thank you for withholding your applause
what I was trying to do with this music
is create a mood of feeling in the room
I hope you felt it this music that I do
is actually played as medicine and not
entertainment
my regular job is to play therapeutic
music for hospitals and people who are a
lot of pain and so it’s not quite as
amplified as it is here this particular
instrument is very unique it’s made by a
rare tree koa trees that only grow in
Hawaii and they are protected the code
trees are not cut down to make
instruments like this they must die a
natural death and fall to the earth and
then they are harvested and this is
actually very similar to a centuries-old
tradition that harp players have done
for a long time if you didn’t know the
harp is the oldest stringed instrument
in history and it is we think 20,000
years old
scientists keep working on that one it
is the father so to speak of violins and
guitars so neener neener I always like
to say that to folks who you know
violinists especially what is really
interesting about the environment and
things like musical arts is they are
connected their human experiences human
enterprises that we’ve all done okay
we’ve had around for a long time so
ecosystem services it was a big word it
is the scientific analysis of what the
environment gives to life gives to
people to animals how it keeps
everything working and so one factor of
ecosystem service systems provide tools
food and shelter the heart would be a
tool okay so in this picture there’s a
picture of colleague of mine playing the
harbor
outside for a patient and there’s the
code tree isn’t it beautiful okay so let
me see next one okay I want to switch to
Diamond Bar because I’ve lived here for
30 years and as I would come and go to
work my stressful job you know coming
home is such a beautiful experience
because we have the canyons off the side
of the road and look at it was deep
canyon here the habitats here are so
refreshing you know the sound of the
birds and everything’s green and for
years I really took all of this for
granted and I know it had a positive
effect on cleansing me from the stress
of my work but to find out that our
hillsides and our trees especially are
diminishing made me look into what’s
going on here and so this is what
brought me on my environmental journey
is finding out what’s happening local in
my own community and how we can keep the
quality of life sustained here ecosystem
services there’s a lot to ecosystem
services it’s a new word but we already
take it for granted one of the first
things that it gives to us whether we
know it or not is it regulates climate
and you know a lot of people are
wondering that big expanses of green
areas like tres hermanos Ranch locally
or even the the hiking trails that I
personally don’t have a lot of time to
go up and enjoy I see them from a
distance
those green spaces are natural habitats
that make our temperatures cooler they
process rain runoff and refresh our
aquifers which supports our health we
have better health here because we have
less stress believe it or not I know we
have a lot of traffic but we do benefit
from these ecosystem services
unconsciously but and we’ve cleaner air
I think the city of Diamond bar just got
a wonderful evaluation on their
watersheds so the stress relief is very
important to us now because of all the
traffic we all love green space we all
want to be in a green place clean water
air soil is a natural
a natural way of filtering all the
pollution that we that humans just incur
then of course the spiritual enrichment
I’m very inspired when I write music by
just the my backyard that has beautiful
trees in it and makes me feel very good
but the bad news is you know I wondered
you know why all this over development
just seems to be indiscriminantly just
wiping beautiful things out I think we
can all relate to the hill sites that
just went away at the intersection of
Grand Avenue in the 60 freeway where the
hills are just flattened do you guys
have seen that right okay but I started
doing a little history and this is what
I came up with California native
landscapes now that means what nature
put in California we’re here okay it’s
actually a heritage is really really
famous we have all kinds of artisans and
activists who began noticing the
specialness of California landscapes
back in 1890 ish and this particular
picture here is a picture of the
Theodore Paine California Native Plant
Foundation which is out in Sun Valley
you must go it is beautiful and here’s a
little bit of history john muir who was
a british self-taught naturalist he
didn’t come from university he just
cared about the beauty of trees
california landscapes were so famous
that we had a lot of british folks come
over and I actually believe John Muir
was Scottish okay and he was just in
love with California landscapes but they
were being threatened by development so
he was the first one I think was 1892
that founded the Sierra Club and that
was an effort to save Yosemite National
Park he was a very big advocate for
national parks so when you go to Indian
National Park especially in California
you need to know this man is the one
that saved those parks for us we even
had artists come from all over the world
California landscape art movement is a
very very big deal
making a comeback this particular
painting was done I believe in 1910 it’s
called plein air painting meaning people
went out into the woods and just painted
what they saw so now that we have a lot
of our landscapes developed and I
