STANISLAUS CONNECTIONS
Working For Peace, Justice, and A Sustainable Environment
February, 2001
Living Lightly
By DAN and BARBARA POLLOCK
Dear
Friends and Fellow Gardeners,
Welcome
to Spring, April showers and beautiful flowers. At this time of year, Barbara
and I are not only in love with the lovely colors which feast the eyes, but
especially the passionate and delicious odors which scent the garden. Although
many plants bloom with degrees of fragrance throughout the year, Spring brings
the aroma of bloom to its peak.
Some
scented plants we enjoy are lilacs, antique and scented modern roses, naked lady
lilies, hyacinth, violets, stock or Matthiola (buy the tall ‘giants’ or
‘imperial’) for great cut flowers. Star jasmine is a vine or ground cover
and, when in bloom, fills the air with sweet fragrance. Wisteria, a deciduous
vine, floods arbors and fences with rich, purple, sweet smelling flowers. A
species of rhododendron called ‘fragrantissimum’ is wonderful, and when
citrus trees bloom, they fill the air with a spicy sweet fragrance. You can have
aromatherapy in your own garden
Did
you know that naked lady lilies, ‘Amaryllis belladonna,’ were brought to
California by Franciscan friars to plant around the Missions. The priests were
desperate to have flowers for the altar at Easter and found out that not only
did the Amaryllis produce an abundance of pink lilies with long stems and no
leaves (hence the name naked lady) beautiful on the altar, but that the bulbs
were poisonous and repelled gophers and voles in their gardens. So next time you
visit a California mission; you may find amaryllis planted throughout the
grounds. One thing is for sure, the Franciscans did not call them naked ladies.
April
also brings beautiful colorful flowers such as tulips, foxglove, delphiniums,
peonies, California poppies, lupine, baby blue eyes, tidy tips, daisies, iris,
and common sage. Many fruit trees will still be in bloom during April, and even
if you don’t like eating quince, their Spring flowers are some of the
brightest. Enjoy, enjoy, enjoy.
Things
to do for April
Set
out summer flowering bulbs, including dahlias, gladiolus, tuberous begonias,
watsonia, canna lilies, calla lilies, tuberose, and lilies of many varieties.
Some of these bulbs can be best grown in containers, particularly tuberous
begonias, tuberose, lilies, and watsonia.
Sow
seeds of cosmos, celosia, zinnias, nasturtium, ageratum, marigolds, and salvias.
The calendar is really open for many summer veggies. Sow or plant cucumbers,
corn, melons, beans, squash, pumpkins, eggplant, pepper, and if you haven’t
planted them already, tomatoes. Many species of herbs can also be planted.
Control
slugs and snails by hand picking at night, setting out beer bait, or, if you
have to, bait with non-toxic Sluggo.
Don’t
forget growing plants need to be fertilized with organic fertilizer.
Until
next Month, Peace and Good Gardening
Pedestrian Forum
highlights need for traffic calming
By MYRTLE OSNER
“Crows Landing Road at Shackelford School is the worst
situation I have ever seen in my career,” said Dan Burden at the Pedestrian
Safety Forum on March 10.
Mr. Burden’s comment was not an idle one; he has worked
all over the country and now designs safer streets in Waikiki. Once an employee
of Florida’s Department of Transportation, he now roams the country invited by
of cities whose residents are fed up with too much traffic going too fast,
endangering citizens (not just children) and upsetting neighborhoods.
Showing photos he had taken that very morning of some of
the trouble spots in Modesto, Mr. Burden contrasted these with photos from
cities around the country showing “before and after” shots which illustrated
methods of “traffic calming” that have been used in Santa Monica, Santa
Barbara, Portland, and others, to fix unsafe areas. Slowing traffic and making
cities more pedestrian friendly also serves to enliven neighborhoods and
increase business in downtowns that have previously been entirely car oriented.
Burden is a big fan of narrowing streets to two lanes,
adding bicycle lanes and putting in medians. A walker can find safe haven in a
median that is raised and planted while waiting for the other lane of traffic to
give way. Also high on his list are trees which make walking livable in places
like Modesto.
After the presentation, the audience was invited to walk
over to Bret Harte School just around the corner from the Forum meeting place,
Hanshaw Middle School. He had some very innovative, cost-effective ideas on how
to solve the traffic problem before and after school. At present, the unsafe
nature of the narrow-routed street is marked by parents driving up in no sort of
order, disgorging children from cars, allowing them to dart into traffic at
will.
Our second stop was Shackelford School, built many years
ago on a little country road and which serves children on both sides of Crows
Landing Road. Now it’s four lanes with eighteen wheelers barreling down the
street like nobody lived there. The freeway exit is close by, and many farm
implements also share this major artery from downtown Modesto south through the
countryside.
