California

  • Tea Party ruins big agreement to restore the Klamath River and settle long term nasty dispute

    Ralph Maughan

    Agreement ending 100 years of fighting over the uses of the Klamath River’s waters falls to a group of local malcontents- After many years of fighting over salmon, dams, irrigation water, tribal treaty rights and ocean fishing matters came to an unpleasant head in 2001-2 when VP Dick Cheney sided with irrigators and let 70,000…

  • Very unusual story about a bear saving a man from a mountain lion attack

    Ken Cole

    While on a hike in northern California, Robert Biggs stopped to watch a bear and her cubs.  He was suddenly attacked from behind by a mountain lion and the sow black bear came to his rescue. Bear Saves Robert Biggs From Mountain Lion Attack In California. The Huffington Post

  • Luckless mating season is over. “Journey” OR(7) returns to Oregon from California

    Ralph Maughan

    Famous wolf’s inability to find a mate in California is not surprising- The West’s currently best known wolf, named “Journey” in a contest held by conservation groups, did not find a mate in California. Now mating season is over. The wolf, officially OR(7), has returned to SW Oregon, although his lack of a mate is…

  • Assessing the Regulatory Landscape for Greater Sage-grouse

    Brian Ertz

    The effort to list the Greater Sage-grouse via the Endangered Species Act (ESA) has been an uphill battle.  However, even as the end-game has yet to be realized, the effort itself has been remarkably successful at prompting bureaucratic backflips and a whole lot of paper-shuffling to accommodate consideration of the species.  Unfortunately, many of the existing and developing…

  • California energy company does right thing for birds and abandons plans for wind farm

    Ralph Maughan

    Pattern Energy Group will not build 2000 acre wind farm near Sacramento- Plans for a 2000 acre (3 1/2 square mile) wind farm NW of Sacramento have been scrapped because of its probable bad effects on the local bird population.  The wind farm, which would capture enough energy for 100 megawatts of electricity had not…

  • Developing the Carrizo Plain

    Brian Ertz

    Another Solar Development, Another Lost Landscape ? Chris Clarke gives a remarkable account of another landscape that has found its way into the cross-hairs of Solar Developers and Big Green, and of the locals’ abiding love for the land: Solar Energy Development in the Carrizo Plain Draws Lawsuits – KCET – The Back Forty It’s…

  • Ivanpah solar project would disturb thousands of desert tortoises

    Brian Ertz

    The Ivanpah solar thermal project consists of 5.4 square miles of high quality habitat for the Endangered Species Act protected desert tortoise, a fact that developers (and some investors) underestimated resulting in the temporary suspension of activities on phases 2 and 3 of the project site due to construction activities exceeding the incidental take limit…

  • Google Invests $168 Million In Ivanpah Solar Thermal Plant

    Brian Ertz

    Project already blading Mojave desert habitat Google announces its private investment in Brightsource Energy, the proponent of the controversial Ivanpah Solar Thermal Project: Google Solar Project: Google Invests $168 Million In Mojave Power Plant – Huffington Post The commitment announced Monday is part of the financing that BrightSource Energy needs to build a solar power…

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‎”At some point we must draw a line across the ground of our home and our being, drive a spear into the land and say to the bulldozers, earthmovers, government and corporations, “thus far and no further.” If we do not, we shall later feel, instead of pride, the regret of Thoreau, that good but overly-bookish man, who wrote, near the end of his life, “If I repent of anything it is likely to be my good behaviour.”

Edward Abbey

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