Sunday, February 20, 2011

The new Sustainable Valentine's Day: August 14!

GLASTONBURY, UNITED KINGDOM - OCTOBER 13:  A m...Image by Getty Images via @daylifePlan ahead now: tell your sweetie that, henceforth, you won't be pitching woo with those air-freighted hothouse flowers in February, but you'll deliver a much more loving gift under the sun on August 14, when the flowers around Salem are so mind-bogglingly beautiful that you'll wonder why you ever settled for the imports.

It's time to say a firm no! to fossil-fuel-flowers, the kinds grown in South America and shipped via jet airplane up to northern markets in the dead of winter.

Let's start a new kind of peace movement right here in the city named for peace, a movement about stopping the war against climate stability, a movement about making peace with the beautiful and bountiful place we live by acting carefully to protect it against our excesses and outmoded habits. Instead of just keepin' on the old ways, let's be smart, and time-shift Valentine's Day six months, to August, when there is a glorious abundance of gorgeous flowers throughout the Willamette Valley, and a real dearth of holiday celebrations.

Support local farms and growers with your dollars, keep your money circulating around you and enriching your own community, instead of sending it on an airplane to fly straight into the pockets of the oil companies and Wall St.
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A Historic Opportunity to Reconnect with Salem's Past . . . and Future


Dear friends and community members,

A number of community residents recently attended a presentation about the Sustainable Cities Initiative plans that were presented by University of Oregon students for Minto Brown Park.

We were excited about many of the students' ideas. In particular, we would like Salem residents and park users to think about renovating the Cherry Orchard,and adding an organic community garden at that site.

We invite you to come see the orchard. The attached flyer has information on Cherry Blossom tours of the orchard planned for April, and work parties scheduled for March. The city has volunteered to provide some gloves and tools for the work.

This idea fits well into the existing Master Plan for the park, which calls for organic gardening at that site. City Council is considering designating $100,000 of the recent Federal payment to replant the historic Minto orchard with native habitat. We think that with all the farmland that is to be planted with natives, saving the orchard and providing for organic community gardening is a better use of that little corner of the park.

CALENDAR: "Crisis in Oregon: Is water quantity and quality in danger?"

Location map of Oregon, USAOregon's wealth is its waterCrisis in Oregon:Is Water Quantity and Quality in Danger?

Salem Public Library 585 Liberty St. SE, Salem, OR 97301
Anderson Room A Phone: (503) 743-4567
Wednesday, March 2 7:00 p.m. - 9:00 p.m.

Come and join us to hear what's happening at the state and local levels and how you can work to protect Oregon's water resource.

Speakers:
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