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Environment BLOG |
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July 2008
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It's July 4th and my friends and I are down in San Diego celebrating the holiday with our first ocean swim of the season off Coronado Island. And we're escaping the heat, too. The weekend is supposed to be another warm one in the I.E., so hitting the mountains or the beach is a good idea. Or why not go into an air-conditioned museum for an interesting lecture. 
(SHNS photo by Bill Sandke / Coronado Island Visitors Bureau)
With all the hot weather in the I.E., the beach sure does look tempting. Here is the beach in front of the Hotel Del Coronado near San Diego.
On Sunday, the curator of paleontology at the San Bernardino County Museum will give a lecture on "Horses -- America's Most Export-Ever!" And museum entry is free that day. Eric Scott, who will give his talk at 2 p.m., says that even though horses are considered by many to be of foreign origin, they are actually native, having originated in America more than fifty million years ago as a small marshland creature. "People often think the first Spanish explorers brought horses to America," Scott said. "But it wasn't really an introduction, since horses originated here on this continent. It was more like old friends becoming reacquainted." And next Wednesday, you can go to REI in Rancho Cucamonga to hear about "100 classic hikes in Southern California" from Allen Riedel, a frequent contributor to our outdoor page here at the P.E. You can read his latest story about hiking Mount San Jacinto.
In car-crazy Southern California, we generally choose our vehicles based on the color, style and miles per gallon, especially these days. But now those won't be the only factors that may help us decide. With 2009 vehicles about to hit the showrooms, they will be required to display a window sticker indicating how their greenhouse gas emissions compare with other vehicles of the same model year, according to the San Jose Mercury News. 
The San Jose Mercury News
The vehicles ratings, stemming from the first-in-the-nation law, will range from 1 to 10, with the higher score being the best for the environment. And speaking of climate change, Greenpeace is celebrating July 4th a day early with a global warming street rally today in Palm Springs. I've never really liked hiking Mt. Baldy, and now I remember why. Call it Mount Balderdash, if you will. I'm still not sure why many consider it the classic Southern California hike. I don't mind the steepness, but it's just not as scenic to me as Mt. San Jacinto or Mt. San Gorgonio. You at least get to look at pretty surroundings while your quads are burning on those mountains. 
Richard K. De Atley
Part of the Backbone Trail on Mount Baldy.
Still, Baldy is the one to do in preparation for Mount Whitney. So my friends and I scaled Baldy over the weekend. We did our four miles, pretty much straight up the Ski Hut Trail, and then descended via the Backbone Trail, about seven miles. And no, we didn't cheat with a ski lift ride to erase a couple of miles, although we were tempted given the warm temperatures.
It may be Canada Day today (I was up all night baking butter tarts, a traditional Canadian treat, for the newsroom) but I was taken aback this morning by a view of another large country that also starts with a C. China is already having to take steps to rid the skies around the Olympic venues of smog, something we know about all too well here in the Inland area. And now there's another Inland-like problem plaguing next month's international games. 
Associated Press
An outbreak of blue-green algae is seen on the coastline of Qingdao, the host city for sailing events at the 2008 Olympic Games, in eastern China's Shandong province.
An outbreak of blue-green algae happened along the coastline of the Chinese city of Qingdao, where the Olympic sailing event is taking place. Boats, along with thousands of people, are wading through the water helping to clean it up. For year, artists have been inspired by the other-worldly, boulder-strewn landscape of Joshua Tree National Park. And now those artists lucky enough to be chosen for two programs at the Inland park will have a chance to soak it up and produce new works. 
How could Ansel Adams not be inspired by Joshua Tree? He took this photo in 1942 and called it, "In Joshua Tree National Monument, California."
If you or anyone you know is artistically inclined, with pen, paint brush or otherwise, there's still time to apply, by July 15, for the artist-in-residence program and the affiliate artist program. The programs are operated by the Riverside Art Museum in downtown Riverside. Those selected for the residence program get to stay at the park for two to six weeks in rustic cabins.
