This is a collection of articles dealing with organic gardening, ecology, environmental restoration, news items of interest, travel and just about anything else I find of interest and willing to share with others around the globe. - ENJOY!
This post isn't exactly about the selfie obsessed or where to go to view the best hottest 2019 SoCal wildflower superbloom. The Media and almost every cheezy social media site on the net has put a glaring spotlight on this subject already. But unfortunately I have to use the selfie superbloom fiasco as a lead in or this post may not get noticed at all. This post is about something I noticed in photographs some other folks have posted about the superbloom which has inadvertantly exposed some common poor land management practices prevalent today and how all types of plant ecosystems have suffered which has resulted in a change of the underground soil microbiota from a mycorrhizal one to a predominantly bacterial one. The problem being that it's the bacterial one which favours the ruderal non-native type of weeds. The result has been major declines in the more desired native plant community. Okay, let's deal with the selfie obsessed and get it all out of the way.
(AP Photo/Gregory Bull)
Image - Steven Kostoff
Inapropriate behaviour of the shameful selfie obsessed has shown up all over social media venues like Pinterest, Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, GooglePlus, Tumblr, etc. In our modern social media times it's common to see these sick scenarios where people photo themselves in selfies at funerals, car crashes or worse. Even the supposedly responsible professional people of our society like police officers, firemen, etc have gotten in on the act and been busted by other people with their own selfie cameras while they engaged in inappropriate behaviour. And true enough, nature has taken a very hard hit from these selfish selfies. Perhaps you may remember over the recent past where people obsessed with selfies even killed poor harmless animals like that baby dolphin down in Argentina which was killed after being mobbed by tourists looking for that perfect selfie. Modern human society as a culture has really gone downhill.
Walker Canyon, Lake Elsinore
Remember all those selfish selfies back in the wildflower superboom of 2017 ??? I even saw many non-profit environmental group leaders even leading the way in posting a plethora of photographs in hopes of conning their followers into believing how resilient Nature was after that 4+ years of mega-drought in California. Sure, in the past we could say nature has been resilient. Unfortunately, scientific advancement has reverse engineered so many of the major components which allowed this resilience restoration mechanism to move forward, that it's doubtful just how much if any of it is still really intact. In some areas the Earth is at the point of no return. Think I'm kidding ??? Look all around you at how many people there are out there practically celebrating the six extinction. Now here we are with the Spring of 2019 in Southern California and the superbloom has hit again with the conventionl news media and social media exploiting it for all it's click-bait ratings worth. Unfortunately the Media's extra attention has made things worse for many of the well known wildflower viewing areas where people flat out refuse to obey rules and physical barriers. This is all too common in today's enlightened progressive society, where the average person resents being told what they can and cannot do.
But I did read however about one responsible photographer, Stephen Kim, who visited the Lake Elsinore site (Walker Canyon) early on a Sunday morning, where he said he saw “so much garbage”, it made him disgusted and he made a personal effort to pick up water bottles on his walk. The garbage was not surprising since others photos out on the net exposed several entrepreneurial food wagons taking advantage of the circus atmosphere to sell their junk food wares. Mr Kim said:
“You see this beautiful pristine photo of nature but then you look to the left and there’s plastic Starbucks cups and water bottles on the trail and selfie sticks and people having road rage because some people were walking slower.”
