News from Sustainable Bainbridge

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!

Schel-chelb Walk this Sunday

An educational, self-paced 1.5 mile walk of the Schel-chelb estuary will be offered Sunday September 14 from 2 pm to 4 pm, with staffed stations along the way where local experts will talk about the Schel-chelb estuary and its watershed. Learn about watershed restoration, aquatic invertebrates, salmon, storm water and more! Sign in at the Lynwood Center Parking Lot near the Sunday Community Market. Find more information and check out the Bainbridge Community Broadcasting podcast describing the event.

Make your voice heard in the Comp Plan Update

The updating of our Comprehensive Plan and crafting the attendant regulations that govern growth and development in our city are excellent opportunities to integrate concepts of sustainability

into these important documents. Sustainable Bainbridge strongly encourages islanders to participate in the many ways that will be available for you to add your ideas and concerns to the discussion. The City has designated this process "Navigate Bainbridge" and here is a link to the website. On the left side of this page is a place to sign up to be kept informed about this process. Please take advantage of the opportunities to help improve our community's plan.

New "Walking Map of Winslow" published

Almost a year of work has gone into designing and printing a very comprehensive walking map of Winslow. It encompasses the area from Hawley Cove Park to Rotary Park, the high school, library, pool, Waterfront Trail, ferry dock, and shopping areas. Many maps exist of the island, but none have focused exclusively on walking routes in our central core. Go!Bainbridge has worked hard to include every public trail and waterfront road end with a goal of encouraging people to explore our historic town on foot. The map is free and you can find it at the B.I. Library, Eagle Harbor Books and the Chamber of Commerce after September 15.

The Bainbridge Island Police Department has asked Go!Bainbridge to help plan a Road Safety Forum this fall. With a focus on all road users: walkers, cyclists and motor vehicle drivers, the goal is to collect current data for a baseline and then look at what can be done in the future to improve everyone's safe use of our roadways which are really public pathways. Please contact Dana Berg

with any thoughts you have on this topic.

Zero-Waste cleans up at Bainbridge summer events: 75% of waste diverted

Do you know what FABULOUS FEAT the attendees and food providers at the Grand Old Fourth, Bluegrass Festival, Friends of the Farms Farm-to-Table Dinner, Bike for Pie, the Farmers' Market and National Night Out accomplished? They kept at least 75% of their discards from going to the landfill! That's important, because once something has gone to a landfill, the resources used to make that item are gone for good. Plus organic material in a landfill, such as food, yard waste and paper, produces methane as it decomposes, and methane is a potent greenhouse gas that contributes to global warming.

On the other hand when we compost, the food, plant matter and food-soiled paper decompose aerobically (with oxygen), and a nutrient-rich soil amendment is the end-product, not methane. When we recycle, new products can be made with less energy, water and extraction of earth's finite resources.

Make your next event a low-waste one by following the tips on this BI Zero Waste web page. Zero Waste is aiming for 95% landfill diversion at the upcoming Harvest Fair! Contact us by email if you can be an ambassador for a couple of hours at a resource recovery station between 11-5 on Sunday, September 28.

Weed Warriors head for Hawley Cove Park,
and a new invader threatens the Island

Join Weed Warriors Saturday, September 20 from 1 pm to 3 pm at Hawley Cove Park, a short trail to Eagle Harbor. Park thoughtfully and creatively at Azalea and Wing Point Way. Bring gloves and a refillable water bottle with water.

Have you seen this plant in your neighborhood? The Island's latest invasive plant is Clematis vitalba, sometimes called old man's beard.

This escaped ornamental is lovely, but we may soon may start calling it "Kitsap kudzu." If we don't get rid of it in its early stages, herbicides will be the only way to remove it. The plant is easily identified because it looks exactly like small clematis, for that is what it is. Small, pretty white flowers adorn the fast-growing vine. It can take down a tree ten times as fast as ivy.

It's all around us: we've seen it on a trellis at a waterfront pub, in the laurel hedge near a Winslow thrift shop, even under the foundation of the Senior Center. If you see it, please alert the property owner of its invasive nature. In Kitsap County you can report it on this website. Let's work together to stop it before it becomes another knotweed!

Prime Time for Scotch Broom removal

Now is the time for cutting Scotch broom to the ground. Shrubs are stressed from dry hot days, and with another month or so of drier weather, 80% of shrubs will not return. Plus, dry grasses make the green stems of scotch broom more apparent than any other time of year, save bloom season. Soon we return to the more time-consuming Pull season. If you have lots of scotch broom, Let's Pull Together can help. Email us soon.

BCB Podcasts garner 6,000 listens

Thank you Bainbridge for 6,000 listens to Bainbridge Community Broadcasting's podcasts during BCB's first four months!

During this initial run, BCB has published nearly 80 podcast episodes in six topic areas: upcoming local events; local people; nature and outdoors; local food; community needs and issues; and the view from the high school campus. That's an average of about 75 listens per podcast episode during this start-up trial period. BCB will to continue being the Island's source for conversations about community and sustainability.

Watch for an upcoming announcement of a free BCB radio listening app for smart-phones or tablets. It will be ready to download for iPhone, Android and Amazon mobile devices later this month.

From the Sustainable Bainbridge Board

It's never too late to include us in your giving through One Call for All. Responding to the red envelope is a great way to support our community organizations.

We'd love to talk with you about our programs and plans.