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Alex Breitler
A native of Benicia, he lives in Stockton with his wife, Ann (a Record copyeditor who fixes all of his mistakes). He has been writing mostly about natural resources since 2003, first in Redding and now in Stockton. He is on the lookout for a giant ... Read FullCategories
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Monthly Archives: February 2009
No salmon fishing?
More salmon are expected to return from the ocean to the Sacramento and San Joaquin rivers this year, but the number will still be well below returns of just a few years ago, meaning severe fishing restrictions are expected in 2009.
“We won’t be able to talk about this without using the word ‘disaster,’” Don Hansen, [...]
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Half Dome rescue
Photo courtesy California Highway Patrol
Here’s a photo of a rescue this morning on Half Dome. A 38-year-old Korean mountaineer was swept away in an avalanche Monday afternoon while climbing with six other people, Yosemite National Park said in a statement.
It was a complex rescue, considering the unsettled weather, the obviously dramatic terrain and, if that [...]
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Hmmmmmm
Here’s a scenic shot looking north at Marine and Elmwood avenues in Stockton.
It’s here, in the foreground of this photo, where FEMA’s flood plain boundary crosses the street, pushing diagnoally through the intersection and heading north toward the Calaveras River.
Can you see the line? Neither can I.
The boundaries on FEMA’s new flood plain maps are important [...]
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Writing on the river
The Calaveras River has a blog.
It’s maintained by the Friends of the Lower Calaveras, which is trying to boost public awareness of the river. Members have collected a cool set of photos; check them out here.
On Saturday, some of these folks will be getting together for a “Polar Bear Cleanup” where the river flows past [...]
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Killer whales on the hook
Is pumping from the Delta, along with our myriad dams and plumbing devices, having an indirect effect on killer whales by decreasing their food supply?
See today’s story by the Sac Bee’s Matt Weiser:
“California’s degraded rivers and voracious water demand are not just a local problem. They threaten to exterminate a unique population of Pacific killer whales, federal [...]
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Rain count
By my unofficial tally, Stockton has seen 1.52 inches of rain since Thursday, enough to bump us from 62 percent to 76 percent of normal.
We’ll need more storms like that one if the drought is going to improve.
We’ll see what the local water officials have to say Wednesday, when the county’s Advisory Water Commission meets [...]
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Finch feeding frenzy
(courtesy Julie Adams)
Sometimes you read something in the paper that just doesn’t jive with personal experience.
Such was the case today for Julie Adams of Manteca, who spotted this story warning that climate change may be imperiling the habitat of the goldfinch.
“They must all be at my house, because I have to fill my sock feeders [...]
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Water news is sobering
Hallelujiah; it’s raining. “Lined-up storms could ease drought,” read one headline this week.
Let’s sober ourselves.
Take a quick look at Lake Shasta. Sure, it’s 200 miles north of us in Stockton, but as the state’s biggest reservoir, it’s where any drought begins and ends.
As of Wednesday, there was 1,454,967 acre-feet of water in the lake. Big number, [...]
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The original Triple Threat
(the Olsen brothers…. don’t ask me which one is which)
When I wrote this story about San Joaquin County siblings who were the second set of triplets born at Stockton’s Dameron Hospital, I had to wonder: Who were the first?
Got my answer yesterday, when Greg Olsen of Federal Way, Wash., emailed.
It seems Greg and his brother, Jon, [...]
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A different light