believe this is San Gabriel Valley here
these paintings are very important the
vintage ones are very important for
historical information ok so we’re going
to talk about biodiversity everybody
heard that word yet raise hands No ah ok
so here’s my take on biodiversity I’m
going to try to get this right
diversity we know what that means okay
bio is living ok so we have lots of
different living things in California in
Diamond Bar that’s a good thing because
these living things the variety of
living things you see on the chart here
you can see the relationship that all
the living things have to each other so
you’ve got plants and insects everything
starts with plants ok you don’t have
native plants you don’t have native
insects if you don’t have native insects
you don’t have native birds every living
creature is assigned a relationship in a
certain way in a certain place with
certain plants ok so more diversity
allows life to continue ok wait I want
to go back okay where am I ok more
diversity because I have to get to the
bad part right ok more diversity allows
life to continue but less diversity
equals extinction which is the broader
loss of habitat or locally is
extirpation I just you know that’s kind
of a nice word for saying die ok so when
we have less diversity like less
varieties of birds or less varieties of
insects it’s really not going to go well
for the insects that are left if they
don’t make it then they finally go away
and we as a people as humans we will go
away someday if that keeps happening and
that’s why we’re all here we need to fix
that here is a map at state of
California it’s organized by ecological
section
or what we call ecoregions and there’s a
lot going on there and I don’t see my
indicator but we are located in the
bottom portion yeah get the cursor over
a little bit more a little bit more
there okay and we’re smack dab on the
combination blue and purple the purple
is the south coast no Southern
California mountains and valleys okay
and the blue is the south coast
ecoregion okay and those ego regions are
scientifically identified and understood
as having certain climates certain plant
and animal taxa okay and that’s what
makes our place a real place you know we
have animals and plants here that exist
nowhere else on the planet which is kind
of cool but see how the scientists have
really mapped this whole thing out and
this is why we have wonderful scientists
like the California natural diversity
database collecting all this data and
trying to find out what we can do to
stop global warming to save our species
to preserve biodiversity okay we are
also located in the California floristic
province gee I said that without
stumbling okay it is it’s really special
the California floristic province means
floristic means flower right or it’s
actually vegetation but it is really
rare it’s one of let me see five areas
in the world five okay that has the
merit and Mediterranean type climate in
the world and it’s notified as a hotspot
does everybody know what a hotspot is
okay biodiversity is good hotspots bad
hotspots bad because it means our land
is threatened it is already being
destroyed and it’s we’re in crisis mode
we have monarch butterflies going away
we have bees honeybees going away I
think we’ve all heard about the honeybee
shortage and everything it’s a bad thing
okay I want to go back I’m not done why
does it do that okay
so let’s talk about I’m gonna list some
of the ecosystems here because I this is
gonna apply to Diamond Bar I’m gonna be
a teacher now okay in Diamond Bar we
have sagebrush prickly pear shrub land
coastal sage chaparral now they don’t
have it on this list but we have oak
woodland riparian and oak woodland
savanna
let me see we have what is also called
light chaparral and what else do we have
Oh grassland native grassland alright
and that’s really special these other
habitats are elsewhere in the state but
I’m talking local so when you see steep
canyon all those cactuses that’s the
prickly pear sage scrub cactus and that
has a scientific analysis that
demonstrates there are critters in that
prickly pear stuff that only exists
there so if the prickly pear cactus goes
away the critters go away and whether or
not you hike and enjoy it you’re gonna
lose as a local community because you
have dirtier air dirtier water less
beauty and all of that is that kind of
is that a clear concept with everybody
because one of my friends said to me
tracer – ranch which is that giant
beautiful open space between Diamond Bar
and chino hills’ well none of us can
walk on it right it’s all fenced off
well gosh it’s not good for anything
because we’re not there well that area
is what we call a freshwater emerging
wetland and it cleans the air and the
water of course it supports critters we
have golden eagles over there it’s very
cool but the other thing that’s amazing
is it regulates our temperature now my
question to everyone is would you like
it to get hotter here I wouldn’t I think
it’s hot enough and so believe it or not
that big expanse of green area has so
much to do with temperature regulation
and scientists are now even studying
this in Los Angeles we call it City Heat
where they’re doing studies about city
heat what do we do well I say let’s save
what we have first that would be good
habitats preserve life like it or not
they do if you’re afraid of bugs I know
some people in Diamond Bar hey
those tarantulas I have centipedes in my
garden and they’re just there okay
they they all play a part all the plants
