SAVE ANNUAL DUES AND MEMBERSHIP RENEWAL
(SAVE’s 2012 Fiscal Year runs from July 1, 2011 through June 30, 2012)
Many thanks to all those members who have submitted their dues to date or who have
joined as new members – and to those who so generously included additional monies
earmarked for either the SAVE Scholarship/Educational Fund or the Environmental Fund.
Dues continue to be just $5 per year for the first family member to join,
plus $3 for each additional family member who joins.
Student dues are only $1 per year.
Monthly Meetings are held at Breakheart Reservation
Christopher P. Dunne Visitor Center, 177 Lynn Fells Parkway, Saugus usually on the 3rd Wednesday of the month at 7:00 pm Our next Meeting is the SAVE Annual Dinner/Meeting
Wednesday June 13, 2012
at Prince Pizzeria
517 Broadway - Route 1 South, Saugus
Social Hour Begins at 6:30 pm
Dinner Buffet will begin at approximately 7:15 pm
We look forward to seeing members, new members, and non-members there!
We urge everyone to respond as soon as possible.
The Italian Buffet will consist of an Antipasto Salad, several assorted Pizza,
Pasta, Meat Dishes, and Dessert, as well as Soda, Coffee, and Tea.
$17.00 per person
Please complete the reservation form below and mail it by June 7th with a check to:
Chuck Bocchino, SAVE Treasurer
41 Great Woods Road
Saugus, MA 01906
Plenty of parking on site and the facility is accessible for the disabled.
Monthly Board Meetings All SAVE members are welcome and encouraged to attend.
Meetings are generally held the 3rd Wednesday of the month
at 7:00 pm at the Breakheart Visitors Center, Saugus.
Three General Meetings Each Year: Annual dinner/meeting General "Potluck Meeting" General Meeting with a Speaker
Saugus Tree Farm Maintenance The Saugus Tree Committee invites anyone who is interested
in helping, to get their hands dirty while constructively ensuring
the growth and development of our homegrown trees.
Earth Day and a Billion Acts of Green April 22, 2013 SAVE volunteers annually celebrate Earth Day by helping out at the Saugus Tree Farm.
What better way to celebrate our environmental stewardship than to
join SAVE and the Saugus Tree Committee at the Tree Farm for
whatever period of time you can spare on that day?
Annual $500 Scholarship SAVE offers a $500.00 Environmental Scholarship toa Saugus Resident
who is a Senior graduating from any accredited High School who will be
attending a two/four-year college or other educational institution and pursuing
a degree in an area that would positively impact the environment. click here to print the 2013 scholarship application Pranker's Pond Day Bring the family and join us for an afternoon of fun on Pranker's Pond. Activities include canoe rides around the Pond.
Discover this gem in our town where you can relax and breathe fresh air. Saugus Founder's Day Saturday September 8, 2012 The SAVE booth is manned by volunteers who will answer
questions and collect old sneakers to be recycled into Nike Grind. click here for Founders Day information
Candidate's Night Wednesday October, 2012 Saugus Town Hall Auditorium An opportunity for the community to present their environmental questions to our candidates for electedoffice - Selectmen and State Representative.
Barnes & Noble Gift Wrapping Scholarship Fundraiser Please remember to join us at our annual gift wrapping fundraiser
(and last event of the year) in December at Barnes & Noble. Remember to encourage your friends & family to do their
bookstore shopping so that we can wrap their gifts! Any SAVE member who would like to help out,
please call Ann Devlin (781) 233 - 5717
FOR KIDS Visit these fun websites with your children to help them learn about recycling.
US Environmental Protection Agencyhttp://www.epa.gov/recyclecity/
Saugus Action Voluteers for the Environment helped out at the Saugus Tree Farm
for their participation in the 350.org Event
What are we trying to SAVE?
Saugus has a rich variety of natural habitats and an abundance of native plant and animal life that is well worth preserving. SAVE's involvement with the maintenance of the Saugus Tree Farm with
volunteers from the Saugus Tree Committee helps to protect and nurture
trees that are provided to locations throughout the town. The Saugus River is an important element in the history of Saugus.
