Love the land? Donate to help preserve Ranch

By Gary Bogue
Wednesday, February 22, 2006

In wildness is the preservation of the world.
-- Ralph Waldo Emerson

LET'S DO IT!

I need your help.

We must come up with $6,250 a week for the next eight weeks so Muir Heritage Land Trust can raise $50,000 to support the process of opening the 700-acre Fernandez Ranch property to the public.

This beautiful historic ranch is the Trust's most recent purchase. As responsible land stewards, they need to make the property safe so you can enjoy it. This means restoring eroded sections of Rodeo Creek, replacing a large bridge destroyed by flooding and building a staging area to provide safe parking for visitors. Grant funding will hopefully pay for most of the big construction costs.

This process will take about two years to finish, but they can't do anything until we raise the money to pay for their operation needs (day-to-day expenses) and help them get started.

"We" is you, me, school kids, businesses, foundations -- anyone who cares anything about preserving open spaces. No donation is too small (or too big!). Please send your tax-deductible donation to: Muir Heritage Land Trust, Fernandez Ranch Adventure, P.O. Box 2452, Martinez, CA 94553. Let's do it!

Dear Gary:

We are pleased to be one of the first businesses to answer your call for financial support of the Muir Heritage Land Trust's Fernandez Ranch project. This organization does a superb job of preserving local open space, and we've supported them for many years. Our hats are off to Tina Batt and her staff for their great work, which benefits us and our children's children.

Enclosed is a check for $500. Are there any other businesses out there that can also give something back to the environment?

Mike & Cecil Williams, Wild Birds Unlimited Nature Shop, Pleasant Hill

Dear Mike & Cecil:

Thanks for helping us involve businesses in our project. You're not one of the first to answer the call for financial support for the Fernandez Ranch Adventure, you're the first!

Businesses can become members of my "Business for Open Space" just by sending a donation. I'll publish your organization's name here in my column so your customers and others will know you care about preserving our precious remaining open spaces.

Dear Gary:

This is to inform you that there are in fact groundhogs in California (Feb. 16 column on Punxsutawney Phil). Here on the West Coast we call them rock chucks. They are very plentiful throughout the Sierra, especially around the South Lake Tahoe area.

Their real name on both the East and West coasts is the hoary marmot. Just thought you might like to know.

Larry B. Kinneer, cyberspace

Dear Larry:

Because these rodents are so similar in appearance, it often causes a lot of confusion when we try to identify them. They're all members of the Marmota family.

• Woodchuck, aka "groundhog" (Marmota monax): 5-10 pounds. Found in Eastern Alaska, Canada and Eastern U.S. to Northern Georgia. This species does not live in California. This is the official groundhog that everyone makes the big fuss about every spring.

• Yellow-bellied marmot (Marmota flaviventris): 3.5-8 pounds. Found from British Columbia into central California in the Sierra and northern New Mexico. These are the big fat marmots you see when you visit Yosemite.

• Hoary marmot (Marmota caligata): Largest of the marmots, 13 pounds. Found in Alaska, Washington, northern Oregon, Montana and parts of Idaho. This species does not live in California.

http://www.contracostatimes.com/mld/cctimes/living/13931990.htm