Quote of Note

      There's so much pollution in the air now that if it weren't for our lungs there'd be no place to put it all.

      -- Robert Orben, former speechwriter for Richard Nixon and Gerald Ford

 

Index - August 2006

 

A Dying Planet
Alliance of Snowmobilers and Conservatists Would Protect Land in Sierra

Book Review
Chapter Newcomer Event
Desert Infernos — Cause and Prevention
Desert Infernos — Comments
Desert Infernos — Invasives
Get the Lead Out
Giant Sequoia Monument Logging Proposal
Forest Victory
"Mission Accomplished" on Global Warming?
Pipes Canyon
Protect America’s Arctic!
Urban Gardens Chair

Resolutions Passed by ExComm: (July 23, 2006) "Perchlorate Pollution"

Useful Information
Chapter Conservation Committees Calendar
Chapter Conservation Management Committee
Chapter Conservation Grants Committee
Chapter Conservation Committee Draft Agenda
Orange County Conservation Committee Draft Agenda

 

Contact Senators to Stop a Bill to Allow Giant Sequoia Monument Logging!

House Bill Would Reinstate Logging in Giant Sequoia National Monument
Contact Senators Feinstein and Boxer to stop this logging "rider!"

Please help stop logging of large trees in the Giant Sequoia National Monument! US Representative Devin Nunes of Fresno has introduced a bill to overturn court victories by environmentalists and California's Attorney General Bill Lockyer. The bill, HR 5760, would allow the Forest Service to conduct two large logging projects despite the fact that they are focused on an area essential to the habitat of an endangered species, the Pacific fisher.

Following decades of controversial and damaging management of the giant sequoia ecosystem on Sequoia National Forest, the Giant Sequoia National Monument was established to protect both the groves themselves and the other plant and animal life of this national treasure. In the specific instance of the Pacific fisher, a small forest mammal, the need for protection is undisputed even by the Bush administration.

When President Bill Clinton created the Giant Sequoia Monument in 2000, he did provide for a two to three year time period of transition for the timber industry and said these already approved timber sales could go forward. These sales are the "grandfathered" sales that are the subject of HR 5760. The Forest Service twice extended the deadline for implementing these sales, with the excuse of low timber prices, while simultaneously claiming a fire emergency. They extended the deadlines illegally, without informing the public or updating their environmental reviews, and cutting began in 2005.

The Forest Service proceeded despite the fact that the US Fish and Wildlife Service, under the current Administration, confirmed in April 2004 that protecting the Pacific fisher under the Endangered Species Act is warranted. The findings by the Service made clear the perilous condition of the 350 or so fisher thought to persist in the southern Sierra Nevada and the role that logging had and continued to play in its decline.

The Forest Service's timber sale plans are highly inaccurate, and mask the grave threat the sales pose to the Pacific fisher, leading district court Judge Breyer to rule three separate times against the sales, which involve logging large trees in the Monument's backcountry and reducing forest cover — a key element of fisher habitat — over several thousand acres on the Monument.

If that were not bad enough, the Nunes bill also exempts a massive timber project on the neighboring Sierra National Forest from having to comply with any federal environmental law at all. The Kings River Project would occur over thirty years and cover a huge 131,000 acres (Phase One alone is 13,800 acres). HR 5760, if passed, would exempt this massive logging experiment from all environmental laws and regulations as long as the Forest Service practiced "uneven-aged management." Uneven-aged management includes clear cuts. As currently proposed, the Kings River Project includes 613 acres of clear cuts up to 3 acres in size. This bill would remove the limits on the number of openings.

Like the "grandfathered" projects on the national monument, the Kings River Project would bring aggressive logging into the heart of the remaining fisher population. HR 5760 would remove even the meager limits in place — with devastating effects for the fisher and other species on the forest. Pretending to be a "research" project, this is just a giveaway to the local timber industry in disguise.

Please Contact California's US Senators, Dianne Feinstein and Barbara Boxer, Today and Urge Them to Stop this Bill from Moving Forward!

This legislation overrides numerous court rulings and several key environmental laws, potentially leading to local extinction of a key forest mammal, to achieve a dubious end: continued operation of a single timber mill that is outdated and unequipped to handle the small diameter trees and brush that are the only appropriate materials to remove from the forest. It is bad public policy, and a policy that in the long run will only continue to contribute to more fire-prone forests by encouraging logging of large trees.

Tell the Senators to oppose HR 5760. Congress could play a much more constructive role by working to establish the appropriate local industries in the region for dealing with small diameter timber cut from forest lands harmed by logging, long-term fire suppression and tree plantation plantings. In this way multiple public interests could be addressed without causing grave harm both to wildlife and to old growth forests in Giant Sequoia National Monument and Sierra National Forest.

The National Park Service, in Sequoia-Kings Canyon National Park, manages its forests and wildlife in a scientifically sound way, including a long history of using wildland and prescribed fire for successful giant sequoia regeneration and fuels management. For all these reasons, the Nunes bill is terrible public policy and the Senators should vigorously fight it.

Contacts:

Senator Dianne Feinstein 202-224-3841
Senator Barbara Boxer 202-224-3553

Your Voice is Needed to Protect America’s Arctic!

“While the battle over drilling the [arctic] refuge raged in Congress, the Bush administration leased vast tracts of land to the west and offshore waters to the highest bidder.” — Joel K. Bourne, Jr, writing for the May 2006 issue of National Geographic magazine in the cover story, “Selling Alaska’s Frontier”

In September 2006, the Bush administration could auction off the first oil and gas leases to oil companies in the Teshekpuk Lake Special Area of the Western Arctic.

Ignoring vocal opposition from Alaska natives, scientists, and sportsmen, the Bush administration recently opened for leasing 100 percent of the internationally significant Teshekpuk Lake Special Area in the Northeast Planning Area of the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska (NPRA). The decision eliminates long-established wildlife and environmental protections first put in place by Reagan Administration Interior Secretary James Watt. The National Petroleum Reserve is the giant, 23 million-acre area (equal to nearly one quarter of the state of California!) in Alaska's western arctic (west of Prudhoe Bay and the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge) that was set aside in the 1920s by President Warren Harding as an emergency source of oil for the Navy. Later, this, the nation's largest chunk of public land, was transferred to the Bureau of Land Management. The tremendous wildlife and wilderness resources of its "Special Areas" are second to none, not even the more-publicized Refuge.

Besides being one of the most important and sensitive arctic wetland complexes in the Northern Hemisphere, the Teshekpuk Lake Special Area is home to the 45,000-head Teshekpuk Lake Caribou Herd, 60,000 molting geese a year, and the entire breeding population of Steller’s eiders. Hundreds of species of birds migrate from six different continents in order to spend part of the year in Teshekpuk Lake.

In 1977, Interior Secretary Cecil Andrus established the fragile wetlands surrounding Teshekpuk Lake as the Teshekpuk Lake Special Area. This designation meant that the wildlife, subsistence and cultural values must receive maximum protection under any future development scenario. Until recently, it was enough to protect this pristine place.

The Bush administration has made clear its intention to turn the Teshekpuk Lake Special Area into a giant network of drilling platforms, gravel roads, airstrips and pipelines. Further, thanks to the 2005 Energy Policy Act, oil companies can be assured they will be heftily subsidized by taxpayer dollars to drill in places like the Teshekpuk Lake Special Area.

In response to a request for comments on whether to weaken T-Lake area protections, more than 215,000 citizens spoke out in opposition to opening more of the Teshekpuk Lake Special Area to oil leasing. The mayor of the North Slope Borough — the largest municipal government entity on Alaska’s North Slope — spoke openly about the threat to Alaska Native communities’ subsistence resources and cultural values — which are protected under the 1976 Naval Petroleum Reserves Production Act. National sportsmen’s groups, ornithologists and even members of Congress have voiced opposition to opening this part of Teshekpuk Lake.

Yet the Department of Interior dismissed these diverse voices and opened 100 percent of the area to oil and gas leasing.

The Bush administration still has a chance to cancel its plans to offer the Teshekpuk Lake Special Area for oil leasing. Over 95% of Alaska’s North Slope is already open for oil and gas exploration and development. With what little undisturbed territory is left, it is the federal government’s duty to honor the concerns of its citizens and past leaders by keeping this area left untouched.

The first lease sale in the Teshekpuk Lake Special Area is scheduled to occur on September 27, 2006. Please take a minute today to send a letter to the Department of the Interior, asking that the lease sale be cancelled.

