The New Path to Change; Catastrophe

Democrats, Republicans, the Obama administration and the public are beginning to sway with environmental activists. What did it take? It only took an oil spill from Deep Water Horizon into the Gulf of Mexico. That is exactly what the state of Louisiana needs… another catastrophe. It is bitter sweet what we see going on in America now. The number of volunteers that have surfaced for the cleanup is amazing and the support is awesome. But it is still sad to think that it took such a tragic accident to change the political agenda and get the public aware of what the real problem is.

Environmental groups, like the Sierra Club, are using this tragedy to their advantage by cornering government officials with no other choice but to look at the risks of offshore drilling instead of ANY of the benefits. Our governor, Arnold Schwarzenegger, and Florida’s Charlie Crist have opposed any drilling off their state’s shores and the administration is going to revise their plan in which new offshore drilling exploration was going to occur. According to the Washington Post, even some moderate Republican senators say they want to reexamine the role offshore drilling should play in the nation's energy supply. The question is now over who has the upper hand? Reaching a drilling compromise will involve having to attract Republican support without alienating Democrats and on top of that, environmentalists are thinking this is their time to shine. It’s already getting sticky in the political realm.

As environmental groups turn this crisis into an opportunity, looking at the volunteer base is a lot more optimistic than focusing on the political side of things. Clean up days, rallies and massive donations from big companies like Hanes are taking place. That’s right, I said Hanes, as in the underwear. Did you know that hair, the filaments that grow from our skin, can soak up certain materials like oil? Now that’s making use of our natural resources without being wasteful or harmful to the environment. Stuffing human and animal hair into pantyhose and nylons has become known as the fancy invention called BOOM. Volunteers are hosting boom construction lessons as well as protests, rallies and marine protection awareness. The environment and people are not the only ones being affected by this catastrophe. Marine life is hit the hardest, but we cannot pull out sea creatures from the ocean and house them in gym’s and shelters like we did with the victims of Katrina. Marine victims have no choice but to suffer from our mistakes.

It is sad that this has happened. But it’s even sadder that it took such a tragedy for people to become aware of the real, environmental problems that have been predicted for years by scientists and environmentalists. We are depleting the Earth of its resources. What is it going to take to step up the volunteer rates another notch? How far will we destroy nature before everyone gets it? There are alternative ways to live, alternative energies to use. It’s time to stop talking about it and just do it. This path to change is an ugly one and I hope that the increase in public awareness will make a clearer path to minimizing the destruction of our planet.

A Piece of my Mind

Global warming. Boom! This is global warming. It is raining today, it was raining yesterday and it is supposed to rain tomorrow. The day before yesterday I was volunteering with Cotati Creek Critters doing understory tree work in eighty degrees of heat and the day before that I was out at Bayer Farm turning over the soil for a new harvest under the blazing sun. What’s wrong with this picture? It is nearly May!

What I don’t understand is how people can deny that global warming is occurring. Why would we be having conferences in Copenhagen if there was no problem? Why would the weather be so unpredictable on a daily basis? I guess some people live in bubbles, while other people simply do not understand. Global warming does not mean that it is going to be ridiculously hot all the time. Global warming is unpredictable weather patterns and strange weather changes, not necessarily hot weather changes. I would say that in the last couple of years the patter of weather has provided good evidence of global warming.

Increasing perception for United States engagement has constantly been the goal amongst the 193 countries wrapped up in ambiguous climate negotiations for the last couple of decades. Conferences, protocols, treaties and endless other amounts of what seems to be official business, have not been so official. Global warming cannot be treated, it can only be helped. The problem is that we are treating global warming like we would other global issues, one that can be fixed. It is not a war or a battle, it is not a matter of trade or economic scale’s. We keep taking precious resources from the Earth that we cannot give back. It is not a fair trade. Everything that was realized at the Copenhagen conference last December was something that scientists and environmental activists have known for decades.

So what now you may ask? Well now that diplomats and government officials are finally on bored with the real problem and recognize it’s different levels of consequences, we can begin to minimize them. Andrew Revkin, journalist for The New York Times and blogger for Dot Earth is right, the United States and other superpowers need to address this just as seriously, if not more, than other countries. It is not like many other cases where we hand off money or aid to poorer, less advanced countries. This problem is distributed equally around the world.

