Jenner Headlands Moves Closer to Protection

Board approves $11.1 million District expenditure for historic acquisition

As a next step in the preservation of the 5,630-acre Jenner Headlands coastal property, the Sonoma County Board of Supervisors, acting as the District’s Board of Directors, approved the expenditure of $10,150,000 to allow the District to fund approximately one-third of the $36 million acquisition, and an additional $1,000,000 toward the restoration, public access improvements and management of the property.

“Conservation of this magnificent property will not only ensure the protection of extraordinary natural and scenic resources, but it will eventually provide a premier outdoor recreation experience,” said Efren Carrillo, Fifth District Supervisor. “The Sonoma Coast is a site of international significance, and we—the County, the voters, and the conservation community—have remained steadfast in our commitment to the preservation of all that is Sonoma County.”

In 2005, a robust collaboration led by then-Fifth District Supervisor Mike Reilly and involving the Sonoma Land Trust, the District, the California State Coastal Conservancy, the Wildlife Conservation Board, the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration committed to preserving the property adjacent to Sonoma Coast State Park. Additionally, the U.S. Forest Service will contribute $1,000,000 for the acquisition upon the close of escrow, which will be reimbursed to District.

“Our public and private funders have found a way, in these challenging times, to make sure we don’t lose this incredible opportunity to protect this extraordinary landscape.” said Amy Chesnut, Acquisitions Director of the Sonoma Land Trust. “By leveraging the District's funds with federal, state and private funding, the community will reap the benefits. Key ingredients in any complex conservation transaction are a willing landowner and strong partners who go the extra mile to ensure success. We have that and more with this project. It is a remarkable collaboration.”

Jenner Headlands will become part of 20,000 acres of interconnected public and privately-protected coastline between Bodega Head and Fort Ross. It will eventually include a 2.5-mile stretch of the California Coastal Trail. Close of escrow is expected by mid-December and the Sonoma Land Trust will own and manage the property. During the management planning process, Interim public access will be provided through guided hikes by the Trust and its partners.

Next steps for acquisition include the consideration of the project by the Wildlife Conservation Board on November 17, and securing the remaining $16 million in loan funding to bridge the gap left by frozen State bond proceeds.

In return for its investment, the District will hold a conservation easement which will restrict development and require a management plan to protect and enhance the ecological and cultural resources of the property. This represents the largest conservation land acquisition in Sonoma County, and will bring the total land protected by the District to more than 80,000 acres.

“The District works every day to protect our diverse natural heritage by investing in the restoration and conservation of major ecosystems and wildlife habitats throughout our County,” said Bill Keene, Interim General Manager of the District. “Protecting Jenner Headlands is vital to a healthy environment and vibrant economy, and we applaud the leadership of our partners for bringing together the necessary commitments to make this project a reality.”

Jenner Headlands, also known as Rule Ranch, represents the largest coastal conservation easement held by the District, in terms of acreage and investment. In total, the District has protected nearly 15,000 acres along the Sonoma Coast, including the nearly 3,400-acre Willow Creek addition to Sonoma Coast State Park. This expenditure represents more than one-third of the approximately $30 million budgeted for FY 09-10 District acquisitions.


About the Sonoma County Agricultural Preservation and Open Space District
The Sonoma County Agricultural Preservation and Open Space District permanently protects the diverse agricultural, natural resource and scenic open space lands of Sonoma County for future generations. Since 1990, the District has protected approximately 80,000 acres. Agricultural and open space lands have been protected through a 1/4-cent sales tax approved by voters in 1990 and reauthorized in 2006. For more information, please visit www.sonomaopenspace.org.


About the Sonoma Land Trust
The independent non-profit Sonoma Land Trust preserves scenic, natural, agricultural and open land for future generations. Since 1976, the Sonoma Land Trust has protected nearly 20,000 acres of beautiful, productive and environmentally-significant land. For more information, please visit www.sonomalandtrust.org.

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Amazing Musical Instrument - NOT!

