Treehuggers International » Recent News

Logging On the Doorstep of Crater Lake

tommy — Tue, 29 Jan 2013 14:47:42 +0000

There are better options for a sustainable timber industry than cutting alongside national icons.

Questioning the Wisdom and Necessity of the D-Bug Timber Sale

by Tommy Hough with Sean Stevens and Steve Pedery

Crater Lake and the wild, forested country which surrounds it are justifiably the crown jewels of Oregon’s public lands. Every year these areas draw thousands of visitors to the state to hike, fish, camp, or take in the region’s undeniable beauty.

These lands are the engine which drives Southern Oregon’s tourism and recreation economy, and are the reason Treehuggers International partner Oregon Wild believes any plan to log areas surrounding Crater Lake National Park need to be held to the highest possible standard.

It is important to note an objection to Crater Lake-area logging doesn’t mean a myopic, across-the-board opposition to all logging. In fact, Oregon Wild has worked with the Forest Service in the Siuslaw, Deschutes and Malheur National Forests to develop restoration logging projects which many conservationists support. These projects are the antithesis of old-growth logging, which reached a feverish peak in Oregon around 1988. The scars and consequences of those massive, late 80s clearcuts will be with Oregonians for decades.

A Legacy of Wishful Thinking

Humans once thought they were smarter than forests, and began to manage them, i.e. cut them to pieces and into smaller and smaller fragments, before we really understood how they worked. As it turned out, humans were screwing up a perfectly-functioning, exceptionally healthy ecosystem which had long ago figured out how to take care of itself. Nature was “managing” itself fine, and in doing so, providing clean air and clean water for the humans who thought they and timber industry-approved science could do it better.

Now a century’s worth of poor management decisions — from suppressing beneficial fires which clear out underbrush, to clear-cutting native forests and replanting them as dangerously dense tree plantations — have created serious problems. We believe there is an important role for Oregon’s timber industry in addressing these problems. This is precisely why Oregon Wild has joined with logging interests like Boise Cascade and Ochoco Lumber to support Sen. Ron Wyden’s “Oregon Eastside Forest Restoration, Old Growth Protection and Jobs Act,” which aims to restore more natural conditions to Oregon’s forests while providing for a sustainable timber industry.

While the East Side bill is a strong example of cooperation among varying interests, we likewise cannot support logging which sacrifices values like old-growth forests, habitat for endangered species, wilderness and recreational uses of public land. The crest of the southern Cascades around Crater Lake National Park is no place for poorly designed, destructive logging projects. Neither are the forestlands around Lemolo Lake or the Oregon Cascades Recreation Area. This is why Oregon Wild and it’s coalition partners have gone to court to challenge parts of the Umpqua National Forest’s “D-Bug” logging plan.

Perfectly Good Trails to Ugly, Muddy Roads

Crater Lake and Wizard Island.

Originally announced in 2009, the D-Bug project has been controversial from the start. The project’s original design included hundreds of acres of logging in inventoried roadless areas — undeveloped backcountry areas mostly north and northwest of Crater Lake legally protected under the Forest Service’s 2001 Roadless Area Conservation Rule.

The project drew national media attention due to this controversy, leading the Umpqua National Forest to scale back its plans — though it still intends to log in some undeveloped roadless areas. Perhaps one of the greatest sins in the original D-Bug project was a proposal to convert hiking trails in the Oregon Cascades Recreation Area into logging roads. A similar decision was made in Washibton’s Wenatchee National Forest in the late 1990s to enable greater off-road vehicle use, with calamitous results for creeks and meadows.

Umpqua managers claim the intent of current D-Bug logging plans is to reduce fuels and the chance of fire around private property along the shoreline of Diamond Lake, and along roads leading into developed areas. Oregon Wild supports this wholly reasonable goal.

But if protecting homes from fire is the goal, why does the D-Bug project also include logging in remote old-growth stands, miles away from the nearest road or structure? And why does D-Bug include logging in critical habitat for endangered species and, along with the proposed Bybee timber sale, aim to cut trees in pristine areas along the immediate boundary of Crater Lake National Park?

Pristine, Wild Lands Do More Than Please the Eye

A balanced plan is needed to address risks in Oregon’s forests. Rather than squander resources by planning destructive logging projects, the Forest Service should focus on a balanced plan to address legitimate risks to private property, while protecting remaining wild areas on our public lands. Hundreds of thousands of acres of pristine forest exist within the national forests around Crater Lake; in turn, these lands sustain Southern Oregon tourism and recreation, a key driver of the region’s economy. Protecting these wild areas will not only sustain wildlife, but also the jobs of thousands of Oregonians.

The Forest Service’s mission is not simply to promote logging. The agency is also charged with safeguarding the remaining pristine areas on America’s public lands. With their ability to store carbon, supply fresh air, and ensure the clean drinking water Oregonians come to expect (and which the state’s many craft brewers prize), the wildlands around Crater Lake National Park should be at the top of their list.

Sean Stevens and Steve Pedery are the Executive Director and Conservation Director of Oregon Wild, the former Oregon Natural Resources Council. Treehuggers International founder and host Tommy Hough recently joined Oregon Wild in a communications capacity. A modified version of this piece originally appeared in the Klamath Falls Herald and News, and on the Oregon Wild website.

The Beating Heart of the Mojave Desert

tommy — Mon, 07 Jan 2013 10:11:54 +0000

David Lamfrom from the National Parks Conservation Association

We are indebted to David Lamfrom for making the drive from Barstow to be a guest on Treehuggers International, and for his years building consensus and an impressive grassroots coalition for the proposed California Desert Protection Act, currently before Congress in a bill sponsored by Sen. Dianne Feinstein.

A wildlife photographer, biologist, community organizer, and co-author of the book Tortoises Through the Lens: A Visual Exploration of A Mojave Desert Icon, David serves as the California Desert Program Manager for the National Parks Conservation Association’s office in Barstow. He is also the President of the Mojave National Preserve Conservancy.

A native of Florida, David found his calling in the vast expanses, great silence, and star-filled nights of California’s Mojave Desert.

The Castle Mountains at the eastern end of the proposed Mojave Trails National Monument.

The California Desert Protection Act

If passed, the act will protect over one million acres of the Mojave Desert’s last wild areas, with the creation of two new National Monuments: the Mojave Trails National Monument on former railroad lands adjoining historic U.S. Rt. 66, and the Sand to Snow National Monument, which would include areas from the desert floor of the Coachella Valley to the high country of the San Bernardino Mountains, and extend full environmental protection to pristine areas like Big Morongo Canyon and the Whitewater River watershed.

Five new wilderness areas and several Wild and Scenic River designations are also slated to come into being with the bill, mostly on land currently managed by the Bureau of Land Management. The legislative package also includes plans to add additional, adjacent lands to Joshua Tree and Death Valley National Parks and the Mojave National Preserve, creating a network of newly-protected wildlife corridors unrivaled anywhere in the lower 48 states.

Desert couple, Joshua Tree National Park.

Where the Sun Shines

We at Treehuggers International can’t endorse solar power fast enough. If we’d been around in 1979 when President Carter announced the installation of a new solar-powered hot water heater in the White House, saying he hoped it wouldn’t be an “oddity” in 30 years, we would’ve been in the front row applauding.

Unfortunately, Carter’s solar hot water heater became the oddity he feared just two years later when the Reagan administration tore out the solar panels on the roof of the White House, symbolically spinning the wheels of the nation for another couple of decades until President Obama ordered new solar panels installed during his first term.

As far as solar farms go, there are thousands places in Southern California where industrial-scale solar collection can be developed, other than wild areas of the Mojave Desert currently proposed for wilderness designation.

Already, a deal has been struck to build a massive new solar farm at the base of the Clark Mountain Wilderness Area, forever undoing one of the great wild vistas of the Mojave, while tens of thousands of more accessible “disturbed,” or otherwise altered, locales outside of conservation, recreation, and military areas remain available.

While we enthusiastically applaud the move towards solar energy and green business in the Golden State, until the California Desert Protection Act passes, the piecemeal nibbling away of the Mojave Desert’s last wild, pristine, and undisturbed areas will continue.

Empty Roofs In Sunland

Roofs of warehouses and industrial parks in the Southland already constitute significant wasted space and limitless opportunity for solar collection. If such spaces were used effectively for giant solar collector “farms,” the energy collected would already be in accessible urban areas, thereby undoing the need to construct colossal, eyesore power lines to bring electricity from the backcountry into cities.

Southern California should be leading the world in the development and use of solar technology, and yet, pay a visit to housing tracts in Indio or El Centro and what do you find? Households with summertime electricity bills exceeding $800 dollars a month, all to power air conditioning with electricity generated by either coal or fossil fuel-burning plants, or the one element more scarce in the southwest than anything else: water, in the form of dam-powered hydroelectricity along the Colorado River at Hoover or Glen Canyon dams.

The Mojave Desert's last wild lands: Only appropriate for solar collection sites?

Two-Part PBS Special On California State Parks

tommy — Tue, 18 Dec 2012 20:28:52 +0000

A rocky shoreline and abundant Monterey Cypress greet the sea at Point Lobos State Reserve.