I do not have the answer. I am not sure how we can make significant changes that will decrease the effects of global warming and begin to heal the huge hole we have put in the ozone layer. But I know where we can begin. This is what my blog is about, starting small, at the community level. If we can all became active agents in our communities, doing our part and more to help improve the local land and educate others on what HAS to be done we may begin to see the changes at large. We need to live in a way that less advanced countries have been living like for years, in a less wasteful manner. I think this would be a great start to helping the United States become a more engaged country with the real issue, global warming.

Go help, Go Volunteer, Go Green!

Outdoor Fun the Tom Sawyer Way

Sun, fun and a new twist to my volunteer work. Playing with kids. I do choose a bit purposefully where and with whom I volunteer with, staying away from day-care, tutoring or any other kind of child play activity. I have short patience with children and children tend to have short patience with me. It’s not the best match.

It wasn’t until this weekend, on April 15th that the tables were turned and I realized how much fun I have with children, especially when it comes to embarking with them on Tom Sawyer outdoor adventure’s and education!

Land Paths sponsored a free community day at Bayer Farm, Tom Sawyer day. And could they have picked a more perfect day. Probably not. The sun was shining and the weather was just right. A calm breeze was sailing through the farm, picking up the children’s hair and carrying a mixed smell of spring flowers and animal droppings from the petting zoo. The show up of kids from neighboring elementary schools was fantastic! Between 50 and 100 little rambunctious kids running around the farm, very eager to see everything that we were offering to them. Tom Sawyer Day at Bayer Farm offered a petting zoo with chickens, rabbits and birds; an insect display brought by the SSU Biology department; art tables with pirate hat making and face painting; a scavenger hunt and sun flower seed planting. After setting up the farm and activity table, I ran the sun flower planting table where we rolled planters out of newspaper and planted soil and seeds in them. All the children were so well behaved and really wanted to learn about the sunflower seeds and how to plant them. They were shocked when one student asked how the sunflower was going to grow if they are planting the seed with its shell still on it. When I replied, “the seed bursts out of its shell naturally once it receives the sun and water it needs,” their eyes got so big! I forgot how easily children can get excited.

Overall, Tom Sawyer day was a success and working with the kids was so much fun! It got me thinking that I can maybe handle environmental education with children. Seeing how their heads just wrap around any new facts that you give them is very satisfying. It really is important that children learn the simple things like how to plant a seed and pick a ripe tomato. These children may have gone home that day and asked their families if they could grow a couple vegetables in their yards. That is what Land Paths is aiming for, educating and providing an opportunity for families in the Roseland area to partake is sustainable food practices. With high obesity rates, processed foods and job lay-offs, it is such as important time for people to know how to obtain what they need the natural way. Tom Sawyer day was an awesome way to put some of these ideas in the heads of young children.

Earth week is finally here! Get your hands dirty and be a part of this special time! If anyone would like to see Bayer Farm and be introduced to the land and see what is done there, this week is another volunteer opportunity. April 23rd, 2.00-5.30. Come check it out!

Sunny Days with Cotati Creek Critters

Blue skies, warm sun and the smell of spring was all around us last Sunday. The Cotati Creek Critters held another successful stewardship day. We lucked out with such beautiful weather last weekend as gray skies and chilling air came rolling back into Sonoma County just a day later. The Creek Critters got a huge show up of volunteers thanks to members of the community and freshman interest groups at SSU.

My work began last Friday when I went in to help prepare for the Sunday stewardship day. It was me, Wade, Jenny and a couple of interns. Wade Belew is the stewardship coordinator and the big brains behind the work done on the 1-mile stretch of the Laguna De Santa Rosa that Cotati Creek Critters take care of. Jenny Blaker is the outreach coordinator. Jenny’s soft British accent and kind words pulled me in right away with questions of how she came to Rohnert Park and began work with Cotati Creek Critters. It was really quite simple; she followed her heart and her passions.

Even though the preparation work for the Sunday stewardship day did not allow us to dig our hands in the ground, it was a perfect opportunity for me to talk to and get to know Wade and Jenny better. As we cleaned out the shed, prepared hay stacks, mulch, pegs, shovels and cleaned gloves, I asked a bit about their backgrounds.

