Box 3357, Bakersfield, CA 93385-3357
(661) 323-5569
E-mail: kern-kaweah.chapter@sierraclub.org
Cover Photo by Eva Nipp: Olancha Peak from the South Sierra Wilderness
Every Thursday Evening Conditioning Hike. 4-5 miles in northeast Bakersfield area. Meet at 7 pm at the Casa Ramos (formerly Cadillac Ranch) parking lot just east of Mesa Marin on Hwy 178. Call Leaders Eva & Gordon Nipp (661) 872-2432 or Larry Wailes, (661) 861-1186 for details.
July 22,(Sat) Trailmaster Peak (12,336') climb. Moderately strenuous hike in the Horseshoe Meadow area,; we may go on to Cirque Peak (12,900'). Meet at Ridgecrest Cinemas at 7 am. Leader Dennis Burge, 760-375-7967.
July 22-30 (Sat-Sun) Kearsarge Pass / Forester Pass. Explore the high Sierra lake basins and headwaters of the Kern River. Start Saturday for a 9-day sttrenuous backpack which will take us over Kearsarge Pass and Forester Pass, to Lake South America. Most of the trip will be above 11000'. Enjoy wilderness at its best: high mountain lakes, lush meadows, mountain streams, waterfalls, and wild flowers. Approx. 60 mi. R/T and 13,000' gain/loss. No beginners, no tigers. Bearproof container required. Send 2 large SASE, resume of recent backpacking experience, H&W phones, rideshare data, and 2 checks (payable OCSS) for $20 (refundable at trailhead) and $10 (non-refundable) to Asst/Reserv: Paulette Landers, 2740 Pine Creek Circle, Fullerton, CA 92835. Phone: 714-529-8154. Limit 8. Leader: Gary Landers.
July 29 - Aug 6 (Sat-Sun.) Piute Pass Backpack, This nine day outing will include some cross-country hiking into several lake basins west of Piute Pass. The trip is limited to eight well-conditioned, experienced backpackers. Call the leaders, Gordon and Eva Nipp, at (661)872-2432 for details and reservations.
August 12 (Sat) Packsaddle Cave. Meet at 0900 at former Cadillac Ranch/Casa Ramos Parking lot, just East of Mesa Marin. Leader Larry Wailes, 661-861-1186.
Aug. 15-18 (Tue-Fri) White Mountains car camp and possible climb of White Mountain Peak (14,000). Call James Geyer if interested. 661-837-8893.
Sept. 2-4 (Sat-Mon) Climb Telescope Peak (11,000) Death Valley. Good trail and bristlecone pines on the summit. Car camp at the trailhead. Call James Geyer if interested. 661-837-8893.
The Kern-Kaweah Chapter Website is http://kernkaweah.sierraclub.org. There you will find links to the Chapter's Condor, Kaweah, Mineral King and Owens Peak groups and the current and back copies of The Roadrunner. If you wish to receive the current Roadrunner online, contact Arthur or Lorraine Unger at alunger@juno.com>. Please specify whether you still wish to receive a paper copy of The Roadrunner by U.S. Mail.
The ecological footprint of human population is at the heart of dramatically increased rates of species extinction, deforestation, desertification, climate change, and the destruction of natural ecosystems. With a world population of six billion and wasteful consumption of natural resources, we must seek international solutions if we are to stabilize global population and conserve the earth's dwindling natural resources.
In 1994, at the U.N. International Conference on Population and Development, over 180 countries endorsed a workable "program of action" to stabilize global population. This plan emphasized two strategies already proven to be successful: universal access to family planning programs and enhancing the status of women in all societies. Unfortunately, those countries most desperately in need of family planning programs are impoverished and unable to pay for them and need help from more fortunate nations.
Sadly, our own country has failed to honor funding commitments made at the 1994 Cairo conference. Since 1995, Representatives in Congress who oppose family planning programs have steadily reduced U.S. financial aid slated for these vitally needed services. Further, they have managed to impose a "Global Gag Rule" on the remainder of those funds, a rule that prohibits providers in foreign countries from using their own private funds for legal abortion services. The Global Gag Rule even prohibits discussion of those services! It is important to note that since 1974, it has been illegal for U.S. money to be used for abortions. Therefore, the Global Gag Rule interferes with the autonomy of other countries and is an attack on free speech. The Global Gag Rule, if applied to the U.S., would violate our First Amendment and be unconstitutional.
