CAP’s Tom Infusino goes back to school

CAP’s Big Trees Field Trip with Calaveras High School Earth Club

On September 13, 2012, CAP’s Tom Infusino joined the over 30 students of the Calaveras High School Earth Club for a field trip walk in the forest at Big Trees State Park.

The field trip was organized by Tom and Stephanie Bohler, a teacher at Calaveras High School, and the Earth Club’s lead advisor. To my delight, I was invited along to film and chronicle the event. This was my first visit to Big Trees State Park.

At each stop throughout the park Tom stopped to talk to the Club about three things.  First, was to learn a little about how the forest grows, and second, to consider lessons for our own lives that we can learn from how the forest grows.  The third thing Tom talked about was land use and environmental planning issues in Calaveras County.

How Redwood Trees Grow

Tom told Earth Club students that there are some good life lessons we can learn from how redwood trees grow.  First, to grow in the future, you build on what you have.  Second, if you have survived some tough times, sometimes it is best to put your past behind you.  Third, it is important to keep your protection in front of you at all times.

1.     Build on what you have.

2.     Put your past behind you.

3.     Keep your protection in front of you.

Big Trees State Park’s grove of Redwood trees

At this stop Tom told the Club that this grove was discovered in 1852.  After decades of advocacy to protect the grove, it was finally set aside as a state park in 1931.  It took 79 years for that to happen.

The life lesson for the students was that progress is often slow.  Often to achieve your goal, you must patiently work over a long period of time.   If you want to be a doctor or a lawyer, you are going to have to go to school for many years.  If you want to get married and have good kids, you are going to have to spend decades in relationship with them.  You will succeed through your patient work over a long period of time.

Progress is often slow in planning, Tom explained.  Calaveras County began to update its county general plan in 2006.  He described the General Plan and its various elements, maps and policies that guide future development and conservation on private land in the County over the next twenty years or so.  He told the Earth Club students that completion of the final plan is still at least two years away.  “So, yes, progress takes time, and we will succeed by patiently working on the general plan update over a long period of time.”

Thriving in our environment

Tom described the types of redwood trees common to the Sierra Nevada.  He explained how the trees are adapted to the frequent fire, the heavy snow loads, and the dry summers, of the mixed conifer forests of the Sierra Nevada.  They reproduce by seed only.  The life lesson here is to live where you can thrive.

“People are like redwoods”, Tom explained, “in that we have different needs to help us thrive.  If you want to be a doctor, you are going to need an office and a nearby hospital.  If you want to open a store, you are going to need a building in a good location.  If you want to raise a family, you are going to need a big house, a good job, and a way to get your kids educated at home or in school.  Like the trees, we need to live where we can thrive.”

Tom told the students that the County General Plan helps to provide the things that are needed for the health, safety and well being of local residents and visitors; so they can live and thrive here.  “Furthermore, he added, the choices we make in the General Plan would play a big role in determining whether Calaveras County will be a place you can thrive in the future. “

In explaining the ways that fire-adapted forest provides the conditions that help the redwood trees to thrive under normal conditions, and to reproduce under just the right conditions, Tom told the Club, that like forests we can have debris in our life.  Bad habits like laziness, addiction, judgmentalism, dishonesty, disrespect, or selfishness.  Like woody debris on a forest floor, these bad habits might start to build up little by little.  If we ignore them, then before we know it, we are acting in ways that we never intended.  Like the forest, we will thrive if we clear out our debris regularly.  It is never too late to start.

The same is true for government agencies that are responsible for planning how we will clear out the debris from our human settlements, and how we will prepare for fire.  Tom explained that there are government agencies that do long-term plans for solid waste disposal at landfills, and solid waste recycling.  Sanitation districts plan for the treatment of sewage and water recycling.  Air pollution control districts plan for reducing air pollution emissions from vehicles and industry.  And fire districts plan for preventing and responding to fires that would otherwise lay waste to our property.

