STANISLAUS CONNECTIONS

Working For Peace, Justice, and A Sustainable Environment

December 2003

©Joe Medieros

Living Lightly

Rivers of Birds, Forests of Tules: Central Valley Nature & Culture in Season

3. Wild Garlands and Underwater Tangos

The rains have moved the Chinook salmon into the Stanislaus and Tuolumne rivers. These anadromous fish have stopped eating and concentrate on one thing: thrusting their powerful bodies against the current of the streams over and over again until they reach their natal beds. The cottonwood and willow leaves along those same riverine corridors are beginning to yellow and to fall, creating abstract designs on the water and bright lights in dark places. The Rufous-sided Towhee is back in the yard, scratching at the duff, and hungry Cooper's and Sharp-shinned hawks patrol parks and backyard feeders. The winter vegetables are in and thriving, and this is the time to sow native wildflower seed (phacelia, grindelia, owl's clover, clarkia or baby blue eyes, to name a few that we would like to see more of) or to plant native perennials (in our area golden currant, wild rose, elderberry and the bunchgrass alkali sacaton do especially well). These natives come alive the minute the weather cools, and after the first rains, green up so quickly you know their parched roots are singing hosanna. November and December are marked by the valiant river odysseys of the Chinook and by the animation of the wetlands, suddenly alive with purring cranes, frantic ducks, and the whirring explosions of quail coveys.

Amid so much drama, there is a subtler stirring deserving a lifetime of study. If you take a walk today (under a gloriously baroque canopy of thunderheads) in Grasslands State Park, past the tumbleweeds and islands of beckoning willows, and take a left at the first trail to the south, you will find something you will consider unremarkable: dry sockets of cracked earth, clearly delineated pools, full of reddish and rather hairy seed stalks, and some coyote and hare scat, intimation of nighttime drama. When you look more closely at this uncharismatic scene, you see plants germinating in the cracked clay, the first signs of an awakening. What you are looking at with so little enthusiasm, at first, is the most miraculous little wetland ecosystem in the Central Valley: a vernal pool.

A vernal pool is the Cinderella of the wetlands, transformed by benevolent winter rains from a drab lens of impermeable clay into a flower-bedecked and teeming basin often hosting more than one hundred species of native plants and animals. Many of these extraordinary beings depend on the pool's unique conditions and solitary native pollinators and exist nowhere else. Vernal pools come in all sizes and varieties of soil composition. Successive (and profuse) garlands of wildflowers ring the pools as the captured rainfall dries up, and certain amphibians, like the elusive California Tiger Salamander and hardy Western Spadefoot Toad have adapted to the seasonal conditions of the pools to breed in quick tempo to their vernal rhythms. The various zones of the basins, made visible by floral displays, and basins of varying depths are also heavily used by resident and migratory birds.

If you come back in three months, the alteration will seem nothing short of magical: rings of rich yellow goldfields yielding to white, delicately veined meadowfoam yielding to the deep magenta of owl's clover and finally the cool, purple blues of downingia, so that the pools appear to be small lakes in the landscape before you realize the beds are now dry, the water a flowery optical illusion. And people who value the pools speak of them in language reflecting contact with some mysterious, beneficent aspect of the landscape: the wildflower garlands are referred to as "fairy rings" and the pools are inhabited by a variety of "fairy shrimp"; the tiger salamanders who migrate to the pools to breed engage in underwater courtship "dances." After a quick nuptial tango, during which the male and female send each other signals of consent, the male passes a packet of sperm to the female who deposits it in her own body.

Derek Madden, biology instructor at Modesto Junior College and author of Ecology Handbook, writes that "tiger salamanders are seldom seen, in spite of their conspicuous size and coloration [pale yellow spots on an inky black body], because they have secretive habits. They spend much time underground in rodent burrows, under rocks, or in cracks, earning their family the common name of mole salamanders." Yet when the rainfall begins in earnest, these silent creatures honor a tradition of migration to their natal pool, an urge as powerful as that driving the salmon up the rivers.

Even as the traditional overland migrations become more and more dangerous, exposing salamanders to predators, harsh weather, and traffic on the roadways cutting through their migratory routes, the salamanders remain loyal to their ponds and return year after year if conditions and populations are stable. Just as salmon can pick out the scent of their natal stream in an estuary and follow it back to their spawning grounds, salamanders recognize the patterns of odors that make up their birthing place. "Small animals, plants, and soils all have distinctive odors, which salamanders can follow," writes Cherie Winner. "Even if you move terrestrial salamanders far from their starting point, they find their way back to their birth pond," she adds, citing studies in California that put salamanders to the test. This homing behavior is so strong in some species, write Robert Stebbins and Nathan Cohen, "that individuals have been observed to return for several years even after a familiar pond has been destroyed, as by land fills." Salamander embryos are also extremely sensitive to pollution; if the water harms a salamander embryo, it is probably no good for people either.

