2. Circumvent those phone trees, speak to a human
3. Potential catastrophes hiding in plain sight
4. The dollar value of insects, understated
5. Chinook salmon return to Guadalupe River!
6. South San Francisco weed warriors Nov 25 & 26
7. Feedback: These newsletters truncated by yahoo
8. Stanford should practice what it preaches: Searsville Dam
9. Save the date: Alameda Watershed Habitat Conservation Plan
10. Apple isn't saying much about its Chinese suppliers
11. SaveNature.org Holiday Gifts for Everyone
12. Feel like a pumpkin, and not want anything more; Willa Cather
13. Joseph Campbell observations
14. A Word A Day: yob
15. Borders separating the US's 50 states are idiosyncratic, arbitrary, outmoded
16. All My Body Calls, David Whyte
17. John Cage's blessings: industries halted, business discontinued, people speechless...
18. Astounding feat of the brave blackpoll warbler
19. Our daily moment of Zen
1. Native Plant Nursery Internship - San Francisco/Brisbane, CA. San Bruno Mountain Watch.
San Bruno Mountain Watch’s Mission Blue native Plant Nursery is seeking a motivated individual to work in a community-based, habitat restoration program restoring the biodiversity of San Bruno Mountain. San Bruno Mountain is a unique island of biodiversity in the heart of the San Francisco Bay Area. This ecological treasure is home to several endangered species, dozens of rare plants, year-round springs, ancient native oak groves, and 5,000 year-old Native American village sites. San Bruno Mountain is the last significant, viable remnant of the Franciscan ecosystem that once covered San Francisco. The regional importance of the mountain’s high biodiversity, lead renowned Harvard Biologist E. O. Wilson to list San Bruno Mountain as one of 18 biodiversity hotspots in need of preservation.
The nursery intern will assist with native plant seed collection and propagation as well as overall nursery management and maintenance. He/she will also assist in Wednesday morning community volunteer workdays at the nursery as well as Saturday habitat restoration community workdays on San Bruno Mountain. The intern will gain valuable experience in developing and running volunteer programs, native plant propagation and nursery operations. Previous knowledge of California natives and/or propagation techniques is ideal but not necessary. Nursery intern will learn California native plant identification and propagation. Compensation: $100/week stipend, and personalized training and marketable work experience. Final \
Application Filing Date (December 10, 2011). The Native Plant Nursery internship is a part time (20 hours/week), six month long position (January –June). For questions and/or to apply for this position, please send a resume and cover letter to Joe Cannon at restore_ecology@earthlink.net .
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2. Circumvent those phone trees
Ever wonder how to circumvent those seemingly endless phone trees, when all you really want to do is talk to a real live human?
Go here and you can learn the codes to skip those phone trees and get directly to a person.
<http://gethuman.com/>http://gethuman.com/
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3. “Not every (environmental) problem of consequence comes with a Bhopal-style wake-up call. Global warming and species extinction are examples of potential catastrophes that are hiding in plain sight....”
New York Times 20 August 2002
Ecology and Political Upheaval
Small changes in climate can cause wars, topple governments and crush economies already strained by poverty, corruption and ethnic conflict. By Jeffrey D. Sachs
Careful study of the long-term climate record has shown that even a minor shock to the system can cause an enormous change in outcome, a nonlinear response...Less well recognized is that our social and economic systems are also highly sensitive to climate perturbations. Seemingly modest fluctuations can create havoc in vulnerable societies.
Recent years have shown that shifts in rainfall can bring down governments and even set off wars. (Examples of African Sahel, Darfur &c omitted)...
...Climate skeptics who ask impatiently why we should care about "a degree or two" increase in the global mean temperature understand neither the climate nor the social and economic systems in which we live. Both climate and society are subject to great instability, nonlinear responses and high unpredictability.
...Once we recognize the ecological risks to our economic well-being and even to our national security, we will begin to look much harder for practical approaches to mitigating the pressures that our global society is now placing on the earth's ecosystems. We will then need to increase our preparations for the intensified shocks that are surely on their way.
