Treehuggers International » Show Episodes

Muir’s March and the Move to Restore Hetch Hetchy

tommy — Sun, 29 Apr 2012 18:51:58 +0000

Mike Marshall of Restore Hetchy Hetchy

With dams coming down on the Elwha River in Olympic National Park, and proposed dam removals along the Klamath and Snake rivers, how receptive are San Francisco city leaders to the idea of draining the O’Shaughnessy Dam and Hetch Hetchy Reservoir, and restoring the Hetch Hetchy Valley to its natural state?

The answer depends on who you ask. We asked Mike Marshall, the Executive Director of Restore Hetch Hetchy.

The San Francisco-based organization is busy gearing up for it’s annual Muir’s March event, happening this summer from July 29th to August 4th, as Restore Hetchy Hetchy suppotrers walk in the footsteps of John Muir to raise awareness and resources for the campaign to restore the Hetch Hetchy Valley.

"Climb the mountains and get their good tidings. Cares will drop off like autumn leaves."

The Patron Saint of American Environmentalism

The stature of John Muir in American conservation cannot be overstated. His role in protecting not only Yosemite and the area which became Sequoia National Park, but other sites throughout the American west makes him, according to biographer, Steven J. Holmes, “one of the patron saints of 20th-century American environmental activity.”

Theodore Roosevelt and John Muir, Glacier Point.

Indeed, the volume of schools and sites named for John Muir throughout California leaves no doubt of the importance of his legacy on the Golden State, and the west.

As Muir aged and became recognized for his lifetime of conservation work, he entered into one of the last great battles of his career. It was a battle which many believe hastened the end of Muir’s amazing life.

The Desecration of a National Park

The location was the Hetch Hetchy Valley in Yosemite National Park, and the fight was over the dam proposed to be built there by the city and county of San Francisco following the 1906 earthquake.

Often referred to as a rival in beauty and stature to Yosemite Valley, the Hetch Hetchy Valley was created over millions of years by the drainage of the Tuolumne River. Writing about Hetch Hetchy, John Muir said, “no holier temple has ever been consecrated by the heart of man.”

Unfortunately, despite Muir’s eloquent words and protests to the federal government, coupled with warnings about how building a dam at Hetch Hetchy and damming the Tuolumne River would forever violate the sanctity of the idea of a National Park, the will of San Francisco’s business community held sway in Congress. Hetch Hetchy became America’s first great conservation battle, but President Woodrow Wilson ultimately signed into law the Raker Act, authorizing construction of the dam, on December 19, 1913.

After working his entire adult life to preserve Yosemite, even famously hiking to Glacier Point with President Theodore Roosevelt a decade earlier, Muir was devastated. In a letter to scientist Vernon Kellogg, Muir wrote “As to the loss of the Sierra Park Valley [Hetch Hetchy], it’s hard to bear. The destruction of the charming groves and gardens, the finest in all California, goes to my heart.”

Just over a year later, on December 24, 1914, John Muir died.

Restore Hetch Hetchy

Mike Marshall is the Executive Director of Restore Hetch Hetchy, a San Francisco-based organization which seeks to return the Hetch Hetchy Valley to its natural condition, while continuing to meet the water and power needs of all the communities which depend upon the Tuolumne River.

Mike talks about the upcoming Restore Hetch Hetchy ballot measure, the need for San Francisco to at last undertake water recycling (most urban areas in California already have), the resistance of some city leaders and surprising allies Restore Hetchy Hetchy has made along the way, and the long-term use of the Tuolumne River, which will continue to be a water supply for the Central Valley and Bay Area whether or not the O’Shaugnessy Dam remains.

One of the ways which Restore Hetch Hetchy gets their message out about their mission is through their annual Muir’s March event, a multi-day trek through the backcountry of Yosemite National Park, culminating in a rally atop the O’Shaugnessy Dam. This year’s Muir’s March will happen July 29th to August 4th.

Some will march for seven days, some will trek for four, while others will simply join in on the last day for a one-day hike in the O’Shaugnessy Dam area. Each marcher raises a minimum amount of money for Restore Hetch Hetchy prior to their hike or backpack.

Seven day marchers must raise a minimum of $1,900; four day marchers must raise a minimum of $1,100; single-day hikers must contribute $100 for individuals and $190 for families. All proceeds benefit the restoration of Hetchy Hetchy, and all in Muir’s March will march in the footsteps of the great American naturalist and conservationist, John Muir.