Forest Victory!

On July 12, Governor Schwarzenegger petitioned the federal government to protect all 4.4 million acres of California's wild forests. This act is the next step in our work to protect the most pristine parts of our national forests for future generations and comes after six years of Bush administration forest protection rollbacks.

Background

Enacted in January 2001, the Roadless Rule protects the last third of America's national forests while allowing new road construction in order to fight fires, ensure public safety, and allow brush clearing to protect forest health. The Roadless Rule ensures that forests will continue to provide clean drinking water, habitat for wildlife and endless opportunities for recreation and solitude.

On July 12, 2004 the Bush administration announced its proposal to repeal the Roadless Rule and replace it with a process that allows governors to petition for more or less protection for roadless areas in their states.

The Bush administration scheduled a 60-day comment period on their plan. During the comment period, the administration received more than 1.4 million comments in opposition to its proposal. About a dozen governors spoke out in opposition to the proposal, as did many members of Congress.

Despite the public support, President Bush repealed the Roadless Rule in May 2005. Since then Governor. Schwarzenegger made several public promises to protect 100 percent of our wild forests in California. Time is running out for him to fulfill this promise.

On Wednesday July 12, Governor Schwarzenegger fulfilled this promise and officially petitioned the federal government to protect 100 percent of our wild forests called 'roadless areas' in California.

This is a huge victory for our forests in California that would not have been possible without your activism, take a moment to pat yourself on the back and then send a thank you to the governor for doing the right thing. Then ask your friends and family to do the same by forwarding them this email.

Sincerely,

Dan Jacobson
Environment California Legislative Director
DanJ@environmentcalifornia.org http://www.EnvironmentCalifornia.org

Get the Lead Out

Condor Advocates Announce Suit to Replace Toxic Ammo with Safer Alternatives

California Agency Ignores Greatest Threat to Recovery of Rare, Signature Species

 

SAN FRANCISCO (July 11, 2006) A coalition of conservation and health organizations announced today they will sue the California Fish and Game Commission for continuing to allow use of toxic lead ammunition that experts say is poisoning rare California condors that feed on contaminated carcasses left behind by hunters. The Center for Biological Diversity (CBD), the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), Physicians for Social Responsibility (PSR), and the Wishtoyo Foundation, along with representatives from the hunting community served a 60-day notice of intent to sue the commission required under the federal Endangered Species Act.

"Lead poisoning from ammunition is the single greatest obstacle to the recovery of wild California condors," said Jeff Miller with the CBD. "California put the condor on the state quarter as a symbol of our natural heritage, but if we want condors to survive, we must stop poisoning their food supply."

The California condor is one of the most imperiled animals in the world. They were so close to extinction that in 1982, the last 22 wild birds were rounded up as part of a captive-breeding program, Of the 67 condors released back into Southern California between 1992 and 2002, 32 — nearly half — have died or disappeared and are presumed dead. Scientists say poisoning from lead ammunition is likely responsible for many of the deaths.

Condors are exposed to lead when they encounter carcasses or the remains of animals cleaned by hunters in the field. Microscopic lead particles are widespread throughout game shot with lead ammunition. Condors can also mistake bullet fragments for the calcium-rich bone they require. Condors absorb lead more quickly than other raptors and expel it less efficiently.

There is a simple solution to this problem. Non-lead bullets made from copper and other materials, with performance equal or superior to that of lead bullets, are widely available for hunting big game. Although this ammunition is currently more expensive than lead, ammunition constitutes just a small fraction of the total cost of a typical hunting expedition.

"I've hunted with lead-free ammunition for many years" said Anthony Prieto, one of the plaintiffs in the case. "I can tell you, these bullets are safe and ballistically outperform bullets made from lead."

Hunters using lead ammunition also risk poisoning themselves by eating shot or bullet fragments embedded in meat. Lead is an extremely toxic element that can cause brain damage, kidney disease, high blood pressure, and numerous reproductive and neurological disorders. It has been banned in water pipes, paint, and cookware for many years. One Canadian study found that ammunition used to harvest wild game is a major source of lead exposure in Native American communities.

"Lead ammunition is bad for hunters and their families, too," said Jonathan Parfrey, Executive Director for PSR. "People eating meat from animals taken with lead ammunition often have unhealthy lead levels in their own bodies."

Federal law already requires the use of non-lead shot when hunting waterfowl due to widespread lead poisoning of both waterfowl and secondary poisoning of eagles. Lead poisoning of loons, swans, upland game and the continued poisoning of eagles prompted additional restrictions on lead shot and lead fishing tackle in National Parks, National Wildlife Refuges and on public lands in many states.

Native Americans also have a powerful interest in protecting wild condors. "There is a win-win solution to this problem," said Mati Waiya with the Wishtoyo Foundation. "The use of safe and effective nontoxic ammunition will allow hunters to continue their activities and, at the same time, honor and protect condors, which are a critical part of our religious and cultural ceremonies."

"The Fish and Game Commission knows about these problems and has a clear responsibility under the law to protect the condor," said NRDC Attorney Andrew Wetzler. "Phasing out lead ammunition in condor habitat isn't even a close call. Unfortunately, it looks like it will take filing a lawsuit to make the Commission pay attention."

Alliance of Snowmobilers and Conservatists
Would Protect Land in Sierra

(07-10) 04:00 PDT Washington — An unusual alliance of off-road vehicle enthusiasts, environmentalists and local officials in the Eastern Sierra has crafted a deal to set aside more than 40,000 acres of wilderness near Yosemite National Park, which lawmakers are calling a model of how to build consensus to protect public lands.

The plan would permanently protect an area of the High Sierra one-third larger than San Francisco that is popular with hikers, equestrians and anglers for its jagged 11,000-foot peaks, alpine lakes, lush meadows and conifer forests. The area covers 11 miles of the Pacific Crest Trail, the 2,650-mile scenic path stretching from Canada to Mexico.

In return for giving up access to the new wilderness, snowmobile riders would get an 11,000-acre winter-use snowmobile recreation area centered on Leavitt Bowl near the Sonora Pass.

The deal is in a bill by Rep. Buck McKeon, a Republican from Santa Clarita (Los Angeles County), which is expected to get its first House hearing this month. The sponsors, including California's two Democratic senators, believe it could be approved by Congress later this year.

The bill is backed by the Bush administration.

At a Senate hearing last month, US Forest Service Deputy Chief Joel Holtrop said the area is "replete with high mountain meadows, craggy mountain crests and fishable streams."

The only suspense is whether House Resources Committee Chairman Richard Pombo, R-Tracy, who has jurisdiction over all public lands bills, will move the bill this year. So far, he has been coy about his intentions.

The measure would end a 20-year stalemate in Mono County between snowmobilers and conservationists that began when the Forest Service recommended that 50,000 acres of the Humboldt-Toiyabe National Forest directly north of Yosemite be set aside as wilderness, banning off-road vehicles in the area.

Snowmobilers didn't want to give up any of the areas they had been using for decades. Environmentalists believed the area was as spectacular as Yosemite and wanted virtually every acre protected. The conflict was sparked again in 2002, when Senator Barbara Boxer, D-CA, introduced a bill that would have designated the 50,000-acre area as wilderness as part of a sweeping plan to set aside 2.5 million acres of wildland across the state.

More than 93 percent of land in Mono County is controlled by government entities — the Forest Service, the Bureau of Land Management and the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power — and many locals, especially off-road vehicle enthusiasts, were alarmed at the proposal.

So McKeon, a Republican whose district was vastly expanded after the 2000 census to include Mono and Inyo counties, urged his new constituents to sit down at the table and draw new boundaries for the wilderness area that all sides could support.

"People were very upset. They felt they had no input in it," McKeon said. "What I told them is if they could come together and get consensus on what they wanted to do, we would draft the legislation and carry it and try to put it into law. And that's basically what's happened."

Hard negotiations

For eight months, supervisors from Mono and Inyo counties negotiated with representatives from the Wilderness Society and groups lobbying for more off-road access. They toured the area and traded maps back and forth. More often than not, they disagreed on the boundaries. "Everyone gave up something," said Mono County Supervisor Duane "Hap" Hazard, a former sheriff's sergeant, who led the negotiations. "I told people, 'If you're not unhappy with something here, then you didn't give up enough. But you should also feel like you got something that you couldn't get through any other means.' "

The bill would add 39,680 acres to the Hoover Wilderness north of Yosemite, including 11,755-foot Tower Peak and the headwaters of the West Walker River. The measure also adds 640 acres to the Emigrant Wilderness, including 11,570-foot Leavitt Peak.

