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Green OC ~ All things green in Orange County.

400,000 new green jobs in California?

December 26th, 2012, 2:38 am by

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Improving California’s energy efficiency by just 1 percent — a likely result of tough new laws aimed at curbing climate change — could jumpstart California’s economy, not clobber it, increasing the gross state product by $76 billion, household incomes by $48 billion and creating up to 403,000 new jobs in the growing “green” sector of the economy.

The predictions come from a new report from University of California economists, who plugged likely effects of California’s new regulations into a computer model.

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Do birds help curb global warming?

April 8th, 2010, 9:55 am by

The early bird catches the worm — and, one UC Irvine scientist says, might also help reduce the effects of global warming.

Eastern bluebird with leaf-eating caterpillar. Photo by Mike Onyon.

In a new study published in a scientific journal this week, ecologist and lead author Kailen Mooney shows that birds, bats and lizards consume enough insects to reduce the damage they cause to plants and promote plant growth — by 14 percent on average.

“The goal was to understand how natural communities work, and the role of top predators in shaping and affecting communities of insects,” Mooney said.

The study itself, a “meta-analysis” of 63 previous studies involving 113 experiments, looked only at how plant growth is affected by removing birds and other animals that prey on insects. But the implications for climate change are clear, Mooney said.

“Anytime a plant is growing, it’s taking carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere and turning it into tissues,” he said.

Humanity’s release of carbon dioxide, along with other greenhouse gases, is believed by climate scientists to be Read the rest of this entry »

O.C.’s parks: Crazy names, riot of colors

April 7th, 2010, 12:15 pm by

Johnny jump up. Stork bill filaree. Yellow pincushion. Pineapple weed.

Reel off the common names of wildflowers in Orange County’s and you can start to sound a little crazy. But the names might, in fact, help preserve a bit of sanity: how else to confront the explosion of colors suddenly spattered across the hills?

Rain-fed blooms are reaching toward their peak, and the rangers at OC Parks are eager to show them off.

During a short visit this week to Limestone Canyon & Whiting Ranch Wilderness Park, supervising ranger Ron Slimm spoke of the attachment people develop for plants — even non-natives such as eucalyptus trees. Try cutting them down in and, in some places, you could spark a neighborhood protest.

“It’s an emotional factor that binds people to all these things,” he said.

So a low-growing, knobby-looking plant might be overlooked — until someone remembers its zany name (“Hey! That’s pineapple weed!”).

Squash one of the knobs between your fingers and, sure enough, it smells exactly like pineapple.

In a canyon that was little more than a smoking scar after the 2007 Santiago Fire, the hills are now thick with green growth and bursting flowers.

The flowers aren’t as concentrated as they were immediately after the fire, said David Raetz, deputy director of the Irvine Ranch Conservancy.

“The displays this year are a little more spread out,” he said. Still, he said, “It’s a stunning landscape. Most people wouldn’t believe it existed in Orange County.”

Such displays are, in fact, rare, Raetz said. The county is part of one of the planet’s few regions known for seasonal wildflower explosions.

And a decent rainy season after several dry ones is giving Orange County its biggest pop in years.

OC Parks is offering several wildflower tours to the public:

Saturday, April 10:

Wildflower Hike

Laguna Coast Wilderness Park, Willow Staging Area, 20101 Laguna Canyon Rd.

8:30 a.m. to 11:30 a.m.

Call 949-923-2235 to make reservations. Parking $3, plus $2 donation.

Saturday, April 17:

Junior Ranger Day at Santiago Oaks

Santiago Oaks Regional Park

10 a.m. to 1 p.m.

Free event, ages 5-12. Parking $5. Call 714-973-6622.

Saturday, May 8:

Wildflower Hike

Laguna Coast Wilderness Park, Willow Staging Area

8:30 a.m. to 11:30 a.m.

Reservations required (see phone number above; parking and donation fees same as above.)

Saturday, June 12:

Wildflower Hike

Laguna Coast Wilderness Park, Willow Staging Area

8:30 a.m. to 11:30 a.m.

Reservations required. Fees same as above.

Don’t forget to enter the Orange County Register’s wildflower photo contest. The winner gets $250:

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Edge of Nature: a scientist finds his flower

April 6th, 2010, 7:47 am by

Breaking news from the world of wildflowers: Bob Allen has, once again, found his daisy.

And it really is his – at least when it comes to scientific names.

Allen, an Orange County botanist and professor, spends wildflower season prowling the back country, photographing rarities.

In 2003, he came across what looked like an odd specimen in Limestone Canyon. He’d seen it once before, in 1983 in Dana Point; while it struck him at the time as “different,” he took no further action.

Another biologist had much the same reaction in 1908, when he found the flower at the El Toro train station, long-vanished. He collected a specimen but went no further.

In 2003, however, Allen FedExed a few specimens to an expert, David Keil at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo.

In 2006, Keil published a paper declaring the flower a new subspecies, with an added bonus for Allen: his name is now attached to his flower for all time.

It’s known as Allen’s daisy, and last week, Allen found it in Laguna Coast Wilderness Park.The weekend before, it turned up at Audubon Starr Ranch Sanctuary.

Allen’s daisy has so far been found only in Orange County. It’s rare, Allen says, and looks a lot like another flower, tidy tips, which has much broader leaves.

But Allen knows his flower when he sees it.

Scientific name: Pentachaeta aurea, ssp. allenii

Source: Biology professor Bob Allen, Irvine Valley College and Santa Ana College.

Next week: Coastal whiptail

Photo: Keala Cummings, Audubon Starr Ranch Sanctuary.

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