Sierra Club scholarships to International Zero Waste Week

The National Zero Waste Team has received a grant from the Activist Network to send people to one or more events as part of International Zero Waste Week, March 17-22, 2013. These events are going to be held in San Francisco and Berkeley/Oakland. The list of events are listed below with a link to the host organization’s website for more detailed information.

The main focus of the grant is to get more young people involved in Zero Waste activism. By young people we mean high school and college students and young adults in their 20s and 30s. There is one event, the Youth Convergence on Sunday, March 17, 2013 that is a peer to peer event where High School and College Students & young Professionals can meet, share information, network and get involved. The email announcing this event is below. But if you are interested please let me know as our grant might be able to cover your costs. Call me, or send me your email and phone and a good time to talk and I can go into more details about the Youth Convergence and other events. I will ensure that we get you registered and the Sierra Club will cover your registration. Depending on demand, we might be able to help with other costs associated from attending. Contact me so we can talk about your situation. Ann.Schneider@lomaprieta.sierraclub.org or 650-697-6249. I am looking forward to talking to you. Scholarships will be on a first come basis.

Now if you are not so fortunate to be “young” anymore, but are or want to be a zero waste activist, send me your email and phone number and with luck our funding can cover part or some of your registration to one or more events.

We will at several different times be conducting FREE trainings on Sierra Club Zero Waste tools and how you can use Zero Waste to bring in new activists in your region and get your community to adopt zero waste actions to fight climate change. Curious? Come to our training where we will be rolling out some new tools and talk about how to use them and where they have worked.

Here is how the week looks at this point in time. Other things might be added as we approach International Zero Waste Week. For more detail go to http://ncrarecycles.org/

• Su, 3/17 Bay Area Zero Waste Youth Convergence, 9am-5pm San Franicsco City College – Mission Campus
• Sierra Club Zero Waste Dinner & Discussion
• Mo, 3/18 San Francisco Zero Waste Tours, 9am-3:45pm – Fisherman’s Wharf and Pier 96 to see Recology Recycling Operation
• Sierra Club Zero Waste Activist Training Tools – ZW & Climate Change, ZW Lifestyle, Bag & EPS Bans, Organics out of landfills, & more
• Mo, 3/18 Reception, 4:30pm and "Trashed", 6:30pm – Pier 39 San Francisco – great networking opportunity
• Tu, 3/19 Recycling Update, 8am-5pm – Berkeley
• We, 3/20 International Dialog, 8am-5pm – Berkeley
• Th, 3/21 Certification Meeting, 8am-4pm – Oakland City Hall
• Fr, 3/22 East Bay Zero Waste Tours and Reception at Urban Ore –

Register for the U.S.'s first Zero Waste Youth Convergence!

"Redefining Waste: Reduce, Reuse, Recycle, Rot"

City College of San Francisco, Mission Campus - Sunday, March 17

Organized by youth, for youth, ZWYC is a full day dedicated to learning, visioning, organizing and celebrating Zero Waste. We want to empower high school and college students, as well as young professionals, to share the Zero Waste message throughout their schools and communities to work towards a more sustainable future.

Regroup with fellow youth leaders or if you're new to zero waste, come learn with us! Event is from 9:00 am to 5:00 pm, and includes breakfast, lunch, keynote speakers and topics ranging from recycling and composting to product design and creative reuse.

Registration & information is now available But if you want a Sierra Club scholarship contant Ann.Schneider@lomaprieta.sierraclub.org / 650-697-6249

Hurry, space is limited, and $10 early registration fee increases after Feb. 28!

Join our Facebook Event and Facebook Page for daily updates and reminders.

This event is sponsored by the Northern California Recycling Association (NCRA), Zero Waste International Alliance (ZWIA) and the Grassroots Recycling Network (GRRN). Check out other events in the Bay Area for International Zero Waste Week 2013!

Mount Lassen Chapter - CNPS General Meeting: Monday March 4, 7:30 PM - Chico Branch Library

Subject General Meeting may be of interest to forest protection folks in the Yahi Group of Sierra Club. Following Info from Mount Lassen Chapter - CNPS Home Page: http://mountlassen.cnps.org

General Meeting:

March 4, MONDAY (note change in day). 7:30 pm. Vascular Plant Diversity Under Even-Aged Forest Management in the Sierra-Cascade Region by Dr. Dean Taylor, Consulting Botanist, Sierra Pacific Industries (SPI). Butte County Library, Chico: East First & Sherman Avenues.

