Welcome to our new website! With the new year, we have created a new website.

The new look and content represent a planned transition in our long-term strategy: we are shifting from an emphasis on awareness-raising to education. Since 2006, we have held yard tours to show families the potential lying in their yards and themselves for improving the health of our local environment. We will now teach families how to plan, design and implement the eco-friendly features that have been observed in our urban landscapes. The flagship educational program is entitled Create Abundant Landscapes and our committees and Board of Directors have been working hard to ensure it exceeds your expectations.

Create Abundant Landscapes is not a simple Gardening 101 program. It was designed upon the premise that we all want to improve the health of our environment, but we lack the time to do so and feel helpless when faced with our massive environmental problems. It assumes that we cannot solve our environmental problems without a fundamental understanding of nature’s processes and an understanding of our role within those processes. Read more about Create Abundant Landscapes.

Through the classes, families will gain the ecological knowledge and skills needed to transform their landscapes into beautiful spaces that enhance their lives and our environment. A renewed connection to the community and to nature will be felt, and through that connection, families will experience a new way of seeing the world and will find empowerment and skills they never knew existed.

To launch the Create Abundant Landscapes program, we are conducting a three-month event series entitled Seeds of Sustainability. It concludes with a March 12-14 presentation and workshop led by Dave Jacke. Mr. Jacke is known nationally for his groundbreaking research on innovative ways to sustainably grow food, improve water quality and increase the resiliency of communities. He is the author of the award-winning two-volume book entitled Edible Forest Gardens. Mark your calendars—it is an event you don’t want to miss. Read more about Seeds of Sustainability.

Our mission is to ensure that you have all the knowledge and skills needed to improve the health of our local environment. Your requests, feedback and support over the years have been instrumental in helping shape these new services and we are very excited to make them available to you. Please continue to tell us how we can help and we will continue find ways to fulfill your needs.