What Say You: Cedar Circle Farm

Cedar Circle Farm Field and Paddock

What Say You:  Cedar Circle Farm

SUSAN CLOKE

Columnist, Santa Monica Mirror

“Organic, biodynamic and integrated pest management systems are working all around the world and are the hope not only for food sustainability but for the control of global climate change. Even normally conservative World Bank scientists maintain that 51% of greenhouse gasses come from agriculture. This has to change, and local, organic and sustainable agriculture are the answer.” Will Allen.

Allen is an acclaimed leader in the organic food movement, a public policy advisor, an educator, part of the California Certified Organic Farmers Organization from his days in California, and the author of “The War on Bugs” making a compelling a argument against the use of chemical pesticides.   

Most of all he is a farmer and he and Kate Duesterberg are the co-managers of the 52 acre Cedar Circle Farm in Thetford Vermont.  They met, when Duesterberg worked at the Center for Sustainable Agriculture in Burlington Vermont and Allen was heading the Sustainable Cotton Project.  When they decided to marry they looked for a farm where they could put their beliefs into action and found a beautiful, riverfront farm that already had barns, a farmhouse, greenhouses and a farmstand.

The non-profit Azadoutioun Foundation of Cambridge, Massachusetts, on Duesterberg and Allen’s recommendation, bought the farm.  The Foundation retains ownership with Duesterberg and Allen as farm managers.  The previous owners, the Stones, had sold the development rights to the Vermont Land Trust, so Cedar Circle land, is protected, in perpetuity, as farmland. 

The farm grows blueberries, strawberries, raspberries, melons, flowers, corn, all the brassicas (broccoli and more), beets, onions garlic, leeks, carrots, potatoes, winter squashes, pumpkins and herbs such as basil, parley, and dill.

Produce is sold at their farmstand and at local farmers markets.  They participate in CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) where people buy shares ahead of the growing season and so pre-pay for a share of the coming season’s fruits and veggies, which helps the farmers pay for seed and provides produce at lower prices to members.

Cat Buxton, the Education Programs Coordinator for the farm, and I sat early one morning in the farm café, drinking their delicious coffee.  Actually, I was drinking the delicious coffee, Buxton declined, having just finished her usual morning drink, a smoothie she shared in the kitchen. (The smoothie recipe varies with supply and with the seasons. That day it was 1 avocado, 2 bananas, 1 pear, 1 peach, 1 cucumber, 1 head. lettuce, ½ bunch kale, ¼ bunch parley, 1 lemon (all but the rind), water to thin to a drinkable consistency.)

We talked about a recent thunder and lightning storm and Buxton, describing the safety procedures on the farm said, “at the first sound of thunder all field crew know to come in.  Even if that means that sometimes you’ve got to leave what you’re doing and get yourself to a safe house.”

40 of Cedar Circle’s 50 plus acres are cultivated.  Farm buildings, internal roads and trees and a 50’ buffer zone, one of the requirements of an organic farm, occupy the other 10 acres.  On the Connecticut River edge there is a wildlife corridor of oaks and maples and native flora to create habitat and prevent erosion. Buxton told me that  “Deer, fox, groundhogs, raccoons, skunk and bears all use the corridor.”

3 draft horses live, and are used for work, on the farm.  Buxton said, “as part of our ecological mission we are working toward “horse drawn agriculture in order to reduce petroleum use.  Currently, in addition to using the horses we use 9 tractors as well.” 

Buxton works on all the community outreach programs. “We have lots of families that come here to spend the afternoon, strolling, picking berries (on the traditional Vermont honor system).  We have lots of events, Dinner in the Field happens once or twice a year; we have a harvest festival, a strawberry festival and a pumpkin festival.  We’ve had over 1000 people come to the festivals.  The festivals feature music, education tables, horse drawn wagon rides and, of course, food and produce.  There is no entry free for those who come by foot or by bike. There is a $5 parking fee if people come in their cars.  We are also part of the Tour de Taste, a recreational bicycle event with stops for good food at farms along the way.

“We offer gardening and cooking classes, the fees depend on the length of the classes.  We hold free community garden clinics in Thetford and White River and we sponsor the school garden at Thetford Elementary where we teach a ‘food loop’ from seed starting through planting, garden care, and harvesting.  Then the produce the kids have grown goes into the cafeteria and they love eating the food they’ve grown themselves.  Garden waste goes into compost and the compost is used for the next season’s garden, hence a ‘food loop.’  Crispy kale is now a favorite at the school cafeteria!”

In talking about the future, Buxton said, “Our mission is large. We want to stay on the same track but we don’t want to get too big because that wouldn’t be sustainable.”

