1. Heron's Head Park work party tomorrow, Saturday 8
2. Disappointing departure from Fish & Game Commission
3. Disappointing appointment to SFPUC
4. Soil foodweb workshop August 10
5. Owls of California August 13
6. Roland Pitschel dies
7. Talk about evolution needs to evolve
8. Good news/bad news on carbon reduction
9. More fire, less water in far west
10. The Culture of Fire on Earth
11. The power of a name: Would you rather eat slimehead or Orange Roughy?
12. Oral tradition of medicinal plant botany being lost
13. Bicycling for water awareness
14. Brothel discount for arrival by bicycle or public transit/Thank you for flying Pet Air
15. 100th birthday of C. Northcote Parkinson (Parkinson's Law)
16. Fossil light from universe's beginning now arriving
17. There's a scientific name for that blabbermouth
1. Heron's Head Park (Pier 98)
Saturday August 8, 9 am - 12 noon
Things are fluttering and buzzing at HHP during our foggy summer months. Native Bees, Butterflies, and Dragonflies are zipping around. Come join the HHP family and put in some workercise and support the same things that support you. We will be increasing native habitat, pulling invasives and mulching, getting a handle on those invasive blooms, and prepping for fall plantings. While we are at it, check out the amazing progress of The EcoCenter!
800 Innes Ave., Unit 11 San Francisco CA 94124
415 282 6840 tel | info@lejyouth.org | www.lejyouth.org
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2. From Eric Mills:
SOME SAD/BAD NEWS TO REPORT: Cindy Gustafson, President of the five-member State Fish and Game Commission, resigned unexpectedly this past Friday, citing "conflict of interest" issues, as advised by the Attorney General's office.
It's in the August 1 SAN DIEGO UNION. For some reason, I'm unable to forward the piece via e-mail. So GOOGLE NEWS "california fish and game
commission" and it should pop up.
This will really put a kink in the Commission's efforts. Ms. Gustafson was seen as the tie-breaker on a number of issues, and now there'll doubtlessly be many 2:2 votes. Ugh. In my opinion, Ms. G. was one of the brighter lights on the Commission in recent years. She's smart, and she listened and asked good questions, unlike some of her predecessors. She'll be sorely missed by many.
WHAT YOU CAN DO: Write to Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger and urge him to appoint an equally-qualified member to the Commission ASAP, to protect our
beleaguered wildlife and the environment. (NOTE: Another woman would be nice: there've been only TWO females on this good-old boy Commission in
the past 100+ years. And a non-hunter would be a nice change, too.)
GOVERNOR ARNOLD SCHWARZENEGGER, c/o The State Capitol, Sacramento, CA 95814.
And if you'd like to send Ms. Gustafson a thank-you note for her past efforts, she may be reached c/o The State Fish & Game Commission, 1416 Ninth Street, Sacramento, CA 95814, email - fgc@fgc.ca.org
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3. From Jeff Miller, Alameda Creek Alliance:
Former General Manager of the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission Anson Moran has been nominated to fill the 5th seat on the Commission. Despite the Alameda Creek Alliance and Save Our Sunol opposing the nomination, a Board of Supervisors subcommittee in July approved Moran’s nomination.
Moran, who was general manager of the SFPUC from 1993-2000, has been no friend of Alameda Creek: during his tenure the SFPUC approved a flawed Alameda Watershed Management Plan, approved a controversial quarry expansion in Sunol north of Highway 680, and actively opposed restoration of steelhead trout to Alameda Creek.
Though SFPUC policy regarding Alameda Creek steelhead restoration has changed, the SFPUC is currently pursuing major infrastructure projects in the watershed without adequate consideration of fisheries issues. Many of the issues of stream management for steelhead will be before the Commission in the near future and Mr. Moran will hold a critical swing vote on the Commission.
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4. Soil foodweb workshop w/ Dr. Elaine Ingham
August 10TH – 14TH, 2009, CASTRO VALLEY, CA
COST: 2-day Intro class: $ 265.00;
1 day Compost and 1 day Compost Tea class = $ 135.00;
Light Microscope class = $ 160.00
Get more information at: http://commonvision.org/programs/courses/soilfoodweb/soilfoodweb.php
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5.
San Francisco Naturalist Society - free and open to the public
Thursday, August 13, 7.30 - 9 pm
Owls of California.
Randall Museum
We'll take a brief look at owl taxonomy, with a focus on eight Bay Area species, and overviews of six other species found elsewhere in the state. We'll also discuss some unique and amazing adaptations that owls have evolved.
Craig Nikitas is an urban planner for the City of San Francisco. He has a life-long love for birds in general, and raptors in particular. He is beginning his sixteenth season as a volunteer bird bander at the Golden Gate Raptor Observatory. For more information, contact Patrick at jkodiak@earthlink.net or (415) 225-3830.
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6.
Many readers of this newsletter knew Roland Pitschel, a quiet stalwart of the California Native Plant Society and of his Bernal neighborhood. He died Saturday, August 1, from cancer.
His self-effacement almost obscured a wise and patient man. He made innumerable but invisible contributions to the world; consequently his absence will be keenly felt.
Barbara and Roland did not need ritual in their lives, and they will have their own way of celebrating his life. For those who would like to join the celebration, let me know and I will make certain you are notified. It will not be soon--likely months rather than weeks.
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7.
Accept it: Talk about evolution needs to evolve
Interview by Eugenie Scott
August 1st, 2009; Science News Vol.176 #3 (p. 32)
So you urge scientists not to say that they "believe" in evolution?!
Right. What your audience hears is more important than what you say...What [people] hear is that evolution is a belief, it's an opinion, it's not well-substantiated science. And that is something that scientists need to avoid communicating.
You believe in God. You believe your sports team is going to win. But you don't believe in cell division. You don't believe in thermodynamics. Instead, you might say you "accept evolution."
How does the language used to discuss new discoveries add to the problem?
To put it mildly, it doesn't help when evolutionary biologists say things like, "This completely revolutionizes our view of X." Because hardly anything we come up with is going to completely revolutionize our view of the core ideas of science..An insight into the early ape-men of East and South Africa is not going to completely change our understanding of Neandertals, for example. So the statement is just wrong. Worse, it's miseducating the public as to the soundness of our understanding of evolution.
You can say that this fossil or this new bit of data "sheds new light on this part of evolution."
So people get confused when scientists discover things and change ideas?
Yes, all the time. This is one of the real confusions about evolution. Creationists have done a splendid job of convincing the public that evolution is weak science because scientists are always changing their minds about things.
So how do you explain what science is?
An idea that I stole from [physicist] James Trefil visualizes the content of science as three concentric circles: the core ideas in the center, the frontier ideas in the next ring out and the fringe ideas in the outermost ring...
[We need to] help the public understand that the nature of scientific explanations is to change with new information or new theory--this is a strength of science--but that science is still reliable. And the core ideas of science do not change much, if at all.
The core idea of evolution is common ancestry, and we’re not likely to change our minds about that. But we argue a lot about … how the tree of life is branched and what mechanisms bring evolutionary change about. That’s the frontier area of science.
And then of course you have areas that claim to be science, like “creation science” and “intelligent design,” that are off in the fringe. Scientists don’t spend much time here because the ideas haven’t proven useful in understanding the natural world.
You’ve been on talk radio a lot. What’s your sense of what the public understands about evolutionary biology?
The public has a very poor understanding of evolution. People don’t recognize evolution as referring to the common ancestry of living things. Even those who accept evolution often don’t understand it well. They think it’s a great chain ... of gradual increases in complexity of forms through time, which is certainly an impoverished view of evolutionary biology. That view is the source, in my opinion, of: “If man evolved from monkeys, then why are there still monkeys?” ... That’s probably the second most common question I get on talk radio.
It’s like saying, “If you evolved from your cousins, why are your cousins still here?” And of course the answer is, well, in fact, I didn’t evolve from my cousins. My cousins and I shared common ancestors, in our grandparents.
What’s the current state of the effort to keep schools teaching evolution?
