Obama-backed restoration projects putting more than 20,000 low-income youth to work

May 21, 2012, coloradoindependent.com | “Four new conservation projects in Colorado will add to the more than 20,000 work opportunities for low-income youth on public lands this summer.  The Obama administration on Friday announced an additional $1.4 million this year that it will leverage into $3.7 million for 20 new projects and more than 500 new jobs (pdf) across the nation.”

“~ The Obama administration is supporting youth engagement in ecological restoration.  Obama-backed ecological restoration projects putting more than 20,000 low-income youth to work
coloradoindependent.com
Four new conservation projects in Colorado will add to the more than 20,000 work opportunities for low-income youth on public lands this summer.”

 

  • Jennifer Pirkle, Ann Agranoff, Eugenia Linn, Bob Hughes, Susan Lancto, Annika Martin, Leila Bee, and Diana Burke like this.

Seeds Of Change to donate 25 million seeds to support organic school gardens

April 28, 2012, www.current.com | “Seeds of Change®, an organic seed and food company, is celebrating spring with the launch of the “Sowing Millions, Growing Minds” initiative and will donate 25 million seeds to help school children nationwide plant organic school gardens.”

“Seeds Of Change to donate 25 million seeds to support organic school gardens
current.com
Seeds of Change®, an organic seed and food company, is celebrating spring with the launch of the…”
Comments:
Rita Jacinto “You know Seeds of Change is owned my M&M Mars? They can afford this and it makes them look good…I believe it is called green washing…..don’t want tp be a downer but we should really know what we are supporting….”
  • Anthony Bradley “I’ve been thinking about how to know the difference between green washing and the transition of a large corporation. how do we tell the difference?”
    • Rita Jacinto “Anthony, I guess the only way to tell is to find out what else they are doing….M&M Mars is working to create GMO Chocolate…’nough said for me!”
      • Mae West “Good question Anthony Bradley, personally I tend to only trust those people in my local area that I can see and touch. And I try to spend my money with them when ever possible. Whether it is buying seeds, eggs, meat or an evening out to dinner.”
        • GoodNews FortheEarth ‎”~ Thanks for pointing out that the good news of the seed donations is counterbalanced by the possible benefits to a non-Earth-friendly corporation that may result. At GoodNews FortheEarth, we see our job as reporting the positive aspects events, leaving the complex task of overall analysis to others, hoping to learn more as time goes on.

          Info about corporate ownership is crucial, and often hard to find out — one reason why I think we all agree with Mae that local is best, not just because it is local, but because the effects of using local sources are easier to learn.”
    • Lindy Rose, Jennifer Rogers, Johanna Grolig, Laurel Steinberg, Rita Jacinto, Good Vibrations, SandRa LeFearn, Fabio Pareto, Luke Richards, Anna Kwileck, Angelika Kraus, Veronica Smith, Regina Siegel, Mandy Merklein, and Crystal Pistol.

5 Pieces of Good News From Planet Earth

Credit: NASA.

April 20, 2012, www.motherjones.com | “Most news from nature is depressing—species extinctions, changing climate, dying oceans. Yet it’s not all bad… though we might never know it, since positive news is underreported. I wrote about this tendency in my latest MoJo print piece about my old friend Enriqueta Velarde and her work to save an island and a whole ecosystem called Can One Incredibly Stubborn Person Save a Species?”

5 Pieces of Good News From Planet Earth
disq.us
A lot of people are working overtime to save endangered species and ecosystems. We don’t hear enough about them.
  • COMMENTS:
    GoodNews FortheEarth ~ great article, with reference to the need to publicize good news!
    read it and check these out:
    1) Huge Drop in PCB Levels in Norwegian Polar Bears
    2) Amur Cats Get Their Own 650,000 acre National Park
    3) Half Billion Dollars Funds Most Ambitious Conservation Programs Ever
    4) Right Whales Return to New Zealand
    5) Arabian Oryx Returns from Extinction

Over 100 students and community volunteers plant trees along Bear Creek, Medford, Oregon, USA

April 4, 2012, www.lomakatsi.org | “Lomakatsi Restoration Project is dedicated to the restoration of forests and watersheds within the Klamath-Cascade-Siskiyou ecoregion’s of southern Oregon and northern California. We perform the majority of our work in the Rogue River basin of southern Oregon and its surrounding watersheds.”

“~ Over 100 students and community volunteers plant trees along Bear Creek, Medford, Oregon, USA.
Full Circle School Restoration Ecology Program update: Over 100 students and community volunteers participated in restoring the riparian zone along Bear Creek on April 4, 2012. Over 120 native trees and shrubs were planted. This is a three year restoration project, in partnership with Cascade Christian High School and Lomakatsi.
  • Juliette Calderone, Michele Grady Scherer, Nani Kamphuis, Matt Luedtke, Shalahnia Riversong, and Diana Hartel like this.

‘Magic’ falls not far from the tree; group up for Green Toronto Award

Published 26 March 2012, www.torontoobserver.ca | Every year inside Toronto’s city limits, thousands of trees bloom and bear fruit.  And every year much of that cornucopia goes uneaten, often because no one’s available to pick the fruit.

That’s where Not Far From The Tree comes in. The local organization registers fruit trees on residential and city-owned property, and sends volunteers to help with the harvest.

“There’s a lot of magic that happens when this private nuisance is transformed into an asset for the community,” said Laura Reinsborough, the organization’s founder and director. “It becomes this really great social moment too, where strangers gather and are welcomed into somebody’s private yard.

Leila Bee shared a link.

‘Magic’ falls not far from the tree; group up for Green Toronto Award | The Toronto Observer
www.torontoobserver.ca
That’s where Not Far From The Tree comes in. The local organization registers fruit trees on residential and city-owned property, and sends volunteers to help with the harvest.
Jenny Kalasouda likes this

Full Circle Schools Restoration Ecology Program . . . . . . . Feb. 2012 Monthly Report: 282 People -> 510 Native Plants

March 6, 2012. “During the month of February, our Full Circle Schools Restoration Ecology Program hosted 6 volunteer and student events for 282 participants at our Medford Bear Creek site.  As part of restoring this site, a total of 510 native plants were planted thanks to everyone’s hard work!” — Full Circle Schools Program of the Lomakatsi Restoration Project, Oregon, USA, from the Lomakatsi Restoration Project website, Posts from our Facebook page

If you want to stay tuned to these kind of activities, and others in ecological restoration, go to their Facebook page at  and “Like” it  http://www.facebook.com/Lomakatsi   At GoodNews For the EarthRosie CarnamDiana Hartel and Timothy Donald Jeffrey (Denman Island, British Columbia), Regina Siegel (Dietikon Switzerland), Rita Jacinto (Willow Creek, CA), Peggy Bradley Bowers “Like” this.  For more information, go the Full Circle Schools Program page on the Lomakatsi website.

STREAMSIDE FOREST RESTORATION along Bear Creek, Medford, Oregon, USA