Verde

Colour:Solstice

2009-03-25T12:39:00.000-07:00

Everyday, everyday, that's the theme this year, a (perhaps-too-briefly) considered notion for routine application, producing anticipated and unanticipated effects - direct and side...

but, hey, Everyday = All We Got, and that's surely and enough-of-the-time quite a bit, and for us here at Verde it means that we continue slouching toward some greater something or other

________

So, here's some fun that we had, not that very long ago in someone's perspective, tho we've certainly experienced 4 things per day each and everyday since then so maybe it's been a lot longer than that, depending on the shoes you wore during those 67...
On January 17th, we participated in a sunday matinee by Portland's own Teatro Milagro. Informed by Spanish and Latin American art and artists, Miracle's signature works celebrate the vibrancy of Latino aesthetic, blending movement, dance, and music with poetic language to create visually stunning and visceral theatrical experiences.

The original production, El Ultimo, explored issues of environment, culture, race and class, set in South America. Teatro Milagro approached us about participating in a bilingual environmental fair in their lobby, after the show - they didn't have to ask us twice, and we called our partners at Friends of Trees, Hacienda CDC, and SOLV to participate in the fair with us, and we bought tickets (graciously discounted by Teatro Milagro) and arranged transportation for more than a dozen participants in Hacienda CDC's Expresiones program, an after-school program for middle school students living on Hacienda CDC's affordable housing properties. 82 people attended the show and the fair...

Check out the scene:

Mapuche Forest Spirits

TM Actor Omar Vargas

Verde Outreach Worker Pedro Moreno

Pedro with Expresiones students, sharing information on Verde's activities and the connection between protecting the environment and making a good living

Turnstyled, Junkpiled

2009-02-03T14:38:00.000-08:00

happy new year, my favorite one, I've been remiss, and/so I've lots to share with you. Let's start with November, not too long ago, really, only, ummmm, 2 months:

[my dear, you have to believe me, I know I can do better, I can change, I'm trying to change, you have to believe me, I know I can do better, I know I can change, I know it seems like I keep making the same mistake over and over and over and over again, and over again, but this time is going to be different, I promise, just wait (wait?!), you'll see...]

...
_____________________________________________________________________________________
well, so november was a mi-t long time ago, or just as far away as the blink of an eye, depending on how long you've been alive, or what's happened to you between then and now (and ain't it something how feats of snow can make even an unfranchised convenience store look like a beauty queen...)

thus and then, I'm leaning toward the blinking perspective.

thus and then, in November, we had a very nice and important event, a City of Portland Council hearing to approve a 5 year tree planting contract with Friends of Trees and Verde, a program named the Grey-to-Green Urban Canopy Project & Community Tree Planting Campaign. This would be good work, and give Verde the chance to hire more people to work at Verde Landscape and Verde Nursery.

But, the really exciting thing about this hearing, held on November 26, was the audience, the people who offered testimony - Verde Landscape Crew Members, and our brothers and sisters from the Latino community, the African-American community, the Native American community. A hoped-for-something-realized - the brown, the black, the red, all testifying in support of an environmental policy precisely because this policy (and future ones like it) offer known job, job training and entrepreneurial opportunities to their communities.

We'd very much appreciate it if you check it out on this video; the contract portion starts at 2:40:45, and the good procession runs for about 25 minutes.

We'd very much appreciate it if you stop watching when that big-eared goof with the thrift store vest and polyester pants starts running his mouth...

Did It All For You

2008-11-11T12:08:00.000-08:00

ok ok computer fine fine fine!! we have to change the website, we know this, ok ok fine fine fine!!

(we're having a strategic planning session on Monday, Board and Staff and Advisors, and that'll affect Verde's structure and message and mission so we might as well wait until that's all done before we make any updates)

But, just because we're technological lunkheads doesn't mean we haven't failed to fail (a fruitless diagramming exercise there), and it does mean that we have somehow let down our own predictions of backsliding

Recently, Verde Landscape took a nice step forward, working alongside more established and experienced landscape contractors, securing installation work and the opportunity to train Verde Landscape Crew Members in new skill areas.

Project 1 was an office landscape remodel for NW Housing Alternatives, where 2 Verde Landscape Crew Members worked alongside 2 Crew Members from ProGrass. Verde and ProGrass began working together earlier this year, and this was our first project together, and we look forward to many more opportunities. ProGrass was a formal subcontractor to Verde, and also helped Verde Landscape prepare the bid (and a big thank you to Jason King, LA, for preparing the landscape plan, and to NWHA's Maggie Palumbo, for reaching out to Verde in the 1st place):

Project 2 was a parking lot landscape installation for the East Multnomah Soil & Water Conservation District, where Verde Landscape Crew Members worked alongside Crew Members from ProLandscape, a long-time Verde partner. This was our first chance to work together, with Verde as a formal subcontractor to ProLandscape on the job. Thanks to the folks at the District for supporting Verde as we create environmental job and job training opportunities for low-income people.

