Season of the Fungi

Posted January 22, 2016

Our recent and ongoing rains have had their desired effect in at least one significant way — the mushrooms are out! Wikipedia describes mushrooms as:

“…the fleshy, spore-bearing fruiting body of a fungus, typically produced above ground on soil or on its food source.”

That clinical description belies the charm of these organisms that pop up from the forest floor when the right conditions (dampness being key) are present. The varieties are endless, and some are edible, but identifying them properly is a sticky business best left to experts. If you eat the wrong one, you can get sick or even die.

Of course mushrooms are but on type of fungus. Another type that is easily spotted on the trails is a bracket fungus (see picture). These grow on trees, like this one which is growing on a dead and downed tree alongside the trail on the Overlook side of Rattlesnake cutoff. Look for it in what I call “Fern Glen” which is where the seasonal creek is now running across the trail.

This specimen I found near the 4th Street entrance to the Montini Preserve, and I love it’s delicate stem. I had to get quite close to get this shot of what is one of the smaller varieties. On the same day I found nearly the opposite, one with a six-inch cap that had only recently popped up above the dead leaves of the forest floor.

For help in identifying a particular variety, there are a number of strategies:

Whether you are trying to identify a particular variety or simply enjoying seeing them pop up in the season of the fungi, it’s yet another reason to get out on the trails and enjoy what they have to offer. See you on the trail!

A Skill Gained From Rocks and Rivers

Posted January 4, 2016

Filed under Life Lessons

The other day as I was tripping down the Overlook Trail alternately dodging rocks and using them as stepping-stones, I was reminded about how I had gained a useful life skill. It no doubt began when I was young, first on an Indiana farm (before I turned 6), then later in the foothills of the Sierra as a teenager and young adult.

But it was really solidified after I started running trails at 18, in both Yosemite and the Grand Canyon. I don’t think there are any rockier trails, especially since a number of the trails I ran and hiked in the Grand Canyon were not maintained. When you run really rocky trails you need to make split-second decisions about foot placement while also keeping an eye out for what’s coming up. In other words, you need a highly-developed sense of spatial relationships, often down to fractions of an inch.

At 21, I honed these skills further by becoming a commercial river guide. I began by guiding on the Stanislaus River in California, now buried by the New Melones Dam. As a river guide, you need to be very aware of just how the water is flowing downstream, and how it interacts with the shore and rocks in the river bed. Again, skill with understanding spatial relationships is very important.

After guiding for one summer in California I got a wonderful opportunity to raft the Grand Canyon on a 30-day private trip. After learning to raft on about 1,500 cubic feet per second (CFS) of water flow, I was suddenly on up to 20 times that much water, flowing through a much larger river bed. I trashed through the first rapid because I didn’t yet have the scale down. I didn’t grasp the vastly different spatial relationships of a big water river. In my mind, I was still rafting a small water river. But I learned quickly, and that was the last Colorado River rapid I bungled that badly.

These spatial skills saved my life at least once. Sometime later I was driving south on Highway 101 north of Willits at freeway speeds and I noticed a car passing oncoming traffic. I saw that the driver would have just enough time to duck back into his lane before I reached the car, so I didn’t fret. Until, that is, he ducked back into his lane and I saw that there was another car behind, also passing. At that point I was virtually on top of this second car, so I instinctually swerved onto the shoulder of the road and we passed three abreast. I knew that I could do that maneuver because I could make split second decisions about space. And I was also extremely lucky that the other driver didn’t do the same.

Today, I rarely experience anything nearly as dangerous or exciting as I’ve described. But every time I trip down the Overlook or Montini trails at speed, I know where I got the skills needed to do it safely. They were earned, one day at a time, on many rocky trails and rocky rivers. And I’m here today because of it.

Icy Trails

Posted December 31, 2015

Filed under Seasons, Weather, Winter

A high pressure ridge is staving off the clouds leading to clear, cold nights. Recently overnight temperatures have dipped into the 20s, which leads to our damp trails turning icy. This can of course mean danger to those not paying attention or moving too fast. Runners in particular need to be cautious where the trail is icy or muddy.

Or, if you want to avoid the ice altogether walk in the afternoon, after the warmer daytime temperatures (typically in the 40s-50s) have a chance to melt the ice. You will still have mud to contend with, but it is generally less slick than ice.

Bottom line: stay safe out there while enjoying all the great things our trails have to offer.

Seasonal Creeks

Posted December 24, 2015

Filed under Seasons, Weather, Winter

Seasonal creeks are by definition creeks that only have water during the rainy season. In California, the rainy season can potentially stretch from early Fall into late Spring, although variations in weather patterns can of course add nuance to that schedule. However, for truly seasonal creeks it usually takes a fair bit of rain to form the runoff required to start them up.

