March 2007 Archives

If nothing else this weekend....

There will be more installments of the Planet Earth mini-series on the Discovery Channel Sunday night. The three episodes shown last Sunday were mesmerizing. I can't recommend them enough. One of the episodes is about deserts and it sounds like, from the description, that it will include our California deserts.

And don't forget all the plant sales this weekend. See the blog entry from a few days a go. And my apologies for leaving out the Living Desert's plant sale this weekend. Check out those details here.

Also Saturday, there's a large garage sale in Indio to help activists raise funds to continue their fight against the proposed Eagle Mountain landfill. See entry below, donations anyone, for details.

In Redlands on Sunday, learn what it's like to be a rock at the San Bernardino County Museum.

And in Riverside Sunday, Sparky the home-made electric car makes another guest appearance. This time at the Riverside Metropolitan Museum. Also, Captain Carl will be there with his mobile tide pool. Kids will have the opportunity to hold a starfish, squeeze a sea squirt, and touch an urchin while learning about how climate change affects our local ocean life.

What to do with all those oil rigs off the coast of California?

At some point, the 27 rigs that sit off the coast of Huntington Beach, Santa Barbara and other cities will run dry and be decommissioned. But, the structures have created their own kind of ecosystem in the oceans.

Should they be taken out by the oil companies, or left for the marine life?
Tomorrow, an all-day conference in Huntington Beach will explore the issues. And Sylvia Earle, the famous oceanographer, gives the keynote address at lunch.
It costs only $25 to register. Click here for more information.
The conference is sponsored by the Orange County Coastkeeper, which recently opened an Inland office in Riverside.

On a related marine note, the National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration has set up a new website to provide information on dolphin-safe tuna.

What a week for TV!
As if the Discovery Channel's "Planet Earth" series wasn't enough, PBS is coming out tonight with the latest show from its series, "Journey to Planet Earth." Actor Matt Damon looks at the state of the ocean's animals in the tenth installment of the series. Of all the PBS affiliates in the region, I found it listed on KCET out of Los Angeles at 8 p.m.
Enough with our planet....
Also tonight, a talk will focus on Saturn's moon, Enceladus. Julie Rathbun, an assistant professor of physics at the University of Redlands, will give the 7:30 p.m. lecture at the San Bernardino County Museum in Redlands. Apparently, plumes of icy material stream from the moon's south pole, possible evidence of Yellowstone-like geysers fed by liquid water. Rathbun will discuss that and other interesting geological features of Saturn's moon.

The Inland region is brimming with fantastic plant sales this weekend. I'm not sure how you choose which one to go to. Or maybe you go to both!
The sales feature plants that can be hard to find at your local hardware store or garden shop. Some are even drought-tolerant, native or both.
At the UC Riverside Botanic Gardens, a sale will take place Saturday and Sunday. For the public, the doors will be open from noon until 5 p.m. on Saturday, and 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Sunday. Plus, the master gardeners, including Oscar Clarke, will be on hand to answer your questions.
And in Claremont, the Rancho Santa Ana Botanic Garden has its own sale of mostly native plants on Saturday from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. There, too, will be a suite of experts for the asking.
The spring plant sale at Western Municipal Water District in Riverside will be in a few weeks. Stay tuned for details. Drought-tolerant plants look nice as well as help lower your water bill. Outdoor watering can account for 60 percent of a home's water use. It can go up to 80 percent in the warmer Coachella Valley.

The National Park Service is holding "listening sessions" around the country as part of the National Park Centennial Initiative. The closest one to the Inland region is this Thursday night in Los Angeles. So if you're interested in attending a session, this is your best bet.
The agency wants to get public input on President Bush's initiative, which aims to significantly improve the nation's parks by the agency's 100th birthday in 2016.
The plan is for new and improved visitor centers, trails, campgrounds, and other facilities, and more ranger-led programs, according to the park service. The meeting will be held from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. at the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County, 900 Exposition Blvd.
Officials from Joshua Tree, Death Valley and Channel Islands national parks and the Mojave National Preserve are expected to be there. Deborah DeMeo, the California desert program manager with the National Parks Conservation Association, says she and other association staff will be available at 4:30 p.m. for a brief, informal event.

