SAVE THE DATE: SFV Climate Reality Mtg.,Tuesday, March 11th, 7pm |
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Pledge Drive Time! Our chapter has annual expenses: a Zoom account for our monthly meetings, a website hosting fee, and the service that sends these newsletters. If you appreciate these, please contribute to help cover the costs! If everyone reading this chipped in $10, we'd be all set for the year and wouldn't need to ask again. So if you're in a position to donate, please click here to make a small contribution to SFVCR so we can keep doing this important work. |
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SAN FERNANDO VALLEY CHAPTER MEETING |
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| Join our Chapter Meeting Tuesday, March 11th 7pm - 8:30pm Click Here To Register Everyone is welcome! Please spread the word. |
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PASSIVE HOUSE: BUILD BACK BETTER |
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After the horrific LA fires, are you suddenly hearing a lot about Passive House in discussions about rebuilding? Want to know more? Passive House is a green building energy standard that is the most reliably effective approach to designing healthy, resilient, affordable, and comfortable buildings. Starting with an optimized enclosure, it focuses on insulating a building (like a thermos) to reduce heating and cooling loads and ultimately reduce energy usage and carbon emissions by up to 80% compared to a standard code building, even without being wholly electrified. While it is the most rigorous energy efficiency building energy standard in the world, it is performance based and not prescriptive, which allows flexibility in design while achieving predicted outcomes every time. Come learn from experts Bronwyn Barry, founder of Passive House California and the Passive House Network, and Robert Haw, leader of Climate Action California and founder of the Pasadena Foothills chapter of Citizens’ Climate Lobby. They will explain the principles and benefits of Passive House, and how this type of building standard could help LA rebuild areas destroyed by fire in ways that are safer AND more energy efficient. Register Here. |
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SFV CHAPTER NEWS & EVENTS |
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| Tarzana Native Plant Fair This Sunday! SFVCR will be tabling at the Tarzana Native Plant Fair on Sunday Feb 23, 11am-4pm, so come by to say hello while you're there to learn about firewise landscaping with California native plants. Pick up some plants for your yard and enjoy activities for the whole family, including art and gardening activities for kids, live music, food, and mingling with our community. Free admission for all! Sunday, February 23, 11am-4pm |
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Legislative Committee Meeting At our next Legislative Committee meeting, we will be reviewing important state legislation that has been introduced, including the new Polluters Pay bill introduced on Friday. We'll also update the group on our on-going meetings with state legislators and what we're learning about their goals and priorities for the coming legislative session. Tuesday, March 4th, 7pm (on Zoom) Click Here at Meeting Time. |
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Join Our Leadership Team (or at least vote for it!) It's time to elect a leadership team to guide our chapter's activities for the next year! Want to take a more active role in our chapter? Volunteer for a leadership position! No experience needed; you'll partner with our more experienced members to learn what's needed. We're especially looking for a Programming Coordinator to help plan chapter meeting topics, so if you enjoy our monthly meetings, step up and help plan them!
This year's current election ballot and leadership roles are online here for review before the next chapter meeting. You can email us if you're interested in exploring options. |
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Public Comments Needed: Sepulveda Dam Master Plan Revision |
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| The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (ACE), Los Angeles District, has initiated a comment period for input on the revision of the Sepulveda Dam Master Plan. The public is invited to send comments, suggestions, and concerns until March 26th.
The current Master Plan, approved in 2011, is out of date and no longer compliant with existing laws and regulations. Substantial environmental, cultural, social, and recreational conditions have occurred since that master plan was approved.
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Biodiversity Spotlight The thing about biodiversity is that in a healthy ecosystem, it exists whether we see it and are aware of it, or not. |
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Biodiversity Spotlight: The Mount Lyell shrew (Sorex lyelli) Range: Endemic to small sub-alpine ranges in Fresno, Mariposa, Mono, and Tuolome counties Habitat: Mostly lowlands and forested areas, covering millions of acres Threats: Climate change Impacts: Even today, new species are constantly being discovered and identified. For some, being able to fly under the radar might help them survive, while others may disappear without our ever knowing of their existence. The Mount Lyell shrew is the only known California mammal never photographed alive--until October 2024! We honor the three intrepid students who were finally able to photograph and videotape it on a three-day expedition to the Sierra Nevada. The Mount Lyell shrew looks like a tiny long-nosed mouse, but is actually more closely related to hedgehogs and moles. It is a member of the Soricini tribe of long tailed shrews, with 32 teeth in a long pointed nose. They were first documented 100 years ago and named after Mount Lyell in Yosemite National Park. The Mount Lyell shrew has an incredibly fast metabolism and spends much of its time eating. They regularly consume their body weight in insects daily, which means they play an important part in keeping insect populations under control. |
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| Vishal Subramanyan and Prakrit Jain, students at UC Berkeley, along with Harper Forbes from the University of Arizona, received permits from California Department of Fish and Game to trap, photograph, and videotape the shrews, which had not been seen in 20 years. The students set traps filled with cat food and meal worms, but because of the shrews' high metabolism and the possibility that they might die if left in a trap too long, the students needed to work fast. They were able to safely trap and record 5 shrews within the first 24 hours. The smallest shrew weighed as much as two paper clips and was four inches long. Having photographs and video helps scientists learn more about this species, and it is also an introduction for members of the public who have never seen it before. In the words of Vishal Subramanyan, “If we look at the extinction crisis and the types of animals it’s impacting, a lot of animals are disappearing without any documentation. An animal like the Mount Lyell shrew, if it was not photographed or researched, could have just quietly disappeared due to climate change, and we’d have no idea about it at all.” |
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If you would like to suggest a California Native species or write a biodiversity spotlight, please contact Zina Block or Sherrell Cuneo. |
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