Harrison Ford hosts this Restore Hetch Hetchy documentary on the fight to save Hetch Hetchy Valley 100 years ago.

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.

Below the Surface and the Riverview Project

tommy — Mon, 06 Feb 2012 20:39:45 +0000

A Coast to Coast Exploration of America’s Waterways

In between travels across the country, blogging for Outside magazine as Readers of the Year for 2012, and promoting and raising awareness about the plight of America’s rivers and waterways, Below the Surface co-founders Kristian Gustavson and Jared Criscuolo made time to stop by Treehuggers International to talk about the ongoing evolution of the Riverview Project, and the basic principles of Below the Surface.

Kristian and Jared are working with the USGS on their Riverview mapping project.

When We Last Met

Shortly after the explosion and collapse of BP’s Deepwater Horizon oil platform in April 2010, and the beginning of what would become the worst environmental disaster in the Gulf of Mexico and the largest maritime oil spill in history, Jared Criscuolo and Kristian Gustafson of Below the Surface paid a visit to the Gulf Coast to see for themselves the extent of the damage.

Veterans of a previous excursion to the Gulf Coast and the Atchafalaya River, the two made quick use of their established network of contacts in the region to take stock of the situation facing the environment and the livelihood of the Gulf’s fishing communities and tradition. The stories they brought back of devastated economies and ruined marshlands were tragic, as detailed by Jared in his August 2010 appearance on Treehuggers International.

Meanwhile, the long clean-up continues, along with the ongoing environmental and economic repercussions of the disaster. Sadly, little has been done to change drilling conditions in the Gulf of Mexico, and new oil leases are once again being issued for the Gulf of Mexico as U.S. domestic oil production reaches an all-time high.

Riverview and Outside

Since then, Jared and Kristian have continued growing Below the Surface, continuing their river expeditions and experimenting with alternative fuel development. The two have also been busy developing and applying new software applications which will help with better mapping and charting of waterways, as well as revealing new opportunities for river conservation and local involvement through Below the Surface’s Riverview Project.

To top it all off, Jared and Kristian were honored for their pioneering conservation approaches and adventurous spirit when they were named Outside magazine’s Readers of the Year. The two will continue to blog for Outside throughout 2012 as they further develop the Riverview Project, in conjunction with their partners at the U.S. Geological Survey, The Nature Conservancy and the Surfrider Foundation.

Paddleboarding on the Atchafalaya River.

Jared Criscuolo and Kristian Gustavson met while volunteering with the Surfrider Foundation, and upon forming Below the Surface began a number of high-profile expeditions of some of the wildest and most at-risk waterways in the nation, highlighting the need for clean and responsible water policies from the headwaters of creeks and streams to the mouths of the biggest rivers.

Kristian first explored the Gulf Coast region and the Mississippi River as part of Below the Surface’s Downstream Campaign, followed by the Gaining Ground expedition of the Atchafalaya River, one of Louisiana’s last wild waterways.

Kristian and Jared have also undertaken explorations of California’s Sacramento River as the basis of their Spring to Sandtrap expedition, which followed the length of the Sacramento River from its headwaters in the Mt. Shasta high country into the San Joaquin Valley and Sacramento Delta.

Jared also represented Below the Surface on the Coastal CODE expedition of the Alaskan panhandle, working on a weeklong beach clean-up effort with the Marine Conservation Alliance Foundation and addressing the global impact of litter and debris accumulating in the world’s oceans.

Refilling the BTS Ford F-250 with New Leaf Biofuel's B99 vegetable oil blend.

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.

Carbon Nation Director Peter Byck

tommy — Sat, 05 Nov 2011 18:00:13 +0000

A Documentary About Energy Innovators and Climate Change Solutions

Winning a slew of praise and accolades since its release last fall, the movie Carbon Nation has been gaining attention and traction throughout 2011, and we are thrilled to have director Peter Byck on the program.

Big thanks to green energy and cleantech advocate Lee Barken for his help and assistance in making this edition of Treehuggers International possible, with additional thanks to the San Elijo campus of Mira Costa College in Encinitas, California.

Terrawatts and the Magic Number of 16

Carbon Nation takes an honest, often humorous look at global warming and the long-term effects of industrialization and fossil fuel use on our planet, and features success stories of private citizens, communities and organizations moving forward with alternative energy applications. If applied en masse, these alternative and renewable energy opportunities could meet – and surpass – the current, daily energy needs of the United States.

