Heavy Winter precipitation in the Western United States is apparently meaningless

Is the California drought finally over ??? Incessant rainfall and snowfall leads to terrific flooding in the Golden State as thousands of homes are evacuated 

Image from The Daily Mail
But officials also warned that though the rain has eased conditions, the drought isn't completely over

The average person falls for the big Media bluff that all is well when weather conditions take an apparent turn about from the long hard drought. Especially when it's an extreme turn of events like the massive snowfalls and rain flooding events presently hitting California and other western regions. In the back of people's minds they are telling themselves things are back to the good ol'days. But now after Californian's have been praying for rain for five years, now they are praying for a break in the rainfall. Perhaps they may believe what the UC Merced Hydrologist Roger C. Bales theorized was correct after all. Get rid of all those greedy water sucking trees and streamflows will rise. Less trees gulping water means fuller streams. Not so fast. Most of that so-called science about removal and thinning of Sierra Nevada Forest trees was more of a public relations stunt funded and backed by the giant Timber Industry and down stream Industrial Agriculture business interests which has a love affair with massive flood irrigation methodology. The imaginary myth was theorized that less forest trees gulping down water would translate more water in streams and rivers filling up reservoirs. While I looked for research on any type of documentation of millions of dead trees actually proving this reverse phenomena to be true a couple years ago, I hadn't found any until now. Apparently the research had been there a little over a year ago, but got very little success in attracting Media attention. Not as sexy as Roger Bales and Michael Goulden's theories I guess.

Recent tree die-offs have had little effect on streamflow in contrast to expected increases from hydrological studies

Images from Nature.com

Clockwise from top left the photos are Spain, Colorado, New Mexico and Argentina.

We've all read the stories and seen all the horrific  photographs of what Mountain pine beetles have done to the western forests over the past decade due to hotter temperatures and drier summers. These bark beetles have infested and killed  thousands of acres of not only western pine forests, but other forests around the globe are now also in trouble as well. Researchers like Roger C. Bales (UC Merced) and Michael L. Merced (UC Irvine) have previously predicted that as trees died or were mechanically removed by logging and thinning, streamflows would increase because fewer trees would be greedily gulping up water through their roots and transpiring it up into the atmosphere. In the imaginations of the Hydrology boys, less trees equate more water runoff for agriculture down in California's Central & San Joaquin Valleys. Back in December 2015, a study by  the University of Utah geology and geophysics professor Paul Brooks and his colleagues in Arizona, Colorado and Idaho, found that if too many trees die, then compensatory processes would kick in and might actually reduce water availability. This is the exact opposite of what Bales and Goulden speculated would happen. But what Brooks and others discovered is that when large areas of trees dieoff, the forest floor becomes sunnier, warmer and windier, which causes winter snow and summer rain to evaporate rather than slowly recharging groundwater. In fact in describing what happens with the snow which usually melts and slowly percolates into the ground, what actually happened was a phenomena called "sublimation." This process of sublimation is where snow and ice change into water vapor in the air without first melting into water. The opposite of sublimation would be "deposition", where water vapor changes directly into ice (such a snowflakes and frost). So what happens with much of that heavy snow we've seen in recent photos does not all melt and infiltrate into the subsoil layers, but rather a good percentage of the snow evaporates up into the drier warmer atmosphere. What is interesting is that the regions studied were much of the high elevation headwaters areas for the Colorado River which fill down stream reservoirs like Lake Powell and Lake Mead which have been experiencing rapidly falling water levels. This effects water potential for Arizona and Southern California.

Abstract:

"Recent bark beetle epidemics have caused regional-scale tree mortality in many snowmelt-dominated headwater catchments of western North America. Initial expectations of increased streamflow have not been supported by observations, and the basin-scale response of annual streamflow is largely unknown. Here we quantified annual streamflow responses during the decade following tree die-off in eight infested catchments in the Colorado River headwaters and one nearby control catchment. We employed three alternative empirical methods: (i) double-mass comparison between impacted and control catchments, (ii) runoff ratio comparison before and after die-off, and (iii) time-trend analysis using climate-driven linear models. In contrast to streamflow increases predicted by historical paired catchment studies and recent modeling, we did not detect streamflow changes in most basins following die-off, while one basin consistently showed decreased streamflow. The three analysis methods produced generally consistent results, with time-trend analysis showing precipitation was the strongest predictor of streamflow variability (R2 = 74–96%). Time-trend analysis revealed post-die-off streamflow decreased in three catchments by 11–29%, with no change in the other five catchments. Although counter to initial expectations, these results are consistent with increased transpiration by surviving vegetation and the growing body of literature documenting increased snow sublimation and evaporation from the subcanopy following die-off in water-limited, snow-dominated forests. The observations presented here challenge the widespread expectation that streamflow will increase following beetle-induced forest die-off and highlight the need to better understand the processes driving hydrologic response to forest disturbance."

(Source)

Tree mortality is increasing worldwide which also includes Canada

Image - Natural Resources Canada

Tree mortality is increasing worldwide including Canada

"Tree mortality will likely increase in areas where extreme weather events become more frequent. Climate change projections indicate that in some parts of Canada, droughts and other extreme events are expected to become more frequent in the future. These changes could trigger increases in tree mortality and episodes of forest decline in affected areas, posing challenges for forest management and the long-term supply of forest resources and services, including carbon balance."

So just how well are all these forests regenerating on their own without mankind's help and interference ??? Despite Environmental Activist insistence that this is the only way Nature can heal, in almost all cases the natural world is failing!

Image - University of Colorado Boulder

Researcher Monica Rother at the site of the 2000 Walker Ranch fire in Boulder County.
Eighty percent of plots surveyed there contained no new trees.

