End Pavement

Thanks to the Press-Enterprise and Jennifer Bowles for yesterday’s story, “Public input sought on plan for preserve near Seven Oaks Dam”.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is narrowing down ways to protect endangered species living below the Seven Oaks Dam near Highland, and considering whether to truck water to a preserve area or build a dike to funnel water from the Santa Ana River.

The federal agency is holding a meeting at 6:30 p.m. Thursday in San Bernardino to get public input into ways to manage the 760-acre reserve for the San Bernardino kangaroo rat and two endangered flowers, the Santa Ana woolly star and the slender-horned spineflower, Megan Wong, an environmental coordinator with the Corps of Engineers, said Tuesday.

Details:

Thursday’s meeting will be held at the San Bernardino County Flood Control District, 825 E. Third St., San Bernardino.

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The Press-Enterprise had an article a couple of days ago describing current efforts to identify and preserve wildlife corridors across Southern California. A new report has been issued about various linkages missing from the overall network of routes.

“Essentially, if one of these linkages is lost, it reduces the ecological integrity of the entire network,” said Kristeen Penrod, conservation director for South Coast Wildlands.

In 2000, land managers, conservancy groups and academic and government scientists from such agencies as the National Park Service, the U.S. Forest Service and state parks gathered at the San Diego Zoo. There, they identified 232 wildlife linkages in California, 69 of them in Southern California.

Some of those same scientists narrowed the critical list down to the 15 linkages released in the latest report, “South Coast Missing Linkages: a Wildland Network for the South Coast Ecoregion.”

A PDF of the report is available for download as well.

From the LA Times, a story in miniature of what the State of California hopes to do for the entire Salton Sea — and done by one determined woman.

“Part of Salton Sea’s desolate shore made into a lush oasis”

[Debi] Livesay is no scientist. She’s a former journalist with a gift for big ideas, a talent for securing grants and total self confidence.

As the Salton Sea dwindles, pesticide-laced sediments have blown over the reservation, exposing thousands of tribal members and other nearby residents to toxic chemicals. In 2001, Livesay, the tribe’s head of water resources, was charged with finding a solution.

“We can’t afford to have the Salton Sea dry out or people couldn’t live here anymore,” she said. “It would be 200 times bigger than Owens Lake. All you need is an inch of water to keep the dust settled. So I said, ‘Let’s make a wetland.’”

It wasn’t easy by any means, and despite the great success there are still challenges, especially from illegal hunters who prowl the outskirts of the new wetlands, killing birds indiscriminately and leaving their bodies. Not to mention the dumping that has been going on for decades, leaving the Torres Martinez reservation “one of the most polluted in the West.”

Even so, as the toxic cleanup continues, Livesay is navigating the jurisdictional issues to get poachers arrested…and amazing things are happening out there in the desert.

She cut the engine.

“Wait until you go around the corner,” she said. “You have never seen anything like it.”

A few feet away, birds were thick as mosquitoes. They floated in dark, choppy water and buzzed about like feathery missiles.

“You have birds here that shouldn’t be here, birds from Canada all the way down to Central America,” she said. “People come from all over the world to see this sight. There is no other place like it. And that’s why we have to preserve it.”

An article in the LA Times this past week ups the ante in the story on Southern California’s dry spell (covered previously here on End Pavement): “L.A. urges conserving water in dry spell”

Los Angeles officials urged residents Wednesday to reduce water consumption by 10% as weather forecasters predicted the region’s historic dry spell will combine with a summer of record-setting temperatures.

Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa’s call for conservation — the first water-reduction goal the city has issued in more than a decade — comes as water agencies across Southern California are trying to deal with the driest season on record.

In my post back in March, the Times reported that Downtown had received 2.4 inches of rain since July 1, 2006. Three months later, that total is still less than 4 inches.

Despite things not being as bad as the droughts during the late Eighties when mandatory conservation and other measures were passed,

…this summer is expected to be as hot, if not hotter, than last summer, during which several record-breaking heat waves were blamed for the deaths of more than 100 people across the state.

Mayor Villaraigosa is pushing for voluntary conservation for now.

“Los Angeles needs to change course and conserve water to steer clear of this perfect storm,” Villaraigosa said. “The combination of record-low rainfall, the second-lowest snowpack ever recorded and a potentially very hot summer is a perfect storm that could put Los Angeles into a drought.”

Very thought-provoking essay over at Bike Commute Tips — “Bicycling against car culture” — in which this amazing tidbit resides:

One of the challenges is, of course, the hegemonic dominance of the automobile in American culture. The U.S. automobile industry spends $17 billion each year on advertising–by comparison, almost double what the federal government spends on transit ($9 billion)–to promote the supposed ego-satisfaction benefits of their product.

From afar, you see big changes happening in places like London, San Francisco, and elsewhere. Is there any chance for a car-cultural revolution in the entire US, or will they keep it going as long as the oil holds out?

Today would have been John Muir’s 169th birthday, but considering all he did in his life, he lived every year like two. From Wikipedia:

John Muir (April 21, 1838 – December 24, 1914) was one of the first modern conservationists. His letters, essays, and books telling of his adventures in nature, and wildlife, especially in the Sierra Nevada Mountains of California, were read by millions and are still popular today. His direct activism helped to save the Yosemite Valley and other wilderness areas. The Sierra Club, which he founded, is now one of the most important conservation organizations in the United States. His writings and philosophy strongly influenced the formation of the modern environmental movement.

The Sierra Club website has a John Muir Exhibit which includes Google Earth tie-ins to follow along with his adventures.

John Muir led a life that mixed high adventure and heartfelt advocacy for the protection of wilderness — an approach to living summed up in the Sierra Club motto: Explore, Enjoy and Protect the Planet.

Now, you can explore some of the important places and moments in Muir’s life with Google Earth, powerful mapping software you can download for free.

Give the nearest patch of dirt a friendly pat tomorrow and wish the planet a happy Earth Day while you’re at it. ;)

And then on Monday, wish my wife Denyse a Happy Birthday! ;D