and the animals and the insects have
what we call a specialized or a
specialization assignment meaning they
need natives and natives need them and
we need all of that to have a high
quality of life and in fact you survive
if the habitat goes away the bird the
butterflies bees and birds die
extinction contributes to the overall
decline of all ecosystems in the world
and that is why our ecosystem here
matters to the global assessment of you
know the California holistic province
and the biodiversity hotspots here we
are there’s the red circle that I get it
aren’t you proud okay there we are and
look at all these green areas these are
biodiversity hotspots in the world
meaning they’re critical we’re in crisis
mode oh my goodness we need to do stuff
right away and so there we are okay now
one of my projects is to actually
interact with local cities Diamond Bar
as a Sierra Club task force chair I
actually advocate for open space in many
cities and including my own home city
this particular project here this is a
city project it’s called millennium and
it’s a luxury home project it’s behind
the country so nobody sees this but look
at these Oaks all right now this
particular picture is of I think twenty
one hundred year old oaks that were
bulldozed with no mitigation plant
meaning no plan to put them back that we
know of you know there was a lot of talk
about it we haven’t seen anything I’m
gonna tell you about oak trees the
scientific value function of an oak tree
is it pulls carbon out of the air like
one oak tree pulls fifty five thousand
pounds of carbon dioxide out of the
atmosphere and sequester’s it and stores
it okay go back there okay my point is
Ochs here that got wiped out I did the
calculations I think there’s 20 trees
times 55,000 I came up with 1 1 million
two hundred and ten thousand pounds of
carbon that we lost mitigation for all
right give or take a few numbers but I
wanted it’s not just the pretty trees
it’s not just the animals that live in
these trees it is the air that I breathe
I’m sorry many neighborhoods away I’m
not in this neighborhood but the city as
a place has lost these ecosystem
services there’s another picture of
Millennium Project this is 80 acres that
used to have oak trees I think I have
the picture we counted them and I think
the loss of these oak trees was about a
thousand okay so you can just do the
math on the carbon sequestration on that
so it is irreparable biodiversity damage
and by the way I believe the bottom up
trees are scheduled to be removed right
now this projects on hold if you want to
know more please talk to the city talk
to the Planning Department they know
everything okay this is important since
this happens in a lot of cities but
specifically to my hometown
since incorporation I did some research
on the history city of Diamond Bar
really doesn’t have any habitat
protection practices that work there’s a
lot of talk but there’s really nothing
that happens and so it is woefully
inadequate it’s way below what the
California Conservation regulations
required to date biodiversity loss
continues okay until the public starts
asking about this and looking into it
like art Sierra Club task force is doing
there’s a really is no City conservation
element implemented now there’s
development all the time but there’s no
conservation and I’m here to tell you
that’s really up to the citizens because
cities are corporations what they do is
develop for money and that’s true of all
our cities locally ok citizens if you
want to keep your quality of life you’ve
got to do something and that’s why I
think the Sierra Club what we’re doing
is
focused and pointed we are trying to
intervene on specific things our
community stands to lose its unique
identity and quality of life and so I’m
here today to put down two important
solutions possible solutions to this big
question what’s our plan B okay I think
number one we all need to advocate open
space conservation because we need you I
go to city talks all the time I’m
getting more people that’s okay I’m not
complaining but I’m here to tell you and
teach you why this is so critical
what is just really serious and so we
want to save what is here okay and
that’s why we want tres hermanos to be
saved as a natural open space a regional
part that would be protected in
perpetuity
another idea is California native
landscapes they are our heritage okay
look at the house in the picture there
it’s not my house by the way but look
there’s no long they’ve put in plants
that belong here that nature put here
and they’re loving it there’s seventy
percent less water no kidding
native plants are not the same as
drought tolerant native plants are
native you could get an Australian
drought tolerant plant or a Asian or
African drought tolerant plant but
they’re foreigners no one I know we’re
into diversity but we need diversity in
native landscapes just like those other
countries native landscapes in Australia
are now being advocated for because they
see the same problem the landscape
industry has messed everybody up by
selling plants from different areas to
different areas and it’s a mess so the
science the biological science works in
each location very specifically so we’re
in California we’re in Southern
California and this homeowner has done
the right thing and it’s incredible they
have all the birds and butterflies and
bees working in their functional
landscape which is their heritage the
picture to the right and the picture yep
oh the other three pictures that’s my
yard now I’m really lucky I have any
