Posts Tagged ‘Environment’

People Making a Green Difference

An interesting article from the Grist blog. Click the link to read about individuals who are making a real difference in their communities.40 People Redefining Green from grist.org.

Monthly Meeting of The Gainesville Group

Join us at Taste of Asian for our monthly meeting.  This month the agenda will include a discussion of our upcoming forum on the recent housing market. We’re developing the format and preparing to invite speakers. We’re also looking for suggestions for future events, specifically issues of concern to the residents of Prince William County.

Second Heathcote Adopt-A-Highway Cleanup Coming

After months of cold and snow Spring has finally made an appearance!!  What goes better with the warm weather, the singing birds and the blooming tulips  than a nice walk on a lovely (I hope) Saturday MORNING?

The next clean up effort of our sponsored 2 miles is scheduled for 10 AM April 17th. Our section of Heathcote is from Route 29 to Old Carolina Road. All the equipment is provided all you have to do is show up and walk a bit.

The last time it took us about two hours to complete the entire section. It’s a good walk with great friends, and it serves a good cause as well so I hope you’ll come on out and join us.

The Road Ahead

We met on the January 12th and discussed where we would be going in the year ahead. The Gainesville Group is going to take a detailed look at the issues that are on the minds of PWC residents. We’ll explore them, determine the points of view and attempt to organize forums, open to the public, to discuss and explain them.

To accomplish this goal, we have formed the Issues Committee consists of Carol, Judy, Suzanne, and Terry. They have been challenged to develop a method for identifying issues. Once this phase is underway we can look at how to research the identified issues, and begin thinking about appropriate forums.

The year ahead is going to be very exciting. We will have a finger on the pulse of Western PWC and be in a position to advocate for the kinds of policies and laws that will make a real difference in our community.

Our next meeting will be February 8th, 7 pm at Taste of Asian again. Hope to see you all there.

Highway Cleanup in December

The motley crew ready for duty. The vests were just lovely lol. The effort was worth the 2 mile walk. I tried to make it 4 but cooler heads prevailed. The next clean up will be in March stay tuned for details.

Are you growing your own food?

This article on Grist (link below) discusses the growing trend in local farming. Even individually we can grow at least some of our own food and be sure of the quality. We grew lettuce and peas this past Spring and followed that up with bush beans, corn, cucumbers, and turnip greens through the summer. Of course Tomatoes are easy to grow in pots. We use “Earth Boxes” a product that allows effective watering without over watering. The rectangular boxes come with wheels to ease moving them around a deck or porch. You can add a trellis kit and grow vertically. With some select small varieties of things like melons you can have a wide variety of produce all summer long. You don’t need a lot of room either. We have a 12 foot by 3 foot raised bed behind the deck. Corn did very well the past two years in only a 3 x 4 foot plot. For more details on the trend to local famring check out this post.

PWC takes a step toward greening the county.

This post is from cgrymes on the Prince William Conserve blog (see the blogroll). The county has a lot of work to do to really move forward on greening our government. The streetlight pilot project seems small by comparison with other counties though it is moving toward cutting county costs and that saves all of us a few tax dollars. greening-the-county-six-streetlights-at-a-time

Who will win the clean energy technology race – are we already behind!

"Without a large national project to regain competitiveness in the clean-tech sector, the United States will miss a major opportunity to grow our economy, correct our trade imbalance, and reduce our national deficit. Indeed, even if we transition to clean sources of energy, we risk trading our dependence on foreign oil for dependence on foreign clean energy." Teryn Norris

Read more...

Green Roof Legislation in VA

A recent bill that authorized cities and counties to provide incentives to businesses to install green rfoof's.

Read more...

1st Anniversary Party

The Gainesville Group will celebrate the end of our first year and the start of an even more exciting second year on Saturday December 12th at 6349 Retriever Lane, Gainesville, VA 20155. All supporters and members, past and present, are welcome. Please RSVP to thegainesvillegroup@gmail.com or call 571-233-8593.