Bugs and more bugs ...
The San Bernardino County Museum in Redlands is hosting a free, hands-on journey into the world of bugs on Saturday. "Insectival" is geared towards families, with bug games, face painting, story telling and creep-crawly crafts.

At 1 p.m. hear how forensic entomologists use bugs to help solve crimes. Then at 3 p.m., Dr. Sean Bush of Loma Linda University Medical Center talks about why spiders and scorpions bug us. On Sunday at 2 p.m., the museum hosts a 2 p.m. talk on how beetles turn into quartz and how beautiful colors form in petrified wood. It's all part of the chemistry of fossilization.

In downtown Riverside, Sam Huang has three new works on global warming on display at the Riverside Community Arts Association. On Sunday, the association wiil host a free reception open to the public from 2 p.m. to 5 p.m. as part of a celebration marking the 50th anniversary of the sister city relationship between Riverside and Sendai, Japan. Works by students will also be on display.

Sunday night, the Discovery Channel kicks off its "Planet Earth" series. The 11-episode series promises to show us planet Earth like we've never seen it before. There are three, hour-long episodes. Check your local listings for times. The first, "Pole to Pole," examines how the seasons produce the greatest spectacles on Earth, including African herds migrating hundreds of miles in search of water. The second episode is about "Mountains" and the rare animals like snow leopards that inhabit them. The third is about the "Deep Ocean." Sounds promising! If anyone catches the shows, let us know what you think.

So much going on today ... they may not be related but what the heck.
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is removing the grizzly bear population in Yellowstone National Park from the federal Endangered Species Act. Seems they've bounced back from 136 to 312 bears when they were listed as threatened in 1975, to more than 500 today. At least one environmental group, the Natural Resources Defense Council, was quick to say it will fight that decision.
It's World Water Day, the annual and international observance that grew from the 1992 United Nations Conference on Environment and Development in Rio de Janeiro. The event focuses mainly on drinking water and the scarcity of the life-sustaining resource.
And here in the Inland region, the Water Resources Institute at Cal State San Bernardino will be looking at water in a different way.
The institute is partnering with the California Department of Water Resources to develop an Alluvial Fan Task Force.
The panel, to be appointed in the coming months by Lester Snow, the director of the state water agency, will look at flood hazards associated with the rapid rate of housing development on alluvial fans.
We have many alluvial fans in the Inland region below the San Bernardino and San Jacinto mountains. They form near the bottoms of canyons or mountain passes when fast-flowing water flattens, slows and spreads debris.
But, they can also be prone to flooding, especially following wildfires. Findings by the task force that include developing land-use guidelines will be presented to the state Legislature.

Inland activists are holding a giant garage sale in Indio at the end of the month to raise money to keep a large landfill from opening close to Joshua Tree National Park.
A federal judge in Riverside sided with the activists in 2005, but an appeal filed since then is seeking to overturn his decision.
The sale will be held on Saturday, March 31, at the K-Mart Town & Country parking lot near Highway 111 and Clinton Street in Indio.
But the activists are asking now for any donations of furniture, tools, and odds and ends that can be sold. And they are asking for volunteers to set up on the sale, help customers and clean-up after the event.
To donate furniture or services, call Donna Charpied at 760-347-7586. She's the director of Desert Communities Protection Campaign, part of the Center for Community Action and Environmental Justice. That's the Inland group best known for its work with the notorious Stringfellow Acid Pits and the perchlorate contamination in the Rialto and Colton area.
Charpied said that while the attorney works at a discounted rate it still costs a lot. She has long led efforts against the creation of the landfill, in part, because it's within two miles of the national park's wilderness.
Ontario-based Kaiser Ventures, which owned the old iron-ore mining operation there, has appealed the 2005 ruling by U.S. District Judge Robert Timlin. Los Angeles County bought the landfill for its garbage, pending the outcome of lawsuits.

