Lepomis Pallidus: Blue Gill (invasive species)

The bluegill or bluegulli occurs naturally in the United States east of the Rocky Mountains. Bluegills have been stocked widely both within and outside their native range. Observed by Smith in California 1896.
The adult diet consists of aquatic insect larvae (mayflies, caddisflies, dragonflies), but can also include crayfish, leeches, snails, and other small fish.

This chromolithograph of a Blue Gill Sun Fish (Lepomis Pallidus) was created by artist S. F. Denton  born in 1856.Photo from: http://www.printcollection.com/print/2211

Aesculus californica: California Buckeye

Buckeye

It is a true California endemic, not occurring elsewhere in the world! A tree of subtle elegance and evocative presence, it is lovely alone but is usually found in drifts or thickets filling winter-cool swales or rippling across rolling hillsides and bursting out of deep and craggy canyons. - See more at: http://www.pacifichorticulture.org/articles/california-buckeye-a-tree-for-all-seasons/#sthash.cJB9GYoz.dpuf

It is a true California endemic, not occurring elsewhere in the world! A tree of subtle elegance and evocative presence, it is lovely alone but is usually found in drifts or thickets filling winter-cool swales or rippling across rolling hillsides and bursting out of deep and craggy canyons. - See more at: http://www.pacifichorticulture.org/articles/california-buckeye-a-tree-for-all-seasons/#sthash.cJB9GYoz.dpuf

Endemic to western and northern California, reaching into Southern Oregon and the foothills of the Sierra Nevada, the California Buckeye is identifiable by its beautiful 6–10-inch-long erect clusters of pinkish-white flowers, distinctive palmately compounded leaves with 5 to 7 leaflets, and large poisonous seeds known as buckeye nuts. Buckeye nuts were traditionally prepared for eating by first boiling or roasting them, and then by leaching out their bitter tannins with water.

Words from: http://treegirl.org/california-buckeye

a true California endemic, not occurring elsewhere in the world! A tree of subtle elegance and evocative presence, it is lovely alone but is usually found in drifts or thickets filling winter-cool swales or rippling across rolling hillsides and bursting out of deep and craggy canyons. - See more at: http://www.pacifichorticulture.org/articles/california-buckeye-a-tree-for-all-seasons/#sthash.cJB9GYoz.dpuf

It is a true California endemic, not occurring elsewhere in the world! A tree of subtle elegance and evocative presence, it is lovely alone but is usually found in drifts or thickets filling winter-cool swales or rippling across rolling hillsides and bursting out of deep and craggy canyons. - See more at: http://www.pacifichorticulture.org/articles/california-buckeye-a-tree-for-all-seasons/#sthash.cJB9GYoz.dpuf

It is a true California endemic, not occurring elsewhere in the world! A tree of subtle elegance and evocative presence, it is lovely alone but is usually found in drifts or thickets filling winter-cool swales or rippling across rolling hillsides and bursting out of deep and craggy canyons. - See more at: http://www.pacifichorticulture.org/articles/california-buckeye-a-tree-for-all-seasons/#sthash.cJB9GYoz.dpuf

It is a true California endemic, not occurring elsewhere in the world! A tree of subtle elegance and evocative presence, it is lovely alone but is usually found in drifts or thickets filling winter-cool swales or rippling across rolling hillsides and bursting out of deep and craggy canyons. - See more at: http://www.pacifichorticulture.org/articles/california-buckeye-a-tree-for-all-seasons/#sthash.cJB9GYoz.dpuf

Picture from: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aesculus_californica

a true California endemic, not occurring elsewhere in the world! A tree of subtle elegance and evocative presence, it is lovely alone but is usually found in drifts or thickets filling winter-cool swales or rippling across rolling hillsides and bursting out of deep and craggy canyons. - See more at: http://www.pacifichorticulture.org/articles/california-buckeye-a-tree-for-all-seasons/#sthash.cJB9GYoz.dpuf

"Penutian" culture obsidian artifacts

"Penutian languages, a major grouping of American Indian languages, is spoken along the west coast of North America from British Columbia to central California and central New Mexico. The phylum consists of about 20 languages; including Miwok-Costanoan. "

http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/450502/Penutian-languages
Picture from:  http://www.nps.gov/history/history/online_books/smithsonian/terminus-reservoir/sec4.htm

Callipepla californica: The California Quail

The California Quail is a highly sociable bird that often gathers in small flocks known as "coveys". The nest is a shallow scrape lined with vegetation on the ground beneath a shrub or other cover. The female usually lays approximately twelve eggs. Once hatched, the young associate with both adults.