Google
Okay now, let's leave all that nonsense news behind, because there were other people (photographers) out there who had taken photos and had written posts in their blogs about their visits to lesser known areas away from general public view. Like this location in the same Estelle Mountain Preserve region, but higher up & south of Lake Matthews in the Gavilan Hills area. This one blogger I stumbled upon is a CSU Fullerton Communications student named Daniel Coats who took some beautiful photographs in an isolated area. Now aside from all those pretty wildflowers, I saw some other interesting things in his photos which fortunately highlighted & documented something profound from an ecological point of view. This region he photographed in is within the Lake Matthews Estelle Mountain Reserve and the popular Walker Canyon area which is also part of that preserved area. The photos below were taken south of Lake Matthews Drive
How Bulldozers and general raw land stripping by land owners of native vegetation destroys the underground mycorrhizal fungal internet network or grid & facilitates invasive weeds
Photo by Daniel Coats
This area in the photos above and below are south of the Cajalco Expressway Road (further east turns into Ramona Expressway) and just off Lake Mathews Drive. Note the bulldozed brush piles lined up in neat rows ? Much of this is not only interior sagescrub, but also the rare native California Juniper for which many small woodland pockets or groves are now under threat of disappearance because of land development boom since the 1980s in western Riverside County. I say rare because such presence of very large specimens of California Juniper are disappearing in western Riverside County, though they are numerous elsewhere. What should catch everyone's eye is the abrupt change in vegetation type at the edge of this land clearance area from the native sagescrub with abundant wildflowers to the non-native invasive weeds like the Black Mustard, Wild Mediterranean Oats, Wild Radish, Cheatgrass, Yellow Star Thistle, etc. Underground, both types thrive on two totally different microbiological ecosystem communities. The native sagescrub (California Buckwheat, California Sagebrush, Brittlebrush, wildflowers, etc) require mycorrhizal fungi, while the invasive non-native weeds are non-mycorrhizal and thrive in a bacterial soil profile. The weeds (especially the black mustard, wild radish, tumbleweeds, etc) also send out alleopathic chemical signatures through their root exudates into the soil which hinders mycorrhizal symbiosis associations with native plants allowing themselves full reign dominion over the area.
Google Earth
You can see a real difference from a much closer photograph here below of poppies and sagescrub in contrast to the land area purposely cleared of all native flora. Once the native plants, which are the living host to the mycorrhizal fungi are removed, the fungi will die out. They need these hosts to continue on living. Any beneficial mycorrhizal spores in the soil will stay dormant and may eventually may lose their viability to germinate even if a host becomes present again. At that point the non-native invasives become the dominant species of plants. In fact where mycorrhizal fungi are present with large healthy populations in the soil, any non-native invasive weed has a tough time thriving because the mycorrhizal presence will out-compete the weeds for precious phosporus along with other nutrients and water. At best if they do geminate, they will be incredibly stunted in their growth. Take a close look next time you're out on a hike. Also take closer note of this contrast below.
Photo by Daniel Coats
In the close up photo above, take note of the striking contrast of the perfect border of native vegetation at the bulldozer line above and the non-native weedy scenario below the same line. But, have you also noticed how the massive presence of weedy invasives below have been unable to make any inroads or encroachment into the natural healthy native plant ecosystem above. Why is that ???Because the underground abundant healthy mycorrhizal grid network won't allow any germinated weed seed to thrive and it simply whithers. But there is even more here. Now take note of the poppy encroachment below this same line into the weedy invasive held territory. This is because mycorrhizal fungi can move underground into new areas slowly but surely. Take a close look below at how this is beautifully illustrated in the mycorrhizal corn experiment.
Image - University of Florida
David Read/University of Sheffield
The photograph above is a drought experiment on Corn down in Florida in sandy soil which is water stressed under a controlled environment condition replicating industrial Ag conventional farm practices on the right in contrast with Corn inoculated with Mycorrhizal Fungi on the left which is not water stressed. Why ? Because mycorrhizal fungi increases water and nutrient uptake by mimicking an incredibly extensive root system as seen in the photo of pine seedling on the right. The fungi presence allows an increase of water and nutrient uptake by anywhere from 200% to 800% depending on soil conditions. But there is something else and it relates to the poppy encroachment below the bulldozed line in the previous photograph. Note here also in the corn photo, that the controlled corn plot has healthiest plants near the edge closest to the mycorrhizal plot. This is because the endo-mycorrhizal fungi has moved underground and come into contact with host plants not infected with any fungi. Same thing is illustrated with these two pine seedlings. The pine seedling on the left has it's roots infected with the mycorrhizal fungi which is noticeable moving to the right to colonize pine roots of the seedling without fungi. I'm using the pine example which is colonized by ecto-mycorrhizal fungi, because it is more easily seen to the naked eye and because it forms truffles or mushrooms familiar to most folks. It's easier to illustrate because shrubs & wildflowers are colonized by endo-mycorrhizal fungi which requires magnification to be seen. But the principle and behaviour of movement underground are identical. Here is another poor land management example below in Santee California.
