Environment

Have you been wondering if solar power could be a good fit for you? Join Solar Works for an evening to learn more about solar energy, hear from people with projects on their homes and businesses, and find resources to get started—including a Home Energy Squad visit and a solar site assessment. You’ll also be able to connect with experts serving Saint Paul that can talk to you more about their efforts to encourage solar energy.  Contact Diane McKeown for more information.

Chemicals are all around us. There are reasons to be careful about exposure to some chemicals, especially with young children. The National Children’s Study and Saint Paul - Ramsey County Public Health are pleased to offer FREE workshops on maintaining a healthy home.  You will learn how to identify toxic chemicals and use them safely, as well as get information on non-toxic alternatives for your home and yard.  Advanced registration is required. To register, call 612.624.4140 or email sawye014@umn.edu.  Workshops are:

Monday, May 21 or Wednesday, May 30 | 6:30-8:00 p.m.
Maplewood Library
3025 Southlawn Drive
Maplewood, MN 55109
FREE ONSITE PARKING!

Check out the City of St. Paul's new website for healthy and local food.  Resources include info on composting, necessary zoning and permits, community gardens, and other local resources.

The suggested story format was flash fiction:
six words a story
half imagined

 Half a hard hat...where’s the rest? --Roger

 This is my home, gutters optional.
(found: a metal gutter service sign) --Roger

 Sometimes I fly off the handle.
(found: a car door handle) ---Ben

 Netted a net rope near highway. ---Tim

 Found pair of earmuffs. Highway eskimos? ---George

Film and discussion led by Dina Kountoupes
Tuesday, May 8, 6:45 refreshments, 7:00 pm program
SAP United Methodist Church, 2200 Hillside Ave. St. Paul

Permaculture is a design method. When used for planning a garden, it benefits the Earth, our community, and your kitchen table! Permaculture design works with whatever nature provides, whether in St. Anthony Park or the Middle Eastern country of Jordan. The documentary film Greening the Desert will show how Geoff Lawton of Australia’s Permaculture Research Institute created an oasis of agriculture in the Jordanian desert. Dina will tell how a city lot can be a garden oasis.
Dina Kountoupes is a St. Anthony Park neighbor and co-owner of Harvest Moon Backyard Farmers.

You have two opportunities for rain barrel and compost bin purchase this year. The Rain Barrel and Compost Bin Sales Roseville Sale (open to anyone) is Saturday, May 5, 2012 from 9-3. Compost bins will be $45 and rain barrels $55, first come, first served. Info posted at www.cityofroseville.com/rainbarrelsale

May 25-26, 2012 - 9am - 3pm
Rock Tenn Recycling
2250 Wabash Avenue, Saint Paul
Compost bins $55 - Rain barrels $69 (two styles)
Must pre-order online at recycleminnesota.org

Right now, some communities around us and around the world have already made the decision to add more plastics to recycling programs. In some places, they've decided to add all plastics.
Eureka Recycling is in the process of making a decision about collecting more types of plastics for recycling, along with other strategies to reduce plastic altogether!

Agenda:

The CERTs Right Light Guide illuminates the main differences between the types of bulbs available, how to identify the brightness of light bulbs, and how to read the new labels. Learn about lighting options and find the lights you need, in 3 easy steps.

Join in as we create super-short fiction inspired by the treasure and trash gathered and observed at the Leaf and Kasota Ponds Cleanup on April 28!

Consider the six-word flash fiction piece reportedly penned by Ernest Hemingway,
"For sale: baby shoes, never worn."
Instead of baby shoes, imagine a candy wrapper, a hat, a piece of broken bicycle gathered during the clean-up. Other things that inspire may not be trash but treasure--a red winged blackbird, an agate, a cattail. Could you construct a short story in six words?
Bent bike wheel, what a smash.
Red winged blackbird speaks the word.

Celebrate your watershed this Earth Day by joining us at the annual Kasota Ponds Cleanup!  We'll kick off the day with treats and fun learning activities for the kids in the group at the our gathering place on Kasota Avenue, just West of Hwy 280.  After passing out bags and gloves, volunteers will have the option of cleaning up Kasota Ponds or, thanks to a grant from the Mississippi Watershed Management Organization, going into St. Anthony Park to collect leaves and debris along boulevards and gutters in the neighborhood.  We'll meet back at the gathering site at noon to sort and count the collection and announce the grand total of pollutants saved from entering our watershed!  RSVP for the event. Send an email to lauren@sapcc.org

Rainwater from roofs and gutters drains from streets into storm drains and picks up pollution like dirt, oil and trash along the way. This runoff is not treated before it enters lakes and the Mississippi River. Redirecting downspouts onto lawn or garden allows rainwater to soak into the ground, and this is a good thing for lakes and rivers.