Conservation Newsletter - September 2006

We believe this bill is an important milestone that will spur legislative initiatives in other states wanting to enact biomonitoring programs.

OC Environmental Event, Sunday, September 17

You're invited to a presentation on Renewable Energy, along with an update and discussion of the work of the Environmental Coalition for the Great Park. The event will be held at Irvine Ranch Water District, Multipurpose Room, at 15600 Sand Canyon, Irvine

Doors open at 6:15.
Presentations:
6:30 pm for Renewable Energy
7:15 for Committee Reports on the Orange County Great Park and Discussion by OC Regional Environmental Groups

Meeting to end at 8:30 pm

Santa Clara River Tour - September 30, 2006

Have you heard about the Santa Clara River, LA's last unchannelized river?

Join us for a bus tour on Saturday, September 30th to learn about the Santa Clara River and its farmlands, endangered fish and amphibians and agricultural issues.

Please RSVP by September 23 to Jennifer Robinson at (213) 387-4287 x210 or jennifer.robinson@sierraclub.org. The $10 registration fee includes box lunch.

We hope you can join us!

Your Help Needed to Support Urban Parks Bill
by Marybeth Vergara, September 7, 2006

As you may be aware, California’s legislature passed Assembly Majority Leader Dario Frommer’s Assembly Bill 1559 on August 31, 2006 which would enhance and augment the Urban Park Act of 2001. With up to $800 million in urban parks funding available through bonds that could be approved by voters in November this year, we need to let Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger know right now that urban parks are an essential element of the State’s infrastructure, and that AB 1559 is a critical step towards increasing accessibility in park poor neighborhoods and providing inner-city children with safe and healthy places to play.

Background
Majority Leader Dario Frommer (D – Glendale) authored AB 2481 in 2001 which established the Urban Park Act as an essential recreational program that addresses the need to create new parks and facilities in some of California’s most densely populated cities where there is significant lack of open-space, recreation areas, and places for children to play.

Assembly Bill 1559 enhances this program by emphasizing the expansion of neighborhood accessibility to parks. The legislation builds upon an already strong foundation for funding the acquisition and development of parks and recreation areas in underserved neighborhoods, and assigns a higher priority to projects that create a new park in a location where no parks currently exist, and will do so in a fair and adequate way. This will not only create opportunities for outdoor recreation, but also will foster community pride and contribute to the economic revitalization of these underserved areas.

This month, Governor Schwarzenegger will be presented this bill for his signature. We need to impress upon the Governor the importance of this legislation and the value of urban parks in combating childhood obesity and creating healthy, livable communities.

Here’s What You Can Do
Please send or fax a letter today to Governor Schwarzenegger urging him to sign AB 1559. Remind him that California’s population is projected to grow by three cities the size of Los Angeles in the next twenty years, and that urban parks are an important tool to ensuring that our State meets the growing demand for our future — that a growing state necessitates more inner-city recreational opportunities for children, youth and their families.

The Governor has less than 30 days to sign this important legislation, so please act soon. Please also feel free to call me for any additional information or guidance at (323) 223-0441x13. Thank you in advance for hard work and support for this critical issue.

Brown Skies & Waters Initiative
Tom Politeo, Harbor Vision Task Force, San Pedro Bay

I was in North Long Beach today, August 29, near the intersection of the Long Beach Freeway and San Diego Freeways (I-710 and I-405). It was in the low to mid 80s — and the visibility due to air pollution brought back memories of Los Angeles in my childhood, in the late 1950s and early 1960s. The sky looked brown in all directions, visibility was perhaps as little as a mile, certainly not more than two.

From the intersection of the Harbor and the San Diego Freeways (I-110 and I-405), a few miles to the west, visibility was noticeably better. You could just make out San Pedro Hill (Palos Verdes Peninsula) a few miles to the south. It formed a almost fully obscured outline in on the horizon — but it was just visible.

That is the image of what environmental justice is about. At what is roughly the boundary of San Pedro, Lomita, Harbor City and Rolling Hills, at Western Avenue and Palos Verdes Drive (North), if you looked west toward where affluent and lighter skinned people live, skies were fairly blue, not perfectly so, but pretty blue. Visibility looked good. If you looked east toward poorer and minority neighborhoods, the skies were brown, heavy with smog. Visibility was poor.

Late last week, again with weather in the 80s, you couldn't see to North San Pedro from South, visibility was at best three miles, perhaps only two. That may not seem so bad, but this is a location that's right on the coast, and is supposed to have better air, because of the marine influence. It wasn't fog. There was a brisk wind blowing from behind me, which should have only helped clear the air.

Looking across the harbor, from a South Gaffey vantage (at a place called "lookout point" near Gaffey and 36th) you could just see downtown Long Beach on the other side of the port, again, only about three miles away. Signal Hill, which is just a few miles further, was not visible.

Over the top of the inversion layer, you could see see the Santa Ana Mountains poking over the top of the smog.

There's an article about the Vincent Thomas Bridge in the Los Angeles Times today (http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-bridge29aug). A catwalk on the bottom of the bridge was struck by a crane on a ship that was accidentally left extended. The article says that port authorities are more concerned about the number of trucks that will be going over the bridge in 2020 when the port volume triples, than they are about its height.

The twin ports efforts, which include expanding the bridges to Terminal Island that cross into San Pedro, Wilmington and Long Beach, as well as freeway routes that come in and out of these ports, all amount to a brown skies initiative. They will bring us many decades of dirty air and noisy neighborhoods.

Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa is presiding over this. The growing consensus among local activists is that he is failing us — that instead of directing the port toward green solutions, such as electrified rail, his Harbor Commission is taking a somewhat "hands off" approach to port staff, leaving them free to do all their planning via freeways. (There are many other environmental concerns, regarding water, soil, habitat, blight, and sprawl in this area.)

Villaraigosa said he wants to "grow the ports green." His Harbor Commission President, S. David Freeman says he wants to "harness growth to green the port." We agree, we have for about six years. But, it is not possible to grow the port green, to take care of air pollution, global warming, noise and sprawl, if freeways and roadways are a major part of port growth.

That is a message we need to get out and about loud and clear.

We need broad support for this. A half dozen years ago, we tried to get the Alameda Corridor, which we supported, to be electrified (and perhaps made quieter). We failed. Most of the legislation which has been introduced in the State houses on our behalf (Lowenthal, Pavely) seems to be going down in defeat this week. Our efforts to influence the bond allocation process on 1B has failed. Around 2000, our area was savaged by reapportionment, which has reduced the number of favorable votes we have in the state houses.

