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With 70 state parks slated to close this summer due to budget cuts, two North Coast legislators have introduced bills to help lessen the closures’ impact and to install a transparent and public process if the state should need to close any parks in the future. The park closures were announced last summer, after the legislature passed the governor’s budget proposal to cut $22 million from the state park budget. Last fall, the legislature held an oversight hearing on the . . . → Read More SACRAMENTO – Most California Democratic legislators voted consistently to protect our air, water and wild places, while the vast majority of their Republican counterparts continued to be obstacles to environmental progress, Sierra Club California’s annual Legislative Report Card finds. Sierra Club California tracked the votes of California’s Assemblymembers and Senators, recording each Earth-friendly vote as a positive score. From clean energy to water conservation to protecting state parks, the measures addressed many of California’s most urgent 2011 environmental priorities. “Overall, . . . → Read More I’ve been thinking a lot about the endangered California desert tortoises and wondering what lessons they might reveal. These very private creatures have been making news lately even though their natural approach to attention is more in tune with Greta Garbo’s. First there was the revelation that construction of the Ivanpah large-scale solar plant proposed in the Mojave Desert would wipe out nearly 550 juvenile tortoises. Then there was Governor Brown’s wink-wink quip to a Fresno audience that, by siding with large-scale solar development, he planned to take care of the tortoise. “We’re going to give it a lot of shade,” Brown said, according to press reports. California desert tortoises have managed to adapt to some of the most brutal summer conditions on the continent and survive as a species for eons. Human activities ranging from off-road vehicles to mining and development have carved away their quiet home and their numbers have dwindled. Large-scale solar development, and a governor who seems bent on crushing environmental review, are just their latest challenges. . . . → Read More At its February 24, 2011 meeting, the Wildlife Conservation Board (WCB) was poised to vote on Proposition 84 funding for the easement sale on the Usal Redwood Forest. The forest is owned by the Redwood Forest Foundation, Inc (RFFI), a non-profit organization. The funding request was intended to support the sale of a conservation easement to The Conservation Fund. . . . → Read More The end of July finds the Capitol in a legislative lull with legislators away from Sacramento until August 15th. In most years past, legislators and the Governor spent the summer, and sometimes into the fall, haggling over numerous issues in order to pass a budget with a 2/3 majority vote. This year, however, was different. The Democrats used their new authority under Proposition 25, approved by the voters last year, to pass a state budget with a simple majority vote. . . . → Read More Today, Sierra Club California is pleased to announce the release of the 2010 California Coastal Commission Conservation Voting Chart. This chart, entering its 23nd year, is a combined effort of various coastal environmental groups, and measures the pro-conservation scores of the Commission. The 2010 chart examines 21 separate votes, which were selected in consultation with coastal conservation activists, based on their likely impact on coastal resources and their potential to set statewide precedent. “We are disappointed . . . → Read More |
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