BEC in the News

The Butte Environmental Council organized a brunch in honor of Earth Day in Chico and all the proceeds helped an organization, aimed at educating people about endangered species.

Butte Environmental Council: 10:30 a.m.-1:30 p.m. Earth Day Brunch to benefit Endangered Species Faire. $25 advance, $30 at door. Tickets www.benet.org. 891-6424. Humboldt Community Garden, corner of Humboldt Road and El Monte in Chico.

The Butte Environmental Council’s 43rd Anniversary Gala was held in the ARC Pavillion Saturday. Within a hour of the event starting, the room was filled and the sounds of soulful alternative folk, thanks to the band Sunday Iris, welcomed members to their tables.

The event, hosted by the Butte Environmental Council (BEC), invited people from every walk of life, young and old, families and students, long time community members and those just passing through, to show love for the park by collecting and disposing of all the litter they could get their little hands on.

They gathered at two locations, Hooker Oak Park and the Annie K. Bidwell Parlor. From there they were sent to creeks throughout the city and picked up the trash they saw.

With buckets, gloves and trash pickers in hand, hundreds of volunteers set out to accomplish one task on Saturday

Stating opposition to the project or the EIR’s adequacy were representatives of Butte Environmental Council, AltaCal Audubon Society and recognized environmental advocates such as Stemen and John Merz, the latter of whom suggested lower-income housing be brought into the mix. Many, such as Natalie Carter of BEC, encouraged the city to delay the project and require more studies on the project’s impact, including the protected species and property hydrology.

Research indicates that California has lost more than 90 percent of its wetlands due to impacts from population growth and agricultural development. This is concerning to Carter, executive director of the Butte Environmental Council. “We have so little wild habitat left that every little bit matters,” she said. “The loss of habitat at all is a step in the wrong direction.”

Stonegate would lie east and west of Bruce Road, between East 20th Street and the Skyway. The 313-acre project would bring just over 600 new housing units to Chico, ranging in size from apartments to 3,000-square-foot homes. Other elements include 3.5 acres of parks and 36.6 acres for commercial businesses.

Saturday morning, September 15th as the sun comes up, hundreds of community volunteers will gather in the parking lots of Hooker Oak Park and the Annie K Bidwell Parlor. Check-in stations and empty dumpsters will be waiting for volunteers to participate in the largest round up of trash and recyclables in Chico. In small groups, formed in advance or on the spot, volunteers will be supplied with trash bags, pickers, buckets, and coffee before they are sent out to clean every creek in Chico- in just over 3 hours! Hosted by Butte Environmental Council since 1988, this year will be the 31st annual Bidwell Park and Chico Creeks Cleanup.

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.

Putting environmentalists and residential well-users on equal footing with farmers, the Butte County Board of Supervisors unanimously approved a resolution Tuesday (June 26) supporting the Butte Environmental Council’s involvement in groundwater management.

Scott Grist, who manages the event, believes in sustainability and uses this event to bring awareness to conscious thinking about environmental needs. “We’re opening people up to the idea that we can use less fossil fuels and have a whole day live music festival powered by human effort,” Grist said. The event is ran by volunteers giving in various ways including audience members signing up and powering the sound and instruments by pedaling stationary bicycles.

The festival uses a mobile sound stage powered by bicycles connected to a generator. All performances are free. The idea is to promote sustainable transportation and less dependence on fossil fuels, while promoting talented local musicians.

To her consternation, Strachan’s colleagues had declined to consider a resolution put forth by the Butte Environmental Council for the county to recognize BEC as a representative of groundwater interests. Supervisors previously passed a comparable resolution for an agricultural group.

Natalie Carter, BEC’s executive director, echoed Strachan’s perspective on equal representation. “Farmers say, ‘We represent domestic users—we have domestic wells,’ and they do, and they absolutely have a shared perspective in that,” Carter said. “They don’t want their domestic wells to go dry. “That’s not to say we shouldn’t have a voice for someone who is only a domestic well user and doesn’t have ties to the agricultural interests in this community, which are so valuable, but shouldn’t be the only voice at the table.” In seeking recognition from the county, BEC wants to become a—not the— representative for users of groundwater from shallow depths. That’s the connection BEC sees between advocacy for groundwater-dependent ecosystems and homeowners who depend on wells—and why Carter says it’s important for the county to recognize multiple constituencies. “[SGMA conveys] a 50-year horizon to sustainability,” she added. “The whole design is local control, and our local voices include a wide variety.”

The Butte Environmental Council’s 39th annual Endangered Species Faire is 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday at Cedar Grove in Bidwell Park. The event’s theme is “Finned Migrations: Connecting Warming Oceans to Inland Streams.”

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.

Oroville >> The Butte County Planning Commission has delayed making a recommendation on altering how a 300-foot agricultural buffer applies in residential areas.

The county’s current rules call for the agricultural buffer to apply next to properties with agricultural use, which may include properties zoned as residential. The proposal would limit this buffer to development next to agriculturally zoned properties, although an amendment would allow people to use their residential, commercial and industrial properties an acre or larger for farming and grazing.

John Scott said the proposal was a violation of the public’s trust as eliminating the buffer could expose residents to sprayed pesticides that drift onto their properties. He said the Development Services Department was working to bring in money from development at the risk of others. “Inappropriate development should not drive this ordinance,” Scott said.

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.”