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!
These native Fremont Cottonwoods are all but gone now as the picture below reveals. What ever rains have fallen have been spotty at best. Even Palomar Mountain to the west of here which historically received 8" to 13" even during small winter storms because of it's unique geographical location has at best gotten 2" to 3" in latest storm events these past seasons. Nothing in the realm of drenching downpours, subsoil recharging caliber floods which were promised by the Press and Scientific soothsayers has happened this past season. Their promised weather Messiah El Nino was a bust, a fraud and as usual unpredictable. The El Niño eco-activist cheerleaders around the internet with Pom Poms were smoke screening the true irreversible climate change problems behind the scenes. Nobody wants to deal with such a possibility as the idea that human activity has gone to far to be salvaged. I understand wanting things to improve, maybe even getting back to the way things use to be (whatever that was), but times have changed and I'm afraid we've gone well past that point of no return scenario many scientists have feared regarding reversing the climate degradation. The photo below is viewing towards the south. from that point on 1000s upon 1000s of native Oaks are dying. Even many area of chaparral are in trouble.
photo credit - Kevin Franck - (June 11, 2016)
What Does 30% Chance of Rain Forecast really Mean?
In the San diego area, the region known as Mission Valley which is an ancient floodplain with massive development is often known for it's flood events nearest the San Diego River. When news stations need to provide a sensational headline to bait it's viewers and up the ratings, they send news crews down into Mission Valley. The actual storm may have dumped only a half inch of rain, but by golly they're find a reason to hype it as catastrophic. From Mission Vallley eastward, the landscape has radically changed from it's historical past. What was once 10s of 1000s of hectares of wildland is now concrete, asphalt and commercial & residential rooftops. Now any little piddly rain will create runoff for Mission Valley low spots and provide News Hype fodder for Media. And for those who believed what all the cheerleaders said about El Nino saving the day for Central and Northern California, think again. Yes they got large amounts of rainfall in some locations and many mountain areas had large snowpacks. But these mountain ecosystems have a long way to go before subsoil moistures are restored well enough to capacity to allow wild native plants to maintain health and vigor during the dry hot months of the year and these areas are also setting record high temps across the board. Record high temps early on allowed snow melt much earlier as opposed to later when much needed water would be most needed in the peak of Summer. This entire year has thus far had each month setting new heat record highs and this month of June 2016 is set to break even more records as I write. Take a look at the video below of how dire the situation is in forests of the Sierra Nevadas. Eco-Activists don't have to worry about the Timber Industry, nature is deforesting itself in response to irresponsible scientific innovation.
But there are some possitives, but they're mainly localized urban landscape ones
photo credit - Kevin Franck - (June 30, 2014)
Pisolithus tinctorius truffle
It was on June 30th 2014 when we first planted Foothill Pines, Engelmann Oaks, California Holly and Cleveland Sage. By most folks standards it was risky because it was during a time of 100+ temperatures outside. We of course inoculated each planting with MycoApply, but I also had visited the Hwy 79 Desert View Vista Point south of Julian and collected numerous truffles of the mycorrhizal fungi Pisolithus tinctorius. The one here to the left was huge as comparison to the USA 25 cent coin shown for scale. I also incorporated crushed truffle spore powder within the soil of each plant. Below this year is the first I've seen of truffle formation on my brother's plants.
photo credit - Kevin Franck - (June 11, 2016)
The photo below is a Foothill Pine [Digger Pine] (Pinus sabiniana) which is probably a little more drought tolerable than others even native to the area and this particular location and climate. Although like others, this pine has limits as well. Back on June 30, 2014, this plant wasn't even a foot tall when I purchased it for my brother at Las Pilitas Native Plant Nursery in Escondido, which also has gone by the wayside. Other decades old specimens exist on other folks properties here in Ranchita and are doing exceptionally well. Hence I thought it a good fit for my brothers 5 acres in an enviornment which is often challenging because of it's dry climate nature, heat and constant prevailing wind conditions. Not many of the conventional retail plant nursery pics of non-natives will make it up here.
