Ready to Run again?

The 2nd annual 'field and 'dale fun run is scheduled for March 12, a littler earlier than last year.   Choose 6k or 12k.  If you are on Facebook, you can check either the Field and Dale page or the Panorama Vista Preserve page  for more information as we get closer to the date.  Or check back here!

                      MARCH 21 IS COMING FAST!  IT IS NOT TOO LATE TO SIGN UP. 

                                                  WALKERS ARE WELCOME

Go to Events page of www.panoramavista.org for information on registration and maps of the course.

Bladderpods in Spring

Kestrel activity

Today one of the kestrels from box #1 was seen driving a hawk off which had been sitting on top of the box. The kestrel pursued it as far as the river and then returned to take up vigil on a telephone wire nearby.

This California Sycamore was planted in 2007

The tree is now approximately 17 feet tall.  Other sycamore seedlings were planted 2007-2008 and were handwatered with kitty litter jugs or water from a small trailer tank until 1-1.5 years ago.  They are now on their own.  The river is a quarter of a mile away.

1992 and 2002 views of the river below the Bluffs

1992 : the riparian forest along the river is a thin strip.  This was 40 years after Isabella Dam and vegetation dependent on seasonal flooding were hard hit.  However, some trees with good tap roots survived, e.g. cottonwoods when the water table was 30 feet down.

2002:  The Kern River Corridor Endowment had purchased this land in the late 1990s from ARCO but no significant revegetation efforts had yet begun as of 2002.  Owning the land was the important thing;  the Endowment was formed on the principle that this area would never be developed.  The in-holding now known as River Ranches (the square in the upper right) was not part of ARCO's property and so not part of the Endowment's purchase;  however, the formation of the Endowment and establishment of the preserve predates development of River Ranches.

1956 view of River below the Bluffs

This is 3 years after Isabella Dam's construction.  Vegetation is shrinking in areas near the river.