Well, that's all, see you later, lots of good stuff happening we hope and think, good stuff about to hope we think and happen, going home again soon which of course cannot and must be done, the past is never dead it isn't even past, good-night-misses-calabash-wherever-you-are

Automobile Noise

2008-08-27T11:57:00.000-07:00

Good Morning Beautiful:

Early showers in Portland, the ground softens, the roots let go easier, windshield wipers stretch themselves and groan..., and thoughts turn to a friend whose windshield wipers won't turn off so everyday she prays for rain

So the times for a change, for transition, for going to bed late and getting up early, for leaving things behind and moving forward moving on, for completely remembering but not returning completely to your February self, and Verde moves. We'd like to share with you, whoever you are and if you are, an August experience:

For several days, together with our partners from SOLV's Team Up for Watershed Health and the Portland Rock Gym, Verde Landscape Crew Members put their working-on-steep-slopes training to its 1st use at the Oregon Museum of Science and Industry.

SOLV's Steve Kennett, Portland Rock Gym's Ken Ristau,
and Verde Landscape's Jose Velasco get things started

Getting it just right

Protecting the Rope and the Tree

2-4-6-8-10

Verde Landscape's Jesus Nuñez Sr double
checks Jesus Nuñez Jr's setup

And, we're happy to say, other than some serious run-ins at the end with very angry, very persistent and numerous representatives from the bee world, everything went smoothly and good work was done. Check out the show:

Grand Central Lush Life Raggedy Ann

2008-08-05T11:01:00.000-07:00

Here's a question: Have you ever let something just haaang out there - like returning somebody's phone call - let it hang out there so long that with every passing it day it just made less and less sense, and became more and more embarrassing, to make that call?

Like, you knew you should, and you probably had some stuff you wanted to say, in a good way, but you felt kind of like a joke?

Well, today, we pick up the phone, we push the buttons, we sweat and gulp our way thru the ringing in our ears, and say we're sorry we're such a joke, but we really did mean to call but we fell in love with an elbow and anyway we think we have something good to say...

When the summer started, we had a fun day, our 3rd time at the Columbia Slough Watershed Council's Explorando el Columbia Slough. It's an annual celebration and outreach event for the area's Latino community, and Verde was out in force with 6 Landscape Crew Members present to share information in Spanish and English with their friends, neighbors, and community.

Jesus Nunez Sr discusses photos of Verde projects

Pedro Moreno talks about native plants

The Adventure of Samuel Martinez

...
As for you and me and this blog?

Really, we should stay friends, it's-not-you-it's-me, let's keep in touch, I swear I'll do better in the future, sometimes I just get a little stuck in my own world

Pictures of Matchstick Men

2008-05-23T11:47:00.000-07:00

Almost June, Almost June, they say the sun will come out soon(er or later), but we've heard that before and pay what it's due

you know what? we're busy, very busy, almost too busy, almost too much work for our workers, too many workers for our trucks, too many people living in a secret world...

who cares and why care? ______________________________________________________________________ last saturday, saturday may 19th, was a very good day: mulch was made, blackberry roots were dug, native plants were freed, stinging nettle did its thing, and somebody managed to inhale over 10 cookies-in-a-15-minute-span-while-also-stashing-another-five-in-her-hat.

Verde and Hacienda CDC participated in SOLV's Down by the Riverside event along Beaver Creek, a Verde-SOLV restoration site in Troutdale. But, Expresiones is the main story, 20+ middle school students from Hacienda CDC's affordable housing learning about the environment outside their neighborhood:

about the connection between stormwater at their apartments and the water in Beaver Creek:

and about different ways to protect the environment and make a good living at the same time...

And, how to get their hands dirty:

Expresiones student digging blackberry roots to protect native plantings

hauling mulch

Learning about native and invasive plants

An exciting day, the first of many to come, so thanks to everyone who helped out, esp. SOLV's Steve Kennett for bearing the extra heat that comes with running the grill so the growing kids can get fed
____________________________________________________________________
(don't answer that)

Mainstream

2008-04-18T14:09:00.000-07:00

Portland is cold, yes, very cold, unseasonably/irredeemably cold, wetter-than-ezra, even the long-time-locals are grumpy.

But, aqui a Verde, our gear is good, our feet are dry, and we're out in it.

Recently, we finished a project for our good friends at Our United Villages, at their project-known-as The Rebuilding Center. Brothers and Sisters with us and others in the so reasonable as to be life-affirming idea (a.k.a. Shouldn't Poor Folk and People of Color Make Some of the Green Money?), their Rebuilding Center was recently remodeled, a remodel which included 4 new stormwater planters to slow and filter on-site stormwater runoff...

They reached out to us for a Corrective Action, fixing up their stormwater facilities after a period of deferred maintenance. This is a very common thing - stormwater facilities are still pretty new, and maintaining them is a new responsibility for many property owners, a responsibility the City of Portland expects them to meet.

2 things are especially cool here:

1. When we spoke with the Rebuilding Center about the City's expectations for stormwater facility maintenance, we found that everything the City was telling the Center, we'd learned about in our Weekly Classroom Training on Operations and Maintenance Plans, provided by Jason King from Greenworks, so we knew what the City wanted to see and what we needed to do. Hell Yes!
Operations & Maintenance Plan Training

2. Check out these very nice before and after photos, which provided good feelings to all concerned (Verde, Our United Villages, the City, Neighbors)

Ooh, look, sunshine...

