February 2007 Archives

The two may not seem to have a lot in common, at least on the surface.
But it's underground where they have the connection.
Aquifers used for drinking water in the Inland region are often carved from faultlines and our water supplies may become vulnerable when a large quake hits on the San Andreas or San Jacinto faults.
Tonight at Cal State San Bernardino, there's a free lecture by a scientist who is perhaps the leading expert on this topic for our area.
Wesley R. Danskin of the United States Geological Survey will talk specifically about the Bunker Hill basin and the Lytle Creek basin, both of which sit below the San Bernardino Valley. The heavily used Bunker Hill basin supplies water even to Riverside.
Danskin willl talk about the danger of liquefaction that high groundwater levels in the San Bernardino area can pose during an earthquake, and suggest ways of reducing the problem.
The talk is at 6:30 p.m. at the Pfau Library and is sponsored by the Water Resources Institute. The institute will host a 5:30 p.m. reception before the talk. Call 909-537-7684 for more information.

The mother of modern-day ecology would have turned 100 this year had she not died back in 1964.
To celebrate the 100th anniversary of the May 29, 1907, birth of Rachel Carson, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the Friends of the National Conservation Training Center are launching an online book club.
Linda Lear, an author and Carson biographer, will kick-off the first session Thursday. The online club will run through November.
Among the books to be showcased is "Silent Spring," Carson's best-known book. It alerted the public to the dangers of pesticides, including DDT, and raised questions about mankind's impact on nature.

Roy and Silo probably had no idea that their building a nest together would create such a stir.
But in fact, the two male penguins in New York's Central Park Zoo sparked debate over the issue of whether homosexuality is natural.
UC Riverside professor Marlene Zuk has plenty to say on the subject.
She'll be discussing the issue Wednesday at 7:30 p.m. at the San Bernardino County Museum in Redlands.
The talk is free.
As far as Roy and Silo, they incubated a rock and when provided with a real egg were able to raise a chick. Gay-rights activists used the pair as proof that homosexuality occurs in nature.
Zuk, who focuses on behavioral ecology and more specifically sexual selection, says the importance of the penguins' relationship is not whether it proves that homosexuality is natural but rather whether it offers a larger view of the purpose of sex.
Bonobo chimpanzees, for instance, use sex to defuse tense situations, including with members of the same sex, according to Zuk.
Word has it that Roy and Silo separated in 2005 after some six years of paired behavior. Apparently, Silo found another partner _ this time a female named Scrappy.

Not Arnold Schwarzenegger. He was edged out by Seattle Mayor Greg Nickels for leading a national effort to organize America's cities to cut carbon dioxide pollution seven percent below 1990 levels by 2012.
What?
The Terminator signed landmark legislation last year taking aim at the industries that contribute most to global warming, the first in the nation to cap their green-house emissions.
Could it be because he's Republican that he didn't win top honors in the 2007 Global Warming Globie Awards? The Democratic mayor from Seattle barely edged him out, by fewer than 30 votes, according to Environmental Defense, which sponsored the awards, the result of an Internet vote by more than 20,000 people.
And somehow, based on emails, the group created a last-minute "honorable mention" for California Assembly Speak Fabian Nunez and former state Assemblywoman Fran Pavley for authoring the bill known as AB 32. Both Democrats, of course. Still, they do deserve much of the credit.
Meanwhile, Al Gore took home the Globie for "An Inconvenient Truth" and he could do the same this Sunday at the real Oscars.
Check here to see who else won.

Interesting talks this weekend about birds, earthquakes and volcanoes....

And for the more active, the rain may or may not have left a nice dusting of snow on the mountains. Check the snow conditions here up at Big Bear.

What's it like to live in the air? Robert McKernan, director of the San Bernardino County Museum in Redlands, will give a lecture on Saturday about our feathery friends. The talk will focus on why birds offer the most favorable attributes for scientific study and why ornithology has contributed so much to the sciences of ecology, evolution, distribution, behavior, ecology and taxonomy. The lecture is free with museum admission.

At the same museum but on Sunday, learn why the Earth is a place of earthquakes and violent volcanoes, and how mountain chains rise up. Kathleen Springer, the museum's senior curator of geological sciences, will talk about why there is a "Ring of Fire" circling the Pacific Rim. She'll focus on the Pacific plate, which extends from Japan to its eastern edge here in the Inland region with the notorious San Andreas Fault. The talk is free with museum admission.

