Pala Environmental Department PED PBMI Planet Pala
Bees – honeybees, bumblebees, and other native bees – are critical to healthy wildlands and crop production. Normally, bees in the garden are not a problem. But… large swarms can be dangerous! Even a single sting can be dangerous to someone with allergies to bee venom.
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Pala Environmental Department PED PBMI Planet Pala
We all take the light in our homes for granted, until a bulb burns out! Old-fashioned incandescent light bulbs (the kind with a filament) will last around 1200 hours. That seems like a pretty long time… until you learn that compact florescent (CFL) bulbs can last up to 10,000 hours and light-emitting diode (LED) bulbs can last a whopping 50,000 hours!
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Pala Environmental Department PED PBMI Planet Pala
Every spring in Pala animals begin to stir and travel, including snakes. Pala has numerous species of snake, such as gopher snakes and king snakes. All of our snakes are beneficial, and most of these species are harmless. Pala does have a few species of rattlesnakes that are venomous and potentially dangerous; however, rattlesnakes do not want to bite you and are easy to avoid.
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Pala Environmental Department PED PBMI Planet Pala
Did you know that many of Pala’s native plants were traditionally used for more than one purpose? For instance, manzanita provided food, medicine, construction materials, and was used in rituals. The berries were used to make a tea-like drink; mashed into a jelly; or dried and ground into flour for mush. The seeds were ground into meal for mush or cakes or used in turtle shell rattles. A tea from the leaves was used to treat diarrhea and poison oak. The trunk and branches of the bush were used for firewood, construction, and making broom, tool and pipe handles.
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Pala Environmental Department PED PBMI Planet Pala
The Pala Environmental Department has been lucky enough to take part in several exciting wildlife research projects throughout the county. The newest project is aimed at monitoring mountain lions. Our wildlife biologist Kurt Broz has been assisting Dr. Winston Vickers, a veterinarian from UC Davis, and his crew with research that aims to track, and protect, our imperiled mountain lions.
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Pala Environmental Department PED PBMI Planet Pala
Spring is here, signaling for most people that it’s time to start your gardens. As California enters its fourth straight year of severe drought, we should all think about landscaping with low water use plants, instead of water-hogs (like grass & tropical plants).
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Pala Environmental Department PED PBMI Planet Pala
With the start of spring and warmer temperatures there will be a noticeable increase in insects and the diseases that they carry. One that is of serious concern is the Gold Spotted Oak Borer (GSOB), which is a flathead borer that causes mortality to oak trees. Experts believe it was introduced into the Descano area of San Diego County by the transport of infested firewood from Southwestern Arizona in 2004. The GSOB mortality of oak trees has since spread to other portions of San Diego County as close as Julian and isolated areas of Idyllwild in Riverside County.
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