A story in the Chron notes that a massive flotilla of disposed plastic is littering the Pacific Ocean between the West Coast and Hawaii: The enormous stew of trash – which consists of 80 percent plastics and weighs some 3.5…
Wildlife
Getting kids outdoors, revisited
by tmangan • October 23, 2007 • 5 Comments
An oceanographer’s blog mentions “Last Child in the Woods” and discusses an issue we got into here last week: Wilderness is in the eye of the beholder, and it doesn’t necessarily take a visit to a Yosemite to launch an…
Butterfly season coming soon
by tmangan • October 3, 2007 • 0 Comments
South Bay blogger Greg Grothaus notes that the Monarch butterfly migration is beginning at Natural Bridges State Park in Santa Cruz. The totally amazing part is that these butterflies have never been here before. Their parent’s parents have, but since…
Killer in the woods: sudden oak death
by tmangan • August 16, 2007 • 0 Comments
ScienceDaily has an excellent overview of Sudden Oak Death, which is a nasty, vicious disease that can knock out wide stretches of forest. It sort of challenges the assumption that getting people into the woods will encourage them to protect…
Value of recreation vs. cost of mining, drilling, cutting
by tmangan • August 2, 2007 • 2 Comments
The Sierra Club seems to have hired a few economists to demonstrate that our tree-hugging tendencies are actually good for the economy. From a report released yesterday called “The New Economy of the West: From Clear-cutting to Camping” (Note, the…
Controlled burn at Russian Ridge
by tmangan • July 31, 2007 • 0 Comments
Some cool pix are here (scroll down to get to them).
In Wyoming: Gas drilling tests wildlife populations
by tmangan • July 25, 2007 • 1 Comment
Drilling for natural gas has tripled in the past few years. Wildlife populations near the wells are taking a hit, according to this story from cnn.com On a June morning, standing in the middle of one of Wyoming’s largest gas…
A creature feature
by tmangan • July 23, 2007 • 1 Comment
Tom Stienstra of that other paper has a raft of interesting California wildlife factoids. Among the highlights: The fisher, a small predator in the weasel family, is among the few animals that can attack and kill a porcupine. Tarantulas can…
Learning to shoot
by tmangan • June 25, 2007 • 0 Comments
TrailDivas.com reports on a trip to a gun-safety course taught in Washington state. There is nothing though like taking classes to learn safety, to gain confidence handling them and realize that going to the range can be a fun activity.…