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
(All photos by Rowena Forest unless otherwise noted)
View of Mt. Diablo from Mt. Tamalpias
The Latest
Hi everyone –
Please see our report: Japan Tsunami hits the California Coast – on the Real World page of the Coastal Zone CA website.
We also have an update to Coastal Roots - Maritime History
Another great year for rain in California, and a healthy snow pack to-boot. I “soak it up” during winters like these, and try not to get too sick of the drizzle. A run of dry California winters can get so internally tense and outwardly concerning – with the feel of moisture and the sound of rain an impossibly distant memory. This year’s coastal snow was fun! I lived for white winters as a kid on the central coast – and had the pleasure of enjoying two such occurrences in the span of my childhood... with snow in the nearby hills which lasted about three days total – both years combined! This year we got some great views of Mt Tamalpais, Mt Diablo, Mt St. Helena, and the South Bay hills in white. My favorite coastal California snow shot this year was by far at the opening of the Academy Awards: A shot of the snow covered hills and mountains with the “Hollywood” sign in the foreground.
It’s a great time to visit and care for your local wetland, and California’s varied wetland habitats. Here’s a link to a comprehensive list of wetlands and wetland information for California: http://ceres.ca.gov/wetlands/
Please remember to watch for the slow-moving newts crossing the road in this wet weather. The carnage of the California/Coast Range and Rough-skinned newt road kill really gets to me. We frequently swerve and stop when one of these slow guys is visible, and place it on the side of the road in the direction it was heading for. We’ve almost become road kill ourselves in the process a couple of times.
Speaking of the serious issue of California’s road kill, we saw a great
segment on KTVU news a few weeks ago about a road kill survey project spearheaded
by U.C. Davis. Here’s an excerpt from the project’s website:
Roadkill is the stuff of jokes and sometimes supper. But wild animals
hit by vehicles are a serious concern of some ecologists, including UC Davis
researcher Fraser Shilling, who just completed the first year of the largest-ever
citizen-science survey of roadkill.
"Thousands of animals are killed on California’s roads every day,
including endangered species. This is a threat to the state’s natural
legacy and, for some species, their very existence," said Shilling, a
staff research associate and co-director of the UC Davis Road Ecology Center.
To collect data that could help transportation planners and conservation managers
design more wildlife-friendly roads, Shilling and colleagues created a website
where anyone can quickly record roadkill observations.
Now Shilling has released the first year of data for the California Roadkill
Observation System and launched a similar effort for the state of Maine with
Maine Audubon.
UC Davis Road Ecology Center – Roadkill Observation System Project intro and overview: http://www.news.ucdavis.edu/search/news_detail.lasso?id=9603
CA Roadkill Observation System (This includes observer sign up, online observation
form, data on observations and photos, maps, list of California taxa, etc):
http://www.wildlifecrossing.net/california/
Here’s a fun one – Vanity Fair exposes a California tradition:
rightwing in the redwoods:
http://www.vanityfair.com/style/features/2009/05/bohemian-grove200905
A Bohemian Tragedy by Alex Shoumatoff
Four great books now included on our Connections
page, and Coastal Zone CA recommends to you!:
Oaks of California – Cachuma Press – Pavlik, Muick, Johnson and Popper
A State of Change: Forgotten Landscapes of California – Heyday Press – Laura Cunningham
California Grasslands: Ecology and Management – University of California Press – Stromberg, Corbin and D’Antonio
Never in my Wildest Dreams: A Black Woman’s Life in Journalism
– PoliPoint Press – Belva Davis
A link to the interview with Ms. Davis heard on NPR:
http://www.kqed.org/a/forum/R201101261000
-Rowena, and the Coastal Zone CA crew
Photos P. Pyle
Ferndale with CA Indian Basket, 2005
