Point Reyes Books

Saturday, March 16, 2013

Geography of Hope field trips offer an opportunity to experience Point Reyes National Seashore and the coastal Marin landscape and deepen your understanding of Aldo Leopold and his land ethic. All field trips are led by accomplished naturalists accompanied by GOH authors and experts.

Weather is changeable in West Marin. All field trip participants are advised to dress in layers and bring rain gear, water, and snacks. Binoculars recommended.  We carpool to field trips and will organize that on site. Please note that times listed for Hikes include stops for viewing and discussion.

Field trips with too few participants may be cancelled. If that occurs, you would be notified in advance to make another field trip choice.

1. Tomales Point Elk Preserve at Tomales Point Trail
   • View magnificent tule elk and learn about the establishment of their grassy preserve. Hunted to near extinction by 1860, a small protected herd was returned here in 1978. It has rebounded to become one of the largest populations in California.
   • http://www.nps.gov/pore/planyourvisit/wildlife_viewing_tuleelk.htm
   • Rest rooms: Yes
   • Degree of difficulty: Moderate
   • Travel time from conference to Pierce Point Ranch parking area: 30 minutes
   • Hike: Approximately 90 minutes
   • Accessibility: A separate, self-guided tour of the renovated Pierce Point Ranch is wheelchair accessible

   • Field Trip Leader

     David Press serves as the Wildlife Ecologist for Point Reyes National Seashore. He has worked at the park since 1997 and specializes in the management and monitoring of northern elephant seals, northern spotted owls, western snowy plovers, and tule elk. David received his Bachelor’s degree from UC Santa Cruz and graduated from UC Davis in 2005 with a Master’s degree in Marine Ecology. He resides with his family in his hometown of Inverness, CA.

2. Elephant Seal Overlook at Chimney Rock
   • Observe a colony of elephant seals during the end of the breeding season from the overlook above beautiful Drakes Bay where you’ll learn all about these noisy and impressive sea creatures and their return to the sandy Point Reyes headlands in 1981.
   • http://www.nps.gov/pore/planyourvisit/wildlife_viewing_elephantseals.htm
   • Rest rooms: Yes
   • Degree of difficulty: Easy
   • Travel time from conference to Drakes Beach parking area: 30 minutes
   • Hike: Approximately 90 minutes
   • Accessibility: Not wheelchair accessible
   • Please note: Sir Francis Drake Highway is closed at Drakes Beach at this time of year. A shuttle bus leaves from Drakes Beach parking lot and takes visitors to the lighthouse and the Chimney Rock parking area. Reservations are not required. Adult tickets cost $5.This fee is not included in your registration fee.

   • Field Trip Leader

     Sarah Allen has studied marine birds and mammals of California for some 30 years and has been affiliated with both PRBO Conservation Science and Point Reyes National Seashore. She has authored scientific papers on harbor seals and other topics and is currently working on climate issues for the Western Region of the National Park Service. She is the co-author of “Field Guide to the Marine Mammals of the Pacific Coast.”

3. Sand Dune and Western Snowy Plover Habitat Restoration at Abbott’s Lagoon
   • Point Reyes National Seashore’s largest dune restoration project to date will restore natural dune processes and function to an area that is home to at least eleven threatened and endangered species. The National Park Service and PRBO Conservation Science are working jointly to protect the breeding grounds and nests of the western snowy plover, a federally listed threatened species. The tiny shorebird is an important part of the interconnected web of life on the beach.
   • http://www.nps.gov/pore/parkmgmt/planning_dunerestoration.htm
   • http://www.nps.gov/pore/naturescience/birds_snowyplover.htm
   • Rest rooms: Yes
   • Degree of difficulty: Easy
   • Travel time from conference to Abbotts Lagoon parking lot: 30 minutes
   • Hike: Approximately 2 hours
   • Accessibility: First quarter mile of the trail is wheelchair accessible

   • Field Trip Leaders

     Lorraine Parsons is a Vegetation/Wetlands Ecologist for Point Reyes National Seashore, and was the Project Manager for the Giacomini Wetlands Restoration Project and the Abbott’s Lagoon Coastal Dune Restoration Project. She has been with the park since 2001. Prior to that, Lorraine worked for local county agencies and consulting firms managing wetland and riparian mitigation/restoration projects and conducting monitoring of wetland and riparian systems.

