December 2024

This Month's Issue:

Biochar Jamboree

Sustainable Holiday Season

Eggs in the Classroom

Holiday Recipe - Atole De Coco

Local Water Issues in Butte County

Practicing the Four R's for the Holiday Season

New Years Social Hour with BEC

BioChar Cookoff and Jamboree

Join us for an Autumnal morning burn that will ignite a seasonal shift!  BEC is partnering with on-site Biochar producers to convert slash (slash refers to any material left on the ground after trees have been cut) from the 2018 Camp fire. Gain experience and knowledge on what biochar is, what it can do, and how to make it in a specialty apparatus called The Ring of Fire; multiple Rings will be cooking off the wood simultaneously. This will be our final push to convert the remaining slash and trees onsite into biochar, to make more community CHAR. Make sure to bring a bucket to take some home. Chi-Microbes and K Organics will be offering a biochar enrichment lesson during the event. Our local nonprofits, after 3 years of conducting burns at Noble Park, are almost finished. We are thankful to Paradise Recreation & Park District for the Neighbor-to-Neighbor grant opportunity.

Butte Environmental Council and Biochar Coalition are excited to team up once again, for Saturday, December 7th, 2024, to finalize our biochar project at Noble Park in Paradise, CA. This event is rain or shine, so please dress accordingly.

The holidays are a time of giving, but they are also a time of creating waste. Did you know that Americans generate more trash from Thanksgiving to New Years than they do any other time of year? According to Stanford University, this extra waste amounts to 25 million tons of garbage, or about 1 million extra tons per week! However, it doesn’t have to be this way. Knowing the difference between what you can recycle vs what you can put in the trash goes a long way in reducing waste! We can make a huge difference this year by adjusting a few simple choices.

Cute holiday wrapping paper, boxes, and bags have become one of our worst enemies.Reuse recycled cardboard boxes first, this way the box gets another purpose and you are helping save a natural resource. Create your own wrapping out of recycled paper. You can spice it up by adding holiday designs using stamps, markers or paint. Another alternative is buying or creating reusable cloth wrapping paper that can be used every year.

One thing that especially causes problems at the Neal Road Landfill is batteries! When disposed of in your trash bin, they end up in the landfill and combust or explode causing fires to occur. Please dispose of them properly.

For more information on how to properly dispose of batteries, broken Christmas lights and other forms of hazardous waste, check out Butte County’s website that deals with household hazardous waste.

Eggs in the Classroom

On November 15th, BEC received 35 Chinook salmon eggs, marking the second year that BEC is offering Eggs in the Classroom workshops. This program is free exclusively for homeschool families only.

In this three-part workshop series, students will be given the opportunity to visit the eggs during each life cycle stages: egg, alevin, and fry before being released into the Feather River on January 7, 2025. Students will gain an understanding of this native species, their importance to local waterways and how climate change effects their habitat.

Questions? Reach out to Morgan at becintern@becnet.org

Holiday Recipe

Local Water Issues in Butte County

Water is one of our greatest resources, and Butte Environmental Council is committed to its protection. A lot has been happening with our local water management lately.

Much of the recent water talk centers around the $5,535,000 in SGMA grant money being managed by the Vina GSA. This grant, administered by the Department of Water Resources, is split into several grant-funded projects. The money must be spent by March 2026. 

Vina GSA is the implementing agency for many of the projects, including the following:

• Over a million dollars is allocated for data gap identification and data improvement. 
• $2,440,000 is allocated for demand reduction strategies. Local farmers are not wild about this, according to the recent Tuscan Water District board meeting.
• One demand reduction strategy is the Extend Orchard Replacement pilot program. Public comments for this program were due at the end of November, however the Department of Water Resources (DWR) communicated that incentivized payments to growers were not allowed under this funding, so there will be a new public comment period in December. When BEC submitted comments, the Groundwater and Geologic Investigations Section of the Department of Water Resources, Northern Region of DWR responded, “...the Vina GSA is working to correct and clarify this misunderstanding as thoroughly as possible.”
• Another demand reduction strategy is precision irrigation.
• The project partner for demand reduction strategies is Agricultural Groundwater Users of Butte County.
• Vina GSA is also exploring Lindo Channel recharge feasibility through this grant. There was a public meeting about this in mid-November which got a little testy, and then the atmospheric rains came. 
• The agency is also implementing a long-term fee study project. They sent out a survey to explore possibilities for a fee.

Recently, water meetings with different organizations have been overlapping with each other. BEC has been a consistent presence and a watchful eye in these water conversations, especially TWD - keep an eye out for your ballot in your mailbox! 

Along with our water coalition, we have been using a “divide and conquer” strategy for attending these local meetings, which allows us to gain key insights into our local world of water.

Kick Consumerism to the Curb and have a RARE Holiday! As we celebrate with our loved ones this Holiday Season, let's not forget to give back to the Earth as we give to each other.  

REDUCE: Invest in your local economy and community 

• Save money, resources, time and greenhouse gasses by shopping locally, while keeping your neighbors in business and getting quality products.
• Invest in a product that’ll last you 20+ years rather than five products that’ll last you one. Reduce gift wrapping in the process. 

REUSE: Shop consignment or second hand 

• If you have a gift in mind, go for it! But for those Secret Santa, Gift Exchange, and White Elephant presents, find something fun and funky from one of Butte County’s MANY thrift and consignment stores. 



Some of our favorite resale stores: 

• PawPrints Thrift Boutique
• The Discovery Shoppe 
• Army Surplus
• Labelz
• Salvation Army
• Play It Again Sports

ROT: Compost your food scraps 

Before “Rotting” your food, try to reduce waste by prepping appropriate portions, eating leftovers and sharing with your community. If the food is unable to be consumed, compost it either at home or with one of our community compost sites in Butte County. 

RECYCLE: Sign up to have your Christmas tree picked up by the local Boy Scouts Troop 2 to be used for fish habitat restoration efforts in Lake Oroville! 

No Host Social Hour with BEC

Starting January 2025, BEC Socials! All members and volunteers for BEC are invited for a social hour at Ramble West Brewery. Mark your calendars for January 15 from 6:00pm-7:00pm. This is a chance to hear what BEC has in store for 2025, meet BEC’s Board and staff, plus a way to meet other like minded volunteers and members. It is truly a time to socialize, create community, and enjoy a cold beverage with BEC. For more info email Board Member, Olivia Henderson (ohenders@wm.com)

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.

Support Butte Environmental Council!

BEC is a grassroots non-profit dedicated to protecting the health of our environment. Our work is made possible by people like you! Your contribution helps us plant trees, clean the creeks, and bring environmental education into the classroom.

Consider becoming a Sustaining Member today for as little as $5/month.