Sustainable South Coast

6 pm to 9 pm: Join us in Wings Court for talks, gardening, free seedlings and compost, and music!

Wings Court is the courtyard in downtown New Bedford behind Green Bean Cafe and Pour Farm Tavern. Access it through gates on Union Street or Purchase Street.

Garden Night in 2008

garden-night-2

7-9 pm
Bristol Hall
752 Purchase Street, next to Green Bean Cafe
Downtown New Bedford

Here’s the draft Mayor’s New Bedford Sustainability Task Force report. [click here]

or here: sustaining-new-bedford.doc

you-are-invitedtoa-grassroots-public.pdf

download poster (We’ll leave poster board in Bristol Hall starting Monday. Folks can take pieces to make their energy-vision posters. We’ll also try to provide a sample poster. Or, make a poster on July 4! We’ll put them up on a clothesline to be viewed.)

In the city where the U.S. began its trajectory to petroleum fuel dependence…

Fossil-Fuel
Independence Day
July 4
Envision local, clean, peaceful renewable energy!
4to 9 pm • Friday, July 4 • Free
Wings Court in Downtown New Bedford
(Enter the courtyard on Purchase or Union streets)

- Live music
- Large eco-sculptures
- Poetry and ceremony to bless the earth
- Make, post and view posters of local visions for a clean renewable energy future
- Help dig and install a raingarden (and other tasks)
- Information and conversations about biofuels, solar-heated water, weatherization, rainbarrels, low-cost heat, wind energy, bicycling, public transit and more!
- Petition for a city Energy Committee
- Information tables at Summerfest, July 5

MUSIC SCHEDULE:
4 pm: Bobby Lee
5-7 pm: Sing Out singalong (a First Fridays event) in Bristol Hall, 752 Purchase St.
7 pm: Mark Moniz
8 pm: U.S. SAM

ACTIVITIES:
6 pm: Earth-honoring ceremony to bless the earth and our city
6:30 pm: Making and posting energy posters. Digging the Wings Court rain-
garden to treat stormwater (shovels invited). Signing the energy petition.

Hosted by First Fridays, Sustainable SouthCoast, NB Green/Verde,
A.C.C.E.S.S. Art and City Repair Project

Rain location: Bristol Hall, 752 Purchase Street

Volunteers, posters, garden workers and artists needed!

Contact: NewBGreen@gmail.com or 508-999-0691

www.sustainablesouthcoast.org

volunteers needed! attendees needed too!

GARDEN NIGHT @ WINGS COURT, DOWNTOWN NEW BEDFORD

Take home a garden!

6:30 to 9 pm • Friday, June 6
Wings Court in Downtown New Bedford
Enter on Purchase Street or Union Street
Free • All welcome

Growing food helps reduce your grocery bill, lower your gas costs,
and eat better. Join us.

• get FREE garden compost (bring buckets!)
• plant seedlings, buy and trade plants, get free seedlings!
• watch a fun film about an eclectic farmer
• make a raised-bed garden
• help plan the Wings Court eco-garden
• bring a picnic! enjoy live music
• free bicycle cab rides by NB Pedicab

Schedule:

5 pm
Sing Out singalong (a First Fridays event) in Bristol Hall,
752 Purchase Street, next to The Green Bean cafe

6:30 pm
Garden Night in Wings Court (behind Bristol Hall)

8 pm
Film: The Real Dirt on Farmer John

Hosted by First Fridays, Sustainable SouthCoast and NB
Green/Verde.

Compost supplied free by the City of NB. Materials funded by the
United Way of Greater New Bedford’s Mini-Grants Program
Questions: NewBGreen@gmail.com or 508-999-0691

Fairhaven residents, take note!! This just in from the Friends of Nasketucket Woods:

After two and a half years of fighting the very real threat of the destruction of Nasketucket Woods here in East Fairhaven, we have the opportunity to preserve it for always. This coming Wednesday at 6:30 we need as many of you as possible to join us at Fairhaven Town Hall. The transfer of the property from Mariner Youth Soccer Club to our local farmer and preservationist Phillip DeNormandie will be finalized this week. Phil has entered into an agreement with the Coalition for Buzzards Bay to sell this land to our town.

That’s where Friends of Nasketucket comes in…. The 56 acres will be sold for less than $500 an acre. We are applying for CPA funds (community preservation) which are being decided upon this Wednesday. We are up against the town hall repairs, baseball field lighting and pool studies for the rec. center. Although these others are very worthy of funding, our parcel which had been threatened with 344 apartments a year ago under 40b, is home to not only endangered species, it is also the watershed for our town’s last remaining drinking water supply. In order to protect it for future generations, it is vital that we as concerned citizens show up en masse.

The 180,000 that we feel this project can receive from CPA funds can then be matched by the Urban Self Help fund, which leaves our group to raise about $30,000. Thanks to Allen Decker at the Coalition and our own Mac and Lori Matheson we have a map and appeal letter ready to go. I do hope that you can join us!

– Cora Peirce

If you need to contact Cora for more information, you can reach her through the Webmaster here — send email to danrharper AT aol DOT com .

Allens Pond Wildlife Sanctuary is looking for Bluebird Nestbox Monitors at their Westport/Dartmouth location. The Allens Pond Nestbox Project “needs volunteers who can learn as they go about the four bird species likely to use our boxes. Along the way, volunteers will collect visible data for our long- term habitat project. We provide training and materials, you just need to commit to a set of 1-10 boxes that must be visited on a regular basis throughout the bird-breeding season (mid March to late August). We can team you up with others to allow for summer schedules.”

Allen’s Pond is a Mass Audubon wildlife sanctuary. If you’re interested in this volunteer opportunity, call 508-636-2437. Or check their Web site for more info on this and other volunteer opportunities.

Saturday, March 29th, 9:00 a.m. – noon, at the Lloyd Center for the Environment in Dartmouth, Mass. No charge, but registration requested. Maintain hiking trails on Lloyd Center property. A light lunch will be provided to all participants. Please call 508-558-2918 to register.

The new Dartmouth sustainability group will meet again 2/24/08 to set up committees: political, green building/energy. education, land/food, waste/recycling and water, etc.
For directions, time, details, contact Andy Pollock at farmsilverbrook @ aol.com

Join us to decide next steps for the South Coast Sustainability Network!

We’ll meet on Wednesday, February 13, from 7-9 p.m., in the Bristol Building at the corner of Union and Purchase Streets in downtown New Bedford (next door to the Green Bean cafe). The Steering Committee is open to any interested person.

Convenors: Carol Steinfeld (carol AT fishisland DOT net) and Emily Johns (ejohns AT ecoisp DOT com).