Sacramento Bee -- Sierra Summit

February 4, 2010

If you've hiked in the high Sierra, you've seen the wind-sculpted, shrub-like stands of whitebark pine that cling to the ridges at tree-line around 11,000 feet.

They are the last gasp of the conifer kingdom, seemingly capable of enduring whatever nature throws at them.

But now these hardy survivors are dying in places and scientists aren't sure why. But some speculate that it may be related to a shrinking snowpack and climate change.

"Our hypothesis is that in areas where there is more snowmelt than in previous centuries, they are actually being exposed to colder conditions that they would under snow," said Connie Millar, a research ecologist with the U.S. Forest Service who took this photo near Mt. Conness north of Tioga Pass last year. "The snow really protects them."

More work will be needed to prove or disprove the hypothesis. But the situation underscores how complex the impacts of global warming can be in the Sierra. "It's sort of counter-intuitive," Millar said. "Everybody thinks of heat. But as soon as you don't have the blanket of snow on, things could be experiencing a much more severe climate, and some super-cold temperatures."

The same phenomenon may also be involved in recent population declines of America pika - a small, mountain-dwelling, rabbit-like mammal - in some parts of the West. "It's a question to test," Millar said. "But it's certainly a fact that if you're exposed in the winter to the atmosphere, you experience extremes of cold and heat more than if there is snow cover.

"There is no question that is true in mountainous areas," she added. "The question is whether that is happening more and is related to the death we are seeing."

December 14, 2009

Snow on the Equator (The Glaciers of Uganda)

Uganda is a country of sticky tropical heat, rutted, red-dirt roads and - incongruously - a handful of rapidly-receding glaciers.

They cling to the jagged 16,000-foot eaves of one the world's most eerie alpine landscapes - the Rwenzori mountains, or Mountains of the Moon, as they are often called.

Glaciers are receding across the world. But Uganda's ice is disappearing so rapidly it may be gone before scientists can learn much more about it. Local tribes that rely on the snow-capped range for tourist revenue are worried too. Read my story about Uganda's imperiled glaciers in Yale University's on-line magazine e360 at the following link:

http://www.e360.yale.edu/content/feature.msp?id=2237

December 1, 2009

Climate Change, Photography and Science

"Nothing is easier than to remain unaware of gradual processes."

Bernard DeVoto - the great historian of the American West - wrote those words six decades ago in an article about the dangers of deforestation, over-grazing and soil erosion.

Today, they hold true for an even larger environmental challenge: climate change.

But thanks to an impressive new book by Truckee landscape photographer Elizabeth Carmel, it will be difficult to remain unaware of the gradual impacts of climate change in the Sierra Nevada.

Carmel's book - The Changing Range of Light - is a surprise. Not only is it a stunning collection of photographs of landscapes threatened by global warming (such as the Lake Tahoe basin, above), it is a reader-friendly introduction to basic Sierra Nevada climate science, as well.

Carmel accomplishes that feat by inviting two leading researchers - Robert Coats, a visiting scholar with the U.C. Davis Department of Environnmental Science and Policy and Geoffrey Schladow, founding director of the U.C. Davis Tahoe Environmental Research Center - to contribute to the book. The resulting mix of aesthetic image and empirical science is a rare treat.

Not only do we see what's at risk, we learn why - and what it may mean for future generations. As Coats and Schladow write in an introduction to the book: "It is our hope that by presenting information from the scientific literature along with Elizabeth Carmel's extraordinary photographs, we will help both to inspire and to motivate readers to take effective action to address the challenges posed by climate change."

Carmel, one of 12 photographers honored worldwide with the Hasselblad Master Photographer Award in 2006, told me she wanted her book to be more than just another collection of pretty pictures. "As an artist who works in the Sierra, I feel it's my responsibility to communicate the threats to the landscape and scenery that everyone loves so much," she said. And turning to science helped her do that job. "Climate change is a serious issue. I think the best way to communicate that is through empirical data, rather than personal opinion."

Carmel and her husband operate an art gallery in the historic downtown section of Truckee. If you live in the area, drop by Saturday Dec. 5 from 4 to 6:30 for a book release party and fund-raiser for the Truckee-Donner Land Trust. If not, look for The Changing Range of Light in a bookstore or on-line at The Carmel Gallery web-site below. If you love the Sierra, as Elizabeth obviously does, you are sure to like her book - and learn from it, too.

http://www.thecarmelgallery.com/Carmel_Gallery/Welcome.html

http://www.elizabethcarmel.com/

(Photos courtesy of Elizabeth Carmel)

November 30, 2009

Green vs. Green at Lake Tahoe

A new kind of development struggle is emerging at Lake Tahoe: green vs. green.

If you haven't seen my recent story about it, click on this link for more details:

http://www.sacbee.com/125/story/2352322.html

Very briefly, inventor and developer Roger Wittenberg wants to tear down the blighted Tahoe Biltmore Lodge & Casino at Crystal Bay and replace it with an eco-friendly resort he says will reduce greenhouse gas emissions and dramatically slow erosion into the lake. Details about the project - known as the Boulder Bay Resort & Wellness Center - were unveiled a few weeks ago.

