The Sierra Club And Environmentalism Part I

Dale Matson

Would The Sierra Club Allow The John Muir Trail To Be Built Today?

Muir Hut at Muir Pass JMT

I have been an outdoorsman most of my life. My family had a cabin near Gould City in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula. My dad, brother and I used to fish some of the local lakes and streams. It would bother me when I would see beer bottles and various other forms of trash in the otherwise pristine streams and lakes. We also had a lake home on Tipsico Lake in Lower Michigan where I spent 20 summers. Our boat was a canoe.

At one time I considered joining the Sierra Club even though I knew nothing of the Sierras or the club’s founder, John Muir. I had planned on becoming a conservation officer after high school and was a member of the Forestry Club in high school. I twice attended the Michigan United Conservation Club Camp near Baldwin Michigan.

Much of my later professional life was spent outdoors as a plumber, arborist, heavy equipment operator and landscape maintenance foreman. During this time I designed and built an earth sheltered passive solar home. I was also a trail runner and ran the Ice Age trails in the Southern Kettle Moraine area of Wisconsin that was named after John Muir.

How ironic that I would eventually wind up hiking the John Muir Trail in the Sierra Nevada Mountains. I wrote a book about it called, A Pilgrim’s Progress And The John Muir Trail. As an ultra runner, I have run many of the trails in Yosemite and Kings Canyon National Parks. In later years I backpacked much of Kings Canyon National Park and have been a civilian volunteer for the Fresno County Sheriff’s Department Search and Rescue Team. I have written books about this also.

I have also had an opportunity to meet John Muir through his writings and understand his love for the wilderness and mountains. I have always seen him as a kind of priest of the wilderness. There were many others during the same era that encouraged folks to partake of the healing balm of wilderness experiences. Men like LeConte, Mather, Pinchot and Solomons helped make it happen. It was a dream of Solomons that helped make the John Muir Trail a reality. Much of this wilderness is just east of my home in Fresno California.

While few would argue against calling these men environmentalists, it must be said that they were also humanists in the sense that their stewardship and preservation of these wilderness areas was for the enjoyment of future generations of people. These areas were not being set aside as animal preserves as much as they were set aside as places for people. I believe they were advocates for humans interfacing with the environment. There was a kind of evangelical zeal about this and an environmental advocacy that led to land being set aside in perpetuity for this purpose. This was a right and noble use of political influence on governmental policy, funding and oversight.

In the 21^st century, things are changing regarding environmentalism and advocacy. I am becoming increasingly aware of a kind of activism that is not pro environment as much as it is anti people. Others are noting this too. Ken Murray MD, a member of the High Sierra Volunteer Trail Crew made the following comment: This trend represents the ongoing loss of national resources — our trails and the access they provide. And these losses seem to be happening without public awareness or debate. Yes, there are some people who believe that wilderness areas are better off without trails or the ability of people to access them; they want the land kept pure and believe that the harder it is to get into the forests, the better. They hold as their scripture the 1964 Federal Wilderness Act, which designates areas “where the earth and its community of life are untrammeled by man.” I read the Wilderness Act differently, since it also speaks of wilderness lands being preserved “for the people,” as places where “man himself is a visitor.”

The first part of this essay was to provide a sense of who I am and some of my experiences as an outdoorsman. I do care about the wilderness and consider myself an environmentalist. I will conclude part one of this essay with a simple question. “Would the Sierra Club allow the John Muir Trail to be built today?”

Part II is here: http://midsierramusing.blogspot.com/2014/03/the-sierra-club-and-environmentalism_21.html

Drifters and Heroes

Dale Matson

I was recently cycling on the Eaton Trail here in Fresno. It was my usual duty ride with fitness and calorie consumption in mind. Running is my drug of choice. I passed a young man sitting on a bench with his bike next to him. He had an assortment of gear spread out on the bench. He was obviously “passing through” and was drying out from the morning rain.

Fresno has it’s share of those passing through and I usually pass on by these folks but wasn’t certain that he might have been a purposeful traveler. Was he a Telemachus or a Mike Horn or to a lesser degree, was he like me? Was this a journey of adventure or aimless wandering? His gear was fairly new and in good repair. He had on an REI jacket.

I stopped and pushed myself backwards till I came along side. I wanted to know his story. His hands and nails were clean and his teeth were brushed and white. It initially seemed like this person who identified himself as Paul was in the midst of an adventure.

And then things began to unravel. As he told his story, things did not add up. He was originally from Colorado, or was it San Diego? He was writing a book on the Pacific Crest Trail or had he read a book? He had not heard of John Muir or the John Muir Trail. There was a Swiss cheese type knowledge base he was working from.  He was attempting to live on $200.00 a month sent by his mother. He was headed to Lake Tahoe or such places with no map and no sense where Friant road would lead him. He asked me if any of the mountain passes were open. I mentioned I-80 and he guessed Highway 50 might work to. He guessed that the road (Highway 120) through Yosemite would also take him across and was surprised when I said it was closed in the winter.

