Food

1) Food Inventory
2) Brookside Farm
3) WISC Community Garden
4) Mendocino County's Local Food Guide
5) Grateful Gleaners

6) Annual Harvest Festival

7) Annual Locovore Campaign

8) Food Preservation & Storage Education

9) Food Security Plan and survey of all food retailers (WAG)

10) Annual meetings of local Food Producers and local Food Retailers/Restaurants

11) Annual Local Farm Tour (with more farms each year).

1) Local Food Distribution Network (WAG) Grant Received
2) Solar Food Dehydrators for Brookside Farm (Seed Grant)

3) Root Crop Storage test at Brookside Farm (Seed Grant)

4) Dry Land Grain Demonstration (MidWIFE Grant, and Grant Application to PG&E)

5) Happy Belly CSA for Non-Vegetable Foods (Seed Grant)

6) Partnership between local grower and local restaurant to grow local organic potatoes.

 7) Weekly articles about the Local Food Web in the Willits Nickel and Dime keep the successes and challenges of the local food system on everyone's mind. (Written by WELL President)

8) Classes in Spanish on sustainable technology and permaculture (Seed Grant)

9) The Mendocino County Jail has established an organic garden to train inmates and to supplement their diet.

10) Shamrock Artisan Goat dairy is now operating in Little Lake Valley.

11) Ford Ranch, which raises grass fed beef in Little Lake Valley, is now using a slaughter house in Eureka (150 miles away) to produce FDA inspected beef for sale in Little Lake Valley.

12) The Willits Unified School District has updated their cafeteria policies to create a preference for local and organic food.

13) An active Bee Keepers Guild is encouraging local honey production.

14) The Mendocino County Farmers Market has added a ‘chip' program allowing members to purchase chips that can be used at any stall.

15) Several local community gardens are trading Farmer's Market Chips for hours worked by low income residents.

1) Methods of encouraging and facilitating small-scale agriculture in the context of Zoning laws requiring large parcel minimum sizes

2) Explore food growing opportunities and alliances with the growing Hispanic population in Willits

3) A community food processing kitchen for preservation and processing of locally grown foods.

4) The Willits High School is revising it agriculture program and has asked for WELL collaboration in developing the new one.

5) A comprehensive Food Security Plan for the county including Short Term, Medium Term, and Long Term solutions inclusive of Subsidized, Homegrown, and Market strategies that provide for Food Sourcing, Preservation, Storage, and Distribution in a post carbon economy.

6) As an element of this Food Security Plan we are pursuing Federal Funding of "Homeland Security Gardens", cached emergency food, and Garden Training to spread the process as quickly and efficiently as possible.

Food Continued

16) A local organization is acquiring a Food Stamp Reader for use at the Farmers Market.

17) A local restaurant has collaborated with one of the WELL board members on a cooperative potato farming project for use in the restaurant and for local sale.

18) Another local CSA Farm has been established in the Little Lake Valley including vegetables and milk.

19) The Willits Charter School has added cooking classes focused on local foods.

20) Sanhedrin High School, an alternative school operated by the Willits Unified School District, has a new garden program tended by students and focused on permaculture methodology.

21) Patrick Renick, an elder of the local Pomo tribe, has been giving classes on local wild crafting of native foods (such as acorns and seaweed).

22) Several regular gardening classes are now being held on various schedules, including one at the Brookside Farm specifically under WELL auspices.

Transportation

1) Grant awarded to the city for the first section of an off-highway bicycle arterial north to south through the town

2) Bike path plan completed

1) Grant for Second section of Bicycle arterial in application stage

2) Grant application for city ‘Green' planning process submitted to Caltrans.

3) Support for the Energy Working Group Report for the County General Plan Update

4) Active support for NCRA operation of North-South tracks for Freight and Passenger service

5) Grant awarded to City from California Healthy Cities to complete the process of getting the Willits Bike and Pedestrian Plan adopted into the City General Plan.

1) Completion of the Bike path

2) Bike racks installed throughout the City

3) Electric ultra light rail pilot project

4) Hostel situated in town for use by rural residents to minimize trips and allow alternative transportation options

5) Minibus routes to key outlying locations

6) The City is joining the Safe Routes to School Program.

