• Get Engaged
• We Want to Hear from You!
• Visit Us at STOWcase!
• Sustainable Stow Meets at the Library on October 27th at 6:30pm
• Saving Nature and Your Yard
• Electric Vehicle Meet & Greet at the Maynard High School Parking Lot on November 7th.

The Energize Stow newsletter strives to provide you with practical information you can use to make Stow a more sustainable community. We would love to hear from you about what you would be interested in reading or learning about. Please email us at GreenAdvisory@stow-ma.gov with your ideas. Thank you!

The third annual STOWcase is on Thursday, October 22nd, from 6pm to 8pm at Center School. The event features local businesses, town departments, and community organizations. There will be performances showcasing local talent and indoor Trick-or-Treating with costumes encouraged for children and families. Admission is free.

Be sure to visit the Green Advisory Committee and Sustainable Stow tables. The Green Advisory Committee table will focus on plastics. Stow has already passed a bylaw to reduce plastic bags. Now we’re asking whether residents want to cut back on polystyrene, as many nearby towns have.

The Sustainable Stow volunteer group will offer information on ways to save while helping the environment - including home heating and electric vehicles. There will also be information on how you can help the environment through actions in your yard.

What does it mean to live sustainably and build resilience while we face this changing climate in Stow. To find out, come to Sustainable Stow’s first in-person meeting in some time. At the meeting on Tuesday, Oct 27 at 6:30 in the Community Room at Randall library, we will explore actions and activities currently being planned. Your input is important and we would love your ideas and help. Please note the early start time. We need to finish before 8 (since the library closes).

We are inviting anyone with an interest in ways to make our town and our homes more sustainable given the urgency of climate change. This can include technology like heat pumps and solar. Making our yards more pollinator friendly. Or protecting trees and wildlife.



In the coming year, we will support campaigns to help everyone add heat pumps and insulation to their homes. We will launch a “pollinator pathway” using native plants around town. We will also run a book discussion based around Doug Tallamy’s new book, “How Can I Help: Saving Nature with Your Yard.”

In addition, we will be demonstrating our new website Energize Stow, built in collaboration with our Town’s Green Advisory Committee. 



Interested in learning more? Come visit our table at STOWcase on October 22, from 6-8 where you will be able to sign-up for our newsletter. We will have handouts, answer questions, and have a live demonstration of the website. 

Saving Nature and Your Yard

We have learned that it is important to salamanders, bees, fireflies, butterflies, and insect life in general to leave the leaves in your yard for the winter. Many of us are now leaving the leaves around trees and shrubs until spring. But beyond leaving the leaves, there is much more you can do to protect nature over the winter. Both Doug Tallamy and Joe Lamp’l provide suggestions

In his new book, How Can I Help? Saving Nature with Your Yard, Douglas Tallamy, professor at the University of Delaware, gives answers to many questions about how we can use our yards to protect the environment. Many of his ideas are easy to implement. Others, like leaving the leaves, are easy, but may not be the usual practice.



Here is another easy idea for homeowners concerned with broadleaf weeds in their lawns: don’t spray the lawn to kill them. White clover and dandelions are non-native plants but both supply nectar for honeybees and generalist pollinators. Among Tallamy’s other suggestions are that even apartment dwellers can help pollinators by using containers on their porches that are planted with native plants.

In his online series, Growing a Greener World, Joe Lamp’l has pointed out that small habitat changes in your yard can make a big difference. For example, leaving a portion of perennial stems standing (insects may have winter homes there) or allowing seed heads to remain after the flowers are gone (birds may need them.) Planting in layers of different plants rather than spacing everything out provides more dense cover helpful to some of our garden residents. Leave a small stack of stones or piece of decaying log for other wildlife.



Sustainable Stow will be giving a copy of Doug Tallamy’s book at Stow Case on Thursday Oct 22 at 6PM so be sure to visit our table. While there you can also learn about plans to launch a new Heat Smart / Cool Smart program next year to help you add a heat pump to your home. 

Electric Vehicle Meet & Greet at the Maynard High School Parking lot on November 7th

Are you in the market for a new car and considering purchasing an EV? On Saturday, November 7th from 9am to noon, come to the Maynard High School parking lot to meet EV owners, explore different models, ask questions, and learn about charging, range, incentives, maintenance, and everyday EV ownership. Sponsored by Green Maynard.