21st Century Conservation

By on March 28, 2012 in Nature & Wildlife, Opinions & Editorials

Fledged swallow chicks in the nest waiting to be fed. Photo by Anna Hesser.

What does conservation mean in the 21st century, and why is it so needed? The world faces an unprecedented loss of species as we enter the second decade of this century. As the renowned naturalist E.O. Wilson wrote, way back in 1980:

“The worst thing that can happen, will happen… Not energy depletion, economic collapse, limited nuclear war, or conquest by a totalitarian government. As terrible as these catastrophes would be for us, they can be repaired within a few generations. The one process going on in the 1980s that will take millions of years to correct is the loss of genetic and species diversity by the destruction of natural habitats. This is the folly our descendants are least likely to forgive us.”

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Earth Day at the Oakland Zoo: New and Improved Greenwashing?

By on March 27, 2012 in Nature & Wildlife, Oakland Politics

Everyone is welcomed (well, almost everyone) to the Oakland Zoo for its Earth Day,April 14. The theme this year is “Action for Animals”. Local environmental organizations have been invited for a fee of $30 to set up a table and bring informational materials about what they do to protect the environment. It is suggested that groups may want to bring materials to conduct letter-writing campaigns to further their cause. The event is described on the zoo’s website:

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“Wisdom Sits in Places”: Knowland Park’s abiding meaning

By on March 22, 2012 in Nature & Wildlife, Opinions & Editorials

More than a decade ago, I read a book by the University of New Mexico anthropologist Keith Basso that made an enormous impression on me and forever changed the way I experience nature. Called Wisdom Sits in Places, it was a report of the authors’ several years spent studying the Apache culture of the southwestern U.S. One of its most profound contributions was to interpret the Apache relationship with place.

In many ways, it is impossible for those of us not raised within a culture to ever entirely understand it, so it is with caution that I approach trying to convey what was so immensely powerful about this little book. It’s also been many years now since it so impressed me, so it is possible that memory has embroidered my understanding. But the primary message I took from Basso’s reported conversations with tribal members and elders was that place matters –and it matters as more than mere location: Natural places reveal something to us about our relationships with the world and one another.

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When the Swallows Come Back to Knowland Park

By on March 19, 2012 in Nature & Wildlife, Uncategorized

Every March the California town of San Juan Capistrano celebrates the return of cliff swallows to the mission where they flock to build their nests. This annual migration is such a predictable event that the town has built an entire tourist industry out of it.

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One huge hunk of Swiss Cheese: the “environmental report” for the Zoo’s “conservation” theme park

By on March 14, 2012 in Oakland Politics, Opinions & Editorials

The Zoo's crowded parking lot

During the multiple public hearings leading up to City Council approval of the Zoo’s “conservation” theme park in June, 2011, we heard a lot of talk about the environmental review document for the proposed development. Waving around a City-prepared report that comprised hundreds of pages, some development enthusiasts claimed that the environmental impacts of the project had been subjected to an unusually thorough level of scrutiny. Well, don’t buy it. The problem is that in environmental review, it is quality—not quantity—that really matters. This report is one huge hunk of Swiss cheese: riddled with holes big enough to drive an elephant through.

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