Sustainability Forum Community Listening Meeting
October 29th, 2003 Report

The following is a report on the Shasta Energy Group (SEG) community listening meeting held at the Mt. Shasta Resort Wednesday, October 29th, 2003 from 6-9 pm. Roughly 30 people participated in the meeting, and written input was shared from people who were unable to attend. Participants represented a diverse range of ages, professions, and sectors including public, private, governmental, non-governmental, business and industry. Participants enjoyed a meal from 6-7 and the dialogue was from 7-9 pm.

Outcome:
Present the concept of a regional Sustainability Forum and get input from potential participants, volunteers, and all interested community members.

Focus:
What does sustainability mean to you? How could a sustainability forum based on community dialogue help our region move toward sustainable economic development? (The important distinction was made that in this context development means “getting better”, not necessarily “getting bigger”).

Meeting Structure:
The meeting began with participant introductions.

Then SEG presented “what sustainability means to us” in the following three statements:

1. We have abundant opportunity in our backyard to utilize renewable energy and create thriving socio-political, economic and ecological systems in our area.
2. We believe taking the steps to cease our reliance on non-renewable energy sources will leave a quality legacy. It is not acceptable to leave our children with problems.
3. We believe if people knew more about how sustainability works, the more it would make sense to them, and the less they would be willing to settle for band aid solutions.

Participants then divided into four groups to brainstorm and dialogue around the following areas:

VISION: What is the big picture? 10-20 years from now how you would like to see the world? How will the Sustainability Forum have shaped our cities, counties, and region?

TRADITION: Respecting the past while creating the future…what do we need to think about in order to do that? What are the deep questions in relation to this work?
(An example of Tradition is Don Meamber’s work (in collaboration with the DFG and Shasta Valley Resource Conservation District) on the Meamber Ranch installing innovative Tail Water treatment, exclusion fencing, fish screens, re-vegetation and erosion control and Meamber’s work with the City of Montague’s waste water treatment)

ACTION: What are the next steps? What are the logistics? What do we need to do to make this happen?

COMMUNITY: Whom do we need to include? What partnerships do we need to foster? Who needs to be involved in the Sustainability Forum?

The Report Back from each of the groups:

Vision Group:
The sustainability forum is an opportune vehicle to get people together to talk about their hopes and dreams and create a shared vision just as we create a blue-print for a building. Our cities, county and region can be a model of self-sufficiency and prosperity. This will be done with cooperation and collaboration. The Vision Group sees:

• A return to the American ideals of a participatory democracy and economy
• Collaboration between vision, tradition, action and community, and clear understanding of different languages spoken by all of the different cultures in our region. (Just like there are micro-climates in ecosystems, there are micro-cultures in our region).
• People understand “externalized costs” and choose to shop and trade locally. People understand that businesses grow and local product availability expands if you shop locally.
• A resurgence of barter and trade and beginning of “community currency” and creating value for your service.
• The mill in McCloud as a paper recycling plant
• Development of Cottage Industries (not limited to food processing and distribution)
• Total recycling industry including green waste and composting (the creation of jobs such as waste reduction manager, community composter, green waste manager etc.)
• Community awareness of food availability. Fresh, locally produced food is not limited by economics. Community Supported Agriculture provides direct marketing opportunities for local area growers and continues farmer’s market season throughout the year.
• Successful education programs around sustainability, self-sufficiency, food and energy modeled after programs like the Upper Sacramento River Exchange’s Watershed education program.
• Greenhouses
• The solution to globalization is localization of jobs and economy: all of the new technologies and sectors are jobs waiting to happen. A simplifier would produce what is needed at home.
• Community Gardens
• Walking paths
• Electric and fuel cell vehicle technology that reduces air and noise pollution
• Every home with its own power distribution including geothermal heat pump technology

Tradition Group:
Defining Tradition is difficult as it is different for different people and is what we are used to. Traditions can be overlapping. The key to sustainability is industry changes and involvement and individual changes and involvement. A main question is how can we be more self-sufficient? We need to create new traditions for example starting new wind power systems in Siskiyou County. We need incentives to make changes in our traditions. We need to invent opportunities that will inspire people to “open up to change” and provide inclusive alternatives. We need to help people make the connection in their community and their environment. We need to protect traditional ideas about open space and grow without suburban sprawl (i.e. build up rather than out). We need to educate about the consumer tradition of spending money responsibly. We also feel population and population control is an issue.

Action Group:
To create a “Sustainable Quality of Life,” we need to take on a focus and prioritize how many things can be taken on at one time. We need to acknowledge people’s resistance to change.
Sustainable designs: educate designers, builders and users.

