Heron June 2019
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Issue 311 A Publication of the Docent Council, Martin Griffin Preserve of Audubon Canyon Ranch © June 2019 Graduation. New docents. Public season. Summer. The Preserve beckoning you to linger and discover more of its wonders. This sent us into the archives to bring you this excerpt from 2003. It just feels timely. Generations of a Living Landscape By Gwen Heistand The landscapes of this place are inextricably woven with human history and rich invisible signs of passing time. Redwood youth, themselves bearing scars from the last big fire in the 1940s, sprout from once-logged old growth ancestors. Coastal scrub marches over hillsides that were once grazed and planted with potatoes. Douglas firs encroach on the marching coastal scrub and, in the Dead Horse Grove, five of them mark the buried corpses of J.P., Champ, and Lady, horses on belonging to Walter McLaren, the general maintenance manager of Canyon Ranch from 1950-1975. A Miwok charmstone found in Garden Club Canyon’s stream in 2000 spans centuries and cultures as it gets passed in a circle from docent to child to docent. Trees above the Spring Trail completely engird an old boundary fence until it appears as if barbed wire grows from oak bark. And throughout Bolinas Lagoon Preserve, names of individuals who are linked to this land have been transformed into the place itself. Bourne is a ridge, a fire trail where a logging skid trail once was, where harvester ants separate chaff and false tarantulas clean their burrows after the first rains. Parsons is a pond filled with copepods, backswimmers, water boatmen, dragonfly naiads, and no small amount of mystery. Henderson sings the descending trill of an orange-crowned warbler and hosts the yellow flowers of Oregon grape while overlooking our nesting white-winged ambassadors. Zumie winds through coffeberry and sagebrush, huckleberry and bay, live oak and purple explosions of Douglas iris. Picher has a stream that spills over rocks, under which caddisfly larvae vibrate in their cases, past elk clover and liverworts and Pacific giant salamanders, and eventually flows into the old ranch yard to greet busloads of school children and weekend visitors. Miller reminds us that the waterbirds do indeed return every fall from points north to gather in the lagoon for the winter. Harwell educates us about ecotones and edges transitioning from mixed woodland to redwood forest, redwood forest to coastal scrub, coastal scrub to grassland. Fog drip collects in Schwarz, providing moisture for the tall trees through-out the dry Mediterranean summers. Griffin loops through landscapes moist and sere, gives up vistas of ocean and lagoon, passes places where the aria of a winter wren morphs into a duet with a waterfall and lingers in the drops on five-fingered ferns. Pierson is a marsh with cattails, red-winged black bird nests, choruses of tree frogs, and two ponds containing newts and wonder. —Continues on page x A Look at What’s Inside Spare a Thought They’re the Head for the A Celebration of New Arrivals It Happened: the for the Salmon Hallelujah Class of Treetops Wild Greens Program to Expand Martin Griffin Opera Locally, salmon 2019 Our book The fun begins This new addition Check out Joyce’s are making a Learn a little more reviewer sends with a story and to the Education Corner for the full local comeback. about our newest you back to the some book tips on Program is story! Read the good docents and the treetops with page 7 and ends growing. news. new class rep. Canopy Meg. with a wild recipe. Page 13 Page 11 Page 3 Page 4 Page 5 Pages 7-10 "1 SEQUOIA CLUB Co-President’s Report By Mary Fitzpatrick Thank you! This Spring you helped hundreds of children from some 60 Bay Area classes explore nature, many for the first time. The awe in her eyes as she held a newt? The wonder in his voice when he saw deer tracks ? The confident smiles they showed at the end of an alone walk? You helped do all of that by leading hikes, visiting classrooms, updating docent and teacher materials, organizing training, working on committees and much more. It’s been a busy season at MGP and there will be much to review and celebrate at the June 5th Annual Meeting! On March 6th, just in time for the Spring Hiking Season, we welcomed 22 new docents who completed the Docent Training Program. They bring a wide range of interests, experience and talents (remember their graduation skit?!) to our ranks and immediately joined us in the classrooms, on the trails, and now on committees. And 14 members of this new class elected to also became Certified California Naturalist (Cal Nat) by completing additional requirements and doing a capstone project. Rozelle Overmire is their class