You have to see it to believe it. There are no signs
warning that traffic should slow down, school is here. There are no signs
telling you what the speed limit is. There is a two way turn lane in the center,
which could easily be made into a raised median strip. Then , at least, children
could get half way across with a place to stop in the middle. A traffic light
has been promised since last November but nothing is there yet and residents are
losing hope. There are no bicycle lanes on Crows Landing. During the rain,
children
have to walk in calf deep water to cross School Street,
fronting the school entrance.
A bit of history here: South Modesto is a legacy of the
past. It was originally settled by Dust Bowl refugees, who built out in the
county when there were no rules (planning departments didn’t exist in those
days) It is perhaps our most shameful area, and no one takes any responsibility
for it. It’s a hodge podge of city and county, with the school in the city,
the people across the street in the county. A resident told us that when there
is an accident, they can wait forever for someone to come, since nobody can
agree as to whose responsibility it is. Ditto for fixing streets, drainage,
sewers, traffic lights, on and on. As residents of Stanislaus County, we should
be ashamed of this lack of caring for those who have no voice no money, in
short, no power. (These are the same citizens who endure the Tallow plant’s
sickening stench.)
Fortunately, many city and county officials were there
listening (only one politician, Bill Conrad, stuck it out all day). The morning
session opened with community speakers. Kent Bauman, police officer in charge of
school safety patrols, traced the history of more than thirty years of
successful cooperation between schools and police. Oakdale’s Mayor, Pat Kuhn,
told of how she has encouraged groups within her city who are passionate about
trails and safe places to walk. “Give them the tools and let them run with
it,” she said. Jim Pfaff, Modesto City Schools Superintendent. for Safety
explained that his department is responsible for a great deal more than walking
to school safely, but acknowledged that many schools are situated where many
children have very unsafe places to walk.
Cheryl Birch, representing Assemblyman Dave Cogdill; told a
horror story of how children climb under the train at the Empire crossing when
they get tired of waiting. One of Cogdill’s priorities is finding ways to fund
projects to make crossings safer. He encourages cities and counties to contact
him and to write letters of support for legislation that may be helpful.
Gary Dickson, Executive director of the Stanislaus Council
of Governments, encouraged those present to demand funding for projects that
citizens feel are important. Some of the money StanCOG distributes is required
to go to pedestrian and bicycle projects. .Dan Cowell, representing CalTrans,
mentioned their willingness to work with local entities.
The Forum was co-sponsored by the Surface Transportation
Policy Project in Sacramento and followed similar forums in Sacramento and
Fresno. Other sponsors were the Muir Trail Girl Scout Council, League of Women
Voters of Modesto, City of Modesto, Stanislaus Land use Transportation
Coalition, Sierra Club Yokuts group, and CalTrans, with some funding by Great
Valley Center.
By MYRTLE OSNER
I can hardly believe that this is the thirty-first year of Earth Day celebrations. In the recycling program, we’ve gone from the completely voluntary efforts of Ecology Action under the inspiration of Cliff Humphrey. We once had small trucks circling the city to pick up bags of recyclables from off the street. A few people were hired, but a lot of the sorting work was done by volunteers. The original center was on Ninth Street, then moved to Service Rd in Ceres. When that effort ended, cities took over recycling as part of their waste stream (garbage) management.
In Stanislaus County, some cities have three cans, one for mixed garbage, one for yard waste, and one for recyclables. Modesto has a two-can system with a green can and a black one. In the black can you put all your garbage with separated recycled materials placed in blue bags which can be obtained free from city hall, any command center or from many grocery stores.
In recycling, there are always tradeoffs. In this case, the two-can pick up was chosen for the following reasons: Another can would be more expensive. Garbage trucks would have had to circle the city three times to pick up each one separately which would add greatly to our air pollution, already in “non-attainment” mode. More gas, labor and road repairs would also increase cost. So the city council opted not to have three cans for which all citizens would pay extra.
All California cities and counties are mandated to meet state guidelines (AB 939, enacted in 1990) for amounts of garbage recycled. We were mandated to recycle 25% of our waste stream by 1995, which was achieved. By the year 2000, the goal was 50% of the waste stream. This has been much harder to meet. Modesto reports what it says it has recycled, but the Solid Waste Board has its own counting rules and has not released recent figures for Modesto.
I asked Beverly McCullough, Modesto city recycling coordinator, how are we doing with the two-can method. I was cheered to hear that Modesto has started a number of new programs and is confident that it will meet the 50% recycled mandate. The blue bag program, started in 1995, now, recycles about the same percentage as it did when we had buckets at the curbside, around 5%. This figure is not stable since only stuff for which there is a market can be actually pulled out and sold. The market for plastics, metal cans, aluminum cans, paper, and glass fluctuates greatly. But, don’t get discouraged. Householders should continue pulling out recyclables and blue-bagging them. Your waste can become someone else’s marketable product.