Image by Lynda Marrokal
Western Santee, California, area known as Dove Hill
Notice the same land disruption in this Santee photo above ? Santee has been expanding since the 1950s baby boom era. In the beginning of it's agricultural history prior to baby boom development of bedroom districts, this land was overgrazed and later plowed by farmers and later bulldozed by land developers whose actions destroyed what network grid may have still existed. Suddenly the soil scenario was ripe for non-mycorrhizal invasive ruderal weeds like Black Mustard to move in. But again, notice the contrast and the fact that the mass of invasives do not easily cross the line upslope into Dove Hill. The Black Mustard is only held in check because of the healthy though isolated mycorrhizal grid on that hill. That's not to say the tiny wind blown mustard seeds haven't made contact onto the land above, but it's just that they haven't been successful in germination and establishment. And another example below in Santee is at Sky Ranch Development on Rattlesnake Mountain.
Photo is mine from 2011
Prior to the Sky Ranch housing development, this area in the photo above was not encroached upon by Black Mustard, Yellow Star Thistle or African Fountain Grass like it clearly is now. Now it's everywhere. One of the conditions of development was the creation of a conservation area to protect one of the last beautiful examples of Coastal Sage Scrub habitats complete with endangered species like California Gnatcatcher. Hence the threatening signage against trespass into the land surrounding the Sky Ranch Housing Tract. Funny, the signage didn't deter the residents in that photo above from taking a chainsaw to the group of several 35+ year old Torrey Pine Trees which were up there like the one in the photo above. No matter, what's done in ignorance is done. Take a look below at some research links which explain how the Black Mustard (& other Mustards) effect soil conditioning and inhibit mycorrhizal colonization with host plants.
Some interesting facts you may never have known about Wild Mustard 😲
Photo by Tom Moyer
Remember all those stories blaming the evil Spanish Explorers bringing Mustards seeds over in pottery shards and oxen cart wheels etc to North America ??? Forget it! While it could be possible, it really exploded in the early 1900s, when farmers used to plant Mustard in orchards, vineyards, etc because most Brassica species release chemical compounds that may be toxic to soil borne pathogens and pests, such as nematodes, fungi and some weeds. This practice is still used in most California Vineyards today for the same reasons like the photo above of a vineyard in Sonoma County. Seriously, Google the images yourself. The concept of pursuing a biological control approach was/is a noble one, but it's had horrible side effects. This is what happens when no one takes a holistic view which only means looking at the bigger picture down the road. Down in SoCal it was planted in orange groves for the same reasons. Here is a blog article asking the question and explaining the why Mustard plants were used. Some seed companies for agriculture still sell great quantities of seed for this same method organic method today, although they recommend farmers mow Mustard plants at the flower stage before seed sets and till mowed plants under the soil.
Image - Naomi's Organic Garden
Incredible image showing Mustard in Vineyard being used as a winter cover crop for biofumigation to deal with soil nematodes and pathogens before the ground warms up. Notice also the hills in the background of native Oak woodlands being invaded by the same plant. Below is mustard being used in Central california for biofumigation in Almond Orchards. I think invasive spread is more the fault of early 20th Century Agriculture, no matter how well intentioned, than by early Spanish explorers to California.
Berkeley Labs & Hopland Researchers Extension Center findings
(Credit: Javier Ceja-Navarro)
Microbes that flourish in the area around plant roots take up specific organic acids from the root exudates.
The researchers set out to determine the relationship between microbes that consistently bloomed near the grass roots and the metabolites released by the plant. They found that the microbes that flourished in the area around plant roots preferred a diet more rich in organic acids than the less successful microbes in the community. Here are some quotes about their conclusions:
“Early in its growth cycle, the plant is putting out a lot of sugars, ‘candy’, which we find many of the microbes like,” Northen said. “As the plant matures, it releases a more diverse mixture of metabolites, including phenolic acids. What we discovered is that the microbes that become more abundant in the rhizosphere are those that can use these aromatic metabolites.”