An Appreciation of California’s State Parks Legacy

When the state of California set aside Yosemite Valley for protection as a park in 1864, it marked the auspicious beginning of California’s state park system, and the beginning of the idea of preserving a landscape and an environment as a wholly protected, public place. As California grew and began to set aside other special places like Big Basin Redwoods and Calaveras Big Trees for protection, the California State Park system became the model upon which the National Park Service would eventually be built.

Today, nearly 150 years after President Lincoln first set aside Yosemite Valley for the state of California to manage, mounting challenges continue to confront California’s revered state park system. Tightening budgets, deferred maintenance, destructive recreation, and apathetic attitudes continue to take their toll on California’s state parks, and the myriad of responsibilities and obligations park managers have to the citizens of the state, as well as the plants and animals which make the parks their home, continues to grow more complex.

Addressing not only the history of California’s state parks, but the challenges this unique park system faces today, filmmakers David Vassar and Sally Kaplan of Backcountry Productions talk about their two-part California Forever documentary on California State Parks, which recently aired on PBS stations around the nation.

Every Park A Unique Jewel, Every Park Uniquely Californian

As fans of Treehuggers International know, one of the show’s priorities over the last five years has been to preserve the sanctity of California’s stunning state park system, and ensure it remains funded and open to the public.

Maintaining the integrity of California State Parks is critical, not only for the environmental, physical and mental well-being of Californians, but as a template for similar park and open space networks around the nation.

Regrettably, as is the case with dozens of state agencies, California has seen the budget for state parks slashed, starved and strangled over the years in the name of fiscal responsibility and putting the state’s financial house in order. While recent passage of Prop. 30 may ease the immediate financial strain, the fallout from the passage of Prop. 13 in 1978 continues to come at the expense of the quality of life built in California in the post-war era by leaders like Pat Brown, Ronald Reagan and others.

Along with investments in education and infrastructure following World War II, Californians have also enjoyed an abundance of phenomenal state parks in every corner of the state. While we may no longer be in an era of an expanding economy, the parks remain, soothing the anxiety of city dwellers with peace and solace, and providing habitat for some of California’s most magnificent flora and fauna at a wholly reasonable public expense.

Even with a highly-effective law-enforcement component, the annual budget of California State Parks takes up less than one-half of one percent of the state’s entire general fund.

When Times Were Toughest, California’s Parks Grew

Big Basin Redwoods, Santa Cruz Mountains.

Despite the current recession, it’s worth noting California grew it’s state park system during the Great Depression, and with the help of New Deal programs like the Works Progress Administration and Civilian Conservation Corps, three of San Diego County’s most iconic state parks were dedicated at the height of the Depression in 1933: Cuyamaca Rancho, Palomar Mountain, and the massive, iconic Anza-Borrego Desert State Park.

The lesson to be drawn from the 1930s is clear. Even at the nation’s worst economic moment, California leaders were unwilling to sell short the volume of environments, landscapes, habitats, and historic resources within the Golden State. Instead of seeking to find ways to close parks, state leaders worked tirelessly to create more.

Over the years, many of these state parks have also proven to be durable economic machines for nearby towns and communities. During the height of the state park closure crisis, a Sacramento State University study determined California State Parks bring in, on average, upwards of $2.00 for every $1.00 of tax dollars spent to local communities. That’s a significant return on any investment.

What’s missing is the will of elected officials to preserve a phenomenal park network built over decades, with significant amounts of park property often entrusted to state care by California families.

The famous, if not quite Balkanized, north-south split among the state’s residents may also inhibit a greater appreciation of the natural, cultural and historic resources protected in either end of the state within the overall state park system.

Treehuggers International has frequently referred to California’s state park system as the “envy of the nation.” It will continue to do so, as long as the public is able to experience places like Pfeiffer Big Sur, Mt. Tamalpais or Red Rock Canyon.

A Two-Part Film About California’s State Park Treasures

From Jedediah Smith and Humboldt Redwoods to Point Lobos and Montaña de Oro to all the parks of the Gold Country and the beaches of Southern California to Anza-Borrego, and historic locales like Marshall Gold Discovery, Allensworth, and Fort Tejon, California State Parks are outstanding treasures and outstanding resources.

Filmmakers David Vassar and Sally Kaplan and their production company, Backcountry Pictures, recently produced a two-part documentary on California State Parks presented by KQED public television in San Francisco, called California Forever: The Story of California State Parks.

The film continues to air on PBS stations around the nation. Consult your local listings, or go to the California Forever website.

Andrew Molera State Park protects some of Big Sur's wildest stretches of coastline.

Treehuggers International 2012 General Election Voter’s Guide

tommy — Sun, 04 Nov 2012 21:40:05 +0000

“The only way to change is to vote. People are responsible.” – Paul Wellstone

“The ignorance of one voter in a democracy impairs the security of all.” – John F. Kennedy

“If you don’t vote, don’t bitch.” – Steve Earle

By Tommy Hough

It’s been a strange couple of months. Cory and I recently relocated to Portland, Oregon so I could take a new job handling communications for the environmental advocacy organization Oregon Wild. In doing so, I’ve undergone a crash course in Oregon politics. I’m happy to tell you all about Rep. Peter DeFazio’s terrible timber scheme, Gov. John Kitzhaber’s desire to be known as the grand compromise builder, and the timber industry’s still-tight grip on the state’s low-elevation forest and remaining old-growth, and undue influence with political leaders in both Salem and Washington, DC.

Despite this, when it comes to my vote this election year, I still feel more connected as a California voter.

It shouldn’t be a surprise. Having worked in media in San Diego and Southern California for nearly 10 years, my connection to Golden State politics is not going to be easily shaken. With wonderful friends and family in California, along my ongoing work producing and hosting Treehuggers International and Brunch With Bob and Friends, and Treehuggers’ ongoing advocacy on the part of California State Parks and the San Diego County Chapter of the Surfrider Foundation, my wife and I retain a tight connection to California, and remain committed to seeing the state’s sometimes ridiculous array of propositions fully vetted, and the best candidates elected to the job.

Not all races are listed. For some races you will need to find the candidate running in your federal or state district. With some exceptions, voter recommendations are pertinent to San Diego County ballots.

For additional help I’d suggest checking the endorsements of the San Diego League of Conservation Voters, the San Diego and Imperial Counties Labor Council, and the San Diego County Democratic Party (PDF).

Polls open at 7:00 am and close at 8:00 pm, Tuesday, November 6th. For a complete list of state elections offices, from Alameda to Yuba counties, click HERE.

Federal Races

President: Barack Obama

Were you expecting someone else? Scroll down past the Hetch Hetchy photo for my essay on the case for a second term for President Obama.

U.S. Senate: Dianne Feinstein

U.S. Representative, 52nd District: Scott Peters

I’m hardly an advocate for Scott Peters, and I made my concerns with his candidacy abundantly clear while assisting my friend Lori Saldaña in her primary race against Mr. Peters earlier this year, in which Lori came up short by only a few hundred votes. I still feel Lori would’ve been the more capable candidate in a broad and engaged retail politic appeal to the electorate of the 52nd, from retired military in Clairemont and Coronado to union rank-and-file to progressive activists in Ocean Beach. However, I know a number of bright, smart, earnest, determined progressives involved with Scott Peters’ campaign, and I know they wouldn’t be backing him if they felt he wasn’t genuine or capable of executing the duties of the office. There’s a real opportunity to flip this long-held Republican seat into the Democratic column, and while I don’t see Mr. Peters particularly embracing progressive causes or using a seat in the House of Representatives to move the needle on issues relating to the environment or women’s rights, his vote, as would any Democrat’s vote, be extremely valuable in stemming the tide of consistently awful ideas coming from the Tea Party-controlled House, and consistently voted yes on by incumbent Brian Bilbray. Vote for Scott Peters. Let’s take this seat.

U.S. Representative, 49th District: Jerry Tetalman

U.S. Representative, 50th District: David B. Secor

U.S. Representative, 51st District: Juan Vargas

U.S. Representative, 53rd District: Susan Davis

I had the pleasure of living in Congresswoman Davis’ district for several years, and have always appreciated the kind assistance her staff has lent my wife and I. I was also delighted and honored to be able to interview Congresswoman Davis for a Primary Focus piece my production partner and I produced for the California State Parks Foundation earlier this year.

Other U.S. House Races In California

U.S. Representative, 2nd District: Jared Huffman

A strong supporter of California State Parks, Jared Huffman deserves your vote.

U.S. Representative, 3rd District: John Garamendi

U.S. Representative, 4th District: Jack Uppal

U.S. Representative, 7th District: Dr. Ami Bera

Despite Dan Lungren’s support for the removal of the O’Shaughnessey Dam at Hetch Hetchy in Yosemite National Park, vote for the Sacramento Bee-endorsed Dr. Ami Bera.

U.S. Representative, 9th District: Jerry McNerney

U.S. Representative, 11th District: George Miller

U.S. Representative, 21st District: David Valadao

U.S. Representative, 23rd District: Terry Phillips

Terry Phillips is running as an unaffiliated candidate, but anyone would be better than the man who wants to dismantle the 1964 Wilderness Act, the dreadful Kevin McCarthy. Vote for Terry Phillips in the 23rd.