The studies and observations by the researchers from the University of Colorado Boulder exposes the bleak reality. It makes sense though. Trees under extremely high stress from drought, pine beetle attacks and catastrophic wildfire events will dump most of what's left of their energy resources into defensesive strategies (Survival) and very little towards offensive strategies (seed production). Here are a few excerpts from the report:

“It is alarming, but we were not surprised by the results given what you see when you hike through these areas,” said Rother, who earned her doctorate from CU Boulder in 2015 and works as a fire ecologist at Tall Timbers Research Station in Tallahassee, Florida. 

Among the most barren sites were those of the 2000 Walker Ranch fire in Boulder County and the 2000 Bobcat Gulch fire in Larimer County, where approximately 80 percent of plots surveyed contained no new young trees.  

“This should be a wake-up call, that under the warming trends associated with human-caused climate change, significant shifts in forest extent and vegetation types are already occurring,” said Veblen. “We are seeing the initiation of a retreat of forests to higher elevations.”  

Previous research has suggested that hotter, more severe fires make it harder for the forest to bounce back by killing mature trees and reducing seed stock. But the study found that even after lower-intensity fires, presumed to have had less effect on mature trees and seed stock, seedlings were still scarce. Hotter, drier areas at lower elevations or on south-facing slopes had the fewest seedlings.  

“Fire severity is definitely relevant, but climate appeared to play the greatest role,” in limiting forest recovery, said Rother.  

“I don’t want to present this as being entirely negative,” said Veblen. “For me, the negative aspect is what it indicates about the future.”

(Source)

So the main thrust of the message from this report is that it now seems that Nature is no longer able to restore itself in many areas. Humans have done so much extensive damage that it is also necessary for them to actually intervene and mechanical help Nature. The protesting and politically motivated wilderness designation or Nation Park status will never work. Unfortunately most people (& this includes Scientists) do not have the full understanding of how the natural world functions and operates. Much of our understanding and progress has been held back and stuck in neutral because of of silly ideologically driven worldview as mandated by this world's Scientific Orthodoxy which controls the prevailing scientific thought which has infected all Academia. Way too much time and energy has been spent by Academia and environmental organizations on religious concepts such as (Argument from Poor Design) to battle against what they call religious fundies. The argument basically trashes numerous components of our planet's natural world as being flawed, imperfect and badly designed. The argument then promotes the lame idea that this is proof there is no creator because an intelligent designer would never have created or engineered things in such & such a way. Hence, instead of creating technological innovations which apply biomimicry or biomimetics (replicating natural designs when it comes to technological innovation by observing designs found in Nature), our world's intellectuals have instead pursued innovation based on flawed human reasoning and understanding. This is what has brought us much of the genetic engineering in agriculture and a plethora of dangerous toxic synthetic chemicals to deal with the imbalance in pest invasion that humans ultimately caused in the first place. Nature have never worked that way and nature has kept balance for countless 1000s of years without human interference. Suddenly now there are some Biomimicry organizations who are on board with replicating natural designs, but they have to first undo deprogram all the people who have been fed the prevailing secular koolaid and then re-educate people as to how nature really works. This is not so much a slam against the worldview obsessed as it is a wake up or shake up call for people everywhere, irrespective of your belief system, that nature no matter how one believes if origined, has never been flawed, imperfect or badly designed. This is where flawed thinking brought California the inept theory of tree removal bringing us more water. Do you see how this has now backfired ??? Here is another example of how Forest ecosystem failure and collapse needs human intervention from India:

In order to restore tropical rainforests, it is not enough to simply set up protected areas and leave them to their own devices. In particular, tree species with large fruit and seeds distributed by birds will have to be actively planted. This is one of the conclusions of a large-scale study by scientists from ETH Zurich in the Western Ghats, the mountain range running along the western coast of India. 

“For rainforest restoration projects to be successful, you have to give special attention to these trees,” says Kettle. “If you want to encourage them to spread, the only option is to collect their seeds, set up tree nurseries and then actively plant out the saplings at a later stage.”

(Source)

Nature is becoming less resilient and no longer able to sustain itself as it has done for countless 1000s of years. One disappointing thing about the study of dead trees not increasing stream flows was the silence on the phenomena known as "hydrological descent" in which living trees (also shrubs), even when dormant, which pump excess surface water during the rainy season down into deeper layers of the subsoil layers helping to recharge the water table aquafirs. That should have been included in this study and it wasn't. Can you imagine what low percentage of this California rainy season's (2016-2017) precipitation has actually percolated into the California landscape and how much has blown out back into the Pacific Ocean through massive flooding runoff ? After years of drought a lot of bare ground will almost fossilize to where the soils pores will close up tightly and the phenomena of capiliraary action needs time to heal properly. The state of California has no infrastructure in place to funnel massive amounts of this excess freshwater back towards the interior desert riparian habitats. Think of aquatic environments like Mono Lake, Owens Lake and further south the Salton Sea which already has a major ecological water problem. Or how about any of the other maze of dry lake beds throughout the Mojave Desert. Could such filling of these large natural basins have a moderating effect on the state's regional, if not statewide climate and weather ? Not to mention benefits to wildlife ? According to all of the above studies we just briefly touched on, humans are going to have to actually intervene now and make the necessary corrections. Instead of dumping money and manpower into ineffective angry protest and destructive civil disobedience, people need to go beyomd clicking "LIKE" on a Facebook page article about environment and physically get out doors and start restoring ecosystems based on natural design which was never ever flawed. However, how well historically has that been working out for us ??? 