Is It Like Today

2008-04-11T13:18:00.000-07:00

not to go all John McCain on y'all, but these, my friends, are busy and interesting times. Not operatic in grandeur or significance, but certainly an ever-bigger load on the wagon - of course and then, onward thru the fog...

A good thing happened to us recently, something we planned on for a long time, longer than we've been alive-in-the-corporate-sense. Nestor Campos (that's him, with Denis Obrien from the City of Portland's Bureau of Environmental Services), Production & Facility Manager at the Verde Native Plant Nursery, passed Part 5 of the 5-part Landscape Contractor exam.

This is a big deal. To simplify things a bit, you ain't a landscape contractor unless you pass the exams. If you ain't a landscape contractor, you can't install more than a small number of plants. If you can't install more than a small number of plants - well, it's hard to pay good wages/make much money if you're just maintaining. I mean, think about it, what do you pay more for - somebody to install your lawn, or somebody to mow your lawn?

This is not an easy deal. Hell, I'm a lawyer, and a 38-year (give-or-take) speaker of English, and I get confused by the State's Landscape Contractor Laws and its Administrative Rules. Nestor, a Venezuelan newcomer to the English language, is therefore a bad-ass...

ok, dassall, pictures of outreach and education next time (who could wait for that!).

Strange Magic

2008-03-11T13:12:00.000-07:00

9 beds in 9 nights, 10 hours of sleep in a 72 hour period, a funeral, a wedding (yes, that's the same chapel), brain surgery, midday fog you could touch, a clueless bellhop, parachuting, plane-ticket-as-impulse-buy, crying and almost crying, a birthday and a porch swing. Did I leave anything out - yes.

...

You know, I was looking forward to this trip to Houston and NOLA. Now, I can't remember who I was before I left, this is going to take a bit.

...

Oh, yeah, Verde, sorry. Well, the conference, the Policylink conference, Regional Equity 08, was a very good thing for us. Like mentioned sometime before that will never come back, we were on a panel with our fathers and mothers, and to our very great surprise found we'd a story to tell that almost belonged next to their stories, and fell thru a hole in the universal chair when we realized where the hell we were, humbled by the chance to serve.

We saw good friends, good friends, good friends, good friends, made new good friends, and left thinking that, if we keep doing our work, doing it well, and speaking the truth - well, things will work out the way they are supposed to...

goodbye forever Jim, congratulations forever Ken and Rhianna, goodbye, goodbye, goodbye for however long that has to be.

Dead Melodies

2008-02-20T09:24:00.000-08:00

My oh (2x) My

Too much coffee, man, and I suppose that means that we're learning how to be happy. Somebody has to do it, so it might as well be us. It's not like g-d's decided to share the rules, anyway..

This is a good time to be Verde, so we enjoy it as long as it lasts. Last week, we took another very important, very small step toward the vague something we daily pursue, we put plants in the greenhouse! Take a look, ain't they purty (clearly, I've more learning to do on this whole camera exposure thing):

Something else is happening, something we've kind of hoped for but weren't sure about, but the first reviews are in and so far so good.

So, in communities like ours, low income communities, where a lot of people don't speak english and really aren't familiar with the notion that others folks give a crap about their ideas and needs and hopes anyway, changes can come to the neighborhood without anybody knowing about them or having a chance to say what they think.

This neighborhood has almost no parks, local folks load up the kids into a van and take them a couple neighborhoods away to play soccer, to run around, to have a picnic. There's a big site right here in the neighborhood, a 25 acre capped landfill formerly known as Killingsworth Fast Disposal (see pg 14). Now, a master planning process is underway for the Thomas Cully Park, a new park to be located over the landfill. It's a pretty standard process, with periodic workshops/open houses at a local church where folks talk about what they want from a new park.

Well, despite the fact that there's a largely Latino affordable housing community with 321 units, many with large families, only a few of these residents attended the open houses - tho, oddly enough, they did manage to get photographed and placed on the project's website

(hey! that's not right! making fun of the consultants for putting the 4 brown people who attended the session on the website! - I'm just saying...)

Well, we tried something different. We laminated the 11x17 final concepts (Concept E and Concept F), and made many photocopies of the questionnaire. The next morning, Nursery Crew Members reviewed the maps and questionnaire, then incorporated outreach into their time spent maintaining Hacienda CDC's affordable housing properties. In one week of sharing this information, we collected, translated into english, and forwarded to the the consultant team 25 questionnaires, connecting community folk to a process which is going to have a great impact on their daily lives and which, to date, had failed to secure their participation.

We're going to try this some more, with later phases of the Thomas Cully Park Master Plan process, as well as with a new project coming into the neighborhood, the Cully Green Street planning process

staying alive

2008-02-05T17:57:00.000-08:00

well, wherever we go, here we are...

Most of the year stretches out before us, and so we might permit ourselves a brief - if delayed - view of anticipation, the things we'd like to achieve in 2008 for ourselves, nuestra comunidad, and our organization-called-Verde. This year we're going to grow our own plants, and we're going to install them in our own projects:

This year we're going to participate in new affordable housing construction projects, multiplying the effect of these dollars - not only will they create places for people to live, but they'll create jobs for the people who live there

We're going to take the mountain to Muhammed. Where local environmental decisions could affect out community, could help solve community problems, we're going to take the process to them so their voices can be heard, so the decision can reflect their needs.

