Cleaning and Playing Along the Coast
Near where I live is a nook of the San Francisco Bay called Albany Bulb. The area is well known to dog owners who are able to let dogs run free and splash in the low waves in a part of the shore facing west toward San Francisco and Marin County.
The Bulb is also a nice place to catch a sunset, see a variety of shore birds, view the Golden Gate Bridge, or spot some innovative installations of outdoor art along its sandy trail edges.
Last Saturday, my two youngest kids and I came out to the area for the Coastal Cleanup effort happening all over the country, and in many other Bay Area locations, to pick up trash and debris along the shore. Among several volunteers, schools and organizations, we came across pounds of cigarette butts, plastic bags, Styrofoam, bottles, cans, and many other non-native objects over the two hours we were there.
While a lot of the debris we saw appeared to be deposited at the beach, a significant amount likely traveled from our streets as tossed trash that finds its way into gutters and drains. And it was nice to teach my kids in a concrete way where trash carelessly discarded can end up, and the impact it has on our shores and the wildlife who live there.
Learn more about this event and results of the effort by clicking HERE
A Glorious Equinox Hike
This week has been so packed with activity for me and my family, I have hardly had a moment to sit down and capture its highlights to share with the Outdoor Afro community. But alas! -- A moment has opened to reflect in print on the equinox, which brought forth the gift of planets, stars, sun, and harvest moon under a canopy of sky still undecided about being day or night.
People ask all the time, “Do you do any events?” Well, the short answer is: no, but the most accurate answer is: sometimes.
While I personally get out quite a bit, Outdoor Afro likes to leave it to the experts of programming to get brown people outdoors, and positions itself as a kind of cheerleader, encourager, and connector to outdoor programs and experiences. But sometimes, as in about once per quarter, I do gather groups of locals together to participate in low-barrier activities that unite people in a practical way with the outdoors that makes the transformative power behind this effort immediate.
So last Thursday, in partnership with the East Bay Regional Parks, Outdoor Afros and park fans gathered to hike in the Oakland, California Hills, where we watched day’s end and night’s beginning on the first day of fall. What makes this fall equinox hike so special is that it came with a Harvest moon, or full moon, that won't be seen altogether again until 2029.
Our group of 15 people, ranging in age from pre-schoolers to senior citizens, met at the trail head at 6pm and led by parks naturalist Bethany Facendini on a moderate, well lit 3.5 mile hike where we were able to view sublime ridgeline vistas. Together we reached the summit just in time to spot the sun and moon on opposite sides, with steady lights of Jupiter and Venus in view. Adding to the rarity of the moment, were the gifts of the hikers, who each brought treats to eat, songs, and poems to share that enriched the experience for everyone.
Here is a poem written and shared aloud by Outdoor Afro Cliff Sorrel, who came with his birthday celebrating wife Tyann (pictured above):
The Libra
As the earth spins
The night and day
Arm wrestles to have the longest hour
The Libra blooms with grace and elegance
Like the opening of a flower
Zesty and feisty as the Libra appears
Controlling the balancing act of the scales
As it swings like a pendulum
The universe swells
But on this day.....this day
The Libra prevails
The scales are equally balanced
Throughout the beginning and end of this day
The autumn equinox is when the day and night
Are closely equal, to complete the equinoctial
Points sequel
To learn more about the Fall Equinox, check out this website.
Spotted on Sunday – The Mapp Family Goes Kayaking
On the eve of autumn, and grayer Bay Area skies, my kids and I decided to head out to Lake Merritt in Oakland, California to paddle around its famous Wildlife sanctuary.
In 1915 organized feedings of the wildlife began at Lake Merritt, and it is every Oaklander’s childhood memory to have gone to “feed the ducks” with bags of day old bread scraps. Today, you can purchase the sustainable option of birdseed in the ecology center to share with the variety of hungry birds along the shore, such as egrets, herons, Canada goose, and many other species of water fowl.
