Sierra Journal

New Film - The National Parks: America's Best Idea

I can't wait to see this new Ken Burns film. It just debuted at Mountainfilm in Telluride. The rest of us have to wait until September 27 to see it. Here's the trailer:

Via PBS:

Filmed over the course of more than six years at some of nature's most spectacular locales — from Acadia to Yosemite, Yellowstone to the Grand Canyon, the Everglades of Florida to the Gates of the Arctic in Alaska — The National Parks: America's Best Idea is nonetheless a story of people: people from every conceivable background – rich and poor; famous and unknown; soldiers and scientists; natives and newcomers; idealists, artists and entrepreneurs; people who were willing to devote themselves to saving some precious portion of the land they loved, and in doing so reminded their fellow citizens of the full meaning of democracy. It is a story full of struggle and conflict, high ideals and crass opportunism, stirring adventure and enduring inspiration - set against the most breathtaking backdrops imaginable.

Third Straight Year of Below Average Sierra Mountains Snowpack

The final snow survey of the season has come and gone and the Department of Water Resources has found that the 08/09 snowpack measures up at 66% of average. That marks the third straight year of below average snow depths.

From myMotherLoad:

D.W.R. Spokesperson Ted Thomas says, “We’re well past the period where we can expect heavy precipitation, so it is very disappointing.”

The northern Sierra registered 66 percent, the central Sierra 70 percent and the southern Sierra 61 percent.

This marks the third straight year that the state is behind average. D.W.R. has launched a statewide “Save our Water” campaign, urging Californians to conserve throughout the summer.

Wildfires both Cause and Effect of Global Warming

Never thought about that one before. Forest fires have always been simply an effect, in my mind, of higher temps, drier climates and longer summer seasons.

This new study makes it sound more like a vicious feedback loop in which forest fires are both a cause and effect of global warming.

Of course we all know that wildfires are a natural and healthy part of all ecosystems. Healthy ecosystems can handle them and actually benefit from them. The problem is that many forest ecosystems are now so out of whack and so clogged with fuel, that we have the threat of "megafires" across the west. Which makes the feedback-loop situation even worse, I imagine.

From AP via SFGate:

A warming climate will fuel larger, more frequent wildfires in the Sierra Nevada and other parts of the West, and the fires will contribute to climate change, according to a new study.

More than 20 international scientists, in the report published Friday in the journal Science, said fire is not only a consequence of climate change but an important cause.

"Fire also influences the climate system. This is what we call a feedback," Jennifer Balch, a fire expert at the University of California, Santa Barbara, told the Reno Gazette-Journal.

Happy Earth Day!

Happy Earth Day to all. I suggest we all take this day to do something for the planet. Even if it's just to take a moment to acknowledge it, its health, and its importance to all living beings. See below for the latest Repower America video from President Obama on closing the carbon pollution loophole with market-based caps - turning clean renewable energy into affordable and profitable energy. Makes a whole hell of a lot of sense to me!

Also check out the "I Blog for the Planet" ad campaign on the right. This is the One Million Acts of Green campaign (brought to you by Cisco). If you're a reader, please click on that badge, check it out and get involved if you so desire.

If you're a blogger, go to Typepad to embed the badge on your blog (there is code for all platforms). Six Apart (makers of Typepad, the software this blog is published on) will donate $1000 to The Climate Project for every 100k people who view this badge. Help them out!

Public Hearing on Offshore Oil Drilling Set for Thursday

The Interior Department will make a stop in San Francisco on Thursday for the next in a series of public hearings on offshore drilling.

I'm no petroleum or environmental sciences expert (few are), but I do know two things: I don't want oil rigs messing with my sunsets and I don't want oil spills mucking up my beaches. 

There are plenty of other ways to harness the energy of the sea and shore: wind, tidal, etc. Let's start planning for the future by investing in clean, renewable energy sources and stop planning for the future like we're perpetually stuck in 1965. 

If you feel so inclined, numerous local and national environmental and conservation groups could use your support at the hearing.

Details on the hearing via SF Gate:
The Department of the Interior will hold a public hearing from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. Thursday at the UCSF Mission Bay Conference Center, Robertson Auditorium, 1675 Owens St., San Francisco.

Sierra Snowpack 81% of Normal

And here I thought we had a huge year. Must be the law of shifting baselines. With more bad years than good years lately, even a normal year is starting to feel like a great year, ya know?

Of course my thoughts are always with ski conditions, but there is a much more serious concern: water resources for all of us around California.

For more on CA water resources see here. 

From Mercury News:

There appears to be plenty of snow in the Sierra Nevada, but California water officials said Thursday it falls short of the amount needed to replenish the state's reservoirs.

Across the 400-mile-long mountain range, the snowpack is holding about 81 percent of its usual statewide water content, according to the fourth Sierra snow survey conducted by the state Department of Water Resources.