Historically, salamanders are identified with fire and regeneration. The word salamander derives from the Greek and means "fire animal" because when people would set fire to old and damp wood, salamanders would often come scurrying out. Like snakes, some salamanders shed their skins as they grow. Scientists are also trying to figure out exactly how certain salamanders regenerate an amputated part. Salamanders have been able to grow back tails and even parts of the jaw, liver, spinal cord and eye lens. If biologists could unlock this mystery, they could help people who have been severely crippled.

During a season in which we offer thanks for the bounty of home and honor our centuries-old traditions, we should give some thought to the millennia-old traditions of even smaller creatures, like the tiger salamander, symbol of fire and regeneration, human passion and health, keeper of secrets we have yet to divine. The salamander is just one component of a vernal pool/grassland community whose gifts we are just learning to see even as they disappear, one by one. Take time during the holidays to take a child or two for a walk in the grasslands. Demonstrate the intellectual humility it takes to see a saving grace in the small, dry eye of a vernal pool or in the breathing wet skin of a tiny traveler heading for home.

Sources : Lynn Hansen, Trekking the Trail of the Salamander: An Instructional Guide for the Study of Vernal Pools & Upland Grasslands; Derek Madden, Ecology Handbook: California's Sierra Foothills, Central Valley & Delta; Cherie Winner, Salamanders; Robert C. Stebbins and Nathan W. Cohen, A Natural History of Amphibians; Carol Witham, Ed., Ecology, Conservation, and Management of Vernal Pool Ecosystems

ACTION: Contact the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Services, 2800 Cottage Way, Rm. W-2605, Sacramento, CA 95825 to support listing the California Tiger Salamander as threatened under the Endangered Species Act, or join your local chapter (in this area under the new leadership of Bob Barzan) of the California Native Plant Society (1722 J Street, Suite 17, Sacramento, CA 95814), a passionate advocate for the preservation and study of California's vernal pools

• Read Part 1, "A walk in the vanishing wonderland of oaks"

• Read Part 2,  "Thunderwings and Mightyfins: Nature on the Move"

Winter, San Luis Island

In winter I feel the hunger of hawks
Waiting on posts at the roadside
Waiting on snags along the sloughs
Cruising the ponds and the tules
Fluttering in the middle of a field
Like the Holy Ghost. The black
Fallopian rack of the elk bull
Rips across the waning sky.
I am not empty: in me the rain
Surges to bud the leafless willow
In me the bulb pushes its leaves
Through the yielding earth -
Panicles and umbels -
The small intricate reachings -
Undulating, scalloped, or smooth
Whorled, coiled, or serrated
Mouth, finger, feather, hair
Torn or warm, clutching or
Beating the air - what force
Will tear this racing heart to pieces?
Whose incessant hunger will it quell?

-- Lillian Vallee

Two-Hearted Oak, The Photography of Roman Loranc 
Heyday Books, Berkeley, 2003 

Reviewed by Myrtle Osner 

The title of this book comes from an observation from our daily walks along Dry Creek in East La Loma Park: we noticed that the scrub jays in the park cached their valley oak acorns, and that occasionally one of these caches would produce a small stand of oak saplings growing together. On closer inspection we noticed that some of the large oaks we had thought of as one tree were actually two fused together. The observation gained the force of a metaphor and from it sprang a poem and a photo and now a book." --Lillian Vallee from the Introduction, Two-Hearted Oak

This magnificent book is a fitting book for anyone who loves the Central Valley, or wishes to get to know it in all its moods and wonders. The evocative words of poet Lillian Vallee introduce the photographs, and end the book with "A Few Words on the Need for Restoration." For anyone who wishes to show what our home is like, in its land and plants, this would be a fine gift.

Roman Loranc, a native of Poland, has taken the Central Valley to his heart and poured out his love in his exquisite photographs. It's available at Richard's Gallery and Framing, 1323 J St., Modesto, complete with autograph by the artist.

Roman has generously allowed his photos to be used in Stanislaus Connections over the years, and contributed one of his fine photos to the Connections fundraising auction in September, enriching our coffers considerably.

What you do not know about hemp
By VASU MURTY

Under our drug laws, even the growing of cannabis hemp -- the nonspyschoctive variety of the plant--is outlawed in order to enforce the marijuana laws.