Sometimes it feels like the Red Queen around here, where we’re running as hard as we can to stay in the same place. The thing is, creationism evolves. And for every victory we have, there’s pressure on the creationists to change their approach. We constantly have to shift our response. Ultimately the solution to this problem is not going to come from pouring more science on it.
What should scientists and people who care about science do?
I’m calling on scientists to be citizens. American education is decentralized. Which means it’s politicized. To make a change ... you have to be a citizen who pays attention to local elections and votes [for] the right people. You can’t just sit back and expect that the magnificence of science will reveal itself and everybody will ... accept the science.
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8.
LTE High Country News and cartoon with following balloons:
1) The good news: Every year more people reduce their carbon footprints.
2) The bad news: Every year--more people.
More children, more carbon
In "Let's Get Small", Judith Lewis writes that "global greenhouse gas emissions have increased 70% since 1970, and our energy-squandering ways are to blame". Note that since 1970, world population has increased from around 3.8 to 6.7 billion people, while the United States has gone from 200 to over 300 million--both increases in the 70% range. Just a coincidence?
Sure, there have been changes in the per capita energy use--more electric appliances and computers, more fuel efficient vehicles--but the net per capita carbon footprint is, apparently, roughly the same as it was 40 years ago. This would lead one to conclude that the growth in carbon emission is basically due to population growth.
Anyone who looks at this problem seriously knows that at least a good part of the global-warming solution has to be a strict population policy--perhaps one similar to that already in effect in China. To be sure, certain politicians and religions will lambaste any such plan, but if we refuse to address the population problem, it makes little sense to worry about matters such as the size of our power plants.
Larry Glickfeld, Cashmere, Washington
(JS: Rather than take China's draconian measures, come to terms with immigration now. Without immigration--legal and, mostly, illegal--the U.S. population would be stable. I do not favor eliminating legal immigration, but tightening it with the goal of stabilizing population. We could stabilize, and possibly slowly reduce, numbers by an education program and by supporting family planning services. To those who will object that the rest of the world's population will still burgeon, I reply that we can't do much about the rest of the world, but we can address the problem within our borders.)
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A disturbing note from The Economist:
A link between wealth and breeding
It was once a rule of demography that people have fewer children as their countries get richer. That rule no longer holds true.
(Full story next newsletter)
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9. Life in the far west
Alaska’s burning (literally): As we write this, the Railbelt fire complex has scorched 482,766 acres, and the Crazy Mountain fire complex 372,837 acres, bringing Alaska’s total acres burned this year to 2.2 million. The mainland West is also spewing smoke. Some of it is from fires that are “used for resource benefit” (let it burn), including tens of thousands of acres burning in Arizona and New Mexico’s Gila National Forest.
Portland, Seattle and Phoenix are also burning (figuratively): Portland’s high temp hit 103, then 106 twice in a row in late July. Seattle’s mercury hit 103. And Phoenix suffered through its hottest July on record: The average high was 109.5 degrees; the average low was 87.1 degrees (about ten degrees hotter than the average low a century ago).
And it may get drier and smokier over the next century. University of Colorado in Boulder scientists recently found that climate change could dry up the Colorado River by mid-century. Another paper published in the Journal of Geophysical Research predicts that the area of forest destroyed by fire will increase by 78 percent in the Pacific Northwest, and 175 percent in the Rocky Mountains.
High Country News online
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10.
“The annual federal firefighting budget is threatening to top $2 billion by 2009. Each year this figure grows, as does the number of homes built in the wildland-urban interface.” Forest magazine, Spring 2008
World Fire: The Culture of Fire on Earth by Stephen J Pyne, excerpts
Fire in California
Each year, and for long periods of every year, fire can propagate somewhere everywhere. Humans ensured that ignition remained more or less constant. California nourished an intricate melange of native tribes, none of which, interestingly enough, practiced agriculture. Instead, with fire for plow, rake, and ax, they harvested the native flora and hunted the resident fauna. Fire use was most intense and the fires smallest near settlements, particularly abundant in grasslands, oak savannas, or ecotones of grass and chaparral, precisely those sites most amenable to anthropogenic burning. Some sites burned annually; others, as needed. Probably the most frequented mountains had their slopes dappled with chaparral and grass, the signature of an anthropogenic economy.
Colonizing Spaniards arrived in the eighteenth century, and found the native fire regime not to their liking...
[After the American acquisition and the Forest Reserve Act of 1891, programs] to control fire and grazing promptly appeared...To the attrition of fire that accompanied the disintegration of aboriginal and Hispanic society, the new colonists promoted active fire suppression...
Active suppression changed all this [the old pattern of smaller fires], much as levees and channelizing could eliminate nuisance floods but lead to more frequent large floods. Fire control could, by deferment, contain the wildfire menace for several decades...
Not everyone accepted fire control as necessary or practical. No less a figure than William Mulholland, architect of the Los Angeles water system, refused to send men to battle fires that raged in the mountains in 1908 and again in 1919. Big fires, he insisted, were "beyond the power of man to stop". Those big fires were dangerous, and putting them out was, over the long term, no less dangerous. It was better, Mulholland insisted, to "have a fire every year" that burned off a small plot than to wait several years "and have a big one denuding the whole watershed at once"...The greatest check on unrestricted fire exclusion, however, was simply the lack of tools, men, and money. That began to change during the New Deal, and the sense of limits--limits of any kind--appeared to vanish completely with World War II.
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11. From Center for Biological Diversity
At-risk Fish Caught With Tasty Names
Would you eat anything called "slimehead"? How about "Atlantic jackass morwong," "Patagonian toothfish," or "whore's eggs"? Most people wouldn't -- and according to a new study, if these former fish names were still in place, the species that bore them would likely be a lot better off. The study, released last Thursday in the journal Science, found that 63 percent of the world's fish stocks are below healthy levels -- conspicuously, mostly for fish with dressed-up names that make them gastronomically appealing. The slimehead, for example, plunged in numbers after it was re-christened "orange roughy" in the '70s; after goosefish became "monkfish" in the mid-'80s, harvests jumped and its populations fell. The study's lead author, Boris Worm (chew on that name, if you will), declares that hope remains: About half of depleted fish species might still recover with enough protection. (Perhaps names like "reeking vomitfish" and "poopscales" would help.) But with an appetite for fish burgeoning along with the human population, it's unclear just how much "enough" protections might be.
Worm's important study also failed to factor in one of the top threats to fish worldwide: global climate change. (See articles above for the many ways the Center's not missing the big climate picture.) Global warming and ocean acidification could soon devastate the entire ocean food chain -- whether you're a junk fish like the Antarctic toothfish or the renamed "catchy" Chilean sea bass. Thanks to work by the Center for Biological Diversity, the Environmental Protection Agency recently announced steps to evaluate the threat of ocean acidification under the Clean Water Act.
Read more in the Washington Post
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12. Collectors on the edge
The influence of Kew Gardens reaches far. In the heart of Botswana, Tim Adams meets the leaders of its Millennium Seed Bank Project
"...(Kew Gardens botanist Paul) Smith believes there are 30,000 critically endangered plant species in the world, as opposed to 3,000 currently on the International Union for Conservation of Nature's Red List. These plants are threatened by intensive farming, deforestation, urban advance and climate change. They represent a unique global resource. There are approximately 90,000 tree species in the world; we have a close knowledge of only a few hundred. We know that 30,000 species of plant are eaten by people, but that 80% of the world's food is derived from just 12 plant species. Of all the medicinal plants in use, perhaps a fifth have been scientifically examined. The kind of oral tradition of botany that Lux Peke demonstrates is replicated in indigenous communities all over the planet. That knowledge is rapidly being lost as those societies fracture and young people migrate to the cities. Seed collectors and plantsmen move at an easy pace, but there is an urgency in their quest, too."
Excerpted from Guardian Weekly 31.07.09
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13. From Mel Pincus:
With your interest in water preservation, you should sign into this blog. A dedicated conservationist (Rudy Van Prooyen) is cycling across the country to raise "water awareness". He is the same man who last year participated in an around the world run to promote awareness of water needs throughout the world.
It's a most amazing venture.
