The CSERC Report
By John Buckley
Executive Director
Central Sierra Environmental Resource Center
Snowplant Brings Bright Color To Local Forests
Think of something that is a parasite -- drawing the nutrients out of its host in the dark, shady depths of the forest. Instead of fear or disgust, the beautiful red snowplant inspires an avid following of admirers each spring and early summer. The bright red snowplant is brilliantly-colored and easily recognizable, especially when snowplants peek up through a few inches of lingering snow at the end of spring in the middle elevations of the forest.
Few people who look into their yards or who walk out into the local mountains can even begin to realize all the connections and interactions taking place, often hidden from view. The snowplant is one good example.
Snowplants (sarcodes sanguinea) are from the heath family and are often referred to as a saprophyte -- referring to the long-held belief that they feed directly on dead plant material. But the Botanical Society of America actually defines the snowplant as a mycoparasite -- because snowplant roots contain mycorrhyzal fungi that extend down into the forest floor tand attach to conifer roots to carry nutrients and water back to the snowplant. Because snowplants contain no chlorophyll, the plants do rely on the fungi to help them fix nitrogen from the atmosphere in exchange for nutrients from the tree roots.
If you visit Calaveras Big Trees State Park or many of the national forest lands along the Highway 4 corridor, you can find colorful snowplants protruding up through forest humus, decaying leaves, and pine needles. In some places, a single snowplant will rise slowly over a few days from the drab humus at the base of a pine or fir tree. In other places, abundant snowplants literally dot the forest floor with substantial numbers of individual snowplants as well as clumps of a dozen or more.
In contrast to the brown and greens that most groundcovers, bushes, grasses and trees feature in our local forests, the snowplant's strikingly red hues provide bright color that easily makes them stand out for forest visitors. Snopwplants flowers are as red as the plants, and have five petals that are fused along their edges into a bell-like shape. The flowers produce fruits -- small, hard capsules with pitted seeds. If you pick a few of these from a mature, drying snowplant and plant the seed capsules in woody soil amidst conifers, you may be lucky enough to start a new snowplant in your yard or in a favorite place you hike in the forest.
At the least, try looking for snowplants on your next walk in the woods, and you may be surprised at how few there are in some areas and how many there are in other forest sites. Snowplants are truly one of the most vibrant, striking features of our local forests.
Now is a great time of year to break away from work, chores, the TV, and distractions, and to GET OUT AND ENJOY THE BEAUTY OF THE SPRING SEASON!
From the expected beauty of spectacular waterfalls in Yosemite Park waterfalls to the unexpected beauty of colorful caterpillars on a milkweed plant, this is an especially scenic spring season.
Most of us get so busy on our computers or with our jobs or our busy home schedules that we just don't take the time to stop, step outside, breathe deep, and look around at nature in our beautiful region.
For those who don't like the cold weather or snowy conditions of winter, there may be an excuse to stay inside. But now that warm weather is heating up the outdoors, there are no excuses left. This is a great time of year to get out and enjoy the lush growth of spring.
For the past 19 years, CSERC has worked diligently and tirelessly to protect the wildlife, the plants, the flowing streams, the pure air, and the scenic values of more than 2,000,000 acres of our vast Northern Yosemite region. From the foothills of Calaveras County to the high country of Yosemite Park, this broad portion of the central Sierra Nevada contains some of America's most spectacular scenery and most impressive wildflower displays. It is a land worth caring for and worth defending.
Now is an excellent time to either take a day hike, get out an kayak, drive up to the receding snowpack, or simply to find a quiet spot to read a book and smell the scents that arise from new growth and spring warmth.
In the midst of savoring nature, we hope that you will be inspired to consider ways that you can personally make a difference. One way is to sign up with CSERC to help do meadow restoration, fence-building projects to protect riparian or meadow areas, or to do other hands-on tasks to protect our local region.
To find out how to volunteer, go to this site: http://www.cserc.org/main/howtohelp/volunteer.html
In between volunteer projects, we hope you make a special effort to look at some of the wildflower displays that are slowly moving up from the foothills into the lower forests as warm weather carries spring into the mountains.
Central Sierra Environmental Resource Center
Which Way Will The Forest Service Lean - OHV Use or Resources?
By John Buckley
Executive Director
Central Sierra Environmental Resource Center
Many people in Calaveras County and elsewhere in the region understand that public land managers often face difficult choices. One major decision will be coming soon from the Forest Supervisor of the Stanislaus National Forest.
Susan Skalski came to the local national forest last year to take on the lead role as Forest Supervisor. When she arrived, the Forest was already three years into a long planning process that has revolved around the question of where Off-Highway-Vehicle use should or shouldn't be allowed in the Stanislaus Forest.
