What do Tree Trimming & Solar Industries have in common ???

Most of the Experts behind those industries more often than not have no clue as to what they are really doing 😟

Image from May 2019 - Google Earth

Image from Sept 2005
Las Pilitas Native Plant Nursery

Well, it's Springtime in SoCal when Google Earth updated this street photo in May 2019. The trees (California Sycamores, Canary Island & Torrey Pines) behind the roofline of this house I grew up in all started out as six inch high seedlings in late 2005 when I planted them in September of that same year. The rapid growth of the Sycamores was facilitated by using a practice called, biomimicry, which is nothing more than replicating how nature under the right conditions causes deep rooted trees and shrubs, especially on ancient Bajadas or Alluvial Fans to thrive. This just happens to also be where most of SoCal's housing development is located. Many housing tracts in SoCal are located on former orange groves which were originally planted on alluvial fans at the foot of mountains. Alluvial Fans like floodplains are some of the most efficient geological formations for storing and holding massive amounts of water. Those Sycamore trees at my mum's place are no longer irrigated except during the rainy season. During summer, these water loving trees are tapped into the subsurface aquifer.

Image from summer of 2007

California Sycamores are almost two years old.

Image mine from 2011

The photo above from 2007 shows less than two year old Sycamore trees on a former floodplain or alluvial fan (see Lessons Learned from the Bajadas (Alluvial Fans)) Look how tall they are. Pay attention San Diego River restorationists. Decades ago I was curious how single solitary Sycamore trees thrived on rocky sandy boulder strewn floodplains where summer temps were always well over 100+ Fahrenheit (40+ celsius) far from any water course, let alone getting established in the first place. I found that heavy rainfall El Niño weather events with wetter than normal summer monsoon seasons were the reason. This can easily be replicated in any urban landscape. Generously deep root irrigate and after two years, simply taper off the available moisture gradually and force the rootsystems to go straight down. During the whole entire process keep a generous layer of mulch all around the trees extending several feet from the main trunk. Understand that all Sycamores, Fremont Cottonwoods, etc will go down 20' looking for moisture. They have built in mechansims for sensing and sniffing out available water. The photo on the right from 2011 shows well established very tall Sycamores with deep full shade on the ground below and deep cover of Sycamore leaves. They have a tremendous cooling effect where the back screen door is now left open and the prevailing westerly winds blow underneath the cool tree canopy and into the house and out the front door screen. The industrial air conditioner as seen in the top Google Earth photograph is rarely needed and saves electricity bill when not in service.

Fast forward to the past couple of years and sleezy slick Solar Panel salesmen are trying to convince my 87 year old Mother she needs to plaster solar panels all over her home's roof to save money and be considered more eco-green. What's more, a tree trimming company usually also shows up almost exactly the same time (Coincidence ???) as the solar panel salesman claiming for safety reasons she needs to top all her trees to the roofline, which will also make the Solar Panels more efficient at generating electricity. They feed her a line about how Sycamores are unstable and the giant tree limbs could break at any moment. So let's take the problem of Solar panels on her roof first.

Illustration - Healthy Family Newspaper

Image from SolarQuotes.com

First off, my mum's place has only one south facing roof slope and that is over the garage. The other roof slopes are both west and east facing as you can see in the photo at the top with the towering trees behind the house and therefore would be worthless as far as the ability to maximize electricity generation. No problem says the sleezy solar salesman, we can sell you solar tilt frames which will angle the panels to a more southerly exposure. Of course once again you would have to top those trees. Of course it'll look like nothing more than an eye sore industrial mess and curb appeal will be almost non-existent, but she'll certainly be 100% certifiable eco-green. Every single time my mother calls and says one of these home casing scumbags have told her she needs solar and tree topping, I get on the horn and make sure my siblings keep an eye out on what she does as far as decision making.

Large Trees will put the brakes on Heat Islands

The journal, AZ Central, had a nice article on things to know before installing Solar Panels on the roof. They had those 10 key considerations before deciding to install solar panells on your house roof. Here's #1 below this picture of what a Heat Island does. Note even in cold frigid climate like Sweden where I presently live now, there are heat island. In this case small trees are heated by the Sun and cause a temperature rise which melts the snow. Now imagine for a moment how much more insanely intense the heat is on a Solar Farm in the deserts of Arizona where temperatures at 40+ Celsius could be raised to 50+ Celsius. Now for all you European Scandinavians, just ponder that for a moment. 😵

1. Trees reduce output, savings 

Solar panels need direct sunlight, so homes heavily shaded by trees are not good candidates, officials from American Solar and Roofing and SunHarvest Solar say. 

Although some homeowners opt to cut down trees to accommodate solar panels, homeowners should consider whether the cooling shade the trees provide outweighs the benefits of solar panels.

AZCentral: Should you install solar on your home? 10 key considerations

Illustrations by Melissa McFeeters

Illustration - EnergySage

Image - EcoAltEnergy

Then there is the Wildfire Hazard almost no eco-group will Discuss

Image - Australian Solar Care

All manner of debris ends up under these panels and as Eco-Groups demand solar on roofs, they rarely touch on this hazard after lecturing people about spark (embers) arresters on attic vents, keeping rain gutters clear, etc. And it's not just fallen leaves, it's also birds and little animal critters who find them attractive to move debris under to build nesting sites.

Google Search = Leave Litter under Solar Panels 

Spring of May 2019 - Google Earth

Okay here it is again folks. Above photo is May 2019 of this year and photograph on right is house stucco renovation in the Fall of 2018. Note the height of the trees. The California Sycamores are on the left, Canary Island Pines in the middle and on the right is the Torrey Pine which finally matured enough to reach subsoil moisture and over the last couple of years has amazingly grown three or four foot a year. Both the tree trimming companies and Solar Panel installers want my mother to top all those trees (Sycamores & Pines) at roof level and install Solar Panels so she'll be eco-green and *cough-cough* save money. Problem is, since the trees have grown bigger, the backyard patio area has never been more pleasant, shady & cooler. It's like an Oasis. Cutting them down to size would completely elevate the backyard temperatures, plus added temp increase on the roof would rise by several degrees more because black solar panels create heat islands. In otherwords they create what they are meant to reverse, global warming. That giant industrial airconditioning unit with the trees is rarely used, but the sales pitch to my mother was that once the trees were removed, the *cough-cough* free energy from the Sun would be able to run the unit and the house would always be pleasant.

