Here is an email I received recently from a local creek steward. It highlights the good work our community is doing to clean up our creeks as well as all of the work that still lies ahead  to return the water and habitat in the Santa Rosa creek system to health and vitality.

Hello Creek Stewards,

 With nearly 2 3/4 inches of rain in the last several days our creeks have started flowing again.  Not many leaves have fallen yet so the storm didn’t cause as much street flooding as a storm later in the fall might have.  I spent a little time on Santa Rosa Creek near Pierson Street this morning and didn’t see as much trash littering the shoreline or hanging in bushes as I expected.  I think that the work of the Youth Ecology Corps on creeks this summer and the 10 volunteer creek clean ups we’ve had this fall made a big difference.

 Six groups on Colgan, Spring, Matanzas and Spirit Creeks counted the trash they collected on tally cards and the results were turned in as part of the 3 week period of recording data for the California Coastal Commission.  Coastwalk led the Sonoma County effort and reports the following numbers from Sonoma County, with numbers from Santa Rosa in the second column:

No. of volunteers:              1,218                  182

Pounds of trash:               10, 564                 634

Pounds recyclables:           8,390                  236

Distance cleaned:             104.85 miles       3.5 miles

Quantified trash in the Santa Rosa area included:

211 plastic bags

28 balloons

59 pieces of clothing

45 toys

83 straws and stirrers

232 cups

884 food wrappers

125 plastic bottles

136 glass bottles

116 beverage cans

26 plastic six-pack holders

52 pieces of building material

3 tires

What can we make of these results?  Unfortunately, there is a lot of trash out there such as balloons, food wrappers, and plastic bags that can be mistaken as food by birds, fish, terrestrial, and marine animals.  The relatively low number of 26 plastic six pack holders might indicate that these are becoming less used as packaging to the relief of ducks, fish and other animals that can become entangled by them.  Food and beverage packaging is the most common form of trash.  There are 74 more tires somewhere in our creeks.  (This is calculated by having found 3 tires in 3.5 miles of creek and extrapolating that to 77 tires in the 90 miles of creeks within the City of Santa Rosa.  A similar calculation would estimate that 1,111 toys and 2,050 straws remain in our creeks.  Actually, I think these numbers would be high as the clean ups concentrated on creek areas with the most trash.)  Certainly, we can conclude that the volunteers made a difference. 

If you can, please join us for another volunteer creek clean up on Saturday October 24 on Steele Creek by Biella School.  Details are below.  And we’re certainly ready to support students, clubs, or businesses with a creek clean up as a community service project.  Sonoma Country Day School and Waldorf Summerfield School will keep the ball rolling with creek clean ups scheduled for later this month. 

A couple of animal sightings: I was surprised to hear from several people of a coyote wandering in Santa Rosa Creek not too far downstream from Stony Point Road.  I’ve heard of coyotes on the outskirts of town but not of them using the more urban stream corridors.  Sharp-eyed Mary Tressler spotted a river otter in Santa Rosa Creek by Gateway Park (the mosaic fish statue).  A Water Agency maintenance worker in the creek out by Willowside Road was startled when an inquisitive otter suddenly emerged between his hip boots.  A gaze of eight raccoons (time for the Funk and Wagnalls) raised havoc in garages as they used the storm drain pipes to move around a NE Santa Rosa neighborhood.  What have you seen?  It’s always fun to learn from the many eyes, ears, and voices on our creeks. 

Hands Across the County & Make a Difference Day

Saturday, Oct. 24, 2009,

9:00 a.m. to noon

Steele Creek clean up at Biella School – 2140 Jennings Avenue, Santa Rosa (west of Marlow Road)

Hands Across the County, a county-wide volunteer work day underwritten by Friedman's Home Improvement, mobilizes volunteer groups and individuals to make the community a cleaner, safer, brighter place while making friends and having fun too!  This will be the first time we’ve done a community creek clean up on Steele Creek.  Many parents and students will be working on the buildings and grounds.  This is a chance to clean up the neighborhood creek that drains the land as far away as Cleveland Avenue and enters Piner Creek a couple of blocks downstream of the school.  Tools and refreshments provided.  Rubber boots could come in handy. 

Insecta-palooza – explore the fantastic world of insects

Saturday, Oct. 24, 2009,

9:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m.