But the deal also preserves the area's prime snowmobile territory, creating a recreation area that could boost winter tourism. Local officials hope to eventually build a trail between Leavitt Bowl and the Mono County town of Bridgeport. But some snowmobilers remain upset that they stand to lose areas that were previously accessible. "I would like to have seen about 5,000 more acres that we should have had," said Dick Noles, co-chairman of Advocates for Access to Public Lands, who represented off-road interests. "But it had to have permanency, I said. 'Let's negotiate a legislated area (for off-road recreation) so we don't have to keep having this fight for every damn acre.' "

The agreement also satisfied environmental groups, which are trying to preserve the state's most precious pieces of wilderness. The new areas are prized because they are accessible to nature lovers in the Bay Area and the booming cities of the Central Valley and Southern California.

"The population in California is exploding," said Derek Chernow, a spokesman for the California Wild Heritage Campaign. "People have come to appreciate a lifestyle that is one of outdoor activities, like skiing, snowshoeing and hiking. When you have something as special as the Hoover, these are places you want to preserve in perpetuity."

The bill also would add 24 miles of the Amargosa River in Inyo and San Bernardino counties to the National Wild and Scenic Rivers System, which protects against diverting its flow of water. The Amargosa is the only free-flowing river that runs through Death Valley National Park.

"Having a designated wild and scenic river puts us on the map," said Brian Brown, who owns China Ranch, a 218-acre date farm near the old mining town of Tecopa in Inyo County. "We see it as one little step in the economic recovery of our area."

McKeon said he has talked to Pombo about the bill and got the chairman's approval for a hearing this month. "We're pretty good friends, and I feel pretty good about getting it through the committee," McKeon said. Pombo declined several requests last week to discuss the bill and its prospects.

'You are crazy'

Boxer said the measure will move easily through the Senate, and she has been urging Pombo to get it done in the House this year. She is also pushing another bill, which has passed the Senate but has yet to get a vote in the House, to designate more than 300,000 acres of wilderness on California's northern coast. "When I dropped my bill (to set aside 2.5 million acres of wilderness), people said, 'You are crazy. You'll never get an acre of land,' " Boxer said. But she noted that Congress has been quietly setting aside land piece by piece, including a 2002 law that added 54,000 acres of wilderness in Monterey County. "I'm glad we got everyone to come to the table in Mono and Inyo," she said. "We still believe, along with the environmental organizations, that this compromise protects some of the most precious parts of Mono County as wilderness."

"Mission Accomplished" on Global Warming?
by Josh Dorner, RAW Contributor

"I think we have a problem on global warming. I think there is a debate about whether it's caused by mankind or whether it's caused naturally, but it's a worthy debate. It's a debate, actually, that I'm in the process of solving..."
— President Bush, July 6, People magazine

Apparently the President is showing early signs of senility as he hits 60, since he has clearly forgotten his own record on global warming.

Bush Says: "We will require all power plants to meet clean-air standards in order to reduce emissions — of carbon dioxide within a reasonable period of time." (9/29/00)

Bush Does: After assuming office, Bush walked away from the Kyoto protocol that sought to reduce CO2 emissions, angering Europeans and dealing a significant blow to efforts to curb global warming.

Bush Does Again: His Environmental Protection Agency has refused to regulate CO2 as a pollutant under the Clean Air Act, even though the law specifically states that affecting the climate is one of criteria that can be used to define a pollutant. The Supreme Court will hear a case next term, Massachusetts v. EPA, that addresses this issue. The case was filed by the Sierra Club, along with a dozen states and other environmental groups.

Bush Says: "I think — I have said consistently that global warming is a serious problem. There's a debate over whether it's manmade or naturally caused." (6/26/2006)

Reality: Of the 928 peer-reviewed articles published on global warming in the past ten years, the number that disagreed with the scientific consensus that global warming is caused by human activities: ZERO.

I guess the President thinks that by failing to regulate CO2, failing to enact tougher fuel economy standards for our vehicles that would dramatically reduce their CO2 emissions, and allowing Cheney to write an energy policy by and for Big Oil, that he's given us a "Mission Accomplished" on global warming.

This is one mission we can't simply forget about and leave to the President and his friends in Congress to "accomplish" on their own terms.

Pipes Canyon
by Elden Hughes

Thursday, July 13, 2006 — It appears that the Ranger Station at Pipes Canyon where we've held our meetings has been spared by the fire. Also the Ranger's home above the station is OK, but the whole canyon has been burnt or is burning all the way to the Ridge.

A large home owned by Wildlands and a caretaker's home has burned down.

The fire has not reached Mission Creek.

Desert Infernos — Cause and Prevention
by Stan Haye

The Grazing Committee has been studying the characterists of what I believe are bromes (I am not a botonist). One variety if brome is cheatgrass, and this is closely related to bromes infesting the Mojave. Cheatgrass, and bromes in general, germinate very early in the spring, or even late winter, mature very fast, and die in spring. By germinating so early, they tend to crowd out native annuals which germinate later. Also, bromes carry fire since they fill in the bare space between the sagebrush, greasweed, Joshua trees, etc that naturally existed and did not carry fire.

Thus, historic fire frequency in the Mojave of 100 years would not be unrealistic under pre white man conditions. However, the ecosystem is now very much changed. The bromes have spread, partly due to cattle grazing and partly due to climate change among other factors, and now fill the spaces between the native desert vegetation. The natives are not well adapted to fire, since they have not evolved with it. Some natives may resprout after a fire, but the bromes will resprout the next year, and probably within a few years after the first fire there will be another fire which will kill more native shrubs. Inevitably these repeated fires will result in a cheatgrass, or brome, grass savannah.

 

The Grazing Commitee has seen the result of this process in Idaho. Within a few years, repeated fires kill the native sagebrush and virtually all that is left is cheatgrass. This is not only very poor habitat, even the cows don't like it very well.

All atttemps to eradicate established cheatgrass (and mustard, which is even worse), from chemical warfare to grazing to plowing it up and reseeding, have failed. Once it is established, there is no known eradication method that works.

Since the bromes cannot be eradicated and are spread primarily by cattle, it is vital that there be NO cattle grazing in areas of the Mojave not already infected. Also, since vehicles can spread the bromes and other weeds via carrying the seeds on tires and undercarriages, it is also important to minimize vehicle use in uninfected areas. Where vehicle use is allowed, there must be frequent monitoring and weed removal along vehicle routes.

 

Desert Infernos and Invasives
by Richard Halsey

 

"This isn't a good time."

 

That's what a Pioneertown resident repeated to me a couple times Saturday afternoon as I was asking him about the behavior of the Sawtooth complex fire that has burned 61,000 acres so far in the desert mountains west of Yucca Valley, destroyed 58 homes, and unknown to me at the time, had taken a life.

 

My collection of information on the types of fuels present, why some houses burned while others did not, and the debate over whether or not dried native wildflowers carried the flames suddenly took on a different meaning.

 

The reason for the resident's disinterest in talking to me was made clear about 15 minutes later when I noticed several deputies a short distance away from an area I was examining. Little white flags marked important points of evidence, possibly footsteps. Yellow tape cordoned off about a half acre. This was where searchers had just found the bodies of Pioneertown resident Jerry Guthrie, 57, and his dog. He had been told to evacuate, but stayed. There is speculation that he left his home and walked up a small ridge to check on the fire's progress Tuesday shortly after talking to his son on the phone around 1:30 pm. Maybe he panicked. Whatever happened, Jerry appears to have been overcome by heat and flames. It will be a couple days before an autopsy report will be released.

 

Jerry's house survived the fire. It was a well built, domed shaped structure with fire resistant materials covering the surfaces. He had done an excellent job creating a fire safe home. The desert all around his place was charred black. The ashen remains of the sparse vegetation that was present was relatively close to the building. It appears the construction more than anything else saved the place. If he had only stayed inside. There's a lot of potential offered by this fire to help shed some light on the whole vegetation clearance/fire safe construction issue. Unlike the Cedar fire, it will be difficult to blame the dense vegetation. There wasn't any. From my preliminary examination, it appears embers and wind were the two most important variables here. Structure survivability seems to have had more to do with fire safe construction than anything related to vegetation.