Sunset.com chose a place in the Inland region for its top 10 environmental success stories in the West.
Among the Waimea Valley in Oahu and the Alaska Peninsula National Wildlife Refuge, is our very own San Timoteo Canyon, a fledgling state park.
The online version of Sunset Magazine credited the Riverside Land Conservancy and other groups for helping to acquire 8,000 acres in the canyon wedged between Redlands, Moreno Valley and Beaumont. They also gave credit to Gale Anne Hurd, producer of "The Terminator" and "Aliens," for a 174-acre donation of oak-studded hills in the canyon.
Hurd grew up in Palm Springs. She told me during a 2003 event at the canyon that she spent the weekends riding her horse through the pristine canyons and grasslands from sun-up to sundown. As she and her horse meandered through the willow and sycamore trees, Hurd recalled, she was amazed by soaring hawks and other wildlife.

So, I stopped by Oscar Clarke's house in Riverside on Sunday to check out his new book. Boy, it's a stunner.
Nearly 500 pages, "Flora of the Santa Ana River and Environs" is chock full of beautiful photos and information about the plants that live among the Inland region's main water artery and its tributaries.
The photos were taken with a scanner so they appear three-dimensional.
Clarke and one of his co-authors, Greg Ballmer, a UCR entomologist, said they're accepting comments on the book for a possible second edition. You can send an email to oscarfclarke@gmail.com.
If you missed the book signing, you can get the book on Amazon. The price listed today was $22.76.
And if you want to meet Clarke, you can go to the Riverside Public Library in downtown Riverside on April 21 at 3 p.m. He and another of his co-authors, Arlee Montalvo, will be on hand to talk about the book.

Word has it that on the upper east side of New York, there's a new movement spreading around the delis, restaurants and other eateries called "Eco to go."
Just what is it?
Apparenlty so-called eco-agents are trying to make it a common expression that translates to delivering food with the minimum amount of packaging possible. So that means no utensils and only one napkin.
The group says they want to do simple and effective things to help the planet, promote rainforest recovery and reverse global warming.
They say New York alone will save tons o' plastic and paper, and by doing so, trees that will benefit us by adding oxygen into the air.
Hmmm, wonder if it will catch on here? I know a few Inland eateries that go way overboard on that.

So if you don't check out Oscar Clarke's open house or go to the new exhibit on natural disasters at the San Bernardino County Museum this weekend (see more information below) ....

Gaze at stars from the boulder-studded Joshua Tree National Park. The Andromeda Astronomical Society hosts monthly star parties close to the new moon. Meet Saturday at 7 p.m. at the parking lot on the right fork of the road into the picnic area at Hidden Valley.

And I guess the Oscars aren't the only event this year to be touted as "green."
If you're taking in some tennis action this weekend in Indian Wells at the Pacific Life Open, you might catch a glimpse of the athletes being shuttled around in electric cars from Global Electric Motorcars, a DaimlerChrysler company. They have a top speed of 25 miles per hour.

Something that looks very promising and timely.
A new exhibit called "Living on the Edge" opens Saturday at the San Bernardino County Museum in Redlands.
It will examine the geological and biological makeup of our region that makes it so prone to fires, floods, earthquakes and mud flows.
On Sunday at 2 p.m., as part of the new exhibit, the museum's curators of geological science and history will give a talk on natural disasters in the Inland region.
Kathleen Springer, senior curator of geological sciences, said they want to make the case that these events occur again and again, and "they impact humans that happen to be in the way."
As I said earlier, this is timely.
Local officials this week symbolically felled the 1 millionth dead tree in the overgrown and bark beetle-damaged San Bernardino Mountains. The focus now is shifting to thinning projects to help prevent widespread fires like the tragic Esperanza last fall and the massive Old and Grand Prix fires in 2003.
Besides the natural features of our area that we can do nothing about, i.e. earthquakes faults, local lawmakers can make better land-use decisions in those fire-prone areas to minimize damage and the human toll. That according to the view of former to San Bernardino National Forest Supervisor Gene Zimmerman.

The federal government is looking for folks to be on an advisory committee to look at ways to avoid or lessen the impact that energy-producing wind turbines have on wildlife.