The river made the settling of the town practical in the early 1600's and provided the electricity
for early American industry. Today the river remains picturesque in addition to providing an
environment for numerous fish, waterfowl, river otters, and other animals.
Our freshwater bodies, including Birch Pond,Hawkes Pond, Stevens Pond, Prankers Pond,
Peckham Pond, Walden Pond, Long Pond, Spring Pond, Griswold Pond, Pearce Lake,
Silver Lake, and many more provide a friendly environment for a variety of wild life.
Saugus has both typical fresh water marshes, some examples of which can be found in
Breakheart Forest, and atypical salt water marshes, notably Rumney Marsh.
A portion of Rumney Marsh is set up as Rumney Marsh Reservation and the bulk of
Breakheart Forest is set up as Breakheart Reservation and are thus currently protected, however, neither of these areas are protected in their entirety.
What are our Priorities?
- the preservation and protection of all natural resources, particularly our wetlands.
-national/state/local legislation to reduce or eliminate pollution
-the careful, long-range planning of remaining open space in town.
- laws to protect and preserve all sites of historic interest to Saugus.
SAVE is committed to encouraging and supporting local, state and national legislation
that promotes, establishes, and expands programs for solid waste management based on
"reduce, reuse, and recycle", so that each day we get closer to the goal of 'zero waste'.
Why Join Saugus Action Volunteers for the Environment? To be part of a long-established volunteer community group working to improve Saugus, our environment, and our outlook.
"Think globally, act locally" describes our actions well. SAVE members have, among other projects,
helped establish curbside recycling in Saugus, conserved historic and environmentally sensitive
land on Vinegar Hill, and established an Environmental Scholarship Fund.
As a member you will meet others with similar goals. We encourage all membersto attend
our monthly meetings, lend your voice, share your ideas, volunteer to helpwith our events.
Do as much as you like, or just support our activities with your name and dues.
Help shape our agenda.
We look forward to welcoming you to our our next General Meeting at the Breakheart Visitors Center. All members are encouraged to attend.
Information on Current Environmental Issues
From Ann Devlin, President SAVE
The updated Bottle Bill
went before the House of Representatives on July 24th (HR3515).
MASSPIRG presented over 7,000 signatures in favor of the bill. Still in discussion.
July 10, 2011 EPA Announces New "Cross-State Air Pollution Rule" On July 7th, EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson announced a strong new clean air rule
that will slash air pollution from power plants, save lives, and make the air healthier
to breathe for 240 million people across the eastern U.S.
The "Cross-State Air Pollution Rule" - otherwise referred to as the "Good Neighbor Rule" -
will put tighter limits on the amount of acid-rain causing sulfur dioxide and smog-forming
nitrogen oxide pollution power plants in 27 eastern states will be allowed to emit.
These pollutants, carried in the atmosphere across state borders, contribute to dangerous -
and sometimes lethal - levels of particulate and smog pollution in downwind states.
Please take a moment to send Administrator Jackson a thank you email. Click here and tell her how important strong clean air standards are to you.
The Cross-State Air Pollution Rule replaces the Bush-era Clean Air Interstate Rule
(CAIR), which was rejected by the U.S. Court of Appeals in 2008 because it did not
adequately cut pollution and protect human health.
As EDF President Fred Krupp said in our press statement, the new rule
"will provide some of the greatest human health protections in our nation's history…
and will help all of us live longer and healthier lives."
The health and economic benefits of the Cross-State Air Pollution Rule are enormous.
Starting in 2014, the rule will:
Save up to 34,000 lives per year;
Prevent 400,000 asthma attacks per year;
Avoid 1.8 million sick days per year; and
Provide benefits of $120 to $280 billion per year.
This is a great day for clean air and for environmental progress.
Caution: It is vitally important not to make connections. When you see pictures of rubble
like this week’s shots from Joplin, Missouri, you should not ask yourself: I wonder if this is
somehow related to the huge tornado outbreak three weeks ago in Tuscaloosa, or the
enormous outbreak a couple of weeks before that—together they comprised the most
active April for tornadoes in our history. But that doesn’t mean a thing.
