Our tour begins with a beautifully landscaped front yard

Imagine this audacious plan: we return our grid of manicured yards into watershed and wildlife-friendly spaces. From a bird or butterfly’s perspective, it would be a transformation from sterile segmented turf fields to bounteous habitat full of nectar plants, insects, hiding places and nesting spaces.  This "Bay-Friendly"
gardens initiative is underway around the Bay Area under the sponsorship of Stopwaste.org. Last weekend some generous, certified “Bay-Friendly” garden owners opened their yards for tours.

A red fox squirrel scampers through the garden

We were able to purchase a tour booklet and tickets to gain entry to meander around and view the seven principles of "Bay-Friendly" gardening used in very different ways.  As their website states, "It’s an approach to landscaping with room for lots of personal preferences and interpretations." The gardens were beautiful, creative, and a great way to bring the natural world into people’s every day lives.

What struck me was the amount of insect and wildlife activity in the featured gardens.  These gardens were busy with insects visiting flowers on the sunny Sunday afternoon.  Squirrels scampered through the trees and a variety of birds were flitting about and calling from the shelter of trees and shrubs.  Like little wildlife havens, the yards were alive with an abundant diversity of plants and wildlife compared with other nearby yards of traditional turf grass and ornamental plants.

Garden creekside retreat featuring water permeable surface and artistic seating area

"Bay-Friendly" gardening also calls for the limited use of pesticides. Toxic chemicals, along with trash pollution, pose big problems to our bay and creeks.  Diazinon and chlorpyrifos are two commonly used insecticides.  According to a report by TDC Environmental, the two are “of great concern, because elevated levels of the two pesticides have been linked to findings of toxicity in wastewater treatment plant effluent, storm water runoff, urban creeks (including all San Francisco Bay area urban creeks), estuaries (including San Francisco Bay), and the Sacramento River.  Much of this toxicity occurs in urban areas, apparently reflecting urban releases—rather than agricultural releases—of diazinon and chlorpyrifos.”

Thimbleberry provides food for native birds and insects

"Bay-Friendly" gardens seem to need fewer pest control measures because the owners strive to create healthier soil conditions, choose plants that are best suited to our climate and location in the garden which, in turn, encourages beneficial insects.  Ultimately this combination keeps the pest populations in better balance.  When control measures are called for, there are resources available to help you choose those least toxic to the environment. Our Water, Our World website has some great resources including a downloadable pocket guide.

The "Bay-Friendly" garden website is a great resource, too, for both home gardeners and landscaping professionals.  There’s an interactive page showing some examples of good gardening practices. There is still one more tour you can attend in Marin County on May 19 to gather ideas for your own "Bay-Friendly" garden.  We’ve also been working on creating a "Bay-Friendly" landscape around the Crab Cove Visitor Center.  Maybe you’ll see us on the Alameda County garden tour, once we get certified, in the next couple of years!

Additional Links:

Pesticide pollution prevention ideas

Sunset Magazine landscaping ideas with less lawn

A grizzly bear in British Columbia. Its California cousin,
Ursus horribilis californicus, is long extinct.
(Photo: Charlesjsharp)

Earlier this month, California’s beleaguered salmon fishing industry finally got a break. After the catastrophic collapse of Central Valley’s fall Chinook run in 2008-2009, hundreds of thousands of fish may be on their way back to Sacramento riverbeds.

With a forecast of 820,000 Chinook now at sea, commercial salmon boats, rendered irrelevant for two straight seasons and set loose for just eight days in 2010, can return to business as usual this summer. And though the apparent rebound is good news for salmon, the fall Chinook’s future is far from secure.

The disheartening run of 2008 followed a lean spawning year (which biologists call “escapement,” after the number of fish that elude fishermen to reproduce), with just under 88,000 survivors returning to streams or hatcheries in 2007.

California has four seasonal salmon runs, each with distinct behavioral and genetic traits. Conservation biologists like to compare genetic diversity to a diversified stock portfolio. More diversity means a better chance of weathering tough times. (See, for example, "Irish potato famine.") And while the National Marine Fisheries Service cited poor ocean conditions as the “proximate cause” for the dismal runs (because freshwater habitat, though degraded, was no worse than usual), the agency also noted several other factors, including heavy reliance on hatchery fish, which homogenized the fall Chinook’s historically diverse genetic portfolio.

Fall Chinook once thrived in every major river in the Central Valley. Biologists suspect the runs rivaled the storied San Joaquin spring runs. Documents from 1870 unearthed by historian Paul Vandor described salmon returning in “such shoals” that “restful sleep was disturbed because myriads of them can be heard nightly splashing over the sand bars in the river opposite town.”

Chinook Salmon on the Lower Stanislaus River. (Photo: USFWS)

Spring run Chinook are long gone from the San Joaquin watershed. Just 3,802 fish made the Sacramento run in 2009.

Pacific fisheries managers monitor Chinook take to allow 122,000-180,000 fish to escape capture and swim upriver. In 2008, just 66,000 fish made it back. Fewer than 40,000 returned in 2009 (close to 54,000 counting hatchery fish), the worst run on record.

(The runs in 2010 barely made it above the minimum target, with close to 40,000 returning to hatcheries and about 86,000 returning to wild streams.)

This season’s good news notwithstanding, the grim returns of the past few years didn’t affect just fishermen and salmon consumers. Biologists have long known that ecosystems suffer when managers value economics over ecosystems and allow overfishing.

But cutting back on harvests to let more salmon spawn in rivers and creeks will not only help safeguard their ecological role, argues a study published last week in PLoS Biology, but will help commercial fishers and consumers by ensuring a future for salmon.

When salmon thrive, so does everything else, says Taal Levi, a PhD candidate in environmental studies at UC Santa Cruz, who led the study. “Abundance matters in ecosystems.”

The study supports a growing literature linking abundant salmon to positive ecological effects, Levi says. “It suggests we should be letting more salmon into rivers.”