The Sierra Club supports President Clinton's request of $541.6 million for population assistance-an increase of $169 million over current allocations. Demographers estimate that this additional funding would provide modern contraception to 11. 7 million more couples next year and that 4.3 million women would be able to avoid unintended pregnancies - leading to 1.5 million fewer unintended births, and 2.2 million fewer abortions. By preventing unintended pregnancies, 15,000 fewer women would die from pregnancy-related causes and 92,000 fewer infants would die. But Congress is considering much lower funding levels, and those funds will be governed by the onerous Global Gag Rule.
Sierra Club's Global Population Stabilization Program is working with the International Family Planning Coalition to convince members of Congress of the critical need for the funding of family planning services and of the negative impact the Global Gag Rule has had in reducing fertility rates and in stabilizing the world's exploding population. Messages from constituents can be very helpful in convincing members of Congress to vote for the environment and for international family planning.
For more information about Sierra Club's population program, or help in contacting your representative, please contact Laurie Mignone, Conservation Organizer, Population Program at (202) 547-1141 or e-mail laurie.mignone@sierraclub.org
Here are four of the bills addressing international family planning in 1999.
- Joan Jones Holtz
Is it too early to ask when our Presidential candidates will address our planet's socio-economic-environmental crises? Al Gore has written Earth in the Balance in which he seems to have a handle on what needs to be done to save our earth from continuing degradation. Yet, as I listen to him and the other candidates, so far, our environmental problems don't seem to be on their radar screens.
Maybe it would be helpful to make a list of some of our problems. We can check them off when we hear our politicians address them:
Number 1: Overpopulation. We have 6 billion people on this planet, and the number is steadily growing. The United States accounts for only 5% of the world's population, but according to How Much Is Enough?, by Alan Durning, per person we use 3 times as much fresh water, 10 times as much energy and 19 times as much aluminum as someone in a developing country. Several dozen children in Brazil will not have the environmental impact that one American child will have in its life time. In that light, Paul Ehrlich, author of The Population Bomb, in 1968, has charged that, "The United States is the most overpopulated country in the world." It is the fact that wealthy countries cause much more environmental damage (in terms of drain on the earth's resources) that creates an obligation to take corrective actions. Wealthy nations will need to find ways to raise many developing countries out of abject poverty, filth, and disease. Often ignorance, war and the indifferent or corrupt influence of despots in some developing countries contribute to the sad plight of the people, but mostly, poverty begets poverty and poor people who do not have anything have children.
Wealthy nations can lead the way to peace, education and empowerment of individuals, particularly women, throughout the world. Such leadership will result in stability, economic improvement and smaller families (It has been shown that when women are educated and given respect as individuals of worth, they elect to have the number of children for whom they can give adequate care.)
Well, so much for making a list. I'll have to continue another time.
- Glenn Shellcross
At first, only Mary Griffin opposed the Tejon Industrial Complex. The Tejon Industrial Complex is a "new town" that Tejon Ranch is planning to have built on its land along I-5 half way between Bakersfield and the foot of the "Grapevine Ridge". Mary soon recruited me, but she did CHANGE most of the thinking throughout the fight. Several years ago, some of our members fought San Emidio New Town, which was planned for the same spot. By the time the Kern County Board of Supervisors approved the Tejon Industrial Complex, Mary had a mailing list of several activists outside the Sierra Club and had caught the attention of a few others in and out of the chapter.
The late Art Arvizu liked to quote an old Hispanic saying: "The more you win you lose. The more you lose you win." He would have identified Mary as one who lost a big battle, but who, if you help, may prevent some of the sprawl I think Tejon plans for our Valley.
-Arthur Unger
QUESTION: How can Sierra Club members help the Chapter financially and also promote conservation?
ANSWER: Buy Sierra Club calendars, of course! This year only two calendars will be published and available for the year 2001: the Wilderness and Engagement calendars. Plan on purchasing some for personal use and gifts. More information coming in the September Roadrunner!