Image - Harvey Windows

The house was built in 1956, no insulation inside the outer walls and old technology crank windows. Fortunately the windows have all be replaced with dual pane windows which have also made a huge difference in cooling in summer and heating in winter. They also had insuation blown into the attic crawl space when none ever existed previously. The only things left with no insulation are the walls and underneath the floors. Below is an Astronaut Helmet coated with gold which is perfect in blocking out damaging radiation and the heat it creates. Common window glass allows sunlight to enter a room and heat up all objects creating more heat, hence the need to airconditioning. Low-E Windows with a thinner coating than the Astronaut visor embedded within the window allow light, but block the UV rays. There are a number of more aesthetically pleasing and energy efficient things people can do instead of putting bulky industrial infrastructure on your roof to run an airconditioner. Trees cool things off considerably and I appreciate this will chap the Solar Industry's attitude against those who chooose no Solar, but that's tough. There are a couple of important links below the Helmet.

Visor image by Steve Jurvetson from Menlo Park, USA

 Gold-Coated Visors Protected Apollo 11 Astronauts During First Moon Walk

Heat-reflecting low-E glass

Tree Trimming Nightmare examples with Sycamores

Image from Google Earth May 2019

An old high school friend of mine has a dad who own's this JB Mills Insurance Agency building and all the other office rentals within. This is on Broadway in El Cajon, California, just east of Ballantyne street. The photo on the right is from the Dentist office Advert of my high school buddy Randolph P. Mills and the building is where his office resides in. In the photo on the right you can clearly see the California Sycamore has been topped off which is the way tree companies like dealing with many large trees. It's fast and more convenient for them, just to chop, hack, packup and go on their merry way to the next job. For me, tree trimming was more of an art form when I did it. It was actually one of my favourite assignments. Lawn care was my nightmare. When you are done, the tree or shrub should not look like it's just been trimmed, but naturally sculpted to picturesque shape and form. This is the way nature works with trees, especially strong healthy Sycamores. But this irresponsible tree topping technique was started back in the late 1960s & early 1970s and has been practiced ever since. In the top photo you can see where water sprout branches have shot up like a rocket given the massive trunk and root infrastructure which will trigger an explosion of new growth in response to the attack. The USA in many cities and towns have above ground utility poles which must have their corridor right-of-ways maintained for clearance. Doesn't take much talent to chop-shop trees to keep corridors cleared, but the problem is this terrible practice has bled over into the maintaining all landscape trees in urban landscapes where utilities are nonexistent.

Cartoon Animations Below Illustrate the Problems with Tree Professionals

Sunset Terrace Apartments - Bradley Ave, El Cajon, California

Image - apartments.com

Image - rent.com

Nothings changed for the better in property management. The place above is a commercial apartment building next to the complex I worked at. In the beginning (2002) I remember the Sycamore trees were so huge and majestic looking, almost completely shaded the front of the entire apartment complex and the various carports in the back. Every other year since, they have hired the same tree company to cut back hard and top all these trees into an unnatural form. In the photo on the right here, you can see the untouched Sycamore on the left and a previous months topping and regrowth that same year. Tree companies have no care as to time of year they ravage your trees. Let's face it, they need work year round. This same company hacked the trees along the propertyline of both our properties because the SDG&E telephone-power poles ran along a storm drainage ditch in between both commercial residential complexes. One memorable tree grossly hacked and chopped to a 20' tall stump was a beautiful large spreading and tall Shamel Ash. The biggest problem with tree trimming in Summer heat is that trees naturally respond to injury with extremely rapid growth to replace what was lost. Because of such rapid tender growth, much of growth is succulent sweet and ripe for predation by pest insects, pathogens, powdery mildews, etc. The usual tannins and alkaloids which make most foliage bitter and distasteful to such pest have not yet been produced by the tree. So it's like a massive thanksgiving feast for the pests. This happened to the Shamel Ash which never ever recovered and had to be completely taken out. Some fault of course lies with the Homeowner or landscaper who makes a bad choice in nursery tree selection with no foresight taken into consideration of what future consequences may eventually exist, especially near and around power poles.

As usual, lessons are rarely learned in our times. You think things would improve with newer understanding but they don't. Both the chopping of trees and installation of massive solar infrastructure continue as mankind's only hope for reversing climate and weather degradation. But the same ignorance and lack of forethought is employed in using a technology which is still less than efficient for the amount of area footprint it requires which is still a major problem. Hardly any single environmental activist group will raise a whisper when forests are eliminated and trees chopped down because a massive solar farm will take the forest's place. But cut those same trees down for an industrial mining operation, oil exploration or natural gas fracking venture and as the saying goes, "There's usually all Hell to Pay." 

Update April 21, 2020 - Earth Day Youtube

UPDATE ABOUT YOUTUBE 

 Youtube has deleted the documentary in a sleezy censorship ploy along with other groups. Fortunately Vimeo has a copy.

SORRY - ANOTHER UPDATE - This time it's VIMEO

 Well once again the Though Police have made their prresence felt again and deleted the Planet of the Humans video just like Youtube for the same inconvenient truth reasons. Apparently you'll just have to pay and order the video from Michael Moore's group.

That documentary has thus far been a huge inconvenient truth for almost all environmental organizations and other green groups who refuse to actually discuss the findings. Here below is an after documentary discussion with Michael Moore, Jeff Gibbs & Ozzie Zehner.

Image from Basin and Range

How much longer will humans put their blind trust in this World's Credentialed Elites to problem solve ??? 😔

"Expectation postponed makes the heart sick."  

​—Prov. 13:12.

Gray & Silver Plants to Brighten up your Landscapes ???

"Gray is a cool, neutral, and balanced color. The color gray is an emotionless, moody color that is typically associated with meanings of dull, dirty, and dingy, as well as formal, conservative, and sophisticated. The color gray is a timeless and practical color that is often associated with loss or depression."

Bourn Creative: Meaning of the Coloer Grey 

Image - Texas A&M AgriLife Research & Extension Center at Uvalde

Agave neomexicana - image, Grootscholten

Growing up in San Diego county, I was surrounded by adults, many of whom came from the midwest. Their midwest biased choices for landscapes were predominently massive lawns, a few trees, some flower beds, but mainly their choices were based on preferences of rich greens like the environments they were transplanted from. I can relate. I grew up around a much more rugged landscape of drier Mediterranean chaparral & desert ecosystems. Hence the patterns and colour schemes regarding my preferences in landscaping are a puzzle over here to most Swedes who no doubt would relate to people from the eastern United States. Take the photo above of the Texas A&M research station. Most people in a Retail Nursery in California will still prefer plants which offer the most brilliant of greens over greys if given a choice. Very few would choose what they would consider the dull grey-blue New Mexico Agave seen above right. But I think mainly it's a lack of ability of visualizing such a specimen in the correct location and with the perfect companion plant which can offer accented colour hightlights which can bring out the richest most effective colour scheme within their gardens. Let's take some examples of human taste in decoration of interiors with greys & whites. Two of the most used colours here in Sweden.

