Thanks for tuning-in to Coastal Zone CA! Our
site endeavors to log the character of coastal California’s natural
and human history, as well as to highlight the contributions of locals of
the land doing great work and having fun. Please check for regular updates.
In the Zone Interview
we visit salt of the earth and hear their stories, in the Real
World we examine pieces of the natural history of coastal
California, and in Coastal
Roots we share a bit of California’s maritime history.
A BIG THANK YOU to the ultimate Zone Local - Zephyr Forest
- for constructing the Coastal Zone CA website!!
Yay for hi-tech teenagers!!
Enjoy
This spring is gorgeous so far.. Seems like it came on suddenly after those late rains. I celebrated vernal equinox with the addition of Rhamnus californica and Baccharis pilularis to my small habitat garden outside the front door. I also lit a candle in the garden that night and noted the even split of light and dark cast over the garden by the nearby streetlight (In honor of equinox, I'm sure). We've seen some amazing plants and critters on recent local hikes: orchids, waterfalls, and lots of snakes - although the steep drop in snake sightings since we were youngsters was noted by one friend who has been snaking concertedly this season with no luck so far. Love those Sargent cypress groves (Cupressus sargentii), as well as the tiny pink claytonia (Claytonia gypsophiloides) amongst the blue serpentine fields.
I got really fed up with my old wildflower books which left us frustrated too often - so I dropped them at the local free box, and just found a GREAT new one I highly recommend: Wildflowers of Northern California's Wine Country and North Coast Ranges - by Reny Parker. It stands alone for quick field i.d., but also goes best in conjunction with a local key or the Jepson.
Thanks for all the great comments and support for the Coastal Zone website! It's been fun and fulfilling to work-on. I recently visited Ed Ricketts historic Pacific Biological Laboratories in Monterey, and added a piece about this to the Coastal Roots page. It was trippy and interesting being there at his lab on Cannery Row. I have a deep connection to that place for some reason. My son was watching a show on t.v. this morning about the excavations and study of the last queen of ancient Egypt. There was a nutty archeologist speaking about this queen as if she were alive and in his life telling him what to do. He made it clear he was consumed with her, and lost in time himself. He spoke of her attempts to further lure he and his colleagues into their study of her. Now I don't feel so nuts for the weird state I got stuck in - as if I was back in time - when researching and writing about Ed Ricketts. At least I eventually snapped out of it.. sort of!
Held-over by popular demand is the Mike Heiner interview. I will leave this up on the Zone Interview page for a bit more, so all can enjoy his fun stories. Some interviews in the works soon to be posted include: Pete Pyle (we had to get white sharks in here somewhere), as well as interviews with a coastal grasslands expert, a local archeologist, a coastal guides author and publisher, and more to come!
-Rowena, and the Coastal Zone CA crew
Photos P. Pyle
Ferndale with CA Indian Basket, 2005