Many here feel that our area is politically expendable, and that our environment is expendable as well, so long as the needs of the shipping industry are met.

Quite frankly, we are fed up. And we need whatever support we can find.

This article was printed in the Naturalist Notes of the Natural Science Section, edited by Bob Cates.
To My Fellow Nazis
[What, you didn’t know you might be a Nazi? Well, read on. – ed]

"[Sen. James Inhofe (R-OK)] compares An Inconvenient Truth, which he doesn't plan to see, to Adolf Hitler's book Mein Kampf. 'If you say the same lie over and over again, and particularly if you have the media's support, people will believe it,' Inhofe said." Albuquerque Tribune, 15 July 2006

Apparently, some conservative climate skeptics will stop at nothing to refute the solid science telling us that human activity is making the Earth warmer — and fast. Climate skeptics have shown their utter desperation by repeatedly playing the Nazi card and repeating their own anti-science lies ad nauseam.

A Brief History of Idiocy
20 July — Wall Street Journal columnist Peggy Noonan repeats the falsehood that there's no scientific consensus on global warming and that in the end, we'll have to blame the scientists if global warming turns out to be real: "I think the people will have a greater claim to blame the scientists, for refusing to be honest, for operating in cliques and holding to ideologies. For failing to be trustworthy."

14 July — The House Energy Committee releases a report that doesn't include any science but attacks Dr. Michael Mann's landmark 1998 global warming study for being "too peer-reviewed."

14 July — In the interest of "balanced coverage," the Christian Science Monitor prints an attack on global warming by Julia Gorin, a "conservative comedian."

29 May — Fox News analyst Jonathan Hoenig says, "There's no scientific proof that global warming even exists. To be honest, it's a bogus consensus dreamed up by Greens because they hate industry. They hate advancement. They hate technology...Greens will lead us back to the stone ages."

28 May — Climate skeptic Bill Gray compares Gore to Hitler: "Gore believed in global warming almost as much as Hitler believed there was something wrong with the Jews."

23 May — Sterling Burnett, a senior fellow at a different ExxonMobil-funded "think tank," the National Center for Policy Analysis, compares Gore to Nazi propagandist Joseph Goebbels: "You don't go see Joseph Goebbels' films to see the truth about Nazi Germany. You don't go see Al Gore's films to see the truth about global warming."

In a final salute to idiocy to round out his week, Sen. Inhofe attacked the objectivity of Associated Press science reporter Seth Borenstein and former NBC News anchor Tom Brokaw, one of the most trusted public figures in America. Inhofe is demanding a Fox News-style "fair and balanced" approach to global warming coverage: giving more idiots more time and space to spout anti-science.— From an article titled "Complete Idiot’s Guide to Global Warming," by Josh Dorner, Sierra Club RAW report, July 20, 2006.

[Isn’t it interesting that as long as science and scientists enable us to build faster computers, improve weapons systems, or find more oil, they are a treasured resource. But when their findings go against pet biases, e.g., global warming or evolution, then they are too cliquish and ideologic. I guess the critics will just have to take the good with the bad.]

Ask Governor Schwarzenegger to Close the Smoking Vehicle Loophole in Smog Check

Did you know that a car can pass Smog Check even when filthy smoke is belching out of its tailpipe? This loophole is hazardous to your health, because smoking vehicles emit particulates, which can cause heart disease and early death. One scientific analysis found that emissions from a smoking car were as harmful as the collective emissions from 75 well-maintained cars.

Now we have a chance to help clean the air by closing the smoking-vehicle loophole. Assembly Bill 1870, by Assemblymember Sally Lieber, has passed the State Legislature and needs only Governor Schwarzenegger’s signature to become law.

Unfortunately, the bureaucrats at Department of Consumer Affairs continue to oppose the measure, so we need your help to convince the governor to sign it. Please take action by: September 15, 2006 — governor@governor.ca.gov

Climate News From Those Pesky Scientists
This article was printed in the Naturalist Notes of the Natural Science Section, edited by Bob Cates.

Researchers at the British Antarctic Survey (BAS) and the University of California, Santa Cruz have discovered that Earth’s last great global warming period, 3 million years ago, may have been caused by levels of CO2 in the atmosphere similar to today’s.

Reporting in a leading Earth Science journal, Geochemistry Geophysics Geosystems, the scientists describe how they tested two widely held ideas that attempted to explain the balmy conditions on Earth at that time. Their findings clearly demonstrate that studying past climates can help us to understand the likely impact of greenhouse gas emissions and global warming.

BAS Principal Investigator Dr Alan Haywood said,"There are two schools of thought about past warm intervals. Many scientists suggest that they were caused by ocean currents (like the Gulf Stream) moving greater amounts of warm water from the tropics to the polar regions. Others speculate that increased levels of CO2 in the atmosphere initiated warming all over the planet. We used the latest supercomputing technology combined with chemical analysis of seabed sediments to make a sophisticated reconstruction of past sea temperatures. If the warming was caused by ocean currents, we would expect to see cooling at the tropics and warming at the poles. Conversely, if CO2 was the cause then we would expect both the tropics and the poles to warm. The sea temperature pattern we found points the finger squarely at CO2 rather than the ocean currents. This is a real breakthrough for those of us investigating past climate — we’ve made a major contribution to a long standing argument and our findings are critical to understanding how climate may respond to emissions of greenhouse gases in the future."

Clues to past sea-surface temperature come from tiny marine algae that live near the surface. They produce chemicals called alkenones that record the sea temperature. When the algae die they sink and become part of the seabed. Therefore, a record of past sea temperatures is stored within the sediments. Sea-surface temperatures were also predicted using a climate model running on a sophisticated supercomputer based at Manchester, England. This is capable of billions of calculations per second.— Issued by the British Antarctic Survey Press Office, April 11, 2005

Find the Latest on Climate Change
This article was printed in the Naturalist Notes of the Natural Science Section, edited by Bob Cates.

There are a lot of self-styled pundits writing blogs, but very few authorities. RealClimate is different — a climate blog maintained by actual climate scientists and devoted to educating the media and public about the realities of global warming. That may sound rather arcane, and much of it is. To be sure, lengthy disquisitions on the Atlantic Multidecadal Oscillation and the "tropical lapse-rate quandary" may leave your eyes glazed over, but when you want expert opinions on the latest media reports on climate change, on books about the subject, or even Al Gore's documentary, this is the first place to turn. RealClimate can be accessed on the Web at: www.realclimate.org.

