Be part of the solution! Only together can we create a healthy community; one with clean soil, air, water and power, for current and future generations. Your generous contribution ensures continued programming here at The Ecology Center, including:
    
- Produce Backyard Skills – a monthly DIY series of workshops featuring creative solutions and strategies for green living
- Offer Farm to Fork – a children’s program that begins with a garden tour and ends with the preparation of simple, small plate meals
- Build our Eco-Labs – a collection of outdoor interpretive stations providing hands-on educational activities and field trip programming
And, of course, we’ll be bringing back favorites like the Summer Speaker Series, Green Feast, Earth Day Celebration and Plant Sale and Halloween Ho-down.

Becaome a member today, and help spread the word of our goal for 500 new members.

About Caroline Colesworthy: Holding a Master's in Environmental Studies from Brown University, Caroline Colesworthy teaches for both Earthroots Field School and Anneliese's School. Her mission in life is to connect people to the Earth and to each other- this often involves food. 'The difference between you and anything else is really just a matter of time and perspective.' 

What past sourdough bread students have said:

"I have baked bread with the starter and several times have made pancakes, too. I love to cook and as a kid my dad made sourdough pancakes every Sunday morning for us so I was excited to get a new starter again."

"Yesterday I made some really great bread. I took fresh basil, english thyme, and lemon thyme. I chopped them up pretty fine. The bread was the best bread i have ever tasted."

"My neighbors are in love my bread and think that I am the best cook ever. I don't know about, that but I am so happy to have learn my new skills of bread making."

Please register in advance as space is limited. You may register online (click here) or call 949.443.4223 to sign up!

Warrior Up is Sambazon's new campaign celebrating the individuals who strive every day to make the world a better place while inspiring others to do the same. Based on the same sustainable business model that made Sambazon the market leader in organic Amazon superfood açaí. 

For a full report on the Warrior Up launch, visit: Sambazon Warrior Up Campaign Launch Party

"Where does food come from? Young visitors to The Ecology Center in San Juan Capistrano got to answer that question for themselves Saturday and make a meal of what they found in a program called "Farm to Fork." The goal of the course, instructor Meg Hiesinger said, is to teach children how to eat healthy and appreciate their food."Regardless if you are a hands-on learner or like to learn through reading, cooking has aspects for all types of people," Hiesinger said."

Please see the OC Register for full story.

Join us for a provocative, one-of-a-kind exhibition exploring our daily water footprint. Do you know your water footprint?

Our Juggernaut: The average Southern Californian's water footprint exceeds 1,800 gallons per day.

While the world's poorest survive on less than five gallons a day, we continue to feed the Juggernaut monster. Since a 950-gallon daily footprint is considered a sustainable global standard, we still have some work to do. Visit The Ecology Center for 10 simple ways to do your part in defeating the Juggernaut.

1. Grow your own food or buy organic from your local farmer's market when in season. GALLONS SAVED: 150 gallons/day

2. Purchase - and use - a reusable water bottle. To-go ware too! GALLONS SAVED: 6 gallons/day

3. Turn off unnecessary lighting and replace incandescent bulbs with CFLs or LEDs. GALLONS SAVED: 5 gallons/day

4. Thirsty toilet; Fill a used bottle with sand, screw the cap back on and place it in the tank to displace some of the water.  GALLONS SAVED: 2 gallons/day

5. Install a drip irrigation system, plant natives and apply mulch. GALLONS SAVED: 150 gallons/day

6. Laundry; Only wash full loads and consider retrofitting your clothes washer to irrigate your lawn. GALLONS SAVED: 40 gallons/wash

7. Turn the faucet off while brushing. GALLONS SAVED: 8 gallons/day

8. Products/technology; Take care of the things you have so they last longer. GALLONS SAVED: 100’s of gallons/day

9. Swap a meat-based meal (or two) for a veggie-based meal each week. GALLONS SAVED: 2,000 gallons/week

10. Wash your car at a commercial car wash. GALLONS SAVED: 50 gallons/wash

Powered by Hurley's H2O Initiative

How do the choices we make to satisfy our basic needs for food, water, shelter, and clothing impact the health of our communities and our environment?

To foster dialogue around some of today’s most pressing - and most tangible - environmental issues, The Ecology center is proud to announce our first Summer Speaker Series, to be held in San Juan Capistrano, California.

The purpose of the series is to provide a foundation for making decisions that have a positive ecological impact. To that end, we are providing a forum where the residents of Orange County can explore these crucial topics with cutting-edge thinkers from a variety of backgrounds.

