Lexington Green Network – February 2023

As February arrives some bitter cold will remind us how unpredictable our weather can be. Depending on who you ask it may get down as low at -10 on Friday and back up to 50 degrees next Tuesday.  Be sure to bundle up, we haven’t had that kind of cold for a long time. This reminds us that climate change is making our weather less predictable. Let’s do what we can to limit human greenhouse gas emissions into the atmosphere, follow climate friendly ways of eating, and earth-wise consumption. 

In this issue I want to call special attention to The Lexington Office of Sustainblity and Resilience’s Climate Action and Resilience Plan survey. It’s actually fun to fill out, and it’s really important for the town to hear from all of us. We are so fortunate to have a robust environmental community in Lexington and we will hear from some of our usual leaders in this issue. 

I have a quick note for everyone regarding the Lexington Green Network.  LGN will be joining the Lexington Climate Action Network as a monthly newsletter!  The newsletter will continue to promote our partners events and will also include tips, short book and movie reviews and more. More to come in our next edition, which may be the last in this format. 

Thank you for reading, your submissions and all the great work you all do! 

Best,
Marcia Gens

Provide Your Feedback for the Town’s Climate Action & Resilience Plan

The Town of Lexington is developing a Climate Action & Resilience Plan, called Resilient Lexington. The Plan will build upon a solid foundation of climate leadership and complement ongoing efforts to create a sustainable future. We are not starting from scratch! Our community has a tradition of taking action and we are a regional leader in sustainability. The Resilient Lexington Plan will build upon these ongoing efforts. Over the course of the planning process, the Town will complete a series of community assessments, data analyses, and stakeholder and community engagement activities to complete our Plan. Learn more about the planning process on the Town website or through the Resilient Lexington Summary.

Get involved today by taking the Resilient Lexington survey. Your participation will help the planning team understand public priorities and ensure the proposed strategies are actionable. The survey is available in English and Mandarin.

League of Women Voters Lexington

LWV Lexington First Friday: Helping Our Neighbors

Friday, February 3, 2023, 9:30AM
Lexington Community Center, Room 237
39 Marrett Road, Lexington

The League of Women Voters of Lexington invites you to a First Friday Forum on February 3, 2023 at 9:30 AM in Lexington Community Center Room 237, 39 Marrett Road, to learn more about local groups that work in different ways to help our friends and neighbors. 

  • Food Link is a community organization that “envisions a world in which everyone has abundant nourishing food and a food system in which no edible food goes to waste”. The organization rescues surplus fresh food that would otherwise be wasted and delivers it to community organizations serving people in need in the Greater Boston area. Director of Programs and Strategy Elise Springuel, a member of Food Link’s team for over 5 years, will speak.
  • Lex Eat Together is a Lexington-based non-profit that seeks to address hunger and food insecurity in and around Lexington. Since its founding in October 2015, Lex Eat Together has provided over 25,000 meals to those in need, operating out of Church of Our Redeemer in Lexington.  President and Co-FounderGeorge Murnaghan is a retired financial services executive and father of three. 
  • LexRAP (Lexington Refugee Assistance Program)is a community organization which welcomes, supports, and assists refugees and asylum seekers, including providing a support network for housing, food, clothing, health care, employment, and education (including learning English). Member Bruce Neumann will speak. Bruce and his wife Pat Moyer host refugees in their home.

This program is the fifth in the 2022-2023 First Friday Forum series hosted by the League of Women Voters to promote awareness and understanding of public policy issues. There will be time for Q&A after the program. For more information about the forum or other activities of the League, go to https://my.lwv.org/massachusetts/lexington/calendar.

Winter Farmers’ Market: Locally Grown, Locally Sourced, Locally Produced in Lexington, Massachusetts & Beyond 

The LFM will be open biweekly every other Saturday from 11 – 2 pm (February 4 & 18, March 4 & 18, April 1 & 15), and is located at the Waldorf School, 739 Massachusetts Avenue in Lexington with free parking available. 

The LFM is a producer-only market, ensuring that what you find is fresh and local, sustainably raised and carefully crafted by the farmers and vendors of the LFM. Each week, there will be up to ten farmers and vendors participating, with occasional guest vendors. The LFM accepts SNAP and HIP; the LFM’s SNAP program matches up to $15 weekly and HIP can be used at Farmer Dave’s for fruit and vegetable purchases. 

In addition to free parking onsite, the Waldorf School is accessible on MBTA Bus Route 62 and 76. Visit www.lexingtonfarmersmarket.org to read more about the Small Yet Mighty Winter Market. For the most up-to-date information, “like” us on Facebook (The Lexington Farmers’ Market) and for fun, follow us on Instagram (@lexingtonfarmersmarket). For questions, email [email protected]

LexCAN Monthly Meeting: Put Your Money Where Your Heart Is

Tuesday, February 14, 2023, 7:00-8:30PM
Zoom Link

Worried your bank funds climate chaos? Wonder if your credit card is really green?

Alan Field from the 350 Mass Stop & Steer the Money group will suggest some good climate friendly banks and credit cards.

 

Concern for Lexington’s Trees

Consider Signing the “Statement of Concern for Lexington’s Trees”

Have you noticed how many mature trees around town are being lost to development and other causes? This is just as we need a stronger, more robust tree canopy than ever to help buffer us from the hot temperatures and other impacts that climate change is bringing. A group of tree advocates has written a Statement of Concern for Lexington’s Trees, addressed to the Select Board, and calling on the town to act. There are many options for reversing this trend: public education, financial incentives, neighborhood tree planting programs, stronger bylaws, and more.

Please consider adding your name to the statement. You can learn more and sign at www.lexingtontreestatement.org.

