Lay of the Land

San Gabriel Mountains National Monument -- The Wild Is Where You Find It

 

In a wise move, President Obama recently designated about 350,000 acres of the San Gabriel Mountains, east of Los Angeles, as our country’s newest national monument. It's a decision that came as the result of years of collaboration amongst a vibrant and diverse network of community leaders, a reflection of the many important roles the area's mountains and rivers play for local communities. One hundred and fifty years ago, Sierra Club founder John Muir explored the steep and picturesque peaks of the San Gabriel Mountains and marveled at their beauty.

The new San Gabriel Mountains National Monument affirms that protecting wild lands is still a popular endeavor for many Americans today. The wild is where you find it, whether that be an urban park or the vast wild spaces that make up much of our country's public lands. And no matter where it's found, the wild is worth protecting.

The San Gabriel mountains are a dramatic landmark in the Angeles and San Bernardino National Forests. These National Forests are within an hour's drive of more than 17 million people in Southern California, making them a popular and accessible outdoor recreation destination.The Angeles National Forest provides more than 70 percent of Los Angeles County's open space. Each year more than three million people visit the Angeles National Forest to be physically active and connect with nature. That's important for everyone, but especially for children in the San Gabriel Valley communities with few or no public parks. Park-poor communities in the San Gabriel Valley have child obesity rates of 30 to 40 percent, nearly twice the national average.

Yet for years this beautiful area has been underfunded and underserviced. A new national monument designation will improve visitor services with new bathrooms and trash cans, trail signs, and culturally-appropriate visitor information and education programs.

The San Gabriel Mountains also provide one-third of Los Angeles County's drinking water. Despite their proximity to Los Angeles, they provide homes for wildlife like Nelson's bighorn sheep, the California spotted owl and the San Gabriel mountain salamander. And they offer the chance for quiet recreation and communion with nature in its most pristine state.

Fifty years after the creation of the Wilderness Act it’s clear that protecting big, wild places has provided essential clean air, clean water, and healthy economies for hundreds of  communities across the country. Protecting nature close to where people live and work is becoming increasingly important. For most Americans, the bulk of our experience with nature is close to home. They're accessible places where we can unwind, connect with each other and with nature. It's here where many get a first taste of the need to protect our wild places and where others are reminded of the importance of our outdoors.

The new San Gabriel Mountains National Monument demonstrates the value in protecting both our outdoor "backyard," and our wild places further afield. As we look ahead to an increasingly hectic and developed future it's important that we all come together to protect nature both near and far, big and small. Thank you, President Obama!

-- Dan Chu, director of the Sierra Club Our Wild America campaign. Photos courtesy of Wikimedia creative commons.

Secrets of the Past in a Rugged Landscape

The archaeological case for protecting Greater Canyonlands

"Greater Canyonlands holds some of the most scientifically important cultural resources to be found anywhere in North America," says professional archaeologist and author Jerry D. Spangler. "To venture into this landscape - as anyone willing to tread lightly and respectfully can do - is to walk through time with wonder and awe, marveling at the secrets of our collective past."

Secrets of the Past in a Rugged Land: The archaeological case for protecting Greater Canyonlands takes the reader through 12,000 years of human history embedded in that landscape, offering highlights of the remarkable artifacts left behind by ancient inhabitants. The publication also outlines the numerous threats to this extraordinary region - from encroaching development and resource extraction to poorly regulated off-road vehicle use - and calls for monument designation to protect the area's cultural treasures.

Greater Canyonlands in southern Utah is not only one of the last great untouched frontiers of the American West. It is also a remarkably well-preserved library of almost 12,000 years of human history -- from Ice Age mammoth hunters, to ancient cliff dwellers, to infamous outlaws. Photo © Grant Collier.

The dry climate of Greater Canyonlands has preserved rare archaeological evidence of America's earliest hunters - called Paleoindians - who first occupied the area about 11,000 years ago, hunting mammoths with Clovis points. Photos by © Ray Bloxham, Public domain, NHMU.

Scores of alcoves in Greater Canyonlands contain ancient artifacts representing thousands of years of human history, including basketry, sandals, and figurines made by Archaic hunters and gatherers. Ghostly life-sized figures – characterizing some of the most elaborate and well preserved Archaic rock art in North America -- stare down at today's visitors from towering sandstone cliffs. Photos by © Jerry Spangler, Steve Manning, NHMU.

Intricately woven baskets and millions of pottery sherds, left behind by the "Basketmakers," offer insight into the fundamental shift from hunting and gathering to a more settled lifestyle of farming corn and squash that occurred throughout the American Southwest at about B.C. 500. Photos by © Ray Bloxham, Bruce Hucko.