Excerpted from Scientific American July 2006
The world has gone mad today
And good's bad today,
And black's white today,
And day's night today
Cole Porter
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4. Data points: Save the insects
Dell Computer had $56 billion in sales during its last fiscal year. That amount, however, is less--by a billion--than the estimate of the value that bees, dung beetles, and other insects bring every year to the U.S. economy. Cornell University entomologist Jon E. Losey and Mace Vaughan of the Xerces Society for Invertebrate Conservation in Portland, Ore, made the first ever estimate of "services" provided by wild insects in a study that appeared in the April issue of the journal Bioscience--one that the authors acknowledge is "very conservative"--only a small fraction of the actual benefits furnished by creatures considered by many to be mere pests. Without insects, the authors note, human life on earth would eventually be extinguished.
Value of crop production from pollination by native insects: $3 billion
Crop losses averted by beneficial insects from predation or parasitism of agricultural pests: $4.5 bn
Percent of native pests controlled by other insects: 65
Economic losses averted every year by burial of livestock waste by dung beetles: $380 million
Amount spent for hunting, fishing and observing wildlife that relies on insects as a food resource: $50 bn
Number of North American bird species that are primarily insectivores: 395
Source: BioScience, April 2006, reprinted in Scientific American July 2006
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5. Hey Jake, Bob Hall here.
I just saw this post on the Gardening with Natives, Santa Clara site. King salmon are spawning in San Jose for the first time since 2006. Here's the post and video (from Richard Lanman):
We thought they were wiped out by concretization of the Guadalupe River which made it nigh impossible for Chinook to spawn, but they have returned after a five year hiatus, the apparent offspring of the Chinook last seen in 2006. Until the late 1990's the run was up to about 1,000 salmon until decimated by the fish passage barrier.
Here's video footage http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SNMrODZ_Hgk
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6. South San Francisco Weed Warriors
Need an antidote for your Thanksgiving feast?
Join the SSF Weed Warriors for fresh air and exercise - and help us weed on the south slope of San Bruno Mountain. The south slope has large areas of grasslands that are critical to our resident butterflies.
The workday schedule has changed. Workdays are now on the 4th Friday and the 4th Saturday of each month - so there are opportunities for those who would prefer a weekend workday. You're welcome on either day, or come both days - even better!
• gloves provided
• wear long pants and layers
• wear sturdy shoes
• bring water
Check out the San Bruno Mountain Watch website for all volunteer opportunities in our Stewardship Programs and Upcoming Events
Nov. 25th & 26th - Friday & Saturday - 9am to noon
Contact leaders:
lorettaandchuck (at) sbcglobal.net
or call SBMW office at: 415-467-6631
Meet behind the Mills Montessori School at 1400 Hillside Blvd in SSF View Google Map
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7. Feedback
On Nov 17, 2011, at 11:50 PM, Denise Louie wrote:
I just noticed your Tuesday email was truncated by Yahoo!, as was this one. I hope your readers are aware that Yahoo! does this and will look for the button to read your entire email!
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8. Stanford University’s “Water in the West Program” recently held a workshop , California Water Data Workshop, to promote “moving California toward more sustainable water systems”.
The “Water in the West Working Paper 2. May 2011” states:
“The state of information about water in California is woefully inadequate. Given that California has long been a center for innovation in the world’s emerging information economy and water is among the state’s most precious resources, this is nothing short of shocking. What we have here is not just a failure to communicate. It is a failure to gather, make available, analyze, communicate, and use information to sustainably manage our water systems in California.”
Beyond Searsville Dam and our dozens of supporting groups and businesses, and thousands of supporters, hope this program yields positive results. However, Stanford continues to operate one of the West’s most antiquated and environmentally destructive dams (Searsville) and private water supply systems.
The antiquated, 120 year old dam Searsville Dam and Reservoir is nearly full of sediment, has multiple cracks in it, sits adjacent to the San Andreas Fault, blocks one of the SF Bay's last wild and threatened steelhead trout runs, has no dedicated bypass flow measures for downstream wildlife, frequently dewaters the creek downstream, harbors and spreads non-native species, destroyed miles of riparian forest and natural wetland ponds, degrades water quality, and provides no potable water, no flood control capabilities, no hydro power, and it a liability to downstream communities.
We are reminded of a quote from one of our Beyond Searsville Dam advisors Yvon Chouinard, environmental leader and owner of the clothing company Patagonia Inc.
“Stanford has one of the most important dam-removal and ecosystem-restoration opportunities in the country, and can position itself as a leader in environmental stewardship and make huge progress in achieving its stated goal of being a more sustainable campus. Stanford has got to clean up their own backyard before people will take their sustainability and environmental message seriously. You are what you do, not what you say.”