Time and the sequencing of travel seemed elusive for him. Many of his statements seemed to start, stop, restart and begin once again. He would pause for some time, I would begin to say something and he would continue by beginning afresh and running over the top of my words. It was a difficult dance. He was cordial yet flat of affect. As I write this I feel like I am charting a hospital intake interview. I eventually bid him goodbye and gave him a blessing but my heart was somewhat sad for him.

He said he had no place and no friends. He was on a journey but there was joylessness to it. He seemed disconnected even from the immediacy of the surroundings. Perhaps the rhythm of his pedals provides a sense of peace and progress. Some would say he is as free as a bird. He said he had a sister somewhere who might help him write a book about his travels.Thinking about Paul reminded me somewhat of Jack Kerouac who wrote of his travels. Kerouac’s book “On The Road” had the same feel about it.

My heroes in life were and are pilgrims. St. Paul had three missionary journeys (one might even say adventures). Mike Horn accomplished the unimaginable goal of circumnavigating the earth at the Arctic Circle. Orland Bartholomew skied the John Muir Trail alone. There is an absolute necessity of inspired dreams, goal setting, planning, self-preparation and closure.

Where is Paul in all this? What is the difference between a drifter and a hero on a journey of self-discovery? Hopefully Paul will find himself along the way.               

   

The Sierra Nevada Mountains Viewed From Fresno CA On A Clear Day

Dale Matson

The following photographs were taken about 0730 this morning from the North side of Fresno. This is the view on a clear day after a rain here with snow in the Sierras to the East. The photographs were taken with a Sony Cyber-Shot DSC-HX50V digital pocket camera. The section of mountains photographed is about 40 miles east of Fresno. NOTE: Click on Images to enlarge.

I realize Fresno California does not have a lot of crystal clear days but when we do, our view is worth the wait. I purposely did not crop the last two photographs to show what the view is like from the ground level. Fresno is about 290' in elevation here.

Why Trails Are Fading From The Map

Ken Murray MD

One of the great things about living in California’s Central Valley is the easy access to one of the great mountain ranges of the world, the Sierra Nevada, and its beautiful forests. Unfortunately, through no fault of anyone in the valley, that access is being threatened.

As a lifelong Californian, I've grown to love the mountains so much that I've done volunteer work in the forests of the Sierra for the past 15 years. And over that time, I've seen a dramatic shift in the condition of the forests. The problems are twofold: a lack of funding and a lack of personnel.

The problem is particularly acute in the Sequoia National Forest, most easily accessed from Bakersfield or Porterville. It has no forest rangers. Let me be very clear: I do not use the word “ranger” like others, who count anyone wearing a Forest Service uniform as a ranger. What I am talking about is the absence of the traditional “ranger-naturalist” who spends his or her time tromping the trails.

These are the rangers who interact with people in the backcountry, protect our resources on the ground, maintain the structures related to trails, check permits, and help people in trouble. Interacting with such folks remains a very fond memory of my youth, and it was part of what brings me back to the mountains.

Such people are gone now. Yes, you will find a few rangers who work in the information booths and offices, where the cars park, but there is no one away from the roads. This has translated into a slow but steady degradation of the forest, and the rise of destructive visitor behavior, such as graffiti on trees or the creation of fires when conditions are dangerous.

It’s not just the rangers who are gone. The professional trail maintainers have disappeared, too. Not so long ago, teams of such people maintained trails, using only “primitive” tools like shovels and handsaws. Skills with such tools are crucial because one rule of working in Forest Service wilderness is that any kind of engine or wheeled device is prohibited. Trails can’t be maintained with chain saws or wheelbarrows.

Why are all these skilled people gone? It’s money, of course. The Forest Service budget to the Sierra forests has been cut on an almost an annual basis, with frontline workers bearing the brunt of the cuts.

Who fills the gap? Volunteers like me. Today, all the trail maintenance done in the Sequoia National Forest is performed by a half-dozen volunteer groups, members of which spend their own time and money to get special training, buy their own tools, drive up to the forest, and work hard for days or even weeks. For example, my group, the High Sierra Volunteer Trail Crew, has restored many trails that had been left to deteriorate.

Such work has to be done. Trails are artificial things. Water washes them out, trees fall on them, and rocks crash onto them. If these problems are not fixed, trails become impassible in just a few years.

Most trails require work every year, or they deteriorate. But such maintenance doesn’t always happen. Two years ago, I led a crew to repair a portion of the remote Pacific Crest Trail, which had gotten no attention in almost a decade. This is one of our great national scenic trails, yet it took my crew of 15 two hours to find it. It was so terribly overgrown that it took 30 days of work over a three-year span to clear just a few miles of trail.

This sort of thing is not just a labor of love but also a labor of public health. Trails need maintenance not only because people wish to travel in the wilderness, but also because poorly maintained trails erode the watershed, diminishing the quality of water in Central Valley cities.

