Foothills Sentry July 2023

Foothills Sentry Page 6 July 2023 Family. Friends. Community. We’re all in this together. State Farm, Bloomington, IL 1801073 Ron Esparza, Agent Insurance Lic#: 0C79663 827 S. Tustin Ave Orange, CA 92866 Bus: 714-505-3400 ron@ronesparza.com Bridges and boulders In 1987, Modjeska resident Ruth Fleming sold her 85 acres to the County of Orange in order to keep the land rural. Now known as the Modjeska Canyon Nature Preserve, it is managed by OC Parks and used to teach children about the environment. In 2021, OC Parks upgraded the property’s “boxcar” bridge by raising it three feet, removing accumulated sediment, and covering creek banks with huge rocks called “rip rap” to minimize flood damage. Neighbors, though, complained that the result looked “industrial” and inappropriate for a nature preserve. One neighbor, Dean Brown, termed the project “unfinished,” because so much soil had been hauled offsite, instead of used to cover rip rap, as described in environmental impact doc- uments. He persuaded the Direct- or of OC Parks, the Director of OC Community Services, and a representative from Supervisor Wagner’s office to meet canyon residents at the preserve on June 12. That day, Brown first led everyone down the road a short distance to observe a project “done right.” He pointed out that after OC Public Works had finished some road repairs near the creek, they covered rip rap with dirt and jute, replanted native vegetation, and kept the plants watered. Back at the preserve, Brown noted that vegetation on some dirt-covered rip rap there appeared to be just as healthy as that at the Public Works site. He asked that Parks work with Public Works to stockpile more dirt to complete the bridge project. Although OC Parks Director Pam Passow felt that modifying cinder blocks to resemble nearby rock walls might be a near- term possibility, she said that anything more than that could take years. “Not too many years, I hope,” said Jim Sill. He is Ruth Fleming’s former across-the- street neighbor. Big birds Zoologist Pete Bloom gave a presentation on raptors—birds of prey—at the Inter-Canyon League’s June 6 meeting. He illustrated his Zoom talk with photos from 50 years (so far) of a career in conservation of raptors and their habitat. Growing up in Tustin, Bloom’s backyard was the Irvine Ranch, where he could investigate animals, plants and fossils. Later, concentrating on birds, one thing that surprised him was discovering that local hawks headed north in the summer, sometimes even to Oregon or Idaho. Researching things like that has involved banding 7,500 birds and recovering enough of them to discern patterns. In the 1980s, Bloom helped capture the last wild California condors to save them from going extinct. Breeding those in captivity proved to be successful—there are now over 500 California condors, including several released in Arizona and Baja California. One of the main causes of condor deaths is lead poisoning, which should decrease now that California has banned lead shot for hunting. Condors also die from electrocution, chemicals like PCBs, and diseases like West Nile virus, for which they are now inoculated. Many years ago, there were condors in Orange County, nesting in places like Black Star Canyon caves. According to Bloom, re-establishing them would require providing food to take the place of dead cattle. Habitat loss has affected almost all raptors, though. In 1974, Bloom counted 12 nesting pairs of golden eagles in the county; now there are none. Burrowing owls have not bred here since 2014. White-tailed kites have declined by 90 percent since the 1980s. On the other hand, ospreys have recovered, bald eagles and peregrine falcons have benefited from legislation, and turkey vultures are doing just fine. Newsettes Updated playgrounds are planned for the Silverado and Modjeska parks. The Inter- Canyon League received $15,000 for GSOB (oak borer) VPWL names new board The Villa Park Women’s League hosted a Summer Bash to honor and celebrate its ‘past, present and future’ and the legacy that continues in Villa Park! Over 90 members came together to wrap up the program year. Previous VPWL Presidents were honored for their leadership The new officers for the 2023-24 Villa Park Women’s League are: rear, left to right, Terri Vernon, Risa Scott, Stephanie AbouJaoude, Eva Wyszkowski-Hartman; front row, from left, Candy Carlberg, Pam Dunn, Margo Godlove, Lorena Shaver; not shown, Marilyn Liu. of the organization since its inception in 1969. The new leadership group elected by the membership for 2023-2024 are: President Risa Scott; Vice President Terri Vernon; Program Chair Margo Godlove; Philanthropy Co-Chairs Stephanie AbouJaoude and Pam Dunn; Membership Chair Lorena Shaver; Recording Secretary Marilyn Liu; Treasurer Candy Carlberg; and Parliamentarian Eva Wyszkowski-Hartman. In addition to celebrating and honoring its members, the theme of the event was Villa Park citrus, with local fruit and memorabilia recognizing the importance that local orchards had on the development of the city. A great time was shared by all, as sights are set on looking forward to the ‘new year’ ahead and the fun that awaits. For information, see vpwl.org . education/inspections. A 35mph limit before the first Modjeska bridge is being considered. Guns and roses On his first expedition north from San Diego in 1769, Gaspar de Portolá and his men camped where O’Neill Regional Park is now. While there, one soldier lost his gun, called a trabuco. From then on, the area was known as Trabuco Canyon. The Spaniards called the wild roses that they encountered “Castilian roses” since they resembled a type then popular in Spain. Since Castilian roses don’t occur naturally in California, though, what Portolá saw was probably a native California wild rose. If the explorers had turned right instead of left at Trabuco Canyon, they might have seen more such roses. In Santiago Canyon, a small but towering roadside California rose thicket began blooming this past May. Later, the two-inch flowers will become seed pods called rose hips, and then the plants will shed their leaves for the winter. Growing below those roses are some smaller wildflowers called blue-eyed grass. That isn’t actually grass, but a native iris. There might be even smaller plants back behind the fence. But in order to find out, you’d have to get down on the ground and look at the world through rose- covered grasses. California wild rose