From the website http://www.tourdewater.blogspot.com/
On July 28 my solo bike ride gets under way from San Francisco, to take me on a 2,200-mile cycling adventure. My mission is to raise $20,000 for the blue planet foundation thereby helping others with access to safe drinking water, which symbolically translates into $10 per mile.
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14. Brothel offers wheelie deal
The Germans have always been one step ahead when it comes to the environment. They are champions when it comes to wind power, recycling rates and the like.
So it should come as no surprise that a German businessman has pushed the concept of green rebates to the next level: Thomas Goetz, owner of a Berlin brothel called Maison d'Envie, is offering a discount to any customer who arrives by bicycle or public transport.
"The recession has hit our industry hard," Goetz told Reuters. "We hope that the discount will attract more people. It's good for business, it's good for the environment--and it's good for the girls."
Any punter who arrives by bike or who can prove they've travelled by public transport qualifies for the discount. Goetz says the offer is attracting three to five new customers every day, and has helped to reduce traffic and parking congestion. Guardian Weekly 31.07.09
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Thank you for flying Pet Air
One trip for their Jack Russell terrier in a plane's cargo hold was enough to convince Alysa Binder and Dan Wiesel that pet owners needed a better solution.
So this month, the first flight of Pet Airways, the first-ever all-pet airline, took off from Farmingdale, New York.
Binder and Wiesel used their background in consulting to found Pet Airways in 2005 and have spent four years designing their fleet of five planes to suit animal travellers. They are "overwhelmed" with the response, with flights booked up for the next two months.
Pet Airways serves New York, Washington, Chicago, Denver and Los Angeles, and charges from $149 for a one-way fare, comparable to pet fees charged by the top US airlines.
Dogs and cats will fly in the main cabin of a freight plane that has been re-arranged and lined with carriers. The animals will be escorted to the plane by attendants, who will check them every 15 minutes.
The pets get pre-boarding walks and "bathroom breaks". At each of the airports it serves, the company offers a pet lounge for animals waiting to board. The company, which will begin with one flight in each of its five cities, hopes to expand to 25 destinations. Associated Press
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15. Guru
C. Northcote Parkinson
C. (for Cyril) Northcote Parkinson (1909-1993) was not a guru in the traditional sense. Rather, he stands in the line of Laurence Peter and Scott Adams (of “Dilbert” fame) as the author of a humorous glance at management life which rang true in all four corners of the earth. Parkinson’s first calling was as a naval historian, and his PhD thesis at London University was entitled “War in the Eastern Seas, 1793–1815”. For the rest of his life he continued to write naval history and a number of fictional stories set at sea, in much the same genre as C.S. Forester and Patrick O’Brian.
But it is for his non-naval book, Parkinson’s Law, that he is best known. The book expanded on an article of his first published in The Economist in November 1955. Illustrated by Britain’s then leading cartoonist, Osbert Lancaster, the book was an instant hit. It was wrapped around the author’s “law” that “work expands to fill the time available for its completion”. Thus, Parkinson wrote, “an elderly lady of leisure can spend the entire day in writing and dispatching a postcard to her niece at Bognor Regis … the total effort that would occupy a busy man for three minutes all told may in this fashion leave another person prostrate after a day of doubt, anxiety and toil.”
Parkinson’s barbs were directed first and foremost at government institutions—he cited the example of the British navy where the number of admiralty officials increased by 78% between 1914 and 1928, a time when the number of ships fell by 67% and the number of officers and men by 31%. But they applied almost equally well to private industry, which was at the time bloated after decades spent adding layers and layers of managerial bureaucracy.
The man who is denied the opportunity of taking decisions of importance begins to regard as important the decisions he is allowed to take.
Gary Hamel commented more than 40 years after the book was written: “Yes, I know that bureaucracy is dead … we’re not slaves to our work, we’ve been liberated … right? Well then, why does a rereading of ‘Parkinson’s Law’, written in 1958 at the apex of corporate bureaucracy, still ring true?”
Parkinson’s Law has been applied in many different contexts. There is the IT version, for instance: “Data expands to fill the space available for storage.” Or the road transport version: “Traffic expands to fill the roads available for it.”
Married three times, Parkinson travelled widely. He lived and worked in Malaysia in the 1950s before spending time as a visiting professor at Harvard and at the universities of Illinois and California at Berkeley. He never ceased to be amused by the celebrity status that the book subsequently gave him. For instance, Ronald Reagan, when governor of California, asked him to explain why the number of painters on San Francisco’s Oakland bridge increased from 14 to 72 once a labour-saving paint sprayer had been introduced.
Economist online
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16. Most distant star blast
Astronomers have spotted the most distant blast ever. The gamma-ray burst, triggered by the collapse of a massive star, occurred some 13 billion light-years from Earth. NASAs Swift satellite detected the radiation blast April 23, 2009. The record-breaking explosion occurred when the universe was only 630 million years old, a mere one-twentieth of its current age. Astronomy, September 2009
(And the news only just now reached us. We are accustomed to fossil bones and other objects, but this is fossil light. Take 186,271 times how many seconds are in 13 billion years. If that doesn't fry your brain, try this: From the vantage of the light corpuscles doing the traveling, no time has passed! The moment of emission and the moment of absorption are the same. That's what Mr Einstein says, and he's been proven right over and over.)
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17.
logorrhea |ˌlôgəˈrēə; ˌlägə-| ( Brit. logorrhoea)
noun: a tendency to extreme loquacity.
(Now you can sound more learned--instead of saying "he's got diarrhea of the mouth".)
Monday, August 10, 2009
Wednesday, August 5, 2009
Special to Bayview Hill-Jake Sigg's Nature News
1. Important meeting on Sharp Park TONIGHT in Pacifica. Please attend if possible
2. Doyle Drive informational meeting July 23. Public seems under-informed on the project
3. Nominations for John Muir Conservation Awards
4. Fish & Game Commission hearing Aug 5-6 on banning lead shot
5. Wildcat Creek Regional Trail - cleanup in Richmond this Saturday
6. Chronicle story on Greg Gaar and the HANC Recycle Center nursery
7. Senate action needed to match House action on climate change
8. Renewable energy--a sober view
9. Be The Change: July 30, 6-8 pm in Mountain View
10. The Great Transpacific Migrations Thurs 23 July at Randall Museum
11. Dinner Benefit for Marin Agricultural Land Trust, July 25
12. Feedback: The 1965 New York blackout media myth/"How's your father?" and other Britishisms
13. Bioneers Conference October 16-18 - always ahead of the curve
14. Late Show Gardens in Sonoma Sept 18-20
15. Bat disease bad news for humans, too
16. On honeybees and jury duty
17. Notes & Queries: Whatever happened to the Age of Aquarius?/hair on the chin but not on the head
The time has come in America for a fresh appraisal of the function of the engineer in our society. This man who is the designer and builder of our habitat—this man who above all others sets the stage for our daily lives—should anticipate the impact of each project he plans upon the total evolution of America. Without such awareness the disorderly pattern of the present man-made environment will be compounded as the pressures of population density increase.
Edward Higbee
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1. Pacifica's maneuvering on Sharp Park. If possible, please attend meeting TONIGHT
We need you to attend a public hearing on Monday, July 20 at 7pm at 2212 Beach Boulevard, 2nd Floor in Pacifica to stop Pacifica's Planning Commission from implementing a land grab at Sharp Park!
The Planning Commission is attempting to "landmark" Sharp Park, Northern California's best coastal restoration opportunity, to prevent environmental remediation and restoration from occurring on the site. They are claiming that the golf course that is currently located at Sharp Park is historic: even though every golf historian who has published on the subject has found that the original golf course was washed out to sea decades ago by coastal storms.
The existing golf course, redesigned in 1972, actually hides from public view the true historic elements of the site: Native American artifacts and areas used as a temporary internment site during World War II.
Restoration and transfer to the National Park Service is the best opportunity we have to highlight these historic elements of the property. The National Park Service is our nation's greatest steward of historic properties, and that's why Pacifica's misguided "landmark" land grab would backfire.
