In Gratitude: Recognizing Board President Marilyn Bardet’s Selfless Service to SuSol

Dec 5, 2022

By Sustainable Solano

In January, Marilyn Bardet will step down from the board president role she has held for the past 18 years. Sustainable Solano would not have grown into the organization it is today without her leadership, guidance, wisdom and trust. We are grateful for all she has brought to the organization.

Back in 2005 a tiny fledgling nonprofit, Benicia Community Gardens, was going through turmoil — after the death of founder Dr. Swenson, the remaining board had no vision and no capacity to continue forward. There was just one garden then, at Heritage Presbyterian Church, now carrying the name of the founder, Swenson Garden. The board put out a call for help to the community, and one of the people who stepped forward was a local artist and environmental activist, Marilyn Bardet. The board dropped the documents on her lap and left.

That’s how Marilyn started on a difficult path of being board president. There was nothing glamorous about this role — it was a hard labor of love. Together with a small group of new board volunteers, Marilyn not only saved Swenson Garden and the community that formed around it, but secured funding for the second garden in Benicia — Avant Garden, now a beloved institution on First Street. Avant Garden started with a bare patch of land. The original garden beds were made of straw and each straw bale was laid down by the hard-working volunteer board. They carried soil, spread mulch, installed irrigation, built the fence and invited the community to join in. Hard work and a steadfast commitment to the vision made it a garden that became a true Benicia town square.

The work did not stop there — the nonprofit continued to reinvent itself in response to the needs of the community and a vision for a better future for all, expanding the vision to local sustainable food, planting a community orchard, running educational programs, developing a Community Supported Agriculture hub in Benicia, and envisioning and implementing a Benicia Sustainable Backyard program: permaculture-based demonstration gardens in private homes that became the base for community education and inspiration.

Marilyn was at the heart of all these initiatives. The programs were growing, the organization was rooting. It required dedication and more hard work to secure funding, build the board, support the team and develop relationships with key stakeholders in the county. When in 2016 we took a leap of faith to become Sustainable Solano, Marilyn’s authentic leadership and support for the vision led us safely and successfully through the passage of scaling up successful Benicia programs to the county level.

Slideshow

Board President Marilyn Bardet

Marilyn, you gave so much in all these years! Countless hours at the board and team meetings; scientific research and artwork; numerous meetings with, and calls and letters to the key stakeholders; late nights with grant deadlines; long (and sometimes difficult) conversations; personal funds, and wisdom, trust and pure love given so freely and selflessly.

As you are stepping down from the board president role, we want you to remember that your selfless service has formed the very foundation of the organization you’ve been leading for 18 years!

In deep gratitude,
The board and the team of Sustainable Solano 

Influencing Local Land Use Comes Down to Making Your Voice Heard

Nov 28, 2022

By Sustainable Solano

Ag land near Vacaville / Photo credit: Ken Lund, Flickr

When it comes to how land is put to use in your community — whether rural or urban — it is important to remember that each local citizen has a voice and that those voices can influence government decisions around planning and zoning.

Experts on planning and land use discussed how to be informed and take action around such decisions at the Rural & Urban Land Use: Planning, Zoning & the Local Food System event on Nov. 3 hosted by the Solano Local Food System Alliance. The online event started with keynote speaker Dr. Catherine Brinkley with the Center for Regional Change at UC Davis, and a panel that included Solano County Planning Manager Allan Calder, Solano Land Trust’s Tracy Ellison, and Vacaville Senior Planner Tyra Hays. You can watch the video of the event below.

While the topics covered were wide-ranging, several highlights emerged.

During her keynote, Brinkley talked about the importance of looking at where similar zoning and planning decisions have been in effect and also analyzing where the gaps exist. This is difficult because city and county general plans have not been kept in a central location and, when they can be found on government websites, they are not always easy to search for the particular land use that is being researched.

“Not all plans are in the same place,” she said. “You can’t Google ‘I’d like a recipe for food security’ the way you do for pumpkin pie.”

That’s why the Center for Regional Change has been collecting general plans and creating a database that can be searched for keywords that will help to cut through the dense text of general plans. Searches show when the plans were created and can help to see if nearby jurisdictions are doing something similar or if a municipality might be the first to have an innovative policy in place. This can support everything from community advocacy to supporting general plan updates.

