“Fortunately, the task of preparing this volume has been carried on by those who have had the feeling that a piece of work must be done, but who also have had a purpose to make it reveal beauty and exude the historical atmosphere of the region with which it is concerned.”
—Santa Barbara: A Guide to the Channel City and Its Environs (1941)
Yellow lupine on Pine Mountain, Los Padres National Forest, Ventura County (May 2025)
I came across the first quote below back in 2019 when reading M. Kat Anderson’s extraordinary book, Tending the Wild: Native American Knowledge and the Management of California’s Natural Resources (2005).
I suspect most people have not seen this passage from Anderson before and that this may be the first time it’s ever been openly published online.
Surely, the quote from Trump is known by far more people, Kuyper’s known by far fewer, Anderson’s probably nearly unknown.
Certainly, tending forests by hand in yesteryears with simple tools and broadcast fire is far different than industrialized silviculture these days using mechanized means. I do not mean to conflate the two.
All three speak to the same issue using the same particular word.
Los Padres National Forest and wildlands in general are our preoccupation here.
Thus, the comments and the issue in general fall within the rubric of this weblog.
Take the comments for what ever they may be worth; edification or entertainment or agitation. Choose your own adventure.
“What’s that mean?”
“Read it anyway you like,” I said. . .
—Louis L’Amour, The Man From the Broken Hills (1975)
A view of pinyon pine forest in Chumash Wilderness, Pine Mountain in the distance defining the skyline. (June 2025)
“Aware that pinyon pines are not fire-resistant, Indians pruned back dead wood in the canopies and cut back low-lying limbs under the trees that could catch fire.
Tribes also raked litter and duff from under pine nut trees and removed by hand any live growing shrubs that might act as fuel ladders.
These practices protected the trees from the devastating effects of wildfires and, even more important, worked in conjunction with fires set intentionally.”
—M. Kat Anderson (2005), Ph.D. in Wildland Resource Science
Tending the Wild: Native American Knowledge and the Management of California’s Natural Resources
Anderson shares a personal communication related in 1989 by Virginia Jeff (Central Sierra Miwok), directly quoting Jeff: “They burned so they would not have big fires.”
Anderson paraphrases Jeff speaking of how her father in the 1920s “raked the debris from around the oaks” in preparation for “setting fires in the fall.”
“You gotta take care of the floors. You know the floors of the forest, very important.
You look at other countries where they do it differently and it’s a whole different story.
I was with the president of Finland and he called it a forest nation, and they spend a lot of time on raking and cleaning and doing things and they don’t have any problem.
And when they do, it’s a very small problem.”
—President Donald J. Trump (2018)
Trump Says California Can Learn From Finland On Fires. Is He Right?
www.nytimes.com/2018/11/18/world/europe/finland-california-wildfires-trump-raking.html
“This project exemplifies the misguided ‘rake-the-forest’ policy that began under the last Trump administration, and will only worsen over the next four years.”
—Jeff Kuyper (2024), Executive Director of Los Padres Forest Watch
Appeals Court Clears Path for Controversial Pine Mountain Logging Project
Related Post:
The Myth of Wilderness and Ethnocentrism: Race and Recognition in the Woods
J.D. Reyes served the length of his duty as a United States Forest Service ranger, from 1900 to 1931, in Santa Barbara National Forest, later renamed Los Padres several years after his retirement.
When his family first settled in the Upper Cuyama River Valley around 1854, they did so in what was at the time the County of Santa Barbara, as founded in 1850.
This area later fell within the bounds of Ventura County, as founded in 1873.
The following excerpts are sourced from, National Parks Service: A History of Mexican Americans in California; Cuyama Ranger District, Los Padres National Forest, Ventura County
* * *
“Jacinto Damien Reyes (or J. D., as he was affectionately known) deserves public recognition for his outstanding contributions to forest management and conservation in Ventura County.
During his 32-year tenure as a forest ranger in the Cuyama District of the Los Padres National Forest, Reyes supervised firefighting units. . .
Despite the destruction caused by these fires, the ever-present danger of injury or death, the extreme heat, and the horrendous hours that usually extended into days. . .as well as the makeshift support facilities maintained for early firefighters, Reyes never lost a man from one of his units.
A ranger has to watch his men every minute to keep them from getting into trouble, and this is especially true when working with an inexperienced gang of fighters.
A sudden change of wind, a lowering barometer or the fire jumping from one kind of vegetation to another can change the whole complexion of a fire quicker than a Spaniard can say ‘Hasta la vista.’
If you do not watch your business, you can get all your men trapped in the fire as easily as starting a forest fire.
—J.D. Reyes
Reyes’ concern for his men was matched by his concern for the environment.
He was an early advocate of reforestation, a policy not officially adopted by the Forest Service until approximately 1910.
. . .
Accepted by the Forest Service in 1900 as a temporary employee, Reyes received a permanent appointment on October 4, 1900.
