GreenTown led a bike ride as part of the City’s DownTown Green events, Sunday, July 23. Organized by Mike Tkalcevic who is generously interning with GreenTown as part of a Master’s Degree program in Urban Planning at San Jose State University, we rode 10 miles to explore the quiet streets of Los Altos. We started at the DownTown Green on Third Street, took back streets and cut-throughs to eventually get to the Farmers’ Market in Mountain View. It was a relaxing way to go, and when we got there we had no problem finding a place to park! Our start at the DownTown Green with Mike second from the left At the Mountain View Farmers’ Market, look at all those cars behind us! Leaving the Market, we headed to Palo Alto. Once again, we took back streets, crossed a bridge over Adobe Creek at Monroe Park and arrived at Charleston Avenue. Turning left, we returned home, eventually finding ourselves on Los Altos Ave. We ‘just happened’ to notice the Sweet Shop, so of course we stopped. We had kids with us after all. Stopping for a small adjustment. Mike is good at this – he works part-time at Bicycle Outfitter. One of the young riders will be going to Blach next year, so we asked if she would be riding her bike. “Yes,” she said quietly. Her dad was more emphatic, “Yes, even in the rain!” Her brother will be going into the fourth grade at Springer. Asked the same question, he said, “No.” Noticing our shock, he explained. “I walk to school.” Excellent. These kids and their parents are setting such a wonderful example.

Save the Date for our 10th Anniversary Farm-to-Table Fundraising Dinner – September 23 Mark your calendars for GreenTown Los Altos’ third annual Farm-to-Table Dinner and Auction from 5-9pm at a private residence in Los Altos. We will be celebrating our 10th Anniversary and we can’t wait! It will be an evening to remember, with delicious local food and wine, live and silent auctions and good friends! To make this a fabulous night, we could use YOUR help in the following ways: 1. IDENTIFY POTENTIAL EVENT AND TABLE SPONSORS Please consider asking or making introductions regarding event and table sponsors for the event. Event sponsors at $1,000 or more get 2-complimentary tickets to the event and premium billing in Los Altos Town Crier ads, promotional material and communications, as well as prominent placement on a poster at the event. 2. RECRUIT FOR LIVE and SILENT AUCTION ITEMS Please think about your network and whether it might include folks who could donate items for our silent and live auctions. We are looking for 5-7 live auction items and 20-30 silent auction items, ranging from vacation homes and packages, parties, environmental art, classes on bike safety, water conservation, etc., tours of sustainable homes or farms, etc. 3. BE AN EVENT VOLUNTEER Join our fun team in planning the event or help on the day and evening of the party. We will plan to do two hour rotations during the event so you can still enjoy yourselves! Please help spread the word and build enthusiasm for this event! If you have any questions, please contact info@greentownlosaltos.org.

Exciting news! The Los Altos School District (LASD) will be installing solar panels at each of its schools this Fall, resulting in savings of more than $175,000 in electricity costs each year. But the process will be a bit painful as it will occur during the school year – starting in mid-September. In the spirit of every crisis bringing opportunity, GreenTown is working with LASD on a traffic mitigation plan for each school that we hope will result in lasting change in school commute behavior!  We are targeting an increase in WoW! (Walking or Wheeling/Biking) participation of 20% and a 20% reduction in single family car traffic. A chance to bike, walk & carpool! Solar panels similar to those at Los Altos High School will be installed at schools starting September. Care to volunteer to help guide walking or wheeling students? This will not only be good for the environment but will also ease traffic congestion around the schools and be safer for our kids! It’s a win, win, win. Key features of the program include working with PTAs to develop more effective bike/walk encouragement, including increasing bike trains and walking school buses, and partnering with the carpooling app Chaperone to facilitate more carpooling. We would love your help in making this program a success. If you’re interested in supporting this program, please send us a note at volunteer@greentownlosaltos.org.

The “greenest house in America.” That’s what we heard at GreenTown’s lunch at Tah Mah Lah, the Holland-Yates home in Portola Valley. The home, designed to showcase the latest innovations in sustainable design, does that by being highly efficient, producing more energy than is consumed, restoring habitat, saving and repurposing water, and reducing and even reusing waste. The lunch was a GreenTown auction item at last year’s Farm-to-Table dinner. The winning bidder and her guests heard from Tom Klope, landscape architect for the project. Klope explained that the design work began in 2006 and took many years. The team of architects and designers ventured into a number of new areas, leading to inevitable delays as the approval process had to catch up. According to Klope, this wasn’t necessarily a bad thing, as innovations in sustainable design are evolving rapidly. The house was completed in 2012. Tom Klope describing the home’s design process A few interesting highlights – All of the material is recycled except the glass. The Western Yellow Cedar used both inside and outside the home was sourced from another structure. Everything is sourced within 500 miles with one interesting exception, the limestone. That came from Minnesota, but the carbon footprint of bringing it that far by rail beat trucking similar material from a quarry near Yosemite. The home is energy-efficient and the solar panels provide enough electricity to make it more than net zero. Tom explaining the geothermal heating and cooling system The location of the home on the site and even its angle to the path of the sun was optimized to produce peak solar performance. Rain is collected and stored in a 50,000 gal tank. Gray and even black waste water is processed on site and used in the drip irrigation system. The plants survived the four year drought. A green roof was considered but the extra construction needed to support it did not justify the benefit. A stainless steel roof was selected, but that required a two year test to convince the building department folks that it would not create an unacceptable mirror-like effect. A view of the home’s solar installation One goal, personally important for Klope: “Make it beautiful.” He planted all natives and the grasses are a blend of natives sold by Delta Bluegrass. They have different blends for different niches. You can visit Portola Valley and see six of the different blends planted in a field near Town Hall. Sustainably built with attention to every aspect of a modern, green building. Now that’s a vision GreenTown can support! To read about the home, visit http://www.tahmahlah.com/ Written by Gary Hedden

