At Rediscovering the Golden State: California Geography, one of our missions is to feature the impactful work of students who apply geographic thought and analysis to pressing California issues. We’re proud to present Jason Runnels, a dedicated student from Santa Monica College.

Jason has completed a significant project titled Wells, Crops, and Crisis: Exploring the Spatial Relationships Between Groundwater Depletion, Crops and Landcover in Tulare County, CA. This timely and insightful work delves into the critical issue of groundwater depletion in Tulare County, examining its spatial relationships with agricultural practices and land cover.

We encourage you to explore Jason’s work by following the link above. Additionally, please take a moment to read his bio (see below) and learn more about his motivations for addressing this critical issue.

A twenty-five-year resident of California, Jason Runnells, the creator behind this featured project, brings a deeply personal perspective to the state’s pressing water resource challenges. With roots in a multi-generational Colorado farming family, he possesses a lifelong appreciation for the intricate relationship between land and water in semi-arid environments. This foundational interest has culminated in a focused exploration of Tulare County’s groundwater issues, a critical component of California’s larger sustainability puzzle.

This project leverages the power of Geographic Information Systems (GIS) to investigate the complex spatial interplay between shifting groundwater levels and established land use patterns. The resulting analysis provides valuable insights for the broader conversation surrounding water management and long-term environmental planning in the region.

Jason’s path to geography and GIS is as unique as his perspective. After a successful two-decade career in the music industry, a desire to more deeply understand the natural world led him back to academia. Under the mentorship of Professor Jing Liu at Santa Monica College, a passion for cartography and spatial analysis was ignited. This newfound dedication to geography has led to an internship as the GIS lead for The Canyon Alliance, where he is instrumental in developing geographic databases and tools to support local disaster preparedness efforts.

Upon graduating this spring with an associate degree in Geography, Jason will continue his studies at UCLA, pursuing a major in Geography/Environmental Studies and a minor in Geospatial Information Systems & Technologies. This project stands as a testament to his dedication and a promising glimpse into a future dedicated to applying the power of geography to real-world environmental challenges.

The post Wells, Crops, and Crisis first appeared on Rediscovering the Golden State.

We all require nutritious meals for our survival. So, the people who grow and harvest our food should be near the top of our list of workers who are rewarded for their labor, right? But that has become wishful thinking as profit margins continue to shrink and more family farms are threatened with bankruptcy each year. Agricultural innovations and revolutions continue to spread, leaving their footprints across California’s landscapes; but current trends too often leave small farmers struggling to pay the bills and keep food on their own tables, all while our popular culture celebrates the latest get-rich-quick millionaires and billionaires who may provide no essential goods or services. California has been the number one agricultural state in the nation for at least seven decades. Our state produces more varieties of farm products than any other state (including some crops that are only grown here commercially), totaling more than 50 billion dollars of income each year.

Disturbing questions and contradictory data ring out from the Golden State and spread to farming communities throughout the country. How are these paradoxical trends affecting life on the farms and our ability to provide healthy, affordable food to the people? What is the future of agriculture as small farms struggle to retain young people who might continue family traditions? Here, we will dive into these controversies and on to the farms to find some answers. We start with a small regenerative family farm and we end with the largest winery in the world, both just outside Turlock in the San Joaquin Valley, between Modesto and Merced. Our guide is Alison McNally, Associate Professor of Geography & Environmental Resources at Cal State University Stanislaus, and this trip is sponsored by the California Geographical Society.

This story is not intended to answer all the questions or solve the many perplexing problems encountered in California’s breadbasket. We have addressed some of them in previous stories on this website and in past publications. For instance, you are probably aware of the controversial debates about how, for decades, big ag has grown at the expense of smaller family farms in California and across much of the nation. Though movements such as farm-to-table encourage sustainable harvests from smaller local farms, many larger agribusinesses have also discovered the economic advantages of more sustainable and/or organic farming on much larger scales. I’ll leave it to you to navigate through the rabbit holes of research and mountains of case studies (such as from UC Davis) that weigh the pros and cons and long-term advantages and disadvantages of small- to large-scale farming. Here, we take you to experience both extremes.

We’re plowing right into the fields for some first-hand experiential learning, guided by the people who work on the farms every day. We start with a morning tour and informative customized hayride through Burroughs Family Farms and we end with an afternoon at E & J Gallo Ranch. There are some surprising connections to our previous story on this website since, on a clear day, you can see some Yosemite National Park high country when you look east from some of these farmlands. And remember the Merced River than runs through Yosemite Valley? It continues downhill to become a water source for Gallo Ranch, after upstream waters are released from Lake McClure to meander into the San Joaquin Valley. And like the previous story, I am using my personal field notes fortified with a bit of background research. All images are originals taken by me with no tampering or manipulation.

Burroughs Family Farms started about 130 years ago in the Berkeley Hills. As Berkeley grew, they paid Burroughs to move toward the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta, where four dairies were established up to the 1970s.  (We are told that Jersey Island, located where the East Bay meets the Delta, was named after their cows.) When the California Department of Water Resources later bought them out, the family conducted a study, which finally landed Burroughs Family Farms just east of Turlock. They became reestablished as a high producing dairy farm, though their dairies have recently shut down within such a punishing market.

This is where we meet Rosie Burroughs. We launch into her world of regenerative practices that emphasize how healthy soils grow better-tasting, more nutritious foods. She immediately repeats a valuable lesson from the movie, Common Ground: “If you take care of the soil, the soil will take care of you.” And from Rosie and the next film she recommends, Symphony of the Soil, we learn that “we don’t grow plants, we grow soil and soil grows plants.” She emphasizes how healthy soils encourage infiltration of rainfall to become giant water-holding sponges that are also more pest-resistant. Such sustainable soil water banks increase productivity while requiring less irrigation, cutting the need for synthetic industrial chemicals that may increase yields in the short term, but poison the land and decrease the quality of yields in the long term.    

