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Preface
- University of California Press
- Chapter
- Additional Information
Preface The inspiration for this book ma!- have been a glimpse down frorn a commercial jet of radiant golden hillsides of California poppies at Lake Elsinose in 2001 that will forever stick to memory. It was the finest outbreak of wildflowers in coastal southern California since the 1q60s, and my first experience with hillside splashes of color, having gto~vn up in Long Reach, California, in the rq jos when the city was surrounded by former pasturelatlds of European grasses and black mustard. My first instinct \vas to jump off the plme, but once I recognized m) captivlt! I reini~lded myself that the flowers would await my return. Thc topic of native herbaceous flora of California drew my attention to many sources of information: the important translation of Juan Crespi 's original diaries by hlan I<. Brown, numerous volumes of early explorers and settlers in California history, historical newspapers, and botanical collections. Graduall!; a ne\v coherent story emerged, different from the one I learned in university classes and in modern textbooks. T h s L oluine ma! not ha\ e happened w~tliout ' 1 Me-long experience of the California dream, and the inspiration of my father, J. Raymond Minnich, who was also born in California on a fruit ranch at Hemet in 1912. He was so resourceful that he built a cahiil in the forests of Mount Baldy in the San Gahriel hlountains during the Depression. The wildlands of this remote place became my childhood "home away from home" on weekends and shaped my interest in ecology. As a graduate student at Stauford, Ray spent m ~ n y trlps luking and skiing in the S~erra Neada . When he T\ asn't looking 1pulled out from 111scloset a roll of topographic maps of the Sierra and learned to visualize the contours. Ray xiii also introduced me to the important natural history writings of John hluir, R'illiam Henry Brewer, and Chrence King, which prepared me for the literature to be tackled and the historical perspective needed to trace the history of California pasture. The stor) to follow is nearly beyond the living memory of my father, and i.irtually el eryone else in the state. I would like to acknowledge Alichael Barbour, Brett Goforth, and three anonymous reviewers for their constructive reviexvs ot' the manuscript, and Kristin Hepper for her help in preparation of the maps. Ernesto Franco-Vizcaino and his colleagues at the Centro de In\-estigacibnCientifica y de Educacihn Superior (CICESE)in Ensenadn and Xndrea Kaus provided advice on the translation of:Spanish plant names. Victoria hlinnich accompanied me on weekend "floxver expeditions" and gave me ~ U L I C ~ todder toward a philosophical basis of science. The intellectual foundation for this volume lies in graduate school decades ago m-ith Jonathan D. Sauer, who views vegetation dynamically over hroad spatial and temporal scales, and ~ v h o belicves that models have strong empirical foundation. ...