My photo of an anonymous Chinese grave is from a visit to New Meadows, Idaho, just outside the slightly less tiny town of McCall. I was on a visit with the family of one of my closest friends, Staysha, whom I have known since I … Continue readingChinese Grave
The Heart of San Bernardino By Carly Creley, Jack’s cousin, twice-removed John “Jack” Harlan Wilson was a sharp-minded community leader with a tremendous, dry sense of humor. He set an example for everyone who seeks to use their abilities to create a positive impact on … Continue readingJack Wilson
California’s Imperial Valley seems like a tranquil place to live. It’s known as the nation’s winter salad bowl, because at 220 feet below sea level, it’s hot enough to grow summer crops all winter long. Its soil is enriched by the sediment of Ancient Lake … Continue readingEnvironmental Justice in the Imperial Valley
Participate in the Collective Gallery After screening the film ¿Qué les Pasó a las Abejas? [What Happened to the Bees?], you are invited to submit art based on the ideas in the film. Art has the power to inspire the world to protect pollinators, to … Continue readingYou Can Help Protect Pollinators
WITH DIRECTOR ADRIANA OTERO Sunday, Sept. 13th, 20201:45 PM Pacific Daylight Time Join us for our next California Imagism Project event as we travel through film to Campeche, Mexico, where an influx of transgenic soybean farms has had a devastating effect on the health of … Continue readingSpecial Film Screening and Discussion
Black American men were legally given the right to vote in 1870, but countless practices kept them from doing so. Women demanded suffrage in the mid-1800s, but didn’t get it until 1920. Even then, women of color were still denied the right to vote. Native Americans did not get the right to vote in all fifty states until 1962, and were stopped from doing so even once it was legal. … Continue readingThe Fight for Suffrage
A Tour Up Mt. Baldy and San Antonio Canyon As you rise from the valley floor up a mountain range as tall as the San Gabriel Mountains, everything changes. Gravity pushes the air molecules, which carry heat energy, downward, so higher elevations are much colder … Continue readingVertical Zonation: The Cismontane Side of the San Gabriel Mountains
An Interactive Tour from The Mojave Desert to the Summit of Pine Mountain Enjoy a Google Earth tour featuring the vertical zonation, changes in ecosystem and species composition, as you rise from the desert floor in the Mojave Desert near Valyermo, California, and climb to … Continue readingVertical Zonation Tour: The Transmontane Side of the San Gabriel Mountains
Hiking around the Cottonwood Campground in Joshua Tree National Park this April, I found a crazy insect with a black body and a bright yellow head. It’s abdomen stuck high into the air, making it look like a very round stink bug. I snapped … Continue readingA Color Changing Insect in Joshua Tree National Park: Who is Cysteodemus armatus?
“They wanted to name a tree for our captain but he refused, saying they could do so if they felt the same way, twenty years hence and they compromised on one for Booker T. Washington.” —Philip Winser Sequoia and General Grant National Parks … Continue readingIf You Feel the Same Twenty Years Hence: The Legacy of Colonel Charles Young
Join Scott and Carly Creley for our annual trip to Sequoia National Park from July 15-19, 2024. You will immerse yourself in art, science, and writing classes during a week long visit. We will stay at Wolverton Campground, an exclusive location near the General Sherman … Continue readingSequoia National Park Annual Volunteer Trip
As of today, 31% of Puerto Rico still doesn’t have running water, and those that have it cannot trust that it is clean since Hurricane Maria hit. Only 16% of the island has electricity today, and nearly all 3.5 million people are still without basic necessities … Continue readingHelp Map Puerto Rico
The rugged San Gabriel Mountains overlook 10 million people in the Los Angeles Basin, but few venture into their reaches. This might not be the case much longer — On October 10th, 2014 President Obama established the San Gabriel Mountains National Monument to protect the … Continue readingThe San Gabriel Mountains National Monument: From the Bottom to the Top
In the Fall of 1885 a group of socialist utopians created The Kaweah Colony in the Giant Forest in what is now Sequoia National Park. Their community was based equal work and equal compensation for men and women. The colonists filed a claim for 160 acres … Continue readingThe Karl Marx Tree
