Curating an Artfire Collection Inspired By My Well-Known Love of Forests and All That Lives Within

Ruth Sandra Sperling
RSS Designs In Fiber - My Handmade Designs on ARTFIRE

Inspired By Love of Forests and Their Wildlife - An Artfire Collection by RSS Designs In Fiber

It was August 2013 -- and I and many others in the world had been watching the Rim Fire in the Central Sierra Nevada - in the Stanislaus National Forest and Yosemite National Park and the adjoining areas - and frightened and even loosing sleep over it, I was worried about All the Life in that Forest and the ramifications to it from the High Intensity Fire raging there.

I knew of people living in the area - actually in Twain Harte, CA - just northwest of the Rim Fire area - the people of the Central Sierra Environmental Resource Center (known as CSERC ), run by John Buckley, who I had met at a Sierra Nevada Framework Forest Service Science Meeting on Old Growth forests.  On their Facebook Page -- and their website, I read first-hand accounts of the Rim Fire.

For me, this was a major event that was significant to me, though I didn't live there or anywhere near the Rim Fire.  But since early 1999 - and I got involved in environmental campaigns about the Sierra Nevada forests ( such as the Sierra Forest Legacy [formerly the Sierra Nevada Forest Protection Campaign in 1999] ) -- and I learned the Global significance of the Sierra Nevada Forests, part of the California Floristic Province, to Global Biodiversity, as discussed on the Conservation International website:  The World's 10 Most Threatened Forest Hotspots - which mentions the High Importance of the California Floristic Province Forests (which Includes the Sierra Nevada Forests, including the Stanislaus National Forest and Yosemite National Park - and the Giant Sequoias) for Biodiversity Conservation, Climate Stabilization - I have been paying a lot of attention to many Events, as I can, in the Sierra Nevada Forests.

In other words, this Rim Fire affected a forest with importance to Global Biodiversity - therefore I see it as we should all be concerned in the Restoration after the fire!!!

So-o-o -- to express my Love of Forests and Their Wildlife and show how others express their such Love, I looked to my some of my friends who do Handmade and Fine Art -- and found various items they had made and were selling on Artfire on that theme -- and created the above Collection.

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It is now March of 2014 -- and the Artfire Collection, "Inspired By The Love of Forests and Their Wildlife", has over 1,000 views and a few items have sold (replaced by others I had previously chosen).

I love to see creations based on Nature -- and I totally enjoyed curating this Collection!!!

The Rim Fire is in the past, though some of us are following the Recovery Projects in the different areas of it, such as on the Stanislaus National Forest website and the CSERC website.

In the 402 square miles of the Stanislaus National Forest that the Rim Fire ravaged, I am hoping for recovery based on true Ecological Forest Restoration, like that defined by the Sierra Forest Legacy -- for the health of this Forest -- and for its contribution to Global Biodiversity.  Quote from the Dec. 08, 2013 Sierra Forest Legacy Newsletter:  

We take seriously the Forest Service's commitment to ecological restoration and will be challenging them to demonstrate that their salvage logging proposals are consistent with their commitment.

Note:  after a certain number of the Artfire listings in an Artfire Collection sell, the Artfire Collection "expires" -- and disappears from the Internet.  So, I would like to thank the Artfire Artisans who created the Handmade and Fine Art items I put in this Collection -- showing their Love of Forests and Their Wildlife -- and where you can fine such types of Handmade and Fine Art!!!

Conscience Art Studios

4everbeads

Walk In The Woods LLC

RSS Designs In Fiber

Uniquely Jen Quilt Creations

The Art of Amy-Elyse Neer

Jewelry Art By Dawn

Christie Cottage

Honey From The Bee

Berkshire Bowls

Blue Morning Expressions

Specialtivity

Sharing more about Wildlife - from Pinterest

Ruth Sandra Sperling
RSS Designs In Fiber - My Handmade Designs on ARTFIRE

Image from Pinterest - Momma Bear with Cubs

I just love Wildlife!!!

I saw this on Pinterest and had to Pin It to my Environmental Interests Board in my Pinterest!  I was re-pinning it from NRDC BIOGEMS.

It has been re-pinned a bunch of times.

I have actually seen Bears in the Wild - including with Bear Cubs!  Just be sure not to get between Momma Bear and her Cubs -- Momma Bears are very protective!!

An additional Note:  Bears need large areas for roaming and getting food -- we need large Wildlife Corridors in areas that are Bear Habitat!  You wonder why you see News Reports about Bears in Communities around California Forests -- those Communities are part of those Bears' Wildlife Corridors!!  It is their home!!

And California has lots of Forests, which are all part of the California Floristic Province, a Globally Significant Biodiversity Hotspot -- and protecting Bear Habitat and Wildlife Corridors is part of Global Biodiversity!!!

Pinterest is great for sharing lots of Images -- but it is also great for Environmental Education, after all, a Picture is worth a 1000 words!!!

Seeing this photograph of a Momma Bear with her Cubs -- did you learn something?????

G2 Gallery of Venice, CA - Conservation Photography Gallery

G2 GALLERY

Venice, California

It was through Robert Glenn Ketchum's Blog that I first heard about the G2 Gallery - he had a post about his Exhibit there in 2010 focusing on the Conservation Issue "No Pebble Mine" in Bristol Bay, Alaska, as in the video below!

I loved the whole Gallery - but especially Robert Glenn Ketchum's exhibit and I spent most of my time looking over his Images and reading about his conservation work on Stopping the development of the Pebble Mine in Alaska!


-- More Recently, as in earlier this month (April 13, 2011), I went to The G2 Gallery again - to see several exhibits and I had a wonderful time again - and decided to tell the world!!

Robert Glenn Ketchum on that date (through April 24, 2011) was the Nature LA Photographer at The G2 Gallery -- and one of his Embroideries was on exhibit and I got to see it live (not just a photograph on a computer screen)!! Exquisite is the only word I can use to describe it!! -- And after admiring it from several angles, all I could think was how much detailed work went into the hand-stitching and how admirable the embroiderers' work is!

But there were 2 more Exhibits at The G2 Gallery at the time that I got totally excited about! Both Exhibits were amazing and inspiring to me.

-- The first one I spent time on was Essence of Life: Fresh Water - sponsored by Conservation International and their "sister" organization, International League of Conservation Photographers (ILCP). See the video below from CEMEX, the publisher of Conservation International books, on the book that Exhibit is based on!




You need to go see this exhibit to see the amazing photographs if you can - it is through May 8, 2011.


-- The second exhibit I was so amazed with was that of photographer J. J. Heureux's, Faces From the Southern Ocean (also through May 8, 2011). Her photographs of the Wildlife in the Antarctica are astouding in how they show the life there -- you really need to see the full exhibit including the slideshow, but below are a couple of videos of J.J. Heureux's photography in the Antarctica!


A Bleak Future For Penguins ... video 1 ---





Antarctic Spring - Iris Bay to Gold Harbor South Georgia Island ---





The G2 Gallery has new exhibits all the time -- and a Gallery Store full of Eco-Friendly and Artistic items! If you are in Southern California or passing through at some time, you may want to make a special trip to Venice, CA to see this Gallery -- they have a number of Events at different times in addition to the Exhibits!


Ruth Sandra Sperling
RSS Designs In Fiber - My Handmade Designs on ARTFIRE and ETSY

Giant Sequoia National Monument Management Plan - 2010 Comment Period on Draft Management Plan (and DEIS)

Ruth Sandra Sperling

I have blogged about this before -- but now after years of scientific review and writing and legal court actions -- we have a Draft Environmental Impact Statement (DEIS) and Draft Management Plan for the Giant Sequoia National Monument established by President Bill Clinton's Presidential Proclamation on April 15, 2000!!

Well, it has taken a while (over 10 years), but hopefully we have one will which will really serve the purpose of the Presidential Proclamation.

They are having Public Meetings during the comment period -- to present the DEIS and Draft Management Plan and explain it to the Public, as given on the Sequoia National Forest website for the Giant Sequoia National Mounment Management Plan.

