The Environmental Stewardship Committee (ESC) meets on the third Tuesday of each month at Hideaway Bakery. This month, the meeting was held on January 17th and included 10 attendees (a great turnout!).
Two major items were discussed:
- How to approach reducing the use of gas-powered leaf blowers by the City of Eugene, residents, and businesses. Metro Portland and other cities in the US have been actively working on and passing laws limiting and phasing out the use of these machines. Recently, a new group called Quiet Clean Eugene has been formed, a spin off from Quiet Clean PDX (https://www.quietcleanpdx.org/). Two members of this new group eagerly joined our meeting to discuss where they were at in the nascent phase of their work and were looking for input and ideas as to how get the word out. They do not yet have a website but are actively working to get it up and running with links to articles, ways to contribute and be active, and current legislation in the works. This group is small at this point but hopes to meet with other neighborhood associations to garner support for bringing this up to the City of Eugene. We expect to continue to hear more about their progress in the near future.
- We went over the upcoming Amazon Creek tree planting logistics, which happened on Saturday, January 21st.
Amazon Creek Tree Planting Project:
– The actual tree planting day was cold and a bit breezy, but despite the weather we had a HUGE turnout of over 40 neighbors. On that morning, the City of Eugene Parks and Open Space personnel introduced the project, explained how to properly plant the approximately 150 bareroot trees (Cascara, Bitter Cherry, Chokecherry, and White Alder) we were tasked with planting. The group quickly got to work and we all took turns removing grass, digging holes, properly placing the trees in the holes and backfilling with dirt, and then following up with mulch and water. This phase of the planting took place between Fox Hollow and 33rd Avenue along West Amazon Drive. While we didn’t quite get all the trees planted in the time scheduled, the City followed up on Monday with a youth corps volunteer group who completed the project. The next planting, which will cover West Amazon from Fox Hollow to Snell, is scheduled for Saturday, February 25th.
It was great to see such support from neighbors!