PEATDUSTER - Sierra Club · bearded lady deals tarot cards and tells the romantic future for a few ladies. In the background Frank Zappa is playing: “Youwsa, Youwsa, Youwsa I got

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PEATDUSTER Volume 50 Number 1 P-1 Delta-Sierra Group Newsletter January February 2019

The Sierra Club - Explore, Enjoy and Protect the Planet

Bodie Photos by REE

Visit us at www.sierraclub.org/mother-lode/delta-sierra

HAPPY NEW YEAR FROM YOUR EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE

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Explore, enjoy and protect the planet. Explore, enjoy and protect the planet. Explore, enjoy and protect the planet. Explore, enjoy and protect the planet. Explore, enjoy and protect the planet. The Sierra Club - Explore, Enjoy and Protect the Planet

Volume 50 Number 1 P-2 Peatduster Delta-Sierra Group January February 2019

MEETINGS and EVENTS

Bodie: A Gold Rush Ghost Town.

Monday, January 28, 2019 @ 7:00 pm

Last year, Jim Murch took on the role of a miner who lived and worked in Bodie. He shared the tools and efforts these miners worked with. At our first meeting of 2019 he will be back with a slide presentation about Bodie. He will show us parts of Bodie not generally open to the public. He has a surprise for us and will show what Bodie looked like before the great fire of 1932 from a little known movie that was filmed there. Come on out hear about and see the finest preserved ghost and mining town in the entire west. All Delta-Sierra Group general meetings are open to everyone whether you are a Sierra Club member or not. Meetings are held in the Fireside Room at the Central United Methodist Church, 3700 Pacific Avenue, Stockton, across from the University of Pacific Tower.

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More Day Hikes along the 108 Corridor Monday, February 25, 2019 @ 7:00pm

Kathi Joye shared her hiking experiences with us with her presentation several years ago about the area included in her book, Day Hikes Along the Highway 108 Corridor. Now she has written another book, and in February she will share with us more insights about this beautiful area.

This second volume includes more low elevation hikes along the Middle Fork Stanislaus River Canyon, South Fork Stanislaus River Canyon, and the Stanislaus National Forest and Humboldt-Toiyabe National Forest not found in the first volume. In addition, this second volume has new sections for hikes in the North Fork Tuolumne River and Clavey River drainages and another for Snowshoe/Cross-Country Ski routes.

You can check out both books at her website:

https://kathijoye.weebly.com

Kathi could speak on many of the outstanding attractions found along Highway 108. Let’s see - the beautiful giant Bennet Juniper at Eagle Meadow, Sword Lake’s fresh water jelly fish, Waterhouse Lake which has no inlet, the Postpiles or the fire that destroyed the Dardanelle Resort.

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Internet Photo

Photos by REE

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Valley Link RR Written by Mischa Wanek-Libman , Editor, Railway Track & Structures; and Engineering Editor, Railway Age The Metropolitan Transportation Commission (MTC) Board allocated $10.1 million to the Tri-Valley – San Joaquin Valley Regional Rail Authority at its September 26 meeting to complete environmental work and initial design of the Valley Link rail project. Valley Link is a planned project that would connect the Bay Area Rapid Transit District’s (BART) rapid transit system and the Altamont Corridor Express’ (ACE) commuter rail service. The route would use 12 miles of abandoned rail right-of-way and would initially extend from the planned ACE N Lathrop Station in the San Joaquin Valley through the Altamont Pass. A second phase would extend service from the North Lathrop Station to the ACE and Amtrak Stockton Station.

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“This action is about connecting people with housing and jobs. It’s about improving our economy and protecting the environment,” said MTC Vice-Chair and Regional Rail Authority Chair Scott Haggerty.

The regional rail authority explains that the rail connection would provide a highly economic way to close a significant passenger rail gap, as well as improve the overall mobility in this key freight movement corridor between the San Joaquin Valley and the Port of Oakland.

Mayor Pro Tem Veronica Vargas of Tracy, who serves as the vice chair of the regional rail authority, commented “MTC’s decision demonstrates the mega-regional approach that is being taken by agencies on both sides of the Altamont Pass to keep Valley Link rail service on track for a potential start date in 2024.”

