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The Condor Group invites everyone in our mountain communities and all others who are interested to attend this meeting designed to present varied information and opinions concerning the future of these lands which we call home. Here is just a sample of some of the many questions that have been asked:
- Does it make sense to build many homes where there has been a history of great seismic disturbances?
- Where is the water going to come from for these proposed homes and undefined commercial ventures?
- What kinds of impact will there be on local services: police, medical, roads, waste disposal and more?
- What will happen to the condors and other wild living things?
- Will lots of jobs really be created for local folks?
- How will the proposed construction affect the health of the students attending the high school?
- How will the increased traffic affect commuters who travel out of the area to their jobs?
- Will our air quality be negatively affected?
- Are there any real benefits from having these proposals succeed?
- What will be the financial impacts on the the taxpayers who will not live in the developments?
- How will the heritage sites of Native Americans be restored and protected?
- Should housing in these quantities be built so far from already established places?
Obviously there are many more questions. It is hoped that there will be ample opportunity for most to be asked and receive a response.
This program will begin with a concise presentation of information and views that have not yet been fully explored. Ileene Anderson from the Center for Biological Diversity will give an illustrated talk on the special biological qualities of the Tejon Ranch, as well as its role as home of the Condors. Other speakers will deal with individual areas of primary concern: water supply, air, traffic, seismic, tax payer costs, all of which need to be thoroughly examined and considered by everyone, locally, county-wide and state-wide. All of this is being prepared in the hope that you, the public, will have more in-depth information on which to base your choices concerning proposals that would drastically change the area in which we are living.
Will your opinions make a difference? Yes, but only if you are prepared to speak up. Start out by writing and sending letters to the members of the Board of Supervisors of Kern and Los Angeles Counties, to our state representatives, and to our Governor. Support a group or groups that most represent your views and values and join them in expressing your opinion. Tell others what you think. There is little doubt that real power resides in the voices of large numbers of people, especially in election years,
Sept 22 (Sat) Exploratory Trip to Lockwood Creek. Moderate. Meet at 8 AM, Pine Mountain Clubhouse. We will begin the hike at the base of Frazier Mountain and follow the creek to its juncture with Piru Creek. Usually by this time of year the Piru is dry above this point. In the past, fresh bear tracks and rattlesnakes have been seen in this area, as well as a reminder of the nearness of civilization, an abandoned refrigator. This an easy hike with a couple hundred feet elevation change, approximately 8 miles in length. For the first mile there are multiple crossings of the creek, so be prepared for wet feet.
Oct 27 (Sat) Fishbowls. Moderate. Meet at 8 AM, Pine Mountain Clubhouse (or arrange to meet further down the road). The Fishbowls of Piru Creek are among the most picturesque spots in the area. They are a deep series of pools dredged out of sandstone by the creek. This area was burned over in the Day fire, and the hike will give us a chance to see the damage to this scenic spot. The Forest Service has just completed a new trailhead and partial new trail to the Fishbowls. There is virtually no elevation gain on the trail; however, it is a somewhat long hike, approximately 13 miles round trip.
Nov 24 (Sat) (Thanksgiving weekend) Yellowjacket Trail. Meet at 8 AM, Pine Mountain Clubhouse (or arrange to meet further down the road). The trail is off Grade Valley Road. This has been one of our favorite hikes because of its diversity. The route takes us through a series of sag ponds and along a (sometimes) running stream. This area was also burned over by the Day fire, so we will see the fire’s effect in this area too. Approximately 8 miles in length with less than 500 feet elevation gain.
Please read carefully if you plan to participate in Sierra Club hikes: 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. Be willing to follow leader’s directions. Bring personal medicines you might need. Appropriate equipment: good hiking shoes, water, snack, sunglasses, suntan lotion, layered clothing. Long pants recommended. Participation must be leader approved. Please let the leader know ahead of time that you are intending to participate. Since unexpected change of plans may be necessary, it is recommended that YOU contact the hike leader the night before to be assured that the hike is still going to happen. Hike Leader: Dale Chitwood 661.242.1076
New CA legislation designed to protect the consumer requires us to publish this notice: CST 2087755-40. Registration as a seller of travel does not constitute approval by the State of California." This legislation was designed to protect the user of outdoor activities that require cash payments of more than $50 for participation.
