San Miguel Non-sustainable
By Jesús Ibarra November 21, 2008 San Miguel de Allende
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The anticipated San Miguel Sustentable event scheduled to begin November 9 failed to live up to its promise. Some exhibitors did not set up until November 14, the day before the close of the exhibits. |
An exception was the sustainable adobe house set up near the Jardín by Solar San Miguel. The structure had a wind generator on its roof and solar panels and a rainwater harvesting system. Unfortunately, even that was not without some controversy.
| A number of San Miguel residents objected to the temporary adobe structure. They thought it was permanent and did not realize it was placed on a wooden platform and that the mortar had no cement. | |
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The good news is that thousands of people, mostly local Mexicans, were very curious about the technology on display and stopped to look at the building and ask questions.
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Another project in which people showed interest was the recycling program promoted by the company RECIQLA, which offers special containers and pick-up service for all the recyclable garbage such as cardboard and plastic for a moderate fee. |
People can also take their recyclable refuse to RECIQLA’s center and be compensated for it. For more information about RECIQLA visit www.reciqla.com.mx , write to info@reciqla.com.mx , or call 415-153-1159.
| There were only a few exhibitors in the Jardín, and even fewer at Instituto Allende, where most of the stands displayed arts and crafts or jewelry. Of course, these are also sustainable activities for San Miguel, but we expected a more ecological fair. | |
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There were complaints that the conferences did not start on time and lacked the advertised simultaneous translation. The fashion show caught people’s attention, but the connection between the clothing and ecological sustainability was not clear.
The organizers of the event, nonetheless, are to be admired for their praiseworthy goals and effort, and though some may have seen red, we still hold out hope for becoming green.
Audubon stays green
By Carol Wheeler
Audubon and El Charco membership drives
Nov 22–23, 29–30 and Dec 6–7, 11am–2pm
Jardín in front of the Parroquia
Green in San Miguel is synonymous with the Audubon Society. Audubon San Miguel was the first international chapter of the Audubon Society, founded here in 1967 by Lillian Birkenstein. Long before the Department of Ecology was formed in SMA, Audubon led the way for the community in creation and protection of parks, environmental education in the schools, saving and restoring the Rio Laja and the restoration of Parque Juárez. In fact, it was Audubon that originally planted trees and fenced the area behind the prison, recently inaugurated by President Calderón as Parque Clouthier. Now you can help Audubon meet its goals for 2009 by joining as a new member or renewing your existing membership.
Walter Meagher has donated 50 copies of his and Wayne Colony’s new book about the San Miguel environment, Wild and Wonderful: Nature Up Close in the Botanical Garden “El Charco del Ingenio,” to be sold at half-price to the first 50 people to sign up or renew their Audubon membership in the Jardín. Audubon plans in 2009 to relocate the egrets away from Parque Juárez by creating nesting platforms near the Presa Allende. This costly program needs your support. On February 15, Audubon presents Casita des Aves, a joint benefit with El Charco at the Botanical Gardens, auctioning off bird houses created by San Miguel’s leading artists. Buying or renewing your membership now will guarantee you a place at the auction.
Membership in Audubon (300 pesos a year) gives you free access to bird walks and programs and, maybe most importantly, makes your commitment to San Miguel’s environment real by putting money behind it.
Botanical garden membership drive
By Naomi Zerriffi
What could be more green than a gift of membership to our local botanical garden, El Charco del Ingenio? Membership gives the cardholder and two guests free admission, discounts to special events and a subscription to our monthly newsletter and is an easy way to support the garden.
To show our gratitude, we will give a free copy of Walter Meagher and Wayne Colony’s book Wild and Wonderful: Nature Up Close in the Botanical Garden “El Charco del Ingenio” to the first 50 people to sign up or renew their Charco membership for 2008-2009 (600 pesos).
