Hello De Anza students,

My name is Lelia Forouhi and I am here to inform you of an Environmental Resolution that your Student Body Senate has passed. It came about from a petition that I started to save De Anza’s gardens.

Our current gardening techniques are actually harming the plants. The gardeners are using motorized machinery to shave our bushes down to their bare branches. They are whacking away large plots of land where wild “weeds” are growing and almost half of our trees have literally been “butchered.” And this isn’t just happening at De Anza; it’s happening everywhere. Plants are being shaped for aesthetic reasons all over the country, and the problem with this is that it is endangering the habitat of many tiny ecosystems which depend on these plants to survive. Plus, plants have rights, too!

In the resolution, it calls for a Grounds Keeping Committee to be formed, and that is what we are working on now. We would recommend that the gardeners switch to non-motorized machinery like shears and that the weed whacking stops. That is probably the most damaging of their techniques. We would recommend that there is an environmental inspector who can keep track of everything that goes on in our garden. I also want to thank the 200 students who signed my petition. Anyone who wants to be more involved in this movement can join the Life Renaissance Club, whose main purpose is to respect all life.

-Student Leila Forouhi