For more information about Bemidji’s Sustainable Homes Tour on July 28th, click on the link: “2012 Sustainable Homes Tour” or scroll towards the bottom of this post 
Have you ever wanted to find out more about how to restore your own shoreland to native habitat and what benefits this will provide you as a homeowner as well as the surrounding ecosystem?
To close out Sustainable Monday’s month of July programming, next Monday, July 30th will feature three local experts in their own fields relating to this very topic: Shoreland Restoration! Come on down to the Rail River Folk School (303 Railroad St. SW) from 5:30 to 7:30 pm and listen to:
Bob Eckstrom, DNR Aquatic Habitat Specialist, talk about the permitting process and how the DNR can help you with your lakescaping project.
Soren Sorenson, MN Native Plants Propagator, discuss the best, most affordable, and easiest methods to properly develop the native plants that are already along your shoreline for restoration.
Jared Stull, Bemidji Parks & Gardens Maintenance, who will close our evening with a facilitated tour of Bemidji’s Cameron Park. Get hands-on experience with native plants and shoreland restoration at our Cameron Park, which has gone through several phases of redevelopment and includes a large degree of lakescaping along its shoreland.
To brush up on your familiarity and shoreland restoration interests ahead of time, visit the DNR’s website at: http://www.dnr.state.mn.us/lakescaping/index.html and we hope to see you there!
This Saturday, July 28th, is Bemidji’s first Sustainable Homes Tour!
1. PERMACULTURE, NET-ZERO ENERGY HOME: 2764 Sunnyside Rd. NE, Bemidji
Tours available 9:00 am & 9:30 am. Passive solar design, solar PV panels, gardens, edible and native landscaping, and geothermal!
2. STRAW BALE DESIGN: 6459 160th Street, Cass Lake MN 56633
Tours available 10:00 am & 10:30 am. Straw bale design and other off-grid technologies, pole structure frame, steel roof, earth bag foundation, 22 in. thick walls with R50 value!
3. PASSIVE HOUSE STYLE: 12487 Sundog Trail NE, Bemidji
Tours available 11:00 am and 11:30 am. Based on the German passiv haus style, minimizing energy demand. Double-stud wall house, rated at .6 air exchanges per hour compared with American average of 3, minimizing energy!
4. HAND-MADE YURT & BELLE THALIA CREATIVE ARTS: 24011 Highway 89 NW, Puposky MN 56667
Tours available 12:00 pm & 12:30 pm. Come listen to a traditional Kyrgz folk tale inside the yurt (a traditional Central Asian nomadic dwelling), walk to the active beaver pond and view organic gardens!
5. WINDSONG: 1010 Anne St. NW, Bemidji
Tours available 1:00 pm & 1:30 pm. Bemidji’s only LEED silver certified building and Minnesota’s first for elder-care. Find out how Sanford Health’s Windsong Senior Living improvements in geothermal and building design are leading the way!
6. ENERGY EFFICIENT RENTAL: 1301 Minnesota Ave. NW, Bemidji
Tours available 2:00 pm & 2:30 pm. With energy efficiency improvements in roofing, insulation, and windows this landlord cut his heating bill in half!
7. VILLAGE OF HOPE: 525 Mississippi Ave. NW, Bemidji
Tours available at 3:00 pm & 3:30 pm. Passive solar heat stored in the cement floors, in-floor hydronic heating, timers on faucets & lights, external solar shade on south side. Phase 2 includes solar energy system.
Next Bemidji Sustainability Commitee Meeting set for Wednesday, August 1st.
If you can’t make it to the tour, but would like to hear about it’s recap and have the opportunity to plug into similar future events and efforts, we invite you to attend the next Bemidji Sustainability Committee meeting, to be held next Wednesday, August 1st at Bemidji City Hall at 6:30 pm (the meetings are always the first Wednesday of the month at City Hall at 6:30 pm). The meetings are open to any and all interested community members and we plan on discussing ideas from the recent Renewable Energy Roundtable held at Sanford Center, the Curbside Recycling Survey next steps, and the upcoming Comprehensive Land Use plan as well. Hope to see you there!
North Country Youth Radio Opportunity
We also wanted to pass on that the North Country Youth Radio Connection is offering its first day-long Youth Radio Camp on August 4th from 9-4 at the KBXE FM Studio in Bemidji. This first camp is open to teens ages 14 and up as well as any adults who are interested in learning about the project and helping to start Youth Radio Clubs or projects in area schools or youth organizations. Register by sending an email to Jamie Lee at jamie@manykites.com.
Sustainable Monday’s Creates a Beautiful Mural!
Thanks to the inspired and creative energy of a swath of attendees of all ages and artistic backgrounds, this Monday, July 23rd, featured the creation of a stunning mural to be given to the We Digg It! Community Garden that the folk school hosts! Thanks to the vision and hard work of three local community artists: Lisa Robinson, Deborah Davis, and Wesley May, the mural will have a permanent place symbolizing the power that happens when we come to together to create a better world. We also thank Scott Knudson and Lakeland Public Television for filiming the mural process for an upcoming episode of Common Ground! If you missed the artistic joy, but still want to witness its process, keep your ears open to its air date this coming season!
The finished mural for the We Digg It! Community Garden in all its glory
Brett