Setting Priorities for Sierra Club California

by Bill Allayaud, State Director

Introduction
At the last State Convention in San Luis Obispo, there was an extended evening discussion about Sierra Club California (hereinafter SCC) and its operation. The discussion centered on how priorities are set to guide the work of the staff, and how the chapters and the CCC (formerly the RCC) can have improved opportunities for providing input into setting those priorities. There were many other opinions expressed including: the staff only follows what the California Legislative Committee (CLC) says; SCC does not lead enough and only reacts; and the annual State Convention should be the place that statewide policy is formulated.

From staff’s standpoint, the purpose of this exercise is not to consider a re-structuring of SCC, as that is beyond the scope of this paper. It is also not to provide a complete analysis of how policy is made for SCC. It is first an attempt to bring some clarification and understanding about how we work, and then how we can work together better. It is recommended that the CCC decide at the beginning of this item at the September 9th meeting what outcome they are looking for, be it deciding what legislative priorities should be, how they are decided, what bills to sponsor, or whatever else they think staff resources should be committed to.

Examples of Past and Current Priorities
SCC staff is very active in opposing and supporting key legislation. We track between 300 and 400 bills per year and take positions on perhaps half of those. The CLC is the body that directs staff on what position to take on each bill. We have three levels of support or opposition, with S-1 (Support) and O-1 (Opposition) bills being the highest priority. Every year, we have a major hand in moving or stopping many bills. Legislators and key committee staff approach us on a regular basis to either throw our weight behind legislation or to help defeat a bad bill.

It might be helpful to give a recounting of the legislation that SCC has sponsored in the last few years. Sponsorship means we approach a legislator and ask them to carry legislation which we commit to backing strongly at the Capitol, and if necessary working the media and using our grassroots.

This is in contrast to where a legislator introduces legislation and either asks us to support it or we decide to support.
Here is a list of sponsored legislation (2002 to present):

The list could go on, but the point is made. It is not being suggested that we drop everything that does not directly relate to the reduction of greenhouse gases; we have core values that our members want pursued that are outside the global warming issue. For example, if a Governor proposed a way for Coastal Commissioners to be appointed that is objectionable, or he proposed to cut their budget, we would strongly oppose it. Perhaps proposed legislative priorities through the global warming filter, because much of what we care about will be for naught if we do not address the overriding problem.

Chapter/SCC Partnerships
An area that is perhaps ripe for discussion and improvements is putting the power and energy of our thirteen chapters and their individual members together with the statewide perspective and organizing capability of SCC.

The issue of growth management is one to consider. It has become apparent that while SCC can block most bad bills concerning planning, housing, and CEQA, we and our colleagues in Sacramento have not been able to get progressive legislation passed that will set the State, cities, and counties on a new direction. The most success in this arena has been at the local level through the passage of local growth management ordinances. These take the form of urban growth boundaries, urban services lines, housing allocation or growth rate ordinances, and other agricultural and open space preservation measures. About half of these measures pass the muster of voters, which is a better percentage that we can achieve in Sacramento.

Federal Government Listening Sessions

The Federal government is holding a series of listening sessions around the country on Cooperative Conservation (defined as the efforts of landowners, communities, conservation groups, industry, and government to work together to preserve the environment. See www.cooperativeconservation.gov for more information on this effort). Given that there will only be one listening session in southern California, and recognizing the unique challenges and opportunities we face in this part of the country on habitat and species issues, it is important to have all relevant interests represented.

Please consider attending the session in Colton, California which is scheduled for Thursday, September 28, 2006 starting at 10:00 am at the Colton High School Auditorium. Department of the Interior Secretary Kempthorne and EPA Pacific Southwest Regional Administrator Wayne Nastri are among the government officials scheduled to participate in this listen session.

The link for the news release announcing this listening session:
http://www.doi.gov/news/06_News_Releases/060822d.htm.

CO2 at Highest Level in 650,000 Years
This article was printed in the Naturalist Notes of the Natural Science Section, edited by Bob Cates.

With the first in-depth analysis of the air bubbles trapped in the “EPICA Dome C” ice core from East Antarctica, European researchers have extended the greenhouse gas record back to 650,000 years before the present. This 210,000-year extension of atmospheric carbon dioxide and methane records — encompassing two full glacial cycles — should help scientists better understand climate change and the nature of the current warm period on Earth. The record may also aid researchers in reducing uncertainty in predictions of future climate change and help to clarify when humans began significantly changing the balance of greenhouse gasses in Earth’s atmosphere. EPICA is the European Project for Ice Coring in Antarctica. The new ice core, initially described in 2004, is from a site in East Antarctica known as EPICA Dome C. This work represents a long-term European research collaboration and appears in two studies and an accompanying “Perspective” article in the 25 November 2005 issue of the journal Science, published by the American Association for the Advancement of Science, a nonprofit science society.

The analysis highlights the fact that today’s rising atmospheric carbon dioxide concentration, at 380 parts per million by volume, is already 27 percent higher than its highest recorded level during the last 650,000 years, said Science author Thomas Stocker of the Physics Institute of the University of Bern, in Bern, Switzerland, who serves as the corresponding author for both papers.

“We have added another piece of information showing that the timescales on which humans have changed the composition of the atmosphere are extremely short compared to the natural time cycles of the climate system,” Stocker explained.

The new work confirms the stable relationship between Antarctic climate and the greenhouse gasses carbon dioxide and methane during the last four glacial cycles. The new ice core analysis also extends this relationship back another two glacial cycles, to a time when the warm “interglacial” periods were milder and longer than more recent warm periods, according to the European researchers.

The fact that carbon dioxide and methane levels were lower during the relatively mild warm periods of the two additional cycles, compared to the warmer warm periods of the last 400,000 years, is especially interesting for the study of climate sensitivity, which is a measure of how the climate system reacts when atmospheric carbon dioxide concentrations double, explained Science author Dominique Raynaud from LGGE in Grenoble, France. The new atmospheric and climate records from the EPICA Dome C ice core also indicate that the response of the natural carbon cycle to climate warming remains the same over time — in terms of the mechanism involved and the degree to which greenhouse gasses further amplify climate change, explained Science author Jean Jouzel from LSCE and Institut Pierre Simon Laplace in France.