This is all part of the Public Process -- done per "NEPA" (National Environmental Policy Act - defined in Wikipedia here and you can find more information on NEPA here).

These are Public lands -- and the Public have a right to make comments on the management of these lands!!

And, as I look at it, this may be one of the most important Forest Public DEIS's and Comment Periods in the United States!! After all, as stated on the Conservation International website on Biodiversity Hotpsots, the Giant Sequoias are in one Biodiversity Hotspot, the California Floristic Province - and the Giant Sequoias are "the planet's largest living organism" -- and their ecosystem is Globally Significant for Biodiversity -- and certainly one of the most significant for Carbon Storage!!!!

Tonight the first Public Meeting for this comment period was held in Porterville, CA, where the headquarters for the Sequoia National Forest (including the Giant Sequoia National Monument) are.

There are 5 more scheduled - including one in San Francisco and two in the County of Los Angeles:

•Saturday, September 18, from 1:00 to 4:00 p.m., at the Doubletree Hotel in Bakersfield.
•Tuesday, September 21, from 6:00 to 9:00 p.m., at the Hilton Garden Inn in Clovis.
•Wednesday, September 22, from 6:00 to 9:00 p.m., at the Hyatt Regency in San Francisco.
•Wednesday, October 6, from 6:00 to 9:00 p.m., at the Hyatt Regency in Valencia.
•Thursday, October 7, from 6:00 to 9:00 p.m., at the Hilton in Pasadena

And there is another meeting of the Science Review Panel at the Visalia Convention Center in Visalia, CA on the evening of Tuesday, October 12, 2010, 5 PM until 8 PM. (I plan to attend this one.)

All in plenty of time to get the data -- and make your own comments before the Comment Periods closes on November 3, 2010!!!

I have been going to Public Meetings on the Giant Sequoia National Monument - from the forums for its establishment in March 2000 through all kinds of meetings, including the meetings of the Scientific Advisory Board 2001 through 2003, where they discussed the development of the Management Plan and created their Advisories, which are being used in the development of the Management Plan.

I have learned a phenomenal amount!! Though I have my own ideas of the protection of the Giant Sequoia ecosystem (have the whole ecosystem in the National Park Service, but that is outside this public comment period for the Giant Sequoia National Monument Management Plan, as putting it in the National Park Service is an act of Congress [not a National Forest Service proceeding] - see my earlier posts here on my blog!! I wrote my California Representatives about putting the Giant Sequoia National Monument in the National Park Service and combining it with Sequoia Kings Canyon National Park years ago!), going to these meetings is very educational about what is going on now -- and there is scientific data available on the care and restoration of the Giant Sequoias in the Giant Sequoia National Monument.

I have seen these beautiful Giants many times -- I am a tree-lover, for sure, -- and, whatever happens, this is an important issue for me and I am Reading, Listening -- and then Writing Comments!!!

What do you want to do????

A New Year's Resolution -- to Support Activities That Can Help Slow Global Warming

Ruth Sandra Sperling
RSS Designs In Fiber - Internet Shop of Handmade Items In Fibers



Global Warming -- one of the Hottest subjects around these days!!

To start off and establish my stand on this issue, I would like to quote Louis Blumberg of The Nature Conservancy California Office, who works in Forestry and Climate Change for them, from the article, "The Carbon Equation, Can Forests Save Us From Climate Change?" by Jane Braxton Little in the Winter 2009 edition of Nature Conservancy Magazine:

"Nature is our greatest ally in the fight against climate change."

Why quote him? Because that is totally how I feel and I feel that is the only realistic solution to what I call "un-natural Global Warming".

I am not always sure that people understand it overall. Some do and some don't. Climate Change to some degree happens naturally and geologically all the time on our planet. Geologically there are warming periods and cooling periods. If you read scientific journals and about Geology and about Paleontology, you will see discussions about it and varying opinions. Historically on Earth, there is documented information about warming periods and cooling periods in past centuries and eras -- and what happened as a result of these warming and cooling periods.

To some extent, some scientists are trying to make predictions based on historical occurrences on the planet -- and based on scientific documentation of evidence of Global Warming now -- such as glaciers and ice sheets melting.

The huge question seems to be -- how much of this Global Warming is natural, since the planet is in a geological warming period anyway? And how much of it can we do anything about to slow Global Warming and protect our own human habitat?

As an environmentalist, forests are some of my favorite places to go and get protected and therefore study, so I will focus on this.

Being in a warming period is significant to forestry scientists as it affects the species in the forests -- and the health of certain species in the forests and their growth -- and possibly significant changes in the makeup of a forest ecosystem - whether it is natural warming and/or the result of human-caused warming.

Various human actions on the planet affect Global Warming by increasing carbon emissions into the atmosphere -- various activites directly related to the industrial age for sure increase carbon emissions into the atmosphere.

But one of the human activites that has resulted in a high percentage of carbon emissions is that of Deforestation and Forest Degradation -- and that we can do something about. And this is the main point of this blog article.

Just looking at the fact of how much forest has been cut down over this planet in the last few centuries boggles the mind - at least mine. Looking at facts like part(s) of the Sahara Desert use to be forest that was cut down centuries ago (I don't know exactly what parts geographically) - this deforestation has been going on a long time -- and all the forests that have been and still are being cut down for building cities, towns, agricultural sites -- it looks to me like only a fraction of the original forest on our planet is left. And much did not come down naturally. As trees provide the natural benefits of holding water in the soils/lands, shading and keeping the lands cooler -- as well as storing carbon, it is obvious to me that cutting down huge areas of forest over the planet has contributed to Global Warming and that is human-caused!!

Therefore, we need to look at what we can do about it.

One of the Forestry scientists that I admire and respect for his perspective on forest, forest health and ecological integrity and forest restoration is Dr. Jerry F. Franklin, a Professor in Forest Resources at the University of Washington in the State of Washington.

I first became acquainted with his work in forestry when I became involved with the Sierra Nevada Forest Protection Campaign and their Conservation Strategy for the Management of the Sierra Nevada National Forests; this Conservation Strategy is based on the Sierra Nevada Ecosystem Project (SNEP - http://ceres.ca.gov/snep/), which was commissioned by the United States Congress -- and Dr. Jerry F. Franklin is one of the SNEP authors. He also was one of the speakers at the Sierra Nevada Old Forests Public Science Workshop put on by the Sierra Nevada Framework for Conservation and Collaboration, Pacific Southwest Region and Research of the USDA Forest Service on August 24-25, 1999 at UC Davis -- which I attended.

Earlier this year, I emailed Dr. Jerry F. Franklin particularly about his opinion regarding the role of forests in dealing with Global Warming -- and I got his permission to quote him:

"Ruth: Actually we have a much greater percentage of the forest remaining on the
planet than 4% although I cannot tell you the exact percentage. Certainly the
forests do help cool things but, preversely, they may also help warm the planet
as well, due to the fact that they have such a low albedo -- i.e., they retain
most of the energy that they absorb from the sun. It really is very complicated
and I don't think that we have it all figured out yet. Certainly, we should not
be cutting down any of our remaining old-growth forests in the moist temperate
regions and in dry forest regions, like much of the Sierras, we should be
retaining all of the old trees and trying to grow more big old trees, as well,
since they are likely to be more resistent to both wildfire and climate change.