I have oak trees and sage scrubs and
after years of my ornamental landscape
failing because it needed too much water
too much weeding for whatever reason the
plant didn’t like being here few years
ago I just turned off my sprinklers and
I let everything die and I thought well
I’m gonna see what really is gonna
survive all my natives survived and what
really blessed me if you look at the
hill the bottom left there Nature put
back more natives it’s like when I took
away the ornamentals the ice plant which
is really bad stuff the the natives came
back and I have California knack
catchers and all kinds of sensitive
species on my own property in a
residential suburban neighborhood which
is a really neat and I also feel good
that I’m being fully green because if
everybody did this in my neighborhood or
even half of us we would be beginning to
rebuild the habitats in each landscape
do you get that so we’d be building a
patchwork of biodiversity and we’d be
replacing the lost biodiversity and not
only that you’d be really loving it
because you wouldn’t have to pay for
landscaping or water I mean the water
bill is I think I have a thirty dollar
water bill it’s really low but when you
have an established habitat you have a
living garden it’s alive it’s doing its
thing it’s functioning on the right oh
my gosh this butterfly is endangered and
it came back when I put in the one plant
it needs which is this milkweed here it
cannot live with any other plant so all
at the big-box stores don’t buy
butterfly plants they don’t they aren’t
really butterfly plants they’re pretty
but they don’t really serve the food and
survival needs that this butterfly has I
think this is a blue blue blue strip
it’s a blue streak anyway I’m really bad
with names but this one is a rare
butterfly and I can’t believe I got that
in there so all of these creatures that
are in the California landscapes have a
purpose that’s that’s the point I’m
trying to get at
we as
consumeristic culture we tend to look at
everything decoratively or economically
okay
landscape industry they pay almost
nothing for plant material that they
sell us and that’s why they say
money-back guarantee
it’s like fast food they will replace it
no problem
because it keeps dying and one of the
landscape guys at the big box store I
won’t name the manager I asked him once
why don’t you carry more natives and he
said if I did that I’d be out of
business in six months so that’s
sustainability just economic wise but
think of all the good that we’re doing
think of the good that you can do right
where you stand I have a friend who is a
condo who has a patio not a big yard
like mine and she installed a Cal native
potted plant and birdbath and other
little shrubs in her patio and it’s
beautiful and she’s got all kinds of
little hummingbirds in there and a
couple of lizards and so that little
island of habitat matters in her
community in her condo community and she
of course enjoys it now what can we do
we can do things individually and at my
booth today the Sierra Club booth we
have lots of references free references
for Cal native plants but I want you to
know that whatever your opinions are you
want to do something smart you know join
a group that deals with local issues
because you can really be powerful local
it’s really hard to save polar bears
I love polar bears but I vote and you
know I can send money but I’m not in an
area where polar bears are but in our
area we have California net catchers
coastal Rams Golden Eagles we have a
hundred and forty species I won’t name
right now but they are on the brink that
devastation we saw with the oak trees
took out Street Elle and a rare snail
everybody thinks snails are bad right
what you say it snails are bad you know
they’re God native snails do not eat
flowers they are like little miniature
garbage just disposals
and they turn over dead leaf litter so
you don’t throw your dead leaves away
little native snails are there to
decompose the the dead leaf litter okay
and they really are very rare and
protected now I guess it’s a big fine if
you harm them and that particular
project killed a few of them because we
found them but you want to be aware of
life in your green space so green space
is not all equal a lot of us think you
know golf courses are great
well lawns are toxic lawns are big
expanses of pesticides and fertilizers
that taint the water runoff and go all
the way out to the ocean and poison our
fish and us too so we’ve got to get rid
of the fertilizers and the pesticides
cal native plants need no pesticides and
they need no fertilizers and soil
amendments and all that they’re natural
they belong here so I encourage everyone
to find out more about cal native
landscapes cal native plants know that
there’s a difference between drought
tolerant drought tolerant doesn’t
necessarily mean it’s a good thing for
the habitats it could be invasive it it
could be the kind of plant that is so
powerful it will just wipe out the
natives and that’s what a lot of foreign
plants do and so just learn those little
differences if you have a yard landscape
and if you’re thinking of changing your
landscape over we have help we have
people clean us and working together in
garden clubs and so our little Sierra
Club is a pipeline to getting more
educated about cal native plants and it
is our heritage so we would like you to
join us and link arms and save the
habitats that are here in our local area
and reconnect by creating a habitat in
your own place wherever it is thank you so much
what I was trying to do with this music
is create a mood of feeling in the room
I hope you felt it this music that I do
is actually played as medicine and not
entertainment
my regular job is to play therapeutic
music for hospitals and people who are a
lot of pain and so it’s not quite as
amplified as it is here this particular
instrument is very unique it’s made by a
rare tree koa trees that only grow in
Hawaii and they are protected the code
trees are not cut down to make
instruments like this they must die a
natural death and fall to the earth and
then they are harvested and this is
actually very similar to a centuries-old
tradition that harp players have done
for a long time if you didn’t know the
harp is the oldest stringed instrument
in history and it is we think 20,000
years old
scientists keep working on that one it
is the father so to speak of violins and
guitars so neener neener I always like
to say that to folks who you know
violinists especially what is really
interesting about the environment and
things like musical arts is they are
connected their human experiences human
enterprises that we’ve all done okay
we’ve had around for a long time so
ecosystem services it was a big word it
is the scientific analysis of what the
environment gives to life gives to
people to animals how it keeps
everything working and so one factor of
ecosystem service systems provide tools
food and shelter the heart would be a
tool okay so in this picture there’s a
picture of colleague of mine playing the
harbor
outside for a patient and there’s the
code tree isn’t it beautiful okay so let
me see next one okay I want to switch to
Diamond Bar because I’ve lived here for
30 years and as I would come and go to
work my stressful job you know coming
home is such a beautiful experience
because we have the canyons off the side
of the road and look at it was deep
canyon here the habitats here are so
refreshing you know the sound of the
birds and everything’s green and for
years I really took all of this for
granted and I know it had a positive
effect on cleansing me from the stress
of my work but to find out that our
hillsides and our trees especially are
diminishing made me look into what’s
going on here and so this is what
brought me on my environmental journey
is finding out what’s happening local in
my own community and how we can keep the
quality of life sustained here ecosystem
services there’s a lot to ecosystem
services it’s a new word but we already
take it for granted one of the first
things that it gives to us whether we
know it or not is it regulates climate
and you know a lot of people are
wondering that big expanses of green
areas like tres hermanos Ranch locally
or even the the hiking trails that I
personally don’t have a lot of time to
go up and enjoy I see them from a
distance
those green spaces are natural habitats
that make our temperatures cooler they
process rain runoff and refresh our
aquifers which supports our health we
have better health here because we have
less stress believe it or not I know we
have a lot of traffic but we do benefit
from these ecosystem services
unconsciously but and we’ve cleaner air
I think the city of Diamond bar just got
a wonderful evaluation on their
watersheds so the stress relief is very
important to us now because of all the
traffic we all love green space we all
want to be in a green place clean water
air soil is a natural
a natural way of filtering all the
pollution that we that humans just incur
then of course the spiritual enrichment
I’m very inspired when I write music by
just the my backyard that has beautiful
trees in it and makes me feel very good
but the bad news is you know I wondered
you know why all this over development
just seems to be indiscriminantly just
wiping beautiful things out I think we
can all relate to the hill sites that
just went away at the intersection of
Grand Avenue in the 60 freeway where the
hills are just flattened do you guys
have seen that right okay but I started
doing a little history and this is what
I came up with California native
landscapes now that means what nature
put in California we’re here okay it’s
actually a heritage is really really
famous we have all kinds of artisans and
activists who began noticing the
specialness of California landscapes
back in 1890 ish and this particular
picture here is a picture of the
Theodore Paine California Native Plant
Foundation which is out in Sun Valley
you must go it is beautiful and here’s a
little bit of history john muir who was
a british self-taught naturalist he
didn’t come from university he just
cared about the beauty of trees
california landscapes were so famous
that we had a lot of british folks come
over and I actually believe John Muir
was Scottish okay and he was just in
love with California landscapes but they
were being threatened by development so
he was the first one I think was 1892
that founded the Sierra Club and that
was an effort to save Yosemite National
Park he was a very big advocate for
national parks so when you go to Indian
National Park especially in California
you need to know this man is the one
that saved those parks for us we even
had artists come from all over the world
California landscape art movement is a
very very big deal
making a comeback this particular
painting was done I believe in 1910 it’s
called plein air painting meaning people
went out into the woods and just painted
what they saw so now that we have a lot
of our landscapes developed and I
believe this is San Gabriel Valley here
