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California Buckeye at China Camp State Park

Sticky Monkey Flower

May 31, 2011
I did a nice early morning hike today, in the light rain at China Camp State Park. I hiked through the sublime forests of oak, madrone, bay laurel, and manzanita up to the high ridge of San Pedro Mountain. The canyons that cut through the sides of the mountain are favored places for California buckeyes, which are in bloom right now with their big tassles of white flowers. Sticky monkey flower was also in bloom, with big patches of orange flowers that covered forest clearings and rocky outcrops. This may be one of the last times I'm able to go hiking in this beautiful park, since it is one of the 70 California State Parks that are slated for permanent closure starting in September of this year. I hope it doesn't come to this, and maybe there is some reason for optimism. The plan to shut down more than one fourth of our state parks seems to be unraveling, as it was revealed last week that 16 of the parks on the list have received money from the federal government, with the stipulation that they remain open as parks. Amazing that nobody realized this during all the time they were compiling this list. China Camp was not one of these 16, although hopefully this fiasco will spur the governor to abandon the plan altogether.

Meanwhile, I'm going to do what I can and join the Friends of China Camp, a non-profit organization that helps support the park with educational and interpretive programs. Membership for individuals is $15, for families $25. If you want to help China Camp and keep this park open, send a check to:

Friends of China Camp
100 China Camp Village
San Rafael, CA 94901

May 28, 2011
Now that I've been working at the Marine Mammal Center for more than a year, I can start to notice the seasonal ups and downs that we go through with our patients. Back in January, the first elephant seal pups started to come in, tiny little blackcoats who had been separated from their mothers for just a short time. They lose their shiny black lanugo coats after about 30 days, so we were able to tell that they were very young. We could also tell by their size, which was only about 60-80 pounds. This sounds like a lot for a newborn baby, but it is small for an elephant seal.

Over the past few months, I've learned how to restrain and tube feed the pups, how to feed them fish, and even how to give them shots and subcutaneous injections. Now the elephant seal season is winding down and every week another group of recovered patients is released back into the wild. We had a peak of 44 ellies back in April, and now we are down to just 16. At the same time, sea lion season is starting to kick in. Just a few weeks ago, we only had two sea lions, after Silent Knight and Henry found their new homes at the San Francisco Zoo, and now we are up to 11. Several have come in over the past few days, some small pups, and a few larger subadults that may have domoic acid toxicity, a toxin that is released by algae blooms.

The Harbor Seal Hospital down the hill, meanwhile, has seen a relatively calm year and only has 26 patients right now. Last year at this time, they had more than 60 patients. Over the next few weeks, I hope to attend a few more releases of the patients. That is always the most gratifying part of working with these animals - seeing them get healthy and go back home. Most of the recent releases have been a long distance drive though, down to Monterey or up to the beaches of Sonoma County. Some take place at Chimney Rock, next to Point Reyes, so that would be a little easier if I can fit it into my work schedule.

Elephant Seal Pups at the Marine Mammal Center

Elephant Seal Pup at the Marine Mammal Center

Brodiaea elegans: Part of the Natural History of the Presidio

May 17, 2011
The Presidio has been hosting a series of public workshops over the past two months, designed to get feedback and ideas from neighbors, visitors, and lovers of the Presidio about how to improve the visitor experience of the Presidio. I went to last night's workshop, which was entitled Connecting with Nature: Natural Resources and Stewardship. Presentations by Damien Raffa, the Natural Resources Specialist from the Presidio Trust, and Brianna Schaeffer, Manager of the Presidio Native Plant Nursery, were followed by breaking up into groups to discuss ideas about how to better convey the natural world of the Presidio to visitors. This was the fifth workshop in the Log Cabin Series and it focused on the Presidio's role as a biodiversity hot spot. The plant and animal life of the Presidio represents an incredible wealth, so much so that it has one federally listed threatened or endangered species per acre of land. This is one of the highest concentrations in the world, and makes the Presidio a major target for natural preservation. The last workshop in the Log Cabin Series will be held on May 31 and will focus on plans for developing a new Visitor Center and Heritage Center. More information can be found on the Golden Gate National Parks Conservancy website.

May 13, 2011
Friday the 13th. The California Department of Parks and Recreation released its much anticipated list of proposed park closures today. Our state parks are facing a $22 million budget cut and closing many of the parks has been the short-sighted solution to this shortfall. 70 state parks are on the list, which includes many here in the Bay Area, including four of the parks I have visited recently. Petaluma Adobe State Historic Park, along with China Camp, Henry W. Coe and Garrapata State Parks, are described in detail in this Blog and are now slated for closure. Other Bay Area parks that made the list include Annadel, Candlestick Point, Jack London, and Tomales Bay. The foolishness of this proposal is mind boggling. It will cost much more in the long run to close these parks, and will risk the looting of historic resources, the rampaging of natural resources, and the endangerment of wildlife. The economics don't make sense - our state parks return more money to the state coffers than they receive in support. Communities near the closed parks will see a drop in visitors, resulting in job losses for hotels, restaurants, and recreational outfitters. It is hard to believe that such a drastic measure will be of any benefit to the people of California.

The full list can be seen on the California State Parks Foundation website. Services in these parks will see cutbacks almost immediately and full park closures will begin September. All parks on the list are scheduled to be closed by July, 2012.

