Group items tagged

With an alcohol ban on both the water and adjacent shores, thousands fewer people floated on a popular stretch of the Sacramento River and the resulting trash that accumulates for miles also dramatically declined.

"It was a night-and-day difference on the river, from tubes to full beers floating down to empty cans," said Lucas Merz, program manager for the Sacramento River Preservation Trust. "Just the overall respect for the river was really nice to see."

Maggi Barry, office coordinator with Butte Environmental Council, voiced appreciation to the Glenn and Butte county boards of supervisors for the ban. She said their proactive approach makes the river a better environment in several ways. "We would like to say 'Yay! Thank you for the double-duty of addressing young lives and helping clean up the environment,'" she said.

In spots around Butte County, particularly in south Chico and south Oroville, ecological hazards threaten health and safety. Some residents know; some don’t. Polluters tend not to advertise when they’re breaking the law, and residual toxins from decades past represent some of the biggest risks.

According to Robyn DiFalco, executive director of the Butte Environmental Council, “a clean and healthy environment versus dirty, unhealthy, polluted environments really have a lot connected with geography.” Wealthy neighborhoods don’t have to deal with these problems because residents there tend to “squawk very loud if dirty industrial sites were in their backyard—and they would prevent them from going in, and choose not to live near those sites.” Lower-income individuals don’t always “have those opportunities to speak out and prevent those sites from going in,” she continued, and neighborhoods with less expensive housing often are located “near these sites that are visually less attractive and have these health problems that their families may be affected by. “So, to be able to see a geographic dispersion of contamination sites, environmental and public health issues, is very telling,” DiFalco continued. “That’s why it’s so important to give visibility to that—that’s why it’s so important to have the EJSCREEN tool and the one that California does … otherwise, a lot of these communities are out of sight, out of mind.”

At the end of 2009, after a long-fought battle with concerned citizens and a divided Chico City Council, Walmart’s plans to expand its Forest Avenue store were denied. The ultimate decision, reached by a liberal-majority council, was that the environmental impacts outweighed any potential benefits of the project. The company was told it must wait at least a year before bringing the idea back to the city. Now, six years later, the plan to expand Chico’s Walmart is back on the table. It appears it’s not the only one, either. Plans for a new 197,000-square-foot Supercenter in Oroville that were first submitted in 2006 are finally making headway. That project could break ground by the end of 2015. And there are rumblings of progress on plans for building a Walmart in Paradise—those also had their beginnings in the middle of the 2000s.

“As an organization, we feel there are many aspects of a super Walmart that conflict with the goals of protecting the environment and supporting local economies, overall, in a broad sense,” said Robyn DiFalco, executive director of local eco-advocacy group Butte Environmental Council, adding that the group had not yet taken a position on the expansion.

Shasta Environmental Alliance will be featuring Natalie Carter, Executive Director of Butte Environmental Council (BEC) on Wednesday, January 24, 6 pm at Redding Public Library, 1100 Parkview Ave.

Chico residents disguised in intricate handmade animal puppet costumes celebrated the environment through acoustic melodies Sunday at the 34th annual Butte Environmental Council’s annual Endangered Species Faire. The fair, hosted at Cedar Grove in lower Bidwell Park, featured a “Procession of the Species” parade where hand-make unique puppet costumes were created and worn by participants. Those participating filled out an application and can also attend the Butte Environmental Council puppet-making workshops months prior to the event.

The Endangered Species Faire has been in Chico since 1979 to give the public information on ecology, wildlife and environmental happenings, according to the Butte Environmental Council website.

The annual event is hosted by the Butte Environmental Council as a way to share information about the environment and promote the protection of endangered species.

It rained for the entire four hours the group was setting up their booths, but once 11 a.m. rolled around, the skies were mostly clear, BEC executive director Natalie Carter said.

CHICO >> Four liquid amber trees removed from the parking lot of the Rite-Aid on Mangrove Avenue must be replaced with new trees, and shouldn't have been removed without an approved replanting program, a city official said Tuesday

After some discussion about what trees were in the public right of way and private property, the city said the city's trees could not be and were not removed, but those on private property were.

Mark Stemen, a board member with the Butte Environmental Council, was happy to hear trees would be replanted but said they cannot make up for the established trees that were lost. "Once again this is the trouble you get when you don't have the urban forester position filled," he said. "Four individuals were massacred because of short staffing ... It's not just cops, cops, cops. We have holes in our city staff around the issue of the environment."

Butte Environmental Council has been awarded a $58,000 Energy Upgrade California grant to foster clean energy efficiency throughout the county this year.

“Vampire energy drain,” as it’s often called, costs U.S. households about $19 billion annually, according to a study by the Natural Resources Defense Council that analyzed the utility meters of 70,000 Northern California homes.

Becky Holden, education outreach coordinator for Butte Environmental Council, said not only does the local population continue to grow, but technology has advanced to the point where it’s common for one person to own many devices, like a tablet, laptop, cellphone, iPod and GPS device. “All the outlets are full,” she said.

Butte Environmental Council’s Endangered Species Faire has celebrated efforts to protect the environment for decades. The free gathering gives children and adults information and hands-on learning experiences that stress efforts to protect the earth and its creatures. This year’s event will take place at the picnic area at One Mile Recreation Area from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Saturday.