May 2007 Archives

This Saturday marks the nation's largest celebration of trails and the outdoors, so make sure to get out!

Known as National Trails Day, the event is in its 15th year. And there are a few organized events in the Inland region. REI in Rancho Cucamonga and the San Bernardino National Forest are among the sponsors of an event in Lytle Creek. There, you can help work on the Pacific Crest Trail, among other things. Some events require registration, so check the above links.

There's also another event in the Cleveland National Forest at Trabuco Canyon.

In all, the nation has 200,000 miles of trails for horse riders, bicyclists, hikers and other recreationists. According to the American Hiking Society, National Trails Day evolved from a 1987 report under President Reagan, a horseman in his own right. His President's Commission on Americans Outdoors recommended that all Americans should be able to go out their front doors and within fifteen minutes, be on trails that wind through their cities, towns or villages and bring them back without retracing steps.

That recommendation became the impetus for several public and private groups to launch National Trails Day in 1993. The idea behind the annual event is to increase the awareness of community trails, but also provide a helping hand for the hundreds of volunteer trail clubs.

It seems like everywhere he goes, the Terminator has global warming on his mind. Today, Gov. Shwarzenegger is in my hometown of Toronto where he signed a memorandum of understanding to fight greenhouse gases with his Ontario counterpart, Premier Dalton McGuinty.

The two governments, the memorandum says, will collaborate to explore potential linkages between regional market-based mechanisms, promote innovation technology, develop a low-carbon fuel standard and explore energy efficiency programs and global warming policies.

"Today, Canada's most populous province and America's most populous state have joined together to tackle one of our great challenges -- as business partners, as places that share a legacy of innovation and progressive thinking, and as friends," said McGuinty.

Later today, you can check out the local news coverage on the CBC.

The agreement comes on the heels of another California-Ontario agreement, or rather wager involving a very important Canadian tradition. The California's Anaheim Ducks are seeking their first national hockey championship in a series with the Ottawa Senators. Both men are wagering home-grown products and other popular items in the best-of-seven matchup for the Stanley Cup.

University of Redlands students are getting an experience they will not soon forget.

Students in the environmental studies program are embarking tomorrow on a two-week trip to Austria. There, they'll visit a solar village of some 1,300 households on the outskirts of Linz, and the Pasterze, the country's biggest glacier, which lies in the Eastern Alps and has been dramatically melting.

They'll also learn about the country's environmental programs and policies from some of Austria's top officials, including Werner Wutscher, secretary general of the ministry of environment.

Tim Krantz, the students' professor and chairman of the university's environmental studies program, said the trip is part of a six-week intensive course. He said he's hoping that, among other things, they'll learn how another country deals with its environmental challenges, including global warming. The students will be based at the university's house or, rather, castle in Salzburg. Not too shabby.

I'd really love to tag along, but since I can't, I've asked the professor to have some of his students post some of their experiences on the blog while they are there. Let's hope they are able to find the time to do that.

Krantz said they are seriously pursuing the idea of holding a major environmental summit there next summer. He said they'd like to get Gov. Schwarzenegger to go to his native country to showcase AB 32, the global warming bill he signed into law last year.

I promise you this is a coincidence.

Today, I'm on my way to Ed Begley Jr.'s house in the Los Angeles area where the actor/environmental activist and his lovely wife, Rachelle, film the HGTV show, "Living with Ed."

Late yesterday afternoon, an e-mail comes over announcing Begley's new Internet venture, fixingtheplanet.com. He's calling it a one-stop resource for all things green.

So I checked it out. There is a collection of news stories and forums about everything from hybrid cars to eco-chic events to energy-efficient homes. Begley said on the Website that its goal is to show everyone that the "path to a more efficient existence can be achieved without feeling burdened, compromised or overwhelmed."

He wants the site to be a positive, non-judgmental and apolitical place to learn and share. I'll be sure to ask him to elaborate on it when I see him.

This Memorial Day Weekend marks the beginning of camping season in the San Bernardino Mountains, and the U.S. Forest Service says all 34 campgrounds in what's known as the mountaintop ranger district will be open.

