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Saving Natural Lands, Now and Forever |
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Spring blooms eternal, quietly Mark Grossi The Fresno Bee Croaking Western toads and tree frogs make a wall of sound on Kennedy Table Mountain, but they're not nearly as loud as the colors up here. Wildflowers paint the countryside yellow, blue, white and violet in curious circular patterns. The designs look premeditated, like the work of a master gardener run amok in the foothills. But these rings of annual flowers are touched only by the hand of nature. They belong to an ancient system of vernal, or spring, pools that come to life with the rain. And they have had plenty of rain this year. With little publicity or access, except through organized tours, this privately owned spot is not well-known to the half-million people in the nearby Fresno-Clovis area. And the Kennedy pools are not making the headlines in the clash over protecting vernal pools from expanding cities and industries. Those discussions are mostly focused on vernal pools down in the Central Valley. There is no development or industry on Kennedy, elevation 2,100 feet. It's a working cattle ranch, and it is under a conservation easement that bans development. These rings of color have quietly blossomed for many centuries on Kennedy and other table mountains -- decorating these flat-top foothills and supporting rare plants, amphibians and other creatures. The Kennedy table, which began forming 10 million years ago in a river channel, overlooks part of the San Joaquin River on its run to Millerton Lake. It is obvious at this point in spring that the vernal pools on Kennedy are drying out. So are the goldfields, tidytips and the rest of the wildflower show. Vernal pool life, flush with 200 species of creatures and plants, lasts only weeks. "You should have seen it a week ago," said Chuck Peck, executive director of the Sierra Foothill Conservancy. "You need rain and sun, and you need them at the right time. They normally are fading in May. We did our last tour a week ago." Peck, whose organization has the easement on the privately held Kennedy table-top, has been watching vernal pools come and go for years. He speaks with a botanical reverence around here, noting with excitement that he sees Downingia, an annual wildflower with blue and white colors. It occurs nowhere in the world except vernal pools. "The whole color scheme changes every week," Peck said. He and others said the pools dry up, but they're not really gone. They're filled with plant seeds and animal embryos just waiting for the rain to start again. These little water worlds exist in low spots that won't allow the rainfall to seep away. They are found in many places around the country -- coastal ponding in New England, upland areas in Oregon or grasslands of the Central Valley in California. They attract a lot of attention in the Central Valley, mostly because the vernal pool fairy shrimp is a threatened species getting federal protection under the Endangered Species Act. As development and agriculture have reduced the number of vernal pools, this crustacean has lost many places to live. In addition to the fairy shrimp, federal officials are protecting 32 other plant and animal species associated with vernal pools. The shrimp already have come and gone this season at Kennedy, depositing their well-protected embryos in cysts that will hatch the next generation when the pools fill up again. "The goal with the plants and the animals in vernal pools is to prepare for the next year," said expert Carol Witham, who has written a book called "Vernal Pools of Mather Field" in Sacramento County. The table-top mountains in Madera County add another layer of interest. The mountains, or actually foothills, were the course of the San Joaquin River 10 million years ago, experts said. Lava flowed down the river channel, said geology professor Robert Merrill of California State University, Fresno. The basalt flow coated the granite in the river channel, protecting it from natural weathering. The granite hills around the river eroded and disappeared over time, leaving the flat, lava-covered river bottom elevated above the countryside. Those foothills are actually the course of the ancient river bottom. "The lava flow became the topographic high place," Merrill said. Depressions in the basalt easily hold water, and vernal pools form. Different wildflowers begin to sprout underwater at different depths in the pool, said botanist Ellen Cypher of the state Department of Fish and Game. That is why the flowers appear grouped in bands around the vernal pool as the water dries up. "See the meadowfoam?" she asked, pointing at a grouping of white flowers that was beginning to wilt at Kennedy. "It's just about dried up for them. But the next ring of flowers emerge as it dries and the water goes down." Following several cows toward higher ground above the San Joaquin River, Peck and Cypher pointed out larkspur and a wildflower known as butter-and-eggs. Peck talked about how the flat-tops stick out of the fog in winter and present a striking view of the snow-capped Sierra Nevada. For Peck, it is clearly a delight to spend time here. "I even like coming up here in August when it's really hot and all this is gone," he said, sidestepping cow pies. "It's such a different place." The reporter can be reached at mgrossi@fresnobee.com or (559) 441-6316. INFOBOX Details For more information, call the Sierra Foothill Conservancy, (559) 855-3473, or go to www.sierrafoothill.org.
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Copyright 2000, Sierra Foothill Conservancy - Prather, California |
