In February we celebrate love. This includes romantic love, whether in its first flush, rosy as the dawn, or long familiar and vibrant as the sunset. It includes love of friends, whether giving out valentines to everyone in your elementary class or creating a whole separate day to celebrate your platonic beloveds. (Happy Galentines to all who celebrate!) And for this year, why don’t we add love for the earth as well? A love that just may be requited. 

On a recent episode of The Nature of podcast from Atmos, scientist and writer Robin Wall Kimmerer talks about what happens when we recognize not only that we love the earth but that the land loves us back. She contends that re-orienting in this way completely shifts the dynamic because it highlights how the work we do on behalf of the land is done in relationship, which includes recognition for what the earth does for us as well. So perhaps we need to add a third holiday to the February roster. (Planetines Day, anyone?)  

No matter what version of love feels most noteworthy to you right now, this is certainly a time to lean in to love—holding on to those we cherish, grounding our actions in care, and expanding the list of beloveds with whom we join hands.  

Check out Dr. Kimmerer’s newest initiative, Plant, Baby, Plant, focused on “acts of care for the living world.”  

 

“Knowing that you love the earth changes you, activates you to defend and protect and celebrate. But when you feel that the earth loves you in return, that feeling transforms the relationship from a one-way street into a sacred bond.” - Robin Wall Kimmerer, Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge, and the Teachings of Plants 

The Get Inspired section features an interview or profile with a UO staff, faculty, student, or alum making a difference on campus and beyond. 

Q: How long have you worked at UO, and what’s your favorite thing about working here?

I started working at the UO in 2023, I started on September 17th, I only know that because me and Eric Alexander the Director of the EMU have an inside joke about starting on the same day. For me, my favorite thing about working here is my team, the people I work with daily. I am also just lucky my job allows me to be flexible and outside, so no day is the same which I love. 

Q: At a high level, what does the Outdoor Program do at the University and then what do you focus on specifically?

At a high level, the UO Outdoor Program is here to serve all students on campus in a multitude of ways. First, we offer real work experience and skill development to our student employees who work for the OP as bike mechanics, rental barn retail staff, outdoor leaders, and event facilitators. The OP is also a space for students on campus to get their bikes fixed or learn how to fix their own bike at the UO DIY Bike Shop, rent affordable gear for any outdoor adventure at the rental barn, and participate in outdoor experiences through signing up for outings and trips with us. We rent gear to students, faculty, staff, and community members, and we offer opportunities for students to get outside by signing up for hikes, cross-country skiing, paddle boarding adventures, and everything in between. We also provide classes and clinics for students and community members to learn new skills or further existing ones, such as Bike School, Avalanche Safety Night, Backcountry Cooking, and more. Lastly, we provide opportunities for students to connect with the greater Eugene community through events such as No Man’s Land Film Festival and the Banff Mountain Film Festival. We are here to provide a space for all students no matter skill level or ability to get outside, whether it’s their first hike ever or they are a seasoned adventurer, we are here for it all.

Q: Outdoor and recreational planning while navigating institutional policies, particularly at a large, complex institution like the UO, can be both slow and complicated. What keeps you motivated?

When I start to feel frustrated by the institutional complexities and policies that we all experience, I usually shift my mindset and tell myself, “Well, just do better” or “the process is more important than the product”. They are sort of mantras of mine. As humans, we often find the not‑so‑good in everything, so it’s important to remind ourselves that we have the power to change things or at the very least change our perspective. We get to do so many amazing things here at the OP, and normally what we accomplish through that process helps further or preserve the OP. Knowing that it benefits my students and the greater student population helps me find the willpower to keep going, and my mantras help a lot in keeping me grounded.

Q: How do you see your work's connection to sustainability or to making a positive difference in the world?

I think the work my team and I do every day connects students and the greater Eugene community to a more sustainable future in many ways. At the OP, we offer free bike parts that are donated to us or recovered from lost bikes on campus that Transportation Services impounds after a certain amount of time. Students can come in and use these free parts to build or fix their bikes, so we aren’t always buying new. We are reusing and repurposing resources, which I see as one of our super strengths.

We also offer high‑end camping and adventure gear at a low cost, so students and community members don’t have to buy new gear that they might only use once. In addition, we place a strong emphasis on repairing our gear ourselves. Most of our staff know how to sew and maintain equipment instead of throwing it away.

Beyond sustainability, we are also making a positive difference by getting people outside into natural areas, off their phones, and building real connections with their peers, their community, and the natural spaces we visit. At the OP, we always follow Leave No Trace principles, helping ensure the places recreate in are cared for now and into the future.

Q: What’s one attainable dream you have in your position at the university?

This is a hard question; we tend to dream big here at the OP. I think for me it’s continuing to grow and foster our Redefining Outdoorsy Program. This program allows us to run trips and outings that focus on getting students who identify in a marginalized group or a group that has historically been underrepresented in outdoor spaces outside at no cost to the individual. We run anywhere between 10-15 RO trips a year and my dream is just to be able to run more. These trips are really important for creating space in the outdoor community for everyone.

 

The Office of Campus Planning is proud to announce that we have received $150,000 from the National Trust for Historic Preservation African American Cultural Heritage Action Fund! With generous support from the Getty Foundation, this funding will allow us to hire an architecture firm to develop a historic preservation and interpretation plan for McKenzie Hall, designed by DeNorval Unthank, Jr, the first Black graduate of UO’s architecture school. A preservation plan will guide future repair and renovation projects at McKenzie Hall and recognize the contribution of Unthank to the UO campus and Modern architecture, adding to the growing body of knowledge about the contributions of Black architects in history. In addition, this funding will pay for an interpretive display at McKenzie Hall, student employment to assist with research, and two educational events.