May 11 / Water

Brad Lancaster author of "Rainwater Harvesting for Drylands"

"Since 1993 I’ve run a successful permaculture consulting, design, and education business focused on integrated and sustainable approaches to landscape design, planning, and living. And as I live in the dryland environment, rainwater harvesting has long been one of my specialties and a passion. At home my brother and I harvest over 100,000 gallons of rainwater a year on a 1/8-acre urban lot and adjoining right-of-way. This harvested water is then turned into living air conditioners of food-bearing shade trees, abundant gardens, and a thriving landscape incorporating wildlife habitat, beauty, edible and medicinal plants, and more.

I started writing the Rainwater Harvesting for Drylands and Beyond series as a way to empower my clients and my community to make such positive change in their own lives and back yards by harvesting rainwater.

I wanted to provide an accessible resource that explains what water harvesting is, how to do it appropriately, and how to modify it to the unique conditions of everyone’s own site. I believe we all can become beneficial stewards of the land, and partners in the ecosystem in which we live, and I believe that by harvesting rainwater sustainably we can all begin to transform our households from consumers of resources to producers of resources"

The Eco-Labs are a series of outdoor learning stations that collectively demonstrate the cyclical nature of humans’ impact on the environment in five focus areas: water, food, waste, energy, and shelter. Designed to be experienced sequentially, each Eco-Lab station promotes participatory learning, systems thinking, experimentation, and observation. The lab activities and curriculum and are flexible so that Ecology Center docents can tailor the Eco-Lab experience to age groups ranging from 5 to 18 years old, making our message of environmental stewardship relevant to all visitors.

The Eco-Labs consist of five learning stations:
The Water Lab demonstrates the hydrologic cycle, including greywater and rainwater harvesting as opportunities to complete the cycle at your own home.  As a group, participants design a rainwater catchment system.
 
The Food Lab features a greenhouse, an interactive vegetable garden, and an outdoor classroom, where participants learn about seed germination, the life cycle of plants, and food harvesting and preparation.  

The Waste Lab which includes a chicken coop, orchard, vermicomposting bin, and recycling demonstration—shows participants how waste is an important part of the environment’s cycles.  Students feed worms and scraps to the chickens, then collect manure to fertilize the trees in the orchard.  

The Energy Lab encourages participants to explore all the different energy sources and needs of The Ecology Center’s home, the historic Congdon House.  Participants learn about energy efficiency and alternative technologies.  

The Shelter Lab is the final station of the Eco-Labs series, and includes native plants and a traditional kiiche shelter. Here, participants learn about how the people before us relied only on the native landscape and the environment’s natural cycles.

The Eco-Labs will serve as the focus of our school field trips, for general visitors during public open hours, and for other special events in late 2010 and for years to come.
 

How do the choices we make to satisfy our basic needs for food, water, shelter, and clothing impact the health of our communities and our environment?

To foster dialogue around some of today’s most pressing - and most tangible - environmental issues, The Ecology center is proud to announce our first Summer Speaker Series, to be held in San Juan Capistrano, California.

The purpose of the series is to provide a foundation for making decisions that have a positive ecological impact. To that end, we are providing a forum where the residents of Orange County can explore these crucial topics with cutting-edge thinkers from a variety of backgrounds.

August 26th / Community

Shaheen Sadeghi, local design visionary of The Lab and The Camp

Creator and founder of LAB enterprise, Shaheen Sadeghi, transferred a well respected career in the fashion industry into a revolutionary community for local culture. His visionary projects, The Lab + The Camp, weave community, culture and commerce into real estate innovation and place making.

Join us for an evening conversation, wine, beer and light fare from 6:30pm-9pm. Registration for this unique events is $15 for members/$25 for non-members. Guests can purchase tickets online or by calling 949.443.4223.

Possible only in partnership with:
Hurley, Volcom V.Co-logical, Whole Foods, New Belgium Brewery, Guayaki, VitaCoco, The City of San Juan Capistrano, Sambazon, and Meridian Graphics.

Backyard Skills at The Center for Living Peace

By providing the environment, classes and programs that help people develop the skills to bridge their positive intentions to conscious and responsible action, The Center for Living Peace aims to help people discover their own wisdom and gifts and to then share those gifts with the world. The Ecology Center is very proud to announce an off-site offering of our popular Backyard Skills series, made possible by The Center for Living Peace.

September 25th at 1pm: Learn how to make and fly your own Kite with Alyssa Duhe. Sign up here.