August 2025
This Month's Issue:
Bidwell Park and Chico Creeks Cleanup is NEXT Month
BEC's 50th Anniversary Gala
RARE for the Upcoming School Year
DitB is Paused!
Thank you, Tech Toss
No Swim Advisory in Big Chico Creek & Middle Fork Lake Oroville
Biomass Presentation in Oroville
PGE Wildfire Safety Webinar
California Climate Action Corps Fellow Farewell
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Volunteer to join the Cleanup on September 20th from 9-12pm!
The 38th annual Bidwell Park and Chico Creeks cleanup is next month and we are gearing up for a busy morning cleaning up our creeks.
Event Day Logistics
Where: Volunteers will check in at Hooker Oak Park, 1928 Manzanita Ave
When: Check-in at 8:30am
Here is what you can expect at check in at Hooker Oak Park:
- Sign liability waivers and check in
- Participants will receive their free unique event t-shirt
- Borrow cleanup materials
- Choose a cleanup location/assignment
- Receive a safety briefing
- From there, volunteers will head out to their cleanup site. At the site, participants will scour the landscape for all types of trash, from the smallest to largest, most common to most unique.
- Large bulky items will be retrieved by participants calling the BEC dispatch center for a pick up, where special core volunteers or even the City Public Works department are directed to assist with removal. Participants can collect their items in buckets and bags which can be dropped off at the dumpsters located at Hooker Oak Park.
Volunteer Celebration Lunch
BEC will be hosting a volunteer lunch with free pizza, complimentary of Costco Wholesale, and drinks provided at Hooker Oak Park from 12-1pm.
2025 Cleanup Theme
The focus of this year's cleanup is Groundwater Dependent Ecosystems (GDEs). GDEs support local keystone species, including Valley oaks and Spring-run Chinook salmon whose population is slowly diminishing, as a result of habitat loss due to urban sprawl.
Spring-run Chinook salmon are considered a keystone species in Northern California. They play a critical role in maintaining the structure and function of GDEs. Salmons' importance stems from their unique life history, which involves spawning in freshwater rivers during the spring months, and the subsequent return of nutrients from their ocean migration to the streams where they die. This influx of nutrients supports a wide range of other species, including other fish, birds, mammals, and riparian vegetation. It is important to steward GDEs because they support the life of many diverse animal and plant species.
Here in Butte County, some of the animals that rely on GDEs are: Red-tailed hawks, Valley oaks, Spreading rush, Northern Pacific Rattlesnake, Tule, Cattail, California dancers (dragonflies), California poppy, Spring-run Chinook salmon and their offspring, Blue oak woodlands. Valley oaks are vital to the environment, supporting over 5,000 other species through food and habitat provision. Their role is so significant that their loss would drastically alter the ecosystem's structure and function.
Help us protect Butte County GDEs by volunteering your time to remove trash, and other harmful toxins that pollute our waters that negatively affect the plants and animals that rely on healthy ecosystems to thrive.
Over the last 38 years, a total of 11,961 volunteers have removed 274 tons of trash from our waterways- and BEC invites you to take part in this endeavor.
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Butte Environmental Council (BEC) invites you to support our momentous 50th anniversary celebration. Since 1975, BEC has championed the environment in Butte County, fueling years of unwavering dedication, engaging neighbors, uniting volunteers, and educating youth to protect and defend the health of our land, air, and water.
On October 23rd from 6-10pm, join BEC for a magical night of reflection, recognition and reciprocity, igniting a renewed commitment to BEC's mission and vision.
The event will feature a fully catered dinner complimentary of OM Foods, live music, and a silent auction made up items specially curated from some of Chico's local businesses.
| | School is Almost Back in Session Incorporate RARE into your Curriculum | | |
RARE in-classroom workshops and landfill field trips will be resuming in October 2025 and its never too early to book your workshop.
This program offers:
- Alignment with CA EEI Standards
- Free 45-minute educational presentation
- Specially curated information tailored to each grade level
- A hands on activity to reinforce the presentation with movement
- Compost workshops include a free worm bin for your classroom to keep!
Help us spread the word about this program and book your workshop below.
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The CDC has confirmed dangerous E.coli O157 in Big Chico Creek. A No-Swim Advisory Remains in effect. For more information, please read the Butte County Public Health Press Release at the link in our bio.
If you or someone you know becomes ill from swimming in the public waterways, call and report their illness to Butte County Public Health at 530-552-3929.
| Caution Advisory Remains for Lake Oroville's Middle Fork | |
A drone view from Dinosaur Point shows part of an algal bloom in the San Luis Reservoir.
Photo taken September 13, 2024.
| A caution advisory remains in effect in Lake Oroville’s Middle Fork due to a visible algal bloom. The Department of Water Resources (DWR) first issued the caution advisory on Friday, July 3 after the bloom was observed by DWR staff. DWR staff collected a sample for laboratory analysis and there were no toxins detected. DWR will continue to monitor the bloom and collect additional samples if conditions change. The caution advisory will remain in place until the bloom dissipates. There is no sure way to tell if an algal bloom is toxic just by looking at it, but there are indicators that a bloom may be harmful. | |
Customers in North Valley & Sierra Region:
Join PG&E’s virtual town hall on Wednesday, August 20 at 5:30 p.m. to hear the latest updates on wildfire safety work in your community, learn about available safety resources and ask questions of your local PG&E leaders, including Regional Vice President, Joe Wilson.
| 2025/2026 Cohort Fellow Farewell | | |
It has been an honor to serve my community as a California Climate Action Corps Fellow with BEC for two rewarding years. As I move on to new and exciting things in the community, I reflect on all the connections I’ve made throughout the fellowship and all the experiences I’ve had. Through this Fellowship, I have learned so much about myself and those I want to serve going forward. Through BEC’s Eggs in the Classroom program and RARE workshops, my passion for environmental education was reignited. It was through these programs that I connected my knowledge of Montessori education with teachings from my previous California Naturalist training. This helped me to provide scientifically accurate and hands-on curriculums to children of all ages on topics related to climate change and the solid waste stream. This passion for education is something I am proud to take with me as I venture into a role at a local Montessori preschool.