This incredible machine was built as a collaborative effort between the Robert M. Trammell Music Conservatory and the Sharon Wick School of Engineering at the University of Iowa .. Amazingly, 97% of the machines components came from John Deere Industries and Irrigation Equipment of Bancroft , Iowa ....Yes, farm equipment!

It took the team a combined 13,029 hours of set-up, alignment, calibration, and tuning before filming this video but as you can see it was WELL worth the effort.

It is now on display in the Matthew Gerhard Alumni Hall at the University and is already slated to be donated to the Smithsonian.

And now for the REST of the story:
Dear Vesta:

It is a great video, but the story is a hoax: http://www.snopes.com/photos/arts/musicmachine.asp. Google turns up lots of similar reports by various hoax-tracking sites.

On the other hand, it is an amazingly good video animation. I enjoyed it.

Sincerely, Steve

Well darn!!! What a disappointment - but yes - incredible none-the less - thanks for pointing this out!!!! Now I know but I still think it's so cool! I guess the genius is in the animation category rather than the invention category! I had a good time visiting the web site - below - and checking out the clips! What fun - OK - I'm gullible - but I had a good time! Thanks for the straight scoop! - V




http://www.animusic.com/previews/animusic1.php

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The Klamath River Renewal Battle

Photo of the Klamath River form www.friendsoftheriver.org

River of Renewal traces the longtime battle
over salmon and water in the Klamath Basin

The Klamath Basin in Northern California and southeastern Oregon is home to ranchers, farmers, commercial fisherman and the Yurok, Karuk and Hupa tribes. Since the mid-1800s, these groups have vied for rights to the Klamath River and its tributaries, which are vital spawning habitat for wild Pacific salmon. Hydroelectric dams have impeded the salmons’ ability to migrate between the ocean and their breeding grounds, and low river levels resulting from agricultural use have caused the mass death of migrating fish.

Remarkably, after years of conflict and negotiations, these groups recently came to agreement to share water and improve the river habitat. In September, the Secretary of the Interior announced an agreement with the PacifiCorp electric power company, based in Portland, Ore., and the governors of California and Oregon to remove the four hydroelectric dams on the Klamath River. River of Renewal, winner of Best Documentary at the American Indian Film Festival in 2008, traces the tumultuous back story of these accords. Presented by Native American Public Telecommunications (NAPT) and the National Educational Telecommunications Association (NETA) for Native American Heritage Month, the 55-minute documentary begins airing in November. Check your local public television station’s schedule for broadcast dates and times.

Producer and narrator Jack Kohler (Yurok/Karuk/Hupa) travels back to his ancestral land to explore the history of the conflict from a Native perspective. He learns about cultural traditions that revolve around salmon and listens to his people talk about their long struggle to establish fishing rights and mend river conditions. River of Renewal captures eight years of protests, meetings and political action concerning the Klamath and provides viewers with an insider’s view of the saga.

“The dams were built in a time when jobs were needed and sources of energy were scarce,” Kohler says. “Now we realize the mistakes that were made. It is time to fix those mistakes. How can we make the world an ecologically sound and environmentally safe place to live? In one century, we have wreaked havoc on our mother earth, and now it is time to Pikiawish—renew the world.”

The River of Renewal website offers viewers more information about the new agreement, a guide to taking political action in favor of dam removal, and a guide to methods of conflict resolution that helped resolve the Klamath clashes. Visitors can also learn more about salmon, the ecology of the Klamath Basin and tribal history. A viewer guide and other educational tools are available for educators and community groups.

River of Renewal, a Pikiawish Partners production in association with Specialty Studios, is produced by Jack Kohler, Steve Michelson and Stephen Most and directed by Carlos Bolado. Major funding was provided by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.
Web site: www.riverofrenewal.org

Jack Kohler has been a resident of Sonoma County since 1986. He began his film making career in 1997 working on the Production team of "Grand Avenue" and then getting a small supporting role in that film. The first film he co-produced, "California's Lost Tribes" aired on PBS nationally in 2006 & 2007. It included the issues surrounding Indian Gaming, including key moments in the Rohnert Park Community meetings about the Graton Rancheria Casino. His new documentary "River of Renewal" was eight years in the making. It chronicles the on going battle over the resources of Northern California’s and Oregon’s Klamath Basin. The film reveals how different dominant groups over the generations have extracted resources from the Klamath Basin with disastrous consequences including the collapse of wild salmon populations. This collision between sustainability and exploitation of our precious and diminishing resources may result in the largest dam removal project in history and the restoration of a once vital river.

