Paul Newman donates all profits, after taxes, from the sale of his products for educational and charitable purposes. The mission statement of his whole foods business is: "Shameless exploitation in pursuit of the common good." He has said that his whole foods business "started as a joke that got out of control." Since 1982 more than $200 million have been awarded in grants to non-profit organizations.

In 1993 Nell convinced her father to establish an organic division of Newman's Own because of her passion for organic foods and sustainable agriculture. We are delighted to be the recipient of a Newman grant. The grant will go towards community outreach and the completion of the remaining segments of the Edens Lost & Found series: Los Angeles: Dream a Different City and Seattle: The City of the Future. We anticipate the PBS premiere of these programs in late 2006 or early 2007.

Los Angeles: Dream a Different City

LA made smog and pollution into household words. No longer. Its citizens have said enough. TreePeople, founded by Andy Lipkis, is leading the campaign to plant one million trees in the next decade. Friends of the LA River and the Rivers & Mountains Conservancy are reclaiming the Los Angeles River. They are determined to see the return of steelhead salmon in their lifetimes. To everyone's surprise, Los Angeles is discovering mass transit. Darrell Clarke, Executive Director of Friends of the Expo Line, has spent nearly two decades convincing the city to build the first east-west light rail line in Los Angeles in 50 years. Adult mentors in the Girls Today Women Tomorrow work with the girls of Boyle Heights, teaching them about nutrition, exercise and their Latina culture. The community-based program also provides college scholarships in a neighborhood where the drop-out rate is close to 50%. Los Angeles is even planning a 26-acre downtown park, thanks to the philanthropic generosity and vision of Eli Broad. Other green projects are being promoted by the city's 24/7 Mayor, Antonio Villaraigosa, who understands that environmental justice, public health and quality-of-life are all integral as Los Angeles citizensdream a different city.

Seattle: The City of the Future

Seattle is synonymous with environmental awareness. Some have called it the city of the future. It leads the nation in the search for alternate fuels (Seattle Biodiesel) and was one of the first locations to create community-based biodiesel distribution co-ops. The High Point mixed-use housing development is the first planned sustainable neighborhood in a major American city. It attracts visitors from around the world. High Point has even restored streams that are critical to the region's salmon migration. Salmon is an indicator species for the Northwest and the fish are integral part of our story. We follow the plight of this remarkable species from a school group's release of salmon eggs into Lake Washington, to a trip into Elliot Bay with an enlightened fisherman and with a visit to Native American commercial fisheries that adhere to sustainable practices. Further pursuing the water management issue, Edens Lost & Found tracks the heated debate on how to provide access to Seattle's remarkable shoreline. Will its aging Viaduct Highway be torn down and replaced with a tunnel? The issue is still being discussed. Sometimes, even with the best of intentions, a citizen movement fails. Such a cautionary tale describes our final story, the 10-year battle to fund and build the citizen-inspired Monorail.

Envisioning Seattle's Open Space System

Nancy Rottle submitted this news that shows how ecological and social conduits rely on each other to create healthy human and natural environments. Nancy is Assistant Professor, Department of Landscape Architecture and Adjunct Assistant Professor, Department of Architecture at the University of Washington in Seattle.

Citizens from civic, environmental, business, neighborhood and community groups have joined with the University of Washington to create a 100-year plan for Seattle's open spaces. Our collaborative vision reaches from the city limits to the downtown core, creating a comprehensive network of parks, civic spaces, streets, trails, shorelines, and urban forests that will bind neighborhoods to one another, create ecological conduits from the city's ridgelines to its shorelines, and ensure a wealth of green spaces for all citizens to enjoy.

More than 300 citizens on 23 teams collaborated in a Green Futures Charrette to develop an open space plan that addresses the entire city. Each charrette team, led by professionals and composed of planners, designers, developers, artists, engineers, ecologists, citizens and open space advocates, focussed on a different part of the city to envision livable, healthy urban watersheds and neighborhoods for the next century.

Leading up to the charrette, Open Space Seattle 2100 co-sponsored a series of public lectures and events, addressing civic open space, ecological cities, equitable access to open space, green infrastructure and Seattle open space design considerations. Concurrently, UW students conducted supporting research for charrette participants. The resulting charrette teams' plans have been coalesced and will be presented to our partners and supporters in City of Seattle agencies, the Seattle City Council, the Mayor's office, and the public. The plans will endure for the next century, but will have immediate application by influencing agency planning, neighborhood implementation efforts, and a potential parks levy in 2008.

www.open2100.org

Thank you for your interest in Edens Lost & Found!

Visit our website at www.edenslostandfound.org
Order a copy of the DVDs and companion book,
Download our free teacher and community action guides, and
register to become an Outreach Partner.

Get involved with Edens Lost & Found! If you have questions about using our DVDs, companion book, and teaching materials to help educate students and the public about sustainability and going green, please send an email to: heather@wilandbellprod.com.

Thanks for reading!