Ways of Seeing

There are a few key ideas in Richard White’s The Organic Machine that I think can be useful for seeing Lake Tahoe: the importance of knowing nature through labor, and how different forms of labor mean different understandings of nature; the importance of understanding the work that nature does as well as the work that people do with nature, how that work is organized, and the struggles for control of both kinds of work -- nature’s work and human work; the blending of nature, human, and machine in an organic machine that must be understood whole, all natural, social and historical; and the creation of a virtual river that influences the actual river.

Jenny Price whimsically takes some of these ideas on a tour of Los Angeles, and adds some of her own ideas about human-nature hybrids along the way.

In your next assignment, you will be writing about at least three ways of seeing nature in the Lake Tahoe Basin. Now that might seem like a pretty simple assignment. It’s hard not to see nature at Tahoe. But you will want to surprise us with some new ways of seeing and thinking about nature at Tahoe, using ideas you’ve taken from the readings and your experiences and research in this course, and in particular, inspired by this week’s readings from White and Price.

So, once again, let’s start the conversation here. Tell us about at least one new way of seeing nature at Tahoe that you will take away from this course. I think it will help all of us if we share and discuss some of these new ways of seeing early and often.

Living Laboratory

The Lake Tahoe Basin is a living laboratory. In your next assignment you will be writing a short essay that explores the whole Lake Tahoe Basin as an ecosystem. Or you may choose some part or aspect of the ecosystem. The point will be to explore the connections between the kinds of visions of science, nature, history, and philosophy reflected in this week’s major reading: Daniel Botkin's Discordant Harmonies. Your posting here this week should be a first, rough draft exploration of your thoughts on the matter to get your ideas flowing and out for discussion, which will help you in your writing. It's fine if it's off-the-cuff and colloquial, but the more you can tie it to the ideas in Botkin, the better.

On our first field trip to Lake Tahoe we heard echoes of some of the historical metaphors that Botkin analyzes: nature as divine order, Earth as a fellow creature, nature as the great machine, nature as the biosphere, nature as managed living resources, as well as the new metaphor that Botkin advocates, which I would characterize as nature as a dynamic cybernetic living system for which we can and must create computer models that will guide our engineering efforts on behalf of nature and ourselves.

Wow. That was a mouthful.

Your essay should tackle the resonance and staying power and use of these metaphors -- myths and meanings, if you will -- in the Lake Tahoe Basin today. You ought to also consider the ideas and possibilities and relationships that each of those metaphors open up for us, and what they close down. Every point-of-view opens up certain vistas and obscures others.

To do this you should use a few other sources in addition to Botkin: what you have heard on our field trips; what you have read or seen or heard in media coverage of science and the environment in the Lake Tahoe Basin (it might be worth doing some browsing in that realm if you haven't done a lot); the scientific papers I have posted on the course readings page of the course web site; and the package of scientific abstracts from last year's Tahoe Forum, which I am sending up to you via Donica. The site you choose -- the whole basin or some part of it, such as the forest, or Angora Ridge, or Tahoe Keys, for example -- can ground your essay.

A word about the scientific papers and abstracts. Don't get bogged down in them. You may "gut" them too. You should, however, pay particular attention to the two papers on water quality and clarity. Make sure you understand them or that you understand what it is that you don't understand about them so that you can ask questions. We will be meeting with some of those scientists. And they have told me there will be a quiz. I would like the quiz to be a two-way street.

So let's get started here. Tell us about the "discordant harmonies" of the visions of nature you have seen and heard echoing around the Lake Tahoe Basin. And which ones resonate most with you? And why?

The Fire This Time

While we will want to broaden our frame of view, the Angora Fire will dominate our discussion this summer around Lake Tahoe. And I suspect it will color your conversations in the year to come.

So let's jump right in.

Please read the Sacramento Bee story by Phillip Reese and Mary Lynne Villenga, "Investigative Report: Danger Builds in Tahoe Tinderbox; Many Homes Near Lake Constructed Since 1990 Are in Flammable Forest," from July 7, 2007. A link is posted on the course readings page of the course web site. You should also peruse some of the other stories and comments posted at OurTahoe.org, in particular those exploring the confusion and anger surrounding the Tahoe Regional Planning Agency and its policies in the immediate aftermath of the fire.

Now use the readings for our first week to deepen our discussion about the fire. Don't limit yourself to these questions, but you might consider these questions to get started:

How does Sam Hays and the early history of conservation help us understand the disconnect between citizens and agencies, such as TRPA and the Forest Service?

How did this relationship to the environment in our democracy change in the second half of the 20th century that Rothman chronicles?

If Tahoe has evolved from timber barons to ecologists, as Strong suggests, why does the relationship between the environment and community seem more precarious than ever?

How does Raup suggest that we should think about this changing relationship between people and their environment?

I'll refrain from asking any questions about Gruell, Pyne, and Twain, because I think their relationship to fire is too obvious. What they bring to the conversation is very important. And we will address that in our conversations in class and in the field. And if you want to bring them in here, you may, of course. But I do want us to think about the larger historical context, and the ways that these other readings might help us think about the fire this time.

Greetings

Welcome to the web log for Journalism 784: Environment of the West. Shortly I will post some questions to begin the conversation about our first set of readings. In the meantime, if you have any questions or comments that you would like to begin with, please post them as comments here.