BEC's Mission is to protect and defend the land, air and water of Butte County and the surrounding region through action, advocacy and education.

Our monthly newsletter is designed to keep our community informed about local issues that impact our region's environmental quality and bring you opportunities to become involved.

Bring your food scraps to be composted!

Each year, 108 billion pounds of food is wasted in the United States. This is 30-40% of our food supply that ends up in the trash. Help us divert this from our landfill and learn to compost your food scraps!

BEC will be hosting a gardening and composting workshop at our community garden as part of Community Climate Action Day.

Start saving your food scraps this month. You can do this easily by starting a separate bin or bag by your trash just for food waste. A tip is to put this container in your freezer for no smell!

• Compostable items include fruits and veggies, eggshells, banana peels, coffee grounds, and most organic matter.
• Do not compost meat or dairy products, oil or butter, candy, plastic wrappers, bread, grains or processed foods like pizza.

Oak Way Community Garden is located on West 8th and Nord Avenue, next to Oak Way Park. Between 10am and noon on October 29th, we will have volunteers ready to take your scraps and add them to our composting system. This is a completely free community event, see you there!

We’re planting trees!

As part of Climate Action Day in Butte County on October 29th BEC will be planting trees at South Chico Community Assistance Center at 1805 Park Ave, Chico. Volunteers will be putting in 3 fruit trees and two shade trees so that center visitors and the entire community can benefit from some free snacks when the fruit is ripe and shade from the hot dry weather.

There are many volunteer opportunities happening on Climate Action Day throughout Butte County including projects involving urban greening, wildfire mitigation and edible food recovery.

If you’re interested in these projects you can volunteer with us and help make a difference in our community this Saturday.

BEC is leading volunteers in the tree planting at the South Chico Community Assistance Center as well as a composting workshop and revitalization of our community garden at Oak Way Park. Other organizations from the county will be leading more projects too.

For detailed signup instructions for most project locations, including Forest Ranch, Magalia, and Oroville, CLICK HERE.

URGENT CALL FOR HELP!

With growth typically comes growing pains. Over the past few years, BEC has expanded its reach, implemented new projects across the county, built relationships, advocated on issues that matter to all of us, doubled staff, added two Climate Action Corps Fellows, and more. Our organization STILL depends on grassroots donations from community members and, unfortunately, we have seen a drastic decline in membership and monthly sustaining donations. We are facing an unusual struggle to afford our administrative costs and are calling on our supporters for help. If you are already a member, please consider increasing your monthly contribution even by just $2 per month. If you are not yet or are no longer a member, please consider joining our membership program for as little as $4 per month. If you are unsure of your membership status, as many times members lapse and miss our renewal notifications, then please don't hesitate to call our office.

This newsletter is opened by more than 1,000 people each month, yet we are down to 175 members. Asking for help is one of my greatest personal challenges, but I am humbly asking this of you, dear reader, today.

Please help Butte Environmental Council keep up this tremendous momentum we have in expanding our impact for a better future in Butte County and the surrounding region.

Humbly yours - Caitlin Dalby, Executive Director

YOU are the reason BEC thrives!

BEC is a grassroots non-profit dedicated to a healthy environment for us all. Our work is made possible by people like you! Being a BEC member means sustaining the work we do for the environment of Butte County and the surrounding area:



• Angel Members contribute $35 or more each month

• Sustaining Members contribute between $4 and $34 each month

You don't have to be a member to contribute:

• One-Time Donations of any amount helps us serve our community and the environment!
• Volunteers help by donating their time, energy, expertise, and resources.