Tomorrow afternoon, go for a paddle with Olympia Confronting the Climate Crisis. There will be opportunity to organize with your fellow human beings to protect the Earth against reckless fossil fuel industry antics. When: Noon to 4pm. Where: West Bay Park, Olympia. Who: You and your friends and neighbors. What: There will be about 15 or 20 kayaks and people can cycle through them.

Sweetwater Nannauck from Seattle IdleNoMore will be doing a water ceremony.

Trip Jennings will be instructing folks on water and kayak safety.

Trip Jennings first became a kayak instructor in 1998 and since then has shared his love of water as an instructor, competitive whitewater kayaker, expedition kayaker and filmmaker. In 2008 he was recognized by National Geographic as an 'Adventurer of the Year' for a kayak expedition to Papua New Guinea and was featured in the January 2013 issue of National Geographic Magazine. But most passionately, Trip is a climate justice activist working to confront the root causes of climate change. He is a member of Portland Rising Tide, campaigning to stop the onslaught of energy export proposals in the NW and professionally Trip works with groups such as the Power Past Coal Coalition and Columbia River Keeper as a videographer. He is currently producing a documentary on the oil, gas and coal export proposals in Oregon and Washington.

More information about the event here on this facebook event page: O3C Kayak Event.

Come hear leaders of Citizens for a Clean Harbor (CCH) from Aberdeen/Hoquiam discuss their opposition to 21 new oil tanks in the Port of Grays Harbor. You've heard about coal trains and oil pipelines, but this new oil trains plan also affects us locally.

The plan involves 50 oil tanker trains a month coming from North Dakota, on a route through the Columbia Gorge, Centralia, and along the Chehalis River to Hoquiam. The oil would be then shipped in huge Panamax oil supertankers in Grays Harbor and along our Pacific coastline.

The Ports of Grays Harbor and Olympia are colluding with the oil industry that has been waging war against climate stability. What can we do to stop them?

Join us at the Olympia Center (downtown at 222 Columbia St NW) on Saturday, May 18 at 1:30 pm for "Talking Crude," for this unique chance to hear from our neighbors, and discuss how to stop the oil trains! For questions contact Olympia Confronting the Climate Crisis at Bourtai31@gmail.com For background see Citizens for a Clean Harbor at www.cleanharbor.org/

Event Schedule:

1:30 Paul Pickett will talk about the climate crisis, and explain how burning more oil will add CO2 to the 400 ppm we already have in the atmosphere;
1:45 Zoltan Grossman will speak about fracking for oil in the Bakken shale, and explain how the Port of Olympia is colluding with big oil by downloading materials necessary for fracking;
2:00 PM Arnie Martin and Arthur (R.D.) Grunbaum will present their slide show about the proposed oil trains, storage tanks, and huge tankers in Grays Harbor;

From today's inbox:

As many of you know, Left Foot Organics, a beloved local non-profit, closed its doors a few months back.  The former garden manager there (and new GRuB garden manager!), Lydia Beth Liembach, is in the process of selling LFO’s goods.  Lydia Beth will be at Left Foot tomorrow (Thursday) evening at 6:30, selling items at garage sale prices.
 
I’m sorry we can’t provide a complete list of what is available at this time, but here is a partial list: hoop house materials, shelving, concrete blocks, PVC, compost, wood chips, rototillers (may already be spoken for), driplines, office supplies, kitchen supplies, pots, flats. There are few, if any, hand tools left at this point.
 
If you are interested in checking out what is available, you are welcome to come to Left Foot at 6:30pm April 25.  If you can’t make it, but would like more information, send Karen Ray an email. (She will take photographs tomorrow night and write up an inventory and send it out to you.)
 
Left Foot is located at 11122 Case Road (off exit 99).

From today's inbox:

Conservation Biology in the 21st Century:
At the Human-Environment Interface
Global Partnerships in Research, Training & Outreach

Randy Kyes, Ph.D

Thursday, April 4th, 7:00pm
Seminar II C1105
The Evergreen State College

Dr. Kyes is the founder of the One Earth Institute for Global Health and Conservation and also a research professor at the University of Washington. In his field work in Indonesia and Nepal, Kyes and his collaborators have studied global health though our relationship with animals and the environment.

For 16 years, Dr. Kyes and his Indonesian colleagues have conducted conservation-related studies of the black macaques at the Tangkoko Nature Reserve in North Sulawesi, Indonesia. Kyes and his team have also worked tirelessly on conservation efforts, focusing on the close relationship between environmental health and human health. In February, Kyes announced that the population seemed to have stabilized.

