Canon has announced the Nurture Nature Awards, which is “an environmental program that encourages Canadians to help protect or improve the natural habitat of an endangered or threatened species in their community.”
They will be accepting applications online (from now until September 1st) containing your written plan on how to positively impact a threatened habitat in your area. Enter online by submitting a video, outlining your proposed plan along with a short written outline.
Three winners from across the country will be chosen in September and receive $20,000 to see their proposal come to fruition. They’ll also get decked out with a digital SLR from Canon as well as a video camera so they can document their projects.
Now is a great time to think about what you would do for your local ecosystem as we’re in the middle of Canadian Environment Week. This includes tomorrow’s Clean Air Day, the Commuter Challenge, and Friday’s World Environment Day.
Sunday June 14th is Car Free Day in Vancouver Day with festivals and street parties happening in four neigbourhoods.
Photo credit:
Rob__ on Flickr
The festival came out of the original 2005 car-free day on Commerical Drive, which lead to two events in 2006, another in 2007, and in 2008 we had the first city-wide event with several neighbourhoods going car-free.
The first annual Car-Free Vancouver Day, on Sunday June 15, 2008 ushered in the next phase in this bold experiment that had been gradually happening in Vancouver for many years. It took the car-free meme to the whole city, and represented the next level in our evolution toward healthy communities, authentic cultural celebrations, and car-free streets. On that day, FOUR communities presented their own Car-Free Festivals: Kitsilano, West End, Main Street, and Commercial Drive. Each Festival was envisioned and organized by the local core organizers, and each had a unique flavour.
Major sites this year include Kitsilano, Main Street, West End, and Commercial Drive. If you’d like to be a volunteer, performer, or vendor, you can contact your local organizing body through the website. They’re currently in need of volunteers to man barricades so contact the organization if you’re available to help out.
Each neighbourhood has its own feel so you’ll be able to join a knitting circle and roller disco on Commercial Drive, enjoy tunes from the music stages on Main, pop into the spoken-word tent in the West End, and visit a collection of block parties in Kitsilano.
You can download your own Block Party Toolkit if you’d like to host on in your nighbourhood. Whichever location you visit on June 14th, please remember to walk, cycle, or take transit.
Update: City Council has just approved car free Sundays in four Vancouver neighbourhoods this summer, as a part of “Summer Space”. On several Sundays this season Collingwood, Mount Pleasant, Gastown, and Commercial Drive will be closed to vehicle traffic. [CBC]
We had some more time to explore San Francisco this afternoon and our post diner breakfast walk turned into a 6-hour trek across town and back with John, Dale, and Duane.
Related posts: WordCamp Day Blog, San Francisco Photowalk. View my entire set on Flickr and John’s got some great pics as well.
Be part of the plan with TransLink on June 1st as they coordinate what will be the first of a series of public consultations throughout the month. Monday’s “Greater Vancouver’s Livability Forum” takes place at the Fairmont Waterfront Hotel from 8:00am until 3:30pm and you can register online.
Developing a 30-year plan called Transport 2040, they would like to get as much public input and engagement as possible so 9 community consultation workshops will follow to discuss everything from bridges and bikeways to transit. Locations include Vancouver, Walnut Grove, Fleetwood, White Rock, Maple Ridge, North Vancouver, Burnaby, Coquitlam and Richmond. You can register online for the event in your community.
TransLink has also started a website for these discussions over at Be Part of the Plan or you can get updates on Twitter @bepartoftheplan.
Even though I’m down in San Francisco the emails about events around Vancouver have still been pouring in so here’s a quick heads up for a fun activity happening tomorrow.
Bring the family to Jericho Beach on Sunday May 31st for the Great PedalheadsTM Treasure Hunt. It’s a free event that kicks off around 10:00am and will run til about 1:00pm, involving you, your bike, and a scavenger hunt around the park. It’s open to all ages and will take about an hour (to go from station to station) and there will be prizes available for everyone.
This fun-filled afternoon is to celebrate the beginning of June, which is Bike Month. The Pedalheads organization (through Atlantis Programs) helps children get active and lead a healthy lifestyle by providing swimming and cycling camps.
I believe you can still register for tomorrow’s treasure hunt by emailing info [at] atlantisprograms [dot] com or you can call (604) 874-6464 for more information. You should be able to find the group near the duck pond and once you’re done you can enjoy a super sunny afternoon at the beach.
