Evangelical Environmental Stewardship Becoming Political?

According to David Domke, a UW professor of faith and politics, evangelical Christians are bringing environmental stewardship to the forefront of the political agenda. Mr. Domke quotes Richard Cizik, vice-president and chief governmental lobbyist for the National Associated of Evangelicals, from a recent Newsweek article as saying, "The protection of the environment is a Biblically rooted epic task straight from God..."

While Mr. Cizik appears to be focusing on global warming with hopefully obvious and just cause, those of us familiar with the principals of ecology know that most everything in an ecosystem is interconnected.

Check out Mr. Domke's recent article in the Seattle Times here.

Pope Benedict XVI on Environmental Stewardship

Pope Benedict speaks out to rally support from people of faith to take a more active and responsible role in restoring and caring for God's creation. Pope Benedict (AKA 'BXVI' or the 'green pope' to the hip, young crowd) says that humankind's consumption has scared the earth.

Good Steward Group Update

The Good Steward Group is 7 months into its life and I thought it might be nice, for those of you who have participated and others that might just be interested, for me to give a quick update on our accomplishments. So far, we have had 4 fantastic projects that we have worked on, all of which have been with different groups. This is about an event every 7 weeks or so. These events have been as follows:

1. Madrona Woods Creek Daylighting: partnered with the Friends of Madrona Woods (31.5 volunteer hours)
2. Burke-Gilman Revegetation: partnered with Seattle Parks Dept., GreenSEATTLE partnership, and the Friends of the Burke-Gilman Trail (13 volunteer hours)
3. Duwamish Alive! Earth Day Event: partnered with People for Puget Sound (9.5 volunteer hours)
4. Berry Spectacular, University Farmers Market: partnered with the Seattle Neighborhood Farmers Market Alliance (19.5 volunteer hours)

In total, we have donated 73.5 hours to local groups/organizations working on restoring our environment, not to mention all the weeds pulled, plants installed, and berry shortcake served. This is HUGE for these groups as they can often leverage our volunteer hours for grants to recieve additional funding and continue their great work.

I would like to thank everyone that has helped out at an event, offered words of encouragement, or even considered coming to an event (we'll get you out soon enough). While I would continue working with these groups if this group didn't exist, it sure does make volunteering more enjoyable when it's with great people like you all.

So, please continue e-mailing me your ideas for additional groups or environmental service projects that you think would be good for us. A running tab of ideas is on the right-side of the blog. The more diverse the better.

Thanks!

Berry Successful

The Berry Spectacular event, hosted by the Seattle Neighborhood Farmers Market Alliance, was a huge success. There were tons of amazing vendors and hundreds/thousands of eager shoppers. All of whom were treated to Berry Shortcake (donated by Whole Foods), cider (donated by Oakridge Orchards), and magnets passed out by the Good Steward Group! Donations accepted were for the Good Farmers Fund, a fund established by the Seattle Neighborhood Farmers Market Alliance, to provide emergency funding for local farmers during times of need.

Thank you all to the 9 of you that made it out to dish up shortcake! In total, we contributed 19.5 hours to the Seattle Neighborhood Farmers Market Alliance. What a way to celebrate the University Farmers Market's 15th Anniversary!


Support your local farmers market!

Berry Spectacular

The Good Steward Group has found another exciting and different type of event for this coming July. On July 12th, the University Farmers Market is turning 15! The University Farmers Market serves nearly 3,000 shoppers per week. Not bad for a single day.

To celebrate, the Neighborhood Farmers Market Alliance is planning to throw a Berry Spectacular (read all about it on page 3). They have asked the Good Steward Group to help out by serving shortcake and staffing the 'Guess the Berries' raffle booth. (A difficult job, but someone has to do it.) All proceeds from the shortcake will go to support the Good Farmer Fund. This fund is an important form of emergency relief for local farms that sell at the markets during farm loss, crop loss, or personal hardship.