Hundreds upon hundreds of rock walled ruins cling to cliffs and rest on mesa tops, reminders of the Ancestral Puebloan people who successfully farmed southern Greater Canyonlands until a series of prolonged droughts compelled them to abandon the area. To venture into this landscape – as anyone willing to tread respectfully can do – is to walk through time with wonder and awe. Photos by © Ray Bloxham, Bruce Hucko.

The distinctive rock art style of the Fremont people, who lived north of the Colorado River in Greater Canyonlands, continues to amaze modern visitors. Not yet studied in depth, Fremont sites offer unexplored storehouses of scientific information that could help explain how ancient farmers could grow corn, beans and squash in such an arid environment. Photos by © Scott T. Smith, NHMU.

Although Greater Canyonlands was largely abandoned by about 700 years ago, the region continues to hold deep spiritual significance to modern-day Native Americans.  Archaeological evidence supports the claim that some modern day tribes are direct descendents of the ancient ones who lived in Greater Canyonlands centuries before. Photos by © David Muench, World Monuments Fund.

Over the last 200 years, Greater Canyonlands attracted dreamers and schemers who sought to explore and exploit the land, including famed explorer John Wesley Powell and notorious outlaw Butch Cassidy.  But the rugged nature of the region ultimately defied efforts to tame or settle the land. Photos by © Scott Braden, Public Domain.

Today, encroaching dirty energy development, resource extraction and poorly regulated off-road vehicle use imperil Greater Canyonlands. Unless action is taken, the area's cultural treasures -- as well as its stunning scenery, exceptional recreational opportunities, and ecological health -- will only continue to be degraded and destroyed. The irreplaceable cultural treasures of Greater Canyonlands should be protected through presidential monument proclamation. Photos by © Ray Bloxham, Terri Martin, Heidi McIntosh.

Learn more about what this amazing area has to teach us in the full report, "Secrets of the Past in a Rugged Land: the archaeological case for protecting Greater Canyonlands." (PDF)

-- Dan Chu, director of the Sierra Club's Our Wild America campaign

Yosemite, You Rock!

October 1 is Yosemite National Park's 124th anniversary. World-renowned for its towering granite monoliths like Half Dome and El Capitan, its waterfalls -- including Yosemite Falls, North America's highest -- and the unique grandeur of Yosemite Valley, the park's establishment in was arguably the most notable conservation achievement in the career of Sierra Club founder John Muir, pictured above with President Theadore Roosevelt at Glacier Point.

Muir first visited Yosemite in 1868 and advocated tirelessly for the park's creation for the next two decades. In 1889, he took Century Magazine editor Robert Underwood Johnson to Tuolumne Meadows, in what was then the Yosemite Grant -- California's first state park, established in 1964 -- to show him how sheep grazing was damaging the land. Muir convinced Johnson that the area could only be saved if it was incorporated into a national park, and Johnson's subsequent publication of Muir's articles led to congressional action establishing the federally-administered Yosemite National Park in 1890. Muir founded the Sierra Club two years later.

Share the Happy Birthday card below far and wide!

Labor Day 2014: Preserving Labor’s Pullman Legacy

Labor Day marks not only the end of summer, but a momentous moment in our nation's history-- a moment that began at the Pullman Historic site in Chicago, Illinois.

Pullman was the nation's first planned industrial town, built around the Pullman Palace Car Company.  Known for the development of the sleeping car, the company operated during the U.S. railroad boom from the late 1800's to the early 1900's.

It was here that the members of the American Railway Union (ARU) launched a wildcat strike in 1894, provoked by reductions in poverty wage that pushed them ever deeper into debt to George Pullman, the “benevolent” overlord of the company town, who owned the workers’ homes and the stores where they purchased their daily needs.  ARU leader Eugene Debs initially opposed the strike. However, after seeing the abysmal conditions in the company town first hand, Debs resolved “to do everything in my power that was within law and within justice to right the wrongs of those employees."

After the union decided to support the strike, Pullman received a sweeping court injunction against the ARU. The next day President Cleveland ordered 20,000 federal troops to crush the strike and run the railways. Debs and ten other ARU leaders were arrested and convicted for conspiracy to halt the free flow of mail. The strike was violently crushed while Debs and the rest of the union leaders were sitting in jail.  In the wake of the strike Congress honored the slain workers by designating Labor Day as a national holiday.

Wilderness Wednesday: Warriors and Film in the North Cascades

A group of intrepid veterans, now aspiring filmmakers, recently embarked on an expedition into the wilderness of Washington's North Cascades National Park for the 2014 Sierra Club Military Outdoors Adventure Film School. Months of planning, training, and pre-production, followed by six days in the mountains summiting Sahale Peak, Shark Fin Tower, and the Aquirre resulted in some amazing experiences, and truly inspirational films.

Watch their moving films and learn more about trip.