After getting our $20 deposit back, the total cost of our mid-day excursion was an affordable $24 for both kayaks for the hour. Compare this to the cost of a trip to the movies in exchange for priceless memories. My youngest said over and over while sitting behind me in the kayak, “this is so relaxing and fun Momma,” -- he could not have spoken a more perfect truth.
Want to rent a sailboat, kayak, or paddle boat at Lake Merrit? Click Here
View the rest of our pictures!
Where do you like to go kayaking? What is your childhood memory of interacting with wildlife?
Belle Isle State Park
Cheryl Lockett-Oliver, 30-something wife, mom and Richmond, Virginia resident of 20 years shares with Outdoor Afro some shots of her and her school age sons hanging out recently on Belle Isle, a small island and Virginia State Park in the James River once used in the past as a prison for union soldiers during the Civil War. Now it’s a popular destination because of the breathtaking views of the adjacent city and skyline.
Cheryl says, “There are several bike trails around the island so you always see people out there biking, running, walking or skipping rocks like we did. I have seen people out there kayaking and I think they even do some rock climbing there.”
Typically, Cheryl enjoys running and biking with the family. She says, "We try to get outside as much as possible, and expand our horizons. We want to go camping, but have not gotten there yet!"
For more information about Belle Isle State Park, visit their website
Outdoor Nation Special Report
Remember the Outdoor Nation Youth Summit of over 500 youth from all over the US last June in New York City's Central Park I attended? Well, the event organizers, the Outdoor Foundation, just released the data collected from the participants, and the findings are fascinating, resulting in a report that offers five top recommendations to President Obama to inform his America's Great Outdoors Initiative including:
1. Engage, Employ and Empower Youth by working with Outdoor Nation and its community of Outsiders.
2. Engage Youth in the Outdoors during the School Day by collaborating with the Department of Education and local school leadership to engage school children in outdoor learning opportunities and active time outdoors at school.
3. Increase the Number of Safe and Accessible Green Spaces, particularly in low-income communities with significant health disparities, by eliminating park, playground and natural space desserts where they exist.
4. Support Close-to-Home Outdoor Recreation by providing resources to parents and caregivers that help address the barriers to allowing unstructured outdoor play.
5. Strengthen Outreach to New Audiences at all relevant agencies by integrating 21st Century communications tools such as mapping devices, iPhone applications, Facebook, Twitter, blogs, and other tools that will increase the visibility of our parks and natural spaces.
"This Special Report for President Obama represents some of the best ideas and recommendations for protecting America's great outdoors," said Christine Fanning, executive director for The Outdoor Foundation. "For the first time, empowered young leaders from across the country are speaking with one voice about outdoor programs and policies -- and being heard. We look forward to working with the Administration to implement these forward-looking concepts."
Click here to download the full report.
Do you think anything is missing from the report? What might you add to it?
For more information about the Outdoor Foundation visit: www.outdoorfoundation.org
My Square Mile
Contributed by Michael David Cobb Bowen, the political & cultural blogger 'Cobb'. He brings up the timely topic of youth getting outdoors, through a personal reflection of play as a child in Southern California.
Spence asks a critical question about our trust in society. How far could you roam as a kid? I was surprised to discover that although I felt like I had a virtual infinity by the time I went to high school, before I was 14 years old it was basically one square mile.
This little grid from Google maps is where I grew up. LA 90016. We had pretty much everything we wanted in that square. Football, basketball, swimming, box tag, skateboarding, fruit tree raids, capture the flag, chicken, ditch, hide and go get it, drag out and dozens of other ghetto games that kept our attention. By the time I was 14, I took the bus to Venice Beach (9 miles) or to Hollywood Roller Rink (7 miles).
But during that childhood, we took a whole lot of trips up to the Angeles National Forest and we took a lot of neighborhood kids too. So there was an interesting sense of mobility in that.