Planting trees is certainly a good thing to be doing and they certainly
can modify the environments in places that we live as well as help modify carbon
balances and climate throughout the globe. Fundamentally a good thing to do. On
the other hand, it is very important to do some active forest restoration in the
Sierra Nevada because many of the forests in your area are simply too dense for
their own good. Any restoration should retain the old trees and, even more,
enhance their potentiall for survival by removing fuels and competing vegetation
around the existing old trees. There is a very good recent PSW Research Station
General Technical Report by Malcolm North and others that has some very good
recommendations for restoring the mixed-conifer forests in the Sierra Nevada.
Jerry"

I noted here in his statement that not only planting trees is important, but proper management of the forests -- to not be too dense and to "enhance their potential for survival by removing fuels and competing vegetation around the existing old trees" -- this is something I learned about when listening to forestry scientists talk about "protecting Old Growth", which also means encouraging "Old Growth characterisitics", which in many cases will require the removal of smaller, undergrowth trees and the competing vegetation (as Dr. Jerry F. Franklin states) to allow the larger trees to grow even larger -- as well as not removing the Old Growth, which is the popular environmental stand! It is faster-growing trees with large canopies that will naturally store carbon through the natural process of Photosynthesis.

There are various projects and studies going on -- and with the advent of the California Climate Action Registry (CCAR) and California Assembly Bill 32, it looks like carbon offset programs by protecting and managing private forests for "forest carbon offset credits" may result in more.

One such forest project being managed is in fact a forest restoration project which The Nature Conservancy got involved with as a partner by paying for a Conservation Easement on a working forest prohibiting future development and managing this forest for restoration and carbon-sequestering potential. It is presently a relaitvely young Northern California Coastal Redwood forest that has been commercially logged again and again in the past by timber companies - but the fast-growing young trees in this Coastal Redwood forest have a huge potential for storing carbon as they grow per scientific analysis -- and this is proving to be a successful source of forest carbon credits. It is the "Garcia River Forest Project" -- my information is from The Nature Conservancy article quoted at the beginning of this blog post, which is online at http://www.nature.org/magazine/winter2009/features/index.html -- and from The Nature Conservancy website: http://www.nature.org/initiatives/climatechange/work/art23798.html .

One solution -- support Forestry Projects such as this to slow Global Warming!!

Another Solution from The Nature Conservancy -- Plant A Billion Trees in the Atlantic Forest of Brazil: http://www.plantabillion.org/ (the widget for this is on the left here on my blog!!)

Another solution, this one from Conservation International -- support the Actions being taken by Conservation International to Stabilize Climate through their programs for "Protecting forests and other ecosystems as a solution to climate change" as given at http://www.conservation.org/learn/climate/Pages/overview.aspx :

1. Saving Forests http://www.conservation.org/forests
2. High Forest Cover, Low Deforestation (HFLD) http://www.conservation.org/learn/climate/pages/climate_change_hfld.aspx
3. Reducing Emissions From Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD) http://www.conservation.org/learn/climate/pages/climate_redd.aspx

TAKE ACTION BY PROTECTING AN ACRE OF FOREST THROUGH CONSERVATION INTERNATIONAL FOR $15 http://www.conservation.org/protectanacre

Also, one of my favorite solutions to suggest to people to help with reducing some carbon emissions in their everyday lives -- is to buy and do Handmade!! There are so many ways to do this!!

Handmade causes much lower, if any, carbon emissions.

My Handmade crocheted and knitted items (for sale at http://rssdesignsinfiber.etsy.com/ ), made by either natural light or various forms of energy-saving flourescent lighting, certainly results in less carbon emissions than the similar items that are mass-produced on machines which generate lots of carbon emissions. There are many places where you can buy Handmade online - I am on http://www.etsy.com/, which is a website for Sellers and Buyers of Handmade, Vintage and Supplies for Handmade.

Also -- I encourage Local Harvest and getting foods locally as much as possible as that is part of a "low carbon" life, also!!

Resolutions can be a good thing -- they are postulates for what you choose to do in your life -- New Year has been a popular time of the year to make them, though I personally believe you should not limit yourself to just then to make Resolutions for living a better life!!

And I can't think of a better New Year's Resolution than to find ways to live your life and support activities that can help SLOW Global Warming!!

Angeles National Forest - My View of the Current Situation

Ruth Sandra Sperling
RSS Designs In Fiber - Internet Shop of Handmade Items In Fibers

I took the above photo in April 2005 from a field just east of where I live in the east Antelope Valley. It is looking south from the Antelope Valley to the San Gabriel Mountains - which are now, in September 2009, hot and dry -- and burning.

Various sections of the San Gabriel Mountains in the Angeles National Forest were my stomping/hiking grounds for years and years. When I had time off -- and even sometimes when I had independent work and I took my work up there with me -- I spent hours of my life driving, picnicing and hiking through various forested areas: Big Tujunga, Switzer, Charlton Flat, Chilao, West Fork of the San Gabriel River, Mount Gleason up through Littlerock Dam area were some of my favorite places to go.

Unfortuantely, I am now sorrowing that so many of these places are in the Station Fire area.

I am really worried that Old Growth areas and Wilderness Areas are burning -- and not always at the low to moderate intensities.

I can only frevently hope that the canopies of the larger Old Growth is not burning.

For up-to-date information on what has been named the Station Fire (the fire burning across the Angeles National Forest), see the Incident Site Website by InciWeb.

Knowledge gives one a better ability to deal with something analytically, even if emotionally affected.

I've been going to US Forest Service meetings in California for 10-15 years now - for the Angeles National Forest and the Sierra Nevada National Forests. As part of studying papers and documents, I have learned about the climate of the California forests. They are different from most of the rest of the country -- they are classified as a Mediterranean Climate, which is discussed in fairly plain English here on Wikipedia. Mediterranean Climates developed ecologically and geologically in certain ways and their characteristics are discussed in a rather understandable language for the average person on Wikipedia.

Also, it was through the Sierra Nevada Forest Protection Campaign - and their Conservation Strategy, which I have a copy of, that I found out about the Globally Significant Biodiversity Hotspots that are identified by the International Conservation Scientists of Conservation International -- including the California Floristic Province, which the Angeles National Forest (where the Station Fire is burning) is part of.

The following quote off of the Wikipedia article on the Mediterranean Climate discusses that "....these communities are well suited to recover from droughts, floods, and fires....":

"The Mediterranean forests, woodlands, and scrub biome is closely associated with Mediterranean climate zones. Particularly distinctive of the climate are sclerophyll shrublands, called maquis in the Mediterranean Basin, chaparral in California, matorral in Chile, fynbos in South Africa, and mallee and kwongan shrublands in Australia. Aquatic communities in Mediterranean climate regions are adapted to a yearly cycle in which abiotic (environmental) controls of stream populations and community structure dominate during floods, biotic (e.g. competition and predation) controls become increasingly important as the discharge declines, and environmental controls regain dominance as environmental conditions become very harsh (i.e. hot and dry); as a result, these communities are well suited to recover from droughts, floods, and fires.[3]"

But I can't help but wonder - recover to what?

I can only fervently hope that the larger Old Growth is only getting fire scars on their trunks and that the fire is burning at a low enough intensity over most of the area so that natural recovery through heating of the seeds buried in the soil will bring a vibrant new growth to the area come next Spring!

Looking ahead is what we must do.

As an average citizen, I can't do too much about the fires actually burning, as I write this, in the Angeles National Forest. But I can look ahead and see what I can contribute to -- and I will be contributing to the TreePeople Mountain Forestry program for replanting areas that do not naturally heal.

Please take a look at the website of TreePeople and their Mountain Forestry programs - specifically their California Wildfire Restoration Initiative, where they have already posted about replanting the Angeles National Forest after the 2009 fires!!

From the California Wildfire Restoration Initiative of TreePeople:

"We advocate planting the most appropriate species prescribed by the Forest Service. Our aim is to plant the right tree in the right place with the right spacing apart. However, sometimes the best approach to restore burned areas is to stay out of the area and let it heal naturally."

I keep fervently hoping that the majestic, cathedral-like trees of Charlton Flat are still standing when it is all over.

A Huge Heartfelt Thanks to all the Firemen, US Forest Service staff and scientists -- and all the volunteers who are working so very hard to contain the Station Fire and save as much as we can of the Angeles National Forest and the communities around it!!!!!

--- And keep in mind, not all of the Station Fire area is actually burning -- and low intensity fire may be beneficial to the ecosystem -- and in some areas the fire has been low intensity.

