One, two, three, four.

Get my shoes in at the door.

Five, six, seven, eight.

Feels great.

I've got shot in Africa.

I'll do it by hand.

Gonna do it.

But to take a look at this guy with the beautiful color about the than just for me.

You got to share it with another.

I got to show you give let out a long singing show take a look at a beautiful morning that turns to a beautiful evening.

And look at the big beautiful light.

And if you want to see the come along with me that's right.

Welcome to another episode of Experience Makana.

And we have a special one for you today as we're celebrating sustainability in the Michigan area.

And the way that we're doing that is with Christa Bayley, who has for a number of years now brought us experiencing sustainable Michigan.

Right, right.

That's right.

And this has been a passion project for you for a really long time, bringing awareness to others as far as what's out there and what they can do.

Absolutely.

I see it as part of my outreach work at the Center for a Sustainable Future at South Bend to be providing this kind of education and insight to the community, but also to campus.

I use a lot of these pieces in my classes to show students it's really happening.

It's not just me talking about it.

Right.

And the reason that we're doing this best of show right now is because unfortunately, for us, Christa has accepted a position at Penn State.

And so you'll be leaving the area soon.

That's right.

I'll be working at the Sustainability Institute, working across the whole state actually with campuses across the state to advance sustainability.

So maybe connecting with the PBS station here and there.

But we'll see.

Here you go.

So what we want to do today is look back a little bit at what we've recently done with sustainability in experiencing Machina.

But first, let's reminisce a little bit about your history with energy public television.

The first time I met you, we were doing a segment with Evie Kirkwood and Outdoor Elements in the gardens behind the Conservatoire Yeah, they're at Pottawattamie and.

And so that was kind of that kick start of, hey, let's tell people about what's going on.

Yeah, that was even before I started working at at IU.

I was just had started a community garden that's still operating.

It's going to keep going even when I leave, which is exciting, you know, saying, Hey, get out, grow stuff.

Yeah, that was fun.

I forgot that was the first time.

Yeah.

And from there, we went when experienced Michigan started.

For those of you who remember, we were a studio based show and it was five days a week.

And so one of the things we wanted to do is bring sustainability to you.

And at that point you were at the center working with Mike Keane, and the two of you brought us sustainable these segments.

Pretty much every week.

Yeah.

We would just kind of stand here in the studio somewhat awkwardly and try to chat with people about what they were doing and what people could could see out in the community.

So but we it never really went out until more recently.

Yeah.

And because the show changed and in between there you were kind enough to host outdoor elements with us for a couple of years with every Kirkwood and, and we did that.

And then when this show changed formats, it made sense for that sustainability to pull right in to experience Machina.

And we've had fun ever since.

So tell us some of your favorite opportunities and experiences in segments here on Experience Machine.

Oh, gosh.

Well, there's definitely a lot of opportunities to get out and explore this area where one of the most biodiverse regions in the country, if you think about going from here to Lake Michigan and all the things you can see in between lots of features we've done about that and things that are happening in city parks as well which is super exciting to see the sustainability initiatives, whether it's what you're growing or what the buildings look like.

Of course, lots of good food to eat locally sourced things, people doing really creative work in restaurants to make a healthy, vibrant, prosperous situation for the business.

But also for the communities that they're situated in.

And just like some fun outdoor activities, we went snowshoeing once, I think.

So that was exciting also.

Yeah, we've had a great opportunity.

That's what experience Michigan that does as a whole.

It brings you things that you might not have known where in our area we talk about that all the time.

A lot of people say there's nothing to do.

That's not true.

As soon as we start looking, there's so much to do in the area, and we also don't recognize some of the things that are happening, happening with sustainability in our area until we shine a light on them.

And you've been able to do that for us.

Yeah, and that's been so fun because there really is a lot happening in our area.

But we're such you know, modest Midwestern people, we tend not to brag about it, but it's their places, whether they're their parks or businesses or what governments are doing to take a balanced approach to caring for the environment, our health and our culture and making sure that we have a prosperous economy.

So balancing all three of those.

It's happening all over the place.

It's been really exciting to to pull those up and to share with people and great to hear from folks that I've seen around town saying, wow, I never realized there was that thing or that was happening or why that's important.

So it's been a lot of fun.