The department's snow chief, Frank Gehrke, says the snowpack needed to be between 120 percent and 130 percent of average by the beginning of April to replenish the state's key reservoirs.

The smaller snowpack follows two previously dry winters and is one reason farmers and cities throughout California — including in Silicon Valley — have been told they will get less water this year.

"It's not nearly enough to bolster the water supply picture statewide," said Gehrke.

Omnibus Public Lands Management Act Signed into Law

President Obama today signed the Omnibus Public Lands Management Act into law. That's a long-winded legal name for an act that protects a TON of public land that has until now lived under constant threat.

This is a massive piece of legislation that includes dozens of bills that protect land across the US. But what does it mean for the Sierra Nevada? The bill protects 470,000 acres of the Eastern Sierra including additional land added to the John Muir Wilderness, Ansel Adams Wilderness and Hoover Wilderness, as well as Kings Canyon and Sequoia National parks.

According to the text of the bill there are 5 new officially designated wilderness areas in the Eastern Sierra including the Owens River Headwaters Wilderness, White Mountains Wilderness, Granite Mountain Wilderness, Magic Mountain Wilderness, and Pleasant View Ridge Wilderness areas. Amen!

Here are the President's remarks upon signing the act via The New York Times:

This legislation -- just to give you a sense of the scope -- this legislation guarantees that we will not take our forests, rivers, oceans, national parks, monuments, and wilderness areas for granted; but rather we will set them aside and guard their sanctity for everyone to share. That's something all Americans can support...

It protects treasured places from the Appalachians of Virginia and West Virginia to Michigan's Upper Peninsula; from the canyons of Idaho to the sandstone cliffs of Utah; from the Sierra Nevadas in California to the Badlands of Oregon.

It designates more than 2 million acres across nine states as wilderness; almost as much as was designated over the past eight years combined.

It creates thousands of miles of new scenic, historic, and recreational trails, cares for our historic battlefields, strengthens our National Park System.

It safeguards more than 1,000 miles of our rivers, protects watersheds and cleans up polluted groundwater, defends our oceans and Great Lakes, and will revitalize our fisheries, returning fish to rivers that have not seen them in decades.

Clock is ticking on Endangered Species Act

The 30-day public comment period for proposed changes to the endangered species act has begun. This rigmarole is particularly pressing and timely given the news that Sierra Nevada amphibians are disappearing at a frightening rate. 

From Greenspace:

Interior says the changes are narrow and procedural, but most observers think the agency is looking to circumvent attempts by environmentalists to use the act as a tool to fight projects that contribute to global warming.

And from a great Washington Post editorial today:

IN MAY, the Bush administration reluctantly listed the polar bear as "threatened" under the Endangered Species Act. The facts left it with little choice: the bear's Arctic Sea ice habitat is melting because of global warming. But the administration wasn't happy, because the Endangered Species Act was never intended to be an instrument for coping with climate change. Our sympathy was limited, since President Bush spent his entire time in office resisting the adoption of laws that would have been better suited to combating greenhouse gas emissions. But we agreed that the Endangered Species Act was the wrong tool for the problem.

The sixth mass extinction?

There have been 5 major extinction events in the history of life on planet earth. Now a study done on Sierra Nevada amphibians, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, found that Sierra Nevada amphibians are in severe danger of extinction and that this may be a sign of things to come - even suggesting that we may be in the midst of the sixth major extinction event. From LA Times Greenspace:

Of the Sierra Nevada's seven amphibian species, five are threatened. Two of these species, the Sierra Nevada yellow-legged frog and the Southern yellow-legged frog, had their populations decline by up to 98% over the last few years, even in highly-protected areas such as Yosemite National Park.

Tax incentives spur retailers to go solar

A couple of posts ago I pointed out The North Face's solar ambitions. Again, Kudos! It seems that this is becoming a major trend for large retailers like Wal-Mart, Kohls, and etc. They're all taking advantage of favorable federal and state tax incentives to install solar panels on their huge warehouse infrastructure.

Note that this is not some sort of environmental altruism on the part of these corporations. Corporations are interested in bottom-line economics. If the economics make sense, industry will follow. From NY Times:

So far, most chains have outfitted fewer than 10 percent of their stores. Over the long run, assuming Congress renews a favorable tax provision and more states offer incentives, the chains promise a solar construction program that would ultimately put panels atop almost every big store in the country.

The trend, while not entirely new, is accelerating as the chains seize a chance to bolster their environmental credentials by cutting back on their use of electricity from coal.

“It’s very clear that green energy is now front and center in the minds of the business sector,” said Daniel M. Kammen, an energy expert at the University of California, Berkeley. “Not only will you see panels on the roofs of your local stores, but I suspect very soon retailers will have stickers in their windows saying, ‘This is a green energy store.’ ”

In the coming months, 85 Kohl’s stores will get solar panels; 43 already have them. “We want to keep pushing as many as we possibly can,” said Ken Bonning, executive vice president for logistics at Kohl’s.