Time to Create an ECHO Across America: Every Child Healthy Outdoors

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has just released the 2014 State Indicator Report on Physical Activity, and it’s bleak. The state by state analysis is a stark reminder that most kids in America are not getting enough physical activity.

According to the report, only 27.1% of youth in the United States are meeting the national physical aerobic activity guidelines, which call for 60 minutes of moderate- or vigorous- intensity physical activity daily. In some states, like Texas, less than one-fifth of young people are meeting these guidelines.

Unfortunately, these numbers are less surprising when coupled with the fact that most Americans simply do not live within walking distance of a park. According to the state by state report, only 39.2% of the U.S. population lives within a half mile of a park. If you want to see how your city fares on park access, look no further than the Trust for Public Land’s Park Score, which ranks cities on park acreage, access, investments and other metrics. The proximity and safety of parks are increasingly being recognized as a contributing factor to the overall health of a community, yet many of our children don't have basic neighborhood access.

A Haven for Ancient Turtles

"This stretch of beach is where Leatherback turtles lay their eggs, and the other stretch of beach is where Hawksbill turtles lay eggs," our local volunteer Ricardo pointed out to us as we stood on the wide sandy beach northeast of Luquillo, Puerto Rico.  This is the Northeastern Ecological Corridor, eight miles of beach and over 2,000 acres of forest, critical to the survival of leatherback and hawksbill turtles.
 
Leatherback turtles are an ancient species that have been in our oceans for over 50 million years.  Adults can be eight feet long and weigh 2,000 pounds. They are deep sea divers and have a flexible "leather" shell that withstands the crushing pressure of water thousands of feet underwater as they pursue jellyfish and other deep sea delicacies. Annually, female leatherbacks labor onto Puerto Rico's beaches to lay up to one hundred eggs some three feet under the sand. Sixty to seventy days later, baby leatherbacks emerge from the sand at night and make their way down the beach into the ocean.  

Unfortunately, over the last 30 years, leatherback populations worldwide have declined from an estimated 115,000 nesting females in 1980, to 35,000 today. In addition to the loss of beach habitat, ingestion of floating plastic bags, which look like jellyfish, is a likely factor in this decline. Light pollution from homes and resorts by nesting beaches can disorient turtles that rely on stars for navigation.

My family was extremely lucky to actually see a leatherback turtle hatch. We were on an evening walk on the beach and noticed in the distance two baby turtles making their way towards the sea!  We ran over to a nest where eventually fourteen emerged. The joy of seeing this gave my wife and I one of the greatest highlights of the trip, watching our daughter and son hugging each other, overwhelmed with the happiness and wonder of seeing such an ancient and hopeful sight.

A stunning beach with turquoise waters, wide sandy beach and breathtaking vistas, the Northeastern Ecological Corridor Reserve attracts not only turtles, but also investors with dreams of exclusive resorts. This area has for years been under threat of development due to its raw beauty. Fortunately a coalition of turtle advocates, community leaders, and biologists came together to form a grassroots coalition to protect the Ecological Corridor. Sierra Club volunteers, such as Cristobal, Alberto and Ricardo lead outings to educate and build community support for protecting this area in its natural state.

The dedication and hard work of local Puerto Rican community leaders and Sierra Club staff and volunteers paid off and last year the Corridor became a nature preserve. Yet much remains to be done.  The 2,000 acres of the Corridor is a patchwork of public and private lands. The government has eight years to put together land deals and management plans to realize the intent of a protected nature preserve, or it could revert back to unprotected status. The Sierra Club is committed to continuing to build community support and government commitment to create a nature preserve that balances public access with turtle conservation and economic growth for surrounding communities.

Seeing those baby leatherbacks struggle down the beach instilled in me an enormous sense of responsibility and hope -- responsibility to continue the 50 million year legacy of survival for leatherbacks, and hope from the deep commitment of many Puerto Ricans to protecting their natural heritage.

-- Dan Chu, Our Wild America director. Photo by Dan Chu of the turtles he and his family saw hatching.

Wilderness Forward

This year marks the 50th anniversary of the Wilderness Act, one of our country's greatest tools for protecting America's wild places. Signed into law on September 3, 1964 by President Lyndon B. Johnson, the Wilderness Act established the National Wilderness Preservation System and set aside an initial nine million acres of wild lands for the use and enjoyment of the American people.

Over the past 50 years, and as a result of America's support for wilderness, Congress has added nearly 100 million more acres to this unique land preservation system - in 44 out of 50 states and Puerto Rico.    

The 1964 Wilderness Act defines "Wilderness" as areas "where the earth and its community of life...appear to have been affected primarily by the forces of nature, with the imprint of man's work substantially unnoticeable..."