So thanks so much for the opportunity to share all these great stories with people.

It really has been our pleasure.

And right now what we're going to do is we're going to look back at some of Christmas favorite segments over the last couple of years and just kind of highlight those and that we're going to be able to show the whole segment.

But here's a bunch of the different segments that we've really enjoyed bringing to you over the last few years.

Hi there.

Hey, Marianne.

How are you?

Thanks for having me today.

Hey, no problem.

Welcome.

You have a lot of stuff right here.

We walking into this the swap shop, deep, cold area.

Yes.

What could I experience right here in terms of sustainability in action?

Well, we are the Marshall County Solid Waste Management District and also known as the Recycle Depot.

We collect household hazardous waste.

And then we also help people learn how to live more sustainably.

So here are some of things that we like to teach people about, mostly pertaining to waste.

For instance, we teach people about composting you know, a lot of times people think, I can't compost, I don't have enough space or I don't have enough food or I don't have a garden.

But there are a lot of different ways to compost food waste is a big problem.

It's a big problem in landfills.

It's a big problem in the world.

And so we have items like this, which is a way of composting, especially if you're in a really small place.

We also have compost bins.

This is my favorite.

This is the one I have.

So if you have a garden this fits right into the corner of your yard and you can put your food waste in your yard waste in there.

We also have this is a model of a tumbler, a homemade compost tumbler, which is just a way to make your compost the easy way.

Yeah.

This is what I've got and I love it.

I think it's a lot of fun.

So what else are we experiencing here?

Is her walking and seeing the big barrels.

Those are obvious.

But what other sort of sustainability features are we experiencing here in your the Swap Shop Depot?

Well, one thing, one program that we have is a program where we we take the caps like bottle caps and other types of plastic caps, and we work with a factory in Evansville and they turn them into benches.

So this is a bench.

It's a beautiful bed.

It's made of completely recycled caps.

And lids.

So that's a program we offer with non-profits here in Marshall County, which is exciting.

This is called household hazardous waste.

And this is a type of waste that should not ever be thrown away because it's it's got a lot of chemicals.

It's got a lot of substances in it that are not safe to go in a landfill.

Or anywhere else.

Down the drain.

Down the drain, especially.

So.

So these are just things that you find in your house, things like cleaners medicines, light bulbs.

But these are all things that I like to call troublesome trash.

You don't know what to do with it.

You know, you can't throw it away.

But we are here for this specific purpose to take this type of material so that it stays out of the landfill and we can get rid of it safely.

So you get rid of it, I'm sure, by capturing it and getting it processed.

But there's also stuff on the shelf.

So if I needed just a little bit of something, I could just come and grab a bottle.

Exactly.

And that's really the the best thing you can do with this type of material is use it, use it up.

We're talking with Matt SEAL, and he's the superintendent of Golf Courses here at Notre Dame's Warren Golf Course, which has been certified by Audubon International as a conservation space Why are you doing this on a golf course where I might just be coming out to golf and hang out with some friends and have fun?

Why get Audubon Certification here?

Well, I wasn't here during the original certification process for the university, but my understanding of it was a way for the university to separate themselves from other facilities throughout the state of Indiana.

As you're aware, we're we're one of only eight facilities certified in the state of Indiana, which we're extremely excited about.

And very proud of.

And we feel it's an obligation that we maintain the golf course and such that we monitor and maintain the Habitat for Wildlife in our area.

We, uh, we maintain upwards of 60 acres of wildlife habitat.

And what I mean by that is our, our natural areas that are adjacent to most golf holes.

There is a little bit of selective, invasive weed removal, but besides that, we leave those areas alone.

Obviously, golfers find their golf balls in there, and it may be more difficult from time to time.

But the reality is, from a visual standpoint and a building of habitats for wildlife and in several different creatures, it's it's a conscientious decision that we're making to promote their life so healthy for the wildlife, but also healthy for us while we're out here golfing.

Or I could come out here birding Absolutely.

So we're going to we're going to go out on the golf course.

We'll see a couple of areas, such as the Dude Creek area.

So and then we also have a natural wetlands area.

That we can go out, we can take a peek at.

And chances are we'll probably see some wildlife in one of those two areas.

So these are called buffer strips, and they're put in place to control any kind of runoff from the golf course into the water.

