Tag: California

With towering fir forests, sunlight oak groves, wildflower-strewn meadows, and steep canyons, the Cascade-Siskiyou National Monument is an ecological wonder, with biodiversity unmatched in the Cascade Range. The rich enclave of natural resources is a biological crossroads — the interface of the Cascade, Klamath, and Siskiyou ecoregion, in an area of unique geology, biology, climate and topography. The Monument is home to a spectacular variety of rare and beautiful species of plants and animals, whose survival in this region depends on its continued ecological integrity.” – Presidential Proclamation, June … Read the rest

Once covered by ocean waters, it is a landscape shaped by geologic forces of staggering power overlain with bountiful but fragile biodiversity. Anchored in the north by Snow Mountain’s remote forests and in the south by scenic Berryessa Mountain, this area stretches through unbroken wildlands and important wildlife corridors, a mosaic of native grasslands, picturesque oak woodlands, rare wetlands, and wild chaparral.
– Presidential Proclamation, July 10, 2015

The 330-thousand acre Berryessa Snow Monument has been called “California’s best kept secret.” It boasts unique and diverse ecosystems that … Read the rest

“The redwoods, once seen, leave a mark or create a vision that stays with you always. No one has ever successfully painted or photographed a redwood tree. The feeling they produce is not transferable. From them comes silence and awe. It’s not only their unbelievable stature, nor the color which seems to shift and vary under your eyes, no, they are not like any trees we know, they are ambassadors from another time.” 
― John Steinbeck, Travels with Charley: In Search of America

Giant Sequoia protects 348,000-acres of … Read the rest

Full of natural splendor and rich in human history, the majestic grasslands and stark ridges in the Carrizo Plain National Monument contain exceptional objects of scientific and historic interest.  Since the mid-1800s, large portions of the grasslands that once spanned the entire four hundred mile expanse of California’s nearby San Joaquin Valley and other valleys in the vicinity have been eliminated by extensive land conversion to agricultural, industrial, and urban land uses.  The Carrizo Plain National Monument, which is dramatically bisected by the San Andreas Fault zone, is … Read the rest