Trailspace Blog Environment

An unnamed groundhog/woodchuck/marmot.

Good news for winter lovers: the groundhog saw his shadow this morning, thereby "predicting" six more weeks of winter snowshoeing, skiing, climbing, and hiking.

Personally, I think Groundhog Day and its ceremonial Punxsutawney festivities celebrated by men in top hats is all a bit odd. But, since the word from Phil is good, I'll happily pass along the positive winter news.

Hey, Marmot should really get on board as "official outdoor sponsor" of this holiday. Then the guys down in Pennsylvania could ditch the top hats and long formal coats for something more appropriate.

If you missed it last fall, or just want to catch it again, Ken Burns's documentary The National Parks: America's Best Idea will re-air on PBS beginning Wednesday, January 27, at 9/8C on stations around the country. (Check your local PBS stations for details.)

A two-hour episode from the six-part series, will be featured every week through Wednesday, March 3. Episodes will be available online also.

Directed by Burns and written and co-produced by Dayton Duncan, The National Parks: America's Best Idea, was filmed over the course of more than six years at some of the most spectacular locales — from Acadia to Yosemite, Yellowstone to the Grand Canyon, the Everglades of Florida to the Gates of the Arctic in Alaska to Mount Rainier.

National Parks fans can buy the documentary on DVD or Blu-ray with companion book and soundtrack from the PBS online shop.

More info on The National Parks: America's Best Idea

From the Saturday, January 16, 2010, Washington Post:

Reversing itself, FDA expresses concerns over health risks from BPA

The Food and Drug Administration has reversed its position on the safety of Bisphenol A, a chemical found in plastic bottles, soda cans, food containers and thousands of consumer goods, saying it now has concerns about health risks.

Growing scientific evidence has linked the chemical to a host of problems, including cancer, sexual dysfunction and heart disease. Federal officials said they are particularly concerned about BPA's effect on the development of fetuses, infants and young children.

"We have some concern, which leads us to recommend reasonable steps the public can take to reduce exposure to BPA," said Joshua Sharfstein, FDA's deputy commissioner, in a conference call to reporters Friday.

Regulators stopped short of banning the compound or even requiring manufacturers to label products containing BPA, saying that current data are not clear enough to support a legal crackdown. FDA officials also said they were hamstrung from dealing quickly with BPA by an outdated regulatory framework.

...

One administration official privy to the talks said the FDA is in a quandary. "They have new evidence that makes them worried, but they don't have enough proof to justify pulling the stuff, so what do you do?" said the official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity. "You want to warn people, but you don't want to create panic."

Read the full article at washingtonpost.com.

Like music? Like bargains? Like the planet?

1% for the Planet has launched an album, 1% for the Planet: The Music, Vol. 1, a compilation of 41 songs by various artists, including Jack Johnson (naturally), Jackson Browne, G. Love and Special Sauce, and Grace Potter and the Nocturnals.

Today only you can buy the album for $3.99 on Amazon (that's 9.7 cents a song). It retails for $9.99 (24.3 cents a song) elsewhere, such as on iTunes. Album proceeds support 1% for the Planet, a global alliance of more than 1,100 companies (including our very own Trailspace) that donate 1% of their sales to environmental organizations worldwide.

If you want some beautiful outdoor images along with your tunes, watch this 1% promo below from last year, featuring the song "Sunshine" by Matt Costa, who sadly does not appear on the album (tip: let the whole video load before listening).

Still, even at $9.99, the mix of new and established musicians, not to mention the good cause, make 1% for the Planet: The Music, Vol. 1 well worth a listen.

www.onepercentfortheplanet.org

Happy New Year's Eve. This year, New Year's Eve has the astronomical distinction of coinciding with a blue moon, an "extra" full moon, not timed to one of the monthly lunar cycles.

The original definition of a blue moon is the third full moon in a season that had four, one more than usual. However, in popular culture, blue moon now refers to the second full moon in a calendar month, like the one happening today. With full moons occurring almost monthly (approximately every 29.5 days), blue moons occur about every 19 calendar months, and New Year's Eve blue moons occur every nineteen years. The next one will appear in 2028.

So, if you've got a special someone, you can wax poetic about this evening being a rare, once in a New Year's Eve blue moon time...

(image of full moon by Luc Viatou)

It seems like every week or month a new study finds a possible link between the endocrine disruptor Bisphenol A (BPA) and some health concern: breast cancer, fetal development, nervous system, obesity, male sexual dysfunction, memory, behavior…

 So, whenever I see a friend's plastic water bottle, especially an old one (you know, a well-loved one covered in stickers and scratches), I flip the bottle over (screw the lid on first!) and check to see if it's BPA-laden or not. I also do this at store displays. In the case of aluminum bottles, I look inside to see if the epoxy lining is the old shiny one containing BPA or the new mustard-colored lining containing I-don't-know-what.

If there's BPA, I tell the friend (in what I hope is a nice, non-meddlesome way).

By now, with all the coverage BPA has had in the past two years, I figured that anyone who wanted to switch out his or her old #7/polycarbonate water bottles already had done so, and if you still used one it was by choice.

