Jeff Kuyper, Executive Director of Los Padres ForestWatch, joined me on Radio Ojai recently to talk about the Ojai Wild! Annual Benefit on Saturday, April 4. He also talked about his organization and how it keeps our wild lands wild.
Tickets for Ojai Wild! are $75 for adults, $20 for children under 14 years of age, and a table for 8-10 people may be reserved for $600. Tickets are available by calling the Los Padres ForestWatch office at 805-617-4610.
Listen to the interview here.
Learn more about the event after the jump.
From the press release:
Forest supporters and outdoor enthusiasts from across the Central Coast are invited to attend the second annual creekside barbeque event, Ojai Wild! on Saturday, April 4, 2009. This benefit event for Los Padres ForestWatch will take place at Thacher School’s picturesque Diamond Hitch Camp along the foothills of the beautiful Los Padres National Forest in Ojai.
The festivities begin at 3:00 p.m. and the afternoon will feature appetizers, refreshments including beer and wine followed by a gourmet barbeque supper under the oak trees (vegetarian option available). Highlights of the afternoon also include live bluegrass music by the Iron Mountain Boys, wagon rides, and a guided nature walk. “We are thrilled to be able to offer this event again this year to the community,” stated Jeff Kuyper, Executive Director of Los Padres ForestWatch. “Ojai Wild! is a wonderful way to support the protection of our local forestlands and enjoy an afternoon with family and friends.”
The event concludes at dusk with an exciting auction featuring several unique items guaranteed to enhance your enjoyment of our region’s wilderness landscapes. This year’s featured items include a catered dinner and accommodations for ten people at an award-winning Ojai estate, a two-night stay at the Ventana Inn and Spa in Big Sur, beautiful paintings of Sespe Creek and the Ojai foothills, a guided kayak tour around Santa Cruz Island, a wine tour of sustainable vineyards in the Santa Ynez Valley, flyfishing and rock climbing lessons, and more.
Los Padres ForestWatch will also be presenting its Wilderness Legacy Award at the event. The Wilderness Legacy Award recognizes individuals whose efforts have contributed to the continued protection of Los Padres forestlands. This year’s recipients are Jim Mills, Fred Eissler, and Bob Easton (posthumously), three individuals who were leaders in efforts to establish the San Rafael Wilderness Area in the 1960s. The San Rafael Wilderness is the largest wilderness area in the southern Los Padres, and was the first area to be designated as such after passage of the Wilderness Act of 1964.
All proceeds from Ojai Wild! will benefit Los Padres ForestWatch, the only community-based nonprofit organization working to protect and restore wilderness landscapes, wildlife habitat, and outdoor recreation across the entire Los Padres National Forest, from the Big Sur Coast to the Sespe wildlands of Ventura County. Los Padres ForestWatch achieves its mission through community involvement, scientific collaboration, and legal advocacy.
For more information, please call Los Padres ForestWatch at 805/617-4610 or visit www.LPFW.org.
{ 13 comments… read them below or add one }
useful website!
I downloaded some of the files and links,
and joined the mailing list.
wondering if any Pronghorn Antelopes
currently reside in the Ojai Valley:
lpfw.org/about/aboutcarrizo.htm
blunt-nosed leopard lizards?
It would be cool to build a dam in the Sespe area, that way we could preserve the farms in Ventura county instead of it all going to houses.
Yeah, dams are cool. Unless you’re a fish. [name-calling deleted]
All the fish in Lake Casitas seem pretty happy. Are dams bad?
we don’t have enough water because the golfers use it ALL!!!
If we damed the Sespe we’d have water enough for everyone.
Citizens fought for decades to prevent dams on the Sespe, and now the river is protected as wilderness. Thanks to their foresight, we will never have to worry about misguided proposals to dam the Sespe – it will never happen.
Interesting that Bob Lagomarsino, a Republican, was highly instrumental in helping to “Keep the Sespe Wild”. I guess they don’t make Republicans like him anymore.
More on Bob: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_J._Lagomarsino
With the advent of global warming past mistakes may have to be reevaluated, not damming the Sespe is one costly mistake that has been made. The need for water for human beings must be wieghed against the covering of some land with water. The benifits far out wiegh the minimal consequences of land covered in water, which btw happens naturally when a geologic lake is formed.
There is plenty of water, what is missing is water management techniques that utilize what we have. There has been little design and infrastructure for water catchment and rain harvesting. This can be reverse engineered and shift us from the mentality of lack of water to realizing how much there really is. Land contour, swales, gutter notching, roof catchment etc. are all viable ways to make the most arid regions flourish. Check out Brad Lancaster’s work with this.
http://www.harvestingrainwater.com
She’s literally “raining water” upon us, the living gift of life, from Her skies …
Could any knowledgeable Ojai Post blogger please explain for me the relationship between punya and karma kshaya?
If punya, accumulated from sadhana, et al. (in conjunction with a couple of other factors), is the fuel or motive force required to power or catalyze higher progression along the spiritual path, then it seems like punya and karma kshaya or dissolution of karmas must somehow be linked.
For, if one aspect of certain practices is to help wash away karmas–think of the preliminary devata tarpanas in some Sri Vidya schools with the Parashurama Kalpa Sutra as a primary text–and such practices help clear the way forward for the sadhaka, then the dissolution of karmas is one part of the spiritual journey, since freedom from one’s karma bandha–karma vimocana–is integral in the movement towards the jivanmukta state or sahaja samadhi.
Is it that through sadhana that punya is accumulated, which can then either be “reinvested” into one’s atma anveshana to get further spiritual “returns” (e.g., destruction of certain karmas) or can be otherwise depleted by being used to help increase the likelihood of the desired goal in a prayoga, prayer, or some other method being realized, regardless of whether the intended beneficiary is oneself or another person? (I apologize for the crude, reductionist analogy, but I am trying to clearly grasp the dynamics here.)
can’t really help you “C,” but I thought I’d remind everyone about today’s event…it’s at 3pm at Thacher, and even if you have not made a reservation or pre-paid, you can do so when you arrive. See you there!