50¢
ESTABLISHED
An Independent Weekly Newspaper Serving the Backcountry Communities of Julian, Cuyamaca, Santa Ysabel, Shelter Valley, Mt. Laguna, Ranchita, Sunshine Summit, Warner Springs and Wynola.
(46¢ + tax included)
Periodical • Wednesday
1985
Time Sensitive Material
April 19, 2017
Julian, CA.
Volume 32 — Issue 37 ISSN 1937-8416
www.JulianNews.com
‘Carbon Farming’ Comes To Santa Ysabel
San Diego Foundation Climate Initiative Grant: Catalyzing Carbon Farming in San Diego County
On April 22nd, Earth Day Network (EDN), global coordinator for Earth Day, is launching its Earth Day 2017 three-year campaign for Environmental & Climate Literacy. The campaign is focused on promoting mandatory environmental and climate literacy along with civic engagement and sustainable economic development. Earth Day 2017 will see teach-ins around the world and a March for Science rally on the National Mall that will bring together scientists and supporters to demand that our leaders recognize the scientific truths across all disciplines, including climate change and other environmental issues. “We need to build a global citizenry fluent in the concepts of climate change and aware of its unprecedented threat to our planet,” says Kathleen Rogers, President of Earth Day Network. “Environmental and climate literacy is the engine not only for creating green voters and advancing environmental and climate laws and policies but also for accelerating green technologies and jobs.” Using the teach-in concept deployed at the very first Earth Day in 1970, EDN will build an international movement with the following goals: Educating citizens about the environmental and climate issues they face and creating a world that internalizes environmental values and develops sustainable communities for all people Mobilizing a global citizenry to proclaim the truth of climate change. Empowering the public with the civic engagement and public outreach skills necessary to take action for the environment in their local communities. In 2020, Earth Day will celebrate its 50th anniversary. Our five-year campaign, which began in 2015, continues to build on these efforts. Our goals by Earth Day 2020 include: Continuing to build the world’s largest environmental service project, A Billion Acts of GreenÒ with the goal of reaching 5 billion acts by 2020 Planting 7.8 billion trees, one for each person on Earth, starting in 2016. Launching our 2017 campaign for global climate and environmental literacy “As we face the realities of climate change – continued on page 8
San Diego Food System Alliance announced the launch of a new collaborative project to catalyze Carbon Farming in San Diego through a generous $25k grant by the The San Diego Foundation's Climate Initiative! This is a collaborative project between the San Diego Food System Alliance, Batra Ecological Strategies, Resource Conservation District of Greater San Diego County, and County of San Diego. The funding by The San Diego Foundation enabled the Resource Conservation District of Greater San Diego County to receive $10k from Jena and Michael King Foundation to develop San Diego County's first carbon farm plan at Montado Farms. Carbon Farming is a process designed to maximize agriculture’s potential for moving excess greenhouse gases from the atmosphere into soil and vegetation, building fertility, productivity and resilience. Carbon Farming is a whole-farm approach implementing on-farm practices that increase the rate at which plants transfer carbon dioxide (CO2) from the atmosphere to the soil, which then increases water infiltration, water-holding capacity, soil organic matter and promotes long-term carbon sequestration. More on Carbon Farming: http:// www.marincarbonproject.org/ Carbon Farming practices defined by USDA's Natural Resources Conservation Service include (not all may be relevant for San Diego): Compost Applications, Anaerobic Digester, Riparian Forest Buffer Establishment, Prescribed Grazing, Cover Crops, Silvopasture/ Shrub & Tree Establishment on Grazed Grasslands, Conventional Tillage to No-Till, Range Planting, Forage and Biomass Planting, Windbreak/ Shelterbelt/ Hedgerow Establishment and Renovation, Filter Strip, Riparian Herbaceous Cover, Critical Area Planting, Grassed Waterway, Field Border, Conservation Crop Rotation, Improved Nutrient Management, Multistory Cropping/ Strip Cropping/ Alley Cropping