Do you know how much food you throw away each year? Ever wonder how much that's costing you? A new website, Love Food Hate Waste, has a ton of great information about how we can save money by wasting less. There are tips for making fresh produce last longer, recipes for using up the little bits of various foods you might have left over, and you can even add your own tips and join the community of folks to discuss and ask questions.

Photo by svacher used under Creative Commons license

It is (finally!) time to start planning your garden. More folks than ever are interested in gardening - for both health and economic reasons, and why not? It provides you with nutritious produce fairly inexpensively, it is good for the environment and it provides a great excuse to get outside and get your hands dirty. This year take it to the next step and make it an organic garden.

Get your bikes and hiking boots ready! The I-275 Pathway is receiving a major facelift in 2010. Work on portions of the trail is expected to start in the spring.

MDOT is hosting an open house to explain the planned improvements to the Hines Drive-Michigan Avenue sections from 6:00-8:00PM on Tuesday, March 2nd in the Freedom Room of the Canton Township Administrative Building on Canton Center Rd. south of Cherry Hill.

Check out Michigan Trails and Greenway Alliance for more info.

Aware Knits: Knit & Crochet Projects for the Eco-Conscious Stitcher by Vickie Howell and Adrienne Armstrong
Many popular knitting patterns are designed to take advantage of and show off the myriad of man-made fibers available today, but a lot of crafters prefer to be more environmentally responsible. The patterns in this book are designed to highlight the beauty of natural fibers and even some creative materials like reused newspaper. These projects are not only eco-conscious, they are lovely and useful.

Nominated for Best Documentary Feature, The Cove documents the abuse of dolphins by fishermen in Taiji, a sleepy lagoon off the coast of Japan. Animal rights activist and filmmaker Richard O'Barry - a former animal trainer who once captured the dolphins used on the television series Flipper - has four decades later renounced his previous profession. Instead he has captured on film shocking images of how the dolphins' habitat has been poisoned by the fishermen and their marine ecology endangered. The film received its world premiere at the Sundance Film Festival in 2009.

No, you’re not dreaming! This Sunday, February 28, visit the Canton “Mini” Farmers Market anytime between 10:00AM and 2:00PM inside the Cady-Boyer Barn at Preservation Park (500 N. Ridge Rd. just north of Cherry Hill Rd.). Buy local foods and select Michigan-made products, including apples, cider, honey, eggs, cheese, grass-fed meats, jerky, smoked fish and meats, jams, baked goods, pasta and BBQ sauces, salsa — even dog treats! Also, mark your calendar for the other two “Mini” Market dates: Sundays, March 28 and April 25. For more details, visit cantonfun.org.

Each year the Friends of the Rouge conduct a volunteer watershed Frog and Toad Survey. On Wednesday, March 3 from 7:00-9:00PM a training session will be held at The Summit in Canton. Volunteers will be trained to distinguish what type of frog or toad is making the various calls heard in local wetlands. The session is open to all ages (children welcome when accompanied by a participating adult). The session is free, but pre-registration is required. For more information or to register, call the Friends of the Rouge at (313) 792-9621 or email monitoring@therouge.org. To help you get a "jump" on the training, the Canton Library has many books on frogs and toads, such as A field guide to reptiles & amphibians: eastern and central North America.

The Canton Public Library is looking for 20 families to become leaders in a local environmental stewardship effort by participating in Action for Earth, a partnership project between the library, the Ann Arbor Hands-On Museum and Project S.N.A.P. (Share, Nurture, Act Preserve).

The families selected will participate in two workshops held at the Canton Public Library and led by the Ann Arbor Hands-On Museum, one Project S.N.A.P. session creating art with a message for a community mural, and one community-wide environmental event. Families should be Canton residents, have children in K-8 classes and be willing to commit their time and energy to the Action for Earth project.

For details or to apply for the program, call the Canton Public Library at 734-397-0999 or read more on the CPL blog.

To see entire press release, download the attachment.

The Locavore Way: Discover and Enjoy the Pleasures of Locally Grown Food by Amy Cotler

Local eating has been in the news a lot the past few years, but how easy is it really? Easier than you'd think, and this book is chock full of ideas. It also outlines the many benefits, both personal and for the community and the world at large, of a locavore lifestyle. Looking for local food here in Canton? The Canton Farmers Market has fresh goods May through October and Calder Dairy delivers and is available along with other local goods at stores like Holiday Market. Are there other local options that you've discovered in Canton? Please share in the comments.

