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

Coastal Sage Scrub & Chaparral Exhibit @ San Diego Safari Park

image mine

San Diego Safari Park Chaparral Nativescape Exhibit

I've visited here many many times in the past and unfortunately I've always known that the Safari Park's Sage Scrub exhibit was the least visited of all the Park theme areas. But this time was worse and I'll actually go as far as to fault those in charge of oversight for this exhibit. Way back at the beginning of creating & constructing this exhibit, it's apparent that not a lot of attention regarding forward future thinking was undertook into the design planning that went into the layout. This isn't unique to San Diego Safari Park (former Wild Animal Park). I've found some of the same identical gross errors at the city of San Diego's Mission Trails Park near Santee, particularly near the old Padre Dam parking area. Next time you visit the parking area of the old Padre Dam area, see if you don't notice something odd about the Sycamores there. Same exact problem that exists here at the Sage Scrub Exhibit. But first, take a look at this *cough-cough* California Fan Palm below.

That's Not a California Fan Palm 😕

image: Mine

Listed as Washingtonia filifera or in Spanish as it's
common name of 'Palma de Abanko', but in reality it's a 
Guadalupe Island Fan Palm (Brahea edulis) from Baja California

There is a very interesting and truthful ancient biblical text which can be used to draw a comparison of what we observe in the botanical world and ability and insight in providing a true identification for the plant by the fruit it bears. Of course the original application was in identifying kinds of people by their actions, but it still never goes out of style when it comes to field identification. It reads like this:

"You’ll recognize them by their fruit. Are grapes gathered from thornbushes or figs from thistles?" Matt 7:16

Not very tough to tell what is meant by the text above, but can anyone tell me what is wrong with the botanical label stake at the foot of this Fan Palm tree when you compare it to the photo above ? It is listed as Washingtonia filifera, but I know better. The fruits of California Fan Palm are black and much tinier than the large round dates seen here. The Spanish name given on this label, 'Palma de Abanko' is apparently misspelled and should be "Palma de Abanico" which is basically a translation of the palm native to southern Baja California which we all know as Mexican Fan Palm or Washingtonia robusta. Mexican Fan Palm likewise does NOT have large dates on it's flowering fronds. They are like the California small and black little seeds. These palms were 5 together in the Baja part of the display. It is certainly similar in frond shape, but much smaller than the filifera and the spread is smaller. Clearly what it lacks in frond size and spread is more than made up for in date size. This is none other than Guadalupe Island Fan Palm (Brahea edulis). The main point here is the so-called University educated professionals who no doubt are paid high wages for their expertise in putting this display together dropped the ball big time on this one. In the Chaparral section where a typical desert oasis is incorporated within the SoCal Chaparral exhibit, those palms are indeed correctly labeled  as a visit would reveal. 

Image: Mine

I hope everyone appreciates what I am criticizing here is the lack of responsible expertise as I simply expect more out of Science Experts and Professionals who are promoted as being above the visiting layman public Park visitors when it comes to their understanding and knowledge of any particular section of this Safari Park. Now look at another extremely glaring example of incompetence below here. I often find this in other public venue areas such as the Mission Trails Regional Park in San Diego. This photograph below was listed as a California Sycamore (Plantanus racemosa). So can anyone tell me what's wrong with this picture ? Many in Southern California have a negative opinion on the chaparral plant community mainly because they lack in education on how to care for it. An exhibit which is badly maintained and choice of specimens planted in the wrong geologic location is yet another reason the plants look so dry jagged and rangy and many of the former lush types of species are now dead because of the wrong irrigation methods.

Is That Really a California Sycamore ??? 😲

Now take note of the photograph below of what is supposed to be a native California Sycamore (Platanus racemosa) planted within an Oasis setting with California Fan Palms in the San Diego County native plants Chaparral/Sage Scrub exhibit. Can anyone tell me what's wrong with this picture here ???

image mine:

 San Diego Safari Park Chaparral
 exhibit @ Oasis setting 

Let me help you out. Below are just three examples of three separate Sycamore trees which have a characteristic Maple leaf pattern which a California Sycamore does not have:

Mexican Sycamore (Platanus mexicana)

American Sycamore (Platanus occidentalis)

London Plane (Platanus acerfolia)

At worst both trees (SD Safari Park & Mission Trails) are in reality a cross bred hybrid of these non-native species of Sycamores with the characteristic Maple Leaf pattern with one of the Southwestern native Sycamores listed below here which in shape and form are almost identical in leaf pattern:

California Sycamore (Platanus racemosa)

