The Environment
Over the past four years, we have partnered with several local environmental organizations to help clean up and improve the health of the Russian River, to reduce the potential severity of wildfires by removing wildfire fuel in several areas around our Healdsburg community, and to increase planting of native shrubs and trees to provide more wildlife habitat, especially for pollinators.
Our club has been working with the Russian Riverkeeper over many years to eliminate Arundo Donax, a non-native, invasive reed plant, which utilizes 50% more water that the native species, displaces native wildlife and is an extreme fire hazard when it becomes dry. We have provided Russian Riverkeeper with grants to purchase equipment for Arundo removal and to physically help remove it. We have been working with LandPaths, another 501 C3 organization, to remove wildfire fuel from Riddell Preserve in the West Dry Creek Valley and Fitch Mountain Reserve. In the past two years, we have provided grants and physical labor to plant native shrubs and trees at Healdsburg High School.
Our club has adopted a zero-waste lunch at club meetings. We have also been working with the Healdsburg High School Interact Club to recycle film plastic through Trex Company. In our community, the trash company, Recology, does not accept film plastic to recycle. Our club has been collecting these from our members weekly and takes them to the Healdsburg High School Interact Club, which recycles these to the Trex Company via Safeway Grocery Store. In this way, the plastic does not go directly to the landfill.
This past year, our club gave a grant to non-profit organizations Farm to Fight Hunger and El Jardin del Pueblo, to purchase a trailer to move heavy farm equipment which is shared between participating farms for more efficient crop growing. Both farms produce organically and sustainably and donate all harvested vegetables to fight food insecurity to our community. Our club members have participated in harvesting in the fall and planting in the spring.
Other activities that our club has participated in the past several years include Martin Luther King Jr. Park clean-up on Martin Luther King Jr. Holiday/Day of Service, purchase of a water skid and helping with wildfire mitigation at Audubon Canyon Ranch’s Modini Preserve, Earth Day Russian River clean up, rejuvenating the raised gardens at Healdsburg Elementary School and weed, fertilize and prune the Healdsburg City Rose Garden to optimize the habitat for pollinators.
Our Environment Committee will continue to pursue new projects to help protect the environment and fight global climate crisis but will continue with most of the projects outlined above.
 | Norman Fujita Healdsburg Chair |
 | Donald Mitchell Healdsburg Member |
 | Shaun Shields Healdsburg Member |
 | Richard Tang Healdsburg Member |
 | Lucia Varela Healdsburg Member |