CALYPSO $5.00 Per Year, Non-Members Volume 2004, July/Aug 04 Printed on Nerecycled Paper
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
NONPROFIT ORG. U.S. POSTAGE PAID GUALALA CA PERMIT NO.21 THE PO Box 577, Gualala CA 95445 CALYPSO $5.00 per year, non-members Volume 2004,NE July/Aug 04 Printed on Recycled Paper NEWSLETTER OF THE DOROTHY KING YOUNG CHAPTER CALIFORNIA NATIVE PLANT SOCIETY CALENDAR Directions: Take Hwy. 101 to a couple of miles north of Crescent City; take Hwy.199 towards July 17-25 – Botanical fieldtrip to the Western Grants Pass, Oregon. Proceed a few miles through Siskiyous with Peter Warner. Jedediah Smith Redwoods State Park into the Explore the rich coniferous forests and serpentine village of Hiouchi; the general store is on your left. woodlands of Del Norte and Siskiyou Counties on For further information contact Peter Warner this weeklong fieldtrip. See dozens of rare plant (707) 937-2278, [email protected] or species, up to 20 conifer species, Darlingtonia Lori Hubbart at 882-1655, [email protected] bogs, and the recovering remains of the Biscuit Fire in 2002 that burned over 1/2 million acres. We’ll September 7. Tuesday 7:00 –9:00 PM – meander along back roads near the Oregon state Sierra’s Club’s Great Coastal Spaces Campaign line, and depending on botanical conditions, we could spend a day or two in the vicinity of the Please join Mark Massara and the Great Coastal Marble Mountain Wilderness. Very likely, all Places Campaign, Sierra Club’s statewide coastal camping will be in unimproved roadside locations in network, on Tuesday, September 7th at 7:00PM at national forests. the Town Hall (363 North Main Street) in Fort Bragg. All participants need to provide all their camping needs, including shelter, water, toilet needs, food, For those of you who haven’t had the opportunity to and fuel. Summer rainfall is possible. Carpooling hear Mark speak, or just haven’t seen him in a in dirt road-ready vehicles is recommended. Roads while, this is an amazing opportunity to hear from a are generally in good condition, but carry a spare coastal protection legend. Mark has spent his life tire. During the week, we will have a couple of protecting and enjoying California’s coast. He has opportunities to replenish food and supplies. been personally involved in many coastal protection victories and always gives an informative and We’ll meet at the Hiouchi General Store on entertaining presentation. Saturday, July 17 at 3 p.m. We will leave there no later than 4 p.m. for an indefinite destination up Mark and the 5,000 members of the Great Coastal Low Divide Road, northeast of Crescent City. All Places Campaign have just had a hugely participants must contact Peter Warner @ (707) successful year, which brought, among other 937-2278 for updates and further information; if you things, a major victory from the California Coastal don’t contact Peter, he will not know you’re Commission. After almost two years work the attending, and you could be left behind. He will not Commission passed a historic resolution on the be avaiIable later than July 14 to reply with updating of Local Coastal Plans. The resolution information. asks Sacramento to give the Commission more power to update these plans and require up-to-date habitat, pollution and population levels be the spring. An event such as this high water level considered before any coastal development can in the lagoon offers a chance to observe natural proceed. landscape processes in action. Local Coastal Plans and their update are very important here in Mendocino County tying in with issues like stopping “monster homes”, preserving coastal views, and protecting coastal access trails. Joining Mark will be Michele White, former Mayor of Fort Bragg and member of the Executive Committee of the Sierra Club’s Mendocino Group. Michele is working right now to create exciting new opportunities for coastal advocates to get involved and protect our threatened local coast. Please join Mark and Michele to learn what little things you can do to help protect our coast for future generations. For more Information or to RSVP write to: Owen Gualala River Barrier Lagoon on 5/16/04. Sand barrier is Bailey, 3435 Wilshire Blvd., Ste 660 visible near the center of the photo. Gary Hundt ©2004 Los Angeles, CA 90010 or [email protected] Water was actually covering some of the plants that Visit Sierra Club's Great Coastal Places we had come to see. Although we were not able to @ http://www.sierraclub.org/ca/coasts/ view western lilaeopsis (Lilaeopsis occidentalis) and the aquatic plant, wigeongrass (Ruppia PRESIDENTS CORNER maritima), we were fortunate to observe the by Jon Thompson ecological processes demonstrating that these plants have evolved to survive significant periods of On Saturday May 16 we had a joint field trip to the