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Our celebration of abundance continues! If you like to be outdoors on these autumn days, you can help the Weed Warriors harvest holly, or plant salal and other natives with the Student Conservation Corps. If your interest is in shoreline critters, you can learn more about them with our Beach Naturalists. Go!Bainbridge is looking for alternative transportation ideas, and Zero Waste is making plans to work with local schools. The Watershed Council reports that salmon are returning to Island streams. And, in human habitat news, we're excited about HRB's HomeShare program.
As always, if you have a sustainability issue that inspires or interests you, please let us know! Sharing our ideas strengthens relationships, weaves a community together and becomes the heart of sustainability. You can contact us by email or by phone at 206/842-4439. We look forward to hearing from you!
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Weed Warriors Holly Hunt! 
Friday, December 2, 1:00 PM
at Hilltop
Join Weed Warriors Friday, December 2, 1:00 p.m. at Hilltop, where we will remove a large berry filled-holly tree and put it into bundles for the December 3 Winter Market (and take some home for yourself). We need help removing the limbs from the tree, bundling the holly, and putting a tag on it educating folks about the invasive nature of holly.
Please bring your clippers, gloves and dress to stay warm! To access Hilltop, go to the end of Mandus Olson and go straight and slowly up the dirt road to the barn to park. Follow the arrows on the sandwich boards. A tour of the property is available afterwards if anyone is interested. If you have any questions, contact Jonnie at BILT, 842-1216, or Jeannette Franks, 855-0911.
Volunteers also needed December 3 at the Winter Market to distribute holly free and explain, "What is the problem with holly?" Call Jeannette Franks, 855-0911, if you want to volunteer.
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Student Conservation Corps 
Work Party
Saturday, December 3 Come burn off some holiday calories, while helping our local environment. Please join SCoCo -- the Student Conservation Corps -- for a work party at Blakely Harbor Park this coming Saturday, December 3. We will plant native sword ferns, salal and Oregon grape in areas cleared of ivy. This past summer, 32 high school age SCoCo members cut ivy from over 2000 trees, and revisited an additional 12 acres cleared in 2010. Students have now severed vines on nearly every tree in Blakely Harbor Park and adjoining historic Yama property. SCoCo restoration efforts continue now that seasonal rains allow for effective revegatation. Please meet us on Dec. 3 at Blakely Harbor Park meadow, near the intersection of Blakely Avene and Country Club Road, from 10AM to 12:30PM. Bring work gloves, and a shovel or gardening spade if possible. Wear layers, as we will plant come rain or shine. Hope to see you there!
Questions? Please email Barb Trafton for work party or information regarding our 2012 summer program. The Student Conservation Corps is a Sustainable Bainbridge Initiative, in partnership with the Bainbridge Island Metro Park and Rec District and The Bainbridge Island Land Trust. SCoCo gives local youth meaningful environmental work with the Park District, including field experience and a conservation education. |
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Go!Bainbridge
Tuesday, December 6, 2-3 p.m.
Marge Williams Center
 Go!Bainbridge, our sustainable transportation initiative, held a brainstorming session two weeks ago. The next one is at 2pm on Tuesday, Dec 6; the final one will be at 6:30 pm on Thursday, January 12. Both will be at The Marge Williams conference room across from Winslow Green.
Some ideas from the first meeting: reduce motor vehicle traffic, especially to schools; reduce idling; work on Grow Avenue as a Greenway/Bike-Walking Street; have a transit bus-van circle the shopping area from High School Rd to Winslow Way; have a similar vehicle go around the island to Parks and Tourist stops (hopefully a green/electric vehicle); look into instant Ride-Sharing; work towards a system of interconnected trails between parks,the city and neighborhood service centers; get involved with the Puget Sound RC and the Kitsap Regional Councils with Complete Streets plans; enforce current traffic laws; and, consider lower island speed limits.
If you have other ideas or would like to work on any of these, please attend one of the meetings, or contact Dana Berg.
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It's Red Envelope Time of the Year!Support Sustainable Bainbridge
As you make your choices for charitable funding this year, we encourage you to include a donation to Sustainable Bainbridge.