 

Hopefully I'll be able to clarify this first impression with a more thorough investigation over the next few months. I've already set up some of the ground work. Hopefully, we can honor Jerry with some quality research to help significantly reduce the risk of such a tragic loss from happening again.

 

Concerning vegetation and the suggestions that native wildflowers carried the flames and that the area probably will not burn for another century, I think it is important to answer a question first. Why have so many folks, including myself, reacted so intensely over these opinions?

 

The answer is simple. The impact of invasive weeds on native plant communities has been horrific. They are the vanguard of the ongoing onslaught to develop into the backcountry that is consuming so much of our native landscape. If you would like to have a firsthand account of what has happened, take a drive westbound on Highway 60 through the "badlands" area between Beaumont and Moreno Valley. About half way through the badlands there is a single, small turn out. Get ready to slam on the brakes as you approach the area and swiftly turn into it. Get out of your car and take a short stroll down the bulldozed dirt ramp into the waist-high growth of mustard, Bromus, and wild oats. The smell of dumped garbage, flicking grasshoppers hitting your face, and sharp weed stickers penetrating your skin through your clothes will help you get in touch with what "type-conversion" by alien plants is all about. Grasshoppers? Yes, that was all the wildlife I was able to observe. Sure, there were a couple sugarbush shrubs trying to make a comeback from the last fire, and here and there you might find a struggling California sagebrush (I also saw a dead dove on the road), but for the most part the place is a 21st century wasteland, eliciting the same kinds of feelings one might have when visiting a hometown that has been turned into a garbage dump or a childhood home that is now the local crack/cocaine house.

 

A fuels manager with the USFS told me Saturday that a slowly creeping "band of yellow felt" is moving up the front range of the San Bernardino, Santa Ana, and San Gabriel Mountains as native chaparral is being type-converted to weedy grassland. Fire after repeated fire has replaced the native ground cover (sage scrub and chaparral) with flashy, annual fuels. "I don't know how we are going to stop it," he told me.

 

Thank God the USFS has been there to put out the fires they have. Now there's a novel concept, thanking the fire service for putting out wildfires instead of blaming them for allowing fuel build-up via fire suppression (a concept that has been misapplied to a large number of ecosystems).

 

The process of type-conversion is happening in the desert as well. Repeated fires, aided by historical over-grazing, have infected much of the Mojave desert with alien cheatgrass. On your type-conversion tour, drive to Yucca Valley along Highway 62 outside of Palm Springs. The "band of yellow felt" is not so much a band, but more of a blanket covering much of the landscape. That blanket is also what we call a continuous fuel bed. It will carry fire when historically, fires likely traveled only a few yards. Combine the invasive fuel bed with low humidity and high winds, the factors present when the Sawtooth complex fire was started by lightning, and you have a recipe for disaster.

 

So when someone is asked about fires in the desert, fires in any native plant community in California, and fails to emphasize the significant role of invasives in determining fire size, distribution, and frequency, as well the resulting expansion of invasives after wildfires, they mislead the public and fail to take a golden opportunity to help all us better understand how to develop land-use policies that may help to protect valuable natural landscapes.

 

And just to repeat, I did contact the reporter of the July 13th Desert Sun article and he confirmed the quoted emphasis was placed on native wildflowers, not invasives.

 

So what did I find in the field this past weekend? I mainly investigated the Pipes Canyon area, Pioneertown, and the general site of the Sawtooth fire's origin. I have never been to this location before and depended upon CDF firefighters, rangers at the Pipes Canyon Reserve, and a few local residents to let me know what the place looked like prior to the fire. There were also numerous areas that did not burn due to fire retardant drops, fire line construction, etc. so I was able to record the general pre-burn vegetation/fuel mix. The fire scar established during the 2005 Pioneertown fire, which burned approximately 2000 acres, was relatively untouched by the Sawtooth complex. Although there was a lot of cheatgrass covering this scar, it was a very low, thin cover without the necessary high fuel concentration provided by native shrubs to allow the fire to carry.

 

Desert Infernos — Comments

Richard Minnich:

I recognize that invasives are currently the primary fuels in the lower deserts, especially Schismus barbatis, but there was a spectacular flower crop that developed in the higher deserts after the very wet 2004-05 year (remember the Death Valley stories nationally in the spring 2005). We can quibble by invasives vs. forbs, but my bottom line to the press was that the pioneertown fire was primarily a product of the very wet winter two years ago which produced a phenomenal crop of herbaceous vegetation.

 

Last year (2005) Pioneertown had a 2000-acre fire on the volcanic cap hillslopes near the town. I evaluated the burn and found that native wildflowers were the dominant fuels. The most common annuals were in the genera Amsinkia, Phacelia, Chaenactis, Salvia (columbarie), and several others, including a native grass Aristida. Other species in small numbers were Camissonia californica, Geraea canescens, Lepidium lasiocarpum, Lotus strigosus, Pectis papposis, and Salvia carduacea. Bromus rubens was present, especially on disturbed ground near Pioneertown settlements, but drastically diminished from previous years due to crashes caused by the extraordinary drought of 1999-2002. Erodium cicutarium was present but it does not leave fuel when it cures.

 

I sampled biomass at 10 sites and recorded dry weight amounts of 0.5 to 1.5 tons per hectare, which is phenomenal because total herbaceous biomass in deserts as arid as Pioneertown are normally close to zero. What is not considered is that we are looking at a "one time only" perturbation in flash-fuel production as a result of the wettest winter in instrumental record (100 years +) two years ago (2004-05) in most of the California deserts, especially east of the longitude of Barstow. I also recorded 3 tons per hectare near Kramer Junction in June 2005, mostly Amsinkia tessellata, and fires broke out in these areas as well last year. Herbaceous fuels (native and exotic) are abundant today because decomposition was nil during the relatively dry winter of 2005-06. Fires of this magnitude will always be rare in deserts, because normal precipitation yields minimal herbaceous fuel.

 

Judith Anderson:

 

I second the urging of people to contact Dr. Minnich directly.

 

A word about history here might be appropriate. Dr. Minnich was an active member of the Sierra Club's Southern California Forest and Wilderness Committee for many years — albeit 25 years ago — while he was completing his PhD at UCLA. Fire Ecology was the subject of his thesis. He was very helpful in pushing to hold the first fire ecology workshop sponsored by the Sierra Club in the 1970's. The subsequent workshop was organized by the USFS Pacific Region research arm in San Diego—which broadened it to common issues in Mediterranean Ecosystems. It then became international in scope, with conferences in Australia, and I believe South Africa. I've not heard about any others. Dr. Minnich was also influential in providing direction for the Sierra Club's initial policy statement on wildfires, especially as it relates to chaparral.

 

The USFS published the reports given at the San Diego conference. This document was the required textbook for the class in Fire Ecology which Dr. Minnich taught at UCLA extension — late 70's - early 80's. I've forgotten the exact year. I was one of the students in that class. Shortly thereafter Dr. Minnich moved to Riverside where he continued his contacts with the fire lab there, and UCR, and dropped his direct involvement with the Sierra Club. I'm sure that additional research has revealed many things which modify the conclusions in the USFS document. I don't know of any updates. It would be a great introduction to the issue.

 

In the class, I recall Dr. Minnich saying that the estimates even then were of about 100 year cycle for desert fires pre human induced influences. Many of the observations that you have all made are certainly pertinent. I'm not conversant with the ability of Joshua Trees to stump sprout after fire. I've watched with concern the demise of a stand of clone Joshua Trees that were in a small canyon east of I-5 just south of Gorman. The stand was extremely dense — one couldn't even walk between the trees in the grove except where routes had been forced through wide enough for vehicles. They were burned several years ago. I haven't seen any sign of recovery by this clone sprouting sub specie.

 

Several years ago High Country News ran an article on the changes in vegetation in some of the areas. They had photos to compare 100+ year spans. Early photos showed fewer pinyon and juniper than were present more recently. They wondered if the expansion of pinyon/juniper woodland into open range was a result of fire suppression, or the absence of bison which might have trampled small pinyon/junipers into splinters except in the arroyos, or the presence of non-natives. Domestic cattle herds really don't have the same effect as pre-historic bison herds. The great swaths of land traversed by herds of bison must have been effective fire breaks. The Mojave is quite different from the plains — and not just from the absence of bison. There's much to think about.