Letting more salmon return to coastal streams
to spawn will benefit bears, ecosystems,
and eventually the offshore salmon catch.
(Photo: Jennifer Allen)

Salmon are the ultimate mobile nutrient-delivery system. They spread the wealth wherever they go, from streams to sea and back again. Healthy salmon runs boost primary productivity in coastal lakes (by providing nutrients for algae), fuel vegetative growth along streams, creating better habitat for salmon hatchlings and leading to higher densities of diverse insects and songbirds. They also feed all manner of predators and scavengers, from orcas to raptors and—in the places they still exist—grizzly bears.

Hundreds of thousands of salmon once injected massive seasonal pulses of nutrients from the sea to Pacific coastal and riparian ecosystems. Commercial harvests deprive ecosystems of this historic recharge. But restricting harvests cuts into fishery profits. Levi and his colleagues developed a model to help fishery managers weigh the costs and benefits to commercial fishers and ecosystems of allowing more spawning, using grizzly bears as a proxy for salmon’s ecosystem benefits.

Studies show that spawning and dead salmon are the single most important fall resource to grizzlies preparing for hibernation and cub-rearing on Alaska’s Kenai Peninsula. In this study, the authors show that grizzlies are good indicators of salmon’s ecosystem services because bear densities are so closely tied to salmon abundance.

The authors used fishing records to model increased escapement across various management options for six sockeye salmon stocks in Alaska and British Columbia to determine how bear numbers and income from fishing change with the number of fish harvested. For each stock, more spawning meant more bears. And for sockeye stocks that breed in streams alongside other salmon species, both long-term fishing yields and bears benefited from higher escapement.

Conservation and economic interests conflicted only where grizzlies are threatened and eat primarily sockeye, because reducing harvests would cut into profits. But the tradeoffs would be clear, and managers could estimate the costs of protecting salmon runs and endangered bears. It’s conceivable that managers could even find ways to help fisheries recoup their losses in the name of conservation.

The fishing industry in California doesn’t dominate the state economy as it does in Alaska. But Levi argues that having more salmon in streams would also have economic benefits from better wildlife viewing opportunities.

Increased salmon abundance would surely help California’s bald eagles. “We don’t have abundant bald eagle populations anymore but we have a nesting pair at Pinto Lake in Watsonville,” Levi says. (There’s another pair in San Mateo now.) More salmon would be a boon to the state’s recovering eagle population.

More salmon would also increase black bear populations, he says, which is good for both hunters and wildlife observers.

Black bears often move in when grizzlies go extinct, serving a similar ecological role. In fact, biologists say, black bears eat more salmon than grizzlies because they’re more widely distributed.

But there’s no reason that restoring California’s salmon runs couldn’t go hand in hand with restoring the state’s grizzly population, Levi says: California and Oregon have millions of acres of contiguous protected land, more than enough to support grizzlies.

In the 1970s, grizzlies survived on only 4 million acres in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem, he points out. Protected areas in six national forests from Klamath to Mendocino provide nearly 9 million acres of contiguous habitat, not counting available habitat along the coast range from Humboldt down to Point Reyes.

Grizzly bear (Photo: Eric Sambol/www.raincoast.org)

Grizzlies once inhabited nearly every part of the state. In the 1800s, there were so many in the Santa Cruz Mountains where Levi lives that a Spanish missionary said they prowled about “in herds like hogs on a farm.”

Even as late as the 1850s, grizzlies roamed San Mateo and Santa Cruz counties. By the 1870s, they were gone because, as legendary naturalist Joseph Grinnell wrote, “Great numbers of people…have been alert to seize any and every opportunity to kill bears.”

Levi admits the prospect for reintroducing grizzlies could be “politically insurmountable,” but adds wistfully, “this would be ambitious wildlife conservation.”

“It is not at all crazy to think that grizzlies could have a viable population in California," he says. "The question is just whether we want them back.”

A wolf from OR7's pack in Oregon. (Image: Oregon Department of Fish and Game)

OR7, the lone gray wolf from a pack in Oregon, crossed back into his home state yesterday after two months of wandering in Northern California. OR7’s trek made him the first wolf in California in almost 90 years. Officials say it’s possible the wolf will continue to use both states.

With OR7’s arrival, California has been thrown into a national debate about how to manage wolves. Environmentalists want to see a wolf population restored in the state. For others, OR7 is not a welcome visitor. In Lassen County, where OR7 has spent the bulk of his time, wolf opposition is heating up.

"If it's killing my cattle, I'm gonna kill it."

At a recent county board of supervisors meeting in Susanville, a town in the state’s rural northeast corner, Fish and Game biologist Karen Kovacs takes the podium. “What we’re here today to do is just to share what we know about wolves in California,” she says to the crowd.

Kovacs’ agency gets daily downloads about the two-year-old male wolf’s location through its radio collar. “Are there other wolves in California? That’s a $64 million dollar question,” she says.

If there's one thing Kovacs has learned since OR7 arrived, it’s that wolves make people emotional. For several weeks, Kovacs and other wildlife officials have attended a number of public meetings about California’s wolf. In the state’s northern counties, the reaction has been vocal.

“The protection afforded something that doesn’t belong here in the first place doesn’t make any sense,” says Susanville resident Len Grizwold. “Be cautious, folks. They’re here to tell you there’s nothing to worry about,” says another resident. The reception from county supervisor and rancher Bob Pyle isn’t any warmer.

“I really don’t care what it is. If it’s killing my cattle, I’m gonna kill it," he says.

“Any wolf in California is considered endangered,” responds Susan Moore of the US Fish and Wildlife Service. “And if you should take it, kill it, it is a $100,000 fine or a year in jail, or both.”

That sentiment has followed wolves from the moment they were reintroduced in the West almost 20 years ago. In states like Idaho and Montana, where wolf populations have rebounded, there’s been an all-out war. Ranchers and hunters say wolves kill too many livestock and elk. Environmentalists see the wolf as a key part of a healthy ecosystem.

With OR7’s arrival, that debate has come to California.