Darwin Hall, Sonoma State University

What’s the difference between a bug and an insect?  Do scorpions really glow in the dark?  Find out about the diversity of insects, spiders and other arthropods that live in our gardens, fields and forests.  Entomologists of all ages can explore the fascinating world of insects in a day long series of interactive displays, presentations and lectures and a chance to use the University’s top-notch microscopes.  Sounds like they will cover everything you didn’t know and didn’t want to know about insects.  The flyer for this event is available at

http://www.sonoma.edu/pubs/insectapalooza/images/insectapalooza.png

and details are online at:

http://www.sonoma.edu/pubs/insectapalooza.html

I just found out about  Solar Living Institute through a friend who visited there last week and said it was a great place to visit for those who are interested in alternative energy sources.

They have a sun powered carousel, electricity generating bikes, and solar panels that save 1600 tons of carbon emissions every year. 

Its in Hopland which I think is about 50 miles north of Santa Rosa.

I encourage you to check out their  website and maybe sometime we can take a "field trip" up there. 

If you and your kids haven't gone to see the movie WALL-E yet, you should. You will love it!! Oh and your kids may enjoy the cartoon too : ) Here are excepts from an NPR review I found online.

Pixar has always focused on loss, decay, and the dark side of materialism. Here that theme extends to the ruination of the planet — and Wall-E ranks among the most sublime feature-length works of animation ever made in this country.

Apparently, humans never changed course on pollution and consumerism, and sometime in the 22nd century they were forced to leave a planet they had turned into a giant garbage dump. But they left without turning off a robot they'd left behind. He's basically a trash compactor on treads — a Waste Allocation Load-Lifter: Earth Class, or WALL-E — who has, over the course of 700 years, developed a personality.

This movie highlights how many people are still focused on material gain often at the expense of the environment as well as some people's apathy about their connection to the earth as well as to others. I won't spoil it but it does have a great ending, so you won't leave feeling depressed but rather, maybe.....hopeful.

We got our Santa Rosa Recycling Newsletter today and I found this link on their website about a planned Center for the Environment that will hopefully start being constructed in 2 years. If you support this idea and want to take the "Go Green" pledge, click here.

North Bay Corporation's Planned Center for the Environment

The North Bay Corporation's planned Center for the Environment is a materials recovery facility (MRF) designed for sustainability and will expand the management of Sonoma County's waste disposal far beyond California's current recycling mandates.

What is a Materials Recovery Facility?

A Materials Recovery Facility (MRF) is a state-of-the-art plant designed specifically to recover recyclable materials from our waste stream. Through a series of manual and automated sort processes recyclables are classified into separate areas, baled and transported to a re-manufacturing facility where they can be further processed and made into new marketable materials.

Environmental Impact

Our goal is to achieve 90% diversion, directing valuable resources away from area landfills...propelling us years ahead in the fight against global warming.

The North Bay Corporation's Center for the Environment will offer:

• Enhanced Sorting of Residential and Business Waste for Recyclable Recovery
• On-Site Green Waste Processing for Compost Preparation
• Bio-Diesel Refining Station
• Extensive Processing of Construction and Demolition Materials
• On-Site Restaurant and Grocery Store Food Waste Processing
• Environmental Education for School Children and the Community
• Further Reduction of Sonoma County's Carbon Footprint

Sustainable Building Design and Construction

• Silver LEED Construction Certified
• Solar Panels Covering Rooftop Generate Facility Power
• Wind Turbine Power Generation
• Recycled Building Materials Used in Construction of Facility

Financial and Environmental Benefits for Sonoma County and Area Cities

Jurisdictions that dedicate their waste and recycling stream to the North Bay Center for the Environment will recognize many benefits including:

• Maximizing diversion of waste stream away from area landfills
• No rate increases associated with the cost of construction of new facility
• $10 per ton rebate on all refuse passing through the facility
• Reduced Greenhouse gas emissions, vehicle traffic and noise on area roads

Construction Timeline

Upon receipt of permits we will begin construction on our state-of-the-art recycling complex. We anticipate breaking ground within two years.

Sarah H. informed some of us GreenMommies that  this year's Coastal Clean Up day is September 20, 2008.

Ocean Conservancy’s International Coastal Cleanup is the world’s largest volunteer event of its kind. Last year, 378,000 volunteers from 76 countries and 45 states cleared six million pounds of trash from oceans and waterways and recorded every piece of trash collected.

I think she and her family are going to participate and hopefully other GreenMommies may be interested as well. If so you can sign up here and a local coordinator will contact you. 

 Thanks Sarah H. for bringing that to our attention.

Today is the first real day of blue skies in Santa Rosa since all the fires began a week or more ago here in northern California. The grey, smoky sky was sad (and even depressing in some ways) but the silver lining of that experience was the gratitude I have now for our beautiful blue sky and relatively clean air. And at least for today, I will really try not to take it for granted. 

