Aerospace Dollars at Work

I've always been a fan of NASA the aerospace industry, and today I read post on Metroblog Los Angeles that shows an image of the Catalina fire from space (provided by Bigelow Aerospace). Cool stuff. Visit the blog below for the image:

Metroblogging Los Angeles: Catalina Fire from Space: "Chris Reed from Bigelow Aerospace sends in this pic (click the above for much larger full version) of the fire on Catalina island, taken from space. He writes:

'We've put on our Web site a new image beamed down from Genesis I that shows a smoke plume emanating from the island of Santa Catalina off of the Southern California coast on May 11. More than 4,000 acres burned in the fire that forced the island's evacuation and threatened the famed tourist town of Avalon.'"

Ahoy! We Return to Santa Catalina

Many years ago, at home from college one summer, I was invited with friends to boat from Marina Del Rey to Catalina Island. I knew nothing of the boat, nor the particulars of the voyage, but I sort of trusted our captain, Wayne, and the conveyance looked seaworthy. This craft was a speed boat Wayne had purchased with his dad at a police auction. (It was not hard to imagine that it was used in the Mexican drug trade, as secret compartments were aplenty.) Our voyage was delayed by the Coast Guard pointing out that we lacked some paperwork or license (though we did have the proper number of life preservers). We set out from MDR after dark. Wayne said all we needed to get to Catalina was to stay on a particular compass reading and we'd reach the island (some 30 miles away in the dark). We were near full throttle, about a mile out, when Wayne noticed that we were not planing, as a speedboat should. I took the helm (gulp!), and Wayne opened the engine compartment. Wayne shouted to us something, but I could not hear what he said. I could see my brother's reaction and soon realized we were in trouble. In fact, we were fast taking on water. This was not good. Wayne signaled for me to cut the engine, and he ran to activate the bilge pump. In that brief moment of quiet, before we started cursing out Wayne, I looked back to the distant lights on shore. If we had to ditch the boat, I knew I could swim that distance. But it would not be easy. I had done it once before, to achieve the mile swim badge as a Boy Scout at Camp Emerald Bay in Catalina (during and following which I experienced mild hypothermia due to the cold water currents around the island). Lucky for us, we chugged back into harbor, safe but somewhat timid of sea voyages.

The good news is that one does not have to endure such travails to get there and back again.

How can I get to Santa Catalina Island?

• Let's begin with the fastest way: helicopter. I've heard that Hollywood executives sometimes chopper to the airport for an afternoon lunch of buffalo burgers at the Buffalo Springs Station restaurant. Round trip chopper fare to the Airport in the Sky is only $156+tax on Island Express Helicopters. The "Big Buffalo" ("a third pound, all natural buffalo burger served on grilled sourdough") is only $8.75.
• There are passenger ferries that operate out of San Pedro (I think this is the most common port of call), Long Beach, Newport Beach, Dana Point, and Marina Del Rey (Catalina Express, Catalina Explorer, Catalina Flyer, or Marina Flyer), but be sure to make a reservation well ahead of time for a specific departure time and site. We tried planning a trip out of another location once on a new ferry service, and they canceled just before the trip due to "mechanical problems." I gathered that it was more due to not enough passengers booking on the new ferry, so they decided that it wasn't worth buying the fuel to take us over. I'm reluctant to name the company, just to give them a small benefit of the doubt. But I bet there are others who have had a similar experience.
  
• Of course you can get to the island via your own private boat or aircraft. (Check each link for details.) Be sure to trust your captain or pilot. According to the Chamber of Commerce there are "approximately 400 moorings at Avalon, [and] approximately 720 moorings elsewhere in Catalina, including 249 at Isthmus Cove."

When to go?

• As soon as possible.
  
• I've heard that the one of the best things Western Civilization has to offer is Buccaneer Days at Catalina. This year, on October 6th, they're planning the 18th annual event. I've never been, but common lore is that everyone on land or sea dresses up as pirate, and there is much gallivanting going on.
• According to the Chamber of Commerce and Visitor's Bureau the weather is mostly sunny:

  Temperature and rainfall vary in different parts of Catalina but U.S. Weather Bureau records have general application to the entire island. Based on these records: Sunny or partly sunny days average of 267 per year. June through October, average Avalon high temperature is 76.1 degrees; average low is 58.4 degrees. November through May, average high is 63.2 degrees; average low is 49.4 degrees. Rainfall averages approximately 14 inches per year, nearly all of it occurring between mid-October and mid-April. Generally speaking, the daytime temperature rarely goes above 80 degrees in the summer, below 50 degrees in the winter. Water temperature ranges from 64 to 73 degrees in the summer and 54 to 59 degrees in winter.

What to do?

• Most everyone starts in Avalon, but to be honest, I've never been. I've always avoided that side of the island. I've arrived at Two Harbors or the Boy Scout camp and explored from there.
  
• Catalina is a very popular hiking and camping spot.
• Avalon offers most amenities you can find at any tourist destination.
  

Why isn't this the most popular destination in Southern California?

• My guess is that it's difficult to get to, there are no theme park rides (which I have nothing against theme parks—to each his own), and it's a little pricey to get yourself onto the island and full of food and drink once you're there. We always carry in what we need, for the most part, but that's difficult too.

