New West's Second Annual Documentary Film Fest!

October 19th and 20th at Douglas College.

Stop Smart Meters

Help fund the film!

How green it is - Treehugger ?

Today when I visited TreeHugger.com , the mother of all Enviro-blogs , I was shocked saddened, disappointed by the adds that dominated the front page.

The top three advertisements I saw were for an airline, a car company and a petroleum company. Should we expect more from our Eco brothers and sisters over at TreeHugger? As a business person I understand the purpose of business is to make money after all. The purpose of environmental blogs or websites is to inform and inspire better (environmentally sustainable ) living, or so I thought.

Their name surely implies the hippy, happy, Eco- friendly life style. We are all "tree huggers, in a way, we want to lesson our impact and be more accountable. Or do we? Do we really just want a convenient way to continue doing all the consuming, driving, flying, texting, eating, and living that we, in the developed nations, demand and expect.

The answer is clear. Yes we do want to do all this and more. We do want to make a difference, to be better, to be greener.

So what if TreeHugger is making money from advertisers that perpetuate the destruction of the planet? They are, after all, still shining a light on the evil that dominates our green little planet. They offer us vast amounts of information and alternatives, all the while taking money from the multinational corporations that threatens our very existence.

Should we be discouraged by this act of treason? Is this just the cost of doing business in the 21st century? You can talk the talk but when it comes to walking the walk, some still prefer to drive.

Planting trees with NWCGS

On a very snow day this November me and Brennan, from The New Westminster Community Gardening Society, went to check out some trees that had been offered to us for transplanting. The home owners were remodelling their back yard and didn't want everything to go to waste.
I had posted an ad on the Shared Harvest website in the fall looking for trees and shrubs for the garden that is planted at St. Mary's Church on Columbia.
This garden, called The Mary Mount Garden, is the first of two community gardens started last year. It has 15 plots and plans to double in size this spring. The Shared Harvest site allows you to post if you are looking or have items for sale, barter or to give away. It is one more step in creating a secure local food system.

We decided to take some smaller shrubs, wood we could reuse to build more beds, some jasmine plants, lily's, five cherry trees and one magnolia.
We planned to do the work this winter, and on February 5th we had a work party!

We arrived at the home with a half dozen other members and the home owner. We dug out and moved everything quite efficiently. The owners also generously donated a bench and arbour as well as stones to use for building beds.

Ava and Brady dug for worms and checked out the beds back at the garden.

Mark and Brennan staking out spots.

Brady and Autumn are finishing up with this small cherry tree.
The soil was really beautiful here, there was even a lot of compost in the composter and we added some of that as well.

This was a really big worm, it was fully twice this size when we first pulled it out of the ground!

When the gardening society was still forming member and co-founder David Maidman had the idea to build a public orchard. Well we are one step, and six trees closer to that dream today!

A tree is known by its fruit; a man by his deeds.
A good deed is never lost; he who sows courtesy
reaps friendship, and he who plants kindness gathers love.- Basil

New Westminster Environmental Partners AGM

Bottled Water Free Day- March 11th 2010

By now most people know that bottled water is bad! Bad for the environment, bad for your health if you factor in that the plastic leaches toxins into the water you are drinking. and bad for your pocketbook, as it costs hundreds of times more then tap water, which is what most bottled water is.

In Canada this March 11th will be the first Bottled Water Free Day!

Watch this short video and visit the website. Learn the facts and tell your friends. Small changes made by everyone will equal big changes felt by everyone.