On the Wolf’s Trail

In a quiet pine forest outside of Susanville, Kovacs and Fish and Game biologist Richard Callas walk through a light layer of snow. OR7 crossed a major highway nearby a few weeks ago, not far from where California’s last wolf was trapped and killed in 1924.

Click to see a larger map of where OR7 has traveled.

“The way we find his tracks is because they’re pretty darn big,” says Kovacs.

OR7’s exact location is secret to protect the wolf, but once he leaves an area, Kovacs and Callas go in to see what he’s been eating. “We know that OR7 has fed on two deer. We don’t know if he killed them or scavenged them,” Callas says.

Life isn’t easy for a wolf on his own. But there’s a reason OR7 has traveled 2,000 miles since he left his pack in Oregon last September. “His love life hasn’t been much to brag about lately,” Callas says. “But he’s certainly looking for a mate.”

In other states, it’s taken about 10 years for a pack to be established after the first wolf showed up. But biologists aren’t sure how successful wolves will be here. “Our elk population is smaller than some state like Montana, Colorado and Wyoming. Our deer numbers were lower than they were,” he says.

Since Oregon’s wolf packs live hundreds of miles from the border, it could be some time before another wolf wanders this way. But for the Department of Fish and Game, that may not matter. Groups on both sides are calling for some kind of plan to manage wolves.

“There are entities out there who are ready to litigate at the drop of a hat,” says Kovacs. “Can we get those stakeholders here in California to the table to collectively meet to move forward?”

Local Ranchers Concerned

OR7 wandered close to Willow Creek Ranch outside of Susanville.

On a cold morning at Willow Creek Ranch outside of Susanville, Jack Hanson is getting ready to feed 300 hungry cattle. A few weeks ago, OR7 wasn’t far from here. “About 17 or 18 miles as the crow flies,” says Hanson.

Hanson says it’s not OR7 that’s he’s worried about. It’s that wolf populations could grow. In other states, some ranchers are trying out tools to deter wolves, like special fencing and loud noises. Some even get text messages when wolves are close.

Most ranchers see wolves as one more thing to deal with in an already tough industry, says Hanson. Still, he wants to be part of the discussion. “We’ll be able to have a dialogue with agencies. I don’t think it will ever come to exactly where we want it, which is not to have them back in the first place.”

State and Federal Protections

Wolves are currently protected in California under the federal Endangered Species Act, but several environmental groups are petitioning the state to protect them under California law as well. That would require the Department of Fish and Game to figure out how many wolves belong in California and how they’ll recover.

The federal government is also considering whether to specially protect California wolves. Populations in Idaho, Montana and parts of Oregon and Washington have already been taken off the endangered species list but this week, the agency recommended removing protection for wolves in some of the remaining parts of the lower 48 states.

California wolves may still be protected, however. Fish and Wildlife is considering whether to specially protect wolves in parts of Oregon, Washington and California. If so, the agency would consider writing a recovery plan for what would be known as the Pacific Northwest population. That decision is due by September 30th.

“We don’t see California as being essential to the recovery of wolves. It’s not prime wolf habitat,” says Dan Ashe, director of the US Fish and Wildlife Service. “But certainly, wolves will move hopefully in the future and will find some hospitable territory in California. Some may establish themselves there, but hopefully they’ll be well-managed under state law.”

Weathering the Debate

The question is: can California avoid the battles that other states have seen?

“No, I don’t think so,” says Ed Bangs, the recently retired Wolf Recovery Coordinator at the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. He’s been in the middle of the Western wolf debate for two decades.

“You have to remember wolves and wolf management has nothing to do with reality. I mean we can give you facts, you know all this biology stuff. That isn’t what people talk about. They’re talking about what wolves mean to them symbolically.”

But he thinks that debate isn’t necessarily a bad thing. “Imagine if it was the way it was before when no one cared at all about natural resources or wildlife. Apathy is a lot worse.”

Just 30 years ago, there were only a handful of gray wolves in the West. Today, there are more than 1,600.

Dusky-capped flycatcher (credit: mdf)

Most people know the Philadelphia suburbs for cheesesteaks and unruly sports fans. But it’s no wonder that John James Audubon started his lifelong affair with birds just 25 miles northwest of Center City, and a 20-minute drive from my natal stomping grounds. The dense, rolling woodlands of Pennsylvania’s Montgomery County where I grew up offered prime habitat for cardinals, chickadees, blue jays, wrens, and countless other species my mom loved to point out to us kids. I didn’t realize it at the time, but my mom’s avian affinities taught me not just to pay attention to the biology in my backyard but, ultimately, to consider which species lived there and why.

This weekend, novice Bay Area wildlife watchers get the chance to play field biologist in their own backyards and join forces with expert birders and scientists to gather data on the incidence, abundance, and distribution of birds. Between February 17 and 20, the 15th annual Great Backyard Bird Count invites people of all ages and experience to spend as little as 15 minutes (or as long as you like) counting birds wherever you are.

The event is a joint project of the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Audubon, and Bird Studies Canada, leading bird conservation organizations that provide a wealth of resources for participants, including tips for getting started,
regional checklists, and tools for resolving tricky identifications.

“The Great Backyard Bird Count is an excellent introductory citizen science project for any level of birder,” says Brian Sullivan, an expert on North American birds and project leader of Cornell’s online resource for birders around the world, eBird.

“You can just count the birds you see in your backyard or go to your local park and count what you see there. The idea is to get a weekend snapshot of late-winter bird distribution across the United States and to make things really simple so just about anyone can participate.”

Sullivan, who has 1,669 species on his life list, says lucky birders could see “mega-rarities” like an Iceland gull, “a very rare bird in California” spotted near Sausalito in early February, or maybe the dusky-capped flycatcher that's been living in Golden Gate Park all winter.

The largest estuary on the West Coast, the San Francisco Bay Delta provides habitat and refuge to more than 250 species of waterbirds, some (including pelicans, loons, herons, and egrets) year-round residents, others, like the Wilson’s phalarope and Sabine’s gull, on stopovers to feed and rest before resuming their long-distance migrations. As many as 800,000 birds inhabit Bay Area waterways at any given time.