Image - Decoist.com

Somewhere somehow a human a designer of home decor observed this gray and red accent highlight colour pattern before making their decision in use of these colour schemes. The various shades of grays and charcoals on their own would appear boring and depressing, but add splashes of red here and there and the complete picture is beautiful. The opposite would be true of red, overused and it would be too loud, busy and hardly relaxing. But how does nature handle this problem ???

Image by Wyoming Game Warden Bill Bish

Image - Susan Pedrini

My favourite combination of these colour schemes is found in the rugged beauty of a Silver Sagebrush (Artmisia tridentata)  dry high desert habitat interspersed with the bright reds of Indian Paintbrush (Castilleja sp.) In many cases the Silver Sagebrush can be found in a high desert monculture which for most people would be boring. But almost always the Indian Paintbrush requires a host. Some say the Indian Painbrush plant is semi-parasitic plant, but not in the negative way you may consider parasitism. The idea behind a parasite is that it only takes without giving anything back, but I believe there is more to this than meets the biased scientific researcher's eye. As with everything else of course.

Image - City of Monterey Park

These are the beautiful flowers of the California Zauschneria (California Fuchsia) which is another of those very gray foliage plants which no one would ever give a second look at were it not for it's lipstick candy red flowers. 

Image - Yerba Buena Nursery

And yet another plant with dull gray-green foliage would be the native state flower known as California Poppy (Eschscholzia californica). Without the flowers, who would be interested ???

Exotics we wouldn't bother with either if it weren't for their Flowers 😁

Image - Arizona Flowering Plants

Image - Las Aventuras

In the hotter regions of the Southwestern United States (Arizona, California, New Mexico & Texas), there are some popular exotic shrubs from the Caribbean we would not give a second look at were it not for their spectacular colourful flower displays. One of them is Mexican Red Bird of Paradise or Pride of Barbados (Caesalpinia pulcherrima). The compound leaves and pattern of the shrub is interesting, but again it is the flowers which provide the eye-candy people want. Other similar types of Caesalpinia are also attractive, but only with the flash colour of their flowers. So with numerous examples of what nature does with colours, we can biomimic in our designs in our gardens and large urban landscapes utilizing other plants as companion plantings if all the desirable qualities do not exist on the same plant.

Image - Dave's Gardens

Same is also true of this South American native, Desert Yellow Bird of Paradise - (Caesalpinia gilliesii). Nobody would ever plant it were it not for it's flowers. Because the otherwise dull gray-green foliage is not overly remarkable other than the decorative pattern of it's compound leaves.

Accenting large Chaparral Shrubs with beautiful red flowering vining natives.

Image - proyectos11

Image - Tree of Life Nursery

Many chaparral shrubs around the globe have been described as dull and mundane, but they have interesting partners which provide interest for both wildlife and humans. Take this example. This beautiful native plant to California's interior hills and valley's in it's Mediteranean climate is called, Bush Snapdragon (Galvezia juncea). A coastal or Channel Island variety of this is Galvezia speciosa (Island Bush-Snapdragon). Whenever I have seen this in native plant in the plant nurseries, the people purchasing them usually want them as a specimen plant all by itself. After they get older they generally look like nothing more than a large mounding shrub ball. While the plant is beautiful, the setting is boring. Of course you can do that, but that is not necessarily how I have found them when out hiking in the wild. In landscape design, I want a more wild natural look in the landscape. I deliberately chose both these photos which reveals a pampered plant which is happy because it has all it's favoured conditions met. Notice they have lots of long leggy streaming vine-like branches ??? Where I have found this plant in wild chaparral biome canopy, these long leggy streamers are usually poking straight up through the shrub canopy with vine-like branches flowing over the top of the shrubs from openings. Not overwhelming the shrubs, but just enough to provide wonderful accent of that lipstick red colour. Here is a link to information on this native plant from Tree of Life Native Plant Nursery about them.

Tree of Life Nursery: Bush-Snapdragon – Galvezia

Pipestem Clematis & Chaparral Clematis (Clematis lasiantha)

Image - Las Pilitas Nursery

Image - Philip Bouchard (2010)

This is another one of those interesting vining plants in the chaparral plant community called Clematis. This Pipestem Clematis (Clematis lasiantha) is deciduous and grows to 8-20' and has showy, creamy white flowers from March-August. Pipestem or Chaparral clematis is native in the coast ranges and Sierra Nevada mountains. I've found it previously when I lived in western Riverside County in California just east of Temecula right along Hwy 79. It apparently grows as far south as Baja California. The Clematis fruits are plume-like which you can see here on the right. Another type of Clematis is Clematis ligusticifolia which is a little more vigorous. But it needs a chaparral lattice or tree ladders to climb and support it's vining habit needs. I've never seen anyone use this plant in the landscapes, but for me it has good potential.

Las Pilitas Native Plant Nursery in Santa Margarita California has a link on their pages to a long list on native plant vines.

http://www.laspilitas.com/groups/native-vines.html

Dallas Texas Lanscape - Lee Ann Torrans

Image - Burger's Onion

The landscape above has Santolina and native grasses in a perennial garden. That is Russian sage in the background just about to burst forth in lovely feathery blooms and Salvia Greggii in the front with pink blooms. But in SoCal you can also use various native Sages and even the exotic Mediterranean Lavenders. Also keep in mind SoCal has other native plants like Aloes, Agaves, numerous succulents, even San Diego's native Dudleyas. A good write up on San Diego Dudleyas Yuccas and other native Southern California succulents can be found below.

Burger's Onion: "Succulents of Coastal Southern California: Dudleya"

Challenge yourself next time with landscape design ideas and concepts bordering on those gray areas 😉 

Pointleaf Manzanita (Arctostaphylos pungens): Health Benefits from Desert Plants ???

Image by Imelda Marcias

First time I ever heard of the use of Manzanita berries down in Mexico was from a family (Benjamin Larios family) I use to visit who lived on an old Adobe walled farm house in Anza California back in the early 1980s. The husband (Ben Sr) worked for the giant potato grower from San Jacinto up there, Agri-Empire, and his wife was known by the hispanic workers as the lady who made and sold both corn and flour tortillas (two dozen for a buck). So I also purchase my tortillas from her, since in those early days there were not a lot of stores which sold anything Mexican, unless you drove over an hour to Hemet & San Jacinto in the valleys below. She once showed me jar of Manzanita berries from which she crush and made a type of vinegar to get the goat milk to curdle and make cheese. They looked exactly like the picture above right. The Larios family was one of the nicest most humble families you could ever meet. But here below is the story that triggered my memory of my early times in Anza. Nice story from a couple days ago from NBC San Diego you can read here:

Woman Who Reached 118 Years Old Says the Secret is 'Good Food' from Desert Plants

Photograph by Telemundo Local/efe (NBC San Diego)

Image - Marie Bornman

The older woman above is, María Félix, who is from Mexico and she just turned 118. She attributes her health and long life to eating "good food" specifically foods from the desert. Along with the usual better known native foods like the Tunas from Prickly Pear cactus (Nopales), Purslane (commonly cursed by gardeners) and something referred to as quelite. Much like the Southern folk's usage of word/term “greens”, which can refer to collards, kale, mustard, spinach or who knows what, but in Mexico the word quelites is used to reference pretty much any green leafy vegetable. Prickly Pear tunas are a given for Mexican foods. My flavourite are not the store bought, but rather wild collected Nopal which are native to Southern California where I come from. In the Spring time, the tender new grow of the beavertail looking pads are collected, know as Nopales, where the flavour reminds me of green pole beans, but a bit stickier and slimy like Okra. The store bought tunas and pads just do not have the same rich flavour as wild collected.

