changing forget-me-not ~ 05/01/14 ~ Fort Ord

changing forget-me-not

Myosotis discolor

Boraginaceae

Gush.  This is my favorite new flower.  I don't care that it's non-native.  I love the three colors of blooms on one flower stalk.  The yellow petals turn blue and other parts turn red as they age.  I don't know how they explain the white.  The freshest bloom?  It's really tiny and so sweet.  It looks like it belongs on something girly, like old-fashioned stationery.

fire poppy ~ 05/01/14 ~ Fort Ord

fire poppy

Papaver californicum
Papaveraceae

As we were driving out of Fort Ord, I spotted a few tall orange blooms in the fire break.  I mentioned to David Styer that I thought I saw some wind poppies, particularly since they were going at Pinnacles 2 days ago.  David has been monitoring blooms at Fort Ord on a near daily basis since 1996, and he's never recorded wind poppies before.  So, of course, we had to stop. Nope.  They're obviously fire poppies, which I was happy to finally see up close.  David was surprised to see them here.  He speculated that Fort Ord's fire break management practices created conditions that mimicked a fire.  I dunno if those rules about fire always hold true, because I have some young Monterey pines blocking my view of the Bay and there hasn't been a fire here in a very long time, if ever.  I'm guessing the crazy hot weather we're having caused these poppies to pop.

There's also some mistaken identity online, switching the fire and wind poppies.  They're really quite easy to tell apart up close.  Note the light color at the base of the fire poppy petals, compared to the dark base of the wind poppy petals.  Filaments (stringy stuff) match the petal base color in each flower, and both have yellow anthers (pollen ends).  Here are Jepson eFlora descriptions of P. californicum (fire poppy) and P. heterophyllum (wind poppy) for those who want to read up.  Oh, and those leaves close to the ground belong to poison-oak.

Speaking of fires...  last October there was a "controlled" burned for munitions removal on Army Lands as part of the transfer to existing BLM Lands/National Monument (I'm still not used to the new designation).  I say "controlled" because it did get out of control, but that's another story. Eh-hem.  Once again, BRAC is offering behind-the-scenes walking tours of the burned area on Saturday, May 17, 2014 (click the link to register).  David and his wife Jane will lead the guided nature walks with BRAC Cleanup staff.  Andy and I have gone the past 3 years.  I didn't blog about it last year, even though I took copious notes and photos.  There could be a ton of fire poppies, since the burn was just last year... or not.  The severe drought has thrown a big question mark into the spring wildflower predictions.  However, many plants are surprising us with their extremely quick vigor. Who knows what'll happen in 16 days' time?

ps 05/03/14 - David got a preview of the closed area for the tour and fire poppies are blooming.  Yay!

habitat ~ 05/28/12 ~ Fort Ord National Monument

Fort Ord National Monument

May 28, 2012

I've been going out to Fort Ord several times this month of May with various groups and guides. I hope to post more pictures from other outings, so keep an eye on the newest (backdated) entry section above if you don't subscribe to my blog.

This particular outing on Memorial Day was with Dr. David Styer, the 9+ year volunteer who has kept an impressive plant list and has an intimate knowledge of Fort Ord. He goes out every single day and walks a small section and records every blooming plant he sees. I first remember meeting him and his wife Jane on April 1 of this year when Andy and I happened to be out hiking. Apparently, they were both out on the same Army Lands tour that we took last year, but I don't remember particularly meeting them.

The first and last photos above are different views of Mudhen Lake. I questioned David about the difference between lakes and ponds. We talked about the varying temperature differences bottom to top for what qualifies as a lake or a pond. Considering the border plants, I personally view this water feature as a pond. He says a couple years ago this lake/pond dried up completely like a vernal pool. Go figure. For a prettier picture of Mudhen Lake when it had more water, take a look at the 4th  photo from the local BLM office site.

Mudhen Lake is significant for Dr. Styer and by extension Fort Ord National Monument. When I first met David, he told me how he "inherited" the original plant list from Charles "Chuck" Haugen. It was during a volunteer outing pulling invasive weeds when Chuck was stung several times by yellowjackets. He went into anaphylactic shock and died here at Mudhen Lake. David clearly remembers that day, because he was also pulling weeds and knew Chuck well. There is an interpretive sign in memoriam Chuck and his service, which I just posted. I wonder if Chuck was the last to die in service at Fort Ord. It was a good reminder of the more general meaning of Memorial Day.

the Spirit of Service ~ 05/19/12 ~ Fort Ord National Monument

Charles "Chuck" Haugen

Mudhen Lake

Fort Ord National Monument
May 19, 2012

I took the opportunity right after this year's Fort Ord Army Lands tour (posts yet to come) to drive down Eucalyptus Road to Jacks Road, which were open to the public due to the dedication ceremony for the Fort Ord National Monument that was being held at the same time. I was too late for the ceremony, but it was nice to drive to a location that I have never hiked from the BLM Creekside entrance to Fort Ord. I talk about Chuck's significance for Dr. David Styer in another post from May 28, 2012.

habitat ~ 05/11/12 ~ Fort Ord National Monument

Fort Ord National Monument
aka on Nature ID as Fort Ord - BLM InterGarrison and Fort Ord - BLM Creekside
and eventually parts of Fort Ord - Army Lands
May 11, 2012

This was a most unusual excursion for me, hence why I'm publishing this habitat post before the specific IDs. The IDs will follow in the coming days and will be linked in the section above or scrolled down to be read below.

