California's visionary Marine Life Protection Act (MLPA) was adopted in 1999 with the support of scientists, divers, educators, fishermen, and conservation organizations.

Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger made ocean protection and creation of marine protected areas (MPAs) a top priority for California, establishing an unprecedented scientific and public process for creating a statewide network of protected areas in the ocean, similar to refuges and parks on land. Thousands of Californians have participated in the MLPA process, seeking to protect their favorite ocean places.

USFS Forest Lands for Sale (Updated April 2007)

In a repeat of a March 2006 announcement, the U.S. Forest Service in April 2007 has again proposed sale of parcels considered "non-vital," characterizing them as isolated properties that are difficult to manage. We created this application for the national office of the Sierra Club which was conducting a public education campaign about the proposed sale. Using this KMZ file, you can view the sale parcels through Google Earth - many of them were within or immediately adjacent to large blocks of public forest land. The Sierra Club's view was that "selling these properties would only serve to fragment undeveloped forestland, something Chief Dale Bosworth has called one of the biggest threats to America's forest heritage". The 2007 KMZ file has been updated and improved by GreenInfo Network.

Greenbelt Alliance, the Bay Area's land conservation and urban planning organization, analyzed the state of the region's landscapes in 2005. This landmark study determined that today, there are 401,500 acres of greenbelt lands at risk of sprawl development. That includes 125,200 acres at risk within the next 10 years, classified as high-risk land, and 276,200 acres at risk within the next 10 to 30 years, classified as medium-risk land. If current development patterns continue, roughly one out of every 10 acres in the entire Bay Area could be paved over in the next thirty years.