Hemp has many economic uses. It contains the longest fiber in the plant kingdom and is one of the strongest and most durable. It can be used for commercial and industrial applications, including insulation, textiles, clothing, and rope. The fiber and pulp can be used to manufacture nondeteriorating paper using a relatively pollution-free process. The plant can also be used for biomass applications. Its seeds yield oil similar to linseed, which can be used in many commercial and industrial applications. In Eastern Europe and Central Asia, the seeds have even been used for human consumption.

"Hemp. It's marijuana's nonspyschoctive sister," writes Ed Rosenthal. "You couldn't get a buzz if you smoked a bale of hemp, but it's still illegal to grow it in the United States." Industrial hemp is legally grown in over thirty countries. For thousands of years, people grew hemp and prospered. It flourishes without pesticides. Thomas Jefferson considered hemp so vital to America that he risked his life to smuggle hemp seeds out of France. George Washington grew hemp and instructed his caretaker at Mount Vernon: "Make the most of the hemp seed. Sow it everywhere."

Industrial hemp was first grown in Kentucky 250 years ago. It is currently grown in other countries across the globe, including France, England, Canada, Australia, China, Hungary and the Ukraine. Industrial hemp has virtually no THC, the psychoactive ingredient in marijuana. It cannot be used as a drug. None of the countries that allow industrial hemp production have experienced any drug problems relating to the crop. Using modern processing techniques, hemp can be used in place of petrochemicals. Instead of synthetic plastics made from oil, we can use natural fiber and processed bioplastic derivatives. Plastics and polyester rely on foreign oil, while cotton consumes enormous amounts of water, fertilizer, herbicides, and pesticides.

Industrial hemp is very clean, easy to grow and is one of the most environmentally sound sources of industrial fiber in the world. Environmentally friendly detergents, plastics, paints, varnishes, cosmetics, and textiles are already being made from it in Europe. Industrial hemp can meet our fiber needs while also revitalizing our struggling rural economies.

Hemp is already being used in place of trees for pressboard, particleboard, and core concrete construction molds. Paper made from hemp is acid-free, stronger and lasts far longer than paper made from trees. Hemp fabrics are far stronger and more resistant to mold than any other natural fiber. Builders in France and Germany use hemp for construction material, replacing drywall and plywood. Hemp can be used to manufacture plastic plumbing pipe, replacing such toxic materials as polyvinyl chloride (PVC). Hemp fiber is already being used in place of glass fiber in surfboards and snowboards. Hemp could also provide the resin itself.

Hemp requires no herbicides or pesticides and needs much less water than cotton. It is an extremely vigorous annual and high yielder, producing up to five tons of usable material per acre. Hemp seed oil is a nonpolluting drying oil that can be used for paints and varnishes. Some of the world's greatest oil paintings were made with hemp-based paints. Hemp oil is valuable as a lubricant.

New research shows that hemp oil is also a premier oil for human consumption as a source of essential fatty acids missing in most other oils. While activists and patients battle with the government over medical marijuana, an even bigger health issue may be at stake. Scientists have discovered that hemp oil, the nonpsychoactive oil from marijuana seeds, may hold the key to fighting many common diseases. Andrew Weil, a Harvard-trained doctor, regularly prescribes hemp oil for his patients. Here's why:

"It has a remarkable fatty acid profile, being high in the desirable omega-3s and also delivering some GLA (gamma-linolenic acid) that is absent from the fats we normally eat. Nutritionally oriented doctors believe all of these compounds to be beneficial to health. Hemp oil contains 57 percent linoleic (LA) and 19 percent linolenic (LNA) acids, in the three-to-one ratio that matches our nutritional needs. These are the essential fatty acids (EFAs)--so called because the body cannot make them and must get them from external sources."

Weil reports his patients show marked improvement after using hemp oil, noting that their general health and energy improve, as does their appearance.

For ideological reasons, the federal government refuses to allow farmers to grow hemp despite the fact that industrial hemp is currently grown legally worldwide. The current Bush administration took anti-hemp policy to a new extreme, attempting unsuccessfully to ban hemp foods and cosmetics. Erwin "Bud" Sholts, director of the Wisconsin Agriculture Department's marketing division, said hemp "is the most value-added, prolific fiber crop man can grow." Sholts acknowledged that hemp is an emotional issue, but points out that "other nations with drug laws as tough or tougher than ours have overcome this hurdle." The U.S. is the only major industrialized nation that prohibits the growing of industrial hemp; anti-drug hysteria should not blind the public to the commercial and industrial applications of hemp.