Schreiner’s Media Landscape

July 28, 2010

Wasatch National Forest Adventure: Utah’s Rail Trail is So Much Fun, You Forget It’s Bicycling

Filed under: Nature, Salt Lake, Utah, farm, sports, water, wildlife — Ken Schreiner @ 4:56 pm

Calling myself a bicyclist would be an insult to those who spend thousands of dollars on equipment, entry fees, and those fancy, tight-fitting uniforms that make me gasp for air merely looking at them. I don’t do much street cycling because it’s too dangerous and I’d sooner walk. When I do bicycle, I love to go into the mountains, the Shoreline Trail which wanders all along the Wasatch Front (past our house), or the famous Rail Trail.

The Rail Trail is a former railroad that starts in Park City and goes 24 miles northeast toward the Wyoming border. It’s been turned into a bike path that meanders through red sandstone hills, ranch land, along the Weber River and some of the best tubing and trout fishing in America, through little towns like Wanship and Coalville, and ultimately into the Uinta Mountains (you can only cycle to Echo Reservoir where the trail ends at an old bridge that’s fenced off. That’s where I took the pic).

There are places to stop and have a picnic, towns to explore, spots to swim and fish, plenty of animals and wildlife. Cows, horses, goats all watch placidly as you pass by. Big and beautiful sandhill cranes scour the fields, groundhogs scurry, foxes hunt, and hawks circle ominously. There’s a mild slope descending about 1500 feet from Park City to Coalville. But if you drive to Coalville, start there and head toward Park City, you get the uphill part out of the way first and coast back to your car. However, the round trip to and from PC is easily doable if you’re in any kind of shape.

The trail’s only paved in some parts. It’s mostly gravel so mountain bikes, not street bikes, are your best vehicle. Don’t forget to bring water. There are a couple of shops along the path to get a bottled drink but this is Mormon country and most places aren’t open on Sunday. Also, bring your tire repair kit and/or some of those small, emergency tire inflation tanks. We’ve had a couple of flats during our excursions. Nails, barbs, thorns, and other tire killers are rare but this is farm country. Fortunately, the Rail Trail is right along a state highway (not to mention Interstate 80) so you’re never too far from civilization or a lift if you have a technical problem.

The scenery is spectacular, it’s less than an hour from Salt Lake, there are no crowds, and no motorized vehicles allowed. You can’t spend a day much better than that.

March 19, 2010

Breaking Irony: Water Pumping Causes Huge Fissures; Private Greed Again Leads to Government Intervention

Filed under: Earth, Environment, Nature, Oil, Sierra Club, Utah, conservation, farm, mining, sprawl, water — Ken Schreiner @ 8:05 am

Someday in America, water will become a more precious substance than oil. In many parts of the world, it already is. Here in Utah, we’re finding out now what many places in the west, Arizona and Nevada among them, already know: humans’ growing thirst is causing the Earth to literally fall out from under them. It’s similar to the problems caused by mining, oil drilling, mangrove uprooting and other human, Earth-moving activities.

Excessive pumping for agriculture and other human uses has caused a two-mile stretch of the Cedar Valley in southwest Utah to fall 100 feet in 70 years. The fissure has grown so big so fast that it’s causing the sewage in a nearby subdivision to flow backwards. State authorities are telling farmers, ranchers and land developers to cut back. But don’t expect that to happen. The human behavioral pattern regarding our planet is to use and abuse it until the resources are gone or the land is irretrievably damaged and things collapse, people die, and government is called in to clean up the mess.

As Pete Seeger wrote, “When will we ever learn?”

June 13, 2009

Salt Lake Farmers Market, Zoe’s Garden; Becoming a Locavore

Filed under: America, Bill McKibben, Salt Lake, Solar, Utah, conservation, farm, renewable — Ken Schreiner @ 9:15 am

farmersmkt1Yet another documentary about the multinational food industry has debuted: “Food, Inc.” We’re hearing- or refusing to hear- more warnings about the corruption, health risks and marketing abuses of Monsanto, WalMart and other gigantic conglomerates who feed the world with low-cost, low-nutrition, high-volume “food” made from who-knows-what coming from who-knows-where.

The timing of the film’s release is perfect because it comes when the first crops of the season are coming in. I haven’t seen “Food, Inc.” yet- it just opened in selected theaters. But I’ve already made up my mind about the subject based on all the information that’s been out there for years and my own experiences as a consumer and a reporter in various Farm Belt communities including my former home state of Illinois. I avoid eating the stuff. Up until a few years ago, it was difficult to avoid eating the stuff because the food system in America was controlled by the conglomerates. You had no choice but to eat their vegetables, drink their beverages, shop at their stores.

That’s all changed. We and more Americans are becoming locavores.

