1.
Humboldt County, California
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Humboldt County is a county in the U. S. state of California. As of the 2010 census, the population was 134,623, Humboldt County comprises the Eureka–Arcata–Fortuna, CA Micropolitan Statistical Area. It is located on the far North Coast ~270 miles north of San Francisco, Area cities and towns are known for hundreds of ornate examples of Victorian architecture. Humboldt County is a forested mountainous, and rural county with about 110 miles of coastline situated along the Pacific coast in Northern Californias rugged Coast Ranges. Andrés de Urdaneta found the coast near Cape Mendocino then followed the coast south to Acapulco in 1565, Spanish traders made unintended visits to California with the Manila Galleons on their return trips from the Philippines beginning in 1565. Humboldt County was formed in 1853 from parts of Trinity County, the first recorded entry by people of European origin was a landing by the Spanish in 1775 in Trinidad. The first recorded entry of Humboldt Bay by non-natives was an 1806 visit from a sea otter hunting party from Sitka employed by the Russian American Company, the hunting party included Captain Jonathan Winship, an American, and some Aleut hunters. The bay was not visited again by people of European origin until 1849 when Josiah Greggs party visited, the area around Humboldt Bay was once solely inhabited by the Wiyot Indian tribe. One of the largest Wiyot villages, Tolowot, was located on Indian Island in Humboldt Bay, founded around 900 BC, it contains a shell midden 6 acres in size and 14 feet deep. It was the site of the February 26,1860 massacre of the Wiyot people that was recorded by Bret Harte, then living in Union, between 60 and 200 Wiyot men, women, and children were murdered that night. Tolowot is now a site and a National Historic Landmark. They were put on two steamships and shipped to San Francisco, no-one was killed in the expulsion. Another Chinese expulsion occurred during 1906 in a cannery on the Eel River, however, some Chinese remained in the Orleans area, where some white landowners sheltered and purchased food for the Chinese mineworkers until after racial tension passed. Chinese did not return to the cities until the 1950s. The coastal zone of the county experiences very wet, cool winters and dry, in the winter, temperatures range from highs of 40–59 °F to lows of 32–49 °F. Coastal summers are cool to mild, with highs of 60–69 °F. Coastal summer temperatures range from highs of 64–70 °F to lows of 46–55 °F, in these locations summer highs are 70–75 °F. The coastal zone experiences a number of frosty nights in winter and early spring, though snowfall, coastal winters are cool and wet
2.
Rio Dell, California
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Rio Dell is a city in Humboldt County, California, United States. Rio Dell is located on the west bank of the Eel River 1 mile north of Scotia, the population was 3,363 at the 2010 census, up from 3,174 at the 2000 census. According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has an area of 2.4 square miles. This region experiences warm and dry summers, with no average monthly temperatures above 71.6 °F, according to the Köppen Climate Classification system, Rio Dell has a warm-summer Mediterranean climate, abbreviated Csb on climate maps. The first post office at Rio Dell opened in 1876, Rio Dell was connected to Scotia by a ferry provided by the lumber mill, and a suspension bridge built in 1914. The 2010 United States Census reported that Rio Dell had a population of 3,368, the population density was 1,393.2 people per square mile. The racial makeup of Rio Dell was 2,894 White,13 African American,125 Native American,25 Asian,3 Pacific Islander,140 from other races, Hispanic or Latino of any race were 384 persons. The Census reported that 3,347 people lived in households,21 lived in non-institutionalized group quarters, there were 131 unmarried opposite-sex partnerships, and 13 same-sex married couples or partnerships. 409 households were made up of individuals and 139 had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older, the average household size was 2.45. There were 844 families, the family size was 2.99. The median age was 38.3 years, for every 100 females there were 96.7 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 91.7 males, there were 1,442 housing units at an average density of 596.5 per square mile, of which 774 were owner-occupied, and 593 were occupied by renters. The homeowner vacancy rate was 0. 6%, the vacancy rate was 2. 8%. 1,952 people lived in owner-occupied housing units and 1,395 people lived in housing units. As of the census of 2000, there were 3,174 people,1,221 households, the population density was 1,684.2 people per square mile. There were 1,434 housing units at a density of 760.9 per square mile. The racial makeup of the city was 85. 63% White,0. 16% Black or African American,3. 88% Native American,0. 38% Asian,0. 03% Pacific Islander,5. 73% from other races, and 4. 19% from two or more races. 10. 81% of the population were Hispanic or Latino of any race,25. 0% of all households were made up of individuals and 10. 4% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older
3.
Geographic coordinate system
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A geographic coordinate system is a coordinate system used in geography that enables every location on Earth to be specified by a set of numbers, letters or symbols. The coordinates are chosen such that one of the numbers represents a vertical position. A common choice of coordinates is latitude, longitude and elevation, to specify a location on a two-dimensional map requires a map projection. The invention of a coordinate system is generally credited to Eratosthenes of Cyrene. Ptolemy credited him with the adoption of longitude and latitude. Ptolemys 2nd-century Geography used the prime meridian but measured latitude from the equator instead. Mathematical cartography resumed in Europe following Maximus Planudes recovery of Ptolemys text a little before 1300, in 1884, the United States hosted the International Meridian Conference, attended by representatives from twenty-five nations. Twenty-two of them agreed to adopt the longitude of the Royal Observatory in Greenwich, the Dominican Republic voted against the motion, while France and Brazil abstained. France adopted Greenwich Mean Time in place of local determinations by the Paris Observatory in 1911, the latitude of a point on Earths surface is the angle between the equatorial plane and the straight line that passes through that point and through the center of the Earth. Lines joining points of the same latitude trace circles on the surface of Earth called parallels, as they are parallel to the equator, the north pole is 90° N, the south pole is 90° S. The 0° parallel of latitude is designated the equator, the plane of all geographic coordinate systems. The equator divides the globe into Northern and Southern Hemispheres, the longitude of a point on Earths surface is the angle east or west of a reference meridian to another meridian that passes through that point. All meridians are halves of great ellipses, which converge at the north and south poles, the prime meridian determines the proper Eastern and Western Hemispheres, although maps often divide these hemispheres further west in order to keep the Old World on a single side. The antipodal meridian of Greenwich is both 180°W and 180°E, the combination of these two components specifies the position of any location on the surface of Earth, without consideration of altitude or depth. The grid formed by lines of latitude and longitude is known as a graticule, the origin/zero point of this system is located in the Gulf of Guinea about 625 km south of Tema, Ghana. To completely specify a location of a feature on, in, or above Earth. Earth is not a sphere, but a shape approximating a biaxial ellipsoid. It is nearly spherical, but has an equatorial bulge making the radius at the equator about 0. 3% larger than the radius measured through the poles, the shorter axis approximately coincides with the axis of rotation
4.
California Department of Parks and Recreation
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The California Department of Parks and Recreation, also known as California State Parks, manages the California state parks system. Headquartered in Sacramento, park administration is divided into 25 districts, the California State Parks system is the largest state park system in the United States. Californias first state park was the Yosemite Grant, which constitutes part of Yosemite National Park. In 1864, the government set aside Yosemite Valley for preservation and ceded the land to the state. Californias oldest state park, Big Basin Redwoods State Park, was founded in 1902, until 1921, each park was managed by an independent commission or agency. In 1927, the California Legislature, with the support of Governor C. C. Young, established the State Park Commission, and its membership included, Major Frederick R. Burnham, W. F. Chandler, William E. Colby, Henry W. OMelveny. The following year, a newly established State Park Commission began gathering support for the first state park bond issue and its efforts were rewarded in 1928 when Californians voted nearly three-to-one in favor of a $6 million park bond act. With Newton B. Drury serving as officer, the new system of state parks rapidly began to grow. William Penn Mott, Jr. served as director of the agency under Governor Ronald Reagan, responsible for almost one-third of Californias scenic coastline, California State Parks manages the states finest coastal wetlands, estuaries, beaches, and dune systems. California State Parks contains the largest and most diverse natural and cultural heritage holdings of any agency in the nation. The Department employs State Park Peace Officers Law Enforcement to protect and preserve the State Parks, Parks are patrolled by sworn State Park Peace Officers, of which there are two classifications, State Park Ranger and State Park Lifeguards. In May 2008 The National Trust for Historic Preservation listed the system as a whole on their list of Americas Most Endangered Places. The Parks Forward commission issued a report in 2015 that noted the lack of maintenance for many parks along with visitors who do not reflect the diversity of Californias population. The report also said the agency is using outdated technology for managing the parks, at least $1 million of more than $14 million in total proposed cuts resulting from park closures would take place during the current budget year. The deficit reducing measure would reduce or eliminate over 100 staff positions in addition to seasonal lifeguards at many state beaches. On May 29,2009, the State of California announced that it planned to close 220 parks, examples of service reductions included some parks only being open on weekends and holidays, or closing accessibility to portions of an otherwise open park. On May 11,2011, state officials announced that seventy parks would be closed due to department budget cuts in response to Californias continuing budget crises
5.
State park
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State parks are parks or other protected areas managed at the sub-national level within those nations which use state as a political subdivision. State parks are established by a state to preserve a location on account of its natural beauty, historic interest. There are state parks under the administration of the government of each U. S. state, some of the Mexican states, the term is also used in the Australian state of Victoria. The equivalent term used in Canada, Argentina, South Africa, similar systems of local government maintained parks exist in other countries, but the terminology varies. State parks are thus similar to parks, but under state rather than federal administration. Similarly, local government entities below state level may maintain parks, in general, state parks are smaller than national parks, with a few exceptions such as the Adirondack Park in New York and Anza-Borrego Desert State Park in California. As of 2014, there were 10,234 state park units in the United States, there are some 739 million annual visits to the countrys state parks. The NASPD further counts over 43,000 miles of trail,217,367 campsites, many states include designations beyond state park in their state parks systems. Other designations might be state recreation areas, state beaches, some state park systems include long-distance trails and historic sites. The title of oldest state park in the United States is claimed by Niagara Falls State Park in New York, however several public parks previously or currently maintained at the state level pre-date it. Indian Springs State Park has been operated continuously by the state of Georgia as a park since 1825. In 1864 Yosemite Valley and Mariposa Grove were ceded by the government to California until Yosemite National Park was proclaimed in 1890. In 1878 Wisconsin set aside a vast swath of its forests as The State Park but, needing money. The first state park with the designation of state park was Mackinac Island State Park in 1895, list of U. S. state parks National Association of State Park Directors Wilderness preservation systems in the United States Ahlgren, Carol. The Civilian Conservation Corps and Wisconsin State Park Development, the State Park Movement in America, A Critical Review excerpt and text search Larson, Zeb. Silver Falls State Park and the Early Environmental Movement, oregon Historical Quarterly 112#1 pp, 34-57 in JSTOR Newton, Norman T. When Forests Trumped Parks, The Maryland Experience, 1906-1950, Maryland Historical Magazine 101#2 pp, 203-224
6.
