In addition to the program, the book “Nevada City Nisenan” will be available for $22.00

Photo of Sascha Roberts with parents

We’re excited to present a YouTube presentation with Julie Carville who will take you on wildflower walks in the Sierras. Julie is a recognized botanist, photographer and author. 

https://youtu.be/Qezx0IECJjc

STEPHEN WAMPLER - First person with Cerebral Palsy to climb El Capitan

Due to COVID19, our planned public program with Stephen Wampler had to be cancelled, but Joy Waite, Program Chair, and Richard Thomas, Chapter Chairperson, traveled to Camp Wamp, near Donner Pass, to visit with Stephen and Elizabeth Wampler. A film crew (Eric Tomb, Gail Woodman, and Penelope Curtis) from the local Nevada City non profit FARM (Foothill Arts Resources and Media) came "on location" to film the Wamplers telling their incredible story.  Stephen Wampler was born with a severe form of Cerebral Palsy. When he was eight (8) years old, he was put on a bus to attend summer camp near Gold Lake (Sierra Buttes).  His experience at the camp was the "spark" that ignited his realization that he could achieve a "normal" life.  He graduated from UC Davis as an Environmental Engineer.  When his two children were still small, Stephen retired from his secure day job.  He and his wife Elizabeth, made the decision to pursue Stephen's dream to create "Camp Wamp"- to inspire the lives of  young people with physical disabilities...creating a life exemplifying "What you CAN do".  Stephen was in Yosemite watching rock climbers scale El Capitan.  Less than 2 years later, he was making his way up that face.  The film "Wampler's Ascent" (now on Amazon) documents his heroic accomplishment.  This film was accepted into 55 Film Festivals and won 38 awards.  

Please check out our video addressing the concerns of re-opening the Idaho-Maryland Mine.  

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vomNkdhDyiM

 The Uplift

Sierra Nevada Group News - January 2021! 

Check out the content 

- Our exclusive Stephen and Elizabeth Wampler onsite interview and, through special arrangement, the great feature film of Stephen’s historic and inspiring climb of El Capitan, Wampler’s Ascent. 

- Rise Gold’s Idaho Maryland fantasy 

- Updates on content on our Facebook page - The Hidden Bear, Greenfire Trailer and more!

-  And finally Anya and Sophia’s completion of their extended bike ride in support of a sustainable future with extended notes and photos.

But first, a note from the chair: 

It’s been four months since we last reached out to our members and supporters, and I don’t need to remind you of how tumultuous things have been.  We miss our general meetings and outings, but we are looking eagerly toward their resumption sometime this spring or early summer!.

Our combined conservation/management committee meet the first Monday of every month, currently via Zoom.  I encourage interested in local environmental issues and/or local Sierra Club actives or organization to contact me.

Richard Thomas  (530) 264-6740  -  randtthomas@sbcglobal.net

From Program Chair, Joy Waite:

In lieu of our covid-cancelled October public program, we trekked up to Camp Wamp near Soda Springs to film our planned presenters, Stephen and Elizabeth Wampler.

Stephen was born with a severe form of Cerebral Palsy.  He has overcome, perhaps it's more accurate to say, assessed his strengths to accomplish extraordinary things.  With Deer Lake in the background, Stephen and Elizabeth tell the story of Stephen’s childhood realization at a summer camp that he could create a ’normal’ life with the gifts he possessed.  He and his wife Elizabeth and their two children (now in university) have created a life exemplifying “What you CAN do”.  

In addition to intellectual, compassionate, social and other aspects of his personality, Stephen reached into the depths of his physical strength to climb El Capitan in Yosemite. 

The interview with Stephen and Elizabeth at Camp Wamp’s Deer Lake, filmed by Eric Tomb and Gail Woodman of FARM (Foothill Arts, Resources & Media is available here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7-ObHM54v5k 

With generous permission from the Wampler’s, we are excited to provide access to the exciting,  inspiring and family friendly feature film, Wampler’s Ascent, through the month of January here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SrwyIJPbQ9U&feature=youtu.be

Camp Wamp’s home page with links to the Wampler’s foundation and other video clips is here:

https://www.campwamp.org/

We appreciate the cooperation of Nevada County Media in making these videos available: https://nevadacountymedia.org/

In addition, these links and others are available on our Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/SierraClubSierraNevadaGroup

The Hidden Bear:  Exploring the Bear River We Would Lose Behind the Proposed Centennial Dam by Jeff Litton and dedicated to the memory of longtime Sierra Club activist Allan Eberhart

Green Fire trailer - about Aldo Leopold by the Leopold Foundation

My Octopus Teacher trailer - Netflix 

Woniya Thibeault  - Introduction to the Buckskin Revolution Skills Gathering (daughter of activist member Wendy Thibeault)

Check our Facebook, like and follow for updates as we find interest, relevant and timely content!

