Louise Jackson (UC Davis) and her post-doc Martin Plotoff, visited Hastings in early October and mid-December. They are studying the soil under the native grasses and in places that have been tilled regularly enough for the last 10 years so that few plants grow long enough to set seed. Tillage can have dramatic effects on soil microbial communities (fungi, bacteria). These microbes are very important to the balance of C and N in the soil, as are some N-fixing plants. Louise and Martin set up a series of soil rings around individual native grass clumps to allow them to measure soil carbon accumulation and dispersal in the soil. They used a sledge to pound in 12" wide plastic rings around each plant. Each ring was about 12" deep. Smaller rings were put around plants to allow them to measure soil N with and without lupines, a native N-fixing plant. They also set out small rings with various amounts and kinds (C-3, C-4) of plant litter to see how much of the various kinds of litter are consumed by the soiled microbial community. We had to build an electric fence around the site to keep the pigs out. The box on the top of the fencepost in the photo is a solar-powered shock generator with a battery to run at night.

     Louise is really good at getting students from CSU Monterey Bay to come help. And she had a group of 5 come out and help pound in the rings. One of them became inexplicable stuck while driving. It has been a while since people have had to abandon a car overnight until they could help; in this case Mark Johnson pulled them out early on the following Monday morning. An adventure and learning experience for the students of the best kind

    Bill Monahan, a student with Walt Koenig, stayed at Hastings for a few days during the Sudden Oak Death Symposium (SOD) meeting in Monterey Dec 17-18, where Bill gave a talk coauthored with Walt on the potential effects of SOD on California’s oak woodland birds. Using Christmas Bird Count data and oak distributional data, their goal was to estimate the effects of losing SOD-susceptible trees, including tanoak, coast live oak, and California black oak, to common oak woodland birds such as California scrub-jays, oak titmice, and acorn woodpeckers.

   Dr. Peter Johnsen, Director of the USDA's , National Center for Agricultural Utilization Research visited Hastings December 8-10. People at the NCAUR work on such diverse things as hydraulic oil from soybeans to fire-fighting foams; all from common agricultural products. We might send Peter some newt slime as it appear to foam up when the newts walk through fire.
     Sheri Lubin, of the James Reserve, spent a few days in December visiting with Walt Koenig and to see the reserve. Sheri is investigating various graduate schools and talked with Walter about the possibilities of working at UC Berkeley.
      Robin and Tom Hill, of UC Davis Art Department, spent a long weekend at the Hastings Cabin in December. We hope they are inspired by the views and landscapes. We are very pleased to have some artists visit who appreciate the natural values of Hastings.

      Ian Swift, along with Frank Havore (CSU Northridge, UCB) stayed in the Bunk House in October to set up a UV light and bucket trap to catch the rarely seen Rain Beetle (Pleocoma lucia). Frank Havore provided us with a new Hastings publication, an older revision of the genus Pleocoma in California. He is now revising the treatment, and will be using DNA etc. to determine correct names and range maps. They were intrigued by the sketchy evidence for potentially different species at Laureles Grade and about 5 miles south of Carmel- different from those at Hastings. Anyway, they caught about 10 in the trap at the Stucco House, and I moved the trap in mid-December to Laureles Grade and later to Garrapata Creek. No luck at either place, but we will try again next year as the beetles are probably only active for a week or so at the first rains. Check out the photos of the beetle and the beetle field crew!

  On November 4, Toshihiko M. Yoshida and Eric Seabloom (NCEAS, UCSB) set up another replicate plot where they planted native grasses collected at Hastings, into the thatch with various levels of clearing and tillage. They want to see if the natives have any chance of survival if enough seeds are dumped into the mix of weedy, invasive species. The search for understanding restoration of California grasslands goes on.....