While managing all aspects of Cotati Creek Critters, from nursery work to creek stewardship days, Wade does independent woodwork with a specialty in designing and building bird nest boxes made from recycled redwood fencing. He also leads nature walks with Land Paths, which is the organization that runs Bayer Farm.

Jenny obtained her MA at Sonoma State University in Conservation Psychology and helped start Cotati Creek Critters in 1998. Now Jenny’s job for the Critters is to recruit volunteers, like me, and run the Inside/Outside Nature Education Series.

After sweating in the sun for three hours, obtaining a nice farmer’s tan and a thick dirt layer under my nails, it was time to go home to shower and rest until Sunday.

Sunday ended up being just as beautiful as Friday, the last sunny day before this week full of rain. It was time to work. After teaming up with a couple from North Dakota who came out to California for an adventure after college, we began planting right away. Down by the waters edge, Wade had taken out wild blackberry plants that were invasive to the area. Covered in mulch and netting, our job was to plant native grasses every two feet or so in the 25 foot long stretch of newly turned soil and mulch. This took us about two hours in which a new job was to be met for the last hour of work. Snacking off brownies that Wade brought from a previous party and donated cliff bars, I was feeling the need to shower again and also to take a nice, cozy nap. Our last hour of work consisted of fixing up trees that had been planted before the harsh winter weather. We weeded around them, set down new cardboard to prevent weeds from attacking, spread mulch and netting, nailed pegs in four corners and planted grasses on the edges. Mission complete. Another successful stewardship day with Cotati Creek Critters!
Go Volunteer, Go Help, Go GREEN!

A Grotesque GREEN Experiment

I was going to write about the work I did last weekend until I read this article in The New York Times that, quite honestly, pissed me off. Tom Zeller Jr. is a “Green Inc.” columnist for The New York Times and seems to have stumbled upon an experiment done at the University of Toronto on Green consumers. Two assistant professors were performing tests on Green consumers and conventional consumers to show a pattern in human psychology and behavior. In one experiment 59 student volunteers were asked to rate each kind of consumer with noble attributes; of course the green consumers rated high. In another experiment 156 volunteers were sat in front of a computer with two visuals in front of them, one with a green store and one with a conventional store. They were then asked to buy products from either store and were also allowed to share money. The people that bought from the green store did just that. The people that bought from the conventional store shared money. One last test had volunteers answer a simple question, which box has more dots. It was very obvious which box had more dots in it, but that was not the point. The point was that green shoppers answered more incorrect than the others, meaning that they were more careless and satisfied by doing one simple job. Researchers used these experiments to conclude that wealthier people are only concerned with the here and now. Wealthier people and westerners think that shopping green means that they have done enough to make the world a better place. Just enough. The conclusion was that richer people who do these minor acts believe they have benefited the world when in fact they might as well have done nothing at all. I beg to differ.

Although Tom Zeller and Toronto researchers present very strong and important facts, I find their experiment and conclusions to be completely biased and pointless. How can you make an assumption of green consumers being rich and careless? I find this to be very generalized and one-sided. It has been known since the first few Green products were in stores that they would be more expensive. And what does it take for more expensive products to be purchased? People with more money. I am stating the obvious. This is not news.

Yet the generalizations are not completely false, so I will not fully bash this article. Most westerners do purchase green products, buy local foods, recycle, buy a Prius and then throw in the keys and call themselves God. But not everyone is some environmental activist who can devote their life to these issues. So can we blame them for not going out when they have a minute of spare time and pick up trash, dig holes, plant trees and protest? No! People are choosing to go green in their daily routines and purchase products on their way home from work differently than they used to. That says a lot. Getting a majority of people to change little, daily acts, as opposed to having few people perform big jobs, will make a bigger difference.

