Eco-Rafting on the South Fork of the American River

For the 2008 season we are pleased to announce dramatic progress toward meeting the goals of our Greenhouse Action Plan. Our "Eco-Bus" is the first 100% waste vegetable oil (WVO) powered bus on the South Fork of the American River, will reduce carbon emissions profoundly each and every time it carries passengers down the highway. On the Chili Bar Run we will achieve up to an 80% reduction from our baseline carbon emissions.

Over a year ago we announced a first for the rafting industry, Mother Lode's Greenhouse Gas Action Plan (GAP). In that plan we committed to reduce our overall carbon emissions 20% by 2012, 40% by 2040 and 80% by 2050 with 2006 serving as our baseline. It was then, and remains now, a tall order, our new Eco-Bus is a giant step towards reaching our goal.

How We Reduce Your Carbon Footprint
Vegetable oil represents one example of renewable solar energy converted by plants through photosynthesis into liquid form. Although there is little or no carbon savings using virgin vegetable oil due to the petrochemicals used to till, harvest, manufacture and transport it to the point of use, "waste" vegetable oil (WVO) is a different matter. By reclaiming WVO from restaurant garbage we are recycling and reusing a resource. Additionally, its usual manner of disposal produces more carbon emissions than our using it as fuel. An added bonus is the fact that vegetable oil produces fewer air pollutants than either petroleum diesel or gasoline. Remarkably, using WVO reduces air pollution and greenhouse gas emissions simultaneously!

Step 1: Collecting Vegetable Oil
To maximize the environmental benefit we get our waste vegetable oil locally to reduce the cost in carbon and our time.

Step 2: Returning to the Farm: Making Bio-Diesel
Dr. Diesel's purpose in inventing the diesel engine in 1897 was to allow farmers to use 100% vegetable oil to run their farm machinery. Although we initially successfully made blended bio-diesel, we realized that to use vegetable oil to full advantage one needs to commit to using it 100% pure. Anything less dilutes its beneficial effects. Dr. Diesel, the "full veggie" please!

Step 3: Refining 100% WVO: Accept No Substitutes.
Our 100% WVO system includes two electrical heaters to thin the oil, three electrical pumps to move it, two steel barrels to contain it, an aluminum canister housing a bag style filter, and a centrifuge to extract the last bit of water. The system is permanently installed it in a retired bus, which also serves as our storage facility. We control the system through a breaker panel and 3 timers all connected to a RV style electrical hookup. This set-up is fully mobile and ready to visit the next World's Fair.

Step 4: The Right Bus.
An unmodified diesel bus will not run on 100% WVO. A conversion must be performed, the expense of which can easily exceed the cost of the bus. The right bus is therefore mandatory. We shopped for over eight months to find ours, a supercharged and turbocharged 1987 Gillig Phantom with only 106,000 miles, a perfect body, and a silky smooth "air ride" suspension. Jim Stepp, our head driver, and I went to Los Angeles and outbid several disappointed fellows whose vision was to turn our bus into a mobile condo in Mexico. We christened her "Eco-Bus" and drove 400 miles north to Coloma. Thanks Ron and Jim! This fall the bus got a paint makeover in MaLode earth-tone tan and forest green and she looks great.

Step #5 A 100% WVO Conversion - Not for Amateurs.
Unlike a Mercedes or Volkswagen, "big rigs" are not easy to convert yourself. Each system is customized to the vehicle that uses it. As it turned out the two major U.S. vendors are both located east of the Rocky Mountains.

Fortunately we found a kind of "alternative energy mad scientist" quietly inventing sophisticated counter-current exchange, continuously heated, precision welded aluminum, 100% WVO systems that are efficient, reliable and operate well at all temperatures. Based upon what I knew about other systems, I was amazed to learn our bus would transition to WVO within two minutes or less of engine start-up, thus keeping our use of "Dino-diesel" to an absolute minimum.

Step #6 Fast Forward to the Year 2050
With the Eco-Bus up and running, it was time to find the way to use it most efficiently to reduce carbon emissions for the introduction of "Eco-Rafting". The Chili Bar Run was the most energy efficient choice by far with an estimated carbon savings of 80% from our 2006 baseline! This means we can meet the 2050 goals of our GAP on the Chili Bar Run in 2008, approximately 42 years ahead of schedule!

Rest assured, the Eco-Bus project is only one aspect of Mother Lode's overall effort to complete our GAP. Nevertheless, it is a very encouraging start and if you take a shower at our camp this season the hot water will come from a solar "box" heater, photovoltaic power is on its way, and many other changes are anticipated as elements of our evolving Sustainable Practices Institute- but that's another story. To learn more about our Eco-Bus.

We cordially invite you to "Eco-Raft" this season and take this opportunity to reconnect with Nature, have fun, and enjoy an exciting whitewater adventure with your friends and family, all for $99! Click to find out more about these specially priced Eco-Rafting Trips on the South Fork American River.

We look forward to seeing you on the river.
Scott Underwood and the MaLode Extreme Green Team
Aaron, Allen, Ron, Jim, Richard, Greg, Rich, the Mystery Painters, and Charlie the River Dog

California's American River has Water!

American River Whitewater Assured for 2008

Those of you who have visited Lake Tahoe recently know that something exciting is happening in the Sierras. Whether you were chaining up and crawling along in traffic, hunkered down waiting out a blizzard, sliding over a slope, or like my Dog Charlie, just sitting enjoying it, snow is happening up here! For those of us who are anticipating the spring thaw, the recent snow survey just pegged the water content at 125% of normal. It is going to be a great season for whitewater somewhere on the American River in 2008.