The Burroughs nurtured 20,000 acres for the three years necessary to convert it to organic farming and they’ve been designated organic for 20 years. Now, they grow almonds, beef, chicken, walnuts, and various other products on 12,000 acres. But too many of California’s small farmers have been forced to become price takers rather than price setters. Rosie tells the story of how big ag pushed them out of the dairy business by undercutting their prices and dominating the market. Another unexpected challenge appeared in the form of California’s Sustainable Groundwater Management Act (SGMA), enacted in 2014, designed to ensure the sustainable use of groundwater resources across the state. The one-size-fits-all act restricts use of protective ground cover due to perceived high transpiration rates. Rosie argues that their ground cover is actually cutting evaporation and protecting surfaces from erosion in the long run, as they use grazing sheep and other natural trimming techniques that return nutrients into the soil: “One of the ways they protect and enhance the soil, air and water is by growing cover crops. Continuous ground cover with alternative crops suppresses weeds, improves soil structure, sequesters carbon and attracts beneficial insects and native pollinators. For organic crop production, it also provides nitrogen in lieu of chemical fertilizers.”

Though they are busy shipping their fresh farm products around the country, Rosie and family were eager to share their expertise and passion for all-in-the-family sustainable regenerative farming, and we were eager to hear more; but we must move on.   

It’s time to make the short drive south toward Snelling, where we will learn from farmers who work in what seems to be worlds apart from the Burroughs family … until you look a little closer. This Gallo Ranch was purchased by the Gallo family in the 1970s. Alfalfa and apples have been replaced with rows of grapevines. Their three different acreages in this region (Livingston, Merced, and Turlock) are enormous compared to Burroughs Family Farm, as these landscapes and farming economies define volume-scale winemaking. Founded in 1933 by Ernest and Julio Gallo, their family-owned company became the world’s largest winery, recently raking in revenues of more than $5 billion/year with a total net worth more than $12 billion. 

Brent Sams is waiting for us. Brent has been working for Gallo as a viticulture research scientist since 2012. He earned his BA and MA in Geography and his Ph.D. in horticulture and has been researching to understand how fruit chemistry (and quality) changes over time and space. He has used field measurements to test fruit and light exposure, canopy temperature, and soil cores, sensors to measure electric conductivity and elevation mapping, and remote sensing from satellite, unmanned aerial aircraft, and commercial aircraft. It’s a high-tech GPS/GIS environment where updated yields/acre maps illustrate resources put in versus yield coming out. We noted how Gallo employs around 25-30 Ph.D. research scientists on farms scattered around California and beyond. Add paid environmental science internship opportunities. And since Gallo owns only 10-20% of its supply, Sams works with many other farmers who sell to Gallo. In addition to 100 different kinds of wines from around the world, they also sell juice and color concentrates.

We also met Gallo’s “smart” autonomous tractor. This $60,000 investment exemplifies (with an exclamation point) how farming is changing fast in California. Turn it on, put it into gear, and the rest is done remotely, sometimes throughout the night. It becomes obvious that, with fewer farmers and more scientists and automation, this is NOT your grandparents’ family farm.

Like Burroughs Family Farms, Gallo uses drip irrigation, but this ranch is also well situated with riparian rights and prior appropriation water from the nearby Merced River. They also plant and occasionally cut nitrogen-fixing ground cover, but they don’t rely on groundwater sources here. Water reigns king as each vine requires between 10-20 gallons/week, and even more during heatwaves. Pumps are only capable of pushing water through about ¼-mile of drip lines at a time. 

The calendar is also king on these farms. Pruning season peaks during cold and damp January and February and the harvest season runs through August, September, and October, but that has been changing throughout California. Brent provides evidence of the impacts of climate change. Harvest seasons have been getting earlier as grapes ripen faster in higher temperatures. Varieties that require cold nights and big swings in diurnal temperatures have been moving north. Recent extended extreme heat waves are also impacting harvests. So, you might appreciate how the orientation of these rows of grapevines can determine the difference between harvest successes and failures. Rows in California are usually oriented north-south to expose the plants and grapes to just the right balance of sunlight, temperature, and humidity as sun angles change throughout the day. (Hilly terrain, such as in the Napa-Sonoma region, often presents exceptional challenges to these industry norms.) The result is an orderly, repetitious, monoculture landscape that contrasts with the diversity imagined on traditional American family farms.

In contrast to some big ag stereotypes, Gallo has demonstrated it is in this for the long run; they’ve invested in a range of sustainable farming methods that regularly win awards and polish their public reputation. And why not be proud of it? Here are some brief excerpts from their website: “As a family-owned company, GALLO has kept sustainable practices as one of our core values since 1933. Our commitment to our founders’ vision has expanded to not only protecting​ our land for future generations, but also improving the quality of life of our employees, and enhancing the communities where we work and live.”

And from the Gallo Sustainability Impact Report, “At Gallo, we are leaders in sustainability through our enduring commitment to environmental, social, and economic practices so that future generations may flourish.”… “All of the Winery’s coastal vineyards participate in a unique land management plan started by the co-founders where for every acre of land planted in vineyard, one acre of property is set aside to help protect and enhance wildlife habitat. … E. & J. Gallo Winery has led the way in developing and refining new environmentally friendly practices such as minimizing the use of synthetic chemicals, fertilizers and pesticides, recycling and reusing processed water, creating new wetlands and protecting existing riparian habitats.” Perhaps Gallo has more in common with Burroughs Family Farms than we may have originally thought. 

Whether from a small family farm or big ag, much of our food and drink is produced in the Central Valley. These field experiences into the heart of the valley help us appreciate the work that goes into growing and harvesting what we take for granted, and in decoding the lasting imprints these people and their industries leave on our landscapes, economies, and cultures.