- Georgette Theotig
(Most trips do not allow dogs)
Aug 13 ( Sun) Meadows of San Joaquin Roadless Area. Sierra Club. Loop hike from June Lake to Glass Creek Campground. 8 mi., 2300 ft. gain, 2/3 moderate trail and 1/3 strenuous cross-country. Leader: Jean Dillingham, 760- 648-7109.
Aug 12 (Sat) Glass Creek Meadow. CNPS. 1-2 miles each way, but moderate to strenuous, climbing at first. Carry lunch and water. Leaders: Kathleen Nelson and Sue Weis. For information contact Field Trip Chairperson Mark Bagley 760- 873 5326; email: markbagley@qnet.com.
Aug. 27 (Sun) Table Mtn. Roadless Area. Sierra Club. Visit Table Mountain roadless area, George Lake and Tyee Lakes, starting from Lake Sabrina and coming out at South Lake Road. Car shuttle. Approx. 8 mi., 1800 ft. gain, strenuous trail. Leaders: Bryce Wheeler, 760-934-3764, and Sally Miller, 760- 647-6411.
Sept 1-4 (Fri- Mon.) Proposed Hoover Wilderness Additions (West). Sierra Club - Sierra Peaks Section. Climb Tower Peak (11,755) and Ehrnbeck Peak (11,240). Rock climbing and conservation trip to potential Hoover Wilderness addition (western portion), Travel from Leavitt Mdws along West Walker River to Tower Pk. Climb unlisted Ehrnbeck too . Fishing pole optional. Send SASE, phone numbers, e-mail (optional), recent climbing resume w/ 3rd class rock experience and ride share info to leaders: Larry and Barbee Tidball, 3826 N.Weston Pl., Long Beach, 90807; lbtidball@earthlink.net.
Sept 2-3 (Sat-Sun) White Mountains & White Mtn Peak.. Arrive at gates leading to White Mtn. Research Stn - Barcroft Lab, in time for outdoor dinner and overnight camping. Sunday am, attend Barcroft open house, then climb White Mtn. Peak in the potential White Mountains Wilderness (13 mi., 2000 ft. gain) Visit Crooked Creek Ranger Station after hike. Bringcamping and hiking gear and plenty of food and water. Leaders: Bryce Wheeler, 760-934-3764, or Dick Baggett, 760-924-5749.
A few days ago I met a friend who had just returned from Singapore where she had gone to visit a new grandchild. Assuming she'd had a wonderful time, I was surprised by her swift and negative response to my inquiry about it. "Picture Catalina" she said, " with three million people who are busy preparing for six million!" As it happens I know Catalina Island, and that image of it, so inhabited, was startling. Of course one's immediate thought is of the coming twelve million, and twenty-four million, and so on, until the mind can no longer grasp any logistical concept of accommodation.
If we think, as we surely must, of our own destiny in global terms, we might take Singapore as a metaphor for the most immediate problem on earth: the expansion of human population. This should make more meaningful the result of a recent California opinion poll in which 60% of respondents indicated that natural and undeveloped outdoor recreation areas are important to the quality of their lives. Yet at this time only fourteen of the forty-eight million acres of publicly owned land in California are in wilderness. If only five million additional acres were added to the wilderness system, there would remain over twenty-five million acres open to extractive and more invasive uses.
A recent letter to the editor of The Bakersfield Californian complained that Americans are drowning in noise. The writer said wistfully that, while many of us yearn for "silent moments in which to reflect, rest, or even enjoy uninterrupted relaxation", we cannot "avoid the racket of modern America." He concluded with the conviction that " noise pollution contributes as much to the loss of national sanity" as any other factor. (Consider "road rage", "flight rage" and now "sports rage".)
In the spring, three of us went on an information-gathering walk into an area proposed for wilderness. We noted plants, geology and wildlife, but we especially enjoyed several young families whose children were clearly excited by their stream-side discoveries of birds, fish and salamanders. Then we heard the overwhelming noise of motorcycles. Two young men, fully uniformed and helmeted, were wresting their dirt bikes up the trail. They were friendly boys and stopped to chat for a moment. When we told them we'd been enjoying the sounds of birds, they were surprised. "Oh," one of them said. "Are there birds here?" Well yes, but then, how would they know?
