Badlands Journal
Social, Economic, and Environmental Justice
This is an excellent review of a book on a very important topic. How government resource agency biologists choose to look at their work -- as conservation vocation or as agency career -- does determine, daily, how the war to conserve and protect the environment and the laws enacted to conserve and protect it is conducted.
Given the money at stake, it's highly suspicious that U.S. Reps. Richard Pombo, R-Tracy, and Dennis Cardoza, D-Merced, and other lawmakers are urging FEMA to delay the release of preliminary maps. FEMA had planned to release the maps in October, weeks before the November election. -- Sacramento Bee editorial, July 2, 2006
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Throughout the borders of the Central Valley where cattle graze, although the great fields of vernal pools in pasturelands are being illegally taken, individuals and groups are finding positive ways to work together to try to stop the destruction of this unique ecology, home to a number of endangered and threatened species, essential for groundwater storage, open space that does not contribute to air pollution, and productive cattle land.
We include a several pieces:
"Easy on the land," by Glen Martin, San Francisco Chronicle, July 2, 2006;
Al Gore's documentary, "An Inconvenient Truth," is being shown at the State Theatre in Modesto. See show times below. It is about global warming.
AP Newsbreak: Deal reached to restore salmon in San Joaquin River
By JULIANA BARBASSA, Associated Press Writer
fresnobee.com-- June 30, 2006, 6:55 p.m.
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) - A settlement was reached Friday in an 18-year-old court battle over how much water should be allowed to flow from a dam on the San Joaquin River to restore the salmon population, attorneys said.
When, in the wake of the Katrina disaster in New Orleans, the state Reclamation Board began to take a hard look at building on flood plains along the Sacramento River and the Delta, as it has the authority to do, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger fired them all in September 2005.
Nearly a quarter of the governor's campaign financing, about $17.25 million, had come from developers by the time the board began to act to protect the levees and residents alongside them.
This morning, unsurprisingly, the Merced County Board of Supervisors approved a Del Webb/Pulte Homes new town nestled between I-5 and the San Luis Canal near Los Banos. The project required an amendment of the county's outdated General Plan and, according to testimony, the first cancellation of a Williamson Act contract since 2000, when the board enacted the act.
Central Valley Safe Environment Network
P.O. Box 64
Merced, CA. 95341
cvsen@sbcglobal.net
Senior Officers of The McClatchy Company
Lydia Miller
San Joaquin Raptor/Wildlife Rescue Center
P.O. Box 778
Merced, CA 95341
Steve Burke
Protect Our Water (POW)
3105 Yorkshire Lane
Modesto, CA 95350
To: June 20, 2006
Merced County Board of Supervisors Sent via email
Dee Tatum Sent via email
Chief Administrative Officer
I have a dumb question I am proud of. It is so dumb it is worthy of a citizen of the new Appalachia, as the San Joaquin Valley is known in fashionable political circles. None of the smart people in charge of our Merced County growth are talking about this question, at least in public. And if you don't want to live in the shade of a speculative real estate boom, why -- for Land's sake, son, -- you can go straight back to the old Appalachia, at least as far as our fashionable political circles are concerned.