Today, this original idea of wilderness is as salient as ever. Wild lands and natural systems filter the air we breathe and the water we drink; they generate fertile soils, control pests that destroy crops, provide habitat for wildlife, sequester carbon pollution and control floods. They also contribute to the multi-billion dollar outdoor recreation economy and provide important opportunities for people from all backgrounds to connect with nature. In today's busy world, protected wild places provide solace and peace.

As Sierra Club Executive Director Michael Brune embarks on a family summer road trip this week through wild places in the Pacific Northwest (follow along right here!), he'll get to experience some of these scenic wild places first hand -- though with three kids the solace and peace may be harder to find. Thanks to the enduring legacy of the Wilderness Act his family, and countless others, will hike, camp and enjoy spending time together away from it all in our great outdoors.  

There remains an urgent need to safeguard places "untrammeled by man, where man himself is a visitor who does not remain." But as we look to the next 50 years of protecting our wild places the idea of wilderness must also grow and evolve.

Mounting threats, from climate disruption, dirty fuel extraction, and an increasing disconnect between Americans and the outdoors, make it necessary to expand our thinking about protecting special places. In the coming years, our country's leaders must prioritize protecting  local parks and nature closer to home,  national monuments and new formally designated Wilderness areas. All of these areas play a critical role in the future of America's natural heritage.

My first Wilderness experience was as a Boy Scout in California. Spending four days on a Wilderness backpacking trip in the Klamath Mountains at the age of 13 changed my life forever and put me on a path to be a conservationist. The art of survival during those days in the wild also built a sense of confidence that I could take on seemly insurmountable challenges and prevail.

Wilderness is a living legacy. For it to continue to thrive, it's time to recognize that wild is where you find it. We need to increase opportunities for all Americans to explore the country's wild places, whether on a family road trip like the Brunes or an afternoon picnic at the neighborhood park. Once someone has experienced the power of the great outdoors, near or far, it's hard not to be moved to protect and defend it.

-- Dan Chu, Sierra Club Our Wild America director

Kick Nature-Deficit Disorder to the Curb: Celebrating Great Outdoors Month

Just for kicks, I googled fear of outside this morning. My search turned up 187 million results. For comparison's sake, I then googled fear of death and fear of the unknown, fears I thought were fairly common. To my surprise, there were only 84.7 and 73.5 million hits, respectively, and when combined, still fewer results than my first search. While the findings of my quick internet inquiry will probably never hit the annals of any reputable science journal, there is a growing body of evidence that America is becoming increasingly sedentary and spending a lot of time indoors (you can find the facts on the Children & Nature Network's site).

June is Great Outdoors Month, and there is no better time to kick Nature-Deficit Disorder to the curb. So, let me share ten ways to get outside and celebrate the outdoors this month.

Obama's Gift to Us in the Land of Enchantment

On Wednesday, May 21, President Obama gave a gift to all Americans, proclaiming nearly 500,000 acres of the Organ Mountains- Desert Peaks range as our nation's newest national monument.  Home to wildlife, cultural and historical treasures, the Organ Mountains tower 9,000 feet tall just east of the southern New Mexico town of Las Cruces.  This unique natural treasure is now permanently protected thanks to more than ten years of hard work by the people of Las Cruces joining with groups such as the Sierra Club.

Last Friday, I joined the Las Cruces community to host Secretary of the Interior Sally Jewell on a high school field with the Organ Mountains as a backdrop. I was struck by the great diversity of supporters in the crowd of over 700. Tribal and religious leaders, local business owners, ranchers, farmers, hunters, backcountry horsemen, Sierra Club volunteers, elected officials, local artists…this is the embodiment of land conservation in the twenty-first century.

Our public lands get protected when people are brought together by their common love for a place that embodies their community's pride and identity. State and federal public servants are valuable partners in a common cause to steward our lands, water, and wildlife. Creating strong community-based efforts to protect special places makes old land-use conflicts melt away.

The President has now designated eleven new national monuments, totaling over 750,000 acres of priceless historic, cultural and ecological treasures. Over the remainder of his Presidency, he can designate another four million acres of our nation's most breathtaking landscapes as national monuments.  Places such as the Boulder White Clouds in Northern Idaho, Berryessa-Snow Mountain in Northern California, and public lands surrounding Canyonlands and Grand Canyon National Parks in Utah and Arizona. Each of these places has strong support by diverse coalitions of community leaders and is ready for new monument designations.

Our national monuments, national parks, wilderness, and other federally-protected public lands are places where we come together as a nation, to share experiences, forge new friendships, and reaffirm our connection to the great outdoors.  President Obama couldn't have said it any better when he signed the proclamation for the Organ Mountains-Desert Peaks National Monument, "I have protected millions of acres of public lands…and I am not done yet!" 

TAKE ACTION: Join me in thanking President Obama and Secretary Jewell!

-- Dan Chu, director of the Sierra Club Our Wild America campaign