Arizona Sycamore (Platanus wrightii)

image - landscaperesource.com

This is the same exact mistake or blunder at the San Diego Mission Trails Regional Park near the Padre Dam Parking area when I visited there in June and along also the old winding Mission Gorge Rd in the Mission Gorge Canyon just west of Santee. I have also seen this same common mistake in many of the conventional retail Nurseries with a label advertising California Sycamore when clearly it was one of the eastern North American or European varieties. Now I could almost excuse a mistake if Arizona Sycamore was being mislabeled as a California since both these Western Sycamores have a long fingered leaf design as opposed to the obvious maple leaf pattern. But there is no excuse whatsoever for the mistaken identity by credentialed university educated staff who were hired to be in charge of such an important native plant exhibit for the purpose of educating John/Jane Q-Public. The other thing is that the eastern North American and European [maybe even Eurasian Sycamore] are a darker green instead of the lighter green which is characteristic of western Sycamores. Also the non-native leaf is thicker, smoother surface & has more of a glossy texture on the surface than the native Sycamores. The natives also have a more fuzzy velvety leaf hairs covering the entire leaf surface. Again, I can forgive a rookie gardener or greenhorn landscaper for this type of mistake, but it's flat out irresponsible and lazy coming from those people in charge of exhibits or displays at public locations where biologists and botanists are supposed to be in charge of oversight and in the business of nature education of the public. Even Landscape Company owners or supervisors and owners of Retail Nurseries should have a measure of responsibility for the glaring mistakes where I often see California Sycamore labels on what clearly is a London Plane or American Sycamore tree. At times I have stumbled upon a mistaken label and mentioned this to Nurserymen. But my experience has been that they don't exactly appreciate you pointing this out and dismiss the complaint as nonsense. Whatever !!! It should be noted however that at Native Plant Nurseries, I have never seen this since their reputation is at stake and they pretty much have an intense passion for their native subject and know their specific plant IDs. Another give away of incorrect tree identification is the tree's overall silhouette, shape and form when older. California Sycamores as well as Arizona have a more picturesque twisting contorted shape or form and often can be multi-trunked with competing leaders, but of course as in anything, it's not always the rule. In the urban landscape where most of the non-natives with Maple-like leaves are found, they are generally a long single straight trunk tree with rounded ball-like crown or conventional tree form that most people consider ideal in the landscape. Even when young the differences are obvious. 

It's not just me saying this folks:  

Evidence for genetic erosion of a California native tree, Platanus racemosa, via recent, ongoing introgressive hybridization with an introduced ornamental species

Irresponsible Irrigation Infrastructure 😞

But back to the other problems I had with the chaparral display at the San Diego Safari Park. They unfortunately use an inappropriate exposed drip irrigation system on the ground's surface which is normally a horrible idea for native California plants anyway. The result is an  unsightly, in decline and rangy dead appearance of the shrubs on display for the public to view. I'm not a real fan of drip irrigation as a permanent maintenance solution. While starting out it has the appearance of being the perfect fit, it creates a type of welfare dependency in the plants which does not encourage the plant to pursue a deeper more effective root system infrastructure like they have in the wild.

image mine: chaparral display with exposed improper irrigation

One of the main goals of any public landscape exhibit is to educate  and instill deeper appreciation of the subject being displayed. The Chaparral Plant Community in general gets bad press from an ignorant public relations land management service whose loyalties generally lay within groups with vested interests in money making. The Park's exhibit had a rangy appearance and degradation of the Chaparral and other native plants in the area which taken together  only serve to reinforce pre-existing negative viewpoints of the native plant life of Southern California in my opinion. I have posted time and again how imperative deep pipe irrigation is to California Natives and an irrigation system which should not be used all the time on a continuous basis. The other factor which hurts many of these plants they have selected is the exhibit's location on a southern slope exposure which have geologically shallow soils with a massive granite bedrock base below a few inches of soil in some places. For the Cacti displays that's great, like the one below of the Baja Exhibit.

Image - SD Safari Park

One of the things they could have done in preparation prior to planting is something home builders often do in rural environments where soil percolation for septic lines needs vast improvement. They drill fairly deep holes in strategic locations within an area and place specific sized explosive charge in each hole. The goal is not to blow things up, but rather to simply fracture the underground down deep. Had this preparation been done here, the chaparral and other native tree roots would have had an easier time of penetrating more deeply through the surface to subsoil layers. Water would also have a better chance at percolating down into deeper layers of the earth where native plants prefer it for summer survival. Now here was another disappointment for me below.

Image Mine: Former Tecate Cypress display which contained at least half a dozen trees which are all now dead and removed.

This was sad. All Tecate Cypress with the exception of the small one to the right here are all dead and removed. There are still some Cuyamaca Cypress, but even some of them are gone and the ones that are left are unfortunately defoliating. Once again the culprit is poor maintenance and an inept irrigation system which had an "enabling effect" on the trees which probably grew to fast and out performed the root system which could not later support the needs of the larger trees. Drip irrigation can be compared to putting and keeping plants on life-support. Take them of that drip life-support and they die just like a critically ill patient at a hospital. Despite the present California mega-drought, the power of an urban landscape garden is that it doesn't have to reflect how poorly things are doing in the wild. This doesn't mean they need to water during summer, but they could have supplemented the poor showing of winter rains by irrigating slowly and deeply during the cooler months of the season. Below here is an example of what is left from the Cuyamaca Cypress display in the garden which was always right next to the Tecate Cypress location along the service road.