It is far better to think of these as isolated, unpredictable, random events. It is not advised
to try and connect them in your mind with, say, the fires now burning across Texas -
fires that have burned more of America by this date than any year in our history.
Texas, and adjoining parts of Oklahoma and New Mexico, are drier than they’ve ever been-
the drought is worse than the Dust Bowl. But do not wonder if it’s somehow connected.
If you did wonder, you’d have to also wonder about whether this year’s record snowfalls
and rainfalls across the Midwest - resulting in record flooding across the Mississippi -
could somehow be related. And if you did that, then you might find your thoughts wandering
to, oh, global warming. To the fact that climatologists have been predicting for years that as
we flood the atmosphere with carbon we will also start both drying and flooding the planet,
since warm air holds more water vapor than cold.
It’s far smarter to repeat to yourself, over and over, the comforting mantra that no single
weather event can ever be directly tied to climate change. There have been tornadoes before,
and floods - that’s the important thing. Just be careful to make sure you don’t let yourself
wonder why all these records are happening at once: why we’ve had unprecedented
megafloods from Australia to Pakistan in the last year. Why it’s just now that the Arctic
has melted for the first time in thousands of years. Focus on the immediate casualties,
watch the videotape from the store cameras as the shelves are blown over.
Look at the anchorman up to the chest of his waders in the rising river.
Because if you asked yourself what it meant that the Amazon has just come through
its second hundred-year-drought in the last four years, or that the pine forests across the
western part of this continent have been obliterated by a beetle in the last decade -
well, you might have to ask other questions. Like, should President Obama really just have
opened a huge swath of Wyoming to new coal-mining? Should Secretary of State this
summer sign a permit allowing a huge new pipeline to carry oil from the tar sands of
Alberta? You might have to ask yourself: do we have a bigger problem than
four-dollar-a-gallon gasoline?
Better to join with the US House of Representatives, which earlier this spring voted 240-184
to defeat a resolution saying simply “climate change is occurring, is caused largely by
human activities, and poses significant risks for public health and welfare.”
Propose your own physics; ignore physics altogether.
Just don’t start asking yourself if last year’s failed grain harvest from the Russian heatwave,
and Queensland’s failed grain harvest from its record flood, and France and Germany’s
current drought-related crop failures, and the death of the winter wheat crop in Texas,
and the inability of Midwestern farmers to get corn planted in their sodden fields might
somehow be related. Surely the record food prices are just freak outliers, not signs of
anything systemic.
It’s very important to stay completely calm. If you got upset about any of this, you might
forget how important it is not to disrupt the record profits of our fossil fuel companies.
If worst ever did come to worst, it’s reassuring to remember what the US Chamber of
Commerce told the EPA in a recent filing: there’s no need to worry because “populations
can acclimatize to warmer climates via a range of range of behavioral, physiological,
and technological adaptations.”
I’m pretty sure that’s what they’re telling themselves in Joplin today.
Bill McKibben is founder of the global climate campaign 350.org,
and Schumann Distinguished Scholar at Middlebury College.
A Compilation of SAVE's Monthly Environmental Tips
Bat Houses There are safer ways to deal with the mosquito population than spraying with poisons.
One very good way to eliminate mosquitoes is to encourage bats to visit or even live in your yard
by providing a bat house or two on your property. Bats are extremely important.
Yet due to years of unwarranted human fear and persecution, bats are in alarming decline.
By putting up a bat house you are helping by giving them a home.
You will also benefit from having fewer yard and garden pests, and will enjoy learning
about bats and sharing your knowledge with friends and family.As the primary
predators of night-flying insects, bats play a vital role in maintaining the balance of
nature. And, as consumers of vast numbers of pests, they rank among humanity's most
valuable allies. A single little brown bat can catch hundreds of mosquito-sized insects
an hour, and a typical colony of big brown bats can protect local farmers from the
costly attacks of 18 million root-worms each summer. Bats are not blind, and are actually very clean animals. They do not get caught in
peoples' hair or chew through the attic of your house. Bats will not interfere with
feeding backyard birds, and they will not be disrupted by pets or children. Read more about bat houses at: http://www.eparks.org/wildlife_protection/wildlife_facts/bats/bat_house.asp
To keep your trees healthy, be sure to avoid "Volcano Mulching" This refers to the shape of the pile of mulch built up around the base of your tree.
