Mother Nature

House Republicans, especially those of the "tea party" ilk, think they know the cause of our country's economic woes: environmental regulations. As a result, they loaded up the appropriations bill that funds the Interior Department and the Environmental Protection Agency with dozens of riders that would encourage deadly pollution of the air and water, set back efforts to reduce greenhouse gases and allow uranium mining near the Grand Canyon, among other...

House Republicans, especially those of the "tea party" ilk, think they know the cause of our country's economic woes: environmental regulations. As a result, they loaded up the appropriations bill that funds the Interior Department and the Environmental Protection Agency with dozens of riders that would encourage deadly pollution of the air and water, set back efforts to reduce greenhouse gases and allow uranium mining near the Grand Canyon, among other...

For thousands of anglers driving northbound today on U.S. 395, the question is not whether fish will cooperate during Saturday's opening of the Eastern Sierra trout season. All mid-elevation lakes have been ice-free since mid-February. Water temperatures have climbed into the low 50s, which is ideal, and insect hatches are luring rainbows and browns to the surface. Fish will be eager to bite.

One in a series of occasional stories At Wilson's Eastside Sports in the Eastern Sierra town of Bishop, employees have been ringing up sales at a hectic pace lately as rock climbers, hikers and mountaineers stock up for the summer season. But a few blocks away, Brock's Flyfishing Specialists was quiet and empty on a recent Saturday afternoon, the victim of dismal fishing conditions around the Owens Valley. Heavy snow this winter kept several mountain lakes frozen long into spring, and an early-summer heat wave had created a torrent of snowmelt in nearby streams and rivers.

After the amazing display of natural strength exhibited Monday evening, as thunderstorms, wind and rain pushed their way into the Southland, something occurred to me as flashes of lightening danced through dawn's early light. In addition to the wars on terror we are spending billions on, our fears of nuclear weapons in large and small countries, the ignored level of poverty in our own country, parents paying for their children's schoolbooks, another mission to outer space with a ridiculous price tag (Sept.

In his Nov. 20 commentary, "No Question, the Climate Is Heating Up," about President Bush's hate for environmentalists, John Balzar correctly describes the dire situation: Bush has the power to stomp all over the environmentalists. However, he fails to mention that Mother Nature will get Bush, or really his grandkids, in the end, because the forces of nature are a million times stronger than any president of a superpower nation. Bush will destroy the future of his grandchildren by ignoring the warning of scientists who understand the basic natural limits that humans cannot escape.

Re "Yosemite needs its plan back," Opinion, July 17 As the debate rages over how Yosemite will spend the $200 million appropriated by Congress to "rebuild" after the 1997 flood, consider this: The projects completed in recent years, such as the Yosemite Fund's rebuilding of the Yosemite Falls area, are reason enough to question any further development in the Yosemite Valley.

"City Is Losing a Part of Its Soul in Playa Vista" (Commentary, June 7) stated that environmentalists "are understandably grateful for a little more wetland, and grow silent when it comes to fighting on behalf of the Indians' cultural claims." In fact, the Ballona Wetlands Land Trust has sought to protect and restore the entire Ballona ecosystem to its natural, functioning form and to protect Native American burial sites since 1994. For the record, this organization does not support the developer's man-made creek across a Native American burial site.

Re "Big Food Has Become a Big Problem," Commentary, Nov. 28: Ellen Ruppel Shell raises important concerns about the epidemic of obesity but she loses me when she jumps on that tired old bandwagon of absolving individuals of responsibility for the consequences of their choices and calls for government regulations and subsidies to address the problem. To hear Shell describe it, health-conscious consumers on their way to purchase fresh produce at a farmers market are intercepted and rendered helpless by the hypnotic advertising of "big food," at which point they obediently head for the nearest Burger King to order a triple cheeseburger and super-sized fries.