We will still have a forest when it is all over, even if some of it needs restoration!!!

GIANT SEQUOIA NATIONAL MONUMENT - Ongoing Public Process

Ruth Sandra Sperling


There is currently a public comment period right now for the public to comment on the DRAFT ALTERNATIVES for the Management Plan for the Giant Sequoia National Monument.

This Ongoing Public Process is based on the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) , which though documented at the link provided, is explained in more common language at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Environmental_Policy_Act .

Here is the web page covering the current development of the Giant Sequoia National Monument (GSNM) Management Plan: http://www.fs.fed.us/r5/sequoia/gsnm_planning.html

You can read the proposed DRAFT ALTERNATIVES online in the Monument Public Commenting Portal. The documents are downloadable in pdf form there.

You can make (write) comments on them and mail them to:

Sequoia National Forest
Giant Sequoia National Monument
1839 South Newcomb Street
Porterville, CA 93257-9353

- or fax them to the Forest Supervisor's office at (559) 781-4744.

Calling up and leaving comments is a little difficult, but the phone number for their main office in Portervill, CA is (559) 784-1500.

This is just a small part of an Ongoing Public Process for managing one of the most ecologically significant ecosystems in the Continental United States - the Giant Sequoia ecosystem, which is a globally significant biodiversity hotspot within a globally significant biodiversity hotspot (the Sierra Nevada) within a larger globally significant biodiversity hotspot (the California Floristic Province) - check out Conservation International on the importance and locations of biodiversity hotspots!

Our National Forests and all public lands are for public use -- so us public can voice our opinions about how they are run. Some things are just Congressional and then you voice your opinions to Senators and Congressmen or Congresswomen, but this is about writing mangement plans for our public forests -- and public can also read public documents and voice their opinions about the management of the public lands!!

After the GSNM DRAFT ALTERNATIVES, the next step is the GSNM Draft Environmental Impact Statement (DEIS). Watch for upcoming news -- sign up on the Monument Public Commenting Portal!!


HISTORY:

On April 15, 2000, history was made when President Bill Clinton did the Presidential Proclamation establishing the Giant Sequoia National Monument, which you can read yourself at the link!!

But since that date, there has been a series of management and legal activities resulting in the current ongoing public process to get a Management Plan written and implemented that will accomplish the goals of the original Presidential Proclamation!

Yes - it has been going on over 9 years!!

But, if you have ever been to the Sequoia National Forest and what is now the Giant Sequoia National Monument -- and realize the extent of the logging (including removal of actual Giant Sequoias over a hundred years ago) -- and the ramifications of the years of logging there, you would understand, like I do -- that writing an implementable Management Plan that will accomplish the goals of the Presidential Proclamation, as quoted from the Presidential Proclamation itself (page 3 of the proclamation or page 24097 of the Federal Register) below, is no easy accomplishment!

"NOW, THEREFORE, I, WILLIAM J. CLINTON, President of the United States
of America, by the authority vested in me by section 2 of the Act of
June 8, 1906 (34 Stat. 225, 16 U.S.C. 431), do proclaim that there are
hereby set apart and reserved as the Giant Sequoia National Monument,
for the purpose of protecting the objects identified in the above preceding
paragraphs, all lands and interests in lands owned or controlled by the
United States within the boundaries of the area described on the map
entitled ‘‘Proposed Giant Sequoia National Monument’’ attached to and forming
a part of this proclamation."

I went to meetings in various places around southern California for the discussion and public forum for establishing the Giant Sequoia National Monument.

It was in 2001 that I started going to public meetings, including meetings of the Scientific Advisory Board established per the Presidential Proclamation (see page 4 of the proclamation or page 24098 of the Federal Register), to find out what was going on regarding the management of the new Giant Sequoia National Monument.

I learned a tremendous amount listening to U S Forest Service staff and various agency and private scientists discuss the Giant Sequoia ecosystem and its current conditions and how to restore it to what is considered the desirable condition.

I also chose the scientists that I feel are the best to recommend the scientific methods to be used and how to develop the science for this particular ecosystem: Dr. David Graber of the National Park Service and Dr. Nathan Stephenson of the USGS -- and the SNEP authors and other scientists who agree with them.

If you are unfamiliar with what is going on, you might want to read the documents on the following list, which is linked:

-- GSNM DOCUMENTS AT http://www.fs.fed.us/r5/sequoia/gsnm_planning.html
-- Summary of the Interpretations of the Monument Proclamation prepared by Carie Fox as of May 2009 http://www.fs.fed.us/r5/sequoia/gsnm/carie_summary_interp_Proc.pdf
-- Sequoia National Forest Interpretation of the Proclamation dated May 22, 2009 http://www.fs.fed.us/r5/sequoia/gsnm/sqf_interp_Proc.pdf
-- Strategic Framework of June 2009 at http://www.fs.fed.us/r5/sequoia/gsnm/061009_Strategic_Framework.pdf
-- 2008 Symposium Speaker's Presentations at http://www.fs.fed.us/psw/southernsierrascience/speakers/
-- Science Advisories of the GSNM Scientific Advisory Board (2003) at http://www.fs.fed.us/r5/sequoia/gsnm/advisories.html


Also, as regards the Scientific Advisory Board and the current process developing the Management Plan for the Giant Sequoia National Monument, and having attended the majority of the public meetings where they discussed what the Management Plan should be, I have the following comment to make public:

I have read in the Interpretations of the GSNM Presidential Proclamation about
the different views regarding the Scientific Advisory Board with the remanding
(invalidating) of the original Management Plan/Record of Decision from Art
Gaffrey.

As that (original) Management Plan was totally remanded and a
judge ordered them to re-write it, I agree with View 1 stated in Carrie Fox's
Interpretation of the Proclamation:

"View 1: Since the management plan associated with the last Scientific Advisory Board was invalidated, this will be the “initial management plan” and therefore another Scientific Advisory Board is required—one that is empanelled in the same time period in which the plan is being formulated and that will have the opportunity to comment on the draft plan. In apparent support of this, the Proclamation states that the Scientific Advisory Board is to provide scientific advice during the development of the initial management plan. [Lines 147-154]"

- from pages 12 and 13
of http://www.fs.fed.us/r5/sequoia/gsnm/carie_summary_interp_Proc.pdf

That is all I have to say at this moment - except:

If you are so inclined -- I wish you Good Reading!!

Also, in 1999, when I first became aware of the planning going on for the National Forests of the Sierra Nevada, I spent some time in the then Sequioa National Forest, most of which became the Giant Sequoia National Monument. Being a landscape photographer, I took photographs of certain areas. Some of them I mounted. Below is a presentation I prepared. Both were taken in the Southern portion of the Giant Sequoia National Monument - off Western Divide Highway. The photograph on the left was taken in Long Meadow Grove on Western Divide Highway. The photograph on the right was taken on what I call the "Road to Windy Gap" - west of Western Divide Highway and around Nobe Young Meadow - an area that was definitely logged in the past.

One thing I would like to say about the differences between the Grove and the logged area, which is important to me: in the Giant Sequoia Grove there were birds singing and squirrels and chipmunks running around; in the logged area, it was totally quiet - no birds, no animals running around - which brings to mind Aldo Starker Leopold's comment about replanted clearcut areas or plantations: "...where a bluejay would have to pack a lunch to get across" (1978b, p.9). I love the birds and other wildlife in a forest and it "hurts" to see such logged areas!

Draw your own conclusions!!

Giant Sequoia National Monument MANAGEMENT PLAN MEETINGS - Progressing!!

Ruth Sandra Sperling


Wish I had one of my photographs of a Giant Sequoia to post in here, but none of them are digital or on digital media, so I can't. I took them with a manual camera - a Pentax 6x7 (medium format) - and I have yet to get them on digital media.

Living in Southern California, over the years, the Giant Sequoias were my favorite place to go to on the weekends. Living in a variety of places in Los Angeles County - now in the Antelope Valley - the Southern Portion of what is now the Giant Sequoia National Monument was always just a few hours away.

