"Any fool can destroy trees. They cannot run away; and if they could, they would still be destroyed, chased and hunted down as long as fun or a dollar could be got out of their bark hides. God has cared for these trees, but he cannot save them from fools...only Uncle Sam can do that."   -   John Muir

"Shortsighted men...in their greed and selfishness will, if permitted, rob our country of half its charm by their reckless extermination of all useful and beautiful wild things."   -   President Theodore Roosevelt

"We realize Earth is special. We've seen it from afar. We realize Earth is the only natural home for man we know of, and we had better protect it."   -   Astronaut James Irwin

"Nature knows no indecencies...man invents them."   -   Mark Twain

Coming soon on Treehuggers International, an interview with outdoor writer, photographer, and ecologist George Wuerthner. With 34 books and numerous papers to his credit, George's current book is Thrillcraft: The Environmental Consequences of Motorized Recreation, about the damage done to our land, water, and air from the increasing use of jet skis, quads, dirt bikes, dune buggies, snowmobiles, and other motorized recreational craft penetrating the last bastions of wild America. Having lived in Montana, Oregon, and Santa Cruz, George is no stranger to the western half of the country, and is best-known in California for his two-volume guide to California's Wilderness areas.

TRESTLES VICTORY!

You made the difference!  Thank you!
(photo courtesy of Rob Davis / Voice of San Diego)

TRESTLES IS SAVED! The U.S. Secretary of Commerce has REJECTED the TCA's appeal to build the toll road at Trestles and San Onofre State Beach!  For the time being, barring an unprecedented judicial review or presidential override, Trestles is SAVED.  Congratulations to YOU.

Eddie Vedder no doubt says "thank you."
(photo courtesy of Elizabeth Willes)

Unfortunately, we didn't get such good news on the Sunrise Powerlink, which was approved at a meeting of the State Public Utilities Commission. The green light for the Powerlink's southern construction route was buoyed by the curious announcement the Powerlink is slated to carry renewable energy, when all signs point to the opposite, especially with Sempra Energy's new Liquid Natural Gas terminal now on-line in Ensenada and connected to Mexicali, where the Powerlink is slated to begin carrying its alleged green energy. Governor Schwarzenegger threw his support behind the Powerlink some time ago, despite objections from citizens around the region. To hear Treehuggers International's conversation with Micah Mitrosky of the Sierra Club's Smart Energy Solutions campaign and learn more about the Sunrise Powerlink, scroll down to the Show Archive.

Treehuggers International's recent visit beneath the waves with Kate Hanley, Director of Marine Conservation with San Diego Coastkeeper and a member of the Southern California Regional Stakeholder Group for the Marine Life Protection Act, and Nigella Hilgarth, Executive Director of the Birch Aquarium at Scripps, is now available in the Show Archive. Tune in as we talk about California's Marine Life Protection Act and federal and state undersea reserves. You'll be surprised who was most interested in setting aside these special undersea "do not disturb" locales, and who continues to benefit from them (hint: if you breathe oxygen, this means you). Learn more as Treehuggers International heads underwater with San Diego Coastkeeper and the Birch Aquarium at Scripps to talk about marine conservation and the Marine Life Protection Act.

An overcast morning in La Jolla.
(photo courtesy of Patrick Smith)

Treehuggers International recently revisited our conversation with author, retired California State Parks ranger, and Anza-Borrego Desert State Park paleontology expert Paul Remeika, currently working on a revised edition of his landmark book Geology of Anza-Borrego: Edge of Creation, for a fascinating look into the layers of fossils, rock, and time captured in the Salton Trough and on natural display at the "outdoor museum" of Anza-Borrego, and a discussion on the myriad of fault blocks and tectonic forces which make Anza-Borrego one of the most seismically active areas in North America. Listen below in the Show Archive for an encore presentation of Paul Remeika on Treehuggers International.

Treehuggers International's recent conversation with Darren Smith, Resource Ecologist with California State Parks and the Natural Resources Program Manager for Torrey Pines State Natural Reserve, is now available in the Show Archive. Learn about threats facing the reserve from invasive species and invisible-to-the-naked eye effects of urbanization, how Torrey Pines remains a remnant of the rapidly vanishing native Southern California coastal ecosystem, and get the scoop on San Diego's most revered tree, which lends it's name to a school, a road, businesses, even a gliderport!