Go early for first-come-first-serve sites, or check for reservations before going up. You can do that by calling 877-444-6777 or checking online.

The nice thing this year is that off-highway vehicle users can now download trail maps. The maps show trails from Lake Silverwood to Big Pine Flats, and Big Pine Flats to Cactus Flats. They're also available at ranger station.

Evangelical Christians earlier this year joined with a coalition of scientists to spur tougher environmental laws and more preaching about caring for the Earth.

Now, other religions along with Evangelicals are making their voices heard about global warming.

Muslims, Jewish, Catholic and other Christian leaders announced a pact yesterday to fight global warming together for the sake of creation. In fact, they delivered a joint statement to the White House and Congressional leaders. It calls for immediate action, including mandatory limits on greenhouse gas emissions. While California recently passed a law to do that very thing, the federal government has not.

The group said the religions have a shared sense of moral purpose on the issue, to protect the Earth and the people. They point to recent scientific studies that say the poor and vulnerable will be the most impacted by the climate phenomenon although they contribute the least.

"Muslims heed the call to protect the Earth and its inhabitants," said one of the pact's signatories, Sayyid Syeed, national director of the Islamic Society of North American. And Rabbi David Saperstein, director of the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism, said "It is time for the moral voice of religion to speak up loudly to demand action."

The statement stems from a climate summit of national religious leaders in San Francisco hosted by the Episcopal Church's Regeneration Project, whose president is the Rev. Sally G. Bingham. It's also signed by the National Council of Churches and the Alliance of Baptists. And they are asking other clergy and religious leaders to add their names to the statement.

Al Gore's new book goes on sale today.
Like some of you out there, I got a mass e-mail today from the man himself, or so it said.
In the email, Gore says in the months following the release of "An Inconvenient Truth," he began focusing on why our democracy has been so slow to deal with the climate crisis. The result is his book, "The Assault on Reason."
In the book, Gore say the unwillingness to solve this problem is not only the result of a lack of political will but also by the emergence of a new political environment dangerously hostile to reason, knowledge and facts.
You can read a review of the book by Joe Conason, a columnist for the "New York Observer."
Gore will be in Los Angeles tonight at 7:30 p.m. promoting his book at the Wilshire theater. Check here for details if you're interested in buzzing out there.

Who says Southern California doesn't have its seasons? We can always count on Santa Ana winds in the fall, especially around election day, and June Gloom in, well, June. But now we also have May Gray. What?

When the marine layer pushes overcast skies all the way to the Inland region in the mornings and then typically gives way to hazy afternoon sunshine that's June Gloom. And if it happens in May it's always been June Gloom early.

But I heard a TV weather gal call it May Gray, so I decided to check it out. Feeling bad that I had never heard that term, I polled my newsroom co-workers, who are long inhabitants of the region. Only one had heard of it before.

Turns out that the climate research division at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography is in the midst of a contest to forecast the number of days from May 1 to June 30 that will be gloomy. They refer to it as May Gray and/or June Gloom. And they say the number of days during the two-month period that are gloomy vary from year to year. Cooler ocean temperatures, a.k.a. La Nina, usually foretell a gloomier period. The weather phenomenon also hits other west coast regions, including Peru, Namibia, and western Australia.

So there you have it!

On tap for this weekend in the Inland region are events about using pedal power and the sun's rays, plus festivals celebrating the Earth ...

But don't forget that today is National Endangered Species Day (see Tuesday's entry below) and National Bike-to-Work Day. Did anyone straddle their bike for the commute? In other biking news, the Tour de Riverside is tomorrow. Meanwhile, the long-sought Santa Ana River bike trail from the mountains to the ocean is getting closer to completion in San Bernardino County. Read those details here.

Startingt today, high school students are turning to the sun to power their boats in the annual Solar Cup competition at Lake Skinner, near Temecula. See which schools are competing here. And check out how Jurupa Valley High School got ready for the three-day competition sponsored by Metropolitan Water District.

