NAU's Annual Compost Pick-up

Seedy Event Calendar

A few great learning, swapping, and volunteering opportunities coming up!

1. March 28th, Seed Packing. Come and volunteer with a great group of humans. From 10 to 2 at the Extension Office's Conference Room.

2. March 29th, The Flagstaff Seed Swap, from 4 to 7 pm, also being held in the Coconino County Extension Office Conference Room. The event is free and bring seeds if you have them, if not, make some new friends and snag some seeds in the process.

3. April 11th-13th. Rocky Mountain Seed Alliance's Grain School in Cottonwood. Dr. Gary Nabhan will be there along with a number of other savvy people to teach you how to include heritage and local grains into your food system. All levels of knowledge invited! For more information and to register, visit the website.  

Notes from my Recycle class on 3/14

We had 3 speakers tonight. First was the director of Willow Bend on teaching recycling to children. They teach a class at the recycle center once a month on the first Friday at 1pm for all ages. They also partner with the city, and the Azulita Project to teach recycling primarily to school children from K-6th grade. They also include climate change and renewable energy. The director spent her time mostly in telling us how to teach children.  The primary sugesstions were simple, clear, short, with lots of participation and demonstration,.

The next two speakers were about sustainable building - Nina Schmidt from Coconino County's Sustainable Building Program and Tom Elsass who is a local builder who emphasizes sustainable building practices.

The mission of the Coconino County Sustainable Building Program is to encourage, educate, support and develop sustainable building practices and processes for residents of Coconino County and all the communities within it.

Coconino County Sustainable Building Program offers the following services to all residents of Coconino County, and the cities and communities within it, for free:

•Consultations

•Certification Program

•Resources for Sustainable Building

•Code Support

•Educational Opportunities

Important Bill for State Parks - Write your representatives

ARIZONA HERITAGE ALLIANCE P.O. Box 16282, Phoenix, AZ 85011 602-528-7500 mail@azheritage.org

ADVOCACY ALERT - SB 1241 and HB 2701, both State Parks Heritage Fund bills, move forward.  Please contact your Senators & Representatives   Janice Miano, President, Arizona Heritage Alliance Dear Friends of the Heritage Fund Arizona voters approved the creation of the Arizona Heritage Fund in 1990; The Heritage Fund originally allocated $10 million per year of Lottery monies to Game & Fish and another $10 million to State Parks. From 1991 to 2007, the State Parks Heritage Fund served our state well with its dedication to parks, outdoor recreation, open space, non-motorized trails, outdoor and environmental education, and historic preservation awarding 579 grants totaling $24,179,567 and supporting projects in every County in our State. However, as many of us remember, the State Parks portion of the Heritage Fund was defunded and eliminated from statute during the Great Recession. The Arizona Heritage Alliance was formed in 1992 to help protect and educate about the Heritage Fund which was passed by Voter Initiative in 1990 with nearly a two-thirds majority of the vote. For the last decade the Heritage Alliance has been fighting to reinstate the State Parks Heritage Fund which was eliminated from statute in 2010 during budget negotiations, after 20 years of successful projects!! That’s a decade of lost income to Arizona’s communities. Game & Fish has continuously received their $10 million without a stop. The Arizona Heritage Alliance Legislative Task Force has been working closely with our Sponsors Senator Kate Brophy McGee (LD28) and Representative Joanne Osborne (LD13). It is our hope that this Legislature restores the Fund after satisfying all other current encumbrances, and to bring the Fund back to effect in a responsible and deliberate manner. Senator Kate Brophy McGee’s Senate Bill 1241 (state parks; heritage fund) puts the State Parks Heritage Fund back into statute. There is no dedicated funding attached to this bill, however when Lottery encumbrances are repaid and removed, it will receive its $10 million from the Lottery as intended. It will also open the door for grants, donations, and direct appropriations. This Bill flew through the Senate with a vote of 30-0. It is now in the House.

Milkweeds for Monarchs

 

At our recent CMGA meeting a reward for locating Milkweeds was presented by Dr. Richard Hofstetter. See poster above for information on applying for the bounty hunt.

