Red Car Properrty: Party Is Almost Over For Native Blue Fiesta Flowers

Photo: Diane Edwardson, March 12, 2015. You can still catch a glimpse of the native Blue Fiesta Flowers (Pholistoma auritum) below Adelbert Ave on the Red Car Property.  (Click on photo to enlarge.) 

Photo: Diane Edwardson, March 12, 2015.  Blue Fiesta Flowers usually last a little longer in the shady slope below the native California Black Walnut Trees off Adelbert.  Unfortunately, the north end of the property has been hit hard by the unseasonably intense sun & hot temperatures in the past 2 months. (Photos were shot earlier this month.) 

Last summer, ore than a dozen big dead Eucalyptus Trees were cut down on the north end of the Red Car Property. (Another 4 Eucalyptus were cut down in 2013.) The Eucalyptus likely died from a pest that spread a fungus, accelerated by the severe drought.)  

Also last summer, just below this same section of the Red Car Property on adjacent Riverside Drive lots, real estate speculators cut down more than a dozen protected native California Black Walnut & Coast Live Oak, as well as a number of non-protected & "significantly" sized trees.  Together, these incidents radically changing the the micro-climate, reduced the watershed & carbon storing potential of the soil.  The north end of the Red Car Property has a lot less shade & is drying out faster than most years.