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rdifalco

Chico News & Review - Haps on the CAP - Feature Story - Local Stories - April 17, 2014 - 0 views

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chico BEC climate action plan sustainability task force

shared by rdifalco on 17 Apr 14 - No Cached
  • The city hasn’t forgotten about its Climate Action Plan
  • This article was published on 04.17.14.
  • In November 2012, the Chico City Council put its official stamp on sustainability by adopting a municipal Climate Action Plan. The blueprint, honed by the city’s Sustainability Task Force, laid out a two-stage approach for addressing the impacts of climate change and meeting greenhouse-gas standards established by the state.
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  • STF and CAP have become nearly synonymous acronyms at the direction of City Council, which cut the size of the task force in half—to seven members, officially appointed—and focused the panel on implementing the plan, versus exploring sustainability in general.
  • Mark Stemen, chair of the reincarnated STF, says the city is “on the right track now, and we are making progress” but, in a broader sense, sees the process as “a good five years behind. We lost some momentum; we also lost the opportunity when there was more staff to get things done. But that’s water under the bridge—or carbon in the air, unfortunately.”
  • Flash forward six months and … Pause. Budget woes led to restructuring of city staff. At the same time, the council opted to reconfigure the Sustainability Task Force; the STF wouldn’t meet again until December 2013.
  • A tangible display of that impetus is a joint session of the Planning Commission and the STF next month. Uniting the committees means the STF “is getting more integrated into city processes,” Stemen said, and also “is getting the Climate Action Plan in front of the people who implement the [2030] General Plan.” That is particularly significant for Phase II, which has a series of goals related to construction.
  • solar panels on city structures, which produced 2.2 million kilowatt-hours of electricity in the preceding 12 months and 16 million kwh total. Three years ago, aided by grants, the city installed 1,200 LED streetlights that have translated into annual savings of approximately $67,800 in electrical costs plus $6,000 to $7,000 in maintenance costs, according to city staff.
  • Instead of commissioning another full inventory of greenhouse gas emissions, the city will extrapolate numbers based on readily available information: natural gas usage, electricity usage, waste diversion and vehicle fuel usage.
  • “If we’re not moving in the direction of reducing those emissions, then we’re directly working against our own interests.”
dkeeley1

Let the planting begin - 0 views

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chico trees urban forest BEC Butte County

shared by dkeeley1 on 28 Jan 16 - No Cached
  • dkeeley1 on 28 Jan 16
     
    When the city cut down 209 trees and planted only 14 in 2014, Charles Withuhn felt a huge sense of loss for what he sees as one of the most quintessential aspects of Chico. To him, the trunks and branches that line and tower over city streets are a part of Chico's unique charm and history. The canopy they provide is essential to the city's health, he believes, and their care is a responsibility of the city and its residents. In an effort to do his part, more than two years ago, Withuhn started Chico Tree Advocates, a local organization under the umbrella of the Butte Environmental Council. Members of the group work toward planting trees, educating the public and preserving Chico's urban forest. As a donations-only, volunteer-staffed group, Chico Tree Advocates has been able to plant more than 50 trees around town, both on city and private property, in the past year. Withuhn and many fellow advocates feel that the path the city is taking, in terms of cutting down trees and either not replacing them or replacing them with very small trees, is detrimental to Chico's urban forest.
rdifalco

Chico Sustainability Task Force won't wait for city - Chico Enterprise Record - 0 views

www.chicoer.com/...lity-task-force-wont-wait-city

BEC chico sustainability climate action plan

shared by rdifalco on 30 Oct 13 - No Cached
  • CHICO — Frustrated by the city's lack of action to pull the Sustainability Task Force together, members plan to set a meeting of their own. It's been nearly nine months since the Sustainability Committee was disbanded by the City Council, and even though new members were selected Sept. 4, they still wait to be seated and have their first meeting. The delay is largely because the city has not yet identified staff to attend the meeting, after the assigned person was among positions eliminated in recent layoffs. Meanwhile, the Climate Action Plan's 2020 deadline looms closer and several new task force members are impatient to start their work.
  • Mark Stemen, one of seven citizens assigned to the task force, said Friday that he plans to call a meeting himself, hopefully next week. "Other people get mad, we get moving," he said. "We're tired of this. We are going to meet and the city can catch up with us." The meeting's focus will be to elect a chairperson, assign someone to take minutes, review the task laid out by the City Council and outline what needs to be done, Stemen said. "Hopefully by then, the city will be embarrassed enough they will find someone to come take notes for us," he said.
rdifalco

