Modern-day homesteader leads 'green' life on University Park campus

Photo: Greg Grieco David Lettero is homesteading on the University Park campus.

University Park, Pa. -- David Lettero is sitting in his yurt, strumming his guitar, his front door wide open to get some fresh air, on a February day when the high temperature is 28 degrees. A bike leans up against a wall outside. His home, a modest white pine structure with a plywood floor, has a front door so low that the average visitor has to duck to gain access.

Lettero, the Penn State Center for Sustainability's director of operations, is homesteading on the center's 8-acre site that sits on a secluded hillside on the University Park campus. It's located just beyond the site of the new baseball stadium. By mainstream standards, his little hobbit house is way off the grid and his lonely outpost is way off the beaten path. He jokes that the students call him "that man in the hut." Others talk about "the guy that lives in the cupcake," a reference to the yurt's fairytale appearance.

Penn State's Center for Sustainability has been around since 1995. Its mission is to integrate education, research and outreach on issues of sustainability through interdisciplinary projects, facilities and hands-on learning opportunities. "The most important role that we're trying to play with the center is to help inform personal and professional decisions by making people more cognizant of the impacts of those decisions on our environment," said David Riley, the center's executive director. "One of the phrases that I say often, is that while we search for alternative energy sources and new techologies to face our environmental challenges, our future also is very heavily dependent on our behavior and the decisions we make regarding energy and technology."

The center supports a number of workshops, tours and courses aimed at educating the public on sustainable technologies and practices. This year, the center is leading Penn State's entry in the Solar Decathlon, an intercollegiate competition in which students design and build a solar-powered home.

"We have a number of brand-new outreach initiatives, both at the center site as well as on campus," said Laura Silver, director of Outreach. Among them are a speaker series exploring issues of sustainability, a green tour of Penn State that will take participants on bus journey around University Park to visit facilities that showcase ecological features and programs on campus and the Instructional Garden Project. This project uses hands-on, garden-based activities to teach science and history in order to help teachers satisfy the new Pennsylvania standards in environment and ecology.

Lettero, a graduate student majoring in adult education, especially likes the hands-on approaches that his homesteading initiative supply. He is researching and recording the reduction of his of ecological footprint. An ecological footprint, Lettero explained, is a tool by which researchers equate the amount of nonrenewable resources a person uses to the amount of acreage it takes to support him. "The average American's footprint is 24 acres," he said. "The fair earth share factoring in all 6 and half billion people is 4.5 acres."

Lettero's own footprint, which he charts on a series of graphs, fluctuates based on factors such as how much driving he does, how often he eats out, how much propane fuel he uses, etc.

"Dave's really helping us to understand how people interface with alternative energy technologies as well as the notion that we can really dramatically reduce our impact on the earth by our lifestyles," Riley said. "One of the misconceptions of his study is that he and the center are advocating that everyone live off the grid and grow their own food and that's not at all what we're advocating. Dave's work helps to highlight some of the challenges and opportunities of reducing energy consumption and reducing reliance on traditional energy and food supply chains."

In a year when the cost of heating fuel has more than doubled and President Bush's State of the Union address took a stance urging the nation to cut its dependency on Middle Eastern oil, Lettero's sustainable lifestyle may deserve a closer look.

Lettero, who has been homesteading for nearly two years at the site, lives in a yurt, a small, lightweight wooden structure based on a traditional Mongolian design. The circular hut, about 13 feet in diameter, gives him about 144 feet of living space. It was constructed in about two days by students who created a "living roof" complete with skylight. The walls flare out from the roofline to help snow drop off and to keep moisture off the sides of the building. A radiant heating coil beneath the floor keeps the room warm and cozy. The yurt is wired for electricity, allowing Lettero to keep his computer and music system in running order. Inside, it is furnished with a low bed, a mirror, shelves and and hinged benches that double as storage lockers. Daylight streams in through the skylight and a tiny window.

Lettero gets his electricity from two sources: wind and solar power. A 3 kilowatt windmill and an array of solar cells collect energy, which is stored in a battery bank. He said he produces more electricity that he uses. With it, Lettero heats hot water for a shower and provides power for energy-efficient refrigeration. The center's homesteading site features several outbuildings, organic gardens where Lettero grows much of his food, a water-filtration area and his greenhouse/bathroom. This building, adjacent to the yurt, contains a glassed-in growing area, next to his composting toilet, sink and shower stall. It's made of mostly recycled materials, including a straw bale wall, a slate floor that started life as tabletops in one of the science buildings on campus and glass panels Lettero found at Penn State's salvage yard. Farther up the path in another outbuilding is Lettero's kitchen, which includes a fridge, a propane-fueled cookstove and food storage area. Down along the fencerow are several bee boxes. Lettaro adds his waste products to the center's greenhouse and to the natural waste-water treatment system.

Lettero is a four-season gardener, producing 80 percent of his own food. From spring through fall, he raises a variety of vegetables in his garden. Salad greens are grown in his greenhouse over the winter months. This season extension reduces out-of-state produce consumption. On his hillside, he has plenty of time to watch wildlife. He recently spotted a coyote slinking along in the distance. Although the homestead sits directly behind a heavy construction site, the only sounds outdoors are the whirring of the windmills, coupled with the muffled traffic sounds.

Lettero said his "green" lifestyle required a period of adjustment. "I was assimilated into American culture a long time ago," he said. "Breaking habits is extremely hard. I hop into the car, go buy things, go to the laundromat."

When he first arrived at the site, I had boxes of stuff," he recalled. "I started by putting everything in here, but slowly I gave things away and bartered with people for things." He also eschews television, preferring to get his news from the Internet.

In a few months Lettero plans to leave his yurt to continue his aspirations in higher education, but it will not be the end of the homesteading at the center's site. Another student will take his place in the yurt and the center plans to move its completed Solar Decathlon house onto the landscape to serve as the future graduate student residence and outreach facility at the site.

For photos of Lettero's homesteading site, check Penn State Live at http://live.psu.edu/still_life/2006_02_23_yurt/index.html