Next Level Camping is what I was looking for when I discovered you could rent fire lookouts. I’d been a member of the Forest Fire Lookout Association for years because I lived close to the Butler Peak Fire Lookout while up in Big Bear, and thought that I’d eventually be able to volunteer at the lookout. Solitude is always a draw for me, and the forest is my church. So going up to the steeple seemed like a pretty cool idea.
Category Archives: California
It might be starting a bit early this year, but California is officially entering one of our unique-to-the-United-States seasons (we don’t have spring summer, fall, and winter; we have fire, rain, mudslide, and awards). As we progress through what the west of the northern hemisphere calls “summer” we’re going to start seeing increased restrictions at our public lands. This happens every year – nothing to be alarmed about.
Every year the California Department of Fish and Wildlife offers up a couple of days where you can fish in California without a license. The first of these days for 2020 falls on July 4, 2020 – Independence Day!
Just in time for fishing season, hatcheries operated by the Central Valley California Department of Fish and Wildlife (CDFW) have completed the final release of Chinook salmon. These smolts are raised in state-run hatcheries and released yearly into the Sacramento and San Joaquin rivers, the Delta and San Pablo bay. In two years or so, they return as adults to Central Valley tributaries to spawn.
In one of those “it’s about damned time” moments, The Department of the Interior, National Park Service, and utility companies Pacific Gas and Electric and Southern California Edison have finally started working together to to mitigate wildfire risks in California.