these paintings are very important the
vintage ones are very important for
historical information ok so we’re going
to talk about biodiversity everybody
heard that word yet raise hands No ah ok
so here’s my take on biodiversity I’m
going to try to get this right
diversity we know what that means okay
bio is living ok so we have lots of
different living things in California in
Diamond Bar that’s a good thing because
these living things the variety of
living things you see on the chart here
you can see the relationship that all
the living things have to each other so
you’ve got plants and insects everything
starts with plants ok you don’t have
native plants you don’t have native
insects if you don’t have native insects
you don’t have native birds every living
creature is assigned a relationship in a
certain way in a certain place with
certain plants ok so more diversity
allows life to continue ok wait I want
to go back okay where am I ok more
diversity because I have to get to the
bad part right ok more diversity allows
life to continue but less diversity
equals extinction which is the broader
loss of habitat or locally is
extirpation I just you know that’s kind
of a nice word for saying die ok so when
we have less diversity like less
varieties of birds or less varieties of
insects it’s really not going to go well
for the insects that are left if they
don’t make it then they finally go away
and we as a people as humans we will go
away someday if that keeps happening and
that’s why we’re all here we need to fix
that here is a map at state of
California it’s organized by ecological
section
or what we call ecoregions and there’s a
lot going on there and I don’t see my
indicator but we are located in the
bottom portion yeah get the cursor over
a little bit more a little bit more
there okay and we’re smack dab on the
combination blue and purple the purple
is the south coast no Southern
California mountains and valleys okay
and the blue is the south coast
ecoregion okay and those ego regions are
scientifically identified and understood
as having certain climates certain plant
and animal taxa okay and that’s what
makes our place a real place you know we
have animals and plants here that exist
nowhere else on the planet which is kind
of cool but see how the scientists have
really mapped this whole thing out and
this is why we have wonderful scientists
like the California natural diversity
database collecting all this data and
trying to find out what we can do to
stop global warming to save our species
to preserve biodiversity okay we are
also located in the California floristic
province gee I said that without
stumbling okay it is it’s really special
the California floristic province means
floristic means flower right or it’s
actually vegetation but it is really
rare it’s one of let me see five areas
in the world five okay that has the
merit and Mediterranean type climate in
the world and it’s notified as a hotspot
does everybody know what a hotspot is
okay biodiversity is good hotspots bad
hotspots bad because it means our land
is threatened it is already being
destroyed and it’s we’re in crisis mode
we have monarch butterflies going away
we have bees honeybees going away I
think we’ve all heard about the honeybee
shortage and everything it’s a bad thing
okay I want to go back I’m not done why
does it do that okay
so let’s talk about I’m gonna list some
of the ecosystems here because I this is
gonna apply to Diamond Bar I’m gonna be
a teacher now okay in Diamond Bar we
have sagebrush prickly pear shrub land
coastal sage chaparral now they don’t
have it on this list but we have oak
woodland riparian and oak woodland
savanna
let me see we have what is also called
light chaparral and what else do we have
Oh grassland native grassland alright
and that’s really special these other
habitats are elsewhere in the state but
I’m talking local so when you see steep
canyon all those cactuses that’s the
prickly pear sage scrub cactus and that
has a scientific analysis that
demonstrates there are critters in that
prickly pear stuff that only exists
there so if the prickly pear cactus goes
away the critters go away and whether or
not you hike and enjoy it you’re gonna
lose as a local community because you
have dirtier air dirtier water less
beauty and all of that is that kind of
is that a clear concept with everybody
because one of my friends said to me
tracer – ranch which is that giant
beautiful open space between Diamond Bar
and chino hills’ well none of us can
walk on it right it’s all fenced off
well gosh it’s not good for anything
because we’re not there well that area
is what we call a freshwater emerging
wetland and it cleans the air and the
water of course it supports critters we
have golden eagles over there it’s very
cool but the other thing that’s amazing
is it regulates our temperature now my
question to everyone is would you like
it to get hotter here I wouldn’t I think
it’s hot enough and so believe it or not
that big expanse of green area has so
much to do with temperature regulation
and scientists are now even studying
this in Los Angeles we call it City Heat
where they’re doing studies about city
heat what do we do well I say let’s save
what we have first that would be good
habitats preserve life like it or not
they do if you’re afraid of bugs I know
some people in Diamond Bar hey
those tarantulas I have centipedes in my
garden and they’re just there okay
they they all play a part all the plants
and the animals and the insects have
what we call a specialized or a
