Greening Stephenville

It may be winter, but imagine a garden. A place where members of the community could plant vegetables and herbs - watch them grow and then share with one another come harvest.

This is just one of several sustainable visions of a group of people who met in Stephenville last week now calling themselves The Stephenville Sustainability Network.

Bob Diamond is a founding member of the new network. He says the idea to meet sprung from an email distributed by a Stephenville artist and environmentalist.

"What sparked it was Esther Oosterbaan and her idea of community gardening in England," he says.

"She put out the question, 'hey, maybe we can do something like this in Stephenville.'"

The meeting was first intended to be held at Mr. Diamond's home, an around the kitchen table-type discussion, but interest grew and a larger setting was needed.

Twelve people attended the meeting held at the W.E. Cormack Centre. Mr. Diamond says discussions centered around the idea of community gardening, but that other sustainable ideas were brought to the table for consideration as well.

He says regional composting was discussed, as the group sees the need to divert waste from the dump into composting.

"Probably a number of municipalities would be involved in a waste strategy for the area," he says, noting this particular idea will be further developed by Debra Coughlin and members of the RED Board.

A farmers market and walkway trail clean up were also added to the agenda and discussed.

Mr. Diamond says attendees were excited to begin what they hope will create a wave of environmental awareness in the area.

"We're really pleased," he says of the meetings turnout and discussions. "This is just a group of people who wanted to get together who see there is a need for this type of thing in Stephenville. We see things happening around the world, we're aware of what's happening in Denmark with climate change initiatives and all that a need for communities to actually look at sustainability."

Mr. Diamond says the network plan to hold public meetings in the new year. To become a member of this greening and sustainability network contact Bob at 643-6362