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- Name of EventSep 8, 2008 - 7:30 pm
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What's New
New Report Released - Brock contributes to this report entitled “Water Stewardship: Ensuring a Secure Future for California Agriculture”
Water Consciousness Book - Brock contributes a chapter to this important guide due out in September 2008.
Permaculture: A Quiet Revolution DVD - See Brock interviewed in this new documentary.
Basins Of Relations Publication - Get a copy of our 20 page citizen's guide to protecting and restoring your watershed.
Reader's Survey - We want your feedback on our Basins of Relations publication.
Roofwater Harvesting Resource List - Check out this comprehensive resource on rainwater harvesting policy, design and installation.
Water Consciousness Book - Brock contributes a chapter to this important guide due out in September 2008.
Permaculture: A Quiet Revolution DVD - See Brock interviewed in this new documentary.
Basins Of Relations Publication - Get a copy of our 20 page citizen's guide to protecting and restoring your watershed.
Reader's Survey - We want your feedback on our Basins of Relations publication.
Roofwater Harvesting Resource List - Check out this comprehensive resource on rainwater harvesting policy, design and installation.
Native Biodiversity: A Report from the Ecological Preserve at OAEC
The Sowing Circle and OAEC community resides on 80 acres in western Sonoma County. The land here provides a bountiful home for a dynamic community of people and their richly diverse gardens, orchards and ornamental landscapes. This property, well known as a preserve for its agro-diversity of cultivated crops, is also an ecological preserve for a precious heritage of native biodiversity. As “landowners” we take seriously our responsibilities to ensure the health and viability of the wild-lands under our care.
The term “biodiversity” describes the exuberant expression of life in all its forms and ecological relations. Awareness of biodiversity reinforces the recognition that life seems to be uniquely endemic to Planet Earth. From individual species to populations of interconnected co-evolved symbiotic life forms, biodiversity is the very tapestry upon which life depends for its own continuance. A recent study by Conservation International designated 25 regions on the planet as “Biodiversity Hotspots”. These biodiversity hotspots “cover only 1.4 % of the earth, but are home to 44% of all vascular plant species and 35% of all vertebrate animal species”. These areas have been designated hotspots not only because of their outstanding diversity, but also because of their extreme peril from human-caused habitat destruction. The study goes on to state that “these endangered areas have already lost 88% of their original vegetation. Unless conservation efforts are increased, most of the rest will disappear in the foreseeable future”.
Coastal California is listed as one of the worlds 25 biodiversity hotspots. Tragically, however, coastal California has lost to human development over 95% of its old growth coniferous forests, freshwater wetlands, saltwater estuaries, bunch grass prairies and riparian gallery forests. According to studies by the Nature Conservancy, the Bay Area, including Sonoma County, ranks nationally as one of the areas with the highest number of federally listed endangered species. This same area is, coincidentally, leading the nation in rate of growth and median home prices, and is over 95% privately owned. It is imperative that private landowners and residents take on active roles as stewards of biodiversity. As citizens it is also our democratic responsibility to ensure that public land use decisions are made that do not reduce the ecological carrying capacity of the land that supports biodiversity.
Since the founding of OAEC in 1994, staff biologists have been compiling a species list of wildlife sightings and native plants. As ecological preserve managers, a critical component of any strategy to enhance biodiversity is an accurate list of species utilizing the site. Any species that are of special concern or are listed as threatened or endangered can be highlighted to focus enhancement efforts on their behalf. A summary of the species level biodiversity of native plants and vertebrate animals observed on site to date is as follows: Native plants are represented by 120 species. We have documented 141 native vertebrate species at OAEC’s preserve represented by 6 species of amphibians, 10 species of reptiles, 106 species of birds and 19 species of mammals. These numbers will increase as additional plant and animal species are observed and the rodents, shrews and bats are more accurately identified. In the future we also aspire to more accurately understand and list our species diversity of fungi and invertebrates.
The ecological mosaic of OAEC’s preserve offers numerous niches for plant and animal diversity to flourish. A short walk in the ‘backcountry’ at OAEC can take one through a number of native plant associations from annual grasslands to soft chaparral slopes of coyote brush and poison oak. An old logging road meanders along the contour through evergreen hardwoods mixed with a canopy of second growth Douglas fir. Descending the grassland slopes of Sunrise Meadow with its undulating ecotones and encroaching Douglas fir saplings one is welcomed into the redwood/tanoak forest. Ascending an old skid trail a subtle transition occurs onto the thin soils of rock outcroppings surrounded by deciduous black and white oaks festooned with wildflowers. The footpath re-enters another grove of mixed hardwood conifer forest that shortly opens onto a perennial prairie relict distinctively dominated by the presence of yampah. This well trodden trail traverses across a spillway to afford a view of a startled great-blue heron as it lifts off with a prehistoric squawk from the edge of the pond.
In reading this landscape one is challenged to interpret the many patterns of human presence here for thousands of years and more dramatically the land use decisions of the last 150 years. The recognition that since the turn of the century all of the forests on the property have been clear-cut of their mature trees is profound. Additional removal of native vegetation for grazing, vineyards and human occupation is also clearly evident. However, some elements of the pre-European indigenous story can still be observed. There are several on-site native bunch grass prairies that contain a preponderance of plant species bearing roots and seeds farmed by Pomo Indian agriculturists. Extensive fields of cultivated edible wildflowers, such as yampah, harvest brodiaea, blue dicks, yellow mariposa lily and soap root were typically responsible for comments by early settlers of the bucolic beauty of California’s landscape. In this region these apparent root crop/grain fields were typically maintained with the regular use of fire, digging sticks and the active harvesting and replanting of bulbs. Surrounding the root/grain fields are oak woodlands that were managed with fire for their profuse production of nutritious and sustaining acorns. The encroachment of Douglas fir that can be observed today was traditionally mitigated with the judicious use of fire as a primary land management tool. Honoring indigenous ecological literacy provides us with care-giving concepts that can be utilized to foster the abundance of biodiversity characteristic of this place.