inundation. Gualala River Barrier Lagoon with the Milo Baker Chapter from Sonoma County. We apologize to Non-native invasive species such as velvet grass those who might have gone had they received the (Holcus lanatus) and bull thistle (Cirsium vulgare), Calypso in a timely manner and we hope to avoid on the other hand, cannot tolerate prolonged this situation in the future. inundation and are naturally controlled by the high water levels. In a relatively short time, inundation I would like to thank Dr. Peter Baye, Botanist and has done what would take much effort (and more Coastal Plant Ecologist from Annapolis Field money!) using conventional weed removal Station for an invigorating walk and highly methods. Peter Baye calls it “on the cheap marsh informative discussion of the unique ecosystems enhancement!” and plant communities found at and near the mouth of the Gualala River. Driftwood has helped form the nearby foredunes by trapping sand and allowing native plants like sand Peter explained that compared with most other verbena (Abronia latifolia) and beach bur (Ambrosia lagoons and estuaries there is a greater array of chamissonis) to colonize and persist in the dunes. plant species at the Gualala Barrier Lagoon We also observed American dune grass (Leymus because it is essentially a fresh water system. mollis), a species that once occupied a larger range Plants like common tule (Scirpus acutis) and slough but is now only found inhabiting bluff seeps that are sedge (Carex obnupta) are present in the fresh believed to be refugia for this plant. We also were waters of the sand barrier lagoon. Such plants are shown a small population of the uncommon Pacific absent in more typical brackish water estuaries that dune grass (Leymus pacificus) that was unusual have a mixture of fresh and salt water. because it occurred in beach habitat. The water level in the lagoon is the highest it has Dense stands of yellow bush lupine (Lupinus been for some years because the river has not arboreus) occupy areas near the dunes and nearby breached the naturally formed sand barrier at the bluffs of the Gualala River. It is a relative newcomer mouth of the river. The most likely time for the river to the Northern California coast region and is an to break through is in the fall after the first big aggressive invader of dune habitat outside of its rainstorms, however, breaching can also occur in native range in the central and southern coast 2 July/Aug’04 regions of California. According to Peter, in 1869, it Keep Those Letters Coming! Letters from citizens was utilized as a dune stabilizer in order to form to our legislators and public agencies are vital to land for Golden Gate Park. Many Northern our efforts to influence public policy. While the California lighthouse grounds were also planted DKY Chapter does send letters on local and state with this species. Reports from 1923 indicate that it issues, what really counts is volume. That means was scarcely a component of coastal Northern the more letters received from individual members California dune communities, yet, some 80 years of the public, the better. later, it is on the California Invasive Plant Council’s One recent example is the Governor’s “No Tree (Cal-IPC) regional list of Most Invasive Wildland Left Standing” rider on the state budget. This rider Pest Plants. would pretty much give timber interests carte Lupinus arboreus adversely affects native dune blanche to cut trees without review by the public or communities by altering soil characteristics through the California Department of Fish and Game. its nitrogen fixing capabilities. The nitrogen- Individual letters can really make a difference in a enhanced soils further the spread of annual exotic case like this. To subscribe to the CNPS Action weeds and other non-dune species into dune Alerts! email list, send an email to ActionAlerts- habitat. Yellow bush lupine also has a long-lived [email protected] with the word subscribe as the seed bank that hinders eradication efforts. Many of subject. Leave the body of the email blank. northern California’s sand dunes are now overrun Sonoma County Residents – Speak Out! Much of by yellow bush lupine. northern Sonoma County is rural, and sparsely It was well worth braving the coastal winds to be populated, yet important conservation policy is able to accompany Peter Baye and a hardy band of being made there. If you live there, please write to the CNPS members on this exceptional fieldtrip. you Board of Supervisors and state legislators when local issues come up. You can get excellent CONSERVATION information on issues like timber harvest plans and by Lori Hubbart rules, and vineyard conversions from Friends of the Gualala River. If you haven’t already joined this fine Fort Bragg Golf Course Update A new Draft local group, please consider doing so.