specialization assignment meaning they
need natives and natives need them and
we need all of that to have a high
quality of life and in fact you survive
if the habitat goes away the bird the
butterflies bees and birds die
extinction contributes to the overall
decline of all ecosystems in the world
and that is why our ecosystem here
matters to the global assessment of you
know the California holistic province
and the biodiversity hotspots here we
are there’s the red circle that I get it
aren’t you proud okay there we are and
look at all these green areas these are
biodiversity hotspots in the world
meaning they’re critical we’re in crisis
mode oh my goodness we need to do stuff
right away and so there we are okay now
one of my projects is to actually
interact with local cities Diamond Bar
as a Sierra Club task force chair I
actually advocate for open space in many
cities and including my own home city
this particular project here this is a
city project it’s called millennium and
it’s a luxury home project it’s behind
the country so nobody sees this but look
at these Oaks all right now this
particular picture is of I think twenty
one hundred year old oaks that were
bulldozed with no mitigation plant
meaning no plan to put them back that we
know of you know there was a lot of talk
about it we haven’t seen anything I’m
gonna tell you about oak trees the
scientific value function of an oak tree
is it pulls carbon out of the air like
one oak tree pulls fifty five thousand
pounds of carbon dioxide out of the
atmosphere and sequester’s it and stores
it okay go back there okay my point is
Ochs here that got wiped out I did the
calculations I think there’s 20 trees
times 55,000 I came up with 1 1 million
two hundred and ten thousand pounds of
carbon that we lost mitigation for all
right give or take a few numbers but I
wanted it’s not just the pretty trees
it’s not just the animals that live in
these trees it is the air that I breathe
I’m sorry many neighborhoods away I’m
not in this neighborhood but the city as
a place has lost these ecosystem
services there’s another picture of
Millennium Project this is 80 acres that
used to have oak trees I think I have
the picture we counted them and I think
the loss of these oak trees was about a
thousand okay so you can just do the
math on the carbon sequestration on that
so it is irreparable biodiversity damage
and by the way I believe the bottom up
trees are scheduled to be removed right
now this projects on hold if you want to
know more please talk to the city talk
to the Planning Department they know
everything okay this is important since
this happens in a lot of cities but
specifically to my hometown
since incorporation I did some research
on the history city of Diamond Bar
really doesn’t have any habitat
protection practices that work there’s a
lot of talk but there’s really nothing
that happens and so it is woefully
inadequate it’s way below what the
California Conservation regulations
required to date biodiversity loss
continues okay until the public starts
asking about this and looking into it
like art Sierra Club task force is doing
there’s a really is no City conservation
element implemented now there’s
development all the time but there’s no
conservation and I’m here to tell you
that’s really up to the citizens because
cities are corporations what they do is
develop for money and that’s true of all
our cities locally ok citizens if you
want to keep your quality of life you’ve
got to do something and that’s why I
think the Sierra Club what we’re doing
is
focused and pointed we are trying to
intervene on specific things our
community stands to lose its unique
identity and quality of life and so I’m
here today to put down two important
solutions possible solutions to this big
question what’s our plan B okay I think
number one we all need to advocate open
space conservation because we need you I
go to city talks all the time I’m
getting more people that’s okay I’m not
complaining but I’m here to tell you and
teach you why this is so critical
what is just really serious and so we
want to save what is here okay and
that’s why we want tres hermanos to be
saved as a natural open space a regional
part that would be protected in
perpetuity
another idea is California native
landscapes they are our heritage okay
look at the house in the picture there
it’s not my house by the way but look
there’s no long they’ve put in plants
that belong here that nature put here
and they’re loving it there’s seventy
percent less water no kidding
native plants are not the same as
drought tolerant native plants are
native you could get an Australian
drought tolerant plant or a Asian or
African drought tolerant plant but
they’re foreigners no one I know we’re
into diversity but we need diversity in
native landscapes just like those other
countries native landscapes in Australia
are now being advocated for because they
see the same problem the landscape
industry has messed everybody up by
selling plants from different areas to
different areas and it’s a mess so the
science the biological science works in
each location very specifically so we’re
in California we’re in Southern
California and this homeowner has done
the right thing and it’s incredible they
have all the birds and butterflies and
bees working in their functional
landscape which is their heritage the
picture to the right and the picture yep
oh the other three pictures that’s my
yard now I’m really lucky I have any
I have oak trees and sage scrubs and
