Guide Savors the Beauty of California’s Islands

On a day hike at Point Reyes or the Marin headlands, Big Sur or the Backbone Trail overlooking Santa Monica Bay, my favorite field guides are actually works of natural history published by the University of California Press--”A Natural History of California,” for example, and “A Natural History of Big Sur.” As if to compensate for their bulk and weight, the titles in the California Natural History Guides offer an abundance of illuminating information about what can be glimpsed from the paths and trails of our state parks.

The latest offering in the series is “Natural History of the Islands of California” by Allan A. Schoenherr, C. Robert Feldmeth and Michael J. Emerson, with illustrations by Emerson and David Mooney (University of California Press, $45, 492 pages). From bustling Santa Catalina to the remote Farallons off San Francisco, the authors have delved into the geological origins of the islands, their aboriginal human inhabitants, and the animal and plant life that began to flourish on and around these islands after they separated from the mainland some 30 million years ago.

“Wild California as it appeared in ‘the old days’ is visible everywhere,” the authors write, reminding us why these islands can be seen as “marvelous evolutionary laboratories” where we can “observe at close range the effect that isolation by water has upon the development of flora and fauna.” Thus, for example, the giant coreopsis, a relative of the desert wildflowers of continental California, reaches a height of 6 feet on the Channel Islands. By contrast, the introduction of goats, sheep, bison and hogs by 19th century ranchers still represents a deadly threat to the natural ecosystems of the islands; thanks to foraging goats and artillery practice by the U.S. Navy, San Clemente island has been turned into “a wasteland.”

The islands of California are remarkably accessible, as the authors point out. Catalina, of course, is the busiest island, but Alcatraz is not far behind--more than a million people visit these islands every year. Of the major islands described in the book, only San Clemente and San Nicolas are off-limits to the public, and the book is full of scientific data and practical information. But the authors also pause to reflect on the more subtle qualities of the islands--Zane Grey once praised Catalina as “a place for rest, dream, peace, sleep,” for example, and one can still experience “a sense of desolation and mystery” at San Miguel Island.

A poignant story is attached to “Natural History of the Islands of California.” Its original authors, Feldmeth and Emerson, died before the book was finished, and the project was brought to completion by Schoenherr, author of one of the most ambitious of the California Natural History Guides, “A Natural History of California.” Thus, the finished book is a kind of homage to its original authors--and, thanks to its sweep and grandeur, its detail and practicality, a magnificent one.

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The familiar landscape of Yosemite is seen from a unique perspective in “Magic Yosemite Winters: A Century of Winter Sports” by Gene Rose (Coldstream Press, $40, 143 pages). Starting in the mid-1800s and growing apace over the last century and a half, Yosemite has served as an ideal venue for alpine sports--skiing, skating, sleighing and even dog-sledding, all of which are presented here in lyrical but fact-filled prose and vintage photography.

Rose evokes an early and pristine era in the High Sierra, long before the rangers started carrying sidearms and smog alerts became part of the Yosemite experience. John Muir, for example, learned how to ski on Norwegian “snow skates,” an early form of long-board skis. Charlie Chaplin joined the world-class skiers who tried out the newly opened slopes of Badger Pass in the ‘30s, and the U.S. Army’s 10th Mountain Division trained at Yosemite during World War II. Indeed, one of the pleasures of “Magic Yosemite Winters” is its black-and-white snapshots that show early visitors at play in the snowy terrain, using trash can lids as impromptu snowboards and riding on sleds dragged by a Model T.

“Badger Pass is the hub, the gateway to understanding Yosemite’s mysteries,” writes Keith Walklet in an epilogue. “I maintain that there is simply no better place to learn to love winter.”

“Magic Yosemite Winters” is published by Coldstream Press, whose office is tucked away at the foot of Donner Pass and whose books are devoted to the people and places of the Sierra. It’s a good example of the flourishing small-press scene in California, where authors and publishers are able to pursue their passions in print. Indeed, Coldstream may be a mom-and-pop publishing house, and literally so, but there is nothing small about its books, so opulently presented and so full of ardor and expertise.

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“Drowning the Dream: California’s Water Choices at the Millennium” by David Carle (Praeger, $45, 224 pages) reconsiders the near-mythic role of water in California’s history and destiny from the point of view of an activist who does not bother to hide his agenda. “Los Angeles is a real estate conspiracy rather than a municipality” was the complaint of one turn-of-the century protester quoted in the book, and Carle affirms the same notion in his own words.

“Unlimited growth is ‘the California Way,’ a 150-year-old custom,” writes Carle. “The ‘blind dogma’ is still at work.”

Of course, the “importation” of water from places where it is plentiful to places where it is scarce, as Carle demonstrates in detail, has always been an engine of development in California. As early as the Gold Rush, water was diverted from rivers and streams to assist in mining, and the Owens Valley water project dates all the way to the opening years of the 20th century. Yet none of it was inevitable, or so Carle argues, and he invites us to imagine what Los Angeles would have been like today if we had learned to live with the natural water resources of Southern California.

“The shape of the future remains a matter of choice, as it was throughout the state’s history,” he concludes. “Californians do not have to continue drowning their California dreams.”

West Words looks at books related to California and the West. It runs every other Wednesday.