The North, South and Middle Forks of the American River all benefit from one of the heaviest annual snowfalls in the Sierras. Blue Canyon, their primary watershed, averages among the highest annual precipitations in John Muir’s “Range of Light”. Combine this with a system of large reservoirs on the South and Middle Forks of the American and you have the most reliable source of whitewater fun on the West Coast.

In 2006 the Sacramento Municipal Utility District finished a re-licensing process on its Upper American River Project (UARP) on the South Fork that made recreational flows a mandated priority for the first time. What this means is that the snow we are currently enjoying is more than sufficient to provide reliable, exciting flows on the South Fork from Memorial Day to Labor Day- guaranteed! This will be true most years in the fifty-year duration of this license.

The Middle Fork of the American also has a large upstream reservoir, Oxbow, which will also provide reliable, flows if the current trends continue. I would be willing to bet a lot on it being a great season, but unlike the South Fork, there is no formal agreement that guarantees it. We will have to wait a bit longer to be absolutely certain.

The North Fork of the American has no reservoirs upstream of the whitewater runs. The melt on the North Fork is notoriously fickle and anyone betting heavily on the outcome now should probably stay away from the gaming tables. Nevertheless, all indications are this river will have a good season too.

What about the other rivers in the Sierra? They need to be addressed on a river-by-river basis depending on the location of their drainage, whether there are large upstream reservoirs or not, etc. Suffice it to say that if the snow keeps falling, it stays cold and the pineapple express doesn’t show up- it looks good.

So if you are interested in boating on the Forks of the American this spring and summer, Mother Nature has just refilled your prescription of aqua-Prozac. Make sure your gear is ready; the rate limiting factor is not going to be water this season!

We look forward to seeing you on the river this season,

Scott, Greg, Penny, Scotty, Colleen, Sarah, Katie, Seth, Lindsey, Kyle
and of course, Charlie the River Dog

PCL Honors South Fork of the American Heroes

PCL Honors South Fork of the American River Heroes
P.S. That probably includes you!

The annual meeting of the Planning and Conservation League (PCL) held on January 10, 2008 in Sacramento was a gala event involving 330 activists, planners and attorneys with the theme ”A State of Change: How Californians Can Change the World”. Featured speakers included California’s Lt. Governor John Garamendi; Attorney General Jerry Brown; and State Senator Darrell Steinberg. Founded in 1972, this organization is one of the most prestigious and respected organizations dealing with environmental issues in our State. I recommend membership!

I imagine most whitewater boaters are like myself, they wouldn’t recognize the movers and shakers of Sacramento politics if they bumped into them head-on. It was a shock to me, as I paid the steep admission fee for my daughter, Adriane, and myself, that I recognized a host of familiar faces. It was like a “Who’s Who” of river conservation in California.

First I noticed the lanky and silver bearded Jerry Meral, a legendary boater and one of the founders of (FOR) Friends of the River and (TRPT) the Tuolumne River Preservation Trust. Jerry played a key role in saving the “T” from being dammed, hence the name of the put-in: “Meral’s Pool”. Jerry later became President of PCL and played a vital role in crafting the series of California bond initiatives that have provided funding to preserve our riparian watershed and other environmental treasures. It is possible you’ve seen Jerry on the South Fork yourself without knowing it.

Next to Jerry was my neighbor on River Road in Coloma, Jonas Minton, another frequent floater of the South Fork, who successfully mediated the California State Water Plan and has since mediated water issues in China. Then I bumped into another Coloma native, Traci Sheehan, current Executive Director of PCL, who cleans up very nicely I must say. I usually see her wearing a kayak skirt. The list went on including Doug Lindsey, now a well-respected Environmental Consultant, who recalled how he met his wife while guiding at Mother Lode years ago. It was truly old home week.

It only got better though, because the prestigious “California Environmentalist of the Year” award was presented to another Coloma native Bill Center, owner of Camp Lotus, who was accompanied by his charming wife Robin and increasingly famous kayaker son Charlie. Bill, in the words of the award’s presenter, was “the person most responsible for helping bring SMUD’s Upper American River Project re-licensing on the South Fork of the American to a conclusion that favored wildlife, fisheries and recreational boating.” Many of you may recall this is the agreement that mandates recreational flows for whitewater boating for the next 50 years. Historic!

Those of you who wrote letters during 2006 on Mother Lode trips should feel honored too. In fact, you were honored! Bill mentioned you that night and has thanked you for your efforts multiple times since the agreement. He even has a code for you, “the Chinese water torture”. That’s probably how it felt to the SMUD Board of Directors as the MaLode guides and I appeared at meeting after meeting presenting the seemingly endless stream of letters you wrote (over 1300) supporting the “Alternative Proposal” that had initially been rejected by SMUD. That proposal ultimately greatly influenced the re-licensing agreement. It was the right thing to do, and the resulting compromise agreement was a true “win-win” for both SMUD and the river community. Yet it took your voices, Federal and State Agencies, and the voices of many others passionate about this river, to turn the tide.

That evening I reflected over the thirty plus years and the more than twenty thousand letters Mother Lode participants have written, the over one dozen California rivers that are still rivers instead of lakes, over the thousands of rafters that have been enchanted by the magic of these special places, and I couldn’t help but smile. We thank you, our participants and friends, for your vital role in this struggle. You are members of a very special family.

As the meeting closed, Bill Center was installed as the new President of PCL and as Bill, Robin, Jonas, Traci and I followed each other home to the little town of Lotus/Coloma, I reflected on what a great place this is and what a treasure the South Fork truly represents. I am honored and humbled to be in the company of such a great collection of friends and colleagues and to be able to share this special place with you all. Remember, the Stanislaus River still lives in our hearts.

Hoping to see you “Eco-Rafting” on the river this season,

Scott Underwood
The River Doc