A big thanks goes to Professor Alison McNally for organizing and leading the field trip. Other leaders at Cal State University Stanislaus (such as Professor, Department Chair, and CGS President Peggy Hauselt and professor and former CGS President Jennifer Helzer) worked to make the conference such a success. I am forever indebted to the professionals in the California Geographical Society for championing more than three decades of action-packed scholarly conferences that have informed my teaching and writing, including so many stories on this website. This year, I am particularly grateful for receiving their prestigious Outstanding Educator Award for 2025. After four decades of research, teaching, writing, and putting my heart into such a rewarding profession, this unforgettable conference was icing on my career cake. Thanks to all!    

Here are additional sources for those interested in regenerative agriculture:

Sustainable Harvest International

Foodtank

Farmsteaders Documentary

Alison Mcnally also sent these sources recommended by Rosie:

Common Ground – https://commongroundfilm.org/ streaming on Amazon – a follow up to the film “Kiss the Ground”, Common Ground takes a look at regenerative agriculture and the importance of it as an alternative to conventional agriculture. Some of the footage was taken at Burroughs Family Farms.

TED talk featuring Dr. Jonathan Ludgren (founder and director of Ecdysis Foundation) (13 minutes): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=okgGmohpaJQ – 

Finally, another Alison recommendation: Jean-Martin Bauer, who has managed food programs and worked as a food security analyst for the United Nations World Food Programme around the globe, is the author of The New Breadline: Hunger and Hope in the Twenty-First Century.

THE END

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So what does it take to produce a superbloom?

Several factors must align, and in the right order, for a superbloom to occur. The first and most important is rainfall. California’s wildflowers require significant amounts of rain to germinate and grow. And this year we have had plenty.  Specifically, they need a steady rain in the fall and winter months, followed by consistent warm temperatures and sunny days in the spring.

It is that last part of the equation that is the trickiest. If it warms up too quick the delicate flowers can dry out too fast. If the nights are too cold frost can either damage the plants or delay their flowering.  

With these factors in mind, it’s no surprise that the Carrizo Plain National Monument is one of the best places in California to witness a superbloom. Located in the southwestern part of the state a bit southwest of Bakersfield, the Carrizo Plain is a vast expanse of grassland and rolling hills that is home to a variety of wildflowers.

In the past couple of decades, the Carrizo Plain has experienced several superblooms, drawing swarms of visitors from across the state and beyond.  The last bona fide superbloom was in 2019. In most years this explosion of color occurs in early to mid April. Some of the most common wildflowers that can be seen during a superbloom include:

California Poppy (Eschscholzia californica): The California poppy is the state flower of California, and it’s easy to see why. The flower’s vibrant orange color is a sight to behold, and it can grow up to 12 inches in height. The petals of the flower are delicate and may appear slightly crinkled, giving it a unique texture.

Lupine (Lupinus sp.): Lupine is a genus of flowering plants that includes several different species. In the Carrizo Plain, you may see several different types of lupine, including the Arroyo Lupine (Lupinus succulentus) and the Miniature Lupine (Lupinus bicolor). Lupine flowers can be blue, purple, pink, or white, and they typically grow on tall stalks that can reach up to three feet in height.

Goldfields (Lasthenia sp.): The goldfields is another genus of flowering plants that is known to bloom in the Carrizo Plain. The flowers are small and daisy-like, with yellow petals and a dark center. They can grow in large clusters, creating a sea of yellow that is truly stunning.

Blue Dicks (Dichelostemma capitatum): Blue dicks is a perennial plant that is native to California. It produces showy clusters of star-shaped flowers that can range in color from pale lavender to deep blue-purple. The plants are typically less than two feet in height, with narrow, grass-like leaves.

Owl’s Clover (Castilleja exserta): Owl’s clover is a unique flowering plant that is known for its distinctive shape. The flowers are hooded and tubular, with a bright pink or purple color. The plants can grow up to two feet in height, and they are often found growing in dense clusters.

Fiddleneck (Amsinckia sp.): Fiddleneck is a genus of plants that includes several different species. The flowers are small and tubular, with a yellow or orange color. They typically grow on tall stalks that can reach up to three feet in height.

But the Carrizo Plain isn’t the only area in California that offers an impressive display of wildflowers in the spring. Other notable locations include Antelope Valley, Anza-Borrego Desert State Park, and Point Reyes National Seashore.

In 2019, one California location experienced an exceptionally rare super bloom –which is when an unusually large number of wildflowers bloom at the same time. This event drew a massive number of tourists and flower enthusiasts to Walker Canyon near Lake Elsinore, CA, causing what only could be described as a circus-like atmosphere.

The crowds were so large that authorities had to shut down access to the canyon on several occasions, causing major traffic jams on the nearby freeways. People were parking their cars illegally along the roads, trampling over the wildflowers, and even causing damage to the environment that may take years or decades to fully repair.

In addition to the crowds, there were also vendors selling food, souvenirs, and other items, which added to the carnival-like atmosphere. Some visitors were even spotted posing for photos in the middle of the flowers, which contributed to the destruction of the delicate ecosystem.

Overall, the sheer number of people and the chaos that ensued caused concern among conservationists and local officials who were worried about the long-term impact on the environment.

As of this writing, the City of Lake Elsinore, Riverside County Parks, and the Western Riverside County Regional Conservation Authority (RCA) have listed Walker Canyon as closed to the public.

If you do venture out to the Carrizo Plain please know that the monument has many unimproved roads that can quickly become impassible in wet weather.  This is a remote area with no services and spotty cell-phone reception at best. A breakdown in the more remote portions of the monument could mean a long wait for help. Bring water and supplies.

Also, be sure to tread lightly and respect the delicate ecosystem that makes this fantastic, yet temporary, beauty possible. Stay on the roads, do not park on the flower beds and take only pictures while leaving only footprints.

Remember, these wildflowers are not just a pretty sight, but an important part of the Golden State’s natural heritage.

The post What does it take to produce a fantastic Superbloom? first appeared on Rediscovering the Golden State.

