In the December monthly MWMC meeting, our commissioners voted unanimously to renew our contract with NW Youth Corps to have them plant our poplar trees in the coming season. We are proud to partner with them in their mission to teach skills to young people, and we’re grateful for the hard work they do to help us grow new trees. Digging holes in the cold is not easy work!

The Youth Corps will help harvest thousands of plantable whips from the trees on our farm, and then use them to plant new trees in the areas we harvested last year. Overall, there are about 88,000 poplar trees on the Biocycle Farm at any given time, and we'll fertilize them with biosolids recovered from our wastewater treatment process.

It’s not too late to set a New Year’s resolution to help protect the environment in 2023. Here are some ways all of us as a community can help preserve Earth’s most precious resource!

There are a lot of common-sense measures and some surprising ones you can take to cut down on water use. Simple things like turning the water off when you shave or brush your teeth, taking shorter showers, or thawing frozen foods in the fridge overnight instead of in the sink can reduce the amount of water you send down the drain.

Scraping excess food off dishes into compost or the trash is a good way to save water on rinsing and garbage disposal use, and it can also be a good way to create less pollution. Fats, oils, and grease can clog your drains as well as regional wastewater pipes, so always make sure to can F.O.G. and throw it away!

We have been proud to contribute to the Springfield H2Oh! Exhibit at the Springfield History Museum, and there's still one more week to see the fascinating tools and systems the city has used to make sure everyone has clean water. Make sure to swing by before January 14th so you can learn about the fascinating history and technologies before the exhibit is closed! You can click the button below plan your visit on the Springfield History Museum website.

With the next Commission meeting on January 13th, the MWMC will begin its budgetary planning cycle again for Fiscal Year 2023-24. Over the next several months, the different divisions of MWMC will submit their plans, and the commission will create a budget that will be submitted to the City of Eugene, City of Springfield, and Lane County for approval. After a sign-off from each government agency, the commission will approve and appropriate the budget so the next fiscal year's projects can begin. You can learn more about the MWMC budget at Commission meetings, which can be attended in-person or online.

Love receiving water news and tips for protecting the Willamette River each month? Forward this newsletter to a friend or colleague to share and encourage them to subscribe to our newsletter at this link. Thanks for partnering with us in our mission to protect the community's health and environment.