In fact, as I think of it, a great deal of my own mobility and comfort with that came from camping. I can't think of any other black kids or families that spent much time in the Army surplus stores for trips up the Angeles Crest. But it seemed like we were up in them hills every weekend ever summer and at least once every snow. We would bring back snow to the 'hood and have snowball fights right in our front yard. Then we would go to summer camp with the Crenshaw Y at Big Bear and with the Episcopal Church down in San Diego County near the town of Julian.
My kids get a mix of travel and activity. But we just don't turn them loose in the streets. I will always lament the loss of improvisation today's kids have because of their lack of unsupervised pickup game protocols. But they have other things we couldn't imagine, like online friends in game networks. It's a different world, but not necessarily worse.
Brother Yusuf’s Corner – September
Green Tech High Charter School Students in Albany, New York Get Youth Outdoors and Prepared for “Green Youth Leadership”
Brother Yusuf Burgess, Outdoor Afro Contributor
Black Forest Lodge - Cornwall, NY
This summer the Green Tech High Charter School’s BOYS OUTDOOR LEADERSHIP TEAM (B.O.L.T.) was successful at getting 18 participants certified in Outdoor Leadership by the Sierra Club. This Outing Leadership Workshop was held at the Black Forest Lodge, in New York’s Catskill Mountains. This place is worth visiting just for the locale and the lodge itself. It’s close to Bear Mountain and West Point, NY. Both amazing locations in themselves. The lodge had a huge outdoor deck, good spacious rooms accommodating up to 8 per room and compostable toilets! The lodge sleeps 60 and is a "green" home for everything from research symposia to yoga retreats.
The Sierra Outing Leadership Workshop is the nationally-managed program charged with developing new and seasoned leaders from Local (Group & Chapter Outings), Inner City Outings (ICO), and National Outings (the trips listed in Sierra magazine). Brand new recruits with no program affiliation were welcomed as well. This workshop fulfills the Sierra Club's OLT 101 and OLT 201 requirements.
The Green Tech High students, teachers and volunteers learned how to plan safe and successful multi-day outings, enhance their competence and confidence in leading groups, and enhance their competence and confidence in achieving good group behavior and further their awareness and involvement in the conservation work of the
Sierra Club. Other topics included Conservation through Outings, Trip Planning, Outings Nuts and Bolts, First Aid Kits, Leave No Trace and an Emergency Response Scenario. This workshop was designed to focus more on the interpersonal skills associated with outdoor leadership. These "softer" skills are vital to being a successful leader. These skills include learning how to manage your group, how to create a positive group dynamic, and how to practice a safety-based planning and delivery of an outing.
As the Family Intervention Specialist at Green tech High and one of the lead coordinators of the school’s “Going Green” initiative, we were a group of 45+ Sierrans from all over the tri-state with two purposes in mind for this weekend- to learn all we can about how to lead a successful hike and hopefully to take a hike or two ourselves, being that we were surrounded by unspoilt nature.
All of the young students from Green Tech High and the teachers and volunteers had a fun time outdoors and a great experience in the workshops with the Sierra Club trainers. We ended Saturday by learning about David Brower - Sierra Club’s first executive director. The movie we saw on how David Brower and others reinforced all the great work Sierra Club has hisoritcally been involved in, including the nationalization of the 10 parks and seashore including Redwoods, Pt. Reyes and Cascades.
Our next step is to structure an Eco-Outings Club at Green Tech High and invite our incoming 9th graders, the 8th graders from the Middle Schools and their parents to “Get Outdoors And Learn”
In conclusion, we encourage all to check out any local outdoor activities in your area. There are plenty of organizations and clubs, there’s always of course sierraclub.org. Lets invite others to the restorative power of the outdoors and move forward on a mission to “Leave No Child Inside”.
Bird of the Month – September
Douglas "Birdman" Grey, Outdoor Afro Contributor
If you haven't noticed...birds tend to fascinate me. This month's feathered friend is like no other. It must be the engineering side of me that marvels at the feats of this month's tiny avian creation.
