Homegrown Habitat Comments for Sacramento’s General Plan/Climate Change strategy

On November 11, 2019 the Environmental Council of Sacramento (ECOS) and Habitat 2020 submitted a letter to the City of Sacramento to bring the Homegrown Habitat Program to their attention and to urge them to incorporate some of its native plant guidelines into the City’s General Plan and Climate Change strategy updates.

Below is our letter in full.

November 11, 2019
Scott Johnson, Senior Planner
Community Development Department
300 Richards Boulevard, Third floor
Sacramento, CA 95811
Email: srjohnson[at]cityofsacramento[dot]org
Subject: ECOS/Habitat 2020 Homegrown Habitat program comments for inclusion in the City of Sacramento’s General Plan and Climate Change strategy updates
Dear Mr. Johnson,
The Environmental Council of Sacramento (ECOS) is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization working to achieve regional and community sustainability and a healthy environment for existing and future residents. ECOS member organizations include: 350 Sacramento, Breathe California Sacramento Region, Friends of Stone Lakes National Wildlife Refuge, International Dark-Sky Association, Physicians for Social Responsibility Sacramento Chapter, Sacramento Citizens’ Climate Lobby, Sacramento Electric Vehicle Association, Environmental Democrats of Sacramento County, Sacramento Housing Alliance, Sacramento Natural Foods Coop, Sacramento Audubon Society, Sacramento Valley Chapter of the California Native Plant Society, Sacramento Vegetarian Society, Save Our Sandhill Cranes, Save the American River Association, Service Employees International Union (SEIU) Local 1000 and the Sierra Club Sacramento Group.
Members of Habitat 2020, a committee of ECOS, include: Friends of Stone Lakes National Wildlife Refuge, Friends of Swainson’s Hawk, International Dark-Sky Association Sacramento Chapter, Sacramento Area Creeks Council, Sacramento Audubon Society, Sacramento Valley Chapter California Native Plant Society, Save Our Sandhill Cranes, Save the American River Association, Sierra Club Sacramento Group and Sacramento Heron and Egret Rescue.
The Sacramento Chapter of the California Native Plant Society (CNPS), in coordination with State CNPS, ECOS and Habitat 2020, has embarked upon an ambitious regional campaign, called Homegrown Habitat, to promote the preferential use of California Native Plants in home and civic landscaping. Local native plants provide habitat within the build environment that promote regional biodiversity and help create pathways for local insects, pollinators, birds and animals through our built environment. CNPS’s Homegrown Habitat team has prepared a list of appropriate annual and perennial plants, shrubs and trees (HH Plant List) for use in the City of Sacramento’s private and public landscapes. CNPS is currently building the capacity to ensure that these landscaping options are widely available locally.
City wide utilization of these plants will directly contribute to several of the City’s major long-term goals including climate change adaptation and regional biodiversity. Utilization of the local native plants found on the HH Plant List in public spaces, residential areas, and commercial/industrial landscapes within the City will lower water consumption, provide carbon sequestration benefits (even during extended periods of drought when many non-native plants, shrubs, and trees perish), and contribute to regional biodiversity by providing homes and year-round food for pollinators and beneficial insects, local and migratory birds, and animal populations. Nearly all the region’s beneficial insect populations are in decline and many of our bird and animal populations that depend on them are suffering the same fate. We urge the City of Sacramento to adopt the goal of the Homegrown Habitat program and the HH Plant List within the relevant parts of the City’s general plan and climate action plan, and in so doing, take the steps listed in the attached comment document to ensure the planting of these local native plants throughout the City.
Chris Lewis CNPS’s Homegrown Habitat program chair would be pleased to meet with you to more fully describe the program’s goals, objectives, and activities, and to discuss how the program can be implemented within the City. Chris will be following up within the week to set up a meeting with you to further explore implementation of the program within the City of Sacramento.
Sincerely,
Ralph Propper Sean Wirth
President, ECOS Co-Chair, Habitat 2020
Cc: Chris Lewis, Homegrown Habitat Program Chair

Click here to read the letter in PDF.
Attachment 1

Photo from calscape.org, of Western Redbud (Cercis occidentalis)
https://calscape.org/Cercis-occidentalis-(Western-Redbud)?srchcr=sc5dca249f9a5c2

Transportation Funding and Priorities for the City of Sacramento

Action Alert

The Sacramento City Council has scheduled a workshop on “Transportation Funding and Priorities” for Tuesday, October 29, starting at 5 pm, before the regular City Council meeting at 7 pm. This meeting has a great deal of relevance for developing the City’s stance on the allocation of funding in Measure A-plus, the possible county-wide sales tax currently under consideration by the Sacramento Transportation Authority (STA). Several organizations, including the SacMoves coalition have been invited to make short presentations at the workshop, and we understand that others will be allowed to comment as well, subject to the usual two minute limit. You are urged to attend to show your support for progressive transportation policies and priorities.