U.S. Representative, 24th District: Lois Capps

U.S. Representative, 26th District: Julia Brownley

U.S. Representative, 27th District: Judy Chu

U.S. Representative, 37th District: Karen Bass

U.S. Representative, 47th District: Alan Lowenthal

California State Races

State Senate, 39th District: Marty Block

State Assembly, 71st District: Patrick Hurley

State Assembly, 75th District: Matthew Herold

State Assembly, 76th District: Rocky Chavez

State Assembly, 77th District: Ruben “R.J.” Hernandez

State Assembly, 78th District: Toni Atkins

State Assembly, 79th District: Shirley Weber

State Assembly, 80th District: Ben Hueso

Judicial

Superior Court Judge, Office 25: Robert Amador

Education

San Diego County Board of Education, 1st District: Gregg Robinson

San Diego Community College District Member, Board of Trustees District B: Bernie Rhinerson

San Diego Unified School Board, District A: John Lee Evans

San Diego Unified School Board, District E: Marne Foster

City of San Diego

Mayor: Bob Filner

Propositions

I apologize, I really couldn’t make the time to write up summaries for all of these propositions, but if you know me and need a guide, just trust me on these this year:

YES on 30

NO on 31

NO on 32

An evil little proposition, this has nothing to do with campaign finance reform and everything to do with de-fanging the power of unions in the political marketplace, leaving them at the mercy of giant corporations, Super PACs, and the Scott Walkers and Carl DeMaios of the world. I cannot emphasize this one enough: vote NO on Prop. 32. “No just no, but Hell No!”

NO on 33

YES on 34

NO on 35

YES on 36

Reforms California’s Three Strikes Law for the better. Vote for this

YES on 37

This is the proposition you’ve been hearing a lot about from healthy lifestyle advocates which would require labels on foods containing genetically modified organisms, also known as GMOs. If companies like Monsanto and Dupont (makers of napalm, among other things) have nothing to hide, why are they resisting this reasonably-worded proposition so vehemently? Vote YES on Prop. 37, and knock back your tomato juice. This is sensible stuff. Namaste.

NO on 38

YES on 39

YES on 40

YES on F (City and County of San Francisco only!)

San Francisco is long overdue in embracing water recycling and removing the O’Shaughnessy Dam at Hetch Hetchy in Yosemite National Park. A YES on Prop. F will mark the beginning of a process which could lead to the dismantling of the dam, the restoration of Yosemite National Park’s integrity, and San Francisco finally joining the 21st Century and embracing their neighbors around the bay (and even fellow Californians in comparatively conservative San Diego and Orange counties) in recycling water. How much water recycling does San Francisco do right now? Zero.This needs to change. Also, the Tuolumne River will continue to be a source of water for San Francisco, but with the region’s series of reservoirs, the city no longer needs the O’Shaughnessy Dam to do the work. Free the Tuolumne and restore Hetch Hetchy. The time is now.

The time has come for O'Shaughnessy Dam to go, and Hetch Hetchy to be restored.

A Second Term for President Obama

I get it. The last four years were awful.

So why would anyone vote to put the people who led us to the abyss back in charge? Or worse, do the bidding of the Tea Party (with Romney, who knows what we’ll get?).

Curiously, the Tea Party still doesn’t understand it’s named for a prank designed to highlight the LACK of a representative democracy among American colonists. And all those “spontaneous” Tea Party awakenings which just happened to coincide with Obama’s first months in office? Funded by the Koch Brothers and other astroturfers. They even got Tea Partiers to believe their taxes were being raised when they weren’t. Not that any of those guys in Bob Roberts-style tri-corner colonial hats ever noticed. It’s just some liberal media plot.

For those who still kind of like Romney (and there’s a Romney nearly everyone can like), perhaps you didn’t notice he has his very own Incubus in the form of Paul Ryan as a running mate? The Ayn Rand fan? Seriously? We’ve got a guy who worships money and called half the country parasites running for president, and a guy mired in teenage political beliefs because he never got past 2112 in the Rush catalogue? Please.

The fact is, I vote for Barack Obama because he offers calm, cool, steady leadership. As much as the Fox News cretins would like to have to you believe otherwise, he’s not an ideologue. He’s not even much of a liberal.

He’s a technocratic, slightly wonky and occasional over-professorial center-left president, and if it were 1990 he’d basically be a Republican. Obama would work with the Republicans in Congress if the GOP wasn’t seeking to discredit the man at every turn, thereby holding the progress of the country and the ongoing economic recovery in check.

I remember wondering when President Obama was elected how the far right, who had so ginned themselves up into predicting apocalypse and pestilence, would react when they realized Obama the guy was clearly not a demon. The answer? The right wing went right on believing their own reality, making it up as they went along, and as the Tea Party took off to “reclaim America” (from what?) weeks after Obama’s inauguration, the right hasn’t looked back. Conservative talk, Fox News, the Koch Brothers and other billionaires have continued to enable America’s lunatic fringe in order to arrange lower taxes for themselves.

In the right’s rush to discredit the president before his administration had even gotten to work, they missed the fact President Obama is a steady, pragmatic leader, and the right, cool guy to have his hands on the button or take the 3:00 am phone call. If he perhaps is too much of a technocrat, he’s proven himself to be capable of competent and even bold leadership.

Seal Team Six comes to mind. Yes, Seal Team Six was the laudable outfit which ambushed Osama bin Laden, but Obama made a gutsy call to do so. When many in the room said wait, Obama asked the mission commander if the pieces were in place. They were. He said do it, knowing full well if the operation failed it could cost him the presidency. He said do it, knowing full well what happened to President Carter after he called off a mission and thought he was in the clear when disaster struck.

And you wonder why Obama has grayed out the last few years. Every day, this guy is fighting this war, in operations which go unreported and unheard.

At times, yes, Obama’s leadership has been uninspired, and in the case of health care reform, completely out to lunch while legislation was left to flounder too long in the congressional sausage-making machine. Obama needed to deliver additional leadership and direction on health care reform, and while he passed the legislation, he let others define the argument and control the narrative. And he’s learned from that.

Whatever faults one may find in Obama: his lack of environmental leadership, his reliance upon Bill Clinton to explain things to the American public in a pinch, his utter silence on gun control or the Assault Weapons Ban (he’s actually expanded gun rights in National Parks and other federal locales, not that the NRA would want you to know), Obama has amassed an impressive record in the face of a Congress which has pledged not to work with him and hold the nation hostage in order to discredit him. In short order, President Obama has, over the last four years, garnered a record worth running on:

Avoiding a Depression of cataclysmic proportions.
Saving the U.S. auto industry, and tens of thousands of jobs.
Passing meaningful, if imperfect health care reform. I love it when people yell socialism about Obamacare. If only. The Republicans can’t even admit when they’ve won, and on Obamacare, they got their way. Bob Dole’s 1996 health care plan combined with Mitt Romney’s Massachusetts plan equals no public option and a big, wet kiss to private insurance companies. In return we’re passing the pre-exisiting circumstances hurdle, and kids being able to stay on their parents’ insurance through 26, in this economy, is a big help. And while the plan should be called Romneycare as opposed to Obamacare, over time Obama’s legacy will benefit from having this nickname for the plan.
The end of Osama bin Laden.
Taking the war against al-Qaeda’s leadership directly, utilizing drones instead of boots on the ground to at last achieve the “surgical” operational capacity military planners had been bragging about since the Kuwait War but had yet to deliver. We can debate the merits and humanity of this campaign and the drone approach, but Obama has been extremely successful in, to put it bluntly, hunting down terrorists and killing them. And anyone else within 50 yards.
The end of Don’t Ask Don’t Tell.
Two outstanding women on the Supreme Court. You need any more of a reason to vote for Obama? The Supreme Court. Guaranteed there will be one if not two more vacancies in the next four years.
Bringing the Iraq War to a close (we never should’ve been there in the first place).
Pledging to bring troops home from Afghanistan by 2014 (though they should just come back now).
Passed Wall Street reform.
“Recapitalized Banks,” i.e. approved a Treasury Dept. plan to lure private capital into the country’s largest banks via a “stress tests” (remember this?) of their balance sheets and a public-private fund to buy their “toxic” assets. This enabled banks to get back on their feet at essentially zero cost to taxpayers.
Significantly boosted fuel efficiency standards in 2011 which will nearly double fuel economy for cars across the board.
Started a program of competitive grants out of stimulus funds to encourage and reward states for education reform, i.e. investing in America.
While student loans remain totally and completely out of control, Obama kicked banks out of federal student loan programs and expanded pell grant spending.
Reversed Bush-era torture policies, i.e. if you think you’re torturing someone, you probably are.
Improved America’s image abroad by meeting with world leaders and engaging with them as global partners, instead of behaving in a bellicose, humiliating manner telling nations what to do. Granted, America is always going to be a little bellicose, but our dickhead quotient has gone down quite a bit overseas under Obama’s “I’ve got this” leadership.
Took the lead in a NATO coalition which assisted Libyan rebels in toppling Moammar Gaddafi, arguably the man behind the 1988 Pan Am Lockerbie bombing. Obama did this not by invading Libya, but by dealing from strength utilizing airpower to level the playing field for Libyan rebels against Gaddafi’s professionally-trained, mercenary army.
Delivered the news to Egypt’s Honsi Mubarak it was time to accept the fact dramatic, democratic change had rendered his authoritarian regime meaningless, and go.
After years of neglect and cronyism, brought FEMA back as an urgently necessary, effective federal response agency for Americans caught in the midst of disaster, which as we all know can come in the form of an earthquake, volcanic eruption, wildfire, terrorist attack, tornado or a hurricane. Disaster can strike anywhere, but as Hurricane Sandy recently proved, our warming climate will be throwing more violent weather at us, more often, and in bigger, nastier packages.

