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September 2023

This Month's Issue:

CLEAN WATER ACTION WEEK

Butte County Waterways Cleanup & Restoration Projects

Call to Action: Friends of Butte Creek

KAI Music & Arts Festival

Advocacy Article: Chico's Housing Element Approved

Welcome Back Students

Butte County Green Waste Disposal

Recap: Climate Action Day with California State Parks

Clean Water Action Week at BEC!

With our 36th Annual Creek Cleanup just around the corner, BEC's September Newsletter is dedicated to all things water. Help protect access to clean water in Butte County by signing-up to take action with BEC and our partner organizations this month! Read more below about how you can get involved.

Butte County waterways cleanup (Facebook Post (Landscape)).jpg

Riverbend Park in Oroville, CA

Feather River Cleanup & Restoration Projects

Hooker Oak Park in Chico

Chico Cleanup & Restoration Projects

Join us in Oroville, CA with Feather River Recreation and Parks District from 10am-2pm at Riverbend Park on September 16th to help restore the health of the Feather River and surrounding trails near the fish hatchery.

Butte Environmental Council Presents the 36th Annual

Bidwell Park & Chico Creeks Cleanup and Restoration Projects

Saturday, September 16th

If you would like to volunteer for the Chico Cleanup as a core volunteer, email steward@becnet.org

Once again, many thanks to the City of Chico, Butte County Fish & Game Commission, Butte County Public Works, and all our business and nonprofit sponsors: Sierra Nevada Brewing Co., City of Chico, Recology, Waste Management, Klean Kanteen, Chico U-Lock It Self Storage, Friends of Bidwell Park, Chico Area Recreation and Park District, California Health Collaborative, Crystal Geyser Natural Spring Water, California Coastal Commission, Chico Natural Foods Co-Op, Members 1st Credit Union, CN&R, InterWest Insurance Services LLC, Golden Valley Bank, Mr. Kopy, for the monetary support for this event.

The support from the community helps us to achieve our mission to protect the land, air, and water of Butte County for many generations to come!

Call To Action:

Mourning the Loss of Spring-run Chinook Salmon

The catastrophic landslide and sedimentation of Butte Creek caused by the failure of a PG&E canal on Aug. 10th has devastated the creek and the wildlife. The District Attorney and California Department of Fish and Wildlife are investigating the incident and potential legal actions are possible.The full meeting was recorded and can be viewed here.

The Ask: Submit a Letter

to Chuck Bonham, Director of California Dept. of Fish & Wildlife, to hold PG&E accountable for their failing infrastructure. We must not let PG&E continue to get away with destroying our watershed!

Read the letter template here.

Learn more & get involved at http://www.buttecreek.org/

Oct 6th: Friends of Butte Creek will host the 17th Annual Wild & Scenic Film Festival - “CommUNITY"

Enjoy an evening of 11 specially chosen films from the national festival featuring individuals taking action and creating positive changes for their communities. There will also be local films about Butte Creek, as well as songs performed by the composer/artist. Come have fun with our community and support the salmon and restoration efforts on Butte Creek. Tickets available on Eventbrite: Friends of Butte Creek Wild and Scenic Film Festival

Friday, October 6th at the ARC Pavilion, 2040 Park Ave.

Doors open at 5:30, film starts at 6:30.

Food, Beverages, Silent Auction.

KAI Music & Arts Festival

Welcome to Kai Music Festival – where music, art, and sustainability unite on sacred Maidu land. Our festival is more than an event; it's an immersive experience celebrating culture, creativity, and community with a commitment to zero waste.Enjoy a day of diverse melodies, as local bands create magic, and an evening by the acoustic fire circle, where stories and songs touch the soul.

Kids 12 & under are free! We’ll have a bounce house, eco-friendly vendors, and activities for all ages. Overnight camping is optional and includes a pancake breakfast Sunday morning!

For every ticket purchased, 10% goes directly to a local non-profit organization of your choice! Additionally, this event is a fundraiser for From the Ground Up Farms and Duets Across America.

BEC will be hosting a compost build sign up today & camp with us!

Join us as we harmonize to create positive change.

Lake Concow Campground

Sept 23rd, 2023

Music begins at 11:30am

Advocacy Article:

Chico Housing Element

Finally Approved by State

After several rounds of revisions required by the CA Department of Housing & Community Development (HCD), Chico’s Housing Element has finally come into compliance with State law.