Take a ride in Ron Baird's pickup truck along the volcanic shore of Hawaii's Big Island and he'll show you an inventor's wonderland. On one parcel of this government-created energy laboratory, rows of mirrors shine white-hot in the sun, turning heat into energy. On another, brown water tanks harbor strands of algae that will be made into fuel. Nearby is a wind turbine whose blades spin parallel to the ground. "It's an awesome amount of things going on here," said Baird, chief executive of Natural Energy Research Laboratory of Hawaii Authority, which is helping to nurture 42 green private-sector businesses on 877 acres of land in Kona.

UCLA hopes a pattern isn't forming that entails the opponent's tailback having a showcase performance. First it was Stanford's Toby Gerhart (134 yards). Then it was Oregon's LaMichael James (152 yards). This week, UCLA faces California's Jahvid Best , considered a Heisman Trophy front-runner before the Bears were thumped in consecutive losses to Oregon and USC. "If you don't get your arms around him, he is going to make you pay and pay dearly," Coach Rick Neuheisel said.

Richard Dawkins, best known as the author of "The Selfish Gene" (1976) and "The God Delusion" (2006), is at the Atheist Alliance International Convention in Burbank to discuss his new book, "The Greatest Show on Earth: The Evidence for Evolution" (Free Press: 470 pp., $30), but he can't get from one banquet hall to the next without someone asking to take a picture with him. Modest and professorial, Dawkins is mobbed, celebrity-style, no matter which audience he tells there is no God. As for Mother Nature, he adds, she doesn't care either -- natural selection is not a good-natured process, but one that favors mutant efforts to get ahead.

Yes, the brush-snapping flames were close and getting closer. Yes, the choppers were hovering like giant red insects, sneezing great flumes of water onto the blaze. And yes, they'd been ordered to evacuate. But JoAnn Wrobel and her family were the picture of calm high in the La Crescenta foothills Tuesday, albeit with one son on the roof rigging a garden hose to sprinklers. Wrobel and daughter Rashea reclined comfortably in lawn chairs on the street, next to her convertible Mercedes with its "HPPNSS" license plate, a little heart after the last "s."

For thousands of anglers driving northbound today on U.S. 395, the question is not whether fish will cooperate during Saturday's opening of the Eastern Sierra trout season. All mid-elevation lakes have been ice-free since mid-February. Water temperatures have climbed into the low 50s, which is ideal, and insect hatches are luring rainbows and browns to the surface. Fish will be eager to bite.

The first big snowstorm of the season closed sections of major highways and blacked out more than 100,000 utility customers. The National Weather Service posted a winter storm warning for parts of New York and issued winter storm advisories for parts of Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Vermont. "It looked like a mini-blizzard in October," said Joe Orlando, spokesman for the New Jersey Turnpike Authority. "We're salting the roads and we haven't even gone trick-or-treating yet." Up to a foot of snow was possible in parts of upstate New York, and as much as 9 inches was forecast in Vermont's mountains, the weather service said.

Re "Wind is fire's wild card," July 5 Just a few words of appreciation for the skill and artistry of Spencer Weiner, the Times photographer who captured a thrilling moment with his photo of the aerial tanker plane north of Goleta. He must have said "Wow!" when he looked at the image he'd made. I know I did. Excellent work that many amateur shutterbugs could only dream of achieving. Mack Twamley Hemet Kudos to Weiner for the best photo I've seen in years. In one shot, he reveals the folly of individuals who challenge Mother Nature at the same time that he catches the courage, resolve and bravado of the men and women who make it possible.

Grand Canyon North Rim, Arizona My brother, John, loves deserts, slot canyons, mesas, buttes and treacherous dirt roads. At home, he pores over U.S. Geological Survey maps, dog-ears pages in hiking books, studies dry treatises on the archaeology and geology of the Southwest. Sometimes, he spreads out his camping gear on the patio -- camp stove, check; sleeping bag, check; headlamp, compass, TP, check, check, check. He has a special way of setting up a tent and you'd better get it right if you want to go with him. And I do because he always takes me someplace remarkable -- Fish and Owl canyons in southeastern Utah; Haleakala Volcano on Maui; the old Mojave Road in eastern California; Picacho del Diablo in Baja.