Welter - September 10, 2012

Rainy but Fun – First Annual Light Step Right Step Festival Saturday

Thank you so much to Meagan Tuttle and Joyce Eveleth for organizing this great event! Daily Collegian story here.

Josh Lambert demonstrating applesauce canning at the Sept. 8 Light Step Right Step Festival, organized by the Borough of State College

 

Local Food Issues in Voices of Central PA – September Edition

• Steffen wins Golden Basket Award at Boalsburg Farmers Market
• Hospital chef plans for organic garden at Mount Nittany Medical Center
• Penn State pushes for more local food (click link and scroll to page 26) – [Intriguingly, trying to find a direct link to that story, I found this 2005 Penn State Live story about Emily Cook, whose full-time job title at that time was "Farm-to-College coordinator" as part of a national campaign to promote local sourcing of university food supplies. Anyone know what happened to that program? -KW]

Sept. 11  - New Climate Change Report – National Wildlife Federation Press Conference at Schlow Library

(From Ed Perry - 814-880-9593)

NWF Report: “Climate change is ruining summer, and what we can do about it”  – Children forced to skip afternoon baseball games and families canceling kayaking, biking and other outdoor activities due to extreme heat and smog-induced air quality alerts. Area rivers unnaturally high or low thanks to drought conditions combined with pop-up storms that send runoff gushing into our waterways. Rites of summer such as corn on the cob and Concord grapes among the casualties of extreme heat, and insect and pest infestations. Climate change is ruining summer as we know it and that’s the subject of a report by the National Wildlife Federation (NWF), which will be previewed in State College and concludes that we must reduce the amount of carbon pollution from the nation’s largest sources if we are to forestall the effects of global warming.

Ed Perry, a hunter and angler and NWF’s representative in Pennsylvania, will host a brief media event on Tuesday, September 11 at 11 a.m. at the Schlow Library Community Room to discuss the report.  He’ll be joined by representatives from environmental and sporting organizations as well as those whose role it is to feed the community. Your coverage is invited.

Speakers include:

• Ed Perry, Outreach Coordinator, National Wildlife Federation
• Helena Kotala, Outings Chair, Moshannon Group, Sierra Club
• Kim Tait, Owner, Tait Farm Foods
• Luke Plowden, State College High School Student
• Steve Sywensky, Owner, Flyfisher’s Paradise
• Cricket Hunter, Director, PA-Interfaith Power and Light

October 6 – CELDF Conference on Municipal Rights-Based Organizing

[State College voters passed an Environmental Bill of Rights ordinance in November 2011 and Ferguson Township voters will have the opportunity to adopt one this November. More about the Ferguson campaign.]

On Saturday, October 6 2012 in Greensburg, the Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund and the Pennsylvania Community Rights Network will co-sponsor a one-day conference to talk about how communities are standing up to state-sponsored corporate preemption. This isn’t another conference about what you are not allowed to do. Instead, we’ll be talking about bringing our communities together to challenge this assault on local democracy by asserting community rights, and by organizing to create the state constitutional change needed to ensure the right to enact local laws protective of health, safety, and welfare, as well as the civil and political rights of the people. We want to share stories about what over 130 communities have done to assert their inherent right to local self-government, and how you too can do this.

We ask that local officials place this invitation on the agenda at your next public meeting and decide to send at least one local official as a representative to this conference. Community leaders and active citizens are welcome as well; your participation is essential to moving forward. Please join us as local elected officials and citizens empower themselves to prevent fracking in their communities.

• Date: October 6th Time: 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. (registration begins at 9:30 a.m.)
• Location: Greensburg Garden and Civic Center, 951 Old Salem Road, Greensburg, PA 15601

The Conference is Free, but RSVP is required to info@celdf.org or call Stacey Schmader at 717-498-0054. Please include your name, title, municipality and county, address, phone and email.

October 14 – PA-IPL Annual Meeting in Harrisburg

Click here to register for PA-IPL’s  Annual Meeting - ”Power for Pennsylvania: Climate Change and Faith-Based Action” conference in Harrisburg on Sunday, October 14 from 2 – 6 p.m. Full Schedule.

New Post-Carbon Institute Book – Power From the People 

Is it possible to “relocalize” energy? This is a critical question that must be addressed if we are to achieve true global resilience. In Power From the People, energy expert Greg Pahl decisively argues that the answer is YES. Power From the People is the second book in the Post-Carbon Institute’s Community Resilience Guides series. The book illustrates how communities across the country are already generating their own energy at the local level. From citizen-owned wind turbines to co-op biofuel producers to community-wide initiatives combining multiple resources and technologies, Pahl outlines the steps necessary and plan, organize, finance and launch community energy projects. The book showcases over 25 real-life examples of local energy projects, offering a range of challenges and solutions that can be adapted and reapplied.

News from Penn State Extension’s Sustainable Agriculture Working Group

PSU-SusAgWG E-Newsletter – Fall 2012 Edition, including:

• Penn State Triad Projects Hold Symposium, Field Day
• From Field to Flour
• Agroforestry: The future of a hybrid practice
• Strengthening the Sustainable Agriculture Message
• Canola: A full-circle food and fuel crop
• Disappearing Bees: An Update on Research

News from FracTracker Alliance 

• FracTracker E-Newsletter – August 31, 2012 Edition – Upcoming citizen water monitoring workshops, new  fracking data, links to national news articles and more.