And then it's also to try to keep any invasive weed species from growing in this area.

So they only receive two things, two treatments all year long.

They will receive a treatment to take out the invasive weeds, and then they will also receive just a little bit of a haircut in order to kind of maintain the esthetics of them.

Well, besides that, we leave this go all natural for protection of the waterway.

So even though using some more natural products on the greens, whatever runs off, we don't want to overwhelm the creek.

So this helps filter that out.

Absolutely.

And it looks like a lovely natural habitat.

There's birds swooping all around.

And I understand you've had all kinds of critters running around out here.

Absolutely.

It's a haven for deer and it's a haven for ducks.

And you'll get the occasional geese that'll come through.

But actually, in the waterway itself, there are some trout we've we've we've seen brown trout run through this area and even some rainbow back in the day.

But we're not fishing at all right now.

It's all for natural habitat, especially when the golfers are crossing over the waterway.

It's such a nice feature to the golf course.

Oh, it's gorgeous out here.

And so you said there's also wetlands hiding in here somewhere, too.

Yep.

That's what we had in that.

All right.

Let's take a look not this is stunning.

This is just a beautiful wetland you've got out here on the course.

You make it look so easy to keep it all natural.

Looking so.

Thanks so much for telling me all about what you're doing here and keep up the good work.

Thank you.

We're actually standing on something that looks a lot like this.

Yes.

Well, how did that happen and how does that work that we are standing on trash?

Yeah.

So the Elkhart Environmental Center is an environmental learning center, but our past is really kind of interesting in the fact that we're on an old city dump there, an old city down from 1960 to 1983, and we had 15 feet of trash underneath us and so we've created this really interesting demographic to, to showcase that.

But what on the very top that keeps this away from us.

Yeah.

So 33 acres of our now 66 acres property is the original dump and so 33 acres has an immense amount of trash underneath it.

So it was pretty landfill guarded.

So we don't have any land or on the bottom.

So what we did was called in-situ capping which is clay capping on the top.

And so there is a clay cap that's a few feet deep in total and covers the whole site and it really protects us from this.

So that keeps our groundwater safe.

I expect because that clay is almost like a plastic seal on top.

Yeah, absolutely.

And then we put in some really cool engineering design to help us remediate that groundwater even more so, which is pretty exciting.

Nice.

So ideally, this is an investment in a more sustainable future saying Here's what we did, don't want to do that again.

Let's make sure that we know generations moving forward that we can do better.

Absolutely.

We pride ourselves on being a really great place based educational site for waste education.

We've heard from a lot of people that it heads home for the kids and the students and adults as well, that they can see visibly what has happened here and how to prevent it on down.

The future versus the landfill is is kind of a an operation in progress.

And it's hard to see what it could be besides the landfill so.

Sure.

Yeah.

So we're really seeing the after.

Yeah.

Yeah.

And there has been a lot that has gone in here, aside from clay capping and planting things.

But there's actually some really neat natural water features on the property aside from the Elkhart River, which is, of course, amazing.

But I'm wondering if you can show us some of the environmental improvements that have taken place on this site as well.

Absolutely.

Yeah.

Wow, this is beautiful out here.

What?

This wasn't ever here.

Before.

This is built on top of the old dump.

Yeah, absolutely.

So what you're looking at is that wood line out there is the end of the line for the dump.

And so we have more property but up from the wood line up to here is still the original dump.

And so we put in the prairies to do some restoration for prairie activity and prairie wildlife.

And then we've installed a series of wetlands that have really helped us to remediate the water quality out of it.

Oh, you were saying you want to make sure that the groundwater is still safe.

So this is part of the natural filtering process for the.

Yeah.

Absolutely.

So what we do is we pump the water, the groundwater out of here into a series of different wetlands.

And we have as the water comes in, as the water comes in, the stillness is cleaned by the plant life.

And so as it leaves our site, it gets filtered out from toxins and that sort of stuff and heads down to our meandering creek so.

Wow.

Beautiful.

So we're creating a lot of habitat, but also giving back to our ecosystem.

Yeah.

And really it's interesting because we've counted over 86 bird species, 200 plant species here.

And so it's provided a secondary benefit of wildlife and environmental low impact.

And so it's been really nice and again a good investment because otherwise we have so much more expensive water treatment issues on our hands.

