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!
Showing posts with label Juan Bautista de Anza. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Juan Bautista de Anza. Show all posts
Southern California 'Super bloom' wildflower trail closed indefinitely after photo-seeking visitors trample flowers
Photo - Andrew Cullen
As thousands of people descend on Southern California's wildflower fields, the impact is evident as stands of flowers are flattened by selfie-seekers, instagram celebrities and new trails through the flowers are created daily
Unprecedented crowds eager to snap up those photos of the California's super bloom have damaged a popular wildflower trail so badly that it is now closed indefinitely. The Wildflower Trail is located at Diamond Valley Reservoir in Riverside County just south from the city of Hemet California is currently concrete barrier blocked after patches of the stunning wildflowers were trampled into oblivion. The Metropolitan Water District, which maintains the area said the primary problem is that people are walking off-trail to take that prize winning hope it goes viral photo among all the wildflowers. Environmental specialists brought in to assess the damage noted bare patches and flattened flowers like the California Poppies above. Here is the link to th entire story:
When people start pioneering a trail, people behind them follow. And before you know it, they think they’re on a legitimate trail,” Wendy Picht (Environmental Specialist for MWD) said. “So it’s up to us to make sure they have the information to know where the trail is and where they can and can’t go.”
Wendy Picht and Alex Marks have started putting up signs that say, clearly, “Stay on the trail." They also are tilling compacted soil and may re-seed bare areas with native wildflower seeds. In addition, Metropolitan Water District is placing staff along the trail to make sure people aren’t traipsing into the reserve. A half-mile section of the most heavily trampled area remains closed.
Photo - Andrew Cullen
I don't imagine this is the kind of instragram fame these wildflower enthusiats were hoping for in this News Report
Selfies vrs Selfless ??? & Doin' it for the "Likes" ???
“It’s sometimes nice to see yourself in a really nice picture with a really cool background,” said Robin Kopf, who was trying to get her friend Christina Barrett, who was sitting cross-legged in a patch of poppies, to pose. The girls had driven two-hours from West L.A. in Barrett’s mom’s minivan with a group of their friends from high school.
But in order to get the picture, Kopf and Barrett had flattened a patch of poppies. They seemed to feel badly about it.
“I don’t want to crush them,” Barrett said.
“They seem pretty resilient,” Kopf said, looking over her shoulder at the poppies. “Lots of people are doing this.”
Jonathan Pong of Glendale and a friend were climbing an informal trail up a steep slope covered in poppies and lupines. Pong said he knew he was supposed to stay on the trail, but couldn't resist. "But we tried very hard not to touch any of the flowers," he said. "And I think most people do that, but when you have a little too many [people], they probably get trampled."
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Very Interesting Read on Selfie Obsession & Social Networking Sites
It's okay to stop and smell the Roses, just don't stomp and obliterate them 'Godzilla' !!!
Anyone Remember this infamous Classic Bambi meets Godzilla Film Video by Marv Newland back in 1969 ?
Further Reading about this Area's History
Back in 2014 I wrote a series of articles about this region's (western Riverside County) flora as seen through the eyes of both Spanish Explorer Juan Bautista de Anza and Fray (Friar) Pedro Font both of whom recorded the details of massive wildflower displays in their journals. Everywhere they went they seemed to give special prominance to this. How could they not ? The first references of wildflowers started in the Terwilliger area of Anza Valley, thereafter venturing through Bautista Canyon, next through the Hemet & San Jacinto Valley all the way to Mystic Lake near Moreno Valley. The journals first meant a lot to me way back in 1981 (I was encouraged to read it by a US Forest Service employee - Steve Raybould) where I went to the Riverside County Library (no such thing as internet then) and checked out the diary to read about what the area was once like. For me it was my early motivation to explore the area in detail the actual physical geographical locations which back in the early 1980s was not yet insanely developed at that time, but pretty wild with only a few farms and ranches. Diamond Valley Reservoir wasn't even there. The road from Hwy 79 to Sage Rd was called Newport Road. Mostly open range with a couple of dairies. Here are the links to posts about the journals I created back in 2014, but I would encourage FIRST anyone who is genuinely interested to go online and read both Anza's and Font's own journals about what they saw for yourself. Don't take my word! 😏
Word of caution about the above site. It's fascinating and full of incredible information and commentary. There should also be a glossary of terms and expressions (idioms) used by Anza and Font because much of the words or expression are not used anymore. The links below are from my perspective as I'm keen as to how the natural world looked back then. I actually quote more on relevant paragraph quotes that include natural world observations and leave much of the human politics, economics and land aquisition for the Spanish Empire out of it. Although this survey for the Spanish empire expansion is why they wrote about the natural world as their surveyed and documented all natural resourves such as timber, water sources, agricultural potential, etc. So below are my thoughts and observations. As long as my posts are, I didn't reveal the half of what I know because people today quite simply have got very short attention spans. Nevertheless, Enjoy! 😵
