1 peatduster...claims about extraterrestrial influences on early human culture like the nasca lines....

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PEATDUSTER Newsletter for the Delta-Sierra Group, Mother Lode Chapter

Visit us at www.sierraclub.org/mother-lode/delta-sierra

Volume 51 Number 3 P-1 Printed on Recycled Electrons May June July 2020

Explore, enjoy and protect the planet.

The Wise Owl Presents 100 Environmental Reasons Why America Should Not Elect Donald Trump. A Story From Jim Marsh. Fungus Among Us. Get Your Mail-In Ballot. Condor Country, The Book. Puentes Defined. Plus Much, Much More Or Less.

Photo: Tom Hora

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Explore, enjoy and protect the planet. Explore, enjoy and protect the planet. Explore, enjoy and protect the planet. Explore, enjoy and protect the planet. Explore, enjoy and protect the planet. The Sierra Club - Explore, Enjoy and Protect the Planet

Volume 51 Number 3 P-2 Peatduster Delta-Sierra Group May June July 2020

FROM THE EDITOR Delta-Sierra Group has no meetings or events planned for May, June or July and we cannot speak for the months that follow. You know as much as I do about the corona virus and we share a whole lot more we don’t know. Any activity that involves close contact like a meeting or carpooling for example, could be fatal. Chair Margo Praus and I had a telephone chat in April to discuss if we should even send out a newsletter for May, June and July. Yes, great idea, but what should we write about? We can’t predict when life will open up again making us safe from COVID-19. She basically told me that if you write, they will read! No, she didn’t really say that, but I was given a very long leash and plenty of latitude (maybe even some longitude) to do what I want. So, among other things, here we go.

El Cóndor Pasa

Have you ever read and finished a book and you were disappointed because you had just read and finished that book? Of course you have. During the summer between my 7th and 8th grades, I read every book in the Hayward California library written by Jules Verne. I could not get enough.

In Condor Country: A Portrait of a Landscape, Its Denizens, and Its Defenders has that same impact. David Darlington presents the historic and environmental politics, policies, and practices from the early 1900’s to 1987 when his book was published about the California condor and the Carrizo Plain. No organization was left out and included the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Bureau of Land Management, Kern and San Luis Obispo Counties, the Sierra Club, Audubon, Friends of the Earth and a few more.

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This was the age when the word “environment” was being defined to include habitat restoration, extinction of species, land management, bounties on coyotes, hunting regulations with lead bullets and a whole lot more. Sierra Club and Audubon often squabbled between themselves about the best way to save the condor – in the wild or by stealing the eggs and raising the chicks in a zoo jail under the name of “captive breeding”.

We meet two persons, Eben and Ian McMillan who seem to know everything about everything surrounding their ranches. They abhor what was happening to the condor and the Carrizo Plain.

(Artist sketch of Eben by Gordon Morrison and Internet photo of Ian)

Photo: Charles Evans

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The previous page show that most of the roads are just dirt. There are a lot of rock outcrops to explore up and down the plain. The photo below captures a portion of Soda Lake. All photos of the Carrizo Plain are generously provided by Charles Evans except the Internet image of a Blunt Nose Lizard to the right. The Carrizo Plain National Monument which was designated as a monument in 2001 is a stretch of land that sits on the San Andreas Fault. It is about 50 miles long and 15 miles wide. According to Wikipedia, “The Carrizo Plain is home to 13 species listed as endangered, and in this small area has the largest concentration of endangered species in California. Some of these species include the San Joaquin kit fox, the San Joaquin antelope squirrel, the blunt-nosed leopard lizard, the giant kangaroo rat, greater and lesser Sandhill cranes, and the California condor.”


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In the 1960’s a Spanish land grant was subdivided into 7200 2.5 acre plots by optimistic real estate developers. According to their own advertising fliers, developers that divided up a 18,000 acre ranch believed that the California State Water Project might bring water to the area. This scatter-brain plan would have changed bare land into a town for 25,000 people they named California Valley. It is located just north of Soda Lake, a dry alkaline lake bed. Had it flourished, it would have been the condor’s demise for sure.

Early on some fire service and a swimming pool were constructed according to Darlington. In May of 1963, 23,000 prospective home buyers were invited to a free barbeque. It must have been a glorious day, but the project flopped due to lack of quality water. A community center is still there and provides a telephone, a porta-potty, and water that may be unsafe to drink. Between 1960 and 2000, trash and lots of old cars were dumped in the California Valley area, mostly by local residents. This posed serious environmental issues. It has been cleaned up, and now less than 500 people live in the area.


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If you pretend the book was published in 2020 and changed a few names and situations, you would think that history is repeating itself again! There are a few copies available at Amazon.com for around $5 or $6 with free shipping. The photo by Charles Evans on the previous page is a pictograph created by Chumash Native Americans. Estimates are that the Chumash people first populated the Carrizo Plain about 2000 BCE but mostly abandoned it, possibly due to drought, about CE 600.