Aren't the locals and other travelers going to be upset that you're reporting on their well kept secret?

• Maybe. But to keep the numbers down, I must disclose that there are rattlesnakes on the island. I've never seen one there (though, I have seen one in the hills around San Diego, and we cooked that sucker on the barbecue. It tastes like shrimp, but maybe that's because we sautéed it in butter and garlic).

Oh Bother!

The Bear at Alert the Bear is good friends with Winnie the Pooh (old school Pooh, not the cheap imitation you see claiming to be PB today). First, Pooh is disenfranchised from the right to define his legacy by the good folks at Disney, and now he has to deal with missing honeybees due to Colony Collapse Disorder. The Bear is definitely on alert!

CCD has been covered by all of the major news organizations, but we, as consumers, don't seem to be alarmed. Supermarkets are still stocked with reasonably priced fruits. Bees are essential to the pollination of flowering vegetation. Nature supplies sufficient bee populations for this to occur without much trouble. Commercial agriculture, on the other hand, has been using commercial bee populations (that travel coast to coast, depending on the growing season) to pollinate. In fact, there are some producers that use pesticide to keep away native bees (e.g. seedless fruit products). I met a beekeeper, Erin Forbes of Overland Honey, this weekend, and she explained that among small beekeepers, they believe the problem to be, quite simply, tired and overworked bees. A story in today's LA Times somewhat agrees:

The only thing that all of the problem hives seem to have in common is that they were experiencing periods of "extraordinary stress" due to poor nutrition or drought.

If the hives are already weakened, factors that otherwise might not be fatal could have disastrous effects.

The good news in the article is that scientists and beekeepers don't seem to be as alarmed now as they have been in recent weeks. In fact, many commercial producers are reporting potentially record crops.

The apiaries are telling us to ask some questions. We need to think more about how we get food to our table. How is commercial growing affecting the environment? How are pesticides and stressed animal and insect populations going to change the way we grow and raise food? How different will the food on the table be in ten or twenty years?

If all of this is too much to handle, I suggest spending some time with our friends in the Hundred Acre Wood.

Santa Catalina Island Fire Uncontained

(Photo-LA Times)
I read recently in Sunset magazine that Catalina "is, in fact, a mountain, and would be the highest in California if three-fourths of it weren't beneath the sea." Through subduction, volcanic activity, and millions of years of metamorphism, this great island was formed. Nature works slowly, and we only see a mere glimpse of its record.

Los Angeles Times: Breaking News: "'Looks like a volcano'

Dozens of people watched the fire from the top of Signal Hill, 26 miles away. Even from that vantage point, the wall of flames on the islands were clearly seen.

'It looks like a volcano erupting,' said Kevin Lembke of Long Beach."

My Favorite Spots in Nature Threatened by Nature

A large portion, more than 400 acres, of Catalina Island have been burned by fire. Parts of Avalon are being evacuated, and there are fire crews and equipment being ferried to the island via hovercraft from Camp Pendleton (thank God for our tax dollars supplying the military!). Catalina is a very dry habitat, but the weather in California has been more conducive to fire lately, and winds are making things dangerous. Read the LA Times Breaking News blog for details, and pray that this wonderful place is spared too much damage. I know that nature needs fire, but I can admit that I'm selfish. I don't want my personal treasures lost in my lifetime.

Los Angeles Times: Breaking News: "Wayne Griffin, president and executive director of Catalina Island Chamber of Commerce & Visitors Bureau, said 'we have fixed winged aircraft dropping fire retardant between the fire and the city. We are seeing flames on the top of the ridge. It is getting somewhat scarier. Some of the hotels have been evacuated and we are making plans to accommodate people elsewhere.'

Griffin said the fire response by hovercraft from Camp Pendleton was used last year to quash a wildfire and the firefighters are experienced in the island's mountainous terrain."

The Control of Nature

My plan was to work on a post last night and finish it in the morning. Instead, I spent the night battling nature. Our basement leaks like a sieve. We have a champion sump pump (that my father-in-law thankfully installed) but that machine is not enough to stop the seeping water. Thus, I was armed with a shop vac, and cursed my way through moving basement water-soaked miscellanea.

This effort brought to mind the way in which we build homes and cities with little regard as to how nature can and will intrude. There is much written about this, but I have not come across a better author than John McPhee. The most powerful of his books on this subject is The Control of Nature. Here is how his website describes the book:

"In Louisiana, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has declared war on the lower Mississippi River, which threatens to follow a new route to the sea and cut off New Orleans and Baton Rouge from the rest of the United States. Icelanders confront flowing red lava in an attempt to save a crucial harbor. In Los Angeles, basins are built to catch devastating debris flows from the San Gabriel Mountains.

Taking us deep into these contested territories, McPhee details the strategies and tactics through which people attempt to control nature. Most striking is his depiction of the main contestants: nature in complex and awesome guises, and those attempting to wrest control from her stubborn, sometimes foolhardy, more often ingenious, and always arresting characters."

The phrase "contested territories" says it all. We're in a contest with nature, and we're certainly the underdog. Reading McPhee, one realizes that we're at the mercy of bad planning and aggressive engineers, more so than the environment. Where is your house built? What dangers await?