Day 21: Oregon WILD - Portland, Oregon

          Its our Final day of the trip and its sad we weren't able to see more of Portland before we had to head home, but luckily we were able to end with a good speaker. Oregon WILD is an environmental group that works to protect and restore Oregons Wilderness and water with a focus on the Klamath River Basin. Quinn Reed was our speaker and she did an excellent job conveying the groups message. The importance of the Klamath basin is that it supports nearly 40% of the the waterfowl that travel through the Pacific Flyway and supports one of the largest populations of wintering bald eagles in the country. The organizations Klamath campaign focused on 3 primary initiatives: 1- Phasing out of lease-land farming, 2- establishment of adequate water supply to the basin, and 3- prioritize wildlife conservation at the Klamath refuges.

Quinn explained how the 2013 drought affected the area and that by summers end the lower Klamath basin was completely dry because it was the last place to receive water subsidies. Conflict with local farmers and other areas for water has caused the most issues for the Klamath basin, simply not enough water is reaching the basin to keep wildlife populations supported. What Quinn proposes as that we must strike a balance between demand and supply such that we ensure National Wildlife Refuges have sufficient water, we cannot let the politics of the farmers bully the region into taking all the water. Before we left Mrs Quinn left us with some helpful hints for getting out into the real world, such as looking at writing our own grants to fund our own projects, build experience, and ultimately just work our asses off.  

Day 20: Oregon Bureau of Land Management - Oregon

                  We wake up from our Crater Lake campsite to a cloudy morning. We all fetched up some quick breakfast before we packed our things and headed into town. On our way Tait was kind enough to let us stop for breakfast and Coffee. Me and a few others of the group went over to one of the small roadside coffee stand that we had been seeing all trip. I cannot describe how good the tea I got there was, it physically made my entire day better because of it, I only wish I could remember what it was called. Anyway, we arrived at the Bureau of Land Management where we met with our presenter who was there to discuss logging issues with us, although I am not sure he knew that. It felt like he had no idea we were coming that day and had no real idea who we were, and if he did he definitely seemed under prepared. Nevertheless, we went out into the field with him to one of the forest sites that the bureau uses for harvesting to see how they manage their harvesting and what types of trees they focus on.

Our presenter showing us around a previously harvested site

The Oregon BLM has systematic harvesting methods to ensure sustainable supply of lumber, for instance each year they plant 6.9 million board feet of timber while harvesting only 5.4 million board feet. This allows the forest time to re-seed itself and allows room for new trees to grow and fill in the area in 20-30 years. The BLM produces logs to be used for lumber or wood-chips, supplying Christmas trees, firewood, and dispersing mushroom permits as well as supporting public land recreation. The harvesting methods the bureau uses are based on tree species and size so they usually cycle every 15-20 years for trees of similar volumes. The bureau supports Douglas furs and other pines but white fur trees can be problematic. Not native to the area, the white pine thrives and is very shade tolerant meaning it can grow very well under the shade of larger trees and can occupy more space because of this, meaning their population can get out of hand very fast. The white fur can out-compete these other pines if there is a lot of trees in the area producing shade. To help support Douglas fur growth, the bureau focuses on patch harvesting and the physical elimination of white fur.

Douglas fur slowly returning to life

By harvesting an open area and leaving a few scattered trees behind, there is enough trees to help reseed the area and there is enough open space for these Douglas fur's to grow unhindered. Unfortunate, one of the conflicts the bureau constantly finds themselves facing is one between the white furs and the spotted owl. The white furs compete against the desirable Douglas furs, so naturally the BLM tries to remove the invasive white fur from the area. The problem is that spotted owls which are an endangered species of owl have taken a liking to the white fur and use them for hunting. The regulations revolving around this endangered species forces the BLM to manage the area, even though the trees are not native and constantly encroach upon their operations. When the bureau tries to remove some of these white fur so that they can harvest, they are repeatedly slammed by environmental groups pestering about destruction of spotted owl habitat and these disputes often lead to lawsuits. It is largely becoming an up-hill battle for the bureau to supply the timber that is needed by their customers, an occupation that has long been the primary resource which supplied the state with jobs.

