SMAS Green Team

Good news! Great new sustainability programs coming to the San Mateo Public Library!

Enjoy time in the many wonderful San Mateo County Parks with passes available for check out from the Public Library!

We have big news… County Parks passes are here! All 13 of our libraries are now offering San Mateo County Parks passes for checkout with our County Parks Packs!

Discover the natural beauty of the San Francisco Peninsula with free access to San Mateo County Parks.

Borrow one of our new f***y packs complete with a pass and map of the 23 County Parks, and start exploring. In partnership with San Mateo County Parks Foundation, we are delighted to help increase access to local parks.

Passes will be available at our libraries on a first come, first served basis for three-week checkout. Stop by your local San Mateo County Libraries location to see if we have a County Park pass available to borrow for you today!

Volunteer opportunity!

HandsOn Bay Area | California Climate Action Day Volunteer Opportunities Help us build up our Education Center by doing maintenance, general upkeep of the site, and revamping our parcel at Martial Cottle Park. Over the past year, we have planted over fifty trees at our 2-acre site near the intersection of Chynoweth Ave & Snell Ave. There are plenty of opportunities to bu...

The SMAS Green Team learned about the work of the Winnemem Wintu to bring back the salmon to their homelands. Several Green Team members translated the film, "One Word Sawalmem" into Chinese so that more people could learn about this important work. Here is a good news update. Follow Run4Salmon on social media to learn more and follow the run this year!

Endangered salmon moved back to McCloud River historical habitat Endangered winter-run Chinook salmon eggs have returned to their habitat since Shasta Dam's contruction in .

Wondering what to do with old batteries? Here's the info!

Celebrate community health! June 17th is Global Garbage Collector Day, a reminder that curbside collection plays a part in community wellness. Curbside collection of used motor oil, oil filters, and household batteries couldn't be easier. Visit smchealth.org/post/curbside-pick-options for a link to your local hauler for items collected and how to safely prepare them. Visit wasterecyclingworkersweek.org/history-of-the-garbage-man for a waste collection history!

Yesterday was World Refill Day - a good reminder to visit Byrd’s Filling Station in Downtown San Mateo. So fun and easy to skip the plastic and go Green with great products! Check it out!

Bring your own clean containers - yes, they can be used! - or buy a jar. Measure the weight of your container on their special scale. The weight of your container will subtracted from the weight of what you buy.

So much in bulk to choose from: soap, shampoo, detergent, beans, nuts, coffee, candy - plus fresh veggies, loads of green goodies like silverware kits, sustainable doggy items, etc.

Fresh coffee on Saturdays - bring your own cup to pay just a dollar per cup!

It's near Walgreens and the hospital - on San Mateo Drive.

How many do you see on the ground in a day? What happens to them when they wash into the Bay? What are ci******es made from? Important questions!

In 2021 cigarette butts were once again the #1 item San Mateo County residents removed from our environment. Cigarette butts are small in size, but each butt that gets littered contributes to a huge problem. Check out Environmental Health Services Cigarette Butt Litter Reduction Program to get involved to help keep our community clean at smchealth.org/cigbutts. Pacific Beach Coalition, Sea Hugger, Surfrider Foundation, The City of San Mateo, City of Redwood City, Daly City Government, Flows To Bay

Our district - The San Mateo Union High School District - was named a 2022 California Green Ribbon School District Sustainability Awardee! Our work and the work of our school - - is part of the reason this happened!

The U.S. Department of Education's Green Ribbon Schools (ED-GRS) recognition award honors schools, school districts, and Institutes of Higher Education for excellence in resource efficiency, health and wellness, and environmental and sustainability education. The recognition award is part of a larger U.S. Department of Education (ED) effort to identify and communicate practices that result in improved student engagement, academic achievement, graduation rates, and workforce preparedness; and reinforces federal efforts to increase energy independence and economic security.

https://www.cde.ca.gov/ls/fa/sf/greenribbonprog.asp

This Sunday, May Day Plant and Craft Fair - featuring Teacher Mary Weng's daughter Lizzie and her sustainable Cork and Luna Journals.