Pass the word. Should be a very stimulating presentation.

Woody Elliott, Co-Program Chair

Mount Lassen Chapter - CNPS

287 Pinyon Hills Dr.
Chico, CA 95928

Home Phone: (530) 342-6053

14th Annual Snow Goose Festival

We look forward to seeing you in January! Best Regards,
The Registration Team
Snow Goose Festival
635 Flume St.
Chico, California 95928
530-345-1865
http://snowgoosefestival.org/

The Question of Fracking

Yahi Program Meeting:  November 1, 2012

On Thursday, November 1, there will be a Yahi program meeting at the Chico Branch Library, 1108 Sherman Avenue, at 7:00 PM.  Our speaker for that evening will be Dave Garcia who will talk about fracking, the use of hydraulic fracturing to obtain natural gas or oil.

Dave, a local activist and former Sierra Club Board Chairman, is knowledgeable about the fracking process, problems with fracking, regulations (or lack  thereof), and fracking legislation. 

The program is open to the public.  Bring your questions and concerns and join us for an interesting and informative evening. 

Call Suzette Welch at 530 342-9214 if you need more information

 

Free Screening: Over Troubled Water

November 3, 2012 - Pagent Theater in Chico

Yahi will join with other local environmental groups — BEC, Friends of Butte Creek, Sacramento River Preservation Trust, Citizens Water Watch — to hold a free screening of the new documentary Over Troubled Water at the Pageant Theater on November 3, 2012, at 2:30 PM. You can watch the trailer at Restore the Delta’s Facebook page or Google “Over Troubled Water documentary trailer”.

This is a very important and timely documentary explaining the importance of the Sacramento Delta. Governor Brown and Ken Salazar just announced in July the $14 billion Delta tunnels to be built to send Sacramento water south. We need to educate all Californians on the effects of these planned water transfers so they can make a choice on the future of our water.  If you go to Sierra Club California (www.sierraclubcalifornia.org) you can read Senior Advocate Jim Metropulos’s response: “We don't need 19th century solutions to today's problems” in response to Governor Brown's proposal.

More Information:  http://motherlode.sierraclub.org/yahi/newsletter/Over_Troubled_Water.pdf

 

YAHI Holiday Potluck

December 14, 2012

The Yahi Holiday Party will be held Friday, December 14, 2012, at Valley Oaks Village, 1980 Wild Oak Lane, in Chico, CA.  It will be a potluck this year, starting at 6:00 PM.  Parking is limited, so please carpool if you can. 

If you plan on attending, please notify us by email, stating the number of people in your party and what you plan to bring.  Send email to booksontape@rocketmail.com.

After dinner entertainment will be club members talking about their favorite trips.  Call Suzette Welch at 530 342-9214 if you need more information

 

Phyllis Lindley: 1924-2012

Phyllis Lindley

1924-2012

A Celebration of Life will be held Sunday, August 19 at 10 am at Bear’s Lair, Chico Creek Nature Center, Lower Bidwell Park. Phyllis was an active participant in several environmental organizations, including Mount Lassen Chapter California Native Plant Society, Sierra Club, Altacal Audubon and Bidwell Park Watch.

After moving to Chico in 2000, Phyllis helped to maintain trails in Upper Park and started a recycling program for her retirement community at Sierra Sunrise. For many years she was newsletter editor for Bidwell Park Watch and docent at Chico Creek Nature Center, for which she was honored by the Bidwell Park and Playground Commission. She was a diligent membership chair for Mount Lassen Chapter and regularly assisted with the group’s events.

Phyllis was born April 5, 1924 in Oakland, CA to Cdr. Leo Lindley, USN and Marian Lindley. She attended UC Berkeley, serving as student body president in 1944 and graduating in 1945 with a BA in International Relations. In her mid-20’s she went to a High Sierra Camp in Yosemite, sparking a life-long interest in ecology. From then on every vacation she took was spent backpacking, generally in the Sierra. While living in New York in 1953, she joined the first East Coast chapter of the Sierra Club. Returning to the Bay Area, she became a naturalist for the Audubon Society, motivating her to earn a second BA in Wildlife Management. Her career with Audubon lasted for 17 years.