Through the fellowship, I also developed and spearheaded the Cooking with Scraps workshop series. This series provided the community with accessible opportunities to learn how to turn food past its peak point of freshness into delicious dishes. It was a true honor to bring these workshops to CHAT’s Everhart Village residents last summer. Building community through nutritious and delicious food has blossomed into a role at the Chico Certified Farmer’s Market where I demonstrate how to make easy and delicious recipes from seasonal produce available at the market.
Whilst these past two years have had their challenges, it has ultimately been a positive and fulfilling experience with so many bittersweet memories and beautiful friendships that I will take with me no matter where I go.
— Morgan Collings
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This past year at BEC has been a whirlwind of growth, challenges, communication, laughs, cries and all experiences in-between. I have gained skills, friends and memories to carry with me into my next chapter and am so thankful to this fellowship and BEC for giving me the space to fail, succeed, learn and grow. Working in a small, community oriented, climate focused space has taught me so much about my local environment and the endless ways to participate. From education and “boots on the ground” work to political advocacy and coalition building, there is a niche for EVERYONE to get involved. We all must become climate stewards, and while composting household foodscraps is amazing, it unfortunately is not enough. We must form and foster a culture of reciprocity, respect and accountability- a much larger feat than sorting trash. This task feels insurmountable alone, but in community, we can find hope. Join the fight for our future, we can’t do it without you!
As for what’s next- I will continue my journey as an environmental steward with the Butte County Fire Safe Council as the Community Education Coordinator working to build resilience, knowledge and connection around fire safety in Butte County's fire prone (and adapted) landscape through the Firewise USA program. I am shifting my lens to fire and forest health after an amazing 22 months working in food waste diversion, soil health and community engagement. I am stoked to announce that BEC has diverted over 13,400 lbs of food waste out of the landfill and into the Oak Way Community Garden in just 11 short months- taking a lot of coordination, sweat, love and fresh garden produce to keep us going. I will miss the small and mighty team here at BEC, and the amazing supporters, partners and, now, friends I have made along the way. It is not a goodbye, it is a see you soon <3
— Maddy Mikles
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I want to take this opportunity to speak on some of my learnings and observations from the last 11 months working as a Climate Corps Fellow and representing BEC throughout the term. One of the things that we got to learn about through our Climate Stewards Course was about the fatigue that occurs to people working in the environmental space. Environmental Stewards are likely to experience climate anxiety/despair due to being a daily witness to the challenges that environmental advocacy faces, both locally and globally. I feel as though this fatigue is one of our biggest challenges we face in our communities.
We are all facing a collective exhaustion that makes living in community care for one another and our planet the harder choice. But, I am here to say that it is our only choice. And the best part is, we have the power to choose for ourselves.
So why is this the message I want to write? I want to lovingly hold myself and the BEC community accountable and remind us of our power to choose each other. We need to stand up for one another, and I know that once we can do that, the planet will heal. Listen to our indigenous and black communities, our queer and trans communities, listen to our disabled communities, listen to our mother Earth. And stop shopping at Starbucks please!
— Valeria Cisneros
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In college, I studied climate and energy policy through the Society and Environment major at UC Berkeley. I learned about our options for addressing climate change - mitigation and adaptation. Much of the focus was on mitigation - reducing greenhouse gas emissions to prevent the worst effects of climate change.
Two years after I graduated, the world has changed. We’ve pushed further and further into the future without making the scale of changes we need to make to limit warming to 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels, which was the goal set by the Paris Agreement. The current U.S. administration is gutting the EPA, rolling back climate policy, ending tax incentives for renewables, and deleting climate data from government websites. We have already warmed the planet more than 1°C - and it’s looking less and less likely that we will limit warming to the 1.5°C goal.
My Fellowship at BEC has shown me that the focus cannot only be on mitigation, but that we need to take adaptation very seriously. Our participation in the Butte Resilience Collaborative reassured me that there are groups of people in our local community who are focusing on disaster preparedness. Connecting with a community of people who can be realistic and have difficult, but necessary, conversations has been cathartic. We need to make our communities as resilient as we can, because climate change is not far off in the future, it’s already here - and more changes are coming.
— Emily McCabe
| | Upcoming Community Events | | |
Butte Environmental Council recognizes the original occupants of what is now referred to as the Butte County area and the descendants who are still living here. They include:
Tyme Maidu Tribe-Berry Creek Reservation
Enterprise Rancheria
Mechoopda Indian Tribe
Mooretown Rancheria
We acknowledge and are mindful that these first people have a special and sacred relationship with their ancestral lands and the waters that run through these lands, sustaining them for centuries. We strive to learn from their ways and to be considered by the tribes as allies to respect and steward resources in this life-giving place.
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Contact Us!
313 Walnut Street #140
Chico, CA 95928
530-891-6424
staff@becnet.org
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