Yellowstone Valley Citizens Council

Issues
Yellowstone Valley Citizens Council (YVCC) currently has four standing campaigns.

• School Gardens: YVCC works to start student-run gardens at interested Billings-area schools. Studies show that if children grow vegetables, they’ll eat them and start asking for them at home. The garden at Canyon Creek School was designed, built, planted, and harvested by students. If you’re interested in a garden at your child’s school, or in working to start one elsewhere, please contact YVCC.

• Green Building: The Green Building Committee of YVCC just had our most recent win: the new Billings Parmly Library will be LEED Gold (the second highest rating for green buildings)! YVCC helped to ensure that our new library in Billings is water- and energy-efficient by engaging citizens and community leaders to educate and build public support, while participating in every step of the city’s decision-making process. We are now raising money to fund the Green Building Certification for the library. Contact Rose at 248-1154 or rose@northernplains.org if you would like to donate.

• Food Buying Club: YVCC organizes local food drops on a periodic basis for the Billings community and stands ready to support other food club startups around the state and region. In 2012, food drops are planned for June, September, and November. For more information, see our food buying club website at www.communityfoodclub.org.

• Coal Export: Have you heard about the plans of coal mining companies currently operating in the Powder River Basin? In the face of diminishing coal demand in the US, they are seeking to build big new coal shipping facilities on the Pacific coast to ship coal to Asia. That means more coal train traffic in Billings—potentially a lot more. YVCC is working to educate the community about these plans and mitigate impacts from increased train traffic. Please contact rose@northernplains.org if you would like to get involved.

Events
Please visit our events calendar for all Northern Plains and local groups (affiliates) events and meetings.

About Us
Yellowstone Valley Citizens Council advocates for a healthy, livable, and sustainable community by:

• Educating, mobilizing, and testifying to ensure citizen’ voices are heard in the local and state government decision–making process;
• Formulating grand visions of a healthy and sustainable community and works cooperatively to achieve them.

History

Since its inception in 1979 around air-quality issues, YVCC has achieved many victories, including:

• Helping to dramatically improve the air quality in Yellowstone County through a long-term campaign to improve the enforcement of air quality laws;
• Increased individual and institutional patronage of locally raised and processed food through our community food campaign;
• Support for a full-time neighborhood planner to coordinate “smart growth” planning in our community;
• Successfully challenged efforts to site hazardous waste facilities near the Yellowstone River;
• Recruited businesses to sponsor recycling pick-up in more than 20 Billings public elementary schools;
• Started a school garden at Canyon Creek School;
• Helped to ensure that Billings’ new library is water- and energy-efficient by engaging citizens and community leaders to educate and build public support, while participating in every step of the city’s decision-making process.