Not true. While visiting my very own brother this weekend, I discovered that not one, but both of his water bottles were old #7 PC's. They even said PC for polycarbonate on the bottom. And he didn't even notice (maybe he should visit Trailspace more). The upside is that I bought him two new water bottles for Hanukah that very day: a Camelbak Stainless Steel and a Nalgene Tritan model. His endocrine system can thank me later.

Water bottles make excellent gifts, because even non-outdoorsy people will use them daily. And outdoorsy folks will get double duty out of them, using them for the trail and around town and at home. Just don't buy anyone more water bottles than they need. No one—even extremely active people—needs a huge pile of them, no matter how cute or cool the bottle; a few decent ones in different sizes will do.

My personal preference is for a stainless steel number. Stainless steel is non-leaching and recyclable, if/when it needs to be replaced, and it doesn't require a liner. Stanley, Klean Kanteen, and Nalgene/Guyout Designs all make ones I like and regularly use. I just bought my son a very cute Camelbak kid's bottle  (with dinosaurs!) for school and outdoor activities.

My second choice is one made from non-BPA plastic, like Tritan or HDPE, or a soft plastic reservoir or bottle, like the Platypus SoftBottle. You can argue till the cows come home about whether these plastics will be proven safe in the long term, but sometimes you need a plastic sport bottle or reservoir, and you have to go with what you know at the time.

So, if you need a gift idea for relatives or friends, start surreptitiously flipping their water bottles over. You might turn up a useful idea.

If you don't want to bother with mailing out traditional holiday or new year cards, and don't have the time to create your own electronic versions, you can send your own free e-cards courtesy of the National Parks Conservation Association. Choose from ten national park images, including the one of Yosemite above. Enter your personal message and your recipients' e-mail addresses. Click send. The recipients get an e-mail, with a link to the card on ncpa.org (hint, send yourself some samples first).

NPCA is a non-profit dedicated to protecting and enhancing our national parks.

www.npca.org/support_npca/ecards/holiday.html

John Muir's words have inspired generations of environmentalists. Now you can view them in digitized images of Muir's own handwritten journals, as well as drawings by and correspondence and photographs from the renowned conservationist.

Since 1970, University of the Pacific's Holt-Atherton Special Collections has been the repository for The John Muir Papers, including approximately three-quarters of existing Muir papers. You can access selections in the digital collection online. The journals, written between 1867 and 1913, include Muir's 1867-1868 “thousand mile walk,” early years in Yosemite, extensive travels in Alaska, 1903 world tour, and 1911-1912 voyage to South America and Africa.

Go to University of the Pacific Library's digital collections, and see Muir's drawings or a handwritten page from his journals. Muir's landscape drawings of Alaskan glaciers, Sierra Nevada peaks, and Yosemite trees are especially lovely to look at.

Visit http://library.pacific.edu/ha/digital/index.asp

via NPCA

Are you tired of all the connectedness around you? Want to get away from it all? Unfortunately, truly getting away from civilization can be tough, even with the will and time to head off to an otherwise inaccessible spot.

An interesting map of connectedness published in New Scientist back in April factors in road, rail, river, and shipping networks, as well as terrain and access, to calculate how long it would take to travel to the nearest city of 50,000 or more people by land or water.

Just how hard it is to find a relatively inaccessible spot?

• Less than 10 percent of all land* is more than 48 hours from the nearest city via ground-based travel (according to the map, created by the European Commission's Joint Research Center and the World Bank).
• Many areas considered remote are not as far off the beaten track as we might think. In the Amazon, river networks and expanding road systems mean only 20 percent of land is more than two days from a city. That's about the same as Quebec province.
• So, where is the most remote spot? It's at an altitude of 5,200 meters on the Tibetan plateau (34.7°N, 85.7°E, to be precise), and is a three-week trip to the cities of Lhasa or Korla — one day by car and 20 on foot.

*Looking at the map above you may notice an arguably remote continent missing — Antarctica. Perhaps because it's already pretty far from "civilization," the mapmakers left that ice-covered land out of their calculations. Barring that entire continent, look for the darkest spots on the map above to find the most inaccessible spots. I've always wanted to go to Greenland.

New Scientist, via uncooped.com

Are the national parks primarily for preserving untouched wilderness, or for preserving the historic human imprint on the land, too?

A November 1st New York Times article examines this question in light of 70-year-old Drakes Bay oyster farm, which has been told by the National Park Service that it cannot renew its permit to farm oysters in a tidal estuary in California's Point Reyes National Seashore. The permit lapses in 2012.

The NPS bought the land from the previous owners in 1962 as part of the creation of the Point Reyes National Seashore and gave the owners the right to occupy and use it until 2012. In 1976 Congress designated the tidal bay as “potential wilderness.” The farm's current owner, Kevin Lunny, bought the farm’s lease in 2005 and is arguing and lobbying that the oyster operation is part of the historical working landscape of the area and that the NPS's scientific assertions are exaggerated.

The National Park Service says federal law requires it to return the area to wilderness by eliminating intrusive commercial activity and that oyster farming poses a risk to baby seals and flora in the estuary.