The EPICA Dome C ice core contains hundreds of thousands of years-worth of atmospheric air samples within tiny bubbles trapped in the ice. The air bubbles form when snowflakes fall, and they contain a record of global greenhouse gas concentrations. AAAS Press Release, 11/24/05

Welcome Becky Van Stokkum
by Carl Zichella

Please join me in welcoming Becky Van Stokkum to the staff. Becky will be organizing activities in the San Joaquin Valley to convene a leadership council to reduce oil addiction and improve air quality in the San Joaquin Valley. Her work will provide momentum for a policy agenda community leaders support, and which can be implemented at all levels of government. She is based in Fresno and started on September 1.

Becky is fluent in Spanish, has great contacts in the Valley's faith community, is connected to the Central Valley Air Quality Coalition and is respected by local public officials for her work trying to create jobs.

Becky has had a remarkable career. She spent nine years doing anti-poverty work in barrios in Venezuela, and has built community support for workforce development programs through Fresno State University. She also served as director of Economic Development and Policy for the IBEW in Fresno. She recently received a Masters degree in Global Policy from Universidad Central de Venezuela which she defended in Spanish. She is a tremendous talent. I am very excited about her joining our team. Please join me in welcoming Becky to the staff.

CA/NV Wilderness Committee Fall Meeting

Notice & Call for Agenda

Wilderness activists and generally interested potential activists, please put this meeting on your calendar. Join us for both Saturday and Sunday events!

The Sierra Cub's California/Nevada Regional Wilderness Committee will meet Saturday, October 21, 2006 and Sunday, October 22 in Paso Robles, California, from 10 am to 5 pm. Directions to the meeting location will be sent in the near future. Many thanks to Cal and Letty French, our local gurus, for offering to host this meeting in their environs and set up arrangements.

At Saturday's meeting, we hope to meet and hear from many local central coast area CA activists, and hear from some agency personnel as well. One highlight of the meeting will be a presentation by BLM's Rick Hanks, manager of the California Coastal National Monument, about his little-known but rather spectacular national monument (headquartered in Monterey but reaching from the Mexico border up to the Oregon border.

After the meeting, we'll get together for a camp dinner hosted by committee and overnight campout nearby with camp breakfast similarly hosted.

On Sunday, June 11 we hope to have a hike to a coastal area that may be addeed to the Coastal National Monument. Stay tuned for more details as they evolve!

At Saturday's meeting, we'll have updates on progress of the Northern CA Coastal Wild Heritage Act as well as news of the new Eastern Sierra wilderness bill, updates on current wilderness issues in Nevada, including the White Pine County bill introduced in early August; reports of the Forest Service's ORV-route designation process, and new and ongoing management issues for wilderness.

Beyond that, our agenda is up to YOU.

I look forward to hearing from you. Vicky Hoover

California Oaks Might Lose CEQA Protection
From californiaoaks.org

Imminent Threat to Woodlands Wildlife
The Board of Forestry and Fire Protection is considering a “Practice of Forestry” policy statement detrimental to oak woodlands conservation. Development interests are seeking to abridge the California Wildlife Habitat Relationships System (CWHR) in California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) reviews so that the true wildlife habitat impacts caused by
the removal of oak woodlands remain hidden:

Practice of Forestry Policy Statement II
“Tree dominated landscapes such as forests and woodlands may be identified using a variety of vegetation classification systems including but not limited to all of the tree dominated habitat types of the California Wildlife Habitat Relationships System [CWHR], A Manual of California Vegetation; Vegetation Classification and Mapping Program; various California Native Plant Society publications; and Preliminary Descriptions of the Terrestrial Natural Communities.”

California Oak Foundation Concern
The California Department of Fish and Game’s CWHR is commonly used by federal, state and some county government agencies to assess wildlife habitats. It is the only California vegetation classification system that also provides a predictive model for the biological relationships between those vegetation types and 692 wildlife species, with nearly 50 percent associated with oak woodlands. This combination of wildlife and woodlands information is essential for analyzing CEQA oak habitat impacts and developing appropriate mitigation measures.

Currently the other proposed policy classification systems lack CWHR’s oak habitat wildlife suitability component. For oak woodlands, CWHR represents the superior oak habitat classification system. “Habitat” and "environment” are synonymous terms, making CWHR the perfect complement for CEQA oak woodland reviews. Regrettably, under CEQA the proposed
standards of non-governmental organizations have no legal standing. As a Responsible Agency, the Department of Fish and Game’s CWHR oak habitat assessment system does have applicability.

Please contact the Board of Forestry and join COF in halting this pernicious effort to separate California wildlife from California oak woodlands. Let the Board know that the California Wildlife Habitat Relationships System does more than just classify vegetation; CWHR provides the oak woodlands habitat data necessary for full environmental review.

Draft Agenda for Southern California Forests Meeting
by Joyce Burk, Southern California Forests Committee

Saturday, September 30, 2006
Angeles Chapter Office, 3435 Wilshire Blvd, Suite 320, Los Angeles

Please note: If you park in the underground parking garage, please remember to bring the parking ticket up to the Sierra Club office so that it can be stamped. Then, when you leave you must show it to the parking attendant.

9:15 am Introductions, Announcements, Minutes

A. CNRCC Meeting — Fred Hoeptner
B. West Side Energy Corridors — Gene Frick
C. OHV Route Designation Process/4 Forests — Steve Farrell
D. 4 Forests Appeal Status & Monitoring & Evaluation Reports — Joyce & Bill

11:00 am Forests Campaign Update & Leaps Project — Bill, John, and Juana
12:00 pm Lunch. Please either bring a sack lunch or make a quick trip to a local take-out restaurant.
1:00 pm Forest Reports

A. Los Padres NF — Alan Coles
B. San Bernardino NF — Joyce Burk, Steve Farrell, Kim Floyd, Peter Jorris
C Angeles NF — Don Bremner, Kim Floyd, Fred Hoeptner, Robin Ives, Don Tidwell
D. Cleveland NF — Robin Everett, Gene Frick, Janice McKalson, Jay Matchett. Dave Voss

3:00 pm Adjourn

Our next meeting is scheduled for Dec 2. Please bring along your calendars. We will set our March 2007 meeting date.