We all hope that Stanford will do what they say.
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9. 12/8/11 HOLD THE DATE! UPCOMING PUBLIC MEETING
San Francisco Public Utilities Commission (SFPUC)
Alameda Watershed Habitat Conservation Plan (AWHCP)
When: Thursday, December 8, 2011
6:30 p.m. to 8:00 p.m.
6:30 p.m. Informational Open House
7:00 p.m. Presentation followed by a question and answer session
Where: Dublin Public Library Community Room
200 Civic Plaza, Dublin CA
Meeting Purpose:
Provide an update on the status of the SFPUC AWHCP plus Chapter 4 (Impact Analysis) and Chapter 5 (Conservation Strategy)
Meeting Agenda:
Update on the SFPUC AWHCP
Impact Analysis Methods for Non-fish Covered Species
Conservation Strategy for Nonfish Covered Species
Overview of Fish in the AWHCP and Integration with other Processes
Next Steps
Q and A
Check your mailbox for the SFPUC AWHCP Newsletter, or visit sfwater.org, click on 'Environment' and 'Plans and Policies.'
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10. NPR's Marketplace
Jeremy Hobson: Well we all know how secretive Apple likes to be. But this week, that's causing problems for the company in China, where environmental groups have accused Apple suppliers of major pollution violations. Apple has hired an outside company to look into those charges.
But as Marketplace's Rob Schmitz reports from Shanghai, the company isn't saying much.
http://www.marketplace.org/topics/sustainability/apple-stays-quiet-environmental-concerns-china
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11. SaveNature.org HOLIDAY GIFTS FOR EVERYONE
Can't decide what to give this year? For friends who have all the socks and ties they'll ever need, we have the perfect gift.
Everyone loves the color and it's always the perfect size - Adopt an Acre of precious Rainforest, colorful Coral Reef or spectacular African desert habitat in their name to protect nature for future generations through our Adopt an Acre or Adopt a Reef programs. Your gift will ensure the survival of millions of species of animals and plants.
You can also get See's fancy chocolates, a nature print or box of nature cards to give along with your personalized Adopt an Acre Deed here. Everyone loves chocolate!
ADOPT AN ACRE IN YOUR NAME
Donations requests are popular gifts for people who have enough already or who care about the environment.
Send an email with link www.savenature.org to your friends and coworkers to Adopt an Acre in your name in lieu of a conventional gift this year.
SPECIAL HOLIDAY DEAL
$25= 1/4 acre personalized rainforest/reef deed & gift card
$50= 1/4 acre personalized gift rainforest/reef deed, gift card & a box of assorted nature cards or chocolates
$60= 1/4 acre personalized gift rainforest/reef deed, gift card & a beautiful beetle or reef fish 8.5x11 print from Lucy Arnold. Prints come with a species identification card. Click images below for detail.
For custom orders, please call 415-648-3392 or email info (at) savenature.org.
For more info and payment with Google Checkout, click here.
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12. Willa Cather, from My Antonia:
There in the sheltered draw-bottom the wind did not blow very hard, but I could hear it singing its humming tune up on the level, and I could see the tall grasses wave. The earth was warm under me, and warm as I crumbled it through my fingers. Queer little red bugs came out and moved in slow squadrons around me. Their backs were polished vermilion, with black spots. I kept as still as I could. Nothing happened. I did not expect anything to happen. I was something that lay under the sun and felt it, like the pumpkins, and I did not want to be anything more. I was entirely happy. Perhaps we feel like that when we die and become a part of something entire, whether it is sun and air, or goodness and knowledge. At any rate, that is happiness; to be dissolved into something complete and great. When it comes to one, it comes as naturally as sleep.
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13. (Joseph Campbell?):
God is a metaphor for all the mysteries of being and non-being.
Theists believe metaphors are facts. Those who don't are atheists.
Schopenhauer: Life is something which should not have been.
There is no conflict between religion and science. Religion must accept the science of the day and penetrate its mystery.
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14. A Word A Day: yob
MEANING:
noun: A rude, rowdy youth.
ETYMOLOGY:
Coined by reversing the spelling of the word boy. Earliest documented use: 1859.
NOTES:
There are not a lot of words in the English language that are coined from the backward spelling of another word. Another example is mho, the unit of electrical conductance, coined by reversing ohm, the unit of resistance. Fiction writers sometimes come up with names for their characters by spelling another name or word backwards.
