Nature

The world of nature is coming to the big screen this month. Orange Coast College is hosting the Wild and Scenic Film Festival at 7 p.m. May 30 in the Robert B. Moore Theatre, 2701 Fairview Road. The festival, which is sponsored by the OCC Friends of the Library and Food Riders Club, will feature films about nature, outdoor adventure and community activism. Tickets are $10 in advance or $12 at the door. Patrons can save $2 at the door by donating two or more books, DVDs or CDs. All proceeds benefit the OCC library.

Young artists can try their hand at a variety of mediums during three-day workshops inspired by trees and nature in July. Orange Coast College's Young Artists Workshop Series is hosting workshops for kids aged 5 to 17 in the campus' Frank M. Doyle Arts Pavilion. The first workshops begin July 7 with mixed media art-making and drawing Bonsai tree curriculum. Next is advanced drawing July 14; photo safari and crafting creatures of the forest July 21; and printmaking inspired by nature July 28. Each workshop is $100 and meets 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Thursday through Saturday with an hourlong lunch break.

NEWPORT BEACH - Made of sticks wrapped with silver duct tape, the toy boat looked more like an arts and crafts paperweight than a seafaring vessel. But 11-year-old Henry Eo's cheers of delight rang loud and clear as his handmade boat stayed above the water. "It floats!" yelled the Mariners Elementary School fifth-grader. The activity - seeing if boats constructed from found material in nature would float in the creek - was one of three that children participated in Thursday, the last day of the Environmental Nature Center's Winter Nature Camp.

I love the fact that that Passover and Easter, both being lunar holidays, usually overlap. This seems to me to be a sign from God that we're more the same than we are different. To be sure, the official theologies of Passover and Easter are fundamentally different. The Passover meal is eaten for God, and the Easter meal (the Eucharist) is eaten of God. In Easter, a man becomes God, and in Passover, a man leads an entire people to God at Mount Sinai. In Easter, atonement is made through the sacrificial death and resurrection of Jesus, while in Passover, the ancient biblical sacrifices offered at the Temple in Jerusalem remind us of how we still must sacrifice for our faith and seek atonement from God for our sins.

Jan Vandersloot will be remembered for being many things to many people. He was a husband, father, physician and unyielding, tireless fighter for the environment. When Vandersloot suddenly passed away Nov. 4, the world lost a wonderful man. If you did not know Vandersloot then you may have seen the products of his labors when you walked at Bolsa Chica State Park, rode your bike through Fairview Park, or when you surfed the waters off Huntington Beach. To Vandersloot there was no part of nature that was too small to protect.

Because of potential environmental harms and to preserve equestrian trails, some said at first it shouldn't be done. Then, because of residents' opposition, it seemed like it wouldn't be done. And finally, after the project was underway, because of planning snags and weather problems, it looked as if it couldn't be done. But last weekend -- after a few years of conceptualizing, more years of planning and a long wait for the construction process, the Peter and Mary Muth Interpretive Center in Upper Newport Bay opened.

1919-2007 Long-time Newport Beach resident James J. DeNuccio Sr. passed away on December 9, 2007 at the age of 88.  Jim, a native of Cincinnati, was a decorated World War II veteran, who received a Bronze Metal.  He was also the president of the Uptown Exchange Club and was the youngest person to achieve the 32 nd Degree Freemasons.  He graduated from the Schuster-Martin School of Drama.  He is survived by his wife, Marilyn, his four sons, Jim, Dan, Mike, and Jay, his sister Elsie Siemann, and many grandchildren and great grandchildren.

Under gathering storm clouds, five young hikers and their parents set out on a moderate trail in Round Canyon earlier this week to observe first-hand the effects of precipitation on the local ecosystem. In the first Sounds of the Season hike, a new free program suitable for children ages 3 to 6, Irvine Ranch Conservancy docents led a group of about 10 on a 1-mile, round-trip nature walk that included educational and interactive activities. "The program is intended to help children connect with the outdoors and to provide an opportunity to wiggle like the animals and grow like the plants," said Kelly Reetz, conservancy interpretive specialist.

Yes, I believe in the veracity of Exodus’ account of a thorn bush that burned but was not consumed, of the plagues visited upon Egypt, of the parting of the Reed Sea, and of the daily supply of manna that sustained the Israelites in the wilderness. I believe in a God who is not limited by the laws of nature and who can suspend them at will. I believe in both overt miracles that reveal God’s mighty arm and concealed miracles that reflect his hidden hand. Nature is no more than God acting in a consistent manner, like the pianist following his score without flaw.