WA Federal Judge Requires ESA Consultation
for Pesticide Effects
Judge: Bush Administration Pesticide Rules for Endangered Species Are Illegal
Pesticide lobbyists sought to remove checks and balances
August 24, 2006

A federal judge in Seattle today overturned new Bush administration rules that made it easier for pesticide makers to ignore the effects of their products on endangered plants and animals. The court set aside the administration's rules, and restored prior standards that provided greater protection to protected wildlife and plants. The ruling came in response to a lawsuit brought by a coalition of national and regional wildlife conservation and pesticide reform organizations.

Volunteers Needed for September 30 at Joshua Tree NP
Contact: Howard Gross, National Parks Conservation Association, 760-366-3035

100 Volunteers Called to Help with Volunteer Projects at Joshua Tree National Park.

Event is one of 600 Public Lands Day Events Nationwide

WHO: The public is invited and encouraged to help the National Park Service, National Parks Conservation Association, Desert Parks Partners, and Joshua Tree National Park Association in completing half-day volunteer service projects at Joshua Tree National Park.

WHAT: Volunteers can choose from three projects: Hidden Valley trash pick-up (~3 hours), Lost Horse Valley weed pull (~4 hours), or Queen Valley vegetation management (~5 hours). Come help Joshua Tree National Park be the best it can be!

Bring hat, sunscreen, sunglasses, work clothing/shoes, and water. Bring a hoe if you want to work on the weed pull. We'll provide free T-shirts, snacks, cold beverages, and extra water.

WHEN: Saturday, September 30, 2006, beginning at 8:30 am.

WHERE: Volunteers will meet and register at 8:30 am at the Joshua Tree National Park Oasis of Mara Visitor Center in Twentynine Palms, California.

ADDITIONAL INFO: As many as 100,000 volunteers, including 100 at Joshua Tree National Park, will lend a hand to America's lands on National Public Lands Day on September 30. The National Parks Conservation Association (NPCA) is leading events at seven national parks across the country, including Golden Gate, Yellowstone and Mount Ranier. Recreational Equipment, Inc. (REI) is underwriting NPCA's activities. Desert Parks Partners and the Joshua Tree National Park Association are also helping to make the event at Joshua Tree National Park a success.

Now in its 13th year, National Public Lands Day is the largest annual volunteer hands-on restoration activity of its kind, providing more than $10 million in real improvements. It brings together thousands of volunteers from coast to coast to refurbish and restore the lands and facilities Americans use for recreation, education, and just plain enjoyment.

Livable Cities Committee, Tejon Ranch Task Force

On Sunday, August 27, 2006, the ExComm authorized the establishment of the Livable Cities Committee, a Chapter Conservation sub-committee. The chair is Tom Politeo. Here is the mission statement:

"To promote public dialogue, awareness, activism, community programs and urban planning which advance a high quality of life and opportunity consistent with environmental, social and economic justice principles; sustainable development; public health; the elimination of environmental hazards; and living in balance with nature."

The Root of the Problem
Greatest threat to environment & democracy coming from same source
by Andrew Christie, Responsible Trade Committee

For many years, environmentalists have noticed that even when we win, we seem to lose. Whether fighting for cleaner air or in defense of forests or against bad development projects, what we win is somewhat less dirty air, a few groves surrounded by miles of stumps, or a development that consumes irreplaceable open space or agricultural land, but not as much as it might have. If graphed on a chart over the last thirty years or so, our victories would depict an unmistakably downward slide with the only consolation being the likelihood that if we did not engage in such battles, the slope would be much steeper.

There’s a reason
As the Church was to the Middle Ages, and European monarchies were to the colonial era, the corporation is to us. Ultimate power — over our political system and the fates of Third World economies; over what we see, hear, eat, drink, breathe, and, ultimately, the way we think — has come to be concentrated within corporate boardrooms. Of the world’s 100 largest economies, 48 are countries. 52 are global corporations.

The Sierra Club is moving to take on the stacked deck of corporate rule. Over the weekend of August 11, just outside the small Sonoma County, California, town of Occidental, the Club’s Confronting Corporate Power Task Force and Corporate Accountability Committee convened a meeting of Club leaders from across the country. We came from around the state, the midwest, the south and the east coast, in a group that included advocates from our Environmental Justice campaign and Responsible Trade Committee, a member of the Sierra Club’s board of directors and a former Club president.

Over the three days of “Community Organizing for Environmental Protection and Democracy — A New Paradigm,” we reviewed 150 years of US history, the rules of global trade as written by and for multinational corporations, and compared notes on our own experiences running Sierra Club campaigns in our communities — where, more often than not, we have come out on the short end of a heavily rigged regulatory process.

The participants concluded that the problem is not bad apples but a bad barrel: Corporations have amassed far more power than was envisioned by the inventors of the corporate charter — federal and state governments have gradually ceded more and more of their authority over them, and the legal system has skewed heavily toward the Constitutional “rights” of corporate entities — which, as artificial entities consisting of amassed property should have no such rights — at the expense of the rights of real human beings and the rights of nature.

The “greening” of corporations, all agreed, is more of a distraction than a solution. It’s not a matter of some corporations behaving better or worse than others, but the fundamental nature of the entity. By law, a corporation must place its bottom line above all other considerations. If paving over a wetland or cutting down an old growth redwood forest will increase its profits, a corporation must make every effort to do so. If not polluting a river will cost more than polluting it or paying the fine for doing so, it must fight regulators and the courts tooth and nail to be allowed to continue to pollute. If it does otherwise, it is betraying its promise to its principals and shareholders and its sole purpose: To make money. They must maximize their profits while exploiting workers, nations, and the planet.

“This is not a question of left or right,” said Jim Price, staff committee liaison with the Club’s Southeast Office, “It’s up or down.”

The conference participants agreed that the solution to the problem is to wrest from corporations the rights that were once vested solely in citizens but which corporations have been acquiring for themselves for over a century. That means educating and organizing in our communities and mounting legal challenges to corporate rights.

The American Revolution was a revolt against corporate rule (the thirteen colonies were literally corporations created to carry out the business of the Crown; the Boston Tea Party was specifically a disagreement over “free trade” issues). The agrarian Populist revolt of the late 19th century was a mass national re-imagining of the political landscape as a democratic system that would serve the needs of common people rather than the robber barons who ruled that era. “The political and legal culture has been diverting activists from political arenas where people can define issues and make the rules,” wrote Richard Grossman of the Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund and Ward Morehouse of the Program on Corporations, Law and Democracy (POCLAD). In those arenas, “whether we win or lose, it is clear that the struggle is about who is in charge — corporations or people.”