Being such a forest lover, it is no big surprise that I would like to weekend in a forest -- or visit one -- but having a forest with the Giant Sequoias in it has been a real treat!!

Unfortunately, there has been logging in what is now the Giant Sequoia National Monument -- and I have seen it. In the late 1980's I saw logging trucks -- and, yes, a clearcut on a back road.

So, I was a huge supporter of the establishment of the National Monument and went to a Public Forum in Fresno and actually got up and spoke for it -- by some lucky or unusual twist of fate, my number came up as the first speaker in that Public Forum -- and I managed to get up there and say my little bit without any preparation at all -- in favor of the establishment of the National Monument!!

That was in March 2000. In April 2000, President Bill Clinton did the Presidential Proclamation which took the National Monument out of commercial timber yield, which meant no more commercial logging around the Giant Sequoias, which I am totally grateful of -- having been around the Southern Portion of the Sequoia National Forest and seen way too much of the effect of commercial logging in that ecosystem.

I went to a bunch of meetings regarding the Giant Sequoia National Monument in 2000, 2001, and 2003, including a number of 2-day public meetings of the Scientific Advisory Board, who wrote Advisories for the development of the Giant Sequoia National Monument MANAGEMENT PLAN.

So much has happened since then - some of it in the legal arena -- and they are now in a Public Process to write the Giant Sequoia National Monument MANAGEMENT PLAN again.

Tomorrow (June 18, 2009) and Friday (June 19 2009), they are holding Public Meetings regarding the preliminary Draft Alternatives for this MANAGEMENT PLAN.

Let me tell you, as this MANAGEMENT PLAN is based on the Presidential Proclamation and this involves restoration of a commercially logged National Forest area -- from where I sit, this is not an easy PLAN to get done.

This commercially logged area needs restoration based on the most current scientific data for this type of ecosystem available - and as this is an on-going activity with research on such restoration going on all the time - the MANAGEMENT PLAN must allow for this.

I have placed links throughout this post -- take a look at them and read them -- there is a phenomenal amount of information available!!

I, unfortunately, cannot go to these particular meetings -- but I will be reading the documents on the Sequoia National Forest website. I submitted a 5 page letter on the Scoping Letter. I wrote letters in past years -- and I will write more.

This Public Process is an opportunity for all citizens to make comments on what the MANAGEMENT PLAN for the Giant Sequoia National Monument will be.

Do you love them?

Do you care about these gorgeous, fabulous, globally-significant huge (the largest in the world still, I believe) trees???

Even if all you have to say is that you totally support the total restoration of the ecosystem for these wonderful trees -- say it!!

Personally, I was involved in the Sierra Nevada Forest Protection Campaign, whose Conservation Strategy for the Sierra Nevada National Forests (which includes the Sequoia National Forest and the Giant Sequoia National Monument) is based on the Sierra Nevada Ecosystem Project (SNEP) (Commissioned by Congress) -- and that is the scientific perspective that I support, including the scientists who were the authors of SNEP - who include Dr. David Graber and Dr. Nathan Stephenson, who work at the Sequoia-Kings Canyon National Park in the Giant Sequoias there.

I learned so much going to Public Meetings and reading various documents -- many of which are available on the Internet.

I invite you to do the same!!

(And, P-S-S-S-T - by the way - the Giant Sequoia ecosystem, which is inside the Sierra Nevada, which is inside the California Floristic Province - is a globally significant Biodiversity Hotspot identified by the scientists of Conservation International!!)


Ruth

A Video on a Campaign to Protect Forests from Conservation International - done by Harrison Ford

I've been writing here on my blog about forests and biodiversity and climate change.

Here is a short video from Harrison Ford about the very subject and a realistic program where you can help as part of Conservation International's strategy to "...prevent further loss of the species, ecosystems, and ecological processes that comprise the Earth's biological wealth." (from a Conservation International map of Global Biodiversity Hotspots).

Harrison Ford asks the right question.

It is my question, too.

And if you would rather watch the video on YouTube, here is the link:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uVBw66t8a9Q


Ruth

A Video About Conservation International's Strategy - Biodiversity Hotspots - from Harrison Ford

I've been reading and I've been writing.

I've listened to scientists speak and have read what they wrote -- and written about it here.

It was in the Conservation Strategy of the Sierra Nevada Forest Protection Campaign from 1999 (which I have an original copy of) that I first read about Biodiversity Hotspots. You see, that is because the Sierra Nevada is an identified globally significant Biodiversity Hotspot (inside the California Floristic Province Biodiversity Hostspot).

With a little bit of research, I found out about Conservation International and their books.

But here in this video are pictures from our planet and the voice of the author of the Foreword for the book, "HOTSPOTS: Earth's Biologically Richest and Most Endangered Terrestrial Ecoregions", Harrison Ford.

So, I will let him say it -- his way.

You could always get the book and read it!!

And if you would rather watch the video on YouTube, here's the link:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LPqMYXBm3mE

You know, if we really do it, we might just literally keep this planet and atmosphere livable longer!!


Ruth

PUTTING TOGETHER A NATIONAL CONSERVATION AREA IN A GLOBALLY SIGNIFICANT BIODIVERSITY HOTSPOT

Ruth Sandra Sperling
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From reading a number of different newspaper articles, I found out that a Non-Profit, "Tuleyome" is putting together an official Proposal for Congress to make an ecologically significant area of Northern California a NATIONAL CONSERVATION AREA encompassing approximately 500,000 acres of public lands providing excellent opportunities for landscape scale management and protection -- and ecosystem management.

It's proposed name is: Berryessa Snow Mountain National Conservation Area.

As mentioned in the writeup (page 2) of the following pdf document on the Internet, "The region is a vitally important part of the California Floristic Province which is one of the 25 biological
“hotspots” on the planet..."

See here for a map for area of the Proposed National Conservation Area and their writeup:
http://www.tuleyome.org/images/stories/file/NCA%20Map%2010%2006%2008.pdf

You can contact this Non-Profit Organization either by email at info@tuleyome.org -- or by phone at 530-350-2599.

This was covered in The Sacramento Bee in this newspaper article: http://www.sacbee.com/ourregion/story/1575533.html

This is not an area that I am personally familiar with - but I do know that it is part of the globally significant Biodiversity Hotspot, the California Floristic Province - and protecting the native species and natural resources of such an area is beneficial to the biodiversity of the whole planet!

I have a map of the California Floristic Province in a book titled such that is an Extract of the original book, "HOTSPOTS, Earth's Biologically Richest and Most Endangered Terrestrial EcoRegions" - from Conservation International (http://www.conservation.org/).

You see, this area is of high biodiversity, but is endangered by development of roads and industries. It includes Wilderness Areas as well as other Federal, State and County public lands. See the map!

In this area, because it is of such ecological significance due to the high biodiversity still here, it is particularly important to protect the biodiversity and limit the development - and the private landowners need to co-operate with protecting the biodversity of the region and even handle the agricultural lands in such as way as to protect the natural resources.

Though I do not live up in that region, if there is some way I can help by writing letters to get Congressional support for this, I will and I plan to contact http://www.tuleyome.org/ myself, where you can look up what is being done on this National Conservation Area and sign up for news and alerts.

Contributing to this will be a contribution to keeping our planet healthy!

What do you want to do?


Ruth

THE RIGHT WAY TO DO CARBON OFFSETS - PROTECT EXISTING OLD GROWTH FORESTS AND REPLANT HETEROGENEOUSLY MULTI-AGED

Ruth Sandra Sperling
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I just read an article on the Internet that was very upsetting to me.

http://www.climateark.org/blog/2008/12/light-redd-the-looming-tragedy.asp

It covers the problem with carbon offset funds somehow going to logging of primary old growth forests.

Folks - NO, NO, NO - that is not the right way to do carbon offsets.

The primary Old Growth forests on the planet are not supposed to be logged any longer - if absolutely necessary, based on current environmental analysis for fire hazard, small understory trees may need to be removed to protect the Old Growth and keep fire out of Old Growth and their tree canopies. Other than that, no tree removal in primary Old Growth forests should be done.

