From the Sacramento River delta to the wilds of California's national parks, Michael Muir is helping urban wheelchair users maintain contact with the great outdoors.

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Michael Muir is the Director of Access Adventure,  whose mission is "to provide outdoor recreation, environmental education and open space access to underserved youth and people with disabilities, using innovative wheelchair accessible horse-drawn carriages."

Access Adventure will be joining other organizations at the Sonoma County Fairgrounds on October 24^th for the Disability Services and Legal Center Tech Expo. For more info about this event, click here.

There are many equestrian programs for people with disabilities, but Muir says Access Adventure is different, and can complement hippotherapy activites.

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Now that scientists have figured out what causes "Sudden Oak Death," they're trying to get the word out on how to curtail the spread of the tree disease.

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This magnified image shows the P. ramorum spores on the underside of a California bay laurel leaf.

In addition to prevention efforts, the California Oak Mortality Task Forces is also developing some best practices for dealing with those forests where large numbers of oaks are already dead or dying.

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This photo shows diseased and  tanoaks on Mount Tamalpias, one of the first areas where Sudden Oak Death appeared.

There's a map (pdf)  showing areas of oak death in Northern California here.

Or link to the Sonoma County Sudden Oak Death Strategic Reponse Plan (83 pages, pdf) here .

 Dr. David Rizzo, a leading Sudden Oak Death researcher at UC Davis, offers a summation of what is currently known about the disease, the pathogen that causes it, and how it is transmitted in a 30 minute video that can be seen here.

 

An unusual gathering of educators, service providers parents and tomorrow (Tuesday) will look at ways local schools can meet the needs of the rapidly growing number of students diagnosed with autism.

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Andrew Bailey is  Executive Director of Anova Center for Education , which has campuses in Santa Rosa, San Rafael and American Canyon in Napa County. Anova was founded in 200o.

SONOMA COUNTY'S 1ST ANNUAL AUTISM COMMUNITY SYMPOSIUM

When:             Tuesday, October 21st, 3:30pm-6:30 pm

Where:            The Anova Center for Education 

                         3033 Cleveland Avenue, Santa Rosa, CA

Cost:                FREE to participants and attendees

For more information or to reserve your seat, contact Anova at: (707) 527-7032

 

Anova will be hosting the Autism Community Team (ACT!) of Sonoma County in the First Annual Autism Community Symposium, "Meeting Challenges and Creating Opportunities". This forum brings together parents, public schools, regional centers and private providers to increase understanding of what services are currently available to those impacted by autism, and to discuss all that remains to be accomplished.

Autism is the fastest growing disability in the US.  With 1 out of every 150 children diagnosed with autism, autism is more prevalent than childhood cancer, juvenile diabetes, and pediatric AIDS combined. Here in California, the number of students with autism in grades K-12 has increased more than 1000% over the past 20 years. With statistics such as these, there is no question: autism has a widespread emotional, social and economic impact on our community, and has ramifications our community must be prepared to fully address.

 

As autism spectrum diagnoses become more frequent among local students, Andrew Bailey says it is increasingly important for schools to implement cost-effective approaches to meeting their needs.

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The most popular penguin on the Sunday Comic pages is about to retire, while his creator, cartoonist Berkeley Breathed, moves on to other projects.

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Opus has been a part of Breathed's creative world for three decades, but the cartoonist says his original choice of a penguin as a featured character was driven by some quite practical considerations.

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 What will happen to Opus when his days in the comics come to an end? Readers are invited to guess in a nationwide contest that ends TONIGHT.

 

Berkeley Breathed is a screenwriter, author, cartoonist, and one of America's most popular illustrators.  Winner of the Pulitzer Prize for cartooning in 1987, Breathed is perhaps best known for his comic strip Bloom County, which ran for nine years and appeared in over 1,200 newspapers all over the world. Now that he is moving into other realms of  more collaborative endeavors, Breathed is bracing for the loss of autonomy he enjoyed as a cartoonist.

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 To find out more about his new children's book Pete and Pickles, click here .

Berkely Breathed will make a rare Northern California public appearance Oct. 18 at the Charles M. Schulz museum in Santa Rosa. Get details here .