Bruce M. Pavlik

In The California Deserts: An Ecological Rediscovery, Bruce Pavlik surveys the state’s Great Basin, Mojave, and Sonoran desert lands. He mixes in history, mentions of peoples who lived there before white settlement, and considerable scientific information.

This is an excellent book with wonderful illustrations and maps printed on the thickest paper I’ve seen in a paperback. While written for the general public, its academic grounding makes it best for readers interested in finding out what scholars have to say about desert biota and geologic features in California. The more scholarly material is accompanied by human-interest stories, appealing oddities (e.g., dragonflies can copulate for hours; mesquite roots reach depths up to 200 feet; coyotes dig wells), along with details of the distressing ecological disruptions we’ve imposed on these communities.

Trying to find something to criticize . . . a photo on page 70 caught my eye. It’s captioned “Basin and range topography east of the Sierra. The pinyon pines and big sagebrush (Artemisia tridentata) are typical of the Great Basin desert.”
Comments:
1) While the photo is Pavlik’s, he doesn’t identify this topographic feature. I recognized it right off. It is Slinkard Valley, an area providing critical winter range for mule deer.
2) He says it’s “east of the Sierra.” I’ve mountain-biked the valley’s length and it seems up in the Sierra to me. The photo was taken, facing south, ∼3½ road miles west and ∼1100 vertical feet up from where U.S. Highway 395 runs at the base of the range.
3) “Basin and range” may not be correct. Sources I checked attribute such topography to tectonic action. But a book I have calls Slinkard “glacier-carved” and describes a “large erratic boulder” there (i.e. a glacial remnant), which remnant I’ve seen.
4) The full-page map facing the Contents page doesn’t include the part of California where Slinkard Valley is, so it’s slightly strange this photo is used.
5) However, the “pinyon pines and big sagebrush” are indeed pinyon pines and sagebrush.

And, to finish with something light, unfamiliar words and concepts do pop up. My favorite was “ventifact,” which Webster’s says is “a stone worn, polished, or faceted by windblown sand.” Assisted by desert imagery, I coined a second sense of possible use to op-ed writers. Ventifact: An information mutation resulting from an encounter of dry fact with hot air blown by political windbags. Facts so heated create mirages mistaken for truth and become veritable dust devils of misinformation.

Ventifacts of the second kind are becoming as common as grains of sand in California’s deserts.… (mehr)

Having lived with and slept near oaks for decades, I learned to appreciate why some species are called "live oaks". We find life all around them. This book by accomplished environmental scientists is a wonderful resource for exploration, experience, and deeper appreciation. While synecology is a relatively young science, the text pronounces on the plant-animal interactions with granular authority.

Contains a Glossary, and Maps, including Tribal maps of the Native American communities.

Quotations

"Few plants figure more prominently in California's natural and cultural history than oaks."

"California has long been blessed by the diversity, abundance, and beauty of oaks. At present, 18 species of oak enrich the state's native flora, each strikingly different in growth form and physiology." [3]… (mehr)