What’s not to love about all the great news in this week’s issue of The Valley Reporter?
First – how lucky we are to have so many passionate, qualified, interested and informed people seeking public offices in our communities. Read why they’re running and what matters to them. It’s inspiring. We’re lucky they want to serve.
Next – check out what Yestermorrow Design Build School has in store this spring – the school wants to start a small-scale composting center on campus in Waitsfield. This solves the school’s issue with its own food waste and will allow members of the public to drop off up to 5 gallons of food scraps per week for a small six-month subscription fee. Those subscribers would get first dibs on the approximately 50 cubic yards of compost that will be ready in nine to 12 months.
This is a two-year pilot project and its organizers hope it will lead to other small scale food scrap collecting and compost-making to occur in other parts of The Valley. This also keeps the energy and nutrient value of local food waste in The Valley as opposed to having it trucked away.
The Waitsfield Conservation Commission is joining forces with the Warren Planning Commission to replicate the Warren commission’s very successful efforts to combat Japanese knotweed via manual cutting and no use of herbicides. Warren’s diligent work in demystifying and disempowering the incredibly invasive plant will be replicated along Waitsfield’s roads thanks to this partnership. Warren’s work is actually lending hope to the idea that The Valley can be rid of this menace that has thoroughly infested the banks of the Mad River and the roads and ditches of The Valley.
And speaking of collaboration, stay tuned for some exciting news about a collaboration between the Warren, Fayston and Waitsfield Conservation Commissions, the Moretown Recreation Committee, Friends of the Mad River and Sugarbush to educate community members on how to cohabitate with the black bears as they wake this spring. This proactive work is designed to help our community learn to live with and protect bears and better understand how our behaviors impact and affect bears. What a great initiative.
What’s not to love about such great and positive and inspiring news this week?