Glyph and Graph Primer

Pictographs typically are images painted on rocks using natural pigments. A petroglyph is an image carved, incised or scratched into stone.

Arborglyphs, dendroglyphs or silvaglyphs are the carving of shapes and symbols into the bark of living trees. A heart shape with a message saying, “BE LOVES LB” would be typical. The word hieroglyph literally means "sacred carvings". The Egyptians first used hieroglyphs exclusively for inscriptions carved or painted on temple walls. Etched into the high desert of southern Peru more than a millennium ago, we find enigmatic Nasca Lines also known as geoglyphs or ground drawings. Some believe they were created to encourage rainfall, while others think they may represent star constellations. Erich von Däniken born 14 April 1935 is a Swiss author of several books which make claims about extraterrestrial influences on early human culture like the Nasca Lines. For you UFO followers, his best-selling book Chariots of the Gods, published in 1968, will certainly spark your interest in these mysterious lines.

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TAKE THE SURVEY, PLEASE The Board of Directors, committee members and advisors that make up San Joaquin County’s Regional Transportation Plan & Sustainable Communities Strategy, or just SJCOG, requests your help. Please tell them your priorities by taking an interactive survey for Envision 2050, a plan for the future. You will have fun helping them. For example the first response on the survey asks you to “drag” your three top priorities to a place on the web page. You get to choose from a list that includes Commuting, Climate Change, Technology, Vibrant Neighbors, Housing, and Jobs & Economy. Each item is defined with a mouse over popup explanation. Unlike those political and environmental surveys you get by mail that are just a ruse to get a donation, this survey allows you to provide comments and seems to have a meaningful purpose. Here is the link to their website and survey: https://www.sjcog.org/275/RTP-Sustainable-Communities-Strategy

Editor’s Note: Delta-Sierra Group Co-Chair Paul Plathe is a member of the Citizen's Advisory Committee for SJCOG which is part of this project. The region includes all the cities that make up San Joaquin County - Acampo, Clements, Escalon, Farmington. French Camp, Holt, Lathrop, Linden, Lockeford, Lodi, Manteca, Ripon, Stockton, Thornton, Tracy, Vernalis, Victor and Woodbridge.

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With or Without Us? By Jim Marsh, Friends of the Calaveras River

For the last several months I’ve been keeping an eye on one of nature’s creations that often catch my attention in the fall of the year as foliage falls. If you’ve ever chanced upon, and actually recognized you were looking at a praying mantis egg case welded tightly to a willow branch, or to a rose bush cane in your yard or even stuck to the pea trellis in the garden in late fall after the vines are gone, you know the feeling of mystery the things give me. If you feel it too, we are not alone. Last fall, on the floodplain of the Calaveras River just west of the Wood Memorial Bridge on the University of Pacific campus, I came across one. It was attached very near the top of a dry curly dock flower stem facing north in the shade of some seed clusters almost 4-inches above the ground. It’s dark hue closely matched the typical magenta-tinged burnt umber of the summer sun scorched dock so closely, I would have missed it had my glance not been snagged for a second on an untypical swollen spot on the dead plant’s stem. My initial encounter was a pleasant surprise. For the months after I checked up on it on my weekly strolls through the area. I pictured one day I might find the dry stem blown over or entirely away. I pictured I might find that some human unaware of its presence or their frolicking dog out on a walk had knocked it down and irreparably damaged or totally destroyed the mini-bug incubator. On the more positive, but long shot side, I most looked forward to finding it one day, as I have a few times before with two neat lines of pin holes in the upper, whitish edge. Was this circumstantial evidence that a successful hatching had taken place? What I did not dare envision, but all along had secretly hoped I would one day find, was exactly what I encountered on my most recent visit and documented with a few photos. From a few yards away I could only make out a greenish fluff clinging to the dry leaves and seed clusters near where I knew the months old egg sac to be. There was a stiff breeze that morning. From that distance I assumed a bit of something blown from some nearby plant had been snared by the tall dock stem at exactly the location of the egg mass.

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But on closer inspection I was excited to witness a birthday celebration in full swing. I had apparently arrived just moments after the first mantis babes had emerged. One or two of the braver souls were venturing down the stem. The majority were gathered near the egg sac. There is still a cluster of the last to emerge, all tightly packed together, hanging from the bottom of the sac. As they quickly dried and unfolded they wandered a short distance away briefly hanging out with their several dozens of siblings before getting on with their new lives.

I couldn’t help but marvel at the intricate, delicate origami Mother Nature had under-taken to fold that many complicated, gangly living beings, that compactly, into an envelope that small and for all the months it took them to go from relatively simple single fertilized egg cells to fully formed nymphs.

Being so small, delicate and vulnerable their lives will, no doubt, not be easy. Few will survive for long, but the ones who do I am confident will continue their kind since I’ve encountered both adult male and female mantises near this exact spot for all the years I’ve walked there.

Whether humanity universally first recognizes and then chooses to effectively use its only true super power or not, watching that squirming gaggle of miniature mantises starting their lives last week assured me that with or without us life will go on and miracles do happen.