Treehuggers International friend and guest Rick Halsey landed some prime real estate in the November 26th edition of the Los Angeles Times to talk about the California Chaparral Institute and his work preserving and protecting California chaparral.  Nice job Rick!  Read the article HERE, and scroll down to the Show Archive to hear Rick's appearances on Treehuggers International.

Treehuggers International's recent discussion about the future of Trestles and San Onofre State Beach with Steve Long, retired California State Parks ranger, surfer, and Senior Advisor to the San Onofre Foundation, is now available below in the Show Archive. Get an insider's take on the battles behind the long-proposed toll road at San Onofre State Beach from someone who spent a career watching over Trestles and the San Onofre backcountry in the service of the citizens of California. Steve Long's appearance on Treehuggers International is now in the Show Archive.

Taking it to the beach, by rail.
(photo courtesy of Don Tormey / L.A. Times)

Treehuggers International's conversation with Bill Howell and Cara Furio from the San Diego Natural History Museum Canyoneers is now available in the Show Archive. Learn all about the Canyoneers' mission and history and ties to their original stomping grounds in Florida Canyon, plus Tommy geeks out on oak trees and Cara discusses handling rattlesnakes. Make time for the San Diego Natural History Museum Canyoneers in the Treehuggers International Show Archive.

Treehuggers International's conversation with Ben McCue from Wildcoast is available in the Show Archive. Tommy and Ben discuss the problem of pollution and sewage in the Tijuana River Estuary, strides being made on both sides of the U.S. / Mexico border to clean up the Tijuana River, and the new Monte de Los Olivos sewage treatment plant in Tijuana. Also discussed is the suspension of the San Diego County Ocean Water Quality Program, which monitors the water quality at area beaches, and the recent Playas Limpias Mexico Parks and Beaches Clean-Up Day. Para ver el website de Wildcoast en Español, chasque AQUÍ.

Tijuana River from Sunset Trail, Tijuana Slough National Wildlife Refuge.

Treehuggers International's conversation with Rick Halsey from the California Chaparral Institute and the San Diego Regional Fire Safety Forum is available in the Show Archive. Topics include holistic approaches to land management and fire prevention, concerns over the prescribed burning of backcountry chaparral, fuel management issues, and Rick's visit to the Tassajara Zen Center in Big Sur. Review the lessons of the October 2007 Firestorms with a chaparral expert and fire professional. Give this NEW conversation with Rick Halsey a listen below in the Show Archive.

Treehuggers International's conversation with Patrick Valentino, the former Executive Director and current Director of Fund Raising and Development at the California Wolf Center in Julian, is now available in the Show Archive. Topics include the Gray Wolf's removal and subsequent reinstatement to the Endangered Species List, the rescue and reintroduction of the Mexican Wolf, and areas of conflict (and hopefully, resolution) between wolves and ranchers.

Click on the video below to see Clint Eastwood talk about why the fight to save Trestles and San Onofre State Park remains important, and why constant vigilance is needed to ensure the park remains as it was when it was set aside by Governor Ronald Reagan in 1971.

One of Treehuggers International's first guests, environmental geologist Jacques Lord, recently appeared on NBC 7/39 along with Lauri Walker of the Center for Sustainable Energy to talk about his plans to rebuild his Rancho Bernardo home to green standards and LEED certification.  Jacques and his family lost their home in the Witch Creek Fire.  Click HERE to see Greg Bledsoe's piece about Jacques Lord on NBC 7/39.

CARLSBAD DESALINATION UPDATE: The State Lands Commission joined the California Coastal Commission in approving the permit for a $300 million desalination plant at the Encina Power Plant in Carlsbad, with only token mitigation of its environmental impacts taken into account. While creating much-needed fresh water, the plant will irrepairably harm marine life, not to mention use more energy to power it's reverse osmosis process of filtering seawater than it takes to pump water from the San Joaquin Delta to Southern California, a process which is already energy-intensive to the extreme. Desalination has the potential to be a smart component to meeting our fresh water needs in San Diego, but this is a poor approach to an otherwise good idea.

Help keep our California State Parks open.

Tommy Hough is honored to be named a 2008 Clean Water Award recipient from the San Diego Chapter of the Surfider Foundation. Many thanks to Bill Hickman and Elizabeth Willes from Surfirder who stopped by the FM 94/9 studios to present the award on the air.

Former San Diego fire chief Jeff Bowman and Rick Halsey of the California Chaparral Institute have been in the news as the San Diego Regional Fire Safety Forum issued its list of recommendations regarding the 2007 Wildfires. Listen to Rick Halsey's and Jeff Bowman's appearances on Treehuggers International below in the Show Archive.