About 6-8 months ago, I wrote a post about how I noticed some pretty tremendous water wasting happening ay the YMCA showers (where I shower every morning). Some women would turn on and leave showers to "heat up" that need no heating up, some women would shower in one and let their bathing suit "shower" under another head.....just stuff where I thought "I can't keep watching this happen and not do something about it". So I asked a woman (very nicely, I thought) if she would turn off the shower she was using for her bathing suit because we were in a drought and it was wasting water. She looked at me funny, then laughed and kept the 2 showers going. I thought sarcastically "that went well" and then thought "I really don't want to get into any more of a confrontation while naked with another naked woman in the community shower area".

So I wrote a letter to the Director of Operations at the Y and asked if they could post signs requesting that people conserve water. Within a few days, nice big lamenated signs were up in every  corner of the shower area. I was so impressed with the YMCA for taking my request and acting so quickly. As the months have gone by, the signs began to fall off the shower walls (or maybe the 2-shower-head-lady took them down one by one : ) Either way, I asked the Operations Director a few weeks ago if she could put up those signs again and she did one better...she ordered permanent acryllic signs for the shower areas and they are up today. They look great!!!

All of this is just to say that if you ever feel like you should speak up about something but think you won't be listened to or you may get laughed at, I am saying that ...well , you may get laughed at (lady in the shower) but you may also be surprised to find that (especially on a local level) people are very responsive in general to ideas and positive changes.

I get lazy though and see things that need changing and think about them and think about them and never end up saying something.

So here is my challenge to myself  for local things I have thought about for a long time that need changing and haven't acted on them but will now.  

#1 Ask Trader Joes to look at alternatives to their double bagging system. I know they say that they do it because the handles fall off but then they should purchase bags  with handles that don't fall off or bags with no handles (like they had in the "old" days...TJ's is so good about rewarding people who bring their own bags and reminding shoppers before they enter the store "Did you remember your bags?"....The double bagging system seems to me to be counter to their otherwise eco-minded, anti-bag-ness (is that a word?)

 #2 Ask Safeway to display their reusable bags that are for sale by the check out lanes (seems logical right?). The last  ten times I have been to Safeway, the reusable bag display has been hidden in obscure back corners of the store where people either won't see it at all or will see it AFTER they have realized they forgot their bags and so selected plastic/ paper.

#3 Ask the YMCA to start using something other than Styrofoam for their complmentary coffee they give out in the a.m. It's really nice they give out coffee (God bless them for that) but the Styrofoam has got to go. I will also ask them to make a little sign that requests that members please bring their own mug.

I will keep you updated on the feedback / changes if any, I find after sending these letters. 

With the summer here and BBQ's and birthday parties in full swing (3/4 of my family have summer bdays) I have been thinking a lot about trying to have waste free parties. I struggled with whether or not that is rude to ask people to bring their own plates, napkins, flatware etc. On the other hand I struggle more with the thought of throwing out dozens of plates, and disposable forks that will sit in a landfill forever.  I found this article about our neighboring commuinithy Sebastopol and the efforts they are making to live waste free and I think I am going to risk being rude to my future party guests in exchange for saving some trees and landfill space.

What do you think about that and what do you think is a courteous way to ask people to bring their own  plates and forks etc....Any ideas? 

SEBASTOPOL, California.  In a new and growing trend to tread more lightly on the earth, neighborhood groups have started adding a new dimension to community gatherings.  No trash. 

In year's past, a standard backyard or block party item on the To-Do list was the purchase of paper places, plastic utensils and Styrofoam drinking cups.  No more in environmentally conscious Sebastopol.    Neighbors around High Street host an annual block party and advise all attendees to bring their own, reusable eating utensils.  They set aside an area with common bus tubs for partygoers to wash dishes and recommend everyone bring their own cup for punch, beer, etc.

 A good idea indeed.

Neighborhood organizers have noticed a significantly less amount of clean up required.  Attendees have brought bamboo plates, carved wooden bowls and goblets, ceramic eating utensils and other innovative means of reducing waste.

This, combined with family-style eating bowls for cleaner service, and self-service juice from glass vats or punch bowls, kegs, and even plateless appetizers will surely start a precedent in your neighborhood. 

So, next time you invite a crowd over, keep this in mind, it will enhance the asthetic flavor of your party and do our Mother Earth a good turn. 

For more info on this and other sustainable community-building innovations, contact the \n High Street Collective This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it .

