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Committee members voted 2-1 Tuesday to recommend that the Chico City Council develop restrictions on "single-use" plastic bags.

Robyn DiFalco of the Butte Environmental Council and Sustainability Task Force said she thinks plastic bag bans represent a shift in society moving away from disposables. "We will look back and say I can't believe we used to do it that way because it doesn't make sense to give out that many single-use bags," DiFalco said.

Tammy Wichman of the task force said to get more community input on the ban, and she thinks the council should move forward with the proposal.

the new community garden on Humboldt Ave. (at El Monte) has a lot of open space.

Butte Environmental Council

People who show up at the garden have built enviable raised beds and a tarpless tee-pee for beans. A work day is planned for 8 am. (when its cool) until noon Saturday. BEC executive director Robyn DiFalco said they'll be planting ornamentals and generally moving dirt around. You can also show up and decide if you want to rent your own garden plot, which starts at $25 to pay for water and insurance.

the cost-to-benefit ratio of the proposed tunnels makes no sense.

AquAlliance

The Butte Environmental Council of Chico has joined other groups to call for more science-based "policy before plumbing," explained Carol Perkins, BEC water policy advocate. More water conservation should take place, and better policies to put "beneficial use for people, farmers, fish and aquatic habitat before the economic benefits of the 1 percent," Perkins said.

Letter writer Garry Cooper is right. Facts must guide when considering a moratorium on fracking in Butte County. Here are 12: 1. We are now blessed with deep, fresh, clean groundwater aquifers in our valley. 2. Our groundwater is invaluable as drinking water for people and animals and for irrigation water for our food. 3. Butte County has old wells drilled to collect gas, which lies below and separated by protective impervious layers from our groundwater. 4. Fracking wells would drill completely through our groundwater and its protective impervious layers. 5. Fracking injects, under extreme pressures, huge quantities of many highly toxic chemicals down the drill hole and its horizontal extensions, reaching miles out around the well. Fracking also creates vast quantities of toxic waste liquids.

Support the Citizens Action Network's proposed moratorium on fracking in Butte County. — Doug Fogel, Chico

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.

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."

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.

CHICO — The next round of the Code Blue water series, hosted by the Butte Environmental Council, begins tonight with a one-hour "action" meeting about the Bay Delta Conservation Plan. The Code Blue series kicked off in February, and six events remain after its summer break. Several additional events are planned through November, including a rain barrel workshop and delta tour.

Better alternatives exist, DiFalco said, than the concept to use tunnels to transfer water from the Sacramento River to the Southern Central Valley. "Let's not let Gov. Brown's tunnels be the only things being considered," she said.

The Oct. 17 discussion will feature fracking, which is fracturing of rock to extract gas and oil. "We are gathering details about fracking in Butte County, and citizens are getting ready for a (statewide ballot provision) for 2014," DiFalco said. Sutter and Glenn counties have the largest amount of fracking activity in the area, primarily natural gas, she said.

The Butte Environmental Council and the city of Chico are partnering once again for the annual Bidwell Park and Chico Creeks Cleanup from 9 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. Saturday. Last year, more than 350 volunteers helped collect several tons of garbage and recyclables from the park and creeks. Since 1995, BEC volunteers have pulled seven tons of recyclables, 14 tons of scrap metal and 77 tons of garbage from the parks and creeks. Volunteers are encouraged to wear long pants and sturdy closed-toe shoes. Bring gloves and a water bottle, and meet at the Hooker Oak Recreation Area parking lot for the park cleanup and at Park Avenue and 11th Street for the creeks cleanup. BEC will provide water and treat all volunteers to a free barbecue and raffle prizes afterward. For more information, contact Maggi Barry at maggib@becnet.org or call 891-6424.

OROVILLE — A group of citizens don't like fracking and they don't want fracking in Butte County. Their goal is to have Butte County voters decide whether the practice will be allowed. Members of Citizens Action Network made their point Wednesday at a meeting of the Water Commission. They took turns at the podium to ask commissioners to put fracking on a future agenda.

