What Your Dollars Do

Member Group Spotlight: Butte Environmental Council

The Butte Environmental Council (BEC) is offering a series of Code Blue presentations, a year-long series of informative events and workshops made possible by a grant from the Rose Foundation. BEC’s Code Blue series seeks to educate the community about water issues and get people involved in conserving our water so that we have healthy water systems in our watershed and beyond.

Code Blue began by coordinating an interfaith panel discussion on the ethics of water stewardship, featuring prominent local educators and community members. Then BEC collaborated with California State University, Chico at This Way To Sustainability VIII for a day of panels on water issue topics. They also included a panel discussion featuring two of the keystone speakers, Heather Cooley of The Pacific Institute and Shalini Kantayya, director of the film Drop of Life.

Upcoming Code Blue events will feature a Water Activist Training session; more science-based presentations, and a field trip to the proposed location of the Delta Tunnels. Says Nani Teves, project director:

“The long-term goals of the [Code Blue] project are increased public participation to demand sustainable water policies that protect the Northern Sacramento Valley and Deltas water supplies for fish, wildlife and residents…It’s vital that the public is informed about the policies that will affect the health and vitality of our region’s water supply, and empowered to influence the outcomes.”

In addition to Code Blue, BEC also continues its advocacy for sustainable land use and planning, environmental health, and other critical issues; and continues to engage the community with educational events like the Endangered Species Faire; since 1979, it’s Northern California’s longest-running FREE environmental faire.