Politics & Government

Inspired by El Cerrito, Albany Starts "Green Team" Volunteer Program

Taking a cue from El Cerrito, Albany is launching a "Green Team" program for citizen volunteers to help foster nature and wildlife habitat and make the city more beautiful.

The City of Albany is following in El Cerrito's footsteps in establishing a "Green Team" program for volunteers to make the city a greener, more attractive place to live.

The Albany initiative is an expansion of its existing Volunteer Corps program, which matches citizen volunteers with various city departments and programs. The new Green Team effort is intended to help plant trees, remove invasive plants, "adopt" storm drains and conduct clean-ups of the Ohlone Greenway and Albany Beach.

"We took the idea from them ()," said Erica Petrofsky, coordinator of the Albany effort. She said the volunteers will work with the Albany's Urban Forester and with community organizations such as Friends of Five Creeks.

Find out what's happening in El Cerritowith free, real-time updates from Patch.

El Cerrito resident Dave Weinstein, leader of the El Cerrito Green Teams, said he came up with the name "Green Teams" when the city's Environmental Quality Committee, on which he serves as vice chair, was discussing ways to involve volunteers on a more systematic or regular basis in efforts to enhance the city's environment.

The city's environmental services manager, Melanie Mintz, described Dave as "the real spark" behind the Green Teams, while acknowledging that several other individuals played key roles. The program grew, she said, from the city's Environmental Quality Committee, a citizen panel proposed by Councilwoman Janet Abelson with help from then Councilwoman Letitia Moore and approved by the Council in March 2008.

Find out what's happening in El Cerritowith free, real-time updates from Patch.

"It's a combination of the City Council, city staff and residents working together that created this synergy," Mintz said.

At the same time that Weinstein was working on the idea for the Environmental Quality Committee, Garth Schultz, an environmental analyst on the city staff who works with the committee, said he had been approached by citizens who had volunteered for the city's annual Earth Day projects saying, "Hey, it'd be great to do something like this throughout the year."

"We all just kind of came together over a period of a year or so," Schultz said.

The first project was a tree-planting effort in October of 2009, and there have been 14 other Green Team events since then involving 215 volunteers, Schultz said. Some are citizens who've volunteered several times and others have participated once or twice.

Recent El Cerrito Green Team projects coordinated by Weinstein included a litter on Jan. 22, a on Nov. 13, and on Aug. 21. and BART employees were partners in the Nov. 13 event, and Albany High School's Leo Club tackled Cerrito Creek during the Central Park clean-up.

Those interested in volunteering for an Albany Green Team project can contact Petrofsky at epetrofsky@albanyca.org or (510) 528-5765.

Anyone who'd like to join an El Cerrito Green Team activity can Schultz at gschultz@ci.el-cerrito.ca.us or visit www.el-cerrito.org/esd/greenteams.html.

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