To find out which birds you’re likely to see in your area, go to Cornell’s eBird, click on “View and Explore Data,” then click on “Bar Charts,” select “United States,” “California,” and then “Counties in California.” Choose your county, click “continue,” and you’ll see the occurrence of birds throughout the year.

Last year, participants entered more than 92,000 checklists with 1.4 million birds from 596 species. Their data helped researchers identify changes in abundance (including an increase in evening grosbeaks, which declined 50% between 1988 and 2006) and distribution (winter finches moving south), and spot anomalies (an Asian brown shrike in McKinley, California).

The bird counts give weekend nature lovers an easy way to help scientists gather data on a widely distributed group of animals that serve as valuable indicators of biodiversity. Because birds occupy many different “trophic” levels in food webs, eating everything from insects to fish to mammals (and, for top predators like owls, hawks, and eagles, other birds), they play critical roles in maintaining healthy ecosystems. Among their many “ecosystem services,” all of which benefit humans, birds help regulate prey populations, facilitate plant reproduction through pollination and seed dispersal, and recycle nutrients by scavenging carcasses.

This widespread influence on their environment also makes them extremely sensitive to ecosystem disruptions, including habitat destruction and climate change. An alarming 13% of the world’s birds, 1,253 species, face extinction, according to the 2011 IUCN Red List. The Great Indian bustard, a native of India and Pakistan that barks when alarmed, has been reclassified as critically endangered, a victim of hunting and widespread habitat destruction. Scientists think fewer than 250 mature birds remain.

Closer to home, black-crowned night herons and snowy egrets have been on a downward slide since 2005. And the endangered California clapper rail, once abundant in the tidal marshes of San Francisco Bay, offers a case study in the unintended consequences of development. Extensive filling and diking of the bay has destroyed some 85% of the clapper rail’s salt marsh habitat, making a shy species that seems to prefer scampering over swimming and flying easy pickings for feral cats and invasive red foxes, which now have unfettered access to adults and their ground-nesting offspring.

California clapper rail (Don Roberson)

Roughly 60% of the critically endangered clapper rail population, estimated at between 1,000 and 1,500, lives in San Francisco Bay’s Don Edwards National Wildlife Refuge, in Fremont.

Researchers will use the information collected from the bird count to learn how birds like the clapper rail are coping with these new predation pressures, as well as other stresses from ongoing urbanization, global climate change, and disease.

The decline of suitable habitat for these species affects us as well. Tidal marshes filter contaminants to enhance water quality and serve as natural flood barriers. If the marshes can no longer support species like the clapper rail, chances are they can’t provide these ecosystem services for us either.

Birds are among the most diverse and ubiquitous vertebrates on the planet and often offer humans a first brush with wildlife.

As a little girl, I marveled that my mom always knew when Jenny Wren and her husband, Joe (as she liked to call the resident house wrens), would appear in our backyard, build their nest, and settle into the business of raising, feeding, and protecting their broods.

She couldn’t have known that scientists would one day blame the precipitous declines in Bewick’s wrens in the eastern United States on the expansion of her beloved house wrens, known for ejecting eggs, and even young, from coveted nest sites.

Blue jay (Liza Gross)

As I listened to Mom’s fanciful tales of avian domestic dramas, my young imagination conjured all manner of worrisome scenarios. Would Joe find enough food for the babies? Could Jenny protect them from a torrential summer downpour? How would either of them cope with a curious cat? Some may shudder at such anthropomorphizing, but I wonder: If more people viewed birds the way my mom did, struggling to survive like the rest of us, would they worry about their welfare, too?

Henry David Thoreau first said “In wildness is the preservation of the world” in a lecture some months after Audubon’s death. I like to think, had they discussed the question, Audubon would have objected: “My dear sir, I believe you meant to say, ‘In birds is the preservation of the world.’ ”

Do you have a unique voice that sets you apart from the crowd? Contribute your stories to QUEST!

KQED QUEST is looking to add new voices to our blog, which already offers commentary from our producers, reporters, and local writers from our partner institutions at Chabot Space & Science Center and The Tech Museum.

We're looking to include folks who are actively involved in the science, environment and nature blogging community – e.g. have a blog, guest post on others' site, and comment / participate in relevant discussions. And we're looking locally. Our blog has a strong SF Bay Area focus, though we do occasionally cover and/or perform analysis on how this stuff elsewhere that affects the Bay Area.

What we cover

QUEST’s geographic coverage is from Mendocino to Monterey and from Sacramento to Santa Clara, and generally covers 9 content areas: astronomy, biology, chemistry, engineering, environment, geology, health, physics and weather.

Requirements

• Original posts, 3-500 words with at least 1 image. Schedule determined on availability, but weekly or bi-monthly is preferred.
• Posts should relate back to at least one of our 9 themes for the program: Astronomy, Chemistry, Engineering, Physics, Weather, Geology, Biology, Environment, Health.
• Topic should be something about which you have some expertise and/or passion.
• A unique voice and ability to follow our QUEST writing guidelines (see below).
• Experience with WordPress or similar blogging platform.
• Willingness to occasionally be assigned a post topic by the editor as current events dictate.
• Respect for copyright and fair use.

Would I get paid?

Yes – we offer a small stipend on a per post basis.

Alrighty, then. How do I apply?

Email us a note and bio to questeditor@kqed.org explaining what you'd like to write for us. Please also include some links to relevant blogs you admire, and/or participate in, and why. Send us a writing sample or two (links are fine), and we'll review it in the next couple weeks. Last day to submit is February 1st. Our hope is to bring aboard a few new bloggers by mid-February.