It wasn’t too long ago, during the heady days of 2006 following the release of Al Gore’s landmark global warming-awareness film An Inconvenient Truth, when pubic demand for government and private sector solutions to address not only our addiction to oil, but mankind’s cumulative, industrial effect on climate change was reaching a fever pitch. Political leaders from both parties began to call for remedies to global warming, as phrases like “cap and trade” and “carbon credits” began filtering into the lexicon.

By the late 2000s even GOP standard-bearers like Newt Gingrich, Mitt Romney and Jon Huntsman were proposing creative, free market-based ideas to encourage more responsible behavior by persistent industrial polluters. Sen. John McCain wisely stated in the early, pre-Sarah Palin stages of his 2008 candidacy:

“We have many advantages in the fight against global warming, but time is not one of them. Instead of idly debating the precise extent of global warming, or the precise timeline of global warming, we need to deal with the central facts of rising temperatures, rising waters, and all the endless troubles that global warming will bring. We stand warned by serious and credible scientists across the world that time is short and the dangers are great. The most relevant question now is whether our own government is equal to the challenge.”

Unfortunately, the intervening years have seen a complete lack of leadership on climate change issues from the White House and Congress, coupled with a bizarre, frequently anti-science backlash from entrenched energy and oil interests and their congressional and media allies. Over time, the absence of a strong voice on climate change, the recession, and the science-defying drumbeat from the political right has eroded the upswell of public support for addressing global warming and exploring renewable energy options.

While Europe and the rest of the western world have begun to plan for the consequences of climate change and taken steps to reduce their carbon footprint, the U.S. has remained notoriously idle. In the current House of Representatives, congressional minions of the Koch Brothers and other big energy industries have been actively working to gut functional environmental regulation and oversight which has made significant strides over the last 40 years in ensuring the cleanliness of U.S. air and water.

Green Energy Grassroots Efforts and Applications

While the U.S. government has so far failed to take a strong lead on the green front, and sometimes works against the best interests of the nation’s environmental health, cities and communities, citizens’ groups and green energy innovators haven’t been waiting for anyone to tell them “go.” The business of making the world a cleaner, healthier, more energy-efficient place is right at home in the U.S. with abundant innovation, complimented by some federal and state tax breaks available for green outlets.

Among the many fascinating characters we meet in Carbon Nation, one is Texas farmer Cliff Etheridge, who currently counts wind as one of his “crops.” As the owner of Peak Wind, one of the world’s largest wind farm outlets, Cliff had seen how other energy companies were leasing his neighbors’ land to develop wind farms. Instead of leasing his own land, he opted to utilize hundreds of acres of his own farmland to build a wind farm business, with dozens of giant windmills taking him off the grid and creating a functional, lucrative business for himself, his son, and others from his west Texas hometown in need of jobs.

Peter Byck also spends time with Alaska geothermal pioneer Bernie Karl in Carbon Nation, and the good news with geothermal is you no longer have to be sitting atop a geyser or volcanic field to tap into the earth’s energy. Bernie invented a way to use water heated to only 165 degrees to create geothermal power; previously water had to be at least 250 degrees, and more realistically, had to be on the way to 400 degrees to be effective. With this new geothermal innovation, it’s now possible to draw hot water from the earth’s crust nearly anywhere, even in the middle of Manhattan, and utilize the power of the planet for electricity and energy needs.

One face in Carbon Nation may be already familiar to some. Van Jones is the author of Green Collar Economy and the former Special Advisor for Green Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation at the White House Council on Environmental Quality under President Obama. Van was also the primary advocate for the Green Jobs Act, signed into law by President Bush in 2007, and notable for being the first federal legislation to utilize the term “green jobs.” In Carbon Nation, Van takes the filmmakers to a Solar Richmond and Grid Alternatives project site in the Bay Area, as employees and trainees work to make pre-exisiting structures as energy efficient as possible, and in doing so, help create a green energy industry and workforce with real-world applications.

Peter Byck also introduces Carbon Nation viewers to retired U.S. Army Col. Dan Nolan, and former CIA Director R. James Woolsey, both are members of the growing number of “Green Hawks” in the U.S. military and national security agencies. Led by policy makers, intelligence professionals, and hardened veterans of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, the Green Hawks have become a formidable voice within the military, leading the Pentagon towards energy efficiency to make overseas operations less costly and more effective, and to make supply lines and energy independence for overseas missions less vulnerable.

