Local Ecologist Blog

Last year this time, the Pyracantha * was empty of fruit. I am unsure why the tree is still full of berries. A guess is that the unseasonable weather has led to a bumper crop of berries - Pyracantha and otherwise - and my tree is just one of many foraging options for the birds. A few weeks ago, on an overcast morning, the tree was filled with American Robins, House Finches, and Cedar Waxwings. The House Finch, pictured above, and the American Robin are ranked number 1 and number 9, respectively, in the Southwest and California Regions on the Project FeederWatch 2007-08 list, a project of the Cornell Lab of Ornithology. The 2007-08 rankings are based on 810 sites reporting (9,748 total for the U.S.). The Cedar Waxwing was not in the Top-25 list for the Southwest and California Regions. Anne Raver wrote an interesting account of bird counters involved in the project in last Thursday's Times. American Robin * In a previous post , I misidentified the Pyracantha as a mountai

Seeking an environmental "volunteer hands-on" opportunity in the San Francisco Bay Area? Visit the Friends of Five Creek's Help Green the SF Bay Area! map. Using Google mapping technology, Friends of Five Creeks and its collaborators are creating a map of the Bay Area's active restoration and stewardship projects.

Fuyu persimmon photographed by Georgia during Jen's fall harvest walk. Jen, thank you for this story of your experiences with fruit trees during your "Walking [all the streets of] Berkeley" project . My first persimmon tree "experience" occurred, unfortunately, from inside a moving car. It must have been at least 15 years ago in November or December, somewhere on the San Francisco Peninsula. I do not remember the circumstances of where I was headed, the exact location of the tree, or any other details about the moment. But I have a picture of that tree forever imprinted in my head. It was situated on a corner lot, and it took up most of the front yard. I saw it at the time in the persimmon tree's cycle where all of the leaves had turned color and then dropped from the tree, and only the fruit were left hanging from the branches. It was simple, stark, bold, and bright orange all at once. How could just one tree have so many aesthetically pleasing qualities?

Treeinfo.org was the precursor to local ecology . We found several iterations of the Web site archived on the Internet Archive Wayback Machine . Follow the links listed below. February 17, 2003 March 21, 2003 April 17, 2003 April 26, 2003 June 12, 2003

America's Disappearing Forests - Times video about the devastating impacts of the mountain pine beetle on lodgepole pine forests How to plant trees - Arbor Day Foundation videos on planting bare root, balled and burlapped and containerized trees Majora Carter's talk about green spaces in the South Bronx - TED video of Carter, MacArthur Genius awardee and Sustainable South Bronx founder "Reinventing the school lunch" - TED talk given by Ann Cooper, director of nutrition services for the Berkeley (California) Unified School District Rain garden installation series - developed by America Rivers Cherry blossom time lapse at the Brooklyn Botanic Garden - via Vimeo Cider pressing demonstration - NY Botanical Garden on Vimeo Telegraph Avenue BRT proposal (again) - AC Transit BRT Web site

From "Willows: The genus Salix " by Christopher Newsholme (p. 10): It is significant that perfect specimens of the honey bee ( apis mellifera ) have been found embedded in amber dating back 90 million years, well within the Cretaceous period. The pollination of willows, with a few exceptions, is still carried out by honey bees and, to a much lesser extent, by other insects. Also, according to Newsholme (p. 18), From an ecological point of view Salix plantations encourage a wide range of birds, including willow warblers, wrens, wagtails, and practically all members of the tit family. Insectivorous birds are attracted by the dense leaf canopy that harbours the caterpillars and aphids upon which they thrive. The genus also provides a rich source of nectar and pollen for bees very early in the year when supplies of these essential ingredients are in short supply. Commencing in January, the flowering periods of different Salix species overlap one another throughout the sprin

Hachiya persimmons (in exchange for end-of-season Purple Cherokee tomatoes, from Forage Oakland ) Mu Ch'i's Persimmons - Gary Snyder On a back wall down the hall lit by a side glass door is the scroll of Mu Ch’i’s great sumi painting, “Persimmons” The wind-weights hanging from the axles hold it still. The best in the world, I say, of persimmons. Perfect statement of emptiness no other than form the twig and the stalk still on, the way they sell them in the market even now. The original’s in Kyoto at a lovely Rinzai temple where they show it once a year this one’s a perfect copy from Benrido I chose the mounting elements myself with the advice of the mounter I hang it every fall. And now, to these overripe persimmons from Mike and Barbara’s orchard. Napkin in hand, I bend over the sink suck the sweet orange goop that’s how I like it gripping a little twig those painted persimmons sure cure hunger

Proposition 2 on the California ballot passed on November 4, 2008. The Los Angeles Times reported that California is "the first state in the nation to outlaw confining cages for egg-laying hens." The law "also will ban restrictive pens for veal calves and pregnant sows." Proposition 2 voter information .

The "'amenity potential' of stormwater management" is the subject of an essay by Stuart Echols and Eliza Pennypacker in Volume 27, Issue 2 of Landscape Journal which landed in my mailbox last week. Echols and Pennypacker have identified a new type of stormwater management design which they term "artful rainwater design" or ARD. ARDs provide non-utility functions or "landscape attractiveness"-boosting value. One example, featured in the essay, is Growing Vine Street in the Belltown neighborhood of Seattle. I photographed the runnel/ cistern steps during a 2007 visit to Seattle. The photograph was taken in the summer so the runnel was dry, but the physical design is very engaging. The runnel is adjacent to the Belltown P-Patch; p-patches are Seattle's community gardens. (Aside: This is a great strategy for combining ecological service and food production.) Another ARD featured in the essay is Melrose Edge Streets, also in Seattle. The au

Mint Plaza in San Francisco is described by the Friends of Mint Plaza (FoMP) as "a community gathering spot– a space to take a break, bring lunch, read a book or chat with a friend."  The plaza also manages local stormwater and its design - by CMG Landscape Architecture and Sherwood Design Engineers - responds to the San Francisco's Public Utilities Commission Stormwater Program guidelines.  Two rain gardens almost bookend the plaza. The garden at the 5th Street edge of the plaza is planted with a coast live oak. The other rain garden is located in the center-rear of the plaza. Surface runoff feeds the gardens. The plaza measures 20,000 square foot plaza, but only a portion of the runoff is directed to the rain gardens. The other portion is directed to "an underground distribution system that will slowly infiltrate this water into the sandy soils underlying the plaza surface." A small grove of ginkgoes, one of my favorite spaces in the plaza, i

The scene of Presidential-Elect Barack Hussein Obama's acceptance speech is Grant Park in Chicago's downtown. Here is a photograph of the park's meadow in the summer of 2008.

"On Streets," edited by Stanford Anderson, is one of the street design books reviewed by Eran Ben-Joseph in Places, Issue 2, 1997. Other books in the review include: The View from the Road - Donald Appleyard and Kevin Lynch Livable Streets - Donald Appleyard Great Streets - Allan Jacobs The Image of the City - Kevin Lynch Public Streets for Public Use - Anne Vernez Moudon Skinny Street - City of Portland Transportation Office Streets for People: A Primer for America - Bernard Rudofksy Making Streets that Work - Seattle Design Commission Streets and the Shaping of Towns and Cities - Michael Southworth and Eran Ben-Joseph Since Ben-Joseph's review, other street-related publications have been published. Green streets in particular. It has rained heavily two out of the last three days in Berkeley and much of the water that falls on my block's sidewalks, the street, and driveways runs down the drain or, the rain forms micro-pools on the sidewalks. Here is our addendum to

Our essay about the lecture on war and trees in Sarajevo is featured in the current Festival of the Trees , hosted by Via Negativa . Dave Bonta has written an engaging essay. The tree photographs provided by his brother are very evocative of the seasons - fall and Halloween.

Three trees were sighted in an atrium on 2nd Street in San Francisco. The floor acts as a boardwalk above the tree roots.