Some beats we're interested in

Although we want to hear from a wide range of writers, here are a few coverage areas we're keen on in particular:

• Bay ecology background and issues
• Science education
• Silicon Valley / engineering innovations
• Hacks, DIY, and hands-on science activities
• Hiking and outdoors (with a science focus)
• Food science
• Convergence of art & science
• Nature & science photography

Writing Guidelines

(As laid out by our managing editor, Paul Rogers)

Why does my grandmother care? A key requirement of QUEST bloggers will be to explain scientific and environmental issues in a way that the general public can understand. Our audience is mostly made up of people who aren’t scientists or environmental activists. Posts should explain why the topics they are writing about are relevant to Bay Area residents.

Get to the point. Studies have shown that readers spend only a minute or two on most web sites before moving on. The average reader reads about 200 words a minute. Write tight, and lively. Keep it interesting and informative.

Avoid jargon. The purpose of good writing is to communicate clearly. Don’t use complex, esoteric scientific terms. Instead of saying "non-point source pollution," say "polluted runoff." Instead of "extravehicular activity," say “space walk.”

Be personal. Relate personal experiences. Speak in the first person. Tell them where you saw the blue herons or which movie best depicts what a real moon base might look like. Find your own voice and write in a compelling, approachable way.

Be passionate. Write about subjects and topics that you care about. Please don’t feel you have to stick to a script or formula. Express yourself.

Drive traffic to the blog. Place a link in your correspondence and comments to the blog. Mention it on other web forums.

Write for the bigger picture. Don’t view the blog as a place just to promote your institution or pet cause. Keep in mind your audience is made up of a wide diversity of people, with wide interests.

Speak your mind, but check your facts. Or your audience will do it for you with painful results.

Know your fellow bloggers. You'll be part of a vibrant community with fresh ideas and discussions nearly every day. Don't be afraid to comment on their posts, or link to their entries. Have fun with it! Dreary bloggers or insufferable policy wonks need not apply.

Scientists studied twins like these to figure out that genetics accounts for about 37% of autism. Image courtesy of Jeff Balke.

Scientists have known that autism is a combination of genes and the environment for a long time. But the focus has been on genes because early twin studies suggested that autism was mostly genetic.

Scientists looked at sets of identical and fraternal twins to see how often both twins in a pair had autism. Remember, identical twins have the exact same DNA whereas fraternal twins only share as much DNA as any other siblings.

If autism were purely genetic, then both identical twins in a pair should either have it or not. It should be very rare for one twin in a pair to have autism and the other to not have autism. Fraternal twins should have it at about the same rate as any other siblings.

But if autism were purely environmental, then both twins in an identical or fraternal twin pair should get it at about the same rate. Depending on what part of the environment is causing the problem, this rate might be higher than that of siblings.

A study back in the 1970’s found that both twins in an identical pair had autism 72% of the time and that both fraternal twins never had it at the same time. This is where the 90% heritability for autism number came from.

The fact that fraternal twins never both had autism was weird from the start. Scientists knew that if one sibling had autism, the risk for the other siblings was anywhere from 3-14% which is higher than the general risk. Fraternal twins are siblings and so there should probably be some increased risk too.

In a new study, scientists did a more extensive study on 192 twin pairs and arrived at very different results. In this study, male identical twins both had autism 58% of the time and male fraternal twins both had autism 21% of the time. (Female numbers were similar.) These numbers suggest that genetics accounts for about 37% of autism. Still significant but nowhere near 90%!

If this study holds up, it means is that scientists can start looking at environmental effects. They’ve ruled out vaccines as a cause but there are lots of other possibilities. And many of these may happen before the child is even born.

For example, it may be that like Down syndrome or schizophrenia, parents’ age is a factor. Or it may be that diseases mom might have had or chemicals she might have been exposed to while pregnant could increase chances for autism. Or a host of other possibilities might be responsible.

What is important to keep in mind is that if scientists can identify an environmental cause, they can try to keep expectant mothers away. Or try to ameliorate the effects. In many cases, this will be much easier to deal with than genes.

For more, read

Sometimes autism that looks environmental can be genetic from Undestanding Genetics.

Picking up local produce at the farmers’ market—that’s my kind of New Year’s resolution. Photo: Mazarine.

1. Go on an energy diet
A few years ago, I read an article in the New York Times in which the author tries to cut his annual CO₂ emissions by half a ton—roughly five percent of his yearly carbon “weight.” He makes several easy changes, all of which he accomplishes in under 8 hours. For example, he turns down the thermostat, washes his clothes in cold water, asks retailers to stop sending him catalogs, and swaps out some incandescent bulbs for C.F.L.s. He overshoots his goal of half a ton of CO₂, with minimal effort. This article has really stuck in my mind, because these changes are so easy to make. I’m going to revisit this article, The Energy Diet, and cut some carbon from my waistline.

2. Track my energy usage—and respond accordingly
PG&E just installed a SmartMeter at my home. Once it’s connected to the network (it will take a few months), I’ll be able to track my hourly energy usage. I want to do little experiments to figure out which of my appliances are energetically expensive. I’ll be able to see how much energy I save by turning off my computer at night, rather than putting it to sleep. I can swap out light bulbs and see if the savings are significant. I’m looking forward to doing nerdy energy experiments and seeing my energy usage drop! All PG&E customers should have a SmartMeter by mid-2012. To learn more about SmartMeters, check PG&E’s website, and watch QUEST’s Climate Watch: Unlocking the Grid. And for some of the controversy about SmartMeters, take a look at this post on the Climate Watch blog.

3. Eat local
As food is transported across the country (or across the globe), CO₂ is emitted. These food miles can really rack up. This year, I want to buy more food from local farms at my neighborhood farmers’ market. I might even add a Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) box to the mix. This resolution has a few great by-products: supporting the local economy, spending fun mornings at the farmers’ market with friends, and eating many tasty meals.

4. Get more informed about the environment
I read the newspaper, and I peruse a handful of blogs; my favorites are Climate Watch, Dot Earth, Green, and treehugger. But I can always read more! What are your favorite sources for environmental news and commentary?

