Beach managers and volunteers gear up for another summer of protecting the lake
Hunting and fishing get treated like relics some years and political footballs in others. What they actually are is one of the oldest working relationships between people and land still standing.
Eighty-two million Americans hunt or fish, according to the Forest Service, and most of them didn’t come to it as a hobby – they came to it as a family tradition, a way to put food on the table, or both. Whatever the reason, hunters and anglers end up paying closer attention to the health of the land and water than almost anyone else, because their success depends on it.
Wildfire smoke doesn’t respect state lines. Smoke from a fire in the Sierra can shut down flights in Seattle.
That happened during recent brutal fire seasons in the West – smoke from blazes stretching from California to British Columbia delayed air traffic hundreds of miles away and triggered health warnings for healthy adults to stay indoors. The fires themselves are only half the story. The people who never see the flames, who live downwind and breathe the aftermath, carry part of the cost too.
More than 60 million Americans turn on the tap and get water that started as snowmelt on national forest land.
]The National Forest System is the single largest source of drinking water in the country, according to the Forest Service. Many national forests sit directly over the source areas for major rivers and aquifers, which makes the health of the forest and the health of the water supply the same question. Cut down the trees, degrade the watershed, and the water quality downstream goes with it.
California State Parks and Save the Redwoods League work tirelessly to reopen popular trail
On June 21, 2008 a lightning strike ignited the Basin Complex Fire, a wildfire that swept through 162,818 acres near Big Sur, forcing evacuations, and burning most of the Ventana Wilderness area. The fire destroyed much of the Pfeiffer Big Sur State Park located the western slope of the Santa Lucia Mountains, and severely damaged the Pfeiffer Falls Trail, an easy 1.5 mile out-and-back trail with views of redwoods and Pfeiffer Falls.
After a 13 year renovation the trail is open again, thanks to the California State Parks and the Save the Redwoods League.