Which large city in America ranks the highest on the environmental report card?
One that has the same name as a great movie: Fargo, N.D.
According to a report out today by the Earth Day Network, Fargo is followed by Burlington, Vt.; Portland, Ore; Colorado Springs, Colo.; and Sioux Falls, S.D. when it comes to looking at several environmental factors, including the amount of pollution in the air, water and land.
At the bottom of the pile is the motor city, Detroit.
It's followed by Miami, Cleveland, El Paso, Texas and Houston.
I quickly clicked on the report to see if any cities in the Inland area were ranked among the 72 cities, but it was a no go. They looked mostly at large cities.
The closest ones to us were: Los Angeles, San Diego and Long Beach.
Of those three, Los Angeles was the worst, ranking 62nd overall. Long Beach came in 47th, and San Diego 31st.
The report appeared to be pretty extensive, looking at 200 indicators like toxic waste, drinking water quality, air pollution, global warming, but also quality of life issues such as the number of parks and recreational opportunities, and commuting time.
Still, I wonder where some of our fair cities would have ranked. Unfortunately, commuting time and air pollution knocks most of our cities down the list.

I will admit it. I hate most rescued hiker stories, whether they’re in Oregon or the Inland region.
Don't get me wrong. I’m glad those three hikers on Mount Hood were found alive, and especially the dog that was credited with saving their lives.
But, it just galls me that people hiking in the winter were “surprised” by the conditions on the mountain. Yes, they felt they were well-equipped, cell phones, a GPS and locater beacons. I applaud them for that.
But I don’t feel bad for them and I don’t understand why we romanticize the plight of people who engage in optional activities when their lives become threatened. And I say all this as an experienced hiker who has climbed to the top o' many peaks here and in Colorado.
I do feel bad for the rescuers who put their life at risk in the bad weather, and for the taxpayers who have to foot the bill. The last rescue effort on Mount Hood, for the three hikers who died, cost between $5,000 and $6,000 a day not including the $2,800 an hour for the helicopter.
In the past 25 years, more than 35 climbers have died on the 11,239-foot Mount Hood.
And now lawmakers in Oregon are talking about pushing a bill requiring climbers to wear electronic locaters above the mountain's 10,000-foot level.
And of course, some are resisting the idea because it takes away from the adventure.
Here's what one of the rescued hikers said about why he likes to climb in the winter.
“It’s kind of a point of pride you might say for a lot of climbers -- that you can take care of yourself out there.”
Pride? I call it stupidity.
What do you think?

When I first heard early last week that Al Gore would be announcing a world-wide global warming concert, I jokingly said to myself the Red Hot Chili Peppers would be a perfect fit, if not for the band's name.

Turns out the LA band is in the lineup, along with some 100 acts including Bon Jovi, Snoop Dogg, Melissa Etheridge, the Foo Fighters, Lenny Kravitz, Sheryl Crow, John Mayer and Duran Duran.

The July 7th concert, on 7-7-07, will run for 24 hours and be staged from all seven continents. For us, California is out because it will be in one of two cities in the Eastern United States. No word yet on where the Antarctica concert will be staged.

The proceeds from the event will create the foundation for a new, multi-year global effort to combat the climate crisis by The Alliance for Climate Protection and its chairman, you guessed it, Al Gore.

Gore said during Thursday's announcement that urgency and hope are necessary to battle this planetary emergency.

So what more will Al Gore do?

He could win an Oscar this Sunday in the documentary category and he's been nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize.

Some think he's still considering a run for president. In fact, there's an Internet effort trying to compel him to do so. The group bills itself as a grassroots, all-volunteer organization that is in no way tied to Gore.

Would Gore make a good president? Or is the world better off with him throwing his energy behind efforts to combat global warming?

Just when you thought there couldn't be any more awards shows.

Now you can vote for the first-ever Globies, where the red carpet looks more like green.

And, there's no paper trail as votes are cast through the Internet on the Web site of Environmental Defense, the group sponsoring the Globies.

Arnold Schwarzenegger may have been overlooked by the Oscars as an actor, but the Terminator has a fighting chance here. He's among other state govs who are up for a Globie. But Schwarzenegger is the only one who signed a bill capping green-house gas emissions from industries, the first in the nation.

You can also vote for your favorite corporation, among them General Electric and Yahoo, which recently unveiled its Green Center that rates cars for their global warming and smog emissions.

And of course, what would an awards event be without a documentary category that includes Al Gore's "An Inconvenient Truth," or "Happy Feet," the animated film about penguins. Both are up for the real Oscar this Sunday night. Wonder how they'll do over the weekend.

