"Realizing Our Life-Place"
Living Responsibly in the Sacramento Valley Bioregion
- Fridays, 12:10 p.m. - 1:00 p.m.
- 1150 Hart Hall
- 1 unit - CRN# 69118 - no prerequisites
- Sponsored by the John Muir Institute for the Environment, the Putah-Cache Bioregion Project, and the Public Service Research Program
(530) 752-3393/756-4584
rlthayer@ucdavis.edu
Office: Rm. 203B Walker Hall
Welcome to the best one-unit undergrad course on campus! This quarter’s “Landscape Architecture Lunchbag Lectures” feature individuals who are helping to research, plan, interpret, protect, support, or just enjoy our local life-place or bioregion. . . with a concluding talk by a featured guest who manages the best “bioregional” website in North America (Ecotrust.org). Lectures are open to all.
The central goal of the course is to educate students on the nature and culture of this local region, to enable us to “realize our life-place” here, and to provide a framework for us to explore and responsibly inhabit other bioregions . This course is being coordinated with the delivery of a similar, in-depth graduate course, LDA 250, “Life-Place: Bioregional Theory and Principles”.
Talks roughly parallel the “staircase” of chapters in the book, LifePlace: Bioregional Thought and Practice, ©2003, by Robert Thayer, University of California Press (this is a recommended, but not required, text). Talks in this course begin with echoes of Chapter One, “Grounding: Discovering the Physical Place” and end with a commentary on action (reflecting Chapter Ten, “Acting: Taking Personal Responsibility.”)
Format
The class meets every Friday in Room 1150 Hart Hall, UC Davis, from 12:10 p.m. to 1:00 p.m. One unit of credit is available to all students, with no pre-requisites. The assignment for credit will involve writing a brief 4-5 page paper focusing on a topic chosen from a number of alternatives to be assigned at a later date. The paper required for receiving credit will be due June 9. The course is graded on a "Pass/No Pass" basis.
Presentation Schedule
| Friday, April 2 | Rob Thayer, Instructor: “Overview/ Realizing our LifePlace” |
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| Friday, April 9 | Steve Greco/David Kelley: “Genesis: Water and Soil” |
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| Friday, April 16 | Andrew Fulks: “The Nature of the Putah-Cache-Sacramento River Region” |
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| Friday, April 23 | Tina Stott/Rob Thayer: “Steering a Bioregional Organization” |
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| Friday, April 30 | David Robertson/Gina Werfel/Hearne Pardee: “Imagining the Life-Place: Art in the Bioregion” |
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| Friday, May 7 | Gail Feenstra/Ann Evans: “Foodsheds: Sustaining a Regional Agriculture” |
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| Friday, May 14 | Rob Thayer/Jake Mann/Jeff Kennedy: “Bioregional Analysis and Planning” |
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| Friday, May 21 | Shannon Brawley/ Don Hankins/Jacquelyn Ross: “Native Plants, Native Cultures” |
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| Friday, May 28 | Ann Brice/Margaret Kralovec/ Joel Buettner: “Teaching Place: Outdoor Education in the Bioregion” |
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| Friday, June 4 | Eileen Brady/Spencer Beebe: “Ecotrust.org/SalmonNation.com” Portland, Oregon |
to download the pdf version, click here