The Wildlands Conservancy OUTDOOR EDUCATION
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Looking at Past, Present and Future ■ By Caroline Conway, Sherryl Clendenen, and Marianne Shuster
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or more than a decade, The Wildlands Conservancy (TWC) has provided Southern California school children with opportunities to explore the great outdoors, igniting curiosity and a sense of responsibility for the remarkable natural settings we protect. While we will continue to offer these programs, future educational opportunities occasionally will combine science with service, as young people participate in research and service projects on our preserve lands. To date, students and their families have helped us test stream and pond water, planted and transplanted native flora, maintained trails, removed invasive species and more. The results are impressive: Not only have family and school groups helped us monitor and enhance our preserves, they have become engaged allies in our efforts to steward the land. At TWC’s three desert preserves, students helped plant more than 250 Groasis waterboxxes. The Groasis waterboxx is a device that captures and conserves water from air through condensation, and supports the growth of plants without irrigation or hand watering. This native revegetation is part of a series of global experiments to reforest arid
Inside This Issue: Looking at Past, Present and Future .................... 1 Welcome! . ................................................................2 Contact Us ................................................................2 Mother Nature’s Time .............................................2 Enjoying the Beautiful Outdoors...........................3 Volunteers Dig In . ...................................................4 Wildflower Viewing ................................................5 Pacific Crest Trail Event .........................................5 When it Rains it Pours: Winter 2010.....................6 Upcoming Events ....................................................8 Keep In Touch ..........................................................8
regions. Both students and families participated in planting days, with follow-up visits planned for spring to monitor progress. High school students are helping to create a data base for a long-term watershed stewardship project at Mission Creek Preserve. Students are identifying rock formations, testing water and creating bird lists, as well as helping us remove tamarisk and other invasive species from the streambed. Last year a group of fifth graders used their own video storytelling and creativity to turn their field trips to Mission Creek into well-crafted public service announcements on water protection and conservation. The students won a district wide competition and their entries have been broadcast on local television stations. Each year at Wind Wolves Preserve, middle school students and youth groups assist with our ongoing valley oak restoration. Boy Scout troops have aided in the maintenance of hiking trails, the manufacture and placement of trail signs and benches, and the construction of a gabion used to manage streambed erosion. Families take part continued on page 7
Students participate in TWC’s Behold the Beauty educational activity, which encourages them to find beauty where ever they go.
Students and families participated in planting days, with visits planned to monitor progress. Spring 2010
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Welcome!
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elcome to the first edition of Behold the Beauty, The Wildlands Conservancy’s official newsletter. Over the past 16 years, The Wildlands Conservancy has been developing a story of restoration, stewardship, and outdoor education. Played out on its 12 preserves located throughout California, this story involves supporters and friends of the Conservancy who have made its work possible. Within the pages of this newsletter, The Wildlands Conservancy’s staff shares the importance of the work and gratitude for the partnerships and friendships that have made it all possible. We hope you enjoy this first edition of Behold the Beauty, and all editions that follow. Share with us your ideas for future editions by e-mailing us at info@twc-ca. org. After all, the story of The Wildlands Conservancy cannot be written without the help of its supporters and friends. Behold the Beauty!
A joshua tree sprouts at the foot of its charred ancestor. Life returns to Pioneertown Mountains Preserve after the devestating fires of 2006.
PIONEERTOWN MOUNTAINS PRESERVE
Mother Nature’s Time ■ By April Sall
Contact Us The Wildlands Conservancy Executive Offices 39611 Oak Glen Road, Bldg. 12 Oak Glen, CA 92399 909.797.8507 phone 909.797.4337 fax info@twc-ca.org www.wildlandsconservancy.org Oak Glen Preserve 909.790.3698 Pioneertown Mountains Preserve Mission Creek Preserve 760.369.7105 Whitewater Preserve 760.325.7222 Wind Wolves Preserve 661.858.1115 For information about TWC’s Northern California Preserves contact the Executive Offices.
