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By Simmons Buntin, March 31, 2010 11:19 pm

Terrain.org is pleased to announce our inaugural contests in:

• Poetry, judged by Jessie Lendennie, poet and Salmon Poetry managing director
• Fiction, judged by Aurelie Sheehan, award-winning author of History Lesson for Girls and The Anxiety of Everyday Objects
• Nonfiction, judged by David Rothenberg, award-winning author of Thousand Mile Song and Why Birds Sing

Contest Details

Theme and Submission Period

The contest theme is “The Signal in the Noise,” to match our 26th issue, which launches in mid-September 2010. Though the contest and issue have a theme, we have a very liberal perspective on the theme and encourage you first and foremost to submit your best work.

The contest submission period is April 1 to August 1, 2010. Winners will be announced on or before September 1, 2010.

Prizes

A prize of $250 plus publication for the first-place winner will be awarded in each genre. Runners up in each genre will also receive publication.

Additionally, each first-place winner will receive special, dynamic publication treatment in Issue No. 26. The editors will work with the contest winners to determine the best layout treatment, which is likely to include additional graphics, audio, and enhanced HTML treatment.

Note that we reserve the right to reduce or cancel the contest if we do not receive enough submissions.

Selection Process

All submissions are considered for publication. Terrain.org’s editors will read all entries, passing the top entries in each genre to the judges, who will choose the first-, second-, and third-place winners. Decisions of the judges are final. Judges will not know the identity of the contestants.

All contestants will be notified of the judges’ decisions on or before September 1, 2010.

How to Submit

You are not eligible to enter this contest if you are family or close friends of, or have studied with or under any of Terrain.org’s primary editors — Stephanie Eve Boone, Simmons Buntin, Patrick Burns, Catherine Cunningham, and Joshua Foster — or the contest judges: Jessie Lendennie, Aurelie Sheehan, and David Rothenberg.

Simultaneous submissions are acceptable, but previously published material in any format, including blogs, will not be considered. Submissions can be withdrawn through the submission system, though in that case contest entry fees will not be refunded.

Cost

The cost to submit is $10 per story, essay, or set of 3-6 poems.

What to Submit

You may submit up to three entries in any or all genres:

Poetry
Submit 3-6 poems per entry. For poetry, we are seeking not just the best poem, but the best set of 3-6 poems or long poem, with the hopes of awarding our prizes to poetry sets rather than individual, shorter poems, if possible. No maximum lines per poem. Poems must contain only the poem title and poem itself without the author name or contact information.

Fiction
Submit one story or set of three flash fiction pieces, up to 7,000 words total, per entry. Stories must contain only the story title and story itself without the author name or contact information.

Nonfiction
Submit one essay or set of three micro essays, up to 7,000 words total, per entry. Essays must contain only the essay title and essay itself without the author name or contact information. We will consider all nonfiction, but are most interested in creative nonfiction, including personal essays, lyric essays, memoir, and other literary forms.

Cover Letter Required

Each submission must include a cover letter with the author’s name and contact information — including email, telephone, and mailing address — and the name(s) of the poems, story, and/or essay.

The Submission Process

1. Please save your cover letter and submission for each entry as a single document — .doc, .docx, .rtf, .wpd, .txt, or .pdf only.
2. Submit online at http://sub.terrain.org. If you have submitted to Terrain.org before, log in to submit. If you have not submitted before, you must register.
3. Choose the “Contest” genre category and in the Comments area, type the genre of your submission: Poetry, Fiction, or Nonfiction
4. Once you confirm your submission, you will be directed to a page with payment instructions (via Paypal). Instructions for mailing a check in lieu of paying online are also provided.
5. No submission will be considered until payment has been received.
6. You will receive submission and payment confirmation via email.

Learn more at, and submit online from, www.terrain.org/contest.

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By Simmons Buntin, March 31, 2010 1:13 am

Inspiration, the first commercial building at Dockside Green in Victoria, British Columbia. Photo courtesy Busby Perkins+Will Architects Co.

The editors of Terrain.org: A Journal of the Built & Natural Environments at http://www.terrain.org are pleased to announce the launch of our 25^th issue: Virtually There.