What happens to the rest of our garbage? It goes to the westside burner where the county sends its garbage. This plant makes electricity through the steam generation. Be happy we are adding to the supply of energy in this way.
The biggest contributor to the waste stream is yard waste. Adding leaves and prunings to the green cans, we come up from 13% to 15% of the total, a big chunk of the recycling. Most of this is composted in land the city leases, and sold under the name of Mo-Gro Magic. City residents can pick up a load free at the compost facility some months of the year, or at several nurseries. An experiment is going on now to test composting with a combination of newspaper, brush, green waste, and bio-solids. Those who have used this compost say it grows good stuff.
Another new program is the bulky item pickup in which crews pick up appliances, furniture, etc., along the street but only at closely regulated times. Some of the program bugs are being worked out so that residents have their items in the streets a very short time.
The Tire amnesty program and cleanup of tires discarded in alleys, etc. is working well and will continue. Grant money was received to administer this, since March, 1999. About 17,000 tires ( 221 tons) were turned in. Modesto sends tires to Golden Byproducts in Ballico, which shreds them for use in roads, playgrounds, etc. None go to the tire burning plant, since it is not accepting tires and is not running now. We wonder why, since it could be making megawatts of electricity.
The curbside oil recycling program is going strong. Don’t forget to put oil in a sealed sturdy container. Never put it down the drain!
Ms. McCullough says that the county meets most of its diversion (recycling) mandate by counting cannery waste as diverted. At least some of the cannery waste is put into ponds and dried out, then the residue goes where? I didn’t find out. Also, burning in the garbage plant counts as part of the diversion percentage since it doesn’t go into a disposal dump. So, not all that counts is actual recycling. The mandate calls it “diversion” because one of the aims of the legislation is to cut down drastically on our landfills. Many areas had run out of landfill space (we hadn’t), the real impetus for the original bill.
How Are We doing?
Statistics don’t always tell the tale. When the bill was first passed, waste studies were done, but state of the art was different ten years ago. A new “waste generation study” is being done now. Statistics from ten years ago may not be comparable to today. Only the State Solid Waste Board can make the final decision, and we hope we are doing our best here.
What about Hazardous
Waste?
We are becoming more sophisticated about that, too. The options for getting rid of hazardous substances that contaminate our garbage are getting better. Originally we had to travel to the County site on Morgan Road to drop off anything like that. Lots of people didn’t want to bother, so waste was thrown away illegally. Now, there are many county pickup spots.
The permanent collection facility is at County Center IV, 1716 Morgan Rd, Modesto. Household hazardous wastes are collected free for County residents. Facility hours: Friday and Saturday 9 a.m. to 1 p.m., excluding major holidays. For information call 209-525-4123. In addition, the mobile collection facility may be coming to a site near you. Visit http://www.CO.STANISLAUS.CA.US/ER/PROJHHW.HTM for pick-up schedules.
Paving
the planet: cars and crops competing for land
from Worldwatch Institute
Yokuts
offer “Historical Hikes”
By
ELAINE GORMAN
The local Yokuts Sierra
Club group offers a springtime “History and Hiking” series that will give
you a bit of Californian history and some exercise at the same time. These low
elevation hikes will get us started on early season hiking. All hikes will be
less than 10 miles with less than 1000 feet of elevation gain. Sierra club
members and non-members are welcome.
We will travel to Colonel Allensworth State Historic Park on Saturday, April 7 to visit the only California town to be founded, financed, and governed by African Americans. Allensworth, born a slave in Kentucky, joined the Union Navy during the Civil War, then moved West after the War to escape discrimination. The site, located near Bakersfield, has been restored to its early 1900’s appearance. Wildflowers and burrowing owls will grace our visit. More information can be found at the Colonel Allensworth website.
The next hike will be
along the Old Big Oak Flat Road on Saturday, May 12. This road, built in the
1870’s was the 2nd road into Yosemite. We will start at Crane Flat, hike
downhill to the Tuolumne Grove, ogle the Sequoias, continue on the old paved
road toward Hodgdon Meadow, check out some grinding rocks, and end up just west
of Yosemite National Park. This 6-mile hike is all downhill!
Yokuts outing leader
Elaine Gorman will lead all hikes. There will be a small admission fee for all
hikes plus participants are expected to share carpooling costs. Bring lunch,
beverages, and appropriate hiking attire. There will be early morning departures
and early evening returns. Call Elaine at 524-7630 for information. Space is limited.