On June 23 a group of us hiked the route from the Boy Scout camp in Lockwood Valley to Three Falls and on to Lily Meadows and back. It was warm, especially in the lower part, but a cool breeze in our faces kept us fresh, and though there was a white cloud here and there, the sky was mainly an ideal deep blue background. Driving in, we could see how last year the Day Fire had jumped the Lockwood Valley road and raced west almost up to the Boy Scout camp. Later, from farther up, we gazed back at forests of dead trees in the hills on the east side of the valley. Impressive as it was, it didn’t negate the verdant route of our walk or dampen our mood.
The first long flattish stretch beyond the camp gradually changes from a sagebrush plain to a canyon with rock outcroppings and ever more trees. At this time of year the sagebrush was still a fresh gray-green. We stopped as always at the former Indian petroglyphs under some projecting rocks, still detecting a few patterns and bits of color.
In this year of little rain we expected nothing at Three Falls, which in some years can have water rushing over a high cliff, filling the gorge below with sound. We were lucky to find a trickle high above, with some yellow blooms around it that after consideration we thought were probably the type of mimulus called monkey flower.
After the falls comes a steep climb up a quite bare bluff, and then one enters a well watered ravine rising gently all the way to Lily Meadows. It is one of the few places around with numerous sugar pines close up. The magical feature was a display of fremontia or flannel-bush in full yellow bloom on both slopes of the ravine, many so close that you could touch the heavily clothed branches. None of us, not even leader Dale Chitwood, who has been everywhere and knows everything, had known that there were even any fremontia present, much less that they would still be blooming so profusely so late in the year.
We found the picnic ground tucked away at Lily Meadows as charming as ever, open and park-like but under a good canopy of shade from large Jeffrey pines, with wetland plants off to one side, including some faded flowers of wild iris, the "lilies" for which the site was named.
July 28 saw the Condor Group’s flagship hike, the Peak-to-Peak. As always at that altitude, the air was fine and brisk, and the group moved resolutely west along the ridges and saddles. Over the years the direction has varied between west to east and east to west. The general feeling in recent years is that it is just as well to avoid the nearly endless pull going east up Grouse Mountain and instead float down it going west, enjoying one of the largest stands of white fir in the entire region and chatting to one’s heart’s content.
In this dry year the usual feast of late high-altitude wildflowers was absent, but still it was fun to spot here and there a minute mat lupine, a deep red high-altitude Indian paint brush, an occasional mono-tone mariposa lily, so unlike the painted forms seen in the valley below. Some participants had not yet seen the limber pine for which the tops of Mt. Pinos and Sawmill Mt. are famous, unique in our larger region. As always, the needles of all the trees were several degrees greener than they are down below.
The hikers made good time, so good that they beat their estimate by half an hour or more and waited in good spirits at the end to be picked up in cars driven by benevolent friends.
Six fortunate people shared the Three Falls/Lily Meadows hike, and nine the Peak-to-Peak. Many more could have. Some stalwart hikers have departed our area recently, some have had health problems, some perhaps have had other difficulties or been distracted. For those who can still join us, we would love to have you back, and we would heartily welcome any newcomers, either from right around here or from farther afield. In fact, some young people, alive to the environment, conditioned for hiking, open to interchange with the other hikers, came along both times. No names, but they know who they are, are appreciated, are wanted back, and perhaps they have more friends like them. The Condor Group’s tradition of moderate yet exciting hikes in an area of beautiful terrain and flora, long continued and even brought to new splendors under the leadership of Dale, is something that must be preserved.
Jim Lockhart
Promoting a philosophy he developed long before the Sierra Club’s founding on May 28, 1892, John Muir encouraged the public to enjoy the outdoors, to "climb the mountains and get their good tidings," in hopes that they would become interested in the fight to preserve natural lands. Muir’s philosophy has played a key role in the Club’s history, and continues to inspire Sierra Club members to enjoy the outdoors today.
