So what?

I revisited Rancho Sierra Vista to get a comparison to see how things changed in the months that I had not been there, on my first visit on the 27th of February the plants were just beginning to grow and blossom with new growth and flowering buds everywhere I looked, the meadow grass was no taller than two feet tall, reaching up to just above my knees. However upon my return I found that all the bright green spring growth had turned a deep summer green and many of the flowers had either begun to lose their petals and wilt, or had already turned into seed pods. The grass was up to my waist and was sporting several grass species that were previously indistinguishable from one another due to lack of identifying features, but due to their seed pods were easily distinguished.

Green field and a fire scarred bush

Lonely strand of cactus with a cul-de-sac backdrop.

At the top of the hill my companion, Jackie, made a comment about how this park is likely to be gone 100 years from now. At the time I shot her comment down, Rancho Sierra is a protected park and green space with a Native American Culture Center in it, this green space will be protected. Looking out over the gentle rolling hills covered in waves of green grasses I could see homes and cul-de-sacs looming ominously in in the background with their cheery yellow plaster walls and terracotta roof tiles, I began to have doubts. For those children who have never had the chance to experience nature, those with what McKee calls "nature-deficit disorder", this green-space will have little to no value, but if this space disappears then how will the future generations ever learn the value of nature? Especially since they seem so fond of modern technology, but technology 100 years from now? We cannot even begin to imagine, as for the plants and animals that are present 100 years from now we may safely assume that they will closely resemble what was seen today, perhaps a few species would go extinct, or a few non-native invasive species will appear, but it should resemble what was seen during my visits, so long as the land is left alone and not bulldozed under and leveled to make space for new housing. This is a form of uniformitarianism.

A lucky shot

 

Because dandy lions

Picture of a bush from first visit

Same bush 2 months later

Ground bee nest, the bees are not visible in this shot.

A little further up the path, more nests.

This is to me one of the saddest things imaginable, especially since I grew up working in and around nature. But if there is anything I have learned about nature, it that it always finds a way. In 2005 a fire came and ravaged through the park burning down everything in its path. On my earlier visit to the park a fire scarred bush caught my attention, it stood in stark contrast to all the greenery around it.

One thing I found on the trip that I had not anticipated, but should have expected, especially with all the local flowers, were the bees. Now when a person normally thinks of bees they think of a hive with one queen up in a tree and stinging, the bees we came across were not those bees. Instead they lived in the ground, one queen for each hole in the ground with the boys buzzing around hoping to impress. I found through the Cornell University website that the bees we came across were gregarious nesters and only the females had stingers. Colletes inaequalis is a non-aggressive species of ground bee that will only sting when provoked.

Picture from Cornell University
 (I did not want to get too close to the bees)

On the same website I found that ground bees make up 70% of the 20,000 species of bees around the world. I was at first surprised by this, but once I thought about it this statistic made sense. It is likely that bees live in laces were there are little to no trees (for example the prairie) and yet there are many flowers present in these wide grasslands environments, therefore it makes sense that bees have adapted to make burrows under the ground (or is it the other way around and they have adapted to make nests in trees?). Looking at this from an evolutionary standpoint it may make the most sense that bees began underground and due to pressures from predators moved their hives up into the trees to get out of reach and to be closer to their food source.

The Feature Section: featuring Poison Oak comparison and Grasshopper & Caterpillar

Poison Oak first visit

Poision Oak 2 months later

Two very creepy crawlies