In July 2018, the preferred alternative included a phased implementation of service, station locations, service characteristics and vehicle technology was adopted.

Following environmental work and initial design, final design and construction will commence. Project construction is expected to take between five and seven years, meaning that the first Valley Link trains could be placed in service as early as 2024.

Editor’s Note: Paul Plathe, our Vice Chair & Membership Chair, has been following California high speed rail service and other transportation issues for Delta-Sierra Group for the last few years. He provided this article. For those that don’t know it, he previously was our Outings Leader and Gorge Scrambling Leader and organized several service trips to Grand Staircase Escalante to clear invasive Russian olive trees. He has also journeyed to far points of the earth participating in hiking and kayak trips.

Comments to the CarMax Auto Superstore Draft Environmental Impact Report follow. They were prepared by Mary Elizabeth, Delta-Sierra Group Conservation Chair, for the Sierra Club. We are very proud and fortunate to have her on our team.

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From the Editor

Imagine it’s the 1930’s. The carnival has come to town. There is the Merry-Go-Round turning counterclockwise. The Ferris Wheel rotates clockwise and counterclockwise depending on where you stand. In the big tent high above the crowd, two men and one woman, slim and fit, glide through the air. There is no safety net, so there is no room for error. On the dirt floor a tiny man gets his elephant to stand on one foot. A familiar face is the Master of Ceremonies. Outside on stage is a sword swallower and a snake charmer. In another smaller tent there is a peep show for the men. In an old trailer a bearded lady deals tarot cards and tells the romantic future for a few ladies.

In the background Frank Zappa is playing: “Youwsa, Youwsa, Youwsa I got it all together now with my very own disco clothes, hey my shirt's half open to show you my chain and the spoon for up my nose I’m really somethin', that's what you'd prob'ly say, So smoke your little smoke drink your little drink while I dance the night away

I'm a dancin' fool…..” Carnival? Zappa? Your alarm goes off. Bad Dream! The ending 2018 quarter, especially November, was filled with drama and tragedy. The Trump Political Carnival may have visited your town. Let’s have a look back.

Trump Rakes California Over The Coals

When a public figure and particularly a leader of a country makes a remark outside their area of expertise, he or she subjects themselves to intensive ridicule. Take this Insensitive, punitive and twisted remark tweeted from Paris November 10, 2018: “There is no reason for these massive, deadly and costly forest fires in California ex-cept that forest management is so poor. Billions of dollars are given each year, with so many lives lost, all because of gross mismanagement of the forests. Remedy now, or no more Fed payments!”

WARNING The following pages may be unsuitable for small children, educated adults, retired teachers, and persons concerned with climate change and the environment.

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The Woolsey Fire burned swaths of Los Angeles and Ventura counties in Southern California, forced evacuations and burned hundreds of homes from Thousand Oaks to Malibu. However, the area is primarily urban and the landscape is primarily chaparral and grassland. There are few trees to manage.

Contrast that to the Camp Fire that destroyed thousands of homes in Paradise. There, Butte County officials permitted home construction within a wild land area. This is a common practice throughout California and we call this area Wildland-Urban Interface. Perhaps it is fair to say that it is mismanagement to build homes in the Wildland-Urban Interface. Of course, we only say this long after the fact when a fire is raging. Don’t forget California has had a long period of insect infestations and drought

that killed our forests making these firestorms possible.

But when that public figure continues a barrage of ridiculous comments, he or she becomes the ridicule of the Internet. You can now purchase tee shirts and hats, which say, “Rake America Great Again” and Make America Rake Again”. You can find posters and cartoons showing Smokey Bear holding a garden rake. (The hat on the left sells for $18.)

Yet, this is all that was said on a visit to Paradise November 17, 2018, "You gotta take care of the floors. You know the

floors of the forest, very important... I was with the President of Finland... he called it a forest nation and they spent a lot of time on raking and cleaning and doing things and they don't have any problem."