By the end of the weekend, meeting participants agreed that while the Sierra Club must continue to do the work of traditional activism — challenging corporate destruction through the regulatory process and in the courts to protect the natural world from immediate harms in the short term — we would all take what we’d learned back to our communities and work to help the Corporate Accountability Committee make the abolition of corporate Constitutional rights and the restoration of citizen-based democracy a long-term Sierra Club priority.

Environmental Resolutions passed by ExComm — August 27, 2006

The Livable Cities Committee was established with Tom Politeo as Chair.
Listserves were approved for the Harbor Vision Task Force and the Livable Cities Committee.
A short-notice grant was approved for the Endangered Species and Wildlife Committee to bring in outside experts for the Re-enchanting the City Conference.
The ExComm voted to use ExComm travel funds to send Genevieve Liang to the Asian American Environmental Symposium.
The ExComm voted to authorize payment of the funds for facilities rentals for the Litigation Workshop and the Political/Conservation Summit.
The ExComm voted to support the removal of non-native deer and elk on Santa Rosa Island in Channel Islands National Park and to phase out hunting of these non-native species. The ExComm voted to oppose the deliberate retention of any non-native plant or animal species on the Island or any other part of Channel Islands National Park. Finally the ExComm voted to communicate this resolution to US Senators Barbara Boxer and Dianne Feinstein, as well to relevant members of the House of Representatives.

Useful Information

Action Directory
Sierra Club Legislative Hotline: (202) 675-2394
Sierra Club National: (415) 977-5500
Sierra Club Sacramento Legislative Office: (916) 557-1100; fax (916) 557-9669
White House Comment Line: (202) 456-1111
White House Fax Line: (202) 456-2461
President George W Bush: president@whitehouse.gov
Vice President Dick Cheney: vice-president@whitehouse.gov
White House Address: 1600 Pennsylvania Ave, Washington, DC 20500
US Capitol Switchboard: (202) 224-3121
To contact your senators: Senate Office Bldg, Washington DC 20510 http://www.senate.gov/contacting/index.cfm
To contact your representative: House Office Bldg, Washington DC 20515 http://www.house.gov/writerep
California Capitol Switchboard: (916) 322-9900
Gov Arnold Schwarzenegger: (916) 445-2841; fax (916) 445-4633; governor@governor.ca.gov
State Capitol Bldg, Sacramento CA 95814
Sierra Club Links
Sierra Club World Wide Web: http://www.sierraclub.org
Angeles Chapter site: http://angeles.sierraclub.org
Sierra Club California: http://www.sierraclub.org/ca/
Sierra Club Vote Watch Website: http://www.sierraclub.org/votewatch/
National Clubhouse activist resource site: http://clubhouse.sierraclub.org/
Need help contacting your US representatives or finding out about legislation?
US House of Representatives: http://www.house.gov/
US Senate: http://www.senate.gov/
California State Assembly: http://www.assembly.ca.gov/
California State Senate: http://www.sen.ca.gov/
California State: http://www.ca.gov/state/portal/myca_homepage.jsp
California Legislative Information: http://www.leginfo.ca.gov/
California Secretary of State voter information:
http://www.ss.ca.gov/elections/elections.htm
This Electronic Conservation Committee Newsletter is sent free, automatically, on email by listserv to all activists who hold any of the following positions in the Angeles Chapter or its entities: Executive Committee Member; Entity Chair or Conservation Chair, Political, and Newsletter Editor, Conservation Subcommittee or Task Force Chair. In addition, many activists throughout the Chapter and state receive it free by email, either by request or by position. Distribution is approximately 350 by email, and 45 by postal hard copy. If you no longer hold the Club office with the automatic pull and wish to continue to receive it, email ivesico@earthlink.net. If we do not have your email address — please let us know. If you wish (and tell us), it will be tagged "private" and not printed or given out. The Newsletter (without upcoming resolutions) is available on the Chapter website at http://angeles.sierraclub.org/home.html Paper postal copy is available ($20/year payable Angeles Chapter, Sierra Club) for those who are technically challenged or simply don't want to be bothered. To receive The Newsletter by first class mail, send a donation of $20 to (almost) cover printing/mailing costs to Conservation Newsletter, 112 Harvard Ave PMB 297, Claremont CA 91711.
National's GoldBook provides information to chapters and groups on the differences between 501(c)(3) and 501(c)(4) funds; how to utilize and access charitable 501(c)(3) funds; how to get a project approved; fundraising plus much, much, more material on the Sierra Club. It is now available at the Clubhouse website. Go to http://www.clubhouse.sierraclub.org/; follow the instructions for obtaining the password. The GoldBook can be found by clicking on A - Z List of Materials box, then on "G" under A-Z List of Documents, then on GoldBook, Educational Project Guidelines.
The California/Nevada Directory (RedBook) is available online. It also includes the Handbook of Sierra Club California Bylaws and Standing Rules (GreenBook). Contact Lori Ives (lori.ives@angeles.sierraclub.org) for the online address and password. Send your membership number, your position in the Club, and your reason for needing the information. The paper edition ($20) is available on special order. Contact Lori for information.
E-Mail Lists There are four important discussion lists for Angeles environmental activists:
Angeles Chapter Cons Listserve angeles-conservation@lists.sierraclub.org
Angeles Chapter Conservation Committee Newsletter (Angeles Cons-News)
Angeles-Alerts Listserve angeles-alerts@lists.sierraclub.org
California/Nevada Listserve calif-activists@lists.sierraclub.org (moderated list for announcements)
California/Nevada Listserve calif-activists-forum@lists.sierraclub.org (unmoderated discussion list)
Subscribe to California Activists: calif-activists-request@lists.sierraclub.org
Subscribe to California Activists Forum: calif-activists-request@lists.sierraclub.org
For either list, send your name, email address, Sierra Club membership number, your position in Club (how are you active?)
Subscription is processed by one of the list owners, usually the same day.
Subscribe to Angeles-Alerts: email listsserve@lists.sierraclub.org with the message "subscribe angeles-conservation"
or "subscribe calif-activists" or "subscribe angeles-alerts" Note: it's "listserv," not "listserve."
To leave a list, send an e-mail to listserv@lists.sierraclub.org. In the text of your message (not the subject line), write: "signoff calif-activists" or "signoff angeles-conservation" or "signoff angeles-alerts"
The Angeles Chapter's web site is http://www.angeles.sierraclub.org/

