The California Grizzly

There have been many ideas for returning grizzly bears to California. Most of these ideas, such as the Center for Biological Diversity's legal petition in June 2014, focus on the Sierra Nevada. That is understandable, because that is where the most famous and scenic wilderness is, and that is where the last California Grizzly was seen only 90 years ago. Only 90 years ago! But it misses other opportunities and skips a logical selection process that this thoughtful article touches on (see also Wikipedia for other references). In fact, many areas of the state have less people now than there were 90 years ago. These areas are worth considering without putting the Sierra blinders on.

Man Accidentally Tears Online Map

BREAKING NEWS: Today a 53-year old man in Los Angeles, California, tore Google Maps while trying to unfold it. He had previously worn thin a section of Google Maps right on the fold by pacing back and forth while leaving his smartphone GPS tracking turned on. The next time he opened Google Maps, it tore in that location.

"Since the tear is right on my house, now I can't read the map there," the man complained. "If I try to navigate home from somewhere, the navigation system gets lost and circles my block forever because it can't find my house. If I want to navigate to somewhere else from home, I have to start the navigation a block after I leave my house--but sometimes I start off in the wrong direction."

One day, the edges of the map didn't match up along the tear, and he was instructed to navigate from one street instantly to the adjacent street.

"I couldn't get the map to tell me how to get over there," he said. "It just wanted me to beam over to the other street, like on Star Trek."

He has tried contacting Google to get them to repair his map, but according to the man, they told him to buy a new one. A Google spokesperson contacted for this story commented: "We are concerned about breaks in the space-time continuum due to improper handling of Google Maps. But we've discovered that instead of expending resources on repairs, it is best to reboot and buy a new map. If your flash memory is worn out from accessing the same data sectors over and over again, you may have to buy a new device."

The man planned to sell his phone on Ebay, to someone he doesn't know that would never need to come to his house. But he lamented the risks: "What if a Pizza delivery person buys it? Then I can't ever order pizza again."

Awash in a Colorful Landscape

California is a land of extremes, both temporally and spatially. And visually.
In much of low-elevation undeveloped California, the landscape is green from November to May. And green is an understatement. The grassy hills are so intensely green that your eyes get saturated with the color to the point where it doesn't seem real. The world is green if you look down and blue if you look up. It is an intense sensory experience. And in some places, you get the magical and majestic painted orange and blue and yellow colors of flowers added in the spring.

In much of high-elevation undeveloped California, the landscape is white from November to May. The world is blinding white if you look down, and brilliant blue if you look up. That is an equally intense sensory experience.

Bay Leaves and Asparagus

A couple of days ago I heard on the news that an attempt would be made to control Sudden Oak Death in Big Sur by removing individual "bay laurel" trees.

Two things about this news story were problematic.

1. "Bay laurel" is not the name of the Umbellularia californica tree. It is California bay. Or laurel. But not both. Using both is merges two separate common names, and is like merging "mountain lion" and "cougar". You wouldn't say "I saw a mountain lion cougar."

My Backyard Looks Like Mt. Everest

I was skimming through a recent California Department of Water Resources publication when I came across a mislabeled photo of the Eastern Sierra. I pointed this out to a hydrogeographer colleague, and he immediately showed me two more water agency/organization examples of a geographically misplaced or mislabeled photo of the Eastern Sierra. If you want a dramatic mountain photo in California, you want a photo of the Eastern Sierra--but it may not always be the geographically appropriate match for your materials. It is kind of like putting a shot of Yosemite next to "I played in the playground down the street all day." Unless, of course, Yosemite is down the street. Below are the misplaced photos, as well as a Google Earth screenshot of where it actually is.

When Bad Roads are Good Roads

The first time I drove through Samuel P. Taylor State Park, it was a busy weekend about ten years ago.* The road was narrow and bumpy, and there were pedestrians and bicyclists and parked cars everywhere. It was vibrant. You could tell it was a place people wanted to be. It was also sketchy. I was driving a friend's old truck, and I had to be careful. I had to go slow.

Here is what it used to sound like to drive on, recorded last September. Click "play" to hear a sound that is gone forever--the sound of going to the beach, if you grew up in San Geronimo Valley.

California Utilities Still Freeloading on Independent Power Producers - Part III

What you've all been waiting for--part III of the ongoing saga. If you have no idea what I'm talking about, I suggest reading Part I and Part II for background.

But if you want to skip the details, here is the quick summary:

Part I Recap
We operated a solar photovoltaic grid intertie with Net Energy Metering on our home from 2001-2011. The year we sold the house, 2011, we had a big surplus of generated electricity, since the house generated electricity all summer but no one was living there to use it. This electricity was worth $154.52. In December 2011, I was told we would only be paid only four cents per kWh for this valuable, renewable, distributed, peak-hours electricity, or a whopping $18.52. SCE (Southern California Edison) was 10 months behind in sending out letters, and when we got ours we should send it back saying how we wanted to be paid, and then in another 3 months we'd get our check.

Part II Recap
Two years later, in November 2013, we got the letter. After overcoming considerable confusion about what it was, and why it was being sent to us, and what we were supposed to do, I re-read part I (see link above), and then I filled out the form and sent it back.

Part III

Welcome to Part III! This may be the end...

In February, 2014, we got another envelope in the mail from SCE. I opened it. I laughed. What was inside? Nine double-sided pages of account statements. The first page said "Do not pay. Your account has a credit balance of $5.48.