Golf Tournament a success!

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Hey Campers + Staff,

We had a phenomenal fundraiser on Friday, the 1st Annual BTC Golf Tournament! On a bright and sunny day, 93 golfers competed in teams, and brought the Tuolumne Spirit to the greens and fairways of Tilden Park. About 200 supporters attended the dinner and live auction on Friday evening, including the Honorable City Council Members Darryl Moore, Linda Maio, and Laurie Capitelli, current and past staff members, and a lot of good old Camp friends.

Jim Whitty, camper and volunteer extraordinaire, and our very own Scott Gelfand, worked the mic during the Live Auction. We auctioned off 10 items, including a stay at a vacation house in Mexico, generously donated by the Kletz Family. Campers and Staff also took home 40 fantastic raffle items, which were generously donated by campers and local businesses. Many local businesses also sponsored the 18 holes, and deserve credit and your business! Please support the businesses that support us! They are listed below.

This event was a big success, both in terms of keeping the Tuolumne Spirit alive and well, and also as a fundraiser. We owe a ton of thanks to our super-camper-volunteers, Jim and Katie Whitty, for working tirelessly and with their network of friends and FOBTC to organize and run the event. (“Round the Hall you must go, you must go, you must go!”) Many thanks to the former and current staff who worked out on the course, and to ous super volunteers Jim, Katie, Michael, Trish, and Mike for setting up, running the registration table, and keeping everything running smoothly.

It will take a real team effort for us to help get Camp rebuilt. Many thanks to Jim and Katie for devoting so much time, energy, and resources to make our first Golf Tournament a huge success!

Please join us in thanking the many sponsors and supporters of this event:

Event/Support Staffers:
Locke Jaeger, Michael Baum, Trish O’Regan and Mike Frauenfelder, the fabulous Phil Coffin, Laura Gold, Judi Newell, Babs Kavanaugh. Awesome staff, CIT, camper volunteers were: Frankie, Brennan, Maria, Lucie, Oona,Nina, Angie, Darion, Fitzy, Angelika, Maddie, Jo, Jessica, Ashton (hope I’m not forgetting anyone!) Special big thanks to Jim and Katie Whitty. Thank you Theo for the green chair!!

HOLE SPONSORS
1. Clif Bar and Chris Randall
2. Comfort Zone and Sharon Krieger
3. Mother Jones and David Rothenberg
4. Ty Alper for School Board
5. Lions Club and Dave Nicely/Jay Touriel
6. Lee, Brian and Dan at the Evergreen Lodge
7. Red Oak Realty and Schuyler Oliver
8. Meeta and Manish Doshi and Doshi Professional Dental Corporation
9. McCullough & Associates and Leon Wiatrak
10. Bakesale Betty and Alison Barakat
11.JVM Lending and Heejin Kim
12. Mechanics Bank
13. Monaghans on the Hill and Dave Newell

And a big thank you to all our supporters, we couldn’t do this without the support of the following:

The Evergreen Lodge, Disneyland, Allison Banks and GoPro, Restaurante Dona Thomas, Flora Restaurant & Bar, Bay Wolf Restaurant, Rivoli Restaurant, iScream, Masse’s Pastries, The Cheeseboard Collective, Cole Coffee, Le Petit Cochon, The Buddy Club, The DeYoung Museum, Yabbles Hats, Plantillo, The Dailey Method, Broadway Terrace Nursery, Dawn Trygstad Acupressure, Julie Orman Chiropractic, Safeway, Phil Coffin, Cakes by Jessica, Valerie & Eric Kratzer, Harvey Kletz, Dave Newell, Veneggs, Tim Messick Photography, Rishi Schweig, Richard Sheng, Sommelier Jonathan Waters, Kerry & Brian Dahm, Manish Doshi, Theo Jerome, Mira Vista Golf and Country Club, St.Mary’s Youth Sports Camp, Lisa Kirkby Desserts & Bakesale Betty

Thank you to the crew at The Tilden Park Golf Course
for enthusiastically embracing our camp spirit, and to
Taqueria Hecho en Mexico – the meal was great!

Rafting the South Fork

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We are all so loyal to our beloved South Fork Tuolumne River, but we at FOBTC want to encourage everyone to explore and enjoy the whole Tuolumne Watershed! There’s so much to do up there (beyond our shangri-la on Hardin Flat Rd) and a lot of great organizations to get involved with.

