Garden on the Edge:

California and the Environmental Imagination

WEEK/DATE

TOPIC

ACTIVITIES

READINGS

1 Jan. 28

CALIFORNIA: Garden on the Edge

Introduction to course;
Forming EcoGroups;
Discussion

Handouts

2 Feb. 4

Basic Ecology
Module A:
The L.A. Basin & the Deserts

Guest Lecturer: Terry Wright The New Geology of California
Film clips: Grapes of Wrath; Volcano, Miracle Mile

Schoenherr: Introduction and Chap. 1;
Chap. 8, pp 313-328 & pp 401-405;
Davis: Ecology of Fear Steven: Phantom Limb

3 Feb. 11

L.A. & The Deserts (continued)

Guest Lecturer: Dorothy Freidel Urban Desert:
The Physical Geography of Los Angeles
Cadillac Desert (Video)

Schoenherr: Chap. 9, pp 406-425, pp 454-456, & pp 514-515;
Reiser, Austin, Didion,Gilbar (p.189-236 & p.326-336)

4 Feb. 18

Module B:
The Mountains of California

Guest Lecturer: Ed Castillo Native Americans' Relationship to the Natural Environment

Schoenherr: Chap. 6, pp 228-236;
Chap. 7, pp 261-282;
Gilbar (p.21-92) &(p. 316-325)

5 Feb. 25

Institutional Responses to Ecological Crisis

Tom Jacobson: Dregs of the Earth: Ecological Effects of Hydraulic Mining in the Sierra

Schoenherr: Chap. 4, pp 69-94 & pp 163-166
and Articles on Reserve in Library;
Gary Synder, John Muir, McPhee

6 Mar. 4

Integrating History, Literature and the Natural World

Field Trip to Jack London State Park

All Gold Canyon on Reserve in Library

7 Mar. 11

Mountaintops: Ecological Islands (of Relicts & Endemics)

Guest Lecturer: Rachel Gardner Ecopsychology and Gardening with Native Plants

Schoenherr: Chap. 5, pp 167-182 & pp 210-215

8 Mar. 18

Module C:
The California Coast and Estuaries

Guest Lecturer: Chris Kjeldsen Bodega Head and the Demise of the Nuclear Energy Industry;
The Sacramento Delta

Schoenherr: Chap. 2, pp 18-26 & pp 34-41;
Schoenherr: Chap. 12, pp 627-633, pp 659-660;
Gilbar (p.301-315) (p.337-355)

9 Mar. 25

Estuaries: One of Our Most Threatened Habitats

Guest Lecturer: Kathleen Harrison Ethnobiology of Catalina Islands and Coastal California
Tom Jacobson: Vanishing Wetlands

Schoenherr: Chap. 12, pp 687-693
and Articles on Reserve in Library

10 Apr. 1

Bodega Head and Bodega Estuary

Field Trip to the Sonoma Coast

Schoenherr: Chap. 12, pp 657-671 and pp 672-683

11 Apr. 15

Module D:
The Great Central Valley of California

Gerald Haslam will introduce today's Guest Lecturer: James Houston Wallace Stegner: Writers as Environmental Activists

Schoenherr: Chap. 10, pp 516-535

12 Apr. 22

Disappearance of Vegetation in the Great Central Valley

Guest Lecturer: David Harris

Schoenherr: Chap. 10, pp 538-543

13 Apr. 29

Module E:
California's Unique Forests
Coastal Redwood Forest

Field Trip to Armstrong Woods State Park

Schoenherr: Chap. 7, pp 283-293

14 May 6

Forests of the Sierra Nevada;
Headwaters Forest

Gillian Parker The Esthetics of the Environmental Movement
Student Forum: The Media, The Environmental Movement and Headwaters

Schoenherr: Chap.4, pp 92-101 and 108-123
Gilbar (p.355-365)

15 May 13

Otay Mesa

Guest Lecturer: Elizabeth Burch The Media and the California Environmental Movement

Articles on Reserve in Library

16 FINAL EXAM

The Garden Revisited

Faculty:Student Forum
Future Perfect: The Ecology of California 2000 - 2100

Course Description

Marilyn I. Cannon, March 4, 1999