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Mission
Statement
The Environmental
Defenders of McHenry County is a citizen organization dedicated
to the preservation and improvement of the environment. We are
committed to building sound ecological relationships between
people and the natural world that supports all life.
To achieve the aim of environmental
preservation and improvement, we provide the community with
educational programs and volunteer action on pollution
prevention, sustainable land use and energy and natural resource
conservation.
We advocate policies which protect
drinking water supplies and conserve land for open space and
agriculture. We demonstrate waste reduction through recycling
drives and reuse centers. We encourage natural resource
protection through native landscaping and stream protection
programs. |
Earth Day
Celebration
Saturday, April 26,
11 a.m. – 4 p.m.
Prairieview Education Center,
2112 Behan Road, Crystal Lake
Rain or shine! Carpool to the event with friends to enter the raffle
for a free picnic shelter reservation!
Live Music:
11 a.m. — Drum Circle
11:30 a.m. — Off Square Music
featuring local musicians.
1 p.m. —
Bill Kehl's Earth, Music…Magic!
family concert
2 p.m. & 3 p.m. — Off Square
Music featuring local musicians
Scheduled Activities: 11:30
a.m. & 2:30 p.m. Guided Nature Hikes • 12:30 p.m. & 2:30 p.m. Puppet
Show
Ongoing:
Recycling Drop-Off • Games & Crafts • Over 20 Environmentally Themed
Exhibitors • Food & Beverage Vendors – Duke’s Ale House and Pop’s
Premier Kettle Corn, or bring your own “No waste” picnic lunch.
HOUSEHOLD RECYCLING
DROP OFF:
A regular service by EDMC at this annual event is the
opportunity for people to bring in hard-to-recycle items. With the
help of our partner, Chicago Logistic Services, we will
be collecting electronics
& small appliances (microwaves MUST be clean, no smoke
detectors, no medical devices, no console TVs) clean Styrofoam™,
packing peanuts, re-useable bubble wrap, Christmas lights,
fluorescent tubes, athletic shoes, VHS tapes, CDs, cassettes, and
household batteries will also be collected. A donation is requested
to offset the costs of recycling these items.
ECO-FRIENDLY FOOD AND BEER FEST
Sunday, April 27th,
2 – 6 p.m.
Cost: $35 per guest
(Includes $10 Donation to Environmental Defenders)
Join us at Duke's in Crystal Lake as we celebrate Earth
Day with an eco-friendly food and beer tasting. Come mingle with friends
and eco-minded breweries as you taste several beers and Duke's food
items in a buffet setting.
Meet representatives from breweries leading the path for
eco-friendly brewing practices while enjoying their exquisite beers.
Learn how these breweries have become leaders in brewing beers with
minimal impact on the environment. This is a unique event that cannot be
missed.
Proceeds from the tasting and raffle will benefit the
Environmental Defenders of McHenry County.
To
purchase tickets online,
Click HERE
Or you
can get tickets at Duke's, and we may have some at the office (cash or
check) Call first!
EDMC offers $1000 Scholarship
The Environmental
Defenders of McHenry County is offering an Entering College scholarship
for $1,000 to an outstanding high school senior planning to pursue a
career directly related to environmental science or preservation.
The following criteria
will be used to choose the winner of the scholarship:
·
A resident of McHenry County who is attending high
school in the county
·
Volunteer work/service for an environmental
organization
·
Two letters of recommendation, with one being a
teacher
·
Grade point average from high school transcript
·
An essay on your goals and aspirations in regard
to the environment
Applicants cannot be a relative of a Defenders board member or staff.
Click Here for application and more
information.
View the movie trailer:
Many thanks to all who participated in our
44th Annual Meeting and Theta Award Ceremony
Dr. Don Wuebbles, professor at the University of
Illinois and a Nobel Laureate for his work on the 2007
Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, presented a terrific
program about global climate change and how it is resulting in
greater extremes of weather throughout the world. One climate change
denier in the audience stated that he was actually swayed to believe
that we need to take action after hearing this presentation. The
rest of us were reaffirmed in our belief that we need to get
Congress to act on this issue.
You can access the slides that Dr. Wuebbels used in
his presentation HERE.
