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Butte Environmental Council E-Sentinel
February 2023
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BEC's Mission is to protect and defend the land, air, and water of Butte County and the surrounding region through action, advocacy and education.
Our monthly newsletter is designed to keep our community informed about local issues that impact our region's environmental quality and bring you opportunities to become involved.
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Is this email cut off at the end? Click the link provided at the end to view the full email in a new window. | |
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In this month's issue:
- Member Mixer Feb 12
- Valley's Edge Updates
- Plant Trees for CA Arbor Week March 4
- Endangered Earth! - Day of Action April 22
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- A look into this years rainfall
- Trees PLEASE!
- Garden and Composting Service Update
- 2023 Calendar of Events
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Butte Environmental Council LOVES its members and what better time to express that than in mid-February?! The BEC Member Mixer is coming up quickly on Sunday, February 12th at the Chico Women’s Club and we can’t wait to see our dedicated members!
Our Angel Donors are invited to join us early for a special social hour from 4-5pm with complimentary drinks at the bar and a chance to mingle with BEC leadership as well as one another. Then our doors open at 5pm for all BEC members to enjoy music, delicious food and beverages, and chat one-on-one with BEC staff and Board members. This is the opportunity to hear all about BEC’s year from Board and Staff, and marks our annual member meeting with a chance to vote on bylaws and nominate community members for awards to be presented on Earth Day. Be sure to put in your bids on our prized silent auction items and baskets early, because we’ll be closing it at 6:30 to announce auction winners by 6:45pm! Please note our new earlier closing time for this event: 7pm.
We know your Superbowl Sunday plans would NOT be complete without this special get-together. Will we see all 190 of you fine folks already members? How many NEW members will we have join us for this fun evening together?! Who will YOU bring?
Get your tickets now for this much-anticipated annual event - free for current members, $50 for non-members -- which pays for an annual membership -- or just $4 a month to sign up as a new member. (What a perfect opportunity to renew your membership or bring in some new friends!)
For tickets, visit https://bit.ly/bec2023mixer
Seating is limited, so get your tickets now by clicking here.
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Take Action on Preserving Oak Woodlands near Chico | |
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Valley’s Edge Update
Partners of Butte Environmental Council, such as Smart Growth Advocates, are working hard with hundreds of concerned individuals to gather 5700 valid signatures for a referendum to allow all of the citizens of Chico to vote on the Valley’s Edge development, a sprawling 1448 acre natural habitat on the southeast of town.
We have seven more days to collect signatures and will need around 8,000 to account for possible invalid signatures.
You can help by going down to the BEC office, 313 Walnut Street, Suite 140, between the hours of 12-6 pm to add your signature or pick up a signature packet to take for neighborhood canvassing or to have your friends sign it.
All packets need to be returned by February 10.
Every single signature collected is critical to the success of the referendum campaign, so please help.
Stopping the Valley’s Edge development is an important step towards moving in a visionary direction of Chico: a community with open space, clean air and water; a community that is walkable, bikeable and provides adequate public transportation; a community that values and sustains its natural resources; and a community that celebrates all our citizens and the earth that sustains us.
For more information and to donate to Smart Growth Advocates in additional efforts to stop the sprawl, go to www.smartgrowthchico.org
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Kick off California Arbor Week with BEC and the City of Chico | |
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Our next community-wide tree planting event is scheduled for March 4th, 2023 and we need your help!
Help us expand the urban canopy this spring by volunteering to help us plant up to 50 trees in various neighborhoods throughout Chico.
There are three ways to be involved as a volunteer:
1. Lead a Team - Sign up to be a core tree volunteer and attend a tree planting training
2. Get Dirty - Sign up to be general volunteer and help plant trees
3. Be a Driver - Sign up to deliver trees to their planting locations with your truck or trailer
As a grassroots nonprofit, we rely heavily on help from the community to help us accomplish our mission to protect and defend the land, air and water in Butte County and the surrounding region. So, please consider donating a Saturday to do important environmental work for our community by planting trees with us! And a special thank you to all of you who have already signed up, we can not do it without you!
To sign up as a volunteer, please click HERE!
If you are interested in receiving a free tree planted by volunteers in 2023, please fill out the form HERE to see if your property is eligible! Our next community wide tree planting event is scheduled for December 2023. If we do not get you on the confirmed list for this spring, we will ensure to get you a tree this winter.