     Sarah Minnick is a biologist for Point Reyes National Seashore. Over the last five years, she has worked extensively with the Abbott’s Lagoon Coastal Dune Restoration and Giacomini Wetlands Restoration projects. She also surveys for and monitors rare dune plants, such as the endangered Tidestrom’s lupine and beach layia. Sarah received a Bachelor’s degree in mathematics from Sonoma State University and a Masters degree in Wetland Conservation from University of Massachusetts – Amherst. She also enjoys serving on the board of the California Lichen Society.

Land Restoration

We abuse land because we regard it as a commodity belonging to us. When we see land as a community to which we all belong, we may begin to use it with love and respect. —Aldo Leopold

4. Estuarine Habitat Restoration at Limantour Beach
   • Learn how the removal of dams has helped restore estuarine habitat and allow passage of the coho salmon and steelhead trout, both listed as threatened species. With its views of Mount Vision, this hike also affords an excellent view of the Bishop pine reforestation since the 1995 Vision Fire.
   • http://www.nps.gov/pore/naturescience/fish.htm
   • Rest rooms: Yes
   • Degree of difficulty: Easy
   • Travel time from conference to Limantour Beach parking lot: 30 minutes
   • Hike: Approximately 2 hours
   • Accessibility: Not wheelchair accessible

   • Field Trip Leader

     David Lukas started biology studies at Reed College, but left several times to travel around the world working on biological research projects. These travels took him to Borneo as part of a Harvard team, and to the Peruvian Amazon under the auspices of the Smithsonian Institution. He later spent several years working with poet Gary Snyder in the Sierra Nevada. After graduating with a degree in English from Reed, he returned to the Sierra Nevada and devoted himself to writing and teaching about the natural world.

5. Giacomini Wetlands Restoration
   • From productive pastureland to wildlife haven, this public/private collaboration is in the fifth year of its restoration cycle, with notable increases in avian, fish, and rare plant species. http://www.nps.gov/pore/parkmgmt/planning_giacomini_wrp_restoration.htm
   • Rest rooms: No
   • Degree of difficulty:  Easy
   • Travel time from conference: Five-minute walk
   • Hike: Approximately 90 minutes
   • Accessibility: Mostly wheelchair accessible

   • Field Trip Leader

     Amelia Ryan is a wetland and plant ecologist who had been with Point Reyes National Seashore for nearly a decade. She has a BS in Botany and an MS in Ecology. Prior to working at Point Reyes, she spent two years as a volunteer science teacher in Namibia. Amelia developed her love for wild spaces growing in rural Sonoma County, California. She has a particular passion for the flora of California.
     MaryAnne Flett is a native northern Californian who lives in West Marin. She has been birding and working as a biological consultant for more than thirty years. Recent work includes bird-related aspects of habitat restoration projects in Point Reyes National Seashore, Golden Gate National Recreation Area, and other northern California locations. She conducts surveys for California clapper and black rails in tidal marshes around the San Francisco Bay and Estuary and has conducted research on willow flycatchers and other meadow birds in the Sierra Nevada.

