Be green: Support Solar Rock, enjoy Dia de los Lobos events
By Gerald M. Gay
ggay@azstarnet.com
Tucson, Arizona | Published: 03.27.2008
Go green while saving some green at these two free eco-friendly events on Saturday. Solar Rock
Blues pianist Arthur Migliazza, Spirit Familia and Bruce Phillips, along with Mirror Image, Monterey and Paul Revere, the top three finalists from the 2008 Arizona Daily Star Battle of the Bands, will perform on a stage powered entirely by the sun at the second annual Solar Rock concert at Himmel Park, 1000 N. Tucson Blvd.
Inspired by a call to action from the national organization Step It Up, Solar Rock organizers created the event in 2007 as a way to spread the word on cutting down carbon emissions.
"We felt the way to solve this problem is to focus on local," said concert co-founder Lisa Dollinger. "The Tucson community has really picked up on the message. Everyone was really receptive to it last year."
Speakers will include state Rep. Steve Farley, Mayor Bob Walkup and Brad Lancaster, author of "Rainwater Harvesting for Drylands and Beyond."
Or check out some of the green-theme booths, exchange your incandescent lightbulbs for compact fluorescent ones or recycle your old cell phones.
The event runs from noon to 5 p.m. For more information, call 624-4821. Dia de los Lobos
After you're done with Solar Rock, hightail it Downtown to La Placita Plaza, 110 S. Church Ave., where the Animal Defense League of Arizona, the Arizona Wilderness Coalition and other local organizations will celebrate Dia de los Lobos from 3 to 7 p.m.
The event marks the 10th anniversary of the Mexican wolves' reintroduction into the wilderness, a species all but wiped out by humans by the early 1970s and placed on the endangered species list.
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service began a captive-wolf program and eventually released 11 wolves into the Blue Range Wolf Recovery Area found in Arizona and New Mexico. According to progress reports, nearly 60 Mexican gray wolves were inhabiting the area by the end of 2006.
Local bluegrass jammers the Titan Valley Warheads will perform, as will the Apache Crown Dancers, and Richard Elías, chairman of the Pima County Board of Supervisors, will make an appearance.
Tucson's famed pyrotechnic theatre troupe Flam Chen will provide the grand finale.
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