Pacific Gas and Electric (PG&E) announced today a $25,000 commitment to support the Sacramento Tree Foundation and Greenwise Joint Venture in an effort to plant 30,000 trees in the Sacramento region by March 8, 2013 (Arbor Day). The 30k Trees Campaign engages volunteer organizations, individuals, businesses and local governments by adding trees to the Sacramento area to grow a healthy, livable community. Support from PG&E will help fund 10 tree planting events around the region over the next year. “We are committed to this campaign because we understand the importance of trees to the vitality of our communities,” said Jimi Harris, community relations manager for PG&E. “We realize a healt

Get your tree on! The Sacramento Tree Foundation is teaming up with Greenwise Joint Venture to generate 30,000 tree-planting pledges over a 30-day period, March 7 through April 8. The 30k Trees Campaign engages volunteer organizations, individuals, businesses and community groups by adding trees to the Sacramento region to grow a healthy, livable community. The ultimate goal of the campaign is to plant 30,000 trees throughout 2012. People can take part in the campaign by donating money to purchase trees, providing tree-planting locations, organizing a tree-planting event or simply by volunteering to plant a tree. To learn more about the 30k Trees Campaign and make a pledge, visit www.3

With the Check Before You Burn season underway, the Sacramento Metropolitan Air Quality Management District wants to let the public know about its Wood Stove & Fireplace Change Out Incentive Program. Low income residents or landlords of low income rental properties may be eligible to get a voucher for up to $1,500. To find more information about the Wood Stove & Fireplace Change Out Incentive Program please visit the following link http://airquality.org/woodstove/SpecialNotice.shtml ###

The Forbes magazine list of dirtiest cities, with respect to air polution, is out and Sacramento is #10, with 6 other CA cities in the top 10.  Here's the list with comments taken directly from the source material (including an unfortunately worded remark about San Diego) - more details can be found here. #10 Sacramento-Arden-Arcade-Yuba City, CA-NV A little better than Bakersfield and Fresno, but Sacramento still suffers stagnant air stuck in the San Joaquin Valley. #9 San Diego-Carlsbad-San Marcos, CA There's no dirty coal plants here, and you'd think the ocean breeze would keep the air clean, but San Diego has a big port and busy highways that lead to and from Mexico. #8 Phoenix-M

Check Before You Burn Starts November 1 in Sacramento County and its Cities The fifth season of the Sacramento Metropolitan Air Quality Management District’s Check Before You Burn program starts November 1 and runs through February 29, 2012. Residential wood burning will be restricted or prohibited on days when fine particle pollution is forecast to be high. The law is in effect in Sacramento County and its cities of Citrus Heights, Elk Grove, Folsom, Galt, Isleton, Rancho Cordova and Sacramento. Residents are required to Check Before You Burn. The District will restrict or prohibit the use of indoor and outdoor fireplaces and wood stoves, and fire pits and chimineas that burn wood, pell

Daisies, Tomatoes and Parsnips, Oh My! The relationship between what you grow and the air you breathe Researchers at the University of Virginia found that air pollution is destroying flower fragrance, making it harder for bees to find flowers when foraging. This proves that the relationship between the air we breathe and what we grow can be a crucial factor on whether your garden will have the best petunias on the block or whether they fall flat. The Sacramento Metropolitan Air Quality Management District and the air districts of the region want to provide tips on how you can make the most out of your garden. This can be done while reducing pollutants in the air you breathe and bringing

Living in the city and wondering how you can do your part to Spare The Air and maintain your glamorous self? The Sacramento Metropolitan Air Quality Management District and the air districts of the Sacramento region have five trendy tips to help you learn how to help improve the air quality while being chic in the Sacramento region. 1. Be a Nerd Doing your part to help the environment and society is not always easy. You are studying for your biology midterm and not quite sure why it has to involve frogs. Then, last week you picked up an extra shift at the coffee shop to pay for that can’t-take-my-eyes-off-every-time-I-walk-past-the-window scarf at the boutique on J Street. On top of work

 How to Care for Your Car and Spare The Air Tips on Taking Better Care of Your Car While Reducing Air Pollution We all know that owning a car is an ongoing responsibility that requires dedication, time, effort and money. Ultimately, the lifespan and value of a car depends on the amount of care it’s given along the way. The everyday care and simple “tune-ups” can be quite easy to brush to the side in the rush of our everyday lives, but a task that we wish we would have stayed on top of by the time we’re forking over the big bucks to pay for parts and labor to fix major car problems. Personal car use is the nation’s biggest contributor to air pollution. For this reason, keeping up with the

The Sacramento Metropolitan Air Quality Management District will host Scooter’s Clean Air Pet Fest and 1st Birthday Party this Saturday, May 21, 2011. The festivities will take place from 10:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. alongside the dog park at Howe Avenue Park, located on the corner of Howe Avenue and Cottage Way in Sacramento. This free, pet-friendly event will kick off the 2011 Spare The Air season, which takes place every year from May through the end of October. The Spare The Air program offers different tips and tactics that can be used to help reduce air pollution in the Sacramento region. Scooter and several of his mascot friends will gather to celebrate Scooter’s first birthday and pro

SECAT (Sacramento Emergency Clean Air & Transportation Grant Program) had a banner year in 2010, closing out the application process early due to “overwhelming response” and ending its first decade with over $75 million already allocated to help replace on-road heavy-duty diesel vehicles in the Sacramento area with lower emission vehicles. Created by California Assembly Bill 2511 to help the Sacramento region meet its air quality attainment commitments under the State Implementation Plan (SIP), SECAT is a partnership between Sacramento Metropolitan Air Quality Management District (SMAQMD) and the Sacramento Area Council of Governments (SACOG) that provides grant funds to replace on-road h

In April 2009, I summarized a story from Forbes that listed Sacramento as America's 6th dirtiest city for air polution, primarily ozone.  We were also ranked sixth in short-term particle pollution. That brief story can be found here. The latest list still has us at sixth for short-term particle pollution, but Sacramento has dropped to 9th dirtiest overall.  Meanwhile, California has gone from having 6 cities in the list to having 7/10 of the dirtiest cities, including the top 5. The ten dirtiest (in terms of air quality) cities in America, according to the American Lung Association and as reported by Forbes: 1: Bakersfield, Calif. 2: Los Angeles - Long Beach - Riverside, Calif. 3: Fres

 Tree clean our air and water, store carbon in their trunks, create habitat for wildlife, reduce air pollution, increase property values, and provide countless other benefits. The Sacramento Tree Foundation works to leverage all of the benefits that trees provide to create healthy and sustainable communities through building the best urban forest in the Sacramento region. A major keystone in building the best urban forest is the Greenprint initiative, a multi-decade regional framework created to meet Sacramento's sustainability and livability goals by expanding urban forests and optimizing the benefits of tree canopies. Greenprint partners, comprised of 22 cities and 6 counties, have agree

Clumsy title, 15 locations, serious topic: This ranking reflects number of exceedence days by location: 1. Folsom-42 2. Placerville-24 2. Roseville-24 4. Cool-21 5. Sacramento-Del Paso Manor-18 5. Sloughouse-18 7. Auburn-17 8. Sacramento T Street-10 9. Colfax-9 10. Davis-8 11. Vacaville-6 12. Elk Grove-5 12. Woodland-5 13. North Highlands-4 According to the Air District the heavy measuring period is May through October. These numbers reflect state one-hour ozone exceedence standard of .09 parts-per-million. Ground-level ozone is formed when volatile organic compounds (VOCs) and oxides of nitrogen (NOx) react with the sun’s ultraviolet rays. The primary source of VOCs and N