June 20, 2013

• Fire and Water -- a Different Perspective

  While in Santa Barbara, I was again privileged to be able to visit Vandenberg AFB once again -- this time not for a sightseeing trip, but for a shopping excursion.  On the way out of town, my friend had an errand in a downtown office.  While sitting in the car, I was taken with the back of the office building.  Once an auto dealership in the middle of downtown, the downstairs service department is a parking area for employees, and the showroom has been cut in half to provide offices and a visitor parking lot.

  

  Errand completed, we drove across San Marcos Pass towards Solvang.  On the other side of the pass is a 'river,' the Santa Ynez River.  Behind the city of Santa Barbara is Gibraltar Dam, an old concrete dam on the upper part of the river.  Downstream, to the west, is Cachuma Dam, a wider, earthen dam, built in the 1950's.  At that time, Cachuma Dam was designed to provide Santa Barbara's water, with a tunnel bored through the mountains to take the water to an open reservoir on the city side of the mountains.  Gibraltar Dam was raised due to the silt that had accumulated behind it -- it has now silted up again, and holds very little water.  Cachuma Dam now holds the water supply for Santa Barbara, being replenished by the winter's rains and by water purchased from the State (water supply for the State's various needs is one of the major points of contention within State government in California).  This year, Southern California has had approximately 6 inches of rain since last July -- normal rainfall is 15-18 inches a year, and even that is insufficient to supply us with the water we need.  I particularly wanted to see what the lake looked like at the beginning of June in such a dry year.  When the lake is full, there is no white line between the water level and the shrubbery.  These shots were taken from an overlook point, approximately 100 yards from one end of the dam, looking across the lake.

  

  

  The point in the center of the next shot is a County Park, where people camp, rent or launch small recreational fishing boats, and so forth.  Because it is drinking water, no swimming is allowed.

  

  The water level is really low -- and look how dry the hills are behind the lake, too!

  

  While I took the above photos, a predatory bird -- a raven, or perhaps a hawk -- rode the air current watching for his lunch to make a move.

  

  Moving on towards Solvang, there is a crossroads with grassland on all 4 sides of the intersection.  In early June, there was a small grass fire that started on one corner of the intersection.  It burned primarily on the one corner, but spot fires were visible on each of the other corners -- the roads made pretty good defensible fire breaks!  Grass fires act in much the same way as fires in brushier areas, although they tend to burn all the grass along the way, since it's all pretty much the same height and it's pretty densely packed. 

  

  

  

  

  Standing in the same place, but looking across the road behind me, the scene was quite different.  San Lucas Breeding Facility is a horse stud farm -- it is all grasses with barns in the background, close to the mountain.  It was still foggy on the coast, and the fog was spilling over the top of the mountains, although it was about to burn through and be sunny on the coastal side of the mountains too.

  

  

  The green on the right side of the next shot is a vineyard, something fairly new to this area.

  

  And here's the fog spilling over the mountain tops!

  

  The rest of my trip to Santa Barbara included more visits with friends and family, and I took no more photos during that trip.  I will be visiting the great blue herons tomorrow to see if they are still there -- it's summer now, and they may have left their nests, but will come home for the nights for a while.

  • 12:12 am
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