But some of the lake's environmentalists are wary. As Rochelle Nason, executive director of The League to Save Lake Tahoe, wrote in an e-mail: "After many years of broad agreement about Tahoe's future, there are now some pretty fierce disputes raging.... The bigger picture is deeply worrisome - there is really no effective plan to achieve regional environmental objectives at this point, much less one grounded in science and sound policy, which Tahoe truly needs."

On the north shore - which is struggling economically and losing business to other resort areas - support for the project is strong. "I am honestly concerned," said Art Chapman, president of JMA Ventures LLC, which owns Alpine Meadows and Homewood ski areas and who support Boulder Bay. "I see the deterioration of infrastructure. I see people moving out of the area. Here we have the environmental community, instead of getting involved in the community, and listening, they're just against everything.

"This isn't about development," Chapman added. "This is about the decline of Lake Tahoe, both economically and socially - and ultimately environmentally. Because if you can't create sustainable jobs, you can't sustain the economy."

Ultimately, he fears banks may decline to fund Tahoe projects because of regulatory uncertainty. And that, he said, could hurt the environment. "Because if the private sector withdraws and doesn't fund these environmental initiatives, you are going to be left looking entirely to governmental agencies. In the next few years, I can't see the state of California, or the federal government, putting a ton of money into this area."

The League to Save Lake Tahoe has not taken an official position on Boulder Bay but has sued to stop two other proposed developments, one of which includes stream restoration and erosion control projects and green-certified design and construction. "Those two (projects) have been egregious examples of development projects getting a pass on the rules that apply to everybody else in the Tahoe basin," Nason said.

The fate of Wittenberg's project is now before the Tahoe Regional Planning Agency's governing board which is holding a series of public hearings and is expected to make a decision sometime early next year.

September 29, 2009

Alpine wildflowers and climate change

Some of the prettiest wildflowers you'll ever see in the Sierra Nevada grow above timberline, including this wonderfully-named Sky Pilot, which I photographed at 12,500 feet above sea level at the Middle Palisade glacier near Big Pine earlier this month (Sept. 09)

The Sky Pilot is also emblematic of a rugged, windswept and starkly beautiful ecosystem that is now in danger because of global warming.

"As the climate gets warmer, the tree-line moves up," Ann Dennis, a retired vegetation ecologist with the U.S. Forest Service told me in an interview. "If tree-line goes all the way up to the top of the mountains, there will be very little habitat left for these species."

The risk is more acute in the northern Sierra, including the Lake Tahoe region, because forests already creep close to the summits in many places, she said. "The alpine zone is really just a tiny little slice at the top of the peaks. Once the trees get up to the top of those peaks, there really isn't going to be habitat in the Tahoe area for a number of species."

Dennis is working with the Global Observation and Research Initiative in Alpine Environments, or GLORIA, for short (http://www.gloria.ac.at/) to study changes in the alpine zone. Research is underway in the Sierra Nevada and White Mountains and more information can be found at: http://www.wmrs.edu/projects/gloria%20project/default.htm

"I think it is a very genuine cause for concern," Dennis told me. "I care, personally, because I love the high mountains. And I have been going up to very high places since I was a little child. My heart sings in these places. I love it."

September 28, 2009

Arctic warming (it's about more than polar bears)

Climate change is especially severe in the Arctic - and it's not just polar bears that are feeling the heat.

That's the conclusion of an article in Science magazine this month (Sept. 09) that combs the scientific literature for information about the ecological impacts of warming in the Arctic - and here are some of the findings:

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.

It makes sense that colder landscapes - those attuned to cycles of snowfall and snow melt - would be among the first to exhibit the impacts of warming. We have one of those landscapes here in California, too - the majestic Sierra Nevada, a glistening white water tower, wildlife sanctuary and recreational bonanza - much of it tied to life around the freezing point. Stay tuned as I explore, in periodic blog posts, the impact of climate change across the Sierra Nevada, California's cold zone.

September 25, 2009

Sierra Nevada birds and climate change

The more they look, the more scientists find the signposts of climate change across the California landscape.

In the Sierra, such signals have been detected in more destructive wildfire, earlier spring run-off and the movement of small mammals - such as the alpine chipmunk - uphill toward more hospitable environments.

A new study - published in the online journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences earlier this month - has turned up more evidence in the behavior of birds, such as the western bluebird, show here.

The study found that 48 of 53 Sierra species - including the bluebird - have adjusted to climate change over the past century by moving to sites with more desirable temperature and precipitation conditions.