The IPCC
assessment Report 5 can be found at
https://www.ipcc.ch/report/ar5/wg1/#.Ux0yr1xD83k and the 2009
National Climate Assessment can be found at
http://nca2009.globalchange.gov/
Click here to read the report Model Behaviour: Comparing Climate
Science with Economic Forecasts
There are many photos of the event on our FaceBook
page -
Click Here!
What
have we been up to lately?
Preservation
· Hackmatack
National Wildlife Refuge – served as fiscal agent for friends’ group
· Farmland
Preservation – served on Local Foods Taskforce to increase viability
of small farms and promote local foods; advocated successfully
for increased agritourism opportunities for small farmers in the
County’s Unified Development Ordinance (UDO)
· Water
Resources Preservation - Created Silver and Sleepy Hollow Creeks
Watershed Plan; formed and facilitate SSHCW Coalition; facilitate
the McHenry County Watershed Roundtable; member of FREP, KREP, Fox
River Study Group; advocated successfully for watershed protection
in County’s UDO
· Green
Infrastructure Preservation – helped with effort to create Green
Infrastructure Plan for McHenry County; advocated successfully for
inclusion of green infrastructure protection in County’s UDO
Protection
· River
clean-ups – collaborate with Sierra Club and SSHCW Coalition to
conduct two or three river clean-ups each year around the county;
conduct It’s Our River Day annually in Algonquin in collaboration
with the village
· Recycling
- hold monthly recycling drives to collect items that are not
collected curbside;
annual Earth Day Recycling Drive; collaborate with County
Health Department for annual Spring recycling drive; recycle at
special events – Mozart Festival, Nippersink Music
Festival, Wasted Plains Festival, Pickle Palooza, etc.;
collaborating with County Fair Board and Ecossential Solutions,
Inc. to begin recycling program at County Fair;
small-business cardboard recycling project; electronics restoration
project; serve on Lou Marchi Total Recycling Institute planning
group
· Native
Habitat Protection – collaborate with MCCD, CL Park District, and
SSHCW Coalition for multiple habitat restoration workdays each
year in Silver & Sleepy Hollow Creeks Watersheds;
reestablishing habitat restoration work on two roadside
prairies – Triangle Prairie in Woodstock and O’Brian
Prairie north of Greenwood; conduct annual workdays on
Defenders’ and Soil and Water Conservation District’s properties in
Woodstock
· Transportation Planning – advocated for “complete streets” planning
in County’s 2040 Transportation Plan; collaborated with
McHenry County Bicycle Advocates to collect hundreds of
signatures for bicycle lanes/paths in the Plan; met with
IDOT representatives to preserve oaks and Sleepy Hollow Creek
in Hwy. 31 widening project
· Miscellaneous – served on taskforces to create McHenry County’s Wind
Energy Ordinance, Solid Waste Reduction Plan, Water Resources
Action Plan
Education
· Earth
Day Celebration – annual event at Prairieview Education Center in collaboration with MCCD – multiple committees’ activities
· It’s
Our River Day – annual event on Fox River in collaboration with
Village of Algonquin – presentations and educational
materials
· Tabling at events – environmental information provided at Algonquin Conservation Day, Natural Landscaping Seminar, Garden Fest, Green Living Expo, McHenry County Fair, music festivals, and at
our documentary showings
· Environmental Documentaries – show several documentaries annually at
MCC in collaboration with Lou Marchi Total Recycling
Institute and the MCC Sustainability Center – examples: Gasland,
Bag It!, Sun Come Up, Queen of the Sun, Chasing Ice, The
Price of Sand, etc.
· BYO
Bag McHenry County – beginning educational campaign to reduce
plastic bag use in County
· Green
Drinks – in 5th year of serving on planning group and
facilitating monthly Green Drinks events at Dukes
· State
& Regional Environmental Issues – collaborate with Illinois
Environmental Council and Environmental Law and Policy
Center to educate and advocate about broader issues that affect
our county
Fundraising
Efforts
– these include our Green Spot Used Book Store,
annual books sales, annual Eco-friendly Food and Beer Fest at
Duke's, Pioneer Tree Farm Christmas tree sales, County
Fair ticket sales, Use-It-Again Garage Sales
Whew!