May 11, 2011
I worked at the Presidio Nursery today and had the chance to take part in a really great activity. Nursery intern Michelle took fellow volunteer Kathy and I over to Inspiration Point, where we were flagging wildflowers. The ones we were looking for were Blue Dicks, but there were plenty of other wildflowers to see as well. We were flagging certain flowers, so they could still be found later in the season, when the blooms will be gone and the surrounding grasses will all turn brown. The Blue Dicks (Dichelostemma capitatum) were easy to spot, with clusters of purplish blue flowers at the end of a long stem. We put a small flag next to every 10th flower to identify their locations, after verifying that they had some seeds. We carefully made our way across the grassy meadows, which were exploding with lots of other wildflowers. The Presidio Clarkia (Clarkia franciscana) was the most prevalent of all the flowers, and this federally listed endangered species really flourishes in the serpentine soil of Inspiration Point. Presidio Clarkia is only found in the Presidio and in the Oakland hills, so I've always considered it a rare treat to find it.

As we wandered around the slopes below Inspiration Point, we spotted lots of other wildflowers, including California Poppy, Goldfields, Soap Plant, Iris, Tidy Tips, Bee Plant, Ithuriel's spear, and Blue-Eyed Grass. The Coastal Onion (Allium dichalmydeum) was one of the most striking, with clusters of bright pink flowers lighting up the hillsides. We were so amazed at how many flowers were in bloom, we had a hard time pulling ourselves away. We got back to the Nursery a little bit late, but just in time to brag about everything we accomplished and everything we saw.

May 8, 2011
It was a cool and windy day on Mount Tamalpais today, with warm sunshine trying to break through the clouds. I worked at the Gravity Car Barn for a few hours, enjoying the mountain air and the spring chill. Throughout the day, pairs of ravens were dancing above the steep north slopes of the mountain, conducting an intricate mating ritual that involved synchronized flying, swooping, circling, and diving. It was a mesmerizing sight to watch, and listen to as well, as the melodic calls rang out across the mountain. Sometimes they sound like the caw of a crow, but other times it is deeply hypnotic sound, like a drop of water falling into a pond. By late in the afternoon, the weekend crowds had begun to thin out and I closed the Barn. Before leaving, I took a short walk down the Verna Dunshee Trail, which makes a loop around the peak of Mount Tamalpais. The afternoon sun had broken through most of the clouds and was lighting up the city skyline like a spotlight. The combination of light and shadow created a glowing warmth that radiated down the mountain. I felt like I was looking out across a vast painting.

The View of San Francisco from the Top of Mount Tamalpais

The View of San Francisco from the Top of Mount Tamalpais

A Giant Big Berry Manzanita at Henry W. Coe State Park

May 3, 2011
May these quiet hills bring peace
To the souls of those who are seeking
Sada Coe Robinson

I'm continuing my quest to visit all of the 278 state parks in California. I added number 62 yesterday, doing an all day hike in Henry W. Coe State Park, a vast wilderness southeast of San Jose. With over 87,000 acres, this is the largest state park in northern California. The 12-mile hike I did barely covered a small corner of the park, and by the end of the day I wanted to come back and do an extensive backpacking trip deep into the wilderness.

I started the hike on the Manzanita Point Fire Road, then turned up the hill onto the Monument Trail. A small monument in a forest clearing honors the memory of Henry Coe, who owned this ranch from 1900 until 1953, when his daughter Sada donated it to Santa Clara County. It became a state park in 1958. From the monument, I continued down into a beautiful canyon to Frog Lake, an old cattle pond that rings out with the sound of red-winged blackbirds. From there I climbed to the top of Middle Ridge and came into groves of massive manzanitas that line the ridgetop. Known as Big Berry Manzanita (Arctostaphylos glauca), these manzanita are more like trees than bushes, with some of them reaching heights of 20-30 feet. They are mixed in with a rich forest of madrone, oak, and ponderosa pines that rise above a forest floor strewn with wildflowers. The sounds of birds created an orchestral chorus, with the trill of songbirds, jays screeching, woodpeckers adding percussion, and circling hawks overhead crying out across the canyons. A truly amazing forest.

I descended Middle Ridge, coming down to the point where the Little Fork of Coyote Creek flows into the Middle Fork of Coyote Creek. I sat down on the banks of the creek and took some time to enjoy the serenity of this place. The day was hot by this time, but I was able to find shade under a California buckeye tree that was just starting to blossom. The gurgling creek gave me a sense of well being as I watched the swallowtail butterflies following the waters over the rocks and through the eddies. A frog jumped into the water as I approached to splash my face in the creek. I took a brief nap in this idyllic locale - I love the feeling of drifting off to sleep in the wilderness.

I continued the hike, walking along the creek to Poverty Flat, a campground that was completely deserted. I climbed up out of the canyon on the Cougar Trail, hoping to see a cougar, but no such luck. At the top of the next ridge, I came out of the forest into an open area of spectacular vistas in all directions. As far as the eye could see was wilderness: steep forested canyons and distant ridges of mountains. It really showed the vastness of this park, for there was no sign of civilization to be seen. I reached Manzanita Point and continued back to the park headquarters, completing the loop on an easy trail that crossed over wide open meadows dotted with poppies, lupine, blue-eyed grass, and goldfields.

The Serenity of Coyote Creek

A Majestic Oak Graces the Sky

The Vastness of Henry W. Coe State Park