ESRAG Committee Creation

Rotary Club of Maple Grove ESRAG

Location/Club:  Rotary Club of Maple Grove

Description

We are excited to share what we have been up to! In July 2020, the RCMG convened the first ESRAG Committee meeting shortly after Rotary International announced “Protecting the Environment” as the seventh area of focus. The focus of the first meeting was an idea session on what we as Rotarians can do to help improve our air and water quality, reduce noice pollution, positively impact climate change and help our mother earth.

We determined that bringing awareness to Rotarians and members of our community was important through inviting speakers on electric vehicles, pollinators, birds, Arbor Committee, and recently our club co-hosted an excellent workshop with the TwinCities ECO club on how we can positively impact the climate.

In addition to building awareness, we acted as Rotarians of Action in the last 18 months. We have been involved in the following projects:

1. Collaborated with the City of Maple Grove and the Adopt-a-Drain program to clean up around approximately 150 storm drains that drain into into Cedar Island Lake in Maple Grove.

2. Two different clean up projects, one around Arbor Lake and the other in Weaver Lake Park.

3. Collaborated with the MG Lions to plant 9 trees on parkway.

4. In a four month period, we also collected over 500 pounds of plastic working through a program with Trex, the outdoor furniture manufacturer, who will now donate a park bench to the City of Maple Grove. We identified significant plastic users, retail and service, who are now recycling instead of throwing putting them in the waste stream. Click here for more information about the Trex program.

5. Collaborated with the Maple Grove Arbor last fall to have Buckthorn eradication day in the Maple Grove Forest Preservation Area. As many of you know, Buckthorn is an invasive species that is thriving and hard on our environment.

The Rotary Club of Maple Grove ESRAG has big plans for 2022:

Working with the City of MG and the Osseo Area schools, we are planting a large pollinator garden behind Oakview Elementary, which is adjacent Cedar Island Elementary. The son of MG Rotarian Dr. Bob Kochendorfer, Daniel Kochedorfer, has turned this into Eagle Scout project and will be working with the schools for their students to learn more about the importance of pollinators.

We are collaborating with the City of Maple Grove, Osseo Area Schools, MG Arbor Committee, and the MG Lions, who are matching our $5000 contribution to plant over 150 trees in MG Parks and schools and possibly more if grant requests come through.

In another collaboration with the City and the Lions club, we are cleaning up the MG Arboretum which is along ElM Creek, removing Buckthorn and dead ash trees and then planting trees and pollinators.

Along with these projects, we will continue looking for additional ways we can help environment by eating a more plant based diet, reducing our use of carbon fuels. supporting laws that will help protect our Mother Earth.

Thomas Anderson

Rotary Club of Maple Grove ESRAG Chair