One of our largest and most dynamic issues to date features:

Columns

• Guest Editorial: “Virtually Unconscious: Dreams of Escape” by Renee Lertzman, Miller Postdoctoral Fellow in Humanities and Sustainability, Portland State University
• Simmons B. Buntin’s The Literal Landscape: “Songbird”
• Deborah Fries’s Plein Air: “Sharing the Edge of the Sixth Shore: Artists and Scientists Converge at Lake Clifton”
• David Rothenberg’s Bull Hill: “The BluRay Squirrel and the HighDef Squid”
• Lauret Savoy’s A Stone’s Throw: “Winter Leaves”

Interview

• Patrick Burns interviews author Padma Viswanathan

UnSprawl Case Study

• Dockside Green in Victoria, British Columbia
  by Ken Pirie

Poetry

• Poetry in text and audio by Sara Talpos, Karen Schubert, Patricia Clark, Erin Coughlin Hollowell, Abe Louise Young, Linda Umans, Arianne Zwartjes, Jamison Crabtree, Sandy Longhorn, Matthew James Babcock, Robin Chapman, Tim Bellows, C. J. Sage, Paul Hostovsky, Lyn Lifshin, Deborah Fries, Carolyn Kreiter-Foronda, Julie L. Moore, Hugh Fox, and Fran Markover

Essays

• “How to Draw a Glass Mountain: Los Angeles and the Architecture of Segregation,” a hypertext photo essay by Aisha Sloan
• “The Book of Water,” by Joe Wilkins, with audio
• “The Road to Crownpoint,” essay by Kurt Caswell and illustration by Susan Leigh Tomlinson
• “The Place and the Photograph,” by Lex Runciman, with Stonehenge Photo Gallery
• “Four Dispatches from the Interface,” by Charles Goodrich, with Audio

Articles

• “Planning a Post-Carbon World: The City of North Vancouver and the 100 Year Plan,” by Patrick Condon
• “The Digital Cathedral in the Age of Democratic Sustainability,” by Peter W. Bardaglio
• “Isn’t it Time to Dig Vertical Farming?” by Chris Bradford
• “Open Data and Government 2.0,” by Nate Berg
• “Virtuality: The Splenda of Existence,” by Rachel Shaw

Fiction

• “Machete Maneuvers,” by Rachel Furey, with audio
• “The Glory of Ned Wiley,” by Braden Hepner
• “Holding Patterns,” by Bette Lynch Husted
• “Estrella, Extranjero,” by Chavawn Kelley

ARTerrain Gallery

• Ten art quilts of textile and mixed media by Jan Rickman

Reviews

• Jennifer McStotts reviews The Seasons on Henry’s Farm: A Year of Food and Life on a Sustainable Farm, by Terra Brockman
• Simmons B. Buntin reviews Animal Logic, by Richard Barnes, and Earth Forms, by Stephen Strom
• Julie Wnuk reviews When the Rains Come: A Naturalist’s Year in the Sonoran Desert, by John Alcock
• Stephanie Eve Boone reviews Anne Frank: The Book, the Life, the Afterlife, by Francine Prose

Read the entire issue, available in both HTML and PDF formats, online now at http://www.terrain.org.

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By Brian Awehali, March 22, 2010 2:06 pm

High tree line, Nantou County, Taiwan. Everything just grows here.

By Brian Awehali

I was taken on a lovely tour of the fog-wreathed high mountain tea country in Nantou County, in the central and only landlocked part of Taiwan. Here, especially in the east, near the Hualien coastline, it’s easy to see why the Portuguese dubbed this place “formosa,” which means “beautiful island.” Butterflies and lush vegetation abound.

One must dwell in beauty when contemplating strategies for military conquest and brutal political suppression.

Among the many interesting natural sites, I also saw the “bamboo house” that Nationalist (KMT) leader Lord Chiang would retreat to in the years after he lost his struggle against the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and was forced to flee mainland China. I’m not sure if he went here before or after he contracted the gonorrhea that would eventually sterilize him and leave him with only one biological son, but it was definitely before he imprisoned or executed upwards of 140,000 people for opposing the KMT in Taiwan.

After the tour, I was invited to visit a local tea aficionado to learn more about the history, process, art, and etiquette of Taiwan’s second-most-acclaimed product (the first being the creation and modern defense of a functioning democratic Chinese society and government).

We entered and began the tasting: Spring and Winter varieties of Rose Oolong, Jasmine and Black teas were in the offing, and it was surprising just how distinct the flavor of each season’s tea was. I learned that the best tea is grown at the highest altitudes, where it takes the longest to mature. Winter tea is the most prized, and most expensive, though I personally favor the spring tea for its greener, and more precisely chlorophyllic aroma and color.