5. Get outside
This resolution has nothing to do with reducing my carbon footprint. I just want to breathe some fresh air and enjoy the outdoors. I’ll ride my bike, hike some new trails, and eat my lunch outside when it’s sunny. After all this work to preserve the environment—I might as well enjoy it.

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Skiing at Tahoe’s Squaw Valley, the resort with the best report card in the country. Photo: Jeff Engerbretson.

Planning a ski trip this winter? Environmentally minded skiers might want to take a look at the Ski Area Report Card before making travel plans. The recently released Report Card gives every ski area in the country a score, based on the resort’s greenness. The grading criteria encompasses everything from recycling the refuse of mid-mountain lunch lodges to using biodiesel to fuel snowmobiles. California’s ski areas fared well: Tahoe’s Squaw Valley was ranked the greenest in the nation, and Alpine Meadows wasn’t far behind.

One of the ski industry’s biggest environmental sins is snowmaking, which often involves taking water out of streams, or adding low quality water to the watershed. Other environmental impacts include carbon emissions from ski lifts and erosion of steep slopes. The worst offense is developing undisturbed land to expand ski area terrain and build new parking lots and hotels. This can wreck habitat for threatened and endangered species. However, there wasn’t much new ski area development over the past year, primarily because of the slow economy.

According to the Ski Area Citizens’ Coalition (the amalgam of skiers and environmental groups that developed the Report Card), 90% of ski areas in the Western US are on public land administered by the Forest Service. In my opinion, environmentally conscientious ski areas are a good use of public land. I think of skiing as a way to be in nature and enjoy the outdoors—although you could argue that there isn’t much that’s natural about the corduroy-like texture of treeless, groomed slopes. But as I carve through fresh powder, look out over mountain vistas, and watch from the chairlift as voles scurry over the snow, I definitely get that small-speck-in-a-big-beautiful-world feeling. I should disclose that I was a ski bum in Alta, Utah (Ski Area Report Card grade: B) before I blew out both my ACLs and limped off to graduate school.

If you’re concerned about your ski-related carbon emissions, I suggest you live like a ski town local: live close to the mountain, and ski the backcountry. No need for carbon-spewing chairlifts when you can get yourself up the mountain on your own power—but watch out for avalanches.

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Angel Island and other state parks are facing cuts in services and hours. Photo Credit: Andrea Kissack

One week after the defeat of Proposition 21, California State Parks supporters are facing some tough decisions. The measure would have raised money for parks by imposing an eighteen dollar fee on vehicle licenses. Without that revenue, State Parks continue to face a shrinking budget and staff as well as an estimated 1 billion dollar maintenance backlog.

State Parks Director Ruth Coleman says scheduled cuts in services and hours will continue. But in the long run full park closures may be hard to avoid. “Is it better to be spreading these costs across all the parks and having a really substandard experience for everyone or are we to the point where we really need to be closing some parks permanently, at least for the foreseeable future, and be able to redirect resources to preserve the park experience,” she says. Coleman explains her department is looking at a number of funding options including raising entrance fees and soliciting corporate donations.

Any long term solutions would have to get the support of Governor-elect Jerry Brown who said after Tuesday’s election that Californians sent a message that they are, “in no mood to add to their burdens” with new taxes. Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger had proposed closing 220 of the state's 278 state parks but after public outcry he scaled the proposal way back. The state ended up reducing services and hours at about 150 state parks.

Listen to Saving Our Parks radio report.

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Removal of culverts at 12th Street will increase tidal flow into Lake Merritt (credit: Amy Miller)

Reported for KQEDnews.org

Excavators rumbled and dust filled the air in downtown Oakland this week as the demolition of a 12-lane stretch of roadway running along the south end of Lake Merritt got underway.

But the demise of the 2,000-foot long section of 12th Street, dubbed the “world’s shortest freeway” by locals, is more than just a road project. It’s part of the most visible and expensive phase of a multimillion-dollar rebirth of Lake Merritt, an Oakland landmark that gained renown as North America’s first wildlife refuge in 1870, yet which has been plagued for decades by environmental, architectural and public access problems.

For as long as most Oakland residents can remember, the water in the 140-acre lake has been stagnant and polluted. Many of the surrounding historic buildings and structures have been in a state of disrepair. And narrow trails around the lake have been pitted with potholes.

In November 2002, more than 80 percent of Oakland voters approved Measure DD, a $198 million dollar bond measure to fund water quality and parks projects throughout the city. Of that, $115 million was allocated for Lake Merritt.

“Our number one goal is to improve water quality and improve habitat in the lake,” said Joel Peter, the city of Oakland’s Measure DD program manager.

Measure DD Program Manager, Joel Peter (credit: Amy Miller)

“The number two goal is to re-establish connections at the lake. In addition to reconnecting the lake and the bay hydrologically, we’re also trying to reconnect people with nature — because people don’t even realize that the lake’s part of the bay.”

Peter’s task is to oversee more than 50 projects described in the bond. They include restoring creeks and wetlands, improving water quality in Lake Merritt, widening pedestrian and cycling paths and building better roadways to calm traffic around the lake. The project is scheduled to be completed in 2015.

The work on 12th Street is the most extensive piece of the restoration. Crews are reconfiguring the 12-lane road to a six-lane boulevard, lined with trees, a bicycle lane and footpath, all adjacent to a new 4-acre park.

And where an earth-fill dam under the street now restricts the flow of water by forcing it through narrow culverts, a bridge will extend instead, allowing the bay’s tides to flow in and out more freely through a wider channel.

All of this, combined with the other improvements to the area, makes the Measure DD effort what Peter calls “the most wide-ranging and complex series of projects ever undertaken by the City of Oakland.”

Not Really a Lake

Although commonly thought of as a freshwater, man-made lake, Lake Merritt is actually a tidal lagoon that formed after the last ice age where several creeks within the surrounding 4,650-acre watershed empty into San Francisco Bay. The “lake” is connected to San Francisco Bay by a half-mile-long channel, which allows its salty water to rise and fall along with the bay’s tides.

