Sixteen volunteers turned out for a SOLV-INTEL Washington County Clean and Green Event at Gales Creek Highway and Roderick Road.  The group picked up trash along the highway and cut invasive Himalayan blackberry and removed invasive English ivy.  Their three hours of work resulted in clearing x acres.  Gales Creek neighbors, Tualatin Basin group volunteers and SOLV volunteers have been working over the last three years, coordinated through the Tualatin River Watershed Council and the Tualatin Soil and Water Conservation District removing English ivy, which chokes out native trees and plants that provide tree and shade cover to Gales Creek.

Volunteers at the end of the successful October 2005 work day.

Volunteers included the Bon Appetit group, a Washington County business that provides caters and provides meal services to INTEL operations throughout the Tualatin Basin.  Its employees also are actively involved through out the community.  Community service activities range from providing holiday meals and gifts to Adopt-A-Family in the Tualatin Valley, composting 2-3 tones weekly – trucked to a local Tualatin Basin farmer for composting; providing 100 gallon s of used oil for bio-diesel fuel type cars; and participating in Habitat for Humanity projects.

Bon Appetit both locally and nationally focuses on sustainable food practices.  The Washington County Bon Appetit practices include:

1. Only purchase antibiotic free chicken;

2. Only purchase natural free range beef with no growth hormones;

3. Buy as much locally grown produce as possible, much of which is organic;

4. Belong to the Monterey Bay Aquarium "Seafood  Watch" program which lists endangered species and only purchase wild, single line-single hook caught fish—no farmed fish at all; and

5. Only purchase milled flours from Shepherds Grain—a co-op of wheat ranchers in the Palouse country that does not till the soil which leads to the erosion of healthy top soils—see www.shepherdsgrain.com

For more on Bon Appetit’s practices see www.bamco.com.