Looking ahead to 2007 we anticipate greater involvement in watershed
planning and more volunteer restoration projects. There
will be several special events for members and the continuation
of our bi-monthly e-newsletters.
We are so proud to have attracted such extraordinary members.
Your generous support has meant so much! This year several of
our members were acknowledged for their wonderful environmental
work in the community.
Member/Advisor Honors - 2006
- Peter Duncan receives County Volunteer Award
- Jeff Gustafson receives EPA Achievement Award
- Judy Adler receives Diablo Magazine Threads of Hope Award
- Rosalind Creasy is featured in The
American Gardener (Nov/Dec. 2006)
We hope you will consider a year-end contribution to our Annual
Fund or direct a donation to the new Watershed Education Fund. We
would like to be able to hire at least one staff person during
the next year to be able to sustain our increasing involvement
in the community. Please download and complete our donation
form and send to LifeGarden, 860 Bellows Court, Walnut
Creek, CA 94596-5867. Contributions are tax-deductible
to the full extent allowed by law. LifeGarden is a 501(c)(3)
nonprofit organization (EIN 68-043-0188)
Matching funds from your employer are welcome as well.
Mission Of LifeGarden
Through an ecological approach to life, with
gardening as the focus, LifeGarden seeks to nurture the human
spirit and health of the biosphere. Using educational programs,
community projects and demonstration sites, LifeGarden fosters
an understanding of the interconnectedness of all life, and each
individual's unique role in creating a vital community
and world.
To contact us:
Ph: (925) 937-3044
860 Bellows Ct.
Walnut Creek, CA 94596-5867 |
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WE WISH ALL OF YOU A
VERY HEALTHY AND HAPPY HOLIDAY SEASON AND A GREAT NEW YEAR!
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As the year draws to a close it is customary
to reflect on an organization’s accomplishments and consider
goals for the coming year.
Since our formation in 1999 we have diverged slightly
from our focus on the home garden to the landscapes of
the larger community. Nonetheless, we continue to be
true to both our vision and our mission. We pursue the
teaching of ecology and sustainable land use practices
with passion and commitment. The bottom line for us has
always been to reconnect people with their place in nature.
Below are some highlights of the year.
2006 Highlights
- We updated
our website and introduced an attractive e-newsletter to provide more timely information to you, promote LifeGarden more broadly in the community, conserve precious operating funds, and reduce paper use.
- For the second year in a row we sponsored the two-county Bringing
Back the Natives Garden Tour. LifeGarden Member gardens were the most popular of the Contra Costa gardens visited.
 We
resumed our watershed education and restoration work
in the Iron Horse Corridor and established a special fund to support these
activities. The program
was initiated to test a more sustainable maintenance paradigm on public trails.
Substituting wood chips and planting natives for herbicide use and
mowing would eliminate stream and air pollution, divert organic waste, improve
soils, foster the use of appropriate plants, enhance wildlife habitat and
involve citizens of all ages and backgrounds actively in the care of the
natural resources of their communities. Happily, this is no longer merely
a LifeGarden initiative. The goals and guidelines we championed have
now been adopted by Contra Costa County’s Board of Supervisors in the Adopt-A-Section-of-Corridor program.
- Our three
fall restoration events were extremely successful and attracted
a diverse group of volunteers. One hundred volunteers spread 200 cubic yards
of mulch, and removed many nonnative invasive plants from the Corridor during
these events. The program is generating public interest from a variety of
sectors. It has been endorsed by the California Native Plant Society, East
Bay Chapter, EarthTeam, a Bay Area-wide teen environmental organization,
and the Girl Scouts of Contra Costa County.
- To foster citizen interest in creeks and their importance locally we
co-sponsored an exhibit on the history and ecology of the creeks of Walnut
Creek with the Walnut Creek Historical Society, Friends of the Creeks, and Walnut Creek Intermediate School. Creek interpretive walks accompanied the exhibit.
- The City of Walnut Creek funded a portion of the costs of hiring a watershed
planner to develop a
citizen-friendly guide to the Walnut Creek Watershed. The map will
be downloadable from the City's website by the first of the year and will
be presented publicly at the Park Recreation and Open Space Commission meeting
on January 8th (www.ci.walnut-creek.ca.us/)
The watershed map and our restoration work in the Walnut
Creek Watershed are enabling LifeGarden to assume a leadership
position in long-range planning for the protection of creeks in the central part
of Contra Costa County. Our hope is that that
salmon will once again make their way through these waters.
The Walnut Creek Watershed is the County’s largest, encompassing more than
90,000 acres. It includes not only the City of Walnut Creek, but Lafayette,
Alamo, Danville, San Ramon, Pleasant Hill and Concord.
We will be presenting the map again as part of a serious look at the Walnut
Creek Watershed at the January 10th meeting of the Contra Costa
Watershed Forum (CCWF).
To be placed on the Watershed’s mailing list email kono@cd.cccounty.us.
We have submitted a request for Fish and
Wildlife Propagation funds to print copies of the new map for planning
and discussion purposes, to create the framework for a Walnut Creek Watershed
Council and to expand our watershed protection work along Contra Costa County
trails.
Bringing the subject of water home we hope you will enjoy Saundra Tickner’s
brief article on the benefits of water features in gardens.
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WATER FEATURES:
Great Assets for Attracting Wildlife to Gardens
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Photos and Article by Saundra Tickner
My garden needed a pond. But, after talking to various
pond owners and pond "authorities" it
seemed that a pond would be a great deal of work
to maintain and require expensive filtration systems
that would be difficult to conceal. After seeing
Jan Enderle's pond on the Bringing
Back the Natives tour I learned that I
didn't need all the filtration equipment and wouldn't
have all the maintenance work at all. I contacted
Ron DeGeorge of Vortex Water Systems, and after
two and a half weeks my garden had the pond I desired.
The morning after it was installed the first visitor
of the year – a yellow-rumped warbler - arrived
to take a bath. So far I have had Ruby-crowned
Kinglets, Mourning Doves, Robins, Cooper's Hawk,
American and Lesser Goldfinches, Cedar Waxwings,
White-crowned Sparrows, Juncos, Hummingbirds, House
Finches and House Sparrows using the bog garden and
water feature to bathe in.
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