As early as 1890, even before they founded the Sierra Club, early conservationists worked to establish Yosemite National Park. Shortly after its founding the Club had its first campaign success: they defeated a proposal to reduce Yosemite National Park’s boundaries.
In 1901, the Sierra Club Board of Directors proposed an annual summer outing, with the purpose of encouraging members and other interested people to see firsthand the country the Club sought to preserve and protect. William Colby, who led the annual outings for 29 years, noted that "an excursion of this sort, if properly conducted, will do an infinite amount of good toward awakening the proper kind of interest in the forests and other natural features of our mountains, and will also tend to create a spirit of good fellowship among our members."
The first outing drew 96 people to Tuolomne Meadows in 1901, and was the model for what came to be called the High Trip. Nearly every summer for fifty years, groups numbering up to 200 were taken into the wilderness by the Club. By the late 1930s, when many members desired smaller, more intimate groups, the Club pioneered burro trips and knapsack trips. In the 1950s the impact of large numbers of hikers became a matter of concern, and the High Trip tradition passed into history (in 1972 the High Trip was resurrected in a one-shot effort but was then discontinued).
Sierra Club outings were never simply hiking trips. Before an outing, campers were advised to read Muir’s The Mountains of California and LeConte’s Ramblings Through the High Sierra. Once the trip was underway, participants learned about forestry, biology, history, and geomorphology; poems, plays and general good fun added to the camaraderie.
The experience resulted in an enthusiastic and growing membership ready to fight for the places they had explored. Today, many smaller trips have replaced the once-yearly get-togethers, but outings still recruit new members to "hear the trees speak for themselves."
As the Club’s interests and membership extended beyond California, new wilderness areas were explored by Sierra Club outings. The North Cascades in Washington, the Sawtooths in Idaho, the Wind River Range in Wyoming, Dinosaur National Monument in Utah, the Grand Canyon, and the Everglades benefited from this interest. Today, Sierra Club legislative and legal battles strive to protect such areas as the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge; old-growth forests in the United States and Canada; desert wilderness in California and across the intermountain West; the New England forests; the Gulf coastal wetlands; and the prairies of the Great Plains. The Club also fights to save endangered species such as the desert tortoise and the spotted owl. These are all issues highlighted by outings.
From a charter group of 182 California mountaineers, naturalists, and educators, the Club grew dramatically during its first century to more than 700,000 members. Now an international organization, it consists of 65 chapters and almost 400 regional groups in the United States and Canada, and maintains vigorous conservation relations with similar volunteer organizations around the world.
Over the years, the Club’s original goal—the study and protection of natural scenic resources, particularly those of California’s mountain regions—has expanded to encompass the earth’s environment. In addition to studying, protecting, and creating parks for forests, seashores, and rivers, projects focus on such broad national and international issues as biological diversity, public land use, toxic waste, air quality, clean soil and water, various forms and uses of energy, global warming, and economically sustainable development.
Club endorsement and volunteer efforts likewise support political candidates with sound environmental records. These national local efforts have been enormously furthered by the outings programs of individual chapters and groups.
Local trips range from strolls on the beach to Inner City Outings for disadvantaged, at-risk youth, from trail maintenance to white-water canoeing, from potluck socials to backpack trips. Indeed their variety ranges as widely as the interests and creativity of Club members. Outings allow members (following Muir’s advice) to introduce others to sensitive and endangered areas that need protection.
Some outings are physically challenging, and many build inner resources. Always, they aim to be fun, safe, and companionable for all!
Jan de Leeuw found this piece in wanderings through California history and put a complete copy of it, including marvelous pictures of hunters spinning yarns around the campfire and much more, on his website cuddyvalley.org What follows is a mere taste of the article, included here for your pleasure and as an enticement to read it all. Obviously there are differences over time, and yet so much is the same in regards to the pleasures of the natural world.
The report starts out thusly: "Camping out is a common family amusement in California…" and continues on with "the experiment was regarded by friends with curiosity and some mistrust," as the goal was to "live in unusual comfort" in "very difficult country," around Pine Mountain in Ventura County (now a name frequently referred to in reports of the Zaca Fire).
