It’s the fourth year of drought in California. We’re suffering big fires in Northern California, employment drops and spikes of poverty in the Central Valley, and asking for unprecedented conservation in Southern California. We’re also seeing huge impacts on groundwater and to wildlife statewide. We’re hurting. But is it possible that despite our losses theContinue reading “It’s the fourth year of drought in CA. How are we doing?”
Category Archives: the land
Patzert: El Niño 2015 a potential Godzilla. Maybe.
On a slow news day in August, NOAA’s prediction yesterday that El Niño will continue to strengthen and may well bring big precipitation to the southern half of the country (not just SoCal) made headline news across the nation. But the focus in the LATimes — and several other news outlets — came not fromContinue reading “Patzert: El Niño 2015 a potential Godzilla. Maybe.”
PCT Section I: From Tuolumne Meadows to Sonora Pass (mile 960-972)
In the last couple of weeks had the opportunity and the great joy to complete two more sections of the PCT, from Tuolumne Meadows in Yosemite NP to the south Lake Tahoe area. Almost exactly 150 miles. In writing up this I’m going to try and follow the advice of a friend who saw aContinue reading “PCT Section I: From Tuolumne Meadows to Sonora Pass (mile 960-972)”
Cliff-jumpers vs. condors in SoCal
This past week, as part of its annual outdoor recreation issue, High Country News published my story on the conflict between thrill-seeking cliff-jumpers in Southern California invading the ancestral home of the endangered California Condor. Let me open up the package for you to entice you to take a look; Before he heads out toContinue reading “Cliff-jumpers vs. condors in SoCal”
SoCal sunset w/weird shapes in sky
Overlooking Ojai under the swirling remnants of Hurricane Dolores: By phone, as an experiment.
The beauty of Dolores — and a wet El Niño?
The El Niño excitement begins early, as the LA Times explains in blunt newspaper prose: A washed-out bridge on Interstate 10 that cut off a vital shipping route with Arizona, mudslides in Moreno Valley and snarled Southern California freeway traffic from heavy weekend rain is only a preview of problems that could come with aContinue reading “The beauty of Dolores — and a wet El Niño?”
“big droughts end in big floods”: NOAA expert
From NOAA scientist Jake Crouch in his "reflections on a really big drought" today in climate.gov: The Southern Plains drought lasted more than four years before coming to an end very quickly in the spring of 2015. There is an old adage that big droughts end in big floods, and that was the case inContinue reading ““big droughts end in big floods”: NOAA expert”
Blogging the Pope’s “Praise Be”: on Nature as a book
In Chapter 12 of Pope Francis' encyclical, "Praise Be," in our language, just before he launches into an appeal to all people to come together to save the world, the pontiff brings up the idea of nature as a book. He writes (in a passage that is, may I say, too rich to be truncated): 12.Continue reading “Blogging the Pope’s “Praise Be”: on Nature as a book”
Enviro lawsuit challenges Ojai water system — for good?
A week or so ago I had the opportunity to write a story about a monster lawsuit filed against the City of Ventura, which allegedly is taking so much water from the Ventura River that it's threatening the endangered steelhead trout. The story for the Ojai Valley News began this way: Last September, an environmentalContinue reading “Enviro lawsuit challenges Ojai water system — for good?”
A book that makes you want to get out and walk
Cheryl Strayed and her journey on the PCT have become so ubiquitous that (I hear) PCT hikers this year refer somewhat contemptuously to "Strayed gear" — all the crap you bring along out of ignorance and discard along the way. A friend turns me on to a very different kind of book about walking, RobertContinue reading “A book that makes you want to get out and walk”
Kit Stolz 