 I was listening to NPR's radio show Marketplace last night and heard about a new book called, Bottlemania:  How Water Went on Sale and Why We Bought It.

 I dont think I would buy or read an entire book on this one issue but the interview with the author last night was interesting. 

Here are some excerpts from the interview: 

Is bottled water necessarily better for us?

Water is a really local and individual issue and in general, I will say that bottled water is no better or worse for you than tap water. Bottled water has basically the same level of contaminants -- things in it -- that tap water does and that the government allows to be in it. Bottled water is much less inspected than tap water, so that is one big difference.

Why then are people in this country and all over the world willing to pay so much on a relative scale for water that comes out of a bottle?

I think people are willing to pay more because they think that the water in the bottle is better. It took off because of very clever marketing that prayed on our ideas about health and wellness and beauty and weight loss and things like that and we were told that we needed to hydrate, hydrate, hydrate and drink 8 ounce glasses a day and so portability became really important and that marketing worked really, really well. It turned bottled water from a $150 million a year industry in 1990 to a $11.5 billion a year industry in 2007........Well, bottled water has been around for many centuries, but essentially, the bottle water craze in this country we can trace to that. It was 1977 when Perrier was introduced and it was very much a niche product at first. Yuppies drank it, it was an urban thing. Nobody was walking down the street with that pretty green glass bottle swigging it, but the water had a certain cache: it was French, it had those great bubbles and Orson Wells did the ads and so that started us thinking about celebrity and status and the big change, actually, isn't that dramatic. It was a technological innovation. In 1989, it became possible to put bottled water in bottles made of PET plastic -- that's the lightweight bottles -- and all of a sudden, it became much easier and cheaper to put water into these bottles and that's when the marketing tens of millions of dollars were spent pushing bottled water on us.

Stumbled upon this information..my plan is to put plants in the rooms I don't have one yet.

Though chemicals such as formaldehyde, benzene, and carbon monoxide are anathema to human health, plants can thrive on them, while also removing them from the air. Plants that top the clean-air list include peace lily, bamboo palm, English ivy, mums, and gerbera daisies, all of which are both easy to find and easy to care for, so even if you don’t have a green thumb, you can still have a green home or office.

Of course they are TREES! But, I recently read an interesting article in the Sac bee about how particular types of trees actually filter the gunk particles out of the air. They are going to use walls of them to help with pollution in certain areas of Sacramento. It just reinforced for me the power of the simple act of planting trees. 

" UC Davis researchers say they have confirmed in laboratory experiments that certain trees are highly effective in filtering and dispersing some of the most toxic particles in auto exhaust.

The Davis study is considered the first to test the theory that certain trees can protect people from inhaling invisible exhaust specks, said Thomas Cahill, a retired UC Davis atmospheric physicist who led the volunteer study.

"The very factors that make these particles dangerous to breathe make them stick to needles and leaves," said Cahill, an international authority on analyzing air pollutants.

The particles are small enough to evade the lung's defenses and enter the bloodstream, raising the risk of heart disease as well as respiratory illness.

In a breeze of less than 3 mph, branches from all three tree types removed 65 percent to 85 percent of the particles, according to the test results.

I was listening to the Public Radio International (PRI) show "The World" yesterday and thought this was a really interesting story  (click on "wheat prices soar") about  the effect that  corn over-production is having on wheat production which then has an effect on  prices of goods at the supermarket, oil at the pump and ultimately global poverty. Corn production has trumped and wiped out so many of our other traditional U.S. crops in the recent decades since the dawn of processed foods (high fructose corn syrup and the like), eating more animals world wide (as developing countries become more affluent) who are fed on corn and now our vehicles are starting to be run on corn. As a result of the over production of corn, there has been some severe environmental and social consequences. I hope you have a chance to listen to the story (link above). It sums this up in about 4 minutes. However, if you are interested in learning more, I am reading a book by Michael Pollan (who was interviewed for the story), author of the books among others, In Defense of Food: An Eaters Manifesto and Omnivores Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals.

Currently I am reading Omnivores Dilemma which I think would make a great GreenMommy book club selection if anyone is interested in reading along with me.

The omnivore’s dilemma has returned with a vengeance, as the cornucopia of the modern American supermarket and fast-food outlet confronts us with a bewildering and treacherous food landscape. What’s at stake in our eating choices is not only our own and our children’s health, but the health of the environment that sustains life on earth.......