California
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California is the most populous state in the United States and the third most extensive by area. Located on the western coast of the U. S, California is bordered by the other U. S. states of Oregon, Nevada, and Arizona and shares an international border with the Mexican state of Baja California. Los Angeles is Californias most populous city, and the second largest after New York City. The Los Angeles Area and the San Francisco Bay Area are the nations second- and fifth-most populous urban regions, California also has the nations most populous county, Los Angeles County, and its largest county by area, San Bernardino County. The Central Valley, an agricultural area, dominates the states center. What is now California was first settled by various Native American tribes before being explored by a number of European expeditions during the 16th and 17th centuries, the Spanish Empire then claimed it as part of Alta California in their New Spain colony. The area became a part of Mexico in 1821 following its war for independence. The western portion of Alta California then was organized as the State of California, the California Gold Rush starting in 1848 led to dramatic social and demographic changes, with large-scale emigration from the east and abroad with an accompanying economic boom. If it were a country, California would be the 6th largest economy in the world, fifty-eight percent of the states economy is centered on finance, government, real estate services, technology, and professional, scientific and technical business services. Although it accounts for only 1.5 percent of the states economy, the story of Calafia is recorded in a 1510 work The Adventures of Esplandián, written as a sequel to Amadis de Gaula by Spanish adventure writer Garci Rodríguez de Montalvo. The kingdom of Queen Calafia, according to Montalvo, was said to be a land inhabited by griffins and other strange beasts. This conventional wisdom that California was an island, with maps drawn to reflect this belief, shortened forms of the states name include CA, Cal. Calif. and US-CA. Settled by successive waves of arrivals during the last 10,000 years, various estimates of the native population range from 100,000 to 300,000. The Indigenous peoples of California included more than 70 distinct groups of Native Americans, ranging from large, settled populations living on the coast to groups in the interior. California groups also were diverse in their organization with bands, tribes, villages. Trade, intermarriage and military alliances fostered many social and economic relationships among the diverse groups, the first European effort to explore the coast as far north as the Russian River was a Spanish sailing expedition, led by Portuguese captain Juan Rodríguez Cabrillo, in 1542. Some 37 years later English explorer Francis Drake also explored and claimed a portion of the California coast in 1579. Spanish traders made unintended visits with the Manila galleons on their trips from the Philippines beginning in 1565
7.
Old-growth forest
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Old-growth features include diverse tree-related structures that provide diverse wildlife habitat that increases the biodiversity of the forested ecosystem. The concept of tree structure includes multi-layered canopies and canopy gaps, greatly varying tree heights and diameters. Old-growth forests are valuable, and logging of these forests has been a point of contention between the logging industry and environmentalists. Old-growth forests tend to have trees and standing dead trees, multi-layered canopies with gaps that result from the deaths of individual trees. Depending on the forest, this may take anywhere from a century to several millennia, hardwood forests of the eastern United States can develop old-growth characteristics in one or two generations of trees, or 150–500 years. In British Columbia, Canada, old growth is defined as 120 to 140 years of age in the interior of the province where fire is a frequent and natural occurrence. In British Columbia’s coastal rainforests, old growth is defined as more than 250 years. In Australia, eucalypt trees rarely exceed 350 years of age due to frequent fire disturbance, Forest types have very different development patterns, natural disturbances and appearances. Levels of biodiversity may be higher or lower in old-growth forests compared to that in second-growth forests, depending on circumstances, environmental variables. Logging in old-growth forests is an issue in many parts of the world. Excessive logging reduces biodiversity, affecting not only the old-growth forest itself, a forest in old-growth stage has a mix of tree ages, due to a distinct regeneration pattern for this stage. New trees regenerate at different times from other, because each one of them has different spatial location relative to the main canopy. The mixed age of the forest is an important criterion in ensuring that the forest is a stable ecosystem in the long term. A climax stand that is uniformly aged becomes senescent and degrades within a relatively short time-period to result in a new cycle of forest succession, thus, uniformly aged stands are a less stable ecosystem. Forest canopy gaps are essential in creating and maintaining mixed-age stands, also, some herbaceous plants only become established in canopy openings, but persist beneath an understory. Openings are a result of death due to small impact disturbances such as wind, low-intensity fires. Because old-growth forest is structurally diverse it provides higher-diversity habitat than forests in other stages, thus, sometimes higher biological diversity can be sustained in old-growth forest, or at least a biodiversity that is different from other forest stages. The characteristic topography of much old-growth forest consists of pits and mounds, mounds are caused by decaying fallen trees, and pits by the roots pulled out of the ground when trees fall due to natural causes, including being pushed over by animals
8.
Sequoia sempervirens
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Sequoia sempervirens /sᵻˈkɔɪ. ə sɛmpərˈvaɪrənz/ is the sole living species of the genus Sequoia in the cypress family Cupressaceae. Common names include coast redwood, coastal redwood and California redwood and it is an evergreen, long-lived, monoecious tree living 1, 200–1,800 years or more. This species includes the tallest living trees on Earth, reaching up to 379 feet in height and these trees are also among the oldest living things on Earth. The name sequoia sometimes refers to the subfamily Sequoioideae, which includes S. sempervirens along with Sequoiadendron, here, the term redwood on its own refers to the species covered in this article, and not to the other two species. Scottish botanist David Don described the redwood as the evergreen taxodium in his colleague Aylmer Bourke Lamberts 1824 work A description of the genus Pinus, austrian botanist Stephan Endlicher erected the genus Sequoia in his 1847 work Synopsis coniferarum, giving the redwood its current binomial name of Sequoia sempervirens. The redwood is one of three living species, each in its own genus, in the subfamily Sequoioideae, molecular studies have shown the three to be each others closest relatives, generally with the redwood and giant sequoia as each others closest relatives. However, Yang and colleagues in 2010 queried the polyploid state of the redwood, further analysis strongly supported the hypothesis that Sequoia was the result of a hybridization event involving Metasequoia and Sequoiadendron. Thus, Yang and colleagues hypothesize that the inconsistent relationships among Metasequoia, Sequoia, the coast redwood can reach 115 m tall with a trunk diameter of 9 m. It has a crown, with horizontal to slightly drooping branches. The bark can be thick, up to 1-foot, and quite soft and fibrous, with a bright red-brown color when freshly exposed. The root system is composed of shallow, wide-spreading lateral roots, the leaves are variable, being 15–25 mm long and flat on young trees and shaded shoots in the lower crown of old trees. On the other hand, they are scale-like, 5–10 mm long on shoots in full sun in the crown of older trees. They are dark green above and have two blue-white stomatal bands below, leaf arrangement is spiral, but the larger shade leaves are twisted at the base to lie in a flat plane for maximum light capture. The species is monoecious, with pollen and seed cones on the same plant, the seed cones are ovoid, 15–32 millimetres long, with 15–25 spirally arranged scales, pollination is in late winter with maturation about 8–9 months after. Each cone scale bears three to seven seeds, each seed 3–4 millimetres long and 0.5 millimetres broad, the seeds are released when the cone scales dry out and open at maturity. The pollen cones are ovular and 4–6 millimetres long and its genetic makeup is unusual among conifers, being a hexaploid and possibly allopolyploid. Both the mitochondrial and chloroplast genomes of the redwood are paternally inherited, the prevailing elevation range is 98–2,460 ft above sea level, occasionally down to 0 and up to 3,000 ft. They usually grow in the mountains where precipitation from the incoming moisture off the ocean is greater, the tallest and oldest trees are found in deep valleys and gullies, where year-round streams can flow, and fog drip is regular
9.
Eureka, California
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Eureka is the principal city and county seat of Humboldt County in the Redwood Empire region of California. The city is located on U. S. Route 101 on the shores of Humboldt Bay,270 miles north of San Francisco and 100 miles south of the Oregon border. At the 2010 census, the population of the city was 27,191, Eureka is the largest coastal city between San Francisco and Portland, and the westernmost city of more than 25,000 residents in the 48 contiguous states. It is the center for government, health care, trade. Greater Eureka, one of Californias major commercial fishing ports, is the location of the largest deep-water port between San Francisco and Coos Bay, a stretch of about 500 miles. The headquarters of both the Six Rivers National Forest and the North Coast Redwoods District of the California State Parks System are in Eureka. As entrepôt for hundreds of mills that once existed in the area. Eureka is home to Californias oldest zoo, the Sequoia Park Zoo, Eurekas Pacific coastal location on Humboldt Bay, adjacent to abundant redwood forests, provided the reason for settlement of this 19th-century seaport town. Before the arrival of Euro-American settlers, including farmers, miners, fishermen, and loggers, the Wiyot people lived in Jaroujiji, now known as Eureka, for thousands of years prior to European arrival. They are the farthest-southwest people whose language has Algonquian roots and their traditional coastal homeland ranged from the lower Mad River through Humboldt Bay and south along the lower basin of the Eel River. The Wiyot are particularly known for their basketry and fishery management, an extensive collection of intricate basketry of the areas indigenous groups exists in the Clarke Historical Museum in Old Town Eureka. As of 2013, Eureka High School has the largest Yurok language program in California, the timing of this discovery would lead to the May 13,1850 founding of the settlement of Eureka on its shore by the Union and Mendocino Exploring companies. Eureka received its name from a Greek word meaning I have found it and this exuberant statement of successful gold rush miners is also the official Motto of the State of California. Eureka is the only U. S. location to use the seal as the state for its seal. In the United States, Eureka, California is the largest of about a dozen towns, the first Europeans venturing into Humboldt Bay encountered the indigenous Wiyot. Records of early forays into the bay in 1806 reported that the violence of the indigenous people made it nearly impossible for landing parties to survey the area. After 1850, Europeans ultimately overwhelmed the Wiyot, whose maximum population before the Europeans was in the hundreds in the area of what would become the primary city. The 1860 Wiyot Massacre took place on Indian Island in the spring of 1860, committed by a group of locals, thought to be primarily Eureka businessmen
10.