“We’ve thought for a long time that plants are establishing the rhizosphere best suited to their growth and development,” said Brodie. “Because there are so many different types of microbes in soil, if the plants release just any chemical it could be detrimental to their health.
“By controlling the types of microbes that thrive around their roots, plants could be trying to protect themselves from less friendly pathogens while promoting other microbes that stimulate nutrient supply.
Below here are some other good links on the effects of Mustard in soil conditioning and mycorrhizal signaling disruption. Scroll down to two important subheadings: "Evidence for Allelopathic Effects From Soil Conditioning and Field Studies" and "Allelochemical Effects of Alliaria on Mycorrhizal Fungi"
More Important Reading References - Don't get bored. This is too important.
The High Cost to Nature when saving our Homes from Wildfire
Image from New York Times (2015)
The year after the Fourth of July fire on Mount Jumbo, in Montana a long green line of cheatgrass is visible where fire retardant was dropped. The red slurry retardant allows some exotic weeds to replace native grasslands, according to preliminary results of a study by Salish Kootenai College and the University of Montana. It seems that every few years another issue about the use of aerial fire retardant appears. The latest is that the nitrogen and phosphorous in the retardant formulation produce a condition that encourages cheatgrass, Tumbleweeds, Black Mustard spread, etc while having little effect on native shrubs, perennials and grasses. But in actual fact over time if this is repeated often enough, the synthetic fertilizers will cause the mycorrhizal fungi to disconnect from these native plants and the non-native invasives will change the chemical signature underground which signals for tree, shrub, perennial mycorrhizal root mutualism to take place. Thus pure hillsides, valley and mountains can be taken over, which has already ocurred in many California places and future wildfire threats are increased.
Photo by Jed Little (Missoulian 2015)
Below I've created a deeper post explaining the process.
Below is a link from PubMed.gov about the dire effects of Fire retardant on the landscape and microbial changes which eventually favour invasives over mycorrhizal natives.
Okay, here's another example up in Antelope Valley California where the well known poppy preserve had yet another widlflower explosion this year (2019) too. With all the lucrative Grants and other government money giveaways out there, unscrupulous solar farm speculators land grab at accelerated rates. Of course they choose land deemed worthless for anything else. But that's clearly not the case. The establishment of a massive solar farm will eventually change the underground soil biota which will eventually crowd out native plants and offer a welcome mat for weeds.
Image - Johnathan Huddleston - (NorthStar Solar)
This photograph below shows how massive Solar farms have crept right up to the border edges of the California Poppy Preserve. I've tried to look up and research it, but it may be too early and eventually too late, but Solar Farms generate regional heat islands. This means these black panels absorb and generate more heat into the surrounding area than existed in an area previously. So I've been curious as to what effect higher temperatures might have on surrounding wild native vegetation. These alternative energy schemes and technologies are creating what they were supposedly designed to eliminate, Global Warming. Same with Wind Farms.
image from change.org
That other negative that comes with installation of the Industrial Solar Farms ->>>>>> TUMBLEWEEDS
Photo from WWS - Wind & Solar Maintenance
The images above and here on the right are of maintenance crews from the Wind & Solar maintence company WorldWideSolar (WWS). Tumble weeds are a bane on the landscape for a number of negative reasons. Most importantly wildfire hazard. Hence they require removal or the solar farm is at risk. But the whole reason these often exist at solar farms is because of human land mismanagement in the first place which disrupted the mycorrhizal soil biota to construct the solar farm. Antelope Valley has a huge problem with tumbleweeds because of numerous abandoned farmlands which were allowed to go fallow and the Tumbleweeds took advantage. The introduction of solar farms has exacerbated the problem. Indeed, bad agricultural practices, railroads, highway construction & maintenance and massive development in general have all help spread this aggressive invader. But interestingly, according to a 1991 Scientific American article ("Tumbleweeds") by a researcher named James Young, he stated that without human ignorance with their land management intervention the tumbleweed would probably have remained an innocuous plant. Actually this is true of most hated weeds like the Black Mustard and believe it or not, for the very same underground changes in soil microbiology caused by human ignorance of proper land management, even when developing the land for seemingly positive purposes.
