After almost two years of extensive planting to establish native trees, shrubs and wetland plant species at the Walterville Pond, the conversion from a man-made pond to a naturalized wetland is nearly complete.
Housing and Community Services of Lane County and Buena Vista Elementary School each won a 2016 Greenpower grant of up to $50,000 from EWEB's Greenpower program. The announcement was made at BRING Recycling's Earth Day Birthday Party in April, and marks a milestone for the Greenpower grant program, which has awarded more than $1 million to local nonprofit renewable energy projects, research and education since the grants were first introduced in 2009.
Community volunteers in February joined a half-dozen agencies to collect and remove garbage and other debris from lower McKenzie River riparian areas.