Alison Baker and Justin Barrett were the chefs of the Dinner in the Field al fresco banquet at Cedar Circle Farms.  Baker is the KitchenManager at the farm  and Barrett is the founder of Piecemeal, a local enterprise in community driven food. Barrett trained in architecture before focusing his talents on sustainable food, working in Portland, Oregon and in Manhattan before coming to Vermont.

Long, trestle tables were placed end to end on a grassy lawn with rows of crops abutting one edge and a horse paddock at the far end.  Draft horses, used for pulling plows on the farm, were munching away on the grass in their paddock. 

Dinner in the Field Menu Boards

About 25 happily anticipatory people sat at the tables; among them a professor from Dartmouth, a banker from the Netherlands, a holistic health coach, volunteers from the farm, the director of online education at Dartmouth Medical School, a local housecleaner, locals and vacationing families, all looking forward to a dinner showing off the splendor of locovore, the name given to the choice to eat local, sustainably grown food.  Alison Baker welcomed us, sharing her pleasure with everyone sitting down together, outside in the light of early evening, and next to the field where the food is grown.

A festive mood, created by the gorgeous day, the glamorous farm where all was perfection. (May I use the word glamorous when talking about a farm?  It’s not the usual adjective for a farm but it fits this farm).  The air was soft, the breeze gentle, the blue sky painted with the pinks and yellows of the coming sunset and the soft whites of occasional clouds.

The dinner, delicious and local and communal represented the antithesis of most of the food grown in the United States.  Will Allen describes that food, “So much of what we eat is at its core fossil fueled. Let's begin with fertilizer. Fossil fuels power the nitrogen manufacturing plants. U.S. farmers use more than 24 billion pounds of nitrogen fertilizer every year. To manufacture that nitrogen more than 660 billion pounds of nitrous oxide are released. Nitrous oxide is 300 times more destructive as a greenhouse gas than CO2. Two-thirds of our drinking water is contaminated with nitrogen fertilizer runoff. More than 400 oceanic dead zones are caused by nitrogen fertilizer runoff. Growing the crops in the U.S., which are mostly for animals, requires enormous amounts of fossil fuel for tractors, swathers, combines, and dryers. After the crops for feed or human food are harvested they are shipped 1500 to 3000 miles, using more fossil fuel. Shipping and storage require cooling and freezing, and more fossil fuel.  Clearly, this is not endlessly sustainable.

“We have organic, biodynamic and integrated pest management systems that are working all around the world and are the hope not only for food sustainability but for the control of global climate change. Even normally conservative World Bank scientists maintain that 51% of greenhouse gasses come from agriculture. This has to change, and local, organic and sustainable agriculture are the answer.”

So the challenge is before us and the danger is clear.  Food that is grown with petrochemicals is harmful to our health and the health of our soil and water.  That is the message.  Now it is up to us to do our part.  We are the consumers, if we let the places where we buy food and go out for food know we want sustainably grown food, food grown without petrochemicals, they will respond and we will be able to complete the farm to table cycle for healthy food.   

Let us support our local farmers, going to farmers markets for our produce, buying locally, supporting restaurants and markets that carry local, sustainable and organic foods. 

Alison Baker, as she and Justin Barrett were being applauded at the end of this summer’s Dinner in the Field, said, “There is no end to the deliciousness possible with local food, sustainably grown.”

What Say You?

Hometown Hero: Franklin Dean Schwengel

Frank Schwengel
Photo Credit: Recreation and Parks

Hometown Hero: Franklin Dean Schwengel
A True Friend of Santa Monica

September 1, 1933 – July 31, 2012

SUSAN CLOKE

Columnist, Santa Monica Mirror

I feel so lucky to have known Frank. I will miss him and his friendship.  He was decent, honorable, kind, honest, thoughtful, and caring.  I remember the ease of working on the Recreation and Parks Commission with him and I remember the good work we did together. His life was all about making the world, and especially Santa Monica, a better place.

After his 1955 graduation from the University of Iowa with a degree in business he joined the Marine Corps where he served in Okinawa.  He came to Santa Monica in 1962.

Frank began at the Boys and Girls Club of Santa Monica as a basketball coach and was a lifelong volunteer, working with the kids, planning programs and fundraising.  As a member of the their Congressional Relations Committee he traveled to Washington D.C. and lobbied for the successful passage of a 450 million dollar appropriation to fund the world wide work of the Boys and Girls Clubs.  He became of Member of the Board of Governor’s in 1986 and was the Chair of the Board from 2000 through 2002.