 

Richard Halsey:

 

To cut to the chase, Rich Minnich's perspectives on chaparral management in Southern California are no longer considered particularly helpful by most of those in the field. He has advocated for years the process of rotational burning of chaparral to create mixed-aged mosaics for both fire risk reduction and ecological health. Neither stands up to rigorous scientific testing or analysis of available data. Chaparral has not become over-grown, as he has claimed, due to past fire suppression practices (unlike some dry ponderosa forests) and old growth chaparral remains a healthy, dynamic system. It does not "need" to burn.

 

The "mosaic" model, if implemented, would eventually cause significant ecological damage and could lead to the elimination of native chaparral in large areas.

 

Unfortunately, not only did many in the fire management community buy into this "mosaic" idea some 20 years ago, but so did the environmental community. It has taken over 10 years of hard work and research by a significant number of ecologists to begin to correct these misconceptions.

 

The Cleveland National Forest and the Santa Monica Mountains Recreational Area fire staff have both rejected the "mosaic" model in their fire plans as does the recent USFS fire management component of the recently submitted Forest Plan for the four Southern California National Forests.

The basic message is that there is too much fire rather than not enough in chaparral systems. We don't need to put anymore on the ground. We have a detailed analysis with references, papers accessible by download, and appropriate data sets concerning this matter on this page of our website: http://www.californiachaparral.com/firenature.html

The Baja-Southern California Fire Model is particularly relevant. This page addresses some of the most basic misconceptions concerning chaparral: http://www.californiachaparral.com/factsandmyths.html

 

All of this does not mean there is not a valid debate in fire management. There is. But what is crucial is to look at all the data, forget the personalities, and come to a decision what is best for each particular native plant system. Every one of them is different.

 

After examining all the evidence, interviewing or hearing from numerous individuals who were either on the fire or have an intimate knowledge of area (including local ecologists, firefighters, and the Forest Chief), and assembling information from my own site visits, I think it is prudent to at this point to make a clear statement concerning Minnich’s contention that native wildflowers fueled the Sawtooth complex fire and that there probably won’t be one for another century.

 

Although there may have been some areas where dried, native wildflowers contributed to the total fuel load, the contention that they were the major contributors in allowing the flames to carry is incorrect and is based on observations that do not apply to the Sawtooth complex fire’s area of spread. In addition, the suggestion that the area will likely not burn for another century fails to consider the flammable mix of invasive species such as cheatgrass, red brome, and mustards that will likely spread further into the fire scar, especially after a good rainy season. These plants make a significant contribution to high levels of fine fuels that will continue to threaten the area with increased fire frequencies and to the elimination of many native species.

 

I believe some interpretation of this entire situation would also be helpful.

Over the past 20 years Minnich has been focusing on fuel as the primary factor in controlling wildfires (as opposed to other variables such as weather conditions). Building on observations he made twenty years ago in Baja California, he strongly believes that the large chaparral fires that occur in Southern California are directly due to fire suppression practices that have allowed unnatural, excessive fuels to develop. Although there are a number of individuals who still support this viewpoint, it has not been supported by the last 10 years of research and is being rejected by a growing number of resource agencies and most in the field. Although fire agencies have done a tremendous job trying to keep Southern California wildfires from destroying property and killing people, they can not control wildfires driven by severe weather conditions. This is why the TOTAL acreage burned per decade in Southern California has not changed significantly since records have been kept over the last century.

With fuel being the primary variable of Minnich’s hypothesis, there appears to be a desire to prove that fuel loads drive every fire.

According to his model, the sparsely vegetated desert should NOT burn — unless there is an unusual fuel load. The abundant wildflowers Minnich said he observed after the 2005 Pioneer fire easily fit into this model. However, based on Minnich’s description of his data, it is difficult to determine where the data was collected and how the random sampling was taken. Also it appears the samples were taken after the fire, which indicates they had to be collected outside the fire scar since within the fire scar itself there was nothing left to study.

Based on my own observations of very few native wildflower remains near or around the vicinity of the Sawtooth complex fire’s origin it doesn’t appear Minnich’s samples were taken in areas relevant to the Sawtooth’s behavior. Data he collected from Kramer’s Junction is not particularly relevant to this area since Kramer’s is nearly 100 miles away. The fact that he doesn’t mention cheatgrass in his data at all is peculiar since it was the dominant fine fuel species I observed last weekend in and around Pioneertown. The entire 2005 Pioneertown fire scar is covered with cheatgrass.

Why the radical difference in interpretation?

While out at the Pipes Reserve this weekend, one of the staff members indicated to me that a researcher from a nearby university came out to study the area after the 2005 Pioneer fire. He said the fellow indicated he was trying to prove that Bromus would not carry a fire. He didn’t remember the fellow’s name, but the stated objective of the research provides an example why evaluating scientific work can be tricky. Many times I have come across research that appears to be more focused on proving a particular point than objectively analyzing all the data, no matter where it leads.

Although personal attachment to one’s work is an important motivator, it can interfere with the scientific method because it interjects bias, a variable every scientist tries to avoid. The primary purpose of science is to reveal truth and explain how the universe works by considering a body of evidence and objectively evaluating that evidence. This is a painstaking process requiring time, peer review, and humility. Sometimes, in an effort to prove a favored theory, contrary evidence is ignored and bias unconsciously shapes conclusions.

In an interesting paper read before the Society of Western Naturalists in 1889, Thomas C. Chamberlin addressed these issues when he wrote, “There is an unconscious selection and magnifying of the phenomena that fall into harmony with the theory and support it, and an unconscious neglect of those that fail of coincidence. There springs up, also, an unconscious pressing of the theory to make it fit the facts, and a pressing of the facts to make them fit the theory.

Based on what we know now and what firefighters have told me, the only way the Sawtooth fire could have carried the way it did in the desert region was because high winds (aided by record temperatures) facilitated the rapid movement of embers from shrub to shrub with invasive species serving as the needed kindling underneath and between each shrub/tree. Native wildflowers likely played some role, but they were completely overshadowed by the invasives

The notion that firefighting agencies and the government in general are to blame for the wildfire problem that currently exists in the region is contrary to what we now know. In fact, if it had not been for the USFS and the CDF suppressing the thousands of small fires that have occurred, a tremendous amount of natural vegetation would have likely been type-converted to weedy grassland.

Stan Haye:

Rick — I think that one of the most important points you make is that fire management for different ecosystems is not the same — one policy does not fit all. I am very interested in what would be proper fire management of the pinyon/juniper ecosystems of the Southern Sierra since there have been very large fires there the last few years. Could you give me any references?

Better yet, is there a book that summerizes proper fire management in different ecosystems? If there isn't one, there should be.

A Dying Planet
by Chris Flavin

Chris Flavin is president of the Worldwatch Institute. Next month, the Institute's World Watch magazine will publish a special issue devoted to the lessons of Hurricane Katrina.

Weather-related disasters like Hurricane Katrina — or the intense heat wave now hitting the United States — are on the rise. The toll of these catastrophes is exacerbated by growing ecological stresses, and the future health of the global economy and the stability of nations will be shaped by our ability to address the huge imbalances in natural systems that now exist. While governments and businesses around the world are beginning to take action to stem the damage, our future demands more aggressive responses

Earlier this month, we at the Worldwatch Institute released a new report, "Vital Signs 2006-2007," examining trends that point to unprecedented levels of commerce and consumption, set against a backdrop of ecological decline in a world powered overwhelmingly by fossil fuels.

In 2005, the average atmospheric carbon dioxide concentration increased 0.6 percent over the high in 2004, representing the largest annual increase ever recorded. The average global temperature reached 14.6 degrees Celsius, making 2005 the warmest year ever recorded on the Earth's surface.

Our report shows that some 40 percent of the world's coral reefs have been damaged or destroyed, water withdrawals from rivers and lakes have doubled since 1960, and species are becoming extinct at as much as 1,000 times the natural rate. While ecosystems can be overexploited for long periods of time with little visible effect, many ultimately reach a "tipping point" after which they begin to collapse rapidly, with far-reaching implications for all who depend on them.

Abrupt change was evident in southern Louisiana and Mississippi in 2005. For decades, the flow of the Mississippi River had been altered, the wetlands at its mouth destroyed, and massive amounts of water and oil extracted from beneath the delta. Only an unheeded minority noticed that this gradual destruction of natural systems had left New Orleans as vulnerable as a sword-wielding soldier on today's high-tech battlefields. Thanks to a combination of human and geological causes, a city that was at sea level when the first settlers arrived in the 18th century had sunk as much as a meter below that level when the hurricane season began in 2005.