Thinking Like a Mountain

Land is not merely soil; it is a fountain of energy flowing through a circuit of soils, plants, and animals. Food chains are the living channels which conduct energy upward; death and decay return it to the soil. —Aldo Leopold

6. Mt. Wittenberg via Horse Trail, Z Ranch Trail, and Sky Camp
   • This looped trail, which begins at the Visitors’ Center parking lot, is 4.6 miles roundtrip. A steep (1,300 feet) climb to the highest point in the park, it offers views of the Seashore and Olema Valley. Unless the weather is extreme, this field trip will take place rain or shine. Foul weather gear recommended.
   • http://www.nps.gov/pore/planyourvisit/hiking_guide.htm
   • Rest rooms: Yes
   • Degree of difficulty: Strenuous
   • Travel time from conference to Visitor Center parking lot: 10 minutes 
   • Hike: Approximately 2+ hours.
   • Accessibility: Not wheelchair accessible

   • Field Trip Leader

     Todd Plummer has 25 years' experience as a birder and conservationist. He studied population dynamics and endangered species management at the University of Georgia. He has led numerous bird hikes on both U.S. coasts, and worked as a wildlife biologist in the Sierra Nevada. He is also a poet, a tutor, and an author of children's science books. If he could meet one historical figure, it would be Alexander Wilson, pioneer naturalist and father of American ornithology.

Bird Watching

A March morning is only as drab as he who walks it without a glance skyward, ear cocked for geese. —Aldo Leopold

7. Drakes Estero Trailhead Bird Watching and the Dynamic Processes in the Living World
   • This two-mile roundtrip hike through open grassland and past an old Christmas tree farm includes viewing and learning about birds, weather patterns, ocean cycles, and migration seasons.
   • http://www.nps.gov/pore/planyourvisit/hiking_guide.htm
   • Rest rooms: Yes
   • Degree of difficulty:  Easy
   • Travel time from conference to the Estero Trailhead: 30 minutes
   • Hike: Approximately 90 minutes
   • Accessibility:  Wheelchair accessible for the first .5 mile

   • Field Trip Leader

     Claire Peaslee is a naturalist, writer, editor, theatre artist, public speaker, and regular guest on “West Coast Live” radio program. Inspired by the living Earth, she leads custom nature tours from Point Reyes and performs and teaches improvisation.

Foodscape

Bread and beauty grow best together. Their harmonious integration can make farming not only a business but an art; the land not only a food factory but an instrument for self-expression, on which each can play music of his own choosing. —Aldo Leopold

8. Black Mountain Ranch
   • Climb to the top of Black Mountain (weather permitting), which is protected by a MALT conservation easement. Take in spectacular views of the entire Tomales Bay watershed. Meet Dave Osborn and Mike Giammona who run a grass-fed beef operation on the mountain and learn about their business philosophy and practices. They’ll be the providing beef for one of our conference meals. Sponsored by Marin Agricultural Land Trust.
   • http://www.malt.org/Protected/Black-Mountain
   • Rest rooms: No
   • Degree of difficulty: Strenuous
   • Travel time from conference to parking area: 10 minutes.
   • Hike: 2+ hours
   • Accessibility:  Not wheelchair accessible

   • Field Trip Leader

     Wendell Gilgert is the Working Landscape Program Director for PRBO Conservation Science. Wendell is a Great Valley native and comes to PRBO from the Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) where he had a 34-year career and most recently served as the Western Region Wildlife Biologist and NRCS Partners In Flight (PIF) representative based in Portland, OR. Wendell brings to PRBO an incredible wealth of knowledge on wildlife issues, habitat conditions and how to promote conservation with private landowners.

9. Hike / Tour / Cheese Tasting at Toluma Farms
   • Located two miles outside the town of Tomales, Toluma Farms is surrounded by a landscape of beautiful coastal agriculture. Owners David Jablons and Tamara Hicks purchased the 160-acre former cow dairy in 2003. They spent the first four years on significant land restoration, then started a goat and sheep dairy and constructed a creamery in 2012. They’ll begin production of their own tasty goat cheese in early 2013, just in time for our visit! Sponsored by Marin Agricultural Land Trust. http://www.tolumafarms.com/
   • Rest rooms: Yes
   • Degree of difficulty: Easy
   • Travel time from conference: 45 minutes
   • Hike/Tour/Tasting: Approximately 90 minutes
   • Accessibility: Not wheelchair accessible

