Category Archives: Conservation

Gov. Brown signs Assembly Bill 1213 that sort of bans California bobcat trapping

On October 11, 2013, California’s latest mistake for Governor Jerry Brown signed into law a bill that will prohibit commercial bobcat trapping in areas adjacent to California’s national and state parks, monuments and wildlife refuges where trapping is currently prohibited. Assembly Bill 1213 also requires the Fish & Game Commission to consider whether to prohibit bobcat trapping on private land adjacent to preserves, conservancies or any other public or private conservation area identified by the public for protection.

While some – like Brian Nowicki of the Center for Biological Diversity think “This is great news for California’s bobcats, and for the millions of Californians and visitors alike who love watching wildlife in our beautiful parks and other wild places,” the bill comes without any funding of any kind. And without funding, there’s no enforcement.

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American Hiking Society’s Save the Trails Fund

I love to hike.  I love the outdoors.  One thing that disrupts the flow on our hiking trails is the insurgence of mountain bikes ridden in an unsafe manner on trails where mountain bikes aren’t allowed to be that puts hikers and the mountain bikers at risk.

From the American Hiking Society’s website:

In recent months there has been an upsurge of organized mountain biking groups attempting to gain access to sections of National Scenic Trails where mountain bikes are currently prohibited. These trails – or in some cases, sections of these trails – were neither designed nor built for mountain bike use. Due to concerns about safety, sustainability, and the displacement of hikers on trails with heavy bike usage, AHS believes that the sections of National Scenic Trails, where mountain bikes are currently prohibited, should remain closed to bikes.

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Yamaha Volunteers Complete OHV Project in San Bernardino National Forest

Three-Year Project Restores Popular Staging and Riding Areas near Big Bear, Calif. 

CYPRESS, Calif. – October 1, 2013 – Yamaha Motor Corp., U.S.A., volunteers completed a three-year project at one of the nation’s most popular multi-use off-highway vehicle (OHV) staging areas located in the San Bernardino National Forest (SBNF).

As part of the Yamaha OHV Access Initiative and with support of the Southern California Mountains Foundation’s (SCMF) OHV program, volunteers gathered recently for a final round of planting, cleaning and maintaining the popular Cactus Flats staging area and surrounding trails.

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USDA and Coca-Cola Partner to Replenish One Billion Liters of Water to Nature

Initial Projects to Improve Water Resources in Five States, including California

CHICAGO, September 13, 2013 –U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Secretary Tom Vilsack and Coca-Cola Americas President Steve Cahillane today announced a public-private partnership to restore and protect damaged watersheds on national lands. Together these efforts aim to return more than a billion liters of water to the National Forest System – which provides drinking water to more than 60 million Americans. The announcement was made at Midewin Tallgrass Prairie in Illinois.

“By working together, we can better protect our nation’s watersheds and further enhance restoration efforts, even during challenging budget times,” said Secretary Vilsack. “Today’s partnership between Federal, private and non-profit partners is just one example of the strong collaboration that allows government to continue providing results for the American people.”

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Who Watches the Watchers at Mono Lake?

With their usual regard for conservation and the environment, the Los Angeles Department of Water & Power (DWP)continues to display their professional ineptitude and scandalous behavior.  All efforts to protect and restore Mono Lake have been undermined by the DWP since they made a unilateral power-grab of lake monitoring operations and started diverting $10,000,000 in water per year.    Everything the DWP is doing is directly in violation of the rules set in 1998 by the State Water Board.

Guess the DWP had to find SOME way to pay all those ridiculously high salaries, right?

From the post:

A May 13, 2013 report to the State Water Board revealed that the Los Angeles Department of Water & Power (DWP) failed to keep its promise to monitor the health of Mono Lake. DWP unilaterally took over operations of the lake monitoring program in August 2012, displacing the independent expert scientists who had run the program for 30 years. Since then a litany of issues has ensued. As a result, critical data—such as the salinity of Mono Lake—are not being collected, and key portions of the data that are being gathered are not usable. These failures are violations of the rules set in 1998 by the State Water Board.

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