Volunteers, of course, can do only a small part of this work. At least that has been the standard thinking. But now, there are only volunteers. With no one else chipping in, we don't merely lose access to trails. We lose trails altogether.

The trails are organized into a system, and “system trails” are required, by law, to be maintained. But when trails can’t be maintained, as is the case now, the government complies with the law by “decommissioning” poorly maintained trails from the trail system. And decommissioned trails literally disappear from maps. One of the best mapmakers for the Sierra, Tom Harrison, tells me that Forest Service personnel regularly instruct him to remove trails from his maps. Eventually, no one knows the trail was ever there.

This trend represents the ongoing loss of national resources — our trails and the access they provide. And these losses seem to be happening without public awareness or debate. Yes, there are some people who believe that wilderness areas are better off without trails or the ability of people to access them; they want the land kept pure and believe that the harder it is to get into the forests, the better. They hold as their scripture the 1964 Federal Wilderness Act, which designates areas “where the earth and its community of life are untrammeled by man.”

I read the Wilderness Act differently, since it also speaks of wilderness lands being preserved “for the people,” as places where “man himself is a visitor.” Access to our public lands is a right of all Americans, and the huge system of public lands is something that distinguishes America from most of the world’s other countries. It also makes the Central Valley a special place to live. With the decline of forests and trails, we are losing a part of California — and part of our American selves.

http://www.redding.com/news/2014/feb/09/dr-ken-murray-why-trails-are-fading-from-the-map/

Ken Murray, MD, is a retired clinical assistant professor of family medicine at the University of Southern California. Via ZocaloPublicSquare.org.

A Prayer For California In A Time Of Drought

Fr. Dale Matson

The San Joaquin Valley is now the valley of the dry bones. Lord bring us rain.

Our crops will not be planted and our fruit trees will perish. Lord bring us rain. 

Our nut trees will all dry up and our lands will lay fallow. Lord we ask for rain.

The soil is too dry and parched and hard for planting. Lord where is our rain?

Our winter hills remain a lifeless brown. Lord, Your land needs rain.

It is a harsh winter of rain and snow for others and still, we have no rain.

Lord our lands thirst and our souls are in torment. Please bring us rain.

Peaks lack snow and the source streams are drying up. Snow is needed Lord.

Our aquifers and wells no longer hold water. Fill them once again.

Your people, your creatures and your land cry for rain. Please make it be.

Your people cannot be fruitful. They can do no work. Do not hold back the rain.

You are the source and from Your hand we feed. It is not of us we know.

Give us our rain in due season and with it Your Glory show. Amen  

Monterey Bay California

Dale Matson

One of the advantages to Fresno’s location in (almost) the center of California (North Fork is the center), is the access it provides to the mountains to the east and and the central coast to the west. Over the years we have done overnights and day trips to Monterey. It is about a three-hour drive to Monterey from Fresno and it can be quite a welcome respite in the heat of summer here.

My first visit to the area was Infantry training in 1967 at Fort Ord. I do remember enjoying the elaborate Enlisted Men’s Club that was right on the beach. As it would turn out, my group that came after finishing basic training in Ft. Leonard Wood MO was only there for two weeks and was sent back to Ft. Leonard Wood for AIT training as Combat Engineers. There is a sadness to revisit the area that is now California State University – Monterey. Many of the old buildings are abandoned and filled with graffiti.

We have driven, hiked, biked and run most of the area around Monterey Bay including Seaside to the north, Pacific Grove to the west and Carmel to the south. There is great bike path going north from Monterey along the coast and there is a bike lane on 17-mile drive.

I had an opportunity to run the Big Sur Marathon twice. It begins in Big Sur and ends in Carmel. It is considered one of the most beautiful marathon courses in the world. I especially like the view of the iconic Bixby Bridge but there are some serious hills on this course.

We have been to Point Lobos several times and enjoyed the ocean views and sea life including migrating whales passing the point. Watch out for poison oak along the trails! There is also a Monarch butterfly park in Pacific Grove where migrating butterflies overwinter. There are also several charter boats for fishing and whale watching. There are Kayaking and scuba diving opportunities also. The Monterey Bay Aquarium is great for kids and has almost 2 million visitors a year. One of the 21 Roman Catholic Missions is in Carmel. http://www.carmelmission.org/.

There are some things that are always a part of our visit. We always take in the colorful Monterey Fisherman’s Wharf with its clam chowder, shops and restaurants. In addition to the restaurants we also hit the sweet shop for a chocolate treat of one sort or another (does it matter?) We also visit 17-mile drive with the wonderful ocean views, stately mansions and iconic stops like the ‘Lone Cyprus’, which is one of the most photographed objects in the world. If you drive it, you will get a map at the gate house when you pay your $10.00 entrance fee. The map will locate and describe all of the views at the numbered pull out locations.

Sometimes my wife and I just sit on a rock by the ocean and let the smells, breezes and views fill us to the brim. It is a wonderful place. Each visit brings back all the past memories in a cumulative contentedness. Click on photographs to enlarge.