For many years, noisy off-road motorcycles and all-terrain-vehicles have been driven at high speeds in many parts of the local national forest without being effectively managed by the U.S. Forest Service. These OHV riders carved out over 180 miles of unauthorized routes – causing impacts to sensitive plants, wildlife, and water quality. Noise from OHV use also often disturbs many forest visitors who come to the national forest seeking peace and quiet… especially those trying to glimpse birds and other wildlife.
The Forest Service recently released its latest proposed “Travel Management” plan for public comment. That new plan would give legal approval to OHV use on 157 miles of user-created OHV trails that were never given any environmental planning. Instead, first someone just drove his motorcycle across or up a hillside, and then someone else followed him. Over time, that maze of illegal routes grew. Some routes run across streams. Other routes run right through nest stands of goshawks or owls. Still other routes are carved right through the midst of winter deer range.
As if to reward such irresponsible behavior, Forest officials are now proposing to add 157 miles of these user-created routes as fully legal places to ride. That is on top of 1,400 miles of dirt roads and roughly 100 miles of OHV trails that are already completely legal and available to the OHV riders.
It will be revealing to see whether the Forest Service decides to cater to the desires of a very small percentage of forest visitors who like to ride noisy OHVs, or whether the Forest Service will decide to limit new OHV route additions in order to better protect water, wildlife, and quiet recreation within the local national forest.
To find out more about this issue, contact John Buckley, CSERC's executive director, at: johnb@cserc.org
Deconstructing the Rattlesnake Myth
By John Buckley
Executive Director
Central Sierra Environmental Resource Center
For the past 18 years, the staff from the Central Sierra Environmental Resource Center has traveled countless days each year to schools in Modesto, Stockton, Turlock, and elsewhere in the region – presenting thousands of free educational slide shows about nature. One of CSERC’s most requested programs shares pictures and stories about the diverse wildlife of Central California. Kids love to “ooooh” and “ahhhh” as they hear stories and see slides of bears, rabbits, martens, frogs, hummingbirds, and a long, long list of other species.
As the main presenter of these programs, I have found that kids get easily excited about wildlife, whether they live in a poor urban area in Stockton or a rural neighborhood near Valley Springs. I’ve also found that both kids and adults have a special fascination with rattlesnakes.
Out of all the snakes in California, only the rattlesnake poses any real risk to humans. However, in most cases, rattlesnakes will go out of their way to avoid wasting their venom on a clumsy person who gets too close. But kids and adults seem fascinated by the fear that a rattlesnake might strike out from behind a clump of grass and sink its toxic venom deep into a slow-to-react human.
Despite the widespread fears that people show in response to just a photo of a rattlesnake, in real life rattlesnakes seldom live up to their fearsome reputation.
One time when I walking through the Kibbie fire that had recently burned hundreds of acres in the Groveland District of the Stanislaus National Forest near Yosemite, as I walked along a narrow trail in the forest, taking pictures of stands of trees that were heavily burned by the fire, and as I reached the end of the burn area, I began retracing my steps, walking back along the same two-foot wide trail I’d just traveled. About a minute along this return route, as I walked along looking up at the trees, I kicked something. Simultaneously, an alarmed buzzing rattle shot out. I jumped back and looked down to find a four-foot-long highly annoyed rattlesnake that I had literally kicked.
As shown in the photo, the rattler blended in well with its surroundings, so even if I’d been looking, I might not have easily noticed it. Yet, the rattlesnake never attacked. It simply coiled up and made it clear it wanted to be left alone. It didn’t chase me or strike out at me, even when I cautiously inched closer to get a better picture.
Rattlesnakes have a fearsome reputation, but humans are the ones inflicting most of the harm. Rattlesnakes play an important predator role across California’s diverse ecosystem, with rattlesnakes stretching from suitable habitat areas near the coast to high in the mountains. Yet despite their ability to sense prey and to strike rapidly, most rattlesnakes recognize that they cannot swallow a human, so they don’t waste their venom by biting people who could easily be attacked.
Humans are far less tolerant. Each year a considerable number of rattlesnakes get killed simply for being discovered in too close a proximity to someone’s house, garden, or campsite. The more that people learn about rattlesnakes or other “fearsome” species such as scorpions, bats, bears, and lions – the more that people find that these species have high value in filling their role in the food chain. With so many millions of Californians tramping all over in habitat occupied by rattlesnakes, the low rate of snakebites is ample proof that rattlesnakes mainly seek food, shelter, and a lack of disturbance by the human clan. You can do your part by wearing appropriate footwear when hiking during the summer and by going to great lengths to avoid bothering snakes of any kind unless a confrontation is truly unavoidable.