| The Magazine of the CALIFORNIA ACADEMY OF SCIENCES |
|
|
|
Letters to the editor Questions for QuincyYour article on the Quincy Library Group and its legislation pending in the Senate (Spring 1998) left out three important points. First, our national forests are part of a national system. Congress passed the National Forest Management Act (NFMA) to provide a consistent basis for managing these important public lands. However, passage of the Quincy bill will circumvent the forest plan amendment process created by the NFMA, which requires full environmental and economic analysis and public participation opportunities <i>before</i> new land management decisions are made. Second, the Quincy plan is inconsistent with the latest science including the Sierra Nevada Ecosystem Project (SNEP). For example, the Quincy plan would allow logging in 159,000 acres of ecologically significant forest recommended in the SNEP report for protection in an old-growth forest reserve system. Also, the Quincy bill would apply an experimental fire risk reduction strategy across the entire landscape even though SNEP and all the scientists recommend focusing on the areas where fire risk is known to be greatest—the foothills, primarily in the central Sierra, where threats to public safety and private property are greatest. Finally, neither the Forest Service nor the Quinicy group is accountable to the public—the owners of the land. The Forest Service has already send more than $15 million above their regular budgets to the national forests in the Quincy area. As a result, today, more logging is going on in these forests than any others in California. And, some of this money would have been used to protect communities in other parts of the state, including southern California where fire risk is most severe. Our system of national forests should remain governed by our system of federal laws and regulations. Special treatment for Quincy only means new problems somewhere elese. We and the 140 other conservation organizations across the country will continue to work to defeat this controversial, ill-conceived bill. We commend Senator Boxer for sanding up to protect our national forests and urge those who share our concerns to let Senator Feinstein know. Louis Blumberg Only the Turtle Knows This letter is a friendly comment about the sea turtle article (Spring 1998) and California Wild in general. When I was trained by the National Marine Fisheries Serice Southwest Region to be a biologist-observer for the driftnet fishery, we spent a fair amount of time on field identification of sea turtles. Now, the top photo on page 18 shows an excellent view of the dorsal surface of a sea turtle. The caption identifies it as a green turtle, but look carefully at the prefrontal scales on the head, clearly visible, of which I count four, not the two I believe a green turtle would have. Also, I think I can make out five costal scutes on either side of the carapace, not the four we would expect on a green turtle. My tentative ID: we are looking at a loggerhead, or perhaps an olive ridley, sea turtle. Am I right? As a field biologist, I love this type of problem. I still admire the magazine very much, including the changes in format. It seems to me the changes made are a natural part of advances in graphic design technology. I do prefer the old title, Pacific Discovery. But as long as the standard of content remains high, the publication is a winner. Dean Portman You’re right. On further inspection we believe it’s not a green turtl4e—or a loggerhead, or an olive ridley. Our experts tell us it’s most likely a hawksbill.—Ed. Spirit of Mary Austin Botanist Willis Linn Jepson encountered Mary Austin in the southern Sierra Nevada on July 14, 1900. On a plant-collecting excursion, Jepson had broken camp at 4:30 a.m. while en route to Kearsarge Pass, and soon met a party of three with horses and mules. In his unpublished diary/fieldbook Jepson recalled that “…the rider on the first horse was petit; and as the party came nearer still, the first rider called to me: ‘Please put your plant press out of sight. That is Mr. Austin back there and if he sees your plant press we shan’t get to Bullfrog Lake today!’. It was Mary Austin, author to be of The Land of Little Rain and Lost Borders! They stopped and we held high converse on the trail…And then they went on swinging down the zig-zag of the trail. But as they went, Mary Austin, dressed in trousers, turned in the saddle and called back, ‘I knew you thought I was a boy!” In October, 1906, Austin wrote Jepson from Carmel, “I remember the botany man. I have always entertained a notion that until I first took my hat off, he thought I was a boy. I am now deep in a book called Lost Borders and will not emerge from it until some time in November. I shall be in the neighborhood of Berkeley after that…in search of entertainment and shall be glad to renew the acquaintance but bear in mind that any plan of mine is likely to be thrown out at any moment by a new book swooping down on me demanded to be written at the rate of sixteen hours a day…” Austin’s remarks reveal not only a woman of spirit, but one with a puckish sense of humor. Robert Ornduff Too Glossy by Half Wow. We are really impressed with the great new look you have for California Wild. Looking at your “Letters” page, it seems strange to me that somewhat is criticizing the new design for being too “glossy.” Do they want to fault the magazine for looking “too good”? Cathy Cranston |
Fall 1998
|
