Environment

Help the Syracuse Urban Food Forest Project decide what to plant this year at 4 p.m. meeting Thursday, Feb. 2, at the Dunbar Center on the city’s South Side By Arcènia Notilija Vilanculo Guest Column for The Stand There is a saying in Portuguese that goes, “para ser imortal, plante uma árvore, escreva um livro e tenha um filho,” which …

Grant is used to build ‘outdoor classroom’ for environmental education Thanks to a half-million dollar state grant, the city has built what it calls an “outdoor classroom” — with educational signs, designs depicting local fish and a large, stone sitting bench — to teach children about the life of Onondaga Creek. Brainstorming for the project’s purpose and design began last …

College and city students partner to learn about sustainability, healthy living As part of a Syracuse University course that examines the relationship between cities and food, students partner with community collaborators to develop a final project that supports food systems interventions throughout Syracuse. Our group is partnering with Modern Primitive Exchange, an art and design forum, on the Wilder Compound …

Wilder Compound visits garden April 5 for opening event and to build geodesic greenhouse dome A group of 30 volunteers, including many college and high school students, worked through sleet and snow to put up a greenhouse dome at the Southwest Community Garden Saturday, April 5. The workshop, part of The Canary Project, is meant to teach youth “hands-on skills” …

Save the Rain planting program prevents pollution The South Side has gotten a little greener as a local environmental organization has planted about 700 trees throughout the neighborhood. Over the past two months, The Onondaga Earth Corps planted the trees to absorb and prevent storm water from carrying pollution into local bodies of water, said Keenan Lewis, the group’s youth …

Baltimore Woods brings science alive for elementary students This school year, the environmental education organization Baltimore Woods Nature Center will expand its programs to every South Side elementary school. The Dr. King Elementary School and McKinley-Brighton Elementary are among the eight new schools to host the program, called Nature in the City, which takes students out of the classroom and …

The New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) is often contacted by citizens regarding the quality of the air in their community.  To help address many of these concerns, DEC is initiating a new community-based program, the Community Air Screen (CAS).  This program uses local volunteers to gather air samples for laboratory screening to identify possible air pollutants.  The …

This Saturday, April 14, high school students from the Say Yes Collegiate Preparatory Academy are scheduled to visit a developing snack garden housed on the property of the Rahma Free Health Clinic located at 3100 S. Salina St. The students will give out information they have gathered about food deserts while they also assist with mulching, trail building, sign making …

Two nonprofits team up to build garden for the South Side Two Syracuse nonprofit organizations — one a nursery, the other a free clinic — are turning a vacant South Side lot into an edible forest garden to provide a healthy crop of fruit and vegetables to local residents. Members of the Alchemical Nursery and the soon-to-be-opened Rahma Clinic, together …

Around 15 volunteers gathered at the Rescue Mission on Dickerson Street early Saturday, Sept. 17, morning set on accomplishing two goals for the day: cleaning up Onondaga Creek and finishing a platter of muffins. The Creek Rats, a volunteer group that grew out of the Cornell Cooperative Extension of the Onondaga Creek clean up, set out on its 10th anniversary …