   • Field Trip Leader

     David Jablons and Tamara Hicks (along with their daughters Josy and Emmy) purchased the 160-acre property in 2003. They spent four years on land restoration in collaboration with NRCS, the STRAW Project, Marin RCD, Marin Organic, and UC Cooperative Extension. They transitioned the former run-down cow dairy to a goat and sheep dairy in 2007. In 2012 thanks to a grant from USDA Rural Development and capital from Marin Agricultural Land Trust, Toluma Farms began making their own cheese, scheduled to be in production in 2013.

10. Birding Limantour Estero, Inverness Ridge, and the Wetlands: An Exploration of Biodiversity at Point Reyes
    • With thousand of plants, dozens of mammal species, and more than 470 species of birds, Point Reyes National Seashore has some of the greatest biodiversity of any national park area. This field trip will transect the park from the freshwater wetlands of Olema Marsh through the oak, bay, and Douglas fir woodland of Inverness Ridge to Limantour Estero. On five or six short walks in these varied habitats, we’ll hear bird song, observe bird migration, discover wildflowers, and observe varied animal signs.
    • Rest rooms: Yes
    • Degree of difficulty:  Easy
    • Travel time from conference to first short walk at the Olema Marsh: Six minutes
    • Travel time between walks varies.
    • Accessibility: Some areas are wheelchair accessible

    • Field Trip Leader

      David Wimpfheimer is a biologist and naturalist who calls Point Reyes home. For 25 years, his seasoned focus and wide expertise have enriched nature excursions in Marin and other parts of the Bay Area. He has guided programs for Point Reyes Field Seminars, Elderhostel, Oceanic Society, California Academy of Sciences, Wild Wings, Marin Agricultural Land Trust, and other groups throughout California, Alaska, Baja, Scotland, and many other locations.

FRIDAY, MARCH 15

SATURDAY, MARCH 16

SUNDAY, MARCH 17

Point Reyes Books can order any of these titles for you:

• Aldo Leopold’s Southwest

  Edited by David E. Brown and Neil B. Carmony

• Companion to A Sand County Almanac: Interpretative and Critical Essays

  Edited by J. Baird Callicott

• Aldo Leopold: For the Health of the Land

  Edited by J. Baird Callicott and Eric T. Freyfogle

• Thinking Like a Mountain: Aldo Leopold and the Evolution of an Ecological Attitude toward Deer, Wolves, and Forests

  By Susan Flader

• The River of the Mother of God And Other Essays by Aldo Leopold

  Edited by Susan Flader and J. Baird Callicott

• A Sand County Almanac and Sketches Here and There

  By Aldo Leopold

• Game Management

  By Aldo Leopold
  With a new Foreword by Laurence R. Jahn

• A Fierce Green Fire

  By Marybeth Lorbiecki

• Things Natural, Wild, and Free: The Life of Aldo Leopold

  By Marybeth Lorbiecki

• Aldo Leopold’s Odyssey

  By Julianna Lutz Newton

• Aldo Leopold: His Life and Work

  By Curt Meine

• Aldo Leopold: A Sand County Almanac Other Writings on Conservation and Ecology

  (This new anthology will be available at the GOH Conference prior to national release!)
  By Aldo Leopold and Curt Meine

• The Essential Aldo Leopold: Quotations and Commentaries

  Edited by Curt D. Meine and Richard L. Knight

• Prairie Time: The Leopold Reserve Revisited

  By John Ross and Beth Ross

• Introducing Aldo Leopold

  By Curt Meine

• Leopold's Shack and Ricketts's Lab: The Emergence of Environmentalism

  By Michael J. Lannoo

Additional bibliographic information at: http://www.aldoleopold.org/AldoLeopold/leopoldpubs.shtml

Learn More about Aldo Leopold

Download a free 45-minute audio driving tour of West Marin’s ranchlands

“An Abundant Land,” produced for Marin Agricultural Land Trust.

