The Doxa

Lansing Street pollinator

From our partner Gregory, who’s leading the planting of a pollinator garden at Rebar’s interim use project at 45 Lansing in downtown San Francisco:

Rebar and the Pollinator Partnership are putting a CA native wildflower meadow downtown. The idea is to repurpose a fallow lot into a beautiful living habitat for humming birds, butterflies and other pollinators.

If you are interested in helping out while learning more about gardening, irrigation and how to attract pollinators, then come on out Sat. April 3rd.

Some of what we will be doing includes:

• Mounting 4’ pollinator plywood silhouettes (giant butterflies, hummingbirds, beetles etc.) on posts above the garden.
• Creating planting circles filled with sheet mulch, compost and soil.
• Installing drip irrigation.
• Seeding CA native wildflowers.

The location: Large lot on Harrison between 1st and Essex streets.

Time and Date: Sat April 3rd 10 am-4:30pm

We promise to make this fun.

RSVP if you think you can make it,..even if just for an hour or so.

-Gregory

And feel free to call or email with any questions you may have

Gregorykellett [at] gmail [dot com] 415.260.2428

Aerial view of plan

Our friends and collaborators at Oikonos Ecosystem Knowledge are leading a relief effort for the small (and easily overlooked) Juan Fernandez Islands, off the coast of Chile. This chain of islands, where Oikonos conducts an ongoing habitat restoration project, was recently devastated by the tsunami that followed the utterly enormous Chile earthquake.

Yes, despite the prevailing presentation of events, there was a tsunami.

Isla Alejandro Selkirk, one of the Juan Fernandez chain

Robinson Crusoe Island experienced particularly intense and deadly devastation. A group of journalism students from Chile and the U.S., who visited that remote island, have produced a video that gives a window into the culture of the island and the destruction visited by the recent tsunami. You can watch the video below.

Oikonos has set up a relief fund for the Juan Fernandez Islands.You can donate by clicking here.

100% of donations go directly to on the ground island relief efforts.

Tsunami Relief for Robinson Crusoe Island from Más a Tierra on Vimeo.

And here is the post from the journalists:

“In the spring of 2006, as a combined group of American and Chilean journalism students, we traveled together to Robinson Crusoe Island, four hundred miles off the coast of Santiago, Chile, to document life on this small and isolated island.

In the ten days we spent recording and photographing the people of the island, each and every one of us was struck by their unique way of life and the resolve with which they carve out their existence in such a remote place, rich with history but severely lacking in resources that we often take for granted.

And so it was with great sorrow and shock – in the days following the 8.8-magnitude earthquake that shook the Chilean mainland in February 2010 – that we began to hear news trickle in about Robinson Crusoe Island.

According to reports, the island’s emergency warning system failed, and a giant tsunami took the residents by surprise, covering nearly two miles of the island and reaching 300 meters up from the natural coastline. When the ocean retreated, it took with it nearly all of San Juan Bautista, the coastal settlement that the island’s 650 residents call home.

What few community resources that served the people of Robinson Crusoe Island before the tsunami hit are now completely wiped away: the school, community center, fishing boats, supply stores… and many, many homes.

As you can tell from the stories and lives highlighted on this site, the fragile yet resilient community of Robinson Crusoe Island is a special place in this world, and its people need our help in rebuilding their lives. Anything you can give to help these families would be a tremendous help. Oikonos, a 501 c 3 non-profit, has set up a donation fund to directly support the people of Robinson Crusoe Island. All of the money they receive will go specifically to the people of the island, to rebuild their homes, their school and their livelihoods.

Please take a moment to do what you can, and explore this site to learn about the unique and wonderful lives you are helping to rebuild.

We thank you for your open hearts”

Relief Efforts

1. Donate to the cause. Please give what you can. Go straight to oikonos.org/donate.htm and send some tax deductible dollars. 100% of your donation goes to the island.

2. Spread the word. Email your friends, colleagues and family members. Twitter and Facebook the story. Many of you work at major news organizations. Use your connections to get this written about, blogged about and talked about. A little effort goes a long way.