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Program Paul Gipe. Who is this speaker? A member of our Kern-Kaweah Chapter and recognized world wide as an expert in Wind Energy, Paul does not confine his interests to that particular area of non-fossil fuel energy. He will be presenting information on everything from what individuals can do in their homes to conserve as well as explore the topics of solar and wind generation of energy. You will find this to be a most informative presentation in understandable language. If you want to read more about his background and accomplishments, google Paul Gipe to satisfy that interest.
Energy Fair This presentation will be an excellent introduction to the Energy Fair that the community is organizing for Saturday, Nov 4th. To be held in the PMC Clubhouse, there will be booths and presenters from many different organizations and businesses. The Faire will begin tentatively at 9AM. On Sunday, the Nov 5th, a tour will be arranged to show and speak to home owners who already have taken energy saving steps in their houses. More details to come.
Eats Potlucking with us??Please bring a dish to share with 6 people, and your own table service. Yes, we will continue to have the raffle. Another one of those fold-up swing seat chairs will be the main feature of possibilities to win. If you bring something for the raffle table, you will be given a free raffle ticket to up your chances of being a winner.
Everyone welcome. Please remember that our meetings are open to all. No one needs to be a member to attend and remember, a free raffle ticket if you bring someone new to our meeting. A Great Incentive, don’t you agree?
TEJON RANCH’S DEVELOPMENT PLAN A new alliance of Conservation Groups, including the Sierra Club, is proposing compromises that would allow limited development on Ranch and avoid law sutts
TIC TEJON EAST INDUSTRIAL PLAN has been challenged again by Center of Biological Diversity. Air and endangered species are the topics about which the suit is arranged
THE WATER EXTRACTION PROJECT on the Gorman Hills will have its hearing in court in October. The Sierra Club, our group, is asking that an Environmental Impact Report be done on the project. The money that has been spent on the lawyers would probably have paid for the EIR that we are requesting for this project.
OHV The Condor Group has commented positively on grant applications by the Forest Service for money to maintain OHV trails in an environmentally sensitive manner and to support more monitoring of users of the trails. No new trails, with one small exception because of withdrawal of permission to pass by a private party owner, has been proposed. .
CELL PHONE TOWER The Condor Group has NOT taken a position on the proposed cell phone tower in PMC. Any persons who say otherwise are misinformed. Nothing is cast in iron!
HIKING HIKING HOLIDAYS HIKING HIKING
PLEASE READ CAREFULLY IF YOU PLAN TO PARTICIPATE IN SIERRA CLUB HIKES: Everyone is welcome, Sierra Club members and non-members, to join in any of the outdoor activities. Requirements: You must be in condition for type of hike, equipped appropriately for the activity, and prepared to sign a Sierra Club release from liability. You must be willing to follow leader’s directions. Be sure to bring any personal medicines you might need. Customary appropriate equipment includes good hiking shoes, plenty of water, snack, sunglass suntan lotion, layered clothing. Long pants recommended. Unprepared for the prospective hike? It will be a no-go for you. Call before hike time: Dale Chitwood, 661.242.1076, leader or Barbara Nusbaum, 661.242.1843,Reservations, of
Sept 23 (sat) The Peak to Peak Hike has been rescheduled for Saturday, Septembere 23rd.As originally planned the hike will start at Mt. Pinos and wander the 8 miles or so over to Cerro Noroeste . There are ups and downs on the trail but for the most part, one is over 8000 ft in altitude. Beautiful views on all sides, sprightly weather and good company is all part of the trip. Traveling through one of the unique examples of Island Geography makes the trip even more special. No ifs and buts about this one: You must make a reservation as car pooling may be involved. Bring a lunch of your liking to eat at a spot along the way. Call before hike time: Dale Chitwood, 661.242.1076, leader or Barbara Nusbaum, 661.242.1843,Reservations, i
Oct 28 (sat) Excursion to Audubon Kern River Preserve. Allison Sheehey showed us the pictures….and now here is your chance to see it in person….the beautiful meadows ringed by mountains, many many birds and more. 3 hours driving each way. Meeting time 8 AM from PMC parking lot. Bring lunch, etc (No hike this month because of hunting season on forest lands.)
