Join us this Saturday, October 17th, from 8:00 AM-10:00 AM at the Eastside Community Garden as we rehabilitate three existing raised beds, amend the soil with organics and plant seeds. The garden is located in the Eastside Neighborhood Park on the corner of Soledad and Yanonali. Bring a friend and help build capacity for the Eastside outreach that Ruben and Holly Gil run.

I spoke with Doug at Backyard Harvest today and am very inspired by their work. Backyard Harvest collects produce from homes in our area that would otherwise go to waste and distributes it to those in need. This is a great way to steward the produce grown at our own homes that might otherwise rot. Check them out here to get involved.

I am excited to announce our next project: developing a five acre organic agricultural resource that will provide food for some of the neediest in our community. We are partnering with the Santa Barbara Community Development Center to provide food through an existing distribution program. Our goal is to raise enough organic produce to meet the needs of 150 people through creating this resource on the Santa Barbara Community Church property in our local foothills. More information about this project and how you can become involved will be posted in the days to come.

Thanks to all 80+ who turned out for our Creation Care Symposium. Check out the photos here. We were joined by several out of town guests who helped deepen our local work. The event comprised lectures from Robert Campbell, pastor of Santa Margarita Community Church, and Jonna Engel, Marine Biologist, trail construction on our project site, star gazing, creating a raised bed garden at Turnpike Church of Christ, devotional talks, art work, a birding session at Carpinteria Salt Marsh, and more. We look forward to sharing our local projects with you with opportunities for your participation as we continue to mobilize Christians to steward the Earth through education and action.

I just spent the morning reviewing the details of the upcoming garden build at Turnpike Church of Christ. This project will be part of our Creation Care Symposium on held Oct. 9-10. This garden will serve as a resource for both the church and the neighborhood by providing a set of raised beds for those interested in raising their own organic food. Email us at symposium@arochasb.org and join us on October 10 from 9:30-noon for this event. Children are welcomed and food will be provided.

Join Jonna Engle and crew 9 a.m. this Saturday at Rincon. We will start our trash collection at the picnic table in the upper parking lot as part of the 25th annual Coastal Clean Up Day. According to the California Coastal Commission, more than 70,000 volunteers worked together to collect more than 1,600,000 pounds of trash and recyclables from our beaches, lakes, and waterways in 2008!

Join us at 9:30 a.m., October 10, during our Creation Care Symposium, at Turnpike Church of Christ (677 N Turnpike Rd, Santa Barbara, CA). We will construct our latest community garden that will be used to provide a neighborhood organic garden. RSVP at symposium@arochasb.org

One of the questions I receive from people within the church is, “Why is the stuff that A Rocha gets involved with of importance to us?” We have a mandate within the Christian faith to steward the natural world - it is the first commandment given in the Bible. In addition, the poor in the world are usually the first to be impacted by environmental degregation and the Biblical focus on justice is inescapable, thereby making wise stewardship of our natural resources an issue to great importance. Join us as we explore these topics at our upcoming symposium to be held at Santa Barbara Community Church. To RSVP and learn more check out this invite (.pdf)

In the coming weeks I’ll post brief summaries of A Rocha’s world wide work in order to provide examples of the A Rocha vision in action as we begin providing more tangible conservation opportunities here in Santa Barbara at our project site (aka Center).

A Rocha France is located Les Tourades in Provence. Protecting the nearby Marais des Baux is a priority. The first phase of work there involved a consultation with all the landowners and other users of this wetland, was completed in 2008. The second phase, begun in November, is focused on guiding four wetland owners as they redefine their land management for better biodiversity and economic results.
A second center, Les Courmettes in the Côte d’Azur, opened its 600 hectares (1500 acres) to the public
in spring 2009, primarily for environmental education. Within four different ecosystems over a 600m altitudinal range, visitors can focus on the realities of pollution and climate change. migration routes. However, there is intense, indiscriminate hunting. During the last three years, the team undertook
a community conservation project (in partnership with the Society for the Protection of Nature in Lebanon)
to identify and conserve new Important Bird Areas (IBAs). As a result, eleven new IBAs were declared by BirdLife International following the assessment of over 30 national sites and over 3,000 hours of field monitoring.  A huge new national bird database was established, site management committees were formed at each new IBA and over 70 local participants were trained in bird identification and site monitoring.

-taken from A Rocha’s 2008/2009 International Review

Check out this four page summary of A Rocha’s work which includes a color map with highlights from each country including an update on A Rocha’s very first project based in Portugal which started in the 80’s.