In concurrence with BEC’s Advocacy Committee’s recommendations, HCD required the City to add and bolster policies that support more compact housing within the existing boundaries of Chico. The additions include prioritizing older and rent-burdened neighborhoods for infrastructure and affordable housing resources, and completing a feasibility analysis for the redevelopment of City-owned parking lots in downtown into mixed-use residential developments and requiring that the recommendations be implemented. One of the more promising changes city staff added is to allow high density housing projects (35-units/acre) within Industrial Office Mixed-Use zoning. This change impacts industrial areas along Nord and in South Campus, and ‘The Wedge’ between S. Park Ave and Fair Street, which already has a proposal for a new multi-family housing project.

For years, Chico has failed to meet our housing needs. The initial draft of the Chico Housing Element made little attempt to remedy the trend, and was so far off the mark it went through 4+ rounds of revisions. BEC's public comment comment on the Housing Element describes that a sufficient housing element would,

"...[promote] compact infill and redevelopment within the existing fabric of the city, creating settings where all people can have comfortable access to their basic needs, including work and recreation, on foot and by public transit. Compact and walkable urban settings are demonstrably superior to automobile dependent sprawl in terms of energy use and greenhouse gas emissions, conservation of wildland and open space, public health, public finances, and, when combined with quality architectural design and urban forestry, a more beautiful and enriching physical environment."

State law is on our side in advocating for environmentally sustainable and socially just housing policies. The Housing Element is set to be adopted by the City Council later this month. In a subsequent meeting they will discuss a proposal from Councilmember Addison Winslow that the City apply for the designation of ‘pro-housing’ from HCD, which would improve Chico’s competitiveness on grants for affordable housing and infrastructure. We’re thrilled to see our efforts make an impact in the goals and policies of Chico, and hope to continue building momentum for smart growth approaches to development across Butte County.

The City has scheduled a public hearing to adopt this version of the Housing Element on September 19, 2023 at 6:00 pm. All members of the public are welcome to attend the public hearing at the Chico City Council Chamber, 421 Main Street, Chico.

Read BEC's publc comment on the 2022 Housing Element draft here.

Read Chico's approved Housing Element here.

Welcome Back Students!

As the 2023-24 school year kicks off, BEC is cultivating new partnerships on campus and bringing back our in-class environmental workshops to K-12 students.

If you or someone you know is a K-12 teacher, check out our suite of environmental education programs and sign-up to bring BEC into the classroom! Students have the opportunity to learn about urban forestry, recycling, compost, and even take a trip to the landfill! You can find out more and schedule your in-class presentation here: https://beceducationprograms.setmore.com?source=easyshare

Last week, with the return of CSU Chico students, we partnered with Green Campus and the Institute for Sustainable Development to organize a campus-wide climate action day. Students removed invasive species and cleared trash from the portion of creek running through campus. We hope this partnership will encourage students to continue taking climate action with BEC this semester.

If you're a new or returning student, consider signing-up with a few friends or as a campus club for our 36th Annual Bidwell Park & Chico Creeks Cleanup and Restoration Projects! Check out http://bit.ly/chicocreekcleanup2023 for more info.

Thanks for a great start to a new school year, and keep an eye out for upcoming climate action events!

Climate Action Day with

California State Parks!

On Thursday, August 31, 2023, volunteers gathered at the Pine Creek Access Day Use area at Bidwell-Sacramento River State Park ready for a morning of climate action.

In partnership with California State Parks and Altacal Audubon Society, State Parks Environmental Scientists in the Northern Buttes District led volunteers in cutting and thinning overgrown vegetation, clearing paths, and targeting invasive species for removal to enhance accessibility, mitigate fire hazards, and improve the overall ecosystem health in this area along the Sacramento River just outside of Chico, California.

This new trail system highlights recent and ongoing restoration efforts, done in collaboration with River Partners, in which orchards have been reverted to riparian habitat. Mary Muchowski, the director of Altacal, reflected: “This event showed that we can team up to make an impact in our local area. It was great to see community volunteers show up and work hard to improve the trail in the new restoration area. I’ve been watching this restoration area grow since it was planted in 2021, and I look forward to watching it mature over the years!”