In the early 1970’s Phyllis and close friend Pat Cone purchased 20 acres surrounded by Mendocino National Forest land in the foothills west of Stonyford, where she lived for almost 30 years. They assisted in building their log cabin-sided house, named Amigeo, from trees harvested and cured on their land and also grew much of their food. Amigeo had abundant water from a spring and electricity generated from it by a Pelton wheel. During this time Phyllis tirelessly advocated for the establishment of the Snow Mountain Wilderness Area near Amigeo, by speaking at governmental hearings over many years, earning her an award from the Mother Lode Chapter of the Sierra Club.

Phyllis loved opera and the symphony. There was no television reception at Amigeo, but luckily she was able to hear radio broadcasts of the New York Metropolitan Opera. Her volunteer invasive plant weeding sessions at Bidwell Park never conflicted with Met broadcasts or North State Symphony performances.

Phyllis passed peacefully on June 28, 2012. She is survived by her sister Louise Hatch of Asheville, NC and 5 nieces and nephews.

The Yahi Newsletter printed a Member Profile (p. 4)  honoring Phyllis in Spring of 2002:  http://motherlode.sierraclub.org/yahi/newsletter/Archive/Spring2002.pdf

Read more about Phyllis's life at the California Native Plant Society web site:  http://mountlassen.cnps.org/

Phyllis's obituary was printed by the Chico ER:  http://www.legacy.com/obituaries/chicoer/

6th Annual Wild & Scenic Film Festival

For more info: www.buttecreek.org

Beyond Oil: Getting to Know the Campaign Webinar

Sierra Club activists and staff,

Please join the Beyond Oil Campaign team on July 19th from 8:00 p.m.-9:00 p.m. ET (5:00 p.m.-6:00 p.m. PT) for the Beyond Oil: Getting to Know the Campaign Webinar! Some of you may be new to this campaign and issue; some of you may be long-time activists. We would like to share our team and plans with you, discuss opportunities to engage, and seek your input.

The Beyond Oil Campaign seeks a world where climate disruption is a fading threat, American soldiers are never again deployed to defend oil fields, and innovative green industries provide good jobs and supply 100% of our energy needs. Together, we'll fight in Washington and in local communities to create this world.

We will raise and defend strong fuel-efficiency and pollution standards, increase access to oil-free transportation choices, promote electric vehicles, move America's large fleets to fuel-efficient and electric vehicles, block tar sands and other dangerous oil projects, and revoke the oil industry's license to operate above the law and interfere with our transition to a clean energy future. Your involvement and leadership is critical. Please join this webinar to learn more and help plan this campaign's next steps.

Date: July 19th, 2012

Time: 8pm ET / 5pm PT

RSVP here.

Webinar Agenda:

Beyond Oil Campaign Presentation: (20 min)

· Critical Reasons to move Beyond Oil

· Real Solutions

· Sierra Club’s Campaign

Discussion: (40 min)

· Opportunities to Engage with Beyond Oil

· Q&A

· Wrap up & Next Steps

Once you’ve emailed us with your information, we will provide an accompanying PowerPoint and call-in information.

Best,

Michael Marx, Director, Beyond Oil Campaign

Darrell Clarke, Volunteer Co-Lead, Beyond Oil Campaign

Occupy our Forests: “Forests for the 99%, Not clearcutting for the 1%”

Ever wonder what happened to all the forests? Or asked yourself where have all the spotted owls gone?

California’s forests sustain thousands of jobs in the recreation and sustainable logging industries- but not if they are clearcut. For many years, private lands logging has been in the news and more people have become aware of the environmental impact of celarcutting. Sometimes the impacts are beneficial for instance; when fire and fuels are reduced or replenishment is necessary, yet sometimes private lands logging leads to mudslides, flooding, property damage, increased fire risk and loss of wildlife habitat.

Want to know how you can be involved in curtailing some of the abuses of
clearcutting?

Become a Timber Harvest Plan Tracker! Learn to use resources to find out where Timber Harvest Plans (THPs) are planned near your neighborhood. Learn about THPs and where to go, to visit private lands logging operations, so you can gather photos and help monitor impacts of clearcutting.