When his own children were in school, he joined the PTA, and became one the first men to be a PTA president, a position he was re-elected to for 7 consecutive years.  He was a Member of the Desegregation Committee and District Title One Advisory Board for the Santa Monica Malibu Unified School District and the recipient of their Lifetime Achievement Award.

An athlete himself, he played college football at Iowa. Frank brought his love of sports with him to Santa Monica and served as a Board Member of Santa Monica Little League from1980 to1986, coaching the team to three Championships.  He was a Member and Chair of the Santa Monica Sports Advisory Council, an Executive Board Member of Santa Monica Youth Athletic Foundation and the Founder and President of International Youth Baseball Foundation, an organization that sponsored 7 International Baseball exchanges with Japan and Mexico.

Appointed to the Santa Monica Recreation & Parks Commission in 1992, he served as chair of the Commission when the City’s first Recreation and Parks Master Plan was written. He brought his enthusiasm for sports and his dedication to helping children and teenagers to the work of the Recreation and Parks Commission.

Barbara Stinchfield, the long time Director of Community and Cultural Services, remembering him said, “Frank gave more than a decade of service to our community as a member of the City's Recreation and Parks Commission and for many years as its Chair. He reflected the best of what this community stands for. He was devoted to our youth and supported a multitude of youth activities. He never said a negative word about anyone or anything. I delighted in working with this most kind and wonderful member of the Santa Monica community.”

Frank died of cancer on July 31, 2012.  His longtime friend, Councilmember Bob Holbrook, said, “Frank was a wonderful man and a great husband and father. He was devoted to helping his own kids in all of their activities and to coaching other kids who were lucky enough to be on his Little League teams.  He was devoted to this community and set a example with his endless hours of volunteering for kids. He was my friend and I will always remember him.”

When he received the Bank of America “Local Heroes Award” Frank spoke to the audience about his father, who had been a U.S. Congressman from Iowa and a Republican voice against the war in Vietnam, "My father always said life is lived best with a smile and a helping hand. I just try to emulate my own father in my life." Those of us who knew him knew he lived by his father’s creed.

Frank exemplified a respectful leadership that made the people who worked with him feel good about their contributions.  He was a loyal friend, a dedicated participant in the life of the community and a loving husband, father and grandfather.  Our sympathies go to his wife, Gwen, and his sons, Robert, Kris and Kurt, to all of his family and to all who will miss him.  

A public memorial service will be held at the Boys and Girls Clubs of Santa Monica at 4:00 pm on Friday, August 17, 2012.  (Contact Jennifer LaBrie, jen@smbgc.org or call 310.361.8544 for more information.)

The family of Frank Schwengel has established a scholarship in his honor.  Donations may be made to:

The Boys & Girls Clubs of Santa Monica
Schwengel Scholarship Fund
1220 Lincoln Blvd.
Santa Monica CA 90401
 

Three Farmstands. The Vermonter Spirit

SUSAN CLOKE

Columnist, Santa Monica Mirror

Hens were pecking at the grass in the yard.  In the screened in room there were piles of beets and sweet corn, greens of all sorts, cucumbers, tomatoes, potatoes, eggs, homemade berry pies and jars of homemade pickles and relishes.

Driving by this farmstand, looking in, but seeing no one, I kept on driving through the green farm and horse country of Strafford.  Then, one day, someone was there and I went in.  “I’m so glad you’re open,” I said to the woman who was there.  She was Rose, and she and her husband, Earl, own the farm and the farmstand.

“Open?” Rose asked quizzically.  “We’re always open.”  It was then that I learned that Rose’s Farmstand, like many others in Vermont, operated on the honor system.  The screen door was always unlatched and there was a tin box on the counter to put money in to pay for what you were taking home.

The farm had been in Earl’s family.  He was brought home to this farmhouse right after he was born.  Now, all these years later, he was out back, on the tractor, and Rose and I sat in the farmhouse kitchen.  The farmhouse was built in 1875, the floors are the original wood planks of varying widths, painted green, heat comes from two wood stoves and Rose said they “keep the house toasty.”  The wood comes from the trees on the farm.  Kitchen implements and books were everywhere.  We sat at the kitchen table, listened to the sounds of the farm and we talked.

Rose had been the clerk at Colburn’s General Store and when she retired she started a kitchen garden of potatoes and cabbage, tomatoes, beets, onions, herbs.  The garden did so well that she put a picnic table, made by Earl, out by the street and her dog, Cracker, would sit by the table and alert her when people came.  The picnic table veggies sold so well that Earl had the idea to farm more of their land and to have a farmstand and I, for one, am glad.