Piling mulch high up tight against the tree trunk is bad for the tree.
It can cause splits and cankers on the trunk and allow disease and pests to attack.
Consider using organic fertilizer on your lawn this season.
And try to encourage birds into your yard to help with insect control
by keeping a bird bath filled with water in your garden.
"Some mower facts: Set your blades high.
Don't be a victim of golf course syndrome".
Many Americans believe that a healthy lawn looks like a manicured golf course
butthe opposite is true. For most types of grass, the proper length is 2" to 3" high.
This encourages longer, healthier roots, and provides natural shade for the ground
around each plant - which enables it to retain moisture in the soil."
Don't trash it - reuse it! Be creative - look for new ways to reduce the amount or kinds of household waste.
Give cardboard tubes to pet hamsters or gerbils.
Plant seeds in an egg carton.
Make a flower pot out of a plastic ice cream tub.
By thinking creatively, you will often find new uses for
common items and new ways to recycle and reduce waste.
Why not try composting? According to the Citizens for a Better Environment, between 15-20%
of the total municipal waste stream is organic material.
All of these materials are very bulky, quickly using up valuable landfill space.
Composting is the process of turning organic material that you
would normally throw away - from grass clippings to apple cores -
into a rich fertilizer. The simplest way is to just pile leaves, grass
clippings, and weeds in a corner of your garden. (This isn't ideal
as composting goes, but the clippings will decompose, and won't
use landfill space.)
Or you could purchase a composting bin through Lorna Cerbone at the Saugus
Inspectional Services Department at Town Hall -- it's easy to set up and works great!
Lorna Cerbone (781) 231- 4036
Holiday Recycling -
Cardboard:Please recycle all of your cardboard boxes. Flatten and either fold or cut to a size not larger than 2 feet by 2 feet. You may bundle cardboard, put it in a paper bag, place it under your recycling bin,
or place it standing in or between recycling bins.
Gift Boxes and Wrapping Paper: Gift boxes and all non-foil wrapping paper
can be included with paper recycling. Tape & twine are OK, but no ribbons please.
Holiday Cards, Catalogs, and Calendars: Holiday cards (including envelopes and gift tags), catalogs, and calendars can be
included with your paper recycling. Spiral binders, tape, and staples are OK
Christmas Trees and Wreaths: Special collections take place in early January. Please remove all tinsel/garland and DO NOT put in plastic bag.
Hints for the Christmas Holiday Season ~Keep your house cool. In addition to saving on your heating bill
and reducing your energy use, some foods stored outside the fridge
(especially fats like butter and oil) will last longer.
~When using ribbon to decorate your gifts, purchase sturdy cloth ribbon
that can be reused year after year, as most ribbon cannot be recycled.
~Only preheat your oven for 10 minutes before you plan to bake your
holiday goodies. That’s all the time it needs to heat up. And then leave the door shut. You lose about 25 degrees of heat every time you
open that door to peek!
~Use LED Christmas lights on your tree…not only do these save
money and energy, they are built sturdier for withstanding the yearly
packing up, unpacking and restringing involved with decorating.
Congratulations to SAVE Vice-President Margery Hunter!
Margery’s original 3-D artwork of the “Fab Five”
(Mickey, Minnie, Donald, Goofy & Pluto) was on display to the public at the Grand Opening,
1st ever, D23 Expo at the Anaheim Convention Center
near Disneyland from September 10th - 13th.
Margery, an avid Disney fan since 1991, the year of her first visit to Florida and Disney World,
completed her “Summer Vacation Project” for submission to The Walt Disney Archives
and was advised in late August that her artwork was selected for display.
Once again, our congratulations to Margery!
The SAVE 2009 Annual Meeting and Dinner was held on
June 17th at the Hilltop Steakhouse and restaurant.
