Conversations and observations about California's mountains
September 29, 2009
September 28, 2009
- Unusually early spring rains in northern Canada have led to the melting and collapse of birth lairs of ringed seals, leaving pups exposed on bare ice.
- The northward expansion of moths in Scandanavia has led to the severe defoliation of birch forests.
- Shrub species are moving north, too, threatening plant diversity. But so far, grazing by caribou and musk ox - such as this one I saw in Canada's Northwest Territories in 2004 - has slowed the advance.
- Increased melting of winter snows in Norway has led to a rapid increase in reindeer population, through increased fecundity and less starvation. Elsewhere, less snow-cover has been associated with the collapse of small mammal populations, including lemmings.
- Plants are blooming up to 20 days earlier over the past decade in some places.
September 25, 2009

September 8, 2009
"The thing I worry about most are the big, burned out patches. They are not characteristic in an evolutionary sense...."
Because such fires inflict so much damage, tree-planting efforts are critical, he said. Nature needs an assist. But as temperatures rise, planting strategies need to change. "The good news is that most of these planted trees are reasonably able to adapt to changing conditions once they get established. But if we think the temperature is going to increase six degrees - and we know the place we are working is already at the warmest edge of where it will grow - don't bother to plant it."
Instead, plant what you expect to grow there in the future. "We call that assisted migration," he said. "That is something the reasearch community is aimed at trying to help us to do."
Change is inevitable. Forests today don't look like they did during the Gold Rush. "We can rest comfortable that the future will be different than today," Landram said.
But the important thing, he said, is to do something.... to plant a tree. "We as a society usually want to focus on the controversy of the day - not on the kind of forest we are going to create for future generations. And we lose focus on what kind of legacy we are leaving the next generation."
To read more about Mike and his award from the National Association of Forest Service Retirees, click on this link: http://www.fs.fed.us/r5/news/2009/nafsr-fs-award.shtml
July 11, 2009

My recent posting about Bodie State Park yielded a number of interesting observations. It's obvious that people care deeply about their parks and are astonished that the Governor would propose to close them. But is the Governor listening?
Here are two e-mails worth sharing - the first from Rachael Woods, director of public relations at Alpine Meadows ski area and the second from Phil Pister, a retired Sierra Nevada fisheries biologist and conservation legend who lives in Bishop.
From Rachael:
"I wrote to every state and district representative I could get addresses for; hopefully everyone does it. I'm no economist, but it wasn't state parks which got us into this mess; I'm not certain they should bear the burden of removing us from it. It would be a shame to see parks - which serve as wildlife refuge for so many animals - close. They are an enormous part of the state's unique character; as well, represent income for so many."
Phil wrote to tell me about the history of Bodie State Park and what closure might mean for it:
"Bodie was rebuilt during my early years here in the early sixties when the local Conservation Camp was established. Fortunately, the guy who headed up their projects (the late John Clark - a good friend) was deeply interested in CA history, and his first project was rebuilding Bodie. Had he not done this I doubt that much would remain. A lot of material had already been carted off before he got here by collectors and other thoughtless people. The nearby settlement of Aurora was essentially lost, mainly by builders looking for old (and free) brick. If Bodie is denied its funding, there is little question in my mind that without a skeleton staff, most of Bodie will end up heading north and south along US 395. This would be tragic."
July 2, 2009
April 22, 2009
To listen to the whole speech, click here:
April 7, 2009
The Moonlight fire, which burned some 65,000 acres near
In all, the fire cost more than $30 million to put out. And now, millions more are being spent to replant the region and hopefully bring the forest back to health.
But the precise cause of the fire remains a mystery. One year ago, government officials told Bee correspondent Jane Braxton Little the fire was started by a logging operation on nearby private land - but released no details.
Today, the government is still mum. In response to my U.S. Freedom of Information request asking for a copy of the Forest Service investigative report examining the cause of the fire, the agency wrote back and said, in so many words: We're still working on it. (See attachment below)
It's now been 19 months since the Moonlight fire scarred the region - and we have very little information about how it happened or who - if anyone - will pay the bill, besides taxpayers. What's your view? Is the agency stone-walling? Or is it simply being meticulous? For an agency that has moved rapidly to identify the causes of other large wildfires, why is the Moonlight investigation taking so long?
Here is a copy of the Forest Service response to my Freedom of Information Act request --
and
March 31, 2009
We hear a lot about energy efficiency these days. What about organizational efficiency?
The American Institute of Philanthropy, one of the nation's leading non-profit watchdogs, has just released its newest Charity Rating Guide and Watchdog Report in which it grades organizations (A through F) based on their fund-raising and organizational efficiency.
The report is hard-copy only. If you're interested, I suggest that you subscribe and I'll include information about how to do that below.
But to
give you a sample of what's in the report, here is how some environmental
groups active in California and the Sierra fared:
Cost to raise $100 Executive salary in 000's
American
Forests
A- 19 115 - 142
American
Rivers
B- 21 - 32
129 - 170
Arbor Day Foundation B+ 17 - 27 187 - 388
Audubon
Society B 30
309 - 390
Conservation
Fund A+ 2
218
- 476
Defenders
of Wildlife D
22 - 50 212 - 315
Ducks
Unlimited A- 19 - 25
232 - 292
Environmental Defense B+ 14 - 21 271 - 417
Friends
of the Earth B+ 14 - 16 93 - 149
Greenpeace*
C-
26 -50 88 - 167
Nature
Conservancy
A- 12 270 - 407
Sierra
Club*
C 39 219 - 264
Trout
Unlimited A- 14 - 16 148 - 224
Trust
for Public Land
A+ 4 182 - 282
Wilderness
Society C+ 18 - 28 173 - 267
World
Wildlife Fund
B 15 - 27
228 - 347
*Contributions to these groups are not tax-deductible.
The American Institute of Philanthropy rates non-profit organizations of all stripes, from the Disabled Veterans Association to the American Cancer Society. If you'd like to subscribe to the Charity Rating Guide and Watchdog Report, go to the following link: http://www.charitywatch.org/
March 31, 2009
March 25, 2009
"Healthy, resilient forests sequester carbon. In the Trinities, we started 12 years ago, thinning overstocked stands both for hazardous fuels reduction and to improve the quality of the spotted owl habitat. Subsequent measurement has shown increased growth rates in the remaining trees. The carbon sink is increasing. What is not so obvious is that forest restoration can also provide biofuels for transportation, reduce carbon intensive energy use in the industrial sector through combined head and power biomass plants, and reduce the carbon intensity of electrical power by co-firing coal plants with wood pellets and using woody biomass for electrical generation (a common strategy in the European Union)."
"The Trinity Forest is a nice little forest. It is over a million and a half acres in the Klamath Knot, one of the most biologically diverse areas on the planet. Please don't manage it for carbon. Manage it to be resilient. Manage it to prepare for the impacts of climate change. Manage it to be here for another 400 years. If you do, the carbon sink will come. The greenhouse gas emissions from wildfire will drop. The biofuels can be developed. The renewable energy will be developed and sustained. The owl and the coho will have a chance at survival. And so will we."
If you'd like to read Lynn's testimony in its entirety, you can do so at this link:
http://www.sustainablenorthwest.org/quick-links/resources/Testimony/testimony
More information about the Watershed Center can be found at:
