Wild & Scenic fundraiser

What could be better than wild and scenic?
It’s almost time once again for the South Yuba River Citizens League (SYRCL) to bring its Wild & Scenic Film Festival to Chico. The Nevada City-based festival, which is in its 11th year of touring the United States, hits the Sierra Nevada Brewing Co.’s Big Room Sept. 21. The event is a benefit for local nonprofit environmental group Friends of Butte Creek (FBC).

“The Friends of Butte Creek is the single most active nonprofit group working to raise awareness and ensure continued improvements in the habitat conditions for [chinook salmon],” said FBC founder Allen Harthorn. “We do an annual fundraiser to support our all-volunteer team and provide the public with the most comprehensive website, newsletter and updates on the state of the creek and the salmon.

“We gather annually at the premier venue of our major supporter, Sierra Nevada Brewing Co., to share the wonders of our creek and feature great films of the environmental wonders of our planet.”

The films are selected from an extensive list of 2012’s Wild & Scenic film-fest movies, said Harthorn. FBC “brings the top films to Chico where guests can enjoy a marvelous ‘farmers’-market buffet,’ sample delicious beverages from Sierra Nevada [and] bid on quality silent-auction art and other items.”

“Festival-goers can expect to see award-winning films about nature, community activism, adventure, conservation, water, energy and climate change, wildlife, environmental justice, agriculture, Native American and indigenous cultures,” says the festival’s website. “This year’s selections will not only take audiences to some of the most remote and beautiful places on the planet, but [also] introduce them to the magnificent animals that inhabit these places and the courageous individuals who are working to protect and preserve both for future generations.”

Advance tickets are $15 for films only ($20 at the door) and $30 for films and buffet ($35 at the door). Tickets for attendees age 17 and under are $9. Tickets are available at Pure Skin Chico (136 West Third St.), the Chico Natural Foods Cooperative (818 Main St.) and at brownpapertickets.com.

Go to www.wildandscenicfilmfestival.org and to www.buttecreek.org to learn more.

More upcoming goodness
The good people of Cultivating Community NV and GRUB are teaming up to present two interesting, useful (and free!) workshops in September. On Sept. 8, from 2-4 p.m., Kalan Redwood of Manton-based Redwood Organic Seeds will present a workshop on Seed Saving at the Chico Grange Hall’s Seed-Saving Garden (2775 Nord Ave.), and on Sept. 19, from 6-8 p.m., Chico State ag professor (and Organic Vegetable Project adviser) Lee Altier will co-lead a class with Fred Thomas called Cover Crops: Building Healthy Soil at the University Farm (311 Nicholas C. Schouten Lane). Altier and Thomas’ class will cover “crop selection, planting, and incorporation, as well as how to use cover crops for weed suppression,” according to a recent press release. “Especially useful for vegetable farmers, the content will focus on practical information on how to effectively synchronize winter and summer cover crops with vegetable production and address solutions to common problems.”

Go to www.cultivatingcommunitynv.org or call Jonah at 588-0585 to sign up (pre-registration strongly suggested).