Can collective groups among mankind  really work together to reverse these trends we've just read about ???

We all know how well it turned out for Humpty Dumpty. All the King's horses and all the King's men were unqualified and ill equipped to fix anything back together again. Governments, Business Leaders, Scientists & Religious leaders likewise do not have the answers nor the management skills we need for a real world viable solution either. The common people around the world are taking to the streets in a last desperate resort in protest and they too are likewise ill equipped to put anything back together again. The people protesting are often not exactly sure of what they are protesting about when interviewed by some in the media. It doesn't matter what they are protesting, or what message is on their signs because they are usually are nothing more than hollow slogans. And this is taking place most everywhere globally. Fixing and correcting things takes real cooperation and working peacefully together. That's not how this world we're all forced to live in works presently. Even today's angry environmental movements seem to have no answers other than protesting something or someone they hate. They never really offer any viable alternatives other than kicking other people off a piece of some sacred real estate and saying, "Nature will just find a way" to heal itself. In the studies above that will not happen. Each and every day, Salman Rushdie's word in that CNN interview ring true:

"Classically, we have defined ourselves by the things we love. By the place which is our home, by our family, by our friends. But in this age we're asked to define ourselves by hate. That what defines you is what pisses you off. And if nothing pisses you off, who are you?" 

Salman Rushdie

There really are some decent organizations out there that actually go beyond hate motivated protesting. They also demonstrate how energy is better spent educating the public in following natural design and in participating in hands on habitat restoration work. One of the main organizations that comes to my mind is the group, (Back to Natives Restoration) who actually provide a valuable service to local urban communities and in education work to the public. Same can be said for other native plant nurseries like (Las Pilitas Native Plant Nursery) and (Tree of Life Native Plant Nursery) who offer not only healthy viable native plants, but also extensive educational programs to help enlighten their customers and general public as to how nature really works and replicating installation and care with less water and no industrially manufactured science-based synthetic (fertilizers & pesticides) chemicals. All these organizations are strictly founded and identify themselves based on something they truly love, not something they hate or what pisses them off.

In Conclussion

At the very least we know where things really stand concerning our Earth's environment when the media attempts to paint a rosy picture of things not being all that bad as we first thought. It's worse folks. We also now know for a certainty that all those Politically motivated and Industrial Business interest funded hydrological studies conducted at several California Universities were dead wrong from the start. In fact their flawed schemes were never close to the truth, but many of us already knew that.

Plants use a chemical 911 & know specifically which Emergency Service to contact

This is not a general message, "Calling all Predators." But rather more specific chemical signals being sent out to specialized predators depending on who or what herbivore is munching on the plant

image - MadisonTrees.com

We all understand what the 911 Emergency Protocol is. When we call 911, we are usually specific about which particular emergency we are experiencing. We may need the Police, Fire Department or an  Ambulence and with the right communication the correct help is on the way. Recently, the German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research (iDiv) Halle-Jena-Leipzig did a study about what happens when plants are attacked by herbivores (insect, animals, etc). Apparently most plants call in emergency reinforcements. They proceed by emitting specific chemical aerosol signals. These aerosol signals attract the right specific predatory wasp that parasitizes a specific host insect pest which is attacking the plant. The wasps lay their eggs into the caterpillars, thereby killing them. This means fewer butterflies and hungry caterpillars in the next generation. An international research team tested the effects of twelve types of herbivores on a field mustard (Brassica rapa). The researchers found that the plants consistently adapt the odours they emit upon attack to the characteristics of the respective herbivore. This helped the plant to specifically attract a certain specific natural enemy that feed on the herbivores eating them. Among the twelve different herbivores that they tested, there were caterpillars, aphids and a slug. The herbivore selection included specialist and generalist, sucking and chewing, as well as exotic and native species.

Plants smell different when they are eaten by exotic herbivores

Photo - Nicole Van Dam

Professor Nicole Van Dam sees the results as "spectacular proof" of how specifically plants respond to their environment. 

"The plants may not have a nervous system, eyes, ears, or mouths, but they are capable of determining who is attacking them. Based on this, they can transmit reliable information to specialized parasitic wasps that can learn the odours to find their preferred host. What I find truly amazing is that they're even capable of distinguishing between a native and an exotic herbivore."

Department Molecular Interaction Ecology at the German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research (iDiv) and Professor for Molecular Interaction Ecology at the Friedrich Schiller University Jena (FSU)

Trees recognize roe deer by their saliva: Smart defence mechanisms against browsing

Image: Town Mouse & Country Mouse Blog
Mule Deer browsing foliage of native 
California Coffeeberry

Photo - Bettina Ohse

Animals also can be foliage damaging herbivores to plants. The photo above is of a California Mule Deer browsing the foliage of a native chaparral plant called California Coffeeberry. While we are told fables of Native Americans setting fires to improve grasslands for grazers like deer, what they really like is browsing shrub and tree foliage. As I've previously asked on this subject is, what is it that gardeners most generally complain about when it comes to Deer ??? Is it that they graze their lawns or rather damage flower beds, shrubs and trees ??? Another question would be, Are plants also programmed with a similar chemical signalling defense mechanisms to thwart animal browsing and if so, how does this defense work ??? This was another study done along the same lines as the insect herbivory study above. Notice the photo at right here where a central leader of a Maple was cut with metal shears, but a deer's saliva was applied to the damaged area which sent a signal message to produce more chemical components like tannins which make the foliage taste bitter to the deer. Also triggered were growth hormones to encourage the plant to make up for the lost growth. The plant also can apparently tell the difference between deer browsing and wind storm damage of a branch. Very kool stuff. Here are a couple of paragraphs:

In order to protect themselves against roe deer browsing, trees purposely put up a fight. By studying young beeches (Fagus sylvatica) and maples (Acer pseudoplatanus), biologists from the Leipzig University and the German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research (iDiv) have now found out that trees are able to recognise precisely whether a branch or bud has been purposefully nibbled off by a roe deer – or just randomly torn off by a storm or other mechanical disturbance. The saliva of the animals gives them the signal. If a deer feeds on a tree and leaves its saliva behind, the tree will increase its production of salicylic acid. This hormone, in turn, signals to the plant to increase the production of specific tannins. It is known for some of these substances that they influence the feeding behaviour of roe deer, with the result that the deer lose their appetite for the shoots and buds. In addition, the saplings increase their concentrations of other plant hormones, growth hormones in particular. These hormones enhance the growth of the remaining buds to compensate for the lost ones.   