Rose Silloway showing corn "in silk".   Strafford VT

“The farm makes enough produce to feed us, give produce to our grown kids, and to make enough to pay expenses and the taxes on the land.  Farmer’s in Vermont have a special tax rate, so taxes aren’t too high for us.” 

When asked how she learned to farm Rose said, “I’m a flatlander (a Vermont term for people not born in Vermont).  I grew up in Massachusetts, just outside Boston.  I learned to farm as a kid and you learn to love what you do when you are picking tomatoes beside your father.

“But people think I’m a Vermonter now because I fit right in with the Vermont way of thinking. “We’re independent and self-sufficient.  But if someone in Strafford has an accident or gets ill, magically their garden is weeded if it’s summer or the snow is shoveled if it’s winter.  It’s an easy-going life style.  Most generally people are accepted for what they are.  We make decisions at Town Meeting.  You are heard, tell what your feelings are and are part of everything.”

The Crossroad Farmstand, in Post Mills, is an open air, roofed in stand on the 60-acre Crossroad Farm, started in 1980 by Tim and Janet Taylor.  They currently have about 35 acres in cultivation.  The farmstand is open from June through October and they get 100’s of customers everyday so their farmstand is staffed, as they need to keep replenishing their produce stock.  The most popular crops are sweet corn, melons, strawberries and greens like kale, spinach, chard, and a variety of lettuces.

Crossroad Farm Stand Post Mills Vermont

According to Philip Mason, 26, the farm manager, the farm season starts in February when they start the first greenhouse tomatoes and leeks and onions and bedding plants and goes through November.   Philip started at the farm as a summer worker throughout high school and college.  He earned his Bachelor of Science degree and then came to work full time on the farm. 

“The farm philosophy is one of sustainability,”  says Philip.  “We decided not to go for certification as it would raise the price we would have to charge for our crops.  But for the past 30 years we’ve been using IPM (Integrated Pest Management) strategies.  That means that we build better soil and practice crop rotation.  For example, if brassicas (broccoli, brussel sprouts and more) are in the same plot of land every year a particular worm will build up, but if you move them, the worm doesn’t get a good chance to get started.  If we do spray we use some organic and some non-organic sprays.  Mostly we don’t spray at all.  Also, it’s a misconception to think there’s no spraying on organic farms, what’s important is not the spraying as much as the toxicity rating.

“We hire locally and we sell locally.  Right now we have 18 people working on the farm.  We also hire through the Minnesota Agricultural School program, which is a work exchange program for student interns.

“The farm is profitable, with farm workers paid from $9.50/hour up to $20/hour, depending on their level of experience and responsibility.  Currently we have 3 crew leaders and 15 farm hands.  As the manager I oversee general operations and all wholesale accounts with local stores and restaurants.  The crew leaders execute daily farm tasks and direct farm hands.

“The best thing about being a farmer is working outside, the tasks are diversified and you need to be skilled at many trades.  The worst is that your success can be determined by the weather, that your livelihood can be out of your own control.”

Philip goes off to harvest melons, Halona and Athena cantaloupes. “Thanks for thinking of us,” he says to me.

Andrew Herrick, 27, is a Crew Manager.  He works with a crew of 3 or 4.  They start the day at about 6 am, picking lettuces and then working their way through the day’s tasks.  The order of picking is determined by what is good for the vegetables, lettuces first, melons last today.

Andrew holds a BS in Ecological Agriculture from the University of Vermont.  “They teach with a focus on small scale and organic farming.  He points out that larger, industrial scale Ag is dependent on fossil fuels as they ship their produce across the country.  “It doesn’t make sense.  Sustainability includes creating your own fuel.  We farm 35 acres, but we have many more acres of forest that provide shelter and habitat and are used for fuel.  This farm is a great model.  We hire locally, we only provide produce for local markets, restaurants and camps.  50% of our crops are sold at wholesale prices to local stores, 25% go to the farmstand and 25% to local restaurants and camps.

Thinking about the future of small farms, Andrew said, “Young people in Vermont are going back to farming.  The culture in Vermont supports self-sufficiency.  The State supports local, small-scale farmers.  Growing food is rewarding work.”

David and Sara Pierson own the Pierson Farm and Farmstand, in Bradford.  David, a third generation farmer, said,  “The people here want to know where their food comes from.  We get lots of support from the community and from younger farmers and from the State.  It’s not hard to be a small farmer in Vermont.

“We are also supported by CSA (Community Supported Agriculture).  Belonging to CAS is a simple as joining CSA and paying for a share.  That gives us up front money for the work of the farm.  When the produce comes in CSA members buy what they need at reduced prices or, in some cases, pay enough in shares so that they are entitled to a certain amount of produce, essentially they pre-pay.  There are many different ways to organize a CSA group, depending on the needs of the members.

