An Academic Resource of the Claremont Colleges
Posted in News on Oct 1st, 2014
Nature has conspired to create a couple of heightened risks for working at the BFS this weekend, and, just to be safe, we’ve canceled the this Saturday’s volunteer workday. Here’s what’s going on: Heightened fire danger: Beginning tonight and continuing into next week, our area is expecting unusually high temperatures, extremely low humidity, and high […]
Posted in News on Oct 1st, 2014
September 20 was another wet volunteer workday as cattail clearing continued. Students from Citrus College, Harvey Mudd College, and the University of California Riverside together with community members and siblings and children did a terrific job of finishing up clearing around the boat landing and making major inroads on clearing around the little island at […]
Posted in News on Sep 16th, 2014
BFS 2014-2015 Volunteer Workdays started with a splash, as volunteers plunged into pHake Lake to cut back cattails around the boat landing area. Here you can see some of them at work: Cattail cutting will be continuing for the next few workdays. If you’re up for getting wet and muddy, come cool […]
Posted in News on Feb 27th, 2014
New vegetation is coming up in the that area burned last September in the Foothill Fire. Part of the burn area is in the east field, which was once cleared and was covered with a mixture of non-native grasses and recovering coastal sage scrub. A cursory look at this area gives the impression that a […]
Posted in News on Feb 10th, 2014
At the BFS Saturday workdays, volunteers not only improve habitat but also maintain and improve usability for students and researchers. For example, our first two workdays of the spring semester were dedicated to clearing the (badly overgrown) trail around pHake Lake and clearing brush from sites used by students to collect lake water for aquatic […]
Posted in News on Jan 13th, 2014
The weather didn’t cooperate for our last fall volunteer workday on December 7. The temperature was in the low 40s, and just at 10 a.m. when the workday was beginning, it started raining and didn’t quit until the workday was over. Brrrrr! Nonetheless, a great team of dedicated volunteers, including a large contingent of students […]
Posted in News on Nov 24th, 2013
Because the BFS ‘Neck’ is long and skinny, with a lot of “edge” relative to its area, non-native ornamental plants have entered the Neck from adjacent yards, and at last Saturday’s workday, volunteers removed a number of these invading plants from the lower part of the Neck. One target was a sizeable stand of Century […]
Posted in News on Oct 30th, 2013
Conjure up a mental image of pHake Lake, and what do you see? Cattails! As shown nicely in the title image for this blog, a ring of Broad-leaved Cattails (Typha latifolia) almost completely encircles the lake. Broad-leaved Cattails are native to California, and the BFS they provide habitat for some of our resident native animals, […]
Posted in News on Oct 4th, 2013
Because of very low humidity and strong Santa Ana winds, the National Weather Service has issued a “Red Flag Warning” for extreme fire danger for LA County and surrounding regions. We have consequently been asked to curtail all activities at the BFS for the next few days. As a result, the BFS volunteer workday scheduled […]
Posted in News on Sep 11th, 2013
BFS volunteer workdays resumed last Saturday, when the volunteer crew cleared brush around the old infirmary as to reduce the fire hazard. The very dry year (2013 precipitation so far is less than half of average) and extensive reporting on several large wildfires (including the Rim Fire near Yosemite and the Yarnell Hill Fire, which […]