California Condors!

Wednesday, February 20,2013

No rain when we woke up, but the skies were still overcast. The hard rains came in about 4 pm the day before, and we had some rain during the night. The newscasters were giving serious storm reports with radar closeups of the “heavy” rain. Sorry, Californians, that kind of weatherperson carrying on usually means severe thunderstorms or tornadoes where we are from. We were concerned about the snow down to 1,500' since we needed to cross the Coastal Range to the west to get to Pinnacles National Park. We plotted a course and decided to see if we could see snow on the mountains when we got to the fork in the road.

After a quick visit to WalMart to resupply, and a lunch stop at El Pollo Loco, one of our favorites when we lived in Pasadena, CA, we drove west across the Central Valley, and passed more orchards and vineyards. There were lots of newly planted orchards that we guessed were nut trees. There were also signs protesting smaller water allotments for the farmers. On the east coast we rant about our concerns over factory farming, but until now, we have never seen it to the extent that we just witnessed. The fruit and nut trees are all pruned to the same height and wires run through the top branches to make the crowns a uniform shape. They are planted in precise rows in the dirt. The rows go on to the horizon. The grape vines are stretched along horizontal wires so that they are all constrained to grow the same height and shape. It takes a lot of wire and staking to get grapes to conform to the same shape. They look like they are being tortured. I fully understand the need for ease of growing and harvesting and the ability to feed many people. But, there are sustainability issues because these crops have to be irrigated. The valley has received far fewer storms than usual this winter, and the rain stops as of the beginning of April. Farmers have had to begin irrigating already this winter, and they haven't had to do so previously.

Providing enough food to feed a population the size of our nation's requires factory farming. The food grown is still being sprayed with chemicals and petrochemical fertilizers, but when harvested, it is in reasonably healthy form. If we could feed people the products of these fields as they are, that wouldn't be bad, but the vast majority of these crops are going to be processed and have preservatives, colorings, salt, sugar and other chemicals added to them to enhance the taste and create a very long shelf life. Agribusiness takes a reasonably decent product that could feed a lot of people and creates processed foods. There are many other issues surrounding the produce and animals that we raise and consume. This was the first time that we have come face to face with the realities of factory farming as we gazed at the rows and rows stretching to the horizon.

As we drove on, we left the flat floor of the valley and began to climb the rolling foothills of the Coastal Range. Three mountain ranges span the distance between the Pacific Ocean and Death Valley; the Coastal Range, the Sierra Nevada, and the Panamint Mountains. As the storms roll in from the Pacific and travel east, each consecutive range takes its share of moisture and less moves on to the next range. The Pacific facing slopes receive the most. By the time the weather reaches Death Valley less than two inches a year fall on the valley. As we have worked our way west across each mountain range, the environment has become greener and greener. We decided to chance the road and travel into the higher elevations and then north through a valley in the Gabilan Mountains within the Coastal Range.

We arrived late afternoon at Pinnacles National Park. Previously a national monument, President Obama declared it a national park in January. The park contains the remains of an ancient volcano which originated 195 miles southeast of the park. Over time the movements of the earth's tectonic plates, which created the San Andreas Fault, split it and moved two-thirds of it to this spot. It was pulled beneath the surface, but in time erosion created the pinnacles that are in the park today.

We selected a site and as we walked to the visitor's center to register we saw viewing scopes and signage about California Condors. This park is one of the areas that has a release program for the endangered birds. We looked up above the ridge running along the campground and saw several large birds soaring above it. Condors! We sat in the campground under the old oak trees and watched them until dark.