“My grandfather had 200+ acres up in the hills which he sold when he was in his early 60’s. He then bought this place as a ‘retirement farm.’  It’s about 13 acres.  I’ve lived here all my life, except when I went to college.  Sara was born in New York City and moved to Hanover when her dad got a job at Dartmouth.  They were artsy people and I was a farm boy, but it’s worked out,” he said, smiling at Sara.

“We have 3+ acres in strawberries and about 10 in sweet corn and we rent some nearby land we also farm.  We get about 125 bushels/acre/year in sweet corn and about 10,00 lbs/acre/year in strawberries.  And we also grow some lettuce, eggplant, and green house tomatoes.

“It’s fun.  It can be stressful, but it’s a great life.  You enjoy what you’re doing and you’re doing a good thing and you’re part of the community.  People like to know the people who are growing what they’re eating.”

Sara appreciates the “closeness with the community, being in a small town and knowing everyone.  It makes people trusting and you see the good in people.  Trust builds trust.”

The Ringing of the Bells

"Built in 1787, the Congregational Church on
Thetford Hill is the oldest meetinghouse in
continuous use in the State of Vermont."
Peter Blodgett, Librarian, Thetford VT.

The Ringing of the Bells

SUSAN CLOKE

Columnist, Santa Monica Mirror

From my pew in the choir loft of the First Congregational Church on Thetford Hill I looked at the comfortable, timeworn church, mismatched chandeliers hanging over the sanctuary, on the pulpit a solitary candlestick holding a lighted candle.  I was there to give witness to the annual “Ringing of the Bells”.

“The oldest tradition established in the United States is the ringing of bells on July 4.  Minutes after the signing of the Declaration of Independence, the historic Liberty Bell rang out the good news: the United States was a free country.  That happy moment had been awaited under high tension by most of the inhabitants.  When the Liberty Bell rang forth, thousands knew that the deliberations had been completed, and they now lived in a free land.  Other bells soon picked up the good news, and as the sound was heard, a chain of bells carried the news (across the new country).  Thus began the tradition of bell ringing, which has been kept in many places, including Thetford Hill, ever since.”  William E. Worcester, Thetford Vermont 1980

At about 11:30 pm on the evening of July 4, 2012, 47 people, dressed in ‘Vermont casual’, gathered in the choir loft to celebrate the 236^th anniversary of the United States.  Some had come by car; some had walked up the hill carrying candlelit lanterns to light up the night.  The lanterns had been placed on the rails of the choir loft and gave soft illumination to the sanctuary below.  Pilgrim Hymnals and copies of the Declaration of Independence were in front of the pews. 

Each person, by turn, read aloud from the Declaration of Independence until it had been read in its entirety.  Each voice giving strength and meaning to words written 236 years ago.  It was a serious moment of passing the values of one generation to the next as the children of the community of Thetford learned the values of the nation from their families and their neighbors.

“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.  That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed.”

When the reading was complete the community turned to the Pilgrim Hymnal to sing three verses of America the Beautiful, accompanied by the organist, Mrs. Alice Pierson, at 93 the oldest of the bell ringers present.  Couples and families stood together to sing, blending high and low voices.   The meaning of the words made new again by the strength and caring in the singing.

At midnight the church bell, created long ago by a foundry in Troy NY, tolled 12 times.  Each person then took a turn pulling the bell rope and when done went outside to the Town Green in order to better hear the clear sound of the pealing of the bell, 236 times, once for each year of our nation.

With the last sound of the bell, the group returned to the choir loft to sing “My Country, tis of Thee”, also in the Pilgrim Hymnal, and the Woody Guthrie song, “This Land is Your Land”, with the words printed on a handout.  After appreciation and applause for Mrs. Pierson, cookies were shared and everyone headed out into the pleasant night air of the Vermont summer.

“The Unanimous Declaration of the Thirteen United States of America, July 4, 1776”, The Declaration of Independence, is the founding document of the United States.  56 men, representatives chosen from each of the thirteen colonies, signed the Declaration.  I looked at the names of the men who signed, among them two men who were to become U.S. Presidents, John Adams and Thomas Jefferson; the inventor and Statesman Benjamin Franklin; and, of course, John Hancock.  

Without the public reading of the Declaration I wouldn’t have remembered the final and solemn words, “…we mutually pledge to each other our lives, our fortunes and our sacred Honor.”

