Red-winged blackbirds settling in for the evening at Kalkar Quarry. Mild mannered humans conversing in the background; try not to get too distracted.

10 October 2020

Santa Cruz, CA

Recorded by Alex

What is this place— an abandoned rock quarry? A neighborhood park? Is that pond natural? Were those trees planted? These questions ran through my mind as I first stumbled upon this ”natural” space...

Welcome to Kalkar Quarry: a piece of land that has taken on a variety of identities throughout the past 200 years. As I got to know this place, I questioned and analyzed the definition of nature through the eyes of residents to the quarry, local mineralogy records, and even children’s outdoor education programs. Join me as I piece together the evolution of this space, and why it is so important to our past, present, and future community.

Check out https://www.newspapers.com/clip/8570621/kalkar-quarry-purchase/ for a few more things not mentioned in the podcast.

Special thanks to Ron Goodman, Kate Jaffe of Santa Cruz Kids in Nature, and Maddie's grandpa.

Episode written and produced by Maddie Pyorre

3:30 am rain and thunder from the event that sparked the CZU Lightning Complex Fire. Thunder so loud it made my car's "back-off" alarm sound. 

16 August 2020

Aptos, CA

Recorded by Alex

At her sit spot in Escondido, California, Jessica notices a strange anomaly for fall 2020--clean air. This sparks some discussion and research into the impacts of climate change on California's now nearly year-round wildfire season.

Credits:

"The african moon lullaby-for danke" by Orlando51

Boruna, Alejandra. 2020. The science connecting wildfires to climate change. Published online at https://www.nationalgeographic.com/science/2020/09/climate-change-increases-risk-fires-western-us/#:~:text=Increasing%20heat%2C%20changing%20rain%20and,they%20have%20in%20the%20past on 17 September 2020.

Coyote barks while sitting next to a backyard chiminea fire, wood a little wet (sizzlepops start part way through).

9 Dec 2020

Branciforte Creek, Santa Cruz, CA

Recorded by Alex

After smelling smoke from his sit spot in San Francisco, and the subsequent clean air as fall progressed, Razi remembers childhood visits to California Indian acorn grinding rocks. This episode recounts his research into the Traditional Ecological Knowledge and land management practices of California Indians that stewarded oak trees and their acorn crops.

Music credits:

1. Soundscape Premium - Nature and birds 1 by MINOR2GO

2. Armando by LiddellC

Relevant articles used for research:

Frederica Bowcutt "Tanoak Landscapes: Tending a Native American Nut Tree," Madroño 60(2), 64-86, (1 April 2013). https://doi.org/10.3120/0024-9637-60.2.64

Anderson, K. M., & Moratto, M. J. (1996). Native American Land-Use Practices and Ecological Impacts (Vol. 2, pp. 187-206) (United States, USGS). Davis, California: University of California, Centers for Water and Wildland Resources. https://pubs.usgs.gov/dds/dds-43/VOL_II/VII_C09.PDF

Anderson, K. M. (2007). Indigenous Uses, Management, and Restoration of Oaks of the Far Western United States (Vol. Technical note No.2) (United States, USDA, NRCS). Davis, California: National Plant Center.https://directives.sc.egov.usda.gov/OpenNonWebContent.aspx?content=25907.wba

Pileated woodpecker feeding pecks on Douglas-fir snag, with lots of bits of tree falling down around the base of the tree and the recorder. "Background" birds: red-shouldered hawk, pygmy nuthatch, chestnut-backed chickadee, American robin.

29 Dec 2020

Nisense Marks State Park, Aptos, CA

Recorded by Alex

Hello! I’m Jennifer, please join me on exploring Oso Flaco Lake and its surrounding areas. This podcast will give a general overview on the local oil industry and a specific spill that occurred under Unocal, and it’s relation to the land on the California central coast. This group of small towns have a story that can relate to many worldwide. It’s had to grapple with global struggles of the repercussions of industry and current day efforts for remediation and restoration. If you want to read more depth of the history of the oil spills on the central coast here are some sources that have covered the Guadalupe Oil Spill specifically:

“Huge Oil Spill Cleanup Advances” - Sally Ann Connell 

“Silent Spill: The Organization of Industrial Crisis - Carol M. Parker

Music Attribution:

“Nostalgia of an ex gangsta rapper” by deef is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-ShareAlike.

Morning birds adajcent to Valencia Creek, Polo Dr. Highway One and Soquel Ave in the background. And camcorder noise too. But hey. It's real life. Oak titmouse, acorn woodpecker, California scrub jay, American robin, oak titmouse, American crow, European starling, and likely other stuff too.

2 November 2020

Recorded by Alex (audio ripped from some acorn woodpecker video footage)

In the early 2000s, a television scandal rocked the golf world and the bird world alike. What came out of it?

*Post-script amendment: 29% of nearly all North American (not global) bird populations have declined since the 1970s (Rosenburg et al. 2019 downloaded at from here).

Episode written and produced by Ishana Shukla

Special thanks to Sanjana Raman, Isabel Cortez, and Kelli Haupage for providing voice-overs.

Credits:

Pied Billed Grebe calls by Dennis Davenport

Mourning dove by MyBackyardBirding

Song Used: In the Hall of the Mountain King - Grieg