El Charco was inaugurated in 1991 as a nongovernmental organization (A.C.) and has become the most popular green space in San Miguel. With a spectacular natural setting combining water, nature reserve, botanical garden and canyon, El Charco offers a place of peace and tranquility as well as environmental education programs, workshops and events—and that’s just for people. It also is a refuge for birds and wildlife year round. The garden houses the second most important collection of cacti and succulents in the country, and its propagation work is important in saving many plants that are endangered or on the brink of extinction.
The mission of El Charco is “to protect and preserve our natural heritage and help build an environmental culture while developing a botanical garden dedicated to Mexican flora and providing an oasis of peace and tranquility for all.”
The garden’s website is located at www.elcharco.org.mx.
Barn Swallows
By Walter L. Meagher
I love swallows. Everything they do—the way they fly, the way they sit—makes me happy. Other birds are interesting, some are impressive, many are well-behaved; only swallows are well-mannered, well-dressed, polite and collegial.
I live in Atascadero above El Centro, at the edge of the ever-expanding city, a homunculus becoming a Goliath. Pigeons are more common in the Plaza Cívica; up here, the white-winged dove and the Inca dove are quiet residents, but they tend to be skittish. Two species of hummingbirds, always in a rush, visit the garden regularly; both kiskadees (in small numbers) and great-tailed grackles (in flocks) are noisy and boastful. All these birds live in association with human dwellings.
Barn swallows are like swifts, trim and aerobatic. Males dress as Edwardian gentlemen, underlining the value of form in artistic composition. Color is subdued: the attractive chestnut-colored cravat and cinnamon breast contrast with the iridescent blue back. As barns disappear in the US, swallow populations may decline. Before there were barns, there were caves; 5,000 years ago, human and swallow might have shared the same room. This relationship is exhibited in Atascadero. There is an unattractive confluence of wires outside our patio, five of which are regularly used by the swallows. The wires form a stave on which the birds are musical notes. Day by day in early October, swallows, in ever-larger groups, gather on the stave, getting ready for the great migration south. One bird arrives; another settles next to it; a third settles a little further away and then sidles along the wire, moving closer to the second bird. Groups of four, five or six form in this way. Only a small percentage, the Henry David Thore
au swallows, show no interest in joining a group. Nevertheless, the swallows on the wires are a nation of swallows; they act in concert. All of a sudden, without command from a leader, they fly away high into the blue sky.
Grackles fly in a straight line; barn swallows fly in loops, elements of a post-Euclidean geometry. I watch them from my bedroom window, flying over spaces north of the Prolongación Cuesta San Jose, up to the canyon edge of El Charco. Then they return to the stave and resume chattering and preening.
One day soon—too soon—they will be gone.
Adapted from Wild & Wonderful: Nature Up Close in the Botanical Garden ‘El Charco del Ingenio’ by Walter L. Meagher; photographs by Wayne Colony.
Swallow Diary: Number of birds on the wires
23 September @ 8.45 a.m., cloud & rain = 45
24 September @ 8.45 a.m., cloud & sun = 35
25 September @ 8.45 a.m., cloudy, warmer = 30
26 September @ 8.45 a.m., cloud & chilly = 16
27 September @ 8.45 a.m., sunny & chilly = 46
28 September @ 8.45 a.m. = 33
29 September @ 8.45 a.m. = 40
01 October @ 8.45 a.m., sunny & chilly = 47
02 October @ 8.45 a.m., blue sky & chilly = 37
03 October @ 8.45 a.m., blue sky & chilly = 105
04 October @ 8.45 a.m., blue sky & chilly = 65
05 October @ 8.45 a.m., chilly = none!
06 October @ 8.45 a.m., no record
07 October @ 8.45 a.m., foggy & warmer = 172
from now on @ 8.45 a.m. there were hardly any birds on the wires; they gathered later, and more frequently
08 October @ 8.55 a.m., cloudy, warm & light rain = 11
09 October @ 10.50 a.m., cloudy & warm = 105
10 October @ 8.45 a.m., foggy & warm = 10
11 October @ 10.00 a.m., cloudy & warm = 76
12 October @ 9.30 a.m., blue sky, some cloud & warm = 73
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