Since our tour of the Canyon with Paul Maslin and Jeff Mott, I have become aware of the plight of the oak groves around the canyon, and in the California foothills generally that are being “out competed” by conifers in part by lack of fires. There are some advantages to the oak groves. They are more supportive of native grasses, and therefore the wildlife community and more tolerant of wild fires. So my “new fire” theory is to act like fire and selectively thin the conifers around Black Oak Groves. The thinned plants should be cut into as many pieces as possible ( chipping would be ideal), so that reincorporation into soil and nutrients can take place as quickly as possible.
The photo above shows an area I am beginning to thin.
Asides
Spring Bloom at the YAHB!!!
Spring bloom at the YAHB! This year so far appears to be a good one for the apricots too.
Bruce’s Visit To The Canyon
So this is a quick report on the visit by Bruce Tichinin to the Canyon on Saturday March 2nd. We arrived at the Canyon about 10:00 am and after a bit of walking around the homestead we loaded up the truck and headed for the “new road” which branches off the road to Bear Lake camp site and goes down to the creek on the property. We drove as far down that road as has been cleared for a vehicle and then walked on from there carrying a few key tools ( a small chain saw and pruning shears ). One can comfortably walk to the end of the road now, but with a bit more cleaning up a vehicle can be taken to the end of the road. The end of the road has a colony of scotch broom which we have begun to attack.
When we reached the end of the road we started down the foot trail that switch backs its way down to the creek. Juan Arturo was there working on the foot trail. We worked on the foot trail for about 90 minutes and then headed back up the road to the truck to head back to the homestead. On the way back we stopped the truck in a spot that needed a bit of cleaning up.
After lunch on the deck. Bruce and I headed up the little pipe trail to see where the leak in the little pipe is and to see the spring and the big pipe trail. On the way back from the spring Bruce & I took the Big Pipe Trail and did a good amount of trail maintenance, mostly pruning but also some extension of the trail to finally fully “connect” the complete trail of the pipe from the spring head to the spot on the old road to the house where the little pipe merges with the big pipe. Thanks Bruce!