Imafe by 

I've eaten Purslane in the past which is a well known little weed. The flavour and texture is very reminiscent of Broccoli. It is freely available as you all know and very commonly known by most Mexican descended people as a vegetable. Gringos however have problems with many things commonly viewed as weeds. Yet their ancestors who came out of the great depression often ate such things. Beans were common to eat when I was a kid, but this is viewed as poor peoples food now and I dare say, unless Gringos go to a Mexican restaurant where they serve beans, very few eat them anymore. But the use of Pointleaf Manzanita is what most interested me. From what I said at the top here, it was used by Berta Larios to curdle goat's milk for cheese. Indeed, almost anything with acid content will curdle milk for cheese. This Manzanita can reach between 1 and 3 meters in height. The stems are the typical red bark and a smooth texture, their branches are short and from them are born leathery textured leaves with a bright green color. They have spherical flowering clusters with each individual flower always reminding me of Chinese lanterns and their fruits are a drupe that measures about 5 to 8 millimeters whose pulp is very fleshy and edible. Sweet n Sour like Granny Smith. The fruits to me are sweet and sour which are used in the production of alcoholic beverages, smoothies, syrups, jams and even to flavor soups. But what stands out among the properties of pingüica is its powerful diuretic action. Caution should be used like everything else in the herbal field, but many will always over do it. Humans always have this idea in the back of their minds, "If a little works, more must be even better."

Image from Alimentoscon.com

The fruit tastes like the sour green apple of a Granny Smith or Rhode Island Greening. But dried and the powery interior of the seed is tart and sweet like the old Pixie Dust candy sticks. Among the supposedly beneficial properties of pingüica, the site stresses that in countries like Mexico its fruits and leaves contain very useful compounds which are used in their traditional medicine such as the tannins, gallic acid and arbutin (see link below in references). The later chemical property stands out for being the one that gives it its diuretic and anti-inflammatory properties. It's also these acid-like properties which cause the milk for curdle for cheese making. But I've provided further reading below. Some sites you'll need to turn on your translation feature from Spanish to English.

Image - Mi Herbolaria

http://herbolaria.altervista.org/plantas/pinguica.html

Anyway, aside from it's uses in traditional medicines, foods, etc, it's also an excellent landscaping shrub for hotter areas for which I'm providing a link below from Las Pilitas Nursery and Bert Wilson's description and uses for this native shrub in your garden.

Further Reference Reading:

https://www.laspilitas.com/nature-of-california/plants/74--arctostaphylos-pungens 

https://alimentoscon.com/pinguica (Spanish - translate)

lifepersona.com/pingueica-nutrition-information-properties-for-health-side-effects-and-how-to-take-it

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arbutin

https://honest-food.net/how-to-make-manzanita-cider-Vinegar

Municipal Infrastructure can influence the Public on using California Native in Landscaping

Take Santee Lakes & San Diego River Walk in California as an example

SanteeSaturdays Episode 22: Santee Lakes - San Diego Real Estate Agent: Kyle Whissel

Growing up through the 1960s, Santee Lakes recreation was a big part of how we spent our weekends. The landscaping at Santee Lakes has come a very long way from it's generic bland beginning where only a handful of native California Sycamores, a few Fremont Cottonwoods & a couple of Coast Live Oaks existed. A few areas had some lawn strips and picnic tables but mainly it was sand and gravel, but nothing overly spectacular. Most people came there for the fishing. The concept of water recycling was really born here. Many researchers came from around the globe to study and find out what Santee was doing with their water. As kids at Pepper Drive Elementary School, we went there on field trips to learn how this innovation of reccling water worked. I remember the guy showing us a movie and a magnification of a water sample where these sort of clear looking squiggley things were moving around in the water and the guy commented, "We really don't know what these things are, but we know they don't hurt you." 😕 I was super-glad our water came from Helix. I'm sure they know what those things are now compared to 1960s understanding and they've been dealt with. 😉 Most Municipal Sewage Treatment Facilities conventionally cleaned up most of the solids from sewer water before the grey water was further transfered on it's way out to Sea. Later many Facilities started grey-water programs for the mega-water users like Public Parks and Golf Courses.

The northern most reaches of the lakes is where the actual mechanized part of the treatment facility itself is located where solids (yuck) are separated and grey water further aerated prior to release into the northern most percolation ponds and lower series of lakes. That lake and the one below it were always off limits for boating and fishing or even walking around. But the idea behind the concept was to further allow nature (aquatic ecosystem with algae, cattails, rushes, fish, crawdads, etc), to take care and restore the water as it filtered through each of the various gravity fed lakes down stream where it was eventually re-used. Here is a link to the Padre Dam Municipal Water District website where a detailed but not overly complicated explanation is given as to how the treatment facility's concept works. (Water-Recycling-Facility) In the photo at left you can see an aerial view of the majority of the series of gravity fed lakes where little by little 2 million gallons of water a day becomes more and more purified and further treated prior to reuse. In researching their website, they actually only recycle about a third of the available sewer water that is generated and have plans to expand the plant's capacity for far more water recycling. They also have plans for pumping the extra cleaned recycled water and mixing it with Lake Jennings Aquaduct water from natural sources up north and from the Colorado River. I think it's a kool idea and there is some talk of filtering it even further by pumping it first within the floodplain of El Monte Valley allowing the Sand (excellent filter for water) and the microbological forces of nature to further cleaning it before pumping it out near the west end of the valley up into Lake Jennings. Now there is more good news about Santee Lakes.