A pine of some sort that was overexposed to sun

A balance must be found between managing habitat for these spotted owls, but the BLM must still be aloud to harvest their timeber, they should be give credit for the efforts they make to ensure the forestts come back healthy by planting more than they harvest, as not many operations would put that much consideration into their work. The day ended with everyone at their campsite, diligently working on putting their notebooks together. It was a quiet night compared to the one before but everyone knew the trip was winding down and I think everyone was just about ready to be home. With nobody really to talk to I decided to head to bed myself and do my best to enjoy my last day of the trip, surrounded by great friends who brought many good times.  

Day 19: Redwoods Hike and Crater Lake - Crater Lake, Oregon

Today we woke up with many of us still tired from the long night the day before, but the one thing keeping us focused was in knowing that we were going to get to see the Redwoods National Forest before heading to Crater Lake. You could feel the excitement in the vans as we literally had some people screaming every time we passed a sign for the park. I'll tell you what, nothing prepares you for the first time you stand next to one of these giants and you get to see the size of them, they almost look magical. We parked our vans in a small parking lot in the middle of this Jurassic Park-like setting surrounded by towering trees and a veil of ferns and moss. Unfortunately we only had about 45 minutes of spare time so we had to make the hike quick which made it hard to truly enjoy the site and get good pictures but we all made the best of the time we had there. I know for a fact that one day I will be back to the Redwoods as it is a place with so much to see and explore that I could see myself staying there for a week and not getting tired of it. We regrettingly made our way out of the park and toward Crater Lake National Park in Oregon. 

Our group in the parking lot brewing with excitement

Welcome to Jurassic Park!

"The Wooden Throne"

When we arrived the first thing we did was meet at the visitor center and watch a 20 minute video on the history of Crater Lake and how it formed. 

The video explained that the lake was once a 12,000ft volcano called Mt. Mazama which was similar in size to other great mountains of the northwest, Mt. Hood and Mt. Rainier. For whatever reason the mountain formed a crack around its base and when it erupted caused the top of the mountain to collapse into itself, there are even records of individuals form the Klamath tribe who witnessed the eruption and the formation of the lake that followed. The lake contains some of the purest water in the world, this is because no water enters or leaves outside of rainwater. The crater prevents any outside water from coming into contact with the lake, and there are no rivers or streams that leave from the lake itself, its basically an isolated system. This allows the lake to have some of the clearest water in the world and held the 1997 world record for clearest water with 143 ft if visibility. There were no animals living in the lake until the 1950s when settlers introduced trout and shrimp to support game fishing. 

Wizard Island, whats left from the top of the volcano after it collapsed

After watching the documentary we did a class reflection on it and figured that the lake is definitely not as pure as they say, as we see boats driving across the lake all over. Oil and gasoline leaks from the boat motors and enters the lake so there is definitely pollution entering that the video failed to ignore, probably because it does no good for business to tell your potential customers not to drive their boats on the lake because it will make it dirty. 

View of the lake from atop the lookout point

We left the visitor center and drove around the crater rim, stopping for photo ops along the way. The lookout spot had one of the nicest views of wizard island and the Lake itself, you could see all the way around and there was even a little snow still left (its almost July by this time). Next we parked our vans and headed toward a trail which was going to take us down the crater and to the lake shore so we could check out the water close-up. Unfortunately Helena's cold got the best of her and she and Katie stayed behind while the rest of us went on, although maybe they were the lucky ones as we were constantly attacked by mosquito's while we were on the trail. We got to the bottom and took some pictures, we watched as Matt, Dan, Jenny, and Ryan jumped into the water to see how cold it was, and we just generally enjoyed the scenery as this was our last hike of the trip. After getting our pictures and the jumpers had their clothes back on we made our way back up the trail, which I must say felt a heck of a lot longer going back up. Freaking switchbacks.

