Lagoons Shelter Cove Much of our coastal topography is generated by repeated slips on thrust faults like the one along the east shore of Big Lagoon. However, wave activity tends to straighten the coastline by eroding headlands and depositing sediments in bays. Wave energy is focused onto the headlands by the refraction of waves as […]
Life + Outdoors
Posted inLife + Outdoors
Mammals of Mass Destruction
I could have put a layer of chicken wire under my straw bales before I set up my clever new straw bale vegetable garden. How easy it would have been. Clear the weeds, lay down the chicken wire, arrange the bales on top. Had I done that, I would have had a no-dig, weed-free, compostable […]
Posted inLife + Outdoors
Walking With Brother
There once lived an elderly woman known as “Peace Pilgrim.” When she was in her 40s, she started walking across the United States to promote peace. The year was 1953. She continued walking for the next 28 years and traveled over 25,000 miles on foot. Her sole purpose was simply to promote peace by walking […]
Posted inLife + Outdoors
Alien Plants
Pampas grass (Cortaderia selloana).Photo by Don Garlick. Which are the worst invasive plants in our region? My ranking is presented below: #1: The Himalayan Blackberry (Rubus armeniacus) is so familiar that no photo is required. This bramble is so aggressive that we have all encountered its tenacious thorns. Don’t defend it by invoking its sweet […]
Posted inLife + Outdoors
Angels and Insects
Four miles south of Batavia, Ohio and 25 miles east of Cincinnati in a lush green valley formed by glacial deposits, participants, spectators and 17-year cicadas interfaced at Harsha Lake for the 2008 Youth National Rowing Championships held June 12-15. A dam built on the East Fork of the Little Miami River formed this warm, […]
Posted inLife + Outdoors
Our Mattole Canyon
Just west of Cape Mendocino there exists a submarine escarpment related to the boundary between the Pacific and Gorda plates. It descends into a canyon which exceeds the relief of the Grand Canyon (see profiles). As a consequence, the surface of the ocean off Cape Mendocino is not horizontal! Sailing north across the escarpment with […]
Posted inLife + Outdoors
Fire, No Driver
A call came into the Willow Creek Volunteer Fire Department last Sunday: There was a fire just past Titlow Hill. Volunteers rushed to the station. And then waited. And waited. After about 10 minutes, someone licensed to drive one of their fire trucks showed up and they barreled off. "We hit the road, but we […]
Posted inLife + Outdoors
Eat Your Trash
For years, people in the gardening industry — seed companies, plant growers, owners of garden centers — have complained that gardening is on the decline. People don’t have time to garden anymore, they said. This younger generation just doesn’t want to spend the weekend in the backyard. Or if they do, they don’t consider the […]
Posted inLife + Outdoors
The Watery Farewell
Last Monday morning, a bumbling yellow bus carried Mr. Trone’s fourth-grade students eastbound down Highway 299. The Pine Hill Elementary students were about to say some sad goodbyes down by the rocky banks of the Mad River. Already waiting at the Mad River Fish Hatchery in Blue Lake, 11 baby steelhead swam round and round […]
Posted inLife + Outdoors
An Excess of X
Human females possess two X chromosomes, whereas males have one X and one small Y chromosome. This is in addition to 22 pairs of autosomal chromosomes unrelated to sex. Males prove that just one X is sufficient, so how do females cope with an excess of X chromosomes? They do so by inactivating one of […]