Photos: Jim Marsh

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How the Milky Way Was Made by Natalie Diaz My river was once unseparated. Was Colorado. Red- fast flood. Able to take anything it could wet—in a wild rush— all the way to Mexico. Now it is shattered by fifteen dams over one-thousand four-hundred and fifty miles, pipes and pumps filling swimming pools and sprinklers in Los Angeles and Las Vegas. To save our fish, we lifted them from our skeletoned river beds, loosed them in our heavens, set them aster — ‘Achii ‘ahan, Mojave salmon, Colorado pikeminnow— Up there they glide, gilled with stars. You see them now— god-large, gold-green sides, moon-white belly and breast— making their great speeded way across the darkest hours, rippling the sapphired sky-water into a galaxy road. The blurred wake they drag as they make their path through the night sky is called ‘Achii ‘ahan nyuunye— our words for Milky Way. Coyote too is up there, crouched in the moon, after his failed attempt to leap it, fishing net wet and empty, slung over his back— a prisoner blue and dreaming of unzipping the salmon’s silked skins with his teeth. O, the weakness of any mouth as it gives itself away to the universe of a sweet-milk body. Just as my own mouth is dreamed to thirst the long desire-ways, the hundred-thousand light year roads of your throat and thighs.

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Natalie Diaz is the author of Postcolonial Love Poem and When My Brother Was an Aztec, winner of an American Book Award. She has received many honors, including a MacArthur Fellowship, a USA fellowship, a Lannan Literary Fellowship, and a Native Arts and Cultures Foundation Artist Fellowship. She is Mojave and an enrolled member of the Gila River Indian Tribe. Diaz is the Maxine and Jonathan Marshall Chair in Modern and Contemporary Poetry at Arizona State University. (Note: Her poem is issued as it was written by her without an editorial challenge.)

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With so many unknowns about the election for a real president this November, we thought we should direct you to online information about how to vote by mail. It used to be that you had to add postage to a mail-in ballot. In 2018 you were supposed to add postage, but apparently you were forgiven and not penalized if you didn’t. For the primary March 2, 2020, the yellow envelops had a prepaid meter stamp - all the more reason to vote by mail.

Here are the website links to register for voting by mail for the nearby counties where you might find our newsletter.

San Joaquin County https://www.sjgov.org/department/rov/vote-by-mail

Sacramento County https://elections.saccounty.net/VotebyMail/Pages/default.aspx

Stanislaus County http://www.stanvote.com/ballots.shtm

Tuolumne County https://www.tuolumnecounty.ca.gov/194/Election-Information

Alpine County https://www.alpinecountyca.gov/index.aspx?NID=388

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PUENTES is a Stockton, California based 501(c)3 nonprofit that fights food deserts, advocates for food education, and encourages the sustainable development of communities by cultivating a connection between people and their food.

Kenda Templeton, the Executive Director, says “The PUENTES mission has not changed regarding availability to the community. We have 32 individual plots at Boggs Tract Community Farm, this has been has been consistent since the beginning of the project in 2010. The Black Urban Farmers Association (BUFA) was an incubator that was made up of many of our community gardening members (several of whom still remain with their own plots). The purpose was to assist BUFA with the promotion of their business while providing support and minimal risk. We currently are incubating Corn Poppy Produce as well as Boggs Tract Chicken Co-op as well.

The farm still has 32 individual plot holders, row crops for sale, space for incubators, an apiary, a children’s classroom, a greenhouse, and education activities such as workshops.

Normally we do not give away food, we give away education with the intention of teaching people how to take control of their own food system. During the current crisis, we have been donating food as available to Boggs Tract Community Center, individuals, and El Concilio for increased distribution. Once we can return to “business as usual”, we will return to our educational programs that allow for people to gather.

If you would like to learn more about this organization please visit their website at:

www.puentesca.org

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THERE’S A FUNGUS AMONG US

In the May/June issue of Sierra Club’s magazine Sierra, Wendy Becktold provides us with a meticulous review of a documentary film called Fantastic Fungi: The Magic Beneath Us. Many facts are presented - the oldest fossil is 2.4 billion years old; there are 1.5 million species and so on. What she doesn’t say is there is book with the same title written by Paul Stamets mentioned in the article. You can get it from Amazon.com for $20 plus the usual taxes and shipping charges. There is also a Kindle edition.

Watch the trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t3CztOAeXdc

Have you ever hunted for edible mush-rooms? I had my opportunity on a friend’s 640 acre wooded ranch in Iberia, Missouri. We were looking for wild, yellow morel mushrooms, one of the most tasty and easiest to identify.

Perhaps the most valuable fungi are truffles found in Europe and North America and typically hunted by truffle hogs.

I think we can all agree the prettiest fungi is the snow plant we find in our own Sierra Mountains. You might enjoy this episode from Yosemite Notes about snow plants.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kSBqmAdR1tg

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BEWARE

In November, 2009 three adults from Lodi were in an intensive-care unit at a San Francisco hospital after eating wild mushrooms that are known to kill, hospital and city officials said.

