April 2024
This Month's Issue:
The Endangered Species Faire is Back!
City of Chico: Spring Clean Day
BEC's Spring Cleaning Tips
April Biochar Workshop and Training
The Compost Corner
Butte County Local Foodies: BCLFN Needs You
PSA: The Safe Streets Coalition
Tire Amnesty Days This Spring
Neal Road Green Waste Days
The Future of Butte County
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The Endangered Species Faire is happening THIS month!! | |
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Join us on Saturday, April 20th at the City Plaza starting at 10am for live music, educational booths, local craft vendors and food trucks.
Puppet Parade: Parade goers will begin lining up at the Hands Statue in front of the City Council Chambers parking lot, 421 Main St, starting at 9:30am. The parade will begin at 10am and will lead to the main event location at the City Plaza. Register to secure your spot in the parade here.
Do not fret; there is still time to make a puppet! Visit here to learn how you can participate.
We can't wait to see you there!
BECome a “Friend of The Faire” by making a donation to help us provide live animal demonstrations, musical entertainment and puppet making materials. Support us by making a donation online.
Thank you to our sponsors for helping make this event possible! The Printed Image, Thrive Steam Enrichment, California Climate Action Corps, WM, Klean Kanteen, Big Chico Creek Ecological Reserve, Butte County Local Food Network, Chico Creek Nature Center, Golden Valley Bank, Wildflower Open Classroom, Pullins Cyclery, California Reptile Adventures and Rescue, Greenline Cycles, California Trout, Friends of Butte Creek, Deer Creek Resources, and Mr. Kopy.
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For more information email parkinfo@chicoca.gov or call the office at 530.896.7831
Sign up for the cleanup HERE.
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Join the City of Chico for Spring Clean Day the morning of the Endangered Species Faire!
Before you come to the Endangered Species Faire on 4/20 help the City of Chico enhance local creeks and parks, habitats for numerous species, here in our community.
Volunteers can choose an area or park they want to clean up. Cleanup supplies will be provided at the check in location, Hooker Oak Park. Check in at Hooker Oak Park begins at 8:30 am.
A volunteer appreciation BBQ starts at 11:30 am at Hooker Oak. The BBQ at the park is a place where volunteers can celebrate their achievements together, before they head to the City Plaza for the Endangered Species Faire, and enjoy some live music and educational booths!
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Sustainable Ways to Spring Clean with BEC | |
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Upcoming Biochar Workshop
Join the Biochar Coalition on April 7, at Farmelot in Vina!
From 10am - 4pm, volunteers will be getting hands-on experience with making and learning about Biochar from members of the Biochar Coalition Board.
You’ll be able to walk away from the event with a new understanding of biochar and a new fascination with it.
To find out more about this training and to register, sign up here.
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Want to learn about the wonders of compost and see the process in action? Come get your hands dirty and learn about what happens to our food scraps at one of our Monday Mixers. This biweekly event will have you sifting through compost, mixing the piles, and adding food scraps to piles to kick-off the composting process.
You’ll be able to learn all about different methods of composting, and gain valuable hands-on experience that you can carry with you on your composting journey.
This month’s mixers are on April 8th and April 22nd. Available spots are limited, so sign up now!
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For information on Drop in the Bucket, our food scrap collection program, which is donation-based and has weekly pick-ups, click here.
There are other ways to compost too! Every Wednesday at the farmers market, Butte County Local Food Network will have a booth where you can deposit your fruit and veggie scraps. BCLFN takes these materials to their gardens and turn it into a rich, healthy hummus that they can add to the soil.
Please take the Community Compost Assessment Survey if you haven’t already! Your answers will help determine the future of composting in Butte County.
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Calling all Butte County Local Foodies! | |
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Butte County Local Food Network has 135 gardens to install throughout Paradise, Magalia, Oroville and Chico, and they need your help!
Please consider volunteering with BCLFN to install garden boxes on April 6-7 in Chico and April 12-14 in the communities of Paradise, Magalia and Oroville.
Shifts generally last 2.5 to 5 hours, depending on your stamina and willingness.
Please note: If you have a truck, BCLFN can provide you with a $20 gas card if you do two or more garden installations.
Sign up for the Garden Blitz HERE
The importance of this project is to provide low income families with the opportunity to grow their own food in their backyard. With recent funding cutbacks to food benefits in California, it could potentially lead to a predicament of having to choose between housing or food for families with children, which is not a decision any parent should have to make.
Rally up your friends and families, churches and work colleagues to sign up as a group to help local families grow their own food in Butte County.
Help BCLFC spread the word on social media.
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PSA: The Safe Streets Coalition | |
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The Chico Department of Engineering has proposed a Downtown Complete Streets plan to improve connectivity for all modes of transit, making it safer for cyclists and pedestrians to get around Chico's urban core.
On March 5, 2024, the Chico City Council rejected recommendations from the Internal Affairs Committee to proceed with Alternative 1, insisting that the engineers return with an alternative that doesn’t change existing car-infrastructure through Downtown.
Despite numerous studies that prove increases in business profits after Complete Streets projects are finished (Portland State Study, CBC article, VTPI Report, etc.), the council cited concerns of decreasing downtown business profits as rationale for the rejection.
Decreasing reliance on motor vehicle transportation and increasing accessibility of public transit, walking, and biking would significantly reduce the amount of greenhouse gasses released into the atmosphere as intended by the Chico 2030 General Plan and the Chico Climate Action Plan.
With decreased car traffic comes decreased runoff of 6PPD-q, the chemical found in car tires that decimate local native fish populations.
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The Downtown Complete Streets project would be a step forward for Butte County's environment, and will appear on the Chico City Council Agenda periodically until the grant is due in June of 2024.
Do you bike or walk in Chico? Tell the Downtown Chico Business Association that you regularly bike and walk to businesses downtown and that you would do so more if it was safer!
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Tire Amnesty Drop-Off Days
Neal Road Recycling and Waste Facility is holding two tire amnesty days this spring, where they will be accepting old and unwanted vehicle tires free of charge on April 17 and May 22.
Drop Offs are first-come first-serve, with the facility accepting 50 drop-offs per day between the hours of 9am and 2pm. Nine tires will be accepted per appointment.
If you've got old tires that you need to get rid of call 530-552-5705 to make an appointment for one of these dates and take advantage of this FREE service.
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Green Waste Disposal Schedule for Spring | |
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Are you a resident of Butte County who lives in the wild urban interface? Have high winds and storms led to an accumulation of branches and tree limbs in your yard?
Neal Road Recycling will accept your Green Waste Debris for free on designated dates!
Find out if your property resides in the wildland interface here.
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Preparing for the Future of Butte County | |
The county wants to hear from you! They are asking county residents to share their priorities and join the conversation by taking this survey. Those who take the survey will be able to share their concerns, and your input will help the county determine what types of programs funding and resources will go toward. | |
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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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