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Arastradero Creek
Arastradero Creek is a mainly seasonal U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map, accessed August 21, 2011 generally north by northeastward-flowing stream originating in the Palo Alto foothills of the Santa Cruz Mountains in Santa Clara County, California, United States. It is almost wholly protected by the Pearson–Arastradero Preserve, before joining Matadero Creek where its waters descend to San Francisco Bay. History "Arrastre" is Spanish for the act of dragging, used for an ore mill, where heavy weights were dragged over ore, and "Arrastradero" means a place where dragging is done. In Spanish times, timber was dragged along Arastradero Road to help in the building of the Santa Clara Mission. It is also a synonym for the Altar of the Street Cleaner. Watershed and course The Juan Bautista de Anza Trail ascends along the creek from Gate A of the Pearson–Arastradero Preserve, which is accessed from the preserve's ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Quercus Lobata
''Quercus lobata'', commonly called the valley oak or roble, grows into the largest of California oaks. It is endemic to California, growing in interior valleys and foothills from Siskiyou County to San Diego County. Mature specimens may attain an age of up to 600 years. This deciduous oak requires year-round access to groundwater. Its thick, ridged bark is characteristic and resembles alligator hide. The valley oak's deeply lobed leaves assist in identification. Description The valley oak may surpass in height, with a sturdy trunk possibly exceeding in diameter. The "Henley Oak", in Covelo, California, is the tallest known valley oak, at . The branches have an irregular, spreading and arching appearance that produce a profound leafless silhouette in the clear winter sky. During autumn, the leaves turn a yellow to light orange color but become brown later in the season. In advancing age, the branches assume a drooping characteristic. The tree's pewter-colored rippled bark ad ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Taeniatherum Caput-medusae
''Taeniatherum'' is a genus of Eurasian and North African plants in the grass family known by the common name medusahead. The only recognized species is ''Taeniatherum caput-medusae'' and is native to southern and central Europe (from Portugal to European Russia), North Africa (Algeria, Morocco, Tunisia), and Asia (from Turkey and Saudi Arabia to Pakistan and Kazakhstan). It is also naturalized in southern Australia, Chile, and parts of North America. This aggressive winter annual grass is changing the ecology of western rangelands in North America.Zimmerman, J.R., et al. Medusahead: Economic Impact and Control in Nevada.' University of Nevada-Reno Fact Sheet FS-02-37. It was first observed in the United States in Oregon in 1903 by Thomas Howell. Forty-eight percent of the total land area of the United States is rangeland, pastureland, national parks, nature preserves, and other wildlands. These lands are essential for agriculture and for protecting the integrity of ecologica ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mayfly
Mayflies (also known as shadflies or fishflies in Canada and the upper Midwestern United States, as Canadian soldiers in the American Great Lakes region, and as up-winged flies in the United Kingdom) are aquatic insects belonging to the order Ephemeroptera. This order is part of an ancient group of insects termed the Palaeoptera, which also contains dragonflies and damselflies. Over 3,000 species of mayfly are known worldwide, grouped into over 400 genera in 42 families. Mayflies have ancestral traits that were probably present in the first flying insects, such as long tails and wings that do not fold flat over the abdomen. Their immature stages are aquatic fresh water forms (called "naiads" or "nymphs"), whose presence indicates a clean, unpolluted and highly oxygenated aquatic environment. They are unique among insect orders in having a fully winged terrestrial preadult stage, the subimago, which moults into a sexually mature adult, the imago. Mayflies "hatch" (emerge ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ephemeral Stream
A stream is a continuous body of surface water flowing within the bed and banks of a channel. Depending on its location or certain characteristics, a stream may be referred to by a variety of local or regional names. Long large streams are usually called rivers, while smaller, less voluminous and more intermittent streams are known as streamlets, brooks or creeks. The flow of a stream is controlled by three inputs – surface runoff (from precipitation or meltwater), daylighted subterranean water, and surfaced groundwater (spring water). The surface and subterranean water are highly variable between periods of rainfall. Groundwater, on the other hand, has a relatively constant input and is controlled more by long-term patterns of precipitation. The stream encompasses surface, subsurface and groundwater fluxes that respond to geological, geomorphological, hydrological and biotic controls. Streams are important as conduits in the water cycle, instruments in groundwater rech ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Peninsula Open Space Trust
The Peninsula Open Space Trust (POST) is a nonprofit land trust headquartered in Palo Alto, California. Mission and Work POST mission is to protect open space on the Peninsula and in the South Bay for the benefit of all. The organization has been involved in land acquisitions in the Santa Cruz Mountains, Half Moon Bay, Coyote Valley in Santa Clara County, and farmland conservation in San Mateo County. History POST was created in 1977 as a private 501(c)(3) non-profit organization able to negotiate private land sales and protective easements with willing sellers in confidence. They were created five years after the formation of the Midpeninsula Regional Open Space District Formed in 1972 by voter initiative, the Midpeninsula Regional Open Space District (MROSD) is a non-enterprise special district in the San Francisco Bay Area. It has acquired and preserved a regional green belt of open space land and provides o ... to protect land for open space. References External ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Daylighting (streams)