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he Pioneertown Mountains Preserve reopened last fall for day use: Friday through Sunday. Visitors were welcomed back with a grand reopening weekend of naturalist led hikes and programs. Upcoming events will include stargazing and wildflower hikes in addition to more regular weekend hikes. Visitors are encouraged to visit the website for schedules or call the Preserve office at 760.369.7105. The Pioneertown Mountains Preserve, burned in the Sawtooth Complex Fire of 2006, has been a study in natural and human-aided restoration. Preserve staff has been implementing native plant restoration projects in the front of the Preserve with support from volunteers and student service learning projects. The restoration effort began when an opportunity arose to receive native plants removed from surrounding lands approved for development. Joshua trees, Mojave yuccas, and native cacti found new homes in the Preserve as part of this project. During the first two years following the fire TWC, with the help of dedicated volunteers, transplanted more than 450 plants and implemented a monitoring program for each one. Every transplant was tagged, mapped, bermed, monitored and watered for 2.5 years until they were acclimated to survive independently. Unfortunately, a drought hampered growth the first two years following the fire, so revegetation and new growth was minimal during that period. Last year, the Preserve experienced its best spring growth since the fire and we are enthusiastic about the growth we will see after this winter’s early rain. Once again, visitors can experience the wetlands as a magical place to explore and find refuge from busy lives. Cool trickling water provides a soothing backdrop and the calls of cactus wrens, quail and migratory birds greet the fortunate adventurers. Count yourself really lucky if you spot a fox or bobcat scurrying up the canyon hills.
OAK GLEN PRESERVE
Enjoying the Beautiful Outdoors â– By Evan Welsh
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hen was the last time you felt the breeze cooling down as the evening sun bathed a high mountain peak in a purple glow? When was the last time you enjoyed the sounds of birds as the first morning rays of sunlight warmed the air over a snow-covered countryside? If you have to think for more than a few seconds, then it has been too long. At TWC’s Oak Glen Preserve, you can have these wonderful experiences, and many more like them almost every day of the year. Oak Glen is best known for its apples. Each year, hundreds of thousands of visitors come to Oak Glen for apple and berry picking, traditional country activities and music, or a slice of warm apple pie. The Oak Glen Preserve, enhances this experience with hiking trails, picnic areas, ponds, and parks. The Preserve has a pleasant mosaic of Southern California landscapes: oak woodlands, chaparral hills, and riparian canyons buzzing with native plant and animal life, and four distinct seasons ensure that every day of every month has something new to see and experience. There is rarely a dull moment here. Every day TWC rangers take care of the parks and trails, and managing the land. Naturalists take students on the trails and run programs for families, and ranch workers tend to the orchards of historic Los Rios Rancho. There always seems to be something new for visitors to enjoy, and this past year has been no exception. In late spring of 2010, TWC officially opened a new area of the Preserve and expanded the trail system. Completion of the new trail through Hidden Hollow offers visitors new opportunities
for picnicking, group camping, and a monthly Campfire Night. What makes the new trail particularly exciting is its creation of a full loop, bringing hikers from the existing Stream Trail through Hidden Hollow and back to the trailhead through Oak Knoll Park. In addition to the new areas to explore and opportunities to enjoy, we also modified the trail hours to allow hiking seven days a week. If you desire adventure, then we invite you to visit the Oak Glen Preserve. There is much to be discovered and we will continue to offer outdoor experiences and a variety of monthly programs and special events. For more information, to signup for a program or event, or to volunteer, call the Oak Glen Preserve at 909.790.3698 or visit us online at www.wildlandsconservancy.org/ preserve_oakglen
Above
Families enjoy
picnics in Blue Sky Park within view of Wilshire Peak. Below
Hidden Hollow
boasts picnic areas, a campsite, and a campfire ring, which plays host to monthly Campfire Nights.
If you desire adventure, then we invite you to visit our Oak Glen Preserve.
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WIND WOLVES PRESERVE
Volunteers Dig In â– By David Clendenen
Above
Volunteers
install one of 22 artificial dens for the threatened San Joaquin kit fox. Below
Volunteers
modified nearly 15 miles of barbed wire fence to improve wildlife passage on Wind Wolves Preserve.