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Bainbridge Beach Naturalists
 Night Beach Exploration
Thursday, December 22,
7:30 p.m.
Bainbridge Ferry Terminal Beach
Come and explore our local beaches in the company of naturalists trained by WSU Extension Beach Watchers and the Seattle Aquarium. The next beach explorations, which occur during low tides, will be during the late evening, as that's when the best tides occur.
The December 22 event is our second of three events we will hold during the winter evenings. Bring a strong flashlight, wear boots that can get wet, and dress warmly. The exploration occurs whatever the weather, with the exception of a snowstorm that makes driving treacherous! To access the beach, park on Brien or Bjune, walk along the waterfront trail across the wooden footbridge at the east end of Waterfront Park, and continue across Harborview Drive on the beach access trail alongside the condos.
For more information, contact the Bainbridge Beach Naturalists.
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Home Share Program
The HomeShare program is the ultimate in sustainable housing. The Housing Resources Board matches people who have extra rooms in their homes with people who need lower cost rents. HRB provides support by screening all applicants and matching the requirements of both home provider and home seeker, giving peace of mind to all involved.
For information about HomeShare visit the HRB website or call
Penny Lamping at the HRB office: 206-842-1909, ext. 8.
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Join the #Powerdown Social Network
On cold morning days between 6:00 a.m. and 9:00 a.m. when temperatures drop below 20-30 degrees, our Island energy use soars. When temperatures spike or plummet, we naturally turn to our heaters and air conditioners for relief. If we do this at the same time on the same day, there's an electricity demand spike, which causes transformers to come dangerously close to overloading.
Along with PSE's Demand Response Pilot, our actions last winter kept peak demand below the PSE-defined limit during Winter 2011. Way to go, Bainbridge!
What can you do this winter? Through simple actions such as lowering your thermostat by 2°, making sure your water heater is set to 120° F, reducing your use of appliances or avoiding doing laundry during these peak times, you can help us shed the load.
Remind me!
Positive Energy sends out alerts via Twitter, Facebook and email to remind you to take #POWERDOWN actions.
Sign up for the Positive Energy newsletter, Like us on Facebook or follow @RePowerBI on Twitter to receive POWERDOWN alerts that will help you take action during peak demand times. Up to the minute substation demand is available online on the Island Energy Dashboard |
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Salmon Return to the Island!
 With the return of the rains, so too comes the return of Bainbridge Island's salmon. Despite the small size of our Island streams, several of them do support salmon, and historically our Island's streams probably saw returns of 10s to 100s of fish each year. As Puget Sound's salmon have faced increasing challenges from habitat loss, hydropower, and other stresses, our salmon runs, along with many others in the sound, have declined. However, we still see small returns of these beautiful fish to our Island streams and with the help of restoration, supplementation programs, and protection of our streams, we hope we will continue to see more of them.
This year, as they have for the past seven years, Watershed Council volunteers are out monitoring Island streams weekly during the spawning season. Recently, volunteers were fortunate to see returning adult coho in Springridge Creek, one of our major streams on the west side of the Island. Although several of our monitoring areas are on private property and not publicly accessible, you can learn about accessible viewing spots throughout the county by visiting the Kitsap Sun's salmon map.
(Photo Credit: Bill O'Neill; returning male adult coho salmon in the center-left of the photo; photographed November 2011 on Springridge Creek) |
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Zero Waste in 2012
 Zero Waste Bainbridge plans to work with the school district in 2012 to reduce waste throughout the district. If you have an interest in helping us conduct waste audits and/or establish more extensive recycling and compost collection streams in the schools, please contact Diane Landry .
Also, keep storing away your Styrofoam packing material for Bay Hay and Feed's second semi-annual collection on January 14 &15. The Styrofoam must be clean and dry (e.g., no hot tub insulation). Styrofoam peanuts will NOT be accepted - please take them to UPS instead.
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If you are interested in working with great people and helping us coordinate some volunteer activity, we'd love to hear from you. Contact us at info@sustainablebainbridge.org for more information.
For a thoughtful musing about where one might find the meaning of life, you can visit the Sustainable Bainbridge blog.
Sincerely,
Sustainable Bainbridge Board
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