Green Living Home Tour & Show

You Are In For a Treat at This Year's Green Living Tour

It is once again time for the Coalition's Green Living Home Tour & Show which will be held Saturday, October 25th. This annual event offers opportunities to learn practical steps and design strategies that can be taken to improve quality of life and reduce one's environmental footprint through lifestyle changes and property improvements. Builders, designers, and homeowners will be on hand to share information and engage in conversation about their journey to creating a more sustainable lifestyle.

This year's self-guided Tour starts at The MOB Shop, 110 W. Ojai Avenue, a full service bicycle shop that was also designed and constructed with sustainability in mind. Here you can pick up your ticket and map to the Tour, and browse the Green Living Home Show displaying products and design ideas for homeowners wanting to learn more about sustainable products and practices. The Home Show is free and open to the public.

Tour tickets are $10 for adults (under 18 are free!). For more information and to pre-purchase tickets, visit our Green Living Tour website.

The tour offers an inside view of several unique sustainable homes, showing innovative examples within a diverse range of budgets and tastes. Homes range from a reclaimed redwood "tiny house" with a retreat cabin theme, to the Matilija Street moderately-sized family style home displaying an array of energy and water-saving features, to the Las Piedras craftsman with extensive reclaimed and salvaged materials, and finally an in-progress makeover of the 1920's Spanish Revival El Toro estate designed by famed architect Arthur E. Harvey, creator of Ch�teau �lys�e in Los Angeles.

With a special 'bike route' option on the tour map, it's a great idea to park your car and bike the tour instead. If you don't own a bike, or are planning a visit from out of town, no problem! The MOB Shop offers electric or standard bike rentals. To check rates, go to The MOB Shop rental page.

We enthusiastically thank our sponsors!

Electric Vehicle Exhibition at the
Green Living Home Tour & Show

An electric vehicle (EV) exhibit at the MOB Shop will complement our Green Home Show this year. Come check out EV bikes, carts and cars and talk to owners. There's actually a strong advocacy group in Ventura County: the Sustainable Transport Network (STN). Their current focus is on electric vehicle adoption, and promoting bicycle use and safety.

The STN has also helped bring people together for two other local groups:

1. The Ventura County Electric Vehicle Association for people interested in building electric vehicles;
2. The newly formed Electric Vehicle Advocates of Ventura County, for people who drive EV's and want to support EV adoption in our area.

Come meet and greet and learn about the great work being done to reduce our fossil fuel footprint and air pollution in Ventura County.

Our Already Impressive
Environmental Library
Continues to Grow

Thanks to a combination donation/loan of books from longtime local activist Alasdair Coyne, the Coalition library now boasts over 350 books and dozens of films. If you've never read Alasdair's A Brief History of Environmental Activism in the Ojai Valley, we encourage you to do so.

Volunteer librarian, Laurie Walters, keeps the library in tip top shape.

The Resource Center library has ecologically themed classics and present-day best sellers, field guides to ecopsychology and everything in between. All the donations of books and films over the last three years are much appreciated, as is the hard work of Coalition member, Laurie Walters, who keeps the library cataloged and organized.

Please drop by the Resource Center from 12 to 5 p.m. any Wednesday through Friday. We have a comfy nook for reading or watching a film. We're located at 206 N. Signal St. #S. That's upstairs on the Aliso St. and Signal St. corner.

If you'd like to help coordinate a regular reading salon, contact Deborah. Our first salon in July 2013 was well-attended and enjoyed by all. And one more big Thank You, Alasdair!

Concerned About Water:

Ventura River Watershed Council
is Coming to Town

The VRWC is having its semi-annual Ojai Valley evening meeting on Tuesday, October 7, 6 p.m at the Oak View Community Center, 18 Valley Rd. Oak View. You can view the agenda here.

The VRWC is a stakeholder group for watershed planning in the Ventura River Watershed. It is an open group with active participation by government agencies, water and sanitation districts, environmental and educational non-profits, agricultural organizations, as well as community volunteer groups.

The VRWC contributed to the development of a countywide watershed plan - the Ventura County Integrated Regional Water Management Plan - and is currently working on developing a watershed management plan for the Ventura River watershed. The Watershed Council is also a key participant in the Watersheds Coalition of Ventura County, a countywide program that provided the initial impetus for the formation of the council.

Watershed coordination-the work of the Watershed Council-is about different agencies, organizations, and community members working collaboratively, across their traditional boundaries or service areas or areas of interest, acknowledging the larger system that connects them-the watershed. Together, these entities identify areas of overlap and opportunities so they can work together toward common goals, and nudge existing organizational structures towards a more holistic watershed view.

We can't talk about water without talking about the watershed. Please join the conversation. Then help spread the word how all of us can Save More Water.