In his fieldwork in Nepal, Kyes and his colleagues found that humans living in close proximity with primates can swap parasites that pose a serious health risk. Thus as animals suffer from human encroachment, the implications for human health could be equally severe.

Dr. Kyes believes we have reached a tipping point in global health. Indicator species, such as frogs and corals, are rapidly disappearing, and now robust animals like gorillas, tigers, polar bears are in trouble. To address these issues we need to be thinking differently about health and the environment.

This is a rare opportunity to hear from one of the most prominent researchers and activists in this field.

From today's inbox:

American Community Gardening Association Annual Conference
Seattle, WA August 8–11, 2013
Cultivating Community, Harvesting Health:
Community Gardens to Urban Farms

Registration opens on May 1, 2013. Join us for this year's events, including:

• workshops
• presentations
• keynote speakers
• film festival
• tours of local gardens, farms, and green spaces in the Seattle area

View schedule

About the Conference

The American Community Gardening Association (ACGA) promotes community gardening and greening across the United States and Canada.

ACGA's annual conference provides an opportunity for professionals, volunteers, and supporters of community greening in urban and rural communities to gather together, to share information and resources pertaining to:

 Rain gardens are in the news a lot these days. What are they, and how do they work? Rain gardens allow homeowners to do their part to help protect streams and Puget Sound while also keeping stormwater drainage away from homes. A free workshop will provide all the details needed to build one or more rain gardens in your yard to create a low-maintenance, attractive landscape feature that will also provide habitat for birds and butterflies.

Part 1 of this how-to workshop will be offered on Thursday, April 18, from 6:30 to 8:45 p.m. at Tumwater Fire Hall, 311 Israel Rd. SW.  Participants will learn how to create a rain garden landscape plan to suit their needs, and can also register for Part 2 on Thursday, April 25 where experts will offer individualized plan review. Each participant will receive detailed information about designing and building a rain garden, as well as a free handbook and beautiful four-color poster.

The workshop is free but registration is required. Register online at http://www.streamteam.info/getinvolved/calendar/  For more information, contact the WSU Native Plant Salvage Project at nativeplantsalvage@gmail.com or call 360-867-2166. This workshop is co-sponsored by Stream Team and WSU Extension’s Native Plant Salvage Project.

 

From today's inbox:

Seed Exchange with Caitlin Moore
Saturday March 23 at 2:30
Olympia Timberland Regional Library
313 8th Ave SE, Olympia, WA 98501

Moore will give a short talk and answer questions.  Participants will exchange seeds and share snacks provided by the Friends of the Olympia Library.  Bring old seeds to make seed bombs and new seeds to trade.  Envelopes for trading will be provided.

The City's Parks Department has created a preliminary concept plan for the rest of the empty space around the Artesian Well. (It's now being called the Artesian Court instead of the Artesian Park because the Parks Department doesn't want to become responsible for another park without any additional funding for it...

Here's what it looks like:

(I'm attaching a somewhat bigger PDF.)

According to the City's press release:

The City will hold a public meeting to present the Artesian Court Draft Concept Plan. The public is encouraged to attend and give feedback on the draft plan. Following the public meeting, written comments will be accepted until March 15. Please send all comments to Dave Okerlund at dokerlun@ci.olympia.wa.us.
 
Date:              Thursday, March 7, 2013
Time:               6:00 p.m.
Location:        The Olympia Center, Room 101/102
                        222 Columbia St. NW, Olympia
 
If you require special accommodations during your attendance, please call 360.753.8053 at least one day in advance of the event.

From today's inbox:

Monday, February 25, 4-7pm
Register: http://blogs.evergreen.edu/tedx/registration/
Student-Produced Trailer: https://vimeo.com/60148870
Live webcast at http://www.evergreen.edu/streams/

Speaker line-up:

Food Justice High - Kim Gaffi, Executive Director of GRuB (Garden-Raised Bounty)
Electric Vehicle Tourism -Ron Johnston-Rodriguez, Plug-in North Central Washington, LLC
Energy Efficient Homes - Scott Bergford, Scott Homes, Inc. and Northwest Energy Team
Addressing Ocean Acidification in Washington State - Shallin Busch, Research Ecologist, Northwest Fisheries Science Center
Sustainability in Prisons - Dan Pacholke, Co-Director, Sustainability in Prisons Project & Assistant Secretary, Prisons Division, Washington Department of Corrections & Andrea Martin, Intern, Sustainability in Prisons Project