Act soon to apply your home energy improvement to your 2009 taxes

For you homeowners out there looking to get an $economic incentive$ on an energy efficient improvement to your home, time is running out if you want to claim it on your 2009 taxes.

To be able to apply the tax credit to your 2009 taxes, you must act before the deadline of DECEMBER 31st, 2009. Be able to celebrate that new year knowing that you took advantage of the best incentive to help save energy that we've ever been offered.

Already have in mind something you are looking to upgrade?

• Check the Energy Star's Federal Tax Credits for Energy Efficiency page for FAQs and details about what will qualify.
• Come tax time, use the most recent draft from the IRS form for Residential Energy Tax Credits.
• Remember, you'll need a manufacturer's certification statement for any products you intend to get a tax credit reimbursement. Many companies have their certification statements online.

$1,500 is the maximum applicable tax credits that can be claimed for most home improvements, EXCEPT for geothermal heat pumps, solar water heaters, solar panels, fuel cells, and small wind energy systems which are not subject to this cap, and are in effect through 2016!

Eat Local this Thanksgiving

We call it Turkey Day for a reason—Thanksgiving totally revolves around food, so what better day to support a localized food system? By adding one or more locally sourced dishes to your Thanksgiving menu, you’ll decrease your carbon footprint, help preserve local farmland, and support the local economy. Plus, you’ll get delicious, fresh, and unique foods to add to your Thanksgiving table. Most importantly, you can educate your friends and family on the benefits of eating local foods and show them how delicious and easy it can be.

Thanksgiving is a good holiday to take local because it’s a traditional harvest festival that celebrates seasonal food. That means it’s easy to make your favorite traditional dishes with local foods, just substitute some locally grown ingredients.

For example:

Mashed Potatoes make an easy start. You don’t have to change anything about your recipe, just buy some potatoes from the farmer’s market and mash them! You might encounter some interesting varieties; ask the vendor for a starchy or all-purpose variety.

Crudités, also known as the veggie tray, are another easy dish to take local. Replace the baby carrots with farmer’s market carrots that you cut up yourself, along with some local celery. Then add in some parsnips, and maybe you’ll introduce some kids to a new veggie!

Stuffing can incorporate homemade bread cubes. Use a homemade loaf or one from a local bakery, cut into 1-inch cubes. Toast the cubes in a 200-degree oven until dried through but not browned at all. Use these cubes in your favorite stuffing recipe, adding homemade stock for extra credit!

Pumpkin pie, that Thanksgiving classic, doesn’t have to come out of a can. Pick up a pie pumpkin (or another winter squash) at the farmers market. Carefully cut the pumpkin in half, scoop out the seeds (roast them for tasty treat), and place cut-side down on a rimmed baking sheet. Put the sheet in a 325-degree oven and pour a quarter-inch of water into the pan. Roast until tender, about 1 hour, adding more water to the pan if necessary. Let cool and then scoop the flesh out and puree it. Add the puree in place of the canned pumpkin in your favorite recipe. You can also do this several weeks ahead of time and save the puree in the freezer.

Apple pie is a great celebration of our local Washington produce. You can find Washington-grown apples in many grocery stores, even if you can’t make it to the farmer’s market. At the market ask for a tart variety, Pink Ladies are my favorite.

Turkey stock adds extra Thanksgiving flavor to stuffing, gravy, and various leftover creations. Ask a local butcher for soup bones, parts like turkey necks are often wasted because people don’t know how to use them any more. A few days ahead, boil these with an onion, a carrot, celery, and a turnip, along with some fresh thyme, sage and savory. Strain and save in the refrigerator or freezer until the big feast.

Cascade Harvest Coalition and Puget Sound Fresh are encouraging King County residents to take a pledge to add one local dish to their Thanksgiving table. Take the pledge and find more resources, like where to buy, what’s in season, and some new recipes, at eatlocalforthanksgiving.org.

Green Blocks In-Home Workshop

It was a busy weekend for the EOS Alliance team! Over at Maple School Natural area, 160 plants were given a new home by volunteers from the Garfield High School Key Club. It was a wet workday but all the effort paid off and we want to send a big “Thank You” to everyone who stopped by and helped make that green space a little bit greener.

Meanwhile, up in Wallingford a much smaller group was gathering to learn about do-it-yourself weatherization projects that every homeowner can undertake. Green Blocks participants Michael and Julie Kucher were kind enough to open up their home to a group of would-be home retrofitters who saw first hand how to install weatherstripping, insulate an attic hatch and seal up pesky cracks that silently whisk away heat from most of our homes.