For those of you who have not heard my recent soapbox monologue about how critically important eating local is, here are my 2 cents. Industrialized food (essentially everything we're accustomed to eating) requires an enormous amount of energy and chemicals to maintain. There are tons of local farms that grow amazing food in our own metaphorical backyard in Washington. This food not only tastes better (usually fresher), its usually much better for you (fewer chemicals and preservatives). While I don't want to bore everyone with my long-winded plea, I will suggest three things that I have found are easy to do to begin a local revolution.

1. Read "The Omnivore's Dilemna" by Michael Pollan (very fun and enlightening);
2. If you're a meat eater, check out EatWild.com; and
3. Shop local when possible (your local farmer's market, PCC, etc.)
   

So, come and help us support the Neighborhood Farmers Market Alliance to celebrate the 15th Anniversary of the University Farmers Market on July 12th from 9-ish to 10am at the corner of University Way and NE 50th Street.


A special thank you goes out to Lara Nachiem, who suggested partnering with the Neighborhood Farmers Market Alliance as a Good Steward Group event.

Good Steward Group there as Duwamish Alive! Recieves National Award

The turn out at this last Good Steward Group event wasn't as amazing as I had hoped, especially since it was in celebration of Earth Day. However, those of us that showed up to Codiga Park in north Tukwila were treated to a surprise. We were on hand as the Duwamish Alive! Coalition, which includes the People for Puget Sound and 27 other groups, received a national award from NOAA. The celebration included appearances and speeches from several local and federal dignitaries culminating with a reading from a letter written by the President.

I forgot to bring my camera to the event, so I don't have a slide show this time. However, this article explains Duwamish Alive! event and federal award a bit more fully.

That was a pleasant surprise that kept us and about 200 others from what we had shown up to do...pull weeds and plant trees. The Codiga Park was 1 of 8 work parties that was occurring simultaneously. The park was historically a dairy farm that was purchased by the City in the late 1990's. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers then completed a project on site in the early 2000's to create a nice back-channel along the river. We had the privilege of helping to restore the bank along the Duwamish River, which has been overtaken by Himalayan blackberry. Two gorgeous osprey circled overhead as well while we were replanting the buffer with native shrubs and trees.

A special thank you is necessary for everyone that came out and helped the Duwamish Alive! coalition with their event. They were most thankful.

Duwamish Alive! Earth Day Event at Codiga Park

The Good Steward Group is planning an upcoming event for Earth Day, April 19, 2008. We have teamed up with People for Puget Sound to assist with their Duwamish Alive! event. This is a huge event with 8 work sites. But we will be working at the Codiga Park in North Tukwila (12535 50th Place South, Tukwila). The work party will take place from 10AM - 2PM.


View Larger Map

We will be cleaning up the site, including removing garbage/debris, pulling weeds, and planting trees along a recently restored back-channel habitat that is vital for migrating adult and juvenile salmon. This is a sorely needed habitat along a river that has undergone a myriad of alterations and severe degradation. A summary of these alterations to the Duwamish has recently been highlighted in the Seattle PI.

Dress appropriately for working outside, including bringing sturdy shoes, potentially rain gear, and long sleeve shirts and pants. If you have work gloves, please bring them. However, People for Puget Sound will provide gloves, beverages, and snacks for all volunteers.

Following the event, People for Puget Sound will host an Earth Day Festival from 2PM - 5PM at the Cooper School in West Seattle with FREE food, performances, environmental education, and giveaways! You're welcome to go, but they'd really love to have you help out during the day.

Please let me know if you plan on coming to the event so we can give People for Puget Sound a rough estimate of numbers. And as always, if you have any groups you like to work with or want to help with the Good Steward Group, please let me know.