Chushan tea master, pouring

I am a mostly unapologetic hedonist, and I often have as much trouble limiting my enjoyment of something pleasurable or delicious as I do stopping an interesting conversation, or leaving a beautiful place. So I kept accepting one cup of fine tea after another as my host offered them. I was at this tasting with my partner F. and her parents, and courtesy dictated that if I accepted more, more would be served. I was having a grand and fabulously caffeinated time, completely engrossed in asking as many questions as came to mind while everyone translated for me. What was the difference between black tea, green tea and oolong? (They’re all from the Camellia Senesis plant, but black tea is fully fermented/oxidized, oolong to a lesser extent, and green tea not at all). Why was the first short steeping of the tea always discarded? (To “wake” the tea and to wash away any residue on the leaves before drinking). Why were there so many steeps of each tea, and why such tiny cups? (We were performing a ceremonial method called gongfucha, and the exacting chemistry and temperature of the ceremony dictates smaller cups with hotter water). Would a person get fat from eating so many of these delicious biscuits, peanuts, and cookies between each serving of tea? (“Not as long as they’re consumed with tea!,” chirped my comfortably stout host.)

"You cannot get fat, no matter how much you eat, as long as it's while you're drinking tea!"

I also learned just how intensive the human labor of tea (especially oolong) is. The vast majority of it is picked by hand, a pound of tea requires tens to hundreds of thousands of leaves, and pay is generally very low. Taking this into consideration, the slower and more deliberate consumption of tea makes perfect sense.

It was not until many hours and maybe 50 cups of tea (small ones, but really: 50) that I realized just how very much tea had been consumed.  When we finally tore ourselves away, my obviously great love of tea led our host to offer me a very fine traveling tea set and some lovely spring tea from the high mountains of Nantou to take with me on my travels. Score!

The first ten cups make you smile, the second twenty make you talk. The twenty after that may give you tachycardia.

That night, I worked merrily through the night while F. and her parents complained bitterly the next morning about insomnia and bad sleep. 

It is not simply national chauvinism when the Taiwanese tell you, as they often do, that the very best tea is from Taiwan. The choicest tea they produce is bought up by men doing business in mainland China, who use it to bribe Chinese officials and thereby grease the wheels of commerce. This is so common, I was told by a merchant for one of Taiwan’s largest tea producers, that it’s very hard for the average Taiwanese to get any of their prized winter tea. I noticed that the Wikipedia entry on oolong tea does not mention this fact. Then again, as great as Wikipedia is, you can’t be too trusting of anything you read online…