This next post is especially interesting because it focusses on the subject of the once (now almost gone) largest and most extensive vernal pool complexes in Southern California which are now mostly all gone in Hemet, Diamond & Menifee Valleys. These breath taking pools and accompanying wildflower mega-blooms are now just a part of the historical past:
Image is western Hemet Valley
This massive flower display are Goldfields which are now paved over for development and progress
Alfalfa sprouts hold the line on meandering streams
And you though it was an actual floodplain or river delta photo scene somewhere in Amazonia !!! It's actually a very ingenius experiment by aUC Berkeleygraduate studentChristian Braudrick, UC BerkeleyProfessor of Earth and Planetary ScienceWilliam Dietrichand some other colleagues who have replicated the first experimental creation of meanders in a flume – a scaled down
representation of a natural floodplain channel using alfalfa sprouts to represent
riparian streamside vegetated stream banks.
Image - (Christian Braudrick/UC Berkeley)
Alfalfa sprouts hold the line on meandering streams
Christian Braudrick, William Dietrich and their colleagues are the first to build a scaled-down meandering stream in the lab that successfully meanders without straigtening out or turning into braided streams. The substrate is composed of sand to represent real-life gravel; white light-weight plastic for sand, and alfalfa sprouts for deep-rooting vegetation. No one has ever previously been able to experimentally create or recreate a self-sustaining meandering hydrological system
in the lab, and numerous restored meanders have straightened out or
turned into multi-channel "braided" rivers after the first flood. Take a view of this short video clip as Christian explains the purpose of his experiment.
Now take a look below at this link and the Berkley Video of a time-lapse of water movement which shows water's ability to natural ability to twist back and forth in a meandering motion as explained decades ago byViktor Schaubergerof Austria who won several awards in River Engineering and Management which replicated what nature is designed to do without interference from Humans who would otherwise straighten the channel for commercial enterprise purposes.
That experiment to me must be to a biologist what a kid's HO Scale Train set is to him. I want one of those too!
I actually stumbled across this experiment from a Christopher Richard's blog called "Flow Back in Time" which takes you on a re-enacted journey through Juan Bautista de Anza's trek through Yuma Arizona, Imperial County to Riverside County and places north towards today's San Francisco. It follows the then present water courses where today they are either completely absent or changed beyond recognition of what these Springs, Creeks, Rivers and other water sources once were in all their past glory. This is not simply a mere retracing for curiosity of Anza's route, but a study of the hydrological features at that time.
Here is a link to his fascinating blog. Bookmark it and follow the discussion and ongoing posted articles which are not finished yet. By years end he will actually be up in the high country valley of Anza California where I once lived and for who the valley was named for. Eventually he will make his way all the way up to the San Francisco Bay regin following all the hydrological spot where the Spanish Explorer Juan Bautista de Anza followed back in the years 1774 & 1775. What he wrote about then and what the water sources look like today.
I have previously mentioned Viktor Schauberger, but most folks don't seem to have a real interest in what this man accomplished and did in life from 1885 to 1958. He witnessed amazing natural phenomena with regards water movement. He had theories of deriving energy from water based on his observations at the time. He was able to observe this natural phenomena in a pristine environment, an environment which no longer exists today and a phenomena which in many places is now non-existent. The sad thing is we may never appreciate all that he saw. He did comment once that a down hill spiral of the Natural World took place at the beginning of World War I in 1914.
Swedish Researcher and Author Olof Alexandersson who is now himself close to 95 years of age if still alive, worked as an assistant to Schauberger the last few years of his life in the 1950s. He wrote a book called "Living Water" based on Schauberger's life and work and everyone should at least get a copy and read about this man's life and the things he saw and witnessed and the inventions he came up with based on water. I promise you that it will be difficult to put down until you finish it and then you'll want to reread portions of it. I've already mentioned his river engineering expertise which actually replicated what existed at one time out in nature. Here are some of his disgrams and drawings of how he believed rivers and other water courses should be repaired and re-engineered. Here are some of those drawings.