Daylighting can be defined as "opening up buried watercourses and restoring them to more natural conditions". An alternative definition refers to "the practice of removing streams from buried conditions and exposing them to the Earth's surface in order to directly or indirectly enhance the ecological, economic and/or socio-cultural well-being of a region and its inhabitants”. The term is used to refer to the restoration of an originally open-air watercourse, which had at some point been diverted below ground, back into an above-ground channel. Typically, the rationale behind returning the riparian environment of a stream, wash, or river to a more natural state is to reduce runoff, create habitat for species in need of it, or improve an area's aesthetics. In the UK, the practice is also known as deculverting. In addition to its use in urban design and planning the term also refers to the public process of advancing such projects. According to the Planning and Development Dep ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
California Coastal Conservancy
The California State Coastal Conservancy (CSCC, SCC) is a non-regulatory state agency in California established in 1976 to enhance coastal resources and public access to the coast. The CSCC is a department of the California Natural Resources Agency. The agency's work is conducted along the entirety of the California coast, including the interior San Francisco Bay and is responsible for the planning and coordination of federal land sales to acquire into state land as well as award grant funding for improvement projects. The Board of Directors for the agency is made up of seven members who are appointed by the Governor of California and approved by the California Legislature, members of the California State Assembly and California State Senate engage and provide oversight within their legislative capacity. Goals The agency's official goals are to: *Protect and improve coastal wetlands, streams, and watersheds *Improve access to coasts and shores by building trails and stairways and ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Audubon Society
The National Audubon Society (Audubon; ) is an American non-profit environmental organization dedicated to conservation of birds and their habitats. Located in the United States and incorporated in 1905, Audubon is one of the oldest of such organizations in the world. There are completely independent Audubon Societies in the United States, which were founded several years earlier such as the Massachusetts Audubon Society and Connecticut Audubon Society. The society has nearly 500 local chapters, each of which is an independent 501(c)(3) non-profit organization voluntarily affiliated with the National Audubon Society. They often organize birdwatching field trips and conservation-related activities. It also coordinates the Christmas Bird Count held each December in the U.S., a model of citizen science, in partnership with Cornell Lab of Ornithology, and the Great Backyard Bird Count each February. Together with Cornell, Audubon created eBird, an online database for bird observati ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Eucalyptus
''Eucalyptus'' () is a genus of over seven hundred species of flowering trees, shrubs or mallees in the myrtle family, Myrtaceae. Along with several other genera in the tribe Eucalypteae, including '' Corymbia'', they are commonly known as eucalypts. Plants in the genus ''Eucalyptus'' have bark that is either smooth, fibrous, hard or stringy, leaves with oil glands, and sepals and petals that are fused to form a "cap" or operculum over the stamens. The fruit is a woody capsule commonly referred to as a "gumnut". Most species of ''Eucalyptus'' are native to Australia, and every state and territory has representative species. About three-quarters of Australian forests are eucalypt forests. Wildfire is a feature of the Australian landscape and many eucalypt species are adapted to fire, and resprout after fire or have seeds which survive fire. A few species are native to islands north of Australia and a smaller number are only found outside the continent. Eucalypts have been grow ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Riparian
A riparian zone or riparian area is the interface between land and a river or stream. Riparian is also the proper nomenclature for one of the terrestrial biomes of the Earth. Plant habitats and communities along the river margins and banks are called riparian vegetation, characterized by hydrophilic plants. Riparian zones are important in ecology, environmental resource management, and civil engineering because of their role in soil conservation, their habitat biodiversity, and the influence they have on fauna and aquatic ecosystems, including grasslands, woodlands, wetlands, or even non-vegetative areas. In some regions, the terms riparian woodland, riparian forest, riparian buffer zone, riparian corridor, and riparian strip are used to characterize a riparian zone. The word ''riparian'' is derived from Latin '' ripa'', meaning " river bank". Characteristics Riparian zones may be natural or engineered for soil stabilization or restoration. These zones are important natural b ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Acterra
Acterra: Action for a Healthy Planet is a nonprofit environmental education and action organization based in Palo Alto, California. Its main focus is on addressing climate change. Its mission is "Bringing people together to create local solutions for a healthy planet." Program areas include education, clean energy equity, climate adaptation Climate change adaptation is the process of adjusting to current or expected effects of climate change.IPCC, 2022Annex II: Glossary öller, V., R. van Diemen, J.B.R. Matthews, C. Méndez, S. Semenov, J.S. Fuglestvedt, A. Reisinger (eds.) InClimat ..., and corporate sustainability. In 2015, Acterra received the Tall Tree Award for Outstanding Nonprofit from the Palo Alto Chamber of Commerce and the Palo Alto Weekly. References Environmental organizations based in the San Francisco Bay Area Environmental organizations based in California {{non-profit-stub ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Teasel
''Dipsacus'' is a genus of flowering plant in the family Caprifoliaceae. The members of this genus are known as teasel, teazel or teazle. The genus includes about 15 species of tall herbaceous biennial plants (rarely short-lived perennial plants) growing to tall. ''Dipsacus'' species are native to Europe, Asia and northern Africa. Etymology The genus name (''Dipsacus'') is derived from the Greek word for thirst (''dipsa'') and refers to the cup-like formation made where sessile leaves merge at the stem. The name ''teasel'' derives from words such as Old English ''tǣsl'', ''tǣsel''; relating to the verb "to tease" – the dried heads of the plant were once used in the textile industry to raise the nap on woolen cloth. Description Teasels are easily identified with their prickly stem and leaves, and the inflorescence of purple, dark pink, lavender or white flowers that form a head on the end of the stem(s). The inflorescence is ovoid, long and broad, with a basal whorl of ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
_nahe_dem_Weiherdamm_in_Wildbergerhütte.jpg "Click for more on -> Ephemeral Stream")
