Save the Chaparral!

Sensible defensible space

nospam@example.com (wildbird) — 2009-06-17T03:49:22Z

Over 1600 fires are started each year by people cutting grass, weeds, and "brush". It's important to have that defensible space around your home, but please use your brains before doing the work. We do get rain here in San Diego county during the winter months. That is when you should be doing your outdoor trimming work. It's not worth a fire just to have your landscaping look perfect all summer. If you would plant drought-tolerant plants it won't grow during the summer, anyway. So trim it in the winter and then leave it alone once things dry out.

Better yet, use hand tools. How many people use power tools for their yard work and then go to the gym to "exercise"? What a farce! My wife uses hand clippers, a big pair of loppers, and a small pruning saw to trim the deadwood from plants within 100 feet of our house. They are so quiet that she can hear and enjoy the birds around her as she works.

Read the full story in the LA Times. It's too bad the Union Tribune isn't so enlightened, but at least we have The Voice of San Diego.

--Brian

More plant inventory

nospam@example.com (wildbird) — 2009-04-27T00:00:00Z

Here are a few more native plant inventory photos from our yard. First, here's a nice cluster of Mission Manzanita, Chamise, Black Sage, Laurel Sumac, Wild Cucumber, Mimulus, and who knows what all else...

If you poke around in the bushes you can find all kinds of interesting creatures. Like this guy:

This quail was right in front of the cluster of shrubs in that first photo:

Here's a better look at a chamise:

Here's a single branch:

Up close and personal you will find that those white flowery fronds are just jammed with little tiny flowers:

And what use would those flowers be without pollinators?

Manzanita means "little apple" in Spanish. Here are the fruit of the Mission Manzanita (Xyloccocus bicolor):

(I have back-dated this entry to the day I took these photos.)

--Brian

Our Own Penstemon

nospam@example.com (wildbird) — 2009-04-26T02:49:08Z

This evening I went out to work on our photo plant inventory. Here's what I got before the sun went down.

Last fall we bought and planted six Penstemon spectabilis around the house. Now we have discovered a volunteer at the far corner of our property. It wasn't from one of the plants that we planted, they are barely blooming right now. What a pleasant surprise!

In the background you might see some black sage. Here's a closer look at the top of one:

And right next to it there's some yarrow:

It's such a vibrant green plant with beautiful yellow flowers. The whole hillside, above is covered with blooming yarrow right now. Here's a single plant:

And a close-up of just a flower head:

You might have noticed that orange color in the background. It was evening when I took these photos so depth-of-field was shallow, plus DOF is always very shallow in close-ups. Those orange blotches are Mimulus, or Monkey flower!

Here's a red one:

Here is some pearly everlasting:

Janet tells me this one is golden bush:

The laurel sumac sure look pretty when they are putting on new growth:

I thought deerweed just had yellow flowers, but here is a branch with yellow and red both.

Whether you have an urban yard landscaped in natives or acreage you should try to keep an inventory of what you've got growing. It's fun and could help you keep track of changes over the years.

--Brian

Helpful information!

nospam@example.com (wildbird) — 2009-04-12T00:39:29Z

I think it's pretty well established that the reason so many houses burn during our wildfires is that they are poorly designed and/or maintained. Here is a very well written and illustrated guide to making your home much more fire resistant than it probably already is. Please read it and follow as much of their advice as possible. It may save your home or even your life.

--Brian

Eat yer weeds!

nospam@example.com (wildbird) — 2009-03-08T00:04:33Z

Yesterday I posted some photos, but two of them turned out to be of invasive non-native weeds. In researching them I found that they are actually edible and quite healthy. So you can do nature and yourself some good if you just eat them! (But be sure you know what you are picking.)

Here is some Henbit (Lamium amplexicaule) that grows in a low, damp area along the trail I ride on.

They grow in abundance in one area:

From what I've read, they are very common and often grow in masses like this. The leaves are said to be edible raw or cooked and have a mild minty flavor.

Another plant which often grows with Henbit is Chickweed (Stellaria sp., perhaps Stellaria media). And here it is:

Chickweed can be eaten raw in salads or steamed. I will try some and report back on it.

--Brian

Time for some more flower pictures

nospam@example.com (wildbird) — 2009-03-07T02:27:41Z

Yeah, the desert wildflowers are getting all the press, but we've got a lot of pretty flowers here in chaparral country, too. Here are some photos from a couple of recent bike rides I took in the San Dieguito River Park.

There is a low place along the trail just before you start the climb up to Raptor Ridge. Willows grow there and miner's lettuce and such. Willows are important to the Least Bell's vireo. Right after the Witch fire of 2007 the rangers went around sticking Mule Fat twigs in the ground. A couple of them took root in that same area and are starting to bloom already. I have seen a Least Bell's vireo in the area pretty regularly lately.