From an Internet search you find that Finland has an estimated population of 5.54 million, is an area of 130,666 square miles and forests cover 75 percent of the land area. But if you view a map of Finland you find it is splattered with numerous lakes. Thus, for every Finn, there is around 10.4 acres of forest.

Unlike California, Finland is mostly flat. In the southern areas, water seems a more common sight than land, as countless clear water lakes are everywhere. To the north of the Arctic Circle, the terrain rises into the hills and low mountains of Lapland.

Unlike California precipitation ranges from 15.5 inches per year in the extreme northeast, to 25.5 inches in the east and south, and to 27.5 inches in the southwestern tip. Rain and snow are quite frequent, and well distributed throughout the year. The best time to visit Finland is May through September when the temperature ranges from 50 to 63 degrees Fahrenheit. The rest of the year you will need a fire to stay warm enough to fight a fire!

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California has a population of 39,540,000 (2017) and an area of 163,696 square miles or 104,765,440 acres. This means each of us will need to rake 2.65 acres. We can probably eliminate roads, tunnels, bridges, reservoirs, lakes, high-rise towers, golf courses and Death Valley from the list of places we need to rake.

However, California has 17 National Forests, 7 State Forests, 9 National Parks, numerous National Monuments of various kinds and sizes, and 39 Wildlife Refuges. State parks and forested county and city parks that are contiguously jointed to other Wildland-Urban Interface areas may not he counted here, but figure your area of responsibility will include about two acres.

So who is going to deal with the raking our remote, inaccessible 77 national wilderness areas and 12 state wilderness areas? Is it really even possible to Rake America Great Again?

Aside from Trump’s foolish raking solution that might work for a bonsai tree forest, public policy requires change. Knowing that fire can jump barriers like the Sacramento River and Interstate 5, we need to redefine boundaries and construction within the Wildland-Urban Interface. Should the citizens of Paradise rebuild on their existing land and plant trees again where they once stood, history will eventually repeat itself.

An Ugly Product With Uglier Packaging

Donald Trump’s administration recently released new guidelines allowing the EPA to sidestep red tape and put asbestos back into the manufacturing process for some building materials. Asbestos was once widely used in the US for insulation and roofing but is now classed by the federal government as a known carcinogen. When disturbed, asbestos fibers can become lodged in the lungs and cause mesothelioma, as well as cancers of the lung, larynx and ovary. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, around 2,500

Americans die from mesothelioma every year.

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Uralasbest, a Russian company, is located in the mining city of Asbest in the Ural Mountains. Asbest was once known as the “dying city” due to its high rate of lung cancer and other asbestos-related health problems. Chrysotile or white asbestos is the most commonly encountered form of asbestos and has the following chemical formula: Mg3(Si2O5)(OH)4. Asbestos exporter Uralasbest’s Facebook profile shows the company’s pallets stamped with a seal featuring Trump’s face that reads, “Approved by Donald Trump the 45th President of the United States.” (Note: No fact check was conducted to see if Trump actually approved it or not.)

Roundup is Safe Except From Lawsuits

There are 580 lawsuits pending against Monsanto Company in U.S. District Court in San Francisco, filed by people alleging that exposure to Roundup herbicide (Glyphosate) caused them or their loved ones to develop non-Hodgkin lymphoma

cancer, and that Monsanto covered up the risks. The cases have been combined for handling as multidistrict litigation under Judge Vince Chhabria.

An estimated 8,000 other plaintiffs have made similar claims against Monsanto in state courts. The first trial in the Roundup litigation started June 18, 2018 in the Superior Court for the County of San Francisco. The trial concluded on August 10 with the jury ordering Monsanto to pay $289.25 million in damages, including $250 million in punitive damages to plaintiff DeWayne “Lee” Johnson. The judge in the case reduced the punitive damages to $39 million in an order dated October 22, 2018.

Additional cases are set for trial in 2019. Many are filed in St. Louis, Missouri. The next case currently set for trial is Ronald Peterson and Jeff Hall versus Monsanto. The trial date is February 5, 2019.

