- Author: Karen Metz
The end of April my husband and I had the opportunity to fly down to Paso Robles in a small airplane, a Cessna 182. We took off from Nut Tree airport and headed out over Travis Air Force Base and the Rio Vista area. I noticed several areas of yellow blooming flowers, and then noticed their proximity to small pools of water. I suspected these were vernal pools. I knew about the pools in the Jepson Prairie Preserve, but I thought we had to be near TravisAFB at this point.
When we got to Paso Robles, I saw beautiful blooming trees along the streets and at the hotel. The cascading magenta-colored blooms were very striking and tropical feeling. This impressive tree is Robinia ‘Purple Robe', a variety of Black Locust. It does well in Sunset Zones 2-24. I also enjoyed the majestic oaks in the town and out in the countryside and even the vineyards.
On the way home I got better photographs of the vernal pools and also enjoyed seeing the windmills near Rio Vista from a different perspective. Once home I went online and was able to confirm that Travis AFB has vernal pools. In an article on the Travis website travis.afb.mil, Merrie Schilter-Lowe from the Public Affairs Office of the 60 Air Mobility Wing interviewed Jaime Marty a member of the Natural Resources team on base in 2016. There are over 800 areas that contain vernal pools, spread over 81 acres of Travis AFB.
A vernal pool is ephemeral. It forms as an area of collected water, usually from our winter rains. Because of an impermeable underlayer in the soil below, the moisture doesn't trickle down, but remains at the surface until it evaporates. The creatures that make their homes there are specialized to adapt to the changing conditions from wet to dry.
Visiting the Jepson Prairie Preserve has always been on my bucket list. It is one of the largest areas for vernal pools. Now that I've seen them from the air, I really want to see them close up. I visited The Solano Land Trust website and learned that the land containing the Jepson Prairie has been bought and protected by the Nature Conservancy. It is managed by the Solano Land Trust, University of California, and the Nature Conservancy. Apparently, there is a self-guided trail in a limited area. There are two-hour docent led tours offered on the weekend at 10:00 March through mid-May. Please see the website to confirm tour dates. If I don't make it this year, then definitely next year.