Guided by local home efficiency guru Bob Thoreson, we bounced around the Kucher household performing a variety of retrofits with a range of difficulty levels. The most challenging proved to be the recessed can lights (see diagram), although the energy savings make that task well worth the effort. Bob carefully walked us step-by-step through the process, providing us with confidence to take this knowledge and apply it to our own homes.

More do-it-yourself workshops are in the planning stages for other Green Blocks neighborhoods and we are looking forward to the next opportunity to make practical, money saving changes in a real-life home!

EOS celebrates 4th annual Green Seattle Day

The Green Seattle Partnership was formed in 2004 as the result of an agreement between the city of Seattle and the Cascade Land Conservancy. In the past, 450 acres of land has been restored, 40,000 trees have been planted and over 300,000 volunteer hours have been logged thanks to the hard work and dedication of the community during Green Seattle Day.

This year the partnership set a goal to have 1,000 volunteers participate at 17 different sites all over Seattle. As a Green Seattle Community Partner, EOS Alliance spent Saturday, November 7th at the Maple School Natural Area planting native species of trees and shrubs across the 15 acre green space. We had 12 youth and 18 adult volunteers working with the Sustainability Team throughout the day.

Garfield HS Key Club hard at work

The morning skies seemed clear at first, but we were swallowing our hopes of a nice planting day after introductions and enjoying some morning snacks. As we finished our tool safety discussion and started to go into a demonstration of correct planting procedure, the rain started to come down hard. Regardless of the weather, the crew along with several volunteers from the Garfield High School Key Club trudged through the mud and carefully navigated across the slippery leaf-covered slope. We fought to keep the team morale high as our gloves quickly got heavy with mud and the cold rain started slow our progress. After just a couple of hours of hard work we were able to transplant many Red Alder, Big Leaf Maple, Douglas Fir, and Western Red Cedar trees along with Sword Ferns and various shrubs, such as Snowberry, Salal and Kinnikinnik. Due to the extreme weather conditions the EOS team decided to call off the planting early. Even though we had to cut the event short, over 100 plants made it into the ground.

Muddy, but still smiling

After regrouping and doing some quality control, the rain seemed to subside. Luckily, we had previously scheduled a second round of volunteers to show up around 1:30 PM for more planting. A group of about 15 members from a wedding party wanted to celebrate their special day by getting outside and making a difference in their community. The afternoon was beautiful and another 60 plants were brought to rest in their new home at the Maple School Natural Area. This brought our planting total to just about 160 for the day. All of the plants were donated to EOS by the Green Seattle Partnership. Overall, Green Seattle Day was a success and everyone involved gained something positive from the experience.

A great way to spend the day, even your wedding day!

For more information on Green Seattle Day or the Green Seattle Partnership visit:

http://www.greenseattle.org/

The Salmon Are Coming!

The salmon is an inconic species for Washington. They are not only a key species in the natural heritage of the Pacific Northwest, but are essential to the continued health of their ecosystem as they “fuel” the natural environment. So how could I say “no” to the opportunity to become a Salmon Steward at Carkeek Park in Seattle?

Carkeek Park is located in northwest Seattle and occupies land in the Pipers Creek Watershed. From early November thru early December, chum salmon return to Pipers Creek. During this time, volunteers called Salmon Stewards educate the public concerning salmon topics. I received this training, and feel that I've already learned so much about this amazing animal.

Of all the things I learned during my training, two subjects impacted me the most: the connection between salmon and an ecoystem, and the importance for individuals to take careful action in preserving this species.

Salmon are a keystone species for coastal ecosystems. Salmon runs act as pumps, pushing marine nutrients upstream to the headwaters of rivers. The salmon themselves serve as a primary food for aquatic invertibrates, fish, bears, eagles, minks, and river otters. Salmon-derived nutrition allows many animals to survive the winter. Salmon carcasses carried into the forest by bears can even act as fertilizers for trees!

Now for the bad news. Every two years there is an oil spill the size of the Exxon Valdez in the Puget Sound as a result of pollution from automotive oil and exhaust. Stormwater enters our watersheds and carries along with it oil from car engines, copper from brakes, zinc from tires, roofing run-off, pesticides, herbicides, and pet feces. All of these things combine to make life tough for our urban salmon friends. Reduced car trips, rain gardens, organic substitutes for traditional pesticides/herbicides, and picking up after your pet are all actions we can take to save our salmon.

And if you need any convincing that salmon are worth saving, stop by Carkeek Park on a weekend, early November thru early December. Or attend the Piper's Creek Salmon Celebration on Friday, November 27^th. Nothing speaks more loudly for salmon than the sight of a 2^3/4 feet long fish swimming in Seattle. So come learn, celebrate, and care for this incredible resident of our city!