Bottom of the Calderra

We got back to our campsite and everyone made dinner, we put together some baked potatoes, soup and sausage which turned out delicious. Everyone worked on their journals a bit trying to get them in order but eventually everyone just found themselves sitting around the fire telling stories. It was a good night and I wish we'd had the time to have more of them, darn rushing around. Everyone went to bed a little later than expected but we knew we were heading towards Portland in the next couple of days so we all had that to look forward too.

Day 18: Point Reyes and Redwoods Discussion - Crescent City, California

 We woke up at our hotel this morning and packed up our things so that we were already set when it was time to leave. After taking showers Matt, Dan, Allister, and I made our way to the complementary breakfast being held in the lobby and boy was that treat. It was easily the second best breakfast on the whole trip, next to D.O.G's of course, but still the sausage was perfect, the eggs were covered in cheese and weren't watery at all, the bagels weren't hard or anything, oh I could write a whole page just on the food! Anyway, were were heading into our final days of the trip and everyone was beginning to get a bit antsy. After our breakfast we were in for a long drive from Oakland near San Francisco to Crescent City, all the way at the top of California, in the Redwoods basically. After a few hours of driving we were all surprised with a visit at Point Reyes, a park located on Californias seashore. It was very window out at the time and was a bit misty but we did not let that deter us from making the hike. The views of the shoreline were spectacular and the cliffside made for some very nice photos.

California Coastline as seen from Point Reyes

We continued down the path which eventually led us to a set of stairs that went most of the way down to the cliff, this is where the lighthouse was positioned. Once we reached the bottom the first building we walked into was an old living quarters, where the lighthouse tender likely slept and where he controlled the services to the area.

Stairs leading to the Point Reyes Lighthouse

Maintenance Building at the Point Reyes Lighthouse

Going through the building we emerged with the lighthouse in front of us and you were able to walk inside where we saw the actual light used to notify sailors during dark and misty nights. One of the park historians was in the room and told the story of the light and how everything we saw was original parts and that even though the light was decommissioned, it is still turned on every few months to ensure it is still functional. I thought this was a pretty cool thing to see, its not often you get to see the inside of a lighthouse and the quality of craftsmanship that went into building the light was marvelous to behold.

Point Reyes Lighthouse light

We left from Point Reyes and headed back towards our destination, passing dozens of signs for the Redwoods on the way, along with many other signs referencing bigfoot which I thought was funny. We made one last stop before the last leg of our drive to discuss some issues with the Redwoods as we would be sleeping in Redwood National Forest for the night and taking a short hike the next morning. Tait explained that the park exists simply for tree preservation and that it is a combination of 3 state parks. The reason the redwoods get so big is because of their location along the coast where moist air from the ocean forms a dense fog most of the year. The trees owe their success to their ability to make use of all this moisture as well as being heavily resistant to insects and fire which gives them extreme longevity, living thousands of years in some cases. Back  in 1964 only 15% of the redwoods was still alive, this prompted legislatures to enact a stronger statute to protect these forest, this led to the site becoming a national park, with surrounding national forests to still allow logging but only in certain areas. Towards the evening much of the drive took us along the Northern California Coast and the views we got to see were spectacular, Tait even let us made a stop on the beach so that we could get some pictures of the amazing sunset. After the quick photo session we were back to soldiering on through the night.

California Sunset

Well, the drive took a little longer than we had anticipated, about 10 hours since we had left our hotel in the morning so it was roughly midnight by the time we got to our campsite in the Redwoods. By this time everyone was so beat that we just threw all of our food and scented items into the bear boxes, set up our tents and hit the hey for the night.