Also at Lake Skinner Sunday will be an Earth Festival from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Organizers say the free event will include arts, crafts, face painting, live animals (birds of prey, racoons, tarantulas, tortoises and goats, healthy and high energy foods, a storyteller, a weaver and a spinner, a horse rescue group and earth-friendly products. Call 951-767-2324 for more information.

And don't forget the Earth Fair in Idyllwild Saturday with a presentation tonight by Mike Hamilton. See Monday's entry below for details.

They are one of the most interesting looking creatures on the planet, and one of the most endangered. And so an international swap of rhinos took place in recent days to try to help the species survive.

Last weekend, three male rhinoceros from India were flown to the San Diego Zoo's Wild Animal Park in Escondido, some 30 miles south of from the Riverside County line. The same team that brought them to the California had taken three female Indian rhinos to zoological parks in India.

Randy Rieches, the Wild Animal Park's curator of mammals, said this was the first opportunity to send species to India as part of an essential exchange of genes that will boost the health of the species in both U.S. and Indian zoos.

Once widespread in southwest Asia, Indian rhinoceroses are now found only in India and Nepal. This year, India's national parks have had an increase in poaching. To some, the horns of the rhinos are believed to be an aphrodisiac and have medicinal values.

While the numbers have slowly climbed to more than 2,500, the species remains critically endangered.

Although the rhinos live on the other side of the planet, their plight is in the minds of some Inland folks. In March, the California desert chapter of the American Association of Zoo Keepers hosted a "bowling for rhinos" event at a Cathedral City alley to raise money for the endangered animals.

Lots of interesting news these days about the Channel Islands, the chain off the Southern California coast.

We all know about the Catalina Island fire, and the nesting bald eagles that survived the flames. On Santa Rosa Island to the north, a battle has been brewing for some time over the issue of hunting.

About 90 percent of the island is closed for about four months to conduct privately organized hunting expeditions of non-native deer and elk. Sen. Dianne Feinstein told the Senate Energy and Natural Resource Committee on National Parks yesterday that she'd like that to end by 2011 as promised.

She and Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., are pushing a bill to restore full public access to the 53,000-acre island, which is part of the Channel Islands National Park.

In 1986 the public paid the private company $30 million to acquire the island and restore it to its native ecology. In 1997, a court-approved settlement stipulated that the company had to remove the deer and elk herd by 2011. The park service has argued that the two species ravage the natural habitat with their grazing, further endangering already threatened plant and animal species.

Feinstein says the continued limitation of public access to the island would be a mistake. "It's a national park and the public should be able to visit it and enjoy its breath-taking beauty and remoteness year round."

The move by the two senators came after Congressman Duncan Hunter last year tucked language into the annual defense spending bill that would suspend the park service's plan to end the hunting by 2011. He wants to keep the land open during hunting season for use by disabled veterans and other members of the armed services.

It's an interesting public lands issue. What do you think?

Friday is National Endangered Species Day, but some of the top scientists from the Inland region and across the country are gathering today in Palm Desert to talk about that very subject.

They're discussing the role of science in large-scale planning efforts known as MSHCP's or multiple-species habitat conservation plans. They are designed to set aside habitat for endangered species while streamlining the building of new homes and roads in a region.

The fast-growing Inland region is a hotbed for endangered species, including the Stephens' kangaroo rat, Quino checkerspot butterfly and the Delhi Sands flower-loving fly. And MSHCPs have become a major planning tool here to balance species protections and development. You can click here to see an in depth project that the Press-Enterprise did last year on western Riverside County's fledgling plan.

UC Riverside profs Edith Allen and Tom Scott are heading the three-day seminar. Some of the issues they'll talk about include how to consider global changes in conservation planning, and even whether HCPs are the best solution for survival of the species.

Scott promises to post an entry or two this week to let us know what they've come up with. So be sure to check back on the comments.

Earth Day may have been last month, but Idyllwild always holds its celebration of the planet in May. This Saturday, the 18th annual Earth Fair will be held from noon to 5 p.m. with a slate of activities, entertainment, booths selling Himalayan food, hand bags and wall hangings made of recycled vintage fabrics, and a lot more. This year's theme is “Awakening a Sense of Wonder” in honor of the 100th anniversary of Rachel Carson’s birth. According to organizer Holly Owens, the theme refers to Carson's teachings of nurturing our inborn sense of wonder about the natural world.