Of course there are places all around the world that are being destroyed at this very moment because of environmental problems and global warming. And of course we can do a lot more to help these places and the people living there. We can do a lot more to help people all around the world with all kinds of different problems. There are people, some rich westerners and some not, who have gone to these other places in the world and devoted their lives to helping other people’s environments. For the rest of the population on the west, people have gone on devoting their lives to other jobs while making green changes in their lifestyle. It has come slowly and will never be enough to heal the damage we have done, but there is a green revolution occurring and we have come a long way. Everyone is aware that they are living in a green movement and that this movement will never end because we are constantly destroying the environment. Change IS happening and that is huge. I consider myself an environmentalist and as much as I would love every single person to be as passionate and concerned as I am, that is not realistic. But I am proud of how far we have come and how much activity is occurring in people’s lives to live in a greener way. “When Green Consumers Decide, ‘I’ve Done Enough’” understates and misrepresents the positive ways in which populations are going green and helping the environment. This issue should not be tied to money. There are plenty of other ways to help the environment without having an abundance of cash.

Go help, Go volunteer, Go GREEN!

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/22/business/energy-environment/22green.html?pagewanted=1

Where Have all the Salmon Gone?

I woke up this morning ready to strap on my shoes and head out to Bayer Farm, but unfortunately the weather today did not permit me to do so. With pouring rain and gray skies, not much would get accomplished on the farm except for getting completely covered in mud and tempering with cold symptoms that are flying around in the air. If it was sprinkling it would have been a different story, I would have had a fun work day to have told you about, but the non-stop down pour is keeping me cooped up in my room with the news instead.

I thought I would read a bit more local this morning and glance through the San Francisco Chronicle in search of my environmental updates. What I came upon was not shocking. The title read, “Fishermen Likely to See Limited Salmon Season.” Why was this not shocking to me? Well to make a generalized statement, what is global warming and climate change not limiting? What is our pollution and thinning of the ozone layer making better? What is corporate agriculture not being destructive of? My point exactly.

The limited salmon fishing season this year is going to be taking an economic toll on the people who rely on it as their main trade, the fishing villages who count down the days until the rivers are full again. Return of the Chinook salmon into the Sacramento River has been so horrible in the last couple years that commercial fishing was banned off of Oregon and California’s coast line. Big king salmon pass through the San Francisco Bay and head out to the Pacific but there has been a lack in numbers due to water diversions from the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta to farmers. State and federal pumps that release water into delta’s leading to corporate farms are destroying the salmon into shreds. This corporate power of subsidized water is not only destroying the salmon, but is destroying commercial fishermen and small business owners. In order for salmon to recover, pumping must be reduced. Agriculture corporations are fighting to block any restrictions that are made to limit pumping.

I found this article interesting and crucial to bring to attention because it portrays a perfect example of why it is so important to support and live in a local manner. It is these big corporations that pollute so much and are taking away hundreds of jobs. The first way to fix these problems is to make sure they are known. Most people have no idea of what these corporate giants are really doing. When people learn about the problem it is a natural force that will lead people to change the way they consume. Anything that is THAT BIG and THAT POWERFUL cannot have a good impact on our planet. We must stay tight in our communities and re-think the way we live. How much do you enjoy a nice grilled salmon? Or looking off the Golden Gate Bridge into a nice clean bay? Consider those common things that are so valuable to us and imagine not having them anymore.

Go Help, Go Volunteer, Go GREEN!

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2010/03/12/MNU61CECO9.DTL

A Break For Some Environmental News

A couple days after working hard with the Laguna de Santa Rosa Foundation, I was reading the New York Times and my delightful mood was a bit shattered. The heading read, “Rulings Restrict Clean Water Act, Foiling E.P.A.” I couldn’t help but wonder who is pissed off at the Environmental Protection Agency now?

The Clean Water Act is intended to put a stop to water pollution by regulating every major polluter. But apparently not all bodies of water are covered by the Clean Water Act. Pollution rates are rising yet again because thousands of the country’s largest water polluters are claiming that the law no longer applies to them. The Environmental Protection Agency has to start pulling out of certain areas and even states because companies are realizing that cops are not operating on their grounds and so they go back to what is cheapest; polluting natural bodies of water. The New York state commissioner, James M Tierney describes this as a huge problem because unprotected watersheds lead directly into New York’s drinking water.

As if this is not bad enough, the funniest part is that the Clean Water Act has one word in its written law that companies have completely warped in order to satisfy their own needs, and that word is “navigable”. “Navigable waters” has been used for decades to include many large wetlands and streams that connect to major rivers. So now companies are using creeks that occasionally dry up and streams that do not lead to larger water systems saying that those are not “navigable waters”. Interesting. It seems like a body of water to me. The new court decisions do not define which waterways are regulated which makes the E.P.A’s job a lot more difficult. A good statistic from the E.P.A. that helps support them; about 117 million Americans get their drinking water from sources fed by waters that are vulnerable to exclusion from the Clean Water Act.

