Archive for the ‘SCVN’ Tag
The Sabino Canyon Volunteer Naturalists (SCVN) have been preparing a new kit for Elementary School Program, which will be on pollinators. I was asked to provide some photos of pollinators. One of the photos first appeared on this blog in a grunge art piece I did in September of 2015, which I mistakenly identified as a viceroy.
One of the Pollinators kit developers is SCVN member Fred Heath, whom we consider our butterfly expert. Fred let me know that I had misidentified the butterfly —
“The orange and black butterfly is a Queen and not a Viceroy.
As you probably know, the Viceroy is a mimic of the Monarch and Queen.
In the east where there are more Monarchs than Queens,
the Viceroy is a brighter orange. Out west and in the south where there are more
Queens than Monarchs the Viceroy is more of a burnt orange like the Queen.
The one quick way to distinguish between the Queen and the Viceroy,
that that the Viceroy has a black median band,
which goes across the hindwing and the Queen doesn’t have that band.
This mistake is made a lot. There was a billboard that advertised Mexico and the Monarchs,
but the butterfly in the billboard is a Viceroy.
When I google Viceroy, the first picture they show is a Monarch.”
Fred Heath Slide for One of His Butterfly Presentations
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Hiking Douglas Spring Trail — Image by kenne
Tomorrow’s Sabino Canyon Volunteer Naturalists (SCVN) Friday hike will be on the Douglas Spring Trail in the Rincon Mountains. For the first time in several years, I will not be participating. I will miss being on this hike.
A flat start into the morning sun
Hikers leaving behind long shadows
On a trail that will soon disappear
As we start our climb in
The mountain’s shadow, stopping
Only to watch things themselves
Letting the sun and earth
Go about their changes.
— kenne
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October 7th, SCVN naturalist David Dean conducted an advanced training tour of the Biomes of the Santa Catalina Mountains.
We began the tour by meeting at the McDonald’s at Catalina Highway where David provided an overview of the biomes of the Catalinas. Before starting the car caravan up Catalina Highway, David covered the lower biomes, the Saguaro-Palo Verde (100′ – 4,000′), which includes the dominant cacti and legume trees; the Desert Grassland (3,800″ – 5,000′) with grasses, succulents & shrubs being dominant.
At about the 5.5-mile marker, we pulled off at Molino Basin where David lead a discussion on the Oak – Grassland biome (4,000′ – 5,600′) and Oak Woodland (5,000′ – 6,000′) biome. Here he used posters and the natural taurine to cover; Trees: Emory Oak, Mexican Blue Oak, Silverleaf Oak, Arizona White Oak, Alligator Juniper, Western Soapberry, Border Pinyon Pine: Shrubs: Mountain Yucca, Soap-Tree Yucca, Shindagger Agave, Sotol, Golden-flowered Agave, Beargrass; Grasses: AZ Panic Grass, Blue Grama, Sideoats Grama, Cane beard grass, Spidergrass, Bush Muhly, Bull Grass, Lehmann Lovegrass; Oak – Grassland: Oaks & Junipers, Chihuahua Pine, Buckbrush, Golden-flowered Agave, Mt. Yucca.
Our next stop was along the highway near Bear Creek to discuss the Riparian Corridor (Not a biome) where we found AZ Sycamore, AZ Walnut, Gooding Willow, Fremont Cottonwood, Velvet Ash, AZ Cypress, AZ Alder.
At the approximately the 5,400″ elevation we stopped at the Middle Bear Picnic/Green Mountain Trail Head to learn about Pine-Oak Woodland biome where the dominant plants are AZ Pine, Chihuahua Pine Silverleaf Oak, AZ White Oak, Emory Oak, Black Cherry, Alligator Juniper.
Next, we stopped at Windy Point Vesta(6,500′), a popular place for tourists driving up the scenic Catalina Highway. At this location, David talked about the Chaparral biome, which includes Silver Oak, AZ Madrone, Border Pinyon Pine, Alligator Juniper, Manzanita, Golden-flowered Agave, Beargrass, and Buckbrush.
At the 19.3-mile highway marker (7,825′), David leads a discussion on the Pine Forest biome where the dominant plants are AZ Pine, SW White Pine, Ponderosa Pine and occasional Douglas-Fir.
As you can see, David used live plant specimens on his posters.
Ever wonder how Mt. Lemmon got its name? The highest point in the Santa Catalina Mountains (9,152′) was named after Sara Plummer Lemmon, a respected botanist from New Gloucester, Maine, who arrived in Arizona after living in coastal California. Her Arizona fate was sealed when she attended a botany lecture in 1876 led by her future husband, John Gill Lemmon, and the whirlwind romance was on. After four years of courtship, the two wed and worked together cataloging the flora of the West, which would lead them to the Coronado National Forest in the southern section of what was then the Arizona Territory.
A discussion on the last biome in our tour, Mixed Conifer Forest (Above 8,000′) took place at Bear Wallow (8,100). Here David illustrated the common plants in the Mixed Conifer Forest: Ponderosa Pine, AZ Pine, SW White Pine, Douglas-Fir, White Fir, Quaking Aspen; Silverleaf, Netleaf, and Gambel Oaks; Rocky Mountain, Big Tooth, and Box Elder Maples.
In hindsight, I wish I had done both photography and video of the biomes tour. Near the end of the tour, I did think about doing a video clip, which is what follows.
Note: Much of the copy in this posting is from David Dean’s handout, Biomes of the Santa Catalina Mountains
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Park Ranger and Kid at Mesa Verde National Park — Image by kenne
During our recent visit to Mesa Verde National Park, I watched a Park Ranger at a demo table doing something we as naturalists do at Sabino Canyon to education visitors to the canyon — couldn’t pass up taking a photo and watching the child’s reaction.
