I'm curious about how the landscape and habitats have changed. Looking back at history is a way to reveal this. We can't really experience anymore how most places in the mountains or the woods or the plains existed in their natural state, because urbanization with all its tentacles has altered them so much.
With a little research, I hope to share how some of these places looked, felt and functioned before we came along. It's another way of observing. And it's important to put into perspective our efforts to restore these places today.
This photo was taken from a hilltop in Contra Loma Regional Park in Antioch. I spent a lot of time hiking in this park to burn off stress when I worked for the Antioch Ledger-Dispatch, a newspaper that later succumbed to corporate takeover, the internet, and a bad economy.
It was from this area - maybe even this very hilltop - where Padre Juan Crespi in 1772 became the first European to lay eyes on the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta, an estuary that was teeming with salmon, elk, pronghorn, wolves and grizzly bears. Today, all but the salmon are gone, and they are in trouble. Yet the Delta is a bountiful farming and boating region, California's most important water source, and still an important fishery.
When Crespi trekked through here with a party of Spanish soldiers, this was open grassland and small creeks lined with trees, shrubs, cattails. From his vantage point, Crespi was able to see large rivers converging in the distance, islands and the distant snow-capped Sierra Nevada.
Today the city of Antioch sprawls up around this hill, as you can see, with a golf course, man-made lakes, tract homes and strip malls. On the horizon, across the Sacramento River, you can make out thousands of wind turbines pumping out energy for a hungry economy.
Yet it was amazing to find, just out of the foreground of this picture, a large active burrow, probably home to a fox that can trace its ancestors back to Crespi's visit.
I'll have a lot more to say about Crespi's trip, so stay tuned.
With a little research, I hope to share how some of these places looked, felt and functioned before we came along. It's another way of observing. And it's important to put into perspective our efforts to restore these places today.
This photo was taken from a hilltop in Contra Loma Regional Park in Antioch. I spent a lot of time hiking in this park to burn off stress when I worked for the Antioch Ledger-Dispatch, a newspaper that later succumbed to corporate takeover, the internet, and a bad economy.
It was from this area - maybe even this very hilltop - where Padre Juan Crespi in 1772 became the first European to lay eyes on the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta, an estuary that was teeming with salmon, elk, pronghorn, wolves and grizzly bears. Today, all but the salmon are gone, and they are in trouble. Yet the Delta is a bountiful farming and boating region, California's most important water source, and still an important fishery.
When Crespi trekked through here with a party of Spanish soldiers, this was open grassland and small creeks lined with trees, shrubs, cattails. From his vantage point, Crespi was able to see large rivers converging in the distance, islands and the distant snow-capped Sierra Nevada.
Today the city of Antioch sprawls up around this hill, as you can see, with a golf course, man-made lakes, tract homes and strip malls. On the horizon, across the Sacramento River, you can make out thousands of wind turbines pumping out energy for a hungry economy.
Yet it was amazing to find, just out of the foreground of this picture, a large active burrow, probably home to a fox that can trace its ancestors back to Crespi's visit.
I'll have a lot more to say about Crespi's trip, so stay tuned.
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