Since the Altadena fire in 1993, we have been intrigued by fire recovery, and have followed and documented it by photographing the recovering vegetation over the years. We observed recovery after several fires, in particular the Curve/Williams fire, other smaller fire in the San Gabriel Mountains, and then the recent Station fire, from outside the [...]
The Amazing Story of Fire Recovery
March 17th, 2011 by Cliff McLeanInvasives on the Radio
November 23rd, 2010 by Cliff McLeanIlsa Setziol is a talented environmental writer, blogger, and audio story teller. I had heard her many times on KPCC, the Southern California Public Radio station, so I was pleased when she contacted me to help her with an audio story that she was doing on invasive plants. She planned to focus on [...]
Water Savings for Sale
November 16th, 2010 by Cliff McLeanSaturday, the San Gabriel Mountains chapter of the California Native Plant Society (CNPS) had its annual native plant sale. As the primary source of operating funds for the chapter, it is very important to the members. But, we think that its importance goes well beyond the income it produces. It is one [...]
Spring Has Sprung
October 30th, 2010 by Cliff McLeanIt is only October, but spring has already begun in Southern California. Spring is the season in which plants come to life and begin growing again after a period of dormancy. The shrubs begin to grow new leaves and the seeds of the annuals begin to germinate. We have had about a week [...]
Fall Color in Southern California?
October 21st, 2010 by Cliff McLeanTo those of us who grew up in other parts of the country, one of the things that are missing in Southern California is fall color. It turns out, however, that it isn’t missing at all. You just need to look a bit harder to find it. It doesn’t jump out at [...]
Late Summer Garden Tour
October 1st, 2010 by Cliff McLeanLast week, our native plant garden was one of the stops on a garden tour, sponsored by Pacific Horticulture Magazine. Our garden – both front and back yards – is small and, at this time of year, is not full of bright, colorful flowers. But that was the point. When we planted [...]
Amazing volunteers
September 10th, 2010 by Cliff McLeanWednesday, I began a stint as president of the Nature Center Associates of Los Angeles County (NCA). This is the parent organization to the volunteer groups at the LA County nature centers – Eaton Canyon, Placerita Canyon, Whittier Narrows, and San Dimas Canyon. These volunteers are an amazing bunch. All of the [...]
The Russians Are Coming
August 16th, 2010 by Cliff McLeanForgive me for using a cold war movie comedy to introduce this blog entry. I was recently compiling a list of invasive and potentially invasive plants of the Angeles National Forest, and some with “Russian” in the name jumped out at me, reminding me of the 1966 movie “The Russians Are Coming, the Russians [...]
San Gabriel Mountains Weed Guide
August 6th, 2010 by Cliff McLeanAfter the huge Station Fire of last October, one of the biggest concerns of the Angeles National Forest staff has been the invasion of non-native plants into our San Gabriel Mountains. Just as wildland areas around the world are having major problems with weed species from other parts of the world that take over [...]
Rotten Rock
July 30th, 2010 by Cliff McLeanJuly 18, Gabi and I learned something about the San Gabriel Mountains that we already knew. It’s more memorable, though, when you experience things first-hand, especially when you discover half-way through it that you have made a big mistake.
We had been hearing from friends about a little-known spring in the mountains where you can [...]
