Went missing yesterday April 20th from upper Partington Ridge around 4pm – sweetest little gal named Susie.Reward for helping to bring her home safe!Please contact Linda 667 0241Thank you!
Month: April 2019
More Tidbits on Gamboa Trail
From Sylvia Trotter Anderson: The Californian, Salinas, CA 27 Oct 1916
The Californian, Salinas, CA 19 Jan 1917
Photo Sunday – Happy Easter, 4/21/19
From Dan Danbom:
Big Sur Saturday Tidbits, 4/20/19
Nov 24th 1916 Monterey American – Forest Trails Being Improved
Persons who travel frequently in the mountains of the Santa Lucia range within the Monterey National Forest will no doubt remember the “sore spot” in the Gamboa Trail on the seaward side of the main coast ridge just over the summit. The trail crosses north of Cone Peak, dips down into a fork of Big Creek, and then climbs up again to “La Jollita,” running for a distance of about two miles on grades ranging from twenty-five to forty percent.
Since many of the people on the Monterey coast are obliged to pack their supplies in and driver or pack their produce out by this route, the steepness is a serious matter.
Forest Supervisor H. G. Merrill has secured authority from District Forester Coert Dubois in San Francisco to rebuild this stretch of trail on a grade of about fifteen per cent, provided the land owners who are interest will co—operate. Already George Gamboa, Aaron and Paul Harlan, Santo and Tim Boronda and Ty Dani have pledged themselves to help and Ranger Robert Finley, who is in charge of the Forest Service trail crew, says he will have the project completed by New Year.
(Provided by Sylvia Trotter Anderson)
Draft (STR) Vacation Rental Ordinance now online
I realize I have surpassed my self imposed posting limit for today, but I know many of your are interested in this, so I wanted to get it out to you asap:
Vacation Rental Draft Ordinances and associated environmental analysis are available for public view at the following link:
In the link above you will find the following:
- Notice of Public Availability of Proposed Vacation Rental Regulations [PDF]
- Draft Ordinance Amending Title 20 (Coastal Zoning) Relating to Vacation Rentals [PDF]
- Draft Ordinance Amending Title 21 (Non-Coastal Zoning) Relating to Vacation Rentals [PDF]
- Draft Ordinance Amending Section 7.02.060 and Adding Chapter 7.110 Relating to Vacation Rental Activities [PDF]
- Environmental Analysis
Climate Change & Big Sur, 4/19/19
There is a fascinating history of science article that discusses the measurement of C02 emissions and the role a campfire in Big Sur played.
“Science historian Spencer Weart describes the Keeling Curve as “the central icon of the greenhouse effect.” It was, he writes in his book, The Discovery of Global Warming, “not quite the discovery of global warming. It was the discovery of the possibility of global warming.”
READ MORE: Climate Change History
Its origins can be traced to a campsite in Big Sur, California. In 1953, Charles David Keeling was a young postgraduate geochemist embarking on a study to compare the relative abundances of carbon dioxide in water and air. To do that, he first had to measure the level of CO2 in the atmosphere, which, to that point, nobody had done to any great precision. And because nobody had done it, there was no off-the-shelf equipment readily available to do so. So, Keeling made his own instrument, working from instructions for a prototype he found in a 1916 journal article, and he undertook the day’s drive to Big Sur. Unsure whether the CO2 even in pristine air next to the Pacific Ocean would be constant, he decided to take air samples every few hours over a full day and night, a meticulousness that would characterize his career.
“He lived by a kind of moral code that looked at there being a right way and a wrong way to do things, and the right way was always the thorough way,” explains Ralph Keeling, his son and the Director of the Scripps CO2 Program at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography.”
To read the rest of this fascinating article, see: https://www.history.com/news/keeling-curve-global-warming-climate-change
Big Sur Fire awarded grant, 4/19/19
Tourist Thursday – There IS more we can do, 4/18/19
Yes, there is more we can do. A beginning is to work together as stakeholders to assure we have a destination stewardship plan for Big Sur. This work originally started in May of 2016 before all hell broke lose with fires and landslides. It was resurrected in 2018 and several planning sessions were held which included representatives from county, state, and federal governments and agencies which all have a stake in this area, as well representatives from Monterey County Visitors & Convention Bureau, local chamber of commerce, and local residents.