Nov 25 (sat) Thorn Point Hike…a great wander through woods and meadows up to the old Forest Service Fire Tower. With good luck, you will be able to see the Pacific Ocean! Strenuous. (add altitude plus mile length) For non-hikers, visit the PMC Craft Fair and shop for the holidays ahead ….Sierra Club calendars, cards and more! 9 AM to 2 PM, PMC Clubhouse.
Dec 2 (sat) Holiday Party….Yes, the time is closer than we may want to think. Plans are incomplete but please mark the date down on your calendars. You won’t want to miss the fun and frolic that we engage in once a year.
At the August potluck, Krista Mann gave an illustrated talk on mountain lions to a large and appreciative audience. It was comprehensive, containing some things many people already were aware of and other things that were new to almost everyone. Let us go over some of the main points for the benefit of those who were absent and to refresh the memory of those who were present.
The mountain lion has many names, of which cougar and puma are only the most common. Our speaker just called them lions, and so will we. They are solitary animals, unlike the African lion.
Females have cubs, one pound at birth, at any time of the year, usually every couple of years. Cubs spend a year and a half or two with the mother, half of them dying in the first year, often from attacks by raptors, bobats, coyotes, and their own hostile fathers. They are increasingly alone, and at about 18 months make their first kill.
The lion needs cover; it emphasizes silence and kills from ambush, usually with a crushing bite to the back of the neck. It will devour 8 to 12 pounds and cache the rest, returning for two or three days for more eating. The prey are greatly varied, including small animals, but deer are primary. Lions also scavenge.
Under present conditions lions also prey on non-native or domestic animals, especially the younger and weaker ones. This activity represents a hazard to themselves, for they can be removed for a proven case of killing a domestic animal.
Males are 6 to 8 feet long with the tail, weighing 110 to 180 pounds; females are 5 to 7 feet, 80 to 130 pounds. Both are a sandy or golden color, with size the only visible difference.
Lions live very dispersed. The male especially is highly territorial and will kill rivals as well as its own offspring, particularly the males, at the same time wanting as many females in the territory as possible. Because of the male’s hostility, the female is constantly moving the cubs within the territory. The territory is identified by smell and spraying. Under ideal conditions a male may have a territory of 100 to 300 square miles, a female less. A lion may go 25 miles in a day, often using the same trails that people do, and doesn’t stay in the same place more than four or five days. And this despite sleeping 16 hours a day. It takes a lion a long time to establish a territory, which among other things needs year-round water.
It cannot be said that lions are not a danger to people, for they have killed some. But only 17 deaths have been recorded on the North American continent in 111 years. The lions who have killed usually have some abnormal condition or are starving. Victims have usually been alone. Lions usually consider people a potential danger and want to get away; people do not look like the normally quadruped prey. Males have many mates, seeking out the females, while females usually have only one mate in a season. The mating continues for five to seven days, with many quick copulations,. At this time there is much caterwauling, which can be heard for long distances.
Gestation lasts 88 to 96 days; a nursing female is aggressive, vulnerable. There is no trading of prey between genders; they share nothing. An animal is in its mating prime from 3 to 8 years of age. Lions normally live 10 to 12 years. With time the teeth deteriorate, and there are problems with muscles and with sight, which even at its best is primarily directed at movement, catching little detail.
Unless things begin to go in a different direction, the future looks bleak for mountain lions in many parts of the United States. Hunting and trapping take their toll, some lions are removed for preying on domestic animals as the law permits, some die because of poaching, some from poisons moving up the food chain. The greatest threat is that our roads and developments have created choke points and cut the country up into bits that are not adequate territories for lions and do not permit the free flow that prevents excessive inbreeding leading to sterility. The isolated Santa Monica Mountains recently held just one adult male and female and some cubs; now the male has killed most of the others.
Some safety measures include removing undergrowth in which lions can take cover, not feeding (not only lions but other animals as well), and taking special precautions with children and livestock. The speaker proposed some rather herculean steps for the protection of domestic livestock where there are lions; in Europe, stock have traditionally been more closely watched by human and canine guards than in this country
The speaker observed that it is not a good idea to be alone in the wilderness, and in the rare event of sighting a lion, that the prudent course was to speak loudly, remain standing, and in every way try to look the opposite of prey, while leaving the lion an avenue of escape and backing away slowly.
