On Feb 7th 2011, I decided to take a shot in the dark and started an environmental volunteer group on meetup.com. My goal is to gather volunteers to participate in hands-on stewardship activities in partnership with metro vancouver parks, city parks, charities, non-profits and stewardship groups.

some of the activities include:

• Pulling invasive plants that are overtaking our native flora
• Planting of native plants/trees
• Restoring areas along a stream, river, marsh or shoreline
• Beach/River/lake clean up
• Harvesting organic fruits/veggies
• Trail building/maintenance
• Restoration of wildlife sites

What will volunteers get out of it?

• Meet like-minded people
• Feel good getting your hands dirty and being active in something you believe in
• Educate yourself about natural spaces and the environmental problems they face
• Learn first-hand about work being done in the lower mainland by different environmental groups
• Get the experience of a variety of stewardship activities
• Restore a natural space from a damaged state
• Be trained in stewardship practices
• Explore a nature space you may have never been to before
• Realise the benefits of working together with others
• Learn about environmental activities other group members are involved in
• Get physical exercise
• Have fun!

Ultimately, the success of this group is contingent on whether people jump aboard and participate. So far (it's March 27th 2011 today) it's been great with 164 members signed up to participate and 3 events are already under our belt (I listed these under "my success stories") I would love for the group to grow.

the change I want to ultimately make is bring people together to enable them to positively impact the environment.

Making sandwiches all day seems like a peaceful enough job. In the background I can hear many different hums and beeps: the radio, chopping, boiling, refrigeration, customers and so on. None of this bothers me in the slightest. There is one sound that stands out above all else: the ceaseless drip of our kitchen faucets.

Out of curiosity and frustration, I put a large measuring cup under the drip and left it for a half-hour. Then, with much multiplying and division, I came out with this: 7117.5 gallons of water are wasted from that one tap each year. This needs to stop, and I'm going to do it.

Bring any mobile phone, battery or accessory, irrespective of carrier, into your local Telus store, and they'll plant a tree for FREE!

Starting next week I will be advertising drop-off locations around Nanaimo for broken and unwanted phones. Help my campaign to plant a new forest in BC this year!

For those of you reading this outside the Regional District of Nanaimo and inspired to lend your support by dropping off your old phones at a Telus location, please drop a comment that you did so and I will add your donation to the total count.

Thanks and remember: know green, no waste!