That leaves you a lot of latitude for exploring what interests you, pun intended! Heck, the ideas generated by this revelation could start sprouting like mushrooms after our recent rains. Which reminds me …

Today we are highlighting the work of Christopher Campbell, a student in the GIS program at Santa Monica College. In the link below, Christopher delves into the where and the why in California of the elusive wild morel mushroom. The story that unfolds in his text, maps, and photos is as interesting as it is informative. He shows us that we can systematically explore and understand any natural wonder of interest to us, provided we employ sound scientific reasoning as well as basic geographic concepts and principles.

Morels by Christopher Campbell

So, the moral of this story is that whatever you find fascinating — in the Golden State or elsewhere — the science of geography and the tools of GIS can be your guides to securing a deeper understanding of that which sparked your curiosity.

If you are interested in learning GIS at Santa Monica College, please check out their offerings in Geography Program in the Earth Sciences Department.

** Rediscovering the Golden State: California Geography welcomes submissions of California-themed projects from students and faculty from any CA institution of higher education to be highlighted on our web site. This includes, but is not limited to, articles, papers, maps and presentations– GIS or otherwise).

Even if you are working/ studying outside CA, we’ll consider your contributions too, provided the content has a clear and unambiguous connection to California geography.

For more information: info@rediscoveringthegoldenstate.com

The post The “Morel” of the Story … first appeared on Rediscovering the Golden State.

Since this story is only a quick snapshot in early April, 2020, we don’t know how much pain and suffering and destruction COVID-19 virus will finally leave in its wake. But as people (especially the most vulnerable, such as the already ill and elderly) are sick and dying, medical services are being strained beyond their capacities. Mental health experts are urging all of us to reevaluate and differentiate between what we perceive as inconveniences and real problems in our lives.

Our reactions to this pandemic are transforming the state’s people, cultures, landscapes, and economies faster than most could have imagined. How can anyone attempt to describe or predict the final extent of COVID-19 impacts on our state at this stage in the battle? We have an obligation to share at least a few relevant observations here as we continue to consider and research new ways to rediscover the Golden State. You are welcome to fill in the many gaps as we also invite you to explore with us a few iconic landscapes at this pivotal time in California history. All images (unless otherwise noted) were captured from the Malibu hills and coast to Santa Monica and Venice Beach during the first days of the lockdown. They were all taken from legally-accessible sites during early stages of the pandemic response, while adhering to all health guidelines. Some sites have since closed. We are all reminded that public officials are struggling to do their jobs, so be responsible and stay safe.

It is already clear that our state and our Rediscovering the Golden State project, at least for 2020, has evolved into two narratives: before and after COVID-19. The new Coronavirus and our responses to it are rewriting the human geography that we have researched and shared in our publication and our web page.  

An eerie, foreboding quiet has been cast over our city streets and many other private and public spaces, featuring odd AWOL-like human landscapes. It reminds us of those science fiction movies with images of hunkered-down neighborhoods waiting for the terrifying monster to stomp through. This tempts the geographer in us to rename the virus Godzilla-19. Will the monster destroy us or will we destroy ourselves and our communities preparing for and fighting it? After this pandemic spreads so much inconvenience, pain, and suffering, can a new and improved California emerge? If you are reading this after the crisis, you may already have formulated some answers.

As of the start of April, how have 40 million people in the most culturally diverse place on the planet reacted to our state shut down? At first, within otherwise seemingly abandoned cities and suburbs during daylight hours, some families could be seen walking and playing together in parks, beaches, and the other open public spaces that have become so precious to Californians, especially as we were blocked out of those meticulously planned private landscapes that were designed to encourage us to spend our dollars. More recently, officials have been closing even our shared public outdoor spaces to keep the virus from spreading, as some became overcrowded with visitors trying to escape their limited confines.

Rural Californians working in primary industries may have, at first, had to make the fewest adjustments to adhere to the temporary COVID-19 protocols. You might not have even noticed pandemic symptoms in some of the state’s more rural and remote communities where annual incomes and the cost of living are relatively low. The big exceptions include communities dependent on tourism and ecotourism, where their streets and hospitality businesses are left empty and severely damaged.

Common sense must rule as geographical and spatial epidemiologists monitor Godzilla’s destruction and work to educate us about the details. Will the monster have its way with California cities as it did NYC? Will the pandemic quickly infect the densest urban neighborhoods and gradually trickle into rural areas? Will it hit certain ethnic groups harder than others? We already know that the elderly are most vulnerable. Will the per capita infection and illness rates be higher in working class or wealthy communities, homeless or prison populations? Will changing seasons slow or accelerate the spread? Did our quick, proactive response slow (flatten) California’s per capita infections and deaths curves compared to many other states and nations, or was there something else about our geography that made us unique? There are too many questions and unknown variables in these uncharted waters during this uncertain spring, but the final maps promise to reveal fascinating mysteries and hidden tragedies.

We already declare many losers in economic geography, particularly in a state where such activities as tourism, transportation, manufacturing, international trade, entertainment, and services (each worth hundreds of billions of dollars) recently fueled our economic engines to soar over $3 billion, more than 14% of U.S. GDP. Sober fiscal realities become clear when you check the economic specifics in Chapter 10 of our publication: our state’s economy is being crippled by this devastating Godzilla. And the catastrophe is spreading faster than at any time in history: note the millions of able workers applying for unemployment.  

Past mistakes haunt us…again. While California was smart to boost its rainy day funds during the last decade of growth that built the 5^th largest economy in the world, the Federal Government debt was allowed to balloon in reckless fashion. The Godzilla-19 crisis promises to quickly deplete our once impressive state surplus, while the nation’s debt will skyrocket to historic and perhaps unmanageable or even unimaginable levels. We will all have enormous debt burdens that could last for generations and it will show in every future decision we make, from building infrastructure, to supporting education, and from funding our parks, to supplying vital social services. It is too late to encourage the discipline that could have built rewarding household and government rainy day funds. The rainy day has arrived.

