Celebrating the “Year of Green 2010-11” Delta State University hosted the Seventh Annual Delta State Community Recognition Luncheon on Tuesday, Nov. 16, in the State Room of the H.L. Nowell Union on the campus. This year’s program honored organizations that work closely with the University to help preserve and protect our environment. Honorees were recognized as Hometown Champions, Delta State Champions, Delta Regional Champions, and Agricultural Champions.
HOMETOWN CHAMPIONS
Cleveland Farmers Market
Now in its sixth year, the Cleveland Farmers Market operates every Saturday through the summer and fall from 8 a.m. to 10 a.m. Farmers and vendors sell locally grown fresh fruits and vegetables as well as eggs, honey, baked goods, jams and jellies, pickled vegetables, fresh cut flowers, and other unique Mississippi Delta items. The market’s goals are to create a market where local farmers and producers can sell directly to consumers and to build community relations by having a weekly gathering space with social opportunities. Throughout the season, the market features local musicians, cooking demonstrations, and other special events. Drawing from small and medium-sized farms and home gardens in the core eleven Mississippi Delta counties, the market strives to provide consumers with an alternative to conventional marketplaces.
Cleveland Bolivar County Chamber of Commerce Clean-Up Day
As part of the Keep Cleveland Beautiful program, the Chamber of Commerce and Cleveland hold a Great American Clean-Up Day in conjunction with Bolivar Earth Day. This event which began in 2001 is scheduled for April of each year. Volunteers meet downtown and are assigned ‘trouble’ areas to clean up. On the same day, the city hosts Bolivar Earth Day at the Public Works parking lot. The Department of Environmental Quality is on hand to dispose of any hazardous materials as well as old appliances, tires, batteries, etc. Cars and trucks drive through the parking lot where volunteers remove the items from the vehicles for disposal. Baxter Healthcare helps to sponsor Earth Day by providing lunch and t-shirts with the year’s logo.
DELTA STATE CHAMPIONS
Delta State University Facilities Management
Delta State’s natural gas and electrical consumption has fallen dramatically since FY2007, saving the University serious money. Turning lights off in classrooms and meeting rooms not in use and shutting down electrical devices in our offices: computers, monitors, radios, chargers, lamps, copiers, electric typewriters, coffee pots, etc., at the end of each day continue to make a big difference. With diligence and conservation tactics, natural gas consumption has decreased 48% and electricity 28%. Conservation on the campus of Delta State University is a work in progress. With the help of faculty and staff, a difference is being made.
The Madison Center’s GAIA Project
Colleagues and students associated with the Delta State Madison Center’s Gaia Project, have worked for years to bring recycling to the campus and with the support of Greg Redlin, vice president of Finance and Administration and Linda Smith, director of Facilities Management, Delta State has officially taken up this project. Because of Smith’s grant writing, bins for paper, plastic and aluminum cans will soon be placed inside buildings, providing recycling stations at the workplace. Sturdy metal modules will also appear on campus thoroughfares later in the autumn semester. Student volunteers will be supporting the project in dorms and throughout campus. And faculty and staff will be engaged in the project in our academic buildings. Consistent with their concern for the practical demands and the beauty of this campus, Delta State professors Cetin Oguz and Garry Jennings, have decided to transform the recycling modules into occasions of reflection. These modules will appear on campus walkways as functional, educational and pleasing experiences. Each will be painted by selected art majors in the tradition of one of the great masters, the first being done in the tradition of René Magritte.
DELTA REGIONAL CHAMPIONS
The Friends of Dahomey National Wildife Refuge
The Friends of Dahomey promotes awareness and appreciation of the Dahomey National Wildlife Refuge and assists conservation efforts on the refuge. It supports all compatible wildlife-dependent recreational activities including hunting, fishing, wildlife observation, photography, and environmental education. The Friends have built interpretive kiosks, established trails and assisted with signage, created a butterfly garden and numerous learning toolkits, and most recently built an observation blind for the benefit of wildlife watchers and photographers.
The Levee Boards of Mississippi
The two levee boards make life possible in the Delta by maintaining the levees that control flooding. Each board is made up of elected commissioners who are responsible for overseeing the activities of the engineers and workers who maintain the levees and coordinate with the Army Corps of Engineers on various projects. Both levee boards have participated in numerous educational programs.
The Mississippi Levee Board
Operating continuously since 1865, the Board of Mississippi Levee Commissioners for the Mississippi Levee District is composed of two members from each of the counties of Bolivar and Washington and one from each of the counties of Issaquena, Sharkey, and from that part of Humphreys County in the District. This district has jurisdiction over the 163 mile mainline levee system stretching from Bolivar County to just north of Vicksburg, the eight mile Greenville Harbor Dike around Lake Ferguson; the 13 mile Brunswick Extension Levee to Eagle Lake; and the 28 miles of Yazoo Backwater Levee which prevents high water on the Mississippi River from flooding the South Delta.
The Yazoo Mississippi Levee Board
The Board of Levee Commissioners for the Yazoo-Mississippi Delta is made up of twelve popularly elected Commissioners from the ten Delta Counties within the district. It is responsible for the first 98 miles of mainline Mississippi River levee and 18 miles of backwater levees within the Mississippi Delta. The mainline levee is located in DeSoto, Tunica, and Coahoma counties, and the backwater levees are in Yazoo and Warren counties. The Yazoo-Mississippi Delta Levee Board oversees many fishing and other recreational sites, engages in reforestation, and sponsors workshops for teachers and students.
AGRICULTURAL CHAMPIONS
Yazoo Mississippi Delta Joint Water Management District
The Yazoo Mississippi Delta Joint Water Management District was formed in 1989 as a direct result of the 1988 drought, which was so severe that the Mississippi Department of Environmental Quality was forced to stop all irrigation. It was was created to provide local, non-regulatory solutions to the Delta’s water resource challenges and to mitigate against droughts like that experienced in 1988.The Water Management District’s charter describes the District’s purpose as being, among other things: “…promoting and maintaining water resources conservation, management, and development; establishing and implementing water supply, water quality, and water utilization plans and programs; … to ensure predictably adequate supplies for domestic, agricultural, commercial and industrial uses….”
Jamie Whitten Delta State Research Center
The Jamie Whitten Delta State Research Center is one of the major research establishments of the Agriculture Research Service (ARS). The Center consists of seven Research Units, with scientists conducting basic and applied research in several areas. Disciplines represented by the scientists include biology, genetics, engineering, chemistry, ecology, entomology, physiology, biochemistry, botany, agronomy, aquaculture, soil science, plant pathology, and application technology. Research emphasis is aimed at agricultural problems of the Mid South area of the U.S. The Center conducts research in many areas of investigation, including: Genetics and basic physiology; control of principal crops enemies; production systems and techniques; equipment innovation and development; safety and human health; economic well-being of both the agricultural producer and the consumer; and technology of pesticide application.
Dr. Luther Brown, director of Delta State’s Delta Center for Culture and Learning and chair of Delta State’s Year of Green Committee presented representatives from each organization with awards made of recycled glass and scrap wood invoking the Mississippi River created by artist Duncan Baird, associate professor of art at Delta State.
