Accountability

Accountability

As stated in About, I am mainly sharing and selling my pics and writing this blog to help support wild and rural land conservation and will hold myself accountable to you, my dear readers and customers, and routinely report with complete transparency what conservation and charitable groups (many listed in "Organizations I Support")  received what amount of proceeds from this blog and my other work (including my e-stores.)

As of this writing, I paid $35 to become a member of the San Diego River Park Foundation (SDRPF) and donated $10 for its Temescal Creek Preserve Area acquisition and $5 for its latest project, the South Rim Conservation Area Acquisition. While these donations are small now, I will donate more to the SDRPF and other conservation and charitable groups, many listed in "Organizations I Support," when my blog and other work start becoming profitable. So please purchase a photo, or a gift or product at my Zazzle or REDBUBBLE e-store, click on an AdSense or another Affiliate sponsor, with no pressure to buy as I get paid per click, or make a donation, knowing that you will not only receive a great product in return, and not only have the satisfaction of the knowledge that you helped out a just-starting out entrepreneur and contributed to the foundation of a new company, but that you also contributed to the rural and wildland conservation movement and to other charitable groups through this budding and aspiring businessman-philanthropist. Thank you.
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I donated $10 for its Temescal Creek Preserve Area acquisition and paid $35 to become a member and received the following e-mails in response:

 

Dear Mr. Forte,

Thank you for your generous donation of $10.00 to support the Temescal Creek property acquisition as a part of the South Rim Conservation Initiative! Your donation will help us work to protect and preserve this area as critical wildlife habitat. Please check back on our website for updates as we advance this project: www.sandiegoriver.org.

On behalf of all of us here, thank you so much for your generous donation. Your support will really make a difference. If you have any comments, questions, or suggestions, please contact us!

Sincerely,

Melissa Sumera, Administrative Associate

The San Diego River Park Foundation PO Box 80126

San Diego, CA 92110

(619) 297-7380

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Dear Chris,

Welcome to The San Diego River Park Foundation. We are happy to have you as a member of our community.

In the future, you will receive periodic emails specific to your interests based upon the selections you made when you signed-up.

Privacy is important to us; therefore, we will not sell, rent, or give your name or address to anyone. At any point, you can select the link at the bottom of every email to unsubscribe.

Thanks again for registering. If you have any questions or comments, feel free to contact us.
Sincerely,

Rob Hutsel

The San Diego River Park Foundation email: rhutsel@sandiegoriver.org

phone: 619-297-7380

web: http://www.sandiegoriver.org

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I donated $5.00 for The San Diego River Park Foundation’s (SDRPF) latest project: The South Rim Conservation Area Acquisition and received the following e-mails in response:

4/13/2016 Gmail ­ Receipt for your donation to The San Diego River Park Foundation

Christopher Forte Receipt for your donation to The San Diego River Park Foundation

1 message service@paypal.com Fri, Apr 8, 2016 at 10:55 PM To: Christopher Forte
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Hello Christopher Forte,

This email confirms that you have donated The San Diego River Park Foundation $5.00 USD using PayPal.

This credit card transaction will appear on your bill as "PAYPAL *SDRPF".

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Donation Details

Donation amount: $5.00 USD Total: $5.00 USD

Purpose: SDRPF­ South Rim 

Reference: Acquisition

Contributor: Christopher Forte 

Message: No.

Recipient information

Donations coordinator: The San Diego River Park Foundation

Contact email: info@sandiegoriver.org

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Keep your Receipt Number (shown above) for future reference. You will need to refer to this number if you need customer service from The San Diego River Park Foundation or from PayPal. 4/13/2016 Gmail ­ Receipt for your donation to The San Diego River Park Foundation

If you have questions about your purchase, such as shipping and tracking, we encourage you to contact the seller, The San Diego River Park Foundation at info@sandiegoriver.org. If you have been unable to resolve your questions with the merchant, PayPal offers a free buyer complaint resolution service that offers a quick, easy resolution to your concerns. It covers physical goods purchases made through PayPal, and is offered at no charge when you register for a free PayPal account. To sign up for an account, click on the 'Save My Information' link above.

Sincerely,
PayPal

Please do not reply to this email. Email sent to this address cannot be answered.

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Hi Chris,

Saw your donation come in and just wanted to send a personal note of thanks. I really appreciate your making the gift. Thank you,

Hopefully we will have good news to share soon. Just $1565 left to raise. We will do another Facebook post this weekend. Please feel free to share with any friends that might want to join with you in making a donation.

best wishes,

Rob Hutsel

San Diego River Park Foundation
Engaging people to improve the future of the San Diego River
www.sandiegoriver.org
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Anther way I support conservation and charitable organizations is by writing about and mentioning them here on my blog and by writing about them and sharing posts from their pages on Facebook on my personal and business Facebook pages. My business page, Forteography.com, so far has 256 "likes," a post reach of 1,652, a post engagement number of 21, and 3 clicks on the "Contact Us" button. I have 769 "friends" on my personal Facebook page and 79 followers. As I create and post more content here on my blog and on my Facebook pages,   I will attract more visitors to each.

Video of the Eagle Peak Ranch at Temescal Creek Preserve Dedication:

A Typical San Diego View!

Over-shot the freeway landing!

As stated in "About," not all my pics concern rural and wildland conservation, though those are my main concerns, but there will be times when I just feel pushed or obligated to share what I believe is an awesome shot I just happen to capture. This is one of those times.

Every photographer, professional or amatuer, every resident or visitor to San Diego, are just obligated by custom to take these photos because they are ones difficult to find anywhere else: the jets landing at San Diego International Airport or "Lindbergh Field." They fly low over the freeway, almost looking like they will crash or land on it, with the skyscrapers of  downtown in the background, which, you think, they just barely missed. 