TWC hosts a volunteer work party one Saturday per month at Wind Wolves Preserve 4
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ne of the most important and rewarding aspects of The Wildlands Conservancy’s community-based approach to stewarding its preserves is volunteerism. At Wind Wolves Preserve, TWC has been carrying on a volunteer program for 13 years. We are blessed by the generosity of individuals and families who have chosen to spend their free time contributing to the restoration of these magnificent native California landscapes. These people are compelled by personal philosophy and values to do something they believe will make a difference, something they hope will instill a lifelong conservation ethic in future generations. Many come from the local communities of Kern County. However,
one volunteer travels all the way from San Diego; many others come from Santa Barbara, Los Angeles, Visalia and San Luis Obispo. Habitat Work, a wonderful nonprofit environmental stewardship action group, has adopted Wind Wolves Preserve for service projects several times a year. Over the years, volunteers have accomplished a variety of stewardship projects. They have removed tamarisk or salt cedar, an introduced invasive plant, from the riparian habitat of four major drainages on Wind Wolves, and are working on the fifth. Hundreds of seedling valley oaks, mesquite, sycamore and cottonwood trees have been propagated and planted. Trails have been constructed and maintained. Derelict ranch facilities have been cleaned up, with tons of metal, concrete, toxic treated wood and tires recycled. Volunteers installed 22 artificial dens for the threatened San Joaquin kit fox. Approximately 15 miles of barbed wire fences have been modified to allow better wildlife passage, specifically in preparation for the planned reintroduction of pronghorn to the Preserve. Two things link these people: their awareness of the environmental degradation that has been wrought upon our planet, and their passionate choice to take action, by helping to reverse that degradation. We at The Wildlands Conservancy are forever in their debt, and they have our collective admiration and respect as we work side by side to further the mission of the organization. TWC hosts a volunteer work party one Saturday per month at Wind Wolves Preserve, except during the hot months of June, July and August. A barbecue dinner is served for volunteer guests at the end of the day, and all are invited to camp over in our public campground and to explore the trails in San Emigdio Canyon on Sunday. New volunteers are always needed. If you are interested in becoming a volunteer, call the Wind Wolves Preserve at 661.858.1115, or email Ecologist David Clendenen, who coordinates the Wind Wolves Preserve volunteer program, at david.c@twc-ca.org. Additional volunteer opportunities exist throughout TWC’s preserve system. For more information on preserve locations and for volunteer program contacts, visit us online at www.wildlandsconservancy.org/donate_volunteer.
WIND WOLVES PRESERVE
WHITEWATER PRESERVE
Wildflower Viewing Pacific Crest Trail Event ■ By Sherryl Clendenen
■ by Frazier Haney
n the plateau, velvet green with lush grass, tule elk amble through confetti-colored wildflowers. Above, a golden eagle swoops down on a smaller raptor in a flurry of wind and feathers, driving the intruder out of its nesting territory. Below the plateau, in a canyon worn by water and time, a bobcat is silently hunting on the edge of a willow and wild rose thicket. This is what you can experience while
n Friday, November 5, 2010, the Whitewater Preserve hosted nearly 100 guests from a variety of public agencies, private nonprofits, and educational institutes to celebrate work completed on the Pacific Crest National Scenic Trail. The Preserve is only one-half mile from the Pacific Crest Trail (PCT) and the San Gorgonio Wilderness, making the Whitewater Preserve trailhead an ideal location for access to the PCT and the public lands it winds through. Groups from both public and private sectors reconstructed and maintained more than 200 miles of this national treasure, allowed the Student Conservation Association crews to engage youth in the outdoors with jobs on the trail, and funded volunteer projects to assist in the work. The Pacific Crest Trail stretches roughly 2,650 miles from the U.S. border with Mexico in California to the Canadian border in Washington State. Along its length, the trail traverses some of the most revered landscapes in the world. It passes just west of the peak of San Jacinto, the largest escarpment in the lower 48 states; marches through the western Mojave Desert; climbs through Tuolumne Meadows in Yosemite National Park; and traverses the Cascade ranges past Mount Shasta and Mount Rainier. The trail was designated as a National Scenic Trail by Congress in 1968, and finally “connected” in 1993. The responsibility of taking care of this amazing resource is mostly entrusted to the US Forest Service, which gets help from other government agencies, as well as private partners like the Pacific Crest Trail Association. The Wildlands Conservancy has a long tradition of working cooperatively with a variety of agencies to achieve conservation goals. It is an honor to help care for amazing resources like the Pacific Crest Trail and the public lands of the San Gorgonio Wilderness. The gathering on November 5 celebrated a truly American tradition of stewarding these magnificent landscapes.
