Photographed in the North Berkeley Flatlands on July 4, 2020.
This is part of my continuing project, the “Stay at Home Photo Project”. It includes many street photos from Berkeley and Albany as well as photos from the UC Berkeley campus, my yard and neighbors’ yards You can see larger higher quality versions of many of the photos at Flickr in my collection Stay at Home Photo Project which includes the following albums
Posted in Photos (Sandy's) | Tags: Berkeley Street Photos, Flowers
Bay Nature has an article by UCSF Dr. Sohil Sud on Staying Safe Outdoors
UCSF Clinical Professor of Pediatrics Dr. Sohil Sud is the author of a May article on COVID-19 transmission and protection published in Hospital Pediatrics. With parks opening and shelter-in-place restrictions ending, we spoke to him about staying safe outdoors this summer. With the caveat that you should follow local public health ordinances and avoid public settings if you’re feeling ill, Dr. Sud recommends spending time outside whenever possible. All opinions expressed here are his own.
Read article and get answers and guidelines about how to stay safe outdoors at Q&A | UCSF Dr. Sohil Sud on Staying Safe Outdoors – Bay Nature
Posted in Garden, Park, Uncategorized | Tags: How to stay safe outdoors
Photographed in the Rockridge neighborhood in Oakland. A new area for my “Stay at Home Photo Project”
The “Stay at Home Photo Project”. includes many street photos from Berkeley and Albany as well as photos from the UC Berkeley campus, my yard and neighbors’ yards You can see larger higher quality versions of many of the photos at Flickr in my collection Stay at Home Photo Project which includes the following albums
Posted in Garden, Photos (Sandy's) | Tags: Flowers, Oakland Street Photos, Rockridge
From Alt- National Park Service
Posted in Uncategorized
A MESSAGE FROM GENERAL MANAGER ROBERT E. DOYLE
Posted in Park | Tags: East Bay Regional Parks
EarthSky reports
A team of paleobiologists has discovered exceptional fossil specimens of an extinct giant freshwater turtle in Venezuela and Colombia. The enormous turtle – a species from the genus Stupendemys – lived 5 to 10 million years ago in lakes and rivers of what’s now northern South America. Stupendemys was one of the biggest turtles that ever lived, with a shell that measured about 8 to almost 10 feet (2.4-3 meters). What’s more, it turns out that the shell of the male Stupendemys had horns, a rare feature in turtles.
Read more at This extinct horned turtle was the size of a car | Earth | EarthSky
Posted in Animals | Tags: Giant Extinct Horned Turtle, Stupendemy
from the Friends of the Regional Parks Botanic Garden
At this time, the Botanic Garden will be open to visitors on Saturdays, Sundays, Tuesdays, and Thursdays from 8:30 AM to 4:30 PM. The latest reservation or visitor entry into the Botanic Garden will be 3:30 PM.
Posted in Garden | Tags: Regional Parks Botanic Garden
Channel Island National Park News Release
Channel Islands National Park has developed a new digital app to enhance the visitor experience in the park that can also be used to take a virtual visit. The new mobile app is free and available at the App Store or on Google Play.
Features in the app include exploring the islands through stories, sites, self-guided tours, and interactive maps, or finding favorite places, trails, and topics of interest. Visitors can use the app to create a collage of the images from your visit or to track a calendar of current conditions, events, or ranger programs. The app is fully accessible with audio description and alternative text for images. To learn more go to NPS Channel Islands App.
Posted in Park | Tags: Channel Island National Park
from Marin County Parks
The beauty of nature lifts our spirits and invigorates our well-being during these challenging times. But the COVID-19 virus continues to spread, so we all must continue taking precautions. When visiting a park or open space over the Fourth of July holiday, remember:
Playgrounds, BBQs, and picnic tables remain closed. McNears Beach pool is closed. Parking may be limited or restricted to prevent crowding. Other restrictions may apply, even at open locations. Please respect area closure notices, and notices regarding the safe use of facilities.
Posted in Park | Tags: Marin County Parks
from the Mono Lake Committee
After two lengthy days of public meeting and deliberation, the Mono County Board of Supervisors sent the Tioga Inn project back to the developer and staff for major improvements to the design and content.
Thanks to overwhelming public and community opposition voiced in the hearing, the Board listened and did not approve the project as proposed. Thank you to all of you who sent an email or commented at the meeting this week—it made a tremendous difference!
