It is with great sadness and much gratitude that we say goodbye to Greg Bourget, who is moving to Arcata. Greg has been a tireless worker and volunteer for the Mendocino Environmental Center for the past two years. The nuts and bolts of our organization have been greatly strengthened, due in a large part to Greg's steadfast hard work and dedication to our organization. Thank you, Greg, we wish you well.
We have hired Amanda Hamburg and Matt Hamburg to be the new office coordinators. They staff the office on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays from noon to 6 pm. We are excited about the enthusiasm they bring. Come by and meet them.
Stepping firmly into the 21st century, we are looking into website improvement, with a community calendar of events and a way to join or donate online. We will be e-mailing alerts and the community calendar on a regular basis. Send us your email address (mec@pacific.net) if you want to subscribe. If you have ever sent us e-mail, we already have your address; we will be sending you an e-mail to give you the choice whether or not to subscribe to our list.
We are members of the coalition, Citizens' Campaign for Old-Growth Preservation, which is trying to get an initiative placed on the November ballot calling for the preservation of old-growth trees. (See cover article.) The MEC is coordinating signature-gathering in our area. Come by the office to sign a petition, or pick one up to collect signatures for this most worthy cause.
We were awarded a grant from the Trees Foundation, Cereus Fund, to work on a Community Forest Education Project. Our aim is to reach out to the community at large, well beyond our usual audience. We believe that if more people were educated in forest ecology and the social, environmental and economic advantages of intact forest systems, they would be more inclined to support protection and restoration. Throughout the next year we will sponsor eight programs that will include hikes, speakers' forums, videos and trainings. If you want to volunteer to work on this project call 468-1660 and leave a message for Vicki.
We have entered into an alliance with The Campaign to Restore Jackson State Redwood Forest, to help them educate the public and defend our forest. Our goal is to make Jackson State Forest's primary management purpose the restoration of old-growth for recreation, habitat, education and research. This 50,000-acre redwood forest is owned by the people of California and should be preserved for public benefit.
As always we are seeking new members and donations. Please consider a monthly pledge. We have a goal of bringing in $1,000 a month in pledges, which would cover our payroll. A $5 a month pledge is fairly painless and means a lot to us.
Copyright Mendocino Environmental Center 2002
Permission granted to excerpt or use this article if source is cited