As the new year rolls along, the Transportation Action Group is launching a campaign urging neighbors to Drop a Car. Whether it's a larger family with three vehicles decreasing to two, a couple cutting down to one, or a single person deciding to go carless altogether... It all makes a difference.
 

If we all have fewer cars at our disposal, it will increase transit use, biking, and walking. We'll be healthier (transit users, for instance, are 81% more likely to be a healthy weight than car drivers). We'll become advocates for the Saint Paul bike plan, which promises to improve Como, Raymond, and Cleveland and connect Pierce Butler to Raymond and the Transit Way over the next 20 years but currently has no funding in sight. We'll make car-sharing services more successful, too. And, of course, fewer cars will need to be built in the first place (each car requires as much carbon to build as it does to operate) and we'll use less carbon-based fuel. 

Two neighbors who've made the switch are Transition Town supporters Brandon and Natascha. They moved to a house a block off Como Avenue in 2009. At the time, they had a small station wagon, a light truck, and a collector car. "Our house needed a lot of work," says Brandon, "and the truck came in handy hauling supplies, but most of the time I was driving around by myself getting groceries at 18 miles per gallon." Then, "It turns out St. Anthony Park has pretty good bus service, so Natascha decided to try busing to work and now she wouldn't go back. No freeway stress, and time to listen to podcasts. Between Hampden Co-op and Speedy Market, I could walk or bike for groceries, and all our cars sat in the driveway most of the time.
 

"We decided to trade the truck and wagon for a hybrid hatchback, despite some grumbling from in-laws who liked to borrow the truck for their chores. They got over it. I use a roof rack now to haul lumber, and Natascha made up a tarp for the back of the hatchback to haul mulch and other messy loads.

"We only drive the collector car in the summer, so for half the year we're a one-car family. We have a subscription to HourCar for the rare occasions when we both need a car at the same time in the winter. Our goal is to stay under 5,000 miles per year for the hatchback and 1,000 miles per year for the collector car, which altogether is half the national average of 12,000 miles per year."

The Transportation Action Group is working on plans to promote the campaign, including getting articles into the Bugle, creating short info sheets to post around the neighborhood, and possibly chalking the logo and relevant statistics on sidewalks. 

Let's get people thinking about the cars in their lives, and whether they can make the changes needed to drop one of them. 

P.S. Brandon and Natascha have considered going carless, but "our 5,000 miles include going canoeing in the Boundary waters nearly every summer, plus weekend camping trips. If we rented a car for those trips, we'd be very close to what we pay for the hatchback." Services like HourCar or Car2Go leave a big opportunity for a car-sharing service that accommodates longer trips as well.

 "Fresh air," says Tim Chase, Murray Middle School science teacher, "even supersedes skills and knowledge base. It's my primary reason for taking on the School Forest program. We evolved in the natural world, so why wouldn't we learn best out there how to experience and observe?" It was late January, and Tim was celebrating Murray's brand-new designation as a School Forest by the state's Department of Natural Resources.

Meanwhile, at St. Anthony Park Elementary School, science teacher Karen Christenson is already steeped in the School Forest tradition.  In fact, she's been named a national Outstanding Educator in the Project Learning Tree program. "Part of the strength of the PLT curriculum is that it's fact-based, teaching students how to think, not what to think," she says. "Students develop a knowledge base about natural resources. The key is helping them develop their own environmental literacy and sense of stewardship." 

A School Forest is an outdoor classroom

Science means observing. Karen's students look closely: which birds and animals live in the habitats of Langford Park?

While mentorships and lesson plans are being shaped, students in Tim's and Karen's classes are already venturing out with clipboards, schoolyard safari-style, to take Nature's measure. As students connect to nature, they apply ideas from across the curriculum: science, math, art and language arts, social studies, and others, gaining life-long critical thinking skills. And trees, with their carbon-offsetting benefits, offer a great chance to discuss climate change. Other pluses for kids? Confidence and engagement in learning, community, and enjoyment of fresh air.

Since the passage of Minnesota's School Forest Law over 60 years ago, the DNR and schools across the state have coached students in land stewardship in more than 120 designated School Forests. Ranging from less than one acre to 300, they total over 7,200 acres, either school-owned or managed by Joint Powers Agreements. Last spring, teachers and principals from three St. Paul School Forests - Crossroads School site included - plus staff from the DNR and St. Paul Parks and Rec, drew up such an agreement. It has now won full approval.

It's a partnership

Using tools as "beaks," students mimic birds seeking food in various habitats.

The DNR offers an array of personnel and services to its designated Forest Schools: curriculum development, programs such as Project Learning Tree, site-committee visits, and site-specific workshops. A forester-mentor is assigned to each school: "It's such a rewarding aspect of my job," says DNR forester Barb Spears. 

Schools also get land management help, research and writing help for grants and partnerships, legal support, a website with program materials, and hundreds of lesson plans. A free conference brings teachers, site coordinators, and administrators together annually. In 2010, Karen spoke on using outdoor education to meet K-5 science standards.

Schools make a big commitment, with buy-in from teachers, administrators, parents, and community members. A site coordinator and School Forest committee oversee compliance with stewardship and sustainable land management practices.They also plan five special learning activities each year. An annual report is written; funding is secured for site activities and maintenance, transport, and teaching supplies; and consistent follow-through of education activities is assured. Our children, our teachers, our neighborhood, the wider population and Nature Herself are the richer and the rosier-cheeked. 

-- Mimi Jennings

School liaison Mimi Jennings stays in touch with the five schools in District 12: SAP Elementary, Murray, Como High, Avalon, and Jennings Learning Center. She's a former St. Paul Public School teacher herself. Want to join Mimi in supporting our schools' sustainability projects? Send her an email.