The following year, Reyes and other rangers in the area escorted President William McKinley through Ventura during a parade arranged in honor of the President.
In 1905, Reyes was again present at a parade held in honor of another president, Theodore Roosevelt, and rode through the streets of Santa Barbara on ‘the right side of the President’s carriage.’
. . .
Reyes, although apparently a good story-teller, was a self-effacing man who never boasted of the work he had done to open trails through the Cuyama District, . . .
Others, however, were quick to acknowledge the role he had played in making the Cuyama District more accessible to the public.
. . .for twenty years Thacher camping parties enjoyed J. D.’s hospitality and that the success of their trips was due to his fine work in keeping the mountain trails open. The Thacher boys often remarked that when they got into J. D.’s district, trails were well ditched and in good repair . . . and J. D.’s career . . . has been a great lesson to Thacher boys.
—Forest H. Cook, Headmaster of the Thacher School
What sets Reyes apart from his contemporaries and from those who followed him was that he was the only ranger in the U.S. Forest Service to work 30 years in one district, . . .
Reyes is an outstanding example of a Chicano humanist, environmentalist, and conservationist.”
Related Posts:
Gladiator Games of Bulls and Bears: Recollections of Jacinto Damien Reyes (1880s)
“As a result of his 1903 visit to California, Roosevelt was to create the Santa Barbara National Forest out of the Pine Mountain and Zaca Lake Forest Reserves.
This was the land that McKinley had set aside on March 2, 1898.
. . .later known as Los Padres National Forest.”
—Walker A. Tompkins, The Yankee Barbarenos
* * *
The most important habitat for grizzlies, as people who have dedicated their lives to studying and protecting the bears often
say, is not in some dataset, scientific report, or computer model.It’s not even in the forests and mountains.
It’s in people’s hearts.
–California Grizzly Alliance
Last month the California Grizzly Alliance published, Recovering Grizzly Bears in California: A Feasibility Study (PDF).
The study has ties to Santa Barbara and Los Padres National Forest, which comprises 30% of the county, and is often the focus of this weblog. And so we mention it here.
One editor of the study, Peter S. Alagona, is a professor in the Environmental Studies Program at the University of California, Santa Barbara.
In 2016, the California Grizzly Research Network was established at U.C.S.B., and the feasibility study builds on the multidisciplinary work begun by this visionary network of environmental pioneers.
The California Grizzly Alliance has identified three areas of high-quality habitat suitable for potential reintroduction of this iconic bear.
We’re excited to note that one of these includes “the large protected areas of the Los Padres backcountry” that is our big beautiful wild backyard here in Santa Barbara.
In April of 1924, a work crew constructing the Generals Highway in Sequoia National Park reported an incident that would become generally accepted, still to this day, as the last credible grizzly bear sighting in California.
From 1924 on the grizzly was thought to be regionally extinct in the Golden State.
However, local newspaper articles from Santa Barbara County in 1926 suggest otherwise.
While no physical proof was reported, a couple of sightings in Santa Barbara and Ventura counties were mentioned.
As noted in the study by the California Grizzly Alliance:
In August 1926, the Lompoc Review newspaper reported that the previous year, the Santa Barbara (now Los Padres) National Forest Supervisor, William V. Mendenhall, had received reports from two district rangers of grizzly prints near Big Pine Mountain.
This appeared in the Lompoc newspaper on that date because a third district ranger had just reported actually seeing a grizzly in the Ventura County mountains above Ojai.
We will probably never know exactly where the last California grizzly lived or when it died.
Still, these records suggest that some may have survived in remote corners of Central and Southern California into the second half of the 1920s.
Bear Heaven, Sespe Condor Sanctuary, Sespe Wilderness, Los Padres National Forest, Ventura County.
Two stories from 1926 featured in the Lompoc Review newspaper are reprinted below. Emphasis has been added to highlight the mention of grizzly bears.
July 20, 1926:
“Hunters’ kits are being over-hauled this week, canvas sheets are being dug out of the store room, guns are being oiled and all the paraphernalia of a hunting trip is being collected by groups who will be hitting the trail next week.
Deer season opens August 1, and many hunters will leave the latter part of next week for their favorite hunting grounds.
N. D. Hall, Jim Olivera and Oscar Collier make up a group that will go back into the brush in the Sisquoc country, where they expect to do a little bear hunting as well as bag a few dear.
Last year Henry Gorzell brought back a report from that region of a big grizzly, and a number of hunters have been eager to smoke him out.
The Zaca Lake region and the Sisquoc is a favorite hunting ground for a large number of the local deer hunters.
Several groups will leave here the latter part of next week for the Manzana. Wallace Dyer, Earl Coller and his son Elmer, are among those who usually spend several days of the deer seasons in this region.
C. D. McCabe is planning to leave the middle of next week to join his brothers-in-law, G. L. and A. W. Bean, of Goleta, who will go into the Santa Ynez mountains from the Santa Barbara side. They expect to be gone about two weeks.
