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Volume 1, Issue 1 (March 2008)
"One place comprehended can make us understand other places
better." --Eudora Welty
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The
Hemlock
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Welcome! This e-mail newsletter is part of an effort to help the Lock Haven University community develop a deeper sense of place. Such a sense of place involves a stewardship of natural resources (environmentalism), meaningful outdoor experiences, and appreciation for the heritage of the region. Our goal is to use this newsletter as a way to focus attention on the many things we as a university are already doing in these areas, but also to provide a forum to develop new activities. We really want everyone--students, faculty, staff, management--to be a part of this. We'd especially like to see articles on how to integrate these ideas with the university's commitment to diversity/internationalism, technological expertise, and student engagement with the learning process. Please submit your ideas, comments, and questions to Bob Myers (rmyers3@lhup.edu.)
Why "The Hemlock"? What You Can Do About
Global Warming
First, it is important to understand global warming. In simple terms, greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide have formed a thick blanket around the earth. This blanket of gases allows the sun’s rays to shine through and heat the earth but keeps the reflected rays from escaping the atmosphere. These trapped rays cause the earth’s overall temperature to increase, thus creating global warming. This rise in temperature leads to increased rainfall (including more hurricanes and floods), warmer oceans, and a melting of the ice caps at the poles. These changes are destroying the delicate ecosystem of earth. Much of the carbon dioxide that is causing global warming is created by humans. Car emissions release toxic fumes of carbon dioxide into the air. Power plants burning fossil fuels, which release carbon dioxide into the air. The production of plastic products requires oil. Wasted paper means the destruction of forests that would have helped to remove the carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. Simple changes in your lifestyle can add up to make a difference. Try some of the following ideas:
•carpool or walk
whenever possible As you can see, these simple little things take little effort, and many of them will save you money. And one of the best things you can do is to educate others. By letting other people know about the threat of global warming, you can help recruit others to join in the fight. Global warming is a real problem, but we can fight it. Are you ready to start saving our planet? For more information please check out the following websites:
•The
Environmental Protection Agency: Climate Change:
Information from the government about global warming.
Recycling at LHU
•Office
paper--white or colored, magazines, books without covers (but
not golden yellow envelopes) Many people don't know that if a recycling container is contaminated (non-recyclable items mixed in), it must be thrown away as garbage. Thus, it's very important that you make sure to put your recyclables in the correct container. Also, please remember to rinse out your recyclables before putting them in the bins. We are currently discussing ways to enhance our recycling efforts, including new containers that might be easier to distinguish. If you have any suggestions, please email me at jcrossen@lhup.edu.
What is a "Sense of Place"? If you were asked to describe your home town, what would you say about it? If Lock Haven is not your home town and you were asked to describe it, what would you say about Lock Haven? Would those two place descriptions differ from one another? Do you have stronger feeling towards one than you do the other? Do you know the place you feel stronger about to better than you know the other place? Do you think your descriptions of these two places would differ from other individuals’ descriptions of the same places? Would there be similarities in the descriptions? Thinking about your answers to these questions and others, helps one to better understand the sense of place concept.
Although some critics of the sense of place concept refer to it as nebulous and therefore of limited research value, others have investigated the concept in an attempt to better understand how people feel, behave, and interact in particular settings. Thus over the years, sense of place has evolved from simply meaning “the general feeling people have about a specific place” to becoming a more sophisticated umbrella term for other place-related concepts such as place attachment, place identity, and place dependence. Many researchers investigating the sense or meaning of place believe that individuals, through interacting with a place, often become “attached” to that place. Place attachment research has generally conceptualized this attachment as consisting of two distinctly different components: place identity- the emotional attachment to a place as a form of self-identity or “this place, in some way, represents who I am; and place dependence- a valuing a place for its activity-related attributes or as a setting for action (i.e. you become attached to a place because of its usefulness for satisfying your needs and goals). Sense of place research has also uncovered a communality of place where a place embodies shared meanings as a symbol of cultural significance. This communality of place or the “social imageability” of place can become a rallying point for community action. Locally, the community action, the debates, and the unrest sparked by the dike levee project or the Drake dump site in Lock Haven was quite likely due to the fact that some people’s sense of Lock Haven was threatened by either, or both, projects. It is this potential power of sense of place that makes it so alluring. For it seems intuitive that if one could increase the tangibility of a sense of place to the point where other community members shared a communal sense of place, many issues such as sustainability, global warming, pollution, environmental justice, and quality of life would seem to be far less formidable. Further Reading on "Sense of Place"
•Eyles, J. (1985). Senses of Place. Cheshire,
England: Silverbrook Press.
Lick Run: The Best Hike 10 Minutes From Campus
The History of
Central Pennsylvania
Environmental Journalism at
LHU
Winter
Lace Deep in the
frozen woods, Recommended Websites
Lock Haven in 1854 (probably painted from Highland Cemetery behind the campus). Note the absence of trees. For more information about this image, visit the Penn State Digital Library Collection.
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The
Eastern Hemlock seems to be an appropriate symbol for what we're
trying to do. It's Pennsylvania's state tree, and it's
mentioned in Lock Haven University's Alma Mater ("Where
the hemlock, pine, and maple murmur in the night..."). And
it's a great tree with an interesting history. Hemlocks
can be found all over campus (there are three in front of
Akeley), and they're easy to recognize. Look for an
evergreen with a pyramid shape. The needles are
short (1/2"-1"), dark green on top, and the needles have two
whitish parallel lines on the bottom. The cones are small
and round. The tree is native to Pennsylvania and can grow
for up to 900 years. In the 19th-century most of the old
hemlocks were cut down and stripped of their bark for the tannic
acid that was used to tan hides. But there are a few
old-growth hemlocks left in this area: if you're willing to
drive an hour or so, giant hemlocks can be seen at
Some
people believe that there is nothing we can do to fight global
warming since the problem is too far out of control.
However, there are little everyday things that can make a huge
difference in protecting and saving this place we all call home.
From throwing a piece of paper into a recycling receptacle to
renovating a house to make it more energy efficient, the opportunities
to begin the fight to stop global warming are endless. 
Lock Haven University has been
recycling for approximately twenty years. Our current Facilities
Department Director, Mr. David Proctor, initiated the recycling
program on his arrival at the university. We have been supported
by the Waste Management Department at the
Over the years, the sense of
place concept has been an area of inquiry and research for
human geographers, environmental psychologists, sociologists,
social ecologists, historians, urban planners, and even those
examining campus ecology. Researchers in these fields, and
others, have often explored the relationships between place,
setting, or environment and the human behaviors that occur in
those settings. Results from this line of research have, among
other things, suggested that it is common for individuals to
develop a “sense of a place” as a direct result of their
interaction(s) and experience(s) of a place and its unique
combination of characteristics or attributes. 
Lick Run is a great short hike (4 miles
out & back/2 hours round
trip) that is close to campus. To get there from LHU, go
east on Water Street to the Jay Street Bridge (across from the
courthouse). Turn left onto the bridge, and then left onto
the Farrandsville Road. Follow the road for 6.6 miles.
At 3.3 miles (Queens Run) you need to turn left to stay on
Farrandsville Rd. At 5.2 miles, the road will bear right
and cross the railroad tracks, entering the town of
Farrandsville. Note the
