The wild, roadless areas of our forests are under attack by the Bush administration. You can help defend the areas by making sure that the U.S. Forest Service receives a written comment from you before Nov. 15.

The Bush administration is trying to remove important protection from 60 million acres of our public land, including over half a million roadless acres in four Southern California national forests.

Locally, that accounts for nearly 15 percent of the land area in our forests and most of the wild backcountry that has not yet been officially protected as wilderness.

In itself, having a car is not a good thing for the planet, but an Ozymandian monument to consumption. Yet, those of us trapped in the culture that uses cars can do things to make them a little more friendly to the environment and more efficient in terms of money and energy.

The holiday season is about more than just material goods or 'stuff,' as the simplicity organization Seeds of Simplicity puts it. It is a time to express gratitude for the earth's bounty in fall and a time to express joy and hope in response to her evergreen promise of life's continuation in winter.

The Sierra Club has appealed the trial court judgment upholding the city of Malibu's approval of a 54-room hotel (27 luxury guest suites) within the 100-foot riparian buffer of year-round Solstice Creek, where the National Park Service is leading efforts to restore a spawning run of the endangered southern steelhead. The setback is required by the Malibu General Plan and the 2002 Malibu Local Coastal Program, which the Court of Appeal recently ordered a recalcitrant city council to enforce.