“On the other hand, if a leaf or a bud snaps off without a roe deer being involved, the tree stimulates neither its production of the salicylic acid signal hormone nor the tannic substances. Instead, it predominantly produces wound hormones,” explains Bettina Ohse, lead author of the study. The scientists reached their conclusions by outsmarting the saplings: They simulated a roe deer feeding on them by cutting off buds or leaves and trickling real roe deer saliva on the cut surface from a pipette. Shortly after, they recorded the concentrations of the hormones and tannins in the saplings.

(Source)

=========================================

Previously, other studies have shown that plants detect predation from pests like the same cabbage caterpillar through vibrational waves from their chewing. Perhaps plants detect things in a combination of sensory ways. Clearly chemical defenses are depensed in a variety of messaging, either by being sending chemical text messages through their the root systems and continuing into the fungal network grid to warn other plants through their root systems to manufacture more bitter tannins. Or as this study revealed by means of released message specific aerosols to signal just the right predator to deal with a specific pest. We now know that plants are capable of communicating with each other via extensive and complex networks, and can warn each other of the presence of pests. In response, these plants are able to mount natural defenses against various types of infestations. This interconnectedness between soil, microbes, plants, pests, is a fascinating area of study. Unfortunately Industrial Science has lost much of what used to be common-sense farming and gardening knowledge which was based on simple observation. This was the very thing science was supposed to be about. The industrial Scientists are now forced to look back at what they once made fun of as far as age-old wisdom which reveals that nature is apparently far smarter than they were in the past willing to give it credit for. This is where biomimetics can become an important part of gardening, urban landscaping and sustainable agriculture. Science doesn't need to combat pests by inventing more and more synthetic chemical warfare. That's not the type of chemical biomimicry needed. As mentioned before, science has been influenced by irresponsible philosophical dogma brought to us by such things as  Arguments from Poor Design which has done more to hold science back from understanding how our natural world actually works more than anything else. Instead of spitting on Fundies with time wasting lame arguments, they should have been busy creating sustainable ways for optimal growing conditions so that plants could have responded with their own built in programmed defenses. Instead, we've been given this ill conceived "Green Revolution" which was anything but green and there are still large corporate entities who  want to keep this status quo. It's really unfortunate that this type of scientific discovery referenced in the above links are still not the science that rules our world. Many are catching on now, but are they too late to make a difference ???

Article written about attracting predators

California Coffeeberry: Biodiverse Insect Magnet for Pollinators & Predators (Think Hedgerows)

Landscape Safe: Smart choices when choosing plants

Fours bears dead after eating red berries from English Yew plant

Photo provided by Pennsylvania Game Commission

CBS News

This mother bear and her three cubs were found dead earlier this month near a church parking lot in West Wyoming, Pennsylvania. On first thought, the Conservation officers considered the deaths suspicious, but after examining two of the bears, the game commission came to the conclusion that they died from eating berries from the European yew plants. The shrubs are commonly used in landscaping as a beautiful evergreen ornamental shrub or tree. The officials explained that there is a compound in yew, called taxine, which is highly toxic to humans and animals if ingested. This is something many people never think of when choosing a landscape plant when their decision making is based purely on it's beautiful outward appearance. While some people may be aware of this plant's toxicity to humans, who would have thought there would be any consequences to the local wildlife ? The same could be said of many other plant choices from the retail Nursery. Here below is a link to the recent article:

Family of bears likely killed from eating poisonous plant

 Remember that cool lunch debate scene in the film Jurassic Park, where the argument was about whether certain scientific choices are right or wrong ? There was one specific reference from the Paleobotanist character, Ellie Sattler, who stated the obvious when it comes to humans decision making when it comes to plant choices in the landscape:

"Well, the question is, how can you know anything about an extinct ecosystem and how could you assume you could ever control it ? You have plants here in this building that are poisonous, you pick them because they look good. But these are aggressive living things that have no idea what century country (think European Yew) they are living in and they will defend themselves, violently if necessary."