Pollan follows each of the food chains that sustain us—industrial food, organic or alternative food, and food we forage ourselves—from the source to a final meal, and in the process develops a definitive account of the American way of eating.  His absorbing narrative takes us from Iowa cornfields to food-science laboratories, from feedlots and fast-food restaurants to organic farms and hunting grounds, always emphasizing our dynamic coevolutionary relationship with the handful of plant and animal species we depend on.  Each time Pollan sits down to a meal, he deploys his unique blend of personal and investigative journalism to trace the origins of everything consumed, revealing what we unwittingly ingest and explaining how our taste for particular foods and flavors reflects our evolutionary inheritance.

This green tip might be a little late in the season but you can do it any time of year and it will save money and energy. 

Wrapping your water heater tank and hot water pipes  can significantly reduce the amount of "standby" heat loss. A tank wrap is a thick fiberglass blanket, secured around the tank by waterproof tape. You can find water heater insulation kits at your hardware store or home center for about $20. This cost can be paid back in energy savings in just a few months.

I came across this website and thought it had some pretty interesting links to explain air pollutions causes and effects in the Bay Area.

The Clean Air Primer

The Clean Air Primer illustrates the causes and consequences of air pollution and shows what we can do about it.

An exciting, visually rich and a compelling interactive experience, the Clean Air Primer:
   · Draws people into the heart of important air quality topics
   · Explores air pollution science, impacts and solutions
   · Showcases original geo-spatial movies, videos, photos, graphics and animations, to tell the clean air story

Ride Today's Air Currents — take a journey from the Pacific Coast far inland into California, flying over sources of pollution and geographic landscapes so detailed you can find your house.

The Big Picture — a one-stop overview of air quality. It's a self-guided tour about where pollution comes from, what's in the air and why we should care, how ozone forms, how haze effects visibility, why air gets trapped, and how air quality is monitored.

The Health Primer — an excellent exploration of the effects of air pollution on the body.

On the Road Solutions — discover how transportation is changing and learn about the benefits of using mass transit options.

The Interactive Car — provides numerous tips on how to buy, use, and maintain our vehicles to minimize air pollution.

Solutions for our Home, School and Office — explore interactive animations to find out what to do to clear the air where we live and work and to discover which energy technologies are helping to clean up air pollution.

The Clean Air Challenge Game — a fun and challenging way to discover how clean air begins at home.

I know many of you have husbands who carpool, bike and bus to work. I found out today that Santa Rosa has a free trip reduction incentive program. Anyone who works for any company within the Santa Rosa city limits is eligible. This incentive program aims to reduce single occupant vehicle trips. The goal is to decrease motor vehicle emissions, traffic congestion, parking challenges and improve air quality in Santa Rosa.

To participate in this program, businesses in the Santa Rosa city limits must designate a Transportation Coordinator who, through this Web site can register their company and sign-up employees who want to participate. Registered employees can receive great incentives by reducing the trips made in their car by carpooling with other registered participants, walking, riding a bike or taking the bus to work.

Some of the incentives include discounted monthly bus passes. CityBus monthly passes and Sonoma County Transit passes are discounted to $10 each for registered participants. Movie tickets are awarded to registered participants who walk, ride a bike or carpool to work at least 8 round-trips or 16 one-way trips during the month.

FAQ's 

What are the incentives?

CityBus and Sonoma County Transit monthly bus passes are only $10 per month. People who walk, ride a bike or carpool at least 8 round-trips or 16 one-way trips during the month receive a movie ticket to the Rialto on Summerfield Road.

How many times a month do I have to walk to work to get an award?

You need to walk, ride your bike or carpool at least 8 round-trips or 16 one-way trips each month. That is only 2 times a week and, if everyone did it, could reduce emissions up to 40%!

Which companies can participate?

Any company that is within the Santa Rosa city limits.

How does a company register?

First designate a Transportation Coordinator within the company. The Coordinator then registers the company and receives a login and password to access the site and sign-up employees.

What if my carpool partner gets sick and needs to go home?

The Free Ride program includes a Guaranteed Ride Home in a taxi. Of course, there are rules and restrictions. The company’s Transportation Coordinator authorizes and issues GRH vouchers as appropriate.

I live in Cloverdale and work in Santa Rosa, how can I participate?

Any enrolled participant who works in Santa Rosa is eligible to buy a monthly Sonoma County Transit pass and/or a CityBus pass for only $10 each per month! Or look into putting together a carpool with others who live and work near you.

It was recently reported that trace amounts of pharmaceuticals were found in our water supply. The city of Santa Rosa's Safe Medicine Disposal  Pilot Program  provides citizens designated drop off areas in which to safely dispose of medicines.

If you don't live in Sonoma County, search the internet for a location near you to dispose of unused or expired medicines.