Yeah, what a great place to learn about what this part of the world is really like.

When we don't put a dump on it.

There are pears on this tree and it's making my mouth water.

Could I just pick one when they're ready or what's going on here with all this?

Well, so this whole location here, including the green house and our fruit orchard, is all a community.

You pick vegetable, fruit, garden, that's just available for the community to enjoy.

This project was started with the Mishawaka High School Landscaping Garden Club a couple of years ago.

In 2019, we finished construction on this whole area, transforming just an empty space into a high production garden and community asset when it really is producing a lot.

I see beds and beds of food over here, and so I could just come and pick food here.

So the model that we want to have for this is one that is community engaging and so people can volunteer to help take care of the vegetables here.

People can also help themselves to the produce.

We have we have a lot of different items like zucchini, potatoes, different things like that, that people from all over the community are enjoying now and people are welcome to help themselves too.

One thing I wanted to share with folks about how they can experience sustainability in action, so we've talked a little bit about, you know, fresh, healthy food that's really important is sustaining people, right?

It's also free, which makes it much more economically possible.

To to eat healthy.

And then there's that social aspect, too, of being able to help out in the garden.

You talked a little bit about what used to be here.

Can you tell me a little bit more about how this is actually improving the environment here in Mishawaka?

So around the Green House as we move our way around there?

We have quite a mix of different plants to help our pollinator communities.

We get a lot of bee and butterfly activity around the green house, probably more so anywhere else in the city, except for maybe Beta Park, which has pretty extensive flowers as well.

So I think that's really one of the best areas.

And what's neat about that is the landscape design there was done by the students in my landscaping gardening club where we planned this.

They were really proactive in shaping what would go in, and that was a big component that they wanted to include in this project was a way to kind of help our environment with native plants and pollinators.

Well, this is really a fantastic resource, Jake.

Thanks so much for encouraging the kids to carry this dream forward to provide great, free, healthy food for the community, a place to learn and socialize and really beautifying the environment so folks should get off the road, turn in to look and, you know, hang out, have a snack.

There's some peaches out there, too.

Yeah, they're getting close to being right.

So definitely come check those out.

Go.

Thanks a lot.

Yeah.

Thank you.

Hey, there.

I am standing on the side of the road in Gary, Indiana, showing you how you can experience sustainability.

In Michigan.

Yes, on the side of the road in Gary, you will never have found this on your own.

But what we've got here is an artesian well, natural spring water springing forth from the earth.

And I got Kaye and Alva here to help us understand all the exciting features that this offers to developing a sustainable machina for all of us.

So thanks for meet me out here at the spring at small farms is what it is.

But this is a really unique feature you don't see everywhere.

That's right.

Can you explain a little bit for us how this came to be?

This is a a funky little geologic feature.

It is.

It's a spring, actually, that is can be called either a spring or an artesian well and all artesian wells are springs, but not all springs are artesian wells because they're a special kind of spring.

There's an aquifer that's usually non permeable, usually clay or rock, you know, underneath us.

And that aquifer has an opening in that impermeable layer.

That geology is kind of forcing that water up to the surface and you don't have to pump it.

So it just flows and flows and flows.

Even during the winter.

It's flowing all the time because of this pressure that's happening and because of the geology.

There is an area where the water is trickling in called the resort recharge area, probably in a higher towards Ridge Road, and that water kind of trickles down to the aquifer and then eventually comes back up.

So in the process, it's getting filtered through the ground.

Yeah.

So it's coming out drinkable clean.

Well, it is tested on a quarterly basis by the by the agency who owns this property, the little Calumet Basin Development Commission.

And they they have to test it because it's access by the public.

So, so far it's been testing just fine.

I've lived all over the country.

I've never seen anything like this before.

And that's when I learned that for years, at least in my husband's lifetime, this was the only source of drinking water for a significant number of people in the area.

And so but it wasn't always something that they were proud of.

It was, you know, you kind of park by the road and you hurry up and get your water and then you hurry away because, you know, you don't have water.

And so they weren't necessarily appreciative of the fact that this is a natural gift.

It was turned into something that people tried to hide.

I mean, there's not that many of potable ones left in Indiana.

Like my research, I found about 50 roadside springs, but only about half of them are still used for drinking water.

