The City of Sonoma to the Rescue

Posted August 15, 2015

Filed under Stewardship

Before.

This past year two trees have fallen across the trail, and in some kind of freak coincidence they were both at head level (see pic of the 2nd one). As you can imagine, this presents a particular hazard to hikers — and especially runners. Thankfully, the City of Sonoma Public Works Department has been very good at responding quickly to these situations, and in both cases were able to remove the tree within a day or two of it being reported. We are sincerely thankful for this, as the volunteers who do much of the other maintenance of the trail do not always have the necessary equipment and skills to deal with a large fallen tree.

So although the group of volunteer stewards are responsible for many of the smaller maintenance activities, such as cutting channels to move water off the trail as quickly as possible, some of the larger, more complex tasks require City staff involvement. The City of Sonoma owns the property, as they also now do for the contiguous Montini Preserve, so this makes sense.

After.

This is a great example of collaboration between volunteers and the City to maintain a safe and enjoyable trail experience.

End of Season Star Thistle Report

Posted August 2, 2015

Filed under Plant Life, Stewardship, Yellow Star Thistle

Earlier I posted about starting the yearly battle with Yellow Star Thistle (YST). YST is an invasive non-native weed that left unchecked can take over entire meadows (it does not do well in shade). The University of California has this to say about it (in part): “Seed output can be as high at 30,000 seeds per square meter, with about 95% of the seed being viable soon after dispersal. Most seeds germinate within a year of dispersal, but some can remain viable in the soil for more than 3 years.” This is an opponent that is difficult to over-estimate.

Volunteers are trying to eradicate this plant all over California every summer, as we certainly do here at Jack London State Park (thank you Linda Felt and other volunteers!) and on the Sonoma Overlook and Montini Preserve properties. So we are now in the second year of a relentless 5-year campaign to completely eradicate this scourge.

Starting in mid-May, even before it was blooming, I began pulling it on my hikes on Overlook and Montini. Since then I’ve been putting in several hours every week pulling it up by its roots and hiking it out. When tackling a large patch I take a large plastic sack, but recently on the Overlook Trail I have been finding so little (see the picture of a recent haul) that I haven’t bothered to take a bag. Over the summer I’ve racked up at least 30 hours of pulling — not counting the time to get to the locations.

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Before the battle.

Last year we did such a thorough job on the Overlook Trail that this year it took much less time to keep it in check. The Montini Preserve was another matter, as we hadn’t been checking it last year (it opened to the public in November). I found several significant patches and one really bad patch (see the “before” picture to the left, it covered the entire area pictured and beyond). I was able to get the smaller patches under control with some diligence, but the really bad patch has taken many hours of work spread out over weeks. Only today did I finish clearing this patch (see “after” picture). It’s sweaty work, and raised blisters on my hand even with a glove.

I can now report that as far as I can tell, YST has been effectively removed this season from the main parts of the Montini Preserve and the Sonoma Overlook Trail.

After, August 2nd.

One morning recently I arrived at the really bad patch on the Montini Preserve with three large plastic sacks that I intended to fill, as I had several times before. I surveyed the patch that I had been working on for weeks and saw everything that still remained. I thought about giving up. I had made a lot of progress and I thought we could get it all next year. Why not just quit? No one would know.

I took another look around.

Then I stooped down and began to pull.

Call it what it is — an obsession.

The Role of Prey

Posted July 17, 2015

Filed under Wildlife

In a recent post, I wrote about the role of raptors and other predators. The animals that predators prey upon are also of very important for a healthy ecosystem. It’s also worth pointing out that predators can also be (and often are) prey themselves.

In that prior post, I referred to the now classic case of ecosystem failure caused through over-hunting predators on the Kaibab Plateau in Arizona. The deer, freed from predation by their natural predators, soon over-populated the area and over-grazed the land. Their impact led to an ecosystem that could support fewer of both prey and predators. So having a balance is important, and human intervention can often lead to tragic consequences.

Therefore, when I run into the remains of various animals on the trail, I am less dismayed at the fallen animal than I am grateful for their existence and what they contributed to a healthy ecosystem. We need prey. We need predators. We need predators to also, in most cases, be prey as well. It may be that we are the first predator and prey that has largely escaped one of these roles, except, it must be pointed out, from ourselves.

In the end, humans are the most deadly predator of them all.

Wild Turkeys Couldn’t Drag Me Away

Posted July 5, 2015

Filed under Birds, Turkeys, Wildlife

An adult wild turkey in the Red Quarry.

“Wild horses couldn’t drag me away” – Mick Jagger, Keith Richards

I think I’m beginning a rather disturbing habit of quoting song lyrics and lines from movies in these posts. Slap me if I get out of hand.

Wild turkeys are common sights on the Montini Preserve and the Sonoma Overlook Trail. Just the other day I spotted a flock of parents and young ones in the Red Quarry on the Montini Open Space Preserve. But I’ve also seen wild turkeys many times before, including during a rainstorm.

Although definitely not widespread in California (according the California Department of Fish and Wildlife, they occupy about 18 percent of the state), wild turkeys are fairly common in Sonoma County. I live in the hills of Boyes Hot Springs and we have seen them in the neighborhood not all that far from the Montini Preserve.

The turkeys we have in California can be considered non-native, although turkeys existed in California some thousands of years ago. So technically, as at least one person has argued, they can be considered to be “reintroduced” to the state. They can become a nuisance to humans at times if their populations increase enough, but so far I would have to say that they don’t seem to have reached such levels locally. At least from my experience the times that I have spotted them have been few enough to be surprising and delightful.

But even if such sightings were not happy occasions, wild turkeys would never be able to drag me away from the Montini Open Space and Sonoma Overlook Trail. Just sayin’.

The Role of Raptors and Other Predators

Posted June 2, 2015

Filed under Birds, Wildlife

A Red-Tailed Hawk.

raptor – “a bird (such as an eagle or hawk) that kills and eats other animals for food” – Merriam Webster

Raptors are of course a natural part of the Sonoma Overlook Trail and Montini Preserve. The Red-Tailed Hawk, perhaps our most common raptor (at least the most commonly sighted) can often be seen wheeling above the meadows or perched high in an Oak tree. It is a primary carnivore, meaning that it eats herbivores. Other raptors such as the Great Horned Owl, are secondary carnivores, which means it also eats some species of carnivores (such as the Red-Tailed Hawk).

All carnivores, through keeping the populations of herbivores in check, help to create a balanced ecosystem. This role was brought home most famously by what has been called “the lesson of the Kaibab.” This refers to the Kaibab Plateau at the Grand Canyon in Arizona, where President Theodore Roosevelt created the Grand Canyon National Game Preserve.

To protect the game species (largely deer), predators such as mountain lions and coyotes were killed in large numbers. The deer population therefore took off and became so large that they damaged the ability of the land to sustain them, and their population crashed to below where it had been in the first place. Thus was painfully learned the lesson of the role of predators in keeping an ecosystem in balance.

So the next time you see a hawk with a snake in its claws or a coyote carrying a gopher, know that this is all part of keeping things in balance.