In the local food system, this might mean searching agricultural plans that affect policies and purchasing, development rights, or greenbelts in agricultural areas; looking at food equity policies; or exploring urban growth boundaries. You can learn more about the database here.

Another part of influencing the planning process around the food system is making sure you are involved. This is true for citizens of any age — even if you’re not yet old enough to vote, you can make your voice heard to influence planning decisions. Sometimes what it takes is showing up.

Hayes recommends speaking with city council members or bringing forth a proposal around planning issues. It can be involving yourself in general plan update meetings and land use discussions. Having interested residents who support an idea helps greatly, she said.

Calder said there are often technical or citizens advisory committees involved in shaping new plans, and these are opportunities to participate as a citizen in planning and zoning updates.

The panel also touched on hot topics including urban agriculture/community gardens; the use of prime ag land for greenhouse growing; agritourism; and foreign entities buying local farmland.

Interested in learning more about the local food system? The Solano Local Food System Alliance holds public educational events every quarter to address different topics that affect local food. The Alliance includes a wide variety of stakeholders committed to fulfilling the mission of creating an environmentally sustainable, economically viable, socially just and equitable local food system in Solano County. You can learn more about the Alliance here.

Solano Gardens Seeks to Build Community Connection Through Garden Network

Nov 16, 2022

Nov. 16, 2022
For immediate release

Media Contact: Allison Nagel
805-512-0901
allison@sustainablesolano.org
Interviews, photos and other materials available upon request

Quick facts:

  • Sustainable Solano’s Solano Gardens is building a network of community and backyard gardens that can support each other with education, garden supplies and shared food.
  • The program has a limited number of chickens, coops, vertical and container gardening and aquaponics kits to supply to community gardens. There are also chickens, coops and container garden kits for backyard gardeners who need assistance building their home gardens.
  • Anyone interested in support for growing food at home can fill out an interest form here: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/ZVKVRH2

 

Solano Gardens Seeks to Build Community Connection Through Garden Network 

Sustainable Solano’s Solano Gardens program is offering garden resources to Solano County communities and aims to create a network of home gardeners to support one another.

Sustainable Solano intends to increase in-county food production, supporting communities to grow and process their own food and help eliminate food insecurity. Building community, health, wealth, and systems of care that are culturally responsive are at the heart of these efforts.

Solano Gardens, a partnership between Sustainable Solano and Solano Public Health, collaborates with community members and organizations to create edible gardens based on the principles of permaculture to serve as a source of fresh produce, inspiration and companionship for people in need across diverse communities. Each garden design is unique to the community it serves and cared for by community champions passionate about sustainable food.

Solano Gardens is offering a limited number of chickens, chicken coops, beehives, vertical or container farming, and aquaponics kits to community gardens, with the hope that some of these community gardens will eventually become “Hubs” around the county. Hubs would demonstrate different growing methods, host educational events and supplies giveaways, and have kitchen space to prepare some of what is growing for the community as part of education, sharing healthy food, and creating social enterprises.

Sustainable Solano will also cultivate a satellite network of home growers with gardens of any size. Solano Gardens will support this network through classes and circles of knowledge-sharing, so that these gardeners can lend support to each other. There will be a limited number of chickens, chicken coops, and vertical or container farming kits intended for satellite growers who need support establishing their home gardens. Sustainable Solano also welcomes donations to increase what can be offered.

Anyone who needs support in growing food at home can fill out an interest form here: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/ZVKVRH2

About Solano Gardens

The Solano Gardens program has grown this year beyond its original scope of creating and supporting gardens that provide access to fresh produce in communities that have historically experienced limited access to healthy food. With the expansion of the program, the broader goal is to help Solano communities regain control over the growing, sharing and preparing of food. The program will do this in three ways. Solano Gardens will establish garden Hubs that can support education, distribution and preparation of food; community gardens that continue to get fresh produce to local residents; and smaller satellite gardens that can serve as a network of support for home gardeners interested in producing their own food. Culinary training classes for youth will impart skills and understanding of how to prepare fresh food at home and in larger amounts to share with others. And the program is also managing a farm feasibility study to look at the best approaches to continuing to support farming and food production here in Solano County. Together, these three aspects of Solano Gardens work toward that broader goal of food sovereignty for Solano communities.

About Sustainable Solano

Sustainable Solano is a countywide nonprofit organization that is dedicated to “Nurturing Initiatives for the Good of the Whole.” The organization, now in its second decade, brings together programs that support and sustain one another and the Solano County community. Initiatives include sustainable landscaping, local food, resilient neighborhoods, youth leadership, sustaining conversations and community gardens.