City of Chico, Butte Environmental Council to partner on weed eradication grant - 1 views

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BEC chico city council arundo Little Chico Creek watershed

shared by rdifalco on 22 Jan 15 - No Cached
  • Butte Environmental Council representative Mark Stemen shows areas of invasive Arundo donax growth along Little Chico Creek near Humboldt Park in October. Stemen, along with other citizens and city officials, are championing a plan for removal because of major fire danger risk and environmental damage.
  • Chico >> The city of Chico is rallying with Butte Environmental Council to eradicate an invasive weed clogging Little Chico Creek.On Tuesday, the Chico City Council will be asked to approve a joint application for a $1 million Urban Streams Restoration grant to eradicate arundo donax in the creek.
  • “We believe that when the city has to take a step back, the community can take a step forward,” said Mark Stemen of Butte Environmental Council, which will help spearhead the eradication effort. “We pointed out the problem. We also wanted to be part of the solution.”A class of his students at Chico State University mapped Little Chico Creek last fall, noting every location of arundo, invasive species and habitat that will need to be preserved.
rdifalco

City of Chico sees progress, setbacks in meeting 2020 targets for greenhouse gas emission - 0 views

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BEC chico water energy climate change climate action plan

shared by rdifalco on 16 Jun 15 - No Cached
  • Chico >> With 5 1/2 years left to meet greenhouse gas emission targets, the city of Chico continues to struggle in certain sectors.
  • The draft greenhouse gas emissions inventory, which is expected to be highlighted during the sustainability indicators report at the Chico City Council today, summarizes results of a high-level community-wide inventory that addresses emissions from the transportation, energy and waste sectors within city boundaries from 2005-12. Many external factors, including the economy and government regulations, are to be credited for reductions, and it remains to be seen how well the city is on track to meet its goals, said Principal Planner Brendan Vieg.
  • some of these reductions could be reversed, said Mark Stemen, a member of the Sustainability Task Force, which has been tasked with leading implementation of the Climate Action Plan.
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  • “How do we keep people from getting back into their cars?” he said. “We need to remind people, hey, drive less. It’s good for pollution. It’s good for the planet.”Other areas of success included emissions from commercial electricity, which fell 10.6 percent, and waste to landfill, which dropped by 15.2 percent.
  • “Watching the struggles with water has made me feel a little bit better about our inability to cut back on electricity,” he said. “People are now seeing the effects of the drought and they are acting. It’s important for people to understand they have to do the same thing when it comes to climate change.”
becnews

City of Chico, Butte Environmental Council to partner on weed eradication grant - 0 views

www.chicoer.com/...tner-on-weed-eradication-grant

BEC Chico weed eradication grant Butte County Little Chico Creek

shared by becnews on 29 Oct 15 - No Cached
  • Chico >> The city of Chico is rallying with Butte Environmental Council to eradicate an invasive weed clogging Little Chico Creek.
  • On Tuesday, the Chico City Council will be asked to approve a joint application for a $1 million Urban Streams Restoration grant to eradicate arundo donax in the creek.
  • “We believe that when the city has to take a step back, the community can take a step forward,” said Mark Stemen of Butte Environmental Council, which will help spearhead the eradication effort. “We pointed out the problem. We also wanted to be part of the solution.”
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  • The city will subcontract the restoration work to a local riparian restoration firm, and engage the California Native Plant Society for its expertise and volunteer labor. The Butte Environmental Council will coordinate community outreach and education, and Chico’s Stream Team will provide citizen water quality monitoring.
  • While it will certainly be a competitive grant, the involved parties are cautiously optimistic they could receive it, Stemen said. Recipients will be announced in March.
rdifalco

