Excursion to Rancho Lomitas with Benito Treviño!

This was definately a learning experience and im glad i went. It was very infromative, interesting and fun. Here are some pictures i took of that trip. Enjoy!

Edward Abbey/ The Monkey Wrench Gang

"Abbey insisted, to act as social Critic of ones country and culture, and as such to speak for the voiceless. And so he did, especially in the movement jeremiad with which he launched America's "ecodefense" movement.."

I really like this quote because i feel that is what a true environmentalist would say. I love how he described nature as the "voiceless"- because essentially they truly are. The environment does not speak like humans do, and in turn cannot defend themselves from human harm. Therefore, it is important that someone steps up to defend our environment and preserve it, or else if we keep harming it the way we do we wont have a natural environment for long.

Aldo Leopold/ Sand County Almanac

"Conservation is getting nowhere because it is incompatible with our Abrahamic concept of land. We abuse land because we regard it as a commodity belonging to us. When we see land as a community to which we belong, we may begin to use it with love and respect."

"The last word in ignorance is the man who says of an animal or plant: 'What good is it?"


I absolutely love these two quotes from Leopold. I feel these two truly depict his appreciation for nature. What i got from it is that he believe humans abuse nature because they see it as something that is simply there for us to use as much as we want. If we were to see it was something that really belonged to us, or something that we created then that's when humans can truly respect their art. Leopold doest not believe that nature is there for our commodity, it is for our admiration, love, and respect.
The second quote i liked because Leopold is trying to say that everything in nature is important in one way or another in our lives.

John Wesley Powell/ The Exploration of the Colorado and It's Canyons

"On the mountains a few junipers and piñons are found, and cactuses, agave, and yuccas, low, fleshy plants with bayonets and thorns. The landscape of vegetal life is weird-no forests, no meadows, no green hills, no foliage, but clublike stems of plants armed with stilettos. Many of the plants bear gorgeous flowers."


This particular quote made me think of our excursion to Rancho Lomitas with Benito Treviño. This particular landscape is what we saw and studied. It was amazing to learn all the useful purposes all these plants have. I was even more surprised to learn that these plants, most of which are right backyard of my parents house, are really a treasure because of the history they carry. I was excited to know that a lot of these plants are even eatable and can be used for medicinal purposes. The cactus does have a gorgeous flower that grows from it. All this nature, that to some may seem ugly, is actually beautiful because of its survival use.

Maria Melendez/ How Long She'll Last in This World

from In the Early Months of Snowmelt, 1997

"Besides the newborn, I carried new depression around,
sorrow near to me as cord blood, disguised as one of life's
essential fluids. In my teens, I'd hiked the Tetons, practicing
the work scientists do-describing the moss campion
and the class-3 ram, slogging through mud to revegetate
old horse camps. But i was utterly unschooled in the foolish
dialects of heart required to answer another whose needs
had latched completely to mine."

As a new mom i read this part in this poem and completely related to eveything she described. The new depression was not so much a sad feeling, is was more of an overwhelming feeling of a huge responsiblity that lied on my shoulders now. Its big change to get used to. This shift in my life took a while to get adjusted to. Before i had my daughter, life was much more simpler and selfish; everything was about me, and everything i did was for me. And now everything i do, i do it for her, i do and plan everything with her in mind. I agree with Melendez when she describes that she was unschooled in motherhood. Nothing could had ever prepared me for all the challenges of motherhood, even though its difficult at times, it is definately worth everything i do, and it is full of its rewards.

John Muir/ My First Summer in the Sierra

"I was fortunate in getting a fine St. Bernard dog for a companion."

This particular single line reminded me of my dog. Her name is Chilly, and she is a tiny black Chihuahua. Dogs really are companions, and are extremely loyal. Even on my worse days, she can put a smile on my face. I truly believe that dogs are the most loyal animals in the world because even when i may ignore her, she still looks up at me and wags her tail. I feel that their love for their owner is unconditional because essentially we are the ones that take care of them and nurture them.

The Journal 1837-1861/ Henry David Thoreau

"June.16.1854. Heart-leaf. Nymphea odorata. Agian i scent the white water-lily, and a season i had waited for is arrived. how indespensible all these experiences to make up the summer! It is the emblem of purity, and its scent sugests it. Growing in stagnant and muddy water, it burst up so pure and fair to the eye an so sweet to the scent, as if to show us what purity and sweetness reside in, and can be extracted from, the slime and muck of the earth. i think i have plucked the first one that has opened for a mile at least. what confirmation of our hopes is in the fragrance of the water-lily!" (266)

I loved this quote. I feel that Thoreau is not only speaking about the ugly things in nature (i.e. muddy, stagnant water), but also about people in general. The way i translated this quote was that if he can find beautiful things such as water lillies in ugly, muddy, stagnant water- he can also find beautiful good things in people too. I feel liek he is saying that no matter how mean, or crueal someone may be, they still have the ability to possess some good in them. Thoreau, to me, feels like everyone is capable of being a great person. he finds comfort in the water lily becuase it reminds him that if this gorgeous flower can come from ugly, his hopes for the good of the people wont die becuase he knows that some good can come from the worst.

Wilderness Letter

I took some quotes and phrases from Stegners "Wilderness Letter" to David Pesonen that i really liked and made alot of sense to me. Sometimes i can consider myself ignorant to all the dangers that we as humans subject to nature..and after reading this, i feel that as a mother i probably should be more aware of our surrounding and the ways taht i can contribute to conserving our nature becuase if nobody ever does anything my child will probably not have any natural surrouding to live in.

"..if we permit the last virgin forest to be turned into comic books and plastic cigarette cases; if we drive the few remaining members of the wild species into zoos or to extinction; if we pollute the last clear air and dirty the last clean streams and push our paved roads through the last of the silence, so that never again will American be free in their own country from the noise, the exhausts, the stinks of human and automotive waste."

Here Stegner is simply emphasizing the importance of nature in our lives. he stresses the fact that if things continue to be the way they are, soon we wont have animals to reproduce for our enjoyment, and we wont have natural landscapes that one can escape to to relax and rest from our daily hectic lives. i agree, all the exhausts are killing our ozone, and the growing population and over development is leaving animals without a home. i feel that as human beings sometimes we don't respect nature as we should. i also agree when he says that soon all the development is going to grow out into the silent and calm places we run to be alone and feel at ease.

" It seems to me significant that the distinct downturn in our literature from hope to bitteness took place alomst at the precise time when the frontier officially came to an end, in 1890, and when the American way of life had begun to turn strongly urban and industrial."

Good literature, requires good nature. Nature is what many writers use to get inspired. With no conserved natural resources writers will be left with an industrail world filled with technology and exhausts as inspiration.

Wallace Stegner/ Beyond The Hundretdth Meridian

"The state of knowledge, or rather of ignorance, properly demanded blankness without even hachure. Ignorance covered the geography of the region, its topography, landforms, drainage, and scenery, its geological and orographic history, its inhabitants both vanished and extant, its products, resources, and potential usefulness. the few fixed points, the small amounts of verified information, were only enough to whet the appetite either of fabulist or scientist." ...(Stegner pg. 122, 2nd paragraph.)

As i read this part of the paragraph, it made me appreciate all that Powell did for nature. i read this and understood it as, before Powell endured all his hard work on the West people were satisfied with almost any kind of information. they were not really interested in whether or not the information was accurate or not. however, by taking all the untrue and inaccurate data as correct, people were also getting misconceptions about everything around that area. thus, making them ignorant to the fact that people actually inhabited that land, resources were available there. i feel as if Powell was almost bothered and frustrated with this kind of ignorance. he felt that people should want to go out and explore nature to find out for themselves rather than settling for anything. after i realized what kind of misconception and incorrectness one piece of false information can do, i also realized all the hard work Powell had to do in order to be able to analyze and record detailed information.