Green Building

1) REDI HELP Program retrofitting homes for more efficient Energy Usage (Seed Grant recipient for two cycles)
2) The construction of the new Howard Memorial Hospital, which will be the first hospital in California built to Green Building standards, broke ground this summer.

1) The City is currently updating their building code and General Plan to accommodate and encourage Green Building Practices, reviewed by WELL and others

2) A list of local companies/people that are manufacturing alternative/natural/green building materials is currently being compiled by a group in Ukiah.

1.  Local "sustainability Tour" of energy-efficient and natural, local-built structures (similar to the Local Food Tour)
2. Financing process for Green Retrofitting of commercial and residential properties in Willits according to new building code.

Clean Energy

1) Energy Inventory complete for zip code
2) Energy Inventory updated for the entire county by the Energy Working Group
3) Both the City of Willits and the County of Mendocino have joined ICLEI's climate-change program.

1) The City water system is currently being converted to Solar Power to run the primary pumping station.

3) The Bank of Willits has added sufficient solar panels and technology to be a net producer of electricity to the PG&E electrical grid.

1) The creation of a community choice aggregation (CCA) or a community-owned utility at the county level.

2) Collaborative process to facilitate installation of alternative technologies in outlying properties

3) Various co-housing/small agriculture projects

Water

1) Water studies including our City Water System and the Watershed, were completed and published in 2007

2) The Mayor's Water Conservation Challenge

3) Recent alliances between the ranchers in our area and the environmentalist community to prevent the drilling of deep wells as a ‘quick fix' to the City's water shortage issues (Willits Water Wisdom)

1) WELL assisted the City in applying for a Grant to: hire a City Water Conservation Manager, install Water Catchment demonstrations, affect Graywater Recycling Study and Demonstration, and fund code updates for various responsible agencies to allow and encourage the same. (Awarded and underway)

2) The Willits Watershed Mural is gathering funding, (Seed Grant awarded for two grant cycles and the project has been granted status as WELL project to allow other 501c3 grants).

1) A watershed-wide alliance and plan for sustainable water development.
2) City matching funds for installation of Rain Water Catchment and Graywater Recycling in homes and businesses.

Health

1) An Herbal Mentoring Network, educating youth about the cultivation, processing, and use of herbal (and thus local) remedies (Seed Grant awarded)
2) Medicine Chest Gardens Project, establishing medicinal herb gardens, with training in their use, at as many homes as practicable in the Willits area. (Seed Grant Awarded)

3) Conference on Built Environment well attended in Oct 2007

1) The Willits Area Health and Healing Arts Professionals Directory (Seed Grant awarded for two grant cycles)
2) The expansion of a local Hospice, including a community-available bereavement garden (Seed Grant awarded)

3) The Green Hospital currently in construction, with its proposed organic garden to feed both patients and staff.

4) WHAT 10,000 Step Walk path established and being further developed.  Two well attended walks have occurred with others planned.

5) An annual Kid's Health & Fitness Fair.

1) A Diabetes center at the new hospital, possibly funded by BIA through connections with the local Pomo tribe.

Cultural

1) The last year has seen the establishment or reestablishment of several cultural events that are taking on a localization theme: the annual Harvest Festival, the Earth Day celebration, the Street Fairs sponsored by Local First!, and the growing Farmer's Market.
2) WELL participated for the first time in the Frontier Days Parade on July 4^th.

3) The Little Lake Grange, whose membership had been aging past the point of active participation, has been revitalized by a large increase of membership from those interested in Localization.
4) KZYX&Z, a local listener-supported FM Radio Station, broadcasts on alternating Monday mornings, the Renewable Energy Hour with Michael Hackleman and the Reality Report with Jason Bradford.  Each are 1 hour talk shows that educate and interact with the local community, and bring guest speakers, authors, and government representatives into a public forum discussing Renewable Energy and Localization issues.

5) A monthly film series featuring timely films.

1) Continued production of the Harvest Festival, the Earth Day Festival, and support of the Local First! Street Fairs and the Farmer's Market

2) The Farmer's Market has received a grant to expand in Willits and we are looking for ways to coordinate efforts.

3) The establishment of the Willits Contra Dance (Seed Grant awarded).

4) Facilitating more consistent use of the various community calendars to avoid local events competing and encourage collaboration between local organizations.

5) A part-time employee to actively encourage each WELL member to plug into the projects about which they feel most passionate.