Upcoming Events and
Announcements:
(also see Calendar link
above)
Office Hours: Monday
through Thursday, 10 am - 4:30 pm
Book Store Hours: Tuesday
through Friday, 11 am - 4 pm. Saturday 11am - 3pm
Defenders' McHenry &
Woodstock Recycling Drives
The Defenders' recycling drive committee would like to
apologize for any inconvenience we may have caused wonderful citizens
wanting to bring recyclable materials to the Woodstock drive this past
Saturday due to our emergency closure. Because of the severe weather,
including lightning strikes, up to 60 mile-per-hour wind gusts and
damaging hail, we were forced to cease operation for the safety
of our entirely volunteer crew. Please do not give up on doing the right
thing when it comes to caring for the environment. We have happily
weathered many extremes of Mother Nature in the service of our fellow
environmental caretakers, but safety and well being had to come first
today. Thank you for your understanding!
Here are a few alternatives on where to take
stuff:
-Saturday, April 26, 11am - 4pm at Prairieview
Education Center, 2112 Behan Road, Crystal Lake
-Saturday, May 3, from 8am-1pm, at the McHenry
County Administration Building (North parking lot) located at 667 Ware
Road, Woodstock
-Saturday, May 10, Metra Station Parking lot,
4005 Main Street in McHenry, from 9am until noon.
Electronics can be brought to
Algonquin Township Road District 3702 US Hwy 14,
Crystal Lake, 847-639-2700 X6, Computer Recycling Center in Crystal
Lake, 815-455-6300 (call for information), or Lakewood's electronics
drop-off site on Haligus Road south of Ballard Road (at the Fire
Station).
We hold a monthly recycling drive on the second Saturday
of each month, alternating between McHenry & Woodstock, McHenry in
odd-numbered months and Woodstock in even-numbered months.
Our next collection of fluorescent tubes,
batteries (household, rechargeable, car, and button), and clean polystyrene foam (AKA Styrofoam) will be in
McHenry on Saturday, May 10th, from 9 am until noon. Click the link below for the
address and more information.
A donation will be requested for fluorescent bulbs, batteries, monitors
and televisions brought
in.
We also collect packing
peanuts, re-useable bubble wrap, and electronics such as computers,
phones, printers, electronic toys, etc. A donation is requested to
recycle TVs and computer monitors (suggested donation is $10 - $35
depending on size) We can also
take VHS tapes, CDs, DVDs, etc.
Now you can donate
aluminum cans at both the McHenry and Woodstock drives, but we will no
longer be paying for them. The donation will help fund our educational
and advocacy programs.
USAgain Clothes Collection System will be providing a truck at each
drive to accept any kind of cloth items—clothing, linens, or just plain
rags, clean and preferably put into a bag. They will also accept
shoes, tied together by their laces and placed in the bag.
Become a new member of the Defenders at the recycling drive,
at the $50 level
or higher, and get two coupons to recycle a television or monitor for
FREE!
Home Depot & Ace Hardware will
take your compact fluorescent bulbs for recycling at no charge.
read more here...
The Green Spot Used Books Store
110 S Johnson Street, Suite 104
Woodstock IL 60098
Visit the Defenders' Green Spot used book
store, across the hall from the office. We have a continually rotating supply of good used books and gift
items, all at
incredible prices, and all proceeds help the Defenders.
Book donations are welcome.
You can drop them off anytime we're open, or you can use our book bin, located
on Johnson Street just to the left of the building, day or night!
Hours are Tuesday through Friday, 11am - 4pm and Saturday 11am - 3pm.
Volunteer Opportunities
-
Phone person wanted. Anytime we
need volunteers for an event, we do a lot of calling, and can
use help. You can do this from your home or at the Defenders'
office - we'll provide a script with all the information you'll
need. Let us know if this is something you'd like to help us
with.
-
Help at our monthly
recycling drives is always appreciated.
-
Green Spot Resale
– We can always use volunteers to
help sort and price book donations, Mondays - Saturdays, anytime
between 11am-4pm.
If you can commit to a 11am - 4pm shift
once a week or once every other week, Tuesday through Saturday, we
can use clerks at the book store. Call the office if you want to
help.
-
Speakers Bureau - we often get calls
from groups looking for someone to do a presentation for them. If
you enjoy public speaking, let us know the topics you can cover, and
we'll add you to our list.
Find us on FaceBook!
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Environmental
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