And, we're hitting the road, along with our brothers and sisters (mostly sisters) from the Latino Network, to Policylink's 3rd ever National Summit on Equitable Development, Social Justice, and Smart Growth (whew.). Verde will be presenting as part of the Workshop Series 5: Strategic Alliances, Building Public Will, and Community Organizing (Friday, March 7, 12:30 to 2:15 pm). No, we won't be on the panel discussing The Green Economy and Jobs. Instead, we'll be on a panel named "Environmental Justice Partnerships," which f'n rocks. Why, because we'll be sitting next to such EJ Ass Kickers (of the Fantastic, ahem) as:

Robert D. Bullard, Director, Environmental Justice Resource Center, Clark Atlanta University

Beverly Wright, Founder and Director, Deep South Center for Environmental Justice, Dillard University

Donele Wilkins, Co-founder and Executive Director, Detroiters Working for Environmental Justice

You know, I read Dr Bullard's stuff when I was in law school, I use his definition of Environmental Racism in the class I teach now, and I've read time and again of the Deep South Center's and the Detroiters' work, so I'm like my daughter in a candy store.

ok, see you when there's more time to kill...

let's dance to joy division

2007-12-12T12:34:00.000-08:00

(and celebrate the irony, everything has all gone wrong, and we're so happy)

well, that made sense at the time, so we'll just leave it there and hopefully the broken clock will do its thing and be right again, as it always does...

the calendar year closes, the enterprise goes on hiatus, and the mail is forwarded. good times and hard times to be remembered and celebrated, heads to shake in wonder as how we possibly made it thru such things, and controls to be set to cruise so we can drive with one finger

when we return, we'll start something new, thanks to our friends at SOLV. They want us to start working on steep slopes, removing invasives without also falling into the river, Willamette or otherwise.

So, guess what we got to do, even tho - as we discovered - we're all scared of heights:

Many thanks to Kenny and the other good folks at the Portland Rock Gym for their time and instruction, and to SOLV for footing the bill.

(There were pictures of me doing this stuff too, but they were mysteriously deleted)

We'll see on the other side. Best wishes to you and all you care about.

How Long Will It Take

2007-11-26T17:41:00.000-08:00

(...I've been waiting for a long time).

Seems we've lapsed into the never before seen and completely unprecedented, let's-take-a-weekly-blog-and-umm-say-we-really -decided-it-functioned-better-as-a-monthly-you-see-ahem

hey, we've been busy, we're all changing our names to cesar chavez, and you can't stop us; lose many, win some, winsome. Here are some of our wins, lately (losses to be shared later on the page):

Labor Hours Sold: slow december begins, and we're proud to say we've sold verde's services every available day from July 1st to the end of the calendar year. The sincerest gratitude and credit to the Verde Native Plant Nursery Crew, regular and temporary, for embracing this hardest of work and doing it better than well, for working in the rain and the cold and the hornets and the heat to make these kinds of transformations:

NE 38th & NE Tillamook Green St. filtering stormwater in Portland's Hollywood neighborhood

Lovena Farms, SE Portland, in the Johnson Creek Watershed, invasive plants removed and ready for native plants

Revenue Sharing: Yes, by gum & land o' goshen, we did it. Because we met our goals, we'd excess revenue, and we distributed half of it, also known as $4649, in the form of cash bonuses to them hard-working crew members based on hours worked (if you know a better way, lemme know/keep it to your damn self). Yee-oouch, hurts good. It was a big day, and a promise kept.

Community Members on Verde's Board. In November, Maria Gastelun and Brenda Reyes, mother and daughter, community advocates and leaders, and long-time residents of Hacienda CDC housing, joined Verde's Board of Directors. There to teach and to learn and to teach, their experiences will guide Verde and the Nursery as we share our lessons with our community, building awareness that plenty of people make a good living protecting the environment, so why can't we?

OK, so, here's what's not working as well as we'd like. We're walking, but we'd like to run. We're not low-skilled, we're semi-skilled, and it's the highly skilled that earn rates which support the kind of wages we must pay.

So, we now begin the hardest part of our life-so-far.

We've got to keep the work coming in, even if it doesn't pay $35/hour, even if it kills our margins.

We've got to subsidize the margins however we can, because we have to keep the crew together so they continue to build skills and cohesion.

We've got to keep them together and build these skills because we've got irons in the fire, people in affordable housing, in greenstreets, in on-site stormwater management, in environmental groups who want want want to work with us, and we're turning the wheels to get there, and one day one or two or lots of those well-paying gigs are going to pop out and...

...and we need to be ready

Prince of Turbulence

2007-10-24T13:04:00.000-07:00

Well, that was fun. Who knew that greenhouse construction was a complete pain in the ass (well, except most nursery folk and such). But, it's done, we're excited, and you can see it unfold:

Hole Digging - using a 2-man auger, shovels, picks and gloved hands to get 2 feet down into this rocky, missoula flood soil:

Setting and Cementing the Posts - mixing quick dry cement, then staking the greenhouse support posts:

Leveling:

Setting the Arcs:

Completing the Frame:

Stretching the Poly:

Installing & Cutting the Corrugated Plastic:

Hanging the Sliding Door:

Finis!