Sabino Canyon Volunteer Naturalist at Sabino Canyon — Image by kenne
Sabino Canyon Volunteer Naturalists (SCVN) programs and nature demonstrations start in October.
— kenne
“Children the world over have a right to a childhood filled with beauty, joy, adventure, and companionship.
They will grow toward ecological literacy if the soil they are nurtured in is rich with experience, love, and good examples.”
— Alan Dyer
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Hikers in a New Aspen Grove Up from Marshall Gulch On Mt. Lemmon — Image by kenne
In 2003 the Aspen Fire destroyed many homes in Summerheaven and thousands of acres on Mt. Lemmon. Last Friday the Sabino Canyon Volunteer Naturalists led hike was on the Aspen Loop that goes through some of the areas destroyed, now recovered by new aspen and pine groves.
A precursor to the Aspen Fire was the Bollock Fire, 2002 in the eastern part of the Catalinas. Parts of the area burned in 2002 is now experiencing the Burro Fire that started Friday and has now consumed 9,000 acres. The Burro Fire is one of a half-dozen wildfires in the Coronado National Forest. Did I say it is hot and very dry in southeastern Arizona?
— kenne
Slideshow images by kenne
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Springtime In The Sonoran Desert — Image by kenne
“The morning is still and perfectly clear…
How cool and crystalline the air!
In a few hours the great plain
will be almost like a fiery furnace
under the rays of the summer sun,
but now it is chilly. And in a few hours
there will be rings and bands with scarves
of heat set wavering across the waste upon
the opalescent wings of the mirage;
but now the air is so clear that one can see
the breaks in the rocky face of the mountain range,
though it is fully twenty miles away…”
— from The Desert by John Van Dyke
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Image by a Friend
“The most painful state of being is remembering the future,
particularly the one you’ll never have.”
— Søren Kierkegaard
The Now
(In the Zen of the now,
past and future exist as one in art.)
Living for the moment
Creates a false state of being,
Of setting you free.
Forget the moment, live for the now.
Being in the moment is to
Have a beginning and an end,
Boundaries in which you cannot be free.
Forget the moment, live for the now.
Having a beginning and an end
Is to not have a past or future,
Without which you cannot be free.
Forget the moment, live for the now.
Self-fulfilling nature of the moment
Creates a fear of the unknown,
To fear the unknown is to not be free.
Forget the moment, live for the now.
Experiencing the now is to
Know the past and learn of the future,
Releasing fear and setting you free.
Forget the moment, live for the now.
Learning takes place only in the now
Containing life’s recipe (the past),
And future directions to being free.
Forget the moment, live for the now.
Giving of the now
Is to create a future,
In which you can be free.
Forget the moment, live for the now.
Living for the now is to give worth
To the past and value to the future,
A future of being free.
Forget the moment, live for the now.
Living in the now is to experience
Love and life’s peak experiences,
By which others can be free.
Forget the moment, live for the now.
— kenne
The How of the Now
(Everything exists in the now. Live it!)
You are born with the ability to live for the moment, but you must learn to live for the now — The learning is easy, the living is not.
LOVE
- Love what you are doing.
- Love is present when needs are met.
- Love is necessary to live in the now.
- Love involves responsibility.
- Love that is responsible is empathic.
- Love abhors waste, especially waste of human potential.
COMMITMENT TO PURPOSE
- Anything worth doing is worth improving.
- To get what you want, you must do what it takes.
- You are truly the results of our efforts.
- Change is constant — to improve, things must change.
TRUST AND ASSERTIVENESS
- Trust is a basic to living in the now.
- Trust is based on assertive behavior.
- Assertive people are:
- Direct
- Honest
- Loving
- Trustworthy
- Caring
- Sharing
- Purpose driven.
COMMUNICATION/LISTENING
- Encourage people to question and make suggestions.
- Share information and clarify expectations.
- Access to information helps improve the process.
- The quality of the now is determined by the quality of your communications.
- Acknowledge the need for feedback.
- If life is a game, share the rules.
CRITICISM
- Avoid at all cost…it doesn’t work
- Criticism tends to make people feel inferior.
- If you blame other people, they blame you.
- Avoid the use of labels.
- Avoid being judgmental.
GIVING CREDIT
- Praise before criticizing.
- Recognize those who make an effort.
- Don’t take a good effort for granted.
- Give credit only within a context of listening to and caring about the person.
COOPERATION
- Cooperation is making others feel that they count and that they are important.
- Move people from the position “me” to “we.”
- Cooperation reduces barriers, rivalries, and distrust.
- Common struggles for others, not separate struggles for power.
RESPECT
- Respect is based on the concepts of caring and sharing.
- Respect says one has worth.
- The individual is the source of all significance, all meaning and all value.
- One’s true significance is in living life is to actualize the now.
VALUE AND THE ART OF GIVING
- When people feel valued, they rise to the level of giving.
- Always practice the principle of lighting candles.
- Give without conditions.
BOUNDARIES
- You can’t put the now in a box.
- Avoid imposing boundaries on others.
- Individuality cannot be subject to limitations and restrictions.
- Boundaries put limits on improvement
- “Conformity is the cup which holds the tea, and the shape of the cup does not determine the taste of the tea.” —Clinton R. Meek
INVOLVEMENT
- The absence of involvement produces a “them-against-us” mentality.
- Always look for things in common.
- Involvement is the practice of caring and sharing.
QUALITY
- Focus on the now
- Unity of purpose
- Looking for faults in systems
- Teamwork
- Lifelong learning
Lessons for The Now, written December 24, 2000, during the age of the Capricorn.
kenne
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