This weekend I had an unforgettable time whitewater rafting down the Main Fork Tuolumne River with Sierra Mac River Trips (www.sierramac.com). Sierra Mac is one of the premier whitewater rafting companies, and was founded by the great Marty McDonnell, who also co-founded the Tuolumne River Trust, and was part of the coalition that helped stop hydroelectric projects from flooding BTC back in the 1980’s.

I was signed up for the Cherry Creek/Tuolumne run. I’d only been whitewater rafting once, on some Class III and IV back east many years ago, so I gotta admit, there was some trepidation about taking a primarily Class V trip when I pulled up to the parking lot at 6:00am.

We took a van down the Cherry Lake Rd, past San Jose Camp, and all the way down to one of San Francisco’s dams on Cherry Creek where they generate hydroelectric power. Our guides, Adam and Tom, provided a thorough overview, healthy breakfast, and pre-trip coaching. It felt like bootcamp at times, and that’s just what we needed to get mentally prepared and to feel confident. Throughout the trip, Adam and Tom skillfully and confidently guided us through some really intense drops, rapids, and chutes. They knew that river intimately, like we all know the South Fork intimately, and they could always tell us what rock, eddy, rapid, or other feature was around the corner and how we were going to handle it.

I gotta tell you, this is not like rafting down the South Fork to Naco at quiet hour. It’s also not like Rip Roaring Rapids at Great America amusement park. It was like 100 ‘pee-wee secrets’ per minute for five straight hours. It was like jumping off Beaverhead 100 times during morning swim! OK, got it? The main fork drains Tuolumne Meadows, the Hetch Hetchy area, Cherry Lake, the Middle Fork, Clavey River, and our South Fork. With such a huge watershed, there was a ton of water in the Main Fork, and we were flying down the canyon. The water was moving between 5 and 10 mph, and some of the drops and rapids were pretty severe. It took a lot of agility, balance, and hard work, but everyone on my boat did great, thanks to good coaching from our river guide, Tom. After getting the hang of it, it was an incredibly beautiful and rich way to enjoy a Sierra Nevada river. Of course I’m partial to climbing up Beaverhead, or hiking to Small Falls, or dangling my feet in the water below Arts & Crafts……that will always be my favorite way to pass a summer afternoon. But after this amazing trip, I also highly recommend taking a whitewater rafting trip down the Main Fork Tuolumne.

In our longterm effort to rebuild BTC, it’s important for us to also a) support the larger Rim Fire reforestation effort, b) support businesses along Highway 120, c) continue to protect the whole Tuolumne watershed, and d) build relationships with business and non-profit partners in the Stanislaus National Forest. And hey- why not have the time of your life while you’re at it? So check out Sierra Mac for a whitewater rafting adventure!

Phil Coffin

Great News on the Rim Fire Recovery Plan

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Dear Campers,

As you may have already read in the papers, the Stanislaus National Forest has announced its plans for salvage logging in the Rim Fire Area. In May and June, FOBTC worked closely with the Tuolumne River Trust and Yosemite-Stanislaus Solutions to understand the Draft Environmental Impact Statement and lead our letter-writing efforts. We first want to thank those of you that wrote letters to the US Forest Service in June, expressing our concerns about road building, wildlife habitat, and localized impacts near Camp.

Great News!!! We, along with our allies at the Tuolumne River Trust and Yosemite-Stanislaus Solutions, are very pleased with the plan announced by the Forest Service; they listened to all of the stakeholders and to you – the campers!

Organizations such as the Tuolumne River Trust (our old ally) and Yosemite-Stanislaus Solutions (of which we are a member) built a broad coalition to address the original US Forest Service proposal. The USFS responded to the stakeholders.

By incorporating a variety the input from environmental, recreation, local businesses, and timber interests, the highlights of this plan include:

For Us:
– This plan does not directly impact Berkeley Tuolumne Camp, which will be treated separately. Only hazardous trees are being removed!

– While ‘Hazard Tree Removal’ will soon take place at Berkeley Tuolumne Camp (we want that of course), FOBTC hopes to work with the City of Berkeley and the US Forest Service to ensure that environmental impacts are reduced and ALL healthy trees are left standing.

Forest wide:
– Salvage logging will take place on less than half of the acres that the US Forest Service originally proposed.

– It reduces the amount of timber harvested from 650 million board feet down to less than 210 million board feet. This is more consistent with the actual capacity of local lumber mills.

