bsarvis
By Brian Sarvis, Santa Barbara
It is time, once again, to change the name of our national forest. Los Padres National Forest is not the homeland of the Spanish padres and none of our missions are in the national forest. The Los Padres is the ancestral homeland of native people who lived there for thousands of years. My friends who are Native Americans with ancestral ties to the first people have little love for the Spanish padres. But to tag the national forest with a name representing the people is also problematic as they lived in various tribal groups speaking different languages — Chumash, Costanian, Esselen, Salinian, and Tataviam.
Moving beyond the folly of naming something as magnificent as a national forest after people, please consider that our forest was also the ancestral range of California condors. It was the last stronghold of the condors before our capture, breeding, and release program brought them back from the brink of extinction and spread them in small numbers around the Southwest. The condor would be an appropriate symbol to represent our forest.
I have hiked the length of the Los Padres twice. I have seen condors at the southern end near the Sespe Condor Sanctuary and at the northern end near Big Sur. I have seen no evidence of Spanish padres in the national forest. There is one site where pines were felled by native labor and hauled to build roof rafters for at least one mission. And, of course, water flowed to the missions just as it flows today to many of our towns and cities. The national forest has provided a number of resources. Perhaps the most valuable to us all is simply the provision of clean water.
I believe Condor National Forest would be a better name for our forest. The recovery of condors represents an appropriate symbol of our commitment to the environment. The photo shown (stud book #20) is AC-4, the oldest living condor in the wild. Stacey Bergman of Friends of Condors Wild and Free tells me that this condor is a virtual rock star among condors. This male was one of the original 22 birds captured in the 1980’s. Today, he soars wild and free. At age 43, he has contributed 30 offspring with perhaps more to come. He and a mate also re-discovered the cliffs of the original Sisquoc Condor Sanctuary, located deep in our national forest, as a nesting site.
Historical records of the Los Padres show that the forest has undergone a number of name changes in the past as various forest reserves established late in the 1800’s and early 1900’s were combined to become the Santa Barbara and Monterey National Forests, These two areas were merged in 1919 under a single name, Santa Barbara National Forest, but as large parts of this newly formed forest were also in other counties (mainly Monterey, San Luis Obispo, and Ventura counties) pressure to change the name mounted and, over 85 years ago, in the 1930’s a new name was chosen — Los Padres National Forest.
It is time, once again, to choose a more appropriate name and symbol to represent our forest. I am voting for Condors.
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And before the Chumash there were no people. Guess will have to change the name to forest forest in 2055;)
If one studies Chumash mythology, they will discover that there were people here before what’s called “Chumash” ( not our name)..
They are known as “The first ones”.
Gimme a break. You have too much time on your hands.
Fine with me. Get the process started. I’ll sign a petition. Alas, you should be prepared for the signs to be vandalized from Condor to Condom.
Oh no, you’re right. That’s way too easy to accomplish, yikes.
By that logic, pretty much every street and place in California needs to be renamed.
Sounds like the flying Casanova, “AC-4,” deserves a new (real) name!
They put in the stage coach lines which have become roads like 154, and before that a foot trail.
I don’t like the Catprick church but that’s not enough to change a National Forest name.
This is worth doing. We should never name things after people. The condor is an iconic symbol of this area and is an apt name.
Renaming is confusing and expensive. I’m not Catholic and have no love for the old-time padres and conquistadors of any stripe, but what they were and did, as horrendous as it sometimes was, was consistent with the times. Changing the past isn’t possible. Learn and spend the time and money to make a better future.
Perhaps the AC-4 National Forest!
It flows trippingly from the tongue.
The Kalaš national forest.
Chumash based Hokan language. To Breath.
*breathe
Doing so would cost the taxpayers $ millions. What a waste! We have more urgent needs than feeble attempts to change what has existed for many years.
Excellent idea. The time to honor genocide has past.
Hold off on renaming for an almost extinct bird most people have never and will never see. Condors may yet disappear, they barely survived the extinction of their commensal partners the California Grizzly bears. I’d go for a name change that might better reflect current realities, maybe the Chapparal National Forest.
A good idea! Condor National Forest. Naming any public place after persons is a mistake. It’s time for those who don’t understand the horrible history of the Western European assaults on cultures throughout the world to wake up. ( think North, Central, South Americas, Caribbean, Africa, Pacific Islands. Sure, it was what was done then and they were ignorant, but this is now; we are waking up, and we can understand the pain of memories still held in the hearts of descendants. Why not do it? Because it costs $$? Not a good enough reason.
Mt McKinley was appropriately changed back to Denali so this suggestion shouldn’t be too difficult to accomplish.
Hi Brian, please text me as I may like to re-publish this Op-Ed in Condor Call, the Sierra Club’s newsletter for our SB and Ventura region. I’m at 805 452-2885. We have also advocated for this via our vice-chair Jim Hines.
thanks
Condor John, editor
If you subscribe to this reasoning it’s time to change the name of Santa Barbara…