photo credit - Kevin Franck - (June 11, 2016)
Some references for home gardeners and urban landscapers [habitat restoration is out of the question for the moment]
Concluding Commentary It's commendable that many wish to fight to save what remains as a remnant of what once was. Unfortunately all the environmental activism in the world is not going to save anything. Mainly because the passion so often is hatred filled against those deemed as the cause environmental ruin as they see it and their solution is to force the opponant. Declaring massive tracts of land as Preserves, Reserves, Wilderness or National Monuments are certainly admirable, but these are not going to reverse anything regarding climate and other natural world ecosystem disruption. And what are they really saving anyway ? The rescued Land has already been degraded long ago of any old growth plant community ecosystem and it's inhabitants. These heroic acts are more of a symbolic victory than viable corrective solution. More often than not it has become a maneuver to trip up a much hated political opponant's ideological worldview. There is no real materialist fix here or viable scientific solution. Despite the propaganda about Science, it is truthfully not the self-correcting fix all which will reverse the damage caused by the misuse and abuse of industrial science for over a century of imaginary enlightenment. Science today is infected with way too much politicking and ideology. As time pants on to the end, the words of United States Environmental Lawyer, Gus Speth, ring so true. Mankind's problem is a spiritual one and not a materialistic innovative one. And by the word/term 'spiritual', we're talking about clean healthy human personality traits which are not necessarily something physically seen, but rather the secret person of the heart expressed in daily conduct. Every man, woman and child in every land around the globe has to be on the same page morality-wise if mankind and nature is going to have half a chance. Qualities such as neighbour love, which mainly is a respect for fellow man and nature. But admittedly, even the world's mainstream religions are bankrupt on this one. It's funny, I get slammed by both sides if I refuse to participate in one position or another. The old biblical saying, "The Truth will set you Free" doesn't really apply with this subject, especially since telling the truth in this present dysfunctional system more often than not gets you hammered by either side.
Some time early on this blog I have posted about my love for the monsoon season. Not just any rain event, but summertime monsoonal rain events with all the Thunder & Lightning that goes along with it.
Of course there is even more. To me summer rains mean the scent and fragrances that come along with them. Back in the 1980s, long before internet reading I did things the old fashioned way with a book and a chair or couch on my covered porch deck in the afternoon. Whenever there was a weather report indicating monsoonal moisture out of the east from Arizona to California mountains, then you knew porch reading in the afternoon was going to be a pleasure.
By Meteorologist Kevin Martin
Southern California Weather authority
A big part of the experience for me was not only the sights and sounds, but also the almost addictive highs one gets off the refreshing fragrances which came off of the Redshank or Ribbonwoodchaparral and also from the low deserts filtering up through Coyote Canyon from Borrego Springs the smell of the Creosote Brush. I recently found an audio recording of a Monsoonal Thunderstorm which lasts for 75 minutes. The sound is wonderful to read by and I have had rain forest sound recording before, but found this by accident yesterday. It starts off slowly with rain and thunder moving closer until finally it's right on top of you. Then at the 58 minute mark it starts to taper off as it does in real life. I remember sitting for three hours after the initial blast came through and a slow steady gentle shower just pelted away at the roof until the cloud formation was dry. Sometimes it was something to fall asleep by.
Essential Oil Humidifier
The only other thing that would make this listening pleasure perfect is to have some sort of replication of those fragrances & negative ions floating all around in the air in your room when you are listening and reading. And I think I've found an answer. We use to have a humidifier which had a reservoir depression just where the mist came out which you filled with your favourite Essential Oil (Volatile Organic Compound Tincture or oil extraction from plants). You know of course any proper monsoon season has high humidity. So that is a must along with the fragrant atmosphere. Surely such oils could be made from home if you've got the proper equipment and know how. Can you imagine having Creosote & Redshank essential oils ? Of course around our globe many people experience fragrances which are local to their areas, but you can adjust accordingly.
There are countless other recordings on Youtube, but you can find them. Enjoy the experience from the one posted above if you have time (75 min). And don't forget to Bookmark it. --
In the San diego area, the region known as Mission Valley which is an ancient floodplain with massive development is often known for it's flood events nearest the San Diego River. When news stations need to provide a sensational headline to bait it's viewers and up the ratings, they send news crews down into Mission Valley. The actual storm may have dumped only a half inch of rain, but by golly they're find a reason to hype it as catastrophic. From Mission Vallley eastward, the landscape has radically changed from it's historical past. What was once 10s of 1000s of hectares of wildland is now concrete, asphalt and commercial & residential rooftops. Now any little piddly rain will create runoff for Mission Valley low spots and provide News Hype fodder for Media. And for those who believed what all the cheerleaders said about El Nino saving the day for Central and Northern California, think again. Yes they got large amounts of rainfall in some locations and many mountain areas had large snowpacks. But these mountain ecosystems have a long way to go before subsoil moistures are restored well enough to capacity to allow wild native plants to maintain health and vigor during the dry hot months of the year and these areas are also setting record high temps across the board. Record high temps early on allowed snow melt much earlier as opposed to later when much needed water would be most needed in the peak of Summer. This entire year has thus far had each month setting new heat record highs and this month of June 2016 is set to break even more records as I write. Take a look at the video below of how dire the situation is in forests of the Sierra Nevadas. Eco-Activists don't have to worry about the Timber Industry, nature is deforesting itself in response to irresponsible scientific innovation.
