Chaparral Wisdom
To celebrate the magic and beauty of Nature & the chaparral
The Preciousness of Life
As a reader of our journal, and thus caring about the world, about others, about Nature, I’m pretty sure you’ve had moments like I had yesterday morning.
Since the election, the internal framework we have assembled to protect our hearts will occasionally shudder. Mine did while walking with our pup Cooper in the park at the beginning of our day.
I’ve been working with our attorney to submit our final reply brief in our case to protect Nature from Cal Fire and others who plan to profit from their designs. The process has sent my mind into corners I’ve successfully avoided over the past year. In the final quarter of our 20 year fight, reflection is not far from my mind.
As Cooper and I strolled along, I started thinking about my dad and what he fought for in World War II; my mom, who picked up the pieces when dad returned. How they both valued honor and kindness. I thought about how our country began to recognize the importance of Nature in the 1960s and ‘70s and the laws that were passed to protect her. I remembered the tremendous progress we achieved about ten years ago when the US Forest Service finally acknowledged the importance of chaparral, how the LA Times began to accurately describe how too many fires are threatening our native shrublands, and how our messages regarding the best way to protect our communities from wildfire were gaining traction.
Then, as we have all evolved to do, I began focusing on the threats we face and the price we have paid in the past to keep those threats at bay. We’ve lost some ground.
Having not read the news since the day after the election, I’ve successfully avoided the fear machine that the media has become. It’s been peaceful. The time freed up has allowed me to expand my knowledge in areas I’d neglected, especially philosophy with friends. I’ve tackled and completed a number of projects that have accumulated over the years – refinishing furniture, building a little water feature to attract more birds, pouring the concrete foundation for a new mosaic like the one we saw in Pompeii years ago.
Regardless, the threats found an opportunity and broke out of their dark corner. I felt the abyss stare back at me.
After a few difficult moments, the light returned.
I remembered all the joy Cooper has given us over the past 16 and a half years, the wonderful Christmas we have planned with friends and family, and the fact that I was enjoying watching the egrets resting in the nearby Eucalyptus trees. My family is safe and healthy. I can still swing on a backpack and explore the Sierra Nevada. I feel grateful for the freedom my parents fought for, freedom that has allowed all of us to walk in the park and dream anything we want.
My internal framework settled. It maintained its strength. I reminded myself that today, no one, no challenge, nothing outside my control shall be given the power to steal the joy that the world has to offer. Not today. Life is too precious to do otherwise.
Much of strength within has been fortified over the last couple years through friendship. Developing and expanding friendship is one of the key principles of Epicurus, a favorite philosopher I’ve discovered recently. His entire approach is to seek a pleasurable life by eliminating the causes of anxiety through, in part, friendship and the exploration of knowledge. One of his sayings is especially poignant in this uncertain time. “Security amidst the limited number of dreadful things is most easily achieved through friendship.”
Enjoy your family, treasure your friends, and rejoice in life – they’re all precious.
Wishing you a wonderful Christmas and a joyous, rambunctious New Year’s,
Rick, Cooper, and your friends at the California Chaparral Institute
Cooper, talking with a tree friend.
Protect Your Heart, Protect Our Values, Preserve Wisdom and Curiosity; Become a Chaparral Naturalist
In our tenth year offering our Chaparral Naturalist course, we confront a country that is challenging much of what we hold dear as caring people. In considering what is in our control as individuals, one response is to ensure the preservation of the ethics, values, and hopes our nation once aspired to protect. We can do so by building communities of thoughtful, kindred spirits who believe in the pursuit of truth, engage in honest reflection, and revere the preciousness and individuality of all life. Not unlike the monasteries of old, the communities we form will encourage and preserve our spirits to facilitate the next Renaissance.
The ancient wisdom contained within the I-Ching provides timely guidance – one pulls back in order to preserve the light and return when the time is right.
When the darkness of stupidity reigns in human affairs, it is best to keep your brilliance “hidden under a bushel basket.” Let your thoughts and efforts be quiet, self-contained, and protected, as much as possible, from harmful influences. Just endure it for now and preserve your self-confidence, while remaining cooperative and flexible. The time to assert yourself will come. Avoid looking too far ahead if you have not yet achieved your goals—that will only stimulate feelings of regret or longing, eating away your inner strength. Now is the time to be cautious and reserved. Control yourself. Do not needlessly stimulate forces of opposition. During dark, unsettled periods, it is best to step gingerly around the sleeping dogs.
– Hexagram 36
In time, as Plato described in the dialogue “Gorgias,” Power (Callicles) is self-corrupting and without the guidance of Justice, Power will eventually consume and destroy itself. The wisdom of truth and kindness will prevail again.*
Join our community of Chaparral Naturalists to recharge yourself with kindred spirits who believe in the preciousness of life and the wisdom that can be found in Nature. Our class begins March 15, 2025, and is held in Escondido, California. For eight Saturdays, we explore not only the natural wonders of southern California, but how Nature can unlock our minds. Visit our Chaparral Naturalist webpage to learn more.
* Thank you to our friend Tsunxan for this insight.
Please Vote NO on Prop 4 – Protect the Chaparral
Proposition 4 will fund Cal Fire’s master plan to clear hundreds of thousands of acres of chaparral across the State of California – $1.5 billion worth to grind up, burn, and spray herbicides on California’s most characteristic native ecosystem, or as the State now views all of Nature, “fuel.”
