Large Woody Debris in San Geronimo Creek, 2016-2017

This is the story of wood in San Geronimo Creek pools immediately upstream of the Meadow Way bridge during the 2016-2017 winter season. When it arrived, and when it, sadly, departed.

Looking north along the bridge railing during the biggest flood
in a decade (December 2012) on the left and September 2016 (right).

2: calm coastal waters

This is the second question in the new quiz category on my blog and on Twitter: #WithoutTheRoar, where I give information about a place and you guess where in California it is. See the first question (and answer) here.

You arrive. The first thing you hear might be the honking of Canada Geese on the lawn near the lagoon. An angler walks by with his catch of starry flounder and striped bass.You cross the railroad tracks--apparently abandoned--and scramble down the rip-rap boulders to the shore of a large, calm, salty body of water. You head uphill, hoping to get a better view from above the fog. You cross a street and head up a trail, taking care not to touch the poison oak as you ascend under the coast live oaks. You recognize coyotebush and toyon, and California poppies as you ascend into open rocky grassland. The fog does not clear, so you head back down to the water's edge, noticing that automobiles must go through a tunnel to get here. The fog clears just enough for this view:

Where in California are you?

Without the Roar

Wow, I've never had a tweet go viral before.

This photo I tweeted got over 18,000 views, hundreds of likes,
and over a hundred retweets. In two days!

I'm not sure what to say... except thank you. And follow me live next weekend on Twitter as I climb Mt. Shasta--just kidding. My favorite comment: "this looks like my lawn during baseball season."

Carrizo Plain Photos

Soda Lake, April 14, 2017

Looking southeast toward snowcapped Mt. Pinos
from Soda Lake Overlook, April 14, 2017

Meadowlark, Goldfields, and Tidy Tips, March 30, 2006.

California Poppies, March 31, 2006

March 31, 2006

Long-billed Curlews, March 31, 2006

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Central Valley Grassland and the Carrizo Plain

In April 2017 we were on our way to Carrizo Plain National Monument, and we stayed a night in Taft at a relatively new Best Western with toilets that were too full and lights that were excessively bright. Views of the starry sky would have to wait for a camping trip at another time. The view of Buena Vista Lake full of water was very gratifying, however.

It is so nice to see terminal lakes filling up. Our watersheds are so heavily developed that the only water that makes it past our dams usually is that which is required by law. But in a year like 2017 there is too much to take, and terminal lakes on both sides of the Sierra start filling up: the Walker River flows to Walker Lake, the Owens River flows to Owens Lake, the Kern River flows to Buena Vista Lake, the Kings River flows to Tulare Lake. Just to name a few. What was once typical is now extraordinary.

I first saw the Carrizo Plain in March 1993 from the top of Caliente Ridge. A dayhike from Cuyama Valley to the highest mountain in San Luis Obispo County was exhausting (30 miles) but revealing--I looked down to the north on a valley filled with colors. Vast blooms of yellow, orange, and purple flowers filled the San Andreas Rift Zone in that wet year following record drought.

I wrote the following essay and published it on my former Website between 2001 and 2005. I reprint it here in my "Best of" category.

There's something about a grassland. The sound of the wind in the grass, the wide open horizons, the spring wildflowers, and one of the most beautiful songs in the world: Western Meadowlarks. The Carrizo Plain is my other favorite place in the world, for these reasons primarily. It sits in a high valley between the Temblor Range and where the Transverse Ranges transition to the Coast Ranges, out of the way of modern "progress," more accurately modern destruction (although it used to have more farms, since abandoned). Since it hasn't been destroyed, but most of the Great Central Valley has, it is the best example of what the Central Valley uplands probably used to be like. Also, not a coincidence, it harbors one of the greatest concentrations of endangered species in California. I think I saw a California Condor there once, and I definitely saw San Joaquin Kit Foxes.

Daily animation of wet year March-April Eastern Sierra snowpack at 6800'

The animated gif below was a series of mostly daily photos taken February 28 through May 5, 2005. It is a view of the snowpack changes in front of and on the hill behind the Lee Vining Elementary School. It is about 25 MB, so if it loads slowly the first time you can watch it faster when it repeats.

Reservoirs

When thinking about where rain goes in a watershed, it helps to think of a watershed as a series of reservoirs. In my last blog post, I mentioned this concept--anywhere water fills up and spills can be considered a reservoir. A bucket in your backyard, a rain barrel, and a swale would be obvious ones. Less obvious would be the soil profile itself, and the surfaces of leaves on plants and trees--it takes a certain amount of rain to get these surfaces wet before they start dripping--over an entire watershed, that adds up to a lot of water. Especially a watershed with giant redwoods.