Notably, preservation and renovation also further environmental sustainability.

University of Oregon is one of 24 sites to receive a total of $3 million in grant funding to advance ongoing preservation activities for historic sites, buildings, and landscapes that represent Black cultural heritage. With more than $150 million raised, the Action Fund is the largest U.S. resource dedicated to the preservation of African American historic places. To learn more about this program and this year’s grant recipients, visit https://savingplaces.org/stories/actionfund2025

There's no waffling here, the UO Surplus Store is way "batter" than average!

Start treasure hunting today!

547 Q St store - Mon–Wed, 10 AM–5:20 PM

Faculty/staff hours at Romania warehouse - Fridays 10am-1pm and by appointment

 Follow us for the latest finds and groaniest puns: https://www.instagram.com/uo_surplus/

We have a mission for you. Are you ready to accept it? 

We have a confession to make. When it comes to recycling at University of Oregon, there is one key area in which we are failing: cups. Despite our best efforts. Despite signage saying all cups are trash. Despite being mentioned at multiple points in the tenure of this newsletter. Cups are consistently the most common source of contamination in campus recycling. 

Some may think, well, we can recycle paper and plastic so what’s different about cups? Other may think, I get that it might be annoying but really, what’s the big deal? The answer lies in the combination of vessel + liquid. When a cup containing liquid goes into the bin—whether that liquid is coffee, matcha, juice smoothie, or soda—the liquid does not stay in the cup. And once it’s spread to nearby items, innocent recyclables ready to be transformed, it also ruins those items from being recyclable. In short, throwing away cups in the recycling bin has a massive negative impact on campus recycling overall.  

So here is your mission: You know the drill. You would never put a cup in the recycling. So spread the word. In an era when our culture increasingly mistrusts experts and leaders, we still trust our friends and colleagues. Be a trusted source and let your people know: all cups are trash! 

*Hate all this waste? We do too. Fortunately, you can get a discount on your beverage at all campus coffee shops and Starbucks if you bring your own mug. 

As the scent of burning sage cuts through the chilly morning air on the central California coast, two dozen young adults gathered around Gabe Sanchez to discuss the day’s work. 

Here as part of the University of Oregon’s Museum of Natural and Cultural History summer field school, the students are spending a month immersed in Indigenous cultural landscapes while studying archaeology, history and ecology and, at the same time, helping restore oyster beds. They’re learning vital career skills while helping usher in a new era of archaeology. 

The summer course draws students from the UO as well as other universities around the country, who live, learn and work on the central California coast in partnership with the Amah Mutsun Tribal Band and the Amah Mutsun Land Trust. 

In the wake of wildfire, a vital micronutrient can become a toxic heavy metal — and could eventually make its way into groundwater.

New research from the University of Oregon breaks down how chromium converts from a benign form in rocks and soil to a carcinogenic one in the presence of extreme heat during wildfires.

Simulated wildfire experiments done on soils naturally rich in chromium revealed that fires reaching 750 to 1,100 degrees Fahrenheit created the highest amount of the harmful contaminant. The location of soil — a summit or valley, for instance — influenced what temperature caused the most conversion.

 

Times of extreme temperatures, such as Lane County experienced during January, can strain the capacity of the energy grid. So far our community has not experienced "rolling blackouts," a management strategy used in times of energy limitations, but they are a real concern for Eugene Water and Electric Board (EWEB), which services most of Eugene.

The University of Oregon has a highly-efficient co-generation power plant, powered by natural gas (a.k.a. methane, a potent greenhouse gas). The efficiency comes because unlike most plants, instead of wasting excess heat used to generate electricity, our plant can recapture it and disperse it to campus as the steam heat that warms almost all campus buildings. In recent years, U&E has primarily been generating steam and chilled water for campus buildings and providing backup emergency power to campus as needed. Electricity for the campus is provided by EWEB.  

EWEB and UO are considering a pilot in which the university would use the full co-generation facility in times of grid need and sell the electricity to EWEB to prevent dangerous strains to the local energy grid. 

The project does come with a challenging reality: it will increase UO's greenhouse gas footprint, aka carbon pollution. However, after careful analysis, the project is highly likely to have a net positive effect on carbon pollution statewide as using UO's efficient plant will divert the need for using less efficient, methane or coal-powered plants elsewhere in the state. It is this balance of service to the community and net positive impact on overall carbon emissions that make it an attractive idea to pilot. 

The Willamette River Natural Area and Millrace Natural Area showcase the University’s commitment to strengthening connections between the natural environment, students, faculty,and the wider community. As an outdoor lab, the natural areas facilitate diverse research andservice projects, allowing UO students and faculty to engage directly with the ecosystem.

 

 Save the Date! WRNA Tree Plantings this Winter

Please join us for a landmark moment in UO’s stewardship of the Willamette River Natural Area. With support from an Oregon Department of Forestry grant and our partners at the City of Eugene, Friends of Trees, and the Willamette Resources and Educational Network (WREN), the UO Natural Areas Program will plant 455 new trees over the next two years!

Mark your calendars for February 21st, to help us kick off this historic, community-powered effort. See details in the Events and Opportunities section below. 

Check out the full list of WRNA February events in the Events and Opportunities section below

 

The Office of Sustainability offers monthly walking tours of sustainability features and practices at the Eugene campus. Tours occur monthly, and attendees learn about infrastructure, academic programs, and student groups, among other topics. The next tour will be Friday, February 13, from 11:10-12:10 pm. Meet at the Unthank Welcome Center. 

Students in the course "Climate Wayfinding" brought objects that symbolize the personal motivations driving their commitment to protect the planet. What object would you bring? 

Have a UO or Eugene/Springfield-related delight or a story idea to share? Send to sstoeckl@uoregon.edu.