Category Archives: nature

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Victory for spotted owl as Trump-era plan to reduce habitat is struck down

Revisiting the spotted owl.. started it all… good news but not enough

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2021/nov/09/biden-trump-plan-northern-spotted-owl-habitat?CMP=Share_AndroidApp_Other

“We’re glad the Biden administration repealed the ridiculous and politically driven decision to strip 3m acres from the spotted owl’s critical habitat” said Noah Greenwald, the endangered species director at the Center for Biological Diversity. “It needs all the habitat it can get if it’s going to make it.” But, he called the exclusions that remain, “disappointing”.

“The Biden administration is condoning the cutting of old growth forests on BLM land,” he said. “It is definitely not what the owl needs and it’s not what our climate needs.”

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Efforts to Restore the Los Angeles River Collide With a Gentrifying City | Sierra Club

https://www.sierraclub.org/sierra/2018-4-july-august/feature/efforts-restore-los-angeles-river-California-collide-gentrifying-city

“The complex, unique geology of the Los Angeles Basin, with its interlocking and overlapping ridges and valleys, resulted in a wildly unpredictable river that often sent torrents of water tearing over its banks.

Not long after California became a state in 1851, the water needs of a booming population stressed the Los Angeles River to its breaking point. Meanwhile, the fitful river endangered the settlements multiplying throughout the floodplain. After catastrophic floods in 1914, 1934, and 1938, the city, at the recommendation of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, agreed to straighten the riverbed and pave it with concrete, deracinating whatever plant and animal wildlife was left. A complex of aqueducts, dams, and reservoirs was built to import most of the city’s water; today, it delivers about 430 million gallons daily.”

Restoration of this watershed is a priority to many who live in and around LA.

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Why the World’s Rivers Are Losing Sediment and Why It Matters – Yale E360

https://e360.yale.edu/features/why-the-worlds-rivers-are-losing-sediment-and-why-it-matters

“Now, as global warming steadily melts glaciers and polar ice sheets, quickening the pace of sea level rise, scientists say that a severe shortage of river-borne sediment — most of it trapped behind dams — will increasingly be felt along the world’s coasts.”

The most important things!

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Fall is here!

I’ve been worried these last few days of summer and now fall is here! The maple and birch leaves have been falling. Swirls of leaves follow me as I walk along the trail. But the leaves are green and spotted! Where are the fall colors? May I just be anxious for cooler climes. Perhaps but with the wind and rain being so plentiful as of late I fear the fall colors nature brings with the changing seasons may be compromise.

AS I look out my window, the leaves seem to be talking to each other; they sway back and forth in the wind. Last night I heard numerous conversations of chattering leaves. What does one leaf say to another? Maybe they are pleading with one another to hold on to their branches or maybe they are encouraging each other to fly away with the wind.

Miraculously I found a yellow rose in my rose bush recently. I swear it is pink now. Do roses change color? Whatever, it is a wonderful sight. The rain has brought all sorts of colorful mushrooms up from the ground – orange, purple and of course white. Plenty of tiny little toads hopping about too and slender long snakes slithering about the driveway. No bloodsucking gnats like last year. I couldn’t even open doors to enjoy the wonderful cool weather as the gnats were so tiny that they could squeeze through the screens! The plague of gnats, inside and out, were annoying to say the least. No bloodsucking attacks – at least as of yet.

As I ramble on steadied with glee of autumnal comings, my mind goes to all the things that need to be completed before winter gets here. I’ll make a list but for now I am going to enjoy the blissfulness of fall’s arrival. I think I will go crunch some fallen foliage beneath my feet, dogs in tow!