Carbon offsets are good for protecting Old Growth from removal.

And carbon offsets are good for restoring highly significant areas of forests that have been previously destroyed, such as the Atlantic Forest in Brazil.

Restoring means restoring - not planting so-called "tree-farms" for future logging or homogeneous even-aged tree plantings, either. Restoring means planting hetereogeneously (definition: in a way that is heterogeneous, which is defined as "consisting of or involving dissimilar elements or parts; not homogeneous"), which in terms of trees means planting different species and they should be native species to that forest eco-system. They should also do planting in small groups at different times, so it is not even-aged, but you end with trees of different ages. After a canopy is grown in the area, they should allow natural regeneration. Along with planting trees, the soil and its total underground biotic province needs to be restored.

I have seen a restored forest - restored from cleared land in an farming area in central Illinois - the woodlands of Robert Allerton Park are so beautiful, you can hardly believe that only a fraction of these woodlands are virgin forest. I went to the University of Illinois, which runs Robert Allerton Park, 1969 to 1972 and the canopied woodlands of Robert Allerton Park provided a wonderful place to hike. It was from the head Biologist at Robert Allerton Park, who was a professor at the University of Illinois, that I learned several years ago about the woodlands being to a large part a restored forest with a fraction of it being virgin forest. 1,000 acres of it are now a National Natural Landmark. I have also been told that this is a Regional Biodiversity Hotspot for that eco-region. During my hiking experiences there in the 1970 through 1980, which were truly wonderful for me, I had no idea that it was not a virgin forest. Read about it here: http://www.continuinged.uiuc.edu/oce-sites/allerton/history.cfm.

So, you see, from personal experience and knowledge, I know cleared forest land can be properly restored to be real forest and not a tree farm.

If you donate for carbon offsets, you need to make sure that the program you are donating to is really about restoring trees or protecting trees/land to the level where they actually do sufficient carbon sequestration as to count in offsetting carbon emissions and reducing globally the amount of carbon in this atmosphere - this issue is discussed in an article on Wikipedia, which is very interesting - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carbon_Sequestration.

I mentioned the Atlantic Forest of Brazil here and in earlier posts - the Atlantic Forest of Brazil is listed as a globally significant Biodiversity Hotspot by the International Conservation Scientists of the organization, Conservation Internaltional, www.conservation.org.

Planting the area of the Atlantic Forest of Brazil is one of the programs being done by The Nature Conservancy - "Planting a Billion Trees" at www.nature.org.

Also, on The Nature Conservancy website is an "Ask the Conservationist" article from June 2008 on the subject of "Do Carbon Offsets Really Work?" -- http://support.nature.org/site/PageServer?pagename=asktheconservationist_200806&JServSessionIdr012=3q075ukq61.app43a. Read this article and you will get a realistic answer.

I have discussed this matter several times in my blog posts and I go into information from a number of different scientifically based organizations in my posts - check here to read my earlier posts and get links to various organizations.

I love real forests - but it is more than my love of forests that is my motivation for writing my blog posts -we need live, carbon sequestering forests on this planet, in addition to reducing carbon emissions, for this planet and this web of life to be healthy for us humans to live in.

We all need to take responsibility for this condition.

TO LIFE!!

Ruth

UNITED NATIONS MAP SUPPORTS PROTECTION OF HIGH-PRIORITY LANDS GLOBALLY FOR CARBON STORAGE AND BIODIVERSITY

Ruth Sandra Sperling
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I found out about a pdf document on the internet from the
UNEP (United Nations Environmental Programme) World Conservation Monitoring Centre, which they have named "Carbon and biodiversity, A demonstration atlas".

Here is the link: http://www.unep.org/pdf/carbon_biodiversity.pdf

Some of the environmental groups I strongly support for their work on protecting and restoring biodiversity, The Nature Conservancy and Conservation International, were contributors to this report.

I am glad to see that the United Nations has shown this support for Global Biodiversity.

A large part of it is protecting lands of primary Old Growth - some of the healthiest and most ecologically significant lands left on this planet.

Not logging the primary Old Growth left on this planet may be the most valuable thing that we can do on this planet at this time - for the web of life.

Anyone who has seen a clearcut in a forest first-hand and in-person knows from personal experience what a clearcut looks like and how it must affect the forest -- and I have seen a clearcut that must not have been too old at the time I saw it. It was in the Sequoia National Forest in the late 1980's when logging and clearcuts were still going on there. It wasn't too far off the Western Divide Highway in the southern portion of the Sequoia National Forest in what is now the Giant Sequoia National Monument. I was driving down a back road looking for a good place to take some people hiking - I drove around a corner and was shocked at the devastation of this clearcut. Obviously, I was not going to bring these people hiking here as they liked to photograph live trees, etc. It totally upset me and was part of my motivation for getting involved in public issues regarding managing the National Forests.

And, YES, this was in an area not too terribly far from Giant Sequoia groves, though I don't know exactly how close - it was on the western side of the Western Divide Highway somewhere south of the Wheel Meadow Grove and east of Red Hill Grove and Peyrone Grove. I have a map of the Sequoia National Forest and I know where these are.

It was reading Aldo Leopold - both in his book, A Sand County Almanac, and his paper, The Last Stand - that I found out about the devastating effects of clearcutting on the land in addition to just the removal of the trees.

I would like to quote from these.

From "The Last Stand" by Aldo Leopold as published in The Leopold Outlook Winter 2004, A newsletter published quarterly by The Aldo Leopold Foundation.

"Few laymen realize that the penalties of violence to a forest may far outlast its visible evidence. I know a hardwood forest called the Spessart, covering a mountain on the north flank of the Alps. Half of it has sustained cuttings since 1605, but was never slashed. The other half was slashed during the 1600's, but has been under intensive forestry during the last 150 years. Despite this rigid protection, the old slashing now produces only mediocre pine, while the unslashed portion grows the finest cabinet oak in the world; one of those oaks fetches a higher price than a whole acre of the old slashings. On the old slashings the litter accumulates without rotting, stumps and limbs disappear slowly, natural reproduction is slow. On the unslashed portion litter disappears as it falls, stumps and limbs rot at once, natural reproduction is automatic. Foresters attribute the inferior performance of the old slashing to its depleted microflora, meaning that the underground community of bacteria, molds, fungi, and burrowing mammals which constitute half the environment of a tree.
"The existence of the term microflora implies, to the layman, that science knows all the citizens of the underground community, and is able to push them around at will. As a matter of fact, science knows little more than the community exists, and that it is important."

In the book, A Sand County Almanac, in the section, The Upshot, in the sub-section, "Wilderness for Science", I quote Aldo Leopold again:

"Many forest plantations are producing one-log or two-log trees on soil which originally grew three-log and four-log trees. Why? Thinking foresters know that the cause lies not in the tree, but in the micro-flora of the soil, and that it may take more years to restore the soil flora than it took to destroy it."

So, clearcutting - or "slashing" as Aldo Leopold called it in "The Last Stand", has a destructive impact on the land that affects future growth on that land.

WITH WHAT WE NEED TO DO TO PROTECT THE HEALTH OF THE PLANET AND THE LAND, I THEREFORE CONCLUDE THAT WE CANNOT AFFORD TO DO ANY MORE CLEARCUTTING ON THIS PLANET - ESPECIALLY ON PRIMARY OLD GROWTH LANDS.

Also, in the same issue of The Leopold Outlook of Winter 2004 is an essay written by 2 former Chiefs of the United States Forest Service published originally August 24, 2003, Mike Dombeck and Jack Ward Thomas - "Declare Harvest of Old-Growth Forests Off-Limits and Move On"

I would like to quote one paragraph that I feel contains key, relevant information.