Again, please attend the Pacifica Planning Commission hearing on Monday, July 20 at 7pm 2212 Beach Boulevard, 2nd Floor in Pacifica. This is the 5th and last item on the agenda, but we don't know for sure when it will be heard. Tell the commission that:
* Sharp Park Golf Course is not historic. Alister MacKenzie, who designed the first golf course at Sharp Park, revolutionized golf design by insisting that courses “imitate the beauty of nature,” rather than be in conflict with it. But MacKenzie ignored his own maxim when he designed Sharp Park. He dredged the land for a staggering 14 months to create enough dry land to begin construction, but the dredging didn’t work. Opening day was delayed twice because of wet playing conditions; two coastal storm surges inundated the course with sea water, and the course suffers flooding during normal winter rains every year. Because of this the course was redesigned in 1972 by Robert Muir Graves, and every golf historian who has published on the matter has concluded that nothing of MacKenzie’s handiwork remains at Sharp Park.
* No MacKenzie course has ever been granted historic status. There are 26 golf courses on the national register of historic places. Not a one is a MacKenzie design. MacKenzie did build some great courses, but Sharp Park wasn’t one of them. By presenting Sharp Park as exemplary MacKenzie work, we cheapen his legacy and make it more difficult to give MacKenzie the recognition he deserves for his better work.
* MacKenzie courses have been redeveloped because they don’t meet the modern demands of today’s game. A municipal MacKenzie course was redesigned by a modern golf architect in 2001 because the course wasn’t competitive during the modern golf era. Sharp Park likewise has been given an “F” grade on nearly every measure by the National Golf Foundation, and the course operates at 44% capacity. Historic landmark designation will make golf improvements more difficult if they are ever even permitted by a small clientele who would prefer the golf course to remain in its current, poor condition.
* The golf course prevents the public from accessing the historic features on the site. The Sharp Park clubhouse, Native American artifacts, and a WWII temporary internment camp are found at Sharp Park, and the golf course prevents the public from accessing these historic amenities and prevents any possible interpretation of them. Landmarking the golf course will cause these historic features to be second fiddle to a golf course that existed ephemerally, to the benefit of a few, to the detriment future generations.
* Landmarking Sharp Park would subject Pacifica to a takings lawsuit that could bankrupt Pacifica. Pacifica has never landmarked an entire landscape before, and specifically excluded the golf course from the historic designation it granted to the golf course club house in 1985. If Pacifica landmarks San Francisco’s property into a single use after rejecting such designation when the clubhouse was landmarked, it would be subject to a similar lawsuit that could cost Pacifica millions of dollars of taxpayer money. Half Moon Bay is now insolvent after a landowner filed a takings claim against that City because of a poorly thought-out regulation of the land-owners property.
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2. Doyle Drive informational meeting
(It may be worthwhile to attend this meeting. The project is bound to be controversial [starting with the immediate removal of 600-700 trees], but has been in process for a very long time; however, it appears that the nature of the project is not fully known by the public. There is the danger that the lengthy project may become even lengthier and more expensive if there is a public outcry. JS)
July 23, 2009, 6:00-8:00 PM
Fort Mason Center - Landmark Building A Conference Center
Golden Gate Room San Francisco
Open House: 6:00-6:30 PM
Presentation: 6:30-7:00 PM
Resume Open House: 7:00-8:00 PM
www.doyledrive.org (415) 263-5953 doyledrive@doyledrive.org
Construction is anticipated to begin in fall 2009 at the western end of the project corridor. By the end of 2009, construction activity will be occurring adjacent to the entire existing roadway, including construction of a temporary detour on the eastern end of the project. Traffic is expected to be transferred onto the completed detour in early 2011 and onto the final roadway in early 2013.
Native Plant and Seed Collection: Native plants and seeds will be collected in summer 2009, prior to construction and grown in the Presidio Nursery to be used for post-construction landscaping and wetlands mitigation.
Initial Tree Removal: The area surrounding the construction site must be carefully cleared and graded to accommodate construction activities. Although there will be a visual impact during construction, an extensive landscaping effort is a critical part of the project design. Tree removal will begin as early as August 2009.
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3. The John Muir Association, a nonprofit organization supporting the National Park Service’s John Muir National Historic Site, is requesting nominations for the John Muir Conservation Award. Awards are given in four different categories (shown below) and is open to individuals, nonprofit organizations, public agencies and businesses. The categories are:
1. Conservationist of the Year: For an individual(s) who has excelled in environmental protection or made significant contributions to the advancement of conservation.
2. Environmental Education Conservation Award: For outstanding contribution by an individual(s) (professional or volunteer), business, organization or public agency to environmental education, whether in a classroom or otherwise.
3. Nonprofit or Public Agency Conservation Award: For outstanding achievement by a nonprofit organization that promotes environmental protection or demonstrated significant achievement or leadership in the advancement of conservation.
4. Business Conservation Award: For outstanding achievement by a business (other than a nonprofit organization) that promotes environmental protection or demonstrated significant achievement or leadership in the advancement of conservation.
More information and a nomination form are available at www.johnmuirassociation.org. Deadline for submission is September 26, 2009. The winners will receive their awards at the Conservation Award dinner to be held on Saturday, November 7, 2009 at the Campbell Theatre, 636 Ward Street, Martinez, California.
Please consider making a nomination, posting the announcement on your website and/or forwarding to others.
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4. From Eric Mills:
The lead issue, specifically a ban on the use of lead ammunition in Condor country for all types of hunting, is to be considered for adoption at the Fish & Game Commission's August 5th & 6th hearing in Woodland.
Judd Hanna is a former member of the Fish & Game Commission. Sadly, he was politically railroaded by a gang of ethically-challenged Republican legislators (led by Senator Dennis Hollingsworth), and forced to resign from the Commission shortly after being appointed by the governor. Hanna's crime? Publicly voicing his opposition to the use of lead ammunition. (Ironically, Mr. Hanna is himself a Republican and a hunter.)
Hopefully, your organization will submit a similar letter in support of a total ban on the use of lead ammo for ALL hunting. (And fishing, too.) We did it for waterfowl. Land animals deserve no less.
Better yet, please try to have a representative or two at the August 5-6 Commission meeting in Woodland, CA to testify on this important issue.
(Check California Fish & Game Commission website for details.)
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5.
Wildcat Creek Regional Trail - Richmond
Saturday, July 25th 9-Noon
Come learn about the Wildcat Creek watershed, and take action by cleaning our community’s waterways.
All creek clean-up supplies will be provided. Please bring water, sunscreen, and wear layered clothing and closed-toe shoes that can get wet and dirty.
All ages welcome! For more information including directions to the site please contact Jennifer Robinson Maddox at Golden Gate Audubon: (510) 919-5873 or jrobinson@goldengateaudubon.org. RSVP required by Thursday, July 23rd.
******************************
6. Story on HANC Recycle Center nursery and Greg Gaar:
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2009/07/15/DDO218HBK8.DTL
******************************
7. Hi Jake, I think your readers might be interested in this action alert about protecting our nation's wildlife and wild places from the impacts of climate change.
Ask the Senate to Save Our Natural World from Climate Change
Climate change is already impacting our communities, our health and safety and our natural resources. Global warming is threatening wildlife, fish and plants who are already on the brink of extinction. Melting sea ice, warming ocean and river waters, shifting life cycles and migration are impacting endangered species, including polar bears, lynx, salmon, coral, and migratory birds.
Congress is working on climate change legislation that sets a first-ever cap on global warming pollution and helps reduce the impact of climate change on our communities, our health and our natural resources. Endangered species -and species put at risk of extinction due to climate change - would benefit from these efforts.
Now that the U.S. House of Representatives has passed a climate bill, the Senate must act. Industry lobbyists will continue to try to weaken the bill, including removing key programs and funding that would protect natural resources from the impacts of climate change.
Please send a letter to your Senator asking them to ensure that provisions to safeguard natural resource are included in the climate change bill.
http://www.change.org/esc/actions/view/ask_the_senate_to_save_our_natural_world_from_climate_change
****************************
8. Renewables: The Final Frontier, by Randy Udall
...The world's foremost energy historian, Vaclav Smil, began a recent essay with this blunt statement: "Our transition away from fossil fuels will take decades--if it happens at all."