Chico City Council to consider law that cracks down on underage drinking - Oroville Mer... - 0 views

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chico garden

shared by rdifalco on 04 Mar 14 - No Cached
  • Also Tuesday, the City Council will hold a public hearing on the Draft Housing Element Update and consider authorization to submit it to the state for review and comment. The housing element is one of seven required elements in a general plan, and must be updated every five to eight years.
  • The element has six basic components: a housing needs assessment, a site inventory, a constraints analysis, housing programs, quantified objectives and public participation. The proposed actions are designed to meet various housing needs, including affordability for low-income residents, production of affordable housing for all income groups, and improvement and investment in existing residential neighborhoods.
  • Also Tuesday, the council will consider a resolution approving a one-year license to the Butte Environmental Council to operate a temporary community garden at West Eighth Avenue and Highway 32. The vacant, one-acre city-owned site is eventually planned for development as a fire station, but an interim use of a garden with no permanent structures would not interfere with that plan, according to city staff.
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  • All costs associated with the garden will be sustained by the Butte Environmental Council. The lease would be eligible for renewal.
ndcarter

Chico Fire will keep current staffing through February, at least - 0 views

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trees chico BEC

shared by ndcarter on 03 Nov 16 - No Cached
  • Gustafson’s department originally asked for $150,000 in one-time funds to address tree maintenance needs, but the motion was denied 4-3, with Coolidge, Fillmer, Morgan and Sorensen voting no.
  • Councilor Schwab made a motion to direct $100,000 to the department, which failed 4-3, with Coolidge, Fillmer, Morgan and Mayor Mark Sorensen against. It was then that Ritter’s motion of $69,000 passed.
  • ndcarter on 03 Nov 16
     
    Chico Tree Advocates prevailed with City Council last night thanks to months of lobbying efforts! The City Tree Crew was given an additional $69,000.
rdifalco

BEC OPENS ITS NEW "HUMBOLDT COMMUNITY GARDEN" TO THE PUBLIC - Sun. Sept. 16, 2012 Green... - 1 views

www.greentransitionchico.org/...to-the-public-sun-sept-16-2012

garden community BEC chico organic

shared by rdifalco on 25 Sep 12 - No Cached
  • rdifalco on 25 Sep 12
     
    Sunday, September 16, 2012 saw the official kick off of BEC's new community garden on Humboldt Road and El Monte. The garden is located on city property that lies directly across from Marsh Junior High School and next to the Murphy Commons Garden. The land, one full acre, was entrusted to BEC under a free lease by the city of Chico in order to create a public and affordable food growing garden where beginners could meet and learn from seasoned gardeners.
rdifalco

Chico City Council: Arts Commission, Sustainability Task Force will continue - Chico En... - 0 views

www.chicoer.com/...sion-sustainability-task-force

BEC chico sustainability climate action plan

shared by rdifalco on 19 Sep 13 - No Cached
  • CHICO — The Arts Commission and Sustainability Task Force will continue as they are, at least for now, the Chico City Council decided last week. As the city faces budget-induced staffing challenges, the council is looking closer at its committees and commissions to find efficiencies while still meeting the city's and public's needs. Several councilors said the Sustainability Task Force, which was put on hold for restructuring earlier this year, is necessary to complete the Climate Action Plan, as required by the General Plan.
  • Mark Stemen of the Butte Environmental Council said the Sustainability Task Force is the best way to complete a climate action plan that identifies necessary action and engages the community. He noted the council promised to address climate change in 2006, with 25 percent target reduction in greenhouse gases by 2020. "To be clear, our efforts so far have not reduced greenhouse production levels in Chico; they have simply slowed the rate of increase," he said. "As a community, we are still producing more and more greenhouse gases each and every year."
rdifalco