Peter said lack of public awareness about what Lake Merritt really is contributes to the misconception that the lake is actually dirtier than it really is.

“People expect a pristine, clear, Sierra-type lake,” he said. “It’s actually a tidal slough. And if they knew it was salt water and what they are smelling in many cases is just natural things you find around San Francisco Bay in terms of algae growth and mud flats and that sort of thing, actually the water quality in the lake is not terrible before we started this project. But I think that is the perception.”

The heady odor is exactly what Dr. Samuel Merritt smelled in 1854 when the successful San Francisco physician purchased 23 acres around the shoreline of the tidal slough that would later bear his name. Merritt, who became the mayor of Oakland in 1867, was also a shrewd businessman who realized the value of his real estate holdings would increase if the pungent marsh became a recreational lake. So, in 1869, he used his own money to build a dam across the mouth of the slough near where 12th Street is today so that the water level in the lake could be controlled.

The Lake Merritt Channel in 1908 at low tide (credit: Oakland Public Library)

The presence of more than a hundred different species of birds including ducks, geese, pelicans, egrets, herons and cormorants also proved to be a great draw for hunters. To alleviate the dangerous gunfire so close to town, in 1870, Merritt was able to persuade the state legislature to designate Lake Merritt as the first state wildlife refuge in North America.

Over the next century, the lake was dredged. Its surrounding marshlands were filled. And the city of Oakland rose up around its 3-mile perimeter. Bit by bit, the channel that connects the lake to San Francisco Bay, which had been up to a quarter mile wide in some places, was filled in.

Today, the channel is an average 110 feet wide — even narrower where it crosses under 10th and 12th Streets. The steady narrowing has restricted the flow of water in and out of Lake Merritt, which has meant less mixing of the water, and less tidal flushing of the lake, which impacts the health of fish and other aquatic organisms.

The Lake Merritt Channel today at high tide (credit: Amy Miller)

But the encroachment of automobiles may have done the most harm.

“The roadways kept getting pushed wider and wider,” said Peter, “and the lake itself and the park around it was less emphasized. And maintenance has fallen off due to budget issues. It became a bit shabby around the edges. People called it ‘the jewel of Oakland’ but felt it had lost its polish.”

Citizens Unite

By 2001, the problems had reached a breaking point. City leaders commissioned a study called the Lake Merritt Master Plan to look at possible solutions. But the plan excluded the problematic south end of the lake.

This exclusion was likely because at the same time, with the backing of then-mayor Jerry Brown, the Oakland Diocese began a campaign to purchase land in front of the historic Henry J. Kaiser Convention Center at the south end of the lake to build a massive cathedral.

With a group of citizens, graphic designer and longtime Oakland resident Naomi Schiff began to organize against more private development on the lake. “Some of us didn’t feel that it was a good idea for Lake Merritt to become a reflecting pond for a church. Any church,” Schiff said.

Schiff, along with a number of architects, community and historical groups, landscape architects and urban planners, founded the Coalition of Advocates for Lake Merritt (CALM). In the process of worrying about the cathedral, the group’s members made sure to be at the table for Lake Merritt Master Plan meetings. They’d done so much research and made so much noise that ultimately, the city asked them to submit a plan of their own for the south end of the lake.

“And so we did,” said Schiff. “And even though we didn’t have any money or source of funding, we cobbled together a proposal which was to narrow 12th Street to six lanes and put in a park.”

CALM member James Vann was one of the architects who worked on the proposal. “CALM felt that that end of the lake could become a destination if we figured out how to address circulation problems and created areas where people could congregate,” said Vann.

After dozens of brainstorming and outreach meetings, CALM came up with a proposal which had the community’s endorsement. “We also put pressure on the city because this was public land and it could not just be given away for private use. There had to be an open and competitive process,” said Vann.

Their proposal was approved.

“Sometimes you feel like you’re David and Goliath and you’re going to lose but somehow, we didn’t lose,” Schiff said. “Ultimately, it was a good thing that the cathedral people came up with this crazy idea because it galvanized all this creative thinking. And it worked”.

The Kaiser Convention Center and 12th Street demolition at Lake Merritt (credit: Amy Miller)

Frustrated by years of meetings and plans designed to address the problems at Lake Merritt with few results, Oakland City councilman Danny Wan and his successor, councilwoman Pat Kernighan and others got behind the citizen’s group proposal.

They all convinced Oakland to put a $198 million bond measure on the ballot.

Work Begins, Then Stops

After Measure DD passed in 2002, it took the city two years to complete the designs and coordinate logistics. Actual restoration work on Lake Merritt finally started in 2004.

One of the first jobs was to address the lake’s water quality, which “is better now than it has been, especially if you go way back to 120 years ago when the raw sewage came in,” said Richard Bailey, executive director of the Lake Merritt Institute, a non-profit organization contracted by the city to remove floating trash from the lake several times a week.

But the lake is listed as “impaired” under the federal Clean Water Act for trash and low oxygen levels, Bailey said.

“We also have high bacteria levels but we’re not listed for that,” added Bailey.

There are 62 storm drain outfalls that flow directly into Lake Merritt.

“The biggest problem with the lake is not litter, it’s not oxygen, its ignorance,” Bailey said. “People don’t realize that storm drains go directly to public water.”

Bailey and his group of volunteers remove between 1,000 and 5,000 pounds of trash from the lake per month, depending on the season.

Richard Bailey of the Lake Merritt Institute removes all kinds of trash from the lake (credit: Josh Cassidy)

To address the trash problem in the lake, Measure DD has funded the construction of four trash collection units on large storm drain lines to intercept and capture floatable debris and sediment before it gets to the lake.

In another project to improve the lake’s water quality, the Lake Merritt Institute installed three aeration fountains and Measure DD funds repaired one existing fountain around the lake to help reduce the stagnant water in some places. But each of the fountains only treats one acre of water. Lake Merritt covers 140 acres.