On April 26, more than 25 Rotarians from the Rotary Club of Newport-Balboa will prepare the Environmental Nature Center’s Butterfly House for its spring opening to the public for the butterfly season on May 10. Rotarians will install a new educational panel and organize other educational exhibits in addition to spring cleaning made necessary by the past seven months of construction on the nature center’s new Learning Center and Administration...

"If you want me again," Walt Whitman once wrote in a famous poem about the regeneration of life, "look for me under your boot-soles. " If you want to find Thomas Selzer's art at Orange Coast College, you can look in the same place. Selzer, the college's general manager of instructional food service operations, has a side passion that has helped to make the campus eye-catching - and watered its greenery at the same time. The Laguna Niguel resident is a professionally trained ice carver whose sculptures have dotted OCC's grounds on numerous occasions.

If you look at March 20 on a calendar you may see written there "First Day of Spring. " For some, this may signal just another mundane footnote in menology, but for Iranians, the first day of spring is synonymous with their new year. Celebrated as Nowruz, which has a literal translation of new day, the Persian New Year is a celebration with a history spanning three millennia. "Nowruz is a celebration of life," says Ehsan Janati, an engineer from Irvine. "We celebrate the renewal of the year during the first day of spring because it is really a renewal in nature.

In a nearly three-hour meeting marked by personal snipes and accusatory questions on parliamentary procedure, the take-away was a win for the "keep it natural" crowd: no added sports fields in Fairview Park - at least for its southwest quadrant. The citizens advisory committee for the Costa Mesa park met Wednesday night to discuss and debate 12 ideas, including the addition of softball/baseball fields, basketball/handball courts and soccer fields. Committee member David Stiller was absent because of illness.

I thought I would start the New Year by talking to Harbor Commissioner David Girling. When I first heard his name accepted by the City Council as a harbor commissioner about a year and a half ago, I had my concerns of how a nonboater could relate to our harbor. During his time as a commissioner, he has stayed on task and brought a new perspective to the council that I find refreshing and productive. I had a chance to talk to Dave on the phone just before New Year's. Dave's father, Bing Girling, was an Air Force pilot, so Dave moved around a lot as a child.

Soon after taking the podium, Anna Vrska admitted to being a little nervous. "Oh, my goodness! This is a dead room," she remarked a few minutes later, looking up from her notes and scanning the room. "Does everybody need a break like I need a break? Catch a breath, maybe?" Vrska was standing alone before more than 100 interested parties attending November's Fairview Park Citizens Advisory Committee meeting. The 208-acre park in Costa Mesa has made news throughout the year for myriad reasons, not the least of which is the resurrection of a topic long fraught with discord: adding sports fields or retaining the passive open space.

I want to take a moment to update the community on all of the great things the Environmental Nature Center has been up to this year. We have put your donations to good use! This year more than 21,000 people participated in educational programs at the center — more than ever before. Here are some highlights: •More than 11,000 school children visited the center for hands-on field trips to learn more about their environment and local history. •Our "traveling naturalists" brought science and nature into hundreds of classroomsand nearly 5,000 students, sharing everything from live birds of prey to poppin' rockets.

The Fairview Park Citizens Advisory Committee on Wednesday approved three suggestions for additions to the park, based on ideas the group generated earlier this year. A majority of the nine-member committee favored adding a community garden, information kiosks with pamphlets, and a nature center with bird-watching platforms within the 208-acre park's northwest quadrant. The three suggestions will be brought to city staff, who will research the feasibility of each before the committee's next meeting, scheduled for February.

Newport Beach City Council members dealt with the most recent round in the ongoing fire ring debate Tuesday by striking not a match but a compromise. Aware of mounting health concerns related to wood smoke, council members voted unanimously to reduce the 60 wood-fueled fire rings on the city's beaches to 27. With council member Leslie Daigle absent, they also cleared the way for their possible participation in a pilot program with the South Coast Air Quality Management District to test the use of new rings to be fueled by natural gas. "Is it perfect for either side?

Numerous articles have appeared in the Daily Pilot about Fairview Park. Last weekend, an organized community event was held at the park to celebrate this wonderful piece of land. On Nov. 17 members of Costa Mesans for Responsible Government (CM4RG) joined with numerous friends for a picnic at Fairview Park to express strong support for preserving the park. Of the nearly 200 attendees throughout the day, many expressed appreciation for the park's open space as the perfect place for family outdoor adventures and activities, its natural environment and wildlife habitats, its Native American historical, archaeological and cultural importance, and its train rides.

Apparently a well-worn foot trail near the vernal pools in Fairview Park was being used by kids to get to school. It was the sort of trail that one often finds across empty lots as people naturally take the shortest distance between two points. Under California law, when there is notorious use of a trail across real property for at least five years, the users of that trail can claim that a prescriptive easement has been established for their benefit or for the benefit of the public, and the use of that trail can continue.