#pacific west

[gutsssee]

what if steel ball run was steel ball bike and instead of going cross country they just went up the highway 101 to oregon

is that even possible

i just want them to stay in california for longer

i’m a west pacific coast supremacist sorry

[thewalkingick]

I think my one of my most annoying tumblr user extreme miserable takes is that I get annoyed when celebrities who are rich make “oooh the forest I love nature so much me in the trees find me in the moss I’m so baby deer coded I’m like a rabbit” their whole personality but never once use their platforms to donate to conservation or speak out about conserving the forest that is literally being destroyed, especially in the pacific west. It’s so bad. And even when I really like their music or art, as a naturalist it still makes me kind of sad. “Oooh me in the trees me in the great pines” they’re going to be destroyed to make money. And you have millions of dollars and are a top charter. You could like, donate to organizations that are fighting to save nature and conserve it for future generations. Or even just put even a post on your damn story from the CNPS or from conservation groups to spread awareness.

I also get annoyed at people who post about “oooh the forest oooug guysss I love Oregon I looove the forest so much guys forest = basidiomycetes and deer and frolicking in a beautiful outfit which is totally realistic I want to go there” slightly, but less because they’re not millionaires with platforms.

About the celebrity artist trendy ones, I get that nature is aesthetically pretty and people can just like things but I also DONT get it because we are rapidly losing all of our native species, and wildfires are getting worse from invasive weeds and destructive practices, I don’t see anyone with a platform doing, or even saying anything.

Especially in California. People idealize and romanticize California and Oregon so much and literally do nothing to acknowledge what peril the nature is in. Invasive weeds are so bad in Cali that children and residents can’t even tell they’re non-native because they fill entire hillsides. It’s devastating.

[npsparkclp]

Climate Change Impacts on Cultural Landscapes

You might remember a story from last year announcing Phase I of a collaborative project between the Cultural Landscape Research Group at the University of Oregon College of Design and the National Park Service Pacific West Region Cultural Resources Program.

The two-part Study of Climate Change Impacts on Cultural Landscapes in the Pacific West Region of the National Park Service aims to provide a systematic assessment for understanding the potential effect of projected climate trends on our cultural resources.

Catch up with the project through 2017: 

Read more about how the project addresses Climate Change Impacts on Cultural Landscapes 

Download Phase I:  Study of Climate Change Impacts on Cultural Landscapes in the Pacific West Region

Download Phase II:  Study of Climate Change Impacts on Cultural Landscapes in the Pacific West Region, Phase II: Preliminary Vulnerability Assessments

View the project photo album on Flickr

Phase I of the project received the American Society of Landscape Architects professional research honor award in fall of 2017

Mailekini Heiau and Pu'ukohola Heiau at Pu'ukohola Heiau National Historic Site in Hawaii was part of the study (NPS, March 2016).

Looking for more on climate and cultural resources in national parks?

Climate Change and Cultural Landscapes

Climate Change: Climate change information and adaptation resources from the National Park Service

[ghostcurriculum]

Dolores Madrigal remembered being told that her sterilization could be reversed. Jovita Rivera and Georgina Hernández said they were bullied by doctors and nurses who declared their children burdens on California taxpayers. Melvina Hernandez did not find out that her tubes had been cut until four years after her son was born.

In 1975, these four women were among the 10 plaintiffs who filed a class-action lawsuit in federal court claiming that the Los Angeles County U.S.C. Medical Center was systematically sterilizing Spanish-speaking mothers who delivered their babies via cesarean section.

Madrigal v. Quilligan was, from its outset, the kind of striking David-versus-Goliath story that Hollywood and history books usually love — Erin Brockovich with an East L.A. twist. It was championed by a Latina fresh out of law school, and backed by the marginalized feminist wing of a growing Chicano activist movement. It was directed against some of most the powerful institutions in the state, including the Department of Health and the University of Southern California. The events in the trial even had a famous setting: For decades, Los Angeles County hospital served as an exterior shot for the soap opera “General Hospital.” And the claims were disturbing — that the hospital had made a practice of misleading women about sterilization and coercing them into giving consent.

