National Drought Mitigation Center
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National Drought Mitigation Center
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Ventura County, California, poor drinking water quality, water restrictions
9/18/2014 10:10:03 PM



CATEGORIES:
Agriculture
Fire
Plants & Wildlife
Relief, Response & Restrictions
Water Supply & Quality
AFFECTED AREAS:
Ventura County, CA

Start Date: 3/15/2014 - End Date: 9/14/2014
The last six months have brought only 1.13" of rain to my area. This area is the Boy Scout Camp Road area of Lockwood Valley in North-East Ventura County. The impact is tremendous to my property and to the wildlife. Several varieties of wildflowers never germinated this year, or if they did, there were no blooms: penstemons (wild snapdragons), lupins, clover, goldenrod, rattlesnake weed, bladder pods, cat tails, and domestic daffodils and tulips and iris didn't sprout or bloom. The canyon/scrub oaks produced no acorns this year, the manzanita produced no nuts. Oddly, the pinion pines produced a very small amount of viable nuts. I now believe that the pinions are on a two to four year cycle of nut production, and it's the quantity of nuts produced that is dependent on precipitation. More small gray fox (kit fox?) were killed on roads last fall, than I have ever seen in the past 14 years living in this area. Rabbit numbers have reduced tremendously, and even the coyotes are hunting in other areas, since we hear their howls rarely now. Scrub jays and stellar jays rarely visit my property now. My property is along the northern edge of the Day Fire's devastation, and there is still very little vegetation found in the burned out areas, despite the fact that it has been eight years since the Day Fire. Tiny pine trees and seedlings have all perished. There are no more one to three year old pine trees on my property. The vegetation is so sparse that very little of my property has ground cover now. I used to have at least some grasses (dead or alive) that provided erosion control on the exposed areas. Now, I fear that heavy rainfall will erode most of my exposed topsoil. Since there has been almost no regeneration of the forest destroyed by the Day Fire, it's clear that this danger exists for most of the forest land between Piru and Lockwood Valley. About 1/3 to 1/2 of the trees killed by the day fires, but those left standing remain standing. The fallen trees roots are termite ridden. That seems to be the only insect thriving, other than bark beetles. There were very very few wasps, gnats, dragonflies, butterflies, flies, june bugs and similar beetles, but no difference in scorpions, and similar desert insects. This summer, the cicadas emerged and their chirps were deafening in the forest, but this only lasted a few weeks, then it was silent again. There was an extreme number of bark beetles on my property last fall and this spring, and I worry that my pinions will be successfully attacked by their swarms. In some areas of Lockwood Valley, near the TXI Plant, and along Cuddy Valley and Frazier Park's south facing mountain sides, very large sections of pinions have died. In LV, as much as 1/3 to 1/2 of these forest areas are now dead. This will be devastating to the wildlife and will enhance erosion in these areas in future years. Many of the poplars planted by residents have died, seemingly by drought and insects. They are not drought resistant. Jeffery pines (lodgepole?) appear to be as vulnerable as the pinions. Even the manzanita are dying, as well as a small number of juniper. To put it bluntly, things are looking grim. This area is transforming into a desert region, it seems. I don't know the amount the local well water has dropped, but will find out and enter that info as well. Extreme water conservation measures are being used. The water on my property is unsuitable for irrigation, or drinking. I must haul in drinking water, and I don't irrigate. I rely on local plants for landscaping, and precipitation for irrigation. Sadly, most perennial wild flowering plants have completely died. The flowering plants that remain are navarretia (an annual), scarlet bugles, and two different species of sage. That's all that remains on my property. I hope that I will still have viable seeds of the now gone plants to germinate once good precipitation returns. CoCoRaHS Report from Station #Frazier Park 10.7 WSW on 9/14/2014
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