Sunday, July 29, 2012
Black-headed Grosbeak viewed in Watts Valley
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About Me
- Chip Ashley
- The Sierra Nevada foothills have been a part of me and I a part of them since before I was born. The scent of blue curl in the late summer and fall and of smoke from an oak fire in late fall and winter carry me back to my earliest memories in Watts Valley and Burrough Valley. I believe that these mountains deserve more than to be treated as mere property. They must be protected and properly managed because they were here long before we came, and they are likely to be here long after we are gone. The earliest human inhabitants treated these hills as they should be treated--as part of a spiritual totality in which all of the universe is holy. They lived sustainably. They used the plentiful resources, but they did not take what could not be replaced. Sadly, the settlers who came here in the 19th century did not follow the Native Americans' good example. The descendents of these settlers and others who have immigrated since have scarred the mountains perhaps irreparably in their blind and arrogant quest for mere profit in a society where everything is for sale.