At a future date, CABS (formerly CPOA) will be sponsoring a community meeting on creating a destination stewardship plan for Big Sur (details will be provided in a subsequent post) and one of the speakers/facilitators will be Costas Christ.
From The Advocate last year: https://www.theadvocate.com/new_orleans/news/article_b1893c04-7bec-11e8-88b7-57737dce8c38.html
Cities dependent on tourism, such as New Orleans, need to rethink their approach to that industry lest they lose the very people and culture that make them unique and attract millions of visitors, according to an expert who will be talking here Saturday about how to balance attracting travelers and protecting the attributes that make communities unique.
Costas Christ, a consultant and activist on sustainable tourism practices, said the key is to find a balance between luring visitors and protecting the needs of residents and the aspects that make cities unique.
“Tourism should not be about conquering a destination,” he said in an interview. “It should be about enhancing a destination.”
Christ is a leading advocate for sustainable tourism and one of the founding members of the eco-tourism movement that inspired it.
That movement involves a push to get travelers to approach natural attractions in environmentally sensitive ways so as not to destroy them — something that Christ says applies equally well to cities as to the Galapagos Islands.
“Why shouldn’t the entire tourism industry be thinking about its impact on issues such as the environment, on cultural heritage, on local people’s livelihoods?” he asked.
The challenge is to change an entire industry, particularly here in California, so that the emphasis is not on “more” tourists but on better experiences for tourists, making sure that these experiences are balanced with the needs of the local community and the environment that hosts all. It can and must be done. It is not just a “Sustainable Moment” that must be obtained, it is a “Sustainable Future” for the environment, the community, and the visitor.
Volunteers Needed to Preserve Big Sur Coast
Volunteers Needed to Preserve Big Sur Coast
Heavy Rains Quench Drought But Spur Explosion Of Invasive Species
Apr. 16, 2019 / PRZen / BIG SUR, Calif. — While winter rains have brought welcome relief to California’s drought conditions, they unfortunately are also fueling an explosion of nonnative plants that threatens Big Sur’s world-renowned natural resources. Nature Corps, a nonprofit volunteer conservation organization, is inviting individuals, families, and employee groups to stem this invasion by participating in a critical volunteer weekend scheduled for May 17-19, 2019.
The Big Sur coast of California is known as the “greatest meeting of land and water in the world,” and has been described as a “national treasure that demands extraordinary procedures to protect it.”
Volunteers are urgently needed to preserve Big Sur’s coastal mountain range where now smaller populations of nonnative flora are poised to overtake many acres of native habitat. Over time, these nonnatives will significant impact wildlife by reducing their sources of food and breeding habitat.
Don’t miss out on a great way to make friends, make memories, and make a difference. Sign-up for the weekend at: https://www.thenaturecorps.org/big-sur/. For more information, call 800.774-PARK (7275) or email info@thenaturecorps.org. Registration deadline April 30.
To learn more about Nature Corps visit them at http://www.thenaturecorps.org or call 1.800.774-PARK.
Contact
Mark Landon
8054340299
Follow the full story here: https://przen.com/pr/33294285
Tourist Tuesday, 4/16/19 – Making a Difference
When combining the Leave No (Digital) Trace Ethics mentioned last week, along with the Educational aspects of publiclandshateyou and contacting sponsors, is there more we can do? Can we use technology to help us tackle overtourism? Yes, we can and some creative solutions present themselves when we do.
There is a very lengthy article that discusses and explores the various methods being used around the globe – both the “carrot and the stick” (positive vs. punishment) methods and how that is working for each. Also discussed in this article is the role of Airbnb on housing, local economy, and tourism. This is well worth the time to read the entire article if one is interested in protecting our coast from overtourism.
You can find it here: https://www.cntraveler.com/story/how-technology-can-help-us-tackle-overtourism