Here is a link to the agenda http://sacramento.granicus.com/GeneratedAgendaViewer.php?view_id=21&event_id=3561, and note that this Web page contains further links to a printable agenda and the staff report.

Fewer trees, more asthma. How Sacramento can improve its canopy and public health

By the Sacramento Bee Editorial Board
October 15, 2019
The Sacramento Bee

We often plant trees as a symbolic gesture. We plant them on Earth Day in honor of clean air and sustainability. We also plant trees to commemorate people and events.
But trees do more than provide shade and improve landscapes. They are also critical to public health.
In Sacramento, which the American Lung Association named fifth worst U.S. city for air quality and where temperatures increasingly reach triple-digit highs, we must take the importance of trees seriously.
https://www.sacbee.com/opinion/editorials/article236197713.html

Click here to read the full article.

Get involved in plans for I-80 and Hwy 65 Transportation Corridors

Posted October 15, 2019

Get involved in the future of the I-80 / Business 80 corridor from downtown Sacramento to Auburn and the Highway 65 corridor from Lincoln to I-80. The effort will result in a multi-modal plan that considers improvements to vehicle, truck, rail, bus, pedestrian, and bicycle travel along the corridor, with an emphasis on increasing travel choices to reduce congestion.

Learn more and join the conversation on Monday, October 28 from 5:00 – 6:30 p.m. for the second Placer Sacramento Gateway Plan Community Workshop. A brief presentation will begin at 5:45 p.m. Stop by anytime between 5:00 and 6:30 p.m. to hear a project update!

Can’t make it to the workshop? Go to http://bit.ly/more80choices for a livestream of the presentation.

Click here to RSVP.

4 Developers Invited to Submit Aggie Square Proposals

By David Wescott
September 16, 2019
UC Davis Media Relations

What is Aggie Square and why are environmentalists and community advocates concerned? Click here to find out.

The University of California, Davis, has issued a request for proposals, or RFP, to a group of real estate developers interested in financing, designing, building, owning and managing the first phase of Aggie Square, a new innovation hub for the university’s Sacramento campus.
The developers were selected from a list of firms who responded to the university’s original request for qualifications in June. All have experience with complex, major development projects. The four master developers and partners are: BioRealty/Greystar; Hines; The University Financing Foundation Inc. (TUFF)/Collaborative Real Estate LLC/CA Ventures; and Wexford/GMH Capital Partners.

Click here to read the rest of the article.

Sacramento Needs Public Bathrooms

Need to go to the bathroom in Sacramento? Good luck! Unless you are close to home or happen to be somewhere where you have just been a customer (but what if you didn’t “have to go” then?) your chances of finding a toilet are slim. Even our parks are lacking. According to the Sacramento Bee, “…the city operates 205 parks, but most either have no bathrooms or have facilities with limited hours. In the central city…only 5 of 22 parks have restroom facilities.” Many times, park bathrooms are locked up without warning or notice of when they may reopen.

Many of the river access points closest to downtown Sacramento completely lack any bathrooms for beach-goers, such as Sutter’s Landing. Imagine taking your family to have a nice day at the beach, only to find that your kids or your aunt have no where to relieve themselves! That’s what Sacramento is like, and it’s time to change that.

Why? Diseases, for one thing! Now the river is full of bacterias that can make people really sick, like E. Coli.

The link to this SacBee article, published September 12, 2019, has been changed or removed and is no longer available.

Sacramento will continue to struggle with sanitation and risk of disease so long as the city refuses to provide an adequate number of public restrooms, on and off the river, for both people who are experiencing homelessness and those who are not.

Alexandra Reagan

Director of Operations, ECOS