The married couple and a cousin ate the mushrooms after foraging in the Lodi Lake Nature Area, a 58-acre wilderness park with hiking trails along the Mokelumne River, according to a Lodi police report.

Three family members were hospitalized earlier that month after picking and eating the so-called death cap mushrooms at a Lodi park. Over the weekend that followed, one of them died. A spokesman for California Pacific Medical says the woman's husband, who also ate the mushrooms, was released from the hospital. A cousin who also ate the mushrooms is responding well after receiving a liver transplant. This deadly looking fungus was growing in my front yard.

It smelled nasty from five feet away and was skilled at attracting flies as you can see.

Photo: REE

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Meet Our New Regional Coal Organizer

I’m thrilled to join Sierra Club as the new Regional Coal Organizer and focus on a key environmental justice issue--working to get coal out of the greater Bay Area and Delta regions. As such, this position is shared between three chapters: San Francisco Bay, Redwood, and, of course, Mother Lode. Specifically, I’ll be working with the Delta-Sierra Group and focusing on Stockton. A little about me to start. I live in Oakland, where I’ve lived for al-most 6 years. I spent over three years at an organization working for LGBTQ inclusion in Jewish communities where I managed community-building programs and facilitated institutional change. In 2016, I was a Jeremiah Fellow with Bend the Arc and co-chaired the Criminal Justice Reform Campaign Team which worked on legislative and ballot initiative campaigns. I also organized at my synagogue creating social justice-based ritual for young adults. My pronouns are they/them/their and I appreciate everyone’s respect for using these when referring to me. My previous work draws attention to my approaches to organizing. I believe in working in solidarity to uplift marginalized voices. I endeavor to leverage relative access to power and privilege to support communities that have faced and continue to face structural oppression. I hope to bring that to bear in Stockton by working with fenceline communities impacted by the immediate adverse effects of fossil fuels. I began in mid-February, and since then I’ve been getting up to speed on the tools at my disposal at Sierra Club and the lay of the land in Stockton.

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I’ve gotten the chance to work with and learn from Steve Harvath, Margo Praus, and Mary Elizabeth who’ve each provided me with helpful knowledge about Stockton’s workings and making connections to players and activists. Unexpectedly, I had the opportunity to dive right into some work in response to the San Francisco Bay to Stockton Navigation Project, a proposed dredging project that would deepen channels over a 13-mile stretch between the San Francisco Bay and Avon. This project is designed specifically to support the fossil fuel industries, benefiting 4 refineries. If the segment from Avon to Stockton is undertaken, this would allow for increased storage, handling, and exportation of coal from the Port of Stockton. Earlier this year, the Final Environmental Impact Study was released and made available for public comment. Many activists and organizations found it to be insufficient in describing environmental and health impacts. There was a groundswell of response to the FEIS and I’m grateful to have been able to lend my support to this campaign. We’re waiting to hear more and strategizing next responses. During that time, I’ve also gotten the chance to sit in on the AB 617 Stockton Community Steering Committee meetings and see firsthand the level of community involvement in working to reduce air pollution in the Stockton area. I’ve also joined Healthy Neighborhoods Coalition meetings led by the Catholic Charities Environmental Justice Program. I hope to build relation-ships to Stockton community leaders through these and in so doing bring more folks to the table to talk about how coal has impacted people’s lives and ways that we can phase it out to protect community health. This work feels especially significant as we learn more about the impact of air pollution and susceptibility to COVID-19, along with other respiratory illnesses. PM2.5 in particular, which coal is known to produce, has been linked to higher rates of novel coronavirus mortality. Now more than ever, it’s time to organize and resist the hold that fossil fuel industries have over our communities. Feel free to contact me at [email protected] to learn more about my work.

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DONALD TRUMP’S ENVIRONMENTAL POLICY

I was asked to say something nice about Donald Trump, his administration, his revolving-door cabinet members and advisors, and his cronies and supporters. Here it is: “They have done a fantastic, beautiful, beautiful job in ignoring climate change and setting environmental policy back decades”. That’s the best I could do. The following is a compressive list of completed disasters and those still pending. The source is the New York Times who we believe does not provide fake news. The order has changed from their website in that completed actions have been separated from pending actions. However, they match the website’s order by following the category in which they belong. At the end of each reversal you’ll find the agency charged with making the changes. The project was fun because it provides a comprehensive compilation of the damage we mostly may have forgotten or missed. The link will take you to the source.

https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/climate/trump-environment-rollbacks.html

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Air Pollution and Emissions Completed

