[Southern California Permaculture] Local Hero Nomination/In the Time of Epic Drought/Barbara Wishingrad & Sweetwater Collaborative

[Margie Bushman, Santa Barbara Permaculture Network]

Hi everyone, because of the drought (EPIC) we are nominating Barbara 
Wishingrad and Sweetwater Collaborative for the 2016 Local Hero 
Award, wondered if others wanted to join in.  The deadline is coming 
up very soon (May 30).

Below is what we sent in if helpful, but please write your own 
version, in your own words,  then send to: localhero at independent.com



Dear Santa Barbara Independent -

Once again we nominate Barbara Wishingrad for the Local Hero Award, 
who was written up last April by Nick Welsh, where he called Barbara 
and her Sweetwater Collaborative crew "Water Wizards".

Always interested in permaculture & sustainability, in 2009 Barbara 
went to Tucson Arizona to participate in a 6 month Rainwater 
Harvesting internship, where she did extensive training with one of 
the first cooperative rainwater harvesting groups in Arizona.

She came home to Santa Barbara passionate about bringing Rainwater 
Harvesting skills to our community

After working for the nonprofit she trained with in Tucson, Barbara 
later encouraged a group of like minded individuals to form the 
Sweetwater Collaborative, and hasn't looked back since.

Sweetwater has worked in conjunction with both the city and county 
during the drought, and helped change the language that even water 
purveyors and city & county officials use, encouraging capturing 
rainwater in the soil, tanks, rain gardens, instead of sending 
precious water into the streets and storm drains and out to the 
sea.  Sweetwater Collaborative has an ongoing educational series of 
Technical Roundtables for landscape professionals.

In addition to the barn raising model of  helping community members 
transform there residential properties, Barbara and later 
Sweetwater  worked on commercial installations, including Santa 
Barbara Realtors Association, the Schott Center, and the Louise Lowry 
Center, demonstrating to the community in full sight what can be done 
when a lawn is replaced.

We are convinced if there were more focused and passionate people 
like Barbara in the world we wouldn't have many problems that 
couldn't be solved.

She is truly a local hero.

Margie Bushman & Wes Roe





Santa Babara Permaculture Network Logo

(805) 962-2571
P.O. Box 92156, Santa Barbara, CA 93190
margie at sbpermaculture.org
http://www.sbpermaculture.org

P Please consider the environment before printing this email


Santa Babara Permaculture Network Logo

(805) 962-2571
P.O. Box 92156, Santa Barbara, CA 93190
margie at sbpermaculture.org
http://www.sbpermaculture.org

P Please consider the environment before printing this email

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