- (Focus Area) Environment
- Author: Kathy Keatley Garvey
On Sept. 6, 2016, it happened.
A monarch fluttered into our pollinator garden in Vacaville and touched down on a Mexican sunflower, Tithonia rotundifola.
It wasn't just "any ol' monarch"--if there's ever such a thing as "any ol' monarch."
This one, tagged with my alma mater, Washington State University, came from Ashland, Ore., as part of a migratory monarch research project launched by entomologist David James.
The tag's serial number read “Monarch@wsu.edu A6093.” It hung around for about five hours and then left.
James, an associate professor at Washington State University, studies the migration routes and overwintering sites of the Pacific Northwest Monarch population, which overwinter primarily in coastal California. (Access his Facebook page, Monarch Butterflies in the Pacific Northwest, for his latest research.)
When we emailed him, we learned that citizen scientist Steven Johnson of Ashland tagged and released the monarch on Sunday, Aug. 28.
"So, assuming it didn't travel much on the day you saw it, it flew 285 miles in 7 days or about 40.7 miles per day," James told us. "Pretty amazing. So, I doubt he broke his journey for much more than the five hours you watched him--he could be 100 miles further south by now."
Repeat: 285 miles in 7 days, or 40.7 miles per day. Incredible.
Fast forward to today. It's the anniversary of the sighting of A6093.
Any sightings today? Not. A. Single. One.
And not a single sighting of a tagged monarch since Sept. 6, 2016.
- Author: Grace Nguyen-Sovan Dean
California's forests have long been adapted to fire, where the presence of regular, low-severity fires helped maintain forest health. After decades of fire suppression, many private forest landowners are interested in reintroducing fire to their landscape through prescribed burns. When planning for a prescribed fire, landowners must consider a variety of factors, including the age of their trees.
A new study from Hunter Noble (University of Nevada, Reno) and Rob York (UCCE) sheds insight on how prescribed fire affects stands of varying ages. The 2024 paper is a continuation of research conducted at Blodgett Forest Research Station following a 2018 prescribed burn. The new findings provide crucial information for Sierra Mixed-Conifer (SMC) land managers who seek to implement prescribed fire in young forests.
For the tree species in the SMC forest type (Douglas fir, ponderosa pine, sugar pine, incense cedar, white fir and giant sequoia), low-severity fire is a natural part of the ecological process. Reintroducing fire to young, reforested SMC stands can help protect areas burned by high-severity fires from future “reburn” fires by reducing fuel. This study seeks to help answer the question: what is the earliest age you can burn a stand of trees?
In this study, tree mortality rates among 12, 22, and 32-year old stands at UC Berkeley's Blodgett Research Station were observed two years post-burn. There is little known about the effects of prescribed fire on young trees, as prescribed burns are often used to treat older trees with more fire-resistant characteristics. However, understanding when fire can be reintroduced to young stands is critical for those in California managing reforested, post-wildfire landscapes.
When surveying trees in each age class, researchers found that the 32-year old stands experienced the lowest rate of tree mortality (78% of trees survived), whereas the 12-year old stands experienced the highest (31% of trees survived). The 22-year old trees had a 63% survival rate.
An important consideration is that burn conditions may have greatly contributed to the recorded high mortality rate among the 12-year stands. The 2018 burn was conducted at the end of the burn prescription, meaning conditions were hotter and drier than is typical. York and Noble described these mortality results as a “worst case scenario”, referencing a previous study that described a 0-24% mortality rate for a similarly aged stand. However, the authors note that a high mortality rate may not necessarily be undesirable if one's management goal is to create a “low-density, high-complexity stand...similar to historic conditions.”
For those managing post-fire landscapes, utilizing prescribed fire is beneficial towards preventing reburns and can work in harmony with reforestation treatments. However, as outlined in the study, burning under different conditions can significantly affect tree mortality, yielding higher or lower rates. York and Noble conclude that when land managers seek to implement prescribed fire, identifying an acceptable level of tree mortality is key, and burning under the right conditions can lessen fuel loads without sacrificing tree survival in the years to come.
Read the full article here: https://doi.org/10.3733/001c.117485
- Author: Kathy Keatley Garvey
When a tiger meets a Tithonia, or a Tithonia meets a tiger, Nature bursts forth in all its glory.
Such was the case when we spotted a Western tiger swallowtail, Papilio rutulus, foraging for nectar on a Mexican sunflower, Tithonia rotundifola, in a Vacaville garden.
It was a newly eclosed swallowtail in perfect form, devoid of ripped, stripped and shattered wings signifying non-successful predatory attempts.
The magnificent butterfly fluttered over the Tithonia, sometimes chased by a territorial longhorned bee. But still it cruised. It raced. It soared.
Spread your wings, little tiger. You have no claws, but you need not pause. The Tithonia, the touchdown, the nectar--they're all yours for the taking.
(Taken with a Nikon D500 with a 200mm lens. Settings: Shutter priority, 1/4000 of a second; f-stop, 6.3; and ISO 800.)
- Author: Esther N Lofton
Hello and welcome to the SoCal Water Resources Blog, your go-to source for all things related to water in Southern California, especially in Orange, Los Angeles, Riverside, and San Bernardino! Whether you're a concerned citizen, a curious student, an environmental advocate, or a policymaker, this blog is designed to provide you with insightful information, expert opinions, and actionable tips on managing and conserving our most precious resource—water.
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Water is the lifeblood of Southern California. It's essential for our drinking needs, agriculture, industry, and the natural ecosystems that make our region so unique. However, Southern California faces significant challenges, including drought, climate change, population growth, and pollution. Understanding these issues is crucial for fostering sustainable water management practices that will ensure a reliable water supply for future generations.
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Together, we can make every drop count!
- Author: Kathy Keatley Garvey
The Gulf Fritillary, Agraulis vanillae, and the Mexican sunflower, Tithonia rotundifola, seem made for one another.
Both are a showy orange. Both are show-stoppers. And both attract a photographer's eye.
Especially when a Gulf Frit flutters over a Tithonia on a warm sunny day in a Vacaville garden.
A shutter speed of 1/5000 of a second (Nikon D500 with a 200mm lens) stopped the action.
"This dazzling bit of the New World Tropics was introduced into southern California in the 19th Century--we don't know how--and was first recorded in the Bay Area before 1908, though it seems to have become established there only in the 1950s," writes butterfly guru Art Shapiro, UC Davis distinguished professor emeritus, on his website, Art's Butterfly World. "It can be quite common in the East and South Bay --particularly in Berkeley-- and has been found breeding spontaneously as far inland as Fairfield where, however, it is not established."
Shapiro, who has monitored butterfly populations in Central California since 1972, continues: "There are scattered records in the Central Valley and even up to Folsom, perhaps resulting from people breeding the species for amusement or to release at social occasions. According to Hal Michael, who grew up in South Sacramento, this species bred there in abundance on garden Passiflora in the early 1960s. It seems to have died out by the early 1970s, however. Intolerant of hard freezes, it still managed to survive the record cold snap of 1990 that largely exterminated the Buckeye regionally!"
"This butterfly has no native host plant in California and is entirely dependent on introduced species of the tropical genus Passiflora (Passion Flower, Passion Vine), including the common Maypop (P. incarnata) and P. X alatocaerulea. However, it will not eat all of the Passiflora in cultivation in California."
"In the Bay Area this species can be seen flying any day of the year, if it is warm and sunny enough."
On this day in Vacaville, it was indeed warm and sunny enough: 100 degrees.