In one of the Upanishads of ancient Hindu philosophy, there is a passage to the effect that when one encounters the beauty of a mountain or a sunset, and pauses to say "Ah!", he partakes of the Divine. How can we secure the possibility of that experience for coming generations of children, undisturbed by the clatter of technology? Only in Wilderness.
© Ann Williams, 2000
Officers and Committee Chairpeople
Executive Committee (All but noted codes are 661)
Chair: Glenn Shellcross, shellcrossg@earthlink.net 832-3382; Vice-Chair: Monte Harper; Secretary: Bonnie East, 832-9775; Treasurer: Gordon Nipp; Assistant Treasurer: Larry Wailes; Conservation: Ara Maderosian sfa@lightspeed.net; At Large: Arthur Unger, , Mary Ann Lockhart; Richard Garcia, Gordon Nipp.
RCC Delegates: Bonnie East, Glenn Shellcross;
Alternates: Neil Fernbaugh, Lorraine Unger
Committee Chairpeople: Conservation: Ara Maderosian; Membership: Lorraine Unger, 323-5569; Political and Compliance: Harry and Kathy Love; Council Rep: Arthur Unger; Outings: Theresa Stump, 559-781-0594; Publicity: Paul Gipe; State and Local Government: Neil Fernbaugh; Legal:Georgette Theotig; Fundraising: Richard Garcia; History: Michelle Hoffman and amp; Ann Williams; Environmental Ed.: Joe Fontaine, ; Phone Tree: Mary Ann Lockhart; Air Quality: Art Unger; Biodiversity: Harold Wood; Endangered Species: Art Unger: Energy: Paul Gipe; Environmental Justice: Art Powell; Forest Organizer: Ara Marderosian; Population Growth: Glenn Shellcross; Urban:Lorraine Unger; Wilderness/Parks/Refuges: Joe Fontaine and Gordon Nipp; Waste: Lorraine and Art Unger.
Kaweah Group (Porterville, area code 559)
Chair: Theresa Stump, 781-0594; VC: Diane Jetter; Conservation: Carla Cloer; Outings: Jim Clark
Mineral King Group: (Visalia & Hanford, 559)
Chair: Harold Wood harold.wood@sierraclub.orgOwens Peak Group (Desert Area Code 760)
Chair: Dennis Burge, 375-7967; V.C.: Steve Smith; Conservation: Jeanie Haye; Treasurer: Dolph Amster; At Large: Dororthy Vokolek; Outings: Don Peterson, 375-8599
Condor Group (Frazier Park & Pine Mountain)
Chair: Chester Arthur ches@frazmtn.com ; Membership: Barbara Matthews; Outings: Ray Albridge & Harry Nelson; Conservation: Kevin Royle; Hospitality: Elsbeth Feldman; Publicity; Karen Cotter: Treas: Jean & Ed Rustvold; Ast Treas: M Albridge; Newsletter: Mary Ann Lockhart; At Large: Marta Bigler
Editor: Andy Honig (661) 325-0026. Contributions of news, articles, press releases, opinion, art and photographs (black & white), letters to the editor, should be sent to: andym@lightspeed.net.
Want to submit an article for the Road Runner or express opinions?
Suggested length: 650 words or less. Thats
about a column or 2 12 pages double spaced.)
Deadline: 15th
of the month BEFORE desired month of publication-mail
Copyrighted articles, graphics and photos can only be reprinted with the owners permission.
Published 12 times per year by the Kern-Kaweah Chapter of the Sierra Club, Bakersfield, CA. All non-copyrighted material printed in the Roadrunner may be reprinted in any Sierra Club publications with acknowledgement.
The Kern-Kaweah Chapter newsletter is available at the Sierra Club website. You can save the Chapter mailing costs and save a tree by notifying us if you want your paper copy discontinued. Please e-mail Lorraine Unger at alunger@juno.com with your name and your membership number (found on the label). Any one who wants an extra hard copy anytime call (661) 323-5569.
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