The Crescenta Valley Group of the Sierra Club presents “Walk With The Animals,” an in-person program held by local tracking expert Jim Lowery at the La Crescenta Library, 2809 Foothill Blvd, La Crescenta, CA 91214 at 7 p.m. March 5, 2024. This presentation will be an intimate conversation about techniques for tracking animals and what might happen at the "point of contact" with the trail, where tracks express behavior, biology, mood and personality. Ultimately, the tracker will be challenged to engage a different mind-set to "Walk with the Animals."  Jim Lowery is a leading tracking instructor and author in the U.S., having taught tracking skills to thousands of students through his school, Earth Skills since 1987. He has trained field biologists, naturalists and rangers and has led many specialized workshops in tracking technique as well as on tracking specific mammals including black bear, mountain lion, bighorn sheep, badger, antelope and kit fox. Jim has been an expert consultant for mammal research studies at Edwards Air Force Base and annually trains State of California field staff on the Central Coast in snowy plover nest predator track interpretation. He is the author of The Tracker’s Field Guide (Globe Pequot 2006, 2013 and 2022) and Walk with the Animal (2013) and How To Walk with the Animal (2019) as well as many monographs and newsletters about tracking methodology and mammal biology. Jim has also taught wilderness survival skills, native plant uses and traditional skills, and with his wife Mary has led vision quests for 27 years

If you missed our March 23, 2023 webinar, "Hiking Smartly, Hiking Safely," you can now watch it from this YouTube link. The presentation was sponsored by the Crescenta Valley Group and the Verdugo Hills Group of the Sierra Club's Angeles Chapter. In this presentation, Wilderness Travel Course Leader Lisa Miyake reviews all of the technology and tools you can now use to stay oriented, the Ten Essentials that every hiker should carry (no matter how short a hike may be), and ways to contact emergency personnel, should you become lost or injured.

Montrose Search & Rescue Operations Leader Doug Cramoline told us about recent efforts to rescue a Boy Scout Troop in the Angeles Forest, a lost hiker on Mt. Baldy and another on Mt. Islip. Unfortunately, one of the two hikers was found deceased, 900' below the trail he was hiking on and the other hiker has yet to be found. He discusses weather conditions up in the mountains, why trails can become obscured, and different circumstances that can lead to tragedy. 

Finally, Jane Simpson, of the Angeles Chapter Leadership Chair will tell you how you can become a Sierra Club hike leader. You will want to see this presentation. Just click on this link to watch it and please share it with friends. It may save a life! Webinar: Hiking Smartly, Hiking Safely - 2023 - YouTube or type this address into your browser: https://youtube.com/watch?v=8hCPTE28568

Community Tree Care Day

For the 3rd year in a row, the all-time, highly-anticipated program "Hiking Safely, Hiking Smartly" returned in a virtual format on March 23, 2023, sponsored by the Crescenta Valley Group and the Verdugo Hills Group of the Sierra Club Angeles Chapter. Featured were members of the life-saving Montrose Search & Rescue Team, stationed at the Crescenta Valley Sheriff's Station, the co-chair of Angeles Chapter’s Leadership Training Committee, and high-qualified trainers/hike leaders from the Chapter's Wilderness Travel Course. WTC offers 30+ years of insight into safety procedures garnered from over 100 years of Angeles Chapter Outings. With what you learned in this webinar, you can hike safely and help others avoid tragedy. https://www.youtube.com/watch?reload=9&v=8hCPTE28568&fbclid=IwAR06d2XKvcFLWpmlluBcaQWPIB8P54U1_eRKJynBQEaeipNvYhoBE84LVV4

Produced by Pat Kramer, Sierra Club Crescenta Valley Group and David Eisenberg, Sierra Club Verdugo Hills Group.

If you missed our most recent presentation, "Winter is Coming, Hiking Safely in Our Local Mountains," here's your chance to watch it online. Lisa Miyake of the Sierra Club's Wilderness Travel Course joined Doug Cramoline of Montrose Search & Rescue to put on this interesting presentation: https://youtu.be/4SBF1J3WC4o. You can learn more by going to the WTC website at: wildernesstravelsite.org

Our August 31, 2023 presentation was called “The Heat: To Hike or Not to Hike.” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wrKjq8ow1mw   This presentation reviews the uptick in deaths of hikers in Southern CA from the excessive heat we just experienced. Watch and learn from Silvia Darie, MD how the heat affects us humans and dogs, and then stay on to hear from Montrose Search & Rescue about the many distress calls they had this summer.

January 17, 2023: “Will Redwoods Survive Climate Change?”

Join the Crescenta Valley Group and the Verdugo Hills Group of the Sierra Club for an informative virtual presentation, “Will Redwoods Survive Climate Change?” on Wednesday, January 17, 2024 at 7 p.m.  The Santa Cruz mountains are coast redwoods' stronghold at the southern end of their limited and diminishing range. Learn what scientists predict for their future in a time of climate change, and how innovative partners are ushering in a new era of conservation stewardship so redwoods might thrive and survive. Matthew Shaffer, Chief Marketing and Communications Officer of Sempervirens Fund will be giving this presentation. Sempervirens has been preserving redwood forests since 1900: sempervirens.org. Please use this link to register for this upcoming presentation:  https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZAqfuyoqz4pHdRxzZoFsnH2GJEPQ4O3cAEn