Oh, but if you like Mitt Romney, buck up. Mitt changed his tune after Sandy to say he now supports FEMA, after advocating for it’s removal as a federal agency and privatizing it in one of the innumerable Republican Rainman-style brain damage debates last year:

As my friend and lawyer says, “if you’re making money off of emergency relief, you’re doing it wrong.”

And then there’s this smug-a-thon from the Republican convention which you may recall:

Versus this Romney, who can’t seem to agree with the other Romney:

And sure, I could write all day about what a soulless flip-flopper Mitt Romney is who will say whatever he has to in order to become president, and who will come to Washington with all kinds of Tea Partier baggage, nutty Grover Norquist tax-cutters, and corporate extremists in tow for a secretive administration which will make Dick Cheney look like a chatterbox.

And again, Paul “fastest land animal on earth” Ryan would be Vice President. Do we really want Gabe from The Office as Vice President?

But don’t take my word for it, take it from the Salt Lake City Tribune endorsement of President Obama over their own Mitt Romney, in a piece titled “Too Many Mitts,” which closes with this summation:

In considering which candidate to endorse, The Salt Lake Tribune editorial board had hoped that Romney would exhibit the same talents for organization, pragmatic problem solving and inspired leadership that he displayed here more than a decade ago. Instead, we have watched him morph into a friend of the far right, then tack toward the center with breathtaking aplomb. Through a pair of presidential debates, Romney’s domestic agenda remains bereft of detail and worthy of mistrust.

Therefore, our endorsement must go to the incumbent, a competent leader who, against tough odds, has guided the country through catastrophe and set a course that, while rocky, is pointing toward a brighter day. The president has earned a second term. Romney, in whatever guise, does not deserve a first.

So now it’s Election Day, and it’s your choice. Who do you want making the tough calls?

Partisan Democrat

Yes, I’m a partisan Democrat. I’ve never made any secret out of it and I’d be a liar if I said my desire to vote Democrat hasn’t colored my electoral conclusions. That being said, I’m not incapable of stepping out of a box to see other sides of an issue; frankly I wish more people today were capable of doing this. But like most people who identify with political parties, I do so because I feel the party’s values are more often in line with the issues I find most important.

I’m a Democrat because I trust the person with the D next to their name to make the best decision on everything from the environment (although, to be quite fair, the Democrats have been asleep at the wheel), to women’s issues, to realistic appraisals of economic matters, to respect for those who work for a living, to greater equality and greater access to health care, to a general desire to make sure too many people don’t fall too far behind the curve, so we don’t wind up with a gap between the rich and poor any wider than it has grown over the last 20 years.

With some unusual exceptions (I voted for John McCain in the 2000 Washington primary), I vote against Republicans because I believe in a woman’s right to choose, the sanctity of the environment as it relates to public health and the common good, and because I don’t think the rich need any more tax cuts. Republicans seem to enjoy running up the deficit, then bolting from the table and blaming someone else for not paying for it. I believe in government, and I’ve seen over my lifetime when people who appreciate government run it, it runs better. It runs the way it should. There are things government is obliged to do, but there are also things government can do, and do so in a manner which is responsible and constructive.

Republicans, especially these days, love to tell you how awful government is, and then, to paraphrase P.J. O’Rourke, get elected to office and prove it. Why would you vote for someone who distrusts or wants to dismantle government? If these candidates don’t have faith in the very office they’re running for, are they only seeking the position to do away with it?

Like Democrats, Republicans like to give jobs to their friends when they can. But after nearly 70 years of corporate welfare in the form of the military-industrial complex (which a career soldier and an outstanding, underrated Republican president named Dwight Eisenhower warned against on his way out of the White House in 1961) has resulted in business-friendly Republicans today ridiculously complaining about the cost of the Children’s Television Workshop or Food Stamps when the cost of one fighter jet could fund several years of PBS broadcasts, and one tank can pay for tens of thoudsands of meals. What do you think the public investment gets the better return on?

Security Hugs and Red Meat

Keep in mind, these are long-standing, pre-Tea Party gripes, when the Republican party could at least be counted upon to be an equal partner capable of negotiating in reasonably good faith (or just negotiating) for the sake of the nation, and when their paeans to God and Country were at least remotely earnest. Things began to change in the mid-1990s with Newt Gingrich’s pointlessly confrontational Congress, which, like the current Congress, was more interested in driving a popularly-elected Democratic president from office (or at the very least discrediting him at every move) than actually working with him to make the country better.

It was around this time on the heels of the Reagan era a bizarre GOP self-delusion began to take root, in which Republicans began to believe things were better before the 1960s counterculture. You know, when we were living under the constant threat of war with the Soviet Union (a threat which only became defused in the late 1980s), when the GOP-fueled Red Scare reached it’s peak with Joseph McCarthy, when women were treated as second-class citizens and aliens in the workplace, when a woman didn’t entirely have control over her own body, and when even stateside German POWs during World War II were treated better than African-Americans in southern restaurants solely because they were white.

Curiously, what Republicans leave out of these rosy reminisces of the late 1940s and 1950s is the fact the corporate tax rate was rather high, as was the tax on the nation’s top earners. In part, the tax rates were high on the rich so the nation could pay for the Cold War.

Read that sentence again: Tax rates were high on the rich so the nation could pay for the Cold War.

In the 1950s, the nation PAID for what it spent. It did this with taxes. Administrations didn’t kick the can down the road and defer taxes, they paid for it with tax revenue, and AT THE VERY SAME TIME built the best schools and infrastructure in the world, including the duly vaunted and venerable Interstate Highway system, wisely pushed by President Eisenhower. This was done by taxing the wealthiest at a higher rate than the middle class, ensuring the middle class had money to buy goods and services and drive the economy, which benefitted everyone, including the wealthiest Americans. Funny thing; you don’t hear many Republicans recalling those fond days when everyone paid their fair share.

The desire among Republicans to revisit the 1950s has today morphed into the silly-if-it-wasn’t-so-tiring positioning statements of American exceptionalism, and a weird, pathological need to pat America on the back at every turn, instead of acknowledging the uniqueness of the American character while also weighing the work which needs to continue in order to make the United States “a more perfect union.” We’re not perfect, so let’s keep aiming for that, shall we? The American character is robust enough to not require a security hug every 30 minutes.

In 1979 President Jimmy Carter delivered his now-famous “malaise” speech, in which he urged Americans to put their differences aside, lace up their boots, not look to the TV and media for idealized visions of success, and instead get to work doing our jobs making America great.

It was the last time an American president actually levelled with the American people, challenged the nation to find it’s confidence, and essentially “stop whining.” And, coupled with the yearlong Iran Hostage Crisis, look at what it got Carter in his race against Ronald Reagan in 1980: a landslide loss.

Despite Reagan’s campaign-ready sunniness and eagerness to tell the American people what they wanted to hear, Reagan’s real attitude, and the attitude of the GOP over the last 30 years, was aptly summed up in 1981, when Reagan had the solar panels Jimmy Carter installed on the roof of the White House just two years earlier dismantled, removed, and thrown away.

It took President Obama to at last return solar panels to the roof of the White House.

Trickle-Down Extremism

By 2001, fueled by the rise of right-wing media, the dismissive attitude displayed by Reagan early in his first term had devolved into the false premise of “I got mine, you can go piss off,” which resulted in the U.S. acquiescing to two tax cuts in 2001 and 2003 at the expense of the first surplus in decades. Lest we forget, the second of those two tax cuts came after 9/11 and the ill-advised invasion of Iraq. It’s still stunning to me the second of these needless tax cuts was passed on the backs of middle class taxpayers while the nation was mired in two (!) wars.

The willingness of the GOP to exploit the nation’s economic fault lines in order to enable economic extremism, sadly, no longer surprises me. If anything, the influence of Wall Street is now far too steeped in the Democratic party as well. But the money lost from public coffers from these two tax cuts is incalculable, and inexcusable when considering the surplus the Bush administration was handed in 2001 upon having the presidency handed to them by the Supreme Court.

