GREEN NEWS - BAC YARD

What is the BAC Yard?

The Bioconversion and Agricultural Collaborative (BAC) Yard, located in lot 10 near where Folsom Blvd. and the train tracks intersect, is a sustainability facility maintained by a myriad of Sac State students, faculty, and staff. What began as a way for the University to begin composting its fallen leaf material every fall has blossomed into a full-fledged learning facility bringing together a number of different needs and finding a common answer for all.

The BAC Yard was birthed from a Campus as a Living Lab (CALL) grant from the Chancellor’s Office. What is unique about the CALL grant is that it specifically marries the efforts of Facilities Management with those of academia; a class is designed to work on an operational problem the University is facing.

What does the BAC Yard do?

Each fall, Sac State accrues over a hundred tons of leaves from all of the trees across our esteemed Tree Campus USA. Those leaves were previously hauled away, but now our Grounds department piles them into a windrow right in the BAC Yard. The leaves are then rolled with large machinery by our grounds team until it is processed into high quality compost to be used right here on the campus.

Additionally, food waste was collected at numerous campus eateries and picked up by Family and Consumer Science (FACS) students and taken to the BAC Yard to be composted using more hands-on methods. Students began hot-composting and vermicomposting to process the food waste. Hot composting is simple composting akin to the type someone might do at home. Vermicomposting employs special worms called red-wigglers who eat the food scraps and add their own special fertilizer to the compost to produce a higher quality product. Students turn and water the piles and collect the compost once the process is completed.

What's Next for the BAC Yard?

Though the BAC Yard has its roots in composting, it has since expanded to include the ASI Garden, four beehives, a solar-powered aquaponics system and numerous other student projects. All produce from the garden is donated to the Pop-Up Pantry to help students facing food security issues and the bees help to pollinate the garden and other plants. All are tended to by the Sac State Sustainability Team and a small army of student volunteers.

The BAC Yard itself is also helping the campus to sequester carbon, thus decreasing is carbon footprint. Campus trees that must be felled for safety or health issues are chipped and used as ground cover at the BAC Yard keeping that carbon offset right here on the campus too.

Perhaps the biggest success of the BAC Yard is just how much it has benefitted not just the Sac State community, but the Sacramento region as well. Compost from the yard is donated to local schools, churches, mosques, organic farms, and other institutions to help increase green programs throughout Sacramento.

What's Abuzz in the BAC Yard?

Earlier this year, Facilities Management's Sustainability Team began a new project in their esteemed BAC Yard project: beekeeping.

European honeybees to be exact. Some might wonder, what do honeybees have to with Sac State, hornet puns aside. "Since the BAC Yard is a living laboratory for students to learn about composting, urban agriculture, and aquaponics, the bees were the perfect next addition to our sustainable system," explained Sustainability Analyst, Kristina Cullen. "The bees help to pollinate the food being grown in student gardens for the ASI Pop-Up Pantry."

Fellow Sustainability Team member, Joey Martinez, helped start the program earlier this year, after receiving help from several members of the campus community. "The first one was City Councilman Jeff Harris, who operates the beehives over at Capital Public Radio," explained Martinez. "As well as Serg Bochilo, whois a local beekeeper who has stopped by on several occasions to lend his expertise. And finally, a member of our own ABA team from Space Management, Camellia Sahm, who has lent her guidance to us as well. In fact, I believe she’ll be joining us for our bee check-up. All three of these individuals have helped me and the team learn more about beekeeping."

Bees are essential to our ecosystem "without bees, we wouldn't have much of our food," said Cullen. "When you see a bee in your yard, appreciate it. Respect it." Cullen and the rest of the Sustainability Team hope to bottle the honey extracted from the hives for eventual human consumption, either through the student pop up pantry, or sold to help sustain BAC Yard projects.

To help educate people on both the project, and the importance of honeybees, the Sustainability Team has conducted more than 20 tours, including to staff, students, and children from youth groups or the Children's Center.

So far, there are four hives on campus, located within the BAC Yard, near Highway 50. Each hive contains a queen that can lay up to 1200 eggs a day. Only females are capable of gathering pollen and nectar, and have a life span of just 30 to 45 days. If you are interested in scheduling a tour, contact the Sustainability Team, or visit their website.