Ford's Colony HOA at Williamsburg. A residential community in Williamsburg, Virginia

Go Green Ford’s Colony Goes Green What to Do with Waste--Reduce, Reuse, Recycle or Trash Saving Water Saves Money and Resources Why Energy Conservation Makes Cents Storm Water Management Colony Kids Can Go Green, Too Connect to Nature at Home (Ford's Colony) FC Nature Trail FC Nature Trail Map FC Nature Trail Scavenger Hunt What’s it all about? Electricity and Natural Gas Dominion Energy's e-Smart Kids Program Recycling US EPA Recycle City -- How Communities Can Reduce Wast & Energy Use US EPA Planet Protector Climate Change Trash and Climate Change Climate Change NASA's Eyes on the Earth Water US Geologic Service Water Basics -- Properties of Water & Harnessing Water to Create Electricity Water & Energy Conservation Tips for Kids Dominion Energy's Project Plant it Program -- Games, Videos & Activities The Best 25 Ways to Save Water Water Conservation Word Find Elementary Water Conservation Word Find Junior High School go.green@fchoa.net		Saving our earth’s resources, like water and energy, guarantees those resources will be available for you when you grow up. You can do many things at home to save these precious resources. Take at look and learn some new tips. Connect to Nature at Home Just like us, birds, deer, rabbits and squirrels call Ford’s Colony home. The forested areas and ponds provide shelter, food and water to all kinds of wildlife. You can experience all the nature Ford’s Colony offers by hiking the Ford’s Colony Nature Trail. The Trailblazers Club provides a fun way to experience the trail. Check out the trail map and scavenger hunt. Just be careful to leave nature as you find it -- look don't touch. What’s It All About? Energy The lights go on when we flip the switch. Our homes are cooled in the hot summer and heated in the winter. Cars run on gasoline or rechargeable batteries. These things we come to expect at home and at school, but how do these modern conveniences affect our world? How is electricity generated? Can energy be stored for us to use later? How about solar energy or wind energy? Find out by exploring this great link from Dominion Energy that's loaded with great information, games and experiments. Recycling Where does all our garbage go? Most garbage goes to huge landfills where it sits and rots over many years. Some things that end up in the trash can last a long time before decomposing. A plastic bottle can last up to 1,000 years! By putting paper, cardboard, glass jars and plastic bottles in the recycle bin, you reduce the amount of trash in your garbage bin. These items can be made into new items and some can be recycled again! Do you have clothes, games or toys you no longer need? These and many other household items can be 'recycled' by donating them to a local charity. Donating gently used items reduces the trash headed to our landfills. Check out the links on recycling from the United States Environmental Protection Agency and NASA. Learn how communities handle our trash and its impact on our climate. Water The water flows when we turn on the faucet. It’s always there when we need it, but even with 70 percent of the earth’s surface covered in water, most isn’t drinkable. That's because 97 percent of the water on earth is saltwater. Three percent is fresh water, but much of that is frozen in the polar icecaps. Only 1 percent is available to us for drinking, cleaning and watering our grass, which means we need to be careful not to waste it. Our local water supply comes from underground sources. The local water company drills wells deep into the ground and pumps the water up into large pipes for treatment. Then it is sent on a journey through miles of underground pipes before it reaches your tap. The United States Geologic Service website contains loads of information on the properties of water and the way we harness water to generate electricity. Have fun and learn about saving water by completing one of the water word finds. Here’s How You Can Help You can lead the way to saving our planet! Even the smallest changes in habits, like turning the water off while brushing your teeth and turning the lights off when leaving a room, can save our natural resources. Check out water and energy saving tips that you can use at home and school.