Were Democrats party to some of the bad ideas from the last dozen years, like the needless tax cuts of 2001 and 2003 and the advent of the Iraq War? You bet. But more often than not, they were not the originators. Granted, a legislator not voting their conscience, and instead cowardly voting for what they know to be bad legislation is sin enough. But proposing it, putting it forward, and using the most cynical political machinations in order to pass it is unforgivable. To my eyes and many years of awareness and experience with the politics of this nation, this approach has more often than not fallen at the feet of the Republican party.

And while the GOP was once home to at least responsible voices of moderation like Gerald Ford or Hugh Scott, over the last 30 years it has grown more economically extreme and more cruel, especially since President Reagan enabled the end of the Fairness Doctrine on the public’s airwaves in 1987 in favor of “letting the free market decide” (as though what is most popular or lucrative is the best, most responsible use of airwaves which belong to each and every citizen). The rise of conservative (even though it’s radical, not conservative) AM talk radio and the ancillary industry of right-wing noise has effectively pushed the nation further and further to the right since 1992.

In doing so, it has also pushed the Democratic party to the right. Evidence of this is the absence of any kind of Democratic party position on a renewal of the assault weapons ban or any form of gun control, as well as an abandonment on a leadership role on environmental matters, particularly in the realm of Climate Change, which only five short years ago in 2007 was considered to be a non-controversial matter. In fact, before his selection of Sarah Palin as his running mate, Sen. John McCain included climate change as a part of his stump speech, and advocated reasonable, centrist positions on the matter.

The Phony Left/Right Dynamic and Third Party Pipe Dream

While the outdated nature of traditional American center left/center right models for the Democratic and Republican parties were becoming clear as early as 1994, and certainly since 2002, the Tea Party’s rapid rise in 2009 (fueled by the Big Money of the Koch Brothers and similar Astroturfing organizations) and the Supreme Court’s Citizen’s United ruling the following year unleashed a major transformation upon the U.S. political landscape. These two events helped complete the transformation of the Republican party from any semblance of center-right standard-bearer where extreme elements were kept in check, into a full-borne radical right-wing machine.

It is clear from the political spectrum of today there is an enormous moderate party which comfortably caters to business and progressive interests alike. This is called the Democratic party. And there is an extremist, far-right party in which nearly all the voices of moderation (or good sense) which could have gained traction in centrist races just four years ago have been driven from the ranks in favor of any candidate who signs a Grover Norquist (who?) pledge not to raise taxes, and which will embrace even the most extreme aspects of Obama Derangement Syndrome. Anything goes for these low-information, logic-defying voters, save for actually coming to terms with their uglier impulses, be it racial, class-driven, class shame, or partisanship at the expense of national identity. Republicans claim to love this country, but seem to hate a lot of the people who live here. They’ve enabled the ugliest impulses of some Americans, and coddled some of the most hateful, extreme positions.

We are today dealing with a conservative element in this country which is not conservative, and which eschews even the moderation such conservative heroes as Ronald Reagan and Barry Goldwater (in his later career) were capable of, in favor of right-wing political, religious, and xenophobic extremism wrapped in shouted, bullying, star-spangled tones. As far as Fox News goes, they and AM talk radio are responsible for the logjam in Congress today, and the resentment-fueled, conspiracy theory-driven mania and extremism of one of the nation’s political parties.

The cumulative effect of 20 years of Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, et al, is clear, as many Americans can on longer tell the difference between sensational, ratings-driven monologues designed to make sure you tune in tomorrow, and responsible public policy. The congressional careers of Michelle Bachman, Joe Walsh and Allen West are prime examples of this disconnect, and embrace of an absurdly cruel, selfish, and phony religiosity.

What’s missing is a genuine progressive party and a real party of the political left.

I don’t know if I see myself as an emissary or member of this party, but I do believe the voice is desperately needed. While many in this country believe we need a third party as a “middle” party, they’re mistaken in believing this would somehow be a moderating influence between Republicans and Democrats. The Democratic party IS the party of the political center in American politics. The Republican party is the party of the right, and every day, becomes more and more a party for the fringe and far right only.

What’s needed is the activism of the left and Occupy Wall Street funneled into political action and constructive policy. Greens have had limited success in a few races since the mid-1990s, and Libertarians are occasionally capable of reaching around to meet a left-leaning, progressive position, but the great power vacuum in American politics is on the left. There is an absence of a party there, but not an absence of ideas to populate this vacuum. This is where Third Party advocates need to focus their efforts, and where a third party will most likely take root in the U.S. political landscape. We need it.

Now vote already.

Seriously, let's not go here again. VOTE already, people.

Preserving Wilderness and Watersheds With Oregon Wild

tommy — Sun, 29 Jul 2012 21:10:49 +0000

Sean Stevens from Oregon Wild

Treehuggers International is pleased to welcome Sean Stevens, the Executive Director of Oregon Wild, to talk about the curiously unique issues which wilderness advocates face in the Beaver State, as well as the incredible volume of proposed Wilderness and Wild and Scenic River designations waiting to be approved by Congress.

A special thanks to the staff of Oregon Wild for allowing us into their offices in Portland to record this show, and a special thanks not only to Sean for making time to appear on the show, but also to former Oregon Wild Executive Director Scott Shlaes, now the Director of Development for Sustainability Initiatives at Portland State University.

A lenticular cloud-capped Mt. Hood from the trail to East Zigzag Mountain.

Crossroads of Climate and Diversity

Boasting an incredible coastline, several major mountain ranges, high desert, thousands of miles of forest and timberland, one of the most biologically diverse areas on the planet in the Siskiyou-Rogue, one of the most iconic National Parks in the west, and the Columbia River Gorge to the north and Hell’s Canyon to the east, Oregon makes a strong case as one of the great outdoor destinations in the western U.S., if not the world.

Beyond the major populations centers straddling the Willamette Valley, Oregon remains sparsely populated, but with the state’s historically cozy relationship with the timber industry, setting aside wilderness other than the “rock and ice” of the highest peaks has often proven to be a long, difficult fight.

Helping Secure A Deserved Wilderness Legacy

Originally called the Oregon Natural Resources Council, Oregon Wild has helped preserve nearly 1.7 million acres of designated wilderness in the state since the organization was formed in 1974. Oregon Wild has also helped establish 1,800 miles of Wild and Scenic River protections on rivers and waterways throughout Oregon, including the state’s iconic Rogue River, one of the great white-water destinations and wild rivers in the U.S.

A splash of fall color, Mt. Jefferson Wilderness.

Powered by an active grassroots citizens network, Oregon Wild has made the preservation of the state’s remaining old-growth forest and watersheds a priority, and is committed to protecting hiking, backpacking, and fishing opportunities, and working to cut down on habitat dissection and ensuring environmental law is enforced.

The primary mission of Oregon Wild is to protect and restore Oregon’s current wilderness areas, and advocate for wilderness designation in roadless areas like the Devil’s Staircase in the Coast Range, North Fork John Day, or the Waldo Lake shoreline.

The organization also seeks to expand current wilderness around Mt. Hood, Crater Lake, Mt. Thielsen, the Wallowas, the Rogue River Valley and dozens of other significant locations around the state, but over the last several years Oregon Wild and similar conservation organizations have had a number of peripheral, yet pressing issues presented to them.

Old Railroad Lands to WOPR to Wolves

Oregon Wild has been actively involved in securing an appropriate solution to the state’s BLM-managed O&C Lands, or rather, “Oregon and California” lands formerly belonging to the Oregon and California Railroad, which the federal government won back from the railroad in the 1930s. Maddeningly checkerboarded as private and federal land, the O&C Lands make for a dizzying mix of management, and encompass some of the most vulnerable old-growth and roadless areas of the state.

Oregon’s southwestern counties have also been contending with funding issues regarding the expiration of Secure Rural Schools Act, as well as ongoing fallout from the Western Oregon Plans Revision (or WOPR), itself an attempt to restructure the landmark 1994 Northwest Forest Plan.

Oregon Wild has also been active advocating for the safe return of wolves to the state’s wilderness as a vital component of native Oregon ecosystems. The wolf OR-7, renamed “Journey,” recently became the first wolf in decades to cross into California from Oregon in decades, and his path across wilderness areas and connected habitat clearly demonstrates the success of setting aside vast tracts of land as wilderness for native species, inherently valuable in its own natural, benign way.

Wild mountain lupine, Mt. Hood National Forest.

Protect Wilderness-Quality Lands In Southern California NOW

tommy — Mon, 11 Jun 2012 05:01:53 +0000

The San Gabriel Mountains are the wilderness backyard for 12 million Angelinos.

Wilderness Designation for Roadless Areas

If you’re a fan of the trails and the variety of environments and ecosystems found in the four Southern California National Forests (Angeles, Cleveland, Los Padres and San Bernardino), please lend your help to our friends with the Angeles Chapter of the Sierra Club, the Los Angeles office of The Wilderness Society, Wilderness4All, Friends of the River, the California Wilderness Coalition and San Gabriel Mountains Forever in rallying to ensure protection for wilderness quality lands.

According to Juana Torres, regional representative with the Angeles Chapter of the Sierra Club, “Over the last few days anti-wilderness groups have started pushing hard to get anti-wilderness comments to the Forest Service on the Southern California National Forests Land Management Plan Amendment (LMPA). Our goal is to convince the Forest Service to recommend wilderness designation for as many roadless areas as possible.”

