What We’re Doing

Visit the MC Gives! website for more information. Donate through December 31st, 2018 midnight. CSMC is proud to be once again selected to participate in the Monterey County Gives Campaign! Thanks to generous matching contributions, your year-end gift-giving to Communities for Sustainable Monterey County will have an even greater impact. Our BIG IDEA for 2019 is to improve the urban tree canopy in Salinas. The benefits of a healthy tree canopy go far beyond providing oxygen, filtering water and increasing property value. Recent studies show that urban vegetation, including trees, slows heartbeats, lowers blood pressure, encourages outdoor activity and relaxes brain wave patterns.  Monterey County Gives! is a special project of Monterey County Weekly, in partnership with the Community Foundation for Monterey County. A healthy urban tree canopy is between 25-30%. According to a report in early 2015, the City of Salinas had a tree canopy of 7.6%. To make matters worse, on February 17, 2017 Salinas had a devastating wind storm which resulted in a loss of between 800-1000 trees. The good news is the City of Salinas has recently committed to planting trees in sidewalk easements and parks over the next several years. Sustainable Salinas wants to help support Read more…

On Friday, March 23, 2018 César E. Chávez Elementary School hosted its annual César Chávez Peace March & Celebration.  The event commemorated Chávez’s birthday, March 31. A series of activities honored the birthday of the late American labor leader and civil rights activist. Students participated in a Peace March – ending up at Soberanes Park to plant a flowering cherry tree donated by Sustainable Salinas. Chávez Elementary Principal Petra Martinez-Diaz said she wants the students to follow the same peaceful ways of Chávez.  “We want to make sure that students know that there are ways to effect change.” Martinez-Diaz said. “If there’s something that you see that is wrong and you want to try to fix it, there are ways to do it without having to be violent.” Speakers included Salinas Councilman Scott Davis, Leti Hernandez of Sustainable Salinas, and Daniel Hernandez of  Salinas Local Urban Gardeners project. Excerpts from the article appearing in the March 22, 2018 article by Juan Reyes in the Monterey Herald. Read more HERE.  

By James Herrera, Monterey Herald, POSTED: 07/20/17 Seaside >> By this time next year, a section of Roberts Lake in Seaside will have been transformed into an outdoor classroom offering environmental education programming and a nature-based play area. The city of Seaside, along with Sustainable Seaside, is one of three U.S. cities that has been selected as a Building Better Communities grant recipient and awarded $150,000 from the American Water Charitable Foundation and the National Recreation and Park Association. “The Roberts Lake project is important for Seaside because we noticed there are children who never experience water — whether it’s the beach or our lakes,” said Gloria Stearns, Seaside’s economic development manager. “This project gives us an opportunity to help them become exposed to water, water conservation, water ecology and water quality.” Stearns said the city had been toying around with the idea for some time and when they approached Sustainable Seaside to collaborate, they jumped at the chance to become involved. Sustainable Seaside is a group of concerned citizens working toward solutions to environmental challenges in the region, promoting sustainable living practices since 2008. The grass-roots group has been on the forefront of several environmental issues including opposition to the Monterey Read more…