1. Weakened Obama-era fuel economy and greenhouse gas standards for passenger cars and light trucks. E.P.A. and Transportation Department. 2. Revoked California’s power to set stricter tailpipe emissions standards than the federal government. E.P.A. 3. Withdrew the legal justification for an Obama-era rule that limited mercury emissions from coal power plants. E.P.A. 4. Replaced the Obama-era Clean Power Plan, which would have set strict limits on carbon emissions from coal- and gas-fired power plants, with a new version that would let states set their own rules. Executive Order; E.P.A. 5. Canceled a requirement for oil and gas companies to report methane emissions. E.P.A. 6. Revised and partially repealed an Obama-era rule limiting methane emissions on public lands, including intentional venting and flaring from drilling operations. Interior Department. 7. Loosened a Clinton-era rule designed to limit toxic emissions from major industrial polluters. E.P.A. 8. Revised a program designed to safeguard communities from increases in pollution from new power plants to make it easier for facilities to avoid emissions regulations. E.P.A. 9. Amended rules that govern how refineries monitor pollution in surrounding communities. E.P.A. 10. Weakened an Obama-era rule meant to reduce air pollution in national parks and wilderness areas. E.P.A 11. Weakened oversight of some state plans for reducing air pollution in national parks. E.P.A. 12. Relaxed air pollution regulations for a handful of plants that burn waste coal for electricity. E.P.A. 13. Repealed rules meant to reduce leaking and venting of powerful greenhouse gases known as Hydro fluorocarbons from large refrigeration and air conditioning systems. E.P.A. 14. Directed agencies to stop using an Obama-era calculation of the social cost of carbon that rule makers used to estimate the long-term economic benefits of reducing carbon dioxide emissions. Executive Order. 15. Withdrew guidance directing federal agencies to include greenhouse gas emissions in environmental reviews. But several district courts have ruled that emissions must be included in such reviews. Executive Order; Council on Environmental Quality. 16. Revoked an Obama executive order that set a goal of cutting the federal government’s greenhouse gas emissions by 40 percent over 10 years. Executive Order. 17. Repealed a requirement that state and regional authorities track tailpipe emissions from vehicles on federal highways. Transportation Department.

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18. Lifted a summertime ban on the use of E15, a gasoline blend made of 15 percent ethanol. (Burning gasoline with a higher concentration of ethanol in hot conditions increases smog.) E.P.A. 19. Changed rules to allow states and the E.P.A. to take longer to develop and approve plans aimed at cutting methane emissions from existing landfills. E.P.A.

Drilling and Extraction Completed

18. Lifted a summertime ban on the use of E15, a gasoline blend made of 15 percent ethanol. (Burning gasoline with a higher concentration of ethanol in hot conditions increases smog.) E.P.A. 19. Changed rules to allow states and the E.P.A. to take longer to develop and approve plans aimed at cutting methane emissions from existing landfills. E.P.A. 20. Made significant cuts to Bears Ears and Escalante Monuments in Utah and recommended border and resource-management changes to several more. Presidential Proclamation; Interior Department. 21. Lifted ban on drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. Congress; Interior Department. 22. Rescinded water pollution regulations for fracking on federal and Indian lands. Interior Department. 23. Scrapped a proposed rule that required mines to prove they could pay to clean up future pollution. E.P.A. 24. Withdrew a requirement that Gulf oil rig owners prove they can cover the costs of removing rigs once they stop producing. Interior Department. 25. Approved construction of the Dakota Access pipeline less than a mile from the Standing Rock Sioux Reservation after the Army Corps of Engineers had said it would explore alternative routes. (A court has since ruled the agency must investigate how the pipeline is impacting the environment and local tribes, but it can continue to operate in the meantime.) Executive Order; Army. 26. Changed how the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission considers the indirect effects of greenhouse gas emissions in environmental reviews of pipelines. Federal Energy Regulatory Commission. 27. Revoked an Obama-era executive order designed to preserve ocean, coastal and Great Lakes waters in favor of a policy focused on energy production and economic growth. Executive Order. 28. Permitted the use of seismic air guns for gas and oil exploration in the Atlantic Ocean. The practice, which can kill marine life and disrupt fisheries, was blocked under the Obama administration. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. 29. Loosened offshore drilling safety regulations implemented by the Obama after following the 2010 Deepwater Horizon explosion and oil spill, including reduced testing requirements for blowout prevention systems. Interior Department.

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30. Lifted an Obama-era freeze on new coal leases on public lands. In April 2019, a judge ruled that the Interior Department could not begin selling new leases without completing an environmental review. In February, the agency published an assessment that concluded restarting federal coal leasing would have little environmental impact. Executive Order; Interior Department.

Infrastructure and Planning Completed

31. Revoked Obama-era flood standards for federal infrastructure projects that required the government to account for sea level rise and other climate change effects. Executive Order. 32. Relaxed the environmental review process for federal infrastructure projects. Executive Order. 33. Revoked a directive for federal agencies to minimize impacts on water, wildlife, land and other natural resources when approving development projects. Executive Order. 34. Revoked an Obama executive order promoting climate resilience in the northern Bering Sea region of Alaska, which withdrew local waters from oil and gas leasing and established a tribal advisory council to consult on local environmental issues. Executive Order. 35. Reversed an update to the Bureau of Land Management’s public land-use planning process. Congress. 36. Withdrew an Obama-era order to consider climate change in the management of natural resources in national parks. National Park Service. 37. Restricted most Interior Department environmental studies to one year in length and a maximum of 150 pages, citing a need to reduce paperwork. Interior Department. 38. Withdrew a number of Obama-era Interior Department climate change and conservation policies that the agency said could “burden the development or utilization of domestically produced energy resources.” Interior Department. 39. Eliminated the use of an Obama-era planning system designed to minimize harm from oil and gas activity on sensitive landscapes, such as national parks. Interior Department. 40. Withdrew Obama-era policies designed to maintain or, ideally, improve natural resources affected by federal projects. Interior Department.

