New exterior siding has begun to clothe the outside of the Rod Shippey Education and Field Lab building at the UC Hopland Research & Extension Center.   The siding was milled at the UC Berkeley, College of Natural Resources' Blodgett Forest Research Station located in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada mountain range.   

The milled wood was from Incense Cedar (Libocedrus decurrens Torr.) which is a distinctive component of the Sierra Nevada mixed-conifer forest and can grow to be over 500 years old and 12 feet d.b.h. in diameter.   After being milled at Blodgett, the rough-sawn lumber was stored at Hopland for about a year.  From there it was transported to American City, Napa County, re-sawn to various widths, planed on one-side, and tongue-and-grooved.

The architectural design calls for the exterior walls to be covered with an impervious, water-proof covering (TYVEK) that will protect the integrity of the building, with the cedar siding spaced away from the wall by about a one-and-one-half inch space ... and over the top of a quarter-inch hardware cloth.   This methodology is to allow acorn woodpeckers to be active on the building's siding as part of the natural resources education theme without affecting the integrity of the wall itself. 

We all have experienced the lovely red, orange, and yellow colors of autumn oak leaves and most of us look forward to this annual reminder of the fall season.   Leaf colors basically come from four pigments that are naturally produced by leaf cells .... chlorophyll (green), carotenoid & xanthophyll (yellow,orange, and brown), and anthocyanin (red).   Environmental factors influence the amounts of each pigment in the leaf and can therefore alter leaf color.

Chorophyll, which is usually present in large quantities and reflects green light, can diminish during periods of less sunlight, lower temperatures, higher sugar levels in the plant, and changes in water availability.  When this occurs, the chorophyll no longer can "mask" the lesser amounts of the other pigments.  One of these... anthocyanin, is a water-soluble pigment that occurs in cell sap, the molecules reflecting the red wavelengths of light (thus showing red color tot he human eye).

Occasionally at the UC Hopland Research & Extension Center in southeast Mendocino County, we find oak seedlings during the springtime that portray these red leaf colors.  These seedlings are usually in areas of fairly high shade and tree canopy coverage.   This photo of a young Black Oak (Quercus kelloggi) seedling was taken on May 7th.

A rather common perennial herb found in chaparral brushlands of eastern Mendocino County, and many other counties in California, is the native Woolly Indian Paintbrush (Castilleja foliolosa Hook. & Am.).   This plant species is almost endemic to California and is found only slightly beyond our state's borders.   The term foliolosa means "furnished with leaflets" which actually refers to the colored showy bracts.

It can be found in yellow pine forest, foothill woodland, chaparral, and grassland valley plant communities.  At the UC Hopland Research & Extension Center it brightens the chaparral brushlands with splashes of bright orange to red-orange color.

The Barn Owl (Tyto alba) is one of the most widely distributed bird species in the world, occurring on all continents except for Antarctica.  (Tyto is Greek for owl)  It has also been introduced to many islands throughout the world including the Hawaiian Islands and the Seychelles Islands.  In the Americas is is found throughout the lower 48 US states, Central America, and all of South America.

Known for its predatory skills at nabbing rodents, in many places the agricultural communities place nest boxes in hopes that an increase in the barn owl population will help to control rodent populations.  Whether this really works or not is debatable, but in any case, due to a loss in natural large cavities for roosting and nesting, the placement of artificial nest boxes certainly helps the barn owls out.  In our area, many of the large California White Oaks (Valley oaks) from the valley floors have been removed over time ...and these were a major source of large cavities used by these birds and others.

Several barn owl boxes are located at the UC Hopland Research & Extension Center ...and due the old age of one, the bottom fell out of it from an accumulation of weight over time.  Fortunately Dr. Robert Lane, a long-time HREC researcher, discovered the two half-grown birds on the ground.  We quickly built a new nest box and placed it adjacent to the old one, complete with the two feisty youngsters.  The parents, who appreciated the lending hand, quickly resumed feeding and care-taking the lucky youngsters the following night.