*** “LET’S TALK CYCLING” - A discussion to help reduce your carbon
footprint presented by the Monroe County Office of Traffic Safety,
Thursday March 19, 2009 at 7:00 PM at the Brighton Town Auditorium,
2300 Elmwood Avenue, Rochester, NY 14618. This discussion will provide
information on the vehicle and traffic laws of NYS and how they apply
to bicyclists. We will cover common collision scenarios and how to
avoid them and discuss safe riding techniques to keep bicyclists safe
on the streets. Whether you are a new or experienced cyclist, this
discussion will provide useful information on riding safely and
legally in traffic. The event will include a brief rundown of this
year’s plans for the Low Carbon Diet Challenge, now called “Cool
Communities: Rochester on a Low Carbon Diet.” Check out more
transportation issues at:
http://newyork.sierraclub.org/rochester/Transportation/Transportation...
*** Sign Up - Biking Rochester Traffic Class - Leave that car behind,
get on your bike, and be safe in traffic, and reduce your carbon
footprint. A biking class on how to prepare to commute by bicycle and
using your bicycle for utilitarian purposes - When: Thursday, May
21st, 7PM - 9PM - Where: Genesee Waterways Center, 149 Elmwood
Avenue, Rochester, NY 14611 (585) 328-3960 Course open only to Sierra
Club and Rochester Bicycling Club members. Cost is $30 with
application. The money to be refunded. If you don't show, the
application fee will be a donation to the sponsors. Family rate: Two
adults, same household, separate application, one $30.00 check.
Sponsored by the Rochester Bicycling Club and the Rochester Regional
Group of the Sierra Club. More information about the course, who is
conducting the class, and the application are here:
http://newyork.sierraclub.org/rochester/Transportation/Bike_Course.html
*** Sierra Club Zero Waste Committee | Next Meeting: February 23rd,
6:30pm-8:30PM, Winton Branch Library - Address: 611 Winton Rd. North
- Rochester, NY 14609 - Phone: (585) 428-8204 - Please show up for
our February Zero Waste meeting - We’re going forward. This meeting
will include Sierra Club policy on Zero Waste, partnerships we have
created, planning recycling tours, developing the best resources we
can for recycling in our area using online resources, and developing a
campaign for the proper recycling of TV from the delayed Digital TV
signal conversion date. For more info: http://www.sierraclub.org/committees/zerowaste/
*** Earth Day is just around the corner. Actually, this year, with
climate change a top issue across the globe, every day is Earth Day.
The year will be full of festivals, fairs, and environmental events
that provide opportunities for us to talk informally with kids of all
ages about how we can make a difference in caring for our community
and our world. So far, we will have tables at the following events:
March 4, St. John Fisher College, 11a-2p
April 22nd at Victor Junior High School, 5:30-9 PM
April 25th at Hamlin Beach State Park, 9 AM - 1 PM
April 25th at the Penfield Community Center, 9-noon
June 13th at Mendon Ponds Park for the Adirondack Mountain Club’s
Outdoor Expo.
We’ll certainly add more as the season progresses. We
need you!
We need volunteers to team up with already active members to meet and
greet the public and pass out literature. Each shift will be about
2-3 hours. No experience or knowledge of specific environmental
issues is necessary. If you are outgoing, have a friendly smile and
some energy, and enjoy talking with kids and grown-ups alike, please
give us a call. You’ll get to enjoy the festival or fair on your own
before and/or after your volunteer time! Call 585-234-1056 or e-mail
lci_...@hotmail.com
*** Global Warming & Energy Committee: Our next meeting is Monday,
February 23rd, 7-9PM at St. Thomas Episcopal Church, downstairs
conference room, corner of Highland Ave. & Winton Rd. This meeting
is the best way to get involved with plans for the biggest carbon
reduction effort to hit the Rochester region: (see below)
*** Cool Rochester This Cool effort will build on last year’s
successful Low
Carbon Diet Challenge, in which 119 households saved over 400 thousand
pounds of household carbon emissions. Community leaders including
Mayor Duffy praised the program at the Awards Celebration and called
for it to grow, and thus spread the savings deeply throughout the
community. We are now working with David Gershon, the author of Low
Carbon Diet workbook to make Rochester & Monroe County a national
leader by involving about 40,000 households over a three-
year timeframe. To reach this very ambitious goal, we need you! We
would like to form teams of folks who would work together alongside a
leader on the following activities:
1) Coordinating Events- Press conferences, major launch/kickoff event,
training events, etc.
2) Engaging Partners: A partner could be a business large or small, a
municipality, a faith community, a neighborhood group, a school or
university—anywhere that social networks already exist. Partners
would commit to sponsoring some number of “eco-teams” and/or to
supporting the effort in other ways.