Carol Perkins of the Butte Environmental Council said there are 260 natural gas wells that have "been pumped dry and are now plugged." "As natural gas prices increase, could these wells be reinvigorated without proper environmental review?" Perkins asked. "Little is known and there isn't much oversight," she said.

a garden plot for veterans at the Humboldt Community Garden has become a place where she enjoys the best of both lives. "It's like our little piece of the world," she said. "I've come out here and just sat and known I can be a vet here."

Veterans Affairs counseling groups and substance abuse groups also hold meetings at the garden, which is a project of the Butte Environmental Council and the city of Chico. The prolific produce is carted over in bowls and boxes to the Veterans Affairs office to share with those who may not have means or access to enjoy it otherwise.

The veterans garden project has become one of Tony Nicosia's happiest places. When the Vietnam veteran had car trouble Monday, he took the bus to make sure he could be there. "I love it, getting down and getting dirty. I like fresh vegetables. I want to see those plants grow from a little sprout larger and larger," he said. "It makes my heart feel big."

CHICO — The Butte Environmental Council is hosting Chico Car Free Day Oct. 6 in downtown Chico. During Car Free Day, BEC will provide a safe and secure area for educational activities and to come and "play in the street" from 1-5 p.m. The city has approved road closures from noon-6 p.m., including Flume Street between East Fourth and East Seventh streets, East Fifth and East Sixth streets between Main to Orient streets, and Wall Street between East Fifth and East Sixth streets.

CHICO -- Dancers, musicians and people playing games filled Chico streets instead of cars Sunday during Car Free Day. The area between East Fourth and East Sixth streets and Orient and Main streets were closed to traffic from 1-5 p.m. and people took advantage of the opportunity to roam roadways without fear of possibly being run over by cars. Luann Manss ran the event for the Butte Environmental Council.

"We did this to give people the chance to see what it'd be like with less cars on the road," she said.

OROVILLE >> No new oil or gas wells have been drilled in Butte County in more than two decades, and nobody has ever sought permission to conduct a "fracking" operation, but if anybody ever does ask it looks like the answer will be "no." Tuesday the Board of Supervisors voted to have county staff prepare an ordinance that bans fracking.

Documents prepared by county staff for Tuesday's meeting described fracking as "a common term for hydraulic fracturing that is a technique of well stimulation used to increase petroleum production,"

At request from the county's Water Commission, the supervisors were asked to adopt and ordinance that would require a conditional use permit before a fracking operation could take place within county jurisdiction. In introducing the proposal, Paul Gosselin, director of the county Department of Water and Resource Conservation, said the procedure "has raised controversy and concern about environmental impacts, water, and seismic activity."

County supervisors wise to institute fracking ban I wanted to thank Supervisors Steve Lambert, Doug Teeter, Bill Connelly and Maureen Kirk for their vote in favor of a ban on fracking (hydraulic fracturing) in Butte County. They all demonstrated a willingness to learn about the issue and to consider the impact on our community that a fracking boom could have. Most importantly, they were willing to vote to protect the beauty, bounty and public health of our community.

If it takes a village to raise a child, for me it takes a community to grow vegetables.

This year, we made a friend. His name is Mark Stemen, head of the Butte Environmental Council, and he introduced us to the idea of community gardening. Knowing we have a program for at-risk youth called Wilderness Experience, Mark encouraged us to lease a plot at Humboldt Community Garden to teach the kids the benefits of gardening.

The first time I talked to Mark about the garden, he told me his philosophy: the most important word in Community Garden isn't garden. He is absolutely correct. So far, we have done nothing by ourselves. Every time we go to the garden, we meet new people who are happy to be there, gardening alongside us. We use the tools provided by the community, the compost and the water. We were given some of the plants, and someone even gave us a hose when they saw ours was too short. We've chatted up our plot-neighbors for recipe ideas and tips on when to harvest our vegetables.