Researcher David A. Bainbridge of the Soil Ecology and Restoration Group Biology Department SDSU, wrote about the tumbleweed problem occuring in the Antelope Valley, the reasons for it's spread and potential for eliminating it. Here's just one small quote which gets to the heart of the matter. But read it's entirety.
"It's non-mycorrhizal and in fact attempted mycorrhizal infection proved pathogenic rather than symbiotic (Allen and Allen 1988; Allen et al. 1989). This explains why sites that are only slightly disturbed will often fight off the infection of tumbleweed within a few years as soil health recovers. Like many other weeds, it will disappear if it is left alone and the land is not overgrazed, tilled, or degraded."
The Very Thing That Could Eliminate Weeds is the Very Thing That Was Missing to Begin With ->>>Arbuscular mycorrhizal Fungi
Simply weeding is not enough when it comes to native plant restoration, you have to replace the host plants for which mycorrhizal fungi will thrive. Certainly inoculating the soil is important, but you need the right kind of fungal species and from a reputable company. Hence I've always gone with Mycorrhizal Applications Inc from Grant Pass Oregon. There is a plethora of companies out there farmimg Biostimulants, beware. Not all are desirable inoculums. Do your homework first.
Back to photography. I photograph things most others overlook when I'm out in the bush. For example what the heck is that up above ??? 😕 Oh yeah, I brushed the soil and plant dander away and lo & behold it's an ecto-mycorrhizal truffle. I also take photos of root systems from washouts in the bank of a wash which has been cut away by a flashflood exposing extensive rootsystems of several meters deep of native chaparral shrubs. I like nature networks, hence the name Earth's Internet. But I also noticed the same clues when viewing other folks photos. I did it with several photographers who took pics of Torrey Pines State Reserve between La Jolla & Del Mar near San Diego California. Once iconic photo locations are now gone because of environmental degradation. I wrote about that here with this post Major decline in Torrey Pines & SoCal Forests in general
It's ironic that the Park's website and brochures still will not update their photos reflect todays reality. So tourists hopefully will still flock to the park in hopes of experiencing the nature as they viewed it in those photos which drew them there in the first place. Same with those wildflower photos taken by others. There is a plethora of things to learn if you are able to immediately decern and recognize what you're looking at. You know, the same way people will look at things like clouds and see some abstract image that reminds them of something. Except my viewing of the photo images is not about the abstract, it's about reality 😉
"When I would recreate myself, I seek the darkest wood, the thickest and most interminable, and to the citizen, most dismal swamp… The wildwood covers the virgin mould, and the same soil is good for men and for trees."
Thoreau
And finally in the interests of encouraging responsible photography. There are commercials and there is this commercial
The Escondido Creek Conservancy had a similar observation as myself back in April 10, 2019. Good for them for revealing and exposing the danger of being ignorant as to what is causing the downswing in general ecosystem health in California.
Clearly a radical change is needed or the entire planet's various ecosystems will collapse and fail for good. Oh no, I'm not talking about another one of those mythical 6th Extinction faith affirmations constantly chanting on social media sites. Rattlesnake Mountain once had a plethora of native wildflowers which for the mst part no longer exist up there. The photo above is where I grew up in El Cajon, Californa and this mountain is that mountain known as Rattlesnake Mountain. Today it is awash in non-native invasive annuals from the Mediterranean like Black Mustard, Wild Radish, European Oats and Yellow Star Thistle. Believe it or not the native wildflowers in the photo below use to cover Rattlesnake Mountain every Springtime year after year. In fact most of the native coastal sage scrub has been choked out as well.
This photo on the right was taken by Jay Beiler. I'm not sure of the date, but it's reminiscent of the intensity of the wildflower displays which were once common for me when I first moved to anza in 1981. Interestingly between the dates of 1978 to 1983, Southern California had experienced one of it's longests and wettest El Niño weather events, in fact for many of us it was the first time we had heard of that term. But that El Niño event followed a milder drought period back in the 1970s and provided the energy for an explosion of wildflower growth. The early 1980s was a magical sort of time for nature lovers armed with cameras. All maner of native wildflowers like the iconic state flower California poppies, owl's clover, lupines, tidy tips, gold fields, etc. Everywhere you went out on a drive was every bit as breath taking as the scene above. Other areas like Aguanga, Sage, Hemet Valley, Winchester and further on down south to Warner Springs in San Diego county all reflected this same magnificent brilliance on a massive scale. But then of course things weren't as extensively developed in those days. Sadly that's all gone now. Take a close look at the radical contrast below. How quickly the local peoples forget.