The author of dozens of books, Smil is a brainy polymath. A distinguished professor at University of Manitoba, he finds most American energy discussions naive, simplistic, cliched, innumerate, and, ultimately, maddening. He does not believe that our cars will soon be powered by fuel cells or pyrolyzed turkey guts, that clean coal can solve the climate problem, or that venture capital will discover an energy analogue to the cellular phone.
Al Gore's proposal to re-power America with renewable energy in a decade is "delusional," Smil writes. "Gore has succumbed to Moore's curse, the belief that performance improvement in energy systems can model that of computer processing power."
Energy systems are not virtual, they are heavy metal--copper and steel and megatons of concrete. Their operating systems don't change; 60 hertz never goes obsolete. Upgrading power plants is generally unnecessary, except where pollution controls are concerned, and replacing them is expensive, which is why there are hundreds of 40-year-old coal plants. In short, you can throw your laptop out every few years and order a new one, but Hoover Dam will still be plugging the Colorado River centuries from now. Given climate realities, we desperately need a rapid energy transformation, but wishing can't make it so.
...Like it or not, Smil believes we are captive to past investments, to be multi-trillion-dollar energy networks we have already created, and, above all, to the scale of our energy appetites. Only the last of those factors seems amenable to rapid change, and thus his advice to President Obama: "Explain to the nation that Americans, who consume twice as much energy per capita as rich Europeans (and have nothing to show for it), should try to live within some sensible limits, which means using less fuel not more."
...(a biologist) calculates that a typical North American consumes energy at a rate sufficient to sustain a 66,000-pound primate. That's a very big ape, and Smil is not the only one asking whether it's realistic to meet his gargantuan appetite with wind and solar, dilute flows of power that today provide less than 1 percent of U.S. energy. Unlike oil shale, wind, solar and geothermal have high energy returns and a bright future. Nonetheless, it will take many doublings before they will meet a significant percentage of our needs.
Smil can envision running a lightly populated state such as Montana or Wyoming on renewables once its fossil fuels run out. Urban areas present a more difficult problem. By abusing a calculator and common sense, one can sketch out a renewable blueprint for a city like Phoenix, but after awhile the numbers begin to seem like so much Hohokam. Phoenix long ago exceeded its carrying capacity and is likely to remain dependent on imported oil, gas and nuclear power, for as long as such things last.
...Unless saving energy quickly becomes the nation's focus, we already have the answer: "Beam me up, Scotty, there's no intelligent life down here."
Excerpted from High Country News 22 June 2009
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Oxymorons: road safety, fiscal prudence, sustainable development
****************************
9. BE THE CHANGE Environmental Leadership Program
Organizer: Rebecca Araiz Iverson, director of Acterra’s Be the Change program
Agenda: Meet others who want to create innovative solutions to environmental challenges in the community, workplace, and organizations; learn about benefits, goals and curriculum of this 10-month training program; and talk with Be the Change alums, advisors, and program staff.
Date & Time: July 30 from 6-8 p.m.
Location: Mountain View Council Chambers, 500 Castro Street, Mountain View, CA 94041
Cost: No charge, and light refreshments will be served.
RSVP: Please email Rebecca Iverson at rebeccaai@acterra.org to make a reservation, or, register online at: http://www.acterra.org/programs/bethechange/index.html
*****************************
10.
San Francisco Natural History Series
The Great Transpacific Migrations
Guest speaker Peter Pyle
7:30pm, Thursday July 23rd, 2009
The Great Transpacific Migrations From Albatross to Turtles, from Sharks to Shorebirds Wildlife biologist Peter Pyle will share recent satellite tag technology discoveries of some of the amazing ways animals migrate across the Pacific.
Peter is a research scientist who currently works for the Institute for Bird Populations studying changes in North American bird populations. He spent 24 years as a Farallon Island Biologist for the Point Reyes Bird Observatory studying bird, bat, and butterfly migrations, as well as great white sharks.
FREE; donations encouraged.
Randall Museum, 199 Museum Way
Info: 415.554.9600 or www.randallmuseum.org
***************************
11.
July 25 Dinner Benefit for the Marin Agricultural Land Trust and
Conversation with Pt. Reyes Photographer Marty Knapp
5:00 - 6:00 PM – UPB Conversation with Phyllis Faber and Elisabeth Ptak of MALT and Marty Knapp
HOW ART HELPS TO PRESERVE & PROTECT THE LANDSCAPE FOR FUTURE GENERATIONS
University Press Books, 2430 Bancroft Way, Berkeley.
Conversation and Photo Exhibition/Sale is open to the public, no charge.
6:00 - 8:00 PM - Sale of Marty Knapp photographs and Dinner at Musical Offering Café, also at 2430 Bancroft Way, Berkeley, to benefit MALT.
Dinner is by reservation, $65. 510-849-0211.
*******************************
12. Feedback
James Grant:
Hi Jake, regarding item #19 (No sex, please, we're busy), I read this population control plan recently.
India wants births remote-controlled
INDIA intends to harness the passion-killing properties of late-night television to help control a potentially catastrophic population explosion.
Health and Family Welfare Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad has called for the country to redouble its efforts to bring electricity to all its huge rural population.
The introduction of the electric light and television sets to those vast areas that still did not have them would discourage procreation, he argued. "If there is electricity in every village then people will watch TV until late night and then fall asleep. They won't get a chance to produce children," Mr Azad said. "When there is no electricity there is nothing else to do but produce babies." He added: "Don't think that I am saying this in a lighter vein. I am serious. TV will have a great impact. It's a great medium to tackle the problem ... 80 per cent of population growth can be reduced through TV." http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,25777330-2703,00.html
Yes indeed. Remember the New York City blackout in the....uh, I think it may have been the 1960s or '70s...so possibly you don't remember (I have a hard time remembering that many of my acquaintances and newsletter recipients were not even a gleam in their father's eye when I experienced certain events). Well, the New York City blackouts lasted a few hours, and nine months later there was a bumper crop of babies. (I'm sure those babies have a nickname, like the after-the-war babies are called Boomers, but I can't remember what they called them. It's probably on Wikipedia.)
It's a lesson for us all. We have all this education, consultants, experts, intellectuals, college professors, and think tanks making projections into the future that guides so many of our future plans, then get tripped up by a simple human fact that no one even considered. Reality always confounds the projections.
The NY blackout was 1965. According to snopes, the birth rate nine months after the blackout did not show a statistically significant difference from the rate of birth during the same period in any of the five previous years. I suspect that population growth trends are much more complex than whether one has electric lights or television.
http://www.snopes.com/pregnant/blackout.asp
Ah, thank you for straightening out this little myth perpetrated by the media, which was before PCs and snopes.com. Seems the world isn't interesting enough as is, so they have to invent things to titillate their readers and audiences. It was widely talked about at the time, which the media loved.
Don French:
"How's your father?"
I hever heard this phrase but Google knew of it and directed me to http://www.effingpot.com/slang.shtml where I learned a number of other Britishisms. I say, it really is the mutt's nuts, isn't it?
(But I am still not exactly sure what doing it "lady-style" means.)
I received two queries on this question.
*************************
13.
The Bioneers Conference
October 16-18
Marin Center, San Rafael
"The issues they were raising a decade ago, from local food to rooftop power, have moved into the mainstream. Bioneers has been consistently ahead of the curve. It began as a gathering place for a fairly small number of like-minded people but is now a hatchery for the next wave of important ideas that five years hence people will be talking about in Rotary Clubs." Bill McKibben, quoted in The New York Times, 10/26/06
Register online: www.bioneers.org/conference
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14.
The Late Show Gardens – September 18-20, 2009 – Sonoma, CA
The intimate layout of The Late Show Gardens will allow visitors to personally experience a different approach to the crucial issues of climate change, drought and sustainability through garden designs, lectures, and specially selected vendors.
AFFORDABLE Tickets Daily passes from $10-$20. Discounted 3-day passes. Check web site for discounts. Early Bird Discount expires 8/1/09.
For more information and tickets http://www.thelateshowgardens.org
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15. A Bat Disease That's Bad News for Humans, Too
People could soon feel the devastating effects of white nose syndrome (WNS) among bats. The most immediate change may be the number of mosquito bites people get this summer. According to Greg Turner of the Pennsylvania Game Commission, a bat may consume as much as its own weight in insects each night, including mosquitoes. Bat guru Merlin D. Tuttle, who founded Bat Conservation International, notes that bats are the primary predators of pests that "cost American farmers and foresters billions of dollars annually." If WNS spreads to the American South and West, it could also lead to huge losses of crops pollinated by bats. As Turner points out, bats are major pollinators of plantains* and avocados and are the sole pollinators of the agave plant; margarita cocktail lovers owe the tequila in their drink to the activities of bats.
Scientific American, August 2009
(* By "plantains" is assume we're talking about bananas. JS)
*****************************
16.
On honeybees and jury duty
LTE, Science News 18 July 2009
Reading "Swarm Savvy", I was struck by how closely the honeybee decision-making process resembled the internal dynamics of a jury I once was on. The "obvious" jury decision, in my not-very-humble opinion, was guilty to a lesser charge of non-aggravated battery, but I was surprised by how many moms and nurses wanted to acquit the defendant immediately--and how offended they were by my obstinate refusal to back down. The final result, when it came, was indeed guilty to the lesser charge, but by then I had been worn down and was doubting my own decision. It was not an easy afternoon, and the end came only when everyone had allowed (like the honeybees in the article) "their enthusiasm to decay." The end came abruptly, in fact, and correctly in my opinion.
I wonder if the jury system has not been deliberately designed to facilitate this behavior. But if so, by whom? Are 12 jurors an optimum number because 12 is so easily divided by four or three or two? I wonder if the law distinguishes gradations in offenses, not because criminals are sometimes "less guilty" or "more guilty," but because juries cannot reach a decision if their only options are guilty or not guilty. Has common law reached preeminence precisely because it is an optimum, highly evolved decision-making process?
David C. Oshel, Cedar Rapids, Iowa
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17. Notes & Queries, Guardian Weekly
Don't let your freak flag fly if it's standing at half-mast
Whatever happened to the Age of Aquarius?
Hair today, gone tomorrow.
Nick Draper, Christchurch, New Zealand
I've no idea what happened to the Age of Aquarius, probably the same as for the Age of Enlightenment. However, we seem to have rediscovered the Dark Ages (have you read the Guardian Weekly this last year?). So it's not all bad? Is it?
David Blest, Dilston, Tasmania, Australia
Why does hair grow on a man's chin after it stops growing on his skull?
Gravity.
Ian MacDougall, Tokyo, Japan
He uses his jaw more than his head.
John Ralston, Palo Alto, California, US
I don't know why hair continues to grow on the chin when it has stopped growing on the skull. I have another question--why does armpit hair and public hair reach a certain length and then stop?
Michael O'Leary, Passara, Sri Lanka
2. Doyle Drive informational meeting July 23. Public seems under-informed on the project
3. Nominations for John Muir Conservation Awards
4. Fish & Game Commission hearing Aug 5-6 on banning lead shot
5. Wildcat Creek Regional Trail - cleanup in Richmond this Saturday
6. Chronicle story on Greg Gaar and the HANC Recycle Center nursery
7. Senate action needed to match House action on climate change
8. Renewable energy--a sober view
9. Be The Change: July 30, 6-8 pm in Mountain View
10. The Great Transpacific Migrations Thurs 23 July at Randall Museum
11. Dinner Benefit for Marin Agricultural Land Trust, July 25
12. Feedback: The 1965 New York blackout media myth/"How's your father?" and other Britishisms
13. Bioneers Conference October 16-18 - always ahead of the curve
14. Late Show Gardens in Sonoma Sept 18-20
15. Bat disease bad news for humans, too
16. On honeybees and jury duty
17. Notes & Queries: Whatever happened to the Age of Aquarius?/hair on the chin but not on the head
The time has come in America for a fresh appraisal of the function of the engineer in our society. This man who is the designer and builder of our habitat—this man who above all others sets the stage for our daily lives—should anticipate the impact of each project he plans upon the total evolution of America. Without such awareness the disorderly pattern of the present man-made environment will be compounded as the pressures of population density increase.
Edward Higbee
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1. Pacifica's maneuvering on Sharp Park. If possible, please attend meeting TONIGHT
We need you to attend a public hearing on Monday, July 20 at 7pm at 2212 Beach Boulevard, 2nd Floor in Pacifica to stop Pacifica's Planning Commission from implementing a land grab at Sharp Park!
The Planning Commission is attempting to "landmark" Sharp Park, Northern California's best coastal restoration opportunity, to prevent environmental remediation and restoration from occurring on the site. They are claiming that the golf course that is currently located at Sharp Park is historic: even though every golf historian who has published on the subject has found that the original golf course was washed out to sea decades ago by coastal storms.
The existing golf course, redesigned in 1972, actually hides from public view the true historic elements of the site: Native American artifacts and areas used as a temporary internment site during World War II.
Restoration and transfer to the National Park Service is the best opportunity we have to highlight these historic elements of the property. The National Park Service is our nation's greatest steward of historic properties, and that's why Pacifica's misguided "landmark" land grab would backfire.
Again, please attend the Pacifica Planning Commission hearing on Monday, July 20 at 7pm 2212 Beach Boulevard, 2nd Floor in Pacifica. This is the 5th and last item on the agenda, but we don't know for sure when it will be heard. Tell the commission that:
* Sharp Park Golf Course is not historic. Alister MacKenzie, who designed the first golf course at Sharp Park, revolutionized golf design by insisting that courses “imitate the beauty of nature,” rather than be in conflict with it. But MacKenzie ignored his own maxim when he designed Sharp Park. He dredged the land for a staggering 14 months to create enough dry land to begin construction, but the dredging didn’t work. Opening day was delayed twice because of wet playing conditions; two coastal storm surges inundated the course with sea water, and the course suffers flooding during normal winter rains every year. Because of this the course was redesigned in 1972 by Robert Muir Graves, and every golf historian who has published on the matter has concluded that nothing of MacKenzie’s handiwork remains at Sharp Park.
* No MacKenzie course has ever been granted historic status. There are 26 golf courses on the national register of historic places. Not a one is a MacKenzie design. MacKenzie did build some great courses, but Sharp Park wasn’t one of them. By presenting Sharp Park as exemplary MacKenzie work, we cheapen his legacy and make it more difficult to give MacKenzie the recognition he deserves for his better work.
* MacKenzie courses have been redeveloped because they don’t meet the modern demands of today’s game. A municipal MacKenzie course was redesigned by a modern golf architect in 2001 because the course wasn’t competitive during the modern golf era. Sharp Park likewise has been given an “F” grade on nearly every measure by the National Golf Foundation, and the course operates at 44% capacity. Historic landmark designation will make golf improvements more difficult if they are ever even permitted by a small clientele who would prefer the golf course to remain in its current, poor condition.
* The golf course prevents the public from accessing the historic features on the site. The Sharp Park clubhouse, Native American artifacts, and a WWII temporary internment camp are found at Sharp Park, and the golf course prevents the public from accessing these historic amenities and prevents any possible interpretation of them. Landmarking the golf course will cause these historic features to be second fiddle to a golf course that existed ephemerally, to the benefit of a few, to the detriment future generations.
* Landmarking Sharp Park would subject Pacifica to a takings lawsuit that could bankrupt Pacifica. Pacifica has never landmarked an entire landscape before, and specifically excluded the golf course from the historic designation it granted to the golf course club house in 1985. If Pacifica landmarks San Francisco’s property into a single use after rejecting such designation when the clubhouse was landmarked, it would be subject to a similar lawsuit that could cost Pacifica millions of dollars of taxpayer money. Half Moon Bay is now insolvent after a landowner filed a takings claim against that City because of a poorly thought-out regulation of the land-owners property.