The lion is not only a creature that thrills and fascinates us all; it is a keystone species directly and indirectly controling the numbers of many other species, and at its loss the whole zoological system collapses. California has greater biological diversity than any other state in the United States, and so it would be worth it to make a maximum effort to preserve the mountain lion. The most urgent of the many needs is for increased wildlife corridors. james lockhart
Mary Ann Lockhart & Lynn Stafford, co-chairs, Dale Chitwood (hikes), Jan de Leeuw, Katherine King, Harry Nelson(secretary), Barbara Nusbaum, Mar Preston, Dorothy Vokolek. Fay Benbrook, treasurer. Meetings are held once a month, usually on the second Sunday of each month at 2 in the afternoon. Open to all Sierra Club members, call 661.242.0432 for further information.
This year’s fall meeting is going to be most interesting and intense. There will be lots to decide as to which propositions to support and which to oppose and the coming election in general , there will be lots of talk in regards to the new energy and global warming priority of the Club and as to how California Sierra Club will operate in the coming years.
The schedule for the meeting may include special workshops on Saturday morning, starting about 10 AM. 1 PM is the usual start of the big afternoon session. Sunday morning (until noon) is the decision making time.
The Condor Group has in the past had 2 people at this meeting. Who will fill those shoes this year? If it is you, please call 242.0432 to make plans.
The following is a paper (slightly edited) prepared by the Sierra Club staff in preparation for the coming up meeting
Setting Priorities for Sierra Club California by Bill Allayaud, State Director
Introduction There has been an extended discussion centered on how priorities are set to guide the work of the staff that you (we), the Sierra Club members, have hired to represent us in Sacramento. and how there can be improved opportunities for providing input into setting those priorities. From staff’s standpoint, the purpose of this exercise is first an attempt to bring some clarification and understanding about how we work, and then how we can work together better. We need to determine 1. what are the outcomes we are looking for: 2. what should our legislative priorities be 3 how are these priorities decided, 4 what bills to sponsor, and 5. whatever else staff resources should be committed to.
Examples of past and current priorities that guided the work of the Sierra Club Staff:
Tracking Your SCC staff is very active in opposing and supporting key legislation. We track between 300 and 400 bills per year and take positions on perhaps half of those. The CLC( Conservation Legal Committee) is the body that directs staff on what position to take on each bill. We have three levels of support or opposition, with S-1 (Support) and O-1 (Opposition) bills being the highest priority. Every year, we have a major hand in moving or stopping many bills. Legislators and key committee staff approach us on a regular basis to either throw our weight behind legislation or to help defeat a bad bill.
Sponsorship means we approach a legislator and ask them to carry legislation which we commit to backing strongly at the Capitol, and if necessary working the media and using our grassroots. This is in contrast to where a legislator introduces legislation and either asks us to support it or we decide to support. Here is a list of sponsored legislation (2002 to present): The Pavley Global Warming bill (for autos) Fee per barrel of imported oil to be used on mitigation Two bills requiring residences to have water meters in the Central Valley Requiring all cities/counties to have urban growth boundaries Removing mercury from consumer products Assuring landowner liability at landfills Better management plan for Jackson State Forest Prevent the deregulation of radioactive waste by the State A State registry for conservation easements Outdoor environmental education for underserved youth Increased enforcement against vehicles emitting smoke
Administrative matters constitute another major part of our work in Sacramento; this involves the Governor and agencies that are part of the executive branch. For example, we review the appointments made by the Governor to key boards and commissions and will oppose or support them at the confirmation process. We attend hearings and testify before many boards and commissions such as the Board of Forestry, the State Water Resources Control Board, the Fish and Game Commission, and the Air Resources Board. Finally, another administrative function we follow closely and lobby is the state budget process. .
Setting our Priorities Three priorities for staff to work on:: (1) Sprawl/Liveable Communities; this included reducing air and water pollution; (2) Forestry reform, including ending clearcutting; and (3) Preserving open space and habitat. Based on the thrust provided by the adoption of our Growth Management Guidelines and by intense interest by activists and a couple of ExComm members, a special emphasis was put on growth management in 2002. This included the sponsorship of an urban growth boundary bill (died early in the process). However, a statewide campaign for an initiative ballot measure to require a state comprehensive plan never got off the ground due to lack of money and questions about the feasibility of winning the campaign.
One point continually brought up when the CCC, the ExComm, or the CLC discusses how we set our priorities, is maintaining a balance between having longer-term campaigns with themes and remaining flexible, that is, not tying up staff resources to the point where they cannot respond to what the Legislature and Governor introduce every year, as that is somewhat unpredictable. For example, fighting a broadside attack by the Legislature on the California Environmental Quality Act will always be a priority.