But the fun actually starts in the mountain hamlet on Friday night with a keynote speech at the Idyllwild Town Hall by none other than Mike Hamilton, the self-described eco-geek whose nearby reserve is wired with cameras and videos to capture the tiniest movements of plants and animals in a patch of the forest.

Hamilton, a UCR biology prof, has run the James Reserve for 25 years. The reserve has been featured in stories of The Press-Enterprise and the New York Times. Hamilton won't just talk to the audience, he'll take them on a global journey of scientific invention and exploration, and of course he'll bring it alive with photos, videos and computer graphics.

Also this year, Joyce Burk will be honored for her work to protect forests and push for wilderness designations in the Inland region. Burk has been chairman of the Sierra Club’s Southern California forests committee for more than 20 years.

There are some serious things and some not-so-serious but fun things to do in the Inland region this weekend. Either way, the weather is promising to cool down.

It may be happy hour, but a local environmental group tonight is launching its "weekly corner actions" in Rialto to spread the word about perchlorate contamination that has tainted more than a dozen drinking wells in Rialto and Colton. The "actions" will be held from 4 p.m. to 6 p.m. every Friday at the corner of Riverside and Foothill avenues, says Simon Washburn, a community organizer with the Center for Community Action and Environmental Justice. A state hearing that will determine blame for the underground plume of the rocket fuel ingredient is set for July 9.

And if you're heading to Joshua Tree National Park for the weekend, you can stop in for a 7 p.m. lecture tonight on the park's ancient history and how its landscape evolved over time. At the Old Schoolhouse Museum, Kathleen Springer, senior curator of geological sciences for the San Bernardino County Museum, will focus on the Pinto Basin and its diverse geology that includes rare fossils. Cost is $5.

If you're into camping, Fry Creek Campground is open for business again. One of the more popular campgrounds in the Cleveland National Forest, it had been closed for three years while crews removed dead trees. The campground is on Palomar Mountain along Country Road S6.

On Sunday, Eric Scott asks the question: “Did people coexist with the Ice Age behemoths? And if so, did they hunt them to extinction?” Scott will review paleontology studies in the northern Mojave Desert in and around China Lake Naval Air Weapons Station during a 2 p.m. lecture at the San Bernardino County Museum in Redlands. Scott is the museum's curator of paleontology. Lake sediments dating back to the late Pleistocene Age, Scott says, have yielded abundant but fragmentary and wind-blasted remains of extinct Ice Age animals.

If you're like me, you love maps. Old maps. New maps. Any kind of maps. I blame it on an early obsession with National Geographic.

Anyhow, the state of California has just published its second printing of "The Atlas of the Biodiversity of California." I don't want to be a pitch girl for the state, but it looks terrific. Check out the sample pages.

The 112-page bound collection includes color maps, wildlife photographs and illustrations, and written accounts of habitats and the species that live in them. It features many species here in the Inland region, which is a hotbed of biodiversity onto itself. According to the atlas, the entire state is home to more than 580 bird species, 200 mammal species, 130 reptiles and amphibians, 60 freshwater fish species and 5,000 native plants.

The atlas also looks at the threat to the state's biodiversity from invasive or exotic species, and impacts to habitats and migration corridors from population growth and human activities. The first 5,000 books sold out quickly, which is why I wanted to let everyone know. You can order one from the second printing for $20 by clicking here.

The city of Rialto has become the latest Inland city to turn to restaurants for power --- renewable power that is.

Construction has begun on a system to power the city's wastewater treatment facility by transforming wastewater sludge and kitchen grease from local restaurants into renewable energy. The system will include a 900-kilowatt, fuel cell power plant that will use methane produced onsite.

By using kitchen grease, the project removes thousands of gallons of fat, oils and grease from being disposed of in landfills, where it releases methane into the atmosphere as it decomposes. Methane is a potent greenhouse gas. which contributes to global warming.