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Other Upcoming Community Events | |
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2/8- Zero waste food recovery talk, 3pm,Chico Branch Library (Link)
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2/11- Good Fire workshop, 10-3pm, Noble Park (link)
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2/12- CARD Social Dance, 5-7pm, Lakeside Pavillion (Link)
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2/14- Seed starting for the home gardener (link)
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2/16 - Water & Fire Post-Fire Resilience Webinar ft. Wolfy Rougle, Ali Meders-Knight (LINK)
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2/18- Biochar and fuels reduction workshop, 9-3pm (Link)
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2/25- 4th Annual Butte County Museum weekend, Gateway Science Museum (link)
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Every Friday - Volunteer at Verbena Fields with TEK Chico from 10am-1pm (Link)
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Every Thursday - Help make local compost with Paradise Community Compost (more info HERE)
View BEC's Community Events Calendar HERE. If you would like to promote your environmental-related event to the next newsletter or on the community calendar on our website, please email staff@becnet.org.
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Saturday, April 22, 2023 marks 53 years of Earth Day celebrations! | |
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Earth Day is the annual celebration that honors the achievements of the environmental movement, a movement started in the 70’s to advocate for local, federal and state governments to work together with the people to protect the environment, and Earth Day serves as a day to remind people of the endless need to continue to protect the Earth's natural resources for future generations to come.
This year BEC is hosting an array of Earth Day Events on Saturday, April 22!
From 9 to 10:30 am we will kick off Earth Day in downtown Chico with the Walk 4 Earth and Rally followed by a variety of volunteer climate action opportunities from 11 to 2pm. After that we will be hosting the Environmental Community Gathering from 5 to 8pm with music, refreshments, informational boots and fun demonstrations and activities for all ages.
Stay tuned at www.becnet.org/events/ for more details regarding BEC’s Earth Day FUN!
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How much rain is to much rain? | |
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It is no secret that these past couple months we have experienced a tremendous amount of rainfall. When the first sprinkle hit people were overjoyed that California was finally getting some rain. A couple weeks passed by, puddles grew, lawns got muddy and some streets became streams. This got people thinking “hmmm, this looks like too much rain.” After experiencing years of little to no rainfall earth was not prepared to hold the amount of rain that has fallen this year. This is why you are seeing an extreme amount of runoff going into our city streets.
Earth holds its water in the air as water vapor, in rivers and lakes, in icecaps and glaciers, and in the soil. It has become apparent that the lakes, rivers and soil are not equipped to hold the amount of rain that has fallen this year. To see how much rain has fallen in California, take a look at this interactive map provided by NBC Bay Area.
https://www.nbcbayarea.com/news/local/map-2023-bay-area-rainfall-totals/3125673/
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Garden Volunteer Day
We host a monthly volunteer work day at our Oak Way Community Garden. Bring out your friends and family to do some gardening and explore the space. We also accept food scraps for compost!
This month’s event will be Saturday February 18th from 12-2pm.
Garden Materials Donations
Want to sponsor the Oak Way Community Garden? We are looking for donations to continue to support community gardening and composting initiatives. Materials or monetary donation appreciated.
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Drop In The Bucket
We have a weekly compost pickup service!
Sign up as a household or volunteer at https://forms.gle/svup6WbLFYGT9tki8.
Join the pickup brigade and help collect food scraps in your neighborhood! We have 3 community garden drop off sites.
You can learn more on our website https://www.becnet.org/composting
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Can we have a tree PLEASE? | |
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Trees PLEASE! This program offers trees to schools, parks and other community shared spaces all across the region, not just Chico!
Free trees are available for Butte County and the surrounding region so that people of all ages can enjoy the benefits of trees for decades to come!
Expanding the urban canopy in schools and parks provides mental health benefits, helps to encourage physical activity and provides habitat for the flora and fauna that share the urban environment with us.
Planting trees is a valuable hands-on experience that provides someone with the opportunity to learn about tree planting fundamentals and is a way to connect with the natural world around them.
Last year alone, we planted a total of 81 trees in schools and parks throughout Butte County. We need your help in making that number even larger! Do you know of any schools, parks or other community shared spaces that are lacking the benefits that trees provide? Let us know! Email Miranda at steward@becnet.org.
If you are a teacher interested in booking a Trees PLEASE workshop, email Britany at educate@becnet.org.
Workshops are an in-classroom opportunity for students to learn about the benefits of trees and the roles they play in our ecosystems.
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YOU are the reason BEC thrives!
BEC is a grassroots non-profit dedicated to a healthy environment for us all. Our work is made possible by people like you! Being a BEC member means sustaining the work we do for the environment of Butte County and the surrounding area:
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Angel Members contribute $35 or more each month
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Sustaining Members contribute between $4 and $34 each month
You don't have to be a member to contribute:
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One-Time Donations of any amount helps us serve our community and the environment!
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Volunteers help by donating their time, energy, expertise, and resources.
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Thank you for your continued support of
Butte Environmental Council.
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Caitlin Dalby
Executive Director
(530) 891-6424
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