>> Tule River “Rio Limpo” Clean-up and River Fair to be held May 30 2009 – May 6, 2009
A full day of activities and family events are planned for Saturday, May 30 as part of “Rio Limpo,” the annual Tule River Clean-Up and river education project. Rio Limpio, a joint project of WildPlaces, Community Services & Employment Training (CSET) and the U.S. Forest Service, gives the public an opportunity to help the community and the environment by helping to clean up local river recreation sites and help educate the public on how to keep the rivers and picnic areas clean and safe.
Volunteers are asked to meet at 8:30 a.m. at the Springville Veterans Memorial Park in Springville. Participants should wear long pants, sturdy shoes, sunscreen and a hat. All other materials and refreshments will be provided. Volunteers will be carpooled to and from the clean up sites
Also on Saturday, CSET will hold a “Ribbon Cutting" ceremony at 10 am at the Springville Memorial Park announcing the new Springville Recycling Center. The recycling center, part of Rio Limpio and The Tule River Partnership, will be located on Hwy 190 at the cross of Mtn Road 190-A (or Rio Vista Rd). River visitors and residents will be able to utilize this valuable resource. Revenue raised from the recycled material will fund the maintenance of the Center.
Following the clean up activities, a River Fair event at Lake Success will give volunteers free BBQ lunch and other activities. All of the events, including food and beverages, are free and all ages are welcome. The River Fair will be held from 12noon – 3:30 p.m.
As in past years, “Rio Limpo” events are also planned for the Fourth of July weekend, and end of August/Labor Day holiday weekends. “Rio Limpo,” means “clean river” in Spanish.
This is the third year of the popular annual event. In 2007, WildPlaces and the U.S. Forest Service started Rio Limpo to begin to restore the Tule River and provide education on waste removal and the value of keeping our wild lands scenic and safe for all.
Two Sierra Nevada Conservancy 2-year grants totaling $240,000 were awarded to Community Services & Employment Training (CSET) in 2008 to improve conditions along the Tule River, located in Giant Sequoia National Monument on the Sequoia National Forest. WildPlaces, CSET and the U.S. Forest Service formed the "Tule River Partnership" to develop activities to decrease river and associated land pollution through river clean-ups, recycling options, graffiti abatement, and education.
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>> WildPlaces takes local teens on ‘eye-opening,' green-based trip – March 18, 2009
By SABRINA ZIEGLER
THE PORTERVILLE RECORDER
A small group of Granite Hills High School seniors received an invitation in April they couldn’t refuse — to attend an environmentalist awards event in San Francisco — for free.
Merissa Camerena, 18, Valarie Jasso, 17, Xjenay Peralta, 18, and Granite Hills library clerk Ann Garner accepted the invitation, not knowing what to expect.
“It was a real eye-opener,” Peralta said of being able to attend the ceremony. “I knew what we were doing to the environment, but I didn’t know how much it was effecting us.”
The ceremony took place at the Opera House in San Fransisco. Robert Redford, film director and founder of the Sundance Film Festival, was the special guest and announcer of the prize videos.
Pulitzer Prize winner Al Gore was the keynote speaker; singer and songwriter Tracy Chapman performed.
After the awards ceremony, attendees fled to the City Hall for a reception with the awardees.
“It was very swank,” Garner said of the scene at the reception. “It was just food, very high class.”
The 2009 Goldman Environmental Prize ceremony is a grand-scale connecting point for environmental grassroots leaders and groups from around the world that recognizes select individuals for their often dangerous and sometimes life-threatening work, Camerena and Peralta said.
The group from Granite Hills were joined by three students from La Sierra High. They went along for the trip with WildPlaces, a nonprofit group in Springville, committed to restoring and protecting California’s natural and rural lands through volunteer work.
WildPlaces provided transportation, food and lodging at the Fort Mason Hotel.
The organization, a vehicle for grassroots work in the Sierra mountains, receives tickets to the awards ceremony every year, and this year, WildPlaces Director Mehmet McMillan made a point to bring teens along for the experience, Garner said.
The Goldman Prize ceremony was followed by a brief program for the youth, and a chance to get up close and personal with an array of esteemed folks, including the event’s international award recipients.
The highlight of the trip was being exposed to the stories of passionate environmental leaders from around the world, they said. During the ceremony, each award presented was preceded by a short video about each of the recipients.
According to a book of short biographies on each of the winners, their environmentally concerned causes vary, and all relate to an aspect of the area in which they live.
One of this year’s winners was Marc Ona Essangui, a man from Libreville, Gabon, who led efforts to expose unlawful agreements behind a massive mining project that threatens critical equatorial rain forests, prevalent in his area.
A leading environmental attorney from Dhaka, Bangladesh, Rizwana Hasan led a legal battle to reduce the impact of Bangladesh’s environmentally devastating ship breaking industry, and secured increased government regulation for it.
A lifelong resident of Bob White, W.Va., in the heart of the Appalachians, Maria Gunnoe leads a growing campaign against mountaintop removal coal mining, in a county known for being one of the most active in the country in mountaintop removal, Garner said.
The other recipients come from Russia, Indonesia and Pikin Slee, a village of indigenous tribe people from Suriname in Africa.
At the reception, attendees also learned about some of the event’s past winners.
“Their work is so intense, some people have actually died,” Camerena said.
In previous years, “some couldn’t show up [to receive an award] because they were killed or in jail,” Peralta said.
Garner said, among this year’s winners, “it seemed like a lot of the stories had the central underlying theme of them being tortured,” when it came to each leader standing up for their cause.