Illustration - Viktor Schauberger
Illustration - Viktor Schauberger
Much of his research was based on water's ability at spiral or vortex movement. He was well ahead of his time. He was constantly at odds with the conventional arrogant scientific understanding of the so-called geniuses of his day. Viktor Schauberger actually developed a sophisticated logging flume which was ahead of it's time and the principles of which were based on natural water movement observed in the environment. He later regretted doing this as it accelerated the destruction of Austria and Germany'sold growth forest and in some cases caused permanent damage by all the removal of old growth vegetation. Still the meandering river lab experiment is fascinating and could be used as a model for repairing the damage humans have done. Though in the video they talk about learning how geological features on Mars which could possibly be explained, the REAL NEEDSare here on Earth. So much focus is on other worlds and space exploration and massive amounts of monies being spent on these. Yes they are fascinating, but they are NOTthe present pressing need for Earth itself which Science has mismanaged and abused through many irresponsible technologies they have created for their commercial handlers.
With that in mind another interesting site byLA Creek Freakshas focused on some of Southern California'spresent hydrological disasters and natural habitat problems. Take the example of the video above on the vision of this group to revitalize the Los Angeles River. One positive focus has been a series of articles they have done on Riparian Habitat restoration projects along the Colorado River near Yuma Arizona. Let's first define the term 'Riparian' for some for who may not be familiar with it.
Riparian Zone or Habitat (from USDA & Wiki)
A riparian zone or riparian area is the interface between land and a river or stream. Riparian is also the proper nomenclature for one of the fifteen terrestrial biomes of the earth. Plant habitats and communities along the river margins and banks are called riparian vegetation, characterized by hydrophilic plants. Riparian zones are significant in ecology, environmental management, and civil engineering because of their role in soil conservation, their habitatbiodiversity, and the influence they have on fauna and aquatic ecosystems, including grassland, woodland, wetland or even non-vegetative. In some regions the terms riparian woodland, riparian forest, riparian buffer zone, or riparian strip are used to characterize a riparian zone. The word "riparian" is derived from Latinripa, meaning river bank. On this note here are some of the related article on the lower Colorado River Valley restoration project byLA Creek Freak. This series was authored by one of many blog contributors named Joshua Link.
Around the world many invasive species through no fault of their own have taken over certain regions and wreaked havoc on native populations of fish, amphibians, reptiles, birds animals and plants. In Florida it's any number of trees such as Brazilian Pepper Tree and out west the mid-east introduction of the Tamarisk. Human ignorance and stupidity has always been at fault for this. Even after some education and information highlighted on this, criticism by a collection of cyberspace chatroom Buffoons always raises their ugly collective voices in sarcasm to what they perceive as alarmists (leaving out the true derogatory names). Nothing could be further from the truth. Below is a native plant nursery developing seedlings like willows, cottonwoods and other native riparian habitat plany community one displaced by an introduced species for windbreaks called Tamarisk.
Photo by LA creek Freak
Soaking dormant Willow cane poles in an old irrigation ditch before planting. Many if not most riparian plants have the ability to propagate vegetatively, that is from branch cuttings or as in nature after floods when branches are broken naturally and buried in sand down stream. This ability is important as rapid streambank repair is essential.
Photo by LA Creek Freak
One of the biggest tasks in fighting with Tamarisks is understanding a few details about it's requirements and life cycle. The seed has a low sustainable viability rate. What I mean is that it needs to be germinated early in it's release. In most cases it's viable between 20 to 40 days and poops out after that. Another point can be illustrated down below. Take a look at these close plantings of Fremont Cottonwood Poles. While I don't necessarily like the agricultural rows, they can be thinned later for a more natural look.
Photo by LA Creek Freak
However the main purpose here is to force tall leggy competition and create a tall forested canopy. Any young Tamarisk seedling started under such a canopy won't make it as they hate shade. A good bit of info to know when doing your own restoration project. Create a giant native cottonwood forest able to sustain itself and you can move on to other invaded areas. This also mimics those heavy rain season flooding events that come along every once in a while where land alluvial fans of massive soil sediments are deposited and kept wet for a long period of time as runoff drains off over a long extended period of time and creates dense willow, cottonwood, alder, sycamore and other new riparian habitats.
I'll have more later on specifics of restoration techniques, but don't forget the education and informative links above. In the mean time here is another important link provided by Landscape Architech David Cristiani:
