Adventures in Condor land: Moonrise over Hopper Ranch

June 8, 2010

Moon over Hopper Ranch, by Amanda Holland

Moon over Hopper Ranch, by Amanda Holland

Kathryn’s cousin Amanda Holland writes from her great adventure helping to rescue the California Condor, with this photo of the Moon, behind clouds and haze, over the mountains, from Hopper Ranch.

Here’s where I feel the pangs of leaving biology behind for rhetoric, then politics and law.  Probably the best part of research in biology was the places one had to go.  The best adventures involve getting to and back from the places researchers must go to get data or samples.

And now, with electronic cameras and cards that will easily accommodate 1,000 photos, images are easy to capture.

Some of the images I wish I could get back:  Moonrise over Shiprock*; the rattlesnake who liked to hide in the equipment box at the New Mexico Agriculture Experiment Station; the field of asparagus at the Experiment Station, poking up through the desert for the first time (I wonder if they decided to grow asparagus); thunderstorms at Shiprock and over Kimberly, New Mexico; sunrise in Huntington Canyon, Utah; looking nearly into Nevada through crystal air after a summer thunderstorm near Seeley Mountain.  There are a lot more, really.

Adventures past: We remember them warmly.  Getting out in the wild, doing the hard, grunt work necessary to learn about endangered species, or save them, or just improve conservation practices, is close to godliness, and among the greatest pleasures life can offer.

More:

  • See this photo of Shiprock and Moon, probably by a photography named William Stone; this photo of Shiprock and storm, by Radeka, is good, too; at one time my job was to drive from Farmington, New Mexico, past the Shiprock everyday, to get air pollution samples.  The Shiprock rivals Mt. Timpanogos in my personal pantheon of great mountains I grew up with.

Leave a Comment » | endangered species, History, Natural history, photography, Science, Wildlife | Tagged: , , , , , | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell

Wildflower Monday: Calfornia poppies

May 17, 2010

California poppies, near Bitter Creek - photo by Amanda Holland

California poppies, near Bitter Creek - photo by Amanda Holland

Kathryn got stuck in traffic on Spur 408 Friday evening.  She happily reported that a few bluebonnets remain, covered by now-taller grasses.  We’re in the seventh week of our Texas wildflower panorama.

But Amanda Holland’s shot of California poppies in the wild hills near Bitter Creek caught my eye.  Amanda’s out saving birds — the best photos of the wild almost always come while you’re on the way to do great stuff, I think.  That’s a good reason to find a job that gets you out of doors, and into the wild.

Notice that, even in the wild, in near-wilderness, there are still signs of human actions.  See the contrails?

Leave a Comment » | Art, Botany, History, Natural history, Natural resources, photography, Travel, Wildflowers | Tagged: , , , , | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell

Millard Fillmore and the Indians of California

March 30, 2010

Some of the most interesting stuff of history can only be found accidentally.   You don’t know what you don’t know, and so the only way to find it is to stumble into it in the dark.

Pamela Bumsted sent me a link to this site, which describes the travails of the Winnemem Wintu, a band of people native to the area of California from Sacramento, going north.  It is an American Indian tribe, except under the view of the U.S. government.

Their troubles relate to their giving up claims to their traditional lands in a treaty with the U.S. government, during the administration of Millard Fillmore.  Alas for the Winnemem Wintu, the treaty was not ratified by the U.S. Senate, and their own claims to their own lands fell out of law and out of history.

In the 1851 Treaty at Cottonwood Creek, the Winnemem (represented by the signature of Numterareman), along with other Wintu bands, ceded a vast territory from Sacramento to near the Oregon border to the United States in exchange for a 25-square-mile reservation along the Sacramento River. The California legislature lobbied against the treaty to the U.S. Senate which, in turn, pressured President Millard Fillmore to refuse ratification of any of the 18 treaties signed “in peace and friendship.” As a consequence, the Winnemem never got their reservation and started losing their traditional lands to encroaching settlement and the designation of the Shasta National Forest in 1906.

Eighteen treaties were not ratified by the Senate?  Which 18?  What happened to those bands? Were they all California bands?

We know the Winnemem Wintu are fighting for recognition  now.  What happened to the other 17 nations, and the other 17 treaties?  Got resources?  List them in comments

More:

5 Comments | History, Millard Fillmore, Native Americans | Tagged: , , , , | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell

Closing schools in Sacramento

April 13, 2009

If you thought for a moment that public schools are not engrained in the psyche and culture of the nation, take a look at the fight in Sacramento, California, over proposed closings of a few schools.  From the Sacramento Bee.

Even when schools fail, they can form the heart of a community.

2 Comments | Education, Education reform, Education spending | Tagged: , , , , , | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell

California unemployment map, for economics classrooms

March 20, 2009

The Sacramento Bee, one of America’s great newspapers which we hope can stay in business through these tough times, today put up a map of California unemployment, county by county.  The map shows unemployment changes over the past year with an interactive slide that makes it great for classroom use in economics, but makes it impossible for me to embed here (it’s in Adobe Flash).

California’s unemployment is at about 11% statewide.  Colusa County’s unemployment is 26.6%.  Two counties away, in Marin County, it’s only 6.8%

California economics classes can use their knowledge of agriculture and industry in the state to make educated guesses about what is going on in each county.  Surely there are uses the rest of us can find.  Colusa and Imperial Counties are two of the hardest hit — with the internet, can your students tell what that is going to mean for prices on fresh produce and processed foods?

This is where computers and the internet step out ahead in the education tilts, with tools like this interactive map.  Thank you, SacBee.  Can you give teachers a download?

Another unemployment map, national, for December 2008, The Swordpress

Another unemployment map, national, for December 2008, The Swordpress

Leave a Comment » | Classroom technology, Economics, Employment, Geography - Economic, Geography - Physical, Geography - Political, Internet, Maps, Newspapers, Technology, Technology in the classroom | Tagged: , , , , , , , | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell

An account of bioaccumulation of pesticides — dangers of DDT explained

August 14, 2008

Even short-time readers know of the problems of DDT advocates, denialists who seen to think we can poison our way to health — or worse, that we can poison others, in Africa, to health.

Here’s a voice from the other side, an Australian anti-pesticide, go-back-to-nature site, that tells a dramatic story from California:  The Permaculture Institute, “Pesticides, and You.” Clear Lake offered a dramatic example of the dangers of bioaccumulating chemicals, especially pesticides like DDT.

Without endorsing everything this group urges, I will say the clear, simple explanation of the events at Clear Lake is accurate, worth reading, and worth remembering.  It’s what Rachel Carson sounded the alarm to warn us about, and but for the movement spurred partly by her book, Silent Spring, it’s what we would have faced at countless other locations.

Update 2014, California grebes: Mating grebes engage in the “weed dance,” where they present each other with nest-building materials. Photo: madesonphotography.com, via BayNature.org

Update 2014, California grebes: Mating grebes engage in the “weed dance,” where they present each other with nest-building materials. Photo: madesonphotography.com, via BayNature.org

Leave a Comment » | DDT, Environmental protection, History, Rachel Carson, Science | Tagged: , , , , , , , | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell

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