You can find this statement below in this YouTube clip and time mark 2:36 >>>

Over here in Sweden, the landscapers use this Yew plant everywhere. What appalls me is their choice to incorporate it within family housing complexes where there are large numbers of children, often unsupervised. The plant is also chosen for it's ornamental value in Christmas decorations such are wreaths which are hung on a door in the house. The deep evergreen foliage in contrast with the bright red berries are adittedly very attractive, but they are dangerous to children, especially young toddlers who will put anything in their mouths. English Holly is another one of these attractive ornamentals used at Christmas time, but their berries are also toxic. The white berries of Mistletoe is yet another toxic plant used on this holiday. Poinsettia is another. The scary thing is the red berry is sweet to the taste, but it's the seed that is toxic. I'll provide some reference examples below at the bottom of this post.

https://dengarden.com/gardening/Christmas-Plants-Safe-and-Poisonous

Image - Beto Frota - Oct 2007

http://healthyhomegardening.com

Here's an example of a common Tew many grow as an ornamental in their urban landscapes. Many housing complexs and city parks with also plant them as they admittedly are a very handsome evergreen shrub or tree with contrasting red berries. But the seed or more commonly called, berry, can be deadly poison within one to two hours after ingesting them. In actual fact, the fruit is not really a berry at all. As you can see from the way it has a hole in the end like the picture at the right here. The outer covering (called aril) as it matures shrinks back exposing the seed which is the true fruit. The red outer part is technically is called an aril. A well known aril is the spice mace, which is the outer covering of a nutmeg. Pomagranites also fall into this description. Interestingly, the red flesh of this Yew berry is quite sweet, but again it's the seed inside is deadly poisonous. This doesn't matter to birds, because their quick digestive system passes the seed through unchanged, and like most berries, this is how the Yew distributes its seeds. Not that the Yew is capable of knowing that of course. But the more thorough digestive system of an animal would attack the seed's coating and poison the animal like it did to those four bears in the article above. Below is a plant profile of the Yew.

University of Maryland - Extension

Plant Profile: Toxic Yew

Try safer Natives from local area Native Plant Nurseries Heteromeles arbutifolia

Image - Bert Wilson - Las Pilitas Nursery

Tehachapi Conservation Resource District

This plant is a large evergreen shrub or small tree with leathery deep green leaves which produces small white flower clusters followed by showy clusters of red berries. In the urban landscape, it will only require deep watering once a month in summer when established. In most of it's native area probably not necessary to water this plant if roots are deep enough. This deeper root infrastructure can be obtained if the gardener or landscaper is smart and patient enough to train the plant by starting out with a one gallon year old specimen. They can grow from 8' to15' feet tall and 8' feet wide. The berries are edible and not dangerous like the other ornamentals I've discussed here. If a child did happen to eat one, there is not much flavour and not really sweet at all. More importantly, they will attracts birds and other wildlife who will use them as a food source. The bottomline here is you need to use your head and think about what plants you choose as appropriate to the safety of your landscape, not only for wilslife, but especially young children.

Real life trageties from Yew berry ingestion

BBC: Ben Hines died after ingesting yew tree poison

New York Post - October 2016: This city park’s deadly berries nearly killed a 2 year-old-girl

http://www.nytimes.com/health/guides/poison/yew-poisoning/overview.html

Google is your friend. Seriously, there are pages of this stuff

More designs in Nature translate into awesome Urban Landscapes thru Biomimicry

Most of my inspiration when I designed layouts for landscaping came from natural scenarios I observed in Nature. For example, this picture below from Baja California.

Image - Klaus Komoss

photo is mine (June 2016)

I've previously written about both the native Baja California and Sonora Mexico Rock Figs, Rock figs (tescalama): Ficus palmeri and Ficus petiolaris. We saw examples of Rock Figs at the Arizona-Sonoran Deset Museum which we visited this past June 2016. They make great patio trees in large pottery containers or planter focal points with boulders as a center piece. Mainly, when we create such landscape art, we are merely doing biomimicry of what already takes place in the wild. For example the massive wild Rock Fig above taken by Klaus Kommoss on one of his many winter adventure trips with his wife and friends down in Baja California. I'll post the link below to he and his wife's travel adventure blog and also my post link below of what I wrote about recreating these rock fig and boulder art images below. I also stumbled upon recently something else that has captured my attenton in the plant/rock art theme where I saw these incredible boulder plant creations where holes were drilled and hollowed out through  a fire process in the huge rock and trees planted in them at the Living Holocaust Memorial at the Jewish Heritage Museum.

Image - Cornell Plantations

"Boulders harvested for Andy Goldsworthy's Garden of Stones, Permanent installation, The Museum of Jewish Heritage A Living Memorial to the Holocaust, New York, New York These granite boulders and chestnut oak trees supplement the permanent installation in New York. They were installed at Cornell Plantations in 2004, and dedicated in 2005."

http://www.cornellplantations.org

Image - Cornell Plantations

The first time I saw this planting design technique from the layout at the "Garden of Stones" display at the Living Memorial to the Holocaust, it made me think of potential for not only Desert Rock Figs, but also the major contribution potential of selected plants that the California Chaparral community could provide. California Oaks would be ideal like the example above, especially smaller scrub oaks. Manzanita would also be ideal. Can you just imagine. Really we've already seen such examples in the form of Bonsai plants created by rocky shallow soils of a California mountainside on a south facing slope. Boulders strewn hillsides themselves have already provided such blueprints for creative imaginations.

Image - Cornell Plantations

Image - Laura Allen in Modern Farmer

Many examples of chaparral bonsai exist in the mountains and foothills of San Diego County especially those rich in giant granite boulders. Mount Woodson near Ramona comes to minds as does the mountain passes along Interstate 8 in eastern San Diego county between Boulevard and Jacumba. Further north and east in Arizona in the Sedona red rock country, there are plenty of examples as evidenced by this photo on the right. Even further north up into the state of Utah and the Canyonlands would provide another excellent library for imaginative blueprints to any talented landscape designer. The point is, while we can admire the creativity of those who laid out the theme for the Holocaust Memorial, it must be acknowledged that such amazing designs are in fact existing somewhere out in Nature first. 

image from Goldsworthy "Garden of Stones"

So exactly how do these Landscape architects and construction planners do this ?