The Clean Water Restoration Act is trying to take out the word “navigable” from the language of the law so that the act applies to ALL bodies of water. The federal government would not have to limit how far they go to regulate waters. The problem used to be pollution in large bodies of water and now it is pollution into smaller streams that lead to larger bodies of water. That is where the case is being lost.

The reason I bring this article to light is because the work I have been doing with Cotati Creek Critters and the Santa Rosa De Laguna Foundation work around small streams and creeks. The streams and creeks are home to a handful of native plant and animal species as well as being a great element to Sonoma County and its residents. These waters feed into the Russian River, a great body of water for Northern California. Could you imagine if large companies were dumping their pollutants into the unprotected streams and creeks flowing into the Russian River that people drink out of and swim in? I could not! Clean water and open space are so important for this country and it is crucial to not let the protection laws for these parts of nature dissipate.

Go help, Go Volunteer, Go GREEN

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/01/us/01water.html?ref=todayspaper">

Fun in the Mud

Rain or shine, trees still need to be planted and weeds still need to be wacked. The Laguna holds more wildlife than you could imagine and protecting and restoring this is of great importance to Sonoma County. On a cold, rainy and gray day the Laguna De Santa Rosa Foundation pressed on in their work. I guess they figured that some mud would make the work more fun!

The Laguna De Santa Rosa Foundation’s mission is to preserve, restore and enhance the Laguna, and to inspire greater public understanding and appreciation of this magnificent natural area (lagunadesantarosa.org). Not only are they out in the Laguna restoring wildlife habitat but they are also bringing lifelong lessons into children’s classrooms and conducting research. The Laguna de Santa Rosa is home to 200 different bird species and its watershed is home to almost everyone in Sonoma County. Instead of just trying to root out invasive plant species like the Cotati Creek Critters, the Laguna De Santa Rosa Foundation is trying to restore this area for animal species and humans.

When I stepped out of my car with my boots and gloves, the most beautiful sight was directly ahead of me! The rain had revealed bright green grass and mustard fields. The marsh land we were working on, right on the outskirts of Sebastopol, looked all the way out to Santa Rosa. It was so beautiful! They had an awesome show-up with about 30 volunteers. Before getting to work, our leaders gave us an educational introduction to the marshland and what work we would be doing, along with hot chocolate and delicious mini muffins! We broke off in groups in which I jumped straight into the tree planting group, a bit anxious to get away from the weed whacking considering my weed and mulching work I did at Bayer Farm a few days previous. I worked three hours straight through; digging, pulling weeds, planting down a plastic weed cover and then putting in the baby plants. We would finish every plant off by staking down the water pipe close to the base of the plant. It was hard work but very satisfying.

Volunteers are the heart and soul for the Laguna De Santa Rosa Foundation. Volunteers assist in exotic plant removal, native plant and tree planting, trails construction and maintenance and restoration project monitoring (lagunadesantarosa.org). It is organizations like this that bring people in the community together. I met so many interesting and kind-hearted volunteers and learned more about the work that Sonoma County does to their natural, ecological sites. In a time when the economy is bad and the GREEN movement is kicking off, volunteering with organizations like this is a great way to get involved and learn about issues at a local level.
And the thing that people forget is that it if fun!

Go help, Go volunteer, Go GREEN!

Bayer Farm; A Little Project with the Big Idea

Volunteering at Bayer Farm will not be a one time thing! Even after working there on a drizzly, cool Saturday afternoon when most others are snuggled under the covers watching movies and sleeping in, I can say that I will be there again on another Saturday with a shovel in my hand! Walking out to the site at Bayer Farm, a 6-acre urban farm and city park in the largely Latino area of Roseland in a part of Santa Rosa, the smell of wet soil and sight of mini garden plots and bright painted mini tool sheds got me all wound up to see what work I would be digging my hands into!