Grain School in Cottonwood

Join us for a very special Grain School in the Verde Valley near Sedona, Arizona!

April 12-14, 2019
 with special guest, Dr. Gary Nabhan.

 Presented by the Rocky Mountain Seed Alliance in partnership with ECO Learning Center.

With a focus on ancient and heritage grains, you will learn expert techniques and hands-on skills to grow, harvest, mill, market, and bake with locally adapted grains. Nutritional values of ancient grains will be presented, along with the ecological benefits of adding grains to your garden or farm portfolio. Grain collaborations will also be explored and encouraged. Don't miss this unique opportunity to dive deeply into the exciting, delicious world of heritage grains!

Regular price: $300 – Includes a locally sourced lunch with heritage grains featured

RMSA Supporting Members price: $240

To become a RMSA Supporting Member, click here.  Your annual membership entitles you to up to 20% discounts on Seed School courses and other events.

**Free public forum and ECO Center Farm to Table dinner: Friday, April 12th from 5:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m.**

Scholarships available. For information, please contact Belle at belle (at) rockymountainseeds.org or (928) 255-1125.

Course location: ECO Learning Center – 3360 E Hwy 89A, Cottonwood, AZ 86326

Beginning Vegetable Gardener

Class is from February 7-April 18 - 1st and 3rd Thursdays at 530pm-7pm at the County Extension Office. Classes are free from Coconino Master Gardeners.

We are looking for volunteers to help teach the Beginning Vegetable Gardening class. It starts Feb. 7 from 5:30-7:30 and runs every other Thursday for 6 weeks. The 7th class is a visit and workshop at Forestdale Farm on April 21.

We are looking for teachers for all the evening classes. You can do just a portion of the class or take on the whole thing. For example, you can offer to describe how you got started in vegetable gardening for the 1st class. For Soil & Amendments, we have volunteer to cover composting

Feb. 7 - Planning Your Garden

Feb. 21 - Variety Selection and Seed Starts

Mar. 7 - Soil & Amendments

Mar. 21 - Season Extenders & Microclimates

April 4 - Pests & Diseases

April 18 - Various Veggies

April 21 - Tour and Volunteer Day at Forestdale Farm

Let us know how you can help. Attached is a LINK for the flyer.

Best,

Hattie & Brooke

bnfreeman@email.arizona.edu

Native Plant Society Monthly Meeting

Gwendolyn Waring will be talking about her new book on the natural history of the San Francisco Peaks, which launched in late 2018.  This comprehensive book spans the building of this marvelous landscape and the many plants and animals that managed to find it and stay through the wild climates of the Pleistocene and Holocene.  Waring will focus on the plants of the mountain, and many of their incredible stories.  This book and Waring's earlier book, a larger look at the natural history of the Great Basin and the Colorado, will be available for sale.

The meeting is on Tuesday, March 19, at 7pm at Shepherd of the Hills Lutheran Church (1601 N. San Francisco).

Notes from Recycle Class 2

If you are interested in Food Waste there is a great site with suggestions - http://savethefood.com/

Some tips from my class included: 

                buy the right amount

                stick to your grocery list

                shop in season

                store properly - lettuce wrapped in a moist paper towel then a plastic bag, do not refrigerate tomatoes

                store in clear containers

                eat what you have - be creative

If you are looking for solutions for global warming there is a book titled Drawdown:

Last of all we visited the recycle processing center on Butler. Every first Friday they do a class and tour of the facility which is presented by Willow Bend Environmental.  It was very informative and fun - great for kids. I learned I am recycling a few items incorrectly.

                No wrapping paper or paper with anything but paper (some candy wrappers have plastic)

                No orange medicine bottles  - they are a 5 - only 1 and 2's

                Not all 1 and 2's are OK - they should have a screw top or lid

                No clamshells or fruit containers - the extension uses them for planting demos if large   

                            enough

                You can add foil to the recycle - clean and scrunched into a ball is better

Watch for next week. It is about compost and we will visit the NAU facility.