Press Release

• Download Press Release

In the Press

• "PReviving the Ghost of Aldo Leopold in West Marin"
  by Jonah Raskin, Bay Nature
• "The Key to Aldo Leopold’s Land Ethic Lies in Human Relationships"
  by Cyndi Cady, West Marin Citizen
• "Epicenter: West Marin Issues"
  Lyons Fillmer, KWMR kwmr.org
  
  Interview with the makers of the film Green Fire
• "Point Reyes Offers a Living Laboratory to Remake a Conservation Ethic"
  by Herb Kutchins, Point Reyes Light
• "Charting the Geographies of Hope"
  by Paul Epstein
  Bay Nature Magazine
• "A Geography of Hope"
  by Paul Johnson
  USDA Natural Resources Conservation Services
• Introducing Aldo Leopold
  West Marin Citizen, January 3, 2013
• “A Sand County Almanac Traces the Growth of a Conservation Ethic”
  by Herb Kutchins
  Point Reyes Light
• “Aldo Leopold’s Observations Help Show Effects of Climate Change”
  by Mark Johnson
  Milwaukee Wisconsin Journal Sentinel
• “Imagining Ecopoetics: An Interview with Robert Hass, Brenda Hillman, Evelyn Reilly, and Jonathan Skinner
• “New Year, New Environmental Agenda”
  by Dani Burlison
  Pacific Sun
• “Igniting the Green Fire: Finding Hope in Aldo Leopold’s Land Ethic”
  by Cyndi Cady
  West Marin Citizen
• “A Sand County Almanac”
  with Lyons Fillmer and Janet Robbins
  KWMR 90.5 FM
• “Green Fire Wins an Emmy!”
  aldopeopold.org
  November 19, 2013 Watch the trailer

Full Weekend Tickets: Sold Out

Special All-Day Saturday Only Tickets!

Includes morning panels; bag lunch; choice of afternoon field trip (or) screenings of Green Fire and Rebels with a Cause; and evening program of music and readings (does not include dinner).

Limited number available. $125

• Online Ticketing for Geography of Hope - Saturday All Day Only powered by Eventbrite

Friday Night Only Tickets

Keynote: Robert Hass
Screening of Green Fire: Aldo Leopold and a Land Ethic for Our Time
Panel discussion and Conversation #1:
Steve Most, Moderator, with filmmakers and featured participants Ann and Steve Dunsky, Susan Flader, Paul Johnson, Estella Leopold, Jed Meunier, and Michael Howard
Limited number available. $20

7:15pm at Toby's Feed Barn

• Sell Tickets Online through Eventbrite

Saturday Night Only Tickets

Lively Readings, Music, Song, and Stories
Brooke Hecht, host, with Tom Disher (piano), Christina Waldeck (songs), Jim Pfitzer (one-man play), Kathleen Dean Moore (reading), Carlos de la Fente (guitar), Estella Leopold and Jed Meunier (readings), John Francis (banjo), Curt Meine (songs)
Limited number available. $20

7:15pm at Toby's Feed Barn

• Online Ticketing for Geography of Hope - Saturday Night only powered by Eventbrite

Saturday Movie Tickets!

It’s a double feature!
See Green Fire—Aldo Leopold and a Land Ethic for our Time, PLUS Rebels with a Cause about the saving of  Point Reyes National Seashore and Golden Gate National Recreation Area.
Double feature: $20 in advance
Rush tickets: $15 per movie at the door if seats are available

1 P.M.: Green Fire—Aldo Leopold and a Land Ethic for our Time
Screening and conversation with filmmakers

3 P.M.: Rebels with a Cause

Click here for more information

• Event Registration Online for Geography of Hope Film Screenings: Green Fire & Rebels with a Cause powered by Eventbrite