The SAVE Environmental Educational Scholarship was awarded to Michael Gray,
a 2009 graduate of Saugus High School.
The 2010 SAVE Officers were elected.
They are: Ann Devlin, President - Margery Hunter, Vice President
Chuck Bocchino, Treasurer - Pamela Goodwin, Secretary.
Guest Speaker, Curtis White the Lead Supervisory Park Ranger at Saugus Iron Works,
presented the gathering with a slide show and talk on the recent changes and renovations
at the Iron Works resulting from the Restoration Project that has been ongoing at the park.
SAVE 2008
2008 Annual Prankers Pond Day
Well we had beautiful weather for this year's Prankers Pond Day.
The turnout was light (maybe 20 people besides the SAVE Boardmembers who were there).
We saw several new faces and we missedseeing some people who have attended faithfully in the past.
Tim worked so hard to accommodate all those who wanted to cruise the lake
in his canoe and didn't stop til everyone had their turn. Joyce outdid herself by
painting the scene for the puzzle game and even the big boys who played
seemed happy with the game and the bucket of prizes that they uncovered
when the puzzle was solved. Margery and Nancy were great helps with setting
up the games and dolling out prizes and watermelon and Nancy even took a
few kids for their turn on the canoe. We also had the scavenger hunt with a
new twist so that nothing in nature had to be disturbed. It was a very enjoyable
day overall. Thanks to all who were able to be there - on to Founder's Day!
The June 2008 Dinner/Meeting was a fun and enjoyable evening!
Our guest speaker Larry Chretien, Executive Director of MA Energy Consumers Alliance
and People’s Power & Light, spoke to us abouta renewable energy program in which
Saugus residents can participate.
And on behalf of SAVE, President Ann Devlin presented the proceeds from
theSAVE Scholarship fund to Gregory Nickolas, Directorof theSaugus
This year we did not have any qualified applicants for the 2008 scholarship,
so the Board voted to donate the $500 to this worthy cause.
It was a very good night - good food, good conversation, good friends,
and all to support our great organization.
2008 MESSAGE FROM THE PRESIDENT
At a time when "Thinking Globally and Acting Locally" has never been more important, SAVE prepares to enter its 36th year. We are so encouraged
by the growing "green" awareness in the world and especially in our own
country. Based on the type of commercials we are seeing lately, it appears
that many major businesses and agencies are starting to get the message
that global warming is real and that there are issues facing our environment
that need to be addressed.
Over the past year we have held our annual Prankers Pond Day - a time to
really relax and enjoy this very special place so close to home. As always,
we had a table at Founders Day. As many of you know, this is a great time
to meet with people, share ideas and educate people about issues effecting
our environment. Last year we had a Carbon Footprint Calculator at the
table. It was interesting both for us and for the people inputting their
calculations to see even a rough gauge of what each was contributing to
Global Warming and where they might be able to scale back. We also had
large reusable shopping bags for people to purchase and it was a great
opportunity to "talk up" the bags and encourage their use over plastic
or paper.
In October and again in February, we held a free showing of the movie
"An Inconvenient Truth" complete with light refreshment - at the very
beautiful Christopher P. Dunne Visitor's Center at Breakheart. It was, again,
a great opportunity to provide the public with some important information and
to encourage small changes that each of us can make to reduce our carbon
footprint.
One of the most exciting and encouraging developments of the past year
was SAVE's partnering with Friends of Breakheart. For those of you who
are not familiar with Friends, they are a volunteer organization dedicated to
the preservation and appreciation of one of Saugus' best locations for walking,
biking, swimming, hiking, etc. They have a diverse membership and are very
active within the Town. We are hopeful that, with this new ally, SAVE will
have an even greater ability to make an environmental difference.
We held an Environmental Candidates Night so that we all would have a
chance to question the candidates for Selectman on their environmental
views and concerns.
Our Book Wrapping event at Barnes &Noble was, once again, very
successful in that we had a chance to talk with people about our organization
and about environmental concerns, while gift wrapping for them with the
materials that Barnes & Noble generously provided. We topped past years
by making $292.39 and we all had a lot of fun.