Burke Gilman Success

The Burke Gilman trail revegetation work party was a huge success. The Good Steward Group partnered with the Seattle Parks Department, the GreenSEATTLE partnership, and the Friends of the Burke Gilman Trail to revegetate nearly 0.10-miles of the trail. This is only a small stretch of the 27-mile trail; however, hundreds of cyclists and joggers watched the work party make a significant dent in the difficult task of restoring our urban green spaces.

Before work began, the vegetation along this stretch of trail was dominated by English ivy, English holly, English Laurel, and Himalayan blackberry. These nasty plants proliferate in disturbed urban sites, pushing out most native plants. God blessed us with gorgeous weather and about 50 people installed nearly 700 plants, from the smallest of salal to the largest grand fir.

Many people stopped to say 'well done' and show their appreciation. Thank you all for contributing to making this a huge success. Check out the slide show from todays event.

Burke Gilman Trail

This is an exciting project for us to partner with the Seattle Parks Department, the GreenSEATTLE partnership, and Friends of the Burke Gilman. As many of us know, the Burke Gilman Trail is a major recreation and commuter corridor that joins with the Sammamish River trail in Redmond. While the trail is magnificent and provides terrific habitat for song birds and small mammals, invasive plants are extensive along the trail and provides a corridor for them to spread.

With this project, will will work on removing some of these invasive plants and plant hundreds of native trees and shrubs along the trail corridor, thereby improving habitat and species diversity. Tools will be provided, although please bring gloves if you have them. We will begin at 10:00 am and go until about 2:00 pm (probably more like 1:30ish when all the plants are installed). Please dress appropriately for the weather including appropriate foot wear (no sandals). All ages are welcome.

Add this event to your Google Calendar:

Two Upcoming Events...

I have had a lot of people E-mail me and mentioned their interest in the Good Steward Group. So many Christian's are increasingly recognizing the responsibility given to us by our Father to be good stewards of his creation. God is Good! Amen.

With this in mind, there are two upcoming GSG Events where we will volunteer alongside existing environmental organizations. Mark these down in your calendar.

February 23rd: BURKE GILMAN TRAIL AT SAND POINT
We will team up with Seattle City Parks, the GreenSEATTLE partnership, and Friends of the Burke Gillman to remove invasive plants and plant hundreds of native trees and shrubs. This event will begin at 10:00 am and go until about 2:00 pm. More details will be posted as I get them.

April 19th: DUWAMISH ALIVE! Earth Day Event
For this event, we will team up with the People for Puget Sound and help out at a restoration project along the Duwamish Waterway. Several of you may have read the special report by the Seattle PI about the history and abuse of the Duwamish Waterway. For those interested, read here. There will undoubtedly be lots of people contributing with this event. This event will begin at 10:00 am and go until 2:00 pm. More details for this event will also be posted as I get them.

Madrona Woods

On Saturday, January 19th, we had our first Good Steward Group event. We teamed up with Friends of Madrona Woods. The Friends of Madrona Woods is a neighborhood group that has recently daylighted a portion of Madrona Woods Creek and reconnected it to Lake Washington. To read further about the project, read this recent article in the Seattle PI.

The kickoff event was fantastic! Eleven people showed up from our group and contributed 31.5 volunteer hours by moving hundreds of newly arrived native plants for installation and clearing a mountain of invasive blackberry and ivy.

A big thank you goes to all of you who came out for this kickoff event and to the Friends of Madrona Woods for allowing us to come help with their project.

The Good Steward Group Vision

Our vision is to provide a ministry that brings together Christians who recognize our responsibility to actively care for God's creation.

The Good Steward Group is a loose group of Christian individuals who share an interest in the environment and want to actively participate in environmental change. We accomplish this through partnering with existing environmentally focused non-profit groups in the greater Seattle area to assist them with their projects. By partnering with existing groups, we hope to spread the message of God's love with others, take part in a diverse range of environmental projects, and learn about what others are doing.

We encourage everyone of all ages who has a heart for Christ and the earth to participate. Suggestions of non-profit groups that we could partner with are always welcome. Post your suggestions as a comment to this post.