Results of the Globies will be announced Friday. Stay tuned.

Listen up Inland boaters and those that straddle Ski-Doos and other personal watercraft: Wash your hulls and trailers every time you leave the water and don't jump in another body of water for at least five days after that ....

This may seem like nagging, but in this case, it's the state asking for your help.

State officials are turning to aquatic recreationists to help prevent the spread of an intrusive mussel discovered in the Colorado River and its lakes. Quagga mussels along with their cousins, the zebra mussels, have seriously invaded the Great Lakes region, and messed with the area's ecosystems and fisheries.

With Presidents Day right around the corner, anyone going to Lake Mead or Lake Havasu should take special precautions, especially before dipping their watercrafts into Lake Perris or Diamond Valley Lake. Those pesky mussels can survive for days in just a small amount of water.

Check out these tips on how to wash down your toys. Or call the state's hotline, 866-440-9530, from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. for information.

Legislation introduced in Sacramento last week aims to get kids out .... into nature, that is.

The bill's author, Sen. Alex Padilla, D-Pacoima, says outdoor education helps kids to raise their knowledge of science and keep them healthy by giving them exercise. No wonder the bill has the support of the Sierra Club and the American Diabetes Association.

In fact, a 2005 study by the California Department of Education found that children in outdoor programs raised their science test scores by 27 percent.

If passed, SB207 would create an outdoor education and recreation program through the California Department of Parks and Recreation. The grants would be awarded to school programs and community groups, giving priority to at-risk and underserved youth.

In the Inland region, we have groups that already do this, most notably The Wildlands Conservancy nestled in the rolling foothills of Oak Glen. But it can't hurt to get more help.

With the days starting to get noticeably longer and the feel of winter somewhat thawing, thoughts are turning to spring and wildflowers ...

Over this long weekend, there are a couple of events tied to the colorful plants and a lecture on a Pasadena socialite known as the Apostle of the Cacti.

On Saturday, hikes and wildflower workshops are on tap for an event sponsored by Friends of the Desert Mountains at the Santa Rosa and San Jacinto Mountains National Monument Visitor Center in Palm Desert. Look for details on the BLM's Web site.

On Sunday, check out a free screening of "Season of the Sand Blossoms" and "Desert Gold" in Joshua Tree.

The films about desert wildflowers include footage from Arizona, Nevada and California, including Joshua Tree National Park, the Mojave National Preserve and Anza-Borrego Desert State Park.

In "Desert Gold," scientists and Native American tradition-keepers explain how and why the desert blooms and explore the implications of human activity on the fragile desert lands, according to the filmmakers.

The films will be shown at 1:30 p.m. at the Joshua Tree Association Visitor Center, 6445 Park Blvd.

If anyone sees the films, let us know how they are ....

And on Monday, if you've ever wondered about the woman whose tireless lobbying efforts helped lead to the creation of Joshua Tree National Monument, the forerunner of the national park, Joe Zarki has the answers for you.

Zarki, interpretation chief at Joshua Tree National Park, will tell the story of how Minerva Hoyt, a transplanted southern belle from Mississippi, became known as the Apostle of the Cacti.

His lecture will be at 5:30 p.m. in Palm Desert. It's part of a four-lecture symposium on the national park that will be held at the UCR Theater, 75080 Frank Sinatra Dr. Room B200. Cost is $15 at the door and $55 for the entire symposium.

It's not just Presidents Day weekend ...
The 10th annual Great Backyard Bird Count gives everyone a chance to observe and count their feathery residents right in their own neighborhood.
The count is sponsored by the Cornell Lab of Orinthology and the National Audubon Society. The Inland chapter is called the San Bernardino Valley Audubon Society.
In last year's count, the American coot was the most seen of any bird species in the city of Riverside. In Palm Desert, it was the European starling, and in Perris, the white-faced ibis.
Get tips on how to participate in this weekend's bird count and where to enter your tally.
And don't forget to share your interesting sightings around the Inland region by posting a comment here.

In this case we're talking about owls, burrowing owls to be specific. The wide-eyed but tiny owls are in sharp decline in the Inland region and most of the state.

Pete Bloom, a zoologist who has tracked burrowing owls throughout Southern California, and other experts at a seminar in Lancaster Friday said the animals will use artificial burrows. Bloom said it appears to be more successful if the man-made burrows are built in a protected place and if the owls are moved to the location early in the year so they can reproduce successfully.

