It's warmer in NYC and the sanitation workers are beginning to catch up after the blizzard. At the same time, the Grapevine in Los Angeles was shut down. The push and pull of winter climate has filled up San Bernardino mountains with snow and a high water line means more water will wash down heavy metals and city waste when the ice melts.
At the same time that we may be shedding our old identities and cleaning out our clutter like the Mole in the first scene of Kenneth Grahame's THE WIND IN THE WILLOWS. This year as always there are self help programs and books to help with the process. Now the Flylady to Clutterers Anonymous can help many people, but the trails and beaches will need helper as well as volunteers to sandbag and to assist the flooded in Highlands, La Canada, or other burn or flood impacted areas.
Pick up can mean leaning down to grab a piece of trash to catch basin inserts, it can mean help from Heal the Bay, Coastal Keepers, or student community service volunteers.
New Education Options, Inc. is still posting its LA Stormwater and UN MDG Youth Film Festival entry with logos of cities and programs that align the tranverse mountain geography of LA and the "River Flowing" rap video can be seen on the LA Stormwater website. Next week, "The World Above Me' song sung by students of Westchester Lutheran School will be posted on www.nimbitmusic.com/williamelliott to raise awareness in students of water science and conservation while raising monies for arts in education programs a download at a time.
Orange County Coastal Keepers have published works on getting copper out of the Newport Beach area. Getting unstuck can mean shedding old habits of allowing runoff to impact the health of the watershed by volunteering for great nonprofits from WALC in San Francisco to Trails for All and from River of Words in Oakland to the Surfrider Foundation.
The storms mean that lots of people will need help with sanitation, clean up and courage. The new year is a new opportunity to put down our own burdens and rediscover the power of community service. From coastal stewards to trail keepers, we will need both science and service to protect our wildlife, ecosystems, and our health. From crops to food safety, from deluge to detergents, it will be a real Spring Cleaning season soon enough, and students to seniors will have their hands full with helping out.
Resources:
www.coastkeeper.org/
http://www.juliemorgenstern.com/Products_Books_WOIE.php http://www.lastormwater.org/ http://www.healthebay.org/ http://www.trails4all.org/trailinfo.asp http://www.riverofwords.org/ http://www.webcamsmania.com/webcam/jamesreserveroboticcamera https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5AqiBsNIEe8