Image of dead salmon in Klamath River from:
http://voices.washingtonpost.com/cheney/chapters/leaving_no_tracks/
An estimated 77,000 salmon washed up on the banks of the Klamath River. In 2006, the government declared a "commercial fishery failure" on the West Coast. Image: dead salmon line the banks of the Klamath River in Sept. 2002.

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Champions for People with Disabilities

By Cami Weaver, Becoming Independent, Sonoma County

Anyone wondering how we’ll manage without Sen. Ted Kennedy was reassured by President Obama.

At the close of his health care reform speech to Congress, Obama cited a letter Kennedy wrote to him in advance of his death, expressing confidence that health care reform would be passed.

Kennedy’s continuing influence came alive when the President told us how Kennedy wrote that we are facing a “moral issue” in the debate over how to ensure that all Americans have access to quality and affordable health care.

“At stake are not just the details of policy,” Kennedy wrote, “but fundamental principles of social justice and the character of our country.”

At Becoming Independent, where we work for 1200 people with developmental disabilities, we’ve recently seen “principles of social justice and the character of our country” take a back seat to details of policy.

Faced with ever increasing revenue shortfalls, the State Legislature and Gov. Schwarzenegger made policy decisions to cut or reduce programs to the infants, teens, and adults who depend on BI for help.

Our state funding is being cut by $1.2 million.

Dental care under MediCal for many of our 1,200 BI participants is on the chopping block.

The Governor penciled out $50 million in early intervention funds for at-risk infants, a penny-wise, pound-foolish act that will hurt families and kids and cost us much more money as children grow up.

Funding has been cut for our Teen Zone, a promising pilot project in Healdsburg that showed the value of afterschool programs for teenager and young adults with disabilities.

We face these financial challenges at the same time we’ve lost two champions for people with disabilities, Sen. Kennedy and his sister, Eunice Kennedy Shriver.

How can we begin to thank these two Kennedys?

Credit Ted Kennedy for the civil rights, education and health care that enable people with disabilities to live meaningful lives – the American with Disabilities Act, the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act and Higher Education Opportunity Act, the Fair Housing Act and Voting Rights Act.

Because of Eunice Kennedy Shriver, millions of men and women with disabilities get their place in the lime light through Special Olympics. Special Olympics recognized people with disabilities as athletes. They train and have coaches and uniforms and then perform in athletic competitions that people pay attention to. The value of that can never be overstated.

So, how do we proceed without them?

First, we follow the lead of people with disabilities themselves.

And then we follow the examples set by the Kennedys and other families to help people with disabilities realize their vision of their lives.

I have no doubt the lifelong advocacy Eunice Shriver and Sen. Kennedy performed on behalf of people with disabilities is linked to the challenges faced by their sister, Rosemary Kennedy, whose perceived “mental retardation” was made worse by a lobotomy and who lived her life in an institution.

At BI we are inspired by the dedication and advocacy of parents, grandparents, brothers and sisters who want more for their loved ones with special challenges.

And we see and hear the self-advocacy of the men and women we serve. They are people with disabilities, yes, but they are people first, and they won’t be shortchanged. That was clear this past summer when 250 men and women with disabilities, their families and some staff rallied in front of the State Building in Santa Rosa to protest budget cuts.

About 30 people with disabilities took charge, and lined up at the microphone to voice their opinions.

They are the ones who best demonstrate the legacy the Kennedys leave behind.

