Group items tagged

Chico >> Fifty years from now there should be more shade at the parking lot at Horseshoe Lake.Volunteers had their hands covered with mud Saturday while planting blue oak acorns.Normally this might be a job for squirrels. However, new seedlings have a tough time at Horseshoe Lake with people and dogs are running and walking over the area year-round.Saturday, a group organized by the Butte Environmental Council did all that they could to give the new acorns a great chance at survival.

Danielle Baxter, project coordinator for the Oak Restoration Project.

Saturday was the fourth planting day this year, with a total of 120 holes dug and filled.

Bamlet said that the Butte Environmental Council has a grant that will let it plant roughly 100 trees this fall, so he’s waiting until those get in the ground before moving forward with the city’s batch.

Robin McCollum with Chico Tree Advocates said the area is a preserve of nature that was provided by Annie Bidwel nearly 100 years ago. "I'm very concerned about the park and nature," he said. "If this type of supervision is going to be the norm here then we're going to have a lot of destruction done to the park," McCollum said.

Gustafson said the city has committed to providing certain resources to make it work. That includes identifying the locations to plant the acorns and providing the signage or cages that will protect them. The idea is to find spots where the future trees will flourish naturally, he said. The other key to the project is having a stable of volunteers affiliated with CTA and BEC (the latter organization has a similar, ongoing program to replenish the oak stock in Upper Park) to provide the manpower to plant the acorns.

In preparation, the city is starting to remove existing debris, including many of the fallen trees that dot the landscape. At last count, between 40 and 50 large trees have come down in Lower and Middle Park in the last year or so, Gustafson said. Crews will begin along South Park Drive and Petersen Memorial Way and then will head toward Woodland and Vallombrosa avenues.

Volunteer tree watering in Upper Bidwell Park: 8:15-11 a.m. Resources, including buckets, hose and water provided. Meet at North Rim Trail parking lot. Wear sturdy shoes and be able to carry a gallon of water from a truck to seedlings (5-10 yards). Butte Environmental Council planted 100 blue oak acorns last fall, and help watering is needed to assure their survival. For information or to schedule a group, Becky Holden, beckyh@becnet.org. Weekly through August.

The public event will be 9 a.m. Saturday in lower Bidwell Park. Volunteers from Chico State, Butte Environmental Council and PG&E will be planting 60 valley oaks and red buds. Meet at Sycamore Street and Woodland Avenue.

Robin McCollum had just begun talking about a field of fallen trees by the Chico Creek Nature Center when a white SUV slowed to a halt and the driver rolled down the front passenger window. “Is this where the village is going to go?” the woman asked, referring to the Mechoopda living history exhibit proposed to be sited adjacent to the center. “No,” replied McCollum, chair of local environmental group Chico Tree Advocates. The tribal installation would go in the old deer pens nearby. This clearing owes its existence to ignoble circumstances.

Dozens of the old oak trees have fallen at One-Mile Recreation Area in recent years, due to drought, heavy winds and rains, or just the fact that they were old and vulnerable to the elements. The rest of the park has seen its fair share of oaks crashing to the ground, too. City of Chico staff, Butte Environmental Council (BEC) and Chico Tree Advocates have joined forces to identify areas where the forest canopy needs a hand. (BEC organizes a similar project that focuses on oak restoration in Upper Park.)

North State water supplies under pressure as drought parches California

This article was published on 02.13.14.

A thousand feet beneath the city of Chico, in the pitch-black waters of the Tuscan Aquifer, time has proceeded for ages without sound or sunlight, mostly unaffected by the world above. But in recent years, an increasing tug of upward force has been moving the Tuscan Aquifer’s water toward the surface of the Earth—drawn, ultimately, by the thirst of fruit trees and vegetable fields hundreds of miles away.

BEC hosts Chico Car Free Day Oct. 6

A no-cars event! I received a press release from Mark Stemen, on behalf of the Butte Environmental Council, announcing the upcoming Chico Car Free Day. BEC is inviting everyone in Chico to participate in this event, which will take place from 1-5 p.m. on Sunday, Oct. 6, in downtown Chico. “[M]ultiple streets, behind City Hall, will be closed to automobile traffic to open up space for educational and fun-filled activities,” the press release said. “The idea behind Car Free Day is to reconsider urban transport with the prospect of sharing streets more efficiently,” it continued. “This day is an opportunity for us to take personal, positive and constructive measures to reduce greenhouse gases in our community as well as enjoy the company of our friends in a quiet stroll along the tree-lined streets of downtown Chico.” The event will be centered along Flume Street, between Fourth and Seventh streets. For more information, go to www.becnet.org or call 891-6424.

Code Blue update In more BEC-related news, Nani Teves, BEC’s water-outreach coordinator, sent me an email advising folks that the Delta water-education field trip BEC canceled in June due to excessively hot weather has been rescheduled for Saturday, Oct. 12, from 8 a.m. (sharp!) to 5 p.m.

It turns out Withuhn was right to question the removal. Erik Gustafson, manager of the Chico’s Public Works Department, said city staff had been inundated with calls from concerned citizens after the two trees were cut, and confirmed no permit had been issued. City staff visited Enloe Medical Center the next morning—May 3—to deliver a cease and desist order to prevent further removals.

Plans are being put in place that tackle the threat of fire, from prescribed burns to decreasing the amount of burnable material in the park.

Last weekend, branches and limbs were cut and hauled to shredders during the Butte Environmental Council park cleanup. That’s the start.

Not only do the clumps of vegetation and fallen wood represent fuel sources, but they are also hiding places for transients, Lowe said, noting the Fire Department has responded to several campfire problems in those situations.

From an acorn-planting program to a new fee, urban forest manager Richie Bamlet is moving forward with ideas on how to help Chico’s urban forest, which has suffered because of its age and lack of replacement trees, not to mention the city’s budget issues.

For several years, the Butte Environmental Council has been conducting a oak regeneration program in upper Bidwell Park, he noted.

Robert Dresden of Chico explains planting techniques Tuesday as Chico Tree Advocates, the Butte Environmental Council, the city and several volunteers prepare to plant valley oak acorns around the One-Mile Recreation Area in Bidwell Park.