USAGE:
"Like a yob who starts a fight in a pub by saying you have spilled his pint, the Russians offered pretexts that both parties knew were ludicrous."
A.D. Miller; A First-Hand Account of Life in Modern Russia; The Guardian (London, UK); Oct 21, 2011.
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15. GUEST BLOG: Redrawing the United States of America
http://links.email.scientificamerican.com/ctt?kn=56&ms=Mzc0Mzg5NTYS1&r=NTM5NzIzNTA1NgS2&b=2&j=MTE5NTI1NjYxS0&mt=1&rt=0
(excerpt)
...The borders separating the United States’ 50 states are perfectly idiosyncratic, outmoded, even arbitrary. Obvious examples of their obsolescence abound: The New York metropolitan area has grown to encompass counties in four states. Kansas City is really two different municipalities divided by the Missouri-Kansas border. Chicago’s Metra commuter rail stretches into neighboring Wisconsin, just as Washington, D.C.’s Metro trains and buses collect riders from Maryland and Virginia.
New Jersey has two large cities: Philadelphia and New York
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16.
All My Body Calls
All my body calls
for something in this sleeping
earth
we call the spirit.
But how
from lifted arms
where stars run through fingers
and the night is like sand
do I breathe a fragrance of its wisdom
do I call its name
or listen to the drops
that trickle down to earth
and hear
life being given
not only through the moving hands of the forest
but through the hand that reaches in
the dark unmoving regions of the chest
and uncovers slowly
the enormous
indistinct
shape of the ocean.
~ David Whyte ~
(Songs for Coming Home)
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17.
My words of wisdom for the day come from John Cage via the NYker article by Ross, which I found fascinating. Even though I never could really connect with his music, I always thought he was a truly remarkable person. In 1928 he wrote:
"One of the greatest blessings that the United States could receive in the near future would be to have her industries halted, her business discontinued, her people speechless, a great pause in her world affairs. . .. We should be hushed and silent, and we should have the opportunity to learn what other people think."
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18.
A 4.5-inch-long handfull of bone and feathers called a blackpoll warbler can triple its body mass in just one week while preparing for migration. The fat it stores will power it through a nonstop flight halfway across the Atlantic Ocean as it makes the epic migration flight from northern Manitoba to winter quarters in the Brazilian Amazon.
Aiding songbirds in their quest for calories is an amazingly cooperative digestive system. Researchers have found that birds preparing to migrate literally grow bigger guts than at other times of the year. The extra alimentary space helps birds process far more calories than usual.
Once a bird embarks on its journey, however, that giant gut becomes a liability. The same digestive organs so critical for amassing fat are also the most expensive to maintain. But birds have found a way around this as well. When white-throated sparrows were prevented from eating for several days during migration, the birds’ innards literally shrank. Yellow-rumped warblers accidentally killed in mid-migration were found to have the smallest digestive organs ever seen in the species. Fasting while flying hard signals bird guts to atrophy and frees up more energy for flight. Birds likely recycle protein liberated from the gut to repair and maintain hardworking flight muscles.
But shrunken guts can’t hold much food, either. This can pose a problem for birds counting on meals at rest stops. ‘Birds caught in nets within 24 hours or so of first landing at stopover site don’t seem to gain much weight. This was puzzling; they should be packing it on.’ After fasting captive birds for several days and then allowing them to feed at will, birds can enlarge their digestive organs within a matter of hours to take advantage of a stopover smorgasbord.
Condensed from 'Fit and Fat' by Kathleen Wong, California Wild Fall 2003
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19. OUR DAILY MOMENT OF ZEN
1. Do not walk behind me, for I may not lead; Do not walk ahead of me, for I may not follow; Do no walk beside me, either. Just leave me the hell alone.
2. The journey of a thousand miles begins with a broken fan belt and a leaky tire.
3. It's always darkest before dawn. So if you're going to steal your neighbor's newspaper, that's the time to do it.
4. Sex is like air. It's not important unless you aren't getting any.
5. No one is listening until you make a mistake.
6. Never test the depth of the water with both feet.
7. It may be that your sole purpose in life is simply to serve as a warning to others.
8. If you think nobody cares if you'r alive, try missing a couple of car payments.
9. Before you criticize someone you should walk a mile in his shoes That way, when you criticize him you're a mile away and you have his shoes.
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