So although we’ve had rain just about every week for the last month or so, it was only with the latest storm that we began to see the seasonal creeks on the Overlook Trail and the Montini Preserve begin to run. Specifically, the creek that runs through what I call “Fern Glen” and across the Overlook part of the Rattlesnake Cutoff trail, has begun to run (see pic).

This is good news, as it means that our storage reservoirs will also begin to fill. And having been in a multi-year drought, this is definitely good news. However, runoff by itself isn’t necessarily good. We should trap as much of that as we can into the aquifer, where those who draw from water wells can take advantage of it. To a large degree, this means slowing down the runoff and making it soak into the ground instead of running directly to the bay.

Personally, I think we have a ways to go before we can say that we are doing the best we can at water capture in this valley. Until we figure out how best to harness our seasonal creeks to maximize underground water storage, we perhaps deserve the droughts that we will likely increasingly get.

Season’s Greetings!

Posted December 18, 2015

Filed under Plant Life, Winter

Thanks to recent rains, trails on Montini Preserve and the Sonoma Overlook Trail are undergoing some remarkable transformations. The dusty browns and golds of late fall have been replaced by winter’s verdant palette – dormant ferns are reappearing and mosses now adorn tree trunks and boulders like festive green boas while the pungent scent of decomposing bay leaves permeates the mixed evergreen forest.

Coffee Fern

Lichens • Upper Meadow

When we first started the SOT Facebook page five years back, local photographer Ryan Lely captured these beautiful images after a period of heavy rain.

Cascading creek

Turkey Tails

When was the last time anyone saw so much water running off the hillside? Or turkey tails in such psychedelic colors? Fortunately we’re in store for more rain this coming week. Make sure to do a little rain dance when you get to the top!

“Tis the season for gratitude, and I’d like to say a huge thank you to the stewards and volunteers (Rich, Lynn, John, Fred, Joanna, Roy and anyone else I’ve forgotten) who take such meticulous care of these trails, and to the dedicated docents led by Rosemarie Marks. Let’s not forget Joanna Kemper (what doesn’t she do?), Laurie Friedeman, our new fundraising chair, and Linda Felt who has donated upwards of 100 hours of her time to the SOT Stewards.

Speaking of group hugs, experts now attest to the health benefits of hugging trees, so hikers need not feel self-conscious about the urge to wrap their arms around a favorite trunk along the trail – just mind the poison oak! Read more about the health benefits of tree hugging in Matthew Silverstone’s new book Blinded by Science where he explores a theory that suggests “When one touches a tree, its different vibrational pattern will affect various biological behaviors within the body….[a theory] backed up by hundreds of scientifically validated studies, providing overwhelming proof that tree hugging is not just for hippies, it’s for everyone.”

REI made a landmark decision this year to close their stores on Black Friday. CA State Parks partnered with Save the Redwoods League to make entrance to 49 state parks free to visitors on a day traditionally spent trampling over the good will of one’s fellow man for the best deal on a Play Station 4. In honor of spending quality time with friends and loved ones outside (who needs a flatscreen when you can see clear down to the SF skyline from the top of Schocken Hill?) perhaps a few of you have put off shopping for that perfect holiday gift, the one you didn’t buy on Black Friday? Or perhaps your New Year’s resolution is to connect more with the natural world, be a more informed observer, or maybe just share your outdoor experience with young hikers.

Whether you’d like to learn more about historic Native American land management practices in California, the fabulous world of fungi, the life cycle of an oak, or find out what the soundscape has to tell us about the fragile state of our planet, there’s a book for you. In celebration of 2015, I put together a very short list of a few of my favorite books with a brief (and borrowed) synopsis. I’d love to hear your recommendations!

The Great Animal Orchestra by Bernie Krause (Little, Brown and Company)
“Musician and naturalist Bernie Krause is one of the world’s leading experts in natural sound, and he’s spent his life discovering and recording nature’s rich chorus. Searching far beyond our modern world’s honking horns and buzzing machinery, he has sought out the truly wild places that remain, where natural soundscapes exist virtually unchanged from when the earliest humans first inhabited the earth.”
(Plus, he lives in Glen Ellen!)

The Life of An Oak: An Intimate Portrait by Glenn Keator (Heyday Books)
“The Life of an Oak takes an intimate look at all aspects of the oak tree, from a microscopic examination of its cellular processes to a survey of the grand Diaspora by which members of this remarkable family have spread around the world and diversified. The separate yet exquisitely coordinated development of male and female flowers, the bursting of buds, the outpouring of leaves, and the groping of roots are described in language and art that will enchant the professional and armchair botanist alike.”