• Conservation: grants, installation for homes and businesses and practices
• User-friendly wider and broader recycling program.
• Pacific Power and Light: what other systems and sources we want them to add to the grid.
• Biomass: It is there. We need to reduce the risk in the wild lands. Create a subsidy and pay a premium for using.
• Public Transportation: Train transport. See the S.T.A.G.E. as an asset.
• County connections: get through policy obstacles and state legislation.
• Community networking: workshops, forums, education (renewable energy and green building)
• Education: Value over time versus today’s cost, true costs including externalities. Green Technology. Petition PP&L to ask why there policy is different in our area. Energy efficiency in building materials and systems.
• Patriot Tax on nonrenewable energy to fund renewable energy: See that the safe examples of biomass, solar, wind, and geothermal exchange are not a threat to way of life and standard of living but indeed create a better future. Help people see the payoff.

Community Group:
Everyone needs to participate. We need an organized voice and community passion. We need “buy-in” at all levels including the county, the 9 cities, rural areas and the state. Schools, media, families and kids, and other organizations such as Save our Shasta and Scott Valleys (SOSS). Including outside experts and engineers is a way to engender community involvement. Another way to inspire involvement and encourage diversity of resources and options is to do small projects that meet local needs. Small projects make it easy for people to plug-in with out long-term commitment. The forum needs to maintain and interesting and positive solutions-oriented approach.
Questions the community group posed: What does sustainability mean to SOSS and other regional organizations?

Next Steps for the Sustainability Forum:

Each participant also completed a form: Next Steps for the Sustainability Forum

Areas of interest:

Building:
Green Building and Straw Bale Construction, Community Planning, Heating, Home and Land Connection, Education of Architects, Problem of “low-bid” Construction Industry that builds homes that use two to three times more energy than it cost-effectively should for heating, cooling and lighting doe to poor energy feature design and poor energy feature installations quality.

Solar:
Renewable Energy Education and Technology, Distributed Generation, Solar Electric and Solar Thermal, Solar installation as a business

Ranching:
Sustainable Land Management, organic production and water conservation

Economic Development:
Generating Wealth Locally, Tourism and Recreation, Population limits, Sprawl, Building Restrictions and Codes to Facilitate Economics versus Beauty, Pushing PP&L for Tiered Rate Schedules

Wind:
Design a study of resources: Is Wind Energy Really Viable?

Water:
Sewage Treatment, Composting and Bio-remediation, On or Off Grid-Tied Micro Hydro, Look at Who is Buying Our Water, Water Rights, Water as a Commodity, Water as Commons, The Privatization of Water, Water Conservation

Agriculture/Farming:
Greenhouses and Composting, Organic Farming and Water Conservation, Farmer’s Markets and Farming Issues, Community Supported Agriculture, Sustainable Agriculture: What can be produced in our environment?

Other Areas:
Transportation: Electric Vehicles, Community Transportation Services, Bicycle and Walking Paths
Community Beautification
Rocky Mountain Institute’s Sustainable Development: Prosperity Without Growth
Developing Language to communicate with the different groups in our region
Leadership and Local Activism
Policy and Legislation at the County Level
Energy Efficiency: Buildings and Retrofits
Defining Sustainability and the Problems of Sustainability
Discussing Resources Increasingly Sought By Society: fresh water, prime building lots for homes, access to public lands and waterways, recreation use at high use areas, hunting/fishing/camping areas. Provide information about the extent and nature of the resource, the demands being placed on it, and the future growth of the demands.
Energy Utility Cooperatives
Biodiesel: The creation of demand for biodiesel in the area. The more people who want to use biodiesel instead of diesel in their diesel engines, the more the price will come down.
Industry Involvement
Making sustainability “cool”: Social marketing to change beliefs and values (Have advertising professionals present) (example of successes are Mothers Against Drunk Driving MADD)
Southern Oregon University’s Sustainability Expo, Spring 2004
Energy Production in our County and How is affects our well being
Mold Prevention and Removal
Sustainability and Health: Environmental Impacts on Health and Disease Prevention
L.E.T.S—Barter System and Community Currency
Community Gardens
Recycling: Total community recycling program with curbside service for Paper glass, metal and plastic.
McCloud Mill becoming a paper recycling plant
Self-Sufficiency
Simplify Your Needs
Community Composting

People Present offered to present on:
Solar Power, Solar Electric and Solar Thermal, Community Access for Farmer’s Markets, Health Issues and the Environment, Ranching.

People offered to coordinate forums in:
McCloud, Yreka, Mount Shasta and Southern Oregon

Past Meeting Reports

1/26/04 Yreka