Cami Weaver is CEO of Becoming Independent which provides job, education and support services for people with disabilities in Napa, Solano and Sonoma counties.
http://www.becomingindependent.org/

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Global Student Exchange Promotes International Relationships

A Grassroots Approach to International Relations

By Jasper Oshun

Our world has never seen a time of greater need for human compassion, understanding, and tolerance. Human to human interactions have declined in favor of technological distractions that promote a shorter attention span. More people have access to more information than ever before, yet international relations are dominated by heads of state and CEO's of multinational corporations. I believe that at the local level, we have the potential to recognize commonalities across cultural lines, and collaborate with foreign communities to find solutions to local and global problems. Our objective, at the Global Student Embassy (GSE), is to foster communication between communities that promotes and solidifies grassroots international relations through the world's greatest untapped resource: the youth.

It is an unfortunate reality that high school students are often disregarded as potential agents of social change. Tremendous potential exists for social change to come from a mobilized and directed youth movement. GSE promotes service learning by empowering young people to become leaders in their community. Our student ambassadors learn hands-on skills while making a meaningful contribution to the global community. I believe that our ambassadors represent a growing shift in consciousness that will encourage young people to invest more time in both their local and global community.

GSE is expanding, both locally and internationally over the next 8 months. Windsor High School will incorporate GSE's curriculum into its Nueva Arts School. Service projects such as the community garden GSE has created at the Village Park in Sebastopol would benefit from an artistic eye. We look forward to seeing GSE thrive within the creativity and openness of the Windsor High curriculum.

Lucas, Yasha Mokaram (a third director of GSE), and I recently returned from a 6 week recruiting mission to Tanzania and Kenya. The educational structure of Tanzania (where we are establishing a scion of GSE) is daunting. The highly centralized Ministry of Education, which prides itself on position of power, has little connection to its high schools, yet retains all the decision making power.

Overcoming the necessary red tape in Tanzania is counter to our philosophy of grassroots organizing, yet we still believe in the tremendous potential of GSE in Morogoro, Tanzania. Over a week and a half of meetings with students, professors, administrators and teachers from 4 different high schools, the Sokoine University of Agriculture (SUA), and the regional office of education, we were excited to have an action plan for a new model of GSE.

We selected two rural development students, Rogers and Godfrey, who—assuming we find adequate funding—will enroll in a Master's program in which they will develop and coordinate an unprecedented university to secondary school partnership in accordance with the philosophy of GSE.

Four local high schools are forming GSE clubs that will send 10 delegates to meet with Rogers and Godfrey at SUA once a week. These students will discuss international relations, learn basic computer skills, communicate with their counterparts in Perú, Argentina, and Sebastopol, and research, plan and develop service projects that will benefit their community.

After meeting with local students, Rogers, Godfrey, Lucas, Yasha, and I were extremely impressed by the articulation, energy, and commitment of Morogoro high school students. Four to eight students from Morogoro, and one to three each from Perú and Argentina will travel to Sebastopol as delegates in January 2010.

In the meantime, we are fundraising in preparation for this June’s service projects to Argentina and Perú. Lucas will be leading 5 students from Analy, Nonesuch and Windsor high schools to Santa Fe, Argentina. The Argentinean students and teacher who traveled to Sebastopol last January are planning activities such as an on-field ceremony during Santa Fe's most anticipated soccer game of the year (Colon v. Boca Juniors), fishing trips up the Paraná River, and family barbeques. GSE is planning to establish Pasta para Progreso, a pasta making business whose proceeds will benefit an underfunded school.

In June, I will lead a group of students, and talented young adults to Zurite, Perú. We will contribute our labor, as well as $7,000 towards a $60,000 irrigation canal project. The municipality, the association of farmers, and GSE are teaming up to support the completion of the 2.5 km canal and irrigation system that will enable 150 families to cultivate their fields year-round.

We ask for public support of our international projects and the travel of student ambassadors. Please join us for a night of community investment beginning at 6:30 pm May 29th, at the Sebastopol Community Cultural Center. The gathering will include dinner, live music, updates of our projects and overall vision, a silent auction, and a chance to meet like-minded activists in your community. I invite you to learn more at www.seb.org/global.html.