Geoffrey Smith of Wilderness4All says, “In order to safeguard continuing protection of wilderness-quality lands not yet congressionally designated as wilderness, yet possess wilderness value and characteristics, it is imperative to ask the U.S. Forest Service to use a ‘Recommended Wilderness (RW)’ designation. The plans for these forests will decide how individual ‘Inventoried Roadless Areas (IRA)’ will be managed going forward. Their current proposals include both ‘Recommended Wilderness’ (protected) and ‘Backcountry Non-Motorized’ (not protected) designations.”

“In several previous decisions,” Smith goes on to say, “the Forest Service decided to manage ‘Recommended Wilderness’ as if it were congressionally designated wilderness. It is important such administrative management guidelines continue, in order to protect these sensitive lands even as congressional federal wilderness designation is pending.”

Visit the California Wilderness Coalition website for talking points and a sample letter, and e-mail your comments to this e-mail address before midnight on Monday June 11th. Let the U.S. Forest Service know you support protection of wilderness quality lands.

As far as the San Gabriel Mountains and Angeles National Forest are concerned, Juana Torres asks you to keep in mind three main issues which need to be aggressively addressed and heard by the Forest Service:

Please ask the Forest Service to recommend Fish Canyon, Salt Creek, Tule, Red Mountai and Condor Peak as Wilderness.
Please ask the Forest Service to protect the San Gabriel River and San Antonio Creek with Wild and Scenic River designations.
Offer your personal stories of a wilderness experience hiking, camping, backpacking and exploration in wilderness-quality areas of the Angeles National Forest.

Remember, action needs to be taken quickly on this matter. Your comments for wilderness-quality lands in all four Southern California National Forests need to be submitted to the Forest Service before midnight, Monday June 11th.

Rugged landscapes abound along the Mt. Waterman trail in the San Gabriels.

False Premise: the Sportsmen’s Heritage Act

A broad push by anti-wilderness advocates in the House of Representatives over the last 18 months has resulted in several notorious pieces of destructive legislation, the most recent being the Sportsmen’s Heritage Act.

While a less-inflammatory version of the bill was introduced into the Senate last week by Montana Sen. Jon Tester, the House version of the Sportsmen’s Heritage Act has little to do with hunting or sportsmen, and everything to do with undoing America’s heritage of preserving wilderness, according to the tenets set into law in the landmark 1964 Wilderness Act.

In addition to enabling logging and mining in wilderness areas, and a provision to keep the EPA from banning lead ammunition, anti-wilderness forces are using a particularly bizarre, and demonstrably false, premise to weaken and undo the Wilderness Act by promoting the claim hunting is forbidden in wilderness areas.

While access points to wilderness areas are genuine issues for sportsmen, the real purpose behind the anti-wilderness push is to enable the use of machines powered by internal combustion engines into wilderness areas. One of the ways which anti-wilderness forces are trying to do this is by splitting the traditional coalition of hunters and conservationists, crucial to the passage of wilderness bills, by positioning the matter as a choice over hunting rights.

Supported by an array of anti-environmental legislators in Congress, the Sportsmen’s Heritage Act is in part bankrolled by the NRA, as well as the off-road lobby, which would like nothing more than to add additional space in the wild for users to “recreate” with ATVs, dirtbikes and other off-road vehicles.

Illegal dirtbike tracks along the Pacific Crest Trail in Kern County.

While the Forest Service may restrict any kind of use from a particular trail, off-roaders are often excluded from hiking trails because the trails may not be properly graded or designed to accommodate ATV traffic (doing so, in effect, makes them roads).

This is also done in order to prevent conflicts between users. Machines and horses don’t go together well, and hikers and solace-seekers have little use for whining dirtbikes and ATV exhaust and dust.

Wilderness designation officially bans machines from a trail within a wilderness area, but the argument being made by anti-wilderness advocates in the House is one Dick Cheney would love. They’re claiming hunting access is bring infringed upon in Wilderness areas because hunters can’t ride on their ATVs to a hunting area to stalk their prey.

These aren’t exactly your father’s hunters who get up at the crack of dawn and head into the wild with a full pack ~ these are hunters who want to ride to their destination, and chase down their prey once they’ve managed to wound it on their machines as well.

Sportsmen and Sustenance

Hunting has always been allowed in wilderness areas, going back to the Forest Service’s practice of identifying and protecting “primitive” areas from road-building and development in the 1920s and 30s. Hunting access for sportsmen and sustenance was a key component in the 1964 Wilderness Act, and some of the strongest supporters for Wilderness in the years since 1964 have been sportsmen. The NRA and motorized advocates are aware of this, and it is here, along recreational use fault lines, they seek to create a split.

Of course, the whole idea is counterintuitive. Ask any hunter worth his salt with a 30-06 or a crossbow, and they’ll ask you the same thing: What animals are going to be left standing around after a hunting party rides in on dirtbikes or ATVs? They might as well be arriving in helicopters or tanks.

Hunting requires silence, patience, and a willingness to let prey come to you, or the opportunity to stalk prey for hours at a time across the landscape on nature’s terms on foot, not on a machine. This is something Wilderness offers in abundance, in all corners of the U.S., and the reason hunters and sportsmen continue to value the ability to hunt and connect with nature in wilderness.

Writing in Outdoor Life, hunter Ben Lamb says of the House version

The bill would open Wilderness Areas to motorized use, oil and gas development, logging and a host of other activities that would cut the heart out of protective designations like Wilderness Areas.

If the National Parks were America’s Best Idea, the Wilderness Act was the Best Favor the nation bestowed upon itself. From a place where anyone can go in order to exercise and hike in fresh air, get back in touch with nature’s rhythms, find solace or meditation, unburden themselves of societal concerns and responsibilities, and the opportunity to confront nature on it’s own terms, Wilderness has proven itself to be a valuable commodity, as well as an economic engine for communities nearby.

Wilderness is not a drive-in, Dick Cheney-ready shooting gallery where animals are released at the blow of a whistle to be shot to pieces by waiting firearms. Real hunters and sportsmen know this, but the NRA and off-road lobbyists are trying to convince hunters otherwise in order to pass legislation which doesn’t support hunting interests, and instead would allow ATVs and other noisy, polluting machines into the wilderness of pristine hunting areas.

The Senate version is not perfect, and like the House bill appears to address problems which aren’t necessarily there. The Senate version still allows the importation of “legally harvested” polar bears from Canada, which I cannot support. It also has plenty of go-to-Hell language for the EPA, specifically saying a federal agency can’t regulate the use of lead ammunition on federal lands.

But the Senate bill does exclude the motorized component, as well as the grotesque proposals for logging in wilderness areas. And in these potentially calamitous times for environmental regulation in the U.S., where quality, long-standing clean water and clean air policy is often hanging on by a thread and the matter of a few votes, I have to be pleased the Senate version doesn’t gut the Wilderness Act the way many in the House, and those who bankroll them, are seeking to do.

Cory Hough makes her way up Mt. San Gabriel above a sea of marine layer clouds.

Impressive stands of Jeffrey and Ponderosa pine remain in the San Gabriel high country.

A famously weathered Angeles National Forest sign at a junction along the Mt. Waterman trail.

Swift Creek Séance at Washington’s Mt. St. Helens

tommy — Fri, 25 May 2012 01:20:45 +0000

One foot in front of the other, again and again.

by Tommy Hough

In the 1840s, Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry David Thoreau were some of the first American writers to appreciate the wealth and vastness of natural wonders in the still-wild United States. Writing and speaking extensively during their era, they ushered in a more spiritual, conservation-minded mode of thought relating to nature and the wild.

Except Emerson and Thoreau never bothered to hike up Mt. St. Helens. Had the famed American naturalists spent any time on the slopes of a decent-sized Cascade hill, they would’ve realized instead of holistic inspiration, the trip reduces one’s universe to a small, nearly annoyance-free scale of the task at hand: one foot in front of the other, again and again. Perhaps some may find a kind of Zen in the exercise.

This kind of hiking is a blissful, silent world without cellphones or traffic, without fevered egos or the constant assault of media. Only the sound of crunching, grinding snow and a mixture of cinders, gravel and ash under one’s feet. Everything else, flowery prose and all, falls by the wayside. Basic motivations like food, rest, movement, exploration and challenge all vie for attention. The views are pretty good too.

Heading up an endless array of ridges on the Monitor Ridge route at Mt. St. Helens.

Mt. St. Helens, Weather Maker and Volcano

Though not a technical climb, and comparatively smaller even before its catastrophic 1980 blast than its Cascade neighbors Rainier, Adams and Hood, Mt. St. Helens is no slouch. Like all Cascade peaks St. Helens is a weather maker, and remains unpredictable as moist air, fresh off the Pacific, is suddenly jammed up several thousand feet by the spine of the Cascades, super-cooled, and condensed. This results in a gamut of meteorological goofs, the least of which being sudden storms at high altitudes any time of the year.

There’s nothing like being socked in by fog, or moisture which curiously hasn’t had time to coalesce into a cohesive fog, while gale-force winds blister the back of your neck with the rattle and snap of your jacket collar, sandblasting ash into every exposed pore.