Here are some poppys. Are they California poppies or something else? Notice how red the stalks and leaves of the plant are:

The Perry's Phacelia are just starting to bloom. Here are some with some overexposed Sun Cups and Popcorn flowers.

So if you don't have time to drive all the way out to Anza Borrego, go poke around your own local patch of wildland and see what you can find. You might be surprised.

--Brian

Low native shrubs get the shaft in the Bulletin

nospam@example.com (wildbird) — 2009-02-21T03:51:48Z

[This note from Kay Stewart, Landscape architect and native plant activist, was posted to the CNPSSD listserv. It is reprinted with her permission. This is a terribly important issue, and not just for greenies. If your house is in the potential path of a wildfire you should be paying attention and not just trusting your government to do the right thing.]

Hello All,

We were talking about starting to list inconsistencies in the City of San Diego's Brush Management regulations and the fact that if you apply one, you end up with very different outcomes than if you apply the other:

Please open the Fire and Emergency Dept. Clarification FPB Policy B-08-1.
Please go to p 3, VI. A. 1) describing THINNING to create the 50% open area: "Certain native plants, such as those found in coastal sage scrub, should be cut back to within 12" of the root crown. [and notes species such as CA sagebrush, black sage, chamise, and buckwheat.]" Then it goes on to discuss PRUNING to reduce fuel within the remaining islands, and says that "pruning individual plants is not feasible in coastal sage scrub." So I think this says to cut those low shrubs to 12" high between groupings, and to not cut them in the groupings (other than removing deadwood which is done routinely).

Now please open the Bulletin #1 Guide.
Go to the bottom of Page 2 which starts explaining how to PRUNE the plants. It runs onto page 3 and says if plants are 4' and taller, to remove half of the lower branches to create an umbrella. At the end of that paragraph it says: "Vegetation that is under 4' in height, like coastal sage scrub, should be cut back to within 12" of the root crown." It is saying that the 4' or shorter plants that were left in the islands are to be cut to 12" high.

This means that in coastal sage scrub, or maritime succulent scrub, where most of plants are 4' or shorter, the end result will be 12" high hat racks standing in the groupings, with 6" stumps between them. I think type conversion seems likely, what do you think? Monitoring will tell; but by then three more years will have passed, and several thousand more acres gone to weed, if that is true.

So, though I didn't realize it, I had made a choice without thinking about it: I've been using the Clarification as my guide. Maybe those who wrote the regulations would say I chose the wrong one. But perhaps I chose the rule that makes the most sense. Why should taller vegetation types be left with groupings of viable plants, but shorter plant communities be guaranteed to be destroyed? Why would the policy encourage type conversion of the shrubs that could suppress highly flammable weeds which grow much taller than the native shrubs will, and which pose much more danger to homes as a result?

Maybe, also, I was trusting that Bulletin #1 reflected a City policy that really does care about the quality of the wildlands, as it says on page 2 about the concerns in creating Zone 2, that it is to be done "...without harming native plants, soil or habitats, as described on the reverse side of this Bulletin."

Kay

p.s.: I just saw the below (verbatim) on the Fire and Emergency Services website. After you read these, I wonder, does anyone else besides me wonder what is going on? Since when did Brush earn the title of "the predominant native plant community"? What does the age of a plant have to do as a measure of flammability? When was this written and who wrote it? Can we find out?

Brush Management

"Brush" is the predominant native plant community in the canyons of Southern California. When adjacent to homes, brush management is required to protect the the homes from wild fire. Inspections of brush-covered areas adjacent to buildings are performed on a complaint basis only.

Brush/Chaparral

The predominant plant community in the canyons of southern California, comprised of shrubby plants that have adapted to dry summers and moist winters.

Fire Resistant Plants

A plant that is less flammable than another containing the same amount of fuel. This can be a consequence of the live-to-dead fuels ratio, the oil and resin content of the foliage, the percent of fuel moisture, or the age of the plants

[Kay also asked that I add the following]

The City of San Diego is trying so much harder to preserve native plants than most juriscitions. Unfortunately, the regulations have contradictory instructions. I and others hope to bring these contradictions to the attention of the City, and then work with legal and other writers so clear guidelines result. I sincerely hope they will result in WUI low-fire-risk zones with more slow-growing native shrubs being left to suppress exotic fast-growing weeds.