Out of all the practices listed, compost application has been shown to have a significant impact for sequestering carbon. A study conducted by UC Berkeley's Dr. Silver and Dr. Ryals of the Marin Carbon Project demonstrated that building healthier soil through a onetime application of a 1/2 inch layer of compost on grazed rangeland increased long-term carbon storage by 1 ton of carbon per hectare and increased forage production by 40-70%. The practice also led to increased water holding capacity to 26k liters per hectare. Soil's water retention capacity is important in this time of drought and San Diego's dry climate. Late last year, Montado Farms in Santa Ysabel, operated by Kevin Muno, was selected as the southernmost of the 17 sites across the state where compost application research is being expanded by scientists of Marin Carbon Project. After taking soil samples, researchers spread one-quarter inch of compost over one half of a one-acre site marked off on a hillside to show the levels of carbon sequestration. Over the next several years, the soil will be regularly tested to compare results against the original two study sites by Marin Carbon Project, which have still shown positive results for all of the noted benefits eight years after the single compost application. More on Montado Farms pilot test here. San Diego County is uniquely positioned to encourage these Carbon Farming practices, with the largest number of small and organic farms in the country. There are over 5,000 small farms in the county and 208,564 acres of rangeland. Permanent crops, such as San Diego County’s top food crops, citrus and avocados, are already effectively storing carbon. Farmers in San Diego County currently have in excess of 3 million trees, which sequester approximately 48 pounds of carbon per tree per year. Based on estimates by Marin Carbon Project consultants, costs and feasibility aside, the diversion of organics from landfill and application of compost on 200k acres of rangeland could mitigate and sequester a total of 3,065,988 MTCO2e of additional carbon, approximately an amount of carbon equivalent to the entire 2014 emissions for all of the unincorporated area of San Diego County. Carbon Farming is a promising and practical solution to address climate change. This exploration project for San Diego County involves two parts: Part I: Assessment of the opportunities to sequester carbon, fund carbon farming, and synergize with other programs in San Diego County a) How much net GHG reduction can be achieved through carbon farming in San Diego County? b) What funding mechanisms exist for conversions to carbon farming? What financial incentives might be employed to maintain carbon farming as an economically viable activity? c) What state and local policy synergies exist that are compatible with the goals of carbon farming? Part II: Piloting the carbon farm planning process at one farm in San Diego County continued on page 8
Mountain Managers Planning Ahead
The Julian Mountain Managers held their first meeting of 2017 on March 8th. All but one agency was in attendance. We also welcomed for the first time Cleveland National to the group. The meeting had several items of discussion for our back country areas. One of the main topics was once again SNOW. Some possible helpful solutions were for me to visit our local clubs and inform them of ways the agencies are working together on these days. I also brought the banner that WetDuck Design made for folks to buy to hang on fences, gates, etc. They liked the clear bold banner and felt this was a helpful solution. We talked about having other banners made for hunting season and private residence areas. I will have these banners available to show local clubs and will scan pictures for people to see. WetDuck can make these at a very affordable price and would show consistency in displaying during these different times. We also discussed having local clubs help with volunteers at the cemetery, and after snow clean up with the park areas. Maps were discussed as a means to hand out/display that shows the public areas for snow play. The idea of the maps would work but we would need a local group continued on page 8