Cuyamaca Cypress

Unfortunately, this Cuyamaca Cypress above is also in dire straights as it sheds foliage to weather the drought period until the next winter season's rains offer some hopeful respite from the heat. But to restate the main purpose behind an educational display such as this nativescape should always reflect the beauty of a Chaparral and other coastal sage scrub native plant community which will draw the average person into appreciating such ecosystems more fully. Maybe even encouraging them to use natives in their own garden landscapes. After all, this is a replica not so much of the wild, but of an urban landscape setting where people have the power to control the climate settings. Heat is no obstacle to chaparral and other native plants as long as they have deep access to available subsoil moisture. In fact that was the very purpose of creating the Nativescape Gardens in the first place. As their own website states, their goal is to influence as many visitors as possible to replicate this Nativescape Garden in their own urban landscape back home. Here is what the website and page on Nativescape project actually says:

"The garden's 4 acres (1.6 hectares) show off Southern California's plant communities: chaparral, coastal sage scrub, cypress, desert transition, high desert, island, low desert, montane, palm oasis, and riparian. With names like Apache plume, California buckeye, and monkey flower, these intriguing but often overlooked plants show that there's considerable variety and splendor to California's native landscape. Once you've experienced these unique plants, you can help restore some of California's botanical heritage by including them in your own garden!"

San Diego Safari Park: Nativescapes Garden

Now on a Positive Note 😄

image: Mine

One exceptionally bright spot in this garden was the health and vigor of the Parry Pinyon which once numbered in the 1000s up in and around Anza Valley where I lived for 20+ years. Unfortunately as I last informed readers on Parry Pinyon's health condition and survival up there in Anza, they are in a major steep decline. Many Parry Pinyon skeletons are everywhere on the southeastern end of the Thomas Mountain range where they once dominated. But it's still nice to see this one could indeed inspired landscape designers in building a nativescape and using this tree as a choice addition. I've always considered the Parry Pinyon the most beautiful of all the Pinyons and yet under used as a potential landscape tree. The closest pinyon competitor which is also beautiful would be the darker green Pinus edulis which is native to New Mexico thru Arizona on into the Mojave Desert's backyard in the New York Mountains. But still, the Parry is so unique and probably has smallest concentrated locations more than many of the  Pinyons.

Parry Pinyon (Pinus quadrafolia)

There were of course some other bright spots like many of the Native Oaks which looked healthy and some Manzanitas which also looked to be in healthy peak condition, but could have done with a bit of trimming and sprucing up. There were also some other negatives like the California Holly, Lemonade Berry, Dudleya and other plants needing cages around them to prevent the local wild Mule deer population from eating the display. Well you can't blame them, like the opportunistic gopher, they just do what they do. Every living thing is desperate in California at the moment. Again, while I understand the need to show or illustrate the wildness of the chaparral and other native trees and plants, the idea is to impress and inspire the public to develop deep appreciate for a beautiful but misunderstood and often demonized plant community. The demonization has always been unfair and the motives behind the Critics [who generally have no expertise on the subject] have always been influenced by power and money. I admit that I've been a critic myself of the way things are done at the San Diego Safari Park in other areas before, but not because I dislike what they are attempting, which I believe goes well beyond entertainment and a mere profit making venture. But I'm just jealous for things to succeed and work out towards a positive outcome. But I do hold what clearly must be the cream of the crop highly educated ones whom the Park hired in the first place because of their specific education and expertise in certain areas who were hired and placed in positions of  responsibility and oversight, for making what I consider countless rookie greenhorn mistakes that one would find at a high school level. If it's a landscape workers or laborers issue, then educational programs should be mandated as a requirement for anyone hired for a specific area of maintenance. Deep appreciation has to be instilled within the figurative heart of those assigned to care for such an area or the result is exactly as what exists now. In fact it should be a employment hiring qualification. Again, this is the one area of that entire massive Safari Park which has always been the least visited. I have been there maybe 100+ times, often as a yearly member since 1972 and people will stop short of the Baja exhibit and turn right around and go back to Park Central because nothing inspires them to continue beyond that point. Below here is a website which offers Garden Tours and one of them was this past season's winter period when moisture however slightly greened up the area a bit. It illustrates how beautiful the area could be. And using the wrong plants and labels ? go figure - rookie stuff

http://www.gardenvisit.com/garden/wild_animal_park_gardens

 Just so that everyone is aware, this region up on that hill is still my favourite area of the entire Safari or Wild animal Park whatever you want to call it. I'm a freak for native chaparral woodland environments and so again if I'm critical, it's because I want their entire program up there to succeed and not fail. Generally when I come with family I have to tolerate several hours of seeing all the bottomland exhibits with the birds and animals before climbing up the hill to where I wanted go in the first place. But at least in the end I get my way. 😉

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Further Reading Educational References of Interest

http://www.californiachaparral.org/

Deep Irrigation Methods for Training Deeper Rooting networks 

California Native Plant Resources

http://www.laspilitas.com/

http://www.matilijanursery.com/

Tree of Life Nursery: California Native Plants