Peg Reiter and the Legacy of Jerry Schad
Jerry Schad’s widow, Peg Reiter, joins us for a special conversation about their hikes, explorations, and all too brief time together, along with her involvement with Jerry’s just-released final book, 50 Best Short Hikes San Diego.
Carbon Nation Director Peter Byck
The importance isn’t whether you believe global warming, says Carbon Nation director Peter Byck, but what kind of solutions everyone can agree upon and move forward with to make the planet a cleaner and more energy efficient place. Taking an honest, often humorous look at global warming and the long-term effects of fossil fuel use, Carbon Nation features success stories of private citizens, communities and organizations moving forward with alternative energy applications.
Losing A Friend: Jerry Schad, 1949 – 2011
A hiker, outdoorsman, astronomer and lifelong Californian, Jerry Schad was the author of 16 books, including Afoot and Afield In San Diego, considered the definitive publication of San Diego County hikes and trails. He was also the author of Orange and Los Angeles county editions of Afoot and Afield, a regional “best of,” and books on bicycling and trail running. Jerry also authored the Roam-A-Rama column in the San Diego Reader, which ran for 18 years until he brought it to a close earlier this year.
Amy Gulick and Salmon In the Trees
The Tongass National Forest in southeast Alaska is the official designation for the largest surviving component of original Pacific temperate rainforest left in North America. For two years, writer and photographer Amy Gulick paddled and trekked among bears, islands and salmon streams to document the Tongass in it’s primeval, natural state. The result is her award-winning book and photographic journey through the natural heritage and indigenous culture of the Tongass in Salmon In the Trees.
Restoring Gettysburg Battlefield
The Battle of Gettysburg in July 1863 was the turning point in the Civil War, but the battle’s legacy extends beyond military history, as Gettysburg National Military Park today preserves 4,000 acres of the battlefield and adjoining areas. Preservation of the Gettysburg battlefield began shortly after the battle ended, with a portion of East Cemetery Hill developed by the War Department into Gettysburg National Cemetery, where President Lincoln delivered the Gettysburg Address four months after the battle at the cemetery’s dedication.
A Century of Conservation At Muir Woods
Redwoods have a special place in western conservation culture. Along with being the tallest trees in the world, Redwoods are also some of the world’s most rot-resistant trees, and by virtue of their bark, size, and ecosystem, Redwoods are amazingly fire-resistant. Other than man, or the occasional well-placed windstorm, Redwoods have no natural enemies, and can thrive for hundreds if not thousands of years. Growing along a thin coastal band from Big Sur to the Oregon border, Redwoods once covered two million acres of the Northern California coast.
Fireworks Over La Jolla Cove
Environmental attorney Marco Gonzalez is the co-founder of the Coast Law Group and the Executive Director of CERF, the Coastal Environmental Rights Foundation, and has been in the vanguard in the fight against fireworks displays over the beaches at La Jolla Cove. Mr. Gonzalez and his team have also been active in pointing out the willingness of elected officials, and even the pubic, to turn a blind eye to blatant violations of state and federal clean water and clean air laws.
Reconnecting Children to the Outdoors
A strange thing began happening about 20 years ago. Kids stopped going outside. With competition from electronic media and parents’ schedules growing increasingly busy with longer work hours, the volume of kids making time to go outside and play is now far smaller than it used to be. Over time, a misplaced culture of fear about the outdoors also began to take hold, the result of irresponsible media and, in some cases, hyperactive parenting. The outdoors began to be seen not as a place of wonder and experience and fun, but as a place of danger and threat.