Northern California
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Northern California, often abbreviated NorCal, is the northern portion of the U. S. state of California. The 48-county definition is not used for the Northern California Megaregion, the megaregions area is instead defined from Metropolitan Fresno north to Greater Sacramento, and from the Bay Area east across Nevada state line to encompass the entire Lake Tahoe-Reno area. The arrival of European explorers from the early 16th to the mid-18th centuries, in 1770, the Spanish mission at Monterey was the first European settlement in the area, followed by other missions along the coast—eventually extending as far north as Sonoma County. Northern California is not a geographic designation. Californias north-south midway division is around 37° latitude, near the level of San Francisco, popularly, though, Northern California usually refers to the states northernmost 48 counties. This definition coincides with the county lines at 35° 47′ 28″ north latitude, the term is also applied to the area north of Point Conception and the Tehachapi Mountains. Because of Californias large size and diverse geography, the state can be subdivided in other ways as well, the state is often considered as having an additional division north of the urban areas of the San Francisco Bay Area and Sacramento metropolitan areas. The coastal area north of the Bay Area is referred to as the North Coast while the region north of Sacramento is referred by locals as the Northstate. Since the events of the California Gold Rush, Northern California has been a leader on the economic, scientific. In science, advances range from being the first to isolate and name fourteen transuranic chemical elements, other examples of innovation across diverse fields range from Genentech to CrossFit as a pioneer in extreme human fitness and training. It is also Home to one of the largest Air Force Bases on the West Coast, Northern Californias largest metropolitan area is the San Francisco Bay Area which includes the cities of San Francisco, San Jose, Oakland, and their many suburbs. In recent years the Bay Area has drawn more commuters from as far as Central Valley cities such as Sacramento, Stockton, Fresno, Turlock and Modesto. The 2010 U. S. Census showed that the Bay Area grew at a faster rate than the Greater Los Angeles Area while Greater Sacramento had the largest growth rate of any area in California. The states larger cities are considered part of Northern California in cases when the state is divided into two parts. The first European to explore the coast was Juan Rodríguez Cabrillo, sailing for the Spanish Crown, in 1542, beginning in 1565, the Spanish Manila galleons crossed the Pacific Ocean from Mexico to the Spanish Philippines, with silver and gemstones from Mexico. The Manila galleons returned across the northern Pacific, and reached North America usually off the coast of northern California, in 1579, northern California was visited by the English explorer Sir Francis Drake who landed north of todays San Francisco and claimed the area for England. In 1602, the Spaniard Sebastián Vizcaíno explored Californias coast as far north as Monterey Bay, other Spanish explorers sailed along the coast of northern California for the next 150 years, but no settlements were established. The first European inhabitants were Spanish missionaries, who built missions along the California coast, the mission at Monterey was first established in 1770, and at San Francisco in 1776
11.
Alexander von Humboldt
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Friedrich Wilhelm Heinrich Alexander von Humboldt was a Prussian geographer, naturalist, explorer, and influential proponent of Romantic philosophy and science. He was the brother of the Prussian minister, philosopher. Humboldts quantitative work on botanical geography laid the foundation for the field of biogeography, Humboldts advocacy of long-term systematic geophysical measurement laid the foundation for modern geomagnetic and meteorological monitoring. Between 1799 and 1804, Humboldt travelled extensively in Latin America and his description of the journey was written up and published in an enormous set of volumes over 21 years. Humboldt was one of the first people to propose that the lands bordering the Atlantic Ocean were once joined and this important work also motivated a holistic perception of the universe as one interacting entity. Alexander von Humboldt was born in Berlin in Prussia on 14 September 1769 and he was baptized as a baby in the Lutheran faith, with the Duke of Brunswick serving as godfather. At age 42, Alexander Georg was rewarded for his services in the Seven Years War with the post of Royal Chamberlain and he profited from the contract to lease state lotteries and tobacco sales. He first married the daughter of Prussian General Adjutant Schweder, in 1766, Alexander Georg married Maria Elisabeth Colomb, a well-educated woman and widow of Baron Hollwede, with whom she had a son. Alexander Georg and Maria Elisabeth had three children, a daughter, who died young, and then two sons, Wilhelm and Alexander and her first-born son, Wilhelms and Alexanders half-brother, was something of a neer do well, not often mentioned in the family history. Alexander Georg died in 1779, leaving the brothers Humboldt in the care of their emotionally distant mother, Humboldts mother expected them to become civil servants of the Prussian state. The money Baron Holwede left to Alexanders mother became, after her death, instrumental in funding Alexanders explorations, due to his youthful penchant for collecting and labeling plants, shells and insects, Alexander received the playful title of the little apothecary. On April 25,1789, he matriculated at Göttingen, then known for the lectures of C. G. Heyne and his brother Wilhelm was already a student at Göttingen, but they did not interact much since their intellectual interests were quite different. His vast and varied interests were by this time fully developed, at Göttingen he met Georg Forster, a naturalist who had been with Captain James Cook on his second voyage. Humboldt traveled with Forster in Europe, the two traveled to England, Humboldts first sea voyage, The Netherlands, and France. In England, he met Sir Joseph Banks, President of the Royal Society, the scientific friendship between Banks and Humboldt lasted until Bankss death in 1820, and the two shared botanical specimens for study. Banks also mobilized his scientific contacts in later years to aid Humboldts work, Humboldts scientific excursion up the Rhine resulted in his 1790 treatise Mineralogische Beobachtungen über einige Basalte am Rhein. Humboldts passion for travel was of long standing, Humboldts talents were devoted to the purpose of preparing himself as a scientific explorer. During this period, his brother Wilhelm married, but Alexander did not attend the nuptials, Humboldt graduated from the Freiberg School of Mines in 1792 and was appointed to a Prussian government position in the Department of Mines as an inspector in Bayreuth and the Fichtel mountains
12.
Save-the-Redwoods League
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Save the Redwoods League is a nonprofit organization whose mission is to protect and restore Coast redwood forests. And to connect people with their peace and beauty and it relies on private donations and funding from the state and other partners to buy land, and has protected more than 189,000 acres of forestland. Over 60% of the redwoods in Californias state redwood parks have been protected by the organization, in particular Humboldt Redwoods State Park, Save the Redwoods League maintains and updates a website which offers information, photos, and progress reports. Preservation of the Redwood stands in California is considered one of the most substantial contributions of the Boone. The Save-The-Redwoods League was founded in 1918 by Boone and Crockett Club members Madison Grant, the initial purchases of land were made by Club member Stephen Mather and Mr. William Kent. In 1921, Boone and Crockett Club member Dr. John C. Phillips donated $32,000 to purchase land, the Master Plan for the Redwoods attempts to provide a science-based conservation strategy for the remaining Coast Redwood ecosystem. All conservation decisions made by the League and its partners are guided by the Master Plans strategies, the Master Plan helps to set priorities for land acquisitions, stewardship, and restoration initiatives. It also helps planning integration with partner organizations, with less than five percent of the ancient redwood forest remaining, the League is leading efforts to restore old-forest characteristics to young redwood forest stands. In partnership with California State Parks it is working to restore the 25,000 acres Mill Creek property in Del Norte County. The League has a scientific research program that seeks to expand the understanding of the coast redwood and giant sequoia forests. Over the last 10 years it has awarded more than 25 research grants to leading scientists, since 1921, the League has established more than 1000 redwood memorial groves, in thirty of Californias redwood parks. One grove is named after Newton B, Drury, who served as executive director of the league as well as serving as the fourth director of the National Park Service. He served in the leadership during most of the period from 1919 to 1978. Another grove is named after Drury and his brother Aubrey, additionally, in return for a donation, a grove can be renamed to provide a memorial to an individual, family, or organization. Each grove provides a memorial to an individual, family or organization. Funds raised through this program are an important part of the Leagues income, in 1931, Major Frederick Russell Burnham commissioned a survey near Bull Flat Creek in Humboldt County, a spot where League founder Madison Grant believed the worlds tallest tree might be found. Burnham lead the main address in which he declared, It is an ancient, the Founders Tree immediately became and remains the most visited spot in the Redwoods region and the focus of many ceremonies. The height measurement has since revised to 346.1 feet
13.
Pacific Lumber Company
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Begun in 1863, PALCO was carefully managed over most of the twentieth century by generations of the Simon J. Murphy, Sr. Family or managers chosen by the Murphys from 1905 through 1985, primary operations existed in massive log storage and milling operations at the historic company town of Scotia, California, located adjacent to US101 along the Eel River. Secondary mills were located in nearby Fortuna and Carlotta, PALCO had extensive timber holdings exceeding well over 200,000 acres in the Redwood and Douglas-Fir forests of Humboldt County. For generations, it was one of the largest private employers in the entire region, the company was transformed into a wholly owned subsidiary of Maxxam, Inc for its two final decades. In January 2007 the company filed for bankruptcy protection, after 145 years as PALCO, the new company is known as the Humboldt Redwood Company. Some of the parties, including Bank of New York Trust Company, filed an appeal. However, the transfer and resulting companies were little changed by the modification. The Pacific Lumber Company was started in 1863, though it employed over 350 people in its final days in 2008, there were over 1,600 employees at the turn of the millennium. The company itself was a tourist attraction that once welcomed visitors for a tour of the largest Redwood Mill ever constructed, the quaint town adjacent to the mill is still open to public visits. Pacific Lumber has been at the center of controversies since a hostile takeover by Maxxam. The company maintains that it is still a sustainable operation,1999 saw the sale of thousands of acres of land to become the Headwaters Forest Reserve. In that agreement, strict rules were put into place requiring the company to manage its holdings under more-restrictive practices and this in part led PALCO to file for bankruptcy in January 2007. By late in 2008 The Pacific Lumber Company ceased to exist. Pacific Lumber began during the heat of the US Civil War in 1863 when A. W. McPherson, over the ensuing 20 years they added more partners and began significant logging by 1882, at the present main site and town, which was originally known as Forestville. By 1888, the became the largest in Humboldt County, with 300 employees. By this time the name was changed to Scotia and it boasted a Western Union telegraph station, church, post office. In 1895, the company suffered a setback as the entire town burned. By that time, Simon J. Murphy, Sr. a Detroit business man and one of its first millionaires had consolidated his millions from Detroit and Southern California into PL
14.