25 Chico trees approved for removal - Chico Enterprise Record - 0 views

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BEC chico trees

shared by rdifalco on 01 Oct 14 - No Cached
  • Residents asked the city to remove 25 sycamores of different varieties, but considered a nuisance and safety hazard.
  • Commissioner Mark Herrera asked the commission to use this situation as a stand to call for an urban forester to be hired by the city. His motion called for no further discussion of tree-related items until an urban forester was on staff. It has been over a year since the city had an urban forester.
  • While Herrera's motion failed, it prompted the Park Commission's discussion about how important the urban forester is to the city, tree-related permits and what's happening to Chico's urban forest. To punctuate his stance, Herrera left the council chambers at that point. Before leaving, he apologized to the applying residents for delaying their matter, but stressed the urban forest's significance to the community.
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  • The discussion also prompted Mark Stemen, chair of the city's Sustainability Task Force, to again criticize the Park Commission for failing to move forward on the Urban Forest Management Plan, which he said is basically done, but needs the commission's stamp of approval. He said this discussion might not have happened if the plan had been in place.
rdifalco

Chico News & Review - State of the ranch - News - Local Stories - May 21, 2015 - 0 views

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shared by rdifalco on 22 May 15 - No Cached
  • rdifalco on 22 May 15
     
    Environmental groups want to see Bidwell Ranch become part of Bidwell Park Seasonal cattle-grazing makes up the bulk of the activity at Bidwell Ranch, an expansive reserve downslope of Upper Bidwell Park. But that could change if the Chico City Council gets behind the request of a coalition of heavy-hitting local environmental groups. As John Merz put it in a recent city meeting, the request is straightforward: that "Bidwell Ranch become a formal part of Bidwell Park." But that plan has hit snags over the past decade, and Merz says local environmental groups-Friends of Bidwell Park, Butte Environmental Council, Altacal Audubon Society, the Sierra Club Yahi Group, the California Native Plant Society's Mount Lassen chapter and the Bidwell Ranch Committee-have come to the conclusion that the best option for the 750-acre property is adding it to the city's largest park.
ndcarter

Environmental coalitions push stricter limits on plastic bag ban | Action News Now - 0 views

www.actionnewsnow.com/...imits-on-plastic-bag-ban-95697

shared by ndcarter on 08 Nov 16 - No Cached
  • Prop 67, the measure that would ensure a ban in every city and require stores to charge 10 cents for paper bags. The Butte Environmental Council Executive Director says we still have a lot of work to do. "In the United States, we use more than a billion plastic bags a year and less than one percent of them are recycled,” said Natalie Carter. “The rest of them end up in landfills and take more than a thousand years to degrade."
  • City Councilmember Randall Stone says our county needs to protect our numerous creeks, streams and rivers. "We have plastic bags going into those creeks and streams it requires us to clean that space up that costs a tremendous amount of money for the city of Chico in volunteer time as well as staff and waste time,” he said.
rdifalco

Editorial: Hits and misses - Chico Enterprise Record - 0 views

www.chicoer.com/...editorial:-hits-and-misses

BEC chico garden

shared by rdifalco on 20 Mar 14 - No Cached
  • The city of Chico owns an acre of property near Emma Wilson School, on the corner of West Eighth Avenue and Highway 32.
  • So the City Council did the wise thing when it allowed a group to use the land in the meantime as a "community garden." The Butte Environmental Council has another one near Marsh Junior High School and says it's very popular. That land was purchased for an aquatic center. That, too, is on the back burner.
  • The City Council Tuesday voted unanimously to allow BEC to use the westside land as a second community garden.
rdifalco