Day 17: Zylstra Dairy Farm and Altamont Pass Wind Farm - Modesto, California

This morning was a bit hectic as we were supposed to meet with Mike at around 7:00am so that he could give us a tour of the farm, but he had something he needed to attend to so it was postponed until 9:00am. During this time me, Katie, Marnie, Johanna, and Allister chose to go and get our laundry done since we weren't able to the night before Yosemite. Due to some time complications we didn't get back until most of the way through the lecture. We did learn that mike runs a fairly closed system farm that incorporates the waste from his cattle into growing the corn on his property. He grinds up this corn and mixes it with alphalpha, distilled grain, canola, and cotton seed and leaves it out for about a year before feeding it to his cattle. Mike runs primarily a dairy operation, and as an economics graduate he strives to make sure all his cattle are as profitable as possible. He treats his cattle like a baseball team he says, and if one of the players just can't perform well enough, they get cut and someone who can produce takes their place. It's a different mindset, you cant think of this type of occupation as being cruel, sending cows to be slaughtered when they don't produce enough milk, it is simply a business and these cattle are assets in this situation. Most of the class got to go into the main part of the farm and assist with milking the cows and see how the process is done.

Cows in their stalls

After the tour everybody packed up their things into the vans and we took some last minute photos with the Zylstra's and thanked them for their hospitality before we headed off. Today was another exciting day for everyone as we were scheduled to spend some time in San Francisco tonight so everyone was just trying to spend as little time at road stops as possible to maximize our time in the city. On the way to our hotel we passed through another wind farm, Altamont Pass Wind Farm which is the largest wind installation in California. The site is home to over 7000 turbines all generating power, granted some are much older and less efficient than many of the modern turbines. The site has a capacity of around 590MW, but this site is the worlds most controversial wind site. Many raptors that travel through the area find themselves caught in the area and are killed by the turbines. The site has agreed to relocate many of their turbines in order to alleviate this issue but the site is still despised by environmentalists.

Altamont Pass Wind Farm

San Francisco Police Call box from 1931

We got to our hotel in Oakland, we put our stuff into our rooms and than left for the city right after. We enjoyed our short time in San Francisco, as usually every one separated into their own little groups and did their own thing. After an unsuccessful attempt to find somewhere to sit-down and eat, Helena, Johanna, Lydia, Jenny, and I all decided just to get some Thai food and take our time walking back to the van to enjoy the city. We got back to the vans and I wanted to stay longer but nobody else did, I was still planning on staying until Tait said the curfew was 10:00pm, for less than 2 hours of extra time I just didn't think it was worth it and we all headed back to the hotel. We got back and talked with each other about where everyone went and what they did. Last thing for the night was everyone working on their journals a bit and trying to get them organized as their hand-in date was approaching, after this I hit the hay.

Day 16: Yosemite Hike - California

Woke up today to a nice hot shower, the first one with working hot water in a while. This morning we woke everyone up early and got all of our stuff packed up quick because we had heard that there was free donuts and coffee in the morning and we all wanted to get our hands on that before we went hiking up in Yosemite. Turns out that those donuts were for "Memeber" only, which stunk. Undeterred we decided to walk up the hill a bit and try to find some kind of breakfast at the convenience store on the corner there. To our luck, the store was closed and wouldn't open for another hour, and we only had a couple of minutes before we had to leave. Hungry and agitated we walked back and met up with Tait, we all piled into the vans and headed out. We stopped for gas and to put air in the tires on the way so we finally thought this was our chance to grab some grub at the gas station. NOPE! the place was closed until 9, a whole hour later, we were beyond aggravated at this point and the drive into Yosemite was one filled with yawns, groans, and heavy eyes.

El Capitan

A couple of miles away along the road the massive granite peaks began to peek out over the horizon, Half-Dome and El Capitan were visible, side by side at the right angle from where we were along the road. As we got further into the park, there was a stretch that put you right next to the face of El Capitan which was truly a wonder to see. If you looked hard enough you could see a couple groups of people who had bivvy'd out on the face for the night and were slowly ascending the mountain.

A look at the mist trail from atop the waterfall

Our chance for sustenance came once we got into the park and we all disbanded for lunch and to check out the shops. Everyone grabbed some and some cool things to bring home and we all met back up at the van. We finished our lunch and headed into Yosemite Valley. We did an awesome hike up the mist trail which had us walking up rock stairs and boulders all alongside a giant waterfall that sprayed you with mist the whole time. We did a bit more hiking at the top of the waterfall before heading back down.

