Northern California’s Environmental Magazine
Archive for February, 2004
Contra Costa’a Lost Valleys
Contra Costa Water District (CCWD) voters will decide on March 2 whether to expand Los Vaqueros, a 100,000-acre-foot reservoir in eastern Contra Costa County.
Mendocino Opens Fire on GMOs
Genetically modified potatoes can vaccinate consumers against hepatitis B and cholera.
Homeland Security to Plague Livermore
Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory may soon be home to the Department of Energy’s (DOE) first-ever Biosafety Level 3 lab, which, along with a sister facility at Los Alamos National Laboratory, would conduct defensive research on biowarfare agents—such as anthrax, plague, and hantavirus—that could be used in terrorist attacks against the US.
Farmers to Clear the Air
In January, air quality boards across the state began restricting agricultural air pollution under the Clean Air Act, thanks to a group of groundbreaking bills signed into law last fall.
North Coast Loggers Face Veto
It’s not often that forestry activists in the North Coast get good news from Sacramento, so it was a rare celebratory moment in October when then-Governor Gray Davis signed Senate Bill 810, which gives water quality control board officials the authority to block logging operations that are likely to endanger watersheds.
Stockton Water Deal Runs Dry
In December, the largest water privatization deal on the West Coast was struck down when San Joaquin County Judge Robert McNatt ruled that the city of Stockton violated state environmental laws in its water contract with OMI-Thames, a joint US-British firm.
Planet Garden
The chameleon, according to malagasy folklore, keeps one eye on the past, the other on the future. This would make it an appropriate totem for those who practice ecological restoration.
Terra Renewal
It’s a sign of how far the environmental movement has come that after talking for decades about conservation and preservation—ideas geared towards stopping environmental abuses—“restoration,” or repairing damage already done, has found a home in the lexicon.
Budget Blues
A Public Policy Institute poll last November found that 89 percent of Californians consider the environment a top priority.
Best Intentions
While officials cite the successful restoration of the lower Sausal Creek watershed as a model for citizen-agency collaborations, runoff from its upstream neighbor, the recently built Chabot Space and Space Center, threatens to erase the entire project—the painstakingly restored trails, replanted habitat for native plants and animals, the natural flow of the creek.
Mapping the Future
If you’re going to Palo Alto’s Arastradero Preserve, take I-280 to the Page Mill Road exit and plan to get lost a couple of times.
Feathering the Nest
In today’s stingy political climate, winning arguments for restoring damaged ecosystems can depend on convincing bottom-liners that working with nature instead of fighting it saves money and boosts economies.
Home Repo
In 2003, builders in california started 191,866 new homes and apartment units—the most housing starts since 1989 and the most apartment units since 1990.
First the Bees, then the Birds
Botanists have an advantage over zoologists—their subjects sit still, more or less. They can’t hide, and they can’t run either.
Deadfall, Windfall
As a marine biologist with the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute, Shana Goffredi has seen extraordinary things.
Brew of Champions
Stepping into the city of Berkeley’s recycling yard, I am greeted by the sweet scent of fresh brewing biodiesel—and by two enthusiastic scientists and a respirator-clad Dave Williamson, head of curbside recycling for the Ecology Center.
Laissez-faire it A’int
Strawberries and tomatoes, apple cider and green beans. Berkeley Farmers’ Markets bustle with an abundance of the best of each season’s harvest.
Save Those Seeds!
In a plywood bookcase stocked with a motley collection of re-used jars, the Berkeley Seed Interchange Library (BASIL) stores acres of riches, the largest collection of organic open-pollinated seeds in the East Bay.
Vision Quest
Soulcraft: Crossing into the Mysteries of Nature and Psyche
Bill Plotkin
New World Library, 2003
$15.95
I dare you to read this book, especially if your first reaction to the title is similar to mine: No Way. Once you get past the psychological ew Age lingo, there’s a wealth of tools both practical and conceptual for reconnecting deeply with […]
Waste Not, Want Not
I caught up with Ken Geiser at a workshop in Oakland, where he was delivering a talk on international chemical policy.
The Streams Were Full of Fish
In front of me is a photograph of a river full of salmon. In this picture, taken in Alaska, the river is full of fish. Literally. Physically. If you stepped into the water, you would step on a fish. Fish would run up against you. They would keep you awake at night with the slapping […]
Bayfront Property
The Albany bulb, which sticks out into San Francisco Bay like a short thumb next to the long fingers of the Emeryville and Berkeley marinas, might seem an unlikely site for a restoration.
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