On April 20, 2012, President Barack Obama signed a proclamation to designate the Fort Ord BLM and Army Lands (only the areas set for open space) as a National Monument. I've linked to all my location posts above that will be included in this new moniker. Plus, there's already a 3-year-old Fort Ord Dunes State Park, and the local California State University, Monterey Bay (CSUMB) has been around for 17 years on former Army Lands. And as I learned recently, there's a University of California Fort Ord Natural Reserve (UC Natural Reserves) managed by the University of California, Santa Cruz (UCSC). However, the rest of the former Fort Ord Army Lands (almost half; it was a very big place) is set for housing and commercial use across city borders and county lands, which continues to create endless local controversy.

Then, yes, despite my protests over the years, I have finally joined a group - the Monterey Bay Chapter (MBC - my acronym) of the California Native Plant Society (CNPS). I've already been to my first monthly meeting and found the people to be very sociable, knowledgeable, and (pardon if I offend anyone) not all as old as I thought they'd be. They threw out scientific names that left my head spinning, but I was surprised at how much I already knew from doing Nature ID. I've thought about why I decided to join this "society" as affable Brian LeNeve pointed out while I proclaimed my hesitation to join any group. Truth be told, thanks to webmaster Chris Hauser, who redesigned the local chapter's website, I easily discovered the calendar of the hikes local CNPS members have, often on private land. Oooh! As you'll notice, about 95% of my locations on Nature ID are from publicly accessible lands. Private access and discount on books convinced me to throw in my $45 for the year. So, there you have it.

As a result, this hike was posted on the calendar as being led by California State University, San Luis Obispo (Cal Poly SLO; there's also a Cal Poly Pomona) professors David Keil and Matt Ritter. I signed up and was told that Bruce Delgado (BLM Botanist and Marina Major - hmm, he'll readily admit that he tries to stay out of conflicts of interest since the city of Marina gets part of the Fort Ord lands) would lead us to the current best vernal pool spots. Little did I suspect that at least 20 Cal Poly undergrads, numerous UCSC grad students, and various other professional folks would also be in attendance. We all rode in a big red fancy bus during the tour with a couple stops here and there. I didn't speak to Dr. Keil (Emeritus Professor), but he is admired by many. Dr. Ritter (Associate Professor) seemed to be absorbing all the information presented as if he were a student. Most of the plant information came from 9-year+ volunteer David Styer, who, in his words, "keeps the official plant list for Fort Ord", which numbers at around 900 species so far. Unfortunately, it is not all included in the official 2012 MBC CNPS Fort Ord BLM Area, Seaside and Marina plant list. I happened to meet Dr. Styer (a former math professor) previously while hiking from the InterGarrison entrance on April 1, 2012 (posts not up on Nature ID, yet).

Matt introduced this tour as the 100th year inaugural phytogeographical excursion of the California Botanical Society (CBS), which are also known as phyto-jogs. There will be 5 phyto-jogs this year across CA. Although, I believe there's already been a joint SoCal chapters' CNPS phyto-jog done down in Rancho Santa Ana Botanic Garden this past March 10th. I'm still trying to figure out the difference between CBS and CNPS.

Butterfly Valley
the most diverse vernal pool and mima mound area at Fort Ord

I believe this mima mound area of Butterfly Valley is off-limits to the public and is on cleared Army Lands. The trail down to it is covered with branches to keep the mountain bikers out. It's also where they trap wild California pigs. I'd hate to be the volunteer who has to carry the several hundred pound dead pig up the hill over the bramble of branches. I'll post special IDs from this location later.

Engineer Canyon Road

David Styer said through his many years of taking inventory, he's found the north-facing slopes seem to have more diversity. He's separated out Fort Ord into around 70 sectors merely based on divisions by roads, not habitats. According to Dr. Styer, this part of Engineer Canyon Road (which is close to where Andy and I used to access Fort Ord before the Creekside entrance was built) has the most plant diversity than any of his other sectors. One of the grad students is hoping to describe a new Fritillaria sp. from here. I'm going to contact him to see if it's okay to post pictures of a plant he's yet to officially describe. If you click on the picture above, there's a fellow with a large white plastic bag filled with collected plants. While some were picking and pressing plants for additions to herbaria collections, I noticed several students simply making cute little bouquets of rare flowers. Seeing the quickly wilting bouquets disturbed my sensibilities, because I was taught never to pick wildflowers.

view of Toro County Park and Mt. Toro

Several of my Fort Ord habitat posts feature vistas of Toro County Park and Mt. Toro in the distance. I have yet to visit either place. Once or twice a winter, including late this past dry winter, Mt. Toro is dusted with snow, which is quite beautiful. It can best be seen from a boat on the Monterey Bay but also from the Hwy 68 ramp off Hwy 1 towards Salinas and, eh-hem, our kitchen window. My favorite view is during peak spring green, like it was on March 14, 2009.

Um, have you read this far, yet? So, I have a dilemma, and I hope to hear some feedback. We signed up for another Fort Ord Army Lands tour for this next Saturday, like we did last year. Unfortunately, the dedication ceremony for the Fort Ord National Monument will be held within the same time and almost at the same place (map to ceremony, but reservations were needed). This seemed like poor coordination between all the different agencies involved. Oh, did I mention it will also be CSUMB's graduation ceremony day? The traffic will be unusually heavy. Andy and I are undecided about which event to attend. We've done the Army Lands burned area tour already, but it would be nice to see the changes after a year, especially after an unusually dry winter. Then, again, how often is a place designated as a National Monument? The ceremony could be really boring with a bunch of endless speeches without any real information. Your opinion?