In March, we held our first ever SWAP --"It's New to You" -- at the
Breakheart visitor's center. In effect, this was a free yard sale with the goal
of keepingusable goods out of the waste stream. Anyone was welcome to
drop off or select items at no charge. The people who attended thought it
was a great idea and expressed the hope that we would do it again. We
have plans to repeat in October at the Breakheart October Festival.
In April, we held an Earth Day Hike at Breakheart - the people who turned
out had a wonderful time, but it was a disappointing attendance.
As many of you are aware, SAVE offers an Environmental Scholarship to
persons graduating from local high schools. Recipients are expected to
show the intention to pursue a career that will in some way have a positive
impact on the environment. Unfortunately, none of the applicants this year
met SAVE's criteria so instead, the decision was made to offer the $500 to
the Youth and Recreation's "I Bought A Book" program. This idea was
suggested by Mike Downing of the Youth Commission and was much more
in keeping with our goals as we are hopeful that the funds will be directed
toward science books, if possible.
Also, in May, SAVE participated in Saugus's first "Green Fair". The
attendance was less than had been hoped for, but the interaction with
like-minded people was both exhilarating and encouraging and certainly
worth SAVE's being a part of. With advanced planning, it could be done
again on a day to co-ordinate with hazardous waste pick up or some other
town event.
SAVE also supports the Tree Committee throughout the year, especially
with Tree Farm maintenance and we also network with many other
environmental groups both local and national and try to respond and
participate when possible (events and online bulletins).
We are still attempting to go forward with some of our other projects, such
as "Bucket Brigade" and our "How and What to Recycle" brochure.Both
projects need time and manpower. Which brings me to my next point…
Unfortunately, over the years we continue to see a loss in participation.
For SAVE to remain relevant, that must not continue. The SAVE Board
members, many of whom wear several hats in addition to holding regular
jobs, have been stretched thin and, often, we are not able to take part in
events and plans that we would like to because of scheduling conflicts and
time constraints. The SAVE board will continue in its efforts to educate
and encourage, but we hope that by looking over the above events, our
members might see a place where they might have been able to contribute
their time and energy and make that effort in the coming year.
Getting in touch with the board is even easier now since SAVE has gotten
a new web site atsaugus.com It is a great way for us to keep current
and to share information and ideas on a larger scale. Susan Thomas
generously donated to us our own domain name so we can be accessed
directly atwww.SaugusSAVE.orgIn keeping with our appeal for more
active participation, it would be great if we had one member who took on the
task of making sure that the site is kept right up-to-date with upcoming events,
environmental tips, news, etc.So please, take a few moments in the near
future to think about the activities or events that you might be able to
participate in and let us know.
We need your help to keep our organization as strong and vibrant as it has
been for the past 35 years! Respectfully Submitted,Ann Devlin, President June 2008
The 2008 Eco-Fair (Green Fair)
held at Saugus High School was a very successful day!
SAVE had the opportunity to network with so many like-minded people to share ideas
and interests, both the public and the vendors. We sold many reusable bags at our table and talked up SAVE and its events. We got attention for the rain barrel and a few batteries & mercury items in the drop buckets.
There was a vendor selling crank operated flashlights and emergency radio/lamps -
what great ideas! Caught in a power outage there’s no need to worry that the
batteries are dead or missing. The vendor was invited to attend our dinner as he is
also an installer of the systems that our speaker will be talking about (Greenpower).
Margery, Nancy, Carol, Joyce and Ann handed out many SAVE applications and we
made sure that each application carried the www.SaugusSAVE.orgaddress on them.
Tim helped where needed and also worked the raffle table for Terri. This day may
have been better suited to SAVE than Founder's Day because the crowd was
focused on ecological concerns.
Terri had the tables all set up for the vendors and did a terrific job organizing the
entire day and even thought to present each vendor with a bag of cookies and
chocolate - very thoughtful. The suggestion was made of possibly holding another
fair next March.Maybe with more notice we will see a bigger crowd and hopefully
some of our public officials among them at the next Eco-Fair.