In the San Gorgonio Pass and Palm Springs area, the Inland region has hundreds of the gangly turbines, and according to a 2005 federal report, each one kills on average 2.3 bats and birds, mostly raptors, each year.

That means there are at least 6,670 fatalities annually.

"This committee will help us examine issues such as site selection and turbine design so that we can develop wind resources while protecting wildlife," Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne said in a press release issued this week.

The state is also looking into this issue and is expected to come out with its own guidelines this summer.

Click here to see what a local Sierra Club member has to say about the issue.

The deadline to apply for the federal committee is April 12.

Interested parties should send resumes and explanations of interest to Susan L. Goodwin, Office of Collaborative Action and Dispute Resolution, U.S. Department of the Interior, 1801 Pennsylvania Avenue, Suite 500, Washington DC 20006.
Or send her an e-mail at susan_goodwin@ios.doi.gov or fax to 202-327-5390.

And if you get on the committee, let me know!

I get so many e-mails each day promoting so many environmentally friendly products, but for some reason decided to check this one out.
Called Driving Green, you can see how much your car emits in greenhouse gases associated with global warming. Here in car-dependent Southern California, it seemed a worthy endeavor.
So I put in the make, model and year of my Isuzu Rodeo, how many miles I drive each year, and boy! It came out to 11,000 pounds of those gases each year!
It then tallies the amount of money you should send to projects aimed at reducing greenhouse gas emissions to offset your vehicular behavior.
My total came out to $40. My co-worker, who owns a 2005 Prius, owed a mere $16; and my other co-worker was set back $48 for his 1997 Pontiac Grand Prix.
If you keep following the trail, it turns out the money goes to large-scale projects managed by an Irish company that cut down emissions of methane, a potent greenhouse gas, from livestock farms.
Not sure if it would make more sense giving the money to something else, but you have to wonder if dairies in Chino or the San Jacinto Valley can get in on some of that action.

Talk about a marathon open house!
Oscar Clarke, one of the Inland region's best-known plant experts, is hosting an open house both days this weekend to celebrate the publishing of his new field guide on local plants.
Copies of "Flora of the Santa Ana River and its Environs" will be available for $28, and Clarke and his three co-authors will be on hand to sign them.
Clarke, long retired as UCR's herbarium curator, was the subject of my last Earth Day profile for the newspaper when he was still working on the 300-page book.
To check out the video we took of our nature walk with him, click on the newspaper's website and search for Oscar Clarke. It should pop up; don't mind the ad that comes before it.
Clarke said he'll also have on hand poster-sized versions of a page in the book that shows the evolution of plant families, from spores to sunflowers. He'll sell those for $1 to cover the cost of making them. Sounds like a deal!
The event will be from 10 a.m. until 10 p.m. on both Saturday and Sunday at Clarke's house at 266 Frost Court in Riverside.
Call 951-369-8809 for more information.

Ever wonder how the Inland area survived the Ice Ages?
According to Eric Scott, curator of paleontology at the San Bernardino County Museum, Inland Southern California summers were cooler and year-round temperatures more moderate during the Pleistocene Epoch.
And in our local mountains, snow and ice were present for most of the year, he says.
Scott will give a talk Sunday at the museum that will include discussions about fossils from that era, with emphasis on the La Brea tar pits in Los Angeles and Diamond Valley Lake near Hemet. The talk is free with museum admission.

You can go to Diamond Valley Lake the next Saturday, when Scott will lead a field trip to the massive reservoir and the new Western Center for Archaeology and Palenotology. He'll talk about the discoveries of fossils found there during the reservoir's excavation, their history and signficiance. The cost is $55 per person and inlcudes transportation, snacks, lunch and admission fees. Call LaWanda Avery-Brown at 909-307-2669, ext. 225 to register.

Should be a fantastic weekend to get out to our mountains with temperatures expected to hover in the 90s in the Inland valleys ...

At most of our mountain lakes, the final bald eagle count is taking place early Saturday. Get out and volunteer with the San Bernardino National Forest and see these majestic birds before they fly to their summer homes in Wyoming and other places north.

