When I was eight, I loved to embroider pictures of trees on my t-shirts. By 12, I had made my own tipi from duck canvas that I sewed together, found fallen pine saplings for poles, and erected my tipi in a special place in the worshipping woods, off trail. This explains a lot.
I moved on to being a birder, and getting trained in Wildlife Biology. In my twenties, with the Hoedads Treeplanting coop, I planted over 400,000 trees on clearcuts in the Pacific Northwest. I have seen the devastation of man up close and personal.
I have lived outside, and close to nature, for most of my life. It is rare if a month goes by without my sleeping on the ground. Nature is more than real; to me, it is my temple.
I started Mountain climbing in the early 1980s, on a climb of Mt. Rainier. This was followed by Whitney, Shasta, Hood, Baker, and Glacier Peaks. I climbed over 248 peaks in the Sierra, the famous Angeles Chapter Sierra Peak Section List, and I have climbed around the world.
On my climbs, I see the effects of climate change first hand: glaciers wasting away - seen close up and real. Small glaciers in the Sierra, where I had to use an ice axe in 2000, were nothing but piles of rock by 2016. I mourn the climate change impact on the Sierra Nevada Rosy finch - insects found on glacial snow are a large part of its diet. I have directly experienced the loss of one-third of bird species in my life, since I started birding when I was 12.
I want to leave a planet, a biome, an ocean - better than i found it.
This is why I volunteer.
By Lisa Barboza
Chapter Executive Committee member, Guadalupe Region Group Chair, Chapter Outings Chair, Peak Climbing Section Chair, Sierra Club Military Outdoors Chair