Weather-related catastrophes have jumped from an average of 97 million a year in the early 1980s to 260 million a year since 2001. This mounting disaster toll has several causes, including rapid growth in the human population and the even more dramatic growth in human numbers and settlements along coastlines and in other vulnerable areas.

Climate change may be contributing to the rising tide of disasters as well, according to several scientific studies published in 2005. Three of the 10 strongest hurricanes ever recorded occurred last year, and the average intensity of hurricanes is increasing, recent research concludes.

This is not surprising, considering the main "fuel" driving hurricanes is warm water. Temperatures in the Gulf of Mexico were at record-high levels in the summer of 2005, turning Hurricane Katrina in just over 48 hours from a low-level Category 1 hurricane to the strongest Atlantic storm ever recorded. (In September 2005, Hurricanes Wilma and Rita each broke Katrina's record as the strongest storm ever in that region.)

Yet all of this is merely a foreshadowing of what is to come. The concentration of carbon dioxide, the main greenhouse gas that is driving climate change, has reached its highest level in 600,000 years, and the annual rate of increase in carbon dioxide levels is accelerating, according to atmospheric measurements taken in 2005.

Scientists are beginning to shed their usual reserve in the face of ever-more alarming evidence. In early 2006 James Hansen, the lead climate researcher at NASA, and five other top climate scientists warned that "additional global warming of more than 1 degree C above the level of 2000 will constitute 'dangerous' climate change as judged from likely effects on sea level and extermination of species."

If either the Greenland or the West Antarctic ice sheet were to melt, hundreds of millions of coastal residents would be displaced — effects a thousand times the scale of the New Orleans evacuations. In the Shanghai metropolitan area alone, 40 million people could lose their homes.

Large sections of Florida's peninsula would simply disappear.

If melting ice and catastrophic storms are not enough to bring on an energy transition, the oil market is offering a helping hand. Oil prices in 2005 and early 2006 gyrated wildly, flirting several times with over $70 a barrel, the highest prices in real terms in more than 20 years. The cause is simple: geologists are no longer finding enough oil to replace the 83 million barrels being extracted each day.

However, the reality of a new energy era has begun to sink in. In the United States, sales of large sport utility vehicles have plummeted, while those of hybrid-electric cars have doubled in little more than a year. And in China, government leaders have responded to rising fuel prices by increasing the tax on large vehicles and mandating higher levels of efficiency.

None of this has yet been sufficient to bring energy markets into balance. But signs are now growing that the world is on the verge of an energy revolution. The already-rapid growth of renewable energy industries has accelerated in the past year, with ethanol production increasing 19 percent, wind power capacity 24 percent, and solar cell production 45 percent.

The energy technology growth surge is propelled by scores of new government policies and by surging private investment. And it is attracting major commitments by multinational companies such as General Electric, Siemens, and Sharp, while also becoming one of the hottest fields for venture capitalists, who are financing scores of small start-up firms. Even oil companies are getting into the act: BP and Shell are both investing in solar energy and wind power.

These developments are impressive and are likely to provoke far-reaching changes in world energy markets within the next five years. But the change is still not fast enough to bring on the broader changes in the global economy that could stave off imminent ecological and economic crises. Government leaders and private citizens will have to mobilize in an unprecedented way if we are to have any chance of passing a healthy and secure world on to the next generation.

The Energy Policy Act of 2005 allows consumers to receive a federal TAX CREDIT up to $500 for making energy efficient improvements on their home, including installing ENERGY STAR qualified windows, skylights, new heating and cooling systems, and more. In addition, TAX CREDITS up to $2,000 are available for solar hot water heating, photovoltaics, or fuel cells. (Remember that a tax credit is money directly in your pocket; it is much better than a tax deduction.)

Chapter Newcomer Event — September 9, 2006

Crescenta Valley, Verdugo Hills, Pasadena Groups, LA & OC Sierra Singles and the Angeles Chapter  will be sponsoring the Newcomer/Member Information Event. This will be our third year at Eaton Canyon. 100 people usually show up for this one. We will have Eaton Canyon open up overflow parking.

Saturday, September 9, 2006 1 - 4 pm

Eaton Canyon Nature Center, 1750 North Altadena Drive, Pasadena

Contact Information:  Don Bremner, 626-794-2603, www.angeles.sierraclub.org/pasadena

Lots of newcomers attend and are eager to learn all about the Sierra Club. Great opportunity to come and promote your Sierra Club group, section, committee, outing, Sierra Club Special Interest or just meet all the people. Fun to meet the leaders of other groups. (Arrive 12:30, 12:45 pm to set up)

We will have tables for your displays, newsletters, handouts, plus microphone time.

Free. Refreshments served.

Thanks!   All are welcome.  Let me know if you are coming. Some of you have already sent RSVP.  Thanks!  

Chapter Membership Committee:
Donna Specht, Vice Chair, 714-963-6345
Garen Yegparian, Chair

Book Review from the
National Sustainable Consumption Committee
by Gordon LaBedz, National Sustainable Consumption Committee
GLaBedzMD@aol.com

The High Price of Materialism
by Tim Kasser

The High Price of Materialism is a book about consumption. It is not a book about the environment; it is a scientific review of the research on the relationship between “wealth” and happiness. The question you are probably asking, is, why is there a review of this book in an environmental publication?

The answer is simple, if you trace back just about any environmental issue, you will, most likely, find that its root cause is either human or domestic animal overpopulation and/or Western over-consumption. After all, we Americans use about 20% of the world’s resources. If the whole world lived like us, we would need about five more Planets. The Sierra Club has taken a strong stand on sustainable consumption. We presently have sustainable consumption committees in Groups and Chapters all over the United States. Our goal is to educate our members and the public on how their everyday buying habits impact the environment.

Tim Kasser has done an excellent job laying out the case, that, no matter how you measure happiness, wealth beyond the basics of food, clothing, housing and transportation, don’t seem to make you happier or more fulfilled. This is important knowledge for those of us who are trying to protect the environment. It turns out that the old slogan, “I’d rather be shopping,” comes from emptiness and lack of belonging, rather than the pursuit of any sort of inner peace. What Kasser and his colleagues did discover is that social and community involvement and family and friends are what make most people “happy.”

This is very important because economists are always saying that the U.S. economy is “consumer-driven.” This means that if consumers stop spending, our economy will go into a recession/depression. That’s why Bush told us all to go shopping after the attack on the New York Twin Towers.

In poor third world countries, abject poverty is very harmful to the environment. Poor people have many children who will support them in their old age. Poor people will destroy forests for firewood, wetlands are filled for agriculture and there is no affordable technology for pollution prevention. In Western countries, however, an economic slow down means people buy fewer cars, houses and other resource-consuming articles. In a wealthy country, a booming economy hurts the environment. In a poor country a booming economy can help the environment. One great exception is China which wants to have our life style immediately.

The question tackled by this book is whether all the "wealth” of Western culture will bring more happiness. The answer apparently is no. There is now scientific research to combat the “shop until you drop” movement. Our slogan can be, “work less, spend less and spend more time with your family, friends and your community.”

Urban Gardens Committee

Carmelo Alvarez has been appointed Chair of the Urban Gardens Committee.

 

Environmental Resolution passed by ExComm — July 23, 2006

 

Perchlorate Pollution

 

The Angeles Chapter of the Sierra Club opposes additional land use approvals in Santa Clarita based on water from the contaminated Saugus aquifer until clean up facilities are on line to remove the ammonium perchlorate, NDMA, and other pollutants from this ground water source.

