Drought! It's official!

(David McNew / Getty Image)"We must recognize the severity of this crisis we face," said governor Schwarzenegger, proclaiming a statewide drought (and blaming court-ordered protections for San Joaquin salmon).

"The snowpack has been disappearing," said state Department of Water Resources Director Lester Snow, "and it has not manifest itself as runoff."

The solution? "Upgrade California's water infrastructure," said the governor. "Let's fix all of these things that need to be fixed rather than waiting and waiting and waiting."

Evan Halper, LA Times.

If There Aren’t Any Trees Left, How Can They Burn?

(Old-school fireproofing, Converse Basin, Giant Sequoia National Monument.) "Check out this plot hatched deep in the bowels of the Interior Department," writes Joan McCarter, in her Diary of a Mad Voter.

“The financial incentive of the forest service in implementing the forest plan," wrote Judge John T Noonan Jr of the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals, "is as operative, as tangible, and as troublesome as it would be if ... the agency was the paid accomplice of the loggers...”

Manson Dig Called Off

Refrigerator at Barker Ranch, Panamint Range, Death Valley N.P. (AP Photo/Marcio Jose Sanchez, Pool)"There have been no human remains found," said Inyo County Sheriff Bill Lutze. "We're finishing up this site and that'll be it."

"The story here is not what was found or what was not found but how we looked," said forensic consultant Charles Illsley. "This has been one of the most exhaustive applications for a number of combined technologies."

"I haven't been this frustrated in a very long time," said Arpad Vass, a senior researcher at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory.

Juliana Barbassa for the AP.

CA Wilderness Bills Climb Out of House Committee

Hamilton Lake, High Sierra Trail, Sequoia National Park. The California Desert and Mountain Heritage Act and The Sequoia-Kings Canyon National Park Wilderness Act, together aimed at granting Wilderness status to more than 300,000 acres in California, passed the House Committee on Natural Resources last week, thereafter to face the full House.

"This legislation," said Senator Barbara Boxer, who is pushing companion bills in the Senate, "will ensure that these beautiful areas will be sustained and preserved as part of California’s identity and rich, natural heritage.”

Senator Boxer's Press Release.

Update on June 16, 2008 by SG

On June 9, the House passed all three bills by voice vote. Next up: the Senate.

“We are seeing a real renaissance in wilderness protection in this country,” said Mike Matz, executive director of the Campaign for America's Wilderness.

World Wire Press Release.

San Jose Mercury News.

High Sierra Beat Poet at 78

Gary Snyder at home near Nevada City, USA. Photograph: Dan Chung. I must turn and go back
caught on a snowpeak
between heaven and earth
And stand in lines in Seattle.
Looking for work.

A brief summing-up by Rob Woodard, Guardian Unlimited Blog.

Where the Crowds Go

1. Times Square: 35 million/year; 2. Vegas Strip: 31 million/year. NYT PHOTO.Not the National Parks, apparently. Lake Mead beats the Grand Canyon by 3 million visitors annually. And Disney's Magic Kingdom beats the waterfalls of Yosemite by... wanna guess?

14 million credit-card wielding human beings per year.

America's Top 25 most-visited tourist destinations (forbestraveler.com)