This could be the year that the eagles are removed from the nation's lists of threatened and endangered species. Read more about it by clicking here.

From blog contributor David Danelski, who covers air pollution issues for the newspaper ....

Imagine a hybrid car that gives you the option of avoiding the gasoline pump entirely.

Regional air quality officials last week awarded a $2.6 million contract to Quantum Technologies of Irvine and Hymotion of Ontario for development of electrical plug-ins for Ford Escape and Toyota Prius hybrids.

Once the vehicles are charged in your garage, they could go as far 30 miles without burning a drop of gasoline, officials at South Coast Air Quality Management District say.

Short trips around town could mean no tailpipe emissions or gasoline bills at all!

Yes, you read that right. Bowling for rhinos, not dollars.

The California Desert Chapter of the American Association of Zoo Keepers is hosting an event at a Cathedral City bowling alley on Friday night to raise money for the endangered animals.

The $16 cost covers shoe rental, three hours of bowling and one pizza per lane. In addition, bowlers are asked to raise at least $25 in donations, all of which goes to three rhino sanctuaries in Kenya, Indonesia and Sumatra.

Rhinos have lived on the Earth for more than 50 million years and while there was once more than 100 species of them, there are now only five. Rhinos are poached for their horns, which are used in some cultures for medicines and as dagger handles.
The local chapter is one of more than 60 throughout the U.S. and Canada that have raised more than $2 million for rhinos since 1990.

The local event will be held at Palm Springs Lanes, 68-051 Ramon Road. To participate, contact Jeremy Konwiser at 760-346-5694, ext. 2212, or jkonwiser@livingdesert.org.

Federal wildlife officials are holding a hearing tonight in Washington, D.C., to take public comments on their proposal to list polar bears as a threatened species. But anyone can comment by e-mail. They must be sent by April 9 to Polar_Bear_Finding@fws.gov. The proposal was sparked by a petition from attorneys in Joshua Tree who say global warming is melting the icy habitat.

On a related topic, an Inland environmental science teacher who spent two weeks up by the Arctic last summer will show slides and talk about his experience tomorrow night at a meeting of the local Sierra Club. The 7:30 p.m. event is open to the public and will be at the San Bernardino County Museum in Redlands. Brian Elliott, who lives in Upland, learned about climate change research while in Churchill, Manitoba, as part of an educators' grant from the Helen and Peter Bing Foundation. On the shore of the Hudson Bay, Churchill is renowned for its polar bear and beluga whale populations. The area sits at the juncture of two eco-regions, the boreal forest to the south and the Arctic tundra to the north.

Could be a nice weekend to get out ... birding and bouldering are just a few ideas.

But remember, if you go to Joshua Tree National Park to scramble over those boulders, campground fees will be higher if you're staying the night under the stars.

And if you've ever wondered about the intricacies of bird-watching, the local Audubon chapter will have a free guided tour aimed at beginners this Saturday in Riverside. The event will run from 8 a.m. to 10 a.m. at the Hidden Valley Wildlife Area. No reservations necessary, just meet at the Nature Center. The wildlife area may not be on the scale of the Salton Sea or San Jacinto Wildlife Area, but organizers say you're likely to see sparrows, ducks, hawks, bluebirds, egrets and herons at the Riverside County park along the Santa Ana River. Binoculars and bird guides will be provided for use during the walk, although participants should bring their own if they have them.

What would tonight's Art Walk in downtown Riverside be without something related to the environment at 3Ds Studio?
Sam Huang, the Inland region's equivalent of Al Gore, is going to be displaying a home-made electric truck named Sparky.
Apparently, Sparky's owner, a local resident, has been driving him for more than 10 years. He's a converted, plug-in, battery-powered 1982 Volkswagen pickup truck, that apparently gets 120 miles per charge.
Huang, a former RCC biology professor, is a passionate artist whose murals and other art work tell the story of global warming. He also lectures to the region's students about climate change.
Sparky will be on display from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. at the City Gym parking lot near the entrance of the Life Arts Building where Huang's studio is located. The address is 3458 University Avenue between Lime and Lemon streets.