Read the full NYT article, "Debate Flares on Limits of Nature and Commerce in Parks"

Photographer Cindy Goedde's image above, of a young alpha male wolf in Yellowstone howling for his pack after feeding on elk, won the mountain flora/fauna category in the 2009 Banff Mountain Photography Competition. Other winning mountain photographs, including the grand prize winner, can be viewed onlne.

The Banff Centre also has competitions for mountain and adventure books (just announced) and films (festival happening now) and a mountain idol role model initiative. Workshops in adventure film and photography, as well as mountain writing are offered at the centre.

For more info: www.banffcentre.ca

White-tailed deer, courtesy of Wikipedia.

It’s time for your annual hunting season reminder.

First, find your state’s hunting season dates, so you know the exact dates and locations for firearms, archery, and muzzleloader seasons for various game (for example, here are Maine’s dates).

Next, break out the fluorescent orange vests and hats every time you take to the trails, woods, or even camp roads.

Below are a few safety reminders for hiking, backpacking, mountain biking, trail running, or any activity that gets you out in or around the woods this time of year. (I post these every year, but they bear repeating.)

Be Very Visible: Ideally you should wear blaze (fluorescent) orange clothing that can be seen from all sides, like a hat and a vest or jacket. Bright reds and yellows are also good color options (though on overcast days they can appear black, so use carefully). Think bright, even garish. Now’s a great time to go retro with that old hot pink jacket from the ’80s. Make sure your backpack has some bright orange on it too, like a large orange bandanna. Avoid any brown, tan, and especially white. You don’t want to look like the flash of a deer’s tail. And don’t forget to outfit your dog with its own blaze orange vest and collar.

Make Yourself Heard: Usually I opt for quiet on a hike or trail run, but during hunting season I’m far more likely to keep up a steady conversation with a partner, or avoid certain locations altogether. If you’re alone you can whistle or sing to make yourself heard, or consider a bell on you or your dog. Now is not the time to practice your stealth hiking moves.

Be Aware: Hunters are active from early dawn to dusk and in between. While you’re more likely to find hunters closer to any roads or trailheads and in valleys, expect that you can meet them anywhere at any time. Also, while bushwhacking can be a lot of fun, during the weeks of hunting season I stick to marked and maintained trails.

Know the Rules: If possible hike on trails in areas where no hunting is allowed or on days of the week (like Sunday here in Maine) when there’s no hunting. While deer rifle season typically brings the most hunters out into the woods, a variety of hunting seasons can extend the activity year-round. Know the hunting season dates and rules for your state and local areas.

Above all use common sense and do your part to share the woods safely.

If you have suggestions for safe hiking or backpacking during hunting season, please share them below.

A grizzly bear fishes for salmon at Brooks Falls in Katmai National Park, in another great shot from The National Parks: America’s Best Idea. Ken Burns’s upcoming documentary debuts September 27 on PBS.

The above photo is by Craig Mellish of Florentine Films. You can download it and other inspiring images to use as wallpaper on the PBS site.

Ken Burns’s new documentary, The National Parks: America’s Best Idea, debuts September 27 on PBS. In the meantime you can preview video clips or download stunning images for your computer like the one of Yosemite Valley in winter above.

Trailspace article: The National Parks: America's Best Idea

PBS site: www.pbs.org/nationalparks

A 2008 SIGG bottle

Many people are feeling misled, angry, betrayed, and confused after it was confirmed in an article by outdoor industry publication snews.net this month that popular SIGG bottles made before August of 2008 included BPA in their proprietary liners.

SIGG and Laken now both admit that their aluminum water bottles manufactured before August 2008 contained the much-maligned endocrine disruptor Bisphenol A (BPA) in the liner. All bottles now produced by SIGG and Laken use a new liner that is certified BPA- and phthalate-free.

It’s important to note that every manufacturer of aluminum water bottles had BPA in their epoxy liners until last year, when SIGG and Laken began using a new BPA-free liner (stainless steel bottles have none). One presumes that aluminum bottles sold by all other companies still contain BPA.

So, unless you’re sure you’ve bought a new version of a SIGG or Laken assume your aluminum bottles have BPA (so do the cans in your pantry, by the way). Since both versions of the Laken and SIGG bottles were available for sale past August 2008, refer to this info for help identifying your bottle.

SIGG never claimed to be BPA-free in their materials, but instead very carefully positioned their bottles and liner as a non-toxic, water-based, non-leaching, and healthy, “green” alternative to polycarbonate plastic bottles. Many inferred that the bottles were BPA-free, even when they were not, which the company knew as early as 2006. Many others were suspicious of the company’s unwillingness to divulge its “proprietary” materials when asked point-blank if the bottles contained BPA.

Regardless, in 2007 and 2008 SIGG knowingly sold a record number of pricey aluminum water bottles containing BPA to a BPA-in-polycarbonate-plastic-scared public.

There’s still much disagreement about the safety of BPA, but personally, I’m tired of all the dodging and confusion. I’m sticking with stainless steel.

For more information:

"Is Your Aluminum Bottle BPA-Free?"

SNEWS's "Aluminum bottles you are selling may NOT be BPA-free" (subscription required)