 

Useful Information

 

Action Directory
Sierra Club Legislative Hotline: (202) 675-2394
Sierra Club National: (415) 977-5500
Sierra Club Sacramento Legislative Office: (916) 557-1100; fax (916) 557-9669
White House Comment Line: (202) 456-1111
White House Fax Line: (202) 456-2461
President George W Bush: president@whitehouse.gov
Vice President Dick Cheney: vice-president@whitehouse.gov
White House Address: 1600 Pennsylvania Ave, Washington, DC 20500
US Capitol Switchboard: (202) 224-3121
To contact your senators: Senate Office Bldg, Washington DC 20510 http://www.senate.gov/contacting/index.cfm
To contact your representative: House Office Bldg, Washington DC 20515 http://www.house.gov/writerep
California Capitol Switchboard: (916) 322-9900
Gov Arnold Schwarzenegger: (916) 445-2841; fax (916) 445-4633; governor@governor.ca.gov
      State Capitol Bldg, Sacramento CA 95814

Sierra Club Links
Sierra Club World Wide Web: http://www.sierraclub.org
Angeles Chapter site: http://angeles.sierraclub.org
Sierra Club California: http://www.sierraclub.org/ca/
Sierra Club Vote Watch Website: http://www.sierraclub.org/votewatch/
National Clubhouse activist resource site: http://clubhouse.sierraclub.org/

Need help contacting your US representatives or finding out about legislation?
US House of Representatives: http://www.house.gov/
US Senate: http://www.senate.gov/
California State Assembly: http://www.assembly.ca.gov/
California State Senate: http://www.sen.ca.gov/
California State: http://www.ca.gov/state/portal/myca_homepage.jsp
California Legislative Information: http://www.leginfo.ca.gov/
California Secretary of State voter information:
http://www.ss.ca.gov/elections/elections.htm

This Electronic Conservation Committee Newsletter is sent free, automatically, on email by listserv to all activists who hold any of the following positions in the Angeles Chapter or its entities: Executive Committee Member; Entity Chair or Conservation Chair, Political, and Newsletter Editor, Conservation Subcommittee or Task Force Chair. In addition, many activists throughout the Chapter and state receive it free by email, either by request or by position.  Distribution is approximately 350 by email, and 45 by postal hard copy. If you no longer hold the Club office with the automatic pull and wish to continue to receive it, email ivesico@earthlink.net. If we do not have your email address — please let us know. If you wish (and tell us), it will be tagged "private" and not printed or given out. The Newsletter (without upcoming resolutions) is available on the Chapter website at http://angeles.sierraclub.org/home.html Paper postal copy is available ($20/year payable Angeles Chapter, Sierra Club) for those who are technically challenged or simply don't want to be bothered. To receive The Newsletter by first class mail, send a donation of $20 to (almost) cover printing/mailing costs to Conservation Newsletter, 112 Harvard Ave PMB 297, Claremont CA 91711.

National's GoldBook provides information to chapters and groups on the differences between 501(c)(3) and 501(c)(4) funds; how to utilize and access charitable 501(c)(3) funds; how to get a project approved; fundraising plus much, much, more material on the Sierra Club. It is now available at the Clubhouse website. Go to  http://www.clubhouse.sierraclub.org/; follow the instructions for obtaining the password. The GoldBook can be found by clicking on A - Z List of Materials box, then on "G" under A-Z List of Documents, then on GoldBook, Educational Project Guidelines.

The California/Nevada Directory (RedBook) is available online. It also includes the Handbook of Sierra Club California Bylaws and Standing Rules (GreenBook). Contact Lori Ives (lori.ives@angeles.sierraclub.org) for the online address and password. Send your membership number, your position in the Club, and your reason for needing the information. The paper edition ($20) is available on special order. Contact Lori for information.

E-Mail Lists There are four important discussion lists for Angeles environmental activists:
Angeles Chapter Cons Listserve angeles-conservation@lists.sierraclub.org
Angeles Chapter Conservation Committee Newsletter (Angeles Cons-News)
Angeles-Alerts Listserve angeles-alerts@lists.sierraclub.org
California/Nevada Listserve calif-activists@lists.sierraclub.org (moderated list for announcements)
California/Nevada Listserve calif-activists-forum@lists.sierraclub.org (unmoderated discussion list)
Subscribe to California Activists: calif-activists-request@lists.sierraclub.org
Subscribe to California Activists Forum: calif-activists-request@lists.sierraclub.org
For either list, send your name, email address, Sierra Club membership number,
     your position in Club (how are you active?)
Subscription is processed by one of the list owners, usually the same day.
Subscribe to Angeles-Alerts: email listsserve@lists.sierraclub.org with the message "subscribe angeles-conservation"
or "subscribe calif-activists"  or "subscribe angeles-alerts" Note: it's "listserv," not "listserve."
To leave a list, send an e-mail to listserv@lists.sierraclub.org. In the text of your message (not the subject line), write: "signoff calif-activists" or "signoff angeles-conservation" or "signoff angeles-alerts"
The Angeles Chapter's web site is http://www.angeles.sierraclub.org/

Angeles Chapter Conservation Management Committee

Chair: Dean Wallraff (818) 679-3141
Vice Chair/Policy/Grants Chair: Bonnie Sharpe
Vice Chair/Outreach: Marcia Hanscom
Secretary: Lisa Skillett
Newletter Editor: Robin Ives (909) 624-5522
At Large: Jan Kidwell, Jay Matchett, Lynne Plambeck, Virgil Shields, Rosemarie White
Publisher/Webmaster/Circulation (non-voting): Lori Ives (909) 621-7148
Staff Conservation Coordinator (non-voting): Jennifer Robinson

Angeles Chapter Grants Committee
Bonnie Sharpe,Ch . Judy Anderson, Marcia Hanscom, Robin Ives, Jay Matchett, Rudy Vietmeier, Dean Wallraff

Angeles Chapter Conservation Committee
3435 Wilshire Blvd, Suite 320, Los Angeles CA 90010-1904. Motions should be submitted in advance, together with objective background material and supporting and opposing arguments, both to the Committee Chair (Dean Wallraff) and Newsletter Editor (Robin Ives), for distribution with the agenda. Other motions will be postponed for action at a later meeting unless the motion is submitted in writing and unless the Committee votes by a two-thirds majority an exception to the ordinary procedure. Motions needing further action by the Angeles Chapter ExComm or some higher level of the Sierra Club should start out: "The Angeles Chapter Conservation Committee recommends that the Sierra Club..."

 

DRAFT AGENDA — Wednesday, August 16, 2006
(Final agenda will be sent out August 14 on the Angeles Conservation listserv.)

Please note that we will have a get-together to say goodbye to Rachel Myers in the Chapter office at 6 pm, before the Conservation Committee meeting. Everyone is welcome. Because of this, the Conservation Committee meeting will begin at 7:30 instead of at the usual 7:15 pm

7:30 Introductions, approval of the agenda, announcements
7:40 Staff Report (Jennifer Robinson)
7:50 Establishment of Livable Cities Committee (Tom Politeo)
8:05 Do we support the LA City Housing Bond?
8:20 Report on Tujunga Watershed Project (Terrie Brady)
8:35 Letter on Peru Free Trade Agreement (Joan Holtz)
8:50 How can we recruit Spanish-speaking conservation activists?
9:15 Adjourn
    Next meeting, September 20, at the Chapter Office.

Orange County Conservation Committee
Bob Siebert/Chair — http://angeles.sierraclub.org/ocosc/

LOCATION: Inn at the Park, 10 Marquette, Irvine. Take the 405 to Culver and go west towards the beach. Follow Culver past Michelson and University and turn right on Harvard. Take Harvard to Marquette and turn right. It's on the corner of Harvard and Marquette on the right hand side.

DRAFT AGENDA — Tuesday, August 15, 2006

Meeting Cancelled.
      Next meeting: September 19

Conservation Committees Calendar
If you have an upcoming meeting or event to be listed in this calendar:
In Los Angeles County, contact Lori Ives (ivesico@earthlink.net);
In Orange County, contact Bob Siebert (eesolar@sbcglobal.net)

AUGUST 2006

Sun Aug 13, 2nd Sun, 2:45 pm, San Pedro Public Library, 9th and Gaffey - Harbor Vision Task Force

Sun-Mon, Aug 13-14, Sacramento - Lobby Day. Contact Ron Silverman ron.silverman@sierraclub.org

Mon Aug 14, 2nd Mon Feb/May/Aug/Nov - Native American Sacred Sites TF, Rebecca Robles (949) 369-0361

Mon Aug 14, 2nd Mon, 7:15 pm, 217 E Chapman Ave, Orange - Orange Hills TF, John Ufkes ufkes@pacbell.net

Mon Aug 14, 2nd Mon monthly, 7:30 pm, Chapter Office - LA Political Committee, Susana Reyes (818) 242-8589

Tue Aug 15, 6 pm, before OCCC at The Inn at the Park - Open Spaces, Wild Places (OSWP)

Tue Aug 15, 3rd Tues, 7:00 pm, Inn at the Park, 10 Marquette, Irvine -  OC Conservation Committee Bob Siebert eesolar@sbcglobal.net CANCELLED

Wed Aug 16, 3rd Wed even months, 7:00 pm - Friends of Foothills Steering Cmte. Bill Holmes (949) 496-5323

