Balancing Wildfires and Chaparral

Southern California chaparral

On NPR this morning, Richard Halsey of the California Chaparral Institute discussed “Balancing Wildfires and Chaparral” with Maureen Cavanaugh on These Days.  He attempted to set the record straight about the role chaparral plays in the natural fire cycle of Southern California. It was a fascinating and informative radio talk, explaining how old growth chaparral (the native plant environment of SoCal) helps to prevent erosion and direct rainfall to aquifers instead of flash-flood-type runoff.

Take a peek at Chaparral & Manzanita at Sacred Rocks Reserve! We invite you bring friends, family, and botany nerds to Sacred Rocks and shoot the exuberant springtime blooms with your camera.

The Bloom of 2009

Blooming yucca plant with pink flowers

The hillsides are spectacular.

Just enough rain this year to yield an amazing crop of wild flowers.

It is fun to learn and even more fun to be amazed at seeing what I have not seen before.

Was it not there?

Or are my eyes opened in a different way?

Makes me wonder about life in general.

What is in front of our eyes that we cannot ’see’?

What do you notice about your life, or your self, or your surroundings that seems new to you, that you are just now ’seeing’?

Cool Night

Sunset at Sacred Rocks Reserve

Today the thermometer showed 83 degrees.  A glorious spring day.  No clouds or wind.  Retired to my RV about 9pm, flipped the air on for 15 minutes to cool the walls, then opened the windows.  As I lay there drifting into sleep I could hear the frogs saying ‘ribbit, ribbit’.  In the distance the coyotes played yip-yip tag.  An occasional hooting from the huge owls that roost in the Reserve.  The quiet laughter of guests around their campfires.  I felt the cool breeze of night gently on me and my last conscious thought was about how grateful I am for my life.

And then at 5am, that is FIVE AM, 5 o’clock in the morning, I had to wake up to come to San Diego for my son’s school function so I checked the temperature.  It was 63 degrees.  That is 20 degrees cooler than the daytime.  O perfect weather!  Did I mention that I had to wake up at 5 in the morning?

NBC San Diego article

NBC San Diego has a nice little article about the blooming springtime wildflowers of Sacred Rocks Reserve on their website: Boulevard Blooms!

NBC San Diego logo

See more gorgeous photos of the Southern California wildflowers of spring at the Sacred Rocks Wildflowers Picasa photo album.

Mexican Bird of Paradise