I thought about those men, wondered at what it might have been like to sit among them, marveled at their bravery and was reminded that it is my responsibility, our responsibility, to pass on to the next generation a belief in the rightness and value of liberty and the obligations of a government to its people.

The Mountain Lion

Mountain Lion   Photo Courtesy Fish and Game

The Mountain Lion

SUSAN CLOKE

Columnist, Santa Monica Mirror
June 22, 2012

 A young mountain lion was shot and killed in Santa Monica on May 22, 2012.  It was hard to believe he was on 2nd Street.  What happened to bring him here?  Did the authorities do what they had to do to protect public safety or could the mountain lion have been saved and safely relocated?

The Santa Monica Police Department, Fish and Game, and the National Park Service, among others, will be meeting on Monday, June 25 as part of an official investigation into the tragedy and to develop a protocol on the chance that this could happen again.

I am a regular hiker in the Santa Monica Mountains, but I don’t know very much about the mountain lions that call those mountains home.  So I turned to the scientists studying the mountain lions and want to share what I learned from them in the hope that it will help both us as a city and the mountain lions.

Seth Riley, Wildlife Ecologist, and Jeff Sikich, Biologist, are with the National Park Service and track and monitor mountain lion populations in the Santa Monica Mountains.  Riley said,  “We don’t know exactly how many mountain lions live adjacent to our urban area.  Currently five are radio collared and we are following them.  Two are in the Santa Monica Mountains; two are in the Santa Susana Mountains.  And one, known as P-22, is in Griffith Park.  We expect he will stay there, without causing any problems, and will not leave until he goes looking for a female mountain lion.”  

The original range of the mountain lions, also called pumas, cougars and in Florida, panthers, was from South America to Canada and from coast to coast in the United States.

Except for the Florida panthers, who were declining due to a lack of genetic diversity but are coming back due to conservation actions, these animals no longer exist east of the Rockies.  They were eliminated in years past by hunters, ranchers, and farmers.  A law banning hunting of mountain lions was not passed in California until 1990. 

“Because mountain lions need so much space they are among the first animals to be affected by urbanization and habitat fragmentation,” said Riley.

The range of an adult male mountain lion is about 300 square kilometers.  They are solitary animals.  The adult female mountain lion keeps her kittens with her until they are 1 or 1½ and needs a range of about 100 square kilometers. This allows enough room to have sufficient prey to hunt.  They eat mostly deer.

The area of the Santa Monica Mountains totals approximately 650 square kilometers and could support a population of up to 6 to 8 mountain lions.  Not enough to be genetically or demographically viable.

The Mountain Lion Project of the National Park Service began in the Santa Monica Mountains in 2002 as an outgrowth of The Carnivore Study in the Santa Monica Mountains, done by Ray Sauvagot.  Riley and Sauvagot were both graduate students at UC Davis and Riley sees “Davis as having one of the best programs in ecology anywhere and especially in the United States where urban ecology is a relatively young field.”

Since 2002 Riley and Sikich have radio tagged 22 mountain lions.  The goals of the Project are to study the mountain lions, their behavior, their habitat, threats to mountain lions, and to propose solutions to protect the future of the mountain lions.

Of the 22 mountain lions identified over the last decade they are still tracking five. Some died of natural causes.  One of the mountain lions was on the 405 freeway and was hit by a car and one, known as P-9, was hit by a car in Malibu Canyon.  But the most common source of mortality comes from fights between male lions over scarce territory. 

The original mountain lion in the study, P-1, was tagged in 2002.  They lost contact with him in 2009 when his collar came off in a fight.  The scientists went to the site where the collar came off and typed the blood they found, which enabled them to establish P-1's identity.  They know he survived as they found his scat later in 2009.

 Urbanization creates problems for the mountain lions as development cuts off their access to natural pathways.  When built, the 101 freeway, the 118 freeway and the 126 freeway blocked the natural movement of the mountain lions.  At the time, it seemed, no one was thinking about the effects on wildlife of building freeways.  As development tends to follow freeways the habitat area for mountain lions was reduced on both sides of the freeway.  And the freeways were themselves barriers.

The natural pathways that connected the animals to the Simi Valley, to the Santa Susana Mountains and even to Los Padres National Forest, which goes all the way to Big Sur, were no longer available for the mountain lions. 

With young males, who start to become independent at about 1½ trying to find their own territory and with more adult males competing for the same range, existence became more difficult for the mountain lions.

As part of the study the mountain lions are tranquilized and given radio collars. Riley and Sikich bait a cage with deer meat, the preferred diet of the mountain lion.  When the mountain lion is inside the cage they can get right up next to the animal and use a blowgun to shoot a tranquilizing dart.  The dart can also be administered from a distance using a special rifle.

