As a result of opposition by the Chapter, Redwood City residents, and other environmental groups, Cargill and Arizona developer DMB Associates have withdrawn their initial plan for filling in the baylands around Redwood City. We have won the first skirmish. However, they’ve already announced that they will soon submit a revised plan. The battle is yet to come…

We’re looking for a few new faces for the Chapter’s Executive Committee. The ExCom is the Chapter’s board of directors. Members attend the committee’s meeting the first Tuesday evening of each month and perform various other tasks, totaling 15 to 20 hours per month. Contact Suzanne Fellenz (auntsuzy*at*hotmail.com) for more info.

When you go solar this summer, you get $750, and Sungevity will, contribute $750 to the Sierra Club.  It’s good for the planet, good for the Sierra Club, and good for you.

We need environmentalists to run for the Board of the Santa Clara Valley Water District. The current board does give lip service to the importance of the environment, and the district does have some innovative and award-winning environmental projects. But when budget time comes, lip service and innovation do not translate into enough money to make an ecological difference in our streams in our lifetimes.

Imagine it’s 2016. You’re on El Camino Real, waiting for a bus. An overhead display informs you that the next bus arrives in five minutes, so you cross the street, pick up a newspaper, and return to the platform before the bus arrives.

A modern-looking bus pulls up. About ten people get off. A young woman rolls her bicycle through one door, and a man in a wheelchair wheels out the next one. Thanks to a boarding platform the same height as the floor of the bus, everyone is on and off in less than 20 seconds.

Rockwood Capital and Four Corners Properties have bought the building at 100 Mayfield Avenue in Mountain View, formerly the Mayfield Mall and Hewlett-Packard headquarters, for renovation and conversion to office space, which they declare is one of the ‘greenest’ forms of investment they can make.

The short-term economic benefits of the San Jose Almaden Ranch Project, a-20th-century-minded development, won out over concerns about the neighborhoods and the environment. However, we believe that the debate has taken the wind out of the sails of future projects similar to this.

Palm oil production is devastating Southeast Asian forests and wildlife. Make your own tasty, buttery spread with this original, new recipe that is completely free of palm oil.

Maybury writes about the flourishing habitat at Filoli, saving a creek habitat in Pacifica, preventing that common habitat plant poison oak from rubbing off on you, and more.

The Chapter’s twelve public Earth Day presentations discussed our Cool Cities campaigns and the Sierra Club’s “Chill the Drills” campaign. The former lessens global warming by local action; the latter keeps oil and gas drilling out of the artic. Both campaigns will help our friends the polar bears survive.

Bans on expanded polystyrene (commonly called Styrofoam) food containers are in place or in progress in many cities.

In recent history, the burrowing owl population of Santa Clara County plummeted as habitat was converted to Silicon Valley urban landscapes. Threats to the few remaining owls persist, but one city – Mountain View – is working to save the burrowing owls with a comprehensive effort in Shoreline Park.

Charles Fishman states that his book The Big Thirst is an effort to rescue water not so much from ignorance as from being ignored. Fishman excels at his task as he covers geologic aspects of water, takes us on a fascinating journey through Las Vegas’s recent water history, and recounts Hurricane Ike’s mark on the water system of Galveston, Texas.