COLD CANYON HIKE, BUCKEYE SEEDS, AND INVASIVE SPECIES


Stebbins Cold Canyon Reserve provides an excellent opportunity to experience vegetation characteristic of the Inner Coast Ranges of North-Central California. It's also a great place for a winter hike, a little solitude, and perhaps a sense of perspective on your surroundings. (written 12-13-03)

I had a very nice hike up Cold Canyon today. This area has been set aside and is managed by the University of California, Davis for research and education. There is a great deal of information available about the reserve which is located just below the dam for Lake Berryessa. This has long been one of my favorite day hikes to escape the heat or fog of the valley floor. Today was postcard beautiful up there as the sun was out with only a few clouds and the steep canyon walls blocking it. I didn't see any on my hike but the log indicated that the travel was covered with California Newts very recently with the warm rains we had.
Today was a perfect day for a hike with the trail a bit slick in places from the rain last week. There were buckeye seeds everywhere. When I see these great quantities of seeds it makes me wonder about how effective they were as a means of knocking fish out when ground and leached for that purpose by native americans. They also were a food staple and it makes you wonder when you see clusters of them in open flat areas whether they were brought in around former village or camps sites.
A more modern and ongoing version of this type of species manipulation shows in the reserve hillsides being covered in non-native annual grasses and the invasion of star thistle along the trails. A more recent new arrival to the watershed is the New Zealand Mud Snail, a tiny mollusk that threatens a very popular stretch of trout stream below. Stay tuned for more on this recent development. We are working on this in my office. I'm going to look into whether a list of non-native and/or invasive species has been developed for the reserve. We need that type of information as a baseline to determine what types of changes are likely to occur over time.
Here's some additional on the surrounding watershed that I think is very useful, including history, culture, natural history, and more, that gives you a sense of perspective and place. This is a very good thing to have. It's not that easy to find but priceless once you do.

Posted: Sat - March 1, 2008 at 10:50 PM          

©