Inspired by the book No Impact Man by Colin Beaven, the No Impact Project brings you the No Impact Experiment — a one-week carbon cleanse. Register on their website and each day of the week you will be given an environmental challenge that will build on the previous day’s challenge. At the end of the week you will be asked to fill in an eco-lifestyle survey. The experiment is a chance for you to see what no-impact living is like, and hopefully help to improve your quality of life. Not a bad way to start off the new year.

New York Times reporter Charles Duhigg discovers that drinking water can be legal and still be unhealthy in his series Toxic Waters. In researching the series, he studied thousands of water pollution records, which he obtained via the Freedom of Information Act and discovered that an estimated one out of ten Americans is exposed to unsafe drinking water. Look at What's in Your Water? to find out what the contaminant level is in your drinking water system. Also be sure to check out CPL’s water quality resources to find out more on this important topic.
[Photo courtesy of AP Images]

Just a friendly reminder, that Canton Waste Recycling (CWR) will offer curb-side pick-up of natural Christmas trees from January 4-14, 2010. CWR asks that you place your tree at the curb by 6:30AM on your regular trash day with all stands and ornaments removed. After January 14, trees will no longer be accepted at the curb. For more information on Christmas tree pick-ups, call CWR at (734) 397-5801.

Wondering what gifts to buy for this gift-giving season? Well, why not make your own gifts like some celebrants of Kwanzaa do. You could make ornaments, dolls, treasure boxes or candle out of old jewelry, marbles, yarn, string or other small pieces you already have around. Here are some craft books to help you along.

All new crafts for Kwanzaa by Kathy Ross; illustrated by Sharon Lane Holm

Chinese New Year crafts by Karen E. Bledsoe

Because I Love Her: 34 Writers Reflect on the Mother-Daughter Bond edited by Andrea N. Richesin

The Big Burn: Teddy Roosevelt and the Fire That Saved America by Tim Egan

Homer's Odyssey: A Fearless Feline Tale, Or How Learned about Love and Life with a Blind Wonder Cat by Gwen Cooper

Idiot America: How Stupidity Became a Virtue in the Land of the Free by Charles P. Fierce

For those that want to take the results of the Kill-a-Watt (available to check out from CPL) to the next level there is the new Tweet-a-Watt kit (available for purchase from Adafruit Industries) that lets users post the daily energy consumption of their refrigerator or TV set to a Twitter account. The idea won the 2009 Greener Gadgets Competition. The kit allows users to transmit power usage information to a computer receiver. The receiver can log, graph and even tweet that information. People can then "compete for the lowest numbers and also see how they’re doing compared to their friends and followers."

Ever wondered how things like hybrid cars or solar panels actually work? How do they help to save ethe environment? What is ethanol? What is a solar cell? Find out the answer to these questions with a series of books called Science in the Real World. To learn about hybrid vehicles, check out How Do Hybrid Cars Work? For solar panels, check out How Do Solar Panels Work?

Did you see this morning's Today Show feature about using energy meters to suss out the energy vampires lurking in your home?

If those energy meters seem like a pricey investment, consider checking out one of the library's Kill-a-Watt meters free of charge.

We all know that "Going Green" saves our planet Earth. But there's an added benefit, "Going Green" can also help you build personal wealth. In The Green Millionaire: A Practical Guide to Achieving Real Wealth While Helping to Save the Planet, author Nigel J. Williams explains how small changes like programming your thermostat or switching to rechargeable batteries can lead to savings. Then learn how to turn those green savings into wealth.

There has been a lot of speculation about why honeybees have been disappearing, and now scientists have a new theory: it's because of us. Luckily there are many things you can do to help foster good environments for honeybees, such as planting a diverse garden with plants that are attractive to bees. And if you're looking for honey or info on how to raise your own bees, you can't get more local than Bobilin Honey from right here in Canton.

The new book "World Heritage Sites", is a treasure trove of information. Readers will be impressed with this all encompassing testament to world culture. It describes 878 sites from 141 countries which the United Nations has designated as culturally or enviromentally important to the world. "World Heritage List", has proved to be a valuable tool in the battle to preserve much of the world's cultural and natural heritage. Its strict criteria results in only the world's most spectacular and extraordinary sites making it onto the list. The list has been publicly available online at http://whc.unesco.org but never in a book format like this.