BEC and the Yahi Group of the Sierra Club are co-sponsoring a full day training with EPIC Industrial Forestry Reform Advocate, Rob DiPerna from Arcata on formal Timber Harvest Plan comments.

Please contact Skye at skyeli.peace.justice@gmail.com if you are interested in joining fellow advocates in saving our forests! We will announce a date and time once we have a full class. Class is FREE and open to the public however, donations are being accepted for trainer’s meals and bus fare.

For more about clearcutting please visit
http://www.stopclearcuttingcalifornia.org/ and
for more information on becoming a Timber Harvest Tracker you can visit
http://www.thptrackingcenter.org/

Paradise Irrigation District

The Paradise Irrigation District Wants You!

Join us for a FREE Rain or Shine Tour

Monday, April 9th, 2012

Learn about ways to improve our forests health!

9:00 a.m.

Meet

at the Paradise Seventh Day Adventist Church - 5720 Academy Drive Paradise, CA

9:15 – 11:00 a.m. Space is limited please RSVP!

Bus Tour to the Paradise Lake Picnic Area for a discussion about Forest Management options for areas surrounding Paradise Lake and Magalia reservoir

11:15 a.m. - 12:00 noon

(Paradise Seventh Day Adventist Church)Presentation/Public comment
on details of the Forest Assessment
Please join us for a no-host lunch following the presentation to further discuss the project at Cozy Diner 6371 Skyway Paradise, CA.

For more information or to RSVP contact the Butte County RCD (530) 534-0112 x 122 or bc-rcd@carcd.org

www.buttecountyrcd.org

Wildflowers of Table Mountain, A Naturalist’s View

Co-authors, Albin Bills and Samantha Mackey, and illustrator Larry Jansen, have just finished their completely revised and expanded version of Wildflowers of Table Mountain, A Naturalist’s View, which is now in full color.

Albin Bills has interviews on KCHO with Nancy's Bookshelf and In a North State Garden scheduled for the week of February 20th.

This weekend, Feb 18th and 19th, 2012 In a North State Garden features The Wildflowers of Table Mountain, A Naturalist's Guide - 2nd Edition (Color), an interview with author Albin Bills. 

Read this week's feature article at: http://jewellgarden.com/blog/.

Listen to the segment on Northstate Public Radio (KCHO 91.7 FM in Chico and KFPR 88.9 FM in Redding), Saturday at 7:34 am PST and again Sunday at 8:34 am PST. For additional fm translators: www.kcho.org/_main/translators.asp.

Don't receive the radio stations? Listen at the time of broadcast via live stream from your computer by following the link at www.jewellgarden.com. (Recorded interviews are archived as podcasts to jewellgarden.com a few weeks after the original air date.

Wildflowers of Table Mountain is available at Lyons Books in Chico.  Albin Bills will hold a book signing event at Lyon Books at 7PM on Thursday February 23 in Chico.

The book is also available for purchase through The Herbarium at Chico State University.  Print Order form: 
www.motherlode.sierraclub.org/yahi/newsletter/Wildflowers_of_Table_Mountain.pdf

Special Showing of “The Big Year”

Special Showing of “The Big Year”
* * * ONE WEEKEND ONLY * * *
 
Two special screenings of the film, The Big Year, are being offered at the Pageant Theater in Chico on Saturday, January 21 at 1:00 pm and Sunday, January 22 at 5:00 pm as a prelude to the upcoming Snow Goose Festival. This comedy stars Steve Martin, Jack Black and Owen Wilson who portray friendly rivals dedicating a year of their lives to following their dream of seeing as many species of birds as possible in one calendar year. 
 
The Snow Goose Festival, a four-day event that celebrates the local and migratory waterfowl of the Northern Sacramento Valley, offers over 80 field trips, workshops and activities for birding and nature enthusiasts young and old. Special Guest and Keynote Speaker for the Festival, Greg Miller, is one of the famed birders featured in the book, The Big Yearby Mark Obmascik, and portrayed by Jack Black in the film.
 
Tickets are $5 at the door only. The Pageant Theater is located at 351 E. 6th Street in Chico. Please visit www.snowgoosefestival.org for more details or call the Snow Goose Festival office at (530) 345-1865.

