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Show Model en vironment possible if U planning done correctly By DIANE LOFGREN Chronicle Staff The University should be a model r in the area of environment improvement im-provement and control, said Administrative Vice-President Ray Varley, discussing the new campus environment program. To become the model in environment en-vironment control, the vice-president vice-president is working on plans tht include the restructuring of student transportation, for the setting aside of natural preverse areas on campus, and the coordination co-ordination of all environment work and research on campus. : Vice-President Varley, who is in 's first year with the University to created the position of a "mpus Environmental Impact Officer. He said the Environment Impact 0ff'r will help facilitate the ' "ordination of environment Precis among all student groups ; j within the administration. By , the University now must file a" "-onrnent impact report on an projects it undertakes that 'oua m any way effect the environment. One duty of the t,lcer is to fill these reports. "Personally, hope we never have 0 build another parking space on ' heT ,Already 40 Percent f ;. h eloped campus is parking '. snLu Said "The halting f the ScahleA"d PaVement - tal'proolem tmp 1 shuttle-b"s system h, n Te method reducing ' uTt" f VehideS n j '"Jhe proposed shuttlebus routes would cover an area reaching out for a couple of miles around the campus. But right now, the shuttlebus is subsidized 75 percent by the University, and Varley said that to increase the system by five times "will require an awful lot of planning." Because of weather and geography, bikes are just a small part of a practical answer for total transportation. But the vice-president vice-president suggests that a "bike port" still may help reduce the number of vehicles that must be parked on campus. A bike port would be a safe storage area for bicycles at some outlying point. A student could drive to the port, park his car there and then ride hs bicycle to and around the campus. Later he could return the bike to the port and drive home. Also as part of the new environment en-vironment program, Vice-President Vice-President Varley is setting up "natural preserve" areas on campus. There areas he said, "will be set aside and held inviolate for future generations. Some land will be earmarked and left in a completely natural state. On that land there will be no buildings and no encrachment." "The Red Butte canyon area has some very nice places for a natural preserve," said Varley. Also to help create excitement about environment is a move to create more awareness of the Arboretum. Officially, anything on the campus that grows is part of the state arboretum. On the 700-acre campus there are over "4,000 trees, many of them rare varieties. Dave Lofgren is anxious to get student awareness and action in the campus environmental environ-mental program. To facilitate student input of ideas and feedback, Lofgren has instituted what he calls an "Environment Input Contest." "What we want," the Environment En-vironment officer said, "is to get students to look around campus and decide what they feel is the most pressing or the worst environment en-vironment problem right here on campus." "Then we would hope that they would write the problem down, accompanied by a possible solution to the problem, and then turn their decision in to the "Chronicle" office. An independent firm, The Institute In-stitute of Maintenance Research, has offered a $25 prize to the student that comes up with the worst environment problem on campus and the best proposed solution. He said he is available to assist and coordinate with any student groups, or even individual students that would like to be involved in meaningful environment en-vironment improvement projects. Students can contact him at 581-6070 581-6070 or in the Annex, room 2056. He said groups that would like . just a special one-time project should try and give him about two weeks notice to make needed arrangements. Students interested in organic gardening can contact the free-U class instructor Rulan Smith at !(..(-1.i27. |