Very often, when it comes to wildfires in Southern California, our hillsides of chaparral and sage scrub are described as being “heavy with fuels” in summer. In winter and spring, people speak of “fuels” that are going to build up when the vegetation awakes from its summer dormancy. That fuels my objection.
Environment
The Los Padres National Forest Can Use Your Help
The Forest Service wants to log and grind 235,000 acres of habitat in the Los Padres National Forest in the name of fire safety and their science is questionable, at best…
Stunning: Desert Seasons
This would probably be good “End Notes” material but I’m enjoying it too much to bury it in there: this video from KBPS, “Desert Seasons“, documents in a, for the observer familiar with this landscape, rather non-chronological order, the seasons in the desert.
Water Crisis Thoughts
The water crisis in California is real. Of course it is. In July, governor Newsom asked Californians to cut their domestic water usage by 15% — which sounds reasonable and doable. But then the first numbers came in, and usage only dropped by 1.8%.
Leave No Trace
I think most landscape and nature photographers who are passionate about their subjects (ie., not just the number of social media followers…) easily align with causes like Leave No Trace and Nature First, and readily embrace their principles — most likely without even thinking about it. Caring for the places, creatures and things that we photograph is simply the right thing to do.
It’s the plants, stupid
Whenever I use a big(ger) lens to photograph plants, people who are walking by assume that they’re missing out on some wildlife that I’m trying to make a photo of — and when they inquire, they’re surprised that it is plants that I photograph with my 70-300mm (relatively harmless in terms of size) or my 200-500mm (which has the name “Big Bertha” for a reason).