The Dry Garden: Bird baths
Posted on | October 3, 2009 | No Comments
Click for a larger image. A Cooper's hawk cools its feet in an inner city fountain. Photo: Emily Green
This being the height of migration season for Western songbirds, and conditions around Los Angeles being bone-dry or fire-scarred, here’s a proposal for even the driest of dry gardeners: Get out your hoses.
There is no better time to set up a birdbath. To keep reading The Dry Garden on bird baths, click here to be taken to the Los Angeles Times.
David Nahai out at LADWP
Posted on | October 2, 2009 | 1 Comment
The Los Angeles Times has the story of the sudden resignation of Los Angeles Department of Water and Power general manager David Nahai, which was announced in a morning statement from the Mayor’s office. LA Observed has the mayor’s statement and Nahai’s resignation letter. It is expected that stepping up as temporary replacement will be deputy mayor S. David Freeman. According to Freeman, Mayor Villaraigosa is interested in forming a coalition of urban mayors on water issues.
10/3/2009 UPDATE: for a follow-up story from the Times, click here.
10/7/2009 UPDATE: The Los Angeles Times has a scathing editorial on the political maneuvering behind Nahai’s dismissal. An excerpt: Nahai’s “lukewarm support for Measure B, a flawed initiative on the March ballot, attracted the ire of its architect — Brian D’Arcy, the head of the DWP’s powerful electricians union. A key aim of Measure B was to ensure that large-scale solar energy projects in L.A. would be owned by the DWP and thus built and maintained by union members. The initiative, which was defeated in March, was also heavily backed by Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, who receives generous contributions from D’Arcy’s union.” Click here for the full text.
10/9/2009 UPDATE: In the latest in a series of articles on the ousting of general manager David Nahai in favor of S. David Freeman, the Los Angeles Times editorial pages have an op-ed urging the appointment of a professional utilities manager. “Although both the unions and mayor have a different idea, Freeman needs to find a real leader for the nation’s largest city-run utility. Anything less will be politics as usual,” writes energy commentator Richard Nemec.
“Just get it done” – Expediency over extinction
Posted on | October 1, 2009 | 8 Comments
Tags: Arnold Schwarzenegger > chance of rain > Dianne Feinstein > Emily Green > Endangered Species Act
High good, low bad: Mead in September
Posted on | October 1, 2009 | No Comments
Fireworks over Hoover Dam in 2002 for the US Bureau of Reclamation centennial. Photo: USBR. The year of Reclamation's centennial was at the time the worst on record for snowmelt recharging the Colorado River. Fast shrinking reserves in Lake Mead behind Hoover Dam convinced quarreling states along the Colorado River that the days of surpluses were over and the Colorado River was headed into an epochal drought.
COMPLETION of Hoover Dam in 1936 created Lake Mead, the largest reservoir in the United States. It holds Colorado River water serving California, Arizona, Nevada and the Republic of Mexico. Climate change and population growth in Las Vegas, Phoenix, San Diego and Los Angeles have reduced the lake’s elevation more than 32 feet in the last five years. Here are year-on-year US Bureau of Reclamation closing elevations for September going back to 2004:
DATE ELEVATION
September 30, 2009: 1,093.72
September 30, 2008: 1,105.76
September 30, 2007: 1,111.06
September 30, 2006: 1,125.36
September 30, 2005: 1,138.36
September 30, 2004: 1,125.86
Guiberson fire burn scar
Posted on | September 30, 2009 | No Comments
Burn scar from the Guiberson Fire in Ventura County, California, September 26, 2009. Source: NASA. Click on the image to be taken to the original image with background text from the Earth Observatory.
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