Oh and Hey: Happy Birthday to Us (10.19.2007)!

Tennessee's Not the state I'm In

2007-10-03T08:12:00.000-07:00

so, greenhouses ain't so easy to construct

well, at least and for sure, digging 2 foot anchor holes in rocky NE Portland/bretz flood soils really sucks, even when you use a 2 man auger, also known as the back killer, according to reputable industry sources:
but, it was fun and exciting, there's no doubt about that. we worked all day, ate some good food per our usual wednesday routine, and were greatly energized by the late afternoon arrival of our greenhouse, and by some hands-on training provided by their driver/installer. like always, we took a lot of pictures, so we'll let them do the talking...

nice, huh? more to come...

your hand in mine

2007-09-25T16:56:00.001-07:00

[I'd say don't ask, but it doesn't really matter (nothing's gonna change...)]

the greenhouse is coming! the greenhouse is coming. hold up one lantern because it's coming by land.

so, Oregon Valley Greenhouse is going to deliver our courtyard greenhouse tomorrow, Wednesday September 26th, and we'll spend parts of tomorrow and Thursday putting it together. It'll start with a good ol' fashion hole-diggin' (well, 6 hole diggins, actually), followed by equally exciting adventures with quick-dry cement, levels, and such.

and then, on Thursday, the fun really begins. we've to let the cement dry, and then we start sticking pipes into cement, drilling holes in metal, bolting stuff, stretching opaque plastic - the works. we love to take pictures, so we'll post 'em next week.

we're going to put this greenhouse (but smaller) right here:

oh and hey: last week, we had a board meeting. 2 community members, Maria (the mother) and Brenda (the daughter) attended. Long-time residents and leaders in Hacienda CDC's resident community, they're interested in joining our board of directors, which would be a major good thing for Verde and for our outreach and education activities.

other than that, not much to say, lots going on, scientific progress goes bonk (bw's c&h)

-alan

jailbird crossing over

2007-09-17T19:07:00.000-07:00

happy monday(s)...

You know, if we don't succeed, it won't be for lack of trying - or, well, lack of sorta trying.

Last week, we put in 2 grants and 2 bids, tho, thankfully, ProLandscape and the Latino Network did much lifting on the heaviest bid and heaviest grant, respectively. But, it was an interesting and busy time, 4 real/sure, and it reflects this goofy-ass blend that is Verde and its Verde Native Plant Nursery project.

With ProLandscape, we responded to a Request for Proposals from Hacienda CDC, an RFP to install a new plaza for the Clara Vista Townhomes (a property we already maintain, so we've a pretty good idea of the site's needs and challenges). It's a great site, oriented around a central courtyard, and with numerous environmental attributes, and also with somewhere north of 3o kids beating the crap out of the grass on a regular basis.

It's been planted twice, a change is needed. Hopefully, we'll get this gig, rotate a couple of guys through a 4 person combined Verde-ProLandscape crew, build some new skills in paver installation, irrigation, planter boxes, and drainage. And, do a project in our home community, providing great opportunities for outreach and education because we'll be there all day, every work day, for 2 weeks.

On that note and with Latino Network, we submitted a grant proposal to the City of Portland's Diversity & Civic Leadership Organizing Project, part of a broader Office of Neighborhood Involvement effort - spearheaded in part by Jeri Williams, former Ass Kicker/Exec. Director of the Environmental Justice Action Group - to connect low income and people of color communities to City decision-making. Well, Portland's an environmental/sustainability town, so if you're not participating in the City's environmental decisions, then you're missing out on a pretty fundamental aspect of civic engagement in these parts. So, this opportunity was a natural for us, and we'll see what happens.

In the shell of a nut(case), that's what we'd like to do: earn money from customers so as to put our constituency to work protecting the environment while earning a good living and benefits, then use that income and grant income to take that story - "there are good jobs in the environment, but mostly this low-income Latino community ain't getting any of 'em so what are we going to do about that?" - out to our vecinos...

We also put in a bid for wetland restoration, including annual maintenance, for the Blue Heron Park Home Owners Association (they paid for revegetation about 5 years ago, but haven't done adequate maintenance so the site is about to tip to the invasives, and it looks like this/that/that thing over there to the left:

Lastly, we've applied to the City's Watershed Investment Fund to expand our work at Smith & Bybee Lakes, restoring Columbia Sedge meadows (I know this picture used to be at the top of the blog, but it's so good - you can see the trees across the lake).

by4now

way down the river (where the blues began)

2007-09-11T10:36:00.000-07:00

Well, it's been a while, and we've been busy working and playing (and a-playing and a-working...)

another couple of weeks, and - fortunately - another thing we wanted to do that kinda worked out. last week, we visited OR Valley Greenhouses in Aurora, OR, so we could learn how to assemble the Verde Courtyard Greenhouse (funded by a grant from Metro's Nature in Neighborhoods Grant Program). We hope to grow 500 native plants per year, providing the Crew with their first lessons and experiences running a plant production facility, lessons which will still apply as we move to larger-scale production in the next fiscal year.