It was "determined" not to have "just coarse bacon and canned goods." To achieve this aim fourteen horses were required, not only to carry in the initial "abundant luggage" but to go back and forth to get fresh supplies each week over the "arduous trail" leading to civilization. Fresh milk was not lacking in their diet for, amazingly, a cow was brought along to take care of that item on their table. There were five people in the party (four and one, the one being described as "wearing a dress of striped canvas suitable for riding astride"). In addition there were guides and a Chinese cook, Ah Hing, who only wanted to bring along for his stay in the mountains a large jar of yeast he had prepared to make really good bread. The finale of the beginning trip up the mountains is a wonderful description of setting up camp, which included using the redwood boards they brought along with them for the tabletop. Can you believe it?
Fishing—early morning, after supper, and at night—was one of the main occupations of the weeks in the mountains, fishing which resulted in trout being a part of all the daily meals. Ah Hing appeared to be the expert in that field: at one spot he caught 48 trout using just one worm.
Bears. "It was told that a French lad who was tending sheep had built his bed eight feet above the ground, with the foot of it resting against a tree, which served him for stairs, and he told us that he did this on account of ‘the bears.’ Bears? what kind of bears? ‘I don’t know how you call them in English; they are so long’—indicating three inches. We never found out what he meant." Anyone among us who wants to make a guess?
In view of our recent and current wildfires, a most interesting section,included in the article was this: "There were fires in the valleys and canyons below us all summer, and the mountain itself in former years has been so often in flames that there was hardly a tree on it unscorched. The authors of this annual crime, which must seriously affect the scanty water supply of arid southern California, are herders who drive thousands of sheep over the government wild lands, and, when they have stripped a region, put the torch to the brush, to improve the pasturage for the next season. From the brush the fire spreads to the woods. There is nothing to stop it, but nobody but the disgusted tourist cares."
The return home at the end of their stay was not an easy one, and their regret on having to leave their camping spot is beautifully stated. In sharp contrast is the truly heart-rending description of what they found at their former camping site during a short visit later in the year: "the hills above (the site) had been swept by fire, the axe has been laid to the trees, and an adventurous ranchman was clearing the land for pasture."
The end of "the experiment" was due to "natural" causes: the horses ate up all the forage. The "energy supply" needed to carry out this luxurious lifestyle was no more. Hmm, is there a lesson to learned somewhere in all of this?
"If people in general could be got into the woods, even for once, to hear the trees speak for themselves, all difficulties in the way of forest preservation would vanish." - John Muir
WHAT HAPPENS WHEN THE FIRES HAVE GONE AWAY?
The various state and federal environmental laws that have been in effect since the 1970s have gradually changed the way human enterprise operates. One of the important changes is simply this: if a project damages the environment, something has to be done to make up for it. This is known as mitigation. Forms of mitigation include restoration of habitat elsewhere, contribution to a conservation fund, and if you temporarily damage habitat, you must restore it.
A bank stabilization project by the U. S. Army Corps of Engineers produced a broad scar in a fifteen-acre riverbed habitat. Mitigation was required. Within several months after completion of the project and final grading of the scar, I noticed that both desirable native riparian and coastal sage scrub plants were emerging, along with many non-native weedy species, including some noxious invasive types. What choices did I have?
Traditional habitat restoration is very proactive and expensive. It often involves several grow-and-kill cycles of watering and herbicide treatments to destroy the emerging weeds. Then a temporary irrigation system is installed, followed by planting of specially grown native plants. Then come years of weed abatement and watering. This procedure is very costly and only works if the follow-through is adequate.
Another method, sometimes used successfully by land managers and volunteers, is the semi-passive method of selective weeding of non-natives to encourage the natives already present. Weeds have the advantage of exploiting new ground quickly. Natives have the advantage of being more adapted to local conditions. If we can prevent the weedy non-natives from taking over immediately, the natives will eventually assert their natural superiority. Thus, the job is to help the natives out initially and let them show their muscle.