Image from Santee Lakes Archive

Back when I was still a kid in the early 1960s in, "Leave it to Beaver World," there really wasn't much in the way of landscape, native or otherwise. What little there was, was mainly native which already existed in this former cobblestone strewn floodplain where the lakes were constructed. Mostly plain and generic with little thought to landscape. This has developed and improved over time. Back then in the 1960s when I was in Boy Scouts, we attended Jamborees north of the Lakes and Sewer Plant facilites in a open area valley known as the Goodan Ranch and Sycamore Canyon Open Space Preserve. It was here we learned about many of the natural wonders of San Diego Country's plants and animals, which of course were interesting, but not the type of plants most people ever considered planting in their yards. After all, coastal sage-scrub was viewed as jagged rough wild rangy looking stuff and the retail nurseries had all the good looking safe domestic plants, not to mention all the science-based goodies to make them grow. After all, the settled science back then was informing people just how dangerous, harsh and stingy Nature was in growing things. No worries, we were told Science could fix all that 😕

Goodan Ranch and Sycamore Canyon 

Open Space Preserve

Images by Mountain Bike Bill

http://www.mountainbikebill.com/SycamoreCanyon.htm

Image - Frank Bruce (2013)

While I mostly hated the military aspect part of Boy Scouts with the uniforms and all that came with it, it did afford me some free outdoor opportunities I would never have otherwise received. My dad was never really an outdoors person. Weekends were all about ball games and ABC's Wide World of Sports on television. So it was fortunate that there were other fathers in the neighbourhood who for several years dedicated and sacrificed their own personal weekend free time to provide us with learning experience through outdoor adventure for a lot of young neighbourhood boys. It was the Nature part of things I only ever liked about the Boy Scouts, the other ideological indoctrination stuff never worked for me. No offense to Boy Scouts, just wasn't my thing. I also had a Great Uncle on my mother's side who took me outdoors alot, and we hiked many many times in Sycamore and other adjacent canyons. So when I actually do on occasion come back for a visit to Santee Lakes I think of those past times of learning about Nature and pleasantly surprised at the move towards a more native plant ecological approach that Santee Lakes. Other organizations are making attempts to partially restore if not all of the San Diego River course from the Mountains to the Pacific Ocean. There are a number of incredible benefits to that. (1) It keeps people closer to home for outdoor recreation activities which provide less environmental pressure on State & National Parks and Monuments, etc. (2) It saves fuel and congestion on roadways which means less air pollution. (3) It also acts an an example of how beautiful California Natives Plants can be incorporated into homeowner's front and backyards which in the long run saves water.  Now below here, this is what Santee Lakes has done from an important ecological and practical viewpoint.

Excellent Reading & Information References 

http://www.mountainbikebill.com/SycamoreCanyon.htm

https://goodanranch.org

Plant it and they will come! 😎

Image is from Santee Lakes

A big part of having an urban landscape is not just a bunch of beautiful trees, shrubs and flowering plants. It's also the native critters who are encouraged to come to visit. After my Dad died, I re-did my mum's landscape with natives. He never wanted any of that, just lawns like they all have back in Iowa. As a result of the change, my mum now has birds who visit and nest that you previously only saw in the wild. Also since I lived there growing up from 1961 till 1982, I never saw lizards or snakes before, now she gets both. When I came back to the USA for a visit in 2015, my wife and I visited Santee Lakes after I had been away since maybe sometime in the 1980s. So many amazing changes have taken place since them. Like these new camp grounds and cabins above. What I do like is that they have incorporated California Holly or Toyon (Heteromeles arbutifolia) into the landscape around the cabins. But aside from the obvious beauty of the native chaparral shrubs are the obvious side benefits of attracting wildlife around the vicinity of the cabins like these beautiful Cedar Waxwings eating the red berries. When I worked over on Bradly Ave in El Cajon on one of the large properties with the Property Management Rental Company I worked for, we had lots of California Holly, some almost like mature old growth small trees. In Winter we'd have whole flocks of Cedar Waxwings come though and spend several days around our Toyons which were loaded with numerous red berry clusters.

Image - Santee Lakes

 Most wildlife at Santee Lakes with of course will be birds, especially aquatic birds like this Green Heron who just captured a frog for dinner. This was taken from their Facebook page. They have other shots of these little Green Herons with fish in their mouths among other prey caught at the lake's shoreline edges. These are funny little birds to watch as the deliberately and patiently slowly walk and stalk prey in the shallows. It's amazing to watch them slow motion walk, suddenly and instantly freeze and hold that pose for a very very long time and suddenly without warning strike with that spear-like beak and snatch prey who no doubt didn't even realize what happened until they find themselves in the bird's sharp beak.

Photo . Mike Thirkell

This next bird is a cormorant which you've no doubt seen in documentaries or in real life with wings spead out. This behavior is commonly described as "sunbathing" or "wing-drying." The Cormorants frequently assume these postures, which are also seen in both Brown and White Pelicans, as well as in some storks, herons, vultures, and hawks. All these birds are in and around Santee Lakes and the San Diego River Walk areas. This bird photograph on the right was an excellent catch by Mike Thirkell who shot at the exact moment the bird snatched a fish and gulped it down. Birding is a huge hobby here from what I've been reading and not surprising given water's influence on attracting all sorts of wildlife.

Image - imgur 2012

This shot above is a Hummingbird nest where the mother has built the nest on top of a Sycamore seed ball. Shot was taken in 2012 and the picture on the left here is 2 days later when the little Hummer chick hatched. It's amazing, most Sycamore seed balls are not all that big. Makes you wonder what inspired that mother to built there. Makes perfect sense though. Most of the seed balls of a Sycamore tree are just under the large leaves and such flimsy limber twigs wouldn't really hold the weight of a large bird looking for a meal. Hummers are always kool to have around and aside from their nesting tree choices, there are multiple flowering shrub and perennial choices for which will attract lots of hummingbirds.

Image - Santee Lakes

Image by Mary Beth Stowe

First time I ever saw Wood Ducks was when I lived in Anza, California back in the 1980s. The area was Terwilliger and the guy had a large pond on his property and purchased some Wood Ducks as young birds, built a couple of Wood Duck nesting boxes on poles sticking out of the water. Wood Ducks in Nature live in old hollowed out woodpecker holes which have been long abandoned and entrance widened. Like the Mallards the males are the ones who are the flash dressers and the females have a more camoflaged appearance to blend into their vegetative surroundings so as not to give away her nest location. But they are aamazing in their choice of nesting habitats and if you ever get to watch a video of their little ducklings dropping from a high nest to the ground, it's amazing.

Ducklings Jump from Nest 50 Feet in the Air

Photo by Ron Niebrugge

Image - Santee Lakes

Other plants that attract wildlife are the Palm tree islands at Santee Lakes. Unfortunately these Palms are mainly non-native Mexican Fan Palm and what looks to be Canary Island Date Palm. But they're still attractive and the wildlife don't mind. Know what else might you spot as the sun goes down? In an interview by East County Magazine, Nancy Gallagher, Park Recreation Cooradinator, provided info on what kinds of critters live st Santee Lakes, “In the evening, raccoons scurry into the trees.” Bryan Hague, park and recreation supervisor, told East County Magazine, “Most people don’t know that they can swim. We see them out on the islands.” Some of the raccoons nest in palm trees overlooking the lake. I'm not crazy about the Mexican Fan Palm for the reason that they are highly invasive (MexFan Palms - Day of the Triffids ???). The Sycamore Canyon Creek channel which runs along the west side of Santee Lakes is loaded with all manner of Mexican Fan Palm volunteers along with massive mounts of riparian undergrowth. It looks like a maintenance nightmare, especially with the other invasive Brazilian Pepper tree. I wish they had chosen the native California Fan Palm which does not do very well reseeding itself. It grows wonderfully, but why it does not reseed or perhaps produce viable seed like the Mexican is a mystery to me. Old examples of this palm can be found everywhere in the interior valleys of San Diego county, especially around old palm lined roads or driveways of many of the early agricultural Citrus Barron estates. Nice link below here from East County Magazine from 2011.