"Second, scientists increasingly appreciate old-growth forests as reservoirs of biodiversity with associated 'banks' of genetic material. Most stands are prtected as habitat for threatened or endangered (and associated) species - to meet the purpose of the Endangered Species Act '...to provide a means whereby the ecosystems upon which endangered species and threatened species depend may be conserved...' It's time to stop fighting over what little old growth remains unprotected."

And part of another paragraph discussing forest management from this same article.

"Forest management should focus on restoring forest health and reducing fire risk, intially in areas where risk to human life and property are greatest - the so-called wildand/urban interface. Then, appropriate management practices should be strategically targeted in the right places and at the right scales across the landscape."

YES, FOLKS, PEOPLE WHO RAN (PAST TENSE MEANING IN THE PAST) THE US FOREST SERVICE FEEL THAT OLD GROWTH SHOULD NOT BE LOGGED.

It is now becoming a global issue - with The Nature Conservancy (see Plant A Billion Trees gadget on this blog!) and Conservation International and Care2 running campaigns for protecting rainforest and planting trees - and the United Nations publishing papers on it.

You, too can join the bandwagon - through these organizations you can contribute to protecting the Old Growth forests left on this planet - incluidng for free by clicking on Care2's Race for the Rainforest!!


Ruth

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!

Ruth Sandra Sperling
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I am thankful for a lot of things.

To Internet friends:

Etsy - http://www.etsy.com/
Eco Etsy Street Team - http://ecoetsy.blogspot.com/
Design Style Guide - http://www.designstyleguide.net/
Etsy Thread Artists Team - just starting!!
Sherry - http://shaylyn629.blogspot.com/
My Followers and Those I Am Following on Twitter - http://twitter.com/rssdesigns



Some Enviornmental Groups who I personally know are making a huge difference for our planet and our lives:

The Nature Conservancy - http://www.nature.org/ - Private and Public Lands protection & restoration
Conservation International - http://www.conservation.org/ - Biodiversity Hotspots
Aldo Leopold Foundation - http://www.aldoleopold.org/ - The Land Ethic
The Wildlife Society - http://www.wildlife.org/
The Wilderness Society - http://www.wilderness.org/
National Resource Defense Council - http://www.nrdc.org/ - their attorneys have played a major role in legal battles protecting ecologically significant public lands and concerning Environmental Impact Statements and public lands management that I know about.
World Wildlife Fund - http://www.wwf.org/
Union of Concerned Scientists - http://www.ucsusa.org
Central Sierra Environmental Resource Center - http://www.cserc.org



For Health:

RBC Life Sciences - http://ruthssperling.rbclifesciences.com/Default.aspx
Vitacost - http://www.vitacost.com/
Covert Bailey Books and Products - http://www.covertbailey.com/index2.html
The Wolfe Clinic - http://www.thewolfeclinic.com/ - check their News & Information!!
UCLA HEALTH SYSTEM - http://www.uclahealth.org/


ALL OF THESE HAVE HELPED ME LEAD A BETTER LIFE!

Commenting on 2 National Public Lands - Giant Sequoia National Monument and Yosemite National Park

Ruth Sandra Sperling
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Our public lands at all levels -- local, state, federal -- are managed through legal, government planning processes resulting in planning documents, sometimes called Management Plans -- and are very often very complex and complicated -- especially for the average public person who visits these public lands.

Fortunately, we have quite an extensive public lands system in the United States -- including in my home state of California.

In my blog here, I have written about my feelings about protecting ecosystems.

Us humans need to learn to live on this planet and protect it - and the only way to do this is with current scientific analysis to dertermine what the ecosystems on this planet can handle in terms of impact -- and how much protection and restoration they may need to be healthy lands/waters.

Many people have written about this - Aldo Leopold, John Muir, David Brower, Loren Eisley, Thoreau - as well as the spriritual and personal benefit us humans get just from experiencing wilderness areas and other areas of healthy lands.

Right now, within the last 30 days, I have read 2 different websites, downloaded documents, made comments on two nationally recognized public lands:

1. The Giant Sequoia National Monument
2. Yosemite National Park Tuolumne River Meadows Planning.

I commented on both within a comment period.

But the websites are still there - you can still get on mailing lists - and you can read the information for yourself if you would like to.

For the Giant Sequoia National Monument, I would like to give you 2 web addresses:
A. http://www.fs.fed.us/r5/sequoia
B. http://gsnm.ecr.gov/ - this is for actually reading documents, including the Presidential Proclamation and Science Advisory Board Advisories and making comments online!!

For Yosemite National Park and the planning process going on regarding Tuolumne River Meadows, go to:

http://www.nps.gov/yose -- then click on Management (lefthand menu), then click on Park Planning (lefthand menu), then find the 2008 Tuolumne Planning Workbook and comment form.

These are both planning processes going on for popular national public lands that have gone on for years and will be continuing with more comment periods.

Contribute to the public lands you are interested in -- they are public lands and you can make comments as a public person on how you think they should be run!!


Also, I would like to give credit and thanks to John Buckley and his staff at the Central Sierra Environmental Resource Center (CSERC) in Twain Harte, CA (just west of the northern part of Yosemite National Park) for their coverage in an excellent newsletter of what is going on with Yosemite National Park and the different planning and ecological issues. You can see what they are doing in that area of the Sierra Nevada at their website: http://www.cserc.org/. Their phone number is (209) 586-7440. I have known of this center for years and I think they are making a valuable contribution to environmental activities, education and ecological restoration in their area!!

Also, keep in mind that the whole Sierra Nevada is a Biodiversity Hotspot of global significance - and Yosemite National Park and Giant Sequoia National Monument are ecosystems within it and are ecologically globally significant themselves. So whatever you do to help protect these parks/ecosystems, it should help the whole planet. (My references on this come from Conservation International, http://www.conservation.org/).


Ruth

MEDITERRANEAN CORK FORESTS - IMPORTANT FOR BIODIVERSITY - PROMOTE THE USE/SALE OF CORK

Ruth Sandra Sperling
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Do you know where the cork of your cork wine bottle stoppers and coasters comes from?

I didn't until today when I read an email and post by Summer (http://www.ottoman.etsy.com/) from Eco Etsy about cork and cork trees.

Then I read the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) website on it: http://www.panda.org/about_wwf/where_we_work/europe/what_we_do/mediterranean/about/forests/cork/index.cfm

I also looked at the map that they have.

Then I pulled out my map from Conservation International (http://www.conservation.org/) of the Biodiversity Hotpots.

There is a Biodiversity Hotspot, "Mediterranean Basin" that includes the countries mentioned on the WWF website where the cork forests are: Portugal, Spain, Algeria, Morocco, Italy, Tunisia, and France. I took a good look at it and it looks to me like the cork forest areas are in the Mediterranean Basin Biodiversity Hotspot.

As I have quoted below, this means promoting the sale of cork products from cork forests managed to Forest Stewardship Council standards will help to protect the Mediterranean Basin Biodiversity Hotspot as "...cork is the bark of the cork oak tree (Quercus suber) which renews itself after harvesting, commercial exploitation is environmentally friendly, as not a single tree is cut down." (from WWF webpage on cork oak landscapes).

Protection of areas within the Biodiversity Hotposts identified by Conservation International is one of the environmental issues that I focus on. Below are a series of quotes off my map from Conservation International:

"The loss of bioglogical diversity is the most critical environmental issue
facing our planet at the dawn of the new millennium. The problem at times
seems overwhelming. The solution is to identify strategies that will
prevent further loss of the species , ecosystems, and ecological processes that
comprise the Earth's biological wealth. .... The biodiversity hotspots concept,
created by Norman Myers in 1988, has been the most influential priority-setting
approach of the past decade. It was adopted by both Conservation
International and the MacArthur Foundation as their principal conservation
strategy in 1989.

"The hotpots concept recognizes that a small number of ecoregions occupying a small portion of the land surface of the planet account for an inordinately large share of Earth's terrestrial biodiversity.
....