Other industries, each worth hundreds of billions of dollars annually, are playing key roles in keeping us alive, sometimes literally. The global epicenter of biotechnology industries is in the Golden State, particularly from southern Orange County through San Diego County. Will treatments and cures for the COVID-19 scourge be discovered here? The high technology capital of the world remains in the Silicon Valley and has spread beyond the Bay Area, spilled in to the Central Valley, and leaped into coastal Southern California. These technologies have become crucial in supporting the schooling and working and social networking from home that has kept our economy from crashing, while guarding millions from getting sick. As just one example, it is no surprise that Zoom Video Communications is headquartered in San Jose. Other communications technologies and delivery companies have allowed millions of Californians to purchase and receive vital products without risky human contact. So it is true that if California sneezes, the nation will get sicker. All eyes necessarily turn to our overburdened health care industry.

The crash in service industries that require human contact and the inaccessibility of many technologies to low-income Californians promises to increase inequities, poverty rates, and the already record gap between the rich and poor. Those ubiquitous delivery trucks that have converged on higher income neighborhoods are serving far fewer working class households where there are people who have lost their tips and weekly paychecks and now can barely afford their necessities, much less pay for deliveries. Smaller, struggling businesses are folding or being gobbled up by those with the capital to ride out this unprecedented storm.

This pandemic offers too many opportunities to reexamine ourselves, our priorities, our neighborhoods, our landscapes, and how we evaluate the issues and solve the problems that confront us, the very topics we have been addressing in this project that has evolved throughout its more than 20 years. We are forced to consider potentially devastating impacts on the most vulnerable populations that include those stuck in poverty without adequate health insurance, more than 100,000 homeless people, and more than 100,000 prisoners in the state. We are startled to see how our living environments improve without the congestion, traffic gridlock, and air pollution that plagued many of our cities when the economy was growing full steam ahead. The pain and suffering brought by COVID-19 offers renewed opportunities to apply geography and “to place California’s human and physical resources, issues, problems, and landscapes in a geographic perspective”, as stated in the last chapter of our publication.

When faced with such a crisis, we are forced to refocus on geographic realities that we have too often ignored. In the long term, unfortunate synergies are growing from local to global scales, such as the effects of climate change, pollution, habitat destruction, the introduction of aggressive non-native invasive species, and our accelerated encroachment into wild spaces. These trends that define the Anthropocene also conspire to produce even more potent future Godzillas than the one we are fighting. And is everyone recognizing the uncanny parallels in our debates about how to handle this crises and more long-term environmental challenges such as climate change? Overreact by investing now and we might save ourselves in the long term at some short-term expense; underreact and we might allow an uncontrolled experiment with unknown consequences to run amok and destroy us. Should we ignore the scientific evidence that commands us to flatten the curve, we risk unleashing an unimaginable wrecking ball into our communities. This Godzilla has reminded us that nature is in charge no matter how we might try to ignore her. And so, as of today, most of our overreactions to this pandemic have turned out to be the proper reactions.

In a state and a world with economies that are fueled by trade and travel and other human interaction, there are many logistical reasons why we can’t erect the perfect barriers such as travel restrictions and quarantines that could quickly end future threats from the outside. But we can work to eliminate islands of inequities that exist in our health care systems, because these may be the petri dishes that nurture the next monster that erupts to produce the next pandemic. So much of our health and survival depends on our ability to – with clearer lenses – rediscover our surrounding environments and reimagine our communities as we view into this new world. Such success will require that we rely on the evidence and science-based decision making that makes us smarter and stronger so that we may better understand these complicated problems and muster the social cohesion required to solve them.    

This is more than our chance to become better prepared to fight an even deadlier biological Godzilla-20 or 21 that epidemiologists warn could attack us in the future. We might use this opportunity to reestablish healthier families and cultures, as the importance of household and neighborhood communication replaces alienation and isolation. Cooperation and community could replace selfish cynicism, tribalism, and hyper-competition for the few remaining scraps. Through it all, our appreciation and love for geography can be rekindled as we become more prepared for future disasters such as that catastrophic earthquake that is in our future. The least imaginative leaders have already forced us to confront moral and philosophical questions about the importance of money and wealth versus life and health, as if they could be neatly separated for conflict. This might be an opportunity to recognize how our economy AND public health are powerfully connected: sick workers operate sick economies; healthy Californians are more productive Californians.

While keeping my social distance in the checkout lines, I have done some rough surveys. Why were so many people hoarding products that are easily restocked by reliable supply chains, even during a crisis like this? After all, farmers must continue to bring their food to markets as it becomes edible. The California Grocers Association reassures us and demonstrates how the supply chain is intact and reliable, so what is fueling this irrational and wasteful panic buying? The other day, I asked the person in front of me why he had filled his cart with so many plastic bottles of water. He blamed it on orders from his wife, but like every other bottled water hoarder I’ve asked, his only answer was that “everyone else was doing it.” Yet anyone knowledgeable about our state’s water delivery systems knows that our inexpensive tap water is usually as good or better quality than plastic bottled water that costs as much as gasoline, except for very few neighborhoods and isolated communities suffering from locally contaminated water (especially groundwater) supplies. Still, companies pushing their bottled water have made fortunes off convincing millions of clueless Californians to waste their hard-earned money to buy something that is already offered to them almost for free, with or without a home filter. Meanwhile, the unnecessary plastic bottle waste piles up in our landfills and on our beaches while consumers drain their wallets to pay for something they don’t need. It’s another Tragedy of the Commons drama that can be eased with some knowledge of geography.

And spatial epidemiologists can tell you that riding your bike or walking with your family on the beach or a mountain trail is perfectly safe as long as you keep your safe social distance. Especially during these times, everyone can benefit from decreasing stress hormones, blood pressure, and heart rates in open and natural environments that can strengthen our natural immune systems and quell our nature deficit disorders. Enjoy neighborhood walks, find a garden, but keep your safe social distance. Still, there is pressure to close all of our calming public spaces during this crisis at the expense of our freedom to stay physically and mentally fit. Conflicts and debates quickly erupt as medical experts tell us there is no threat to anyone who observes proper social distancing in open air environments, while these activities often result in enormous improvements to our physical and mental well-being. What do you think is healthier personal and social behavior?…remaining cooped up behind four walls, or walking along an open trail in fresh air under an open sky with or without your family, while maintaining safe social distances?…disconnected inaction or engaged participation? A little bit more knowledge about diseases and our need to connect to our surrounding environments would help us make better choices.