Farther upstream 

On the Misty trail

From what I head among the group this was many peoples favorite hike, personally, I thought there was too many people and it reminded me of waiting in line for a roller coaster at six flags. Nonetheless, it was a great time and after we got to the vans we headed out to meet up with Taits friend Mike who was kind enough to let us sleep at his farm for the night. We went to the store and bought burgers, buns, and some other cooking supplies and Mike let us use their grill to cook everyone dinner while him, his wife, and Tait all went out for dinner. It was a nice relaxing night just cooking and hanging out with everyone.  

Photo of the class on the mist trail

Day 15: Sequoia and Hetch Hetchy - California

Picture in front of General Sherman

We woke up from a short nights sleep, taking everything out of the bear boxes and packing it back into the vans. We went on a short hike in Sequoia National Park, checking out General Sherman and some of the other unique trees. Sequoia's grow to be the largest tree species by volume in the whole world. Some of these trees are thousands of years old thanks in part to their resilient bark which resists insects and protects the tree during wildfires. The immense size of the tree and their underlying root systems allows these trees to outcompete all other species, this is why there is very little shrubbery in the area. We were supposed to go on a second hike but due to traffic and a commitment with another speaker we were forced to abandon this pursuit.

Sequoia Pine Cone

The moccasin power plant is situated along the Hetch Hetchy reservoir, just outside of Yosemite National park, and is responsible for supplying San Francisco with most of its water needs. Hetch Hetchy was once part of Yosemite Valley, but after the 1906 Fire that devastated San Francisco, Hetch Hetchy reservoir was deemed necessary to provide enough water to prevent another future disaster such as the 1906 fire.Moccasin power plant is but one of many power plants in the are as Hetch Hetchy reservoir is linked through tunnels to several other reservoirs in the region, all constructed to supply water to San Francisco and to act as back-up's in case the primary reservoirs get too low. Hetch Hetchy, Lake Eleanor, Cherry Lake, and Don Pedro are the names of the reservoirs in the surrounding area, except for Don Pedro all of these reservoirs help to bring water down the mountains into San Francisco. The plans are for Don Pedro Reservoir to act as a water bank where the other reservoirs can put away excess water and keep it stored until times of excess demand or need.

Moccasin Power Plant

The Hetch Hetchy reservoir stores about 360 trillion-acre-feet  of water. These sites have vastly improved their conditions of the past decade, radically changing their management programs to include maximizing storage capacities, ensuring reliable water delivery, efficient use of the resources, and mediating any environmental risk associated with these actions. In an effort to help support fish populations down stream, Hetch Hetch has an accessory tunnel running underneath it that blasts water out against the rock face, aerating the water and making it more habitable for fish downstream. Along with the aeration, the dam will send floodwater downstream every few years if there is was available, this helps maintain the ecosystems downstream. In times of drought such as this, the operating conditions for these dams change. Water pumped from the reservoirs to be used for hydro-electric is reduced and made more available for distribution, the lower cherry aqueduct is rehabilitated to keep water flowing to San Fran, and the other reservoirs act as a back up; at this time the Hetch Hetchy reservoir was still full. Our presenter Bill gave us a quick tour of the Moccassin power plant showing us the old generators and technology that was used back when the plant was running and after that we parted ways and headed towards our campsite. Our campsite for the night was situated in a large campground with a lot of people in it, more of a touristy type of campground. Anyway, we helped everyone get their stuff out of the vans and set up and then Tait, Marnie, Katie, Joahanna, Allister, and I all went to do a quick hike at the Hetch Hetchy Reservoir. The hike was incredible, it was a short walk over the dam but there was nobody else out there but us. We got to get a good idea of how the dam affects downstream and just how much water the dam holds. It was also interesting to see the painted over scissor mark that was shown in the earlier "Damnation" documentary, I thought it was so cool to literally be feet away from history. It would appear the days surprises were not over yet, just as we were driving out of the park we got an excellent glimpse of a young black bear running across the road no more than ten feet from us, it was too fast for anyone to get a picture but it was one of those things that you just don't forget so I don't think a picture was needed.

