Wild California Report Card

Gray clouds scud along overhead as I drive northwards along California highway 1, roughly following the shape of the coastline from Monterey to San Jose/San Francisco. I'm here for a conference on Photoshop and taking a detour along the way; a wildscaping field trip to see what's happening here in this corner of the U.S.

I began this trip at Monterey, where the conference was being held. Although these seminars are fairly intensive, I did get a chance to wander around a large downtown area -- long enough to get a "feel" for what's happening with some of the wild things in this area. Overall, they got high marks for effort. I did see a number of different species of birds (other than the ubiquitous pigeon population, sparrows, and starlings), and I found parks and planters and areas of greenery in the city. Overall, the area seems to have adopted some eco-friendly policies.

The hotels were a decent example of how a commercial structures are landscaped in the area -- both the Mariott's and the Doubletree's flowerbeds are planted with native California wildflowers and low-growing shrubs. The Doubletree's main planter featured a centerpiece of showy large California poppies that warmed up the chilly afternoon with their bright reds and golds. Planters were common in the area of Monterey where I was staying, lending a comfortable atmosphere to the city streets. Although we don't think of plants as something to promote social change, the well-tended planters added a cheerful, serene note to the city streets. People seemed to enjoy walking in Monterey -- and I saw them out on the streets at all hours of the day and night.

On the beaches north of the city, it looked as though there was a very determined effort to restore native habitat. Fences protected the beach dunes from vehicles and casual wanderers. Low growing vegetation (beach poppies, a type of sea oats, and beach grass, I thought), covered the dunes near the road with a carpet of greens and golds and rust- browns that looked as if someone had spread a patchwork quilt along the ground. There were small areas that looked as if they were saltwater marshes (I couldn't tell from the road if they were permanent or seasonal).

It's hard to wave a magic wand and say "okay, now there's a return-to-native-vegetation policy" for any large area of land -- for it takes more than simply saying that you'll let the land go to seed and let whatever can take a foothold there return. Both the city and the county seemed to have native

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