For more information, visit sustainablesolano.org 

Suisun City Climate Resilience Community Forum Engages Public Around Flood Risks

Nov 11, 2022

By Alex Lunine, Resilient Communities Program Manager

Panelists John Durand of UC Davis, Mayor Pro Tem Alma Hernandez, Emily Corwin of the Fairfield-Suisun Sewer District and Jaclyn Mandoske of Bay Conservation and Development Commission speak during the forum roundtable

Suisun City is vulnerable to increased flooding risks from sea level rise, king tides and storm surges that will threaten homes, businesses and jobs in the coming decades. The Suisun City Climate Resilience Community Forum brought together local environmental experts, city officials and city residents and community leaders to explore those risks, while informing a discussion around community-supported actions and solutions.

The Forum built upon the work of the city’s core team, which organized a Community Resilience Building workshop in June that led to a report by The Nature Conservancy.

Bringing together around 15 residents and a panel that included Mayor Pro Tem Alma Hernandez, Jaclyn Mandoske of the San Francisco Bay Conservation and Development Commission, Emily Corwin of the Fairfield-Suisun Sewer District, and John Durand from UC Davis, the Forum sought to engage community members on the topic to collectively work towards preventing and adapting to the threat of rising tides in Suisun.

The day started with an introduction by Alma Hernandez, followed by presentations on flooding issues and the Fairfield-Suisun Sewer District’s ongoing and planned flood-related projects.

If you have been keeping up with our outreach efforts, you might already be familiar with the flooding projections published by the BCDC in 2020: an increase of 6 to 10 inches in water level by 2030, 13 to 23 inches by 2050, and upwards of 41 to 83 inches by 2100. This timeline is indicative of flooding due to sea level rise only, and does not include the additional threats that storm surges or king tides present to the city. When determining flood mitigation efforts, all three factors of flooding have to be considered in conjunction with one another. A mix of three primary strategies can be implemented by the city to curb the impacts of flooding: protect, adapt, and retreat. Protection infrastructure, such as levees, seeks to prevent flooding from occurring. Meanwhile, adaptation measures, such as adjusting building codes to prevent water damage, attempt to mitigate the harm that flooding can inflict. Finally, retreat cedes that flooding and damage cannot be prevented in a given area, so preexisting or planned development should be abandoned.

To illustrate how flood mitigation strategies can look in action, Emily Corwin presented on three projects within the radar of the sewer district:

  • The district is planning to establish community treatment wetlands on-site at the district. These wetlands will reduce the amount of excess nutrients being carried out into the Bay, while also helping to bolster the flood resilience of the district and surrounding properties. Additionally, these wetlands are planned to serve as a public educational resource about the Suisun Marsh and host walking trails.
  • The next project was the renovation of the Kellogg Pump Station. This pump station, directly behind residences on Maple Street, was damaged by fire in 2020, and improvements to the station are planned to both bolster fire and flooding resilience and provide a walkable path along its creek.
  • The last project pertained to improving the capacity of the stormwater systems to move water out of Suisun neighborhoods. This, in part, includes replacing older piping.

The district wants to incorporate community feedback into its projects and what should be prioritized in their efforts.

The group adjourned for lunch and came back together for the community forum. The panel was able to answer questions from participants, including clarification from the presentations, what organizations and stakeholders the city could partner with to tackle flooding vulnerabilities, how flooding would impact the Suisun Marsh and examples of how flood-mitigation measures have looked in nearby communities.

Even if you could not attend on Oct. 22, you can still make your voice heard by watching the video recording of the event and filling out our survey.

Participants also gave crucial commentary on how Sustainable Solano can improve our outreach efforts. This includes having greater representation from government leaders at future roundtables to enhance the ability of community members to communicate their needs to the city, and reaching beyond coalition-building with the adult population to offer more ways for students to get involved.

This forum would not be possible without the huge contributions of time and effort from the Core Team: Alma Hernandez, Anthony Adams, Aleta George, Jay Gunkelmann, and Mike Zeiss. Additionally, I would like to thank Jaclyn Mandoske, Emily Corwin, and John Durand for lending us their expertise on the panel and for taking the time to join us for these important conversations.

I would also like to thank our high school interns for helping film during this event, even after their internships ended, and for all their hard work over the course of the summer.