This community garden serves 30 families with individual land plots and gives lessons to children from the elementary school down the street. Bayer Farm teaches kids how to plant, compost, harvest, pick and even cook their own food so that they can go home and bring a healthy and more affordable way of living into the household. The rest of the 6-acres of land are gardens for the public so that people passing by or coming home from downtown Santa Rosa can pick up some fresh produce and support Bayer Farm’s mission. I really believe that their goal to reach into the Roseland community and educate families and children about how to eat healthy while sustaining the Earth is a crucial lesson that needs to be learned around the world. In a time when people’s pockets are running dry and obesity is increasing more than ever, we really must get back to the root of things and learn how to make use of our own yards and back away from processed, preservative fast foods. Children leave Bayer Farm with knowledge to grow their own food at home and cook up a delicious and nutritious meal!

Now that Bayer Farm can begin to prepare for spring harvesting, some dirty work was needed to be done. Although the work I did may not be glamorous to a lot of people, I loved getting my hands in the dirt and smelling the nutrients pour out of the soil that the rain had delivered. I mostly did weeding, mulching and compost. For those who are new to gardening or getting their hands dirty, mulching is when a protective covering of organic material is laid over soil to prevent erosion, retain moisture and enrich the soil even further. Compost is a mixture of decayed and organic plant materials that are reused as fertilizers. I worked with Magdalena, the Community Outreach specialist who is bilingual and helped develop the Spanish Outreach Program for Bayer Farm. Working with Magdalena made the work even more fun and worth the while because you could tell that she truly puts her whole heart into the Bayer Farm Project and believes that they are making positive changes within the Roseland neighborhood.

After a few hours of hard work at Bayer Farm I was ready for a hot shower and a big, green salad! As I walked away from the farm and observed all the tall green plants and vegetable rows, I could only imagine the fun, growth and community bonding that is yet to come in the spring! I will definitely be there for the harvest, hopefully digging my hands into fresh vegetable gardens and flowers instead of weeds and soil.

Go help, Go volunteer, Go GREEN!

Global Warming Plant Invasion

Climate change due to global warming is the new hot topic! Going GREEN is becoming the new Gucci and recycling is becoming a hot trend. Yet our process of going GREEN cannot just be a trend with an endpoint. Going GREEN needs to be a process that continues throughout time and space. We have officially pissed off Planet Earth and it is time to befriend it again. Climate change is affecting endless organisms, species and life on this Earth. To understand climate change, global warming and the GREEN movement, let us start small and get into the nitty gritty details.

With rising temperatures on the go we can see the first struggle right at the roots. Native plants are being invaded by non-native plant species. It has been discovered that non-native plants are reacting better to the current climate changes than native ones. Invasive plant species, meaning invading plants, are able to change their seasonal activity timing more successfully than native plants. Some people hear that invasive plants are positively reacting to warmer climate temperatures and think it is good news! That is not the case at all.

Invasive plants that congregate in abundance with warm weather are wiping out the native plants which lead to ecosystem and wildlife destruction. Invasive plants cannot support the same diversity of wildlife as native species can. What can we do? How can we help?

I have volunteered with a non-profit organization called Cotati Creek Critters (CCC). CCC is a grassroots citizens' group that works to restore a section of the Laguna de Santa Rosa that runs through Cotati and Rohnert Park. One of CCC's main goals is to enhance natural habitat for native species. I went out with CCC on a cold, Saturday morning to get my hands dirty and see what this organization was all about.

Weed, dig, mulch, dig and mulch some more! That is what my first day with CCC consisted of... but it was fun! Our stewardship coordinator, Wade Belew invented a cozy mulching technique for the plants on the Laguna de Santa Rosa. Yes, I said cozy. After weeding around the trees and laying down cardboard in a perfect square around the plant bases, we would cover it with soil and nutrients and then cover that with a biodegradable net, peg the corners into the ground and create a comfy bed for the plant species to flourish! These native plants that we help to preserve will help stabilize water banks, prevent soil erosion, improve water quality and provide habitat for wildlife.

So remember when you are out walking next time and you comment on a pretty field of flowers and plants…. Are those flowers native? Are they supposed to be there?

This is just one little hole that climate change and global warming has dug up.

Go help, Go volunteer, Go GREEN

http://www.cotaticreekcritters.info/index.htm