Depending on the time of year at St. Helens, avalanches are also a very real danger, and crevasses and snow bridges often lurk just below placid snowfields. Trail markings easily become lost under massive snowdrifts early in the season, or simply vanish into oblivion. Icefields can crop up when least convenient as well, so while crampons are generally not necessary to make it to the top of St. Helens’ rim during the summer, they’re certainly good to have for the unexpected, and conditions can change drastically from year to year. More than one enthusiastic Mt. St. Helens outing has been forced back or into confusion by the mountain’s bad side since the south face was re-opened to hiking in 1987.

When our group of friends and Seattle-area work colleagues initially met to discuss a trip up St. Helens one January afternoon, it seemed June would be an excellent time to go. Several people in our party had tried the mountain earlier in the spring the previous year, and found themselves to be one of the aforementioned enthusiastic parties which had to turn back when conditions became impossible. We figured June would fit the bill, as snow in the high country would still be relatively frozen from its wintertime solace, thereby reducing the risk of avalanches and crevasses, and permits would be readily available before the full-on summer stampede of July and August.

The consensus was also the weather would be reasonably consistent by June. After all, June is the beginning of summer, even in the Pacific Northwest right?

Placid and quiet, Mt. St. Helens viewed from the Spirit Lake Memorial Highway.

A Weekend Warrior Adventure, Further Condensed

So much for making plans in January. A record snowfall blanketed the Cascades this particular winter, and hadn’t even begun to recede when we made our way to the south face of St. Helens for our hike on June 12th.

Having conditioned throughout the spring on several steep Western Washington trails, particularly repeated treks up the Muir Snowfield to Camp Muir on Mt. Rainier and quick, half-day affairs at local favorites like Mt. Si, McClellan Butte and Mt. Pilchuck, we knew our St. Helens trip would in no way be snow-free. In fact, as our date approached, Forest Service roads leading to the campsite and trailhead north of Cougar remained snowed in, necessitating us to build in time hike five miles to the Climber’s Bivouac campsite over snow-covered roads.

While this didn’t come as a shock, it did require some last-minute juggling. Picking up our permits at Jack’s Restaurant in Amboy the morning of June 12th, we arranged for an additional day with the sympathetic staff. The plan was to drive to the snowline on Forest Service Route 81 and park, hike to the Climber’s Bivouac at the end of Forest Service Route 830, spend the night, summit the next day and hike out back to our cars.

We were originally planning on going up the mountain on June 12th, a Saturday, but now we would be going up the mountain and hiking back out of the bivouac to our cars all on Sunday, June 13th. A very full 24 hours. Clearly, Monday morning was going to be lousy for all involved, but no one seemed to mind. After all, what are sick days for?

Mysterious Warm Updrafts and Interrupting Adams’ Domain

The trek in was long but enjoyable. Hiking on a graded, finished roadway buried under six feet of snow removed the annoyance of tree wells, but conditioned as we were, slogging through the snow made the march up the mild grade to the Climber’s Bivouac a little more tiring as the day wore on. Views of Mt. Adams and Mt. Hood were plentiful, however, and the weather was stellar as we creeped further and further into the backcountry.

Soon we encountered the mysterious warm updrafts and downdrafts of the wild forest, blowing in from holes in thick patches of trees along the road, as the clear, blue sky gave way to high overcast clouds which eerily reflected the glow of the snow into the late afternoon.

As we reached the Climber’s Bivouac, the weather had grown strangely still, like it was getting ready to rain. The mysterious warm breezes came and went as we prepared camp on top of several feet of snow, eyeballed maps and boiled water for the next day, all under the watchful gaze of St. Helens’ south face. At times the air grew so still it seemed as though the mountain could hear our every word. After a light dinner punctuated by many hearty laughs, daylight gave way to a gray evening. I wandered about 50 yards east of the Climber’s Bivouac to find a little quiet from our party.

Moving through the crunchy, deep snow from tree to tree, avoiding the deep wells while carefully looking back at my footsteps and keeping compass in hand, I reached a high ridge and slowly surveyed the broad Swift Creek Valley below. As I looked up, I suddenly caught the awesome gaze of nearby Mt. Adams, dwarfing over me as though I’d silently interrupted the giant’s still domain.

I swallowed hard, rocking back and forth on my heels as Adams looked me over, it’s squat, truncated summit curling to the north. The great mountain’s form drifted into the high, gray overcast skies. The warm breezes returned, echoing through an opening in the woods to my right. Alone in the wilderness, Mt. Adams cast a spell.

Ghostly patches of light remained in the sky throughout the night.

Once, on a clear night in 2000 during another visit to Mt. St. Helens, I saw a fireball shoot across the sky and light up the night over Mt. St. Helens. The fireball was clearly a meteorite, very close, but so close I could feel the object’s velocity as it cut through the night sky. I’d stepped away from my friends and camping colleagues for just a moment to relieve myself, and while walking back saw the meteorite. I could hear it sizzling as it shot over me before dying a sudden death in the atmosphere an instant later.

None of my friends had seen it.

Camping at Climber's Bivouac. Monitor Rock is a prominent feature on St. Helens' south face.

Clear Skies Heralded

Following a brief drizzle, the high clouds and overcast sky remained at daybreak. Starting off we took advantage of the late-season snowpack to make a detour off Ptarmigan Trail 216A on the way to the treeline at the base of Monitor Ridge, and made a cross-country scramble up an improvised ridge trail in the snow just east of the Swift Creek lava flow (I do not advise this during non-snow conditions or without proper compass and map-reading skills).

By the time we reached the treeline at 4,000 feet, we could see a long band of blue to the west, heralding clear skies. The overcast weather kept the heat to a minimum during the morning hours, but by the time we reached Monitor Rock around mid-morning, the sun was blazing away at us, reducing our layers and sending us fumbling for sunscreen. As on the many trips up the Muir Snowfield at Mt. Rainier, standing in a clear, white reflective snowfield without the benefit of tree cover, the heat quickly built, leaving us feeling more like Lawrence of Arabia in the desert than heading into Cascade high country.

Slowly, steps at a time, we cleared ridge after ridge, as well as all the extra ridges which seem to pop up in between. The summit crest would begin to look enticingly close, then fall away into perspective as one adjusted to the appropriate depth perception in the treeless environment. A misplaced detour to the west at about 7,000 feet landed us at the northern tip of a steep icefield between the remains of the dwindling Swift and Dryer Glaciers (both beheaded in the 1980 blast), where the surface resembled a million spilled buckets of ice.

A few sphincter-clenching moments later we had worked our individual way about and around it, though a slip would’ve meant a long, bumpy, humbling tumble down unless a self-arrest was quickly made. Then, as we climbed to the top of the icefield, we realized we were standing on a slow-moving mudslide, and quickly routed back east towards the rocky lava tongue highlighting the east tip of the Monitor Ridge trail.

We began our final trek to the summit on the sharp-rocked lava tongue hoping to avoid the increasingly slick snow cover, but like any snowbound climber eventually wound up back on the more forgiving white stuff, trudging upwards, kick-stepping up the steep incline all the way.

At one point, the summit only looked as far as away as the length of Seattle’s Queen Anne Hill or San Francisco’s famous Lombard Street drop. Not even a fellow hiker’s exploding boot (remedied by some available duck tape at the summit – never leave home without it) slowed us down. Finally, at long last, we reached the top, and for our troubles nearly walked into the crater out of sheer momentum.

The view from the summit rim: Spirit Lake to the north, and Mt. Rainier bisected by clouds.

When Superlatives Fail, Silence Will Do

The view was immense, and worthy of a dictionary full of superlatives. Spectacular. There’s nothing like the view from a high peak, and from a Cascade high point you can see everything.

From Mt. St. Helens’ summit rim giant Mt. Rainier stood bisected by clouds to the north; Mt. Adams’ wise and giant form overlooked us to the east, directing the eyes towards the vast expanse of Eastern Washington into the Yakima Valley; Oregon’s shining Mt. Hood pointed up from the to the south. We could also see smog over Portland, the bend in the Columbia River at Longview to the southwest, and to the northwest, ever so far away, the seemingly puny Olympic Mountains.

We stayed at the summit for about 45 minutes, trying to stay off the overhanging cornices of snow but probably walking on them anyway, eyeballing the 1,000 ft. high Lava Dome below and taking hundreds of photographs. We wound up with a cluster of terrific group and individual shots, and rewarded ourselves with a well-deserved gaze upon the views below. Looking downhill from the rim we could see the Climber’s Bivouac, our tiny tents sitting as still as when we left them in the early morning. A Coast Guard helicopter made a brief appearance, as did an airplane which maniacally buzzed the summit at one point and waved, then seemed to fly carelessly around the crater below us.

Any hiker who’s been around will tell you going down is often more difficult than going up, as steep downward slopes are where the real wear and tear on your body takes place, particularly on your knees and ankles. Fortunately, heading down St. Helens tended to much easier than going up in this particular snowy year, and we managed to glissade down the length of the mountain like a giant waterslide, saving our knees, and in particular my achilles, which by then was humming like a high-tension power line.