Raynal Bolling
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Raynal Cawthorne Bolling was the first high-ranking officer of the United States Army to be killed in combat in World War I. A corporate lawyer by vocation, he became an early Army aviator and he was the namesake of Bolling Air Force Base. Bolling was born in Hot Springs, Arkansas, but from 1911 he was a resident of Greenwich, in 1912, he commissioned the architects Carrère and Hastings to build him a mansion, called Greyledge, on Doubling Road. The estate was razed in 2007 by its current owner despite a public outcry and he attended the Penn Charter School in Philadelphia, graduating in 1896. He graduated from Harvard College in the class of 1900 and from the Harvard Law School in 1902, Bolling was an attorney at Guthrie, Cravath, and Henderson. A little after a year there he began his career in the department of the United States Steel Corporation. By 1907 he was assistant general solicitor and married Anna Tucker Phillips, June 25,1907 in Beverly and she was the sister of William Phillips, a prominent career diplomat. He also joined the New York National Guard and he and his wife had four daughters and a son, one of whom, Cecelia Raynal Bolling, died in infancy. In 1913 he was named general counsel of US Steel at the age of 36, by the end of July, Millman reported several of his students including Bolling were ready to try for their American Aero Club license. Despite a long delay caused by lack of a landing ground nearby. Bolling also arranged for use of the American Aero Clubs six-person balloon, in September, after the Plattsburgh encampment was over, Bolling began preparations for organizing an aero company for the guard. He secured the services of three additional flying instructors and began recruiting personnel, in November 1915, Bolling was appointed as a first lieutenant in the New York National Guard and organized the Aviation Detachment, First Battalion Signal Corps, National Guard, New York. The pilots of the company were prominent young New Yorkers, many of whom had already had some instruction over the summer. Within a month, half of the 48 states had applied to the ACA for financial assistance in purchasing aircraft, flying instruction began immediately at Garden City Aerodrome, with 56 flights in November alone. Throughout the winter of 1915-1916 the 1st Aero Company conducted flying operations, the company returned its rented trainers to Gallaudet and acquired five more of disparate manufacture and age, including purchase of a Curtiss JN-4 Jenny. In addition, the company attended weekly classes in aircraft engines, the company, commanded by now-Captain Bolling, was mustered into federal service on July 13,1916, and began a five-week encampment. Bolling passed a flying test for a pilots license on October 25. 536, and passed the Reserve Military Aviator qualification test, intended for service in Mexico, the 1st Aero Company never left Long Island but did train 25 of its own members as pilots before mustering out of federal service in November 1916
15.
Bull Creek (Humboldt County)
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Bull Creek is the largest Eel River tributary drainage basin preserved within Humboldt Redwoods State Park. The basin contains the worlds largest remaining contiguous old-growth forest of coast redwoods, Bull Creek flows in a clockwise semi-circle around 3373-foot Grasshopper Mountain to enter the South Fork Eel River approximately 1.5 miles upstream of the South Fork confluence with the Eel River. Early attempts to preserve individual redwood trees and small groves of trees led to an understanding of the interdependence of forest ecosystems. Species important to the coastal redwood trees include aquatic plants. The entire Bull Creek drainage basin is protected within park boundaries to avoid upstream water quality changes detrimental to aquatic residents of the floodplain where the largest trees grow, redwood trees control the rate of erosion within the drainage basin. Founders Grove on the Bull Creek flood plain was within 9,400 acres purchased in 1931 by the Save-the-Redwoods League, timber on land upslope of Founders Grove was harvested in 1947. Four hundred more large trees were felled from the grove by the Christmas flood of 1964, most of the remainder of the Bull Creek watershed was subsequently purchased by Save-the-Redwoods League to encourage upslope forest management practices more similar to natural processes
16.
Drainage basin
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A drainage basin or catchment area is any area of land where precipitation collects and drains off into a common outlet, such as into a river, bay, or other body of water. Drainage basins connect into other drainage basins at elevations in a hierarchical pattern, with smaller sub-drainage basins. Other terms used to describe drainage basins are catchment, catchment basin, drainage area, river basin and water basin. In closed drainage basins the water converges to a point inside the basin, known as a sink, which may be a permanent lake. The drainage basin acts as a funnel by collecting all the water within the covered by the basin. Each drainage basin is separated topographically from adjacent basins by a perimeter, drainage basins are similar but not identical to hydrologic units, which are drainage areas delineated so as to nest into a multi-level hierarchical drainage system. Hydrologic units are defined to allow multiple inlets, outlets, or sinks, in a strict sense, all drainage basins are hydrologic units but not all hydrologic units are drainage basins. Drainage basins of the oceans and seas of the world. Grey areas are endorheic basins that do not drain to the oceans, the following is a list of the major ocean basins, About 48. 7% of the worlds land drains to the Atlantic Ocean. The two major mediterranean seas of the world also flow to the Atlantic, The Caribbean Sea and Gulf of Mexico basin includes most of the U. S. The Mediterranean Sea basin includes much of North Africa, east-central Africa, Southern, Central, and Eastern Europe, Turkey, and the areas of Israel, Lebanon. Just over 13% of the land in the world drains to the Pacific Ocean, the Indian Oceans drainage basin also comprises about 13% of Earths land. It drains the eastern coast of Africa, the coasts of the Red Sea and the Persian Gulf, the Indian subcontinent, Burma, antarctica comprises approximately eight percent of the Earths land. The five largest river basins, from largest to smallest, are the basins of the Amazon, the Río de la Plata, the Congo, the Nile, and the Mississippi. The three rivers that drain the most water, from most to least, are the Amazon, Ganga, endorheic drainage basins are inland basins that do not drain to an ocean. Around 18% of all land drains to endorheic lakes or seas or sinks, the largest of these consists of much of the interior of Asia, which drains into the Caspian Sea, the Aral Sea, and numerous smaller lakes. Some of these, such as the Great Basin, are not single drainage basins but collections of separate, in endorheic bodies of standing water where evaporation is the primary means of water loss, the water is typically more saline than the oceans. An extreme example of this is the Dead Sea, drainage basins have been historically important for determining territorial boundaries, particularly in regions where trade by water has been important
17.
U.S. Route 101 in California
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U. S. Route 101 in the state of California is one of the last remaining and longest U. S. Routes still active in the state, and the longest highway of any kind in California, US101 was also one of the original national routes established in 1926. Significant portions of US101 between the Los Angeles area and the San Francisco Bay Area follow El Camino Real, the road connecting the former Alta Californias 21 missions. US101 also has designated as the Santa Ana Freeway, Hollywood Freeway, Ventura Freeway, South Valley Freeway. This route is part of the California Freeway and Expressway System, the south terminus of US101 is in Los Angeles, about one mile east of downtown Los Angeles at the East Los Angeles Interchange, also known as the Commuters Complex. This southernmost portion is named the Santa Ana Freeway, inheriting that title as the extension of the roadway now known as I-5. From here, US101 becomes the Hollywood Freeway and it then heads to Hollywood and up through the Cahuenga Pass before reaching the San Fernando Valley. US101 then intersects with SR134 and SR170 at the known as the Hollywood Split. Here, the alignment of US101 shifts to the alignment of SR134, though confusing, the Hollywood Freeway name continues northward from this interchange on SR170, and the Ventura Freeway name continues eastward to SR134. From the Hollywood Split, US101 is an east–west highway and it meets with I-405 in Sherman Oaks, an interchange which holds claim to the most traveled intersection in the nation. Upon reaching Ventura, there is an interchange with SR126, North of Ventura, US101 switches intermittently between freeway and expressway status, but there are no traffic signals until San Francisco. From Ventura and through Santa Barbara, US101 closely follows the Pacific coastline until Gaviota State Park, at Gaviota State Park, the highway shifts back from an east–west highway to a north–south alignment. About one mile north of this point, US101 passes through the Gaviota Tunnel, a few miles north of the Gaviota Tunnel, SR1 splits from US101 and heads northwest, running along the Pacific coastline parallel and to the west of US101. US101 passes through Buellton, Los Alamos, Orcutt, Santa Maria, South of Santa Maria, US101 widens from a four-lane highway to a six-lane freeway. SR166 joins US101 for about 3 miles before splitting just north of the city limits, farther north, SR1 rejoins US101 between Pismo Beach and San Luis Obispo. Then US101 takes a route through the Salinas Valley, while Highway 1 heads northwest, running along the Pacific coastline in California, parallel. A steep segment between San Luis Obispo and Atascadero is known as the Cuesta Grade, North of Atascadero, the highway joins SR46 for about three miles through Paso Robles. From Paso Robles to Salinas, US101 is a known as the Salinas River Valley Highway
18.
Eel River (California)
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The Eel River is a major river, about 196 miles long, of northwestern California in the United States. The river and its tributaries form the third largest watershed entirely in California, the river flows generally northward through the Coast Ranges west of the Sacramento Valley, emptying into the Pacific Ocean about 10 miles downstream from Fortuna and just south of Humboldt Bay. The river provides groundwater recharge, recreation, and industrial, agricultural and municipal water supply, the Eel River system is among the most dynamic in California because of the regions unstable geology and the influence of major Pacific storms. The discharge is highly variable, average flows in January and February are over 100 times greater than in August, the river also carries the highest suspended sediment load of any river of its size in the United States, in part due to the frequent landslides in the region. The river basin was populated by Native Americans before. The region remained little traveled until 1850, when Josiah Gregg, the river was named after they traded a frying pan to a group of Wiyot fishermen in exchange for a large number of Pacific lampreys, which the explorers thought were eels. Explorers reports of the fertile and heavily timbered region attracted settlers to Humboldt Bay, starting in the late 19th century the Eel River supported a large salmon canning industry which began to decline by the 1920s due to overfishing. The Eel River basin has also been a significant source of timber since the days of early settlement, the river valley was a major rail transport corridor throughout the 20th century and also forms part of the route of Redwood Highway. Since the early 20th century, the Eel River has been dammed in its headwaters to provide water, via transfer, to parts of Mendocino. During the 1950s and 1960s, there was great interest in building much larger dams in the Eel River system, the Eel was granted federal Wild and Scenic River status in 1981, formally making it off limits to new dams. Nevertheless, logging, grazing, road-building and other human activities continue to affect the watersheds ecology. The Eel River originates on the flank of 6, 740-foot Bald Mountain, in the Upper Lake Ranger District of the Mendocino National Forest in Mendocino County. The river flows south through a canyon in Lake County before entering Lake Pillsbury. Below the dam the river flows west, re-entering Mendocino County, at the small Cape Horn Dam about 15 miles east of Willits, water is diverted from the Eel River basin through a 1-mile tunnel to the Russian River, in a scheme known as the Potter Valley Project. Below the dam the river turns north, flowing through an isolated valley, receiving Outlet Creek from the west. About 20 miles downstream, the North Fork Eel River – draining one of the most rugged, between the North and Middle Forks the Round Valley Indian Reservation lies east of the Eel River. After this confluence the Eel flows briefly through southwestern Trinity County, past Island Mountain, the river cuts from southeast to northwest across Humboldt County, past a number of small mountain communities including Fort Seward. The South Fork Eel River joins from the west, near Humboldt Redwoods State Park, below the South Fork the Eel flows through a wider agricultural valley, past Scotia and Rio Dell, before receiving the Van Duzen River from the east
19.