– Only 20% of the entire Rim Fire area will be salvaged logged. This will allow a lot of snag trees and wildlife habitat to remain untouched.

So, campers, thank you again for making your voices heard in June, and stay tuned for more updates as we work with our regional allies to influence the next chapter in the Rim Fire Recovery: the Reforestation Proposal.

Through this broad spectrum of support our allies and we can lobby for increased federal funding essential for the far-reaching restoration work required to restore the health of the forest and watershed.

This is a victory today for the USFS doing business in a new way, incorporating all the various stakeholder groups and working together in a cohesive way to sort out solutions! Progress!!

And for us, it gives our precious 14.5 acres a special prescription plan that focuses on hazardous tree removal only and special considerations when replanting begins. We truly are excited about this news..

READ ORIGINAL ARTICLE HERE

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8/8/14

FRESNO, Calif. (AP) — While the flames still raced through California’s Sierra Nevada last year, investigators zeroed in on a deer hunter they had rescued by helicopter an hour after the first report of the wildfire that would become the mountain range’s largest in its recorded history.

They pressed the hunter, who said at first he caused a rockslide in a remote corner of the Stanislaus National Forest that sparked the blaze, and then blamed illegal marijuana growers, denying he even took a lighter on his hunting trip, according to a search warrant affidavit.

On Thursday — nearly a year later — a grand jury returned a four-count indictment against Keith Matthew Emerald, 32, alleging he started a campfire Aug. 17, 2013 in an area where fires were prohibited, and it spread beyond his control and turned into the massive Rim Fire.

The fire raged for two months across 400 square miles of land including part of Yosemite National Park, threatening thousands of structures, destroying 11 homes and costing more than $125 million to fight.

Investigators said Emerald gave inconsistent and changing versions of what happened during multiple interviews that began almost immediately after he was rescued and stretched over several weeks. Emerald was carrying bow hunting equipment when he was picked up from the Stanislaus National Forest, and rescuers and others who had contact with him initially told investigators he appeared not to understand the gravity of the situation and showed little remorse or interest in the dangerous rescue that had just occurred or the status of the fire, according to the affidavit.

A call to Emerald’s attorney, federal public defender Janet Bateman, was not immediately returned.

After multiple interviews and a promise from investigators that they would keep his name out of the media for as long as they could, he acknowledged having a lighter, starting a fire and cooking a meal, according to the affidavit. He burned trash from his backpack, but some of the embers blew uphill and set the brush on fire, he allegedly told investigators in a handwritten statement.”The terrain was almost vertical, so I physically couldn’t put it out,” he wrote. “The wind was blowing up the canyon hard enough to almost blow my hat off.”He later recanted, but investigators said a man who drove Emerald to pick up his truck after the fire began said Emerald acknowledged setting a campfire that got out of control.Emerald, a resident of Columbia, a town in the Sierra Nevada foothills, is also charged with lying to a federal agent. He has not been arrested, and prosecutors said no court date has been set for his arraignment.Authorities previously said the wildfire was started by an illegal fire set by a hunter, but they withheld the hunter’s name pending further investigation. In the affidavit, investigators said Emerald was worried about community retaliation if his name got out.”The Rim Fire was one of the largest in California history and caused tremendous economic and environmental harm,” U.S. Attorney Benjamin Wagner said in a written statement. “While those harms cannot be undone, today we have brought criminal charges relating to the cause of the fire.”The charges were the result of an investigation by the U.S. Forest Service and the Tuolumne County district attorney’s office, Wagner said.© 2014 Hearst Communications, Inc.

BTC vs Echo – A comparison in the Berkeleyside

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By Peg Healy

After Berkeley Tuolumne Camp tragically burned down last summer, the City of Berkeley hired some BTC staffers and created three sessions of a family camp program at its smaller camp at Echo Lake, near South Lake Tahoe. This camp has charms of its own. Here are my top ten:

1. Afternoon thunderheads and little sprinkles of rain. So there’s hardly any red dust on your toes and everything else you own. And plenty of wildflowers among the cabins and pines!

2. The jaw-dropping view of Lake Tahoe from the Rec Hall, the volleyball court, some fortunate cabins, and the green Adirondack chairs built by the Friends of Berkeley Tuolumne Camp.

3. The camp is relatively flat and easy to walk.

4. The program is smaller: 25 cheery staffers and 130 campers, compared to 60 staffers and 250 campers at Tuolumne Camp. Somehow smaller is even friendlier. The Dining Hall is quiet enough to actually converse with your table mates or chat with folks in the buffet line.

