Photos by Doug Mandel
Article by Juliet Malik
On Sunday, November 17th, new SEA board member Juliet Malik led a group of 13 SEA and CNPS people out for a cool, fall morning hike along sections of the Sloppy Joe, Canyon Hollow, and T-Party trail complex in West Redding. This naturalist-focused hike started along Canyon Hollow which follows a seasonal creek bed and hosts classic riparian species such as buttonbush and arroyo willow. Along this section, we noted four native oak species: blue oak, black oak, interior live oak, and scrub oak. We also saw examples of four woody vines common to California: wild grape, poison oak, honeysuckle, and clematis.
After taking a snack and water break at a CCC-installed picnic table we headed up to the access road at the top of the ridge via Sloppy Joe to T-Party. We took in views of the sprawling blue oak woodland featuring stands of gray pines, fall colors from the deciduous oaks, and an understory of toyon, buck brush, western redbud, and two species of manzanita, common and white-leaf. We investigated oak leaves and twigs along the ridge to find several species of gall wasps and spotted an immature turkey vulture –noted by its lack of a redhead– sunning its wings.
Other non-plant identifications included California towhees, oak titmice, ruby-crowned kinglets, oakmoss lichen, bracket fungi, and some abandoned cars dating back to the 1950s! Stay tuned for more extensive hikes in this area next spring, when a multitude of wildflowers is expected!
