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Pine Hill Photographs
May. 13th, 2008 07:09 pmSusan spent this past weekend at my apartment, instead of me going to her duplex like we do most weekends. This was because my apartment was closer both to Pine Hill Preserve, where we went for a wildflower walk on Saturday, and to my parents' house, where we went for Mother's Day.
Pine Hill Preserve is located on a small area of the Sierra Nevada foothills where gabbro rocks that formed deep below the ocean floor have been pushed up to the surface by the collision of plates that formed the Sierra Nevadas. Gabbro rocks contain high levels of iron, magnesium, and other heavy metals, so the soil in this area (created mostly from broken down, decomposed gabbro rocks) is also unusually high in these metals. Most plants are poisoned by the high levels of these heavy metals, so some unusual plant species have evolved to grow only in these soils and nowhere else. The California Bureau of Land Management established the Pine Hill Preserve to protect eight exceptionally rare species of plants, including three species that grow exclusively in the Pine Hill area and four species listed as endangered (plus one listed as threatened) under the Federal Endangered Species Act.
I wanted to see Pine Hill because of the rare native plants, and I thought a trip there would intersect reasonably well with Susan's interest in geology, too. So I signed us up for a guided tour, with a group of about 20 people. Here is the whole group near the start of the hike, with Susan standing nearest to the camera.
( More pictures! )
Pine Hill Preserve is located on a small area of the Sierra Nevada foothills where gabbro rocks that formed deep below the ocean floor have been pushed up to the surface by the collision of plates that formed the Sierra Nevadas. Gabbro rocks contain high levels of iron, magnesium, and other heavy metals, so the soil in this area (created mostly from broken down, decomposed gabbro rocks) is also unusually high in these metals. Most plants are poisoned by the high levels of these heavy metals, so some unusual plant species have evolved to grow only in these soils and nowhere else. The California Bureau of Land Management established the Pine Hill Preserve to protect eight exceptionally rare species of plants, including three species that grow exclusively in the Pine Hill area and four species listed as endangered (plus one listed as threatened) under the Federal Endangered Species Act.
I wanted to see Pine Hill because of the rare native plants, and I thought a trip there would intersect reasonably well with Susan's interest in geology, too. So I signed us up for a guided tour, with a group of about 20 people. Here is the whole group near the start of the hike, with Susan standing nearest to the camera.
( More pictures! )