"Free the River" painted over at Hetch Hetchy

Hetch Hetchy reservoir

Day 13 and 14: Channel Islands and Geography

We woke up early in the morning and got going right away. Our ferry was scheduled to leave at 9:30 so we wanted to make sure we would get there with plenty of time to spare. Luckily, everything went smoothly and we enjoyed a relaxing 1-hour boat ride from the mainland to Santa Cruz. We got to see some seals hanging around outside the harbor, and the oil refineries which were station just off the coast. We got to the island and helped the crew unload the boat before we made the mile hike to our campsite. That hike was a bit more tiring than I thought but that was probably because we were all carrying about 30 pounds worth of gear for the two days we would be on the island. We got our camp set up and then went back to the beach to do our kayaking tour of the island. It took a little while for everyone to get passed the learning curve but after that everyone was paddling like a champ. It was a great afternoon paddling around the cliffs and through the sea caves, minus the monstrous sunburn that I got. An unforgettable experience.

A look at one of the coves that are found along the island

Seals off the harbor

We got back to our campsite and got dinner ready before Linda's exercise. Dinner for Matt, Dan, and I consisted of cold chicken noodle soup from the can, and some canned chipotle chicken on a couple crackers. That was definitely an interesting dinner and one that was surprisingly tasteful.

Linda gave us an interesting exercise to participate in, pairing us into groups and instructing us to write down directions explaining the geological forces influencing the tectonic plates without using any geologic terms. She was essentially asking us to explain this stuff to someone who had never ever heard of the idea of plate tectonics, which was surprisingly difficult. It was a very interesting exercise and it gave me a profound appreciation for what teachers have to do in order to teach new things to their students. Around this time we noticed a dramatic drop in temperature, it was no longer tee-shirt and tank-top weather. The humidity had cranked up and there was a cool breeze blowing that had everyone shivering by dark. With a deficit in warm clothes since we packed light, we were all struggling for warmth and trying to decide how we were gonna sleep through this. The decision was made that the best way to beat the cold was to sleep together in one giant pile, feeding off of each others body heat.

The next morning we got all of our belongings together and moved them down to the beach, ready for our 4:00pm pick-up. Our group split up after this, some of us staying on the island and the rest of us going out on the kayak's again. This time we got to see the other side of the island, the conditions were perfect for kayaking as there wasn't a breeze in the air which made the surf as flat as glass.

Before our departure we were able to meet with some of the resident biologists and rangers who work on the island and gave us a brief history lesson of it. The island formed thousands of years ago, completely separate from mainland California, meaning that this site was home to several indigenous species not found anywhere else, such as the fox's that were seen running all over the island. This isolation also caused certain changes in the native species, specifically dwarfism in the predators and gigantism in the prey. Fox populations were disrupted after settlers came and turned the island into a ranch. The destruction of vegetation and natural cover meant small prey animals disappeared. The bald eagles of the area died off because of DDT that had bioaccumulated in fish around the island. Without the bald eagles to keep them in check, the golden eagles went undisturbed, catching young pigs and foxes for food. When the parks service realized just how desolated the fox's population had been, they immediately began to enact restoration efforts. The Fox was listed as endangered, pigs were removed from the island, the remaining foxes were captured and put into breeding programs, the golden eagles were captured and released in norther California. Lastly, the foxes were reintroduced and their numbers climbed steadily, becoming the fastest restoration of a species in the endangered species act's history.

One of the Native fox's, they're about the size of a house cat

Starfish, anemones, and kelp

Group picture from our kayak trip

Our ferry arrived to pick us up and we got back to the mainland in no-time. We drove Dr. Linda back to her home and thanked her for coming with us to the islands. After dropping Dr. Linda off, we stopped nearby for dinner and many of our group were excited to finally get to try the western delicacy that is In-and-Out Burger. Maybe its because we had not eaten in the past couple of days, or maybe it was just that good, but this food was heavenly at the time.