The summer solstice was June 21, and GreenTown took a bike ride to see the sunset over the Bay. There were 28 of us and we entered the Stevens Creek Trail just off Sleeper Avenue in Mountain View. Once on the trail there are no more cars – what a treat, just bikes and the occasional jogger. We reached a spot overlooking the Bay and watched the sun set below the Coast Range at exactly 8:29. We made it to the Bay! Riders crossing the bridge over Stevens Creek Trail at Sleeper Ave. The ride back in the gathering dusk was delightful. There is something very pleasant about riding as the sky gets darker and darker. A bit exciting. Everyone had good bike lights, so we were safe, and one adventuresome rider had the eye catching Monkey Lights on his wheels. That got some attention. A dozen of us ended up at Mountain Mike’s for pizza and beer. Not a bad way to end a bike ride. See you next year! A beautiful sunset

As National Bike Month draws to a close, it’s a good time to look back at all the activities during the last 31 days: 12 Riders are participating in the National Bicycle Challenge — Open until September 3 Schools participated in the National Bike to School Day May 10th 500+ bicyclists rode through Los Altos on Bike to Work Day May 11th on Foothill Expwy 20 riders joined the Hardy Jones Bike Tour to see 9 of his sculptures 215 bikes were parked by during the two day Rotary Fine Art in the Park Bike Valet And this doesn’t count the streams of students who ride to school every day in our community. Additionally, on May 17th GreenTown hosted the “Let’s Talk Traffic” event in South Los Altos that brought together County, City and School District Leaders to discuss the challenging traffic issues we face.  40 residents attended.  GreenTown will host our next traffic event in the Fall As we head into summer, the bicycling in Los Altos does not end.  Here are some suggestions to try over the next three months: Explore Los Altos Find all 8 artistic bike racks downtown Visit the great sculptures of Hardy Jones Have your 6th grader show you next year’s bike routes to Egan and Blach. Find all the secret “cut throughs” on the City’s Bike Map Get Out on Two Wheels Get behind your handle bars to get away from the screen Fill your lungs with some fresh air Have a coffee and connect with a friend across town Go Shop By Bike in all of our shopping districts Head West Across Foothill Expressway and HW280 Ride up to a park for a picnic: Lincoln Park, Rancho Antonio or Hidden Villa Explore the backroads through Cupertino, Los Altos Hills and Portola Valley Head to Pescadero for homemade pie

GreenTown Los Altos volunteers – more than 40 strong – joined countywide efforts on National River Cleanup Day to clean our local waterways. From Permanente Creek at Heritage Oaks Park in Los Altos, we removed 10 pounds of mostly plastic trash; another 15 pounds of debris was removed from the creek banks and recycled; and enthusiastic volunteers from the Friends of Stevens Creek Trail pulled 18 pounds of invasive thistle from the creek banks that was put into compost. Grassroots Ecology’s Shelley Pneh brought the Enviroscape to demonstrate what kinds of pollution gets into our waterways and how it gets there. In between the collecting and sorting of trash, Shelley introduced volunteers to some aquatic bugs. We learned which bugs are more sensitive to water pollution and which can tolerate more pollution, as we identified some found in Permanente Creek. Thanks to Girl Scout Troop #60197, leader Sandra Stapleton, and parent volunteer Swati Pandya from Montclaire School for their participation. send us an email and we’ll send you a reminder!