Posted in Environment | Tags: Mono Lake, Tioga Inn project
California State Parks is implementing safety measures to reduce the density of visitors over the Fourth of July weekend (July 3-5) in the State Park System. All state beaches in Los Angeles and Ventura counties will be temporarily fully closed to the public in alignment with county public health orders. State Parks will also be temporarily closing vehicular access at all beaches in Marin, Monterey, Orange, San Diego, San Francisco, San Mateo, Santa Barbara, Santa Cruz and Sonoma counties. While other state park units will remain open, State Parks’ staff will monitor visitation and physical distancing over the weekend. Measures will be taken to modify operations where needed to limit overcrowding. Current camping reservations at all state park units over the Fourth of July weekend will be honored.
Everyone has the responsibility to mitigate the spread of COVID-19, including in the outdoors. The public is reminded to avoid road trips and stay close to home, maintain physical distancing, wear a face covering when a physical distance of six feet from others who are not from the immediate household members cannot be maintained, and avoid congregating. This means no gatherings, picnics or parties. Visitors are being asked to leave if there are too many people to allow for the required physical distance. As a reminder, the use of fireworks is not permitted in the State Park System (year-round).
Below is a breakdown of the safety measures State Parks is implementing over the Fourth of July holiday weekend (July 3-5):
Posted in Park | Tags: California State Parks July 4
Reserve America reports on the 10 Least Visited National Parks and Why to See Them
While well-known spots like Grand Canyon and Yosemite National Parks bring in more than 4 million visitors a year each, some of the lesser-known ones have minimal visitors, plenty to do, and much-needed peace and quiet.
Read article to learn about these parks at 10 Least Visited National Parks and Why You Have to See Them
Posted in Park | Tags: Lease Visited National Parks
The East Bay Times reports
The Northern Sierra Partnership, a coalition of land trusts based in Palo Alto and funded in large part with donations from Silicon Valley technology leaders, purchased the 2,914 acres located about two miles north of Truckee. The purchase is part of a multi-year effort to protect 100,000 acres or more between Lake Tahoe and Mount Lassen for wildlife, public recreation and water conservation.
Read full article at Lake Tahoe: $14 million deal to preserve wild lands, forests, remote lake near Truckee – East Bay Times
Posted in Environment, Park | Tags: Northern Sierra Partnership, Wild Land Preservation
Abbotts Lagon at Pt. Reyes is a good location for wildflowers, birds, butterflies and more. Most abundant on the trail were California Poppies (coastal form), Yarrow and Yellow Bush Lupine, though it was past peak. In the sandy areas on the beach area at the end of the trail there were lots of Gumplant and Curly-leaved Monardella. Up on the headlands there was a good amount of Coast Buckwheat. Many other things were in bloom. See attached plant list.
The most interesting bird activity was the flyovers of the White Pelicans. Also found was the endangered Myrtle’s Silverspot butterfly nectaring on Curly-leaved Monardella and Yellow Sand Verbena. It was sunny and windy so it wasn’t ideal for photography but there was plenty to see. Here is a slideshow that will give you an idea of some of what I saw.
click more to see Plants, Bird, Butterfly and Animal lists
Some of the Earth’s greatest landscapes and treasured natural areas are threatened by increased visitation and general lack of care. We aim to preserve these places by building an alliance of responsible photographers and cultivate a community of advocates and partners to help spread the word.
Learn more at Nature First
Posted in Astronomy, Birds, Butterflies, Wildflowers and Other Plants | Tags: Responsible Nature Photography
submitted by Spencer Westbrook.
Photos of an amazing plant distortion in a Ventura, CA neighborhood. Overall this appears to be about 6.5′ hight, about 40″ across at the top.
Any guesses about what is going on with them? Comments welcome.
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Posted in Uncategorized | Tags: Strange Plants
I signed off the last Letter From the Desert with a promise that the next issue would address some of the misrepresentations being spread by opponents of protecting the western population of Joshua trees under the California Endangered Species Act. I sent that out at 9:40 p.m. Pacific Daylight Time on May 25.
A little more than three hours earlier, (now-former) police officer Derek Chauvin had carried out the extrajudicial execution of George Floyd on a Minneapolis street, but most of us would not know that until the next day.
I have been working since on the usual desert protection stuff, but have found it hard to summon up the indignant outrage I was counting on to write that Joshua tree thing. Local officials spread untruths to misinform the public at the expense of a cherished and threatened bit of the natural world? Sounds like Tuesday.
In the meantime, the world erupted and has continued to do so since. And I still struggle to put words in the right order.