NEXT: Ten days working on a WWOOF-affiliated “organic” farm in Chunan, on the northwest coast of Taiwan. ABC’s of Japanese-style organic fertilizer! The genius of birds relative to that of insects! How to cut and harvest bamboo without getting eaten alive by vicious little bugs! (That is, vicious little bugs other than the Taiwanese vampire mosquito.)

~~~~

Brian Awehali, a former editor at Britannica.com, founded and edited the North American magazine, LiP: Informed Revolt (anthology: Tipping the Sacred Cow, AK Press). In 2010, he will be traveling through Taiwan, China, and Mongolia, writing diffusely about culture, sustainable development, and emerging “green” technologies. He curates LOUDCANARY: One interconnected journey through everything and nothing. He is a half-Irish member of the Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma.

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By Simmons Buntin, March 13, 2010 11:31 pm

New Report Reveals Bird Conservation Efforts Are Critical in the Face of Climate Change

Dr. David Pashley, Vice President of American Bird Conservancy – one of the nation’s leading bird conservation organizations – cautioned last week that as climate change impacts are increasingly felt throughout the United States and beyond, conservation efforts affecting birds will take on a doubly important role in protecting not only birds that are already threatened, but also more common birds as well.

Dr. Pashley made his comments in connection with the release of State of the Birds 2010, the first comprehensive vulnerability assessment of bird species to climate change across the United States. Interior Secretary Ken Salazar announced the report’s release at a press conference in Texas, along with several environmental organizations including American Bird Conservancy that had collaborated on the publication.  Dr. Pashley was one of the authors of the report.

“Our findings tell us that birds of conservation concern today will be in even greater peril in the future as a result of climate change, and many bird species that are now doing well may soon become conservation priorities as global warming progresses,” Dr. Pashley said.

Conservation efforts that will take on special importance include: reduction of carbon emissions; conservation of bird habitat; protection of bird prey bases and food supplies; and removal of threats, including invasive plant and animal species.

“The birds that will be the hardest hit by climate change will be ocean and island birds, whose habitat and food base are most tied to both a climate-dependent ocean biology and sea level. Hawaiian birds in particular, are already in deep trouble and may be looking at even more difficult circumstances,” Dr. Pashley said.

All 67 oceanic bird species are considered vulnerable due to low reproductive rates, use of islands for nesting, and reliance on rapidly changing oceans.  Ninety-three percent of Hawaiian birds and 62% of all U.S. Pacific Island birds have a medium to high vulnerability to climate change. Hawaiian forest birds are also threatened by the spread of avian malaria; warming will increase the rate of transmission and reduce the size of the birds’ current malaria-free safe area.

“For land-based birds, the key will be in establishing, implementing, or enforcing land management policies that recognize the increasing threat that birds are facing,” he said.

How lands are managed can help both mitigate global warming, and help birds adapt to changing climate and habitat conditions.  For example, conserving carbon-rich forests and wetlands, and creating incentives to avoid deforestation can keep already stored carbon from dissipating into the atmosphere, while also providing invaluable wildlife habitat. Market-based mechanisms that provide resources to conserve biodiversity and to store carbon should also be encouraged.

The report identified common bird species such as the American oystercatcher, common nighthawk, and northern pintail that are likely to become species of conservation concern as a result of climate change.

Dr. Pashley also said that in order to address the challenges identified in State of the Birds 2010, the Joint Venture partnerships will need to be further strengthened to identify new or changing bird conservation needs and to carry out projects to help species adapt.  Joint Ventures (JVs) are regional, collaborative partnerships involving federal, state, and local government agencies, corporations, tribes, individuals, and a wide range of non-governmental organizations working to advance conservation efforts and help identify local land use priorities. JVs provide coordination for conservation planning and implementation that benefit birds and other species. JVs also develop science-based goals and strategies, and a non-regulatory approach for achieving conservation.

The State of the Birds 2010 report is a collaborative effort, as part of the U.S. North American Bird Conservation Initiative, involving federal and state wildlife agencies, and scientific and conservation organizations. Partners include American Bird Conservancy, Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies, Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Klamath Bird Observatory, National Audubon Society, National Fish and Wildlife Foundation, The Nature Conservancy, U.S.D.A. Forest Service, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, and U.S. Geological Survey.

The report is available at www.stateofthebirds.org.

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By Simmons Buntin, March 8, 2010 6:20 pm

By Tom Rooney

Tom Rooney, CEO of SPG Solar, rings the solar gong at the SunTech solar factory in China.

Greetings from Beijing where, from my cafe seat near Tiananmen Square,  plans to expand solar power in the United States look a lot different than from my office in Northern California — where I am the CEO of one of America’s larger solar power companies.

Many of the measures — and half measures — that we read about every day in American papers are things the Germans and Chinese and Spanish and French decided to do 10 years ago.

They are racing. We are walking.

Germany, for example: Hardly a sunny hot spot — but it has more solar installations than any country in the world. 200 times more than England. That is because German citizens have been getting 50 to 75 cents per kilowatt hour for the solar power they sell back to the grid. Spain is similar.

Great Britain and France and Ontario and other places throughout the world recently raised their so-called ‘feed in tariffs’ to  comparable levels.

In Gainesville, Florida, the feed-in tariff is now the highest in the country at 32 cents. All of a sudden there is an explosion of interest in solar in Gainesville.

In California, we get less than 10  cents. And that is more than most places.

In the United States, we limit not just the price but also the amount of solar energy an owner can sell back to the grid. So we wait for the day when all the transmission lines are perfect. When the grid is perfect. When all the energy infrastructure is in place.

Meanwhile, we wait for an energy future that may never come.

If we allowed the price to rise, and removed the limits on how much solar energy a farmer or business owner or school or police station could generate, we would see an explosion in demand for solar and other renewables.  That would reduce our dependence on foreign energy and stimulate domestic manufacturing, as well.

It’s a two-fer.

That is our best chance of creating solar panel manufacturing jobs in the United States. But it is already very late in the game.  Michael Northrop of the Rockefeller Brothers Fund points out the most of the world’s largest renewable energy manufacturing happens outside the United States. He says,  “Not only are we shipping oil dollars to the Middle East, we are watching our solar, wind, and other renewable energy dollars begin flowing to Asia. … The U.S. needs to decide rapidly whether it wants to own this future or pay for it.”

From my seat in Beijing, where I am traveling the country visiting suppliers for my solar power installation company, it looks as if this decision has already been made.

~~~

Tom Rooney is the President and CEO of SPG Solar. He can be reached at spgsolar.com.