5. The food is better than I remember: Lunch was turkey, veggie, or beef burgers; dinner was tri-tip with rosemary potatoes, penne pasta, plus a salad bar; breakfast was cheesy eggs, sausage, melon, and hot oatmeal.

6. Tuolumne Camp tradition is alive, with silly songs and chants, Kiddie Kamp, the staff show, Theme Days, Bingo Night, sports tournaments, arts & crafts, nature hikes, tie-dye, and more.

7. There’s plenty to do besides relax. Volleyball, badminton, archery, table tennis or bocce ball, anyone? The lifeguards are hoping to reopen their pool soon. Berkeley Camp keeps canoes at the Echo Lake Marina, a short walk down the road, where you can fish or ride in a water taxi.  Hiking is at your doorstep on the Pacific Crest Trail and in the Desolation Wilderness. Birders have already spotted flickers, sapsuckers, woodpeckers, tanagers…. Campers have donated what looked like about 50 board games.

8. They’ve got a real recycling program now for bottles and cans. Also metal food lockers for campers’ snacks, to keep the local ground squirrels (and black bears) out of your tent cabin.

9. The canvas tent tops look new. Many cabins have decks, with wooden picnic tables and seats nearby in the trees. Our cabin had eight built-in bunks with mattresses, but no electricity.

10. Short showers are encouraged, to save water, but they’ve got flush toilets and the nicest porta-potties ever. Seriously. These port-potties are so clean they’re poetic.

Upcoming Events

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Save the Dates! We have a few events in the calendar and we’d like for you to join us and bring your Camp Spirit to Berkeley:

Friday Night Campfire sing-a-along in Berkeley:
August 22nd, 5:30-8:00pm 
Codornices Park, Berkeley

Memorial Campfire featuring Janet Sowers and Rec Staff Alumni
Adult Social Hour + Children’s Hour
 
Join Friends of Berkeley Tuolumne Camp, former staff members, and other campers for a special evening commemoration/celebration at beautiful Codornices Park. We will start with an Adult Social Hour from 5:30-7:00 (with Children’s Hour happening simultaneously, of course) and then will enjoy our traditional Friday Campfire from 7:00 to 8:00 or so. Janet, Phil, and other old-timers will lead us in singing all the classics, as we roast marshmallows and keep the Camp Spirit alive.

Because of limited space, you must register to attend this event. Please visit https://www.eventbrite.com/e/btc-memorial-campfire-tickets-12364343083. The password is ‘Beaverhead’.

Candlelight Vigil marking the 1-year anniversary of the fire at Camp
August 25th, 8:00-9:00pm
Martin Luther King Jr. (Provo) Park
Join FOBTC, friends and family to remember and mourn the loss of our camp, but to also find solace in our community, and in the Tuolumne Spirit, as we continue on the path towards rebuilding Camp. Please bring a candle and a friend.

The First Fundraiser: a Golf Tournament and Dinner at Tilden Park!

Fri Sept 5th Tilden Park $150 includes golf and dinner
or just join us for dinner (only $25)

Raffle tickets are available at Camp this summer, or by emailing JimWhitty@comcast.net

Prizes include vacation get-a-ways, expensive wine, an authentic green, adirondack camp chair and more!

Email Jim at JimWhitty@comcast.net for more details or if you are interested in helping or donating.

Action Needed! Save the trees

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** The deadline has passed. A big THANK YOU to all our campers and supporters who took the time to send letters to the USFS. We will keep you updated as we hear more and can determine what must happen next to preserve what we can of BTC and build back what was lost. **

Alert to all Friends of Berkeley Tuolumne Camp: FOBTC board members have been following the US Forest Services Rim Fire Recovery Project and its effect on our beloved BTC and the entire RIm Fire area. We are very concerned that their approach may be to clear-cut much of camp more indiscriminately than we feel is necessary. The deadline to submit letters to the US Forest Service on this issue is THIS coming Saturday, June 14. Please use this boilerplate letter attached to write to them (either email or paper letter) or else use the talking points within the boilerplate letter to write something more in your own words or style. Remember, the deadline to submit letters to the US Forest Service on this issue is THIS coming Saturday, June 14. We need to keep as many trees standing as possible- please help.