The Overriding Priority? One aspect to be considered is that the National Board of Directors has adopted fighting global warming as the Club’s number one priority. There are many examples of how the three priorities adopted in 2002 and the legislation we have sponsored over the last four years nicely fit into meeting the goal of reducing CO2 emissions.
Here are a few issues that we have worked on that can make a difference: Requiring urban infill and compact development, which means less commuting and therefore less vehicle miles traveled. Stopping clearcutting of our forests, as native forests overall absorb more carbon than plantations. Water conservation means pumping less water around the state, thereby reducing energy demand; we have worked on water metering and landscape conservation. The million homes solar roof initiative of Schwarzenegger and Senate Bill 1 The first Pavley bill and the new one (AB 32 by Pavley and Nunez) on stationary sources of greenhouse gases. Fighting for more transit and bike trail funding in the budget.
The list could go on, but the point is made. It is not being suggested that we drop everything that does not directly relate to the reduction of greenhouse gases; we have core values that our members want pursued that are outside the global warming issue. For example, if a Governor proposed a way for Coastal Commissioners to be appointed that is objectionable, or he proposed to cut their budget, we would strongly oppose it. Perhaps proposed legislative priorities through the global warming filter, because much of what we care about will be for naught if we do not address the overriding problem.
Chapter/SCC Partnerships An area that is perhaps ripe for discussion and improvements is putting the power and energy of our thirteen chapters and their individual members together with the statewide perspective and organizing capability of SCC. The issue of growth management is one to consider. It has become apparent that while SCC can block most bad bills concerning planning, housing, and CEQA, we and our colleagues in Sacramento have not been able to get progressive legislation passed that will set the State, cities, and counties, on a new direction. The most success in this arena has been at the local level through the passage of local growth management ordinances. These take the form of urban growth boundaries, urban services lines, housing allocation or growth rate ordinances, and other agricultural and open space preservation measures. About half of these measures pass the muster of voters, which is a better percentage that we can achieve in Sacramento.
A suggested course of action is to have a systematic statewide push to pass such measures at the local government level. This campaign would be guided by SCC, but would be implemented within the chapters, city-by-city and county-by-county. Using model ordinances and copying successful campaigns, we would target jurisdictions where success was likely. This way, we don’t have to wait for the politicians in Sacramento to overcome their reluctance to go against the development industry and against local government, which on the whole would oppose these measures in Sacramento, even though there is agreement from many individual cities and counties.
How did this all start? Jan de leeuw found an amazing piece about the Tejon Ranch area in one of the many books he has acquired about this area and California in general . . Though written over a hundred years ago, much of what was observed is still true today and intensifies the need to do all possible to preserv much of the land of the Tejon Ranch for present and future generations as a state or a national park.
A visitor, Dr. Joseph Grinnell, a professor of Ornithology at UC Berkley, came to this (tejon) area in July of 1904 and recorded a fascinating and informed report of his bird observations in the area. What follows are bits and pieces particularly referring to birds quoted from the report.
Lynn Stafford (LS) has interspersed these quotations with remarks based on his knowledge of present day bird populations in the area. You will find them in italicized form. He also added in parentheses the current common name of several of the birds.
The author of the report, Joseph Grinnell was a major force in vertebrate natural history and ecology during the first half of the twentieth century,working out of UC Berkeley. He was the biologist who first coined the term 'ecological niche'. Ecological niche is an organism's particular role in its natural setting (daytime predator, nighttime predator, consumer of rotten wood, producer of food, etc.) His descriptions of habitat preferences for each taxon (as written in Distribution of Birds of California by Grinnel and Miller, 1944) are the most succinct and accurate I have ever read. I still use them(often over anything else that has been written since). (LS)
Grinnell starts thusly: " In fact the most impressive feature of the Tejon valley, on entering from the dry barren plains on either side, are the magnificent oak groves, interspersed with green pastures.What an oasis this must have looked to the early traveler who had gotten safely this far after his perilous journey across the desert…Many springs contribute to a fair-sized brook which, lined with immense willows and lofty maples festooned with grapevines, takes its tumultuous way down the narrow gorge below the Fort to the San Joaquin Valley.