South Fork Eel River
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The South Fork Eel River is the largest tributary of the Eel River in north-central California in the United States. The river flows 105 miles north from Laytonville to Dyerville/Founders Grove where it joins the Eel River, the South Fork drains a long and narrow portion of the Coast Range of California in parts of Mendocino and Humboldt counties. U. S. Route 101 follows the river for much of its length, the Kai Pomo Indians, a branch of the Pomo Indians group, once lived in the upper portion of the watershed. Before industrial development in the 1800s, many native tribes relied on the rivers abundant runs of salmon, in the 1920s, a private company built the Benbow Dam, blocking fish migration to a large area of the basin. The South Fork is designated as a National Wild and Scenic River from the confluence of Section Four Creek to the mouth, the South Fork Eel River begins near Iron Mountain in western Mendocino County, at an elevation of 2,500 feet. Its headwaters are near that of the Ten Mile River to the south, dropping off the high plateau where it begins, the South Fork winds north and bends southwest through a steep and narrow canyon. Longvale, California is a few miles to the east of the headwaters, while Laytonville, California is closer and it is not long after its headwaters that Branscomb Road drops into the South Fork Eels canyon from the north, paralleling the river. Almost 1-mile past this point, it receives its first significant tributary, Section Four Creek, although it is not a large creek, only about 2.5 miles long, it denotes the start of the National Wild and Scenic River section of the South Fork. The river meanders swiftly west and turns west-northwest, passing Branscomb, near the city, it receives Rock Creek on the right and Redwood Creek on the left. These two stream names are a common occurrence throughout the South Forks watershed, afterwards, it receives its first significant tributary, Tenmile Creek, on the right bank. Tenmile Creek begins in another section of the Coast Range, separated from the South Fork Eel River by two sub-ranges, the creek begins in the easternmost of these two sub-ranges. It then flows west, cutting a gap through the western subrange. The creek is about 21 miles long, despite the name, after the confluence with Tenmile Creek, the South Fork flows generally north, turning west where it receives another major tributary, 11-mile Rattlesnake Creek, also on the right. This point is significant because it is where it begins to parallel U. S. Highway 101, both roads come in from the east and at this point are on the rivers right bank. The river turns northwest, receiving Big Dann Creek and another large 9-mile tributary, Cedar Creek, Cedar Creek flows west and turns south-southwest, flowing also in a steep, undeveloped gorge. Shortly past Cedar Creek, the South Fork Eel meets another large tributary, Hollow Tree Creek flows east, turns north, then turns east again to meet the South Fork, fed by several smaller creeks. The South Fork then turns west again, flowing through the Standish Hickey State Recreational Area and it then meanders north into Richardson Grove State Park on an increasingly wide valley floor, receiving Red Mountain Creek on the right bank. The river then reaches Benbow Lake, which is inside the Benbow Lake State Recreational Area and next to the town of Benbow, Benbow Lake was a seasonal reservoir, formed by a dam at its western end
20.
Avenue of the Giants
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The Avenue of the Giants is a scenic highway in Northern California, U. S. A. running through Humboldt Redwoods State Park. It is an old alignment of U. S. Route 101, the southern entrance to the Avenue is just north of Garberville, and the northern entrance is 15 miles south of Fortuna. The highway is notable for the Coast Redwoods that overshadow the road and it is from these towering trees that the Avenue of the Giants takes its name. The road winds alongside the scenic Eel River, and connects small towns such as Phillipsville, Miranda, Myers Flat, Burlington, Weott, Englewood, Redcrest. The two-lane road has a number of parking areas, picnic sites, the nearby river provides many excellent swimming locations, such as those at the Rockefeller Forest redwood grove. Being situated just off a highway, and having attained some degree of international fame. The route contains the site of the annual Avenue of the Giants Marathon, though not the oldest redwood in the forest, this large tree is over 950 years old, and is currently around 250 ft tall, though originally it was much taller. It has survived not only the ravages of time but also the 1964 flood of the area, a 1908 attempt at logging, and it is from its age and the perceived hardiness to the fates that the tree derives its name. Markers are visible on the tree, denoting the heights of where the loggers axes, situated in the northern half of the Avenue, The Immortal Tree is easy to find, and has a large gift shop and parking area in front of it. Near Weott, this grove has an easy 1/2 mile self-guided walk with informational booklets available at the beginning of the trail. This well-travelled trail is an example of old-growth redwood forest and contains a few very big trees, including the Founders Tree. Avenue of the Giants features a tree that visitors can drive through, shrine Drive-Thru Tree is near the town of Myers Flat. The tree is privately owned, the owner charges $5 or more for a car to drive through it, not a traditional tree house, this is actually a house that is, albeit partially, built within a giant redwood. Visible from the road, and with available, the front of this house is entered through the hollow trunk of a still-living tree. The front door and windows are visible to passers-by. The Eel River is the third largest river in California and it carves deep canyons down great mountains, through flat valleys, and past majestic and ancient redwood forests. The Avenue of the Giants follows the South Fork of the river, the Avenue of the Giants was part of U. S. Route 101 until a freeway bypass completed on August 27,1960, assuming the 101 designation. The Avenue was then designated as CA Route 254 by Assembly Concurrent Resolution 10, except where prefixed with a letter, postmiles were measured on the road as it was in 1964, based on the alignment that existed at the time, and do not necessarily reflect current mileage
21.
Eel River Athapaskan peoples
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The Eel River Athapaskans include the Wailaki, Lassik, Nongatl, and Sinkyone groups of Native Americans that traditionally live on or near the Eel River of northwestern California. S. Other related Athapaskan groups neighboring the Eel River Athapaskans included the Hupa-Whilkut-Chilula to the north, the Mattole on the coast to the west, estimates for the pre-contact populations of most native groups in California have varied substantially. Alfred L. Kroeber proposed a 1770 population for the Nongatl, Sinkyone, and Lassik as 2,000, sherburne F. Cook suggested a total of 4,700 for the Nongatl, Sinkyone, Lassik, Wailaki, Mattole, and Kato. Martin A. Kroeber estimated the population of the Nongatl, Sinkyone, and Lassik in 1910 as 100. Today, some Wailaki people are enrolled in the Scotts Valley Band of Pomo Indians of California, Eel River Athapaskan traditional narratives Bald Hills War Alaskan Athabaskans Baumhoff, Martin A.1958. The Conflict between the California Indian and White Civilization, culture Element Distributions, X Northwest California. Mattole, Nongatl, Sinkyone, Lassik, and Wailaki, in California, edited by Robert F. Heizer, pp. 190–204. Handbook of North American Indians, vol, culture Element Distributions, XXI Round Valley. Handbook of the Indians of California, bureau of American Ethnology Bulletin No.78. Volume 1, Page 142-158 Keter, Thomas S
22.
Felling
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Felling is the process of downing individual trees, an element of the task of logging. The person cutting the trees is a feller, in hand felling, an axe, saw, or chainsaw is used to fell a tree, followed up by limbing, bucking in traditional applications. In the modern commercial logging industry, felling is typically followed by limbing and skidding, a feller-buncher is a motorized vehicle with an attachment which rapidly cuts and gathers several trees in the process of felling them. In cut-to-length logging a harvester performs the tasks of a feller-buncher additionally doing the delimbing and bucking of the trees as well
23.
San Francisco
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San Francisco, officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the cultural, commercial, and financial center of Northern California. It is the birthplace of the United Nations, the California Gold Rush of 1849 brought rapid growth, making it the largest city on the West Coast at the time. San Francisco became a consolidated city-county in 1856, after three-quarters of the city was destroyed by the 1906 earthquake and fire, San Francisco was quickly rebuilt, hosting the Panama-Pacific International Exposition nine years later. In World War II, San Francisco was a port of embarkation for service members shipping out to the Pacific Theater. Politically, the city votes strongly along liberal Democratic Party lines, San Francisco is also the headquarters of five major banking institutions and various other companies such as Levi Strauss & Co. Dolby, Airbnb, Weebly, Pacific Gas and Electric Company, Yelp, Pinterest, Twitter, Uber, Lyft, Mozilla, Wikimedia Foundation, as of 2016, San Francisco is ranked high on world liveability rankings. The earliest archaeological evidence of habitation of the territory of the city of San Francisco dates to 3000 BC. Upon independence from Spain in 1821, the became part of Mexico. Under Mexican rule, the system gradually ended, and its lands became privatized. In 1835, Englishman William Richardson erected the first independent homestead, together with Alcalde Francisco de Haro, he laid out a street plan for the expanded settlement, and the town, named Yerba Buena, began to attract American settlers. Commodore John D. Sloat claimed California for the United States on July 7,1846, during the Mexican–American War, montgomery arrived to claim Yerba Buena two days later. Yerba Buena was renamed San Francisco on January 30 of the next year, despite its attractive location as a port and naval base, San Francisco was still a small settlement with inhospitable geography. The California Gold Rush brought a flood of treasure seekers, with their sourdough bread in tow, prospectors accumulated in San Francisco over rival Benicia, raising the population from 1,000 in 1848 to 25,000 by December 1849. The promise of fabulous riches was so strong that crews on arriving vessels deserted and rushed off to the gold fields, leaving behind a forest of masts in San Francisco harbor. Some of these approximately 500 abandoned ships were used at times as storeships, saloons and hotels, many were left to rot, by 1851 the harbor was extended out into the bay by wharves while buildings were erected on piles among the ships. By 1870 Yerba Buena Cove had been filled to create new land, buried ships are occasionally exposed when foundations are dug for new buildings. California was quickly granted statehood in 1850 and the U. S. military built Fort Point at the Golden Gate, silver discoveries, including the Comstock Lode in Nevada in 1859, further drove rapid population growth. With hordes of fortune seekers streaming through the city, lawlessness was common, and the Barbary Coast section of town gained notoriety as a haven for criminals, prostitution, entrepreneurs sought to capitalize on the wealth generated by the Gold Rush
24.
Alluvial plain
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An alluvial plain is a largely flat landform created by the deposition of sediment over a long period of time by one or more rivers coming from highland regions, from which alluvial soil forms. As the highlands due to weathering and water flow, the sediment from the hills is transported to the lower plain. Various creeks will carry the water further to a river, lake, bay, as the sediments are deposited during flood conditions in the floodplain of a creek, the elevation of the floodplain will be raised. As this reduces the channel capacity, the creek will, over time, seek new, lower paths. These processes, over time, will form the plain. The NCSS glossary instead suggests flood plain
25.
