Conservation Actions

We were unlikely friends, Rob fresh from the military and the Gulf war, me anti-arms, anti-war. But we had a big thing in common: our love of the outdoors, our love of the mountains. "Climb the mountains and get their good tidings. Nature's peace will flow into you as sunshine flows into trees" said Muir. We hiked many trails of Olympic National Park and Rainier National Park together, spent a few new year's eves in the snow watching moon rise over Mt Rainier. We told each other many stories of hikes, rides, climbs, outdoor adventures we so cherished.

Who doesn’t like maps? Our director James Strittholt has said before that maps are a unifying object from which people can find common ground. You can take a group of people, spread out a map on the table and everyone will begin dreaming, talking and telling stories. Data Basin is not much different and, from the beginning, we have been thrilled by how much the community has taught us how it will be used. 

In my August blog post about abstaining from plastic, I referenced a site describing the detrimental effects of plastics in our oceans and briefly mentioned the “garbage patch” in the North Pacific Gyre. Many people allude to this large concentration of plastic waste when appealing to the public to ban plastic bags or increase plastic recycling programs. Recently, there has been some debate about the actual size of the plastic waste expanse in the North Pacific Gyre.

 On behalf of the Southern Sierra Partnership, I am delighted to post our recently completed Framework for Cooperative Conservation and Climate Adaptation for the Southern Sierra Nevada and Tehachapi Mountains and associated datasets.

A few months back I was invited to a policy and technology forum at Stanford University, whose goal was figuring out how to overcome constraints to ramping up solar energy production in California. The forum brought together scientists, engineers, policy makers, and leaders of the solar industry and conservation organization to develop a “blueprint… to meet the challenges presented by the implementation of large scale solar.”

It has become a habit for politicians and journalists in the USA to point the finger at China when referring to greenhouse gas emissions. Yet, the Chinese government has been much more proactive than our own and is becoming a leader of climate change mitigation efforts.

From childhood, we can all remember special places that played an important part in our development. Growing up in the west, one significant place for me was the Columbia River George and High Desert Basin section bordering Oregon and Washington from Portland to the Tri-Cities. I was born in Baker City and spent many years traveling either by plane, train, bus or car up and down the Columbia. A week ago, on a road trip to Coeur d'Alene.

This week, I’ve been looking into the sustainability of bioenergy. The cover story on my CSA News (crop, soils and agronomy magazine) is called “Sustainable Bioenergy: Fueling Biomass Plants without Degrading the Land.” Can we do that? We’re having enough difficulties growing food without degrading the land. It would surprise me if we could produce energy from agriculture without further increasing soil degradation.

 “Survival of the fittest.” Those best adapted to survive under certain circumstances will reproduce and pass their genes to offspring. What exactly does that mean for humans? The most physically strong? The most stereotypically beautiful by a given culture’s standards? The wealthiest? The smartest? The most self-promoting? Evidence of the “typical” human doesn’t support any of these ideas.

The theme of the annual Ecological Society of America meetings this year was climate change. One talk I listened to really stands out in my mind. Tom Stohlgren (USGS Fort Collins) gave a thought provoking talk about the role of invasives  species (harmful plants, animals and diseases from other countries) in shaping the world we live in.