Nursery Crew Members had many questions about greenhouse construction, and we took many photos of a constructed Quonset-style greenhouse, so we can use them as a reference for this or that aspect when we construct our own greenhouse in the next few weeks (today, the Crew is preparing the courtyard). Thanks to OVG's Jenny for her time and consideration.

Recently, we also moved a little further in our goal to be the contractor-of-choice for the many Portland-area groups active in wetland restoration, watershed protection, and the like. We did our first project with the Johnson Creek Watershed Council - an invasives removal project at Lovena Farms, an urban farm adjacent to Johnson Creek. Here some before and after photos:

and, please, be kind enough to check out our front page, because we've posted a new photo there, too (can you tell we got a new memory card for the camera?), an installation we did for the city of portland, where we were able to - get this - put 6 people to work...

yep yep

hiding on the staircase

2007-08-21T10:25:00.000-07:00

last night, my good friend proffered the notion that blogs (and video games, and creating a persona, for that matter) offer a person a sense of achievement - even if nobody reads their blog (and they are well aware of this likelihood whilst typing away), or if they never win the video game, or if their persona is annoying/inconspicuous

[let us here put aside the brief follow up conversation we'd about subprime lending, hedge funds, tightening credit, The Rebel, Ghost Wars, the connections between jacobins-decembrists-other revolutionaries and osama bin laden, smart people, and BBQ]

boring...

__________________________________________________________________

Last week, at our Weekly Classroom Training, we began planning the next few month's training topics, because we'd pretty much come to the end of the February planning we'd done in-house, as well as with Technical Assistance for Community Services, Black United Fund, Mercy Corps, and the Rebuilding Center.

The Crew is particularly interested in our marketing; that is, how do we develop new customers. So, they've asked for trainings which describe our different customer bases, and from that discuss how we access and build relationships in those areas. Yesterday, the Board felt it was time to have this conversation again at the Board level, particularly as we add new Board members from the community and from private businesses. So, good news for you, a brief "who does Verde sell services to?" rundown, at least for the next couple of years:

Environmental Groups and Agencies. The Portland Region is home to many nonprofit groups and government agencies concerned with stormwater management, wetland restoration, invasives removal, and streamside revegetation. In the aggregate, these groups spend significant money annually. For environmental groups, our goal is to be their contractor of choice whenever they pay money for native plant installation or invasives removal. For government agencies, we want to be competitive (skill-wise, cost-wise) with other contractors active in government contracting opportunities.

Affordable Housing Providers. Similarly, many Portland area nonprofit groups plan and construct affordable housing. Some of these nonprofits are focused on specific demographic groups, like Hacienda CDC or Low Income Housing by Native Americans in Portland Oregon, and some are focused on specific geographic areas like Peninsula CDC or ROSE CDC. In the aggregate, their individual efforts result in new affordable housing construction, construction which requires landscape installation. We want to be their contractor of choice.

wasn't that fun?

bye bye bye bye

boomslang

2007-08-14T15:54:00.000-07:00

Happy tuesday...

(a scandalous lack of capitalization, certainly)

What now, just what are we doing here (where there's nothing to do)?

Another week, another thing we're trying to do, in our relentless and dreamlike quest to check as many boxes as we can. This week, civic engagement/community organizing/empowerment - nothing new there

well, maybe a little new, because this community, these mostly low-income, mostly latino are like their brothers and sisters in other Portland neighborhoods, and other neighborhoods in other USA cities; when we dole out the environmental goodies, they don't get 'em. they don't get the clean air, the clean water, the uncontaminated land, the environmental jobs.

many times and too often, environmental engagement happens because these communities want to stop the bad stuff - the landfill, the lead, the mold, the bus depot, the brownfield.

For us, it starts with bringing environmental assets (jobs, projects) to these communities. Last year, we built 3 stormwater management projects on Hacienda CDC properties, training opportunities for Nursery employees, and an outreach and education opportunity for residents, especially children.
now, we're returning, using the installations as the basis for an 8 hour watershed curriculum for participants in Hacienda CDC's Expresiones program, an after school program for middle school students. we'll also upgrade the installations themselves, and - like last time/above - Expresiones students will help with the installations.

So, on monday, we met with folks from Hacienda CDC, from the Columbia Slough Watershed Council, SOLV, and the City of Portland's Clean Rivers Education program to start designing the curriculum, the next step in our goal to bring culturally appropriate, accessible environmental education and other benefits to Hacienda CDC residents and other disadvantaged communities.

we're very excited...

go thank yourself for nothing

2007-08-07T16:53:00.000-07:00

Greets/Hey-Yo:

First, more fun with media, a nice story in El Hispanic News about the Nursery and our various goings on...

Second, last week saw us take a significant step toward one of the Nursery's key commitments, revenue sharing for Nursery Crew Members.

At our August 1, 2007 Weekly Classroom Training, funded by a grant from the City of Portland's Community Initiatives Program, Crew Members:

1. Discussed our earned income goals for FY 2007-08. The Nursery's budget anticipates we will sell 60% of our labor hours, resulting in $229,000 in fee revenue from a crew of 5 full time employees.

2. We then set a higher, internal goal: sell 75% of our labor hours. This would result in additional earned income. The questions then became how to track progress toward this goal, and what to do with this additional earned income.

3. Crew members will use our Job Site Visit Forms to track hours sold per day, turn in those forms every Thursday, and enter these numbers into a spreadsheet.