I'll provide a link to a gallery of photographs here below which will explain far more than I could even hope to do in text. But there are a few points where I will interject some personal thoughts and/or quotes from the "About the Process" page. Further on down I'll provide a couple of links on how the process works, but here are some planting examples. Interestingly their favourite plant specimens are dwarf type oaks like Quercus prinoides. For me I would choose both Emory Oak (Quercus emoryii) and/or  Engelmann Oak (Quercus engelmannii). I love the overall sillhouette and branching form of both species of oak. The leaf patterns and the fact that both are a tough survivor species of oak. 

Image - Cornell Plantation

Image - Goldsworthy

The Oak saplings were grown at Cornell under the guidance of Professor Tom Whitlow from the Department of Horticulture. His tree species recommendation was the dwarf Chestnut Oak (Quercus prinoides) and he advised on the optimum conditions needed for growth and nourishment. The Oak & other saplings were nurtured at Cornell by both faculty and students. Often the actual planting was done by holocaust survivors themselves, their children or even grandchildren. The point of all this of course is that humans can move away from the formal structural traditions of the English Garden design, etc and develop purely naturalistic scenes within their personal urban or commercial landscapes.

How the actual Stone Hollowing Process works

Andy Goldsworthy's Stone Hollowing Process

About the Company and Artists who created these landscape boulder planters

Image - Richard Avedon

Edward Monti and artist Andy Goldsworthy are pictured with one of the granite sculptures (in its early stages) that make up the Garden of Stones installation at the Museum of Jewish Heritage in New York City. 

ABOUT EDWARD MONTI The History of Edward Monti Stone Sculpture

About the couple who took the photograph at the top of this post and their Adventures in Baja California

The photo on the right and at the top of this post was taken by Klaus Kommoss with his wife, Parvin, on one of their adventures every Winter to Baja California. I'll post their blog link down below at the bottom of this paragraph. Klaus was from Germany and his wife Parvin was from Iran. They lived in the state of Wshington in the Pacific Northwest. An unfortunate accident took place in 2012 where Klaus died in a freak accident when the SUV he was working on fell off the scissor jacks. I stumbled by accident upon their blog back in August while looking up information on Rock Figs of Baja California. Read and loved his blog, but then later found out the sad news. Still, they had some great adventures to places most of us only imagine seeing one day. I think you'll enjoy reading their blog adventures from the link below.

Photographs & Adventure Blog References

https://kommoss.wordpress.com/2011/03/06/last-canyon

Man crushed to death by SUV was inventor, adventurer

Creating Little Desert Trees as Ornamentals for Indoors & Patios

Now for a fun tutorial on how Phenotypic Plasticity works on all biological organisms, but especially here with our subject of PLANTS

Genotype-Environment Interaction and Phenotypic Plasticity

Here is an awesome video explaining things in simple terms and with illustrations from familiar situations that teach. So can you understand and graps the concept of biomimicry in developing plants within an urban landscape to replication patterns and forms found in Nature ??? The video is from Study.com and is about 7:00 minutes long. But as you watch this, please think about how you can experiment and tinker with various physical environmental factors and recreate natural designs in your backyard or where ever. Keep in mind that this video deals with the science of both genotypic and phenotypic change, and this can be repeatable if we can set up just the right artifical environmental factors in our landscape. And still somewhere there is the role of something called epigenetics in shaping the patterns of your plant subjects. But that's another subject.

Real Life "Garden's of Stone" you can visit out in Nature

Photographer - Phil Douglis - Apache Stronghold

Image -  globetrottingcouple.com

This place is Apache Stronghold, otherwise known as Chiricahua National Monument. When you visit, you can understand how tough it was for the US Cavalry to evict the resilient Chiricahua Apache. I've been to this place and it was one of the best decisions I've ever made as far as an adventure. Believe it or not it was the unique plant and animal (Parrot & Koatimundi) life that brought me here in the beginning, apart from the outstanding ancient volcanic geological formations. This is one of those classic Arizona "Sky Islands" as you can see from the top photo which looks down at the lower surrounding elevation. But the main draw for me was the Arizona Madrone, Chiricahua & Apache Pines, Alligator Juniper and some of the most humungous examples of Arizona Cypress I've ever seen. Again, it's the various features of rock (niches, slots, etc) which provide a phenotypic paradise for unique plant form and natural design.

Image - NSW National Parks and Wildlife Service

Gardens-of-Stone-National-Park-Australia

http://www.carstenpeter.com

This is Gardens of Stone National Park in Australia. The landscape here is a labyrinth of pagoda rocks with beehive-shaped formations sculpted by erosion along sandstone scarpments. This type of geological landscape not only presents a treacherous and challenging obstacle of slot canyons for both hikers and expert canyoneer exploreers, but it also provides an outdoor educational lab for those who choose to view this as a learning journey into how the environments (all of it's components) sculpts biological life (in this case plant life) into various beautiful and intriguing forms. All of which can and should be replicated into the modern urban landscape.

“Nature is not competitive. It is ruthlessly collaborative” - Spencer Smith

How can responsible land stewards teach people how much more complex and sophisticated the designs found in Nature are compared to our own ?

Kew Royal Bontanic Gardens - Rhizotron Tree Museum

(Project grade 11)

Unfortunately, it's tough teaching new things to adults who have already been through an educational system where the green revolution industrial complex as mandated by the State has indoctrinated & moulded them into obedient little Soylent cracker eaters. Let's be honest, as you watch adults worldwide, they are having a tough time with the idea of "Multiculturalism" [even from it's supporters] let along understanding the true concept of biodiversity in Nature. You have to start with youth, who surprisingly grasp far more than adults give them credit for. I mean seriously, look how expert almost every child is using a computer as compared to adults ? Who are best at hacking these days ? Indeed, one of the biggest obstacles may well come from detaching kids from their electronic gadgets. But Children do love and thrive off challenges. So approaching things from a technological innovation viewpoint should help them visualize just how biological mechanisms found in the natural world actually work. Hopefully instead of hacking computer code, they won't try a hand at cracking the genetic code to find out what kind of mutated critters they can come up with. I can almost visualize the next #1 popular gift showing up under Christmas trees being a Bio-Rad GMO Starter kit. Ah yes, but I'm sure it'll be something that'll be fun for the whole family.