Chico News & Review - Thanksgiving giving - The GreenHouse - Green - November 21, 2013 - 1 views

www.newsreview.com/...content

BEC chico trees forest

shared by rdifalco on 22 Nov 13 - No Cached
  • DiFalco weighs in In last week’s column, I devoted a considerable amount of space to the plight of the huge historic valley oak tree
  • growing in the vacant lot at the corner of Salem and West Eighth streets. Thanks to the recent actions of the city’s Architectural Review & Historic Preservation Board, the grand, towering tree is slated to be axed to make way for a couple of duplexes. However, the Butte Environmental Council has (thankfully) filed an appeal, scheduled to be heard next month. Robyn DiFalco, BEC’s executive director (who penned the appeal), sent me a few words by email recently, expressing her thoughts about the situation of this valley oak, as well as that of other heritage trees still standing in Chico. “The mature street trees of Chico are one of the things I love most about this city—and I’m concerned that they’re vulnerable these days,” DiFalco said. “At present, the city has no urban forester or tree crew on staff, the Tree Committee isn’t meeting for lack of city staff, and consequently, the Urban Forest Management Plan is still just a draft. “This is not just about one small project and a few trees—it’s partly a concern about the future of Chico’s urban forest.”
rdifalco

Improperly executed Rite-Aid tree removal frustrates citizens - Chico Enterprise Record - 0 views

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BEC chico tree

shared by rdifalco on 23 Sep 14 - No Cached
  • 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."
dkeeley1

The Big Scrap - 0 views

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BEC chico Butte County Community move the junkyard

shared by dkeeley1 on 10 Mar 16 - No Cached
  • The activist group Move the Junkyard was formed in January 2015, shortly after the City Council directed planning department staff to develop a process for CSM to stay in south Chico. The group is allied with the Butte Environmental Council, which has long supported the Chapman/Mulberry Neighborhood Plan and CSM’s amortization.
  • During an interview several days prior to the Planning Commission’s meeting, Move the Junkyard member Ory and Mark Stemen, chairman of BEC’s board of directors, were certain the commission would reject CSM’s new development agreement. “I think CSM has done a very effective job playing on heartstrings and emotional issues that affect [city] councils, but I think they’ll come up against the Planning Commission and see that’s not what it’s about,” Stemen said.
  • aying on heartstrings and emotional issues that affect [city] councils, but I think they’ll come up against the Planning Commission and see that’s not what it’s about,” Stemen said
ndcarter

Chico News & Review - City grants announced - Downstroke - Local Stories - September 28... - 0 views

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shared by ndcarter on 28 Sep 17 - No Cached
  • Organizations participating in the Community Grant Program raised more than $174,000 in August, and the city of Chico will contribute about $53,000 more to that total.
ndcarter

Community Corner: Volunteers needed for Chico parks, greenways - 0 views

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shared by ndcarter on 21 Mar 17 - No Cached
  • The city of Chico Parks Division is hosting an orientation meeting March 30 for people who are interested in becoming parks volunteers.The meeting will be 6:30-8:30 p.m. in the City Council Chambers, 421 Main St.
  • Frequently the Parks Division volunteers team up with what Romain calls “partner organizations” that have special interests in the city’s open spaces. Among them are Friends of Bidwell Park, Friends of Comanche Creek Greenway, Chico Velo-Trailworks, Stream Team, California Native Plant Society and Butte Environmental Council. “Our partnerships with these groups and our volunteers work together for the greater good, making our park and greenways more enjoyable for people,” said Romain.
rdifalco

Chico News & Review - Cinderella and other holiday goodness - The GreenHouse - Green - ... - 0 views

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BEC trees chico

shared by rdifalco on 20 Dec 13 - No Cached
  • Along the thank-you lines, Butte Environmental Council board chairman Mark Stemen offers these words, in reference to BEC’s recently dropping its appeal to save the historic valley oak tree and other trees at the corner of West Eighth and Salem streets. The trees are slated for removal to make way for the building of Salvation Army transitional housing (as covered in this column and in a recent CN&R Downstroke news brief). “I want to thank the folks at the Salvation Army and the Blitz Build program at the university. They have worked with us at BEC, and they are fully committed to doing the right thing,” Stemen wrote in a recent email to me. “They have agreed to plant three times the number of trees they are required to plant by code.
  • “The tree species will be of the valley oak mixed-riparian vegetation type, as identified in the [city of Chico’s draft of the] Urban Forest Management Plan, and they have agreed to put the fallen trees to a use that is ‘as beneficial to the City and planet as possible,’ also called for in the Urban Forest Plan.” Thanks, Mark!
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