4. Each quarter, we will review these totals. If we have sold 75% or more of our available labor, we will have the opportunity to distribute this additional earned income (the difference btw 60% labor hours sold and 75% labor hours sold)

5. Crew members identified the following uses for additional earned income, allocating a percentage of additional earned income to each:

Bonuses (50%). These can be used for any purpose, with several crew members expressing an interest in using the money to provide health insurance for dependents, or for investment purposes. Future trainings will present more information on these options.
Operating Reserve (30%). This is especially exciting, because it demonstrates the crew's ongoing transition from thinking like a worker to thinking like an owner. Most of our folk have spent their lives working for someone else, in the worst cases being used up and spit out in an exploitative situation. Here, they have power, and they're starting to think about how to use it not just for themselves as individuals, but also for the good of the enterprise and the community.
Field Training (10%). Sometimes, Prolandscape (or some other landscape contractor partner) offers us a training opportunity, like the chance to work with them on an irrigation installation or a bioswale project. They're willing to supervise Nursery Crew Members, but need Verde to pay Crew Member salaries.
Donated Services (10%). Crew Members suggested we could use additional earned income as a way to donate Nursery services to an environmental project, like a restoration project prioritized by the Columbia Slough Watershed Council or some other organizational partner.

Exciting stuff 4-sho, 4-sho:

OkayFineGoodbye...

teenage caveman

2007-07-31T10:24:00.000-07:00

Man, the pace is fast, the body is tired.

This week, we've a number of notable things going on:

1. Jose Velasco came back from California, so he's back with us, part-time and temporary-like, until we grow enough to add a more regular position.

2. Starting yesterday, we're running a total of 7 crew members - a crew of 3 and a crew of 4. That's exciting because it means that more folk are working/getting paid/getting trained, and because it's a glimpse of one of our key goals: self-sufficiency...

See, if we can get to a 7 person crew, and charge $40/worker/hour for their services, the Nursery will be a self-sufficient operation. Earned income from services will pay for all of the Nursery's direct, fixed and variable costs, a great position for any business, but especially a social enterprise.

Here's one of the projects we're working on, a new housing development impacting wetlands and a creek. Local ordinance requires wetland enhancement through removal of invasive plant species (e.g., himalayan blackberry), with great care taken not to remove/cut existing native plants like snowberry, salmonberry, sword ferns, &c. Where mature natives are removed/cut, the developer has to replace each removed native with two new natives, so preservation is key and its alternative is costly.

This is hard, slow work, and requires a crew with the ability to distinguish between native plants and invasives, a skill set we've been working on since the Nursery's inception. The picture at the top, and this one below, give you an idea of what the project looks like at the start...
ok, back to the cave...

like blue sunshine

2007-07-19T15:08:00.000-07:00

Strange rainy Portland July weather, carrying with it many extra/1x gigs.

This week and for a few upcoming, we'll expand the crew to 6, split them up into dos quadrillas de tres. This is good thing, because it allows us to hire and train more people, more green jobs for low income people.

This is because we've got some sizable (for) us jobs, jobs in addition to our regular gigs (Hacienda CDC, Smith & Bybee Lakes, Crystal Springs/Eastmoreland, City of Portland Stormwater Management Facilities). We've got a 5day gig at Goat Island, part of our enduring partnership with SOLV's Team Up for Watershed Health program. And, we've got a couple weeks installing erosion control fencing (a new skills for us, and I got to use a trencher - and 4wheel en la camion verde!Yeah!) and some detailed invasives removal for Ortiz & Associates. Very nice.

It's good that we're growing, but that also means that we've got to deliver, which is always nerve racking (them words just don't look right).

We're also starting to cook up this funky restaurant technical assistance program, based on/a replication of the thimmakka bay area can of whoop ass...

-alan

ain't no new news here

2007-07-10T14:29:00.000-07:00

one of the reasons we do what we do is because we want low income people to get well paying environmental jobs. and, of course, not just the people we employ (that wouldn't be much of an impact on the grand scheme of things. the small scheme of things is important, but still..).

no, we'd like other community development groups to look at our experiences, take whatever is useful for their needs and communities, and create more of these jobs and businesses.

this is why we find ourselves running our mouths a lot, sharing information in different media sources - magazines, online interviews, local dailies, and whomever else wants to listen to our story, because we want other low-income communities to know that economic opportunities exist in environmental protection

and that they're not getting any of 'em

I hear we'll be in an upcoming Sustainable Industries Journal as part of a story on green collar jobs, and they're gonna put my mug in the chinook book, which is pretty creepy...

stay cool/go jump in a lake.

not enough time (make time stop)

2007-07-03T18:13:00.000-07:00

damn! it's tuesday! and I ain't blogged! damn! it's tuesday! and I ain't blogged!
...

It's a new fiscal year, and we should take a minute to feel good about ourselves, and to say goodbye to one of Verde's heavy lifters.

For reasons I have difficulty explaining, we have exceeded our goals for Earned Income (income from services) and for Grants, and have managed to keep our expenses mostly at or below budget projections. This is really a testament to our kickass crew, our true story, and the strength of our partners, advisers, and board of directors.