And they used to be hundreds, hundreds of them.

Wow.

So, I mean, because these were places that people, when they traveled, they'd stop and get water rather than go to the seven 11, you know, and buy a bottle of water.

You'd stop at the spring and get a drink of water.

And then the community that depended on this spring, I think it's very important to understand, you know, what happens when you don't have access to water because they didn't if you don't have municipal utilities, you don't have a good well, you have a Superfund site not no you're left without any resources.

And that's, I think, one of the reasons why this is still here, because people relied on it for so long and it was so important in people's lives just to sustain people, you know?

Sure.

It was like a gift.

Yeah.

And they said yes, to people who come from as far away as Valparaiso just to get water.

And we've seen that in some of our trips over here.

I met a man once who the entire back of his pickup truck was giant water containers.

And he filled them up and he's like, I live in Valparaiso, but I come here because I don't drink any other water but this.

And so for a lot of people, this is still what they drink.

That there's no store bought, you know, seven 11, go in and grab a bottle.

They don't do that.

They drink this.

There's really something value added for the body, mind and spirit from this gift just flowing forth clean from the earth.

It's a really fabulous resource and a great way for anybody to strive five, stop in, fill up a bottle and experience sustainability and action here in Michigan.

The reason this came to be is actually kind of an interesting story that relates to the Canadian goose, which is a problem passed here in Mishawaka.

They enjoy turf.

Grass is their main food.

They enjoy habitat without predators, and they enjoy the slow moving water.

So this is an excellent habitat for the Canadian goose.

And so as an initiative to try and kind of curb their populations and manage them as as a pest.

We partnered with the Department of Natural Resources to create this native planting habitat, which acts as a vegetation barrier to kind of prevent some goose movement into the park and so Canadian geese can obviously they can fly, they can fly over into the park.

But what we have found is they spend significantly less time or no time at all on the sidewalks, which for us is has left a much cleaner presence in our park for those that are that are walking their dogs are just enjoying our parks moving through this corridor here.

So this acts as a wonderful space to limit ghost movement on our on our concrete surfaces.

The community around this park enjoys this.

They like the aspect of seeing increased in nature, and they really appreciate the cleaner sidewalks and which has prompted us to kind of expand the scope of this project.

So I think it's definitely a new image for some of our parks, and it's one that I think is important that we continue to explore for a few more years to see what those benefits are going to be for us.

So that was a great look back at some of the things we've done a lot over the years, and we've really had a fun time exploring what is out there and what people can do.

So if you have one thing to say to the people at home as far as it relates to experiencing sustainability in Michigan, what would you tell them?

Well, if you haven't been to these places that we're in, the kind of highlight reel, go check them out they've they've been there, they're still there, and they're great places to see this in action and start to understand what's possible in terms of putting sustainability into practice.

But you know, keep looking.

I didn't even scratch the surface.

I feel like the more I would learn, the more I would learn.

And I hope that everybody gets a chance to go out and find these businesses that are have these practices in place and advocate for these plans with your local, regional, state, national governments.

And look at your own household, too.

That's one thing that we never really looked at was like, how can you experience this at home?

And that might be fun for like a future virtual distance segment is, you know, what can I do at home to be sustainable?

So keep at it.

It's out there.

We've got a lot to experience in terms of sustainable city here in Michigan, and I'm sure more to come, that's for sure.

And so we thank you so much for showing us around the sustainability side of Michigan.

And like she said, you know, the way technology is now hopefully we can catch up, see what you're doing and give us some more tips as far as sustainability goes, I think over time now, guys, remember, if you're out experiencing things even and especially sustainability things, let us know about it.

Hit us up on Facebook, use the hashtag experience Michigan, and we'll find it that way.

And until next week, stay safe, everyone.

Hi, I'm Christa Bailey with IU South Bend Center for Our Sustainable Future.

Here with another feature about how you can experience sustainable mRNA I'm Christa Bailey with IU South Bend Center for Sustainable Future, reminding you that no one can do everything but everyone can do something Experience mRNA is made possible in part by the community foundation of Saint Joseph County and the Indiana Arts Commission, which received support from the state of Indiana and the National Endowment for the Arts This wnit local production has been made possible in part by viewers like you.

Thank you.