Natural History Journal

I was born into a world where wild California Condors were a thing of the past - and little more than a dim hope for the future.   But in the three decades since, California Condors have become the stars of one of the most amazing comeback stories in the history of wildlife conservation, a story filled with controversy, pitting doubt and uncertainty against unwavering hope and perseverance.   Today, thanks to years of painstaking effort on the part of hundreds, if not thousands, of wildlife biologists and conservationists, we can once again look up into Southwestern skies and see condors soaring above on majestic wings.   The story, like the birds themselves, inspires. Male condor 602 hatched at the Los Angeles Zoo in 2011 and was released at Pinnacles in 2013. During the late Pleistocene, California Condors ( Gymnogyps californianus ) were widespread across North America.  15,000 years ago, when megafauna like mammoths, mastodons and giant ground slot...

In California's Great Central Valley, wildfires are not generally an imminent threat, surrounded as we are by acres and acres of irrigated farmland.  But that is not the case over much of California's grasslands, woodlands, forests, and chaparral ecosystems, all of which have evolved and adapted over the millennia to thrive with regular renewal by fire. Fire is an essential part of what makes California so very uniquely California . I, however, dislike wildfires.  My gut reaction in the face of what we perceive as "devastating" wildfires is one of grief: grief over the loss of life and the good green things of this world.  Much as I prefer to skip Tolkien's penultimate chapter in  The Return of the King , titled "The Scouring of the Shire," I would rather not dwell too much on wildfires and their ravaging forces.  (Aside: I totally get why Peter Jackson left out the scouring of the Shire when he made his trilogy of films!  But we can talk about that ...