Speaking of the Thibeaults

Here’s a big “Thank You” and congratulations to Wendy for yet another successful year of Sierra Club Calendar sales! 

Idaho Maryland Mine redux:

The long defunct Idaho Maryland Mine has again attracted speculators, and plans are working their way through the county planning system with a draft EIR expected sometime in the spring.  Neighbors and many others are increasingly concerned and are working to inform themselves and others on the implications of large scale ‘big gold’ operations in our residential and industrial neighborhoods. To find out more and perhaps get involved, check out these resources:

Community Environmental Advocates - https://www.cea-nc.org/ 

The Sierra Fund - https://sierrafund.org/understanding-the-proposed-re-operation-of-idaho-maryland-mine/ 

Garbage, Trash, Recycling

It’s enough to drive you into the dumps!

Folks interested in our local waste stream and our nation's pitiful efforts to control resource waste continue to meet locally through the “Waste NOT Recycling Committee".  Contact Barbara Rivenes at: (530)477-7502 or barbrivenes@gmail.com for information.

And now the Sunrise Cyclists!

Our bike trip across the United States was an incredible experience that taught us that we are much more capable than we think and the world is a place full of beauty and kindness. About three months ago, on September 18th, we flew to Saint Joseph, Michigan, to start our adventure. Incredibly nervous, we had little idea what we were doing; however, we got on our bikes to cycle into the unknown.  

The first few days of our trip, we were grateful to have found people along the way who could host us through a site called Warmshowers, like Couch Surfing for bike tourers. The kindness of these people, helped us feel as though we were capable of completing our adventure as they gave us tips and helped us with our bike problems. Soon again, we were off on our own and we tried to stealth camp, meaning illegally camp in areas where we could hide away. 

We quickly found, this proved more challenging than expected. The first night we stayed in a soy field. The next, we camped in a plot of poison ivy and got caught, but the man graciously let us stay. We had a few more other challenges those first few weeks such as 20 mph head winds, Sophia’s nerves on her hands were compressed, and the weather was miserably hot, humid. 

At this point, we thought of quitting, but we decided to persevere until Austin, Texas, and revaluate our journey there. After this decision, things got a lot easier. We found more kind people to host us who motivated us to continue as we loved meeting all these unique people that each had something to teach us, such as, Perry in Louisiana showed us what true kindness and generosity really meant. 

 When we got into Texas, we began to meet more bike tourers. On Halloween, we met a girl, nicknamed Belay, who has been on her bike for over 2 years. We rode with her on and off and she taught us new skills such as finding better places to camp, such as behind churches. All through Texas, people kept warning us of desolate West Texas, so we were very nervous. 

However, we were pleasantly surprised as this ended up being one of our favorite parts of our trip. At one point, we had an 89 mile stretch without any services. As we had few camping options, we ended up sleeping in a box car, which was a childhood dream come true for Anya. However, for Sophia, this meant little sleep from being woken up every hour from a train zooming by.   

Warmshowers host let us borrow her car to our great astonishment to drive to Big Bend National Park. There we stayed with another kind man, a French Canadian, who made delicious food both nights and took us kayaking down the Santa Elena Canyon, one of the most breath taking places we’ve ever been. 

After about three weeks of being in Texas, we finally made it to New Mexico, where we had our largest climb, Emery Pass. The day we planned on biking up Emory, we got stuck in a small town of 125 people as the headwinds were too strong to make the ascent. We were quite nervous as we had very little food and there was no place to restock. As we sat on the cafe steps, a dozen people came by to ask us if we needed help, which we graciously accepted. One person let us stay in their back yard, another made us a home cooked meal, and the post man brought us power bars. This experience showed us how kind and caring small towns can be.  