3) Website Content Coordination- no HTML skills or other website
programming necessary; this team is simply responsible for feeding up-
to-date content regarding program status to the webmaster
4) Fundraising- both major grants and smaller donations
5) Media/Marketing- to establish relationships with media outlets,
write Press Releases, coordinate TV and radio spots, keep the
information fresh and in the public eye
6) Project Management- this team helps keep us organized, on schedule,
and communicating with each other effectively
If you have experience in any of the above areas, we need you! If you
would like to learn along with us, this is the perfect opportunity- we
are all volunteers, donating whatever time we can, and learning as we
go along. If you are just curious, we welcome your questions. Please
plan to attend the Jan. 26th meeting- no commitment required.
Questions: leave message 585-234-1056, or send e-mail to the addresses
below.
If you are interested but cannot attend the meeting, please contact
Jim Tappon: JTap...@Rochester.rr.com or Bob Siegel:
BoboL...@Rochester.rr.com. In your e-mail, PLEASE PUT IN THE SUBJECT
LINE: “COOL ROCHESTER- INQUIRY” so that your message doesn’t get
lost amongst the junk mail. THANK YOU!! http://newyork.sierraclub.org/rochester/LCD.htm
*** 2009 Environmental Forum | Local and Sustainable Food – Local Food
Choices |
Thursday, April 16th, 2009| 5:30 PM - 9:PM | First Unitarian Church,
220 S. Winton Rd, Rochester, N.Y. The Focus of the “Local and
Sustainable – Local Food Choices” Environmental Forum 2009 By the
Rochester Regional Group of the Sierra Club: |The focus of the
Environmental Forum is to educate our community that every aspect of
environmental wellbeing is touched by how we eat and to help to
provide a link to the local options that are available to everyone. |
Reasoning: Daily dietary choices are some of the most critical
decisions that we make as a human population. In our lifetimes, we are
directly responsible for what these daily choices do to our planet,
our health, and our future generations. Because of this we strive to
eat as healthy and environmentally sound as possible. | Environmental
Forum Speakers/Time-Table | 5:30 pm - 7:00 pm – Doors open to the
public. Information tabling begins - many local Food producers and
Non-Profits will be represented. Food will be available in the front
lobby. Programs will be available at the door. 7:00 pm – 9:00 pm –
Speaker program begins. See information to the left for details.
http://newyork.sierraclub.org/rochester/Food_Forum.html
*** Volunteers to Help Write A Master Plan Needed!
Under the guidance of Peter Debes, Chair of the Coalition to Restore
and Protect the Washington Grove at Cobb's Hill, a team has surveyed
the interests of all the various users of the Grove and catalogued the
problems it is facing. Like many parks, it is a problem of too much
love. It is easy to understand why. All the users share at least one
thing in common, they love the Grove. Most also have noticed the toll
that our love is taking, widening trails, gullies from overuse of
steep pathways, trampled vegetation, broken saplings, a decline in
ground-nesting birds, and perplexingly, very few young oaks to replace
the giants as they complete their lives and fall.
The group that has been working on the project to restore and protect
the Grove is now finalizing a draft of all the options that have been
proposed and considered valuable for taking action. We wish to prepare
a finalized copy of a Master Plan by the end of March so we can begin
work in April and May. The draft is in an outline form and needs to be
converted to a Master Plan from that outline. We are seeking
volunteers who enjoy and have skill in writing to join us to help
complete the document. Anyone interested in joining the coalition may
come to our next meeting on March 17, 7pm at the School Without Walls.
Contact Peter Debes at phde...@frontiernet.net, or call 585-820-2018.
*** Great Lakes Committee: http://newyork.sierraclub.org/rochester/Great_Lakes/Great%20Lakes.html
Great Lakes Colleagues, The New York Ocean and Great Lakes Ecosystem
Conservation Council released their draft report detailing the steps
the state must take to improve the management of our coastal resources
by focusing on Ecosystem Based Management. Please check the Council’s
website to view a copy of the report: http://www.nyoglecc.org/.
Even if you missed the Community Conversation meeting on February 10th
in Rochester, you can review the report
http://www.nyoglecc.org/media/Great%20Lakes%20Working%20Group%20Draft...
) and comment ( http://www.nyoglecc.org/comments.aspx ) on the report
and the importance of converting the Council's recommendation into
action for now and for future generations.
February 10th – Ocean and Great Lakes EPF Lobby Day in Albany – Email
SMA...@audubon.org for more details.
February 10th - Community conversation meeting on New York Ocean and
Great Lakes Ecosystem Conservation Council Report 6 - 830 PM at Suny
Brockport Metro Center, 55 St Paul Street, Rochester. Great Lakes
Colleagues, The New York Ocean and Great Lakes Ecosystem Conservation
Council released their draft report detailing the steps the state
must take to improve the management of our coastal resources by
focusing on Ecosystem Based Management. Please check the Council’s
website to view a copy of the report: http://www.nyoglecc.org/.