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2. Doyle Drive informational meeting
(It may be worthwhile to attend this meeting. The project is bound to be controversial [starting with the immediate removal of 600-700 trees], but has been in process for a very long time; however, it appears that the nature of the project is not fully known by the public. There is the danger that the lengthy project may become even lengthier and more expensive if there is a public outcry. JS)
July 23, 2009, 6:00-8:00 PM
Fort Mason Center - Landmark Building A Conference Center
Golden Gate Room San Francisco
Open House: 6:00-6:30 PM
Presentation: 6:30-7:00 PM
Resume Open House: 7:00-8:00 PM
www.doyledrive.org (415) 263-5953 doyledrive@doyledrive.org
Construction is anticipated to begin in fall 2009 at the western end of the project corridor. By the end of 2009, construction activity will be occurring adjacent to the entire existing roadway, including construction of a temporary detour on the eastern end of the project. Traffic is expected to be transferred onto the completed detour in early 2011 and onto the final roadway in early 2013.
Native Plant and Seed Collection: Native plants and seeds will be collected in summer 2009, prior to construction and grown in the Presidio Nursery to be used for post-construction landscaping and wetlands mitigation.
Initial Tree Removal: The area surrounding the construction site must be carefully cleared and graded to accommodate construction activities. Although there will be a visual impact during construction, an extensive landscaping effort is a critical part of the project design. Tree removal will begin as early as August 2009.
************************
3. The John Muir Association, a nonprofit organization supporting the National Park Service’s John Muir National Historic Site, is requesting nominations for the John Muir Conservation Award. Awards are given in four different categories (shown below) and is open to individuals, nonprofit organizations, public agencies and businesses. The categories are:
1. Conservationist of the Year: For an individual(s) who has excelled in environmental protection or made significant contributions to the advancement of conservation.
2. Environmental Education Conservation Award: For outstanding contribution by an individual(s) (professional or volunteer), business, organization or public agency to environmental education, whether in a classroom or otherwise.
3. Nonprofit or Public Agency Conservation Award: For outstanding achievement by a nonprofit organization that promotes environmental protection or demonstrated significant achievement or leadership in the advancement of conservation.
4. Business Conservation Award: For outstanding achievement by a business (other than a nonprofit organization) that promotes environmental protection or demonstrated significant achievement or leadership in the advancement of conservation.
More information and a nomination form are available at www.johnmuirassociation.org. Deadline for submission is September 26, 2009. The winners will receive their awards at the Conservation Award dinner to be held on Saturday, November 7, 2009 at the Campbell Theatre, 636 Ward Street, Martinez, California.
Please consider making a nomination, posting the announcement on your website and/or forwarding to others.
******************************
4. From Eric Mills:
The lead issue, specifically a ban on the use of lead ammunition in Condor country for all types of hunting, is to be considered for adoption at the Fish & Game Commission's August 5th & 6th hearing in Woodland.
Judd Hanna is a former member of the Fish & Game Commission. Sadly, he was politically railroaded by a gang of ethically-challenged Republican legislators (led by Senator Dennis Hollingsworth), and forced to resign from the Commission shortly after being appointed by the governor. Hanna's crime? Publicly voicing his opposition to the use of lead ammunition. (Ironically, Mr. Hanna is himself a Republican and a hunter.)
Hopefully, your organization will submit a similar letter in support of a total ban on the use of lead ammo for ALL hunting. (And fishing, too.) We did it for waterfowl. Land animals deserve no less.
Better yet, please try to have a representative or two at the August 5-6 Commission meeting in Woodland, CA to testify on this important issue.
(Check California Fish & Game Commission website for details.)
***************************
5.
Wildcat Creek Regional Trail - Richmond
Saturday, July 25th 9-Noon
Come learn about the Wildcat Creek watershed, and take action by cleaning our community’s waterways.
All creek clean-up supplies will be provided. Please bring water, sunscreen, and wear layered clothing and closed-toe shoes that can get wet and dirty.
All ages welcome! For more information including directions to the site please contact Jennifer Robinson Maddox at Golden Gate Audubon: (510) 919-5873 or jrobinson@goldengateaudubon.org. RSVP required by Thursday, July 23rd.
******************************
6. Story on HANC Recycle Center nursery and Greg Gaar:
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2009/07/15/DDO218HBK8.DTL
******************************
7. Hi Jake, I think your readers might be interested in this action alert about protecting our nation's wildlife and wild places from the impacts of climate change.
Ask the Senate to Save Our Natural World from Climate Change
Climate change is already impacting our communities, our health and safety and our natural resources. Global warming is threatening wildlife, fish and plants who are already on the brink of extinction. Melting sea ice, warming ocean and river waters, shifting life cycles and migration are impacting endangered species, including polar bears, lynx, salmon, coral, and migratory birds.
Congress is working on climate change legislation that sets a first-ever cap on global warming pollution and helps reduce the impact of climate change on our communities, our health and our natural resources. Endangered species -and species put at risk of extinction due to climate change - would benefit from these efforts.
Now that the U.S. House of Representatives has passed a climate bill, the Senate must act. Industry lobbyists will continue to try to weaken the bill, including removing key programs and funding that would protect natural resources from the impacts of climate change.
Please send a letter to your Senator asking them to ensure that provisions to safeguard natural resource are included in the climate change bill.
http://www.change.org/esc/actions/view/ask_the_senate_to_save_our_natural_world_from_climate_change
****************************
8. Renewables: The Final Frontier, by Randy Udall
...The world's foremost energy historian, Vaclav Smil, began a recent essay with this blunt statement: "Our transition away from fossil fuels will take decades--if it happens at all."
The author of dozens of books, Smil is a brainy polymath. A distinguished professor at University of Manitoba, he finds most American energy discussions naive, simplistic, cliched, innumerate, and, ultimately, maddening. He does not believe that our cars will soon be powered by fuel cells or pyrolyzed turkey guts, that clean coal can solve the climate problem, or that venture capital will discover an energy analogue to the cellular phone.
Al Gore's proposal to re-power America with renewable energy in a decade is "delusional," Smil writes. "Gore has succumbed to Moore's curse, the belief that performance improvement in energy systems can model that of computer processing power."
Energy systems are not virtual, they are heavy metal--copper and steel and megatons of concrete. Their operating systems don't change; 60 hertz never goes obsolete. Upgrading power plants is generally unnecessary, except where pollution controls are concerned, and replacing them is expensive, which is why there are hundreds of 40-year-old coal plants. In short, you can throw your laptop out every few years and order a new one, but Hoover Dam will still be plugging the Colorado River centuries from now. Given climate realities, we desperately need a rapid energy transformation, but wishing can't make it so.
...Like it or not, Smil believes we are captive to past investments, to be multi-trillion-dollar energy networks we have already created, and, above all, to the scale of our energy appetites. Only the last of those factors seems amenable to rapid change, and thus his advice to President Obama: "Explain to the nation that Americans, who consume twice as much energy per capita as rich Europeans (and have nothing to show for it), should try to live within some sensible limits, which means using less fuel not more."
...(a biologist) calculates that a typical North American consumes energy at a rate sufficient to sustain a 66,000-pound primate. That's a very big ape, and Smil is not the only one asking whether it's realistic to meet his gargantuan appetite with wind and solar, dilute flows of power that today provide less than 1 percent of U.S. energy. Unlike oil shale, wind, solar and geothermal have high energy returns and a bright future. Nonetheless, it will take many doublings before they will meet a significant percentage of our needs.
Smil can envision running a lightly populated state such as Montana or Wyoming on renewables once its fossil fuels run out. Urban areas present a more difficult problem. By abusing a calculator and common sense, one can sketch out a renewable blueprint for a city like Phoenix, but after awhile the numbers begin to seem like so much Hohokam. Phoenix long ago exceeded its carrying capacity and is likely to remain dependent on imported oil, gas and nuclear power, for as long as such things last.
...Unless saving energy quickly becomes the nation's focus, we already have the answer: "Beam me up, Scotty, there's no intelligent life down here."
Excerpted from High Country News 22 June 2009
*******************************
Oxymorons: road safety, fiscal prudence, sustainable development
****************************
9. BE THE CHANGE Environmental Leadership Program
Organizer: Rebecca Araiz Iverson, director of Acterra’s Be the Change program
Agenda: Meet others who want to create innovative solutions to environmental challenges in the community, workplace, and organizations; learn about benefits, goals and curriculum of this 10-month training program; and talk with Be the Change alums, advisors, and program staff.