Douglas fir
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Pseudotsuga menziesii, commonly known as Douglas fir or Douglas-fir, is an evergreen conifer species native to western North America. The common name honors David Douglas, a Scottish botanist and collector who first reported the extraordinary nature, the common name is misleading since it is not a true fir, i. e. not a member of the genus Abies. For this reason the name is written as Douglas-fir. The specific epithet, menziesii, is after Archibald Menzies, a Scottish physician, Menzies first documented the tree on Vancouver Island in 1791. Colloquially, the species is known simply as Doug-fir or as Douglas pine. One Coast Salish name for the tree, used in the Halkomelem language, is lá, one variety, coast Douglas fir, grows in the coastal regions, from west-central British Columbia southward to central California. In Oregon and Washington, its range is continuous from the edge of the Cascades west to the Pacific Coast Ranges. In California, it is found in the Klamath and California Coast Ranges as far south as the Santa Lucia Range, in the Sierra Nevada, it ranges as far south as the Yosemite region. It occurs from sea level along the coast to 1,800 m above sea level in the mountains of California. Further inland, coast Douglas fir is replaced by another variety, mexican Douglas fir, which ranges as far south as Oaxaca, is often considered a variety of P. menziesii. Coast Douglas fir is currently the second-tallest conifer in the world. Extant coast Douglas fir trees 60–75 m or more in height and 1. 5–2 m in diameter are common in old growth stands, Douglas firs commonly live more than 500 years and occasionally more than 1,000 years. The bark on trees is thin, smooth, and gray. On mature trees, it is thick and corky, the shoots are brown to olive-green, turning gray-brown with age, smooth, though not as smooth as fir shoots, and finely pubescent with short, dark hairs. The buds are a distinctive, narrow, conic shape, 4–8 mm long. Unlike the Rocky Mountain Douglas fir, coast Douglas fir foliage has a noticeable sweet fruity-resinous scent, the mature female seed cones are pendulous, 5–8 cm long, 2–3 cm wide when closed, opening to a 4 cm width. They are produced in spring, green at first, maturing orange-brown in the autumn 6–7 months later, the seeds are 5–6 mm long and 3–4 mm wide, with a 12–15-mm wing. The male cones are 2–3 cm long, dispersing yellow pollen in spring, in forest conditions, old individuals typically have a narrow, cylindric crown beginning 20–40 m above a branch-free trunk
26.
Redwood National and State Parks
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The Redwood National and State Parks are old-growth temperate rainforests located in the United States, along the coast of northern California. Comprising Redwood National Park and Californias Del Norte Coast, Jedediah Smith, and Prairie Creek Redwoods State Parks, the combined RNSP contain 139,000 acres. Located entirely within Del Norte and Humboldt Counties, the four parks, together, protect 45% of all remaining coast redwood old-growth forests and these trees are the tallest and one of the most massive tree species on Earth. In addition to the forests, the parks preserve other indigenous flora, fauna, grassland prairie, cultural resources, portions of rivers and other streams. In 1850, old-growth redwood forest covered more than 2,000,000 acres of the California coast, the northern portion of that area, originally inhabited by Native Americans, attracted many lumbermen and others turned gold miners when a minor gold rush brought them to the region. Failing in efforts to strike it rich in gold, these men turned toward harvesting the giant trees for booming development in San Francisco, after many decades of unrestricted clear-cut logging, serious efforts toward conservation began. Redwood National Park was created in 1968, by which time nearly 90% of the redwood trees had been logged. The ecosystem of the RNSP preserves a number of threatened species such as the tidewater goby, Chinook salmon, northern spotted owl. Modern day native groups such as the Yurok, Tolowa, Karok, Chilula, and Wiyot all have ties to the region. Archaeological study shows they arrived in the area as far back as 3,000 years ago, an 1852 census determined that the Yurok were the most numerous, with 55 villages and an estimated population of 2,500. They used the abundant redwood, which with its grain was easily split into planks, as a building material for boats, houses. For buildings, the planks would be erected side by side in a trench, with the upper portions bound with leather strapping. Redwood boards were used to form a sloping roof. Previous to Jedediah Smith in 1828, no other explorer of European descent is known to have investigated the inland region away from the immediate coast. The discovery of gold along the Trinity River in 1850 led to a secondary rush in California. This brought miners into the area and many stayed on at the coast after failing to strike it rich and this quickly led to conflicts wherein native peoples were placed under great strain, if not forcibly removed or massacred. By 1895, only one third of the Yurok in one group of villages remained, by 1919, the miners logged redwoods for building, when this minor gold rush ended, some of them turned again to logging, cutting down the giant redwood trees. Representative John E. Raker, of California, became the first politician to introduce legislation for the creation of a national park
27.
Hyperion (tree)
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Hyperion is the name of a coast redwood in Northern California that was measured at 115.61 m, which ranks it as the worlds tallest known living tree. After 2013, new tall coast redwoods were found, research reports omit tree names, an unnamed coast redwood exists, between 115.71 m and 118.87 m tall. Hyperion was discovered August 25,2006, by naturalists Chris Atkins, the tree was verified as standing 115.55 m tall by Stephen Sillett. The tree was found in a area of Redwood National. The tree is estimated to contain 530 m3 of wood and to be roughly 700–800 years old, researchers stated that woodpecker damage at the top may have prevented the tree from growing taller. In February 2012, Hyperion was featured in the BBC Radio 4 documentary James, list of superlative trees National Geographic Video, Worlds Tallest Tree Towers Over California M. D. Vaden. com, Information about the Hyperion Coast Redwood Tree
28.
Albeeville, California
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Albeeville is a former settlement in Klamath County, now located in Humboldt County, California. Albeeville was located on Redwood Creek, within a days travel from Fort Gaston. The post office was named for Joseph Porter Albee, its first postmaster, who was murdered by Indians, the location of Albeeville is described in an 1862 letter Descending the river toward the ocean from Minors to Fort Anderson. It is 1 mile, thence to Whitneys ranch 4 miles, thence to Albees 4 miles, neils and Williams are between Albees and Elk Camp. Another description of the location is, in Humboldt County at the old Albee ranch at the junction of North Fork and Redwood Creek. Albees ranch was historically, located six miles downstream from Tom Bairs Ranch. Joseph Porter Albee was raised by his parents Joseph and Electa Albee on a farm in New York State before moving to Michigan and they moved to DeKalb County, Illinois until he joined the California Gold Rush and left his wife and children in Illinois. After mining for a time, he became an ox freighter and a miner on the Trinity River. He established a dairy at Weaverville, California, where his family rejoined him in 1852 via the Isthmus of Panama, Albee ran a hotel on the trail between Arcata and the Klamath Mines, and operated the post office from March 5,1862 to April 2,1863. As a result of the Bald Hills War, some soldiers were quartered at Albee in 1862, when they left, he and his family left the ranch and went to Arcata. Albee Creek, a tributary of the Eel River, is named for their son Joseph Crippen Albee
29.
United States Forest Service
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The United States Forest Service is an agency of the U. S. Department of Agriculture that administers the nations 154 national forests and 20 national grasslands, which encompass 193 million acres. Major divisions of the include the National Forest System, State and Private Forestry, Business Operations. Managing approximately 25% of federal lands, it is the major national land agency that is outside the U. S. Department of the Interior. The concept of the National Forests was born from Theodore Roosevelt’s conservation group, Boone and Crockett Club, in 1876, Congress created the office of Special Agent in the Department of Agriculture to assess the quality and conditions of forests in the United States. Hough was appointed the head of the office, in 1881, the office was expanded into the newly formed Division of Forestry. The Forest Reserve Act of 1891 authorized withdrawing land from the domain as forest reserves. In 1901, the Division of Forestry was renamed the Bureau of Forestry, gifford Pinchot was the first United States Chief Forester in the Presidency of Theodore Roosevelt. As of 2009, the Forest Service has a budget authority of $5.5 billion. The Forest Service employs 34,250 employees in 750 locations, including 10,050 firefighters,737 law enforcement personnel, and 500 scientists. The mission of the Forest Service is To sustain the health, diversity and its motto is Caring for the land and serving people. As the lead agency in natural resource conservation, the US Forest Service provides leadership in the protection, management, and use of the nations forest, rangeland. The agencys ecosystem approach to management integrates ecological, economic, and social factors to maintain and enhance the quality of the environment to meet current, the everyday work of the Forest Service balances resource extraction, resource protection, and providing recreation.5 billion trees per year. Further, the Forest Service fought fires on 2,996,000 acres of land in 2007, the Forest Service organization includes ranger districts, national forests, regions, research stations and research work units and the Northeastern Area Office for State and Private Forestry. Each level has responsibility for a variety of functions, the Chief of the Forest Service is a career federal employee who oversees the entire agency. The Chief reports to the Under Secretary for Natural Resources and Environment in the U. S. Department of Agriculture, there are five deputy chiefs for the following areas, National Forest System, State and Private Forestry, Research and Development, Business Operations, and Finance. The Forest Service Research and Development deputy area includes five stations, the Forest Products Laboratory. Station directors, like regional foresters, report to the Chief, Research stations include Northern, Pacific Northwest, Pacific Southwest, Rocky Mountain, and Southern. There are 92 research work units located at 67 sites throughout the United States, there are 80 Experimental Forests and Ranges that have been established progressively since 1908, many sites are more than 50 years old
30.
International Standard Book Number
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The International Standard Book Number is a unique numeric commercial book identifier. An ISBN is assigned to each edition and variation of a book, for example, an e-book, a paperback and a hardcover edition of the same book would each have a different ISBN. The ISBN is 13 digits long if assigned on or after 1 January 2007, the method of assigning an ISBN is nation-based and varies from country to country, often depending on how large the publishing industry is within a country. The initial ISBN configuration of recognition was generated in 1967 based upon the 9-digit Standard Book Numbering created in 1966, the 10-digit ISBN format was developed by the International Organization for Standardization and was published in 1970 as international standard ISO2108. Occasionally, a book may appear without a printed ISBN if it is printed privately or the author does not follow the usual ISBN procedure, however, this can be rectified later. Another identifier, the International Standard Serial Number, identifies periodical publications such as magazines, the ISBN configuration of recognition was generated in 1967 in the United Kingdom by David Whitaker and in 1968 in the US by Emery Koltay. The 10-digit ISBN format was developed by the International Organization for Standardization and was published in 1970 as international standard ISO2108, the United Kingdom continued to use the 9-digit SBN code until 1974. The ISO on-line facility only refers back to 1978, an SBN may be converted to an ISBN by prefixing the digit 0. For example, the edition of Mr. J. G. Reeder Returns, published by Hodder in 1965, has SBN340013818 -340 indicating the publisher,01381 their serial number. This can be converted to ISBN 0-340-01381-8, the check digit does not need to be re-calculated, since 1 January 2007, ISBNs have contained 13 digits, a format that is compatible with Bookland European Article Number EAN-13s. An ISBN is assigned to each edition and variation of a book, for example, an ebook, a paperback, and a hardcover edition of the same book would each have a different ISBN. The ISBN is 13 digits long if assigned on or after 1 January 2007, a 13-digit ISBN can be separated into its parts, and when this is done it is customary to separate the parts with hyphens or spaces. Separating the parts of a 10-digit ISBN is also done with either hyphens or spaces, figuring out how to correctly separate a given ISBN number is complicated, because most of the parts do not use a fixed number of digits. ISBN issuance is country-specific, in that ISBNs are issued by the ISBN registration agency that is responsible for country or territory regardless of the publication language. Some ISBN registration agencies are based in national libraries or within ministries of culture, in other cases, the ISBN registration service is provided by organisations such as bibliographic data providers that are not government funded. In Canada, ISBNs are issued at no cost with the purpose of encouraging Canadian culture. In the United Kingdom, United States, and some countries, where the service is provided by non-government-funded organisations. Australia, ISBNs are issued by the library services agency Thorpe-Bowker
31.