Kama Dean and Pro Peninsula made front page news in the San Diego Union-Tribune.  Nice job!  Read the article HERE, and listen to the show below in the Show Archive.

Listener Christina hugs a tree in San Francisco.

"This generation must come to terms with nature, and I think we're challenged, as mankind has never been challenged before, to prove our maturity and our mastery...not of nature, but of ourselves."   -   Rachel Carson

We live in a beautiful corner of the United States, with a coastline admired the world over and a backcountry ripe for exploration, but environmentally, there's no denying it: we've got our hands full in San Diego.

Southern California may be one of the most densely populated urban areas in the nation, but if you look around and study the land, it's easy to see how inhospitable the region can be. While our dry Mediterranean climate has made our region justly famous with vacationers, beach lovers, and sun worshippers, it also leaves us with little annual rainfall, irregular and unpredictable hydration cycles, and an overall deficit of fresh water.

Enabled by water pumped in from dams and rivers hundreds of miles away across several faultlines and two deserts, we live in an artificially-created bowl of sustainability, as we share our dwindling fresh water supply with other thirsty southwestern cities like Phoenix, Las Vegas, Tucson, and Los Angeles. Our ability to be a thriving civilization or a threatened outpost, clinging on the dry edge of the continent, will continue to be determined by our access to fresh water. The next time we have a major earthquake, and we're due in Southern California (the last "Big One" in our end of the state was in 1857) it won't just be your cellphone that doesn't work; it'll be your toilet, your shower, and the availability of fresh water.  Save some now.

Instead of staying out of river basins and flood zones, we've enabled construction in nature's "keep out" areas by corralling and straightening our river channels into concrete culverts, which "flush" litter and other built-up material onto our beaches during rainy weather. We thoughtlessly throw cigarette butts and trash out the windows of our cars and trucks and pour toxic materials into storm drains, all of which eventually winds up on the beach when we receive our occasional rainfalls. Studies continue to show our oceans becoming more sick from pollution and overuse every year, as an area of trash twice the size of Texas floats in the middle of the Pacific Ocean.

Despite the toughest air pollution regulations in the country and the rise in popularity of hybrid vehicles, we continue to treat our skies like a sewer from the sheer volume of humans on the road, ships in our harbors, and aircraft in our skies. We in California even have to sue the EPA in order to receive waivers to regulate tailpipe emissions to make our air cleaner. Even in Southern California's highest mountain ranges, the effects of air pollution can be found in slowly-strangled pine trees on the highest peaks, as the odor of emissions and air pollutants rise and collect in canyons and along hillsides, smogging out the views of our mountains.

Nature has genetically designed much of Southern California's chaparral-covered landscape to burn, since our long, hot summers and brief, damp winters don't allow enough time for organic matter to decay and break down. Yet developers continue to encroach upon and build in highly fire-prone areas, and our city and county remain deficient in terms of basic fire-fighting services.

We choose to live here, yet slowly, humans are extinguishing what we love best about living in Southern California in the first place. As environmental geologist Jacques Lord describes, "we're at war with nature," and when we fight with nature, "we're gonna lose."  It doesn't have to be this way.

On Treehuggers International we look for solutions to Southern California's environmental challenges, in a laid back, conversational atmosphere with newsmakers, activists, community leaders, public officials, environmental professionals, and academics, all working to keep Southern California green and clean.

We'll get you up to speed on volunteer opportunities in your neighborhood and in California's world-class national and state parks, open spaces, and wilderness areas, we'll dispense day-to-day wisdom about little things you can do to keep our region environmentally unique and special, and we'll let you know about community events and activities with environmental organizations, as well as hiking trails and outdoor activities you may not have realized are right in your backyard.

To hear previous editions of Treehuggers International broadcast on Seattle radio, click HERE and scroll down.  Installments include a two-part series on Stehekin, Washington, a conversation with The Wilderness Society, and catching up with the crew from Grist.

Keep e-mailing us your photos of you hugging trees outdoors on the trail, in your yard, or anywhere. We're slowly building a photo gallery of Treehuggers International fans from around the world. Be sure to include your name, where the photo was taken, and (if possible) what kind of tree it is. Thanks.

"Eventually we'll realize...if we destroy the ecosystem, we destroy ourselves."   -   Dr. Jonas Salk