Eco-Bulletin ~ January 4th, 2007

Small Wilderness Area Preservation (S.W.A.P.) invites volunteers to help with erosion and weed control in the Elfin Forest. The next work day will be Saturday, Jan. 6th, from 9 am to noon. The El Moro Elfin Forest in Los Osos is adjacent to the Morro Bay Estuary. Small Wilderness Area Preservation raised funds for its purchase in 1994, and turned the land over to San Luis Obispo County Parks. SWAP signed a 10-year Adopt-A-Park agreement with the County, which includes helping to restore and maintain the Elfin forest.

SWAP First Saturday work parties are held at 9 a.m. to noon on the first Saturday of each month. Volunteers meet at the north end of 15th Street off of Santa Ysabel in Los Osos. Dress for sun and wind and bring work gloves if you can. Some work gloves, tools and drinking water are provided. Please park carefully, avoiding driveways and mailboxes. For details, call SWAP at 528-0392 or contact Pete Sarafian, SWAP Conservation Chair, at 528-3194.

Join us for the City of San Luis Obispo Community Forum on Wednesday, January 10, from 6:30-9:30 at the Ludwick Community Center, 864 Santa Rosa Street. This forum is an opportunity to present your priorities to the City Council as they begin the budget process for 2007-2009. The City has already identified community priorities including preservation of open space and repair and maintenance of parks. We need to make sure that these priorities are recognized in the new budget cycle. We also need your support to expand ECOSLO's Natural San Luis contract with the City. With this contract, we are able to publish SLO Stewards, offer docent-led hikes, organize trail maintenance work parties, cooperate in efforts to preserve open space, and provide a resource center for environmental questions and research. We would like to increase this contract to allow us to publish SLO Stewards more often, organize creek clean ups, and lead more frequent hikes on city open spaces.

County Planning staff and consultants will present the findings of the Santa Margarita Ranch Draft Environmental Impact Report (Draft EIR) at a public meeting on Thursday, January 11th at 7:00pm in the Santa Margarita Community Room (22501 ‘I’ Street). The Draft EIR evaluates the environmental impacts of the 112-lot agricultural cluster subdivision and a future development scenario of potential future uses on the Santa Margarita Ranch. The draft EIR has studied impacts to water, air, biological, cultural and historical resources, traffic and circulation, geology, agriculture and public services. Measures to lessen environmental impacts and alternatives to the proposed project have also been evaluated.

Copies of the Draft EIR will be available at the public meeting. The Draft EIR will be available as hard copy Executive Summary, CD of the Draft EIR, limited hard copies of the Draft EIR, and on the Planning Dept’s web site, www.sloplanning.org.

For a copy of the Draft EIR (CD or Executive Summary), please contact Lynn Dotter, Environmental Division, at ldotter@co.slo.ca.us, call (805) 781-5010 or check the web site. For more information, contact James Caruso, Planning Dept. Project Manager, by emailing jcaruso@co.slo.ca.us.

SLO Stewards maintains trails, creeks, and open space. Work parties go out on Saturdays from 9am to 1pm. On Saturday, January 13th, trail work will be done on Islay Hill. To reach the trailhead and meeting place, take Tank Farm Road to Spanish Oaks Drive and continue to Sweet Bay Lane. Turn left onto Sweet Bay Lane; trailhead is at the end of Sweet Bay Lane. For more information, please call the San Luis Obispo City Parks and Recreation Department at 781-7302.

SLO City Parks & Recreation holds free ranger-led events Sundays starting at 1pm. On Sunday, January 14th, explore Bowden Ranch. Meet at the end of Lizzie Street (from Johnson, turn left onto Lizzie, trailhead at end). The hike is strenuous; rather steep but not too long, with stunning views for such a quick (but heart-pumping) climb. For more information, please call 781-7302.

HopeDance FiLMS presents "Go Further," the new film by award-winning documentary filmmaker Ron Mann, at 7pm on Friday, January 19, at the SLO Public Library (suggested donation of $5). “Go Further” explores the idea that the single individual is the key to large-scale transformational change. The film follows actor Woody Harrelson as he takes a small group of friends on a bio-fuelled bus-ride down the Pacific Coast Highway (stopping at Cal Poly and a farm nearby in SLO County). Their goal is to show the people they encounter that there are viable alternatives to our habitual, environmentally-destructive behaviors. The travelers include a yoga-teacher, a raw food chef, a hemp-activist, a junk-food addict, and a college student who suspends her life to impulsively hop aboard. We meet an entrepreneur who runs a paper company that does not harm trees; an organic farmer who believes nature is his partner; a man who teaches environmental activists to use humor as a strategic weapon. Harrelson tests his belief that the transformation of our planet begins with the small personal transformations that are within the grasp of each and every one of us, after which... we'll go further.

For more information, call 544-9663, visit www.hopedance.org or the "Go Further" documentary's official website.

The sixth event in the SLO Green Build Educational “LEARN, BUILD, SAVE” series will be held at San Luis Obispo's Temple Beth David on Wednesday, January 24, from 6-8:30pm. A brief tour of this new facility will take place from 6-6:30 p.m. Temple Beth David is located at 10180 LOVR (Los Osos Valley Road at Foothill) in San Luis Obispo.

The event, entitled "The Sun Also Rises," explores the use of passive solar design principles to achieve building comfort, day lighting & ventilation, in the context of one of San Luis Obispo County's premier examples of sustainable design, the new Temple Beth David. Applying these principles to existing structures to improve comfort and efficiency will also be covered. Presenters will be architect, Polly Cooper, from San Luis Sustainability Group, and Professor Robert Pena from Cal Poly's Department of Architecture.

This event is free and open to the public. While geared towards building professionals, all interested members of the general public are welcome. For more information, visit www.SLOGreenBuild.org or email info@SLOGreenBuild.org.