CSERC Blogger

Recently I was surprised to learn that a friend of mine who I have always known to be an avid backcountry adventurer also happens to be an incredibly talented nature photographer. All of us here at CSERC are very excited to encounter his inspiring artistic interpretation of the natural landscape of this region- reminders of what CSERC works so hard to protect.

First Snow in Blue Canyon

Clavey in Sripes

Full moon over the Emigrant Wilderness

Kennedy Canyon

Haystack at Peninsula Lake

This is just a sampling of Forrest’s photographs. If you would like to see more of his work visit his Flickr page by linking to it here. Please remember to credit Forrest for his work if you use any of his images for your own personal use.

I hope that you enjoy Forrest’s photos as much as we do- please let him and CSERC know if you would like to see more in the future.

-Julia Stephens, CSERC associate

Love it or hate it, rain and snow can control our life in the Sierra Nevada during the winter.

In the spirit of the season, here are some lightly educational and entertaining links to winter-related topics and activities for our readers to enjoy. Click on the titles of each section to visit sites that provide great info and images on each topic.

I really enjoy looking under a magnifying glass at snowflakes as their incredible and unique shapes are revealed up close. Snowcrystals.com has some great images as well as breaks down the different patterns that snowflakes make.

Read on »

As we approach the coldest and wettest time of year in the Sierra Nevada, I notice that the shorter daylight hours and sometimes less than sunny weather makes it harder for me to get off of the sofa and into the fresh air after a day at work or school. I still find time to get outside on my days off being passionate about skiing, but overall I am tempted to be much less active in the winter time.

Image provided by Xavier Ambs.

Lately my dog Monster has been especially pitiful when I get home, and doesn’t seem to understand why I won’t take him running in the dark. Feeling guilty, I have begun to make an effort to be active in the cold, wet, darkness of our winter evenings, and have surprised myself with how much I love it! Taking Monster for walks through my neighborhood in the night, I find myself looking up at the sky above and marveling how bright and clear the stars are this time of year.

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As many people who visit Yosemite in the summertime know, the weather is great, the flowers are radiant… and the crowds are stifling. To be honest, crowds are what keep me from visiting Yosemite as much as I would like, and instead I find myself in the less visited wilderness areas that surround the Park. I have a hard time merging my nature experiences with thousands of people, and would rather take the trail less traveled.

However, a couple of weekends ago I was “forced” to put my feelings aside and took myself on a self-guided Yosemite field class I had enrolled in at my university….. Read on »

It still feels like summer outside, but as I am back at college in the last week it seems more like fall to me, and I find myself reflecting on what a great time I had in the outdoors this past summer. Here are some of the best adventures I enjoyed in our local mountains.

Hiking
There is nothing quite like getting into the outdoors by means of your own feet. The farther you travel into the mountains the more you feel the structure of society falling away from around you, and I am reminded that I was once part of the wildlife I now feel so lucky to enjoy. I really like having a destination as a goal for my hike, and more often than not that destination is a high Sierra lake. Here are some of the lakes I reached during my day hikes.

Chain of Lakes, Emigrant Wilderness Only an hour hike from the trail head, I visited these lakes multiple times this summer and enjoyed the easy to access solitude and scenery.

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How many times has this happened to you: you’re driving home after a day in the forest, rounding those winding corners with the expertise of a seasoned mountain driver, when suddenly a panicked squirrel has decided that the best way to avoid your oncoming vehicle is to run across the road right in front of you. Perhaps you slam on your brakes, swerve your car, or grip the steering wheel with white knuckles, while cringing in dreadful anticipation of the telltale bump that reveals that critters unfortunate fate. Looking back in your rear-view mirror you see that this time the lucky squirrel has been given a second (or perhaps twentieth) chance, and you sigh in relief while muttering a few choice words concerning the apparent death wish of certain rodents.

Does this sound familiar? Read on »

Last Saturday CSERC staff and members, Summerville High School Ecology Club, and Stanislaus Forest employees gathered at Long John’s Meadow just north of Cherry Lake for an incredibly productive day of meadow restoration work. Projects like this are so rewarding for volunteers as they help out in different phases of the project and get to see it through from beginning to “completion”. Here is a little background on this particular restoration project.

Long John’s Meadow has been severely damaged over the years by a combination of environmental effects, from wildfires, to salvage logging, and more. As a result the normal movement of the water table was drastically altered, shifting from moving over the meadow in a wide and shallow flow, to a constricted flow that had formed a deep and narrow gully.

(image by Tracy Weddle, Stanislaus National Forest)
This is the gully in Long John’s Meadow, pre-restoration. Clearly this is a meadow in need of help!

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As a student of Geography at CSU Stanislaus, a large part of my studies focuses on the subject of sustainability and how humans impact the natural balance of life on Earth. Much of what I read describes the damage we have done to the environment and what we should be doing differently, and I find myself starting to feel hopeless and helpless about our situation. When you look at the situation globally it can feel like there is so much that has to happen to make the shift towards a sustainable planet that perhaps it is hopeless. However, if we focus at a local and regional level we can start to make a difference that can spread outwards as we create the shift towards sustainability.

Here is a list of things that I have come up with that we can start doing right now to make a positive difference in our community. Please feel free to add to it or suggest your own version!

1. Grow and/or buy your food locally

I know this is largely budget dependent for many of us, including myself. But mega-farms employ few people, use tons of chemical pesticides and fertilizers, use excessive amounts of water, and have to be transported long distances by fossil-fuel burning trucks. When you grow your own food or buy directly from a local farm, you know much more about how your food was grown and it was likely done in a more sustainable manner.

Read on »

It’s that time of year where I have to put my skis away for another long summer (sigh). Fortunately, spring is kind to me and sends comfort in the blankets of wildflowers that now cover our foothills, and are beginning their seasonal creep up the sides of our mountains. Stalking wildflowers and reveling in their beauty comes high up on my list of obsessions.

Yesterday, my classmate Mae and I paused outside of Knight’s Ferry on Highway 108 to do some field observations for our Geomorphology class, but were quickly distracted by the rainbows of lupine, poppies, vetch, and popcorn flower to name a few of the flowers that are in full bloom in that location.

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I find it interesting that Tuolumne County offers so much in scenic beauty and natural value, and yet remains a relatively unknown region of the Sierra Nevada. Whenever I try to describe where I live to someone from out of town, it seems like 7 out of 10 times the person has never heard of Tuolumne County, and even more so if the person is from out of state. I must admit, I am relatively new to this region, having moved here just over three years ago, but now that I live here I find it hard to imagine living anywhere else. SO… as a patriot to my beautiful region, I thought that I would present a short list that can be used the next time someone is trying to tell a friend what is so great about being from Tuolumne County… from the perspective of a lover of the outdoors!

1. A significant portion of Yosemite National Park, one of the crown jewels of the Sierra Nevada (including the Grand Canyon of the Tuolumne River above Hetch Hechy reservoir) is located within our county.

Grand Canyon of the Tuolumne River

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