Image from Cahuilla Creek Motorcross
Image from Google Earth
Fast forward to the present and this region has a whole new different look. The photo above is the exact spot today where the wildflower displays were a common sight years ago. And amazingly, this all takes place on the large Cahuilla Indian Reservation. This is not about picking on Native Americans and their wish to prosper economically. I mean I get that. But aren't these the very people the environmentalists have told us are by their very nature were always one with the land and whose example we need to follow ??? Funny thing is, I remember back in the 1970s & 80s how much of a target the Native Americans were by most all Environmental organizations with Greenpeace taking the lead. Not only were they targeted because some Tribal groups encouraged less than eco-friendly businesses with risky & dangerous polluting types of industries onto their reservations because the Rez lacked regulations, rules, and red tape, but also because some tribes had traditions of hunting Whales, Seals, Salmon fishing right privileges at sensitive locations, etc. Actually Greenpeace still has a beef with many tribes for whale hunting and they've recently engaged in a vicious threatening pursuit against one young Native American teenager in Alaska over a whale hunting affair just last year. Still it is interesting that such a business as a motorcross track would be allowed to be placed in one of the most beautiful spots on the whole reservation known for it's spectacular native wildflower displays which has now disappeared forever. Of course it's their land and they can do with it as they wish. Still, it's puzzling. This Google Earth image at upper right, can be clicked on to provide a bigger picture of the exact location and the extensiveness of the destruction and damage of the former wild meadow. I guess it's also the general shock for me every time I visit Anza Valley seeing ALL of the negative changes which have taken place everywhere, including my own former acreage on Table Mountain which has been stripped of most of it's native chaparral vegetation and turned into an industrial Marijuana Farm complete with massive industrial greenhouse infrastructure by some Asian business interests. Unfortunately for me I'm cursed with the memory of what my place once was. 😞
But there's something more Serious here than large corporate targets with deep pockets 😲
Image from a Temecula Real Estate Co.
This picture above could be any property for sale up in the Anza & Aguanga area. It is representative of your average land speculator, developer or average weekend ranchette property owner who purchases land and eventually strips it of all chaparral vegetation. The only exception would be if the shrub were a Manzanita or beautiful scrub oak. People make biased judgements about what plants to remove by mere outward appearances much like they do with each other. But why strip the land down to bare soil ??? In almost all cases invasive non-native weeds will move in and take it's place, especially land in the deep soils of the Valley floor. Now take a look at Anza from this Google Earth from a Satellite point of view.
Image - Google Earth
Image - Salton City (eyetwist)
Many of the more well known Environmental organizations are fond of targeting large corporate business entities because of their ability to cause wholesale damage on a grand scale within any environment, not to mention the other important fact that they also have deeper pockets to satisfy "sue & settle" strategies. But there are also the individual small land owners who often go unnoticed on the eco-activist radar, yet collectively these small land owners can ruin much larger regions of land far more than any single corporate giant. It was one of my pet peeves when I lived in Anza for almost 20+ years. People buy raw land and the first thing they do is hire the local Joe Sixpack and his mighty tractor to strip their property bare of most all of it's chaparral vegetation. I've often wondered why ? If that was their original goal, why not purchase raw dirt (literally) cheap land in somewhere like Salton City for pennies on the dollar which is already devoid of plant life ? But this degradation goes completely unnoticed and is absolutely never discussed by the eco-activists. Click on the google earth image above for a larger view and see how much land has been stripped of vegetation so far at this point. Don't pay so much attention to those larger tracts of farmland being cultivated, they've been there for ages. Focus on all the smaller 2, 5, 10 to 20 acres parcels together collectively.