Date & Time: July 30 from 6-8 p.m.
Location: Mountain View Council Chambers, 500 Castro Street, Mountain View, CA 94041
Cost: No charge, and light refreshments will be served.
RSVP: Please email Rebecca Iverson at rebeccaai@acterra.org to make a reservation, or, register online at: http://www.acterra.org/programs/bethechange/index.html
*****************************
10.
San Francisco Natural History Series
The Great Transpacific Migrations
Guest speaker Peter Pyle
7:30pm, Thursday July 23rd, 2009
The Great Transpacific Migrations From Albatross to Turtles, from Sharks to Shorebirds Wildlife biologist Peter Pyle will share recent satellite tag technology discoveries of some of the amazing ways animals migrate across the Pacific.
Peter is a research scientist who currently works for the Institute for Bird Populations studying changes in North American bird populations. He spent 24 years as a Farallon Island Biologist for the Point Reyes Bird Observatory studying bird, bat, and butterfly migrations, as well as great white sharks.
FREE; donations encouraged.
Randall Museum, 199 Museum Way
Info: 415.554.9600 or www.randallmuseum.org
***************************
11.
July 25 Dinner Benefit for the Marin Agricultural Land Trust and
Conversation with Pt. Reyes Photographer Marty Knapp
5:00 - 6:00 PM – UPB Conversation with Phyllis Faber and Elisabeth Ptak of MALT and Marty Knapp
HOW ART HELPS TO PRESERVE & PROTECT THE LANDSCAPE FOR FUTURE GENERATIONS
University Press Books, 2430 Bancroft Way, Berkeley.
Conversation and Photo Exhibition/Sale is open to the public, no charge.
6:00 - 8:00 PM - Sale of Marty Knapp photographs and Dinner at Musical Offering Café, also at 2430 Bancroft Way, Berkeley, to benefit MALT.
Dinner is by reservation, $65. 510-849-0211.
*******************************
12. Feedback
James Grant:
Hi Jake, regarding item #19 (No sex, please, we're busy), I read this population control plan recently.
India wants births remote-controlled
INDIA intends to harness the passion-killing properties of late-night television to help control a potentially catastrophic population explosion.
Health and Family Welfare Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad has called for the country to redouble its efforts to bring electricity to all its huge rural population.
The introduction of the electric light and television sets to those vast areas that still did not have them would discourage procreation, he argued. "If there is electricity in every village then people will watch TV until late night and then fall asleep. They won't get a chance to produce children," Mr Azad said. "When there is no electricity there is nothing else to do but produce babies." He added: "Don't think that I am saying this in a lighter vein. I am serious. TV will have a great impact. It's a great medium to tackle the problem ... 80 per cent of population growth can be reduced through TV." http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,25777330-2703,00.html
Yes indeed. Remember the New York City blackout in the....uh, I think it may have been the 1960s or '70s...so possibly you don't remember (I have a hard time remembering that many of my acquaintances and newsletter recipients were not even a gleam in their father's eye when I experienced certain events). Well, the New York City blackouts lasted a few hours, and nine months later there was a bumper crop of babies. (I'm sure those babies have a nickname, like the after-the-war babies are called Boomers, but I can't remember what they called them. It's probably on Wikipedia.)
It's a lesson for us all. We have all this education, consultants, experts, intellectuals, college professors, and think tanks making projections into the future that guides so many of our future plans, then get tripped up by a simple human fact that no one even considered. Reality always confounds the projections.
The NY blackout was 1965. According to snopes, the birth rate nine months after the blackout did not show a statistically significant difference from the rate of birth during the same period in any of the five previous years. I suspect that population growth trends are much more complex than whether one has electric lights or television.
http://www.snopes.com/pregnant/blackout.asp
Ah, thank you for straightening out this little myth perpetrated by the media, which was before PCs and snopes.com. Seems the world isn't interesting enough as is, so they have to invent things to titillate their readers and audiences. It was widely talked about at the time, which the media loved.
Don French:
"How's your father?"
I hever heard this phrase but Google knew of it and directed me to http://www.effingpot.com/slang.shtml where I learned a number of other Britishisms. I say, it really is the mutt's nuts, isn't it?
(But I am still not exactly sure what doing it "lady-style" means.)
I received two queries on this question.
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13.
The Bioneers Conference
October 16-18
Marin Center, San Rafael
"The issues they were raising a decade ago, from local food to rooftop power, have moved into the mainstream. Bioneers has been consistently ahead of the curve. It began as a gathering place for a fairly small number of like-minded people but is now a hatchery for the next wave of important ideas that five years hence people will be talking about in Rotary Clubs." Bill McKibben, quoted in The New York Times, 10/26/06
Register online: www.bioneers.org/conference
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14.
The Late Show Gardens – September 18-20, 2009 – Sonoma, CA
The intimate layout of The Late Show Gardens will allow visitors to personally experience a different approach to the crucial issues of climate change, drought and sustainability through garden designs, lectures, and specially selected vendors.
AFFORDABLE Tickets Daily passes from $10-$20. Discounted 3-day passes. Check web site for discounts. Early Bird Discount expires 8/1/09.
For more information and tickets http://www.thelateshowgardens.org
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15. A Bat Disease That's Bad News for Humans, Too
People could soon feel the devastating effects of white nose syndrome (WNS) among bats. The most immediate change may be the number of mosquito bites people get this summer. According to Greg Turner of the Pennsylvania Game Commission, a bat may consume as much as its own weight in insects each night, including mosquitoes. Bat guru Merlin D. Tuttle, who founded Bat Conservation International, notes that bats are the primary predators of pests that "cost American farmers and foresters billions of dollars annually." If WNS spreads to the American South and West, it could also lead to huge losses of crops pollinated by bats. As Turner points out, bats are major pollinators of plantains* and avocados and are the sole pollinators of the agave plant; margarita cocktail lovers owe the tequila in their drink to the activities of bats.
Scientific American, August 2009
(* By "plantains" is assume we're talking about bananas. JS)
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16.
On honeybees and jury duty
LTE, Science News 18 July 2009
Reading "Swarm Savvy", I was struck by how closely the honeybee decision-making process resembled the internal dynamics of a jury I once was on. The "obvious" jury decision, in my not-very-humble opinion, was guilty to a lesser charge of non-aggravated battery, but I was surprised by how many moms and nurses wanted to acquit the defendant immediately--and how offended they were by my obstinate refusal to back down. The final result, when it came, was indeed guilty to the lesser charge, but by then I had been worn down and was doubting my own decision. It was not an easy afternoon, and the end came only when everyone had allowed (like the honeybees in the article) "their enthusiasm to decay." The end came abruptly, in fact, and correctly in my opinion.
I wonder if the jury system has not been deliberately designed to facilitate this behavior. But if so, by whom? Are 12 jurors an optimum number because 12 is so easily divided by four or three or two? I wonder if the law distinguishes gradations in offenses, not because criminals are sometimes "less guilty" or "more guilty," but because juries cannot reach a decision if their only options are guilty or not guilty. Has common law reached preeminence precisely because it is an optimum, highly evolved decision-making process?
David C. Oshel, Cedar Rapids, Iowa
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17. Notes & Queries, Guardian Weekly
Don't let your freak flag fly if it's standing at half-mast
Whatever happened to the Age of Aquarius?
Hair today, gone tomorrow.
Nick Draper, Christchurch, New Zealand
I've no idea what happened to the Age of Aquarius, probably the same as for the Age of Enlightenment. However, we seem to have rediscovered the Dark Ages (have you read the Guardian Weekly this last year?). So it's not all bad? Is it?
David Blest, Dilston, Tasmania, Australia
Why does hair grow on a man's chin after it stops growing on his skull?
Gravity.
Ian MacDougall, Tokyo, Japan
He uses his jaw more than his head.
John Ralston, Palo Alto, California, US
I don't know why hair continues to grow on the chin when it has stopped growing on the skull. I have another question--why does armpit hair and public hair reach a certain length and then stop?
Michael O'Leary, Passara, Sri Lanka
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