I am not saying anything new when I say that there is nothing new about any of this, with the sole exception of the number of white people who are belatedly paying attention. Not a lot of people know this, but my introduction to activism, a little less that 50 years ago, came during the trials of a handful of participants in the 1971 Attica Prison rebellion, charged with the murder of a prison guard during the uprising. Learning about that uprising, about the torturous conditions inmates faced pre-riot and the literal torture the survivors endured at the hands of law enforcement after many of them were murdered in cold blood, made the scales start to fall from my eyes.
Posted in Uncategorized | Tags: Racism
News Release from Freiburg University
The giant sequoia (Sequoiadendron giganteum) has developed effective strategies to protect itself against external influences in its natural environment in the Sierra Nevada. Its bark ensures that the tree survives wild fires and rock fall almost unscathed. Prof. Dr. Thomas Speck from the Cluster of Excellence Living, Adaptive and Energy-autonomous Materials Systems (livMatS), working with Dr. Georg Bold and Max Langer of the Institute of Biology, have examined the structural properties of its bark in detail for the first time. The University of Freiburg team has shown that the bark fibers form a three-dimensional network with cavities. This network distributes energy acting on the bark across the entire tissue. The results of their study have been published in the “International Journal of Molecular Sciences.”
Posted in Environment | Tags: Giant Sequoias
Photographed in the North Berkeley Flatlands on June 27, 2020.
This is part of my continuing project, the “Stay at Home Photo Project”. It includes many street photos from Berkeley and Albany as well as photos from the UC Berkeley campus, my yard and neighbors’ yards You can see larger higher quality versions of many of the photos at Flickr in my collection Stay at Home Photo Project which includes the following albums
Posted in Photos (Sandy's) | Tags: Berkeley Street Photos, Flowers
Rob Badger and Nita Winter will take you behind the scenes on their 27-year journey photographing wildflowers throughout California. It began in 1992 when they discovered and fell in love with California’s spectacular wildflower blooms in the Mojave Desert’s Antelope Valley California Poppy Preserve. Photographing these beautiful landscapes and individual flowers evolved into a documentary art project, Beauty and the Beast: Wildflowers and Climate Change. Their new multiple award-winning coffee table book, co-published with CNPS, focuses on California’s amazing plant diversity and is a companion to their traveling exhibition.
In the process of photographing super-bloom landscapes, Rob and Nita developed unique field techniques to capture one-of-a-kind images. They will discuss how they lugged 80 pounds of cameras and their “natural light” studio equipment from below sea level in Death Valley National Park to alpine meadows and 13,000-foot-high mountain passes.
Posted in Environment, Talks, Wildflowers and Other Plants | Tags: Wildflowers and Climate Change
University of Edinburg News Release
The loss of forests around the world is causing far reaching change, with significant gains and losses to the variety of animals and plants that live there, research has found.
The international study, led by the Universities of Edinburgh and St Andrews, analysed biodiversity data spanning 150 years from more than 6,000 locations worldwide.
Researchers found that as tree cover is lost from the world’s forests, animals and plants are responding to the transformation of their natural habitats.
The research, published in the journal Science, shows that forest loss amplifies the gains and losses of biodiversity – the variety of plant and animal life found in a particular habitat – as well as the wider diversity and composition of ecosystems around the planet.
Biodiversity is always changing and the species we see on our forest walks today are likely to be different from the ones we saw growing up.
“We harnessed the power of generations of scientists’ recording data as they walk through forests. This allowed us to find signals amidst the noise and pick apart the influence of forest loss from the natural variation in biodiversity over time.
“Changes in the biodiversity of our planet’s forests matter because they echo how these landscapes look, the types of species they support and the benefits that forests provide for society such as clean air and water.
Forests support around 80 per cent of all species living on land – from eagles, bluebells, beetles, squirrels and many more.
Posted in Environment | Tags: Forest loss escalates biodiversity change
NID has announced it will open most of its recreation facilities starting July 1, 2020.
Campgrounds, picnic day-use sites and boat ramps will re-open at Rollins and Scotts Flat reservoirs in the foothills, as well as at Jackson Meadows Complex and the Bowman Corridor.
There are exceptions: group campsites will remain closed at all facilities. Also, Fir Top and Findley campgrounds in the Jackson Meadows area will remain closed, as well as Aspen Group and Faucherie.
Posted in Park | Tags: Campground Openings, Nevada Irrigation District
NPR has an article and audio podcast about how nature is transformed after a dam is removed at A River Transformed After Dams Come Down .
They describe it as ‘One Of The Best Nature Shows’.
