Another Place, another Climate: Kinevan Road

 Santa Ynez Valley Natural History Society (SYVNHS) trip to Kinevan Road 11/21/2013. 

Big Leaf Maple

I always develop better sense of place from these trips and this was no exception. Our trip leader, Larry Ballard has a deep understanding of natural history in general and botany specifically so I was eager to join in and disappointed when no one showed up at the designated time. I was not in the designated spot even though I live closer than anyone, I failed to really look at the directions, assuming I knew where to be.

Mossy Rock on Kinevan

Starting at the intersection of State Highway 154 and West Camino Cielo, Larry pointed out the rapid transition between chaparral plants, including chemise, buckwheat and chokecherry, growing just outside the arroyo and all of the new plants we would see on Kinevan Road. Being one of the wettest areas in Santa Barbara County this makes sense. On a daily basis I'm aware of how much darker, cooler and denser the foliage driving through the first quarter-mile of the road.

More Big Leaf Maple

Two weeks ago I walked down the old Stagecoach Road, now a trail, from West Camino Cielo onto upper Kinevan Road. I shot several natural setting phots and a couple of birds. I heard a squirrel or two chattering in the treetops. I walked to the upper intersection with an unused part of the old highway before turning back. In the center of the canyon I heard again gray squirrels having quite a conference. I finally spotted one and distinguished voices of at least five, maybe six other squirrels, more than I've heard in one location.

I noted on that walk at mid-day, late fall, it is quite dark and requires an ISO of 400+ to capture an image. I must remember the tripod if I want to shoot in the darker places next time. Shooting anything moving is impossible.

On the natural history outing, Larry pointed out imported redwoods growing quite large near the bridge and just past the bridge, a large number of incense cedar. These trees grow here with the exceptional moisture and relative coolness. Finding big leaf maple was a little surprising even though I had been seeing them daily for 36 years. I whisked by thinking they

Sycamore (white bark) from another area

were all sycamores. I hadn't attended to to the details even though I know how to differentiate the trees. It helps to get out and walk.

I've seen the giant rye in the neighborhood and thought that meant a seep as I assumed it requires constant moisture. Learning giant rye grows in dry areas means I could grow it, maybe. That sounds like a nice addition to our plants. Earlier this year I planted local juncus where water is fairly constant because of the birdbath and it is doing well.

At lower elevation on Highway154 the Sespe formation is evident as alternating red and light layers. Both layers come from the Colorado Plateau from when Santa Barbara was near the Colorado River when it debouched near San Diego. At West Camino Cielo, all the rock is cold water sandstone according to Larry. That's the very hard basement rock we found when building Jen and Dave's house. Hard sandstone seems like an oxymoron until you watch an excavator with rock breaker hammer it for a week with small results. It must be one of the hardest sedimentary rocks. Along the Kinevan road there are great blocks of cold water above the road. In places there are still oysters in the sandstone including one cluster I've been to on West Camino Cielo. Where one sees small, sculpted caves in the sandstone it may be where oyster beds fell out of matrix as it is more friable than the cold water sandstone where they are embedded.

Larry asked me the week before if I had seen yellow styrax on Kinevan Road. I didn't recognize the Latin name styrax for snowdrop or I could have told him those leaves were

3 pheno-phases of styrax

nearly gone. I'll probably remember the Latin from now on. Styrax only grows near the San Marcus pass in all of Santa Barbara County. Larry also says styrax is a relic started in the tropics and left over from Santa Barbara's tropical period. That makes this one of the last places it is still growing. One has to go to San Diego County to find the next colony.

White alders grow in the San Jose Creek as well as a velvet ash that is not a native. All the leaves were gone from the ash so I will monitor until its leaf bud occurs. Santa Barbara sedge grows aggressively where it gets enough water, which is the case here. The sedge was first identified in Santa Barbara and therefore given the name. It is a possible groundcover we could use in our yard and might be what my neighbor uses in back of his house.

Brook Foam

An attractive small plant called Brook foam, boykinia occidentalis, grows far back in the canyon on the west side near the road. Currently it is faded, pink with a little green on its leaves. I wonder if it is related to seafoam, another plant sometimes seen in the area.

Native blackberry has three leaves and looks more like poison oak than other blackberries. Himalayan blackberry has five leaves in each cluster, some with thorns and some without. There were a few fruits still on some of the berry bushes.

The Ralph Hoffmann bird guide from 1929 was mentioned as an excellent guide because of the detail to bird behavior as well as description. Tim Matthews recommended the book and mentioned it was difficult to find as it's long out of print. I believe he said Hoffman also wrote a plant guide for Santa Barbara. I found neither on Amazon.

I was surprised when someone picked up lace lichen from the surface of the road! I went back a week later and was unable to find any in the treetops anywhere. Now I'm guessing it maybe fell off of vehicle.

TanBark Oak Acorn

Tanbark oak, lithocarpus, is tall, straight with gray bark in stepwise veins.  The acorns have spiked cups. The trees are very shade tolerant and many seedlings are sprouting along the road. Deodor cedar, cedrus deodora, with single needles grows in Lois Jean Kinevan’s drive. They are unlike the layered multi-needles of the nearby incense cedar and not so very much related.

We drove out West Camino Cielo to the sharp turn before the Lizards Mouth parking area. Here there are Shrevei oaks on WCC similar two Santa Cruz Island oak. The WCC oak may be a tree form of the Shrevei; apparently only a shrub everywhere where else. It is still a mystery tree Larry thinks could be interior live oak.

SYVNHS Field Trip viewing mystery oaks

Mystery oak details 

In several places throughout the day we looked at lichen on the trees and rocks. Larry noted how little is known about lichen growth rates or many of the other attributes of lichens.

On December 1, 2013: Haldane and I walked Kinevan Road. Temperature dropped 5 to 10° as we walked down the stagecoach trail. The cooler, damp air settled in around us and the balmy day above was soon forgotten. On the ground a gray tree squirrel leaped to a tree.  It will be several months before it sprouts. The tanbark grove is larger I found, taking more time inspecting it. We noted the loss of the large cottonwood trees recently cut by the county in anticipation of the bridge replacement. Two or three very large oaks were also cut up the road.  Without consultation with people in the neighborhood, the county chose to replace this little used bridge.  At the top of the Kinevan Road we walked the old Pass Road  down hill to the end. Four or five Northern flickers beat a hasty retreat bright orange pin feathers flashing. This is the most Northern flickers I’ve seen in one place. Kinevan Road is a special habitat.

Larry Ballard Pointing at Cold Water Sandstone Boulder

Plants we saw in the canyon include: Laurel Bay, Live Oak, big leaf Maple in full color, Sycamore also in full color, Velvet Ash, alder, liver wort, incense cedar, redwood, deodor Cedar, mosses, tanbark oak, and many more. Today San Jose Creek has only a small amount of water as well as a few pools. Two days after the rain the new Moss turned brilliantly green; a new carpet fed by the sun.

Walking Kevin Road is like walking back in time seeing an archive from an earlier climate. The three hours I spent on Larry's field trip I learned more than 36 years of driving through this canyon. Five or 10 degrees difference outside the canyon with shade makes for significant plant habitat differential and creates many homes for animals. 

View of Santa Cruz & Santa Rosa Islands from WCC near end of trip