Animals Completed

41. Changed the way the Endangered Species Act is applied, making it more difficult to protect wildlife from long-term threats posed by climate change. Interior Department. 42. Relaxed environmental protections for salmon and smelt in California’s Central Valley in order to free up water for farmers. Executive Order; Interior Department.

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43. Overturned a ban on the use of lead ammunition and fishing tackle on federal lands. Interior Department. 44. Overturned a ban on the hunting of predators in Alaskan wildlife refuges. Congress. 45. Amended fishing regulations to loosen restrictions on the harvest of a number of species. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. 46. Proposed revising limits on the number of endangered marine mammals and sea turtles that can be unintentionally killed or injured with sword-fishing nets on the West Coast. (The Obama-era rules were initially withdrawn by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, but were later finalized following a court order. The agency has said it plans to revise the limits.) National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. 47. Loosened fishing restrictions intended to reduce bycatch of Atlantic Bluefin Tuna. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. 48. Rolled back a roughly 40-year-old interpretation of a policy aimed at protecting migratory birds, potentially running afoul of treaties with Canada and Mexico. Interior Department. 49. Overturned a ban on using parts of migratory birds in handicrafts made by Alaskan Natives. Interior Department.

Toxic Substances and Safety Completed

50. Rejected a proposed ban on chlorpyrifos, a pesticide linked to developmental disabilities in children. (Several states have banned its use and the main manufacturer of the pesticide in 2020 stopped producing the product because of shrinking demand.) E.P.A. 51. Narrowed the scope of a 2016 law mandating safety assessments for potentially toxic chemicals like dry-cleaning solvents. The E.P.A. said it would focus on direct exposure and exclude indirect exposure such as from air or water contamination. In November, a court of appeals ruled the agency must widen its scope to consider full exposure risks. E.P.A. 52. Reversed an Obama-era rule that required braking system upgrades for “high hazard” trains hauling flammable liquids like oil and ethanol. Transportation Department. 53. Removed copper filter cake, an electronics manufacturing byproduct comprised of heavy metals, from the “hazardous waste” list. E.P.A. 54. Ended an Occupational Safety and Health Administration program to reduce risks of workers developing the lung disease silicosis. In February released guidance to include silica in OSHA's National Emphasis Program, a worker safety program. Labor Department. 55. Rolled back most of the requirements of a 2017 rule aimed at improving safety at sites that use hazardous chemicals that was instituted after a chemical plant exploded in Texas. E.P.A.

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Water Pollution

56. Scaled back pollution protections for certain tributaries and wetlands that were regulated under the Clean Water Act by the Obama administration. E.P.A.; Army. 57. Revoked a rule that prevented coal companies from dumping mining debris into local streams. Congress. 58. Withdrew a proposed rule aimed at reducing pollutants, including air pollution, at sewage treatment plants. E.P.A. 59. Withdrew a proposed rule requiring groundwater protections for certain uranium mines. Recently, the administration’s Nuclear Fuel Working Group proposed opening up 1,500 acres outside the Grand Canyon to nuclear production. E.P.A.

Other Completed

60. Repealed an Obama-era regulation that would have nearly doubled the number of light bulbs subject to energy-efficiency standards starting in January 2020. The E.P.A. also blocked the next phase of efficiency standards for general-purpose bulbs already subject to regulation. Energy Department. (Donald Trump claimed that energy efficient light bulbs make him look orange.) 61. Changed a 25-year-old policy to allow coastal replenishment projects to use sand from protected ecosystems. Interior Department. 62. Limited funding of environmental and community development projects through corporate settlements of federal lawsuits. Justice Department. 63. Stopped payments to the Green Climate Fund, a United Nations program to help poorer countries reduce carbon emissions. Executive Order.

Air Pollution and Emissions Pending

64. Submitted notice of intent to withdraw the United States from the Paris Climate Agreement. (The process of withdrawing cannot be completed until November 2020.) Executive Order. 65. Proposed relaxing Obama-era requirements that companies monitor and repair methane leaks at oil and gas facilities. E.P.A. 66. Proposed eliminating Obama-era restrictions that, in effect, required newly built coal power plants to capture carbon dioxide emissions. E.P.A. 67. Proposed revisions to standards for carbon dioxide emissions from new, modified and reconstructed power plants. Executive Order; E.P.A. 68. Began a review of emissions rules for power plant start-ups, shutdowns and malfunctions. One outcome of that review: In February 2020, E.P.A. reversed a requirement that Texas follow emissions rules during malfunction events. E.P.A.