AHOY! FLOATING CABINS DEBUT AT SANTEE LAKES APRIL 1

California Sycamore an amazing Wildlife Tree @ Santee Lakes

Image from Hans & Lisa - Metamorphosis Road

Wikimedia - User Lorax (2011)

California Sycamores are wildlife magnets. The first draw would be the typical Red-Headed Woodpecker which is abundant there at Santee Lakes. Woodpeckers have numerous specialized traits that work together to enable them to peck holes in trees. The Sycamore often when in youth grows so incredibly fast, it will often self-prune itself with whole branches emerging from it's main trucks which will suddenly die back to the trunk and snap off. This happened with the Sycamores I planted at my mum's place over by Pepper Drive Elementary School. The resulting shallow cavity after the branch falls out is an ideal portal for the woodpecker to further excavate like the one here on the right. Some Woodpeckers will also create several test holes. Later coming back and finishing them little by little until the hole can be used. At that point specialized growth cells from the tree where the branch collar which is generally that wrinkled area of bark between branch and trunk will heal around the hole opening making for a neat protective seal around the entrance.

Wikepedia

Of course the woodpeckers eventually abandon their nests which are then utilized by other birds link owls, squirrels and other cavity nesting critters. If you are fortunate enough to find some exceptionally tall Sycamores, then maybe you'll also find an entire Rookery of Great Blue Herons. Another riparian bird taking advantage of California Sycamores. They like safety in numbers. Herons may or may not create a rookery around the busy noisy Santee Lakes, but they could well develop one over somewhere along the San Diego River Walk where there is more privacy, but they need more landscaping done along the trails set further back from the river bank. More on that below.

Image -  Tim Vechter

Image - Prairie Rivers Network

Bald Eagles most likely prefer not only the great height of a old growth California Sycamore, but also the fact that the California Sycamore with it's twisted contorted open airy structure makes it easy to get in and out. They are not nearly as dense as other trees, even other varieties of Sycamores. Again, another kool addition if located over along the San Diego River Walk where there is more privacy and wildness besides the peace, & quiet.

Image - Woodpecker Chronicles

Then there are Squirrels and Owls of all kinds

Image by D. Bruce Yolton  (2011)

River Walk Project: Imagining a Greener Future for the San Diego River

Photo by Katy Chappaz

Walking trails near the San Diego River in Santee, where I went to remind myself of what we're working towards. There are also playgrounds, picnic areas, basketball courts and a dog park nearby.

The Open Earth Project: Exploring a restored section of the river, and some before and after photos from this week's River Rescue clean up

I actually love the idea of rebuilding and restoring the San Diego River course from the Cuyamaca Mountains to the Pacific Ocean. Such ambitions and ideas were never entertained when I was a kid growing up in the 60s & 70s. For most people the river has been mostly a fractured mess of dry floodplains, sand mining and gravel pits, over grown tangled mess of invasives used as a residential habitat by the homeless, etc. Here and there golf courses utilized the bottomland which has often been prone to periodic flooding of the country clubs. It's certainly not the large picturesque rivers like those of the eastern United States fame where waters always flow abundantly and recreational activities like fishing and boating can be enjoyed anytime of the year. But change has been slow for a couple of decades where some folks have seen a real beautiful vision for this river and they've been proven right as you can see from areas which have been developed with park-like settings and well manicured trails. Take this photo in the example above. This is an area of the wider floodplain far removed from the banks of the San Diego River's edge that you see further in the background. This tree in the foreground looks to be a native Fremont Cottonwood. Oddly enough this tree looks like it may be several years old, yet it's height should be four times this with lush vigorous foliage, but that's not the case here. But why ??? 😕

Image by Brian Holly Ojai Riparian Restoration project

Copyright 2018 Scripps Media, Inc. All rights reserved.

The reason is that many plant restoration projects in municipal parks and wild recreation natural areas will use five gallon container or bigger sizes, because they want instant tree. I can understand that, we humans are prone to impatience and want things now, even in a landscape. But I avoid the large container trees for a number of reasons. First there is the cost waste factor. I don't have money to burn on instant trees. Often in most nurseries a five gallon containerized tall tree can be $24+ with 15 gallon being as much as $40+ or more depending on species. And this is what I see above in habitat restoration projects above both in Ojai & San Diego River examples. The two trees above are California Sycamores and to the right is a California Live Oak. I can understand planting near trails where they want their visitors to see instant tree (eye candy). But the facts are they can attain instant tree status within a year's time by simply using a one gallon container tree which will surpass the five+ gallon nursery trees anyway. This doesn't mean such projects never use one gallon, they do. But these examples above show that they will use larger species where public eye appeal is desired. Look below at another reason to use one gallon trees.

Image - CBS8.com

On February 20th 2017, Takeda California, Inc., the San Diego-based innovative research center of Takeda Pharmaceutical Company, showed up to the Walker Preserve in Santee to complete its four year effort to restore a 1.3-mile long stretch of the San Diego River Trail with native plants and shrubs and help from other volunteers.

Image - East County Magazine

Examples of 100s of one gallon plants being planted. From what I can tell mainly native shrubs, maybe some trees.

Nursery grown stock (irrespective of tree or shrub variety) is susceptible to root system training where the pattern of a circular spiral will often develop. Despite the straight tall desirable form of the trunk, branches and foliage above, the root system has no such freedoms. The bigger the container, the bigger the problem of spiraling. This example of spiraling roots in the large landscape planted tree at left is what happens after years of growth where the roots never self-correct and the term for this is girdling. “Girdling roots” are roots that grow around other roots or the trunk of the tree, eventually restricting their growth and choking off any nutrients they carry to the rest of the tree. Go to any older city park and you will often find large trees with this problem. The girdling can be on one side of the trunk, or in more sever cases, will encircle the entire trunk, causing the eventual death of the tree. It can also be susceptible to being blown over by severe wind storms. As these girdling roots continue to grow with time, they eventually enlarge causing further restricting of water and nutrient flow to the rest of the tree. The tree can quite literally strangles itself. Tree life would be even more greatly reduced in a wild preserve setting where life support irrigation is usually absent. Your main goal here with Sycamores is to encourage roots to grow straight down as far as they can go to reach the water table and if not, then just above it where capillary action of soil will force moisture upwards to be tapped into by the tree. Same applies here to Fremont Cottonwoods which will also thrive in dry washes in hot summers where deep underground soil moisture is abundant and easily accessed.