Carbon Nation Director Peter Byck in the editing suite.

Losing A Friend: Jerry Schad, 1949 – 2011

tommy — Fri, 23 Sep 2011 19:28:34 +0000

“I was just enthralled with the greater world out there.”

We at Treehuggers International are saddened to learn our friend Jerry Schad has died. He was 61.

Oaks dot green hillsides in March at the Santa Ysabel Open Space Preserve.

Jerry Schad, 1949 – 2011

by Tommy Hough, Treehuggers International founder and host.

As many Treehuggers International fans know, Jerry Schad, a long-time San Diego-area outdoorsman, astronomer, teacher, author and guest on the show, had been suffering from stage four kidney cancer since a terminal diagnosis in March.

Following the diagnosis, Jerry opted to propose to his girlfriend Peg a few months earlier than he’d originally planned, and they were married shortly thereafter. Jerry began getting his affairs in order, and retired to his view-laden condominium on Cortez Hill to ride out his illness. As those who followed the news of Jerry’s condition throughout the spring and summer know, Peg was an absolute constant by his side.

Pragmatically seeing life through a filter of astronomy and outdoor adventure, Jerry calmly compared his cancer to losing control in a kayak in a fast-moving river, telling San Diego Union-Tribune writer Steve Schmidt in an interview in August, “there’s absolutely no way to claw myself back.”

The author of 16 books, most notably Afoot and Afield In San Diego, the definitive round-up of San Diego County hikes and trails, Jerry Schad also penned Orange and Los Angeles county editions of Afoot and Afield, compiled the comprehensive regional “best of” volume 101 Hikes In Southern California (including treks in Southern California’s Inland Empire), and authored several books on bicycling and jogging, including The Trail Runner’s Guide to San Diego and The Back Roads of San Diego County.

Jerry also wrote the Roam-A-Rama column in the San Diego Reader for 18 years, until he brought it to a close earlier this year when his cancer began to impede his ability to write and edit material.

A Lifelong Californian, With An Eye to the Stars

A native of San Jose and graduate of U.C. Berkeley, Jerry first came to the San Diego area in 1972 to begin post-graduate courses at San Diego State University, where he received his master’s degree in 1975. He began teaching shortly thereafter, but made it a point to travel, hike and backpack as often and wherever he could in the outdoors of Southern California, which he came know and appreciate like no other.

While the Great Outdoors was Jerry’s hobby and recreation, astronomy was Jerry’s passion. Fascinated with the planets and stars as a young boy, Jerry grew up to become an astronomy professor, teaching at San Diego Mesa College for over 20 years, and eventually coming to serve as the chairman of Mesa College’s physical sciences department.

After his first appearance on Treehuggers International in 2008, Jerry invited me to an outdoor astronomy lab he was conducting with freshman students off Sunrise Highway in the Laguna Mountains. Using his laser pointer as the sun fell away and the “canopy of stars” opened above, Jerry diagrammed the constellations and explained their origins, discussed the remarkable similarity different civilizations had of the same constellations, and pointed his array of telescopes at heavenly bodies from the moon and Mars to the Jovian satellites. It was the first time I’d ever seen Jupiter’s moons through a telescope, and for me, it remains a wonderful way to remember the man.

Memorial and Balboa Park Legacy

According to the details in Steve Schmidt’s article on Jerry’s death in the San Diego Union-Tribune,

A memorial celebration will be held Oct. 9 at 4 p.m. at the El Cortez Hotel, 702 Ash St.

The family said donations in Mr. Schad’s name may be made to Friends of Balboa Park, 2125 Park Blvd., San Diego, CA, 92101. The funds will be used to maintain park trails and on related efforts. The family requests that no flowers be sent.

Peg Reiter, Jerry’s widow, later wrote in an e-mail to friends,

If you want to make a contribution in honor of Jerry, please send your donation to:

Friends of Balboa Park, 2125 Park Boulevard, San Diego, CA 92101

Note on your check your donation is in Jerry’s memory. Jerry and I chose this charity for two reasons:

1) Jerry was on the committee that developed the trails system in Balboa Park, and
2) Our first date was in Balboa Park on Trail 43, which is now officially being renamed the “Jerry Schad Memorial Trail.”