Is it spring yet?

nospam@example.com (wildbird) — 2009-02-11T22:02:14Z

I photographed some flowers on my trail ride in the San Dieguito River Park today. Here are some of them:

First, Sun Cups:

And Miner's Lettuce I found out at the West Raptor Kiosk:

Unfortunately there are nasties coming out, too, like these Filaree:

Now for a couple of ID questions. This one was growing amidst the Miner's Lettuce. -- Jean K. tells me it is a fiddlehead. Sheesh! I know fiddleheads when they are bigger, but I have problems with lots of plants when they are just getting started. Thanks, Jean!

And these little gray bumps have been along the trail since I started riding again in December. I don't know if they are dead, waiting to green up, or if this is their normal state. -- Greg R. says "I think those dead mounds may actually be Doveweed (Eremocarpus), which is a native annual. It's in the Euphorbia family, smells like xmas trees, and can produce a slight stinging sensation when touched

Here's a look inside of one (I didn't make the hole, it was already there.) I'm not here in the summer, so maybe these are something I would have recognized last spring when they were fresh. But I don't know them now.

Please let me know if you can ID these. Thanks.

--Brian

Name that shrub.

nospam@example.com (wildbird) — 2009-02-02T18:55:18Z

Janet found two small shrubs on her trail patrol route in the San Dieguito River Park and she is hoping that someone can ID them for her. Here is a photo of one of them. Yes, it is very difficult to make out because it is growing in a tangle with some brittlebush, sagebrush, buckwheat, etc. That's how things grow in shrublands.

Here is a closer view of one of the branches. This one is better but the high, direct sunlight still makes for a harshly lit photo. I hope someone will recognize the plant from these photos because I don't think we're expecting a high overcast anytime soon. (Click the picture to see larger image.)

So if anyone can ID this plant, please let us know. Thank you.

[Note: Janet has ID'd this as Cneoridium dumosum, or Bush Rue. 2-6-09]

--Brian

Mission Manzanita

nospam@example.com (wildbird) — 2009-01-25T18:26:30Z

As some readers may know, I recently created the Wikipedia article for Mission Manzanita - Xylococcus bicolor. Here is a blog article showing an ancient specimen. Awesome. This is what the county wants to burn in the foolish belief that it will make us safer.

--Brian

The County of San Diego is the problem, not the brush.

nospam@example.com (wildbird) — 2009-01-25T03:18:12Z

Here is a video you might find interesting. It features scenes from the chaparral as well as before/after pictures of wildfires.

The audio is excerpts from the Planning Commission meeting from January 9th. You can see my entry from the 10th to learn more about it. In this video you will hear a lot of testimony from experts and homeowners alike stating that clearing, masticating, burning large acreages of chaparral will do immense harm to the environment and will do absolutely nothing to make you and I safer. I might add that it will burn up many millions of dollars which could have been used for good. Instead it is being used for evil. That's your government, San Diego county. (You will hear one voice of reason from the Planning Commission, Michael Beck, who understands the great responsibility that is on his shoulders and who carries it with courage.)

I would like to thank Rick Halsey from the Chaparral Institute for all the hard work he put into making this video. You can find out more about the ongoing struggle to talk some sense into a cowardly and panic-stricken county government on his Slash and Burn page.

--Brian

Causes of Large Shrubland Wildfires

nospam@example.com (wildbird) — 2009-01-16T03:40:39Z

Jon Keely, a scientist employed by USGS, has issued a new paper on the Causes of Large Shrubland Wildfires. You should read it. There is a lot of good info there. One of the things that caught my eye is this paragraph:

Proponents of the theory that fire suppression is the cause of large fires on these landscapes contend that fuel treatments that maintain the landscape in a mosaic of young age classes will provide a barrier to fire spread and prevent large fires. However, the present study shows that young chaparral is dominated by short-lived species that create a dense surface layer of fine fuels, and fire behavior models show that there is sufficient dead fuel to spread fire even under moderate winds. Empirical studies of fuel ages burned in recent fires illustrate that young fuels often comprise a major portion of burned vegetation and there is no difference between evergreen chaparral and semi-deciduous sage scrub. (Keely, 2009)

That would seem to run counter to the words of the head bureaucrat at the county who surprised a whole room full of scientists and land managers by claiming that young chaparral burns much slower than old chaparral, using that claim to justify burning many thousands of acres of old growth chaparral. (January 9th at the Planning Commission.) Perhaps someone can suggest that Mr. Oberbauer meet with Mr. Keely and get his head straightened out.

--Brian

San Diego county loses another one.

nospam@example.com (wildbird) — 2009-01-10T19:27:07Z

I attended a San Diego County Planning Commission meeting yesterday and it was a real eye-opener. It seems that the county Board of Supervisors asked to have a plan drawn up for destroying chaparral in some lame attempt to reduce wildfires. A committee of bureaucrats was assigned to the task and it was to be supervised by the planning commission. At yesterday's meeting the committee presented their plan to the commission.