Image - Bio-Rad

If we look at things from a agricultural  standpoint with older generation farmers, they are old school and the saying which goes, "cannot teach an old Dog new tricks" is certainly accurate for the most part. Not too many older farmers around like Joel Salatin or Gabe Brown who actually get to change later in life and become successful. Something else came out recently about how imperative it is to pursue biodiversity with regards to agriculture as compared to monoculture. Both the University of Californa Davis and Michigan State University came out yesterday with research on how crops grown as a monoculture attract a plethora of all kinds of pests. More pests mean more synthetic inputs into the farm field system. The only winners in that are Agro-Chemical companies. But I truly believe kids would all grasp the concepts of ecology and biodiversity if exposed to the right kind of education at a young age. Now both articles were extremely interesting and informative, aside from being logical. But how do parents and teachers communicate these important grownup things to kids ? Aside from dumping the usual intellect speak, use illustrations from familar situations common in every day life that can teach. Also, absolutely use Animation and videos

Animation - Mother Earth News

Braconid Wasp -- Caterpillar

Image - Julie Johnsen

Most of what nature does goes unseen to most people. Not just kids, but adults too. Take this Braconid Wasp in the animation above. These are not the common every day better known larger wasps we see building those paper or mud nests in the rafters of our cover porches or eaves of our homes. No, these wasp are so tiny, many of them would barely would fit on a U.S. dime. This tiny wasp at left is a Mason or Potter Wasp. Most of the beneficial work they do also goes unseen. Mason wasps are a predatory insect whose young feed on the larva of other pest insects and build nest with mud but at times will dwell in holes of wood for nesting purposes. They may capture and paralyze as many at 15+ caterpillars just to feed their egg or larva before they seal the chamber inside the wooden post or tree snag. They probably use preexisting holes for their nests, but they are not particularly harmful. Teach kids that they are beneficial as they prey on critters like tent caterpillars/army worms, and other problematic larva on your garden plants. Teach your kids how important it is for you to plant a variety of flowering plants to feed these tiny wasps. Explain that though the adults capture and sting other insects, they do not eat these as food, only their babies do that. Teach the kids that adult wasps need pollen or nectar from flowers to feed upon and benefit from a good diversity of wildflowers or flowering shrubs. Here is an excellent example by insct photographer, Marc Kummel, who photographed a mating pair of beneficial parasitic wasps on a California Fuschia (Epilobium canum aka Zauschneria californica)

Image - Marc Kummel (San Marcos Pass - Oct 2016)

Here is a mating pair of tiny "parasitic wasps" (Hymenoptera) on a new
flower of California Fuschia (Epilobium canum aka Zauschneria californica)
in the Onagraceae plant family.

Chaparral hedgerows are ideal in attracting all sorts of beneficial insect pollinators & predators. Replacing disturbed invasive non-native weedy fields with the original chaparral plant community will increase predators and decrease habitat for pests who thrive on weedy areas. Now let's focus on one particular chaparral shrub, California Coffeeberry, which is plant number one at beneficial insect attraction.

Image - Pete Veilleux (2008)

One of my native favourites for attracting beneficial insects is California Coffeeberry (Rhamnus [or Frangula - whatever] californica). Favourite cultivars are "eve Case" or "Mound San Bruno." In my personal experience, from a shrub satandpoint, this is the earliest bloomer of all the native california shrubs and mostly it goes unnoticed. Why ? Well, look below.

Image - Greg a. Monroe

Flowers of California Coffeeberry are admittedly not the most showy as compared to other well known popular garden variety flowers. So how does a parent or teacher instill appreciation for something considered, perhaps, even ugly (by flawed human standards) ? I've never considered these flowers ugly, just sort of neutral from an outward appearance standpoint. Humans by nature judge almost entirely by outward appearances first. They do this to each other starting as kids in school. But the teacher and parent has to counter this by demonstrating the Coffeeberry flower's main virtues. Unseen to us, these flowers manufacture a potent powerful cologne or perfume that only insects can sense. It's a pity that back in the late 1980s, I didn't document this more with photography.

image - Brian Marlow
 Insect Paparazzi

Of course, there were no digital cameras back then, everything was expernsive and old school compared to now. But gardeners planting and documenting this most beautiful feature of Coffeeberry's usefulness in Nature could be a fun thing when it comes to gardening photos. Planting a chaparral hedgerow, then documenting just how effective these coffeeberry flowers are at attracting mostly beneficial pollinators/predators into your landscape would not only be fun, but also provide something that even the researchers have yet to provide us with. Seriously, do a google and most references to this Coffeeberry insect relationship come from Master Gardener blogs or other private individuals. They do mention the chaparral plant's importance to wildlife & domestic animal browsing, but the importance of it as a pest control component is referenced only by a few. Usage in farm field hedgerows for pest control is being more researched, but it's not the kind of good science getting as much publicity as genetic engineering or other industrial versions of  agro-chemical advances in science.