Artificial burrows were recently constructed at Lake Perris State Recreation Area. See recent story and video.

Perhaps that's an issue that can be examined more deeply in the Inland region where the owls are being pushed out of their grassland habitat by development. The owls now live in pockets of western Riverside County, the Pass Area and in parts of San Bernardino County, including the High Desert.

Bloom said an Arizona group called Wild at Heart has had much success in what's called "active translocation" of the owls. Mostly in the Inland region, the owls, if found on a development site, undergo "passive relocation," in which their burrows are closed down and they are left to find new ones elsewhere.

Bloom said that usually doesn't work and leaves the owls vulnerable to predators.

Bill Boarman, a conservation scientist who used to live in Moreno Valley, said he is expected to be leading a state effort in the near future to help conserve the animals before their numbers are low enough to warrant listing on state or federal wildlife protections lists.

He said the plan will most likely address the issue of what to do with owls that live on development site.

There's a lot to do around the Inland region this weekend besides the bald eagle count on Saturday morning. See yesterday's blog entry for details on that event.

On Sunday, in the Coachella Valley, the Living Desert is putting on a "Love at the Zoo" breakfast. With Valentine's Day just around the corner, the event will feature "kiss and tell" stories from the zoo's very own animal kingdom: "who's courting who, who got the brush-off, who's separated and who's using the services of the SSP, the animal-world equivalent of a dating service." The 7:30 a.m. event will feature a continental breakfast. Cost is $35 for Living Desert members; $45 for non-members.

Also Sunday , at 2 p.m., a lecture on fossil evidence and its role in evolutionary theory will be featured at the San Bernardino County Museum in Redlands. The lecture by Eric Scott, the museum's curator of paleontology, comes a day before Darwin Day, which marks the English naturalist's birthday. Scott will talk about why the fossil record is so critical to evolutionary theory and if fossils from the American southwest provide evidence of the evolutionary process. On Thursday, the museum broke ground on a new Hall of Geological Wonders, set to open next year.

And exploring our mountains and deserts is always an option.

But be careful if you go to a certain part of the 2,650-mile Pacific Crest Trail. The section from Interstate 10 north to the San Bernardino National Forest boundary in the San Gorgonio Pass area was damaged last summer in the Millard Fire. Since then, U.S. Bureau of Land Management crews cleared the section of hazards such as fallen trees and rocks, and installed erosion control cribbing. Even though the trail opened last week, the BLM is cautioning those who hike near the rugged Mission Creek area that hazards still remain. For more information, contact the agency's office in Palm Springs at 760-251-4800.

Get out this Saturday and help the U.S. Forest Service track bald eagles in the Inland mountains.

The San Bernardino National Forest is looking for volunteers to gather around the lakes where the majestic birds are known to hang out.

That means Lake Silverwood, Big Bear Lake, Baldwin Lake, Lake Arrowhead, Lake Gregory, Little Green Valley Lake and Lake Hemet. Check out the agency's news release for details on locations and times.

The bald eagles are literally snow birds, flying here and staying only for the winter. There are a few pairs, however, that are year-round residents.

You can view bald eagle migratory routes from the Inland region and other areas on the University of Santa Cruz Predatory Bird Research Group's website.

Bald eagles are in the news today. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service announced that a final decision on whether to remove bald eagles from the list of protected animals under the U.S. Endangered Species Act will be postponed.

There was a court-ordered deadline of next Friday. But the federal agency and the Pacific Legal Foundation in Sacramento, which had sued the agency, agreed to move the deadline to no later than June 29.

The foundation, among other reasons, wanted the agency to honor President Clinton's 1999 announcement that the birds' numbers were high enough that they had rebounded from the threat of extinction. Still, some environmental groups and biologists have said certain segments of the populations are still not thriving.

Officials at the wildlife agency said the additional time will allow them to put into place guidelines for the eagles to be protected under the Bald and Golden Eagle Protection Act to ensure they thrive once delisted.

So it sounds like the announcement will be made close to July 4th, the nation's birthday, perhaps appropriate for the nation's feathery symbol.

Ever want a pet bigger than a dog or cat?

The U.S. Bureau of Land Management is holding an adoption of wild mustangs and burros this Saturday in Ridgecrest, where the agency has a regional adoption center.

Such events are also held closer to home, usually at Lake Perris and Beaumont, throughout the year.

Check out the agency's news release for details of this weekend's event. Or call the BLM at 800-951-8720 for more information.