My Own Personal Experience in Riparian Tree Establishment based on Observation of  Prolonged Flooding Events during Wetter El Niño Years

Image is mine from 2007

Image - 2006 - Las Pilitas Native Plant Nursery

Prior to my move here to Sweden in May 2006, I had previously in 2005 removed a huge Texas Umbrella or China Berry tree and replaced that tree with one gallon container nursery grown native California Sycamores purchased at Las Pilitas Native Plant Nursery in Escondido (now closed). The young Sycamores (six altogether) were all on average eight inches tall when planted in September 2005 and when I left the following year to Sweden were about 4'+ tall (little over 1 meter). I heavily inoculated them at time of planting with a rich blend of endo-mycorrhizal fungal mix called MycoApply from Mycorrhizal Applications Inc out of Grant Pass Oregon. Thereafter several inch layers (10" to 12") deep of good mulch. Absolutely no soil amendment, it's a waste of money (like 5 to 15 gallon trees). And absolutely no science-based synthetic or organic fertilizers used whatsoever EVER. With mycorrhizal roots and mulch you won't need them EVER. Keep applying much every single year for five years. Call a tree trimming service ahead of time to see if they are in the area locally and often they will dump the woodchips on your property for free so as not to travel to the closest landfill and pay a fee. Of course they have to be locally in your neighbourhood or they won't come. Watering heavily was also a must, but I'll explain further below. The photo at top is Spring of 2007, so in 16 months, these one gallon Sycamore trees became 15' to 20' high with huge spread. 

Photo is mine from 2011

This photograph above now is 2011 and as you can see these trees are huge. The only trimming I did was from below and to keep limbs off the patio roof. Sycamores in Nature tend to self prune themselves, especially in youth. There is a native fungal disease, anthracnose. This will make disfigure many of the leaves each year. The most damaged leaves will fall in the early Summer. I have never seen this to be fatal to the Sycamore trees. Only the new leaves are susceptible to anthracnose canker, which causes a side bud to become the new leader. Don't worry, this is a kool thing. It's kind of like a natural tool which creates those picturesque angling trunks and branches on older specimens. Do NOT freak and feel you have to go out and purchase a fungicide to spray and kill the stuff. That would be the worst thing to do. Where I have seen real harm is in non-native Sycamore from eastern USA and Europe. The natives in SoCal do fine with the anthracnose.

Photo is mine from 2013

Take note of how close together the six Sycamore trees are together. This shot here is from 2013 and behind the backyard viewing the trees from the west towards the east. Notice in pruning them I've left the west side branches much lower than on the east side near the house. This provides further shading from hot summer afternoon sun. My here goal in the original layout was planting three trees in a sort of triangle pattern at a meter apart and two separate groups of these at about three meters from each other was to replicate the pattern of California Sycamore found in the wilds or like the example below at Tree of Life Native Plant Nursery. I'm told now that presently the height of these group of trees tower way over the roof of my mother's house. In fact she's been contacted by drive by tree hacker companies telling her she needs to top these trees. This is bunk and to be honest, most tree trimming companies don't know the art of actual tree trimming with an aim at beautiful picturesque sculpting. My mother has also been contacted by numerous Solar Panel companies who like the tree trimmers say she needs to cut the trees way back and put solar panels on her roof. This is also bunk. Prior to these trees being so large, this house cooked in the summer time (100+F). She has an industrial air conditioner mounted on the back part of the roof which used lots and lots of electricity. These trees with their cool moist shade and the back screen door open and front screen door open allow a westerly prevailing breeze to blow through underneath this massive Sycamore tree canopy have quite often negated the use of the air conditioner and a savings.

Image by Tree of Life Native Plant Nusery
San Juan Capistrano, California

SDSU: Post-Fire Environmental Recovery Process

Sycamores by nature are like a lot of other trees, when growing they have a central main leader (trunk), though numerous side branches. An undisturbed Sycamore may get huge, straight and tall over a couple of decades. So how do those ancient old growth California Sycamores develop into multi-trunk giants like the one above at Tree of Life Nursery ? Something catastrophic needs to happen to the tree sometime in it's life. They do grow in major floodplains, so flooding and being knocked down on it's side is a possibility which would trigger suckering. But more often these Sycamore are fire prone like so many other plant communities in this region of the Southwest. Their bark is thin and not dense enough to protect that delicate cambium layer from wildfire. Hence from the ground up a Sycamore dies but quickly resprouts even before next season's rainfall. 4 or 5 of these suckering leaders turn into a multi-trunked tree. This is the same for another native up in Northern California, the Pacific Madrone. They often start out straight and tall, but have a thin bark like Manzanita. They die back and resprout with suckering which turns into multi-trunked specimens. But I had no intention of allowing a couple Sycamores to grow big and tall, then destroy them with fire. Again my method of attaining the appearance of multi-trunked groups was to plant three in a group close together and it worked perfectly.

Stephen Chernin/Getty Images

Okay, so pay close attention to our goal here in Sycamore or Cottonwood deeproot training program. This scupture above is from a massive old Sycamore tree which once stood in front of the Trinity Church in New York City, but was destroyed by falling debris from one of the Twin Towers. You can research for more on this later. The point here is to look at all those main branched thicker roots which grew straight down. Sure at the topsoil layers there are lots more smaller lateral roots, but almost every tree has those, especially when in an urban landscape. So again goal here is a root system where the main roots grow straight down and as deep as they can go. Take a look at this Groasis Waterboxx video of where this planting strategy forces roots of a Mango Tree to grow straight down and deeper into the subsoil. (Mango-Roots Here 00.48 sec) It's a beautiful illustration. But take this other illustration below which is improtant in describing what exact function those large anchor roots provide other than stability.