representative on the Docent Council, and Lynda Pearson is joining longtime docent Debbie Piattelli to head up the Docent Recruitment Committee. Congratulations and Welcome New Docents! The Overnight Program hosted 2 lively classes in Volunteer Canyon before the remaining 2 sessions had to be cancelled after a credible report about bats in the bunkhouse was made to the County of Marin Office of Communicable Disease Prevention and Control. ACR staff responded immediately and all required mitigation is currently underway. When completed, the bunkhouse will be back in full service, better than ever. Please see Gwen’s more detailed report about this situation elsewhere in this Heron. Undaunted, the indefatigable Patti Blumin and Sharon Dado sped into action as soon as they learned of the cancellations. They coordinated with MGP staff, adjusted expectations and led the Overnight Docent Team in offering the schools an “extra long day” at MGP. The 4th grade class from San Francisco’s Alamo School re-grouped and made the trip. As Patti wrote later “there was never any doubt but that we would go on with the show”. And it did! Close to 40 students and parents spent about 6 hours at MGP, exploring trails and enjoying group activities. The day was a great adventure and a great success due to the resourcefulness, commitment, and flexibility of everyone involved - the teacher, the students, the parents, the Overnight Docents and the MGP staff, Gwen and Natasha. This Fall docents will have a new tool in our “kit”. The Video Project, begun over a year ago as a joint effort of MGP and Bouverie School Program Committees is nearing completion. A video is being made for each preserve and a sneak preview of MGP’s “uncut” video was shared at the last Docent Council meeting. It’s wonderful and touching, showing a visit to MGP in Spring and Fall from a child’s perspective. Stay tuned! It should be available in the Fall, an optional tool to show students some of the wonders of MGP. As noted above, we’re thrilled that Lynda Pearson will join Debbie Piattelli as co-chairs of the Docent Recruitment Committee and they welcome others to join them! Help find fellow nature lovers, introduce them to the wonders of MGP and the many rewards of becoming an MGP Docent! Based on past experience, we think 4 to 5 more docents would be ideal for this committee. Please contact Beki or Mary if interested. In breaking news, we are equally thrilled to announce that Carol Campbell, Rozell Overmire, and Phoebe Tanner have agreed to co-chair Docent Training. They, too, welcome others to join them. Are there other committees that might need help? You bet! In the March 2019 Heron there was an article by Jeni Jackson describing the work of all MGP Docent Council Board Committees. We hope you’ll look it over and think about joining one! The committees work “behind the scenes” to support MGP Docents in delivering the MGP Nature Education Program. Docent training? The Heron? Kit and Trail? School Program? Special Education? Those are just some areas of focus. Again, we hope you’ll look over the list in the March 2019 Heron and consider joining. Please ask Beki or Mary or current committee members for more information. Not long ago, exciting staff changes for ACR were announced. Gwen Heistand will become the MGP Preserve Manager and Resident Biologist effective July 1, 2019. She’ll supervise MGP Preserve staff, direct Preserve operations, continue her work as biologist, mentor and teacher to MGP volunteers. At the same time, Natasha Lekach and Jacqueline Levy will be promoted to Education Program Managers. The position of Director of Education will be eliminated and Natasha and Jacqueline will collaborate on maintaining ACR’s high education standards. Congratulations to Gwen, Natasha, and Jacqueline! We know that the docent community will work with them to ensure their success! — continues on Page 12 "2 AUDUBON CANYON RANCH For the Sake of the Salmon By Troy Cameron, Nature Guide Co-President Have you spared a thought for our Californian salmon recently? The babbling streams of Martin Griffin Preserve may not be of a size to host bustling salmon on their way upstream from the ocean; instead they are more hospitable to the meandering likes of invertebrates, newts and salamanders. While focusing on the aquatic microcosms of MGP can be deeply enriching, we are situated in a broader ecological mosaic here in northern California. For instance, a mere stone’s throw from the preserve, the Lagunitas Creek watershed hosts one of the southernmost populations of state and federally endangered Coho Salmon in California. Chinook, Pink, and Chum Salmon presence is also recorded on occasion. In an era of habitat loss, each fish counts, and we should celebrate their successes.