Planners are hopeful that the lack of dissolved oxygen in the lake will be alleviated after the completion of another key feature of the project: $27 million to improve the Lake Merritt Channel. Construction will involve removal of the culverts at 12th and 10th Streets that have restricted access for people and water between the lake and the channel for more than 100 years.

“The volume of water exchanged at every tide will be double what it is now,” Peter said. “We’re also creating a new tidal marsh by taking out some of the filled land and grading it very carefully down to the sea level and putting in tidal marsh plants to reestablish some of that original habitat.”

New pedestrian and bike trails will be built to pass beneath a new bridge on 10th Street to connect the 12th Street area with the Channel Park to the west. Funds will also go toward improving Channel Park, which teems with birds and fish yet, is virtually unused because of lack of access from Lake Merritt.

Work on the Lake Merritt channel improvements is scheduled to start early next year.

After getting off to what was perceived by many as a slow start, most of the restoration work around the lake has been moving along as scheduled. But in 2006, parts of the project hit a temporary road block when a group of residents called, “Friends of the Lake,” filed a lawsuit to prevent the city from cutting down dozens of trees around the lake to accommodate the new construction.

In late 2007, after an environmental review determined that the trees could be removed without negatively impacting the ecosystem, the lawsuit was dismissed and work resumed.

Budget issues were also responsible for some delays. At a cost of nearly $54 million, the 12th Street project is by far the most expensive part of the plan. When it was originally bid out in 2005, the construction industry in the Bay Area was booming. The city only received one bid, said Peter, and it was significantly over budget. They had to find another way to raise more money.

It took a couple of years for Peter to make up a funding shortfall with matching grants from agencies such as the Federal Highway Bridge Program and the California Coastal Conservancy. During that time, the recession was hitting and construction bids became much more competitive. Peter had his choice of seven bids, all well within the original budget for the project.

“We had the incredible fortune that Measure DD passed when people were really flush and now we’re spending it when construction costs are low,” said Schiff.

The 12th Street project broke ground on May 6, 2010. It will transform south end of the lake by reconfiguring what was a dangerous and inaccessible 12-lane expressway at the edge of a lake into a 6-lane, tree-lined boulevard with signalized intersections and crosswalks.

The redesign will also create new parkland at the edge of the lake and remove unsafe and unsightly tunnels which have been locked and gated by the city since the early 1990’s.

The work on 12th Street will also establish direct pedestrian, bicycle and boat access from Lake Merritt to Channel Park — setting the stage for what will one day be a direct route from the lake all the way out to the bay.

Lake Merritt’s Road Diet

Many of the Measure DD projects already have been completed. A major part of the renovation involved reducing 4-lane roadways around the lake to two lanes, putting the lake’s major thoroughfares on what is in essence a “road diet” by reducing the number of traffic lanes in order to improve traffic flow. The concept is counterintuitive, planners say, but after running computer simulations of all the traffic around the lake, they figured out how to make it work with better-designed systems.

Two of the affected roadways are Lakeshore Avenue along the southwest side and Lakeside Drive on the southeast. Lakeshore was once a high-speed commute route. By November 2009, it had been reduced to two lanes and bicycle lanes were added in each direction. Better pedestrian crossings, and a 2-way left turn lane in the middle keeps the traffic flowing.

Lakeshore Avenue after going on a "road diet"; Bioswale within the median island (credit: Josh Cassidy)

Many of the historic buildings and structures around the lake already have received major upgrades with Measure DD funds. The Municipal Boathouse was completely renovated to LEED Gold certification, a top green building standard. It now houses the Lake Chalet restaurant on the top floor and public boating facilities on the bottom level.

Similarly, crews rebuilt the East 18th Street Pier and renovated the Pergola and Colonnade, a scenic row of roofed columns built in 1913 that mark the end of the eastern arm of the lake.

Lake Merritt’s beloved Children’s Fairyland received $3.1 million to build a new Children’s Theater and an addition to the Puppet Theater, which holds the distinction of being the oldest professional puppet theater in the United States.

And at several points around the lake, storm drain outlets were redirected so that water from the paved surfaces runs through a bioswale: a gently sloping trough of tall grasses, filtering the runoff through their root structures and a special permeable soil before it goes into the lake. Trails and bike paths also have been widened and repaved with long-lasting, sustainable materials.

Pride But Concern About Upkeep

On a recent sunny August afternoon, Melissa McDonald and Serena Speth, both from Oakland, were sitting on the lake’s edge with their toddlers.

“It’s fantastic, I love it!” McDonald said. “The pathways and the landscaping are so much better and it’s cleaned up a lot. It’s easier to convince people who don’t live in Oakland to come to the lake now.”

Retired Oakland natives Joseph Hardy and Anthony Lefall walk around the lake every day together from 8AM to noon.

“Everybody’s talking about it and it’s all positive from the citizens that frequent the lake, the taxpayers,” said Lefall.

Oakland natives Joseph Hardy (left) and Anthony Lefall walk around Lake Merritt every morning (credit: Amy Miller)

But both said they are concerned about what might happen in the years ahead.

“After they do all this remodeling, it’s the upkeep,” said Hardy. “These potholes, the birds using the bathroom all over the grass where you can’t lay and enjoy it. This graffiti, if you look all these containers all over the place. Why can’t they have someone maintain it? Maintenance, that’s what we’re concerned about. Maintenance.”

Naomi Schiff echoes their concerns. As part of the Measure DD Community Coalition, CALM’s next task is to try to find the funding to ensure that Lake Merritt continues to thrive and shine.

“I see that as the big challenge,” she said. “And the drawback is that we’re going to have to find money and there is never any government money for non-capital improvements.”

Overall, Measure DD will be a big win for Lake Merritt and the passionate residents who call it their own. Architect James Vann said he is looking forward to Lake Merritt finally living up to its potential.
“With the expanded new pedestrian facilities, family facilities that are coming online that it will become truly the gem of Oakland, Oakland’s jewel and we’ll see many more uses than are there today. That’s my hope.”

View Lake Merritt in a larger map
Google Map produced by Josh Cassidy

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