Important information about North Central, the neighborhood that is home to San Mateo Adult School
"The California Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment (OEHHA) reports that the North Central census tract 6062 has the highest pollution burden in the City of San Mateo, citing high risk of exposure to lead in homes, traffic impacts, ground water threats, and hazardous waste." What does sustainability and health mean for our school home?

San Mateo Adult School Our innovative collaborations with college and community partners make San Mateo Adult School the pl

Happy Earth Day! Where and how are you showing your love for people and planet today?

Topics will include - free and open to all!

>> The College of San Mateo Multicultural & Dream Center’s Rise in Revolution Conference is a student-organized conference that seeks to inspire and provide college students (along with the larger San Mateo County community) with the knowledge, skills, and resources to be agents of change. We are radicalizing, revolutionizing, and reimagining what collective liberation looks like.

The week-long virtual conference (Mon, Apr 25, 2022 - Fri, Apr 29, 2022) will have daily sessions of theory/study, praxis, and critical reflection/dialogue. Workshop and keynote themes are centered around the topics of Climate Justice, Indigenous Resistance, Health & Disability Justice, and the Prison Industrial Complex. This is paired with in-person viewing parties at College of San Mateo ending with critical dialogues for our student community.

We will close our conference with an in-person celebration of joyful resistance through art, food, and performances on Friday, April 29.

Keynote Speakers* Include:
Angela Davis
Da’Shaun Harrison
Corrina Gould
Kathy Jetnil-Kijiner
Terisa Siagatonu

And many more!
https://collegeofsanmateo.edu/100/rise.php

Adult Ed Green Teams! What are they? What do they do? How to start one? Check out the slide deck from the San Mateo Adult School Green Team's presentation at Coalition on Adult Basic Education 2022 Conference to learn about how Adult Ed Green Team's grow sustainability, community and power!


https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1Ila-NUJtZCA26Hj_TC5mZxrP9ZuOWOz2RGaTeTKVSqY/edit?usp=sharing

Adult Ed Green Teams - COABE 2022

Good news!

When you head to the outdoors with the new California State Library Parks Pass, don’t forget to ! Here are a few tips to keep parks safe and thriving for generations to come!
🗺️Know Before You Go
🗑️Leave No Trace
🥾Stay on Designated Trails
Make sure to join us and California State Library today at noon for a livestream to learn more about the pass!

Just before the pandemic hit, we made a field trip to Byrd's Filling Station at the Burlingame Farmers Market. Soon Byrd's will open as a store in Downtown San Mateo. Soon it will be easier to have more options to reduce our of plastic!

This is NOT an April Fools Joke… let the store building begin!

Plastic-free refills and a world of zero waste products at your fingertips in downtown San Mateo coming soon.

Happy April! Happy Earth Month! From visiting scientist Dr. Dennis Liu, Green Team learned more about biodiversity. From Pacific Beach Coalition, we can learn more about the Mission Blue Butterfly - a beautiful part of the biodiversity of San Mateo County - and an endangered species. Learn more about this tiny beauty, San Bruno Mountain State and County Park, and how you can get involved in helping the beautiful little Mission Blue Butterfly in this recorded zoom.

https://www.crowdcast.io/e/pbc-missionblue/1

Pacific Beach Coalition Presents: Mission Blue Virtual Talk - Crowdcast Register now for EarthCapades Family Theater's event on Crowdcast, scheduled to go live on Thursday March 31, 2022 at 7:00 pm PDT.

New! From Plastic Free Future - a global reuse map! Check it out! And if you have places to add to the map, be sure to leave on a comment on Plastic Free Future's page!

is important! Here is information about wheelchair-accessible trails on the Peninsula.

Wheelchair Accessible & Easy Access Trails You might be surprised at how many wheelchair accessible trails there are on the Peninsula and in the South Bay. The hard part is knowing where to go and when. Here are a few of our staff's favorites.

Follow Sustainable Brown Girl on Instagram for a special Black History Month series of posts on Black environmental leaders, Black sustainable businesses, and Black sustainability influencers. At yesterday's meeting, we talked about MaVynee Betsch saving a beach in Florida. We learned new vocabulary - Jim Crow laws.