Thanks to writers like Bill McKibben (Deep Economy) and Eric Schlosser (Fast Food Nation), we now have more and cheaper alternatives to corporate swill. Here in Salt Lake City, we have the obligatory Whole Foods store in Sugarhouse. But we also have the Salt Lake Farmers Market which opens its 17th year today in Pioneer Park downtown. We’ve bought lots of great, locally-produced, fresh produce, meats, breads and other stuff there and found they’re not only better than what you get at the corporate supermarkets. They cost about the same because there aren’t all the transportation, refrigeration and preservation costs built in. Plus, the whole thing is fun: bands, tons of people, and lots of parking.market

We also just joined a CSA (community supported agriculture). Zoe’s Garden is operated out of a private home in Sugarhouse. It collects fresh vegetables from around northern Utah and brings them to one place where customers like us can pick them up once a week. We just made our first pickup the other day. Lettuce, watercress, arugula and types of spinach and peas I’ve never heard of. And it’s all outstanding. You have to clean it yourself because it just came out of the field but that’s a small burden for this level of quality. And because Zoe’s is so close to our house, we can use our solar-charged electric scooter to get the goods.

I’ve never liked being categorized as a Democrat, Republican, liberal, conservative, Beatles or Elvis- even journalist. But I do like the title “locavore.” Sounds kind of intimidating- like those things that live in New York’s sewers. Maybe being devoted to buying local food could even lead to a new official theme song: “Do the Locavotion.”

February 17, 2009

Brian “Dr. No” Wansink Making America The Biggest Loser

Filed under: America, Education, farm, journalism — Ken Schreiner @ 9:48 am

I met Cornell U. marketing professor Brian Wansink when he taught at the University of Illinois in 2001. He was just beginning to emerge as a major voice in the fight against obesity with his research into portion size, processed food contents and the now-famous “bottomless popcorn bucket.”

Brian’s latest target is recipes. His work has shown that cookbooks, specifically “Joy of Cooking”, have made their recipes bigger and fatter over the years. Valuable information. But my question: Isn’t it the responsibility of the CONSUMER to know what he or she is eating? An educated person, especially an avid cook, should know the caloric content of the ingredients he or she is using. The authors of “Joy of Cooking” were likely just responding to the tastes of Americans as they evolved over the years. Sounds like good business to me.

So while I think Brian’s work is interesting and provides insight not only into what we eat but how we behave and perceive ourselves, this one sounds a little too much like killling the messenger. And I know how that feels.

January 15, 2009

Sundance 2009: Out With the Bad Air, In With the Worse

Filed under: Environment, Salt Lake, Sierra Club, Utah, air, coal, farm, pollution, sprawl — Ken Schreiner @ 10:05 am

As usually happens this time of year, a gigantic high pressure system has moved into Utah- kind of like the cute, little mucous characters on the TV commercials- and created an inversion like an attic door slammed shut on the helpless beings trapped below. And as usual, it happens when thousands of visitors come to Utah to ski or attend the Sundance Film Festival in Park City, leaving them with the impression that the Salt Lake valley is a cesspool of pollution.

Maybe it is.

My friend Ethan comes out here at the same time every year too. He gets an even better view of the brown cloud because I live so high above the valley. He’s from Vermont where all pollution is illegal and comparatively non-existent. I like to believe that his annual exposure to our air problem is the price he pays for living in an impossible fantasyland with cows, red barns and roadside cheese stands- and no air pollution- except, of course, for the cows.

But saving Utah’s and everyone’s environment is one of my life’s goals now and I like the rest of us have to realize the sad reality: we’re breathing it. And truthfully, most of the people coming to Utah over the next couple of weeks probably won’t care. The Hollywood and other big-city types attending Sundance and hitting the slopes will probably not even cough once. They’ve been living on bad air for so long they’ve developed gills.

September 12, 2008

Sarah Palin Now a Climate Change Believer- But Just for Now

Filed under: America, Bush, Cheney, Climate Change, farm, politics — Ken Schreiner @ 9:04 am

The Radical Right’s spokesmodel has abruptly changed her position on climate change. In her ABC interview, she says she believes global warming is human-caused. When she was informed that this was a 180-degree change in her previous position she said

“Show me where I have ever said that there’s absolute proof that nothing that man has ever conducted or engaged in has had any effect or no effect on climate change. I have not said that…”

Well, several incidents of her saying exactly that have been found thus far including this one from a Fairbanks newspaper months ago:

“I’m not an Al Gore, doom-and-gloom environmentalist blaming the changes in our climate on human activity.”

This is just a concession to the McCain belief that global warming is real and a real problem. My bet is Palin will echo this position until she’s elected or loses. Then she’ll go back to her previous position, just like Bush’s election pledge of “compassionate conservatisism.” Remember that? Neither did he.

September 4, 2008

Kickapoo State Park Closing: Illinois Losing What Nature it Has Left

Filed under: Nature, Tibet, coal, conservation, documentary, farm, forest, wildlife — Ken Schreiner @ 8:22 am

I couldn’t believe it when I read it in the newspaper of Champaign-Urbana, Illinois where I lived before I moved to Utah. State government is closing a number of state parks, including Kickapoo State Park outside nearby Danville, to pay for their own fiscal incompetence. Residents of the area are fighting it but it’s probably a lost cause and indicative of the tragic and short-sighted attitude our so-called leaders have toward natural places and their contempt for the people who put them in power.