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69. Opened for comment a proposal limiting the ability of individuals and communities to challenge E.P.A.-issued pollution permits before a panel of agency judges. E.P.A. 70. Delayed issuing a rule limiting greenhouse gas emissions from aircraft. (The E.P.A. acknowledged it is legally required to issue the rule, but has not done so yet. The delay is being challenged by environmental groups.) E.P.A. 71. Proposed limiting pesticide application buffer zones that are intended to protect farm workers and bystanders from accidental exposure. E.P.A.

Drilling and Extraction Pending

72. Proposed opening most of America’s coastal waters to offshore oil and gas drilling but delayed the plan after a federal judge ruled that Mr. Trump’s reversal of an Obama-era ban on drilling in the Atlantic and Arctic Oceans was unlawful. Interior Department. 73. Repealed an Obama-era rule governing royalties for oil, gas and coal leases on federal lands, which replaced a 1980s rule that critics said allowed companies to underpay the federal government. A federal judge struck down the Trump administration’s repeal. The Interior Department is reviewing the decision. Interior Department. 74. Proposed revising regulations on offshore oil and gas exploration by floating vessels in the Arctic that were developed after a 2013 accident. The Interior Department previously said it was “considering full rescission or revision of this rule.” Executive Order; Interior Department. 75. Proposed “streamlining” the approval process for drilling for oil and gas in national forests. Agriculture Department; Interior Department. 76. Recommended shrinking three marine protected areas or opening them to commercial fishing. Executive Order; National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. 77. Proposed opening more land in the Alaska National Petroleum Reserve for oil drilling. The Obama administration had designated about half of the reserve as a conservation area. Interior Department. 78. Proposed lifting a Clinton-era policy that banned logging and road construction in Tongass National Forest, Alaska. Interior Department. 79. Approved the Keystone XL Pipeline rejected by President Barack Obama, but a federal judge blocked the project from going forward without an adequate environmental review process. Mr. Trump later attempted to sidestep the ruling by issuing a presidential permit. Initial construction has started, but the project remains tied up in court. Executive Order; State Department.

Infrastructure and Planning Pending

80. Proposed plans to speed up the environmental review process for Forest Service projects. Agriculture Department.

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Animals Pending

81. Opened nine million acres of Western land to oil and gas drilling by weakening habitat protections for the sage grouse, an imperiled bird. An Idaho District Court injunction temporarily blocked the measure. Interior Department. 82. Proposed ending an Obama-era rule that barred using bait to lure and kill grizzly bears, among other sport hunting practices that many people consider extreme, on some public lands in Alaska. National Park Service; Interior Department.

Toxic Substances and Safety Pending

83. Proposed changing safety rules to allow for rail transport of the highly flammable liquefied natural gas. Transportation Department. 84. Announced a review of an Obama-era rule lowering coal dust limits in mines. The head of the Mine Safety and Health Administration said there were no immediate plans to change the dust limit but has extended a public comment period until 2022. Labor Department.

Water Pollution Pending

85. Attempted to weaken federal rules regulating the disposal and storage of coal ash waste from power plants, but a court determined the rules were already insufficient. Proposed a new rule to allow coal ash impoundments of a type previously deemed unsafe a pathway to proving safety. E.P.A. 86. Proposed a rule exempting certain types of power plants from parts of an E.P.A. rule limiting toxic discharge from power plants into public waterways. E.P.A. 86. Proposed a rule exempting certain types of power plants from parts of an E.P.A. rule limiting toxic discharge from power plants into public waterways. E.P.A. 87. Proposed weakening a portion of the Clean Water Act to make it easier for the E.P.A. to issue permits for federal projects over state objections if the projects don't meet local water quality standards, including for pipelines and other fossil fuel facilities. Executive Order; E.P.A. 88. Proposed extending the lifespan of unlined coal ash holding areas, which can spill their contents because they lack a protective underlay. E.P.A. 89. Proposed a regulation limiting the scope of an Obama-era rule under which companies had to prove that large deposits of recycled coal ash would not harm the environment. E.P.A. 90. Proposed a new rule allowing the federal government to issue permits for coal ash waste in Indian Country and some states without review if the disposal site is in compliance with federal regulations. E.P.A.

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91. Proposed doubling the time allowed to remove lead pipes from water systems with high levels of lead. E.P.A.

Other Pending

92. Proposed a sweeping overhaul of the National Environmental Policy Act that would limit the scope of environmental concerns federal agencies need to take into account when constructing public infrastructure projects, such as roads, pipelines and telecommunications networks. Council on Environmental Quality. 93. Proposed limiting the studies used by the E.P.A. for rulemaking to only those that make data publicly available. (Scientists widely criticized the proposal, saying it would effectively block the agency from considering landmark research that relies on confidential health data.) E.P.A. 94. Proposed changes to the way cost-benefit analyses are conducted under the Clean Air Act, Clean Water Act and other environmental statutes. E.P.A. 95. Proposed withdrawing efficiency standards for residential furnaces and commercial water heaers designed to reduce energy use. Energy Department. 96. Created a product category that would allow some dishwashers to be exempt from energy efficiency standards. Energy Department. 97. Initially withdrew, and then delayed, a proposed rule that would inform car owners about fuel-efficient replacement tires. (The Transportation Department has scheduled a new rulemaking notice for 2020.) Transportation Department.

