Bring Light: Less polluting tractors mean more wildflowers

PROJECT

Less polluting tractors mean more wildflowers

San Mateo County Parks and Recreation Foundation

Tractors can be a wildlflower lovers best friend, especially when it comes to the open spaces of San Mateo County Parks. Help us buy less pollluting tractors for habitat restoration. Reduce carbon emissions by 4,100 pounds annually and bring back the tidy-tips, goldfields and poppies in the parks you enjoy.

Number of Donations: 1 | Posted about 1 year ago


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1 donation so far!

Target: $10,000.00
Raised so far: $50.00

The Charity

San Mateo County Parks and Recreation Foundation

Inspiring people to learn about, care for and enjoy our parks.

Bring Light Activity

1 Donor

1 Project since June, 2008

1 Active Project since June, 2008

Charity Info

Based in: Menlo Park, California

Year founded: 1998

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Project Info

This project will save
4,100 pounds
of Carbon Dioxide annually.

The grasses that turn our hills golden in the summer are non-native grasses and not the plants early settlers found when they coined the term ‘the golden hills of California.’

These non-native grasses choke out the native plants, reducing the amount of wildflowers for us to enjoy. These same wildflowers are even more important for many native animals, especially butterflies and birds.

Over the past 10 years, the San Mateo County Parks Foundation has been working with rangers, scientists, flower lovers and birders to determine how to manage the nonnative grasses. A combination of tractor mowing and hand weeding at very specific times in the life cycle of plants and the animals that depend on those plants has been found to be very effective in reducing the grasses and bringing back the native plants.

But the tractors, especially old ones, are heavy polluters. This project will reduce both greenhouse gas and air pollution emissions…and bring back the wildflowers.

The San Mateo County Parks Department has received a $260,305 grant to purchase new tractors. These tractors are least 30% more fuel efficient and will reduce the amount of CO2 from the tractors by 4,100 pounds annually.

In addition to reducing greenhouse gas emissions, the tractors also have better pollution reducing equipment, reducing the NOx and PM10 pollutants that cause smog and lung disease.

The grant award is contingent on raising matching funds. The County has already identified $66,000 in matching funds but $30,000 is still needed. That’s where your donations come in. Help us raise a portion of this match.

You might be asking what we’ll be doing with the old tractors. They’ll be fully dismantled and recycled. If you want, we can even send you a DVD showing the metal being melted down. Or you can thank yourself by taking a walk in the wildflowers.