EARTH WATCH
GREENWAYS Oliver Allen (left), outreach coordinator for the Butte County Library, and Chico State social work intern David Overton flank the newest Little Library box in the Chapmantown neighborhood, in front of Subud Hall (574 E. 12th St.).
EPA: BRISTOL BAY MINING DESTRUCTIVE
Last month, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency released its long-awaited report on the potential impacts of large-scale gold and copper mining on the Bristol Bay watershed in western Alaska. Titled “An Assessment of Potential Mining Impacts on Salmon Ecosystems of Bristol Bay, Alaska,” the report found that “[a] large-scale mining operation in Alaska’s Bristol Bay would destroy a significant portion of the watershed, a pristine fishery that supports nearly half the world’s sockeye salmon and dozens of Native villages that have relied on fishing for thousands of years,” according to The Washington Post. The EPA’s report—which is a blow to the Northern Dynasty Mining company’s aim to dig its massive and controversial Pebble Mine, for which it has not yet filed a permit—was compiled over three years’ time at the request of tribes in the area. Perhaps not surprisingly, Northern Dynasty and Republican supporters of the proposed mine described the report as “biased, premature and bad for business.”
Below: The Little Library box in front of Subud Hall is typical of similar small, free neighborhood libraries popping up around the United States and the world.
KEYSTONE XL GETS OFFICIAL NOD
A new report from the U.S. Department of State offers no major environmental objections to the proposed Keystone XL pipeline from Canada to the southern United States. The State Department’s analysis said that approval of the controversial pipeline project, which would be built by TransCanada Corp., “is unlikely to significantly impact the rate of extraction in the oil sands or the continued demand for heavy crude oil at refineries in the United States based on expected oil prices,” according to BBC News. Environmentalists have long objected to the pipeline, citing increased carbon emissions and the resultant increased contribution to global warming, as well as risk of oil spills along its route, which includes the Ogalalla Aquifer, a major source of fresh water for the Great Plains region. “Keystone XL would pipe some of the world’s dirtiest oil through the American breadbasket to be refined on the Gulf and shipped overseas,” said actor/environmentalist Robert Redford, in a Feb. 4 Reader Supported News piece he wrote.
CITRUS GROWERS SQUEEZED BY FREEZE
California’s citrus industry took a large financial hit as a result of December’s below-freezing temperatures. California Citrus Mutual (CCM), a citrus-producer trade association, released an estimate on Feb. 3 indicating that as a result of seven nights in a row of icy temperatures, the Golden State’s $2 billion citrus industry lost about $441 million, according to Action News Now. The citrus-crop damage was limited to the state’s Central Valley, according to CCM. Approximately $24 million worth of lemons, $150 million in mandarin oranges and $260 million worth of navel oranges were lost—or 30 percent of the navel-orange crop. Send your eco-friendly news tips to Christine G.K. LaPado-Breglia at christinel@newsreview.com.
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Spreading democracy Chapmantown’s Little Libraries are part of larger movement to promote literacy and community in neighborhoods nationwide and beyond story and photos by
Christine G.K. LaPado-Breglia christinel@newsreview.com
O significant rainfall in quite some time—Friday, Feb. 7—another praisewor-
n the day that Chico got its first
thy event occurred: A bright-green Little Library box containing two shelves packed with a variety of books was installed in the Chapmantown neighborhood. Oliver Allen, Butte County Library outreach coordinator, and Chico State social work student (and Love Chapmantown Community Coalition intern) David Overton erected the cute, wooden box-on-a-pole in front of Subud Hall on East 12th Street—the second such Little Library box in the south Chico neighborhood; the two are the first ones in the larger project that Allen is shepherding. The guiding principle of the boxes is “take a book, return a book,” though Allen is quick to point out that “people are encouraged to take [a book] and not really worry about returning [one]. … We’re trying to get people to take [books], get involved with the material and
don’t worry about the ‘back end.’ … Share the information and the experience of the box!” Chapmantown’s first Little Library box—installed 2 1/2 months ago—is located just outside Has Beans Coffee & Tea Company at 1078 Humboldt Ave. And, Allen said, “a couple of individuals have them on their front lawns,” though those particular boxes are not part of Allen’s program—they are officially part of the national Little Free Library program (there are actually four official Little Free Library boxes altogether in Chico; go to map at www.littlefreelibrary.org to see locations). The Little Libraries that Allen is creating—which contain both fiction and nonfiction books—are modeled on the larger Little Free Library program (which has spread worldwide). That program was
Helping Little Libraries grow:
To volunteer books, money and/or time as a Little Library box “steward,” contact Butte County Library Outreach Coordinator Oliver Allen at 538-0840. Go to www.littlefree library.org to learn more about Little Free Libraries nationwide.
started in Wisconsin in 2009 by a man named Todd Bol, who erected a little, red, schoolhouse-style free-library box full of books in his front yard as a tribute to his mother, a former schoolteacher who loved books. Allen plans to register the local Little Library project with the bigger Little Free Library organization in the very near future, as soon as he raises the $39 fee to do so (his project, despite being under the umbrella of the Butte County Library, currently has no allocated budget). “What we’re trying to do is spread literacy, and build community and the sharing economy of people and resources,” he offered. The Love Chapmantown Community Coalition had originally conceived of the idea of the neighborhood library boxes, Allen said, and had built some boxes that were never installed. After he became the Butte County Library’s outreach coordinator six months ago, and after spending some vacation time in Portland, Ore.— where there are dozens of Little Free Libraries—Allen got the idea to start a similar program in Butte County. He menGREENWAYS continued on page 14