The annual Redmond Community Indicators Report was recently published.  This is one way for the Redmond community to monitor progress toward implementing the Comprehensive Plan and an evaluation on conservation and other environmental efforts.

The City of Redmond has seen improvement on a number of measures, but that doesn’t mean there isn’t room for improvement!  Over the next few weeks, Impact Redmond will take a closer look at some of the indicators that are impacting our environment and ways you can help improve those trends in the years to come, starting with our local stream health.

Conservation: Stream Health

Redmond is home to a number of streams that are protected under goals laid out in the Comprehensive Plan.  The habitat in Redmond’s rivers, streams and lakes is important to protecting the area’s high quality of life, valuable aquatic resources, and the area’s natural beauty.

The Community Indicators Report looks at the quality of our streams with two measures.  The first is the Water Quality Index (WQI) which looks at temperature, pH, nutrient levels, and presence of pathogens such as fecal coliform bacteria in the stream.  In 2012, none of our streams in Redmond fell into the category of greatest concern!  This is an improvement from the baseline year in 2005, but streams in our care could still reach higher levels. The second measure is referred to as the “the bug index” which evaluates whether these streams can support native habitat.  This year, only 18% of our streams had a score in this supportive range.

City of Redmond Impact
The City of Redmond works to protect and enhance these waterways through a number of strategies. Policies that limit development in environmentally sensitive areas, reduce the amount of impervious surfaces outside of the urban cores, restore critical areas, and enforce clearing and grading requirements to minimize runoff and erosion are all part of keeping our streams healthy.   

Your Impact
So what can you do to help improve our stream health?  All actions large or small will make a difference, pledge today to help!

• Join the stream team or become forest steward
• Create a raingarden to help naturally treat run off 
• Volunteer at a restoration event to plant native species along stream banks
• Reduce the number of fertilizers and pesticides you use in your lawn and garden, which often end up reaching the watershed
• Landscape with native and drought tolerant species
• Learn more about the Adopt a Stream Foundation
• Volunteer this summer to mark storm drains to remind people to "dump no waste" as it drains to nearby waterways

For more ideas, take the Impact Redmond Pledge and find ways to reduce your environmental impact.

What do Bath Salts and Bubble Baths Have to do With Sustainability?

If you buy bath salts or bubble bath, try to by concentrated varieties.  For example, bubble bath brands that recommend one tablespoon (one-half ounce or one capful) per bath will last twice as long as those that suggest one ounce (two capfuls) per bath.  If you buy a sixteen-ounce plastic bottle of bubble bath every other month and switched to a more concentrated version, you could save about one-quarter pound of plastic and $10 to $20 per year or more.  If one in one hundred households decreased its bubble bath purchases in this way, the savings would total 250,000 pounds of plastic.  This much plastic could build a wading pool the size of Wrigley Field!

Use Fewer Paper Napkins

There's no need to grab a huge stack of napkins from the concession stand when you know you'll use only one or two.  Each American consumes an average of 2,200 standard two-ply napkins per year, or the equivalent of about six napkins per day.  If everyone in the United States used an average of one fewer napkin per day, more than a billion pounds of napkins could be saved from landfills each year.  A stack of napkins this size could fill the entire Empire State Building.  Now that's something to think about!