Jerry had the unusual opportunity to write his own obituary over the summer; Peg has updated it since his death. I wrote about the effect Jerry had on me personally in an August 2nd post entitled Jerry Schad’s Afoot and Afield Legacy. Peg later wrote to tell me she had an opportunity to share the piece with her husband.

A special tribute edition of Treehuggers International, featuring excerpts from Jerry’s July 13, 2008 and July 19, 2009 appearances, is now available at the top of this page.

We at Treehuggers International wish to express our deepest condolences to Peg and the members of Jerry’s family.

Zuma Canyon wildflowers, Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area.

Amy Gulick and Salmon In the Trees

tommy — Sun, 04 Sep 2011 16:38:21 +0000

The New Science of an Ancient Cycle of Life

In conjunction with our friends at Braided River and The Mountaineers Books, we are thrilled to at last present our conversation with acclaimed nature photographer Amy Gulick, the creative force behind the book and photographic journey Salmon In the Trees: Life In Alaska’s Tongass Rainforest.

Special thanks to Greg MacArthur and the staff at the CBS Radio cluster in Seattle for their help making this show possible.

Research has found colossal amounts of nutrient-rich salmon DNA in ancient Tongass forests.

Where the Rainforest Still Reigns Supreme

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. The rainforest’s footprint lies along the west side of the Pacific Coast ranges from Prince William Sound in Alaska, all along the coast of British Columbia and Vancouver Island, through the Pacific Northwest of Washington and Oregon, and into the Redwood belt of Northern California.

While this is the largest temperate rainforest eco-region in the world, barely any of it’s native footprint survives today, with only four or five percent of the original old-growth intact. The lion’s share of that intact, ancient old-growth temperate rainforest lies in the Tongass National Forest in southeast Alaska: along hundreds of miles of coastline, in glacial fjords, and on some 5,000 thousand islands, big and small.

Lush vegetation abounds in the Tongass. At about 17 million acres, or about the size of West Virginia, the forests of the Tongass are known for their prodigious stands of old-growth Sitka Spruce and Western Redcedar, as well as dense growths of epiphytes and mosses. The area is also known for abundant wildlife, driven by the astonishing volume of salmon which pass annually through the region’s watersheds, the bears which consume them, and the amazing cycle of life they all play a part in.

"Do not disturb." Black Bear at Anan Creek, Tongass National Forest.

“Tug on anything at all, and you’ll find it connected to everything else.” – John Muir

For two years, writer and photographer Amy Gulick paddled and trekked among bears, islands and salmon streams to document the Tongass National Forest in it’s primeval, natural state. At one point she even found herself keeping company with black bears on a riverbank dining on salmon, oblivious to her presence only because of the bounty of food in front of them, literally jumping out of the rivers and streams, as salmon defy gravity to head upstream to spawn.

Salmon in the Trees was chosen to receive a 2011 Nautilus Book Award, which recognizes books which “promote spiritual growth, conscious living, and positive social change,” and is the winner of the 2010 IPPY Award, an independent publisher book award.

Along with spectacular photos of this vibrant, verdant landscape, Salmon In the Trees also features stories and contributions of Alaskans who live in and are dependent upon the forest, essays by Ray Troll and John Straley, and from members of the Tlingit, Haida and Tsimshian, whose cultures are deeply interconnected to the cycles of life featured in Salmon In the Trees.

Southeast Alaska Tour

Amy’s Salmon In the Trees book tour of southeast Alaska continues with a monthlong exhibit at the Juneau Arts and Culture Center at 350 Whittier St., beginning Tuesday, September 27th. Click HERE for more details, or scroll down to the see the poster below. The event runs through Saturday, October 29th.

The event on Tuesday the 27th gets underway at 5:30 pm with an artist’s reception with appetizers and drinks, followed by a presentation with Amy Gulick and by book signing at 7:00. The event is free and open to the public, and families are encouraged to attend!

The Tongass has one of the highest denisties of bald eagles in the world.

Four years after taking a photo of a Tlingit girl, Amy Gulick reunites with her young subject.

Restoring Gettysburg Battlefield

tommy — Thu, 04 Aug 2011 15:31:13 +0000

Cinda Waldbuesser of the National Parks Conservation Association

Treehuggers International welcomes Cinda Waldbuesser, the Pennsylvania Senior Program Manager with the National Parks Conservation Association, to talk about the restoration work done at Gettysburg National Military Park over the last 10 years by the National Park Service, in conjunction with the Gettysburg Foundation.

