A series of free-guided hikes commenced with John Muir Land Trust’s Climate Awareness Hike on Sept. 28, inviting the public to witness the impact of climate change and invasive species on local environments.
The five-mile hike, led by Manager of Stewardship and Public Outreach Ricardo Black, took place at Fernandez Ranch. It began shortly after 8 a.m. and finished around noon.
Located on Christie Road in Martinez, Fernandez Ranch is a property comprising 7,000 acres, with over 1,180 acres being accessible to the public. The property boasts a vast ecosystem within its many hills, trees, and meadows.
The hike featured a trip down Windmill Trail, that contained the remnants of an old dairy farm. It led into a forested area, followed by a trail overlooking the city of Hercules.
Throughout the duration of the walk, Black pointed out many of the ranch’s invasive species; he not only identified them to the group but provided information as to how the species were introduced to the ecosystem — usually by farmers and settlers.
Due to dairy farm operations, farmers initiated the process of desertification through agriculture; that is, depleting the soil of nutrients and water through deforestation. Native plants were removed and replaced by grasses for grazing, accompanied by an increase in invasive plants.
These plants competed with native plants, resulting in local populations facing a lack of resources.
One such plant is milk thistle (Silybum marianum). Though it sees use as a medicinal plant, milk thistle is a persistent invasive species throughout California; it often grows in overgrazed pastures and spreads thousands of seeds during its life cycle.
Black explained how the past three centuries have been marked by a drastic change in land use practices, to the detriment of biodiversity.
“And in that shorter lifespan, we have caused so much havoc in our ecology, and that balance; and we’ve pushed nature to its threshold so much that it’s gonna be really hard — almost impossible — to revert back to that in our lifetime,” Black said.
The negative impact of invasive plants and poor land use has only been exacerbated by climate change.
“With global warming, a lot of the pine trees and certain species can’t handle the heat,” Black said. “Especially with less moisture in the hills. So what do you see? You see more pine trees dying.”
Black stated the importance of weighing the consequences of an action three to seven generations from now; and with that in mind, John Muir Land Trust committed to a return to traditional ecological practices.
The biggest one is fire. When the Spanish colonized California, they prevented Indigenous people from administering small, controlled burns to manage the land.
For thousands of years, this was the main source of stewardship in California. Black described it as the native plants “knowing” and adapting to the fires, both natural and controlled.
“The way we’re going, this will turn into a desert if we don’t do anything about it,” Black said. “And don’t get me wrong, the deserts are beautiful — but I like this right here.”
Black noted fire stains on the hills, indicating the usage of a machine that scorches small patches of land. Black said that, if this proves successful at burning roots, this method might be utilized to combat invasive weeds.
Another method currently being used to combat invasive plants was demonstrated: solarization, which is the process of laying a plastic tarp over a small area of land to heat the soil beneath. This is done to kill pests and weeds.
At Fernandez Ranch, a solarization tarp was stationed near the bridge by Windmill Trail, where it was being used to combat the stubborn hoary cress (Lepidium draba).
Black shared the idea to solarize it for “a month or so,” to see if this was an effective method at removing the plant.
As hikers returned to the parking lot near Christie Road, they were given a parting gift in the form of a complimentary seed packet; the packets contained species such as red ribbons (Clarkia concinna), a plant native to California.
The journey left hikers with much to reflect on: how they interact with nature, what is being done to preserve it, and how people’s relationship with nature is perpetual.
“I always remind folks of that. We are part of that nature. So it’s literally part of us, calling us back in, and we kind of tend to forget — especially the younger, newer generations. Every decade there’s less and less nature,” Black said. “And it seems normal to us, but it really isn’t.”
The John Muir Land Trust’s Breathe in Fall webpage lists two more free hikes in the series, with each centered around a theme: there is the Nature Rx Walk on Oct. 12, and Exploring Fernandez Ranch on Nov. 17. Both hikes are open to the public without registration, and more details can be found on the John Muir Land Trust website.
