I think I’m in love
Posted on | January 27, 2010 | No Comments
It could be that the Department of Interior’s new website would appear merely well done if Monday afternoon hadn’t been spent at a Congressional field hearing listening to Central Valley Rep Tom McClintock lie, lie and lie some more about how the federal government is failing his region for the “enjoyment and amusement” of a fish. There might be a more shameless man in politics, whatever the party, but it doesn’t bear thinking about. Instead, quaint as it might sound, to find out what is actually happening, click here for Interior’s Interim Federal Action Plan for the California Bay-Delta. If you missed it the first time, it’s because it was published two days before Christmas.
For a report from hydrogeologist Michael Campana on the proceedings this week inside the National Academy of Sciences committee gathered at the behest of Senator Dianne Feinstein, click here. The committee was convened to review the Interior and Commerce Department biological opinions that under the Endangered Species Act have led to reductions in water exports from the Bay-Delta to the Central Valley and Southern California. For previous coverage from this site, click here. For a full round-up of press coverage, go to Aquafornia.
Update: Thanks to Doug Obegi from the NRDC Switchboard for pointing out Matt Weiser’s report in the Sacramento Bee on the NAS hearings. It is a must-read for those interested in the dark art of lobbying. No mention of this would be complete without complimenting On the public record, which first spotted the antecedents of one of the groups now lobbying the NAS committee and mentioned by the Bee. It turns out that “Coalition for a Sustainable Delta,” is the invention of the PR firm “The Dolphin Group.” Additionally, the Bee reports that most of the coalition’s officers “work for Paramount Farms, the San Joaquin Valley farming enterprise owned by billionaire Stewart Resnick. It was Resnick who asked Sen Dianne Feinstein to request the Academy review.”
This post has been repeatedly updated. Image: 1894 Laughable Lyrics: A Fourth Book of Nonsense Poems, Songs, Botany, Music, etc. by Edward Lear. Source: Zorger.com
Keep it civil
Posted on | January 26, 2010 | 4 Comments
I’ll try. The easiest way to accomplish that when describing yesterday’s Los Angeles field hearing of the US House Sub-Committee on Water and Power is to thank the chair, Congresswoman Grace Napolitano, who proved a model of efficiency and civility.
From there, it gets difficult.
Click here to keep reading, plus an update from Interior with news of more water for the Central Valley
The week that was, 1/17-23/2010
Posted on | January 24, 2010 | 1 Comment
Huila, Angola. A boy jumps into a pool below a waterfall. Photo: Finbarr O'Reilly / Reuters. Click on the image to be taken to the original from The Guardian's "24-Hours in Pictures."
… “this slick and fluted glitter, / slightly / arcing, rebraiding itself as it falls, // as for tangible / seconds it’s a thin/ taut string of surface tension // that my hand feels, on the handle, / as a pulse, a pull, / a thing // in space, that lives in this world” — excerpt from “Pour,” a poem from The Water Table by Philip Gross, winner of the TS Eliot Prize for Poetry, reviewed by the Guardian, January 23, 2010
Click here to keep reading The week that was
The Dry Garden: Native mallows
Posted on | January 23, 2010 | No Comments
Few plants better connote the sheer luxuriance of the California dream as hibiscus. It comes from a clan of plants known as mallows native to the tropics, where, University of Texas botanist Paul A. Fryxell says, this family finds its “greatest richness.”
Fryxell is an authority on mallows, a family that he says has more than 100 genera with cousins around the world, capable of tolerating situations as diverse as the high climes of the Andes, hot and dry Palm Desert and the mediterranean climate of coastal California.
Talk to Fryxell and it soon becomes clear why hibiscuses in Southern California needn’t be a guilty pleasure, even though they’re tropical. Thanks to their robust root systems, many can go with only occasional deep watering during dry season. Once established, they are happiest when treated like trees.
For Californians, he also points to our native mallows. Those who haven’t expanded from hibiscus to native globe mallow (Sphaeralcea), bush mallow (Abutilon), chaparral mallow (Malacothamnus) or tree mallow (Lavatera) have a heady pleasure before them. No plants do a better job of bringing almost year-round pointillist beauty to a garden landscape. To keep reading on native mallows in the The Dry Garden, click here to be taken to the Los Angeles Times.
Or if you are seeing lots of intriguing mushrooms in your garden after the rain, click here for a description of common fungi from the Southland’s foremost mycologist Florence Hendler. To find out about Hendler’s upcoming course on fungi identification, click here for the California Native Plant Society, Los Angeles and Santa Monica Mountain Chapter and scroll down for details to the left of the screen. Or for the Mushroom Fair of the Los Angeles Mycological Society hosted by the Los Angeles County Arboretum and Botanic Garden, click here.
To everyone venturing out after a splendid week of rain, happy gardening.
Questions, anyone?
Posted on | January 22, 2010 | 3 Comments
The House Natural Resources Committee, Subcommittee on Water and Power, led by Rep Grace Napolitano, will hold a public meeting Monday, January 25, 2010, at 1:00 pm at the offices of the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California, 700 N. Alameda Street, Los Angeles, CA 90012.
The theme is “Perspectives on California’s Water Supply: Challenges and Opportunities” and, to the Rep’s credit, there will be a whole lot of perspective in the house. Among the panelists will be the Commissioner of the federal Bureau of Reclamation Michael Connor, California Assembly Member Anna Caballero, director of the California Department of Water Resources Lester Snow, MWD General Manager Jeffrey Kightlinger, Imperial Irrigation District General Manager Brian Brady, San Diego County Water Authority General Manager Maureen Stapleton, Coachella Valley Water District Assistant General Manager Dan Parks, Pacific Institute president Peter Gleick, UC Irvine earth sciences professor Jay Famiglietti, Urban Semillas executive director Miguel Luna, Pacific Coast Federation of Fishermen’s Associations vice president Larry Collins, Central Valley agricultural business owner Joe Del Bosque and Orange County Business Council president Lucy Dunn.
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