The mountain lions are anesthetized with ketamine, which causes disassociation, and medetomidine, which is an analgesic.  They use a blowpipe – a long tube with a dart containing the medications.  Dosage is administered in direct proportion to weight.  Generally four or five minutes elapse from when the dart is administered to the mountain lion being tranquilized.  It could take longer in a different environment.  Once tranquilized, the mountain lions are out for 45 – 60 minutes and then the effects wear off completely.

Riley said, “None of the animals we have radio tracked has ever behaved aggressively toward people.  The Griffith park mountain lion is in a natural area doing his natural thing and being monitored.  If we saw a change in his behavior our response would change.

"Attacks against people are rare."  Riley says, “Clearly the mountain lions don’t consider people to be prey.  They are right next to us and yet they are elusive and run away.”

However there have been serious and deadly attacks, one in 2004 in Orange County where a mountain biker was killed. 

Riley’s advice is:  “Be aware that mountain lions are around, although it is incredibly unusual to encounter one.  They know we’re here and they are elusive and keep away from us.  If you do encounter one, stand tall, make yourself look as big as possible, make a lot of loud noise, don’t turn and run, back away slowly and deliberately. Don’t act like a deer!  Don’t run as if you were the prey.  Remember, they want to get away from you.”

The National Park Service was created on August 25, 1916 by President Woodrow Wilson “to promote and regulate the use of Federal areas known as national parks, monuments and reservations . . . by such means and measures as conform to the fundamental purpose of the said parks, monuments and reservations, which purpose is to conserve the scenery and the natural and historic objects and the wild life therein and to provide for the enjoyment of the same in such manner and by such means as will leave them unimpaired for the enjoyment of future generations."

In 2012 don’t we have the same mission?

links

http://www.urbancarnivores.com/

Http://www.nps.gov/samo/index.htm

http://www.scwildlands.org/index.aspx

Doug Liman: Reckoning With Torture

Director Doug Liman
Photo Courtesy Hypnotic Productions

Doug Liman:  Reckoning With Torture       
SUSAN CLOKE

Columnist, Santa Monica Mirror

June 8, 2012

Doug Liman, the Director of the Bourne Identity, Swingers, and Mr. and Mrs. Smith, is directing a film about torture, specifically government-sanctioned torture.

He and I talked about making the film, Reckoning With Torture.  Here is what he said about the film, how he decided to make a film about torture, and his thoughts on American values.

SC.         When you think about making this film what do you hope for?

DL.         I am a perpetual optimist.  You can’t be in the film business unless you are and I have great hopes for the change film can provoke.

         I’m not naïve and I know the odds are against us.  But they’ve been against every film I’ve ever made.

SC.           When did you first start to become aware of American use of torture?

DL.         It wasn’t that long after 9/11 that I started seeing the horrible events of that day being exploited by our government and I became aware that our government was crossing lines that, in my memory, it had not.

I’m a commercial filmmaker and I spend most of my time putting together Hollywood style films.  When 9/11 happened, I was making the Bourne Identity.  During the Iraq war I was making the OC.

SC.         Do you remember a specific incident or moment in time when the issue of torture became something you felt you couldn’t ignore?

DL.         Even though I mostly worry about wondering if I can get a particular actor to cut his back end and even though I wasn’t looking for trouble, the photos and the information from Abu Ghraib were hard to ignore.

For me, like most Americans, once Abu Ghraib, the mistreatment and even torture of prisoners by American soldiers got your attention it was hard to ignore.  And when you realized that this was not just a couple of bad apples going against the rule of law, this was institutional policy, I couldn’t escape knowing that this was not consistent with the values I associate with being an American.

SC.         There is a big divide in American thinking on the use of torture.  Many will argue that we have no choice.  We have to protect ourselves.  It is a question of public safety.  Many will argue that it is against the principles of America, its values and its laws. 

DL.         I don’t come from national security work, so I don’t know if torture works.  What I do know is that people who work in National Security say it doesn’t.  It would be a more complicated issue if it did.  If we had to argue the morality of hurting someone in the hope that you might get information that would help save someone else we might be having a different discussion.  But since it doesn’t and the people, whose job is security, consistently confirm that it doesn’t, then the people who are pro torture are coming from a place of ignorance.

SC.         Was learning about Abu Ghraib the genesis of the idea to make the film?

DL.         What happened was that, like most Americans, I might be outraged, but had my own life to think about.   When I was making Fair Game, I ended up in a meeting at the ACLU and they showed me some of the documents they had obtained through the Freedom of Information Act, documents written by the American government.

