From blogs and podcasts to social networking, if you are having a hard time sorting out which of the emerging social media tools would be beneficial to your organization, an article published by Idealware might help. The December 2006 article reviews the numerous social media tools nonprofits and social ventures are using to build visibility and raise revenue. And a Philanthropy News Digest article I wrote called the ABCs of Podcasting highlights ways Bay Area organizations such as KQED, Cal Academy of Sciences, Monterey Bay Aquarium, and the San Francisco Bay Joint Venture are using new web-based technologies, particularly podcasts, to tell stories and broadcast their messages to wider audiences.

Every month it seems that a new free web tool emerges. While most are free, it is a good idea to be selective since the free version might include unwanted advertisements and it will take an investment of time to learn how to use the tools effectively and build content and connections. In the San Francisco Bay Area, you can also learn about these new tools at the annual NetSquared conference, which is taking place in San Jose, California this year. Or you can hear presentations by social entrepreneurs at monthly NetSquared events in San Francisco.

I recently learned about an innovative and growing online community called New Routes to Community Health, which is a project funded by the Robert Woods Johnson Foundation. With social media, one of their goals is to promote the exploration of cultures, achievements, and challenges of immigrants.

And to listen to a collection of audio recordings about Bay Area changemakers, check out Britt Bravo’s Big Vision Podcast. Britt is also one of the organizer’s of Net Tuesday.

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After five years, Literacy for Environmental Justice is getting close to breaking ground on a one-of-a-kind community-based green building project in San Francisco’s Hunters Point neighborhood. The “Living Classroom,” will be built in Heron’s Head Park, a 24-acre restored wetland built on a former landfill and cared for by hundreds of community volunteers. Read more about this innovative project that combines environmental justice with the latest in sustainability principles here in an interview with LEJ’s architect Toby Long.

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In Lester R. Brown’s recent book “Plan B 2.0:” Rescuing a Planet Under Stress and a Civilization in Trouble, one chapter is devoted to designing sustainable cities. The book highlights the huge unrealized potential for urban gardening in the United States including the hundreds of thousands of urban vacant lots. While we hear more and more that producing and buying food locally has numerous benefits for local economies and the environment, the book also cites “a regenerative effect” when vacant lots are transformed from eyesores–weedy, trash-ridden dangerous gathering places–into bountiful, beautiful, and safe gardens that feed people’s bodies and souls.

In Oakland, California, People’s Grocery has mobilized communities to transform blighted lots into sustainable gardens full of fruit trees, herbs, vegetables and compost piles. Check out their programs and blog here.

In 2006, two University of California at Berkeley researchers completed a food systems assessment for Oakland, California with the goal of assessing the city’s capability of producing at least 30 percent of its food needs within the immediate region. They found that with 35 community-based gardens and over 20 million acres in agricultural production surrounding Oakland within a 300-mile radius, there is significant potential for boosting a sustainable food-based economy.

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In 2005, two public entities and an ardent community group called “Friends of Tolay Lake” teamed up to preserve a little known scenic and culturally significant valley, 40 miles north of San Francisco. They prevailed after raising the funds from county, state, federal, and private sources. Tolay Lake Regional Park opened up to limited pubic access for the first time since the transfer in ownership to the regional open space district from a private owner.

Over a thousand prehistoric charmstones, culturally significant rock carvings, have been found since the lake was drained in the early 1900s. Some charmstones were sent to the Smithsonian Museum in the early 1900s. According to multiple historical accounts, long before the several-hundred-acre lake was drained, indigenous people performed healing rituals here, putting their ailments into stones that they threw into the water. The rocks, which came from locales across California, were discovered after an early settler dynamited one end of the lake in an effort to make the land suitable for growing potatoes.

The Cardoza family, owners of the property since the 1940s, grew pumpkins in the former lake bottom for an annual fall festival that brought thousands of visitors to the historic site for over 15 years. The Cardozas sold the land to Sonoma County, at a price below its market value, after park advocates successfully raised funds to purchase the 1,737-acre. Now an environmental review process is underway, and the public can visit the park by reserving a spot on a ranger-led hike.

The County of Sonoma’s Regional Parks Department is also consulting with Native American groups representing descendants of Miwok and Pomo tribes to study opportunities for cultural education. One project idea includes the cultivation and restoration of Purple Needle Grass, which was used by Native Californian basket weavers. In recent years, the state designated the rare drought-tolerant purple plant as California’s official state grass.

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