Geography helps us understand why particular public parks and trails were forced to close after selfies and social media over-advertised them as escapes from the Godzilla drama. Parts of Marin County to Pt. Reyes, Newport and Laguna Beach, and other popular local, state, and national parks and nature trails adjacent to our largest urban areas were overrun and then first to close when the hordes were crammed dangerously closer than the social distance required. This heaps greater burdens on the fewer public spaces remaining open until they are forced to close under a cascading negative ripple effect. Unintended consequences take over. One- or half-day journeys to the open, expansive, calming places have been thwarted by closures sometimes encouraged by wealthy locals who are fortunate to live adjacent to the resources, but who might fear the crowds more than the virus. Tragedy of the Commons revisited.

We are challenged to imagine more sustainable ways of reacting and how we might eventually reopen our state and our lives, especially as this crisis carries on for months, particularly when the curve is finally falling. When the threat eases, more effort can be made to warn potential visitors about overcrowded open spaces so they can be avoided. Officials might coordinate with local volunteers to direct, disperse, and educate visitors along one-way loop trails and other outdoor experiences that encourage social distancing so that all parks and beaches might reopen. Alternating parking days permitting only odd or even license plates or birth years could cut crowds at other public areas. There are many other examples as simple as this one smart sign that read, “Our public parks are open. Please maintain safe social distance.”, until even that park was later closed. If you think these ideas are unworkable, here’s a chance to propose your own solutions instead of sitting back, watching, and complaining.

A wave of volunteers, cooperation, and social cohesion will be required to avoid dangerous congregating in our cherished open spaces so that we can conquer this monster. Our path toward freedom and sanity will require a bold vision and strategy, a labor-intensive effort that we haven’t seen in many decades. It will necessitate unprecedented coordination between local, state, and federal agencies and officials. But we cannot let this attack from nature further disconnect us from our physical geography, from what is really vital to our health and survival, the natural world that nurtures us. Without these herculean efforts, we may become the latest victims living through our five stages of grief over our many losses within our manufactured Tragedy of the Commons in a sort of Godzilla Meets the Twilight Zone landscape and culture.

Visiting any store, business, neighborhood, or public place during this crisis, you can’t help wishing that the late screenwriter, Rod Serling, could have lived to witness real people behaving as the characters in the stories he once imagined for us, the stories that could make us look in the mirror and love what we could be or hate what we have become.

You can see that there are many new and urgent reasons why we will be sharing more of our own stories about the Golden State to inform and to explore with you while we are all fighting together and finally recovering from this Godzilla-19 monster. It is a perfect opportunity to imagine how we can open a new door and live up to our potential to become the state we want to be. And as Rod Serling once declared, you unlock this door with the key of imagination. Stay tuned.

This snapshot story ends with the late Maya Angelou’s words that seem more relevant than ever: “We delight in the beauty of the butterfly, but rarely admit the changes it has gone through to achieve that beauty.”

The post COVID-19 Attacks California first appeared on Rediscovering the Golden State.

We’ve seen how the overpopulation of introduced mules and wild horses have overgrazed and even decimated some wildland and rangeland habitats in California. But did you know that camels originated in North America millions of years ago, migrated, and then disappeared here during the last glacial advance only about 15,000 years ago? Humans reintroduced them during the 1800s until they again disappeared from California landscapes.

Here, we introduce you to Stacey Beckwith and her fascinating camel research project. 

The U.S. Camel Corps

Thanks again to Dr. Jing Liu who supervised this latest map story.

The post Where Have California’s Camels Gone? first appeared on Rediscovering the Golden State.

We discuss some of the history and impacts of these mining operations in our book, since they are relevant to topics in Chapters 2, 6, 9, and 12. This is another example of how geographers and other researchers and professionals must call upon diverse interconnected disciplines and fields of study to gain the expertise necessary to understand these issues and solve such complicated problems. And it gives us another opportunity to expand coverage here on our website for an important topic we could only summarize in our book.

Enter outstanding student, professional, and extraordinary personality, Deseret Weeks.  Deseret was a model student in my class several years ago: curious, dedicated, hard-working, and genuinely concerned about the state of the world and how she could make a positive difference. She carried her integrity, work ethic, and accumulated knowledge and skills forward to earn her master’s degree and complete a research project that would make any geographer proud. Her thesis represented a classic geographic problem, requiring an understanding of the systems and cycles that bridge physical and human geography. She connected seemingly disparate dots with her knowledge of disciplines that include chemistry, biogeography, hydrology, ecosystem analysis, wildlife and fisheries management, environmental science and justice, human health, and economic and cultural geography.          

We are lucky to have dedicated researchers and professionals like Deseret Weeks who can use their critical thinking skills and the scientific method to analyze the complex issues of our time and to solve problems that are impacting all of us. And we are happy to share some of her work with you. Here, you can see how she has shed light on the mercury pollution that has impacted watersheds from Clear Lake to Cache Creek and into San Francisco Bay. These are map stories that help us gain a better perspective of a mercury pollution problem that can’t wait for solutions in this region recently suffering from historic wildfires that have ravaged surrounding landscapes, economies, and lives: https://deseretweeks.wixsite.com/mercuryintheccw/mercury-in-cali-and-the-ccw

The post Mercury Pollution in the Cache Creek Watershed, Northern California first appeared on Rediscovering the Golden State.

We start with the bus ride east from Elk Grove along Hwy 50 past Folsom and more distant exurbs and deeper into the foothills past El Dorado Hills and Cameron Park. We turn at Shingle Springs Rd. toward Four Corners and Gold Hill. This will land us just a few miles from Marshall’s pivotal 1848 gold discovery that would drive one of the last nails into the coffin of Native American cultures in this region.