Please share the link and encourage your friends to sign.

The group is also looking for organizational endorsements; if you’re a member of an organization – a neighborhood association or faith group for instance – and are willing to introduce the organization to someone from the campaign, email them at [email protected].

Lexington Public Schools (LPS) Green Teams

New Food Share Program Announced for LPS Middle Schools and High School

School-based food rescue programs – which include the collection of food for donation, diversion of liquid waste, and composting of food waste – have experienced a groundswell of activity in the past decade. In Massachusetts alone, 497,250 people struggle with hunger, and 119,330 are children according to Feeding America’s 2020 numbers. There are 700 school communities nationwide participating in food rescue efforts registered on foodrescue.net in 2021; many of these are striving to become zero-waste communities.

Now in Massachusetts with the new state mandate effective November 1, 2022, businesses and institutions that generate more than a half-ton of organic waste weekly, must divert food waste from standard waste disposal. With the help of the LPS Green Teams, Whitsons is currently composting and using compostable cutlery and plates/bowls whenever possible in nine Lexington public schools (150+ tons per year).

The LPS Green Teams and LPS Whitsons Food Service, are happy to announce that, along with input from Lexington Health Director Joanne Bolanger and a vote of support from the Board of Health at their Sept 28, 2022 meeting, a new Food Share Program at the high school and middle schools. This program enables us to provide additional calories to children and adults that they may not have access to otherwise. Students and staff at the high school, Diamond and Clarke can now access Whitsons’ served, whole fruits with skins intact, pre-packaged food, and dairy from the fridges throughout the day that would otherwise be composted. 

Prepackaged, sealed food that is not consumed from the Food Share fridges at LHS, Diamond, and Clarke is donated to our Food Rescue partner, Food Link in Arlington, a food rescue and distribution center, that provides food to over thirty communities with food-insecure populations throughout Eastern Massachusetts, including Lexington. Since December, Food Link began picking up from the Clarke Food Share fridge weekly. 

Recycle Smart MA

Questions About Recycling? Check Out the Recycle Smart Newsletter

Do you have a lot of questions about recycling? Ever wonder if black plastic is recyclable? (The answer is No.) Check out the Recycle Smart newsletter for a simple tutorial and go to their website to try out their Recyclopedia: Can I Recycle It? and enter your “hard to decide” item.

We get a LOT of questions about plastics here at Recycle Smart MA, and we understand why.

There’s a lot of confusion about which plastics can go in the recycling and which can’t. There’s also a fair amount of confusion about why some plastics are a Yes and others are a No. And finally, there’s the whole question about whether plastics get recycled at all (read The Truth About Plastics Recycling for answers).   

Click HERE to subscribe to the Recycle Smart Newsletter!

LexFarm Opens Registration for Spring and Summer Youth Programs

LexFarm youth programs offer many opportunities for hands-on learning and play in a beautiful farm setting. Our classes expose children from 6 months old through 3rd grade to all aspects of the growing cycle: planting, weeding, watering, and harvesting. We explore the wildlife at the Arlington reservoir and care for the animals at neighboring Silk Fields Farm.

Spring and summer program registration opens January 31 for LexFarm members and February 7 for non-members. View all programs on the LexFarm website and stay tuned for some new offerings: Babies in the Garden and Art in the Garden – more details posted soon!

Questions? Email [email protected]

Become a LexFarm household member today for $45 to support your community farm and enjoy benefits like early registration and reduced program prices!!

Get Ready for Spring with LexFarm’s Preorder Seedling Sale

Lex Farm will again offer their healthy organic seedlings – herbs, tomatoes, cucumbers and much more – for sale this spring. All varieities will be for sale in our online store and will be distributed on site at LexFarm in late May.

Online sales will launch in March.  Don’t miss out on your favorite varieties!  Sign up for our newsletter to be notified of the seeding sale early.

Help FoLB Keep Lexington’s Bikeways Plowed This Winter

Winter is here!

Minuteman Bikeway users have come to count on the bikeway being plowed right after each snowstorm.

Walkers, joggers and bike riders use the bike path throughout the winter, and in Lexington the plowed path is made possible by tax-deductible donations from users and others who love the bikeway.

For information on how you can help, see details at the Friends of Lexington Bikeways website: https://www.bike-lexington.org

IndivisibleLAB

Rodent Control: The Good, the Bad and the Ugly

Saturday, February 11, 2023, 2:30-4:00AM
Lexington Community Center, Room 242
39 Marrett Road, Lexington
Registration required 

Nobody wants mice in their house or rats running around their town BUT the current use of rodenticide (rat poison) has many terrible side effects, including the death of many wild animals (raptors, fox, coyotes, squirrels, etc.) and some domestic pets (cats and dogs). The wild animals that are killed are often nature’s best rodent controllers, which can actually make the rat population worse. The really sad part is that there are alternatives to rodenticide.

IndivisibleLAB is pleased to host Rodent Control: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly. This presentation will cover why rodenticide is dangerous to wildlife and pets, other products and methods that one can use to control unwanted rodents, and legislative action that one can take to help in our community.

Presenters include:

  • Laura Kiesel, M. Sc. Natural Resources Sciences and Management & environmental journalist, founder of Save Arlington Wildlife.
  • Gary Menin, Sr., former local representative for Raptors are the Solution (RATS), Talkin’ Birds Ambassador, and an advocate for keeping our raptors poison free.

Please join us for this interactive presentation on February 11, 2023 at Lexington Community Center, room 242 from 2:30-4:00 pm. Please RSVP here.

Note: masks are required at this event.

Photo courtesy of MJ Keeler

Would you like to submit an environmental event or activity?
Email us at [email protected]

Please forward to your network!