Last Child in the Woods by Richard Louv
“In this influential work about the staggering divide between children and the outdoors, child advocacy expert Richard Louv directly links the lack of nature in the lives of today’s wired generation—he calls it nature-deficit—to some of the most disturbing childhood trends, such as the rises in obesity, attention disorders, and depression.

Last Child in the Woods is the first book to bring together a new and growing body of research indicating that direct exposure to nature is essential for healthy childhood development and for the physical and emotional health of children and adults. More than just raising an alarm, Louv offers practical solutions and simple ways to heal the broken bond—and many are right in our own backyard.”

Coyote’s Guide to Connecting With Nature by Jon Young

Connection, Awareness, Belonging. For children and adults alike, Coyote’s Guide to Connecting with Nature sparks the excitement of discovery, real connection with animals and plants, and a sense of belonging through knowing our place on the planet. With this manual in one hand and someone we care about in the other, Coyote inspires us to follow curiosity s magic. Coyote’s Guide lifts the lid off the mind of a mentor to reveal how you can design invisible learning experiences. Offering dozens of activities, stories, and games, so mentors, educators, and parents can lead in ways that fit your people, your place, and your plans. Coyote’s Guide sets fresh standards for environmental literacy that engages body, mind and spirit.”

Assembling California by John McPhee (Macmillan)
“At various times in a span of fifteen years, John McPhee made geological field surveys in the company of Eldridge Moores, a tectonicist at the University of California at Davis. The result of these trips is Assembling California, a cross-section in human and geologic time, from Donner Pass in the Sierra Nevada through the golden foothills of the Mother Lode and across the Great Central Valley to the wine country of the Coast Ranges, the rock of San Francisco, and the San Andreas family of faults. The two disparate time scales occasionally intersect–in the gold disruptions of the nineteenth century no less than in the earthquakes of the twentieth–and always with relevance to a newly understood geologic history in which half a dozen large and separate pieces of country are seen to have drifted in from far and near to coalesce as California. McPhee and Moores also journeyed to remote mountains of Arizona and to Cyprus and northern Greece, where rock of the deep-ocean floor has been transported into continental settings, as it has in California. Global in scope and a delight to read, Assembling California is a sweeping narrative of maps in motion, of evolving and dissolving lands.”

All That the Rain Promises and More: A Hip Pocket Guide to Western Mushrooms by David Arora (Ten Speed Press)
“Full-color illustrated guide to identifying 200 Western mushrooms by their key features.” Arora’s book Mushrooms Demystified takes you deeper into the world of mycology. But it’s not portable!

Tending the Wild by M. Cat Anderson
“M. Kat Anderson presents a wealth of information on native land management practices gleaned in part from interviews and correspondence with Native Americans who recall what their grandparents told them about how and when areas were burned, which plants were eaten and which were used for basketry, and how plants were tended. The complex picture that emerges from this and other historical source material dispels the hunter-gatherer stereotype long perpetuated in anthropological and historical literature. We come to see California’s indigenous people as active agents of environmental change and stewardship. Tending the Wild persuasively argues that this traditional ecological knowledge is essential if we are to successfully meet the challenge of living sustainably.”

Secrets of the Oak Woodlands: Plants and Animals Among California’s Oaks by Kate Marianchild (Heyday Books)
“A Californian may vacation in Yosemite, Big Sur, or Death Valley, but many of us come home to an oak woodland. Yet, while common, oak woodlands are anything but ordinary. In a book rich in illustration and suffused with wonder, author Kate Marianchild combines extensive research and years of personal experience to explore some of the marvelous plants and animals that the oak woodlands nurture. Acorn woodpeckers unite in marriages of up to ten mates and raise their young cooperatively. Ground squirrels roll in rattlesnake skins to hide their scent from hungry snakes. Manzanita’s rust-colored, paper-thin bark peels away in time for the summer solstice, exposing sinuous contours that are cool to the touch even on the hottest day. Conveying up-to-the-minute scientific findings with a storyteller’s skill, Marianchild introduces us to a host of remarkable creatures in a world close by, a world that ‘rustles, hums, and sings with the sounds of wild things.’”

The Stories Behind Sonoma Valley Place Names by Arthur Dawson
“A wonderful local history book that provides rich layers of Sonoma Valley’s past. Along with dozens of tales there are 120 Place Names and their origins.” I’ve seen this book at the Visitors Center on the Plaza. Arthur has done several training on the SOT for docents, is extremely knowledgable about both natural and cultural local history, and a wonderful story teller.

From the Forest by Sara Maitland (Counterpoint)
“Fairy tales are one of our earliest cultural forms, and forests one of our most ancient landscapes. Both evoke similar sensations: At times they are beautiful and magical, at others spooky and sometimes horrifying. Maitland argues that the terrain of these fairy tales are intimately connected to the mysterious secrets and silences, gifts and perils.”