Angeles Chapter Conservation Management Committee
Chair: Dean Wallraff (818) 679-3141
Vice Chair/Policy/Grants Chair: Bonnie Sharpe
Vice Chair/Outreach: Marcia Hanscom
Secretary: Lisa Skillett
Newletter Editor: Robin Ives (909) 624-5522
At Large: Jan Kidwell, Jay Matchett, Lynne Plambeck, Virgil Shields, Rosemarie White
Publisher/Webmaster/Circulation (non-voting): Lori Ives (909) 621-7148
Staff Conservation Coordinator (non-voting): Jennifer Robinson

Angeles Chapter Grants Committee
Bonnie Sharpe,Ch . Judy Anderson, Marcia Hanscom, Robin Ives, Jay Matchett, Rudy Vietmeier, Dean Wallraff

Angeles Chapter Conservation Committee
3435 Wilshire Blvd, Suite 320, Los Angeles CA 90010-1904. Motions should be submitted in advance, together with objective background material and supporting and opposing arguments, both to the Committee Chair (Dean Wallraff) and Newsletter Editor (Robin Ives), for distribution with the agenda. Other motions will be postponed for action at a later meeting unless the motion is submitted in writing and unless the Committee votes by a two-thirds majority an exception to the ordinary procedure. Motions needing further action by the Angeles Chapter ExComm or some higher level of the Sierra Club should start out: "The Angeles Chapter Conservation Committee recommends that the Sierra Club..."

DRAFT AGENDA — Wednesday, September 20, 2006
Final agenda will be sent out September 18 on the Angeles Conservation listserv.

7:15 Introductions, announcements
       Apollo Alliance presentation
       Report on Ballona Moratorium
       Program/Discussion: Population
       Authorization of new Conservation Legal Committee
9:00 Adjourn              Next meeting, October 18, at the Chapter Office.

Orange County Conservation Committee
Bob Siebert/Chair — http://angeles.sierraclub.org/ocosc/

LOCATION: Inn at the Park, 10 Marquette, Irvine. Take the 405 to Culver and go west towards the beach. Follow Culver past Michelson and University and turn right on Harvard. Take Harvard to Marquette and turn right. It's on the corner of Harvard and Marquette on the right hand side.

DRAFT AGENDA — Tuesday, September 19, 2006

7:00 Welcome, Introductions, Announcements and movie reviews

7:15 Staff Report - Jennifer Robinson
7:25 Laguna Wilderness - Penny Alia
7:40 Upper Newport Bay Report and Osprey Status - Lori Kiesser, Constance Bean
7:55 SAMTF Update and Report - Robin Everett
8:05 Break
8:15 Orange Hills Task Force Report - Carole Mintzer
8:30 Saddleback Canyons - Rich Gomez

8:40 Sacred Sites Task Force Report - Rebecca Robles

8:55 Adjourn Next Meeting October 17

Conservation Committees Calendar
If you have an upcoming meeting or event to be listed in this calendar:
In LA County contact Lori Ives (ivesico@earthlink.net); In OC contact Bob Siebert (eesolar@sbcglobal.net)

SEPTEMBER 2006

Sat, Sep 16, 3rd Sat odd months, 10 am to 1 pm - LA River Comm, Roy van de Hoek (310) 821-9045

Sat Sep 16, 3rd Sat odd months, 3-5 pm, UU Church, Mission Viejo - Sta Ana Mtns TF, Jay Matchett (714) 730-7730

Tue Sep 19, 6 pm, before OCCC at The Inn at the Park - Open Spaces, Wild Places (OSWP)

Tue Sep 19, 3rd Tues, 7:00 pm, Inn at the Park, 10 Marquette, Irvine - OC Conservation Committee
Bob Siebert eesolar@sbcglobal.net

Wed Sep 20, 3rd Wed monthly, 7:15 pm Chapter Office - Chapter Conservation Committee
Dean Wallraff deanraff@arsnova.org

Wed Sep 20, 3rd Wed, 7:30 pm - Banning Ranch Park and Preserve Task Force, Terry Welsh (949) 548-5635

Thu Sep 21, 3rd Thu, 7 pm, Chapter Office - Griffith Park Planning TF, Delphine Trowbridge delphinetr@sbcglobal.net

Sat Sep 23, 9:00 am, the Carlab in Orange - Orange Hills Task Force

Sun Sep 24, 1 pm, Chapter Office - Chapter ExComm, Mike Sappingfield mikesapp@cox.net

Mon Sep 25, 7:15 pm Chapter Office - Conservation Mgmt, Dean Wallraff deanraff@arsnova.org

Mon Sep 25, 4th Mon, 6:30 pm - PV-SB Cons Comm, potluck, then mtg. Barry Holchin, Chair (310) 378-3780

Mon Sep 25, 4th Mon, 7:00 pm, 170 Copa de Oro Rd, Brea - Puente-Chino Hills TF, Eric Johnson (714) 524-7763

Wed Sep 27, 4th Wed odd months, 7:30 pm Eaton Cyn Nature Ctr (potluck) - Forest Cmte, Don Bremner (626) 794-2603

Thu Sep 28, 7:15 pm - OC Political Committee Meeting, Gail Prothero jeremiah24@cox.net

Sat Sep 30, 9:00 am, Chapter Office, Southern California Forest Committee

OCTOBER 2006

Mon Oct 2 - Southern Sierran Deadline for November, 2006

Mon Oct 2, 1st Mon, 7:00-8:30 pm, Silverado Comm Ctr, 27641 Silverado Cyn Rd, Silverado Canyon -
Saddleback Canyons TF. Details: Rich Gomez, Chair, 949-882-0071 pager

Thu Oct 5, 1st Thu, 7:00 pm, Chapter Office - Transportation Subcommittee

Sun Oct 8, 2nd Sun, 2:45 pm, San Pedro Public Library, 9th and Gaffey - Harbor Vision Task Force

Mon Oct 9, 2nd Mon, 7:30 pm - Santa Monica Mountains TF, Mary Ann Webster (310) 559-3126

Mon Oct 9, 2nd Mon, 7:15 pm, 217 E Chapman Ave, Orange - Orange Hills TF, John Ufkes ufkes@pacbell.net