"Given the great concentration of biodiversity in such a small
and highly threatened fragment of our world, it is obvious that these areas
require very special attention from the international community. If we
fail to act effectively in the hotspots, we will lose a major portion of life on
Earth in the first half of the twenty-first century regardless of how successful
we are in other areas."

FOLKS -- WE ARE IN THE FIRST HALF OF THE TWENTY-FIRST CENTURY!!

WHAT CAN YOU DO IN YOUR LIFE TO PROMOTE PROTECTION OF THESE BIODIVERSITY HOTSPOTS???

LEARN WHERE THEY ARE - http://www.conservation.org/explore/priority_areas/Pages/hotspots.aspx

CONSUMER-DRIVEN CONSERVATION REGARDING PRODUCTS FROM THESE BIODIVERSITY HOTSPOTS THAT ARE PRODUCED IN SUCH A WAY AS TO PROMOTE ECOLOGICAL INTEGRITY IN THESE BIODIVERSITY HOTSPOTS IS ONE WAY ANYONE CAN HELP.

A FEW SUGGESTIONS FROM ME:

1. DON'T BUY CERTAIN PRODUCTS, SUCH AS ANYTHING MADE FROM REDWOOD FORESTS IN CALIFORNIA, UNLESS THEY ARE CERTIFIED BY THE FOREST STEWARDSHIP COUNCIL -- THE REDWOOD FORESTS IN CALIFORNIA ARE IN THE CALIFORNIA FLORISTIC PROVINCE, A GLOBALLY SIGNIFICANT BIODIVSERSITY HOTSPOT IN THE UNITED STATES.

2. BUY THE TEA, GUAYAKI -- IT IS GROWN SUSTAINABLY IN THE RAINFORESTS OF SOUTH AMERICA FROM THE WEBSITE FOR GUAYAKI (http://www.guayaki.com/) : "Guayakí has pioneered an innovative business model called Market Driven Restoration in which Guayakí serves as a bridge linking consumer purchases of healthy yerba mate products in North America with indigenous communities engaged in sustainable agriculture and reforestation projects in Argentina, Paraguay and Brazil. Each person that drinks two servings per day of Guayakí Yerba Mate helps protect approximately one acre of rainforest every year."

3. BUY ORGANIC COFFEES GROWN SUSTAINABLY IN THE RAINFORESTS OF THE WORLD. I PERSONALLY HAVE TRADER JOE'S PERUVIAN CAFE FEMENINO GROWN DEEP IN THE ANDES MOUNTAINS OF NORTHERN PERU, WHICH I BELIEVE, ACCORDING TO MY MAP FROM CONSERVATION INTERNATIONAL, IS IN EITHER THE BIODIVERSITY HOTSPOT "TROPICAL ANDES" OR PART OF THE AMAZONIAN WILDERNESS AREA!!

4. IF YOU BUY WINE, BUY BOTTLES WITH CORK STOPPERS.

If you live in California, like I do, there may be many things you can do to help protect the CALIFORNIA FLORISTIC PROVINCE BIODIVERSITY HOTSPOT in your daily life in your community. Other than the high arid and low-lying desert areas of northeatern and southeastern California, the remaining 70% of California lands are within the Biodiversity Hotspot. Yes the well-known cities of Los Angeles, San Francisco, Sacramento and San Diego are all in the California Floristic Province Biodiversity Hotspot (I have a map of that, too) - and I am afraid that the development in these cities are part of why the biodiversity in this ecosystem is threatened.

Our Eco Etsy motto of "Reduce, Reuse, Recycle" is one way we can all help to protect biodiversity on our planet -- especially if you live in a biodiversity hotspot, like I do!!

Ruth

CONSERVATION INTERNATIONAL'S PROGRAM TO PROTECT AN ACRE OF TROPICAL FOREST - OR AS MANY ACRES AS YOU WANT -- AND HELP COMBAT CLIMATE CHANGE

Ruth Sandra Sperling
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Totally in alignment with what I want to see happen with forests on this planet -- Conservation International now has a program for donating to "Protect An Acre" of Tropical Forest:
http://www.conservation.org/act/get_involved/protect_forests/Pages/deforestation.aspx.

Right there on the page are links for the "Protect an Acre" program - and articles to "Learn About Climate Change" and "See The Solution".

So, all the relevant information is right from the above link.

Conservation International with their Biodiversity Hotspot concept is on it again!!

And there is more on their website -- there are 2 articles about areas in South America (which, by the way, is full of Globally Significant Biodiversity Hotspots [#4, 1, 7, 5, 6] and has a Major Tropical Wilderness Area - the Amazonia -- I know because I have the map from Conservation International!!):

Brazil's Kayapó: Powerful Allies in the Amazon : http://www.conservation.org/FMG/Articles/Pages/brazil_kayapo_ally_in_amazon.aspx

Forests for Water in the Sacred Mountain (Peru):
http://www.conservation.org/FMG/Articles/Pages/forests_water_mountain_peru.aspx

I am afraid, folks, that we have an uphill battle on this planet - being informed and donating as much as you think you can is one way you can contribute to making this planet healthier and keeping it livable for all!!

Ruth

I AM JOINING THE TREE PLANTING CAMPAIGN, PLANT A BILLION TREES, A NATURE CONSERVANCY CAMPAIGN

Ruth Sandra Sperling
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It was in 2001 when I first read in the magazine of The Nature Conservancy about the project to replant trees in Brazil's Atlantic Forest to restore it.

With only 7% of the original tropical forest left, it is one of the hottest biodiveristy hotspots on the planet. (Read the website of Conservation International to find out about biodiversity hotspots.)

So, today, I found out about the campaign of The Nature Conservancy to Plant A Billion Trees in The Atlantic Forest of Brazil.

I have made my first contribution today - it is one dollar for one tree - simple - do you want to make your own contribution?

I am putting the "widget" for the campaign here on my blog.

My goal is 1000 for right now - I want a lot of trees planted!!

This planet has had too many trees cut down!!

What can you do???? What do you want to do????

Ruth

BIODIVERSITY OFFSETS - MAKING CONSERVATION, RESTORATION & PROTECTION OF GLOBAL BIODIVERSITY A STANDARD PART OF BUSINESS PRACTICES

Ruth Sandra Sperling
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In earlier posts, I have stated about being a forest lover and wanting trees planted.

Well, I have felt this way a long time.

It was in 2001 that I read in the magazine of The Nature Conservancy (July/August 2001 issue)about Forest Trends, a DC-based company that is helping to "promote sustainable forest management and conservation by creating and capturing market values for ecosystem services" as stated in their Mission on their website. I also read about the 2 U.S. companies, General Motors and American Electric Power donating millions of dollars to fund the land purchase and restoration of Brazil's Atlantic Forest, which is one of the hottest global biodiversity hotspots on the planet - and at that time, had only 7% of the original forest remaining.

I was so excited, I then felt like jumping for joy!!

Mainstream United States businesses were joining our battle to protect the biodiversity of our planet.

Believe you me, it gave me hope for our planet and us!!

And the restoration of Brazil's Atlantic Forest is still going on as a major project of The Nature Conservancy: http://www.plantabillion.org/. (see my next post in a few minutes!)

Even more gives me hope when I read the website of the Business and Biodiversity Offsets Program, which has the following statement on their website:

"Our vision and expectation is that biodiversity offsets will become a
standard part of business practice for those companies with a significant impact
on biodiversity. The routine mainstreaming of biodiversity offsets into
development practice will result in long-term and globally significant
conservation outcomes.Our vision and expectation is that biodiversity offsets
will become a standard part of business practice for those companies with a
significant impact on biodiversity. The routine mainstreaming of biodiversity
offsets into development practice will result in long-term and globally
significant conservation outcomes."

In my opinion, protecting and restoring biodiversity and our forests needs to be a part of every business, so I feel biodiversity offsets should be a standard part of business practice.

I personally do what I can by donating to groups that I feel are making significant contributions to biodversity and telling people about what these groups are doing, such as The Nature Conservancy, Conservation International and The Aldo Leopold Foundation.

What can you do?

Ruth