Our human communities have a choice to either view ourselves as a part of or a part from the fabric of biodiversity. As the current caregivers of this land we are challenged to interact with this dynamic living process of evolution in a manner that enhances the presence of biodiversity. Through intelligent land use decisions and ethno-ecologically proven practices, we are choosing to participate in the process of re-building soil, re-charging groundwater and re-creating wildlife habitat towards re-‘story’ing our relationship with the land in the process.
The term “biodiversity” describes the exuberant expression of life in all its forms and ecological relations. Awareness of biodiversity reinforces the recognition that life seems to be uniquely endemic to Planet Earth. From individual species to populations of interconnected co-evolved symbiotic life forms, biodiversity is the very tapestry upon which life depends for its own continuance. A recent study by Conservation International designated 25 regions on the planet as “Biodiversity Hotspots”. These biodiversity hotspots “cover only 1.4 % of the earth, but are home to 44% of all vascular plant species and 35% of all vertebrate animal species”. These areas have been designated hotspots not only because of their outstanding diversity, but also because of their extreme peril from human-caused habitat destruction. The study goes on to state that “these endangered areas have already lost 88% of their original vegetation. Unless conservation efforts are increased, most of the rest will disappear in the foreseeable future”.
Coastal California is listed as one of the worlds 25 biodiversity hotspots. Tragically, however, coastal California has lost to human development over 95% of its old growth coniferous forests, freshwater wetlands, saltwater estuaries, bunch grass prairies and riparian gallery forests. According to studies by the Nature Conservancy, the Bay Area, including Sonoma County, ranks nationally as one of the areas with the highest number of federally listed endangered species. This same area is, coincidentally, leading the nation in rate of growth and median home prices, and is over 95% privately owned. It is imperative that private landowners and residents take on active roles as stewards of biodiversity. As citizens it is also our democratic responsibility to ensure that public land use decisions are made that do not reduce the ecological carrying capacity of the land that supports biodiversity.
Since the founding of OAEC in 1994, staff biologists have been compiling a species list of wildlife sightings and native plants. As ecological preserve managers, a critical component of any strategy to enhance biodiversity is an accurate list of species utilizing the site. Any species that are of special concern or are listed as threatened or endangered can be highlighted to focus enhancement efforts on their behalf. A summary of the species level biodiversity of native plants and vertebrate animals observed on site to date is as follows: Native plants are represented by 120 species. We have documented 141 native vertebrate species at OAEC’s preserve represented by 6 species of amphibians, 10 species of reptiles, 106 species of birds and 19 species of mammals. These numbers will increase as additional plant and animal species are observed and the rodents, shrews and bats are more accurately identified. In the future we also aspire to more accurately understand and list our species diversity of fungi and invertebrates.
The ecological mosaic of OAEC’s preserve offers numerous niches for plant and animal diversity to flourish. A short walk in the ‘backcountry’ at OAEC can take one through a number of native plant associations from annual grasslands to soft chaparral slopes of coyote brush and poison oak. An old logging road meanders along the contour through evergreen hardwoods mixed with a canopy of second growth Douglas fir. Descending the grassland slopes of Sunrise Meadow with its undulating ecotones and encroaching Douglas fir saplings one is welcomed into the redwood/tanoak forest. Ascending an old skid trail a subtle transition occurs onto the thin soils of rock outcroppings surrounded by deciduous black and white oaks festooned with wildflowers. The footpath re-enters another grove of mixed hardwood conifer forest that shortly opens onto a perennial prairie relict distinctively dominated by the presence of yampah. This well trodden trail traverses across a spillway to afford a view of a startled great-blue heron as it lifts off with a prehistoric squawk from the edge of the pond.
In reading this landscape one is challenged to interpret the many patterns of human presence here for thousands of years and more dramatically the land use decisions of the last 150 years. The recognition that since the turn of the century all of the forests on the property have been clear-cut of their mature trees is profound. Additional removal of native vegetation for grazing, vineyards and human occupation is also clearly evident. However, some elements of the pre-European indigenous story can still be observed. There are several on-site native bunch grass prairies that contain a preponderance of plant species bearing roots and seeds farmed by Pomo Indian agriculturists. Extensive fields of cultivated edible wildflowers, such as yampah, harvest brodiaea, blue dicks, yellow mariposa lily and soap root were typically responsible for comments by early settlers of the bucolic beauty of California’s landscape. In this region these apparent root crop/grain fields were typically maintained with the regular use of fire, digging sticks and the active harvesting and replanting of bulbs. Surrounding the root/grain fields are oak woodlands that were managed with fire for their profuse production of nutritious and sustaining acorns. The encroachment of Douglas fir that can be observed today was traditionally mitigated with the judicious use of fire as a primary land management tool. Honoring indigenous ecological literacy provides us with care-giving concepts that can be utilized to foster the abundance of biodiversity characteristic of this place.
Our human communities have a choice to either view ourselves as a part of or a part from the fabric of biodiversity. As the current caregivers of this land we are challenged to interact with this dynamic living process of evolution in a manner that enhances the presence of biodiversity. Through intelligent land use decisions and ethno-ecologically proven practices, we are choosing to participate in the process of re-building soil, re-charging groundwater and re-creating wildlife habitat towards re-‘story’ing our relationship with the land in the process.