Faith and Nature

Posts Tagged ‘flowers’

Earth Day found me on the Carrizo Plain looking for wildflowers. It was an overcast and cold with an occassional rain shower. Watching the clouds move in on the Carrizo Plain is dramatic. I’ll be posting photos shortly. In the meantime here’s  photo I captured a couple of hours ago in the Antelope Valley, east of Los Angeles.

The Amen of Nature is always a flower – Oliver Wendell Holmes

The Nature Conservancy turns 58 today, having incorporated on this day in 1951. I’ve been involved with TNC for over 20 years, helping organize and lead tours of some of the preserves, and then providing photographs to help with fund raising and promotion of some of the projects. One of my favorite TNC projects is The Carrizo Plain. This is a broad expanse of land on a plateau between the Caliente and Temblor ranges.  It’s notable because it comes close to representing what the Central Valley looked like before irrigation and farming. In the spring time it becomes a carpet of wildflowers, and a sense of exapansive open space. When I first visited the Carrizo in 1987 or so, it was the domain of barb wire, Peruvian sheepherders, and a few staunch coservationists and researchers. It is now a National Monument with hiking trails, an interpretive center, the Guy Goodwin Center.