 

Draft text for letter to USFS – please copy the text and send it in, then send it along to all your friends and family!

Please send this to:

Postal address: Stanislaus National Forest, Attn: Rim Recovery,  19777 Greenley Road,  Sonora, CA 95370

Or email to: comments-pacificsouthwest-stanislaus@fs.fed.us  Subject: Rim Recovery

 

To the U.S. Forest Service:

As a Berkeley Tuolumne Camper I have been visiting the Stanislaus National Forest for _________ years. Each summer, our family spends many sunny days on the South Fork Tuolumne seeing old friends, hiking, enjoying camp traditions, __________, ___________. Like thousands of other Tuolumne Campers around the U.S. we were devastated by the loss of one of our favorite places in the world in the 2013 Rim Fire.

I am hopeful that we will one day return to a rebuilt camp, and I am encouraged by all the hard work the Forest Service is doing to restore the forest and improve recreation access.

There are a few points in the proposed Rim Fire Recovery Project Draft Environmental Impact Statement that I hope the Forest Service will emphasize in its decision:

1) Recreational Values: At Berkeley Tuolumne Camp in particular, salvage logging can improve fire safety but must also balance the need for recreation experiences and traditions. Since it is just a 14.5 acre site, I hope you’ll develop a “Special Treatment Prescription” that considers the recreational needs in this high-use area. I urge the Forest Service to work with the City of Berkeley, Tuolumne River Trust, and the Friends of Berkeley Tuolumne Camp to plan safe, recreation-appropriate, and science-based salvage logging operations along the South Fork Tuolumne and other developed recreation sites. Berkeley Camp has a rich 91-year history and brought thousands of people into the Stanislaus National Forest each summer, supporting the USFS recreation goals. While there are many hazard and damaged trees that must come down, there are also some trees with only moderate or light burn damage, some that are recommended for monitoring, and some that were unharmed. With a “Special Treatment Prescription” we hope that the Forest Service will leave as many trees standing as possible. Since reconstruction is several years off, access to the camp can be restricted, reducing the hazard which burned trees might pose while allowing time for those that might recover.

2) Wildlife habitat: In the South Fork Tuolumne canyon, and the Stanislaus National Forest as a whole, USFS should provide much greater consideration to the at-risk, snag dependent wildlife. The means to do this is to adopt a modified version of Alternative Four by reducing the number of trees cut and leaving more snags in place. Spotted Owls and Northern Goshawks have been seen at Berkeley Tuolumne Camp, and we would like the Forest Service to protect this vital habitat.

As a longtime camper, hiker, ____________, _____________ in the Stanislaus National Forest, it is important to me that the salvage logging operations in the Rim Fire do not have negative impacts on critical wildlife habitat, and that the unique recreational values and traditions of the Berkeley Tuolumne Camp special-use permit area are taken into consideration. I support salvage logging in the Rim Fire Area, but only if balanced with habitat protection and recreational needs of National Forest visitors. Thank you for all of your hard work since the Rim Fire in helping our National Forest recover, and thank you for inviting public comment on this very important project.

Sincerely,

Tuolumne River Trust Event

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From the TRT, our partner in preserving the Tuolumne River and restoring the forest from Rim Fire damage:

The Tuolumne River needs us today more than ever. The drought is putting tremendous pressure on government agencies to relax protections for water quality and endangered species.  We need to make sure our hard-won victories are preserved.

Last fall, 97% of the Rim Fire burned through the Tuolumne River watershed.  We need to make sure the Recovery Plan places an equal value on ecosystem restoration as it does on salvage logging.  An Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) will be released in the next few weeks, and the Tuolumne River Trust (TRT) will be heavily engaged in making sure it’s based on sound science.

Water conservation, efficiency and recycled water are key to balancing the needs of humans with those of other species that depend on the Tuolumne. In the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission (SFPUC) service territory, where 2.6 million people depend on the Tuolumne, we have reduced water consumption by 15% over the past seven years.  This has created a healthy buffer against the drought, and serves as a good example to others.  We must continue to use our precious water more efficiently.

I’m proud to work for the Tuolumne River Trust, which I believe is one of the most effective environmental groups in the region. Our strength comes from people like you!  Please help us continue to be as effective as possible by joining me on the river for a day or two of paddling, sponsoring my paddle or volunteering for a riverside event.

Many thanks!
Patrick Koepele
TRT Executive Director

http://www.paddletothesea.org/paddle/register.asp