Welcome to TERRAMARIN
Local, Seasonal, Sustainable
tulip magnolia

Magnolia soulangeana

IN BLOOM: Tulip Magnolia

Wildly popular in the south of England, in Marin the tulip, or saucer, magnolia is a wintertime delight. The large pink and white blossoms burst open in February and are even more dramatic and lovely to the beholder because they bloom before the tree's leaves emerge.

IN SEASON: Winter Harvest

Eat fresh and in season by choosing local winter crops including green garlic, lemons, artichokes, celery, asparagus, cabbage, grapefruits, leeks, parsnips, Brussels sprouts, mandarin oranges, hard squash, winter greens, turnips and Dungeness crab.

See The Joy of Food Eaten in Its Time

IN THE NEWS: Recycling CO2

Trees along the nation's Eastern Seaboard are growing two to four times faster than normal, apparently in response to rising levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, according to a report released in early February. "My guess is that they are sopping up some of the extra carbon," says the report's co-author, Geoffrey G. Parker.

Soaking up CO2 is what the ongoing Marin Carbon Project is all about. The goal, according to MCP, is to investigate how land management practices could enhance sequestration of CO2, creating a win-win proposition. Rangeland sequestration would help reduce CO2 in the atmosphere while also improving the soil itself.

Study Finds a Tree Growth Spurt

Marin Carbon Project

'Sinking' C02 Naturally


THE OUTSIDER

It's gray whale-watching season, and lucky for us Pt. Reyes National Seashore is again offering the expertise of its rangers to help us see -- and learn -- more about these fascinating creatures. Even better, the vantage point for this free weekend activity is the historic Pt. Reyes Lighthouse. Weekends through April 25.

See "Journey of the Whales" at www.nps.gov/pore/index.htm


TM Archive
Articles from Issues 1-4

white pelicans

White Pelicans, Nicasio Reservoir
Photos by Jocelyn Knight

WINTER WATERLAND | February 2010

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Water, Water Just About Everywhere

BEAUTY AND THE FEAST: Read why the basins and range of Marin's generous watersheds quench more than society's thirst

THE LOCAL BRANCH: For rhyme and reason, in Marin we've got plenty of trees to hug.

LESS FOG THREATENS REDWOODS: New study suggests our foggy coast isn't so foggy these days, and that's bad news for California's redwood trees.

WATER SMARTS: Tips on using water wisely.

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Get Involved!

SPAWN (Salmon Protection and Watershed Network) is always looking for volunteers to help save the salmon in Marin -- and learn more about nature in the process. The group is currently hosting native plant nursery days every Friday and Saturday between 10 a.m. and 1 p.m. at Samuel P. Taylor Park.

For a complete description and list of events, visit SPAWN at
www.spawnusa.org/upcomingevents

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Water Use and Our Solar Future

MMWD is the county's largest consumer of electricity: Water is heavy (a gallon of water weighs about 8 pounds) and it takes a lot of energy to process and deliver it. What doesn't waste water, according to SPG Solar in Novato, is its product: solar energy. "Solar photovoltaic energy creates almost no water footprint because it does not need to be cooled," says CEO Tom Rooney.

While that may be true for residential and commercial installations, it's not the case for large solar farms, like those in California's Mojave Desert, which can use upwards of 500 million gallons of water a year for cooling purposes -- one example of the growing controversy over the disconnect between what's renewable and what's environmentally sustainable.

Cascade Falls

Cascade Falls, Fairfax

Editor's Corner / 02.20.10

Battle Front

The climate is heating up, in court: This week the state of Texas, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and Ohio’s coal producers all filed petitions in the U.S. Court of Appeals challenging the EPA’s finding last December that CO2 and other greenhouse gases are a public health hazard.

What makes these suits intriguing is how quickly the litigants found a scapegoat: the beleaguered Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), whose report helped guide the EPA to its decision. The IPCC's credibility -- or, rather, the lack of it, according to the head of the Ohio Coal Association, Mike Carey -- is cited as grounds for an EPA policy reversal.

"These were not scientists seeking the truth. This was an organization with a political agenda, intent on showing a pattern of global warming,” said Carey of the IPCC, adding, “We can not sit back and allow the EPA to take such drastic action.”

What concerns Carey is that the EPA ruling could easily lead to new regulations on GHG emissions, a turn of events, he laments, that would be “certain to crush the coal industry in Ohio and throughout the United States.”

Weather Front

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) reported this week that the combined global land and ocean surface temperature for January was the fourth warmest on record, with the “warmest temperature anomalies occurring across Canada, the western contiguous U.S., and parts of northern Russia.”

NOAA also noted the equally odd opposite -- across North America, snow cover for January 2010 was the sixth largest since satellite records began in 1967.

Home Front

Ask me, the weather our climate is producing is downright creepy. Except in Marin, of course. This winter, so far, has been a delight for its normalcy. It’s rained, but not flooded. Our reservoirs are at 100 percent-plus capacity. I’ve seen worse winters for fog and plain old dreariness.

Unless the sky starts to fall in March, we’re set for what else we can be grateful for come spring – wildflower season.

Check out "Putting a Spring in Your Step" for tips on best wildflower viewing.

Learn much, more more at the Marin Chapter of the California Native Plant Society.