George Melendez Wright Conducts an Early Biological Survey Anyone who camps at Wolverton in Sequoia National Park is likely to see a large number of black bears during their stay. Although Wolverton was a Boy Scout Camp from 1939-2011, today it is reserved for volunteer … Continue readingWhy are there so many bears in the Wolverton Campground? A History
Santa Catalina Island, is one of the eight Channel Islands, off the coast of Southern California. The Channel Islands are semi-arid coastal sage scrub communities, but many of the islands have been heavily damaged by farming, mining, military operations, and invasive species that have significantly altered … Continue readingThe Island Fox
Big Pines, California Why is there a castle tower on the roadside as you pass the visitors’ center in Big Pines, California? In the early 1920s, R.F. McClellan, the chairman of the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors, decided that Big Pines, the area west of Wrightwood that … Continue readingDavidson Arch
This week’s This American Life Episode 534: A Not so Simple Majority, illustrates how important it is that we share responsibility for the goods that benefit us all. It mirrors the campaign to split the West side of Rancho Cucamonga into eight streetlight and park … Continue readingThis American Life: Act Four- Rancho Cucamonga Parks
One City, One Community: Why the West Side of Rancho Cucamonga Should Not be Split into Eight Streetlight and Park Funding Districts The West Side of Rancho Cucamonga should not be split into eight streetlight and park funding districts. We live in a community, an incorporated … Continue readingNo to Park Districts in Rancho Cucamonga
WANTED California Tree Squirrels Download the App Have you seen me? Participate in a real scientific research project that will map tree squirrels throughout California! Why help? Two of California’s four day active tree squirrel species are native to the state while the other two … Continue readingSquirrel Species Mapping
Support the Mt. Baldy Flood Relief Fund Created by Caylee Mitchell A summer storm this weekend caused huge mudflows in Mt. Baldy and many other Southern California communities. In Mt. Baldy, six homes have been red tagged for demolishment, and many others have sustained significant … Continue readingMt. Baldy Mudslide
How does a giant sequoia, Sequoiadendron sempervirens, spread its seeds? It’s not as simple as you might think. Seed dispersal takes a number of forms involving two different mutualistic relationships. a. The first, and most obvious, way is when the seed bearing cones dry and release … Continue readingThe Unique Love Between a Sequoia, a Squirrel, and a Beetle
It’s been an exciting week in the foothills! On Saturday, July 12, police shot a mountain lion that had been traveling from yard to yard approximately two miles south of the foothills, well into the suburban neighborhoods of Rancho Cucamonga. According to KPCC, sightings of additional mountain lions occurred … Continue readingMountain Lions and Plane Crashes
March 8, 2013 Visitors along the old road of San Antonio Canyon heard a long series of squeals, as a red tailed hawk carried a squirrel, still alive, down the canyon below Barrett Stoddard Road while a crow darted around the pair. Apparently the prey … Continue readingSquirrel in a Hawk’s Talons
During a recent hike in Eaton Canyon, I passed a group of fathers and sons. The fathers tended to all of the boys equally, helping them over rocks, telling them the lame jokes all fathers tell, and making sure no one fell behind. I knew … Continue readingFriends Always – Friends Forever
That’s right folks, the Forest Service’s 16 year old practice of requiring forest visitors to purchase a “National Forest Recreation Pass” is illegal. The Forest Lands Recreation Enhancement Act of 2004 expressly prohibits charging fees in areas that do not have all of the following six … Continue readingRecreation Passes are Disappearing, for the good of the people
December 19th, 2013 In our attempt to dodge the precipitation that was scheduled all over Southern California we covered a lot of ground and biomes. We found some interesting places, both natural and man made. – Riverside south of the 60 freeway: A real life … Continue readingMastodons, Mammoths, and Big Horn Sheep
Do you smell that? The American Bison, Bison bison, exhibits the Flehmen Response after smelling the delicious pheromones coming from the urine or genitals of the next bison over. This bison was photographed in Yellowstone’s Lamar Valley on July 25th, 2013.
September 21st, 2013 As I drove through Cal Poly, Pomona this morning, I saw a coyote in a pasture across the road, pouncing over and over as he attempted to capture a squirrel. After five or six bounds, the coyote killed its prey. The coyote … Continue readingCoyote Hunt
The Yellowstone Falls Permarainbow July 26th, 2013