Roll Back The Roll Backs

These rules were initially reversed by the Trump administration but were later reinstated, often following lawsuits and other challenges. 98. Stopped enforcing a 2015 rule that prohibited the use of hydro fluorocarbons, powerful greenhouse gases, in air-conditioners and refrigerators. A court later restored the prohibition. E.P.A. 99. Sought to repeal emissions standards for “glider” trucks — vehicles retrofitted with older, often dirtier engines — but reversed course after Andrew Wheeler took over as head of the E.P.A. 100. Sought to lift restrictions on mining in Bristol Bay, Alaska, but later suspended the ef-fort. (A court ruled the E.P.A. could withdraw a 2014 determination that the project was a too great a threat to the Bay's salmon. The federal permit for the mine is pending with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.) E.P.A.; Army. 101. Delayed a compliance deadline for new national ozone pollution standards by one year, but later reversed course. E.P.A. 102 Delayed implementation of a rule regulating the certification and training of pesticide applicators, but a judge ruled that the E.P.A. had done so illegally and declared the rule still in effect. E.P.A

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103. Initially delayed publishing efficiency standards for household appliances, but later published them after multiple states and environmental groups sued. Energy Department. 104. Removed the Yellowstone grizzly bear from the Endangered Species List, but the protections were later reinstated by a federal judge. (The Trump administration appealed the ruling in May 2019.) Interior Department. 105. Reissued a rule limiting the discharge of mercury by dental offices into municipal sewers after a lawsuit by the Natural Resources Defense Council, an advocacy group. E.P.A. 106. Delayed federal building efficiency standards until Sept. 30, 2017, at which time the rules went into effect. Energy Department. 107. Ordered a review of water efficiency standards in bathroom fixtures, including toilets. E.P.A. determined existing standards were sufficient. E.P.A.

<Q(((>< <Q(((>< <Q(((>< <Q(((><

This list does not include all the lawsuits relating to the environment that were tossed out by various courts. Doing so does create policy. It leaves out the staff changes for Director of the Environmental Protection Agency. Who is/was on that list? Scott Pruitt, Andrew Wheeler, Ryan Zinke, David Bernhardt - it’s hard to keep up.

To his credit, Trump did a couple of good things and in fairness we want to report them. On April 3, 2017 the White House

announced that President Trump donated the first quarter of his salary ($78,333.32) to the National Park Service. The gift will reportedly chip away at the $100 to $230 million in deferred maintenance backlogs.

I guess this counts too. On October 12, 2018 Trump called out other nations, including China and Japan, for “making our oceans into their landfills” when he signed legislation the week before to improve efforts to clean up plastic trash from the world’s oceans. “As president, I will continue to do everything I can to stop other nations from making our oceans into their landfills,” Trump said.

On March 12, 2019 Trump signed a bill that provided protections to over two million acres of lands across the United States. It had easily passed in both the House and the Senate. The bill touched nearly every state, designating 1.3 million new acres of wilderness lands across several western states; creating new national monuments in Mississippi and Kentucky; and protecting hundreds of miles of rivers under the Wild and Scenic Rivers program

White House Entrance Please Take Your Number

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We Do Not Inherit the Earth from Our Ancestors; We Borrow It from Our Children.

In terms of strictly the environment, Donald Trump has not been a good steward. We should pity him rather than hate him. He has led a pampered life style few of us have ever seem or imagined. Yet if offered, many of us would give all that away just to visit the naked desolation of John Muir’s Evolution Valley. It is a humbling, seeming religious experience to witness the glory and beauty of places like that - untouched, undeveloped by humankind. It is now our duty to reverse the destruction caused by ignorance and the refusal to recognize the science causing climate change. We owe that to the generations of children to come. We owe that to the planet.

Photo: REE

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Executive Committee and Email Addresses You must copy and paste an email address into your email program. Chair: Margo Praus [email protected] Vice Chair & Membership Chair: Paul Plathe [email protected] Treasurer & Chapter Delegate: Richard Abood [email protected] Secretary & Alternate Chapter Delegate: Steve Harvath [email protected] Conservation Chair & Web Master: Mary Elizabeth [email protected] Program Chair: Margo Praus [email protected]

Executive Member: Knute Momberg [email protected] Newsletter: Robert Evans [email protected]



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DELTA-SIERRA GROUP P.O. BOX 9258 STOCKTON, CA 95208

Explore, enjoy and protect the planet.

We think of our bodies as being all that we are: I am my body. This thinking helps us disrespect water, air, land, one another. But water is not external from our body, our self…The water we drink, like the air we breathe, is not a part of our body but is our body. What we do to one—to the body, to the water—we do to the other…Do you think the water will forget what we have done, what we continue to do? Natalie Diaz, Native American

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