Wednesday, November 22, 2006

California Green Solutions for business

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Backyard Nature - Wildlife and Habitat Appreciation & Tips

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Communities bloom with America In Bloom

Participation in the community programs by America in Bloom helps focus community residents on greening their habitat.

The community's list of benefits ranges from increased tourism to being more butterfly friendly, from greater community involvement and civic pride to more beautiful spaces and improved quality of life. And the program, which is mostly supported by donations and accomplished through volunteer efforts, is cost effective for the community, as well.

Cities of all sizes can join the campaign to beautify their communities. America in Bloom is dedicated to working together to plant pride in our communities.

Arroyo Grande is one California city that participates.

America in Bloom Judges evaluate communities on eight criteria:

Floral Displays
Environmental Awareness
Landscaped Areas
Tidiness
Urban Forestry
Heritage Preservation
Turf and Groundcovers
Community Involvement


CONTACT
America In Bloom
www.americainbloom.org
e-mail aib@ofa.org
phone: 614-487-1117
fax: 614-487-1216.

California Green Solutions for business

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Backyard Nature - Wildlife and Habitat Appreciation & Tips

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Sierra Club environmental informatin and advocacy

The Sierra Club is about more than wilderness and wildlife.

Their environmental news, research, education and advocacy help inform our communitie about critical life support issues...if not improve them directly.

Some of their key issues of concern regarding the environment include:

Stop sprawl -- cost and consequence of poorly planned development

Wildlands -- protection of the last 100 million acres

Forest protection and restoration -- fighting the clearcuts and logging roads that crisscross our national forests

Clean water -- face the pollution, wetland destruction, and factory farms that pollute our fresh water supply

Stop global warming -- slow and eventually stop it by acting now

Human rights and the environment -- protect environmental activists who are persecuted for their efforts to protect the earth

Global population -- family planning affects both healthy families and a healthy environment in which to live

Responsible Trade -- protect natural heritage and our children's lives...and futures

Clean air -- smog affects health directly with respiratory and asthma health emergencies

...and more environmental issues
(No one can say that environmental work is simple!)

Corporate accountability
Critical ecoregions for the web of life
Environmental education
Environmental justice
Genetic engineering
Grazing of public lands
Marine wildlife and habitat
Nuclear waste
Endangered species and habitat
Sustainable consumption - lifestyle choices
Toxic chemical pollution
Trash transfer stations
Transportation choices and livability
Wetlands filtration of floodwater, pollutants and contaminants
Wildlife discovery and relationships as a living neighborhood

Tuesday, November 21, 2006

California Green Solutions for business

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Backyard Nature - Wildlife and Habitat Appreciation & Tips

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Eric Garcetti's guide to LA's urban nature

Los Angeles's Urban Environment by Eric Garcetti's LA City Council team.

Explore the parks and green space of Los Angeles. Learn more about what the city and others are doing to improve our urban environment.

This is a robust page of links to the variety of urban nature resources in the LA area. In a city that is known for sprawl and cement rivers -- it's refreshing to discover the amazing variety of nooks and crannies in which nature still flourishes...or struggles to flourish.

For example:
Gardens for Kids LA that fosters gardens at more than 100 local schools.

.... and the Street Tree division that cares and preserves trees and landscaped areas within the public street right-of-way nooks and crannies.

In a city of 10 million and growing...there are never enough advocates for nature's life support system. We depend on nature...even in the urban jungle. Thank you Eric Garcetti and team...for your hard work to build a more sustainable LA.

Monday, November 20, 2006

California Green Solutions for business

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Backyard Nature - Wildlife and Habitat Appreciation & Tips

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Sustainable Seafood Program for Gulf of California


The Desert Museum has partnered with the Monterey Bay Aquarium and the Sonoran Sea Aquarium to research and produce a Gulf of California Seafood Watch Guide. Use this guide and help make a difference! Your wise choices will help create a healthier Sea of Cortez, and healthier oceans worldwide. Pocket-size Seafood Watch Guides are available at the Desert Museum's ticket window, and can be downloaded here. For more information about the Monterey Bay Aquarium's Seafood Watch Program, or to view the research summaries upon which the Gulf of California Seafood Watch Guide is based, visit www.montereybayaquarium.org.

Over the past two decades, the world's fishing fleets have come to employ increasingly sophisticated technology to locate and harvest seafood (finfish and shellfish), including sonar, GPS, satellite data, seafloor scouring devices, long-lines, and highly effective gill nets. Today, as a result, 80 percent of the world's commercially-fished species are being fished at or beyond the brink at which their populations can sustain themselves (i.e., beyond sustainable levels). Annual seafood catches have now declined worldwide despite increased efforts by fishers. In addition, the sea's top predators have been reduced in numbers (by over-fishing) as much as 90 percent. Further, poorly designed coastal aquaculture farms are destroying the world's shores. Humans are now over-fishing nearly every commercial marine species, disrupting natural ocean ecosystems, altering oceanic food webs, and destroying coastlines around the world. And, a third of all the commercial seafood harvested in the world goes to fishmeal and fish oil, not to feed hungry humans.

For all these reasons, herbivorous fish (those species low in the food chain), such as catfish and tilapia, are the best options for harvesting and for consumers. If you must buy shrimp, buy U.S. wild-caught or farmed shrimp where strict guidelines are in place.

- Avoid purchasing all top carnivores ("apex predators"), such as grouper, sea bass, corvina, snapper, orange roughy, rockfish, and sharks. These fish are long-lived and commonly harvested before they have spawned.

- Avoid purchasing all seafood dredged from the sea floor, such as clams, oysters, scallops and shrimps (purchase hand or shovel-harvested shellfish). The dredging operations disrupt the seabed ecosystem and, in some cases, totally destroy it.

- Avoid fish taken by long-lines. This non-discriminating fishing method kills hundreds of thousands of non-target organisms, including sea turtles and porpoises, and have largely been responsible for the plummeting world bluefin tuna populations (bluefin tuna catch has fallen 90 percent since 1963).

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