Another warm weekend is on tap for the Inland region, but there's nothing too unexpected about that. On Saturday, you can take a kayaking class, one of my favorite things to do on the ocean, through REI in Rancho Cucamonga. It seems this morning that the REI Web site isn't working so if the links don't work and you need more information call the store at 909-646-8360. And on Sunday, you can learn about GPS gadgets. 
Speaking of Mount Baldy ...
As for my friends and I, we're heading up Mount Baldy to do a loop trail as we continue our training for Mount Whitney. We'll probably be sore come Monday. And if you do head to the mountains this weekend, remember that new fire restrictions were issued earlier this week in the San Bernardino National Forest. It was a packed house at the REI in Rancho Cucamonga last night, where Frank Usher imparted his wisdom on what you need to summit Mt. Whitney, the crown jewel of the lower 48s standing at 14,496 feet. Now 63, Frank scaled Mt. Whitney for the first time when he was 18. Frank said of our local mountains, the trail up Mt. Baldy most closely resembles the trail up Mt. Whitney. Mt. San Gorgonio, of course, being the tallest in Southern California, is the closest in elevation. 
Courtesy of Homer J. Wilson
Homer J. Wilson and fellow Sierra Club Peakbaggers member, Ron Morris, take a seat at the top of Mount Whitney in 2003.
Among the needed gear are bear-proof canisters to stow away your food and a long-handed spoon in case you bring those foil-wrapped meals that require hot water. And if you're going at a time when you need to use mosquito repellent, remember that if you use one with Deet, that it eats through nylon, meaning your sleeping bag. So either bring a wash cloth or some light long johns for sleeping in your bag. Or just use a more organic repellent. This is probably obvious to most of you but don't wear jeans, or as Frank said, "No Levis." Wear synthetic materials such as nylon and bring layers. Use your fleece jacket as a pillow and bring a beenie cap to wear at night. You may remember the blog entry about Haagen-Dazs and how the company was donating proceeds from its new ice cream flavor, Vanilla Honey Bee, to research on the disappearing bee population. Now Burt's Bees is getting into the action. 
Starting this month, the company is donating five percent of the proceeds from its special edition CCD Beeswax Lip Balm for its ongoing support and partnership with The North American Pollinator Protection Campaign and its Honeybee Health Improvement Project. CCD stands for Colony Collapse Disorder, which has been blamed for a major decline in honey bees. In addition, some folks are launching a nationwide call to action to plant specific vegetation that will benefit pollinators. Birds, bees, butterflies, beetles, mosquitoes and even bats transfer pollen between seed plants. Over the next two years, 35 eco-regional guides will be rolled out that will match people, place, plants and pollinators by United States zip code for the first time ever, according to Laurie Davies Adams, executive director of the Pollinator Partnership.
A new poll shows that nearly three out of four California voters support energy policies aimed at reducing global warming emissions that lead to climate change. 
That's the word from a survey sponsored by Next 10, a non-partisan, nonprofit research organization and conducted by Fairbanks, Maslin, Maulin and Associates. Despite the weak economy, the poll found that nearly six out of 10 voters support energy policies even if they result in higher prices for them. The results were released a few days before the California Air Resources Board is expected to release its draft plan on how to meet the goals of AB 32, the landmark global warming bill signed into law in 2006. And it was released some 20 years after a NASA scientist first warned that climate change was looming. At least one environmental group, Environmental Defense Fund, seized on the results to give lawmakers a warning.
A few of the biggest environmental issues in California involving the coast and the border went before the Supreme Court today. The panel turned down an appeal from environmentalists who objected to the Bush administration's plans for building a fence along to the U.S. border with Mexico. Many environmental groups said the fence would cut off wildlife paths and slice through habitat for endangered species, among other things. 
The Press-Enterprise/Paul Alvarez
If you look close enough, you can see desert tortoises in the plastic bins being carried by Peter Woodman, a biologist. The bins were choppered to habitat south of Fort Irwin.
But the court did agree to hear a challenge by the U.S. Navy to a judge's order that limits high-frequency sonar during training exercises to protect whales. Here in the Inland region, one of our largest environment vs. military preparedness |
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