Falls of the James Group expects a highly successful program season for September 07-June 08. We will highlight our programs as they are confirmed. We will be placing them on the events page, and advertise them on our BLOG and in various newspapers. We hope our members and visitors will take advantage of these educational and enjoyable opportunities and will advise us of opportunities to expand outreach into the community.
Please come and bring a friend-come for the programs, make a new friend.
January 14th, 2009
Monday 7:30 pm
Program: The Region’s Local Food Network
Speaker: Anne Darby and Jonah Fogel, with the Richmond Area Food System Network
Residents of the Richmond region eat very few foods that are grown in the region. Most items on the American dinner plate travel 1,500 miles on average. Long distance farming and mass processing has put local farmers out of business, delivers boring food, causes extensive economic damage, and wastes energy and valuable environmental resources.
Sprawl and poor land conservation practices threaten family farms and rural character. Big Agriculture favors fertilizer and pesticides, and extended shelf-life and visual appeal over freshness and good taste. Pre-packaged foods, hormones and additives, and modern animal farming practices are literally enough to make you sick. Ugh !
What can be done to change the system ? Come hear how pioneers are reviving the regional food network, restoring value to fresh foods and revitalizing small farms and farmers, and reunifying the rural areas with the urban and suburban consumers. Visited a Farmers’ Market recently? Want to learn about the farming and growing co-ops in the area? Thinking about a Victory Garden for you, your neighbors, or even barter? Please plan to join us.
February 11th, 2009
Wednesday 7:00 pm
Program: TSpecial Political & Legislative Update
Speaker: Glen Besa, Lisa Guthrie, and Nathan Lott
Sierra Club State Coordinator Glen Besa; Lisa Gutherie, the Executive Director of the Virginia League of Conservation Voters and Nathan Lott, Executive Director of the Virginia Conservation Network will update the Group on the critical 2008 Legislative issues and provide guidance on how our FoJG members can influence legislators and legislation.
Plus, small wid-winter’s party - Get some cheer before the meeting and after, and warm up those friendships with your fellow Sierra Club members. We’ll make it worth leaving your chilly home, to come out and have some fun. No reservations needed.
March 11th, 2009
Wednesday 7:00 pm
Program: pm No Child Left Inside - State & local education programs
Speaker: Bill Portlock & special guest
You’ve heard about Nature Deficit Disorder, and the lessons being outdoors can teach us - self-reliance, an appreciation of nature and the environment, an anti-dote to ADD and the information overload. Schools focus more on SOLs and less on field trips and environmental literacy.
Consider this, from their website “The issue of global climate change requires Americans to understand the human-created challenges facing our world and the options facing our nation moving forward. It is projected that major societal change will be needed in response to global warming. To that end, each of us may be called upon to make changes to reduce the impact on the environment.”
CBF leads 40,000 students annually in authentic, on-water field investigations of our environment. CBF also teach hundreds of teachers in professional development programs, and work with the public, resource managers and decision-makers to help restore and sustain the Bay’s ecosystem.
CBFs Senior Educator, Bill Portlock, with present information on the national programs, what the Commonwealth is planning to do, what CBF is doing, and what we can do to expand environmental awareness and support such educational initiatives.
April 8th, 2009
Wednesday 7:00 pm
Program: Greenways - Progress on Regional & Local Initiatives
Speaker: Jennifer Wampler, Champ Burnley, and others
Jennifer Wampler, Trails Coordinator with the Virginia Department of Conservation and Recreation, will present information on the statewide trails initiative, with specific information on progress regarding the James River Heritage Trail and the East Coast Greenway through Richmond. Champe Burnley, President of the Richmond Area Bicycling Association, will discuss the value of a regional trails and greenways network and what local advocates are doing to advance this vision.
May 14th, 2009
Wednesday 7:00 pm
Program: Reviving the Regional Bike and Pedestrian Plan and Complete Streets
Speaker: Sheila Sheppard, Executive Director, Partnership for Smarted Growth, and
Dom Nozzi, Executive Director, Walkable Streets and author of “Road to Ruin”
The Partnership for Smarter Growth (PSG) was created in 2004 as an education and advocacy nonprofit organization developed by and for citizens of Greater Richmond. Its mission is to preserve and enhance quality of life by educating the public and elected officials about land use, transportation, and other growth-related issues and equipping citizens to be effective advocates for balanced, responsible growth in their own communities and in the region as a whole.
PSG has been working in the greater Richmond region, to create self-sustaining groups of citizen empowered to engage in planning and the dynamic democratic process to channel growth that will help, not harm, our communities. It has already helped establish the following local groups: the Coalition for Hanover's Future; Powhatan Tomorrow; Envision Henrico; Envision Richmond; and Citizens Concerned with Goochland Growth.
PSG Executive Director Sheila Sheppard has been reviewing the 2003 Regional Bike and Pedestrian Plan (see view fromn the chair essay, page xx) and wants to breathe new life into it. She will present high-lights from the plan and identify some of the best recommendations, in terms of ease of implementation and best demonstration projects.
Dom Nozzi is a city planner with more that 20 years of experience in the fields of urbanism and livable communities and environmental conservation, and and currently serves on the Bike/Walk VA Board of Directors. He is the director of Walkable Streets Consulting, and his 2003 book Road to Ruin “delivers an easy-to-follow introduction to sprawl’s causes and offers common-sense solutions available to communities. The time is ripe for resurrecting the tradition of designing that makes people, not cars, happy. The key is returning to modest, human-scaled streets, parking, land use, and development regulations. Design principles encouraging walking, bicycling, and mass transit in conjunction with automobile travel are essential to creating livable cities once again.”
Mr Nozzi is a specialist in Complete Streets, Smart Growth, Sustainability, quality of life, suburban sprawl, transportation choice, parking, and traffic congestion. He will speak about how to change the car-only street design paradigm: Complete Streets can be used by all forms of travel, which promotes travel independence, safety, health, the environment and the economy. It is important that street design be context-sensitive rather than the conventional one-size-fits-all approach. Of special interest to our group is understanding effective tactics for inducing more bicycling and walking.