Jasper
Global Student Embassy
707.829.1026
7910 Swartz Ave
Sebastopol, CA 95472

Global Student Embassy - Morogoro, Tanzania

Morogoro is an underdeveloped city 2 hours west of Dar es Salaam in Tanzania. The community of Morogoro is known for its commitment to education. In February, Jasper, Lucas, and Yasha traveled to Morogoro, teaching cultural and educational workshops to secondary (high school) level students. They were successful in creating GSE clubs at four secondary schools in the Morogoro Area. The clubs will meet regularly with student coordinators from Sokoine University of Agriculture, and discuss political, cultural, and social issues at the local and global level.

With financial, organizational and spiritual support from GSE the Tanzanian students have proposed to build a youth center in Morogoro that will sustain itself through the business of providing internet services and computer classes to members of their community. The Morogoro Youth Center (MYC) will be a place for students to share ideas and collectively organize community service projects in a community with an approximate average annual GDP per capita of only $400.

In January, 2010 students from Morogoro’s GSE branch will visit the local communities of Sebastopol and Windsor, helping to implement community development projects here in Sonoma County. In June of 2010, students from Sonoma County will complete the exchange, visiting the Morogoro community and investing themselves in the realization of the proposed community development projects.

Students in Morogoro lack some of the basic school materials that we take for granted here in the United States. Participants in the Global Student Embassy in Morogoro still have no public place to gather and exchange ideas. The lack of affordable internet prevents them from accessing the global community. Please help us to create the very first Morogoro Youth Center, a place for the youth of Tanzania to become future global leaders!

Global Student Embassy - Santa Fe, Argentina
Pasta para Progresso

Directed by Edit Chalita, the GSE students in Santa Fe have begun to fundraise and work with their family and friends to support their vision for rebuilding a poorly funded local primary school. Our community project in Santa Fe includes building a playground at the school, painting the school, and establishing a business to provide a sustainable source of funding for the school and the operation of GSE Santa Fe.

The five Argentineans who traveled to Sebastopol (Edit, Sebastian, Fiama, Natalia and Matias) are currently at work setting up a small pasta business. With GSE funds they will purchase a pasta-pressing machine. Students and parents will have part time employment producing raviolis, spaghetti, pene, and empanadas. The production will take place in the kitchen of the school after school hours. 50% of the profits generated from sale of the pasta will go toward supporting travel and participation in the Global Student Embassy. The other 50% of the profits will go directly towards the school for books, supplies, and other costs.

The Sebastopol and Santa Fe students will work together to build a playground with a basketball hoop and small soccer goals. The supplies for this project will be provided by GSE. The funds were raised in communities in both Santa Fe and Sonoma County. Over the course of 4 weeks the students will build the playground support the pasta business while living with their host families in Santa Fe. After the work Sebastopol students will have 18 days to travel and see different cities in Argentina.

We greatly appreciate any support you can offer towards the realization of our goals!

Global Student Embassy - Zurite, Perú

Zurite is a rural pueblo of 1,000 inhabitants located on the western edge of the Anta plain. The plain, a lake until drained by the Conquistadores, is now filled with pastures, familial agricultural plots, and small settlements. Most of Zurite’s inhabitants live a semi-subsistence lifestyle. Families work their fields, own a small store, raise guinea pig, work as day laborers, teach at local schools, or perhaps hold a municipal position. Most families consume a portion of their harvests and sell the remainder. The agricultural fields yield quinoa, potatoes, maize, large bean pods, and alfalfa. Zurite has a high school, a central plaza, a couple of stores selling groceries and household essentials, a police station, church, and soccer field. GSE, Zurite is directed by Tomás Ruíz López, a religious studies professor, and Uriel Villena, a dentist and local restaurant owner.

Tomás and Uriel have worked hard with student ambassador Yeni Sihua Quispe to work with the community of Zurite in developing a proposal for an irrigation canal. The project will be a joint venture with costs shared by the Global Student Embassy, the Municipality of Zurite, the Farmer’s community, and the Commissioner’s Office of Zurite.