I have been living in San Diego for over a year now but had yet to take this pic! How could I call myself a "photographer"? So on Sunday, April 10th, 2016, after I ushered at Mass at Our Lady of the Rosary in Little Italy, instead of heading straight home, I decided to seek out this spot every other photographer knows well: the Palm Street Bridge at Kettner Boulevard, as seen on the map below. 

I hope you enjoy these pics and you can see more of these pics here at 500px, and see more of my portfolio at 500px, Forteography.com, and ViewBug. To purchase a gift idea or promotional items for your business like coffee mugs, T-shirts, post cards, business cards, and more, go to my Zazzle e-store and REDBUBBLE. And don't forget to click on an AdSense sponsor with no pressure to buy as I get paid per click, and/or partner with me by making a donation. Thank you!

The Temescal Creek Peserve Dedication

When I am not exploring many of my favorite canyons smack-dab in the middle of urban San Diego in view of the downtown skyscrapers and taking pics of the city again whenever I caught what I believe was an awesome shot, even if only by accident, like storm clouds at sunset over a city streetscape,;I am active in my Church, community, and causes I believe in. I volunteer at Our Lady of the Rosary in San Diego's Little Italy, in my Knights of Columbus council ,that includes marching in the St. Patrick's Day parade and processions at Mass, which I will post shortly, and in conservation activism, trying to save as much of wild and rural California from out-of-control development and sprawl I can.This post is about my conservation activism, about when I attended the invitation-only dedication of the new protected natural area in San Diego County called the Temescal Creek Preserve.

As California, particularly Southern California, gets more and more developed and populated, with more and more open space and farmland getting paved over, it will be crucial to try to preserve some of that open space and farmland, if not for the economic values or for the benefits to wildlife and the environment, then for our own selfish needs, the needs of us humans to be able to stretch out our arms, breathe fresh air, and reconnect with and meditate in nature, in an environment that is not man made and fabricated. We are also explorers by nature and need open frontiers left to discover. Along those lines, I will use proceeds from this blog and my other work to become a future member and contributor to many of those organizations listed on my page "Organizations I Support," including the American Farmland Trust-California Office and The Wildlands Conservancy .

Me at my favorite hiking and photography spot overlooking a beautiful and peaceful rural area in Banning that will all soon be a huge master-planned housing community known as "Rancho San Gorgonio." Riverside County, CA.

What was once one of the last remaining rural areas in Orange County is now yet another victim of suburban sprawl, slowly nudging out long-time residents who enjoyed and worked off of its more open and equestrian-friendly history & tradition. And was under construction even during a severe & historic drought. Yorba Linda, CA.

 Not long ago I was actually able to become a real paying member of  the San Diego River Park Foundation (SDRPF) and donate a small amount of funds to help them purchase a 300-acre property called "Eagle Peak Ranch at Temescal Creek," which is actually part of a larger private property called the Homestead property. SDRPF has the goal of creating a connected parkway and trails along the San Diego River and its watershed from its headwaters in the mountains of East San Diego County near Julian at 4,000 feet (known to locals as "East County" or "the backcountry") to its mouth at the sea, at Mission Bay. And as of this writing it has almost reached its goal. East San Diego County is for now rural and sparsely populated, more home to the cowboy than to the business suit, but, like all the rest of Southern California, it lies dead on the target for suburban development and sprawl, so its is vital to, not obstruct growth or progress, but to simply provide a counter, to try to balance it with open space and farmland conservation, which is why I am an aspiring activist in such.

Below are two videos shot the day I attended the dedication of the Temescal Creek property by the San Diego River Park Foundation. The first is the road trip up, from near sea level near the I-8 at Santee and El Cajon and surrounded by suburban San Diego, to the East San Diego county countryside that is under threat, up to nearly 4,000 feet to the headwaters of the San Diego River near Julian and that is now preserved, yes, "forever" as natural open space for all to enjoy (at certain times as not to overwhelm its environment and neighbors). The second video shows the Eagle Peak Ranch at Temescal Creek property and the dedication with the short presentation put on by the foundation speaking about the property, its history, background, and the foundation's future role there and goals and projects in the future in general. You may have to turn up your speakers for the second video as my cell phone does not have a powerful microphone on it so could not capture the sound very well.

Again, when necessary, development is not a negative, and I am not trying to be an obstructionist, but I do encourage you to get involved in preserving any of the natural open space or rural lands you currently enjoy or work on, and one way to do such is to look up, become a member of, donate to, and volunteer with conservation organizations like the American Farmland Trust and the San Diego River Park Foundation, among many others, and many you can find links to here. By supporting this blog and my other work by clicking on an AdSense sponsor, with no pressure to buy as I get paid per click, by donating directly to my blog, or by purchasing a photo or product at one of my e-stores, you are also supporting those wild and rural land conservation activists as, as stated above, I am currently a member of the San Diego River Park Foundation and will become a member of and donor to many of those other groups I have listed via the proceeds from this blog and my other work. 

After the two videos I filmed and produced is a link to a video from another source about why the Eagle Peak Ranch at Temescal Creek preserve and others like it are so special.

Video of A Drive Through Rural East San Diego County from the suburban sprawl of Santee at 400 feet up to the countryside  (for now) & San Diego River headwaters outside Julian near 4,000 feet:

Video of the Eagle Peak Ranch at Temescal Creek Preserve Dedication:

  Saving Temescal Creek - San Diego River Park Foundation from Jim Karnik Films on Vimeo.