A.M. Greenlist: An Edible bus

>> The Big Blue Bus is turning 80 -- and throwing a party in celebration.  Come nibble on a gigantic bus-shaped cake, hear live music by the Blue Notes band, and see a vintage 1950s-era bus on the Third Street Promenade at Broadway in Santa Monica at 11 am on Monday, April 14.

>> A Million trees dying. The city plants trees -- but doesn't take care of them AND doesn't let the nearby homeowners know they need to take care of them, thus leaving the trees to dry up and die. "It’s one thing to give away trees at a street fair and hope they’re planted, but it’s quite another to actively plant trees in front of a property and not inform the owners about their role," says Faboomama of LA MetBlogs. Earlier: I never wanted to be a tree killer.

>> Treecycling makes money. "A company in North Carolina is making some good things from urban trees which have to be cut down for one reason or another: high-end lumber from what was once considered good only for firewood or mulch."

>> Major water shortages: Sign of coming water wars? "As Barcelona runs out of water, Spain has been forced to consider importing water from France by boat," turning a local drought into an international situation. Earlier: Water week: A refreshing roundup

>> Spying on environmentalists: Beckett Brown International, a private security company, tried to infiltrate big enviro groups including Greenpeace and Friends of the Earth. BBI went through trash, got phone records, etc. Among BBI's (now renamed S2i) clients: Allied Waste, National Rifle Association, Gallo wine company Wal-Mart, Mary Kay, Halliburton and Monsanto. (via Grist)

Photo of dying sapling by Siel

Comments

[Aaron]

I love the concept of "Million Trees LA" but hate the implementation. I'm car-free and in a wheelchair, and the fact that it seems the city has at least 500,000 trees that have far outgrown their planter and destroyed the sidewalk, making it difficult, if not impossible, for wheelchair users to pass, makes me think they should fix the first 500,000 before they plant 1,000,000 more.

The City needs a comprehensive way of identifying where this could be an issue and taking action to deal with it. I'm not an arborist, but why does this happen severely here but not as often in other cities up east like Boston or New York? Are we planting the wrong trees? Not maintaining them? Not planting them deep enough?

On top of that, because the City is broke, they've basically stopped fixing sidewalks, despite repeated calls to 311.