I used to go there often to hike, picnic and row my raft. It’s where I took my camera to practice videotaping wildlife, Nature, and work out in preparation for my grueling trip to Tibet and hike around Mount Kailash in 2005: the result being my documentary “Kora: Tibet and the Trail of Truth.” It was one of the few, remaining natural places in an area long decimated abd denuded by corporate and large-scale agriculture.

Actually, Kickapoo was far from being wild. It was reclaimed coal-mining ground that had been scarred and scraped beyond industrial use. So it was left to return to the Earth and the result was a strangely beautiful park made up of hills, forest, streams, ponds and other stuff Illinois never had much of and has even less of now. Kickapoo is ironically, unnatural.

But open or not, it’s a gleaming example of what humans can do to correct the environmental mistakes we’ve made. Sadly, it’s now also an example of how we just never learn.

August 23, 2008

Montana: Big, Bold, Beautiful- But No Dental Floss Bushes

Filed under: Nature, Schreiner Productions, Sierra Club, Utah, farm, wildlife — Ken Schreiner @ 10:40 am

Testimony to the power of media is that for the last three days in southwest Montana- one of the most naturally gorgeous and spectacular places in America- I’d couldn’t stop singing “Going to Montana soon, gonna be a dental floss tycoon.” Why Frank Zappa’s nonsense lyrics should have that kind of hold on me after more than thirty years is a crime. But my brain was able to separate the media from the magic without too much effort thanks to pure power of Nature.

Our friends Bill and Pat are building a log cabin south of Sheridan, Montana just a couple hours west of Yellowstone. We were there to help sand, chainsaw, screw and glue the logs into place. The weather was a little windy and cool but it made working during the day more tolerable and sleeping in our tent nicer. Sandhill cranes, whitetail deer, buffalo (more-than-slightly domesticated) and wildlife roamed throughout the valley which is mostly BLM land and private ranches. Everyone was happy under the big, cloud-dappled sky.

During this time, I was also editing a web ad on my laptop running off the X5’s car battery and setting up shooting assignments with a new client located in the UK. I got the ad finished just in time to burn it to DVD and drive it five miles into town to catch the FedEx pickup at noon Friday (pickup times are normally around 5 p.m. but rural areas must get picked up earlier depending on how far they are from a big airport). My cell phone didn’t work so well but we were able to book my trip to Chicago and set up a Salt Lake shoot before the weekend descended. You just have to be flexible and patient, I told myself: something I’ve never been good at but living in the country apparently teaches you.

After running power tools all day, carrying 1,000 lb. logs around and surviving a smashed toe, only one thing will satisfy you: a massive Montana steak. No matter how big this state is, you can’t swing an expired marmot without hitting a steakhouse. A New York strip the size and weight of a dictionary topped off our perfect trip. Well, not REALLY perfect but when you’re flexible and patient either every thing is perfect or nothing is. Either way, you deal with it better.

Now, we’re back home in Salt Lake. Time to get back to work, catch up on the bills, pull the log glue out of my leg hairs (ouch!), and re-adjust to urban life. But the flexibility and patience I learned after just two days in Montana have sunk in. Whether it’s Utah, the Rockies or the desert, The West is home.

August 19, 2008

Peak Oil: Dwindling Supply or Just Politics, We All Must Change

Filed under: Earth, Oil, Solar, conservation, farm, politics, renewable, wind — Ken Schreiner @ 8:14 am

The question over whether the growing oil crisis is real or manufactured or the product of geopolitical partitioning is moot to the consumer. We are going to pay more and more unless we as the bottom feeders invest in technologies that don’t pollute, are durable, and don’t go up endlessly in cost of operation. That’s why SIMPLE CONSERVATION in the form of driving less and renewable electricity in the form of solar and wind energy and battery-powered vehicles look like the best options.

Ethanol, biodiesel and other renewable resources are not only more polluting, powering engines that require high maintenance, but are commodities controlled by a conspiratorial market (OPEC) that can manipulate and gouge the consumer any time the boss needs a new summer home. Again, if you don’t care about the Earth, IT’S STILL YOUR PROBLEM. You’ll end up doing it for the wrong reason- but you’ll do it.

August 18, 2008

Federal Support for Renewables Stuck in the Mud

Filed under: farm, media, politics, renewable, water — Ken Schreiner @ 8:49 am

Our U.S. ag secretary says the Bush Regime is spending $600 million on renewable energy research and implementation. But note that all the forms of renewable energy mentioned are biofuels, one of them the dubiously-effective corn ethanol. But you should also know that biodiesels and other organically-based fuels, besides increasing the cost of food and taking land out of food production for a growing human population, require LOTS OF WATER. Do you want to pay more for water, or maybe water your lawn less, and risk shortages and deeper, more serious droughts, so you can drive a biodiesel-powered vehicle?

More evidence of how much power the agri-business lobby has, how politics is more powerful than truth in America, and how little public opinion, hard evidence and quality scientific research really influences our elected official, corporate media and the free market.

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