brucetom13's Journal

Today, I went out to Almaden Quicksilver park where I hiked up the Miner Hill trail towards an old mine. The bottom of the trail had a creek running by it while going uphill there were more open spaces and vegetation. The walk was mostly sunny with patches of shade along either side of the trail. I took observation pictures of plants that stuck out to me as interesting. Mainly the thing I was looking for was unique shaped leaves and things I haven't seen before. Turns out I identified another California Bay tree but it especially stuck out to me because of the way the small newer tree was growing out of the older tree there.

Today I continued walking in the Santa Teresa County Park. After parking at the main parking lot up in the hill, I followed a trail map towards the south side of the park. While walking, there was uphill and downhill areas, as well as a small creek near the trail that flowed throughout most of my hike. The trails can get very steep at times and provide a challenge for the downhill return. The majority of the uphill slope headed south but at times was uphill heading north as well. There were plenty of shrubs, trees, grasses, and even wildflowers where I was walking. Being spring, it was nice seeing most of the plants green and lush with color. Based on one website I was looking at, the plant community was a Central Oak Woodland.

Yesterday, I visited Dottie's pond by the Santa Teresa County Park. The hiking trails in these hills had interesting plants that I would assume be native and natural. I saw many trees and a low number of flowers, but there were plenty of plants to investigate. The pond has a history of being haunted and sometimes those who visit may find themselves in for a scare.

These plants are from my local park and community garden. I found these while walking around with my little sister on a sunny Sunday afternoon. I am sure most (if not all) of those plants were planted by people rather than naturally occurring.

Questions:
a. If you had to pick one tree to use the leaves as toilet paper, which would you pick?
I would pick a maple tree because they have wider leaves, although they are not very well shaped for said use.
b. Do you think street trees make your neighborhood more pleasant?
Street trees definitely make my neighborhood more pleasant. They provide shade coverage and screening for homes and the sidewalk throughout the street.
c. What is one pro and one con to planting non-native trees in our cities?
One pro to planting non-native trees in our cities is that non-natives can bring lively variation in plant aesthetic to an area without such tree. One con to planting non-natives in cities is that the nature of the city is detached from the context of the city. If non-natives spread throughout the city, the city's native context is lost and it becomes more of a mimic of another region.