Mon Oct 9, 2nd Mon monthly, 7:30 pm, Chapter Office - LA Political Committee, Susana Reyes (818) 242-8589

Tue Oct 10, 2nd Tue Jan/Apr/Jul/Oct, 7:30 pm, Chapter Office - GIS, Dean Wallraff deanraff@arsnova.org

Wed Oct 11, 7:30 pm, Chapter Office - Conservation Legal Comm, Bonnie Sharpe besharpe@pacbell.net

Tue Oct 17, 6 pm, before OCCC at The Inn at the Park - Open Spaces, Wild Places (OSWP)

Tue Oct 17, 3rd Tues, 7:00 pm, Inn at the Park, 10 Marquette, Irvine - OC Conservation Committee
Bob Siebert eesolar@sbcglobal.net

Wed Oct 18, 3rd Wed even months, 7:00 pm - Friends of Foothills Steering Cmte. Bill Holmes (949) 496-5323

Wed Oct 18 , 3rd Wed monthly, 7:15 pm Chapter Office - Chapter Conservation Committee
Dean Wallraff deanraff@arsnova.org

Wed Oct 18, 3rd Wed, 7:30 pm - Banning Ranch Park and Preserve Task Force, Terry Welsh (949) 548-5635

Thu Oct 19, 3rd Thu, 7 pm, Chapter Office - Griffith Park Planning TF, Delphine Trowbridge delphinetr@sbcglobal.net

Sat Oct 21, 8:30 am to 4 pm, Wildlife Corridor Conference, Friendship Auditorium, 3201 Riverside Dr (just east of the Riverside/Los Feliz entrance to Griffith Park). Reservations/Info, call Rosemarie White (818-769-1521)

Mon Oct 23, 4th Mon, 6:30 pm - PV-SB Cons Comm, potluck, then mtg. Barry Holchin, Chair (310) 378-3780

Mon Oct 23, 4th Mon, 7:00 pm, 170 Copa de Oro Rd, Brea - Puente-Chino Hills TF, Eric Johnson (714) 524-7763

Thu Oct 26, 7:15 pm, North County at Alex Mintzer's - OC Political Cmte Mtg. Gail Prothero jeremiah24@cox.net

Sat Oct 28, 9:00 am, the Carlab in Orange - Orange Hills Task Force

Sun Oct 29, 1 pm, Chapter Office - Chapter ExComm. Contact Mike Sappingfield mikesapp@cox.net

Mon Oct 30, 7:15 pm Chapter Office - Conservation Mgmt, Dean Wallraff deanraff@arsnova.org

NOVEMBER 2006

Thu Nov 2, 1st Thu, 7:00 pm, Chapter Office - Transportation Subcommittee

Mon Nov 6, Southern Sierran Deadline for December, 2006

Mon Nov 6, 1st Mon, 7:00-8:30 pm, Silverado Comm Ctr, 27641 Silverado Cyn Rd, Silverado Cyn -
Saddleback Cyns TF, Rich Gomez, 949-882-0071 pager

Tue Nov 7, 1st Tue Monthly, 7:30pm, Chapter Office - Public Relations Comm, Genevieve Liang (310) 266-3350

Sat Nov 11, Political/Conservation Committee Retreat - Dean Wallraff deanraff@arsnova.org

Sun Nov 12, 2nd Sun, 2:45 pm, San Pedro Public Library, 9th and Gaffey - Harbor Vision Task Force

Mon Nov 13, 2nd Mon, 7:15 pm, 217 E Chapman Ave, Orange - Orange Hills TF, John Ufkes ufkes@pacbell.net

Mon Nov 13, 2nd Mon, 7:30 pm - Santa Monica Mountains TF, Mary Ann Webster (310) 559-3126

Mon Nov 13, 2nd Mon monthly, 7:30 pm, Chapter Office - LA Political Committee, Susana Reyes (818) 242-8589

Thu Nov 14, 2nd Thu odd months, 7-9 pm, 658 Venice Blvd - Ballona Wetlands Restoration,
Marcia Hanscom (310) 821-9045

Wed Nov 15, 3rd Wed monthly, 7:15 pm Chapter Office - Chapter Conservation Committee
Dean Wallraff deanraff@arsnova.org

Wed Nov 15, 3rd Wed, 7:30 pm - Banning Ranch Park and Preserve Task Force, Terry Welsh (949) 548-5635

Thu Nov 16, 3rd Thu, 7 pm, Chapter Office - Griffith Park Planning TF, Delphine Trowbridge delphinetr@sbcglobal.net

Sat Nov 18, 1 pm, Chapter Office - Chapter ExComm, Mike Sappingfield mikesapp@cox.net NOTE DATE CHANGE!

Sat, Nov 18, 3rd Sat odd months, 10 am to 1 pm - LA River Comm, Roy van de Hoek (310) 821-9045

Sat Nov 18, 3rd Sat odd months, 3-5 pm, UU Church, Mission Viejo - Sta Ana Mtns TF, Jay Matchett (714) 730-7730

Sun Nov 19, Eaton Canyon Nature Center - Legal/Land Use Workshop. Bonnie Sharpe (714) 528-9596

Tue Nov 21, 6 pm, before OCCC at The Inn at the Park - Open Spaces, Wild Places (OSWP)

Tue Nov 21, 3rd Tues, 7:00 pm, Inn at the Park, 10 Marquette, Irvine - OC Conservation Committee
Bob Siebert eesolar@sbcglobal.net

Sat Nov 25, 9:00 am, the Carlab in Orange - Orange Hills Task Force

Mon Nov 27, 4th Mon, 6:30 pm - PV-SB Cons Comm, potluck, then mtg. Barry Holchin, Chair (310) 378-3780

Mon Nov 27, 4th Mon, 7:00 pm, 170 Copa de Oro Rd, Brea - Puente-Chino Hills TF, Eric Johnson (714) 524-7763

DECEMBER 2006

Fri Dec 1, Southern Sierran Deadline for January, 2007

Sat Dec 2, 9:00 am, Chapter Office, Southern California Forest Committee

Mon Dec 4, 7:15 pm Chapter Office - Conservation Mgmt, Dean Wallraff deanraff@arsnova.org

Sierra Club Angeles Chapter Conservation Committee
112 North Harvard Avenue PMB 297
Claremont CA 91711-4716

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