If you are interested in learning more about flood risks or want to get more involved, we are partnering with Adopt a Neighborhood to host another Flood Walk from 10 am-12 pm Saturday, Nov. 19. Additionally, from 10 am to 4 pm on Dec. 3 and Dec. 10, we are installing a flood- and drought-resistant garden at a Suisun City home that was previously affected by fire. During the workshop, you can learn how to address similar hazards at your own home.

Why Hampton Bay HOA Decided on Sustainable Landscaping

Oct 26, 2022

By Rick Theisen, Hampton Bay HOA Board Member / Treasurer

We’ve worked closely with Rick and the Hampton Bay landscape committee in a partnership to demonstrate how a waterwise, beautiful native garden could replace water-hungry lawns in HOA common areas. Here, Rick offers some insight on that partnership and the first pilot project.

Prior to the 2016-2017 rainy season, the wettest on record, most of the state was experiencing increasingly worsening drought conditions. At one point, people were doing the odd and even dance to conserve water. Remember that? But, after the 2016-17 rainfall, most thought that we were out of the woods. Virtually the entire state was transformed. No more drought, said some! Reservoirs were refilled to capacity. A harbinger of good things to come!?

A couple of us that had been on the board of the Hampton Bay association, at that time for more than 15 years and intimately familiar with the finances, weren’t so sure about the optimistic prospects. There were other factors in play for our community that were compelling us to think otherwise. Common area landscaping was relatively vast with large swaths of grass that required a great deal of water. The plants and shrubs were aging and outdated — most installed at the community’s inception 40 years ago. Most of the irrigation was the original equipment — inefficient and high maintenance spray heads in the plant and shrub perimeter areas, as well. And, to exacerbate matters, the city was steadily increasing the water and sewer rates. So, we were having to increase association dues more than desired due to the rising costs of water and related landscape maintenance.

We knew we couldn’t sustain the path we were on and were also a bit cynical of the drought prospects, suspecting that the overabundance of rain in the 2016-17 season was a teaser by mother nature. In retrospect it was, of course, a fluke year in a worsening 20-year, some say 100-year, drought.

So, we began a campaign advocating to the other homeowners (100 units) for a complete transformation of the common area landscape and irrigation in an effort to mitigate increasing water usage costs and thereby curtailing future dues hikes. It was a challenge at first because the word “drought” was no longer front and center in the media. However, over the next one to two years as talks of the drought resurfaced, the reality we were trying to convey — steadily increasing water/sewer rates, increasing landscape and irrigation maintenance costs and, of course, dues increases — started to bear fruit.  Slowly homeowners began to jump on board.

We developed a three-phase implementation strategy over a two- to three-year period that would allow us to stagger the costs. One of the members of the landscape committee, which we had formed specifically for this broader transformation project, had prior experience with a nonprofit whose mission was to assist the residents and merchants of Solano County to conserve water by adopting sustainable landscaping methods. Prior to the beginning of Phase III (the conversion of the larger areas of grass) we met with Sustainable Solano (SuSol) and immediately realized the benefits of sustainable landscaping. We were hooked.

Hampton Bay HOA Project Slideshow

Hampton Bay HOA Project

We designated a large grassy area as a pilot so that we may learn to adapt the sustainable methods to our unique environment. Michael Wedgley, the SuSol designer and soil enrichment consultant, proposed a design consisting of a variety of true California native plants, water catchment basins (swales), a basic pipe system to divert the nearby roof’s runoff to the swales and wood mulch to help retain moisture. The long-time and trusted gardener for our association implemented the design including a very efficient drip system to help the plants take root, of course.

Keep in mind that we were doing this during the pandemic and experienced several delays due to lockdowns, supply shortages, crew shortages and illness. It took longer than expected, but the end result began to garner approval from homeowners. We observed that the native plants were taking root almost immediately and within a few short weeks had noticeably grown.

In this large pilot area, with the new drip system combined with the moisture-containing properties of mulch, we calculated a water savings between 70 to 90%. Because we installed true California native plants, the theory is that within one to two years we’ll be able to turn off the drip irrigation and save 100%. It will definitely pay for itself over the long term. We’re looking forward to converting the remaining large grassy areas in our community.

You can learn more about the partnership with Hampton Bay HOA here, including information about building healthy soil and garden designs.

Learn more about this pilot project here, including details on plants used, rainwater capture and water savings.