I was at one of the committee meetings while the plan was being worked on and was rather distressed that they seemed to be ignoring the input of knowledgeable scientist and land managers. Sure enough, the plan that they presented to the planning commission was wrong headed, is likely to endanger more lives than it saves, and will destroy forever some of the most amazingly diverse and surprisingly pristine landscape in the United States.

Nearly all of the testimony was by experts in either wildfires, ecology, or both. And nearly all of the testimony was in opposition to the destructive reduction of wild vegetation. Only two people did not oppose it. One was neutral and one didn't exactly endorse the plan, but rather seemed to endorse a return to the past where grazing animals roamed the land. All of the testimony was articulate, well thought-out and backed by personal knowledge and study. The testimony was overwhelming and I was very relieved that all of those PhDs were on the same side as I was. I could not imagine how the county could go forward with this moronic plan.

But five of the six planning commissioners present rubber stamped it and sent it on to the Board of Supervisors! I overheard comments about wanting to get to lunch. If you are unable to evacuate before the next fire and survive it, please remember that your planning commission considered their lunch to be more important than your safety.

My hat is off to Commissioner Michael Beck, who behaved with honor and intelligence to try and stop this dangerous and destructive plan from moving forward.

The plan put forward by the committee paid lip service to some very important issues such as power lines, the wildland/urban interface, and fire hardening of homes. But the primary reason the committee was formed and the primary focus of their plan (and of the opposition to it) was "brush" clearing in the wildlands. For some inexplicable reason, Supervisor Horn seems to have a beef against a bunch of plants. Maybe he resents that the plants are smarter than he is; I don't know. But he decided we need to clear hundreds of thousands of acres of "brush" and tacitly instructed this committee to mold the plan so that it looks scientific and yet does the maximum amount of damage that can be done.

I think Supervisor Horn does not understand wildfires. And not understanding them, he fears them. And his reaction to fear is to "Burn it all!" That is backward and completely inappropriate in a society which sends intelligent people to school so that they can understand it. For him to ignore those people is foolish. It's hubris. And government by hubris is bad government.

The chaparral is an amazingly complex ecosystem. It has evolved to survive in a very inhospitable environment. Blazing heat; long, dry summers; very poor soils; etc. It takes a very intricate and finely tuned system to survive here in the long term. To try and "treat" it with third world slash-and-burn techniques is barbaric. The "gossamer web of life" (as described by Greg Rubin) will be destroyed and replaced by faster burning weeds. Ick.

But in addition to the damage it will do to this fragile ecosystem, this plan will not do a single thing to make us safer and will probably increase the danger for many of us. One committee member, Tom Oberbauer, said that “young fuels burn slower than older fuels.” This is a blatant fabrication calculated to head off one of my chief concerns which I expressed in a previous meeting. What should grow up after a fire are returning chaparral species, but what actually grows up after a fire are invasive weeds and grasses which grow fast, dry out and burn like, well, like wildfire. And I think the absolute worst case would be areas which are degraded but not totally type-converted, where all that grass and weeds moves the fire quickly through broken chaparral, actually adding to the fuel load. So the "treated" areas (burned or masticated) will not stop the fires. I expect that fires which re-burn these "treated" areas will burn much faster than fires in pure stands of chaparral and could reduce the available evacuation times in our cities from hours (which we currently have) to minutes.

Mr. Oberbauer and Supervisor Horn, how are we going to evacuate in minutes? Where is your plan for that?

--Brian

Nuttall's woodpecker!

nospam@example.com (wildbird) — 2009-01-03T17:47:31Z

We have been nurturing some live oaks in our front yard, waiting for them to get large enough that we can cut down our last eucalyptus. (We need the shade or we'd have cut it already.) We also planted some oaks and the jays planted some acorns below our house and some of them are growing. So we will someday have a small grove of live oaks along one side of the house.

In answer to my "plant it and they will come" philosophy, we had a Nuttall's woodpecker visit our yard yesterday. This is the first one we've seen. No telling if this was his first or a return visit, but it was nice to see him. We've read that they prefer oak woodlands. In a few more years maybe we'll see them regularly.

--Brian

Backyard habitat program

nospam@example.com (wildbird) — 2009-01-03T17:33:22Z

There has long been a backyard habitat program in Washington state, though I don't know the details. Here is a link to an article about a small program in Oregon. I think we should do something like that here in southern California. It would help by giving visibility, credibility, and guidelines to the contribution we can all make in our own yards.

--Brian