The evening after we completed Emory Pass, we stayed with a family who took both us and three 25 year old boys who were riding from Florida to California. We ended up celebrating Thanksgiving with these boys then riding with them all the way to California. Once in California, things got quite a bit more challenging as the shut down closed nearly all camping and most places refused to let us stay.  

Thus, we had to piece together a plan by only staying with people we knew until we could get picked up. Luckily it worked out and we reunited with several of our friends and got picked up in Lompoc by Anya’s mother. 

Looking back on this this experience, we feel in awe by how kind this world is. Nearly every day, someone helped us or showed us kindness. Now going through the world, we understand we can accomplish what we set our minds to and the world is there to support. 
Check out their Instagram page

sunrise_cyclists 

Vanessa and Teanna were our 2022 Scholarship Recipients.

We need some perspective on the historical purpose of ditches and how changing public attitudes can affect our use of these ditches today. Dams and ditches were introduced to provide water for the “washing” of placer gold, making it easier to separate gold from associated gravel. When hydraulic mining was introduced in 1853 water was used for its mechanical properties and could reduce a hillside to a slurry of mud and gravel in a fraction of the time it would take many men using picks and shovels. This new and lucrative procedure enabled the mining of low-yield gravels, greatly increasing the volume mined. However, hydraulic mining required much more water forcing ditch companies to expand their length and carrying capacity.

Once the gold-bearing, or auriferous, gravel was reduced to a muddy flow it was sluiced for gold and discharged into the nearest drainage where it made its way downstream to cause problems for farmers, steamship operators, fishermen and increased the possibility of flooding. Between 1865 and 1884, Nevada County refined hydraulic engineering to a prestigious level, unsurpassed in the world while becoming the Silicon Valley of its day. However, the increased effectiveness of the hydraulic system corresponded directly to an increase in environmental damage.

Granted, this is a simplified explanation of the “hydraulic process.” Most of the environmental devastation ended with the Sawyer Decision of 1884, which legislated against the dumping of mine waste into Sierra Nevada streams. Today, we still have many vast excavations that were once hydraulic mines which, 135 years later, are still eroding siltation and have yet to reforest. There is also mercury stored in alluvial gravel banks awaiting re-release by some future storm or landslide. We have also inherited dams and hundreds of miles of ditches.

Ditches or canals typically descend an average of 10 feet a mile. That’s following a contour with a very gradual change in elevation, much more constant and easily walked than the average trail. Ditch tenders were responsible for about six miles of ditch and flume assuring ditches were kept clear of branches, landslides and ice, and opening floodgates if the flow was accidentally blocked. Ditch tenders used berms on ditches and planks on flumes as trails and so did others, years after ditches were abandoned or repurposed.

It makes good sense to convert ditches and their berms to trails, where feasible. Ditch trails are totally unique because of their gentle gradient making them accessible to people with a wide range of abilities. While communities all over the country are trying to plan trails that can accommodate a wide spectrum of users we have inherited an already engineered system. We should look at this as a unique opportunity to create a forward thinking, all-ages and abilities trail system.

When John Olmsted first proposed a trip to the slopes of the Yuba River to a friend who used a wheelchair, the friend replied that forested mountain slopes would be among the last places he’d consider. But Olmsted had the ingenious idea that some of the many miles of ditch grade in the Yuba and Bear River canyons could be converted to trails that could be used by, for instance, people in wheelchairs. His dream was realized with the Independence Trail on the South Yuba. Think about it — we are only temporarily able-bodied and might someday appreciate the opportunity to enjoy nature on an accessible ditch trail.  Part of the continuing legacy of the hydraulic mining era is a persistent engineering-accented mindset about water with little regard for habitat, clean air, solitude or camaraderie, beauty and poetry. A stream, creek or river is more than a water-conveyance system.

I’m beginning to see a fundamental change in public thinking and welcome public policy that advocates the planning of more ditch trails as partial reparation for previous damage done to the Yuba-Bear, the most abused, but probably the most appreciated of Sierra Nevada rivers.

For more information visit http://bannermountain.org and to help with legal fees incurred defending the public’s access to the trail go to: https://www.gofundme.com/save-the-cascade-canal.

Hank Meals is an artist, photographer, historian and the author of several hiking books on the Yuba River.

Hank’s article appeared in the Union and he graciously allowed it to be posted on our web site.