New fiscal year also means change, and we're saying adios to Heidi Soderberg, Verde's inaugural Board Chair and world-renowned zydeco dancer. Heidi serves as Executive Director for SE Works, a kickass operation in its own right, and it's really not possible to exaggerate how much she's given to Verde, especially to some punkass, wet-behind-the-ears executive director (wet-behind-the-ears enough to use the word "punkass" in the company blog) who was beyond clueless when this all began.

So, to review: good fiscal year, goodbye Heidi, E.D. still clueless but somewhat less so...

happy 4-Of-7

-alan

romancing the grindstone

2007-06-26T09:09:00.000-07:00

hey-yo:

so, a person might ask (a person with waaayyy too much free time): "just what kinds of stuffed-with-glamor environmental justice-type stuff -- yes, stuffed-with-glamor stuff -- goes on at verde, day to day, week to week?"

and, we would reply, between sips of mead and marches on washington, interrupting our routine and far flung break-room-table debates with s. truth, c. chavez, j.o. arc, and j. kerouac (dude needs to get a life), to say:

we run a business, we serve a community

this a last week, we've devoted a good chunk of time to preparing an estimate for the Lake Oswego 10th Street Green Street Project, a big and swanky tear up and rebuild of 5-ish blocks which a lot of bioswales and other stormwater treatments. we've done this together with our steady partner, ProLandscape, a 20 year old landscape contracting and design firm. They teach us a lot, including how to prepare a bid.

Other A-List tasks for this week include buying tools, buying educational signage for our Hacienda CDC installations:

...invoicing, irrigation system stuff (this is my favorite thing in the world, barely edging out singing off-key, or the onset of allergy season), lawyers/guns/money, and this damn blog

(excuse me, i gotta go, t. rex has had too much to drink, and he and madame curie are about to make a mess of the place...)

trees or exercise

2007-06-18T19:32:00.000-07:00

so, now, it's time to address, I guess, something that many a-blogger has contemplated, in other words:

an unread blog - akin to talking to yourself/a falling tree in empty woods; or like exercising, working on a project in solitude, in anticipation that said project will one day be observed

staggering. the mind boggles, and then quickly gets bored...

so and ok, that's enough of that.
_________________

last Saturday, we participated in/sponsored a local event, Explorando el Columbia Slough, a Latino-focused outreach event put on by the Columbia Slough Watershed Council. Verde's offices are located in the Columbia Slough Watershed, a watershed that's home to a heavy concentration of Latinos.

This was cool, especially because Nursery Crew Members Pedro Moreno, Jesus Nunez, and Nestor Campos tabled the event, sharing information about the Verde Native Plant Nursery with their neighbors and community members. Using project photos and brochures, they put their outreach training to its 1st community use, building the connection between environmental protection and the community's economic needs.

Good & Bye

your average rigmarole

2007-06-11T10:42:00.000-07:00

you know how you meet somebody, somebody new, at a party or at a bus stop or at a support group/arraignment hearing? and s/he asks you, "so, what do you do?"

(more times than I care to remember, this question has been greeted with laughter of the "did-it-have-to-be-that-loud" variety by whatever friend happens to overhear la pregunta...)

the short story is, we saw this new economy growing, this sustainable development thing. we noticed it wasn't just the treehuggers or policy wonks doing the pushing and growing, it was the development agencies and the chambers of commerce - groups whose green interests tended more toward the dollar than the earth. we saw new jobs, new businesses, new money.

and we thought, "damn if they're going to grow this economy without us."

us: the brown, the black, the red, the people without money and without connections, the last hired, the first fired, the economically marginalized, the people working (more than one) jobs which are low paying, unhealthy, and that offer little/no chance to build skills or a career.
______

Today, I'd also like to say goodbye to someone, to Jose Luis Velasco, one of the Nursery's 1st two crew members, who came on board when we'd no equipment, no contracts, no garage, no website, just some good folk, some seed funding and a whole lotta fast talking. Jose's going to back to Cali, to be close to his parents, and I just wanted to thank him for all the time and hard work he gave over these last 2 years, and wish nothing but good things for him and all he cares about

p&l,

-alan

verde joins the 20th century

2007-06-05T11:42:00.000-07:00

so, as we like to say around here, poco a poco - little by little we grow something from nothing, and so it is today as we take an important step, shooting our organization straightforward to the late 1990s: the launch of our website.

nobody can do everything, but everybody can do something, and our website would not be possible without the time and effort of 3 very important partners:

thanks to Bridget Gregory/The Frause Group, a Seattle- and Portland-based marketing firm which provided probono consulting services, for helping us reduce our big-to-us story to a manageable size, and helping us find a web designer.

thanks to Isaac Phillips, a web designer who took our words, pictures and ideas, transforming them into a good-lookin' and easy-to-use site we could call our own, and doing so for a graciously provided discounted fee.

and, thanks to Technical Assistance for Community Services, a Portland-area nonprofit corporation. TACS has served the nonprofit community in Oregon for over 25 years, providing training, consultation, information, and resources that nonprofits need to do their work better. Verde received a mini-grant from TACS's Small Organization Support program, in part to design and implement Verde's website.

and, thanks to you, of course of course, for checking us out, we hope you like our story

dassall/eso si que es/much obliged...

-alan