The Rialto plant, according to its builder, Chevron Energy Solutions, will reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 15.5 million tons each year, including a reduction of 11 million pounds of carbon dioxide. They say that's equal to removing 1,080 cars from the road each year.

Riverside has had a similar grease-to-energy project at its wastewater treatment plant since 2005.

In our already smoggy region, which is expected to be exacerbated by global warming, we can use all the help we can get!

In the spirit of pollution knowing no borders, here are two interesting events ...

You saw the movie (or maybe you didn't), now you can see Al Gore himself. The former vice president will be at UC San Diego on May 21 to deliver his "An Inconvenient Truth" multimedia lecture. The event is free and open to the public, but tickets are required. Starting tomorrow, you can get tickets by going to the box office or calling 858-534-8497.

Closer to home, you can hear four experts from the University of California system discuss new research on disease and pollution that crosses the Mexico and U.S. border. The free conference is at 3 p.m. tomorrow at UC Riverside in the UC Mexus Conference Room, 3324 Olmsted Hall.

One of the more interesting issues that will be discussed is the study of air pollution over Big Bend National Park in west Texas. Francisco Donez, from the Energy and Resources Group at UC Berkeley, studied how environmentalists take the issue of air pollution out of its broader context and, in his opinion, alienate potential allies among Latinos and the working class.

There's a reason that scenes in two companion documentaries, "Season of the Sand Blossoms" and "Desert Gold," look familiar. That's because they were shot in Joshua Tree National Park, the Mojave National Preserve and desert spots across the Southwest. The films will be shown at 6:30 p.m., Tuesday at the Palm Springs Public Library. The event is free and open to the public.

If you've never seen a Joshua tree in bloom or an ocotillo with its spears of red-tipped blossoms, the films show the wide array of flowers that survive in the desert. Peter Rhalter, one of the filmmakers, will be there to sign DVDs, speak about the making of these films and discuss wildflowers and conservation topics. The event is part of the nature-focused series of monthly lectures put on by the library and the Desert Institute.

REI is bringing its outdoor school to Southern California this summer and it will include classes out of its Rancho Cucamonga store.

REI will offer in-store classes and one-day outings to teach the basics of rock climbing, sea kayaking, mountain biking, hiking, natural history, outdoor photography and compass and GPS classes, among others. The in-store classes will occur on Tuesday and Thursday evenings, and outings will occur on the weekends with a maximum of 12 participants. Details should be posted soon here.

Brian Edwards, the outdoor specialist for the Rancho Cucamonga store, said they'll be announcing the outdoor school at this weekend's outdoor adventure sports expo in Pomona.

A hearing is continuing today in Sacramento to decide how much additional water is in the Santa Ana River and whether water agencies can get rights to that water. An environmental group is also on hand to ask for some of that water for the endangered species struggling to survive in the river, the Inland region's main artery.
Although the hearing is in Sacramento, you can listen and watch the hearing online. Click here.
The hearing will continue through Tuesday, if need be.
The Santa Ana River starts high in the San Bernardino Mountains and continues through Redlands, Riverside and Corona as it flows to the ocean.

In case you didn't know, this is Air Quality Awareness Week. It was established by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, and our Inland region has some of the nation's worst air quality.

The theme this year is "Be Air Aware; Keep an Eye on the AQI." The AQI of course is the air quality index, which can tell you how bad the ozone is in our area. For those who are asthmatic or elderly, this can be an important measure of what you should or should not do outside. You can check our area's air quality here on a daily basis or click here to see how we stack up against the rest of the country.

At least seven schools in Riverside and San Bernardino counties this smog season will give a strong visual of bad air days by raising flags. Depending on the color, kids with asthma will be asked to refrain from strenuous activity and in some cases, everyone will refrain from outdoor activity.

On Friday, the Air Quality Awareness website will offer ideas of how you can help cut smog. Of course, one of them is ride a bike instead of a car to work or to do errands. Bike-to-Work day, not so coincidentally, is later this month on May 18.