Please help us stop this madness by voting NO on Prop 4 in the upcoming election. We are fighting Cal Fire’s plan in court. This is your opportunity as an individual to fight it at the ballot box.
Disguised as being used for “forest health” and “wildfire protection,” $1.5 billion is tucked into the $10 billion bond that includes a number of environmental goals in an attempt to bribe the public into supporting it. Another $1.2 billion is designated for “restoration” of natural areas, which in Cal Fire’s Orwellian view of Nature means even more habitat clearance, logging, and herbicide use.
The analysis of the proposition by the state suggests that some of the bond money “could” be used to purchase land to be set aside – a cynical play on gaining the support of land conservancies. However, the question that needs to be asked is, “What good does it do to borrow billions to acquire or expand natural areas when Cal Fire or State Parks will only end up destroying the habitat through their clearance projects?”
We’ve lost enough Nature. It’s time to say no more. Let’s protect what’s left.
Please, vote NO on Prop 4.
(see additional details below)
Added 10/10/2024: We’ve been receiving a lot of additional questions about the proposition, namely that there isn’t a specific place in the bond that mentions that Cal Fire will be clearing native, chaparral habitat.
Such language is not in the bond because that state does not want to say they will be logging, clearing, and spraying herbicide on 10 million acres of native habitat (their stated goal). Such language would not be conducive to getting the bond passed. We are being lied to.
Here’s some additional information that will help clarify the situation, copied from our comments below:
The writers of the bond measure use Orwellian euphemisms like “forest health and fire resilience,” “restoration of natural ecosystem functions”, and “chaparral restoration” to mask what the $1.5 billion will actually be used to fund (Pgs. 83-85 in your Voter Info Guide – Section 91500).
Based on Cal Fire’s Vegetation Treatment Program (VTP), and what Cal Fire is currently doing, what these euphemisms really mean is logging, grinding up native habitat with masticators, and spraying of herbicides to clear whatever natural habitat is deemed “fuel.” Their target – 10 million acres. A large percentage of their targeted landscape is covered by chaparral. Much of the $1.5 billion in Prop 4 will be used to fund that clearance effort. Some of the additional $1.2 billion in Section 93500 will be used in similar ways for undefined “ecosystem health” and “restoration” of rangeland (i.e. native shrublands to weedy grasslands) projects.
Cal Fire is the administrator or actual contractor for the habitat “management” objectives outlined in the proposition.
Many of us have been fighting Cal Fire’s effort to domesticate Nature for over 20 years. You can read about our fight, and why we are in court fighting Cal Fire now, here:
https://californiachaparral.org/threats/cal-fire/
How will all this translate on the ground?
A devastating example is the ecological damage California State Parks and Cal Fire have caused to Rancho Cuyamaca State Park. They are attempting to do the same thing at Tomales Bay State Park now. You can see the impact at Cuyamaca on our web page here:
https://californiachaparral.org/threats/cuyamaca-state-park/
Adding more fire to the landscape in the form of prescribed fire, which the Prop 4 will fund, can eliminate native chaparral habitat, one of the primary targets of Cal Fire’s VTP. Cal Fire see natural stands of dense, biodiverse old-growth chaparral as “decadent” and in need of removal. They are currently calling for landscape-scale clearance operations to do so.
Here’s a good explanation of the damage such “treatments” can cause:
https://californiachaparral.org/threats/prescribed-fire/
Nearly all the habitat clearance projects to be funded by Prop 4 are justified by the false notion that most of Nature is sick as a result of past fire suppression and needs to be cleaned out. While some forested systems have dodged a fire or two due to firefighting, the fire suppression fallacy is utilized to justify clearance projects regardless of ecosystem type.
You can learn more about the Fire Suppression Fallacy here:
https://chaparralwisdom.org/2023/05/02/the-beginnings-of-the-fire-suppression-fallacy/
Will Prop 4 provide funds that will be used for positive things? Yes. But due to Cal Fire’s influence in Sacramento, they have been able to include funding for their efforts to clear 10 million acres of habitat throughout the state, hoping to fool the public into thinking this is a purely environmental bond. Cal Fire is cynical enough to believe that ploy will work. We need to let them know we won’t fall for it.
Receiving money for favored projects, no matter how good they are, is to betray Nature across the entire state.
Additional Sections in Proposition 4 that fund habitat clearance
Section 90100
“Restoration” includes “Prescribed burning and other fuel hazard reduction measures” (Section 90100(i)(1)(F).) So every time “restoration” is mentioned, the funding could support prescribed burning and habitat clearing.
91500 provides 1.5 Billion to be appropriated by the legislature for wildfire prevention, “including reducing community wildfire risk and restoring the health and resilience of forests and landscapes.”
Section 91520 grants $1.25 Billion to the Natural Resources Agency…”to reduce the risk of wildfire spreading into populated areas from wildlands…
Section 91520(c) grants 1.75 million to the “Department of Forestry and Fire Protection [for] ….prescribed fire, prescribed grazing, cultural fire…”
Section 91520(f) grants 200 million specifically for the “restoration of natural ecosystem function…and may including prescribed fire, cultural fire, environmentally sensitive vegetation management…science based fuel reduction.” Such section specifically includes chaparral and coastal forests.
Section 91520(g) make 50 million in grants available to others for fuel reduction
Section 91520(h) grants 33.5 million to the Sierra Nevada Conservanc for “chaparral and forest restoration” (“restoration includes prescribed burning (90100)”
Section 91520(o) grants 15 million to California Fire Foundation to support vegetation mitigation and fuels reduction projects.