Good hunting is anticipated this year, for weather conditions in the mountains were favorable this spring, the old timers say.
There will be plenty of water in the well known springs, which will simplify camp life for the hunters.
Announcements made earlier in the season that the forest reserve might be closed to hunters this year has caused some to delay plans for a trip until the matter is definitely settled.
It is thought now that the reserve will remain open. Talk of closing the reserve was based on weather conditions that would increase the fire hazard.
Hunters have been urged to take great precaution in camp and on the frails and to help in every way to keep down the fire menace.
Smoking is prohibited on the trails. Camp fires are restricted to places where there is no danger of fire spreading, and the precaution of always being sure the fire is extinguished before leaving camp is being strenuously urged.
Siquoc Falls, Sisquoc Condor Sanctuary, San Rafael Wilderness, Los Padres National Forest, Santa Barbara County.
August 8, 1926:
“One of the few remaining grizzly bears, emblematic of California, is believed to be roaming through Santa Barbara National forest.
The bear, of unusually large proportions, was seen yesterday at the forks of the Pratt and, Gridley trails by Earl Branson, district forest ranger of Ojai.
According to a report received by William V. Mendenhall, forest supervisor, the bear has a track 10×7 inches and was about 100 yards from Mr. Branson when seen.
The animal is believed to be the same bear which left large tracks on Don Victor flats and the Medulce (sic) last fall.
The tracks at that time were reported by District Ranger Joe Libeu and J. N. Proctor.
Smaller bears, according to forestry officials are numerous in the Santa Barbara National forest, but grizzlies are scarce throughout the state.
Related Posts:
Gladiator Games of Bulls and Bears: A California Blood Sport (1800s)
Gladiator Games of Bulls and Bears: Recollections of Jacinto Damien Reyes (1880)
Gladiator Games of Bulls and Bears: Lassoing Grizzlies (1904)
Gladiator Games of Bulls and Bears: Sport of Roping Grizzlies (1911)
Pine Mountain and Zaca Lake Forest Reserve (1898)
The Sisquoc Falls: A Little Known Region in California Explored (1884)
This oak and these boulders were slated to be the backyard of a few people, but activist efforts by Save the San Marcos Foothills coalition rescued the area for the many people of the public at large; surely of much greater utility.
[Update: See comments section below; looks like the mystery has been solved quickly by a reader.]
We saw this artifact at San Marcos Foothills Preserve while on a walk; the leashed dog and two of us.
I’ve never seen anything like it in form anywhere in the world, be it in a store locally or abroad, on the internet or in the undeveloped wildlands.
The most remarkable, clever design characteristic is that it’s the same tear drop shape on all four sides.
This is a highly disturbed and altered area in general where we saw this tiny stone artifact, like most everywhere else along the Santa Barbara littoral.
A lot of modern day disturbance has occurred here, activities of various sorts carried out and litter left in its wake.
This includes plastic trash left behind by purported environmental habitat restorationists, which we’ll address at length in a later post.
Perhaps the most egregious actions have been the dumping of microtrash plastic debris, apparently brought in and deposited in the mulch obtained from the County of Santa Barbara.
The wide-spread dumping of this sort of plastic litter has been mentioned before:
Letter to the Editor Regarding Plastic Pollution (2019)
The Twelve-Inch Experience, Baron Ranch Corridor (2023)
However, our neighborhood has a number of old Chumash cultural sites, such as mortar stones.
A large sunken boulder holds several mortars and is located not much more than a stone’s throw from where I sit writing this now, adjacent San Marcos Foothills Preserve.
I’ve found chipped stone tools in the neighborhood. One of the most finely crafted, exquisite pestles I’ve ever seen was found in somebody’s yard here. I’ve heard tell of much else, too.
Trace bits of midden can be seen in San Marcos Foothills preserve.
And so, while certainly possible, if not likely, that this strange artifact is of modern creation, and although it’s unlike anything I’ve ever seen and so outside the Chumash oeuvre as I understand it, it also seems plausible that it’s of old-school California Indian provenance.
The particular place in the preserve where we saw it suggests this is possible and certainly within reason, but, at the same time, the location also suggests that it’s of modern creation.
By whose hands was the artifact crafted and when?
Related Post:
Sans soil.
Every day, for weeks now, a marine layer swamps the coast so far this spring, cool and sometimes spritzing.
I wake to the rhythmic tap of fog drip falling through the rain gutters.
May 5 morels.
Measurable precipitation has fallen in downtown Santa Barbara in April and May; one of the driest places on the littoral. It’s been scant and not much, barely registering, but some nonetheless, enough.
Temperatures in the 60s and prolonged moist conditions have provided for an extended flush of morels.
A second crop of morels, so far as I’ve seen, sprouted most recently toward the end of April and are still holding fresh into this first week of May, with tiny caps yet still on the rise.
A remarkable happening, when in many years we fail to find any, and go long periods of time without.
Related Post:
Jack Elliott's Santa Barbara Adventure 