Support Your Neighborhood School & Recycle Too!

Monte Sano Elementary students are competing with other city schools to collect the most plastic bottle caps to recycle.  Huntsville’s Operation Green Team is sponsoring the contest and will award $1000.00 to the school that collects the most plastic screw-on caps.  Many people don’t know that plastic caps can be recycled and Monte Sano Elementary families hope to spread the word and do our part in this recycling effort.  Please join us in this effort and collect as many caps as you can.  Ask friends and neighbors, people at your workplace or churches to contribute.  Beginning this weekend, there will be a bin set up at the school and also near the recycling bins next to The Little Green Store.  Please rinse dirt off caps and put in one of the collection bins.  The Monte Sano Elementary Green Team student group will collect these through March.  Types of screw-on caps include: soda bottle caps, liquid laundry detergent caps, medicine caps, milk carton tops, ketchup/mustard/mayo/salad dressing/peanut butter/syrup caps etc.  Basically any plastic cap that screws on.  You would be surprised how many we use on a daily basis and how quickly they add up!!  Please contact Laura at lwren@knology.net or 658-2196 if you have any questions. Thank you for all your support! 

Harvey Cotten –Replacing Invasive Plants with Natives, Tuesday, Feb. 28th

Harvey Cotten, Chief Horticulturist at the Huntsville Botanical Garden, and co-author of Easy Gardens For the South will speak at the Monte Sano State Park Lodge on Tuesday, 6:30 p.m. on Feb. 28th. Harvey is the past president of the Alabama Invasive Plant Council, and has a commanding grasp on the problems with invasive plants usurping our natural environment.  As a horticulturalist, he contributes many helpful articles on gardening every Saturday in the Huntsville Times, and has had many articles on invasive plants and what to plant in their stead, as well as being a weekly guest on WAAY-31.  Harvey will bring some of his Easy Gardens books for anyone to purchase.

National Invasive Species Awareness Week  (NISAW) Feb 26-March 3

The National Invasive Species Council –representing state councils all over the US, is recognizing the environmental degradation that is caused by invasive species, by holding week long events during NISAW.  The City of Huntsville is recognizing the problems with invasive plant species management by holding a workshop on Saturday, March 3, from 9 a.m. to Noon.  The workshop is open to homeowners and land managers alike, and will be held at the Public Services Building at 320 Fountain Circle (the old library).  The first part of the morning will deal with identification and control of Madison County’s worst invasive plants, and will be followed by a field practicum at Maple Hill Park.  Participants should wear long pants, gloves, and bring long handled loppers, pruning saws, or weed eaters with brush blades.  For more information, call Soos at 256-564-8084.  

Backyard Wildlife Habitat Workshop—Monday  March 5th, 6:30 p.m. by Soos Weber

Master Gardener Herb Lewis will give a workshop on the enjoyment and benefits of gardening for birds and other wildlife, at the Monte Sano State Park Lodge. Techniques for turning your yard into a thriving wildlife habitat include methods for feeding, providing shelter and housing, and incorporating water features into the garden.  Handouts will be available to help turn your yard into a critter wonderland, and to possibly Certify it through the National Wildlife Federation.  More information can be found at 256-509-1219.  Cost:  $5 per family for materials.

40 Days of Healthy Living (continued)

Then a team of health professionals (Dr. Bill English, Dr. Eric & Tracy Beck, Dr. Kelly Lynn, Lynn Leach, Dr. Roger Rinn, Dr. Ned Ready, and Rev. Dale Clem) will help us stay healthy by addressing issues such as flexibility & stretching, coping with stress, breathing, muscular/skeletal health, giving hand & arm massage, preventing chronic illness, reconditioning preventing a heart attack, emotional health, prayer and meditation. Each session from 6:45-7:30 will have a component of movement, information about our body, tips for emotional health. On March 14 we will have a health screening where participants can go from booth to booth with a report card and have professionals check blood pressure, blood sugar, eyes, flexibility, heart, etc. and have a panel discussion. Participants should wear loose fitting clothing so they can comfortably do the exercise/movement component. We also encourage participants to use the workbook: “40 Days for Better Heatlh” by Dr. Scott Morris. Workbooks are available at the church for $9. Schedule