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Jon Rosene and a crew from Long Beach have been working to take an empty lot and turn it into a community garden to help provide food for those in need. Jon and his wife Lydia visited us in Santa Barbara a few months back to talk about developing an urban garden. Check out there work here. I look forward to providing updates on this project. Let us know if you are thinking about doing something similar or have questions - we would love to help.
More details about our upcoming symposium October 8-10 at our project site in the San Marcos Foothills of Santa Barbara:
10/8 @ 6 PM: Dinner & Talk - ‘The A Rocha Story: An Introduction”
10/9 @9 AM trail building, @noon lunch and talk - ‘Why Care About Creation’ @6 PM: Dinner & Talk - Biologist Jonna Engel about the importance of biodiversity @7 PM film: ‘Earth’
10/10 @6 AM Birding with Peter Gaede, @8:30 AM breakfast and spiritual reflection, @9:30 AM community garden build, @noon lunch and talk ‘Why should churches get involved with conservation and creation care?”, @5:30 PM dinner and talk by A Rocha Executive Director Tom Rowley and David Jones, @ 7:00 PM Worship/signing, @7:30 Star Gazing
RSVP by emailing:
symposium@arochasb.org
We are on a short break - away from A Rocha work, but will be back at it soon with announcements about upcoming projects. Thanks for your patience.
We wrapped up our first Creation Care Camp for elementary age children with a focus on botany. Student took hikes, identified plants, and had a game centered around this theme. We thank each of the families for participating and look forward to offering this again. Pictures from the sessions can be found here.
A Rocha’s website currently features a story detailing our local experience with the fire. Thanks is due to Barbara Mearns at A Rocha’s International Office for her care and interest.
Biologist and scientific illustrator Peter Gaede shared his knowledge of our local birds by leading students on a bird identificaiton hike, a lesson in animal classification, and scientific illustration. Campers got to see several local birds including a set of turkey vultures picking through their meal, scrub jays in addition to finding a ‘blue bellied’ lizard, a horny toad, and evidence of a roadrunner. These elementary kids also spent time observing a set of bird specimines to talk about adaptations within our local habitat. A special thanks to Santa Barbara Community Church for allowing us to use their facilities to host this event. Images can be found here.
30 kids ages 5-10 began our first day of camp. Marty and Megan have planned a great set of environmental educaiton lessons begining with a focus on geology. Students are hiking and learning through being taught through activities and exeperiences in our local foothills. Photos from today’s activites will be posted on Flickr.
Westmont students Sharon and Alex have been working in concert with A Rocha to create a garden on their campus to promote sustainability awareness and connect students with the community. Students plan to grow food and share the produce with a local group on the Westside of the city that is looking to provide a healthy food source for low income families.
We’ll be having our first camp for elementary aged kids from 9:00 to noon on Wednesday, Thursday & Friday, June 10, 11, & 12.
Our program is for ages 5 to 10 and we will take up to 25 kids (plus a few older kid helpers).
We’ll be meeting on the Santa Barbara Community Church property down by the barn.
Our basic format is:
Wednesday: Geology! We’ll hike, have games/activities and an art/craft project that all connects to the geology of our area. Snack is provided each day. (No lunch)
Thursday: Animals! We’ll go birding and have a scientific illustration lesson from scientific illustrator, Peter Gaede. Also games & snack.
Friday: Plants! We’ll plant our own seeds to take home, hike to observe the plant life and make our snack together with local produce
Hello to all and thanks to each of you for your emails and calls regarding the fire. This past week has been nothing short of remarkable. The amount of displaced people (30,000) due to mandatory evacuations and an additional 30,000 on standby was staggering for our area. It would be safe to say that most people where either displaced or housing those that were displaced. Here is a summary of the events:
The fire appears to have been started by power tools used to clear brush along a popular hiking trail in our foothills. The fire appeared to be small and containable before hot winds began fanning the flames and creating our third major fire in 365 days. I took some photos which can be seen here:
Please note that some of these were taken in less than optimal conditions and one was a very rushed shot, but does give a sense of the moment. The image shown in the the photo “Jesusita Santa Barbara Fire Day 2″
gives the best feel for that second day. It became very apparent during day two of the fire that our new project site was potentially in danger with the flames roughly a mile and a half away. Although the
winds were blowing away from the site, I decided to begin packing our tiny A Rocha office on the property just in case the winds shifted, which they thankfully did not. Day three is when the real drama began and the most dramatic photos were taken. Early in the day the fire appeared to be a set of small camp fires with no major plumes of smoke visible. Around 6:00 PM I returned to the church site, located next to and above the conservation property, in order to gauge the wind and direction of the fire closest to the site due to its sweeping views. The fire had only progressed about 1/4 of a mile and was still over a mile away with the winds continuing to blow opposite the property. I noticed a make-shift command post set up on the property due west of the project site which included a water pick up spot for a firefighting helicopter. This spot was the same place where Tom, Marty, Ian, (all associated with A Rocha) and I reviewed the property in February. At roughly 6:30 PM the winds began their dramatic shift toward the property and within 30 minutes the flames we rapidly approaching. The mandatory evacuation orders came just as I drove down into our new project site to retrieve a few last items. I found the family living on the property beginning to pack, but had not been given the mandatory evacuation notice. We spent about 30 minutes removing as much of their possessions as we could fit into our three cars before driving away and notifying the authorities of the residence’s existence hoping that they would attempt to save it. The best we can figure, in retrospect, is that the property wasn’t visible to emergency personnel since it is tucked into the hills and was forgotten. I spent the rest of the evening helping another family evacuate as well as keeping an eye toward any news about the property. What news did come through in the reports was not encouraging. The watershed that runs through the site was mentioned several times as having been burned and the location of the fire that ‘jumped’ over a nearby freeway was identified as being right inline with the church property. I feel asleep very discouraged.
Day four was filled with mixed reports about the property - at one point I was told the church itself was standing, but our project site/office had most likely burned. From one vantage point I had, it looked like the property was good, but it would take visiting it to know for sure. All traffic to the site and surrounding vistas was barricaded due to emergency personnel conducting their jobs making a personal inspection impossible for me. Day five was Sunday and I spent most of the day wondering what the immediate future of our conservation work might look like. Assuming the worst and that the property had burned, could we host a day camp for kids in June if the area was charred? What exactly would our intern be focused on to help recovery efforts? What might this mean for additional events this summer and September?
Later on day five, we headed to church. Another congregation in town allowed our church to host a service in their building. I bumped into the family who lives on the project site while I was parking and hesitantly asked about the status of the land. Much to my relief he told me the flames had stopped less than 100 meters from their home and the site! Apparently he called one of his firefighting friends and was told that the staging area where the helicopter was picking up water next to the property was declared a necessary ‘holding ground’ and that they had made saving the house and the property a priority. Wow! After the service we drove to the church’s parking area and surveyed the damage. The burn area seemed even closer than reported - absolutely amazing! I am so grateful and thankful for the outcome of what had seemed to be a potentially huge set back for us. It’s awkward feeling thankful that our small patch of interest was spared damage while others lost all they own and our experience in no way compares to the trauma that others experienced. Please join us in praying for the families who are in this situation as they begin the process of recovery.