Pacific Flyway Art Exhibit & Welcome Reception

Art & Nature Enthusiasts Invited to Attend
Uptown / Downtown Pacific Flyway Art Exhibit & Welcome Reception
 
January 12, 2012. Chico, CA.  The public is invited to the exciting Uptown/Downtown Pacific Flyway Art Exhibit and Welcome Reception on Friday, January 27, 2012 from 5:00 to 8:00 pm. This special evening is one of the featured events of the Snow Goose Festival and offers admirers of art and nature a chance to view artwork featuring wildlife and habitat along the Pacific Flyway. Works of 45 artists in a variety of media, including sculpture, clay, oils, watercolor, acrylics, mixed media, glass and photography will be shown and offered for sale.
 
The Uptown/Downtown Exhibit and Reception is housed at two Chico galleries: Avenue 9 Gallery, located at 180 E. 9thAve. and Chico Art Center, 450 Orange St., Suite 6. The Friday evening reception offers a chance to mix and mingle, admire art, meet the artists, and enjoy live music and refreshments. Leave your car behind and enjoy the courtesy trolley rides between the galleries every half hour.
Pre-registration admission is $10/adult, $5/youth. At the door, $5 additional.
 
Running January 26-29, the Snow Goose Festival, a four-day event that celebrates the local and migratory waterfowl of the Northern Sacramento Valley, offers over 80 field trips, workshops and activities for birding and nature enthusiasts young and old. Register for the Reception and other Festival events online at snowgoosefestival.org or call (530) 345-1865.

Kathleen Huber
Administration Assistant
Snow Goose Festival

Happy Holidays from the Snow Goose Festival

A Christmas Card from Rex Burress

 RIVER WATCHER

A TREE GROWS FOR CHRISTMAS

Rex Burress

Since more "American Made" live Christmas trees from tree farms are being recommended instead of the foreign-made artificial trees, I’ve been thinking about some Christmas tree adventures I have known.

The authentic-looking plastic trees were not perfected in 1940 Missouri country days, nor was there many tree farms, and in northern MO country where I lived, neither were there conifers in the woodlands. The only greenery that would qualify was the Eastern Red Cedar, and a small grove of 50-foot trees grew on our farm next to Floyd’s Timber.

When snows were on the ground, I kept a bird feeding station under those cozy boughs as part of my Missouri Nature Knight membership mission. Near Christmas day, Dad would go down with me as I pulled my sled through the snow, burdened with hay and seeds. We were out to cut a cedar branch to fashion into a Christmas tree, greenery that I proudly sledded back to the house. Sometimes two or three decorated branches would fill a corner, sufficient for Santa to place gifts. We had no fireplace, but he got in someway!

My Grandfolks lived in the Black Oak community where there wasn’t even a cedar tree, so they cut a little pinoak that had some brown leaves still hanging on, and strung some popcorn in the branches.

In speaking of the green value connected to conifers and tree farms, and the aid to the atmosphere those spiny leaves provide, I’m not sure where the oxygen came from in those midwestern hardwood forests where leafless trees and gray timbers dominate the winter. Air was there as I’ve lived to tell about it! I think it is an Earth of sharing the planetary environment, with winds spreading things around. Planetary plants and animals have been spread around, too.

In later years when my children were in that prime Christmas age, our tree was usually a Douglas fir from the store, but one time when living in the Mayacama Mountains, we went to the dense forest along the east canyon wall, followed deer trails to the hilltop into a dense grove of baby firs, and chose one. It was a difficult decision, and when it came to cutting the nominee, that was difficult, too! There’s something in the tree-lover against cutting a live tree.

The day in the woods was a memorable pre-Christmas day, even though there was no snow on the ground, as depicted in a tree-cutting snow-scene oil painting I gave to the Oroville Chamber. In that White Sulphur Springs canyon near St. Helena, the winter woods was cozy-green, enhanced by Douglas firs, live oaks, madrone, and a shelf of redwoods–all evergreens that sheltered mushrooms, lichens, and moss. There was an ever-flowing hot springs, too, that made you wonder what was underground.