Wayback Machine
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The Internet Archive launched the Wayback Machine in October 2001. It was set up by Brewster Kahle and Bruce Gilliat, and is maintained with content from Alexa Internet, the service enables users to see archived versions of web pages across time, which the archive calls a three dimensional index. Since 1996, the Wayback Machine has been archiving cached pages of websites onto its large cluster of Linux nodes and it revisits sites every few weeks or months and archives a new version. Sites can also be captured on the fly by visitors who enter the sites URL into a search box, the intent is to capture and archive content that otherwise would be lost whenever a site is changed or closed down. The overall vision of the machines creators is to archive the entire Internet, the name Wayback Machine was chosen as a reference to the WABAC machine, a time-traveling device used by the characters Mr. Peabody and Sherman in The Rocky and Bullwinkle Show, an animated cartoon. These crawlers also respect the robots exclusion standard for websites whose owners opt for them not to appear in search results or be cached, to overcome inconsistencies in partially cached websites, Archive-It. Information had been kept on digital tape for five years, with Kahle occasionally allowing researchers, when the archive reached its fifth anniversary, it was unveiled and opened to the public in a ceremony at the University of California, Berkeley. Snapshots usually become more than six months after they are archived or, in some cases, even later. The frequency of snapshots is variable, so not all tracked website updates are recorded, Sometimes there are intervals of several weeks or years between snapshots. After August 2008 sites had to be listed on the Open Directory in order to be included. As of 2009, the Wayback Machine contained approximately three petabytes of data and was growing at a rate of 100 terabytes each month, the growth rate reported in 2003 was 12 terabytes/month, the data is stored on PetaBox rack systems manufactured by Capricorn Technologies. In 2009, the Internet Archive migrated its customized storage architecture to Sun Open Storage, in 2011 a new, improved version of the Wayback Machine, with an updated interface and fresher index of archived content, was made available for public testing. The index driving the classic Wayback Machine only has a bit of material past 2008. In January 2013, the company announced a ground-breaking milestone of 240 billion URLs, in October 2013, the company announced the Save a Page feature which allows any Internet user to archive the contents of a URL. This became a threat of abuse by the service for hosting malicious binaries, as of December 2014, the Wayback Machine contained almost nine petabytes of data and was growing at a rate of about 20 terabytes each week. Between October 2013 and March 2015 the websites global Alexa rank changed from 162 to 208, in a 2009 case, Netbula, LLC v. Chordiant Software Inc. defendant Chordiant filed a motion to compel Netbula to disable the robots. Netbula objected to the motion on the ground that defendants were asking to alter Netbulas website, in an October 2004 case, Telewizja Polska USA, Inc. v. Echostar Satellite, No.02 C3293,65 Fed. 673, a litigant attempted to use the Wayback Machine archives as a source of admissible evidence, Telewizja Polska is the provider of TVP Polonia and EchoStar operates the Dish Network
32.
Protected areas of the United States
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The protected areas of the United States are managed by an array of different federal, state, tribal and local level authorities and receive widely varying levels of protection. Some areas are managed as wilderness, while others are operated with acceptable commercial exploitation, as of 2015, the 25,800 protected areas covered 1,294,476 km2, or 14 percent of the land area of the United States. This is also one-tenth of the land area of the world. The U. S. also had a total of 787 National Marine Protected Areas, covering an additional 1,271,408 km2, some areas are managed in concert between levels of government. The Father Marquette National Memorial is an example of a park operated by a state park system. As of 2007, according to the United Nations Environment Programme, federal level protected areas are managed by a variety of agencies, most of which are a part of the National Park Service, a bureau of the United States Department of the Interior. They are often considered the jewels of the protected areas. Other areas are managed by the United States Forest Service, the Bureau of Land Management, the United States Army Corps of Engineers is claimed to provide 30 percent of the recreational opportunities on federal lands, mainly through lakes and waterways that they manage. The highest levels of protection, as described by the International Union for Conservation of Nature, are Level I, the United States maintains 12 percent of the Level I and II lands in the world. These lands had an area of 210,000 sq mi. A confusing system for naming protected areas results in some types being used by more than one agency, for instance, both the National Park Service and the U. S. Forest Service operate areas designated National Preserves and National Recreation Areas. The National Park Service, the U. S. Forest Service, National Wilderness Areas are designated within other protected areas, managed by various agencies and sometimes wilderness areas span areas managed by multiple agencies. States and local zoning bodies may or may not choose to protect these, the state of Colorado, for example, is very clear that it does not set any limits on owners of NRHP properties. State parks vary widely from urban parks to large parks that are on a par with national parks. Some state parks, like Adirondack Park, are similar to the National parks of England and Wales, about half the area of the park, some 3,000,000 acres, is state-owned and preserved as forever wild by the Forest Preserve of New York. Wood-Tikchik State Park in Alaska claims to be the largest state park by the amount of protected land, it is larger than many U. S. National Parks. Many states also operate game and recreation areas. S, State and tribal wilderness areas Various counties, cities, metropolitan authorities, regional parks, townships, soil conservation districts and other units manage a variety of local level parks. Some of these are more than picnic areas or playgrounds, however
33.
National Park Service
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It was created on August 25,1916, by Congress through the National Park Service Organic Act and is an agency of the United States Department of the Interior. As of 2014, the NPS employs 21,651 employees who oversee 417 units, the National Park Service celebrated its centennial in 2016. National parks and national monuments in the United States were originally individually managed under the auspices of the Department of the Interior, the movement for an independent agency to oversee these federal lands was spearheaded by business magnate and conservationist Stephen Mather, as well as J. Horace McFarland. With the help of journalist Robert Sterling Yard, Mather ran a publicity campaign for the Department of the Interior and they wrote numerous articles that praised the scenic and historic qualities of the parks and their possibilities for educational, inspirational, and recreational benefits. This campaign resulted in the creation of a National Park Service, Mather became the first director of the newly formed NPS. On March 3,1933, President Herbert Hoover signed the Reorganization Act of 1933, the act would allow the President to reorganize the executive branch of the United States government. It wasnt until later that summer when the new President, Franklin D. Roosevelt, President Roosevelt agreed and issued two Executive orders to make it happen. In 1951, Conrad Wirth became director of the National Park Service, the demand for parks after the end of the World War II had left the parks overburdened with demands that could not be met. In 1952, with the support of President Dwight D. Eisenhower, he began Mission 66, New parks were added to preserve unique resources and existing park facilities were upgraded and expanded. In 1966, as the Park Service turned 50 years old, emphasis began to turn from just saving great and wonderful scenery, Director George Hartzog began the process with the creation of the National Lakeshores and then National Recreation Areas. Since its inception in 1916, the National Park Service has managed each of the United States national parks, Yellowstone National Park was the first national park in the United States. In 1872, there was no government to manage it. Yosemite National Park began as a park, the land for the park was donated by the federal government to the state of California in 1864 for perpetual conservation. Yosemite was later returned to federal ownership, at first, each national park was managed independently, with varying degrees of success. In Yellowstone, the staff was replaced by the U. S. Army in 1886. Due to the irregularities in managing these national treasures, Stephen Mather petitioned the government to improve the situation. In response, Secretary of the Interior Franklin K. Lane challenged him to lobby for creating a new agency, Mather was successful with the ratification of the National Park Service Organic Act in 1916. Later, the agency was given authority over other protected areas, the National Park System includes all properties managed by the National Park Service
34.
Channel Islands National Park
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Channel Islands National Park is a United States national park that consists of five of the eight Channel Islands off the coast of the U. S. state of California, in the Pacific Ocean. Although the islands are close to the shore of densely populated Southern California, the park covers 249,561 acres of which 79,019 acres are owned by the federal government. The Nature Conservancy owns and manages 76% of Santa Cruz Island, Channel Islands National Park is home to a wide variety of significant natural and cultural resources. It was designated a U. S. National Monument on April 26,1938, and it was promoted to a National Park on March 5,1980. Channel Islands National Marine Sanctuary encompasses the waters six nautical miles around Channel Islands National Park, the Channel Islands were originally discovered in 1542 by the explorer Juan Rodríguez Cabrillo. In 1938 the Santa Barbara and Anacapa islands were designated a national monument, San Miguel, Santa Rosa and Santa Cruz islands were combined with the monument in 1980 to form modern-day Channel Islands National Park. On January 28,1969 an oil rig belonging to Union Oil experienced a blow-out 6 miles off the coast of California, the resulting spill was, at the time, the largest oil spill to occur in United States territorial waters. Following the spill, tides carried the oil onto the beaches of the Anacapa, San Miguel, Santa Rosa and this spill had a large impact on native wildlife of the Channel Islands. Much of the seabird population was affected, with over an estimated 3,600 avians killed. Meanwhile, seals, dolphins and other sea life died and washed ashore on both the islands and the mainland and this spill is the third largest oil spill in the United States, only surpassed by the Deepwater Horizon and the Exxon Valdez oil spills. It resulted in a 34,000 acres expansion of the Department of the Interior buffer zone in the channel, the islands within the park extend along the Southern California coast from Point Conception near Santa Barbara to San Pedro, a neighborhood of Los Angeles. Park headquarters and the Robert J. Lagomarsino Visitor Center are located in the city of Ventura, however, only three mammals are endemic to the islands, one of which is the deer mouse which is known to carry the sin nombre hantavirus. The spotted skunk and Channel Islands fox also are endemic, the island fence lizard is also endemic to the Channel Islands. One hundred and forty-five of these species are unique to the islands, Marine life ranges from microscopic plankton to the endangered blue whale, the largest animal on earth. Archeological and cultural resources span a period of more than 10,000 years, the average annual visitation to the parks mainland visitor center was around 300,000 in the period from 2007 to 2016, with 364,807 visiting in 2016. The visitor center is located in the Ventura Harbor Village, the visitor center contains several exhibits that provide information regarding all five islands, native vegetation, marine life and cultural history. Also, visitors can enjoy a film, free of charge. The visitor center is open day, except Thanksgiving and Christmas, from 8, 30AM–5
35.
