About the Author

I like to interact with my environment, personally.

 I have lived in Novato for 15 years. I spent the previous year living in Farifax.    I am happy to say I have always been an outdoors type of person living along this creek. I have had many adventures and explorations up and down the Novato Creek and I take something from it every time.  My favorite animal are the ones that humans interact with on a regular basis because I have gotten to step back to think to my self how we are able to coexist with one another in such a superficial society. I hope the Sustainable Novato plans are put into action and the town can reduce its pesticide use.   This is a great town to go hiking in or just explore the surroundings. I love that I do not have to go far to be out in the wilderness and explore.  If you are visiting Novato it is paramount that you explore your surroundings because you will be very surprised at what you may find out.  

Straberry Plant!

I placed my berry plant in a rather sunny part of my house and gave it a healthy amount of water everyday. I then placed it in my plater beds along with other previously planted strawberry's. The soil in this bed was partly made from homemade compost. The first challenge I ran into was the high amounts of rain that flooded the bed numerous times. Fortunately the plant weathered the storm and made it through alive. The most positive things about having the plant in the bed was that it was on a drip system and therefore I did not have to remember to water it everyday which is the main reason it thrived so much. My proudest moment was removing the plant from the ground and back into its original bucket and seeing the improvements it has made over the past couple months.

Sustainable Novato

Here is an article speaking to the hot issue in my community:

Sustainable Novato is working to improve environmental health in our community in two specific areas

• First, Sustainable Novato seeks to reduce pesticide and herbicide use in Novato by 50%.  We have asked the City of Novato to establish an Integrated Pest Management (IPM) Resolution (much like the City of San Rafael has already done), and are working with the Novato School District to implement its IPM policy, including full data disclosure.
• Second, Sustainable Novato is working to educate the community about the hazards of endocrine disruptors and build support for their reduction in our daily environment. We held a community forum to that end in the fall of 2009.  Both of these two focus areas include extensive networking and collaboration with other organizations holding similar interests.

Sustainable Novato is also concerned about the social justice implications of environmental issues. Those who are the most vulnerable often are the least aware of the health hazards of their daily choices.  Our community forums are a major public education component that is a prerequisite for our public advocacy.

This story first jumped out at me because the group is working with the Novato School District. This is interesting to me because at MA, nobody would think we would use pesticides; however, when I was at school over the summer I saw workers spraying weeds growing around the trees with a blue spray which got me thinking how MA certainly has a long way to go in terms of becoming a "green school" I thought it was impressive to see this organization working with Public Schools and would love to see the trend continue. 

Interview

As I mentioned earlier I interviewed Ron Moats, my neighbor who is in his early 60's who has been living in the same home for his entire life. I interviewed him on a hike that he graciously agreed to go on. Liz, I mentioned to you that I recorded this and put various bits and pieces into my blog posts.

Day 5

Here are the three cycles as well was the law of conservation on matter which states: a fundamental principle of classical physics that matter cannot be created or destroyed in an isolated system. The key here is the isolated system because as it applies to my community, these three systems are all isolated in a small space, the Novato Creek.




COME LIVE IN NOVATO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


Novato is a great place to live for many reasons, but my research shows me that these are the main two:


1. Reasonable home prices and cost of living considering the Marin County standard.
2. COSTCO (just kidding) Novato is the perfect location because it is a 25 minutes drive to the City, yet only 10 minutes drive to complete seclusion. This is one of the more attractive things that Novato has to offer with the suburb feel as well as the ability to get away. 


The average home price in Marin county is over 1 million dollars; however, Novato is a mere 620,000 dollars. This vast difference illustrates the value of living in Novato, which is only 30 minutes from San Francisco and 30 minutes from the Napa Valley. You can't find better location and value than this!

Day 4

Food Web

Novato, as compared to the rest of Marin, is fairly rich in biodiversity. Driving down highway 101 one will see mountains with trees and shrubbery in abundance. The further North you drive, you will begin to see cattle and wetlands, you will also encounter vast open areas. This shows that the land is fairly undeveloped and barren in comparison to the rest of your drive down 101 coming from north of the Golden Gate Bridge.

Directly in my backyard there is a creek, Novato creek, which is a main creek running through the city. Over the years the area surrounding it has become abundant with non-native species, grasses, and weeds. Unique to the section of the creek behind my house is a numerous amount of trees and shrubbery that are in fact native to California. I have participated in several cleanup days in the creek to remove non-native sepcies es. scotts broom. There are also several wetlands and marsh lands in the area that are very well protected by the city. The Marsh land here in Novato is right in the center of the action. Scotts Marsh is located right next to the Mall and there is another one behind the Mall. Despite efforts to developed the land, environmental activists (including my 5th grade class) protested.

My first hike I did was over spring break through a pipe that flows water into my creek. At this time water was not flowing through it steadily, however, water often rushes through it at alarming speeds often as much as a medium river current. My journey through here revealed a fews things: 1. People need to be more aware of what they dispose of near a creek 2. People need to put some effort into clearing invasive species and weeds from their back yards 3. Something needs to be done about erosion control. These three things jumped out at me and were all pretty alarming how people in my community can just turn a cold shoulder to these issues.

My second hike just last week was through the Marsh lands in Novato. "While the scenery still remains beautiful, traffic along the freeway has had a dramatic effect on the species that live in the marsh land," said neighbor Ron Moats, who was kind enough to go on a hike with me AND allow me to record our conversation. "Development has really hurt the wetlands marshes and forrests here in Novato over the past 50 years, although I have seen a dramatic change in the way people see the environment out here in the past ten."

Day 3

Novato Creek Fish
Before Novato was industrialized, it was a fairly barren rural landscape with mountains and trees everywhere.

Novato has a Clay soil type which has been known to exist in urban areas for contracting purposes.