Planning Group Reviews Projects Road repairs, the proposed Santa Ysabel Nature Preserve and a possible visit by State Senator Joel Anderson were among the items discussed at the monthly Julian Community Planning Group (JCPG) meeting on Monday, April 10. Road repairs drew several persons from the community concerned with the poor state of a number of roads in Julian to the meeting. The connecting road over the hill between Highway 78 and C Street in Julian has been of particular concern because of the lack of vision and narrowness of the road at the top of the hill. The condition of C Street leading to the Eagle Mine was also raised as were several other roads in Pine Hills and Kentwood. The JCPG is able to submit a list of recommended priorities in this area; a committee comprised of Kiki Munshi and Herb Dackermann from the JCPG and Katie Morales, Jim Brinson and Hans Hollenbeck from the community was formed to address issues in this area. The proposed plans for parking at the future Santa Ysabel Nature Center, currently placing a road and parking lot out in the meadow, were also discussed. The JCPG had written the County with its opinion that the current plans will have a negative visual impact; the County indicated that the plans were not going to be continued on page 8
Julian Historical Society
Can You Dig It, History In The Ground
Track and Field
Saturday, March 4 Mt Carmel Invitational Friday, March 10 Home - Citrus League #1 Saturday, March 18 Elmer Runge Invitational @Patrick Henry HS Saturday, March 25 Calvin Small Schools Invitational @Escondido HS Friday, March 31 Home - Citrus League #2 Saturday, April 8 Irvine Distance Carnival @ Irvine High School Saturday, April 15 8:00 Jim Cerveny Invitational @Mission Bay HS Friday, April 28 3:00 Dennis Gilbert Small Schools Invitational @Mtn Empire HS Saturday, April 29 Dick Wilkens Frosh/Soph Invitational@ Del Norte HS Thursday, May 11 2:30 Home - Citrus League Finals Saturday, May 20 CIF San Diego - Preliminaries @Mt. Carmel HS Saturday, May 27 CIF San Diego - Finals @Mt. Carmel HS
Softball
Thursday, March 2 L 2-12 Home vs Guajome Park Acdmy Tuesday, March 7 W 15-3 Home vs Maranatha Christian Friday, March 10 W 17-1 away vs Lutheran Tuesday, March 14 L 8-9 away vs Foothills Christian Wednesday, March 15 rain Home - Escondido Adventist Friday, March 17 W 23-1 Home - Lutheran Thursday, March 23 W 14-8 away vs Mountain Empire Thursday, April 13 away vs Calipatria Friday, April 14 Home - Borrego Springs Tuesday, April 18 3:30 Home vs Vincent Memorial Tuesday, April 25 3:45 Home vs Foothills Christian Thursday, April 27 3:30 away vs Borrego Springs Tuesday, May 2 3:15 away vs West Shores Thursday, May 4 3:30 Home vs Mountain Empire Tuesday, May 9 3:30 Home - Calipatria Thursday, May 11 3:30 away vs Vincent Memorial
Baseball
Diagram: Marin Carbon Project
At 7pm, on Wednesday, April 26, 2017, Anthropologist Cece Holm will give a presentation to the regular meeting of the Julian Historical Society. She will be speaking about the Nate Harrison project on Palomar Mountain. Since 2004, Dr. Seth Mallios has conducted archaeological excavations at the site of African American pioneer, Nate Harrison. Subsequent excavations have revealed a treasure trove of information about Harrison’s time on the mountain. The 2017 archaeological field school excavation was just completed. Ms. Holm will provide us with background on the project, and inform us on the 2017 preliminary findings. Please join us for an intriguing look at the facts, and the myths of Nate Harrison’s life on Palomar Mountain. The Julian Historical Society Building is located at 2133 4th Street, in Julian. About Cece Holm: Cece Holm pursued Anthropology and Leadership Studies at Williams College, and graduated with a B.A. in 2014. Her undergraduate thesis focused on Mayan archaeology. She is now pursuing her Masters in Applied Anthropology at San Diego State, focusing on archaeology and cultural anthropology. Her interests include museum work, community engagement with museums, and historical archaeology.
Thursday, March 30 W 18-0 Home vs Rock Academy Wednesday, April 5 W 12-1 away vs Ocean View Christian Friday, April 14 L 2-3 Home vs Borrego Springs Wednesday, April 19 tba away vs Vincent Memorial Friday, April 21 tba Home vs Calipatria Wednesday, April 26 3:30 Home vs Lutheran Friday, April 28 3:30 Home vs Ocean View Christian Wednesday, May 3 tba Home vs Mountain Empire Wednesday, May 10 tba Home vs Vincent Memorial Continued on Page 7
Merchants Networking Breakfast - April 19 8am At Apple Alley Bakery www.visitjulian.com