Chaparral Wisdom
To celebrate the magic and beauty of Nature & the chaparral
Misconceptions About Wildfire in LA Times: Exterior sprinklers, too much fire, and cultural appropriation
The Los Angeles Times has been a champion in helping the public understand the truth when it comes to wildfire. But today, they made a mistake. They repeated numerous misconceptions that have held us back from crafting effective fire risk reduction policies.
The letter we wrote to them explaining why their article was inaccurate is below. If you are so moved, please write your own. It can make a difference. Limit it to 150 words or less and use this link to send it.
Our short letter to the editor can be found at the end of this post.
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Getting angry, then inspired
We wanted to share something that is energizing us and everyone we’ve been interacting with lately.
There is so much to get upset, depressed about these days. It easily becomes overwhelming. As with many of you who care about the planet, we’ve been going in and out of being terribly upset to near withdrawal countless times over the past couple years.
But something wonderful happened to our hearts and minds this past Friday while participating in the Climate Strike march in Santa Barbara.
We went to the center of town where everyone was supposed to assemble. To our disappointment, there were only about 200 people there. And the composition was disappointing as well… mostly composed of the traditional environmental demographic – older white people. We stood around for about 20 minutes when suddenly cheers rang out. A line of young people appeared out of nowhere and began filling the park – kids with flying fish floats and flags at the end of long, flexible poles waving in the sky. Signs, drums, singing. They just kept coming, hundreds of them. Kids of color, kids with disabilities, kids with wonderful smiles.
After a few speeches, the kids directed us south to march through town, toward the Santa Barbara pier, singing, chanting, waving signs.
Bonsai Wisdom – a door to inner peace
We have been speculating about the why of how being in Nature improves our mental and physical health. There is significant research proving that being in Nature lowers our stress levels, improves our immune system, sharpens our minds, and can heal us from trauma. But the why is much more mysterious. Our attempt to answer the why has been focused on our past experience as a species, the evolutionary impact of living and adapting to our lives outdoors for millions of years.
Our fortunate connection with Neil, the curator of Bonsai trees at the Japanese Friendship Garden in San Diego, California, helped us dig deeper into the question of why.
Standing next to the inspiring Bonsai tree exhibit at the garden, we were discussing how fractal patterns, self-repeating shapes and forms that are easily found in Nature, are so pleasant to look at.
“Just like the Bonsai,” Neil said, as he pointed to a small juniper. “You’ll notice the tree has an overall triangle shape.”
“As you begin to look closely, you’ll notice that triangle is repeated in smaller forms for each branch, then each sub-branch.”