"As the reader will have already suspected, such a region fairly swarms with animal life, as compared with the usual desert or semi-desert of southern California. ..I have never anywhere seen such great numbers of bats as made their appearance at early dusk. They made their way in veritable streams out of the attics of buildings, hollows of trees and even crevices in the adobe walls."
".A few western martins have nests safely ensconced in holes of lofty oaks," The purple martin is now rare, but still known from Tejon ranch further east (nearBeartrap Cyn) and from Wind Wolves Preserve. Decimation of old oak trees and other old trees and snags (providing nesting cavities) and introduction of european starling (nest competition) are probably the greatest causes of the reduction in numbers of this species in california. Tejon Ranch and nearby remnant oak woodlands may harbor the greatest numbers of this swallow in California. (LS))
Traill flycatchers were exceptionally abundant in shaded places and several of their nests were discovered in gooseberry bushes two to five feet above the ground. The Traiil's flycatcher, now known as willow flycatcher, once was a common to a abundant breeder in riparian growth throughout the state. It is no longer known from the Ft. Tejon area. Only 200 to 300 pairs remain in California, highly protected, and mostly in the Sierra Nevada. Destruction of streamside riparian habitat, introduction of brown-headed cowbirds(brood parasite), and decimation of low-hanging branches by cattle grazing near and in streams are probable causes. (LS))
Among the finch family, lark sparrows were the most plentiful. Scattered flocks, often mixed with bluebirds and linnets (house finches), were continually flushed from the road side through the dryer portions of the valley.
Of all the birds of the neighborhood, the most insistent upon our attention were the California woodpeckers (acorn woodpecker). The oaks furish these droll birds with a generous livelihood, so they seem to have plenty of time for all sorts of nonsensical performances. Their medley of quavering nasal notes echoled among the oaks from daylight to dark. Sometimes a "carpintero" as the vaqueros call the bird,would repair to the roof which yet remains on one of the large barracks, selecting a looseshake, would pound on it for half hour at a time, making as much noise as lather and evidentally it. The wood work under the eaves and around the doors and windows, which we were told had been shipped to California around the Horn, was perforated with holes made by the wood-peckers to fit the white-oak acorns.
Near the skinning-table was a baling wire line stretched between two trees. On this the vaqueros had hung out a batch of meat strips to dry. Most of this had been gathered In; but a few strands of beef
suet still dangled from the wire, and to this woodpeckers and slender-billed nuthatches made many visits each day. They would either perch on the line or cling to the strips to peck off bits of the fat of which they seemed very fond. It was seldom that the two woodpeckers remained peaceably feeding together very long at a time. One or the other would be driven off after much dodging and scolding. But it was iino unusual thng to see a nuthatch and woodpecker industriously pecking away at the same piece of jerky, apparently taking little notice of each other.
As is usual on stock ranges turkey buzzard (turkey vulture) were numerous; and the vaqueros maintained that condor or "wietros" as they called them, are fairly common in the vicinity. We saw two condors circling above a carcass.The vaquero living at the Fort, declared that he often saw the "wiertros"bathe by dipping their heads into the long low watering-trough as the birds flew slowly past!
Below are the names of other birds mentioned in the report, some accompanied by brief descriptions:
"From the dense green foliage of maples and willows came the melodious songs of the Cassin and warbling vireos. * Western kingbirds were plentiful and from their perches in the more open spaces assailed any whose intent might be suspicioned. *Black phoebes fluttered around the crumbled walls, while a family of young wood pewees were noted daily lined up on a barbed-wire fence, getting pointers from their elders on how to catch bees without getting stung. * poor-wills,violet-green swallows, song sparrows (around a tule-bordered pond,) grosbeak, towhee, rufous-crowned sparrows in grassy stretches high on the canyon sides, least vireo (least bell's vireo) from poison oak clumps nearby.* Canyon and rock wrens in outcroppings of rock below. on the hillsides, surprised to see Sierra creeper (brown creeper), in company with plain titmouses (oak titmouse) and nuthatches in a particularly dense grove of oaks below the Fort. Ravens, fully fifty covened on a neighboring hilltop, Mourning doves in the hundreds, valley quail sparse in number six cooper hawks, catching grosbeaks and linnets, red tailed hawks hunting for ground squirrels"
Lynn invites you to send him any inquiries concerning this article and local birds in general. He will reply but no guarantee as to just when. E-mail address is stafford@frazmtn.com