In three and one-half years, this semi-passive method has been used on the above fifteen acres. Year by year, non-natives are decreasing in coverage, and natives are increasing. A small amount of hydro-seeding, broadcast seeding, and pot planting has augmented the passive treatment. What was bare ground less than four years ago now has vegetation as much as fifteen feet tall, numerous rodent burrows, ant hills, and many other signs of a returning natural ecosystem. This summer, for the first time, two endangered bird species, least Bell’s vireo and California gnatcatcher, nested in the restoration site.
The secret to success is developing intimate knowledge of all aspects of the project, including the nature of both the invasives and the natives, and then sticking around long enough to ensure takeover by the natives. It is exciting to watch the return of native fauna once the native flora is back in place—and it is lot easier on the pocketbook.
For more information on this technique, insert Bradley Method and habitat restoration into your search engine.
Lynn Stafford
This is the final issue before the New Year of 2008, so looking further ahead—
December 1st (Sat) The December holiday season will be celebrated in great style in the Pool Pavilion Room in the PMC Clubhouse. Being real traditonalists, we will have a wonderful potluck spread, holiday music, and a crazy holiday gift exchange for which you will need to bring a holiday gift. Remember this "rule": "Recycled" gifts only (white elephants), wrapped. Comic effect appreciated. (Good time to clean out your closets!) Mark your calendars for a cheery ending to 2007.
CLUB VOTE AHEAD: Ballots for the election of members to the ExCom for 2008 will be prepared soon. ExCom stands for the Executive Committee, which in each Sierra Club group carries out the responsibilities and housekeeping duties of that local group. If you are interested in running to be a member of this nine-member group, please call 242.0432 to express your wish to serve.
HELPING HANDS TO CHANGE THE WORLD
The Bush administration has not given up on taking actions that are destructive of public lands and more. Gov Schwarzenegger’s actions are sometimes in need of support, sometimes need knocking down. Adding your voice to those of others can bring about change in directions of actions of elected officials. Easy ways to do your part are as follows:
For Federal Legislation: Put Sierra Club Home Page + action center into your search engine and follow directions from there.
For State Issues: Put Sierra Club California + action center into your search engine and follow directions from there.
Another way is to have action alerts come to your mailbox. Join Sierra Club California’s Legislative Action Network at: http://cal-legalert.sierraclubaction.org Alerts come to you in a format allowing you to easily respond expressing your opinion.
A series of fires burned over 170,000 acres in the Los Padres Forest in 2006. Pat’s presentation will discuss the roles of archaeology in fire-fighting organization, site protection measures taken during fires, effects on sites from fires, results of archaeological surveys performed, an overview of newly recorded and updated sites, and the importance of working closely with local Native American groups during emergency situations. Archaeological data from the fires is proving to be an important contribution to the history and prehistory of the Transverse Ranges.
We’re fortunate indeed to have Ms. Likens as part of our Ranger District. Being a native Californian, she has concentrated on the prehistory and history of California. Pat did her postgraduate work at California State University, Chico, where she received a Master’s degree in anthropology with an emphasis in archaeology. Her main interest while at Chico was faunal analysis, which is the study of animal bones recovered from archaeological sites. Lithic analysis, the study of stone tools and tool making, is her archaeological passion. She says that working on Los Padres has provided great opportunities to learn more about the extensive rock art located in the area, as well its historic archaeology, including the remains of the little-known Gold Rush of Piru Creek and Frazier Mountain. It is a real privilege to have Ms. Likens come to our group to share her knowledge and experience. No one will want to miss this!
Mark your calendars now:
Where will all the Flowers Go? CONDOR FLYER
Special Program on Impacts of Proposed P. O. BOX GG
Developments in our local area. FRAZIER PARK
Meeting in Cuddy Hall, CA 93222
Lake of the Woods,
Tuesday, September 18th
at 7 PM
See p. 1 for more details.
Archaeology on Fire
Sat, Oct 6 Program
details above
Holiday Party
Sat, Dec 1st, PMC Clubhouse
See p. 7 for more details.
More Condor Group info?
Call 661.242.0432.
(for all holidays of the months left in 2007).