Some birds shifted to warmer locales while others preferred chillier habitats, the study found. Overall, 82 sites surveyed have seen an average 1.4 degree Fahrenheit temperature increase and nearly a quarter of an inch more rainfall during the breeding season since the early 1900s. The study builds upon the pioneering field work of U.C. Berkeley zoologist Joseph Grinnell who traveled extensively across the Sierra between 1911 and 1929 and meticulously recorded what he saw. As our climate changes, the study found, birds tend to seek out conditions that existed in habitats - or ecological niches - that Grinnell documented and wrote about in his journals.

Certain species, such as the Dusky Flycatcher and Green-tailed Towhee were more sensitive to temperature changes, while others, including the Yellow-rumped Warbler and Lazuli Bunting reacted to precipitation changes. About a fourth of the species studied responded to both temperature and precipitation.

"Understanding how species will respond to climate change allows us to take steps now to restore key habitats and create movements corridors that will help them respond to the changes we have coming," said Morgan Tingley, lead author of the study and a Ph.D. student at U.C. Berkeley, in a press release.

To read the actual paper, click on this link:

http://www.pnas.org/content/early/2009/09/14/0901562106.full.pdf+html?sid=9b659bc4-92a6-4b58-9075-d96412e5195b

Photo courtesy of Morgan Tingley

September 8, 2009

A modern-day Johnny Appleseed

Tree-planting is popular these days but few people know more about it - or do more of it - than Mike Landram, regional silvaculturist for the Forest Service in California.

Today, Mike is being award the John R. McGuire Award - named for the former Forest Service Chief who helped draft the National Forest Management Act - for his efforts to replant large patches of California forests burned by increasingly high severity wildfire, including the 2007 Moonlight fire in the northern Sierra.

Tree planters don't get enough kudos. They are the care takers of tomorrow, custodians of the forests that your children's children will enjoy later this century or early next. But restoring forests in an era of climate change is not simple. Late last year, I talked to Mike about some of the challenges - and during our conversation his passion for reforestation was clear. Here is some of what he told me:

"I think the Forest Service has a fundamental obligation to keep forest land forested. Aren't these forests in a public trust because they're forests?"

"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

A plea for parks (and a history lesson too)

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

Losing history - Bodie State Park slated for closure

Lost in the sagebrush hills of eastern California, Bodie State Park is one of the most well-preserved mining ghost towns in the world. But now this historical treasure is in trouble, slated for closure by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger due to the state's budget crisis.

Walking through Bodie is like stepping back in time. The weathered 19th century storefronts, the horse-drawn wagons and rusting pieces of mining equipment don't just look real - they are real. Closing a place like this would be a shame. There are many state parks - but there is only one Bodie. Get out and see it while you can. And be sure to watch my video interview with Bodie supervising ranger Mark Langer by clicking on the play button in the box below.

May 6, 2009

Amazon crude - California's thirst for Ecuador's oil

This past Sunday, 60 Minutes aired a fascinating piece about oil development in Ecuador's Amazon - and in particular, about a lawsuit between indigenous residents there and California-based Chevron. The stakes are high. If a judge rules against Chevron, it could face billions in damages related to historic oil pollution in the region. It could even be the most costly environmental judgment in history.

60 Minutes pointed out that much of Ecuador's oil flows to the United States but it didn't say where in the U.S. The answer is eco-friendly California - a state that jealously guards its own coastline from oil development.

When I last reported on this issue from Ecuador in 2003, 39 million barrels of Ecuadorian oil flowed to California. Last year - despite efforts to reduce oil consumption here and shrink our carbon footprint - imports of Ecuadorian oil to California climbed to 62.5 million barrels - up more than 60 percent.

To many environmentalists and politicians, oil development along the coast is a simple "not in my backyard" issue. But when we continue to consume petroleum in massive quantities from afar, we simply deflect the environmental impacts elsewhere - to places out of sight and out of mind - and often, places with less rigorous anti-pollution laws than our own.

That hardly seems environmentally responsible.

April 22, 2009

Speaking about energy and climate (Phil Angelides)

As an environmental journalist, I listen to a lot of speeches about energy and climate. But many, sad to say, are not that energetic. Some, in fact, are more dull than insightful - filled with detail but short on vision. It's unfortunate that subjects so important to our future are discussed in ways that don't connect with the public.

But every so often, someone surprises me. Last month, that person was Phil Angelides, former treasurer of the state of California, former candidate for governor and now chairman of the Apollo Alliance, a group of environmental, labor, business and community leaders working to bring more "green-collar" jobs to California. On March 18, Angelides delivered a speech to the Green California Summit and Exposition in Sacramento in which he talked about the promise of green technology in the Golden State. But unlike other speakers, Angelides delivered his message in crisp, clear sentences, avoided jargon and even worked in a little humor, at one point telling the audience how California's embrace of green energy is like high school sex. "Everybody's talking about it, but not that many people are doing it." But most importantly, he delivered his talk with an alternate form of energy often missing from energy and climate presentations today - a passion for the subject at hand.

To hear some excerpts from Angelides' talk, including his humor, click on the play button here:

To listen to the whole speech, click here:

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