One of the evening’s award recipients, Essangui, had been released from jail just before accepting his award.
The work of his non-government organization has been suspended and reinstated, while he has been arrested a number of times.
Gunnoe faced heavy opposition for her efforts, including threats to her life, and intimidating tactics from the Boone County mining industry.
“She was just so powerful,” Garner said of Gunnoe. “I saw the underlying theme [of most of the award winners’ stories] was how many recipients were bullied or threatened by corporations to stop their cause. It was basically a grassroots, something to save their neighborhood, and it was very specific.”
Another observation:
“I was pleasantly surprised with how many woman received awards,” Garner said.
Of seven 2009 award recipients, out of six cases — one of them featuring a male duo — four were women.
After attending the prize ceremony, Peralta said she has gained a new career option.
“I’ve always wanted to get into law, and I’ve been thinking, after seeing that, maybe defending environmentalists,” she said.
Camerena, who has held an interest in photography, said she is considering becoming a nature and environmental photographer.
One of the reasons she said she went on the trip in the first place was to gain new ideas for possible occupations.
Garner said the idea the event aimed to drive home for its attendees was the importance of getting involved to take care of the environment.
“Getting more involved in our own grassroots area and keeping it local — I think that was a big part of the program,” Garner said. “There’s a lot going on in the world, but what can you do at home?”
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>> WildPlaces to host annual “Wild Appreciation” Concert and Volunteer Celebration – March 28, 2009
The public is invited to WildPlaces’ annual “Wild Appreciation” celebration on March 28. Gates open at 6:30 p.m. for the event, which will be held at River Ridge Ranch in Springville. Guests will be treated to dinner and music and will have the opportunity to learn about the programs and projects WildPlaces has planned for 2009, including Giant Sequoia plantings, youth “Immersed in the Wild” trips, “Rio Limpio” river cleanup events and others. Suggested donation for the event is $7.00 per adult (but no one will be turned away).
This event is family-and-youth friendly. There will be a youth-inspired art and outdoor activity from 6:30 to 7:30 p.m.
The Thriftstore Allstars band from Joshua Tree, California (www.myspace.com/thriftstoreallstars) will perform in the River Ridge Pavillion. Also entertaining guests will be Coyote Slim (www.coyoteslim.com) and the Eastern Sun Dance Company. Wild Appreciation’s popular and unique Silent Auction along with other opportunities for prizes and gifts will also be part of the night’s activities, along with light dinner and no-host bar.
“This event is held to show appreciation to the community by throwing a party that is fun for the whole family. We have hosted this event for several years and each time it becomes more and more popular. We’re excited and honored to host our members and volunteers,” said Mehmet McMillan, WildPlaces’ Director.
“We host this event so that people can come learn more about our programs, have a good meal with a community of people who love the Sierra, and provide local support to WildPlaces by bidding on the silent auction and renewing their memberships,” said WildPlaces board member Juliane Mitmann.
This year’s Wild Appreciation will once again be held at River Ridge Ranch, a unique combination of working cattle ranch, recreation and education guest ranch in oak savannah foothills of the western Sierra Nevada. The environmentally conscious 722-acre ranch borders the Tule River and the 323,000-acre Giant Sequoia National Monument. River Ridge Ranch is located two miles from downtown Springville along Balch Park Road. Detailed directions and maps can be found at www. river-ridge.net.
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>> WildPlaces Welcomes New AmeriCorps Intern – February 2,, 2009
WildPlaces welcomed its newest AmeriCorps Program Intern, Ian Herrick, to the Southern Sierras recently, and is gearing up for a great year of ecological restoration and education events.
 “I’m looking forward to becoming involved with the community and working with kids outdoors, especially high school students,” said Herrick, who applied for the position serving WildPlaces partly because he wanted to move from the city and live in a smaller, more affordable community. “I wanted to find a job doing socially and environmentally responsible work,” he said. Some of Herrick’s previous experience includes working as an Environmental Educator at the Children’s Discovery Museum in San Jose, as the Wetlands Education Intern with the Santa Clara Valley Audubon Society, and as an Urban Forester. You may also see him around town occasionally playing the guitar; other hobbies include hiking, bird watching and “anything historical.”
A 2004 graduate of Prescott University with a degree in Environmental Education with an emphasis in ethno-ecology, Herrick’s focus will be on WildPlaces’ Immersed in the Wild program, which provides environmental education to youth through outdoor, hands-on wilderness experience. Herrick will also assist with other WildPlaces’ programs and projects, including the Rio Limpio Tule River clean-up events, Adopt-A-Sequoia, and many others.
“We are eager to get Ian working for Immersed in the Wild and our other projects,” said McMillan. “His impact here for our community and for the Southern Sierras will be tremendous. He has a great background, and we can give him some small-town old-fashioned experience in community and participation.” McMillan stresses even with Herrick’s input, WildPlaces will continue to need help from many volunteers and donors.
Volunteers are currently needed for an upcoming Nursery tree-planting day in February, with the group’s annual WildAppreciation concert in March, and with the upcoming Southern Sierra Educator Conference in May. Help is needed creating and distributing flyers, doing mailings, and other event production assistance.
Ian Herrick is WildPlaces’ second AmeriCorps Intern through the Sierra Nevada AmeriCorps Partnership (SNAP). WildPlaces’ first Intern, Ian Herdell, served in 2007 and 2008 before moving on to a position with Visalia-based Sequoia Riverlands Trust this year. The State Budget challenges prevented WildPlaces from receiving a planned-for third Intern in 2009.
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