We in the engineering world often use the term "operational parameters" when describing a machine or system's capabilities. It is the operational parameters of this month's bird, the Ruby-throated Hummingbird, which fascinate and marvel me. Here are just a few of these interesting parameters to which I refer:
- They're able to fly forwards, backwards, sideways, up, down, and stop and hover in one spot (and for short distances they can even fly upside-down).
- They can fly up to 60 miles per hour.
- They can flap their wings 60-80 times per second in normal flight...but can beat them 200 times per second during courtship dives.
- At rest, their heart beats around 250 times per minute, but during flight their heart beats about 1300 times per minute.
- They migrate for thousands of miles...but the most fascinating thing about their migration is that many make a huge jump across the Gulf of Mexico. A trip of about 500-600 miles, which they are able to do non-stop. (All from a bird that weighs only 0.1 ounce.)
- They almost consume their entire weight in nectar, sap, sugar water, and insects every day. When in its active state, a hummingbird will starve to death if it doesn't eat every few hours.
- Hummingbirds are not only the world's smallest bird, but the smallest known animal with a backbone.
- Hummingbird eggs are so small, that a penny could cover 3 of them completely.
- Hummingbirds can see and hear better than we humans, but they cannot smell.
- Hummingbirds only live here in the Western Hemisphere. (About 340 different species)
OK...I'll stop...I could easily continue, but you get the point. Hummingbirds are "very" interesting indeed.
One of my most memorable bird watching sights this year involved a Ruby-throated Hummingbird. While out birding one day, I had the opportunity to observe a "hummer" delicately and precisely dine on insects that it would pluck out of a spider’s nest. What would seem to be an almost impossible task by any other creature, this hummingbird conquered without any difficulty whatsoever. When the builder of the web came out in protest, it was quickly plucked out just as easily as the trapped insects. Watching this bird eat these insects and spider made me realize that these birds eat a lot more protein than I had previously thought; something I was able to research and verify.
Not only am I impressed with the hummingbird because of its abilities, but in my opinion, hummingbirds are some of the world's most beautiful birds. I'm sure the Spaniards who first laid eyes on them thought so too...because when these early explorers saw them for the first time they called them "Joyas Voladoras" or "Flying Jewels". A very fitting name indeed!
If you get the chance, check out the making of a wonderful film on hummingbirds.
If you have time to watch the entire PBS nature video "Hummingbirds: Magic in the Air" check it out!
Douglas “Birdman” Gray has been birding almost all of his life. He grew up on a family farm near Clarksville, Tennessee, where they grew crops ranging from apricots to wheat, and most things in between. They also raised chickens, guineas, pigs, horses, and a cow named.......Apples. Doug’s grandfather identified the birds they would see daily on the farm.
Doug now resides in Indianapolis and works in Parenteral Engineering with Eli Lilly and Company. Most of his current birding takes place in Indiana, with a concentration on Central Indiana, where he leads bird walks for "Backyard Birds". Doug can be reached at 317-255-7333.
Join the Natural Leaders in a Day of Service
The Natural Leaders Network has joined forces with Sierra Club’s Serve Outdoors initiative to remember and honor September 11th through outdoor service. For the generation that came of age after 9/11, 2001, service has become an important part of life. For many, service means standing up for our neighborhoods, our communities, our country and our natural world. Through service, diverse young Americans are taking the lead in building a foundation for a healthy and equitable future.
For so many of us, the outdoors is a place of solace and refuge. This is also true for armed services members returning from overseas, firefighters taking a much needed break from work, and families facing tough economic realities. Together, the Natural Leaders Network and the Sierra Club, with the support of the Children & Nature Network, will observe the National Day of Service by engaging in and working to highlight, enhance, protect, and restore these vital outdoor spaces.
The Natural Leaders Network is honored to be part of this important day. We hope you will join us by visiting Serve Outdoors and hosting or participating in a service project in your community.
Yours,
The Natural Leaders Network
Outdoor Obamas
Just scanned the White House photostream on Flickr, and these lovely photos caught my eye. So nice to see how the adult Obamas model outdoor engagement for their own children. Check back for more "Outdoor Obama" sightings!
