Local Action for a Sustainable Tomorrow

Rich reviewed some of his thoughts on the Action Planner. A #1 priority is to get another meeting place that will be more suitable for the general public to attend. Several suggestions were discussed. Everyone will contact at least one facility over the next week to see if we can identify a meeting place.

Sid, Laura M, Alex and Laura D attended the Dungeness Watershed meeting last Thurs. Sid gave an overview of some of the materials that were presented. Well drilling has greatly increased in the area over the last 20+ years. Irrigation water released into the ditches/pipes has decreased by half since 1979. This along with enclosing the ditches in pipes may help account for some of the 10' drop in the water tables over the past 10 years since, it was noted, residential indoor water that is used from wells & returned to the aquifers causes little water loss. Outside irrigation, particularly during the day, appears to not return as much water to the aquifers due to evaporation. If treated water from the sewage treatment plant is not being returned to the fields but instead into the strait, this could could also be a source of water table loss.

Ann S volunteered her property/greenhouses for future demonstration activities.

Sid noted that our group was featured in this month's Post Carbon newsletter. LAST members' photo is currently on the homepage of relocalize.net.

We will continue to work on the LAST Action Planner. It can be found under the pull down menu of LAST Home.

Ann S & Sid spoke to Curtis Beus, County Director/Instructor for WSU Extension & the upcoming class on sustainable farming. The class is currently full but Curtis is trying to get an alternate venue so some of our group can attend.

Kris encouraged everyone to submit letters to the editor 1x per month regarding sustainability issues to help get the word out.

Everyone signed up to bring various dishes to the potluck next week.