The Nisenan people lived here for thousands of years among the understory of grasslands that blanketed rich soils and a peppering of gray pine, oak, and shrubs that become denser clusters on the moist, shadier, north-facing slopes and riparian habitats and then blend into the forests of the loftier Sierra Nevada just to the east. Typical of California’s Native Americans beyond the Colorado River Valley, the Nisenan people didn’t practice agriculture. But they worked with nature by using fire and other ecosystem manipulations that resulted in more successful hunting and gathering.

During the 1850s, the landscape was quickly transformed to orchards and vineyards that served the Gold Rush. By 1869, owner Charles Graner sold his Gold Hill Ranch to people who had fled turmoil in the Aizu Wakamatsu province. This would become the first Japanese settlement in North America and, eventually, the gravesite of the first Japanese woman to be buried in the Golden State.

The 272-acre Wakamatsu Tea and Silk Farm Colony name properly reflects the Japanese crops and agricultural traditions that were introduced here. Only a couple of years later, drought, water pollution form the gold fields, and dwindling financial support killed the dream. And though the farm was sold to the Veerkamp family in 1873, the farm may have been the first clue that in less than 30 years, by 1900, Japanese Americans would be producing more than 10% of the state’s agricultural products and would become major players in California farm production through the 1900s.

The Veerkamp family (during 140 years of ownership) set the stage for the farm we see today, as they mixed crops and animals until it evolved into a dairy farm that would eventually face new struggles. By 2010, the American River Conservancy gathered the necessary resources ($3.2 million) to purchase this land with its celebrated history and its potential to educate people about the importance of cultural history, sustainable agriculture, and resource conservation.

On April 27, 2018, Melissa Tregilgas and her husband and three kids gave us a tour of the roughly 95 acres of this 272-acre ARC property. Melissa tells us that she and her husband were interested in foods and how they were grown and they wanted to share the farming experience with their kids. They didn’t take to growing vegetables. But they became interested in animal agriculture. They started learning about animal welfare on a Maryland dairy farm, noting how their dairy cows’ relationships to farmers were very different from commercial agriculture.                   

One calf is born each year to the Jersey breed of cows grazing here. Jersey cows are particularly versatile and docile, can adapt to many different environments, and they produce a lot of milk. The females live for about ten productive years. The bulls become too aggressive and destructive after only 2-3 years, when they must be slaughtered. There is plenty to graze on here until late summer, when Jersey diets must be supplemented with expensive alfalfa hay. Electric fences are gentle reminders that train the cows’ wandering ways on this animal-care oriented farm that includes sheep. Hands-on experiences unveil details about animal health and safety, such as how rattlesnake bites are only dangerous if the animal is bitten on the face.

Grazing here is carefully managed and controlled to increase productivity and fertility, as plants are allowed to “rest” following each graze. You will notice plants such as popcorn flower, fiddleneck, vetch, nonnative rye, nonnative brome, and others resembling wild oats competing for light and nutrients in this crowded grassland below the scattered stately oaks. Dung beetles play important roles by burying balls of cow dung deep into the soil for their egg nutrition that also enriches the soil, one of the reasons bug-killing chemicals are not used here. Carbon is returned by healthy grazing that can stimulate carbon sequestration cycles, decrease soil compaction, and encourage diversity. The Free Hand Farm family has formed personal relationships with local families looking for healthy, nutritious milk, eggs, and other organics produced by farmers taking the long-term view, though these sustainable practices and foods may have higher costs in the short term. The farmers and families are rewarded with more peaceful lives connected to the land in a bucolic landscape quite foreign to most city folk. 

The Bear and The Bee Farm that extends across the street includes experiments with organic produce and a native plant nursery. Produce from there and the milk, lamb, wool, and egg products from the Free Hand Farm we have just toured contribute to mortgage payments and necessary maintenance of the property. The American River Conservancy continues exploring better ways of interpreting the cultural history and providing public access for years and generations into the future. Since a lot of hard work is required to run these farms (try getting up before sunrise every day to herd and milk the cows), you are required to schedule a tour if you want to see this place. ARC, reaching out to find more participants and contributors, listed this number for more information: 530-621-1224.

Wakamatsu Farm is one more example of how thousands of small family farmers throughout the Golden State are encouraging sustainable practices quite different from some of the largest commercial farms in the world. They have all earned our attention in this most diverse and productive agricultural state. And to think that at this site, it all evolved from those first Native Americans, the Gold Rush, and the first Japanese settlers.

It is fitting that we ended our accompanying images with a photo of Jeanne Wakatsuki Houston, author of Farewell to Manzanar. She wrote about her experiences in the Owens Valley Japanese internment camp (a national historic site) on the other side of the Sierra Nevada, more than 70 years after the Wakamatsu Tea and Silk Farm Colony days. By 2018, Jeanne Wakatsuki was still sharing her own experiences and perspectives more than 70 years after Manzanar, and nearly 150 years after that first Japanese settlement in gold country.       

 The late, great California Librarian and historian, Dr. Kevin Starr, wrote the following essay (click the first link below) just before the American River Conservancy acquired the Wakamatsu Farm land. Here, he makes insightful connections between Japanese and California history, the evolution of agriculture in our state, and valuable lessons that can guide us into the future. Note how he appreciates the power of place in his “Wakamatsu Tea and Silk Farm Colony at Gold Hill”

You might want to continue your journey with these other sources that shed light on this place in the Sierra Nevada foothills, a landscape rich in cultural and agricultural traditions and historical lessons:

• Wakamatsu Farm News
• Wakamatsu Tea and Silk Farm Colony (Nol. 815 California Historical Landmark
• Wakamatsu Farm: America’s First Japanese Settlement
• History of the Wakamatsu Tea and Silk Farm Colony

Japanese History and Sustainable Farming in the Sierra Nevada Foothills

Fresh Milk

Grave of Oki Ito

Stately Oaks

Happy Cows

 

Oh Poop!

