“The great question… is, shall we surrender to our surroundings, or shall we make our peace with nature and begin to make reparations for the damage we have done to our air, our land, our water? Restoring nature to its natural state is a cause beyond party and beyond factions. It has become a common cause of all the people of America.”

Richard M Nixon
State of the Union address, January 22, 1970

On January 28, 1969 one of America’s most significant environmental disasters to date occurred, a huge oil spill off of Santa Barbara California. Many believe that incident spurred President Nixon to take action, in turn he created the greatest environmental policy record in American history during which he presided over the development of:

The National Environmental Policy Act (1969)
The Environmental Protection Agency (1970)
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (1970)
The Clean Air Act (1970)
The Clean Water Act (1972)
Marine Mammal Protection Act (1972)
Marine Protection, Research, and Sanctuaries Act (1972)
The Endangered Species Act (1973)
Safe Drinking Water Act (1974)

How can environmental policy be considered a partisan issue?

One of the most intriguing dichotomies that outdoor athletes must address is gear. Great gear is awesome, don’t get me wrong. A wetsuit that keeps us toasty in 50 degree water is amazing. Mountain bikes that allow us to climb and descend with formerly unknown speed and control are breathtaking. Skis that excel in poor snow only make us crave our mountain time more. There are few arguments that the new gear is inferior to the older stuff. If we were to ask Shackleton if he’d like to trade up from the seal skin jacket and meal to a gore tex shell and some dehydrated beef stroganoff I reckon we know how he’d go. But the gear can also create a greater divide between us and the environment we love.

Nice bike, that’ll be 8500…hours?

    But why wouldn’t we jump in line at the register at the outdoor shop or fill the online cart at the website of our choice and have the latest and greatest delivered to our front door? Perhaps because we all love the planet. Some love the city and it’s trappings, some the wilderness, and most of us a blend of the two. And for the fortunate few of us getting folks out into the wilderness is our calling. My job is to get people to fall in love with the wilderness so they’ll develop a connection to it and want to defend it. Ya know, vote for it (come on people!), pay for it, or put in some old fashioned elbow grease for it. So try these on for you and the planet, three reasons to consider before buying the latest kit for your outdoor adventures.

    Reason one – New stuff needs to be built from raw material that is part of the planet. A good reason to love wooden boats and clay pottery eh? I recollect a statistic that stated that on average the new product that you hold in your hand represents only 10 percent of the raw material that went into creating it. Ow. My new bike tires left 10 times their weight in resources in a landfill, tailings pond, forest floor, or in the atmosphere. That’s a lot of bulldozer and co2 for my schralping.

    Two – Maintaining and repairing gear is good work and keeps your old stuff out of the landfill. Yup, the ding dude, sewing bro, and mechanic chick are saving your stuff and our planet. Right in your neighborhood. And probably getting more trail and water time than you. Support your local community and keep your gear alive.

   Three – Money is time. No, not the other way around. Buying the latest requires money, and that predicates office time. Productivity is what makes the world go ‘round, but that money/time equation reduces your outdoor time. And more importantly interpersonal time.  Family time, road trips with the girls, sessions with the bros. You know, the best of times.

OK, maybe not second hand helmets…

Please don’t think I don’t buy new though, there are bits I recognize as critical new parts. On my bikes it is new tires and drive trains. Second hand windsurf masts and wetsuits aren’t my preference. And nothing beats a fresh bar of wax. I’ll  take mine in a cardboard box over the plastic wrap, thank you very much. We don’t need to get monastic about this stuff, sometimes we just need to resist the marketing hype for another season. I can’t wait for my favorite new bike to be turned out of the rental fleet and secretly hope my buddies are upgrading their boards so I can score their hand-me-downs. A day or two of ding repair and they’ll ride as good as new. Is it really a clearer conscience if I buy their cast-off? At least I didn’t miss the last session because I was at the office working so I could afford the latest. We’ve all got our own challenges that we face but I hope you’ll take pause before going all in on the next big buy. I’ll take my queue from the happiest kid at the pumptrack!

Recently I got a call from Tawn Kennedy of the local bike-advocacy group Greenways to School asking if I’d like to join the Mission Hill Bike Club for a Wednesday ride. Heck yeah!

Bike Club is amazing. It’s a chance for about 20 students to get together and pedal locally while interacting and challenging each other. I absolutely love riding with kids. The unbridled energy and lack of distraction ensures that everyone is going to have a good time. It takes me back to my days as a kid on a bike and the relatively carefree attitude that we all had before jobs, rents and relationships.

– See more at: http://www.hilltromper.com/article/kids-bikes-friendship#sthash.pz9o8PYT.dpuf

After checking the forecast for the day (wind variable, five knots or less) I headed down to the harbor with a good bit of concern. What could new sailors possibly gain from sailing lessons without wind? Little did I know that the ocean would come to our rescue, once again.

Two snoozing humpbacks blew fishy snores at us while we drifted around them.

 More here….

You may be starting to wonder what the weird photos are in the margin of this site. Looking closer they are, yes, trash. Trail trash. So…what’s the deal here?

I hate trash. I love trash. Trash tells us so much about who is directly impacting the environment beneath our feet. For the past seven years I’ve studied ocean trash, picking up refuse that is floating in the water and on beaches. Good money in it? Nope. I’ve been doing it to learn about who is polluting and where. Not so easy to sort out considering ocean currents, photo degradation, and marine organisms’ rapid population of anything in the water. But we’ve leveraged this information to help support Styrofoam and plastic bag bans, to help regional planners understand how their cities impact our ocean, and to educate the public. The end result? Marine debris collection and advocacy is at an all time high and densities of targeted waste are already declining. But why on land?

Marine Debris

I love trails. I love chasing the guy in front of me, I love nudging my buddies into the bushes as were blasting down the trail, I love the endorphins that come from a strenuous ride, and I love stewardship. I am a fan of nearly every activity that gets more people out into the wilderness. I firmly believe that if we want people to fight for the environment, they must first love it. But trash detracts from that love. Trash demonstrates a lack of respect for the environment and those that love it. Trash also demonstrates a misconception that has been held by too many for far too long, that the earth will take care of all our mistakes. The best way for me to demonstrate my love for the trail is to pick up after those idiots (and show up for trailwork days)!

Excuse me, did you drop something?

So what do the photos show? Too many people still use single use waterbottles. Cigarette butts…really! That’s how we enjoy the fresh air? Beer cans, check. Plastic packaging, of course. The bulk of what I pick up daily is packaging and plastic bags. But what are those tiny rectangular bits in the photos? The torn off tops from energy packets (Gu, no thank Yu!).* Who uses those? Cyclists and runners primarily. I see 10+ cyclists for every runner, so I think it’s mostly the cyclists. And students. My ride takes me through the UCSC campus, so I see the streets and trails twelve months a year. And there sure has been a whole lot more trash blowing around campus since September 22 this year….

How do you express your love of the trail? Pick up the trash. Come on people! Every time somebody sees you doing the right thing it triggers a significant pause. Why is he doing that? What is he picking up? Who dropped it there in the first place? Get your whole crew onboard, imagine the impact then!

Get your crew on the clean trail program!

Please join us in being part of the solution, and help spread the love known as environmental stewardship. Trashing our trails is counterintuitive…trail(or) trash, you can be the difference!

Clif’s Litter Leash

*Of note on litter leashes, Gu has made a point of arguing that they save 20-40% on packaging by not including a litter leash. Saves them cash and arguably saves the planet’s resources. But how many complete packets do you see in the photos? BTW, Clif Shots have the litter leash. Does big trash absolve some of the little trash challenges? You make that decision with every purchase you make.