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hiking, mountain biking, sitting quietly in your campsite or touring with the experienced staff on Wind Wolves Preserve. Visitors are welcome to enjoy The Wildlands Conservancy’s Wind Wolves Preserve on their own by hiking and mountain biking along the historic El Camino Viejo, the early wagon trail from San Francisco to El Pueblo De Los Angeles or by picnicking and camping. If you would rather have a guide, the Wildflower & Wildlife Tours are sure to please both wildlife enthusiasts and photographers. These tours are one to three hours long and are great for the whole family. We make frequent stops. Spotting scopes are available for close-up views of nesting birds and a variety of other wildlife. If you prefer to hike or pedal with a guide, staff and docents can lead you and interpret the natural history along the way. We also offer shorter hikes appropriate for young children. This spring is the perfect time for you and your family to experience the bounty of Wind Wolves Preserve. For a schedule of interpretive hikes, visit our website. We are open for visitation between 1 pm Fridays and 5 pm Sundays. To make a reservation for camping or a private guided donor tour, call the Preserve at 661.858.1115.
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The trail from Whitewater Preserve to the Pacific Crest Trail leads hikers across Whitewater River.
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WHITEWATER PRESERVE
When it Rains it Pours: Winter 2010 â– By TWC STAFF
The storm just before Christmas in 2010 dumped nearly twenty inches of rain in high places in the mountains.
Left
Whitewater River
during the storm of December 2010. Right More
than a mile
of trail was erased as the river flows cut and restacked the landscape.
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he headquarters of the Whitewater Preserve lies at the base of steep cliffs nearly a thousand feet high, where bighorn sheep and owls live. These canyon walls were carved over many lifetimes by the year round Whitewater River, which brings life-giving water to dry desert soils and allows lush wetlands to grow in the canyon bottom. This is a young and unsettled river channel, caught between the uplifting high peak of San Gorgonio and one of the lowest valleys on the North American continent, which holds the Salton Sea. Because of this steep topography, Whitewater never pools or slows its pace, and rarely stays in the same course from one storm to the next, jumping from place to place as it deposits boulders, sand and driftwood during storm events. The river here teaches us regular lessons about the impermanence of all things, and the constant renewal that occurs as a result. The storm just before Christmas in 2010 dumped nearly twenty inches of rain in high places in the mountains. The road that crosses the river channel at the preserve was impassable for over four days. At the ranger station, the sounds of river boulders being tossed around echoed like a thundering
billiards game. One of three flood control levees between the ranger station and the river was destroyed in the flooding, and the river began eroding a second levee before settling down. While there are no plans to rebuild the third levee, we are investigating solutions for flood control in the future that will respect the wild river channel we live with. Over a mile of trail was completely erased as the river flows cut and restacked the landscape. The road to the preserve was safely reopened after preserve staff worked for three days to move debris, dig out drainage channels, and fix parking areas. Some of this work was done by hand, and some with heavy equipment, and required closing the access road while we worked. Our next action was to rebuild the one-half mile trail to the Pacific Crest Trail. After roughly a week of combined work, the connection was completed by preserve staff on January 15th. Restoration work continued with the help of volunteers during Whitewater’s monthly volunteer day on January 22nd. Now with the trail system back to nearly its original condition, we look forward to a storm of visitors to hit the trail in the coming months as the winter rains make way for spring wild flowers.