 After this we headed out to our campsite in Sequoia National Park which ended up taking a lot longer than expected as we didn't arrive until after midnight. This was an area with a high population of black bears so after setting up our tents everyone scrambled to remove everything with a scent from our bags and vans and get them put away in the bear boxes. It's a shame we got at the site so late because it had the perfect set up for campfire discussions. Nobody even bothered with a fire or anything, we all had quite a long day and everyone just went and passed out.

Day 12: Ivanpah Solar Project, Tehachapi Wind Farm, and California Water Issues - Los Angeles, California

We left Las Vegas early in the morning en route to pick up Dr. Linda Davis, an old Stockton Professor who would be joining us on our trip to the Channel Islands. On our drive to Los Angeles, we stopped at two important sites along the way. The first was the Ivanpah Solar Project which incorporates thousands of mirrors focusing the solar radiation onto a specific point atop a massive tower at the center of the site. Water is circulated through this focus point where it is rapidly heated and turns into steam which then turns a turbine and generates electricity. This form of concentrated solar technology is proven to be more efficient than the Nevada Solar One technology and standard photo-voltaic arrays. It is projected that solar technologies will continue to transition in this direction. 

Picture of the Ivanpah Solar Project

 the second site we visited was the Tehachapi Pass Wind farm along highway 85. It is the second largest wind farm in the country with 5000 win turbines the rise up from the hills. This site is quite a national asset, as we saw first hand when a government official pulled up in a car and instructed us that we could not take any pictures and video, and continued to watch us nearby after driving off. Each turbine at the sight has its own program that allows it to follow the wind so as to optimize blade velocity and reducing the wear on the gears. The site produces about 745MW of electricity each year, enough to supply the needs of 350,000 residents. This particular site is well managed and poses no significant threat to wildlife in the area, the birds that migrate through the area are more at risk from being attacked by a local house cat than running into one of the turbines.

Tehachapi Pass Wind Farm

We finally made it to the University of CAlifornia-Los Angeles to meet up with Dr. Davis who followed our meeting with a quick introduction of what she teaches and her time at Stockton. After introductions she has us a lesson on one of her favorite topics, water issues in California, much of which was covered in our book "Introduction to Water in California". Davis highlighted the effect local climate has on water usage and that people have artificially made southern California green when it would naturally be desert. The rain-shadow effect plays a major roll in preventing precipitation from reaching the central valley and southern California regions. Many California citizens receive their drinking water from groundwater sources while the majority of imported water sources are what get distributed for irrigation on agricultural fields.  Unfortunately, issues with salts and selenium washing frown from the mountain and percolating into the soil has caused major contamination or some local groundwater supplies leading to heavier reliance on imports.Drip irrigation would help resist run-off caused by flood irrigation and would save the state millions of dollars in water reductions. These systems are costly and time consuming to install and environmental concern just isn't enough incentive to motivate farmers to make this transition in efficiency. 

We spent our night at the Malibu Tree State Park where we were treated with clear sky and beautiful stars, an excellent atmosphere to go to bed in.  

Day 11: Colorado River Compact, Desert Tortoise, and Nevada Solar One Project - Las Vegas, Nevada

Vegas Baby! That was the general mood everyone was in today, we were all excited to see the city and have some free time, but were a bit sad because it was our last day with Hossay. We stopped at lake Mead where we discussed water issues and the Colorado River, many of which we read about in our book "Restoring Colorado River Ecosystems: A troubled sense of immensity". We talked about the law of the river and the Colorado River Compact which was responsible for designating 7.5maf of annual water allotment to both the upper and lower basin states. We mentioned the political issues between the U.S. and Mexico caused by Americas excessive water use resulting in Mexico receiving less than its allotted share of water and at very low quality conditions.

Lake Mead, the white lines represent past water levels

Lake Mead and the Hoover dam were the first projects initiated in the U.S. with the objective of taming the Colorado River, and to this day Lake Mead remains the nations largest artificial reservoir. The ecological impacts of dams this size are referenced in our book, such as decline in native fish populations, loss of shoreline and loss of riparian habitat, decreased water flows, and trapped river sediment. We drove over the Hoover Dam and got a few pictures and then drove to our next destination at the Nevada Solar One Project.

