University students who last summer trekked to California's Yosemite National Park to conduct energy audits have found the fruits of their labor also are relevant in their own backyard.

Jeffrey Brennan, whose education at UB has blended environmental studies and engineering, stressed that "99.9 percent of what we did and learned is relevant in Buffalo and in New York State"-particularly in light of skyrocketing energy costs and blackouts predicted for this summer in the downstate area. Brennan and three of his classmates journeyed to the Sierra Nevada region for four weeks last August, along with instructor S. Bruce Kohrn, an adjunct faculty member in environmental studies, to examine the environmental impact of the park's buildings-how they consume and waste electricity and natural gas, how they consume water and what of their solid-waste stream could be recycled, Kohrn explained.

"The task we had was.to help identify how the National Park Service (NPS) could save money and protect the environment," said Kohrn, whose work with the local branch of the Alliance to Save Energy on its Green Schools program ultimately led to the Yosemite project. At the suggestion of the alliance, Kohrn applied for a grant with the University National Park Energy Partnership (UNPEP)-formed in recent years in response to an executive order from President Clinton that federal agencies find ways to reduce their energy costs, and as a way to provide universities with educational opportunities.

"Yosemite had expressed an interest, and didn't happen to have a partner nearby, so we jumped in," said Kohrn, who stayed only the first two weeks before leaving his students to their own devices.

Brennan, along with students Kevin Casey, Marisa Hoff and Stacey Vaeth, trained for Yosemite in July with Walter Simpson, UB energy officer, who helped guide the team through an energy audit of Buffalo's Theodore Roosevelt Inaugural Historical Site-the Wilcox Mansion-also run by the NPS.

Comparatively, the Roosevelt audit took three days, while the group spent almost the entire four weeks in Yosemite auditing-and only minimally denting the park's myriad facilities.

"This was such a huge project that four weeks wasn't nearly enough to get all the possible opportunities for energy efficiency covered thoroughly," Brennan said.

"Yosemite knew that there were opportunities to save energy in the park, and they hadn't implemented any of (the prior suggestions)-or very few," Kohrn said, noting that the students' focus eventually shifted from technical audits to questioning why recommendations from previous audits conducted by professional engineering firms hadn't been implemented.

The group first spent time learning about the power dynamic of each entity in the park-NPS and Yosemite Concession Services (YCS), a division of the Buffalo-based Delaware North Companies Inc., which runs the most buildings and uses most of the park's energy, Brennan said.

Yosemite, Kohrn explained, is a city unto itself, with 4 million visitors annually and hundreds upon hundreds of buildings housed within the park's 200 square miles-including a court, a prison, a hospital, countless hotels, museums and three wastewater treatment facilities.

"It's a pretty major place and the energy issues are complicated," he said, adding that their work in Yosemite is very timely, given the current energy crisis in California.

And timely for Western New York as well, since the area has been socked with soaring fuel prices. Energy-conservation efforts right now are more cost-effective than ever, Kohrn said.

"Seventy percent of all pollution has energy as its source. Not many places have access to hydroelectric power like (in) Niagara Falls. In many places, we burn fossil fuel to run our machines, so it's coal or petroleum, or oil or natural gas, and when we do that, we create pollution.

"Even in Buffalo, we burn coal to create electricity," he said. "Most people don't recognize that (we) are contributing significantly to pollution and global change."

Brennan, who along with his classmates still is in the process of finishing up the final report on the Yosemite audit, said relative to energy issues in the park, "good intentions exist, but follow-through is difficult for both the NPS and YCS." He said the report aims to remedy that hesitation in presenting opportunities, rationale for why their recommendations should be heeded-for reasons both environmental and financial-and how to break down organizational barriers to implement the recommendations.

While some energy issues at Yosemite were specific to the park, many of those uncovered are universal, Kohrn said, and require only simple behavioral and operational changes to reduce costs, such as turning off lights and computers when not in use, installing higher-efficiency lightbulbs, and insulating buildings and ducts.

Kohrn said the group also recommended Yosemite employ an individual to serve as its energy officer-someone who could audit year-round, as well as begin to implement the suggestions put forward by auditing agencies.

"There are plenty of opportunities for energy conservation and education," Kohrn said of Yosemite, adding that "it's conceivable we could continue to go back there and do our work."