Black Friday Was Really Dark & Gloomy In 2018

The National Climate Assessment, consisting of over 1,000 pages and prepared by more than 300 authors was released November 23, 2018. There was fear by the scientific community and news media that it would be ignored due to Black Friday chaos. No such luck! It back fired and climate change was a major topic on radio and television every day for the next couple of weeks.

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David Easterling, a report author and scientist at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said the effects of warming “threaten the health and well-being of the American people” and “disrupt many areas of life, exacerbating existing challenges and revealing new risks.” Well, if that report was not scary enough, three other reports were released a few days later that said “levels of heat-trapping carbon dioxide jumped significantly in 2018 at a rate described by scientists as a “speeding freight train," according to the New York Times. The Global Carbon Project said carbon emissions are expected to increase by 2.7 percent in 2018, the highest level in seven years. India and China saw the highest rise in levels this year, with emission levels projected to rise 6.3 percent and 4.7 percent respectively. Resolutions, Revolutions and Revelations. Is there any hope out there? It is only just beginning and younger people are angry over what our generation is leaving for them. The failure of Donald Trump to drain the swamp and instead create a cesspool along with his inability to keep scores (maybe millions) of campaign promises, gives hope that he will be remembered as a simple footnote in the history of climate change. Hence, there is no reason to mention him anymore in the Peatduster. Let’s examine other signs of progress. We have measured the value of our crops in tons per acre or bushels per acre. Some studies now measure these crops in calories per acre. This could change our diets substantially, and might reduce some of our rare crops like rhubarb, okra, and even apricots. However, it could also mean we reduce hunger and starvation across our planet. Don’t ignore Georgetown, Texas of all places, population 71,000. They put on the most decadent, energy-wasting Christmas lightshow you’ll ever see for any city their size. How? Simple. They are off the grid and produce 100% of their own electricity via a 154 megawatt solar farm and wind turbines. Of course, they use LED lighting.

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In Denmark where my daughter lives, new labeling on food packaging will enable consumers in Denmark to see the effect of their shopping on the environment. Food products will be marked with stickers showing their environmental impact. “We want to give consumers the means to assess in supermarkets the environmental impact of products,” Minister for the Environment Lars Christian Lilleholt said.

According to their mission statement and established in 2003, “the European Marine Energy Centre (EMEC) Ltd is the first and only center of its kind in the world to provide developers of both wave and tidal energy converters, technologies that generate electricity by harnessing the power of waves and tidal streams with purpose-built, accredited open-sea testing facilities”.

They are located on the north end of Scotland. Testing includes turbines fixed to the seafloor and ships anchored to the sea floor that support wave action turbines. This is an exciting new form of energy producing equipment that symbolizes our future solutions to meet climate change challenges.

It certainly is a new year with new hope.

Georgetown - Internet Photo

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Executive Committee with Email Addresses You must copy and paste an email address into your email program. Chair: Margo Praus

[email protected]

Vice Chair & Membership Chair: Paul Plathe

[email protected]

Treasurer & Chapter Delegate: Richard Abood

[email protected]

Secretary & Alternate Chapter Delegate: Steve Harvath

[email protected]

Conservation Chair & Web Master: Mary Elizabeth

[email protected]

Program Chair: Margo Praus

[email protected]

Executive Member: Knute Momberg [email protected]

Newsletter: Robert Evans

[email protected] Delta-Sierra Group is not just a hiking club, but we still enjoy outings. Find us on MEETUP at https://www.meetup.com/S-M-S-SierraClub/members/28813452/



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DELTA-SIERRA GROUP P.O. BOX 9258 STOCKTON, CA 95208

Explore, enjoy and protect the planet.

“How can we be so arrogant? The planet is, was, and always will be stronger than us. We can't destroy it; if we overstep the mark, the planet will simply erase us from its surface and carry on existing. Why don't they

start talking about not letting the planet destroy us?” Paulo Coelho, Brazilian Writer

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PEATDUSTER - Sierra Club · bearded lady deals tarot cards and tells the romantic future for a few ladies. In the background Frank Zappa is playing: “Youwsa, Youwsa, Youwsa I got