Here's something you might be interested in.
Ask a Hipster — Advice you didn't know you needed
Big Screen — Movie commentary
Blurt — Music's inside track
Booze News — San Diego spirits
Classical Music — Immortal beauty
Classifieds — Free and easy
Cover Stories — Front-page features
Drinks All Around — Bartenders' drink recipes
Excerpts — Literary and spiritual excerpts
Feast! — Food & drink reviews
Feature Stories — Local news & stories
Fishing Report — What’s getting hooked from ship and shore
From the Archives — Spotlight on the past
Golden Dreams — Talk of the town
The Gonzo Report — Making the musical scene, or at least reporting from it
Letters — Our inbox
Movies@Home — Local movie buffs share favorites
Movie Reviews — Our critics' picks and pans
Musician Interviews — Up close with local artists
Neighborhood News from Stringers — Hyperlocal news
News Ticker — News & politics
Obermeyer — San Diego politics illustrated
Outdoors — Weekly changes in flora and fauna
Overheard in San Diego — Eavesdropping illustrated
Poetry — The old and the new
Reader Travel — Travel section built by travelers
Reading — The hunt for intellectuals
Roam-O-Rama — SoCal's best hiking/biking trails
San Diego Beer — Inside San Diego suds
SD on the QT — Almost factual news
Sheep and Goats — Places of worship
Special Issues — The best of
Street Style — San Diego streets have style
Surf Diego — Real stories from those braving the waves
Theater — On stage in San Diego this week
Tin Fork — Silver spoon alternative
Under the Radar — Matt Potter's undercover work
Unforgettable — Long-ago San Diego
Unreal Estate — San Diego's priciest pads
Your Week — Daily event picks
Best of 2001: Best Land Restoration
Campo Band of Mission Indians
36190 Church Road, Campo
619-478-9046
So you thought that when Europeans came to San Diego, they found a pristine wilderness? Wrong. What they discovered, says the Kumeyaays' Mike Connolly, was a huge, loosely manipulated garden. "They didn't know the oak forests were orchards we had planted and cultivated for acorns over thousands of years," says Connolly, a one-time aerospace engineer. "They didn't realize we had encouraged the willows and cottonwoods near streams to hold the water in the earth. That we had regular controlled burns of sagebrush to allow the grasses and trees to come through." Two centuries of disastrous land degradation later, the Campo Kumeyaay have decided enough's enough. At great loss of revenue they have ousted the native grass-killing cattle from their reservation. They have created mishay sha-wing -- "sediment holders" -- dams across streams to slow water flow. They have planted willows and cottonwoods. And year-round babbling brooks have returned. With the water have come birds, ducks, frogs, turtles, rodents, owls, fish, jackrabbits, squirrels, mule deer, and behind them the coyote and bobcats. Someone even saw a mountain lion the other day. Plus, elements of their pre-European diet are returning: wild celery, watercress, stinging nettle (high in iron), and live oaks with their acorns, once the staple of the Kumeyaay diet. "I think we're showing," says Connolly, "that man can actually be beneficial to Nature."
Here's something you might be interested in.
Best of 2001: Best Land Restoration
Best of 2001: Best Land Restoration
Campo Band of Mission Indians
36190 Church Road, Campo
619-478-9046
So you thought that when Europeans came to San Diego, they found a pristine wilderness? Wrong. What they discovered, says the Kumeyaays' Mike Connolly, was a huge, loosely manipulated garden. "They didn't know the oak forests were orchards we had planted and cultivated for acorns over thousands of years," says Connolly, a one-time aerospace engineer. "They didn't realize we had encouraged the willows and cottonwoods near streams to hold the water in the earth. That we had regular controlled burns of sagebrush to allow the grasses and trees to come through." Two centuries of disastrous land degradation later, the Campo Kumeyaay have decided enough's enough. At great loss of revenue they have ousted the native grass-killing cattle from their reservation. They have created mishay sha-wing -- "sediment holders" -- dams across streams to slow water flow. They have planted willows and cottonwoods. And year-round babbling brooks have returned. With the water have come birds, ducks, frogs, turtles, rodents, owls, fish, jackrabbits, squirrels, mule deer, and behind them the coyote and bobcats. Someone even saw a mountain lion the other day. Plus, elements of their pre-European diet are returning: wild celery, watercress, stinging nettle (high in iron), and live oaks with their acorns, once the staple of the Kumeyaay diet. "I think we're showing," says Connolly, "that man can actually be beneficial to Nature."
Comments