On this Mother's Day weekend, May 12-13, please join with us in planting a tree to clean our air and honor Utah's mothers. Plants are nature's air filters. Besides the carbon dioxide that plants inspire while expiring oxygen and storing the carbon in the form of trunks, roots, branches, and leaves, the stomata or pores on the leaf surface of some plants absorb dangerous pollutants like benzene, formaldehyde, ozone, and carbon monoxide. In addition, trees appropriate to the climate and placed with consideration to the overall solar gain of the home can reduce water and heating and cooling energy consumption. If you plant the tree around your own home, you have the added personal benefit of cleaning up the air right where you breathe the most.
This weekend, we ask that while you are honoring the mothers in your lives you plant a tree. Take a photo and send it to us along with the story of your tree-planting so we can add it to our website. Even if you don't take a photo, please let us know if you participated at supermoms@utahmomsforcleanair.org.
For a list of climate-appropriate, drought tolerant trees for our area, visit this page on Tree Utah's website: http://treeutah.org/articles_droughttole
We recommend that you take this list to your local nursery, ask for someone who really knows trees and then tell them exactly where you live. That way the nursery representative should have a good idea of the soil conditions and then can make a suggestion from the list. Any tree will have some impact on air quality, but deciduous trees, fast-growing trees, and trees with larger stomata on their leaves will clean up the air faster because their metabolic rate is higher and they can fix more carbon dioxide and more pollutants.
Here are some sources for acquiring trees: The most straightforward option is to go to a local nursery. Many nurseries are having special sales this weekend. For plants that aren't trees, the Wasatch Community Gardens annual plant sale is this Saturday from 8am to 1pm. See http://www.wasatchgardens.org/plantsale.h
If planting a tree is not possible this weekend, consider adding an indoor plant to your home. This will help purify the air within your home and benefit your family. See How to Grow Fresh Air: 50 Houseplants That Purify Your Home or Office for more information on using houseplants for air purification.
And if you cannot plant a tree or other plant with us this weekend, consider making a donation to Tree Utah or some other organization that promotes green space and trees in Utah.
Please pass this suggestion along to the mothers in your life, and consider buying a tree or plant for a Mother's Day gift. If you would like more information or to join Utah Moms for Clean Air, please email supermoms@utahmomsforcleanair.org. Also, visit our website at www.utahmomsforcleanair.org for more ideas on how to clean up Utah's air.
There's a meeting tonight that Utah Moms for Clean Air has asked members to attend. Huge turn out to meetings like this can have a big impact. The meeting is tonight at 7:00 pm at the West Bountiful City building (550 north 800 west):
Directions from Salt Lake City: going north on I-15, take the 400 north exit and go west over the highway. take a right at the first stop sign. the city building is on your right just after the school.
A letter from one of the organizers of Utah Moms for Clean Air wrote:
" . . .in essence, the intermountain
power agency (IPA) is trying to finance its third
coal-fired power plant in delta by selling energy to
small out-of-state minicpilities, such as wasco county
in oregon.
the reason why we need to show up at this meeting is
that this plant will be built in OUR state, WE will
suffer all of the toxic pollution consequences and
receive NONE of the energy generated, meanwhile,
orgeon gets cheap power at the expense of OUR
children's health. clearly, this is a moral and
ethical issue and as moms, we must stand up for our
children's right to breathe clean air."
You don't have to be a mom to show up at this protest -- just a Utah resident concerned about our air quality:
- that Logan's air ranks 5th worst in the nation and that Salt Lake City's air is 7th worst?
- that infants' lungs are not fully developed at birth, and children living in areas with high pollution will never fully develop their lungs?
- Industry lobbyists usually have access to our lawmakers and regulatory agencies. The best way to combat that is to let our officials know what you, the average citizens of this state, want. That's why Utah Moms for Clean Air is encouraging us to write a short note or post card to the Air Quality Board to let them know that we our concerned about our air quality:
Air Quality Board
c/o Rick Sprott Director
Division of Air Quality
150 North 1950 West
Salt Lake City, Utah 84116
c/o Rick Sprott Director
Division of Air Quality
150 North 1950 West
Salt Lake City, Utah 84116
Year after year I’ve felt frustrated about the bad air problems that we have here in the Salt Lake valley. This past winter was the hardest for me – it seemed like such a huge problem and I didn’t have a clue where to start to do something about it. I was excited to learn that a doctors group had organized on this issue, and even more excited when I learned that a mothers’ group was forming.
I attended the first meeting of Utah Moms for Clean Air tonight. I was heartened to see that about 60 people + children turned out at the Foothill library. There was a lot of information presented and a lot to take in, so I’ll probably parse out a “Did you know” post a day or something so as not to overload and overwhelm.
The group will be taking a 3 prong approach to eliminating much of our pollution: 1) government/regulatory/laws 2) corporate/industry and 3) personal responsibility/education.
UMFCA (?) has a web domain reserved (although the site is not yet up): utahmomsforcleanair.org
UPDATE: site is now up, but still under construction.
To get on the email list to find out about future meetings or online participation and what you can do to get involved, you can write to utahmomsforcleanair@gmail.com
Political Sightings at the first meeting of Utah Moms for Clean AirRalph Becker (SLC mayoral candidate and Utah House Minority Leader)
Jenny Wilson (SLC mayoral candidate and Salt Lake County councilwoman)
Christine Johnson (Utah House, District 25)
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