August 2009

Head ranger
President Obama has nominated a career employee, Jon Jarvis, as the new head of the National Park Service. During the Bush administration, Jarvis spoke out against the commercialization of our National Parks. As head of the Pacific West Region of the Park Service, Jarvis required his 56 parks to become carbon neutral by 2016. Cool!

New Conservation Director
Sierra Club National has selected Sarah Hodgdon as its new Director of Conservation. Prior to this position, Hodgdon led the Club’s Beyond Coal Campaign as Director of Climate Campaign Operations. Her goals include moving beyond coal, supporting clean energy, encouraging the transition to green transportation, and having economic sanctions against greenhouse gas-intense energy.

Gahtelai fog collector.

Fog is water
In the country of Eritrea on the coast of the Red Sea in Africa, the climate is hot and expected to get hotter. Water is scarce, rainfall inadequate. The village of Gahtelai in the highlands is harvesting water from fog. Fog collectors consisting of a fine mesh net where fog condenses, supply 14-20 liters of water/day per square meter of net. The water is used to irrigate vegetable gardens. Sounds like a good idea for our coastal farms.

Outdoors kids
The U.S. Department of the Interior will establish a new office dedicated to getting young people outdoors. The future of our wildlands will depend on fewer kids watching TV and playing video games and more kids going fishing, hiking, and just playing outdoors. In the works is a Youth Conservation Corps modeled after the CCC which provided jobs and outdoor experiences for people during the Great Depression.

Protection for Grand Canyon
On July 20, Interior Secretary Ken Salazar announced the Grand Canyon would be off limits to new uranium mining claims and development of existing unpatented claims. Representative Raul Grijalva from Arizona has introduced a bill to make these protections permanent.

LA vows to be coal free
Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa has announced that Los Angeles intends to eliminate the use of coal by the city by 2020. Currently LA Power and Water generates 40% of its electric power from coal which it plans to replace with renewable energy.

The coal power currently used by Los Angeles comes almost entirely from two large power plants, the Intermountain Power Project in Utah and the Navajo plant in Arizona. The Navajo plant contributes significant air pollution to Grand Canyon National Park.

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