Those documents described, very specifically, torture practices – a “How To Manual” – and they were distributed to detention facilities under U.S. control.  They condoned and institutionalized the practice of torture.

If you believe in the rule of law you should not do this.  The United States is signatory to the Geneva Conventions and the actions at Abu Ghraib and all acts of torture are against International Law.

It would be very hard to read documents created during the second Bush Administration and to learn what it was the country was doing and be okay with it.

SC.         Why are the documents so compelling?

DL.         These are not biased reports.  Consisting of 1000’s of pages, for the most part the documents consist of internal memos and reports of internal investigations.  Reports and investigations that were initiated because people within the Justice Department, the CIA, the Department of Defense, and the NSA saw actions that they believed to be wrong and outside the law and they wanted these actions investigated and stopped.

Thankfully, we have these documents.  It’s hard to imagine any other place where these damning documents would be released. 

SC.         What is the idea behind the film, Reckoning With Torture?

DL.         The Freedom of Information Act works. It allows us to heal ourselves.  Justice hasn’t been done yet.  There has been no punishment, no restitution, we haven’t reckoned yet with the atrocities committed.  But there is a mechanism that creates healing and we need to acknowledge it.

Any parent knows that when a kid does something wrong it has to be acknowledged to be truly over. 

The same is true on a large, public scale.  This was shown in South Africa with the Truth and Reconciliation Commissions.

SC.         How do we heal the division in American thought on the use of torture?

DL.         The first step is to show it is not a political issue, not an issue to take sides on, it is an issue of what it means to be an American.

We live in such a polarized world that we can’t separate the storyteller from the story.  If  Robert Redford is reading a torture memo verbatim people who don’t want to believe it will dismiss it as the ramblings of a left wing Hollywood movie star.

The only way to get past this is for people to read the documents for themselves.  To hear many, many Americans reading the documents is so moving.

SC.         I understand that is exactly what you plan to do.  You have made the documents available for people to read aloud, to make videos of the readings, and to send them to you to be used in the film.  What are you doing to get readings from people?

DL.         We have a website. http://reckoningwithtorture.org/   Any one can go on the website, pick a declassified document from among the documents we have posted on the website, make a video of themselves reading, and send it to us.  It’s all on the website – what to do and how to do it.  Any one with a cell phone can do this, and that’s just about everyone in the U.S.

We have gotten tons of responses so far and we will continue to gather more material during the summer and then begin editing in the fall.

SC.         How will you choose which videos to use?

DL.         I am so moved by the idea that people will take the time to be part of this film.  My goal is, through good editing, to use everybody who sends in a video.

SC.         Is it your hope this will change how Americans are seen in other parts of the world?

DL.         I travel a lot for work and even when the U.S. was at an all time moral low in world wide public perception, people would still come up to me and say that while they didn’t agree with the American government’s actions they loved the American people. 

Having said that, there is something amazing about a project that allows Americans to apologize, to say, “I don’t condone this.”  I think it will be amazing for the people who make the videos and amazing for the people, all over the world, who will watch this.

I make Hollywood movies and so I’m always looking for good endings.

SC.         Does this work make you feel close to your parents, and especially to your father, Arthur Liman, who was well known for his work at the Senate Iran-Contra Hearings.

DL.          I feel like my dad and my mother were both great role models for civic responsibility.  I’m not limited by the examples of my parents but they factor in.  My father believed so strongly in public service but he also loved my movies.

SC.         I think the idea for this film of many, many Americans reading from the documents and the concept of healing through acknowledging the truth is brilliant.  Kudos to you for your work.

 LINKS

Reckoning with Torture website
http://reckoningwithtorture.org/

Reckoning with Torture: Sundance Film Festival
January 29, 2011 | Sundance Film Festival | Park City, Utah
http://www.pen.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/5542/prmID/172

Abu Ghraib article in Wikipedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abu_Ghraib_torture_and_prisoner_abuse

ACLU documents released under the FOIA
http://www.aclu.org/accountability/released.html

US. Department of Justice Freedom of Information Act http://www.justice.gov/oip/foia_updates/Vol_XVII_4/page2.htm

Truth and Reconciliation Commission
http://www.justice.gov.za/trc/

Arthur Liman
http://www.nytimes.com/1997/07/18/nyregion/arthur-l-liman-a-masterly-lawyer-dies-at-64.html?scp=1&sq=Arthur+LIman+Obituary&st=nyt

http://www.nytimes.com/1997/07/18/nyregion/arthur-l-liman-a-masterly-lawyer-dies-at-64.html?pagewanted=all&src=pm