From: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/California_Quail

The Definition of Genocide

Geronimo Boscana

"California's biological richness and diversity, a hall-mark of its coast and climate, also meant that although its native peoples became accomplished boat builders and basket weavers, they didn't face the geographic and ecologically based food scarcity that drove other people to develop fixed agricultural systems and the social stratification and specialization needed to expand the crop fields, irrigation systems, roads and granaries that go along with settled agriculture.

The pre-Columbian population of some 300,000 people would, by 1900, plunge to some 20,000 as a result of European settlers and conquerors. Most of this destruction occurred within the 200 years between the establishment of the California Mission system and the Gold Rush, a period that easily falls within the UN's definition of genocide: "acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group."

Around 1825 Franciscan missionary Father Geronimo Boscana wrote, "The Indians of California may be compared to a species of monkey, for naught do they express interest, except in imitating the actions of others, and particularly in copying the ways of the razon or white men, whom they respect as being much superior to themselves: but in so doing, they are careful to select vice, in preference to virtue. This is the result, undoubtedly, of their corrupt, and natural disposition.""

From: The Golden Shore: California's Love Affair with the Sea by David Helvarg, 2013
Picture from: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ger%C3%B3nimo_Boscana

Pope Clement XIV

Pope Clement XIV

"Franciscan friars first came to the west coast in 1769, with the arrival of Franciscan Friar Blessed Junipero Serra in California. Franciscans from Mexico and Spain continued Serra's work, establishing a total of 21 missions from San Diego to the San Francisco Bay region."

Pope Clement XIV was elected on 19 May 1769, after a conclave that had been heavily influenced by the political manoeuvres of the ambassadors of Catholic sovereigns who opposed to the Jesuits.

From: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pope_Clement_XIV
Photo from: http://marykunzgoldman.com/2013/02/the-pope-name-game.html

The San Clemente Dam is Being Removed

The San Clemente Dam is being removed. It will be the largest dam removal project in California history. 
Californians applaud the long-awaited removal of the 106-foot tall San Clemente Dam, which has blocked the Carmel River  in Monterey County for 92 years.
The $83 million project, which will take three or four years to complete,will divert the entire river around 2.5 million cubic yards of sediment that have accumulated behind the dam, giving steelhead trout easy access to 25 miles of upstream spawning habitat for the first time since the dam was built in 1921.

From: http://www.sfchronicle.com/science/article/Adding-by-removing-San-Clemente-Dam-4613599.php

Baccharis salicifolia: Mulefat

Baccharis salicifolia, commonly known as mulefat, is a blooming shrub with sticky foliage which bears plentiful small, fuzzy, pink or red-tinged white flowers which are highly attractive to butterflies.

From: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baccharis_salicifolia

Branchinecta lynchi: Vernal Pool Fairy Shrimp

Vernal Pool Fairy Shrimp

"Vernal pool fairy shrimp are usually translucent, however some have been observed to be white or orange^. They feature stalked compound eyes, no carapace, and eleven pairs of legs.  Vernal pool fairy shrimp have a lifetime of about two months. They are usually born around early January, and die around early March."
Declared "Threatened" on September 19, 1994.

From: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Branchinecta_lynchi
Picture from: http://tunetrack.net/awake/blog/posts/231/preserve-mira-mesas-last-vernal-pools-endangered-fairy-shrimp/

Legalizing Indian Slavery

 
"Despite entering the union as a free state in 1850, the California legislature rapidly enacted a series of laws legalizing Indian slavery. All levels of state, county and local governments participated in a heartless policy of killing Indian parents and kidnapping and indenturing the victims children. Indian youth could be enslaved by the cruel act to the age of 30 for males and 25 for females. This barbarous law was finally repealed four years after President Lincoln's emancipation proclamation in 1863."
From: http://www.nahc.ca.gov/califindian.html