Now this photograph above I found on the website or Facebook page of the Anza Electric Cooperative. The photographer's location is taken from the top of Hill Street up at the foot of Thomas Mountain north of Mitchell Rd. The valley below way in the distance is actually an ancient lake bed close to the Terwilliger area on the Cahuilla Indian Reservation, but it could be more accurately be described as a giant vernal pool in wetter years. When the Spanish Expedition of Juan Bautista de Anza came through here in 1775 along with Frair Pedro Font, they named this ancient lake, "Laguna de Principe" and paid special attention in their writings about all the spectacular wildflower displays seen for miles in every direction you looked. Check out a 2013 post I wrote on Anza's accurate account of his Spanish Expedition through Anza. They really were in awe of this area's raw untouched unspoiled beauty and they also described the even larger more vast the wildflower displays of Hemet Valley a week later after arriving from the mouth of Bautista Canyon. The photo below here is the area of west Hemet near the Auto Mall along Hwy 74, from Hemet the elevation only drops one inch all the way to Winchester. So quite often massive shallow vernal pool lakes use to form every Spring and that is prime habitat conditions for Goldfields. While a single Goldfield flower is pretty, the tiny flowers are barely noticiable on their own, but in company with millions of their friends, they create a spectacular golden display so bright, they are often too tough to observe without squinting or wearing sunglasses in the powerful sunlight. Hence the plural name Goldfields. Sadly, most of those former prime flat habitat areas which historically have had the best vernal pool habitats in Southern California are also prime flatland for commercial land development.
photo - Richard Cummins
This is probably the last brilliant photograph of the Goldfields to be display in western Hemet Valley that people will ever see. Those expansive vernal pool fields are now weed infested with cheatgrass, foxtails, mustard, etc. Also while visiting there I noticed recent housing tract encroachment and major commercial development everywhere in west Hemet and further south of this location. Add to all of this the extreme drought pattern which has become the new abnormal in SoCal and the newer improved flood control infrastructure the authorities have installed to quickly expedite rainwater out of Hemet Valley on it's way west to Canyon Lake and no more mass vernal pools will appear ever again which Goldfields in this area thrived best in after they dry up.
Satellite Image W. Hemet - Google Earth
This google earth picture above provides the exact location of where those large masses of Goldfields you see above at the foot of the Saddlback hills in the background. But like I stated previously, that brilliant blindingly beautiful Spring wildflower display of Goldfields will no longer appear here ever again. The field now is just too weed infested and another unfortunate change will be the rerouting of water runoff through newer flood control infrastructure which will now limit the vernal pool formation.
Hwy 74 Roadside View - Google Earth
Note there are some patchy remnants of Goldfields here, but they are overwhelmed by the invasive weeds brought in as a result of increased human activity. The Hill on the left is the one seen in the beautiful photo above. Take note of the housing encroachment.
The other big problem ??? 😕 People are just simply loving Nature to Death 😔
Image - Billy Savanh / Flickr
The original photo at the top of this post was not a well known protected preserve or tourist area for viewing wildflowers. It was a dot on the Cahuilla Reservation map. But other not so well know location are getting publicity exposure through social media now days. The Vance Creek Bridge in Washington in the photo on the right is a favorite with celebrity Instagrammers. This too was once an off the beaten path location which is no longer well hidden. Such secret hidden areas do however run the risk of ruin because of modern technology. Why do I say that ? Well here's one example, read this article: INSTAGRAM IS LOVING NATURE TO DEATH. As the article put it plainly,
"Lesser-known lookouts are suffering under the weight of sudden online fame. Five years ago, Horseshoe Bend saw only a thousand visitors in a year. But this year, over 4,000 people a day have come to see the bend, take selfies at the rim, and dangle their feet over the exposed edge. Social media gets blamed for everything — but this time, it really is Instagram’s fault."
