Likely impacts of climate change on the horizon, Mary Anderson, Redwood Times, 12/01/2011
The Mattole Restoration Council (MRC) combined its annual meeting with a day of presentations and discussion on environmental topics. Environmental workers and board members from the MRC, the Mattole Salmon Group and Sanctuary Forest filled the Beginnings Octagon on Friday, Nov. 18 and engaged in lively discussions on Sudden Oak Death, the state of the salmon in our rivers, the future of forests, and the impact of land use and local planning policies on the environment......
Air Board study in error? They don't seem to care, By Lois Henry Californian Columnist, Bakersfield Californian, Nov 30 2011
You'd think I would cease to be amazed at the "damn the facts, full speed ahead" MO exhibited by California's air pollution cabal. And yet, here I sit, astounded once again. Not only did an obscure but important committee in the bowels of the California Air Resources Board recently ignore dozens of pages of serious criticisms of a new pollution study, but at least one committee member seems to have zero understanding of how such studies are used to create regulations that affect all of us out here in real people land......
UC scientists say thin Sierra forests to get more water runoff, Central Valley Business Times, November 30, 2011
Runoff from the Sierra Nevada snowpack, a critical source of California’s water supply, could be enhanced by thinning forests to historical conditions, according to a report from a team of scientists from the University of California, Merced, UC Berkeley and the Environmental Defense Fund. The team proposes to test the hypothesis that forest-management strategies that use thinning to reduce fire risk and maintain the historical mix can also increase water yield and extend the snowpack in the Sierra Nevada. The scientists suggest that by selectively reducing the number of trees — which use large amounts of the water received through precipitation — the amount of water that is released from the forest as runoff could increase. This enhanced runoff could make things easier for farmers and water managers statewide, they say......
Study disputes need to conserve farm water, Tia Ghose California Watch, November 29, 2011
A new report suggests that California agriculture already uses water efficiently and disputes the notion that conservation could free up large amounts of water for other uses. Increasing water efficiency would generate only 330,000 acre-feet per year of new water, according to the study [PDF], which was conducted by the Center for Irrigation Technology at CSU Fresno. That represents about 0.5 percent of the state's water use......
Lawmakers, states ask Senate to reinstate wildfire prevention funding, PHIL TAYLOR, E&E Daily, Nov 29, 2011
Senators, states and conservation groups are urging the Senate to restore funding to programs that help prevent wildfires in national forests, arguing the move could save millions of dollars in firefighting costs. The steep funding cuts proposed in a Senate Appropriations Committee draft spending bill would severely hamper lands agencies' ability to thin and burn forests vulnerable to severe wildfires, said groups including the Western Governors Association, National Association of Counties and National Association of State Foresters.....
Cuts to Fish and Game vehicle fleet could harm conservation efforts, some say, Matt Weiser, Sacramento Bee, Nov. 28, 2011
Conservation groups are warning that Gov. Jerry Brown's plan to slash the state's vehicle fleet could have consequences for California wildlife and their habitats. The Department of Fish and Game is slated to lose 527 vehicles in the fleet-reduction program, according to preliminary data obtained by The Bee. Unlike the take-home or rarely used vehicles primarily targeted by the program, most of the Fish and Game vehicles are special equipment used to conduct research, maintain duck habitat and catch poachers.....
Salmon nests parched, Feds blamed for quick water cutoff, spoiling 200K fish eggs, By Alex Breitler, Record Staff Writer, Stockton Record, November 28, 2011
Water districts that spend $1 million each year studying fish on the Stanislaus River are publicly blaming the federal government for the destruction of nearly 200,000 salmon eggs, after the feds rapidly decreased river flows earlier this month. Normally, the water districts chastise the government for sending too much water downstream. You might have seen newspaper ads or billboards warning that New Melones Lake, east of Stockton, could go dry if more water is sent down the river for fish. This time, the districts say the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation first released too much and then not enough water from New Melones, ignoring the districts' advice and wasting their money......
The Non-Green Jobs Boom, Forget 'clean energy.' Oil and gas are boosting U.S. employment, Wall Street Journal, November 28, 2011
So President Obama was right all along. Domestic energy production really is a path to prosperity and new job creation. His mistake was predicting that those new jobs would be "green," when the real employment boom is taking place in oil and gas. The Bureau of Labor Statistics reported recently that the U.S. jobless rate remains a dreadful 9%. But look more closely at the data and you can see which industries are bucking the jobless trend. One is oil and gas production, which now employs some 440,000 workers, an 80% increase, or 200,000 more jobs, since 2003. Oil and gas jobs account for more than one in five of all net new private jobs in that period......
Clear-cuts help us keep our forests healthy, By Daniel Tomascheski, Special to The Bee, Sacramento Bee Another View, Nov. 27, 2011
Katherine Evatt isn't the only one who can't see the forest for the trees. It's not surprising that many people are alarmed to see good forest practices at work. A few acres of downed trees don't square with their notion of what a healthy forest is supposed to look like. Ironically, it's what they don't see that tells the real story. They don't know that the robust stands of foothill conifers nearby, filled with wildlife and natural wonders, are themselves the product of decades of sound forestry practices – including commercial harvesting......
Disasters elsewhere could teach California, By Dana M. Nichols, Record Staff Writer, Stockton Record, November 27, 2011
SAN ANDREAS - A $40 million camping trip could go something like this: The tents are up, bellies are full, and grandpa dozes off in a chair. A gust kicks sparks out of the fire ring, they catch in nearby leaf litter, and a wildfire goes raging uphill. The big pricetag is what comes next. Imagine that fire races into the overgrown high country of a national forest. It might incinerate 12,000 acres, relatively small compared to some megafires in the West.....
Maps help utilities, others pinpoint solutions, Protecting water supply, numerous resources key, forest officials say, By Dana M. Nichols, Stockton Record, November 27, 2011
SAN ANDREAS - New maps posted online this month by the U.S. Forest Service pinpoint where the nation's drinking water is most jeopardized by wildfires and other threats to high-country forests. One of the hot spots, according to the maps, is the headwaters of the Mokelumne River in the high Sierra east of Stockton. The new mapping effort is called Forests to Faucets. The data behind it is why water utilities in some western cities now help pay to maintain portions of nearby national forests......
The State Worker: Gov. Jerry Brown's hiring freeze has thawed ... some, By Jon Ortiz, Sacramento Bee, Nov. 24, 2011
California faces an estimated $13 billion budget hole next year, but the hammerlock on hiring that Gov. Jerry Brown announced Feb. 15 is over for nearly all departments and offices under his authority, with a few notable exceptions. The executive order that froze hiring, touted by the administration as another sign that Brown was dead serious about cutting government costs, contained a key provision that allowed departments to take on new employees.
Ice age analysis suggests global warming may be less severe than predicted, By Scott Learn, The Oregonian, November 24, 2011
After crunching ice-age climate numbers, Oregon researchers and colleagues from Harvard, Princeton, Cornell and Barcelona came up with two encouraging conclusions about future global warming. The planet appears less sensitive to carbon dioxide changes than expected, their study says, so extreme temperature increases in the near future appear highly unlikely. And future warming may also be less than predicted by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change in 2007, particularly at the upper end of the "likely" range......