News from Margo Tamez and Ed Mendoza Permaculture Teacher and Activist Poet

[Wesley Roe and Marjorie Lakin Erickson]

for those of you interested in the activities of Margo and Ed Tamez in
Arizona, here is her latest:

from Margo:

<<Dear Bob:
The meeting with McLean Ranch developer went very well, we stayed there for
nearly three hours, and it was well attended.  The opposition sent in their
crew, and they attempted to derail the process.  I got it back on track,
and with the assistance of my incredibly gracious panel (six gentlemen from
Dept. of Water Resources, Dept. of Environmental Quality, AZ School
Facilities Board, Dept of Transportation, Air Quality) who totally
supported me and our effort, we were able to keep the process flowing in
the direction that thepublic needed.

Thank you dearly for the HopeDance magazines.  I believe I have received
them all (3 packages) and they are going out into the public quite well.  I
have also shared them with our county Water Resources
department, and the env. quality folks--they are very interested in what is
happening out there in California--esp. since Bruce Babitt was here in Casa
Grande a couple of days ago promising Arizonans that California will not
take any more excess water off the Colorado than they are allotted.  The
editorials about that have been interesting.  We know better.  Sounds like
there will be 15 years of grace given to California to get the water
consumption down.  Side by side with that, the front page news out here is
how communities like Scottsdale, Paradise Valley, and other elite
neighborhoods have daily consumptions of 500, 800 and 1000! gallons per
household!

So,,other news:  we are going to partner with Oracle--the other small
community in our county that is fighting developers.  They created a
non-profit org. a couple of weeks ago:  Pinal Citizens For Sustainable
Futures.  We are going to meet with their people in Coolidge --midpoint
between the two towns--over the holidays to see if we can figure out the
details of us joining them, a Maricopa chapter of some sort.  They and we
are tremendously excited about the possibilities this presents to our
unifying efforst across the county.  Oh! we got great press--front page--on
our McLean Ranch meeting!  So, people are taking notice, and the response
from community is growing.  We had a Governor's task force meeting on water
a few days ago, the local Pinal county commissioners and other responsible
agencies invited us to their meeting.  Our group represented the majority
in the room--without really trying to organize it at all.  Their plan is to
submit a position paper for Pinal county that aims towards sustainability,
that iterates concerns for unbridled population growth, that leans towards
setting population limits.  They're going to get blasted at the state house
for that.

And finally, I just received word two days ago that I received a Fellowship
for 2001-2003 from the Environmental Leadership Program in Massachusets
(the Tides Foundation) which will support my local effort.

AGain, I give so much credit to my education, my aroused passion, my tuned
vision to your skills and achievement with HopeDance.

in peace,
Margo (tnafa-az at casagrande.com)>>
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