after years of my ornamental landscape
failing because it needed too much water
too much weeding for whatever reason the
plant didn’t like being here few years
ago I just turned off my sprinklers and
I let everything die and I thought well
I’m gonna see what really is gonna
survive all my natives survived and what
really blessed me if you look at the
hill the bottom left there Nature put
back more natives it’s like when I took
away the ornamentals the ice plant which
is really bad stuff the the natives came
back and I have California knack
catchers and all kinds of sensitive
species on my own property in a
residential suburban neighborhood which
is a really neat and I also feel good
that I’m being fully green because if
everybody did this in my neighborhood or
even half of us we would be beginning to
rebuild the habitats in each landscape
do you get that so we’d be building a
patchwork of biodiversity and we’d be
replacing the lost biodiversity and not
only that you’d be really loving it
because you wouldn’t have to pay for
landscaping or water I mean the water
bill is I think I have a thirty dollar
water bill it’s really low but when you
have an established habitat you have a
living garden it’s alive it’s doing its
thing it’s functioning on the right oh
my gosh this butterfly is endangered and
it came back when I put in the one plant
it needs which is this milkweed here it
cannot live with any other plant so all
at the big-box stores don’t buy
butterfly plants they don’t they aren’t
really butterfly plants they’re pretty
but they don’t really serve the food and
survival needs that this butterfly has I
think this is a blue blue blue strip
it’s a blue streak anyway I’m really bad
with names but this one is a rare
butterfly and I can’t believe I got that
in there so all of these creatures that
are in the California landscapes have a
purpose that’s that’s the point I’m
trying to get at
we as
consumeristic culture we tend to look at
everything decoratively or economically
okay
landscape industry they pay almost
nothing for plant material that they
sell us and that’s why they say
money-back guarantee
it’s like fast food they will replace it
no problem
because it keeps dying and one of the
landscape guys at the big box store I
won’t name the manager I asked him once
why don’t you carry more natives and he
said if I did that I’d be out of
business in six months so that’s
sustainability just economic wise but
think of all the good that we’re doing
think of the good that you can do right
where you stand I have a friend who is a
condo who has a patio not a big yard
like mine and she installed a Cal native
potted plant and birdbath and other
little shrubs in her patio and it’s
beautiful and she’s got all kinds of
little hummingbirds in there and a
couple of lizards and so that little
island of habitat matters in her
community in her condo community and she
of course enjoys it now what can we do
we can do things individually and at my
booth today the Sierra Club booth we
have lots of references free references
for Cal native plants but I want you to
know that whatever your opinions are you
want to do something smart you know join
a group that deals with local issues
because you can really be powerful local
it’s really hard to save polar bears
I love polar bears but I vote and you
know I can send money but I’m not in an
area where polar bears are but in our
area we have California net catchers
coastal Rams Golden Eagles we have a
hundred and forty species I won’t name
right now but they are on the brink that
devastation we saw with the oak trees
took out Street Elle and a rare snail
everybody thinks snails are bad right
what you say it snails are bad you know
they’re God native snails do not eat
flowers they are like little miniature
garbage just disposals
and they turn over dead leaf litter so
you don’t throw your dead leaves away
little native snails are there to
decompose the the dead leaf litter okay
and they really are very rare and
protected now I guess it’s a big fine if
you harm them and that particular
project killed a few of them because we
found them but you want to be aware of
life in your green space so green space
is not all equal a lot of us think you
know golf courses are great
well lawns are toxic lawns are big
expanses of pesticides and fertilizers
that taint the water runoff and go all
the way out to the ocean and poison our
fish and us too so we’ve got to get rid
of the fertilizers and the pesticides
cal native plants need no pesticides and
they need no fertilizers and soil
amendments and all that they’re natural
they belong here so I encourage everyone
to find out more about cal native
landscapes cal native plants know that
there’s a difference between drought
tolerant drought tolerant doesn’t
necessarily mean it’s a good thing for
the habitats it could be invasive it it
could be the kind of plant that is so
powerful it will just wipe out the
natives and that’s what a lot of foreign
plants do and so just learn those little
differences if you have a yard landscape
and if you’re thinking of changing your
landscape over we have help we have
people clean us and working together in
garden clubs and so our little Sierra
Club is a pipeline to getting more
educated about cal native plants and it
is our heritage so we would like you to
join us and link arms and save the
habitats that are here in our local area
and reconnect by creating a habitat in
your own place wherever it is thank you so much
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