Image- Town Mouse & Country Mouse

California Coffeeberry: Biodiverse Insect Magnet for Pollinators & Predators (Think Hedgerows)

I've created this link above to an article I finished yesterday which further illuminates California Coffeeberry's insect magnet attracting  abilities.. I've taken time to research as many beneficial insect photographs as possible linked to California Coffeeberry. I've also included some research being done by researchers from California State Berkerley's Kremen Lab Group on the potential for pest control by beneficial insects on a commercial farming scale by the creation of California Chaparral Hedgerows along all farm fields. Much like the one in the photo below.

Image - University of California - Agricultural Division & Natural Resources

This post and information above should go along well with the latest research news below on using biodiversity as an insect pest control. Children and all youth in general need to understand just how successful Nature has been for 10s of 1000s of years prior to humans coming along. Biomimicry should be considered a normal scientific pursuit. The articifical industrial conventional way of practicing agriculture with it's chemicals and genetic engineering should be the view as it truly is, abnormal. None of this junk was ever needed in the first place. Kids need to understand that and will with parent's and teacher's guidance.

BioDiversity as a Natural Pesticide

“Farm fields can create monocultures where pests may find the perfect nutrition to be healthy and reproduce,” said Wetzel, who conducted the research during his doctoral work at the University of California, Davis. “Planting fields with higher plant nutrient variability could contribute to sustainable pest control.”

Rather than my further elaborating on this subject at length, these two links below should be enough to get you started. Then in your mind's eye, simplfy the language to a point where a child would understand the biodiversity concept. It may be a challenge for you as most adults globally are often unaware themselves. If the majority were aware, our planet would look totally different.

Michigan State University: Plant Diversity could provide natural repellent for crop pests

UC Davis: Why Insect Pests Love Monocultures, and How Plant Diversity Could Change That

Teaching kids these days is always easiest with video animation. Seriously, since I was a kid in the 1960s, cartoons and animated films shown at elementary school always captured my attention. So such  animated video instructive technology can and should be used when teaching kids about the importance of biodiversity over the ecologically failed choice mankind's failed leadership has been mandating for over the past 50 years. Take a look below.

Actually photographs are yet another venue to provide good teaching points and should also be used. I've written about these Chaparral Hedgerow and Biodiverse pollinator/predator strategies previously in these three posts below. This first one deals with the reasons why planting a biodiverse flower presence is so important to honey bee health. All plants create different types of pollen with unique chemical properties. These differing pollens are used by specialized nurse bees in the hive who apparently have a built sense of what pollen medicine to feed the sick worker bees with specific illnesses. Can kids really comprehend such scientific findings ? Absolutely, if you make the right real world illustrative comparisons that we humans can relate to:

Diversity of Flowering Plants Imperative to Pollinator & Predator Health

This next link deals with actual planning, designs and construction of Chaparral Hedgerows along California's agricultural fields to provide habitat living quarters and variety of important food sources for pollinators/predators which would act an an important insurance policy against crop pests. The potential here is for greatly reduced or total elimination of synthetic (or so-called Organic) chemical pesticides. Could kids really grasp this reality ? Absolutely, especially with the beautiful colour photographs provided by the Xerces Society:

Image - Xerces Society

How to construct the best Insurance Policy for your Agricultural Business Venture

This final link deals with strategies in attracting good pollinators/predators to the landscape and commercial farming and how such strategies are not only a good business model, but also a good insurance policy. Can kids graps this concept of bugs being something good ? Absolutely, but then need adult attitudes to change and lead by example. Again the photos from the Xerces Society are very helpful in this learning process:

Image - Xerces Society

Attracting Wild Bees & Wasps to Landscapes & Farms is the best Insurance Policy

Aside from planting a diverse variety of  native shrubs & wildflowers, here is a project parents or teachers can do with kids. 

(This kind of stuff gets burned into young memories)

photo credit - Donald C. Drife (2016)

June 20-26, 2016 has been designated National Pollinator Week by the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the U.S. Department of the Interior. Our yard is pollinator friendly. We use no insecticides. We provide plants that produce pollen and attract pollinators to our vegetable garden.   

This year, we put up a bee hotel now called the “Buzz Inn.”  Our plans came from a helpful guide, Managing Alternative Pollinators: A Handbook for Beekeepers, Growers and Conservationists, SARE Handbook 11, NRAES-186 by Eric Mader, Marla Spivak, and Elaine Evans.

Donald C. Drife

Michigan Nature Guy's Blog: National Pollinator Week

"No one will protect what they don't care about, and no one will care about what they have never experienced."

David Attenborough, conservationist 

One final teaching point from your friendly neighbourhood Home Depot

Image - Susan Harris of  Garden Rant

Home Depot front door display as you enter Garden Center

If you aren't teaching and illustrating at a hands on level with your children, then someone else will. The photograph above was take by Master Gardener author, Susan Harris, from the journal Garden Rant. The visual teaching going on here is their marketing strategy for indoctrinating their customers that for a beautiful successful garden, you need synthetic Chemical weed and insect killers to eliminate Nature's flaws. Here is what Susan Harris wrote about Home Depot's front entrance killer chemical display:

"The other day I walked into the Home Depot near me and noticed this enticement to enter the gardening part of the store – Kill, kill, kill those plants and bugs!  Not a plant in sight but plenty of plant-killers.  And this photo hardly conveys the impressive array of killing products extending as far as the eye could see."

(Source - Garden Rant) 

Pollinators - Beneficial Insects - Native Plants

Michigan State University: Native Plants and Ecosystem Services

Mother Earth News: Enlist Beneficial Insects for Natural Pest Control

University of Minnesota: Scholars team up to show forest biodiversity is green in more ways than one

See Google Images of Mason & Potter Wasps

http://bugoftheweek.com/mason-wasps-imonobiai-and-ipseudodynerusi