[npsparkclp]

Climate Change Impacts on Cultural Landscapes 

The Cultural Landscape Research Group (CLRG) within the College of Design at the University of Oregon, in collaboration with the National Park Service Pacific West Region Cultural Resources Program, has prepared a Study of Climate Change Impacts on Cultural Landscapes in the Pacific West Region of the National Park Service. 

The project responds to the growing need to understand the potential effects of projected climate trends and events on cultural resources, with specific emphasis on cultural landscapes. 

About the Study: Phase I

With their historical variability, cultural landscapes of the Pacific West Region will be affected differently by changes in temperature, precipitation, storm frequency, and, in some cases, sea level rise. This study aims to provide a systematic assessment of these changes, and serves as a case-study model for assessment the projected effects of climate change on cultural landscapes.

Included in this study are 164 cultural landscapes in 43 parks within the states of Arizona, California, Hawaii, Idaho, Nevada, Oregon, Washington, and the territory of Guam. Using both NPS and USGS climate data, the CLRG consolidated the historical and projected climate exposure of each of the 164 cultural landscapes. The team then assessed the current condition of six cultural landscapes through site visits and analyzed the historical climate events and trends that have impacted the sites in the past.

The Heart of the Monster at Nez Perce National Historical Park (NPS, June 2016). 

Phase II

In the second phase of the project that is currently underway, the CLRG is assessing the sensitivity of the six case studies to historical and project climate exposure and are identifying the sensitivity of the cultural landscape’s character-defining features. This analysis involved on-site workshops with NPS staff including archeologists, biologists, climate scientists, ecologists, fire technicians, historians, landscape architects, and orchardists, among others.

Phase II workshop at North Cascades National Park with CLRG and NPS staff (NPS, March 2017).

Identifying the exposure, sensitivity, and adaptive capacity of each case study, the NPS Pacific West Region Cultural Resources Program will use this vulnerability assessment to develop recommendations toward the agency's goal of ensuring that cultural landscapes are resilient to climate change and ultimately preparing holistic management strategies for highly vulnerable cultural landscapes.

Phase I of the project can be downloaded from the NPS IRMA website: Study of Climate Change Impacts on Cultural Landscapes in the Pacific West Region of the National Park Service.

Phase II of the project is scheduled to be available for download at the end of 2017.

Visit our website to learn more about NPS strategies for protecting cultural resources impacted by climate change.  

[ghostcurriculum]

Bay Area Chinese laundry, oldest in the nation, closes after 140 years

The Bay Area lost a piece of history this weekend when the nation's oldest Chinese-owned laundry closed its doors.

[ghostcurriculum]

Untold History: The Survival of California's Indians

No matter what you learned in fourth grade, California Indians didn't conveniently vanish when the 49ers arrived.

[ghostcurriculum]

The Gold-Hungry Forty-Niners Also Plundered Something Else: Eggs

When food shortages struck San Francisco, wily entrepreneurs raided the dangerous Farallon Islands for protein-rich eggs from seabirds. In the process, they destroyed both wildlife and each other.

You've heard of the San Francisco gold rush. But that rush spurred another, lesser-known event: the egg rush. The legions of miners who swept into the region in the 1850s hoping to strike gold all had to be fed. And they needed protein to stay strong. But when food shortages hit, wily entrepreneurs looked for eggs in an unlikely source: the Farallon Islands.

Completely isolated and surrounded by great white sharks and sea lions, "the Farallon Islands are the most forbidding piece of real estate to be found within the city limits of San Francisco," says Gary Kamiya, a journalist and author of Cool Gray City of Love: 49 Views of San Francisco. "The islands are 28 miles outside the Golden Gate in extremely turbulent, dangerous seas."

But these rocky, skeletal islands did have one attractive quality for gold miners: They harbored the largest seabird rookery in the contiguous United States, and therefore were rife with plenty of protein-rich eggs.