My old friend Johnson Boothby, who grew up in Birmingham lives near where the wildfires are currently burning in California. He sent this note late yesterday…
Ola Bill,
Thanks for your replies, I hope all is well with you and yours in Alabama.
We are very much looking forward to our visit to Birmingham and Florida.
The big news out here is the Lockheed fire burning on the west side of the mountain above us.
It’s a fairly long ridge that starts in Santa Cruz and rises high above the San Lorenzo river valley to the east and the Pacific coast to the west. Some of the geology includes uplifted sandstone and sandy hills mixed with the granite base of the mountain. In some areas you can walk in the hills far from the coast and think that you are walking in sand as if you were on the beach.
Add the rains and the mild climate out here and plants will grow on even the most difficult geography.
The steep sandy slopes take years to establish mature tree forests.
During the transitions the chaparral and pines are the dominant ecosystem and in some areas the geology establishes entire ecosystems that endure as what we know of life during our very short human life and attention span.
The chaparral sections are built to burn as they say. The study part is how they fit with the forests and coastal areas.
The Santa Cruz mountains and their sandy sections mixed with older rocks are very different from the Appalachian rocks I grew up with in Birmingham.
I am just a student of God’s work in progress.
Johnson
