There has been a lot of advice on how to landscape our homes to keep wildfires away (including this column). However, a critical lesson sometimes gets overlooked; our homes are also fuel for a wildfire. Wildfires are not limited to wildland. All too often, once a wildfire reaches a neighborhood, it is the homes in […]
Have you ever opened your medicine cabinet, picked up a bottle, and realized it has been expired for years or that you had more than you would ever need? A survey in Los Angeles County found that 59% of respondents had medications in their homes that were expired or no longer needed, with 45% of […]
You can’t see them. You can’t swim in them. But groundwater aquifers are one of the most important sources of water in the North Coast. Aquifers are water-rich underground areas. They aren’t like lakes or pools but are composed of water-filled areas between rocks, sands, and gravels. Plants and animals benefit from groundwater when it’s […]
Every landscape can have a beneficial impact on the Russian River and the surrounding environment. In 2010, the Russian River Watershed Association (RRWA) created a comprehensive toolbox of principles and practices to provide landscape professionals in the region with guidelines for protecting our environment, known as the Russian River-Friendly Landscape Guidelines (RRFLG): Landscape Locally Landscape […]
Give them an inch and they’ll take an acre…as the California Invasive Pest Council says. There are a whopping 195 invasive plant species in Sonoma County. In the northwestern forest region which includes Mendocino County, 265 invasive species have been identified. An invasive plant species is non-native and aggressively out-competes native species! In other words, they […]
From Thanksgiving to New Year’s Day, household waste increases by more than 25%! Increased food waste, shopping bags, gift packaging, wrapping paper, bows and ribbons add an additional 1 million tons a week to our landfills. It doesn’t have to be this way. Make your holiday season as sustainable as possible by incorporating these 10 […]
It’s autumn and time to prepare for the rainy season and winter. This time of year, is when we are thinking about raking up leaves, cleaning out rain-gutters, and undertaking some car maintenance like replacing wiper blades and changing the anti-freeze. But did you know you can also help protect our local creeks, communities and […]
Do you like seeing trash and litter on our sidewalks, streets, yards, and waterways? We didn’t think so. Not only do our open spaces look better when they are clean and tidy, it contributes to a healthier environment. Trash and small debris pieces left in open areas may be carried by rainwater to storm drains. […]
Traditionally, each step of the human water cycle – how we acquire, treat, use, treat again, and dispose of the water, was dealt with as discrete, isolated activities. Separate departments, divisions, and districts were created to handle each of these isolated activities. Unfortunately, this traditional recycled water paradigm sometimes also comes with a high-priced additional […]
We all love our amazing 1,485 square mile watershed, its hundreds of miles of river and creeks sustaining our diverse ways of life. We also know our watershed may be feeling a little “under the weather”. So, like any concerned caregiver, we’d like to take its temperature. And we need your help! We’d like everyone […]