Grasslands

Milking

Free Hand Farm

Free Hand Farm

Graner House

Rural Scenes

Woodlands

Jeanne Wakatsuki

The post Japanese History and Sustainable Farms in the Sierra Nevada Foothills first appeared on Rediscovering the Golden State.

These eastern slopes that face inland are dominated by continental air masses. Summer’s daytime heat yields to some of the coldest temperatures in the nation at night, thanks to the thin, dry air. Temperatures at select locations (often high-altitude basins where cold air masses can pool) drop well below 0 degrees F during winter. Hardy species that can withstand such extremes mix together in resilient communities that may be more familiar to the Rocky Mountains. Add accessible water and you will find some of the finest displays of autumn colors in the state when trees such as cottonwoods (often at lower elevations), willow, and the rarer aspen ((Populus tremuloides) often found at higher elevations) lose their chlorophyll greens and turn dormant to signal winter’s approach. In some cases, these locations were within view of the magnificent glaciers that reworked eastern Sierra Nevada landscapes during hundreds of thousands of years of cooler and wetter glacial periods.

Thousands of years ago, as climates warmed and the glaciers retreated, plant communities were left to evolve in drier climates. We find their stranded remnants as relicts snaking mostly along riparian woodlands in protected canyons or clustered around springs where they have access to precious water. And if you were wondering why these landscapes aren’t blanketed with the seemingly endless fall colors that spread from New England to Appalachia each season, you forgot the magic limiting factor here: water. Only about 1% of Basin and Range landscapes are riparian habitats. Soils, fires, microclimates, slope exposure, and climate change and other human impacts also help determine the nature of these communities.

So it is here that we take you on a journey to find California’s spectacular autumn colors among native plant communities most people might not include in their stereotyped California landscapes. The time is late October 2018, when the majority of leaves have lost their chlorophyll, but haven’t fallen off the deciduous trees. Our search leads us toward the West Walker River and East Walker River headwaters near the Nevada border southeast of Lake Tahoe, where streams feed the upper Walker River Basin. And once again, we quickly discover that these landscapes have plenty of concomitant stories to share.

In this case, we see how two different drainages start in spectacular mountain scenery and then cascade off the eastern slopes of the Sierra Nevada to deliver precious water to high desert landscapes below. Both rivers turn north, separated on opposite sides of the Sweetwater Mountains before flowing out of California and into Nevada.  And as is common with so many streams in the West, human demands (mostly for agriculture) are often greater than the discharge from these rivulets.

The familiar results are less water for downstream ecosystems and users as the West and East Walker Rivers flow into Nevada and finally merge. By the time what’s left of the Walker River makes an abrupt right turn south and struggles toward Walker Lake in Nevada, there is little or nothing left, except during flood years. By then, free-flowing water must have survived abuse from a variety of stakeholders through several jurisdictions and land uses. Especially during dry years, downstream fish, wildlife, and entire riparian ecosystems struggle along with the humans who depend on these water diversions for survival.

So this starts out as a simple story about how a history of water, fire, and ice have combined to produce some of the state’s most spectacular fall colors. It quickly becomes a more complex drama that involves water diversion and water rights among multiple stakeholders and between bordering states and Indian reservations. Issues involving groundwater access and quality, irrigation for agriculture, domestic water quality, fishing and other ecotourism, watershed and ecosystem management and restoration, and sustainable land uses all float to the surface. It finally ends well beyond the boundaries of our California project in a threatened and protected Lake Walker, a terminal lake in Nevada’s high desert. During more than 100 years of human diversions, lake levels dropped 160 feet and total dissolved solids increased ten times up to 2010 in this water that often began as crystal clear Sierra Nevada snowmelt.

All of these undercurrents lurk among the relatively remote small town America landscapes and cultures near Hwy. 395 where the ever-changing weather and climate, the best fishing holes, and the tastiest homemade pies might dominate local conversations.         

Our images begin just south of and then around Twin Lakes near the headwaters of the East Walker River. We will then explore the West Walker River as it cascades through its gorge and then spreads into its Antelope Valley. 

We end by skipping south and away from these watersheds to find color in Round Valley just above and northwest of Bishop and below the lateral and terminal moraines left by glaciers similar to those mentioned earlier, a rangeland on the northern edge of an Owens Valley with a very different, but epic water rights story of its own.

Highway 395 is the remarkable thread that ties these images together, since all of these locations are conveniently accessible, especially by adding a short drive or hike up a local canyon. The colors get easier to find north of Bishop. Additional patches of fall colors can be found in canyons and on slopes near Hwy. 395 north of Reno, into more remote northeastern California. This would make a good excuse for another autumn excursion into the colors of the Warner Mountains.

Autumn Colors

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The post Searching for Autumn Colors in the Eastern Sierra Nevada first appeared on Rediscovering the Golden State.

But that leaves plenty of spatial error to exploit. For instance, in past years, residents of the Sierra Nevada foothills community of O’Neals cited historical markers that placed the center somewhere near their Spring Valley School. Using the latest technologies, more recent measuring surveys by geography students and others have finally zeroed in on what seems to be the accepted location a little farther up North Fork Road near North Fork.

According to surveys completed by volunteers from Fresno State University (including an official state surveyor) and the National Forest Service and the USGS, this is the confirmed geographic center of California as of 2017: latitude 37°09′58″N, longitude 119°26′58″W or (depending on how your GPS reads) 37.16611°N, 119.44944°W. The residents of North Fork have maintained a sign next to their road declaring their town as the center. Local organizations that include the North Fork History Group dedicated a plaque at the verified site a few miles southeast of North Fork along Road 225. By 2017, it had been replaced by a new plaque at the end of some stairs where you may also find a “CAL CENTER” marker. It is fittingly surrounded by an iconic California Sierra Nevada foothills woodland that includes oak and buckeye, but don’t expect to find much human activity there.

If you would like to go there, the late Huell Howser produced a video about this site: Center of California- California’s Gold (608)

The post Finding California’s Geographic Center first appeared on Rediscovering the Golden State.