illinois Natural History Survey, revealed that Champaign County in Illinois originally consisted about “600,000 acres of prairie” prior to the agricultural conversion and today only a miniscule “1 acre remains as the original pristine prairie”.

One of the few places around the University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign that has been reclaimed with native plants is the Florida Orchard Prairie Planting, located on Florida Avenue and Orchard Street in Urbana. This restoration effort was initiated by Dr. John Marlin, a research affiliate at the University of Illinois. Student organizations such as the Red Bison and the Student Environment Concerns, works in a combine effort with Dr. Marlin and other volunteers to replant native plants and to ensure that they thrive against the invasive species that have taken roots in the nutrient rich soil. This restoration effort has not only been one of the University’s but also been a movement for the local residents to take part in the shape of their community, attracting volunteers from age three to eighty-five years to participate (Robertson). Their restoration efforts since 2010 has transformed the landscape to a space with 30 species of native plants. The first round of replanting in 2010 was ineffective due to the aggressive invasive plants. Since 2012, additional rounds of replanting has been in session and volunteer efforts have been coordinated to remove weeds and invasive plants in an effort to reduce invasive weed crowding and growth competition (Robertson).

Even though the Florida Orchard Prairie Planting site is only about 3 acres along Florida Avenue, it still contrasts the striking change from the urban and industrial setting to the original prairie environment. With the exception of the identification labels, the restored plot of prairie plants mimics the natural prairie growth. There were a few plants blooming in this late summer season, one of which were Goldenrods, a perennial plant with small yellow flowers that grew to be about 5 feet in height. Another type of flower was the Purple Coneflower, which releases a combination of fresh grass and tomato like aroma when the flower head is rubbed. Other species include the Golden Alexanders, Prairie Dropseed, and Rosinweed which have their flowering in spring and early summer.

Florida Orchard Prairie Planting is a small scale restoration site but approximately one and a half mile away is another restoration site on a much larger scale. Meadowbrook Park, located in the Urbana Park District, consists of 130 acres of land of which 30 acres has been restored. This restoration effort was started in 1978 by the Urbana Park District and the Champaign County Audubon Society (Urbana Park District). In 2012 an ecological report was submitted by John White from Ecological Services to study the flora in Meadowbrook Park. He found a total of 371 plants in the Meadowbrook Park to be native to East-Central Illinois (White, 1). Upon visiting this site, I found a lot of similarity between the plant species in the Meadowbrook Park and the Florida Orchard Prairie Planting such as Goldenrods, Purple Coneflower, and Rosinweed. To make it more accessible for people to appreciate the beauty of prairie plants, there are three miles of trails and paths built throughout the park.

I was fortunate to learn about the prairie restoration efforts at the Florida Prairie Orchard Planting and Meadowbrook Park but if you remember what you saw on Google Maps, most of the land in the Illinois that was once prairie are now agricultural farms. Only a few pockets of land are left today with its native habitats and restoration efforts are key to keep Illinois prairies in existence. The restoration efforts exhibited by volunteers at the Florida Orchard Prairie Planting and Meadowbrook Park are attempts to retain the beauty of the prairie grassland that once covered the area. However, more support and efforts are necessary for further successes in reclaiming and protecting the replaced habitats.

Growing up, I just always ate what my parents told me to. I never really wondered where the vegetables came from or how the animals providing the meat were raised. After all, food is just food. How can it be any different than what I read in stories and historical accounts? I was told to eat what was on my plate and bowl and I did. Until freshmen year of high school, I was unaware of the industrial process that has transformed food in modern society. I always thought of food as something that was ‘cultivated’ or ‘raised’ but big companies and high demand changed food to being just ‘produced’. For the first time in 2009, I discovered the difference between corn fed beef and grass fed beef. My teacher was a food activists who supported organic farming and healthy eating. He showed us various films, Food Inc. being one of them, about the agricultural and fast food production industry. I remember my shock at the way that our society and our demand for food has altered thousands of years of traditions in farming and raising animals. I had no idea the cost of cheap fast food is actually the use of fossil fuels and antibiotics in our livestock. The scariest part was the fact that I felt so helpless in making a change in the system that seems so established at that time.

However, from that time on, I became more aware of the environmental and health concerns that were caused by foods. I encourage the use of natural and organic plant/vegetable foods for the garden in my mom’s (technically mine too but you know she claims it) backyard. I became more aware of the appearance of high fructose corn syrup in my soda, which I now rarely drink and the use of corn in many products that we see today. While I know that my actions might not be able to change the entire food industry but hopefully it can influence my friends, colleagues, and family members to become more environmentally aware of the food they put on their table for their families and friends.