My ice ax made steering down some of the snow chutes and keeping some semblance of control easier, but our last glissade chute turned out to be a very steep one indeed, nearly amusement park ride-worthy. I was one of the last to go down, and my trepidation turned to goofy delight when gravity took over, plowing me into a pile of snow at the bottom where my friends were waiting for me.

Though not all glissade chutes should be approached with the same frivolousness, when I got back up I was splattered in snow, wet, exhausted, and laughing so hard it ached my face and stomach. No one went to work the next day.

Everyone had forgotten what day it was.

A happy, obligatory group photo atop Mt. St. Helens' summit rim.

Atop Mt. St. Helens, looking towards the northwest from the summit rim.

The east side of the Mt. St. Helens crater, with the Goat Rocks in the background.

Treehuggers' Tommy at the St. Helens rim, with Mt. Adams in the background.

Radical Plans Threaten Balboa Park’s Historic Integrity

tommy — Tue, 10 Apr 2012 04:33:02 +0000

Bruce Coons from the Save Our Heritage Organisation

A proposal to build a freeway-style off ramp from the iconic Cabrillo Bridge at San Diego’s Balboa Park is raising more than a few eyebrows among preservationists and park advocates. Even the National Park Service is voicing its concern, stating the development threatens Balboa Park’s status as a National Historic Site.

On this special edition of Living Better In San Diego, produced in conjunction with Treehuggers International, Bruce Coons of the Save Our Heritage Organisation joins Tommy to talk about the proposed redesign’s threats to the integrity of Balboa Park as a special place which values history, open space, park design, taste, and respect for the public trust.

The Botanical Gardens Building and Lily Pond at San Diego's Balboa Park.

One of North America’s Great Urban Spaces

With 1,200 acres of parkland in the middle of one of the biggest cities in the U.S., Balboa Park preserves canyons and mesas and trails through desert gardens, exotic plants and even a grove of “imported” Redwoods from Northern California. The park is also home to an amazing array of Spanish Colonial Revival architecture, built for the 1915 Pan-American Exposition and praised by no less than former President Theodore Roosevelt, who complimented the park for ”buildings of rare, phenomenal taste and beauty” during a visit.

After nearly 100 years, Balboa Park remains one of San Diego’s great open space meeting places and exercise locales, where residents jog, bicycle, walk their dogs, and explore a network of urban and not-so-urban trails. The Plaza de Panama is the symbolic center of San Diego’s Balboa Park, and the midway point between the Cabrillo Bridge to the west, and the Bea Everson Fountain along Park Blvd. to the east.

In an effort to restore some of the park’s natural grandeur and space, recent conservation plans have proposed closing the Plaza de Panama’s limited parking areas in front of the San Diego Museum of Art, and instead only allowing traffic into the park via the Cabrillo Bridge during certain times of the day or for special events. Auto traffic would still be allowed into the park and to access parking areas via Park Blvd. entrances on Balboa Park’s east side.

Proposing Incompatible Infrastructure

Alcazar Gardens at Balboa Park.

However, a radical re-design proposal by La Jolla billionaire Irwin Jacobs, endorsed by San Diego Mayor Jerry Sanders, seeks to exploit the desire to close the west end of El Prado to auto traffic for something else completely.

Using an automobile-free Plaza de Panama as a rationale, the Jacobs plan proposes building a freeway-style “off ramp” from the iconic Cabrillo Bridge over the 163 freeway. The off ramp would wrap around the Museum of Man’s chapel and Alcazar Gardens, necessitating a new, wider bridge over Palm Canyon, on the way to a multi-story (!) parking garage behind the world-renowned Spreckels Organ Pavilion.

Why would anyone seek to build a multi-story parking garage and funnel more traffic into Babloa Park? Especially when the rationale for closing the Plaza de Panama to traffic is to free the western end of El Prado from regular auto traffic and restore the Plaza de Panama to its pre-automobile state?

It is of course counter-intuitive, and a shallow attempt at piggybacking an unnecessary and destructive construction project onto a conservation plan which requires no grand additions to existing park structures or any new construction.

Respect for San Diego’s Historic and Cultural Heritage

Founded in 1969, the Save Our Heritage Organisation, or SOHO, and has been protecting some of San Diego’s special places for decades. If you’re familiar with the Marston House near Balboa Park, or the Whaley House or Adobe Chapel Museum in San Diego’s Old Town, you’re likely familiar with the Save Our Heritage Organisation. SOHO makes it their mission to preserve, promote and support preservation of the architectural, cultural and historical links and landmarks which contribute to San Diego’s identity, depth, and character.

A lifelong San Diegan and preservationist, Bruce Coons is the long-time Executive Director of the Save Our Heritage Organisation, and has been a guest on Tommy’s programs before. Bruce appeared on Living Better In San Diego in 2008 to talk about the State Normal School Training Building on Park Blvd. in University Heights, and appeared on Treehuggers International in 2009 to discuss the ongoing threats to Rancho Guejito in northern San Diego.

The proposed developments to Balboa Park brings Bruce back to Living Better In San Diego, and also offers Bruce and Tommy a chance to talk about SOHO’s recent acquisition and plans for the Warner-Carrillo Ranch House near Lake Henshaw and Santa Ysabel General Store between Ramona and Julian, as well as the current state of the Villa Montezuma in Sherman Heights.

The bizarre, and some say haunted, Villa Montezuma in San Diego's Sherman Heights.

California State Parks Foundation Legacy Award Winners Video

tommy — Thu, 22 Mar 2012 19:10:01 +0000

Heroic Legislators, Advocacy, and State Parks

We’re pleased to present a video co-produced and directed by Treehuggers International founder and host Tommy Hough, in tandem with his Primary Focus production partner Gary Meade, for the California State Parks Foundation.

Created for this year’s Parks Advocacy Day, an annual lobbying event which Tommy takes part in to support California State Parks, the clip is a collection of the foundation’s Legacy Award winners from the past 10 years.

Since 2002, the California State Parks Foundation has given the Legacy Award to state legislators who go above and beyond the call of duty in protecting and enhancing California’s magnificent state park system.

We were especially honored to have Sen. Christine Kehoe, Asm. Wesley Chesbro, and Sec. of Natural Resources John Laird present for the March 20th screening of the video during the Parks Advocacy Day reception in Sacramento, when this year’s Legacy Award winner, Asm. Jared Huffman, was honored. Asm. Huffman is currently running for the U.S. House of Representatives from California’s 2nd Congressional District.

A big thanks to Traci Verardo-Torres, Jerry Emory, Linsey Fredenburg-Humes, and Kate Litzky at the California State Parks Foundation for their extraordinary help and support in making this project happen.

Primary Focus is continuing to assist former Asm. Lori Saldaña‘s campaign for the U.S. House of Representatives in California’s 52nd Congressional District with communications, media and video support.

Peg Reiter and the Legacy of Jerry Schad

tommy — Tue, 20 Dec 2011 18:18:07 +0000

San Diego's famous Spruce Street suspension bridge in Bankers Hill.

The author of Afoot and Afield In San Diego and well over a dozen other trail and guidebooks related to the outdoors of Southern California, we were very fortunate to enjoy Jerry Schad‘s company as a guest on Treehuggers International on two occasions: in July 2008, and again in July 2009. He was definitely a friend of the show.

Flowering Sea Dahlia at Torrey Pines.

Sadly, we lost Jerry to cancer on September 22nd, 2011. Treehuggers International presented a memorial show in the weeks after Jerry’s death, and one of the key people in his life mentioned during the memorial program was his wife, Peg Reiter.

Jerry’s last book, 50 Best Short Hikes San Diego, has just been released by Wilderness Press, Jerry’s long-time publisher. Jerry worked on the book over the course of the spring and summer of 2011, even as the effects of his illness grew more severe. By his side the entire time, helping and assisting in every way possible, was Peg.

Peg Reiter came to play an instrumental role in the completion of 50 Best Short Hikes San Diego, and after consulting with Susan Haynes, the Senior Editor at Wilderness Press, Treehuggers International producer and host Tommy Hough felt the best way to feature the book, and Jerry’s lasting legacy, was to welcome Peg onto the program to talk about her involvement with the book, and the precious time she was able to spend with her husband doing so.

Over the summer, Peg told Steve Schmidt from the San Diego Union-Tribune, “Even though Jerry took me to many beautiful places geographically, the most wonderful place he took me was to his heart. I shared more with Jerry Schad in our short time together than I have with some who have known me my entire life.”

The teams at Treehuggers International and KBZT FM 94/9 express our deepest condolences to Peg and the members of Jerry’s family.

Special thanks to Susan Haynes, Amber Kay Henderson and Rachel Freytag at Wilderness Press, Menasha Ridge Press, and Keen Communication.

All photos on this page were taken by Jerry Schad, and appear in 50 Best Short Hikes San Diego.

The Treehuggers International Jerry Schad Memorial program is now also on-line, featuring excerpts from Jerry’s July 13, 2008 and July 19, 2009 appearances on the show.

A placid bend in the San Diego River in Mission Gorge.

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