Community Events
W.A.T.E.R. endeavors to ensure our work reflects the vision of the environmentally conscientious members of our community. Thus community outreach and input are paramount to our decision-making. We remain connected with our community via the internet with this web site, e-newsletters (sign up here) and Facebook. We also schedule community forums and gatherings to discuss the work of W.A.T.E.R. and current events. We respond to invitations to speak at other groups’ events and talk to the media about our work.
Community Forum June 18, 2019
W.A.T.E.R. Forum on
Debunking Wildfire Myths
On May 31st, 2023, W.A.T.E.R. hosted a presentation by Dr. Chad Hanson, a research ecologist with a focus on fire ecology. Dr. Hanson generously came to our Mt. Shasta community and spoke about the misconceptions that are creating problems for community safety, biodiversity conservation and climate change. He is the director of the John Muir Project, an organization dedicated to protecting our National Forests and getting the truth out about the importance of dense mature/old forest and the ecological benefits of natural processes, such as fire, for native wildlife and overall biodiversity of our forests, while fighting to end the devastation to our forest ecosystems from commercial logging. At a time when lives are being lost and communities destroyed by wildfire, we who live in or near forests must learn how best to protect ourselves.
W.A.T.E.R. forum on Daniel Ellsberg
In commemoration of the August 1945 nuclear bombing of Hiroshima & Nagasaki, on August 8th, 2023 W.A.T.E.R. hosted a public forum at the Mt. Shasta Library honoring the life and work of Daniel Ellsberg. His work as a whistleblower releasing the Pentagon Papers and his further revelations of the US nuclear posture were discussed in this fascinating look at the ideas behind Daniel Ellsberg's life work.
Water Forum
In June 2019, W.A.T.E.R. organized a Community Forum entitled, “Water and the Environment around the Mountain,” engaging community groups and a local Tribe to educate the public about water resources and environmental issues facing our mountain ecosystem. The forum included a presentation from W.A.T.E.R. on what is happening with the challenge to the Crystal Geyser project EIR; a Winnemem Wintu talk about how using AB52 in the CG lawsuits and the Shasta Dam raise can protect the sacredness of water at the source, downstream and beyond; a report on the situation with the Roseburg water grab of the City of Weed’s water source from Water for Citizens of Weed, CA; an update from the McCloud Springs Alliance on the plans for a water bottling plant in McCloud and the community’s response; an update from the Mount Shasta Bioregional Ecology Center about the Medicine Lake Geothermal project and lawsuit. The presentations were followed by a discussion of what steps we as a community can do next to promote preservation of the environment in our region.
Invitations to Speak:
W.A.T.E.R. board members also respond to invitations to speak at events sponsored by other groups.
In June of 2019, W.A.T.E.R. was invited to speak at a Water Forum sponsored by the Shasta Democrats in Redding.
Read Geneva M. Omann's presentation
Read Dan Axelrod's presentation
Board Member Raven Stevens participated in part 5 of EcoJustice Radio’s “Plastic Plague Series, The Bottle Scam.” The hour-long discussion included Stiv Wilson of @peakplastic and producer of the film, “The Story of Plastic,” and addressed the connection between the water bottle scam and the fight for Land, Water, and Indigenous Rights. The chain of environmental and social impacts is an embedded cost of bottled water, a resource that is supposed to give us life, but now arguably the process to extract, make, ship, store and dispose of seems to take from it.