Thanks to Treehuggers International friend Perry Wheeler with the National Parks Conservation Association office in Washington DC, and Katie Lawhon at Gettysburg National Military Park for their help and assistance making this show possible.

The statue of Union Gen. G.K. Warren surveys the view from Little Round Top.

No Shortage of Carnage

Fought over the course of three days in July 1863, Gettysburg is the most famous of Civil War battles, and one of the most terrible, even for a war which had no shortage of carnage or butchery, with some 50,000 casualties on both sides, including 10,000 killed.

The battle was the culmination of Confederate General Robert E. Lee’s second invasion of the north, following an inconclusive invasion of Maryland the previous September, which resulted in the savage bloodletting at the Battle of Antietam, a battle whose scope and casualties shocked both sides.

Rather than an attempt to seize territory, Lee’s invasion of Pennsylvania was prompted by supply necessities. The Army of Northern Virginia could no longer forage for food or live off the land in war-torn Virginia, so following the Confederate victory at Chancellorsville in May 1863, Lee gambled on Union confusion to launch a summer invasion of the north.

While Confederate cavalry under General J.E.B. Stuart threatened Harrisburg and briefly occupied Carlisle, the bulk of Lee’s army barely penetrated the Keystone State’s border by more than 12 miles. Federal forces under the Army of the Potomac’s new commander General George Meade positioned themselves between the Confederates and Washington DC, buying time for reserves to be drawn out of the capital to help repel the southern invasion. Federal cavalry, newly energized after an impressive stand at the Battle of Brandy Station, initiated flanking maneuvers against Stuart’s cavalry units.

Following several days of small-scale firefights, both armies jockeyed for position near the crossroads town of Gettysburg, through which the major east-west National Road and north-south Taneytown Road pass. Lee’s forces, now advancing from the north, pushed panicked federal defenders through the streets of Gettysburg after engagements at Barlow Knoll and Oak Ridge smashed the Union line on July 1st, but Meade fell back to excellent, high ground defensive positions anchored at Cemetery Hill, forming a line running some four miles south of town.

As the lines coalesced, Confederate flanking attempts were made on July 2nd on the Federal right at Culp’s Hill, and horrific, daylong close-quarter bloodbaths took place in benign-sounding locales like the Wheatfield, which changed hands several times in a matter of hours, and at the Peach Grove, which fell to Confederate advances by the end of the day on July 2nd.

At the chillingly named Devil’s Den, at the base of Little Round Top, Federal troops held off Confederate assaults during hours of macabre hand-to-hand fighting, often in narrow gaps and draws in bizarre, otherwordly rock outcroppings.

The fighting sapped southern strength on the Union left, enabling Meade’s forces to quickly claim and hold Little Round Top. By late afternoon Union artillery was raining devastating fire onto southern forces attacking out of Pitzer Woods and Warfield Ridge to the west and south.

By the end of July 2nd, the Union line held: to the north along the edge of Gettysburg at Cemetery Hill, and to the south at Little Round Top, where the 20th Maine under Colonel Joshua Chamberlin held the southern end of the line, thereby maintaining Union control of the battle, but under murderous, non-stop Confederate attack by newly-committed Alabama troops.

Union defenders paid dearly at the Wheatfield and Devil’s Den, but bought time for reinforcements, which continued to arrive from Washington even as Lee was committing his reserves with a failed assault on East Cemetery Hill.

Three Confederate divisions attempted to advance across this field to attack the Union center.

A Massed, Futile Assault

Realizing he needed to break the back of the Union line, Lee chose to do so at the center with a massive assault, which almost all of his staff, including his deputy, General James Longsteet, vehemently opposed. Union General Meade had correctly anticipated Lee’s moves throughout the battle, falling into excellent defensive positions by the end of the first day, and at a Council of War at the end of the second day predicted Lee would advance on the Union center, just over the hill beyond his headquarters near a farmhouse and several groves of trees.

After several cavalry actions on July 3rd, including a renewed assault at the northern end of the Union line near Culp’s Hill, Lee unleashed the largest artillery bombardment of the war up to that time on the Union center. Holding the high ground along Cemetery Ridge, Meade knew he held an advantage against an attack from the west, and only ordered batteries on either end of the barrage to fire on Confederate positions, leaving artillery in the center to remain largely silent during the two-hour bombardment. There was no secret as to what was coming next.

Advancing in three division-sized groups from Seminary Ridge and Spangler’s Woods along a mile-long front, Longstreet placed General George Pickett in command of the assault, which saw the bulk of nine regiments of the Army of Northern Virginia advancing uphill against fortified artillery and infantry positions.

The weather was hot and humid, in the 80s, and the objective was a grove, or copse, of trees a mile away at the center of the Federal II Corps position, but this was academic to Confederate officers. The advance was in broad daylight over a mile of open ground, with zero surprise.

Union artillery began firing before the southern infantry had advanced beyond the treeline, and even long rounds did damage to Confederate troops massing along Seminary Ridge. The Confederates advanced in a skirmish line at a medium pace, and largely held discipline while under withering artillery fire from the federal left and right. The center remained silent, even though the advancing southerners could clearly see cannon pointing at them.

About halfway across the Confederates jumped into double-time, at which point federal artillery in the center at last fired, wiping out half of the advancing troops within a matter of minutes. Federal infantry opened up on the advancing survivors as they closed in on Union lines, cutting down soldiers one and two at a time, though a few Confederate troops managed to reach the Angle near the bullet-pocked Brian farmhouse before being surrounded and gunned down. One New York battery grimly summed up the point-blank use of artillery at this stage of the Confederate charge as “double canister shot at 10 yards.” It was a mass, grotesque slaughter.

The High Water Mark of the Confederacy

Today, the Angle and Copse of Trees literally mark the Confederate High Water Mark, dotted up and down the line with Union unit monuments, facing Confederate monuments a mile away along Seminary Ridge.

The High Water Mark didn’t just represent the failure of the southern effort at Gettysburg, it marked the High Water Mark of the Confederacy. Though the south would have one last major victory at Chattanooga later in 1863, the die was cast with Pickett’s Charge. The war would drag on for nearly two more years, but never again would a Confederate army manage a large-scale offensive.

By 1864, newly-installed Union commander Ulysses Grant initiated total war against the south, bringing to bear the full might of Union industry, technology and manpower against the southern states, and the U.S. at last found a way to grind out a winning formula, however hellish, to a war it had once taken far less seriously than it’s adversary, at first dismissively referring to motivated Confederate troops as rebels and mutineers.

The rocks of The Angle mark the High Water Mark of the Confederacy.

A New Cyclorama Home, and A Casino Threat

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. Many of the near 5,000 Union troops killed in the battle were buried at this new National Cemetery, where President Abraham Lincoln delivered the Gettysburg Address during the cemetery’s dedication four months later in November 1863. The Department of the Army managed the battlefield site for decades before transferring the property to the National Park Service in 1933.

National Battlefields and Historic sites play somewhat the same role in the eastern U.S. as National Monuments do in the west; that is, protecting resources and practicing conservation within a smaller footprint, but on a scale which still enables wildlife corridors and open space aesthetics, and acts as a bulwark to encroaching urbanization.

The Battle of Gettysburg retains a place in history as a turning point in the war, but its legacy extends beyond military history, as Gettysburg National Military Park preserves some 4,000 acres of the battlefield and adjoining areas, including streams, fields, meadows, orchards, and several good-sized hills for its area within the Pennsylvania Piedmont coastal plain and Potomac watershed.

Working in conjunction with the National Park Service in renovating the battlefield to its state on the eve of battle in 1863, the Gettysburg Foundation is representative of the kind of locally-based, quality public/private partnerships which have developed over the last decade, enabling Park Service professionals to focus on resource protection and law enforcement, while foundation volunteers and employees staff the new LEED-certified visitor center and museum.

Opened in 2008, the new Gettysburg visitor center not only features outstanding historic artifact displays and film experiences, it is also the new home of the restored Gettysburg Cyclorama, painted by French artist Paul Philippoteaux and first exhibited in a tour of the U.S. in 1883.

The National Parks Conservation Association has also worked with the National Park Service and Gettysburg Foundation to help remove the Gettysburg National Tower, built in 1974 on private property but considered a park eyesore by battlefield conservationists until its demolition in 2000. The NPCA has also helped combat the threat of a proposed casino in significant proximity to the battlefield’s borders.

Monuments along Cemetery Ridge mark where Union firepower decimated the Confederate advance.

A Century of Conservation At Muir Woods

tommy — Mon, 11 Jul 2011 20:49:18 +0000

Ranger Lou Sian of Muir Woods National Monument

Treehuggers International is pleased to welcome Ranger Lou Sian to talk about the magnificence of the coastal Redwood forest ecosystem, and the effort a century ago to save a surviving old-growth grove minutes away from the growing metropolis of San Francisco, resulting in Muir Woods National Monument.

Thanks to Lindsay Bartsh at the National Parks Conservation Association, and Muir Woods Sight Supervisor Mia Monroe for their help with this program. A very special thanks to Paul Lancour for his technical assistance with this edition of Treehuggers International.

The older a Redwood gets, the more rot and fire-resistant it becomes.

“My Dear Mr. Kent: By George! You are right!”

Sprouting from a seed no bigger than a tomato, Redwoods have a special place in western conservation culture. Along with being the tallest trees in the world, California’s Redwoods are also some of the world’s most rot-resistant trees, and by virtue of their bark, size, and typical surrounding 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 in groves of five or six in a small, thin coastal band from Big Sur to the Oregon border, Redwoods once covered some two million acres of the Northern California coast. But due to over-logging, and a lack of understanding about the Redwood forest ecosystem, those once great stands were denuded to the few stands which survive today. While most surviving old-growth Redwood groves have since been preserved in various California state and National Parks, some old-growth Redwood groves do survive today on private timberland, and calls for their preservation occasionally percolate to the surface.

One of the few surviving stands of old-growth Redwoods in the San Francisco Bay Area, Muir Woods lies in a canyon along the Pacific coast in southwestern Marin County, and was one of the first National Park Service units of what is now collectively referred to as the Golden Gate National Recreation Area.

Like classic old-growth Redwood forests, it relies upon fog for regular moisture, and this abundance of fog results in a locally wet environment which ensures abundant plant growth similar to that seen in the Pacific Northwest.

Named for the great naturalist, savior of Yosemite, and Sierra Club founder John Muir, Muir Woods was set aside as a National Monument in Muir’s honor by his friend and fellow conservationist, President Theodore Roosevelt in 1908, at the urging of area businessman and future congressman William Kent, after a Sausalito water company announced plans to dam the canyon.

Muir Woods became the first National Monument to be created from land donated by a private individual, rather than land already in federal government inventory.

Salmon-spawning Redwood Creek on it's way to the Pacific Ocean.

Fireworks Over La Jolla Cove

tommy — Sun, 03 Jul 2011 00:17:44 +0000

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.

Smoke from the 2011 La Jolla fireworks drifts lazily in the thick air.

Treehuggers International » Show Episodes

Muir’s March and the Move to Restore Hetch Hetchy

Mike Marshall of Restore Hetchy Hetchy

The Patron Saint of American Environmentalism

The Desecration of a National Park

Restore Hetch Hetchy

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Radical Plans Threaten Balboa Park’s Historic Integrity

Bruce Coons from the Save Our Heritage Organisation

One of North America’s Great Urban Spaces

Proposing Incompatible Infrastructure

Respect for San Diego’s Historic and Cultural Heritage

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Below the Surface and the Riverview Project

A Coast to Coast Exploration of America’s Waterways

When We Last Met

Riverview and Outside

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Peg Reiter and the Legacy of Jerry Schad

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Carbon Nation Director Peter Byck

A Documentary About Energy Innovators and Climate Change Solutions

Terrawatts and the Magic Number of 16

Green Energy Grassroots Efforts and Applications

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Losing A Friend: Jerry Schad, 1949 – 2011

“I was just enthralled with the greater world out there.”

Jerry Schad, 1949 – 2011

A Lifelong Californian, With An Eye to the Stars

Memorial and Balboa Park Legacy

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Amy Gulick and Salmon In the Trees

The New Science of an Ancient Cycle of Life

Where the Rainforest Still Reigns Supreme

“Tug on anything at all, and you’ll find it connected to everything else.” – John Muir

Southeast Alaska Tour

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Restoring Gettysburg Battlefield

Cinda Waldbuesser of the National Parks Conservation Association

No Shortage of Carnage

A Massed, Futile Assault

The High Water Mark of the Confederacy

A New Cyclorama Home, and A Casino Threat

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A Century of Conservation At Muir Woods

Ranger Lou Sian of Muir Woods National Monument

“My Dear Mr. Kent: By George! You are right!”

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Fireworks Over La Jolla Cove