The irrigation canal will be built of concrete, .5m x .5m, and will reach a distance of 2.5km. The $60,000 canal project will allow for the irrigation of 40 hectares and will benefit 150 families, a total of 450 people. The canal will allow for year round agriculture.

The Objectives of the Canal
1) Improve the crop yield and productivity of local agriculture.
2) Increase the economic investment of the beneficiaries and elevate the level of life.
3) To sustainably use the local water and land resources.
4) To reduce the risk and vulnerability of crop loss in high altitude farming.
5) To develop an organized system of efficient distribution of water and good management of the irrigation infrastructure.
6) To extend the reach of irrigation to new croplands.
7) To decrease the percentage of those aged 16-30 leaving Zurite in search of employment in the cities.

GSE ambassadors and staff plan to complete this 2.5km irrigation canal in June-July through a commitment of manual labor and $7,000.

You can support our efforts by purchasing sections of the canal for $25/meter

I invite you to learn more at www.seb.org/global.html.

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Meth Abuse Cost to Society - Billions of Dollars

Societal Cost of Meth Use Is Gauged in New Study

"It's destroying families; it's destroying our schools; it's destroying our budgets for corrections, social services, health care. We're losing a generation of productive people. My God, at the rate we're going, we're going to have more people in jail than out of jail in 20 years.“ - Montana Gov. Brian Schweitzer

By ERIK ECKHOLM
Published: February 4, 2009 in the New York Times

In the first effort to calculate the national price of methamphetamine abuse, a new study said the addictive stimulant imposed costs of $23.4 billion in 2005. While the authors, from the RAND Corporation in Santa Monica, Calif., caution that many impacts were difficult to quantify, their study suggests that methamphetamine takes an economic toll nearly as great as heroin and possibly more.

Methamphetamine was named the primary cause of some 900 deaths in 2005, and the report estimates that premature mortality alone cost $4 billion. Its abuse has spread from Hawaii and rural areas of the West and South since the 1990s, slowly expanding to the Midwest and the East. In the process, it has wreaked havoc on addicts’ physical and mental health and on their families.

Federal surveys suggest that the share of Americans using the drug in a given year has stabilized, at about 1 percent of the population over age 12, which is far higher than the rate for heroin but half the rate for cocaine. About 400,000 Americans are believed to be addicted to methamphetamine, but a rising number are smoking it rather than taking it orally or snorting it. Smoking brings a faster, jolting high, quicker addiction and more ill effects.

The study is part of a project at RAND to evaluate the costs of drug addiction, financed by the National Institute on Drug Abuse and directed by Rosalie L. Pacula, co-director of the Drug Policy Research Center at RAND.

Extra financing for the report was provided by the Meth Project Foundation, a private group that seeks to prevent young people from using methamphetamine.

Dr. Wilson Compton, a division director at the National Institute on Drug Abuse, said the study’s major innovation was its effort to quantify the effects of addiction on the quality of life — how factors like poor health, anxiety and paranoia shrink the addict’s horizons and pleasure over time. Such estimates have been made for heart diseases and other major ones but not for illegal drugs, Dr. Compton said.

These intangibles proved to be the largest costs, with an estimated price of $12.6 billion. Other major costs included $4.2 billion in crime and criminal justice, $904 million for endangered children put into foster care as a result of parents’ use, $687 million in lost productivity, $545 million for drug treatment, $351 million for health care and $61 million for injuries and deaths at exploding meth labs and for cleaning up the toxic wastes they produce.

Because of the difficulty in pinpointing the role of methamphetamine in crime, medical care and other factors, the RAND researchers gave a range of estimates, saying the overall toll may be as low as $16.2 billion or as high as $48.3 billion.

Several potentially major costs were not factored in because they could not be measured. These include, for example, the burdens imposed on the families and friends of addicts, and the burdens of children who are not taken into the foster system.

The study is available on the Web at methproject.org.

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