OUTDOOR EDUCATION
Past, Present and Future continued from page 1
in TWC’s monthly volunteer projects, including non-native plant removal, habitat enhancement for endangered species and our annual tule elk count. Two high school age youths, who started volunteering with their parents, expanded their volunteer experience significantly by participating in summer internships at Wind Wolves Preserve. For the past two summers, UCLA students have participated in Archaeological Field Programs where they investigated rock art sites and related cultural areas. These students gained valuable academic training while unraveling the fascinating history of the Native Americans who lived here. The information students gather is then passed on to educate others. The Wildlands Conservancy is focused on growing these interactive relationships with higher education as well as K-12, and with donor support, that growth is being realized. All of the youth who help in these efforts leave an environmental legacy that is imperative for the stewardship and protection of wild lands. In Oak Glen, third through sixth grade students continue to take part in full-day field trips where they learn in an interactive manner the fundamentals of earth and natural sciences, and important concepts of environmental conservation. With modern-day access to a multitude of informational resources, students can receive material on any subject they desire. It is, however, through the hands-on learning experiences offered through TWC’s programs that they can best process and utilize what they learn. This manner of educational enrichment allows them to relate information to life in their own homes and
communities, empowering them to make thoughtful and positive contributions. All of this comes from having the opportunity to spend one day in the outdoors exploring and enjoying the natural world. It is not only these students who benefit from the enjoyment of the beautiful mountain trails of the Oak Glen Preserve; families, older students, and members of local communities walk our trails and attend programs. Understanding the importance of maintaining this beauty, they in turn, offer service by clearing non-native vegetation, maintaining trails and ponds, planting trees, and sharing their knowledge with others. Any time a visitor walks our trails, they can have an experience of both learning and service by stopping at one of the marked, newly planted trees and watering them, utilizing the nearby water sources and buckets. In this manner, the words and sentiment of this proverb come to fruition: “A society grows great when old men plant trees whose shade they will never sit in.” An increasing number of young people are being asked to contribute to their local communities. The Wildlands Conservancy, through its preserve system, invites them and their families back outside where service is well rewarded in birdsong and sunlight, in trees and clear air, and where a little sweat forms a very real connection to TWC’s preserve lands. For more information about TWC’s outdoor education and service learning programs, visit us online at www. wildlandsconservancy.org. For more information about TWC’s outdoor education and service learning programs, visit us online at www.wildlandsconservancy.org.
Each year nearly 25,000 school children participate in naturalist led outdoor education programs at TWC preserves, including Oak Glen (left) and Whitewater (right).
It is through the hands on learning experiences offered through our programs that students can best process and utilize what they learn. Spring 2010
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UPCOMING EVENTS Enjoy tasty offerings from local restaurants and wineries as you stroll along the trails around TWC’s Oracle Oaks Lodge while musicians play and artists create.
Whitewater Preserve
Water Celebration Whitewater Preserve’s second annual Water Celebration is set for Sunday, June 12, 2011. From 10 am to 2 pm you can learn all about the watershed from Whitewater Canyon to the Salton Sea. Activities will include guided walks, informative presentations and games for all ages. Stay cool while learning how to protect and conserve water from community agencies and educators dedicated to water heath. Join us by the river as we celebrate water, our most precious resource. Oak Glen Preserve
TWC’s Website Is New and Improved! Learn more about The Wildlands Conservancy’s preserves, projects and activities at www. wildlandsconservancy.org. While you’re visiting the website, be sure to let us know what you think about the new website and Behold the Beauty, TWC’s official newsletter, by taking the online survey.
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Hors d’oeuvres Under the Oaks Join us in September for the first annual Hors d’oeuvres Under the Oaks fundraiser at Oak Glen Preserve. Enjoy tasty offerings from local restaurants and wineries as you stroll along the trails around TWC’s Oracle Oaks Lodge while musicians play and artists create. Check your mailbox in the coming months for your Save the Date card and more details about this exciting fundrasing event!
Now you can follow The Wildlands Conservancy on Facebook! Become a fan to receive updates on events and activities or to join the discussion about conservation, outdoor education and recreation!
Spring 2010
www.wildlandsconservancy.org The Wildlands Conservancy 39611 Oak Glen Road, Bldg. 12 Oak Glen, CA 92399
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KEEP IN TOUCH