We sat in the silent circle of redwoods and ate our lunch, fantasying about dwarfs and fairies that surely must live there in paradise. We always entered the wooded wonderland-flat shelf under an arched bay tree, crossing our heads three times while saying "Zingo," a ritual that imaginatively increased our ability to see something special, and left by the same path, repeating the appeal that forgave us for cutting one of THEIR trees!

I suppose Fairyland Springs, the acre of chain ferns in the crater basin, the everlasting Red Treasure Creek, and the trail to Zingo Tree are still there–at least they are alive in my mind after 35 years since that foray in the forest! Some things live forever in legend, even though trees come and go in the natural cycles of life, leaving behind their woody remnants, either to enrich the soil...or grace a home.

"The woods are full of dead and dying trees, yet needed for their beauty

to complete the beauty of the living."

–John Muir

"A man has made at least a start on discovering the meaning of human life when he

plants shade trees under which he knows full well he will never sit."

–D. Elton Trueblood

13th Annual Snow Goose Festival of the Pacific Flyway

REGISTRATION NOW OPEN!

Join us for our BIG YEAR at the 13th Annual Snow Goose Festival of the Pacific Flyway this coming January 26-29 in Chico, California. Register online today!

- Over 70 exciting field trips, including over 20 NEW excursions!

- Wide variety of informative indoor workshops & presentations

- Banquet featuring Keynote Speaker, Greg Miller, famed Big Year birder

- Pacific Flyway wildlife and habitat artwork featured at our Art Reception

- FREE EVENTS for all ages to enjoy...especially the kids!

Visit our website and register now for best availability.

Have a wonderful holiday season, and we'll see you in January!

The Snow Goose Festival Registration Team

www.snowgoosefestival.org

Sierra Club Donates Videos to Butte County Library

Sierra Club Yahi Group has donated a collection of video documentaries to the Butte county Library System.  The videos are listed by title in the catalogue and are available for free check out at all library branches in Chico, Oroville, Paradise, Gridley, Durham, and Biggs.  The Library web address  is www.buttecounty.net/bclibrary/.  Just click on catalogue - go to titles and select the title of interest.  If your local branch doesn't have an available copy, you can go online or call the branch to request the desired  DVD title be sent to you.

The videos in the collection are: 

Tapped How big business is working to privatize water throughout the world.

Flow More on the water industry and how corporations want to gain control of the earth’s fresh water.

The Eleventh Hour Created, produced and narrated by Leonardo DiCaprio.Examines the state of the natural environment especially in relation to global warming.

Powerful What a sustainable energy-powered future may look like.

GASLAND The far reaching consequences to the environment and peoples lives made by the practice of fracking developed by Halliburton to retrieve natural gas.

Mother Caring for 7 Billion Why population growth still matters and what is hindering action to reduce it.

So come into any branch of the Butte County Library and check out a video or two.

Yahi Holiday Dinner

Saturday, December 10 - Yahi Holiday Dinner at Gooney Birds. Dinner tickets are 30$ each. We will have choice of Salmon, Chicken, Fettuccine, grilled vegetables, Rice, Garlic potatoes, two types of salad, non-alocholic drinks.
6-7, Drinks/Social, 7 PM Dinner/ Meeting.

For information and reservations, contact David McKinney 530- 566-1500
  or daviddryfly@comcast.net. 

Trails / Bikeway Plan

The Shasta College just opened another portion of the Trails connecting schools and points of interest around the city.  The Sacramento River Discovery Center's Thursday evening program on October 20th at 7 pm will feature Tom Orr of Shasta College, Scott Timboe of City of Red Bluff Planning, Randy Jero of Mendocino National Forest and Adam Hansen of Tehama County transportation in a discussion of where we are with the trails/bikeway plan and how can we as individuals and groups complete this project started so many years ago. Come bring your ideas.

 

The second part of this presentation will take place at the Thursday Evening Meeting on November 17th at the Farm Bureau building at 275 Sale Lane.

 

For more information about the Sacramento River Discovery Center please call Bobie at 527-1196 or e-mail her at bhughe1@tehamaed.org.  The Center is located at 1000 Sale Lane and features a demonstration garden with native and drought tolerant plants- currently the fall plants are in bloom.  The SRDC Plant Sale will be held November 5th from 9 am to 1 pm in the SRDC parking lot.

Bobie Hughes