Posted in Environment | Tags: Dam removal, River revival
SF Gate reports
Muir Woods National Monument, the historic preserve of old growth coastal redwoods 20 miles north of San Francisco, will reopen to visitors on Monday after being closed for over three months due to the coronavirus pandemic.
Read more Muir Woods announces reopening
Posted in Park | Tags: Muir Woods National Monument
The environmental injustices of San Francisco’s southeastern waterfront neighborhoods are well chronicled. Yet the neighborhood also boasts miles of hiking trails, wetlands, and abundant wildlife, much of it fought for, developed, and restored by people in Bayview-Hunters Point. The neighborhood’s shoreline is home to the first urban State Park in California, a new bayshore campground with one of only two tent camping sites in the city, and a natural marsh where you can find one of the Bay’s rarest wetland plants. Behind those projects, and the continued greening and community stewardship of the neighborhood, is the 22-year-old nonprofit Literacy for Environmental Justice.
As the United States holds an urgent and overdue conversation about social and environmental justice, Bay Nature talked to LEJ Executive Director Patrick Marley Rump and Development Director Nicole McClain about what LEJ has already done, what community environmental programs look like in San Francisco’s last predominantly Black neighborhood, and what they see as the future of environmental justice in a rapidly gentrifying area.
Read interview at Literacy for Environmental Justice and What Happens Now – Bay Nature
Posted in Environment
Bay Nature tells you how to tell the difference between Rattlesnakes and Gopher Snakes at Ask the Naturalist | Rattlesnakes vs. Gopher Snakes – Bay Nature
Posted in Animals | Tags: Gopher Snakes, Rattlesnakes, Snake Identification
From the Anza-Borrego Foundation
Friday, June 26: Kathy Dice, former park superintendent, shares about native palm oases. Among the questions Kathy will address: “Why are the native palm oases there? Who and what lives there or lived there in the past? What secrets do they hold? What can we do to promote their health and longevity?”
Saturday, June 27: Former Supervising Ranger Fred Jee will talk about the presence of U.S. military in the Park from 1942 till 1945. He will discuss which units participated, what they did, and the effects of the evidence of their activity that remains.
Sunday, July 5: Former Park Superintendent Mark Jorgensen has been studying Anza-Borrego’s iconic desert bighorn sheep since 1967. His program “will help enlighten folks on the natural history of this magnificent animal and describe how important the Endangered Species Act has been to its recovery in the Peninsular Ranges.”
Posted in Talks | Tags: Virtual Anza-Borrego Campfire Chats
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from the Mono Lake Committee Mono County Board of Supervisors hearing on Tioga Inn project Next Monday the Mono County Board of Supervisors will hold a public hearing to consider the Tioga Inn project and its permanent adverse impacts on the Mono Basin. Their vote will determine if the project is approved, modified, or denied. As you know because you have previously commented on this project, residents, agencies, and the public have offered many good suggestions for reducing the project’s impacts. However, the developer rejected meaningful changes to the project, and the significant adverse impacts remain in the proposal going to the Board. The Supervisors are being asked to approve a project that damages the scenic nature of the Mono Basin, compromises the safety of motorists, pedestrians and cyclists, stretches the capacity of local schools and the volunteer fire department, and saddles the Lee Vining Community and Mono County taxpayers with impacts and financial burdens that should be the responsibility of the developer. Please comment one more time: Show up for the Board of Supervisors meeting at 9:00am on Monday, June 29 via Zoom videoconference and comment to share your concerns about the project. You can attend in person at Suite Z (Board Chambers) in the Minaret Village Mall at 437 Old Mammoth Road, Second Floor (above the Vons Pharmacy) in Mammoth Lakes. To ensure social distancing you must reserve your seat. If you cannot attend the meeting, please distill your comment to 250 words or less and email it to the County by 5:00pm this Friday, June 26.
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Posted in Environment | Tags: Threat to Mono Basin
from Calflora
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Posted in Uncategorized
Become a SNAP Member
We are seeking enthusiastic, conservation-minded people to commit to a year of service to protect Sierra natural resources and sustainable communities. During the year, SNAP members will gain skills and technical training, mentor with outstanding environmental leaders and receive an education award at the successful completion of service. NOW ACCEPTING APPLICATIONS FOR SNAP 2020-21! Apply Now
Learn more and apply at Join SNAP – Sierra Nevada Alliance
Posted in Uncategorized | Tags: "Sierra Nevada Conservation Service Opportunity", Sierra Alliance
Natural History Wanderings 