End Pavement

Thanks to the Press-Enterprise for passing along a warning from officials about a particular blooming plant showing up in burn areas:

The Poodle-dog bush, also known as Turricula parryi, can cause itching rashes and irritation. The San Bernardino County Fire Department issued an advisory this week warning people not to touch or smell it.

• Turricula parryi at Calflora.org
• Photos at CalPhotos
• Turricula parryi at USDA

Photo © Br. Alfred Brousseau, Saint Mary’s College.

Update: there’s a thread over on SoCalTrailRiders about exploring the Chiquita Ridge. One of the commenters mentions getting rashes from certain shrubs, and another links to this page. Someone posted a picture of the results of a run-in with one of the poodle dog bushes. Ouch!

From the LA Times, a story in miniature of what the State of California hopes to do for the entire Salton Sea — and done by one determined woman.

“Part of Salton Sea’s desolate shore made into a lush oasis”

[Debi] Livesay is no scientist. She’s a former journalist with a gift for big ideas, a talent for securing grants and total self confidence.

As the Salton Sea dwindles, pesticide-laced sediments have blown over the reservation, exposing thousands of tribal members and other nearby residents to toxic chemicals. In 2001, Livesay, the tribe’s head of water resources, was charged with finding a solution.

“We can’t afford to have the Salton Sea dry out or people couldn’t live here anymore,” she said. “It would be 200 times bigger than Owens Lake. All you need is an inch of water to keep the dust settled. So I said, ‘Let’s make a wetland.’”

It wasn’t easy by any means, and despite the great success there are still challenges, especially from illegal hunters who prowl the outskirts of the new wetlands, killing birds indiscriminately and leaving their bodies. Not to mention the dumping that has been going on for decades, leaving the Torres Martinez reservation “one of the most polluted in the West.”

Even so, as the toxic cleanup continues, Livesay is navigating the jurisdictional issues to get poachers arrested…and amazing things are happening out there in the desert.

She cut the engine.

“Wait until you go around the corner,” she said. “You have never seen anything like it.”

A few feet away, birds were thick as mosquitoes. They floated in dark, choppy water and buzzed about like feathery missiles.

“You have birds here that shouldn’t be here, birds from Canada all the way down to Central America,” she said. “People come from all over the world to see this sight. There is no other place like it. And that’s why we have to preserve it.”

Speaking of current conditions, there is reportedly a big honkin’ storm headed toward Southern California late this week.

From the NOAA “Special Weather Statement”:

…STRONG SEPTEMBER STORM POSSIBLE LATE THURSDAY THROUGH EARLY SATURDAY… A STRONG STORM FOR SEPTEMBER MAY MOVE THROUGH SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA LATE THURSDAY THROUGH EARLY SATURDAY. THIS STORM HAS THE POTENTIAL TO PRODUCE WEATHER VERY RARELY SEEN IN SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA IN SEPTEMBER. THIS COULD BE THE STRONGEST MID LATITUDE SEPTEMBER STORM FOR SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA IN AROUND 20 YEARS.

From the Press-Enterprise article “Big September storm on horizon”, there’s an added wrinkle.

With forecasters calling for what could be the most powerful September storm in 20 years to arrive late Thursday, firefighters battling the Butler 2 blaze in the Big Bear Lake area could face winds, rain and snow late this week.

Naturally, there’s a Red Flag warning in effect, thanks to the winds ahead of the storm:

THE NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE IN LAS VEGAS HAS ISSUED A RED FLAG WARNING…WHICH IS IN EFFECT FROM 11 AM PDT /11 AM MST/ TO 9 PM PDT /9 PM MST/ WEDNESDAY. THE FIRE WEATHER WATCH IS NO LONGER IN EFFECT. A STRONG LOW PRESSURE SYSTEM WILL DROP SOUTH INTO NORTHERN CALIFORNIA ON WEDNESDAY. INCREASING SOUTHWEST FLOW ALOFT AHEAD OF THIS LOW WILL BRING SUSTAINED WINDS OF 15 TO 30 MPH WITH GUSTS BETWEEN 35 AND 45 MPH TO MUCH OF THE AREA BY WEDNESDAY AFTERNOON. RELATIVE HUMIDITY VALUES ARE EXPECTED TO BE CLOSE TO OR BELOW 15 PERCENT IN MOST AREAS. STRONG WINDS AND LOW RELATIVE HUMIDITIES WILL PERSIST INTO THE EVENING HOURS BEFORE CONDITIONS MODERATE AFTER ABOUT 9 PM.

So fasten your seat belts, it’s gonna be a bumpy ride. ;)

Just wanted to point out a new category in the sidebar links: Conditions. Thanks to the Interweb, it’s exceedingly easy to have a gander at what’s going on where you’re headed, thus avoiding potential problems or even danger.

Unless of course you ignore a Flash Flood Watch and get caught in a thunderstorm. But that’s another post.

Here’s what under Conditions at the moment:

• California Fire News
• InciWeb: California
• National Weather Service: Current Watches, Warnings and Advisories for California
• NOAA Pacific Tsunami Warning Center
• San Bernardino National Forest Current Conditions
• USGS: Earthquake Map for California and Nevada
• Weather Underground: California

It skews toward California and SoCal specifically, but heading to some of those sites will produce similar tools for other regions.

On a late walk with the poodle around the neighborhood last night, I happened to glance up to the southeast just in time to catch a pretty shooting star flashing in the sky.

Today, the Planetary Society reminds me that it’s that time of year for a beautiful summertime occurrence: “Check out the Perseids this weekend!”

Meanwhile, the Bad Astronomer helpfully lists the “12 things you need to watch the Perseid meteors Sunday night”.

Closer to the ground, we espied a fat raccoon poking his head out of a sewer drain.

In an effort to highlight California conservation organizations, I thought I’d begin a series of posts (with accompanying links in the sidebar) on various folks working hard to keep the outdoors strong and safe. Sort of like Stephen Colbert’s “Better Know a District” but publicizing cool people doing good things rather than making fun of politicians. ;)

First up, a group working to help the only mammal that truly flies — the awesome bat. From what I’ve read, there are over 900 species of bats, and California has 27 of them. There’s a reason Batman chose his awesome mascot. :)

The California Bat Conservation Fund is a non-profit organization dedicated to the preservation of bats. The Fund’s major activities include:

• dispelling widespread misconceptions about bats through informative presentations and live-bat displays at schools, libraries, museums, and community centers
• restoring injured and orphaned bats to health and returning them to the wild
• working alongside major conservation efforts to replenish shrinking bat populations

Have a suggestion for a California conservation group? Please get in touch.