Hoover Dam

Nevada Solar One Project

Unfortunately, our speaker bailed on us and we were unable to get a tour, so we had to settle with looking at the site from miles away behind the barbed wire fence and listened to a lecture while a dust storm bombarded us. This site uses 182,000 mirror which focus the suns energy onto a series of pipes containing a synthetic fluid. This fluid is heated to about 700 degrees Fahrenheit and then the fluid pumped through the nearby station where it heats up water and turns it into steam which then turns a generator and produces electricity. The mirrors of this site are programmed to follow the sun so as to take the most advantage of the available daily sunlight. The average energy production of this station is roughly 64MW, up to a maximum production of 75MW.

Next we met up with Mike Burrows of the Nevada Fish and Wildlife Management center. Mike discussed in detail the habitat, characteristics, range, issues, and various other things of the native and endangered Desert Tortoise. Mike discussed the states efforts to set up blockages to keep the tortoises from walking onto the road, where car accidents make up the majority of tortoise fatalities each yeah, explaining how different methods have succeeded and failed. Finally, we discussed how issues have developed with the nearby solar projects which require large blocks of stable, flat land with plenty of sun, which just so happens to be the preferred habitat of the Desert Tortoise. This conflict over land has brought cause for concern over the future of the tortoise.

After thanking and saying goodbye to Mike, we left the Wildlife center and headed to our hotel at Circus Circus in Las Vegas. I wish we had more time to see the city as we were only able to walk around a couple of blocks before we had to be back in time for our curfew but we were all still able to have a fun time. We got to eat dinner at a nice place in town and than walked along the strip, admiring the different casinos and fountains set up within the area.

The fun van outside Circus Circus

The Vegas Strip

Day 10: Zion Canyon and Prairie Dogs - Utah

Utah Prairie dog Town

We left our campsite at Bryce Canyon early in the morning to get a head start on the day. We stopped at a Utah Prairie dog town that was located cautiously close to the road. We all got out to take pictures while Hossay gave us a quick lesson on the Endangered Species Act, and how its helping Utah Prairie dog populations recover. We learned that the reason for their endangered listing is due to them being seen as varmin by local farmers and ranchers who would shoot them without a care to keep them from digging holes. These holes were dangerous as a cow could easily break a leg and would have to be put down.

Utah Prairie dog checking out some people

These ranchers were not aware of the ecological importance of the prairie dogs and that they stimulate new growth in the soil. Government agencies eventually picked up on the state of the species for the Utah Prairie dogs and responded by placing them under the ESA so that farmers could not harm the prairie dogs anymore. Unfortunately this did not protect the prairie dogs as much as expected, as many ranchers adopted the shoot-shovel-shut-up ideology in that they would keep killing the prairie dogs and just not say a word about it. The government worked with a couple of large scale ranchers to establish old style prairie dog towns, being on private land this kept the prairie dogs from coming into contact with any other ranchers, supporting preservation.




We left the prairie dogs and drove into Zion National Park which was a completely different and unique experience compared to Bryce. We hiked up the treacherous Angels Landing trail where we were awarded with an incredible view! The last mile of the trail involved climbing along tiny ledges and using chains to pull yourself along, most of the time with very little to grab on to all while being a couple thousand feet up. It was an exciting hike up the last bit and well worth the climb, I only wish more of our group had made the full trek, I don't think they would have been as scared as they would have thought.

View from the top of Angels Landing

More views from the top

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Next we hiked down in the Virgin Narrows, through the water and up the river taking in all the amazing sights and sounds. It was a refreshing break from all the heat we had dealt with up top. My only complaint was that there were too many people, it took away from some of the solitude and majesty of these places, but its whats expected at national land marks. Falling asleep proved more difficult than previous nights as my thin sleeping pad did not provide much cushion as I found myself constantly lying on a rock and putting me in an uncomfortable position.  

Looking through the cliffs, only half-way up

Getting ready to go up the chains

Inside the Virgin Narrows