You should know that the region of Horseshoe Bend referenced is on the Colorado River and is also right next to the Bears Ears National Monument, a place which almost no one outside of the area really knew about prior to the original debate publicity in 2016. Now almost everyone knows about it and the increased traffic jams are living proof more and more are finding out about it. With industrial recreational corporate giants like Patagonia, Black Diamond and North Face on the prowl nothing is sacred or secret anymore. Their goal is not so much about preserve as it is to promote. Seriously folks, the business schemes of all industrial recreational giants are growing. Add a greenwash label to your industrial receational business model and you're declared righteous by environmental groups because you're not like those conventional dirty oil, gas and mining companies. Eco-Tourism is now being hailed as a planet's saviour. But interestingly, these dirty industries have no interest in Bears Ears National Monument. But industrial recreation also ruins the landscape. If you think this will never happen to California's designated wildflower Preserve areas, think again.
In the Spring of 2017 thousands of people descended on Southern California's wildflower fields (most of these were the protected preserves), where the disastrous environmental impact was evident as large swaths of wildflowers were flattened by selfie-seekers, instagram celebrity wannabes who blazed new trails through the wildflowers on a daily basis. Why would nature lovers do such a thing ??? For one they've been encouraged by leaders/owners of environmental non-profit organizations who post pretty little photos on their Facebook & other social media accounts and reassuring their followers that all was well with Nature because it's still resilient even after five years of devastating megadrought in California. Another factor is that the majority of viewers also want instant Facebook, Instagram, Google Plus or Twitter fame. And finding that one perfect shot may require lots of trampling. But hit that perfect shot and post it on your social media site profile and you're an instant viral photo celebrity. Take note of the damage that results when over aggressive nature enthusiasts go overboard in the pursuit of that viral photo which will provide them with social media celebrity fame in this very well done illustrative video.
When it comes to onlooker reactions to spectacular videos or photos, a good example comes from an earlier video of a Firenado filmed this past July 2018 on Youtube taken in Blythe California and there's one comment under the Youtube video by an anonymous user which illustrates perfectly what motivates so many to pursue the same goal:
"This..... is.... AWESOME! C'mon, when does one capture such quality images like this... once in a lifetime. Simply wow."
But What About Those Protected Wildflower Preserves ? Aren't They Safe havens too ? 😳
Image from Mike Rich
Lately the Eco-Activism groups have been up in arms and on the warpath again. Their collective voices are outraged once more. Why ? The mission this time is to stop those evil Oil Companies from drilling for gas and oil on the Carrizo Plains. Others are up in arms over keeping the Tejon Ranch from building a housing tract complex known as the Centennial Development. Of course the area is a well known wildflower viewing region with the most famous spot known as the Antelope Valley California Poppy Reserve State Natural Reserve. Tejon Ranch is just west of this California wildflower reserve by about 15 miles or so. But is the threat to such protected areas really coming from conventional development schemes ? Both regions (Carrizo & Antelope) are heavily invested (or infested) with massive alternative energy schemes known as Solar Farms. These often are given a free pass. But there is also another even more sutle danger and you can see it here in the socks and hiking boots of the Nature lover above right who may come visit. Cheatgrass stickers and seeds of other invasives annual non-native plant species are an even bigger threat as you can see from the very top photo above where cheatgrass encroachment is flowing into wildflower habitat like an overwhelming montrous unstoppable Tsunami wave.
But the wild beauty that brought so many here to these wildflower locations in the first place will soon be gone. Social media certainly gets blamed for many things these days, but this time, it really is their fault for encouraging this kind of stardom behaviour. Even if the natural attractions aren’t suffering from social media crowds, they still have to keep a lookout for the infamous social media Graffiti Artists, offroader stunts, etc. But rather than continue on with my rant about this anymore, I'll admit that I'm not really trying to discourage anyone from enjoying the outdoors. But here's a good piece written about what Jackson Hole Wyoming is trying to do to encourage responsible behaviour in the wildlands.
Image & Article by Larissa Faw, November 19th 2018
"Wyoming's Jackson Hole Travel and Tourism Board (JHTTB) is launching what it calls a first-of-its-kind campaign to educate people about how social media, specifically Instagram, is causing travelers to unintentionally abuse precious natural areas in pursuit of the perfect image.
The Tag Responsibly message, developed with Colle McVoy, provides Instagram users about to geotag Jackson Hole’s pristine natural amenities with the alternative, generic location tag: "Tag Responsibly, Keep Jackson Hole Wild."
You can read the rest of the article in Media Post:
