California State Parks Foundation Legacy Award Winners Video
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 state parks lobbying event in Sacramento, the clip is a collection of the foundation’s Legacy Award winners, i.e. legislators who have gone above and beyond the call of duty in protecting California’s state park system.
Peg Reiter and the Legacy of Jerry Schad
A special conversation with Peg Reiter, Jerry Schad’s widow, about their hikes, explorations, and all too brief time together, along with Peg’s involvement with Jerry’s final book, 50 Best Short Hikes San Diego. Peg Reiter came to play an instrumental role in the completion of the book, and after consulting with the team 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.
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.
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.
Jerry Schad’s Afoot and Afield Legacy
Before long, I was driving up fire roads on the Los Coyotes reservation near Warner Springs to the forests at the base of Hot Springs Mountain, only to be sideswiped by a view of the Salton Sea I will never forget, appearing like a giant mirage through the trees. I visited the oak groves of Oakoasis in Lakeside and was pleased to find such heavy tree wisdom so close to civilization, cared for as a county park. I walked along the headwaters of the wild Santa Margarita River on the backside of Camp Pendleton, and was calmed by its stillness and quiet.
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.