At yesterday's meeting, we talked about tigers - an endangered species. We learned new vocabulary - threatened, endangered, extinct species, poaching, hunting, habitat. We talked about the power and beauty of tigers and where they live in Asia. We talked about mountain lions here in the Bay Area - similar problems for habitat loss.

https://www.worldwildlife.org/species/tiger

Tiger | Species | WWF After a century of decline, tiger numbers are on the rise. At least 3,890 tigers remain in the wild, but much more work is needed to protect this species that’s still vulnerable to extinction.

Happy Lunar New Year! Green Team returns with a roar today - at 4 pm! Message for zoom link.

Two years ago today! Green Team in action before the pandemic.

King Tides showing how the future might look - more reason for us to learn more about sustainability and carbon sequestration and how we can take action for positive outcomes - and we will do that! When Green Team returns later this month.

https://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/King-tides-show-sea-level-rise-16751896.php?IPID=SFGate-HP-CP-Spotlight

Photos show what sea level rise may look like in Bay Area by 2050 Photos of Marin County during the king tide help us understand what the impacts of future...

King Tides today and tomorrow! Be a citizen scientist and snap a pic of the high tides in your area! (More info at the link)

https://seachangesmc.org/current-efforts/sea-level-rise-visualization-events/

Sea Level Rise Visualization Events – Sea Change San Mateo County Sea Level Rise Visualization Events Big solutions to big problems start in your community. Visualization events build awareness about sea level rise to preserve the things that make San Mateo County a place to be proud of, a place to call home. King Tides and Coffee Events Experience what future flo...

Here's another option to - new Replenish Grocers in San Francisco - fill and your own containers with beans, rice, pasta, flour, soap, shampoo, and more!

https://replenishgrocers.com/

Replenish Grocers - Low Waste Grocery Store in San Francisco, CA Replenish Grocers offers carefully curated products & organic food for low waste lifestyle living. Located North Beach, San Francisco

- refill your soap and shampoo bottles at store Reach and Teach,on 25th ave - near the Goodwill and El Camino! Lots of helpful green products and wonderful books and gifts for sale, too!
https://shop.reachandteach.com/byoc-soap-refilling-service

BYOC Soap Refilling Service Reach And Teach offers a Soap Refilling Station at our shop in San Mateo at 144 West 25th Avenue - San Mateo CA 94403. Bring your own container (BYOC) to fill up on hand soap, dishwashing liquid, and laundry detergent. We also offer castille (soap made from olive oil) from Vermont Soap Company and E...

Happy Holidays San Mateo Adult School Green Team!

Holiday cards are better when they are made in part with recycled materials! San Mateo Adult School Green Team enjoying holiday fun and community spirit!

Through the year, San Mateo Adult School Green Team has learned so much about the power of soil.

Soils are our most precious resource. They grow our food and purify our water. Yet, 33% of the Earth's soils are already degraded and over 90% could become degraded by 2050 if soil conservation is not improved, impacting an estimated 3.2 billion people.

Most soil degradation is due to overgrazing and erosion, however a new threat is emerging: plastic pollution. Plastic enters agricultural soils through the application of sewage sludge laden with microfibers and plastic particles, controlled-release fertilizers coated in plastic polymers, and plastic mulching: sheets of plastic film that cover soil to retain moisture and suppress weeds. In 2016, 1.5 million tons of plastic films covered 20 million hectares of arable land. Most of this plastic mulch is either landfilled, burnt, or left to degrade in the fields. The incorporation of plastic fragments in soils leads to declining crop yields, and a phenomenon known as "white pollution", which is reaching critical levels in China and Europe. Increasing microplastic pollution in soils can negatively impact soil physical, chemical and biological properties, however little is known about its long term impacts. Plastic derived chemicals such as PBDEs, BPA, and phthalates are known to be impacting the vast diversity of soil organisms responsible for recycling nutrients and keeping soils healthy. They are also harmful to human health, and are contaminating soil water and entering our food systems.

On this World Soil Day, Plastic Free Future remains committed to increasing public awareness about the negative effects of soil plastic pollution, while promoting plastic free agriculture.
For more information visit our website. Link in bio.

Kudos to our Science Advisor, Matt Warren for the great info! 🙌🏽🌎

San Mateo County has many ways and places to get outside - local parks, Bay Trail, hikes by the Bay, Ocean, and creeks. POST has lots of good info on local hikes!

Find new hiking trails ​​Your next local adventure is at your fingertips