This is an illustration of what takes place at night generally in the much hotter months throughout Summertime. Just focussing here on California Sycamores and Fremont Cottonwoods found in normal dry washes and floodlains of the Southwest, these large deep roots which may go down several meters (seven meters on average). This is good because ground water levels are fairly high through Santee, El Cajon and Lakeside valley floors. Hydraulic lift & redistribution is the passive movement of water from those thicker deeper verticle roots in the subsoil layers to shallower lateral roots in the surface soil of either Sycamore or Cottonwood. Hydraulic redistribution can increase water availability in the drier shallow soil later to alieviate the drought stress of summer, providing better soil and root water availability, which affects shallow root conductivity and native tree's lateral root hydrated and alive. This effect is of further importance when we consider mycorrhizal fungal grid connection functions in the lateral roots being kept alive and transfering water to other shallower rooted herbaceous plants and other shrubs within the sphere of influence of the large tree's absorption zone. The entire mycorrhixal network or grid is kept functional and operational for the benefit oof the entire riparian ecosystem. Several trees in large woodlands or groves keep the understory lush and green if developed properly in youth and this benefits all wildlife. This is why it's so important to biomimic what nature does in the wild to establish mature trees from the start during a wet period phase like an exceptionally wet El Niño event. Keep in mind this also goes for other chaparral and forest pioneering phenomena in the mountains. Now look at this pic below of the San Jacinto Valley floor which is mostly dry with the exception of subsoil layers which are very wet. Researching one water department report from the San Jacinto Groundwater Basin and they said water wells in this basin produced from 200 to 2,600 gpm. Wow! 😲

Photo taken by me in 2013
San Jacinto Valley, Riverside County

RiverPartners.org - Riparian Ecology

I love the area around the San Jacinto River Park with those giant majestic Cottonwoods. This photo on the left here is a two-year old cottonwood (planted as a cutting) was excavated by a flood and found to have five individual roots that were over 25 feet long. That's how incredibly fast many riparian trees can heal and restore an aquatic ecosystem. But of course the goal here is not so much lateral roots in the widest part of the system, but incredibly deeper roots going straight down as would be necessary for Cottonwood and Sycamore far away from the main river channel to reach water table. Like the huge ones in the photo above near the town of San Jacinto and the solitary tree I reference well above in the photo of the San Diego River Walk trail quite a distance from the main river course. Yes, it's hot and dry, but the water table shouldn't be that far down. To me the Santee River Walk tree looks to be struggling a bit. That can be fixed. Another component which would definitely help is inoculating with a mycorrhizal blend at planting time. It's a must despite negative advice to the contrary. Also, NEVER fertilize, I don't care what the Nursery guy or some anonymous troll on a social media site says. When I visit this Santee River Walk in April (2018), I'll have to contact someone and get more details.

Photo by LA Creek Freak

This photo now over here on the right is a riparian restoration program going on near the Colorado River Delta which has restricted available water from it's former past glory. The reason I bring this photo up is the long slender Cottonwood poles which were used as cuttings for a faster head start. Many of these can be 20' long poles and holes drilled with a long boring auger, not too big of a diameter, but one which will also go deep enough (4' or 5') to give these poles a head start (& planted in the Winter when dormant). The worker above is placing these in an irrigation ditch  to keep them soaked until time of planting. You cannot allow these poles to dry out or the tissues will die which renders the pole useless for planting.

The same idea can be applied to California Sycamore by aquiring long pole cuttings. As much as 20' long. This could be a challege if you don't know where to find good straight long poles. I took this photo along Hwy 74 leading into the mouth of the San Jacinto River canyon on the drive up to Idyllwild California. It's right close to the North Fork San Jacinto River Truck Trail turnoff. These Sycamore trees along this stretch of road have always been molested by Southern California Edison for a few decades now by hiring tree hack jobber Asplund or Davy Tree to constantly maintain the electical and telephone pole easement that you see in the photo. In so doing they are triggering the tree's need to replace lost and damage branch and trunk infrastructure through excessive suckering. These trees will never ever amount to anything, but at least large long quality poles could be obtained at the right time of year when they are in dormancy phase and by someone who knows what they are doing and has the proper transport and equipment to keep the dorment cane poles continually wet or your efforts will be wasted. Seriously folks, you want success, so do it with forethought

Image from Google Earth

Note small California Sycamore in the center of photo ?

This area above in the Google Earth photograph is along Interstate 15 heading north from San Bernardino just before Devore. This area is a region of massive floodplains and alluvial fans which are geological features also known as Bajadas. The floodplain soils here are rocky large, medium and small cobble stones with massive amounts of sand. Yet throughout this area are multiple lone sentinel California Sycamores (& Fremont Cottonwoods) which look like there is no earthly reason for them to not only NOT germinate and establish themselves, but also to even thrive here for countless decades or well over a century. Remember, these trees love lots of continually available water, because they are riparian trees and are usually not far from water sources. Yet this is a dry hot floodplain on the outskirts of San Bernardino where temps are often well over 100+ degrees Fahrenheit (40+ C). Dry hot Santa Ana winds are also common here which blow in from the eastern deserts with the ferocity of a hurricane at times. So the question that has always intrigued me is, under such conditions of extreme hot weather climates which normally thrash most riparian trees, how do these ever get established in the first place and thrive, especially since no water course of a stream or river channel is anywhere nearby ??? Drive along the 210 freeway west from here to Los Angeles and you'll find the same exact scenario as you drive through numerous dry boulder strewn floodplain Bajadas. Sentinal Sycamores are everywhere & nowhere near a water source. Ask yourself, how did any of these trees get established within a hot dry environment far from the main stream or river channel ??? I pondered this for over a decade until the 1978-1983 El Niño Event which brought massive flooding each winter for a few years. And then it clicked.

Well there's not enough time or room here to explain, so if you want to learn more, click on this link below I created about Bajadas and Alluvial Fans and rare heavy flooding period events that happen every few decades. Once you learn this, you'll be able to plant and succeed at installation of not only riparian trees and shrubs, but any plant community theme or ecosystem, either in the urban landscape or habitat restoration project anywhere. It's helpful to experience it first hand, as opposed to just reading my words. Hands on experience tends to burn things into the memory which cannot be erased. Disclaimer: May require getting off your duff, going outside and trashing your electronic devices. 😛

Lessons Learned from the Bajadas (Alluvial Fans)

image - KWCH12

Now the next kool thing is, if you master establishing trees to the point of where they can be independent without elaborate life-support irrigation systems to welfare them along for life, then you'll be aable to move on and plant such items any time of year. Remember the old tradition of planting in Fall & Spring only ??? Forget it, you can even plant natives during hot weather and not lose a single plant. But 100+ Fahrenheit (40+C) ??? No problemo.

Is it safe to plant & water California Natives Plants in Summer ?

Further Reading References - Santee Lakes

http://www.santeelakes.com/

https://www.padredam.org/

http://eastcountyawp.com/about-the-program/

PadreDamMWD: Youtube Video Library

Further Reading References - San Diego River Walk

San Diego River Conservancy

The San Diego River Park Foundation

Lakeside River Park Conservancy

Mission Trails Regional Park

Practical Application for Urban Landscape Biomimicry of Nature 

Lessons Learned from the Bajadas (Alluvial Fans)

Reclaimed Water: Municipal Projects, CalTrans Landscaping & Pompous Grass Resorts

Future Update - I'll post a future El Monte Valley and Lindo Lake in Lakeside version of this post after I visit there and take more photos in April 2018