“As individuals, Tom said, we can help do our part by reducing our own waste in these areas.  We can reuses and recycle our goods.  We can avoid throwing cosmetics and other chemicals into the toilet that complicate water recycling.  We can carpool, and we can purchase cars that produce less air pollution.  We can clear the brush from around our homes and make our landscape more fire-safe.  These things will help more of us thrive in our environment.”

Taking the right path

The stop at the Tunnel Tree, where early tourist’s to the park drove their cars through and posed for photos, gave Tom the opportunity to talk about taking the right path throughout life.

“This tree is an example of what happens”, Tom explained, “when we take the wrong path in life.  When the tourist took the wrong path, the tree was hurt.  If we take the wrong path, we can hurt our friends, our family, our co-workers, and ourselves.”

“A lot of local planning goes on to ensure that we have big enough roads to get everybody on the right path to where they need to go.”  Tom described how every five years, the County has its 20-Year road plan updated and tries to figure out ways to pay for it.  He told the Earth Club students that it is simple math, “we may need to build over 900 million dollars worth of roads over the next twenty years to accommodate expected population and economic growth.  Unfortunately, even if we collect all of the road fees, and get all the money we expect from the State and Federal governments, there is still about 600 million dollars short.”

Participate in your diverse community

The Earth Club learned, from Tom, that the Sierra Redwood trees do not grow in a forest with only one type of tree in it.  Tom explained that Sierra Redwoods grow in what are known as mixed conifer forests.  “If you look around you, in addition to the redwood, you will see other cone bearing trees like sugar pine, ponderosa pine, and fir trees”, he told the students.

Here, the students learned the life lesson that every living thing benefits from and contributes to the forest community.  It takes each member of a diverse community to work hard for the community to thrive.

Tom explained to the students that in preparing the General Plan for the community, Calaveras is “struggling to provide for the conflicting needs of a diverse community:

1.     Forest lands need to be available for timber harvest, for wildlife habitat, for water production, and for recreation.

2.     Agricultural lands need to be available for producing food and fiber, as well as    tourist attractions.

3.     People need to have quiet places to live, as well as noisy places to work and play.

4.     We need clean air to breathe, but also to dilute the air pollution from industry and cars.

“How well we balance these conflicting interests, Tom told the Earth Club, will play a big roll in how healthy, safe, and prosperous your community will be in the future.”

Our final stop on the walk was at one of the largest Redwood trees in the park. At this stop Tom told the students that Sierra Redwoods are the largest living things on earth.  “They can grow over 300 feet tall, over 30 feet in diameter, and to over 1,300 tons.  But they don’t start out life big.  They start out as seeds so small; it takes a pile of up to 6,000 of those seeds to weigh just one ounce.“

Tom took this last stop to give the student’s their final life lesson. He told them “no matter how small, or how powerless, or how poor, you may seem now, you too have the opportunity to be a big, powerful, and prosperous member of your community.”

Whether as individuals or as a club, Tom told the Earth Club, “you choose to recycle, or to conserve water, or to restore wildlife habitat, or to install solar panels, or to build affordable housing, or to participate in planning, or to teach these skills to the next generation; you can have a positive impact on your community, now and in the future.  That will all be a lot easier, if you live your life in accord with the lessons we learned from the forest today:

1.     Build on what you have.

2.     Leave your tough times behind you.

3.     Protect yourself.

4.     Patiently work over time.

5.     Live where you thrive.

6.     Clean out your debris regularly.

7.     Follow the right road.

8.     Participate in your diverse community. “

A lesson for all

Tom Infusino’s walk in Big Trees with the Calaveras Earth Club is a life lesson for all of us. Young or old, whether your influence on your community is good or bad depends on your choices. You can be an asset to your community and you can help your community become productive like a redwood forest. I discovered here on this walk through Big Trees, and throughout Calaveras County, that there are many young role models with a strong concern for their future.  And, they are eager to take a part in shaping vibrant, healthy, and prosperous communities for generations to come.   As for my life lesson learned on this walk, when it comes to protecting and preserving our precious natural resources, I am not alone in this forest or in my community.

Tom Infusino and Calaveras High School Earth Club