Laguna’s Green Legacy and Its Path Forward
Last week’s Indy ran a poignant memorial honoring a true environmental hero, Dr. Elizabeth Brown, whose name is synonymous with many of the good works of Laguna Greenbelt, Inc. I regret that I had too few interactions with her. Other local environmental luminaries with whom I had more interactions included Jim Dilley and Lida Lenny. The triumvirate’s examples of dreaming big and acting boldly are seldom far from my mind.
The thinking and leadership of these three Laguna advocates for nature have left a distinct imprint on the culture and official policies of our town. They inspired untold numbers of others, including myself, to work for cleaner air, more open space, coastal ecology, and, especially now, the overarching imperative for a livable climate.
Programmatically, this translates into our City Council transitioning our community away from fossil fuel energy. A first step would be council approving at the soonest date possible Laguna’s adoption of Community Choice Aggregation (energy) and joining the Orange County Power Authority. This move would align our city with best practices, as already evidenced by Irvine, Fullerton, and Buena Park. We would be buying competitively priced solar, wind, geothermal, and biomass-generated electricity like more than 25 million other Californians whose cities have already made this move away from climate-warming fossil fuels. Switching to clean energy to run our homes and businesses is a cost-effective, practical step cities can take to mitigate the effects of a warming climate.
A second step would be for our City Council to take advantage of existing federal incentives via the pathbreaking Inflation Reduction Act to install solar panels on homes, government buildings, and business centers. Federal monies are available, including a $7,500 tax credit for purchasers of a new, qualified plug-in EV, or fuel cell electric vehicle (FCV). Hopefully, the long-anticipated Climate Action and Adaptation Plan being written for our city will provide vital information for residents on how to tap the IRA provisions to electrify our homes and modes of transportation.
Our coastal ecology would doubtlessly be served by restoring the Aliso Creek estuary, whose beauty has been famously captured on canvas by painter William Wendt and, likely, other artists. The Laguna Ocean Foundation has been doing the heavy scientific lifting to document how best to go about this restoration project that would address much of the riparian pollution that wends its way down Aliso Creek into the ocean. Once a healthy pond is restored at the site schoolchildren and others will have a living laboratory to learn about the functioning of natural systems to protect estuarine wildlife and habitat.
This dive into Laguna’s environmental legacy would be remiss if the efforts of local groups are not thanked for their recent and ongoing efforts to protect our trails and educate the community on issues that affect our health, our hills, and our shores. Thanks to the Laguna Bluebelt coalition leaders and their allies for educating the public on the risks of using the herbicide glyphosate (Roundup) to control the build-up of fuels that feed wildfires. Thanks to the Jim Dilley-inspired and Dr. Elizabeth Brown-led Laguna Greenbelt for protecting the South Coast Wilderness and championing a wildlife corridor. Thanks to the Lida Lenny-founded Laguna Canyon Conservancy for organizing two recent forums publicizing the efforts of local groups involved in promoting open space ecology, water quality, and healthier coastal habitats. Thanks for initiatives taken by the Laguna chapter of Citizens’ Climate Lobby to encourage the transition from fossil fuels to clean energy and the electrification of our homes and city services. And thanks to the South Laguna Civic Association for managing our city’s only community garden, which provides the public with green space for the growing of vegetables and other plants that absorb carbon dioxide and help clean the air.
Jim Dilley, Lida Lenny and Dr. Elizabeth Brown have bestowed on our town a priceless green legacy on which we are building a future for the Lagunans of tomorrow.
Tom Osborne, with his wife, Ginger, co-leads the Laguna chapter of Citizens’ Climate Lobby.