February 24th and March 24th - Great Lakes Committee Meeting at 7 PM,
Twelve Corners Middle School 2nd floor, Brighton
February Genesee Valley Audubon - The Return of Sturgeon to the
Genesee River - Wednesday, February 25, 2009, 7:30 p.m. - Brighton
Town Hall, Downstairs Meeting Room 2300 Elmwood Avenue, Brighton FREE
and open to the public Call 585-314-4570 for information -
Presenter: Jeff Wyatt, Seneca Park Zoo and University of Rochester
Medical Center - Lake sturgeon has historically been an important
component of native fish communities in the Great Lakes Region. This
large, primitive, ecologically critical fish is considered threatened
through out much its range. What caused the decline in population of
the sturgeon in the Great Lakes? What will it take to bring them
back? Why are such conservation efforts so important? The Genesee
River, a historical home of lake sturgeon, is one of the major
tributaries of Lake Ontario, and its water quality is improving.
Accounts as far back as the 1830's tell of VERY LARGE sturgeon in the
Genesee River. Studies began in 1999 to explore the possibilities of
restoring the lake sturgeon population in the Genesee River. This
project was accomplished through a partnership of the US Geological
Survey, the US Fish and Wildlife Service, and the Seneca Park Zoo.
Find out how it was done and where the program is headed. - Jeff
Wyatt, Director of Animal Health and Conservation for the Seneca Park
Zoo and Professor and Chair of the Department of Comparative Medicine
at the University of Rochester Medical Center will be our speaker. -
February 24-25 - Great Lakes Day in Washington, DC. hosted by the
Healing Our Waters®-Great Lakes Coalition. Visit www.healthylakes.org
for more info and to register. -
April 28th – Great Lakes Day in Albany. Email Katherine Nadeau
(knad...@eany.org) for more details
*** SIERRA CLUB BOOK GROUP - WINTER 2009 BOOKS -
http://newyork.sierraclub.org/rochester/Book_Club/Book_Club.html New
Location: Starting in January 2009 we will meet at the Unitarian
Church, 220 S. Winton Rd., Rochester, in the Susan B. Anthony Lounge
(first floor, straight ahead of the building’s main door) - Time:
7:00 – 8:30 p.m. - Day: 2nd Monday of each month - Books chosen for
the next 4 months:
Mar. 9: Vapor Trails, by “our own” Bob Siegel and Roger Saillant.
This novel is available from the authors ($15), and also will be
passed around by people who have already bought and read it. Go to
www.vaportrails.org People can learn more about the book there and
read the first 20 pages online. (See Nancy or Janet)
April 13: Sustainable Planet, edited by Juliet Schor. Articles on
many related subjects - read the ones that interest you most. (No
need to read the whole book in sequence!)
*** Our web presents is growing. Check out our new website that is
soon to be a major part of our group’s ability to broadcast our
message to the public: http://newyork.sierraclub.org/rochester/default.html
Got Suggestions? Contact our webmaster at
FrankRe...@RochesterEnvironment.com
*** "The Wetlands Committee is involved in an effort to create a
wetland on Buckland Creek at the Twelve Corners Brighton School
District campus in Brighton. A wetland on this creek would filter
water that eventually empties into Allen's Creek and Lake Ontario,
would provide some flood prevention for the Panorama Plaza area,
create an urban habitat corridor bringing many native insects, birds
and amphibians back to central Brighton, and establish a great outdoor
classroom for environmental studies. If you are a Brighton resident or
someone with a passion for wetlands, a background in environmental
education, an expertise in grant applications or fund raising and
would like to contribute to this effort, please contact Sara Rubin
585.442.6890 rubin...@aol.com " For more info, go to our Wetlands
page: http://newyork.sierraclub.org/rochester/Wetlands/Wetlands.html
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*** Let your voice be heard on environmental matters around our
community - Rochester Sierra Club Blog http://rochestersierraclubblog.blogspot.com/
- Our group now has a blog - The purpose of this blog is to provide
information and enhance both communication and participation of Sierra
Club members and concerned citizens in preserving our environment.
What is a blog? http://www.sierraclub.org/policy/blogs/ Surf over and
makes some comments, begin a dialogue about environmental issues and
our group.
*** Here's a great way to stay informed on environmental issues by the
Sierra Club: Getting more news from the Sierra Club online - How to
subscribe to the Sierra Club Radio Podcast http://www.sierraclub.org/radio/subscribe.asp
*** For all Rochester Regional Group of the Sierra Club's events,
check the web at: http://newyork.sierraclub.org/rochester/calendar/calendar.htm
*** Note: Only group owners can post messages to this group, so you
cannot reply to this message. Contact
FrankRe...@RochesterEnvironment.com if you have questions or comments
about this e-mail list. http://groupseta.google.com/group/Rochester-Regional-Group
*** If you are not a member, please become one. It's easy, just
check our brochure http://newyork.sierraclub.org/rochester/pdf/0704%20Brochure%20clr.pdf
*** Please encourage all who would be interested in all Rochester
Sierra Club actions and events to join this unofficial Rochester Group
list. Rochester Regional Group of the Sierra Club
http://newyork.sierraclub.org/rochester/index.html
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