Join a Current Action Group!
Move! Healdsburg
is a grassroots organization formed by a group of Healdsburg residents and local business owners to advocate for bike- and pedestrian-friendly transportation. They organize community bike rides which include opportunities for riders of all ages.
Join Move! Healdsburg for a Fitch Mountain Art Walk on August 11. Meet at the Villa Chanticleer Dog Walk at 9 a.m.
Find out more at their website: Move! Healdsburg
Tree Planting and Protection
Trees provide many benefits for people, wildlife, the environment and the planet. We are actively exploring ways to plant more trees in the community and protect mature trees in our neighborhoods.
Volunteers in our Tree Planting Program are leading the effort to green up Healdsburg by partnering with the City of Healdsburg in its commitment to plant 500 new trees in the community. We will supply and plant trees free of charge to community members who meet the program requirements. Funding sources to support the purchase of trees and supplies are currently being explored. Visit our Tree Program page for more information.
Changing weather patterns, including higher summer temperatures and longer periods of drought, can stress trees that are not suited to our climate. Tree program volunteers have compiled a list of trees that are drought-tolerant and climate-appropriate for our area now and into the future. We have shared the list with City staff to encourage a revision of Healdsburg’s Recommended Tree List to reflect trees that perform well with less water in a warm climate. Until the City’s Tree List is updated, and if you are considering a new tree for your landscape, we recommend that you refer to the City of Santa Rosa “Climate Forward Tree List” created in partnership with Sonoma County Master Gardeners here.
Current understanding about the value of trees and their role in mitigating climate issues has inspired local municipalities and the County of Sonoma to adopt stricter Tree Protection Ordinances. Additionally, the County recently passed a new Oak Woodland Protection Ordinance that recognizes the importance of native oak trees. The City of Healdsburg will be adopting a new Tree Protection Ordinance and our volunteers will be available to support that process.
We are also hoping that the City will receive a CalFire grant that was just submitted. Climate Action Healdsburg is a partner in that endeavor along with Corazon Healdsburg.
For information about our Tree Program efforts, email us at healdsburgclimate@yahoo.com
Idle-Free Schools and Community
Inspired by a teacher, Dan Karbousky, and students at Sonoma Academy, a group of local residents (mostly moms) came together in June 2023 to create an anti-idling campaign in local schools in and around Healdsburg. This group received a grant from Healdsburg Noon Rotary to implement solutions and cut greenhouse gas emissions in Healdsburg.
The following local schools are well on their way:
Geyserville Elementary school's fifth grade teacher led the project and after spreading the word (and the stickers) about being idle-free, they saw a reduction in idling at pick-up from 50% to 9%. They received two idle-free zone signs and will be installing them at their bus line and parent pickup line.
Healdsburg Elementary School eliminated their pickup line, and Healdsburg Unified School District's superintendent agreed to post idle-free zone signs at each of the four campuses of HUSD. At the last school board meeting we presented the signs and asked that each school have a teacher leader and involve the students to take the project to the next level.
The Healdsburg School made the idle-free campaign their sixth grade service learning project and found that over the course of one week, approximately 293 vehicles idled on the THS campus. They are now working on the education and promotion part of the campaign, and it was featured in their latest weekly newsletter.
Saint John's School is working with several Cardinal Newman high school students to implement the project. and they received stickers and stop watches from the Rotary grant.
Herbert Slater Middle School in Santa Rosa collected data, and science teachers released videos and air quality information through Google Classroom lessons, which will be shared with other Santa Rosa City Schools this fall. They hope to be. able to give anti-idling lessons to all Santa Rosa schools after the first trial runs!
Contact Dick Cochran or Stephanie Turk for more information. Email healdsburgclimate@yahoo.com and we will connect you with them.
Beaver Believers
support an initiative to bring back the beaver on the Russian River and other creeks as a way of slowing the flow of water through Healdsburg and other parts of Sonoma County. They developed out of an earlier water stewardship action group.
Beavers are “ecosystem engineers” and will help with replenishing groundwater and mitigating the impacts of atmospheric rivers and droughts. For more information about the goal of restoring them in watersheds, please check out: "Beaver in California, Creating a Culture of Stewardship".
This fall, the California legislature passed AB 1296, the California Beaver Restoration Act, which allows the state to work with property owners to restore beavers where the appropriate conditions exist. The tool that helps find those conditions is “BRAT,” Beaver Restoration Assessment Tool .
Coming up, the Steelhead Festival on February 8, 2025. If you’d like to help at our Beaver Believer table, please contact me. You don’t need to be a beaver expert. We hand out fliers that provide this information. We also pass out our Beaver Believer buttons which are very popular.
We especially need help with activities for the kids, e.g., coloring beaver masks and tossing bean bags into a beaver-lodge-themed cornhole box. If you’d like to help with these kid-centered activities, please let me know. Whipping up enthusiasm in kids for beavers helps bring their parents along!
We are working on setting up a Climate Action Committee Beaver Believer subcommittee. If you are interested in helping get it started, please let me know.
Finally, Linus Lancaster is the administrator of our Facebook page, Restoring beavers to the Russian River Watershed. Please check it out.
Contact Gail Jonas for more information. Email healdsburgclimate@yahoo.com and we will connect you with one of them.