It was Earth Day, so we rode our bikes.  GreenTown loves bike rides so the Lawn-Be-Gone bike ride this year was held on April 22 and for a change of pace, we visited the south side of town. We started at Oak School and heard about the amazing Living Classroom demonstration park and garden from Suzanne Kasso, pictured with her two dogs, Splash and Snickers. This was the first Living Classroom proj The next stop at Covenant Church showed a brand new project, only six months old. There is a lot of empty space, but the plants will grow and spread. We’ll have to come back and check it out. Linda Ziff is describing the rocky swale used for rain water capture. Six more stops Our ride ended at Woodland Library to hear about a Gold Award project to install a Demonstration Garden. Girl Scout Alyssa Robins created a plan that includes drought tolerant plants, a garden wall, a rain garden, interpretive signage and reference material in a kiosk in the library. It was fun, and we’ll be

GreenTown led a bike ride in honor of the late Dr. Hardy Jones to view his artistic metal sculptures. Hardy collected old metal parts, especially old abandoned farm equipment, and fashioned them into art. He called this “found art.” There are pieces at most of the local schools and they typicallyrepresent the school’s mascot – Santa Rita has bob cats, Egan has a Viking, Almond has an eagle and Covington has coyotes. We started at the library to see Magic Fish and then proceeded to visit seven schools, one private residence and the hardware store. Sam Harding had great stories about each piece, and offered fascinating insight into the process that Hardy took to make his art. It was a pleasant ride and people commented, “I have walked by these pieces and never knew the story.” Now we know.

Suzanne Kasso teaching us about Oak School’s Living Classroom with her two dogs, Splash and Snickers Linda Ziff describing how the rocky swale is used for rain water capture at Foothill Covenant Church GreenTown loves bike rides and the Lawn-Be-Gone bike ride this year was held on April 22, Earth Day, and for a change of pace, we visited the south side of town. We started at Oak School and heard about the amazing Living Classroom demonstration park and garden from the program’s LASD garden manager, Suzanne Kasso. This was the first Living Classroom project and it shows. It is truly amazing and the signage that describes the plants is so helpful for anyone planning to replace their lawn. The next stop at Foothill Covenant Church showed a brand new project, only six months old. There is a lot of empty space, but the plants will grow and spread. We’ll have to come back and check it out. Six more stops at private homes allowed us to see the wide variety of styles that are possible. The homeowners were all pleased and excited to tell us about their projects. Anky van Deursen enjoys the color this time of year, and appreciates that her yard is “always a work in progress.” Barbara and Kevin O’Reilly also enjoy working in their yard, but Barbara did comment that putting in 1500 individual plugs of red fescue to create their native meadow just about finished them off! Our ride ended at Woodland Library to hear about a Gold Award project to install a Demonstration Garden. Girl Scout Alyssa Robins created a plan that includes drought tolerant plants, a garden wall, a rain garden, interpretive signage and reference material in a kiosk in the library. It was fun, and we’ll be back next year for another bike ride. Anky van Deurson showing us her beautiful yard Barbara O’Reilly showing us her native meadow

Earth Day celebrates what’s important to us all which is why we’ve put together a collection of ideas for you to check out for this very special weekend. Click the links to get more info and enjoy the weekend’s events of your choice! Los Altos Hills: • Check out a fair celebrating the day: This green event will include a “Live Wild Cats” education presentation by Leopard’s Etc. Presentations of the wild cats featuring a cheetah, ocelot and black leopard scheduled for 1:30 pm and 3:00 pm. • Trash pick up to do our part for the planet To celebrate Earth Day, join in as we give back and clean up our local community. Earn service hours while contributing to the beauty of Los Altos Hills. Meet at Purissima Park to receive an assigned clean-up location. Mountain View: • An Earth Day Fair, details here. Palo Alto: • The Great Race for saving water, a way to give back and get benefits too! • The Palo Alto /EPA Earth Day event GreenTown Leadership Team Member Linda Gass will be leading activities at Cooley Landing in East Palo Alto to take care of the native plants in the Living Shoreline Project Land Art Installation at 10 am, 11 am, 12 pm and 1 pm.

The “World Water Monitoring Challenge” gave us some clues about the health of Permanente Creek at Heritage Oaks Park in Los Altos. A group of instructors from Grassroots Ecology led an outdoor class and workshop March 11 in the science of creek water. Linda Ziff, water program lead for GreenTown, partnered with Grassroots to host this event. Jeremy Merckling, Joanne McFarlin and Linda Ziff with an Enviroscape model that demonstrates how pollution gets into creeks About 20 students of all ages learned that clean creek water is essential to a healthy environment. They observed the water in the creek, counted the bugs and found out that the bug count is low because the recent heavy rain and rapid water flows have washed them away. Bugs are adaptable though and they will be back. The types of bugs in the water helps to tell us if a creek is healthy because some bugs cannot survive in a polluted environment. Joanne McFarlin describing the bugs in the creek. The students looked at the turbidity, and the water is now clear after being very murky last month. They measured the pH, and it is neutral, a good thing. They measured the dissolved oxygen, important for the bugs and fish that live in the water, and it is good. Finally, the temperature of the water was cold, as it should be in late winter. Jeremy Merckling explaining the role of plants in a healthy watershed We all left with a better understanding of factors that determine the health of a creek and the state of this local creek. The kids enjoyed being near the water, learning new things, and they gained a deeper appreciation of nature.