Wed Aug 16 , 3rd Wed monthly, 7:15 pm Chapter Office - Chapter Conservation Committee Dean Wallraff deanraff@arsnova.org

Wed Aug 16, 3rd Wed, 7:30 pm - Banning Ranch Park and Preserve Task Force, Terry Welsh (949) 548-5635

Thu Aug 17, 3rd Thu, 7 pm, Chapter Office - Griffith Park Planning TF, Delphine Trowbridge delphinetr@sbcglobal.net

Thu Aug 24, 7:15 pm, North County at Alex Mintzer's - OC Political Cmte Mtg. Gail Prothero gprothero@cox.net

Sat Aug 26, 9:00 am, the Carlab in Orange - Orange Hills Task Force

Sun Aug 27, 1 pm, Chapter Office - Chapter ExComm. Contact Mike Sappingfield mikesapp@cox.net

Mon Aug 28, 4th Mon, 6:30 pm - PV-SB Cons Comm, potluck, then mtg. Barry Holchin, Chair (310) 378-3780

Mon Aug 28, 7:15 pm Chapter Office - Conservation Mgmt, Dean Wallraff deanraff@arsnova.org

Mon Aug 28, 4th Mon, 7:00 pm, 170 Copa de Oro Rd, Brea - Puente-Chino Hills TF, Eric Johnson (714) 524-7763

SEPTEMBER 2006

Mon Sept 4, Southern Sierran Deadline for October, 2006

Mon Sept 4, 1st Mon, 7:00-8:30 pm, Silverado Comm Ctr, 27641 Silverado Cyn Rd, Silverado Cyn - Saddleback Cyns TF, Rich Gomez, 949-882-0071 pager

Mon Sept 4, 1st Mon Mar/Jun/Sep/Dec - Crystal Cove TF, Murray Rosenthal murray_rosenthal@juno.com

Thu Sept 7, 1st Thur 7:00 pm, Chapter Office - Transportation Subcommittee

Sun Sept 10, 2nd Sun, 2:45 pm, San Pedro Public Library, 9th and Gaffey - Harbor Vision Task Force

Mon Sept 11, 2nd Mon, 7:15 pm, 217 E Chapman Ave, Orange - Orange Hills TF,  John Ufkes ufkes@pacbell.net

Mon Sept 11, 2nd Mon, 7:30 pm - Santa Monica Mountains TF, Mary Ann Webster (310) 559-3126

Mon Sept 11, 2nd Mon monthly, 7:30 pm, Chapter Office - LA Political Committee, Susana Reyes (818) 242-8589

Thu Sept 14, 2nd Thu odd months, 7-9 pm, 658 Venice Blvd - Ballona Wetlands Restoration, Marcia Hanscom (310) 821-9045

Sat, Sept 16, 3rd Sat odd months, 10 am to 1 pm - LA River Comm, Roy van de Hoek (310) 821-9045

Sat Sept 16, 3rd Sat odd months, 3-5 pm, UU Church, Mission Viejo - Sta Ana Mtns TF, Jay Matchett (714) 730-7730

Tue Sept 19, 6 pm, before OCCC at The Inn at the Park - Open Spaces, Wild Places (OSWP)

Tue Sept 19, 3rd Tues, 7:00 pm, Inn at the Park, 10 Marquette, Irvine -  OC Conservation Committee Bob Siebert eesolar@sbcglobal.net

Wed Sept 20, 3rd Wed monthly, 7:15 pm Chapter Office - Chapter Conservation Committee Dean Wallraff deanraff@arsnova.org

Wed Sept 20, 3rd Wed, 7:30 pm - Banning Ranch Park and Preserve Task Force, Terry Welsh (949) 548-5635

Thu Sept 21, 3rd Thu, 7 pm, Chapter Office - Griffith Park Planning TF, Delphine Trowbridge delphinetr@sbcglobal.net

Sat Sept 23, 9:00 am, the Carlab in Orange - Orange Hills Task Force

Sun Sept 24, 1 pm, Chapter Office - Chapter ExComm, Mike Sappingfield mikesapp@cox.net

Mon Sept 25, 7:15 pm Chapter Office - Conservation Mgmt, Dean Wallraff deanraff@arsnova.org

Mon Sept 25, 4th Mon, 6:30 pm - PV-SB Cons Comm, potluck, then mtg. Barry Holchin, Chair (310) 378-3780

Mon Sept 25, 4th Mon, 7:00 pm, 170 Copa de Oro Rd, Brea - Puente-Chino Hills TF, Eric Johnson (714) 524-7763

Wed Sept 27, 4th Wed odd months, 7:30 pm Eaton Cyn Nature Ctr (potluck) - Forest Cmte, Don Bremner (626) 794-2603

Thu Sept 28, 7:15 pm - OC Political Committee Meeting, Gail Prothero gprothero@cox.net

Sat Sep 30, 9:00 am, Chapter Office, Southern California Forest Committee

OCTOBER 2006

Mon Oct 2 - Southern Sierran Deadline for November, 2006

Mon Oct 2, 1st Mon, 7:00-8:30 pm, Silverado Comm Ctr, 27641 Silverado Cyn Rd, Silverado Canyon - Saddleback Canyons TF. Details: Rich Gomez, Chair, 949-882-0071 pager

Thu Oct 5, 1st Thur 7:00 pm, Chapter Office - Transportation Subcommittee

Sun Oct 8, 2nd Sun, 2:45 pm, San Pedro Public Library, 9th and Gaffey - Harbor Vision Task Force

Mon Oct 9, 2nd Mon, 7:30 pm - Santa Monica Mountains TF, Mary Ann Webster (310) 559-3126

Mon Oct 9, 2nd Mon, 7:15 pm, 217 E Chapman Ave, Orange - Orange Hills TF, John Ufkes ufkes@pacbell.net

Mon Oct 9, 2nd Mon monthly, 7:30 pm, Chapter Office - LA Political Committee, Susana Reyes (818) 242-8589

Tue Oct 10, 2nd Tue Jan/Apr/Jul/Oct, 7:30 pm, Chapter Office - GIS, Dean Wallraff deanraff@arsnova.org

Wed Oct 11, 7:30 pm, Chapter Office - Conservation Legal Comm, Bonnie Sharpe besharpe@pacbell.net

Tue Oct 17, 6 pm, before OCCC at The Inn at the Park - Open Spaces, Wild Places (OSWP)

Tue Oct 17, 3rd Tues, 7:00 pm, Inn at the Park, 10 Marquette, Irvine -  OC Conservation Committee Bob Siebert eesolar@sbcglobal.net

Wed Oct 18, 3rd Wed even months, 7:00 pm - Friends of Foothills Steering Cmte. Bill Holmes (949) 496-5323

Wed Oct 18 , 3rd Wed monthly, 7:15 pm Chapter Office - Chapter Conservation Committee Dean Wallraff deanraff@arsnova.org

Wed Oct 18, 3rd Wed, 7:30 pm - Banning Ranch Park and Preserve Task Force, Terry Welsh (949) 548-5635

Thu Oct 19, 3rd Thu, 7 pm, Chapter Office - Griffith Park Planning TF, Delphine Trowbridge delphinetr@sbcglobal.net

Sat Oct 21, 8:30 am to 4 pm, Wildlife Corridor Conference, Friendship Auditorium, 3201 Riverside Dr (just east of the Riverside/Los Feliz entrance to Griffith Park). Reservations/Info, call Rosemarie White (818-769-1521)

Mon Oct 23, 4th Mon, 6:30 pm - PV-SB Cons Comm, potluck, then mtg. Barry Holchin, Chair (310) 378-3780

Mon Oct 23, 7:15 pm Chapter Office - Conservation Mgmt, Dean Wallraff deanraff@arsnova.org

Mon Oct 23, 4th Mon, 7:00 pm, 170 Copa de Oro Rd, Brea - Puente-Chino Hills TF, Eric Johnson (714) 524-7763

Thu Oct 26, 7:15 pm, North County at Alex Mintzer's - OC Political Cmte Mtg. Gail Prothero gprothero@cox.net

Sat Oct 28, 9:00 am, the Carlab in Orange - Orange Hills Task Force

Sun Oct 29, 1 pm, Chapter Office - Chapter ExComm. Contact Mike Sappingfield mikesapp@cox.net

Mon Oct 30, 7:15 pm Chapter Office - Conservation Mgmt, Dean Wallraff deanraff@arsnova.org