The Press-Enterprise covered a recent round-up of about 100 burros from the Mojave Desert. In this case, a helicopter was used to nudge the animals several miles to the corral. To see more details, check out the story and video.

The animals have been roaming the desert for several years, in some cases as long as 300 years. They were brought to California by Spanish explorers and those seeking fortunes in desert mines.

Activists on hand to watch the roundup said they thought the animals should stay in the desert because they have lived there for such a long time. BLM officials said they had to remove them because they compete with the desert tortoise, a federally protected species threatened with extinction, for food, and there's no way to prevent them from wandering onto tortoise habitat.

What do you think?

There's a new bill in Washington, D.C., to designate wilderness in California, and there's quite a bit in the Inland region.

Of the 2.4 million acres of federal public land in the bill, more than 400,000 acres are in San Bernardino and Riverside counties.

Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., and California Congresswoman Hilda Solis introduced the California Wild Heritage Act of 2007 yesterday.

The act essentially revives previous efforts that have stalled since 2003 and includes most of the same areas.

In addition to creating wilderness in the desert and the San Bernardino National Forest, the bill would add "wild and scenic" designations to a few Inland rivers, including the North Fork of the San Jacinto River and Deep Creek in the San Bernardino Mountains.

Wilderness designations give the land the nation's highest possible protection. But they can be controversial because they ban mechanized equipment, meaning no off-roading and no mountain biking.

What do you think? Do we need more wilderness in the Inland region or not?

This in from my colleague David Danelski, who covers air pollution in our area:

USC scientists have probed the health effects of air pollution on Inland children for 13 years. The results have been sobering, if not disturbing.

Kids in the most polluted communities, including Mira Loma, grow up with stunted lung development, which handicaps their ability to stave off respiratory illness, the scientists have found. Those living near freeways suffer a similar fate. And kids who played a lot of sports on smoggy days were found more likely to develop asthma.

But what about their grandparents?

UCLA researchers, working with the University of Washington, hope to get some answers on what soot and other air pollution does to the hearts of older folks.

Flush with federal grant dollars, these scientists are looking for 100 people, ages 50 to 90, who live in northwest Riverside County, to participate in a 10-year study of links between cardiac disease and foul air.

The area, which includes Mira Loma, Rubidoux and Pedley, has among the worst particulate pollution in the nation.

Recruits must have no history of heart disease. They'll be examined at a UCLA clinic. They'll open their homes for indoor and outdoor pollution measurements. They'll get $100 per clinic visit, $20 per home visit and the satisfaction of helping advance knowledge, said study coordinator Anthony Sosa.

Interested? Call UCLA at 1-800-981-8252 or 626-979-4920 or see the brochure.

Ever crack open a hiking guide for our local mountains?

Chances are good it was written by John Robinson, one of the foremost experts on the San Bernardinos and the San Jacintos. Robinson has a new book out, and he'll be talking about it tomorrow night at the San Bernardino County Museum in Redlands.

Called "Gateways to Southern California," the book chronicles the region's mountain passes --- from their Indian footpaths, horse trails, wagon roads and railroads --- and puts into perspective their role in the history of Southern California.

The talk is part of the regular meeting of the Sierra Club's local chapter named after our tallest mountain, San Gorgonio, but anyone is allowed to attend, said Terry Wold, the group's conservation coordinator.

The talk is at 7:30 p.m. at the museum, 2024 Orange Tree Lane, just north of Interstate 10 from the California Street exit.

Do you have a favorite Robinson hike you would like to share?

My apologies for opening the environment blog on such a depressing note. The most highly anticipated report on global warming came out today from Paris, and the prognosis is dire: global warming is "very likely" caused by humans and there may be no way to stop it. The warming of Earth and increases in sea levels "would continue for centuries ... even if greenhouse gas concentrations were to be stabilized," according to a 20-page summary of the report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. Known as the IPCC, the group was established by two heavyweights -- the United Nations Environment Programme and the World Meteorological Organization. The report is the work of 2,500 scientific experts.

What do you think about global warming? Are there signs of it in the Inland region?

The IPCC report comes out a day after Al Gore, our former vice president, and a Canadian activist were nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize in recognition of their efforts to raise awareness about climate change and its threats. The nomination came from a Norwegian member of parliament. As most people know, Gore came out with his documentary, "An Inconvenient Truth," last year.

Anyone have opinions about that film or if Gore deserves such a lofty recognition?