Sustainable Tahlequah applied for and was awarded a grant from the Cherokee Nation in 2009-2010 that enabled us to purchase fruit trees for planting in publicly-accessible spaces in and around Tahlequah. The purposes of our grant included: 1. Encourage healthy food options -- fruits and nuts Those goals, and the ideas we had about meeting them, encompass what are widely considered the three key sustainability principles and include environmental, social justice and economic goals. Since a main focus of our group since its formation has been "community resiliency", the grant met many of our organizational objectives. 2. Promote 350 awareness and the importance of lowering the amount of carbon in the atmosphere 3. Help provide food security to local people by planting food bearing trees in public spaces and/or spaces accessible to the public 4. Help improve air quality 5. Educate the public about the many benefits of planting food-bearing trees and how to plant and care for food-bearing trees 6. Expand riparian zones near stream banks to stabilize soil and slow stormwater runoff Resiliency means that a community is well prepared to meet its own needs in both good times and bad. It wasn't that long ago when nearly everyone had a few fruit trees in their yard and every farm had a small orchard and knew how to care for it. Food is the most important part of community resiliency planning. As our trees are planted in the spring of 2011, the planting locations will be posted here. In the attachments section below you will find the fruit tree care handouts that were given out at our November 13 Workshop. |