Death Valley National Park
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Death Valley National Park is a national park in the United States. Straddling the border of California and Nevada, located east of the Sierra Nevada, the park protects the northwest corner of the Mojave Desert and contains a diverse desert environment of salt-flats, sand dunes, badlands, valleys, canyons, and mountains. It is the largest national park in the lower 48 states and has declared an International Biosphere Reserve. Approximately 91% of the park is a wilderness area. It is the hottest, driest and lowest of the parks in the United States. The second-lowest point in the Western Hemisphere is in Badwater Basin, the park is home to many species of plants and animals that have adapted to this harsh desert environment. Some examples include creosote bush, bighorn sheep, coyote, and the Death Valley pupfish, several short-lived boom towns sprang up during the late 19th and early 20th centuries to mine gold and silver. The only long-term profitable ore to be mined was borax, which was transported out of the valley with twenty-mule teams, the valley later became the subject of books, radio programs, television series, and movies. Tourism blossomed in the 1920s, when resorts were built around Stovepipe Wells, Death Valley National Monument was declared in 1933 and the park was substantially expanded and became a national park in 1994. The natural environment of the area has been shaped largely by its geology, the valley itself is actually a graben. The oldest rocks are metamorphosed and at least 1.7 billion years old. Ancient, warm, shallow seas deposited marine sediments until rifting opened the Pacific Ocean, additional sedimentation occurred until a subduction zone formed off the coast. This uplifted the region out of the sea and created a line of volcanoes, later the crust started to pull apart, creating the current Basin and Range landform. Valleys filled with sediment and, during the wet times of glacial periods, with lakes, in 2013, Death Valley National Park was designated as a dark sky park by the International Dark-Sky Association. There are two valleys in the park, Death Valley and Panamint Valley. Both of these valleys were formed within the last few million years, the result of this shearing action is additional extension in the central part of Death Valley which causes a slight widening and more subsidence there. Uplift of surrounding mountain ranges and subsidence of the floor are both occurring. The uplift on the Black Mountains is so fast that the fans there are small
36.
Joshua Tree National Park
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Joshua Tree National Park is located in southeastern California. Declared a U. S. National Park in 1994 when the U. S. Congress passed the California Desert Protection Act and it is named for the Joshua trees native to the park. It covers a area of 790,636 acres —an area slightly larger than the state of Rhode Island. A large part of the park, some 429,690 acres, is a wilderness area. The Little San Bernardino Mountains run through the southwest edge of the park, in 1950, the size of the park was reduced by about 265,000 acres to exclude some mining property. The park was elevated to a National Park on 31 October 1994 by the Desert Protection Act, the higher and cooler Mojave Desert is the special habitat of Yucca brevifolia, the Joshua tree for which the park is named. It occurs in patterns from dense forests to distantly spaced specimens, in addition to Joshua tree forests, the western part of the park includes some of the most interesting geologic displays found in Californias deserts. The dominant geologic features of landscape are hills of bare rock. These hills are popular amongst rock climbing and scrambling enthusiasts, the flatland between these hills is sparsely forested with Joshua trees. Together with the piles and Skull Rock, the trees make the landscape otherworldly. Temperatures are most comfortable in the spring and fall, with an average high/low of 85 and 50 °F respectively, winter brings cooler days, around 60 °F, and freezing nights. It occasionally snows at higher elevations, summers are hot, over 100 °F during the day and not cooling much below 75 °F until the early hours of the morning. Joshua trees dominate the open spaces of the park, but in among the outcroppings are piñon pine, California juniper, Quercus turbinella, Quercus john-tuckeri. These communities are under stress, however, as the climate was wetter until the 1930s, with the same hot. These cycles were nothing new, but the vegetation did not prosper when wetter cycles returned. The difference may have been human development, cattle grazing took out some of the natural cover and made it less resistant to the changes. But the bigger problem seems to be invasive species, such as cheatgrass, in drier times, they die back, but do not quickly decompose. This makes wildfires hotter and more destructive, which some of the trees that would have otherwise survived
37.
Kings Canyon National Park
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Kings Canyon National Park is a national park in the southern Sierra Nevada, east of Fresno, California. The park was established in 1940 and covers 461,901 acres and it incorporated General Grant National Park, established in 1890 to protect the General Grant Grove of giant sequoias. The park is north of and contiguous with Sequoia National Park and they were designated the UNESCO Sequoia-Kings Canyon Biosphere Reserve in 1976. Humans have inhabited the area for thousands of years, the first Native Americans in the area were Paiute peoples, who moved into the region from their ancestral home east of Mono Lake. The Paiute Nation people used deer and other animals for food. They created trade routes that extended down the slope of the Sierra into the Owens Valley. Kings Canyon had been known to white settlers since the mid-19th century, then United States Secretary of the Interior Harold Ickes fought to create the Kings Canyon National Park. He hired Ansel Adams to photograph and document this among other parks, the bill combined the General Grant Grove with the backcountry beyond Zumwalt Meadow. Kings Canyons future was in doubt for nearly fifty years, some wanted to build a dam at the western end of the valley, while others wanted to preserve it as a park. The debate was settled in 1965, when the valley, along with Tehipite Valley, was added to the park, Kings Canyon National Park consists of two sections. The parks Giant Sequoia forests are part of 202,430 acres of old-growth forests shared by Sequoia and this section of the park is mostly mixed conifer forest, and is readily accessible via paved highways. Both the South and Middle Forks of the Kings Rivers have extensive glacial canyons, one portion of the South Fork canyon, known as the Kings Canyon, gives the entire park its name. Kings Canyon, with a depth of 8,200 feet, is one of the deepest canyons in the United States. The canyon was carved by glaciers out of granite, the Kings Canyon, and its developed area, Cedar Grove, is the only portion of the main part of the park that is accessible by motor vehicle. Both the Kings Canyon and its Middle Fork twin, Tehipite Valley, are deeply incised, U-shaped glacial gorges with relatively flat floors and towering granite cliffs thousands of feet high. In addition, the canyon has several systems, one of which is Boyden Cave. To the east of the canyons are the peaks of the Sierra Crest, which attain an elevation of 14,248 feet NAVD88 at the summit of North Palisade. This is classic high Sierra country, barren ridges and glacially scoured lake-filled basins
38.
Lassen Volcanic National Park
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Lassen Volcanic National Park is a United States National Park in northeastern California. The dominant feature of the park is Lassen Peak, the largest plug dome volcano in the world, Lassen Volcanic National Park started as two separate national monuments designated by President Theodore Roosevelt in 1907, Cinder Cone National Monument and Lassen Peak National Monument. The source of heat for volcanism in the Lassen area is subduction off the Northern California coast of the Gorda Plate diving below the North American Plate, the area surrounding Lassen Peak is still active with boiling mud pots, stinking fumaroles, and churning hot springs. Lassen Volcanic National Park is one of the few areas in the world where all four types of volcano can be found, the park is accessible via State Routes SR89 and SR44. SR89 passes north-south through the park, beginning at SR36 to the south, SR89 passes immediately adjacent the base of Lassen Peak. A large lodge with concession facilities was located near the south-west entrance, a new, full-service visitor center was constructed in the same location, and opened to the public in 2008. Near the old location was also located Lassen Ski Area. Native Americans have inhabited the area long before white settlers first saw Lassen. The natives knew that the peak was full of fire and water, White immigrants in the mid-19th century used Lassen Peak as a landmark on their trek to the fertile Sacramento Valley. One of the guides to these immigrants was a Danish blacksmith named Peter Lassen, Lassen Peak was named after him. Nobles Emigrant Trail was later cut through the area and passed Cinder Cone. Inconsistent newspaper accounts reported by witnesses from 1850 to 1851 described seeing fire thrown to a terrible height, as late as 1859, a witness reported seeing fire in the sky from a distance, attributing it to an eruption. Early geologists and volcanologists who studied the Cinder Cone concluded the last eruption occurred between 1675 and 1700, after the 1980 eruption of Mount St. Helens, the United States Geological Survey began reassessing the potential risk of other active volcanic areas in the Cascade Range. Further study of Cinder Cone estimated the last eruption occurred between 1630 and 1670, recent tree-ring analysis has placed the date at 1666. The Lassen area was first protected by being designated as the Lassen Peak Forest Preserve, Lassen Peak and Cinder Cone were later declared as U. S. National Monuments in May 1907 by President Theodore Roosevelt. Starting in May 1914 and lasting until 1921, a series of minor to major eruptions occurred on Lassen and these events created a new crater, and released lava and a great deal of ash. Fortunately, because of warnings, no one was killed, because of the eruptive activity, which continued through 1917, and the areas stark volcanic beauty, Lassen Peak, Cinder Cone and the area surrounding were declared a National Park on August 9,1916. The 29-mile Main Park Road was constructed between 1925 and 1931, just 10 years after Lassen Peak erupted, near Lassen Peak the road reaches 8,512 feet, making it the highest road in the Cascade Mountains
39.
Pinnacles National Park
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Pinnacles is managed by the National Park Service and the majority of the park is protected as wilderness. The national park is divided by the formations into East and West Divisions, connected by foot trails. The east side has shade and water, the west has high walls, the rock formations provide for spectacular pinnacles that attract rock climbers. The park features unusual talus caves that house at least thirteen species of bat, Pinnacles is most often visited in spring or fall because of the intense heat during the summer months. Park lands are prime habitat for prairie falcons, and are a site for California condors that have been hatched in captivity. Pinnacles National Monument was established in 1908 by U. S. President Theodore Roosevelt, Pinnacles National Park was created from the former Pinnacles National Monument by legislation passed by Congress in late 2012 and signed into law by President Barack Obama on January 10,2013. Native Americans in the Pinnacles region comprised the Chalon and Mutsun groups of the Ohlone people and these native people declined with the arrival of the Spanish in the 18th century, who brought novel diseases and changes to the natives way of life. The last Chalon had died or departed from the area by 1810, from 1810 to 1865, when the first Anglo-American settlers arrived, the Pinnacles region was a wilderness without human use or habitation. The establishment of a Spanish mission at Soledad hastened the areas native depopulation through disease, archaeological surveys have found thirteen sites inhabited by Native Americans, twelve of which post-date the establishment of the missions. One site is believed to be about 2000 years old, by the 1880s the Pinnacles, then known as the Palisades, were visited by picnickers from the surrounding communities who would explore the caves and camp. The first account of the Pinnacles region appeared in print in 1881, between 1889 and 1891, newspaper articles shifted from describing excursions to the Palisades to calling them the Pinnacles. Interest in the rose to the point that the Hollister Free Lance sent a reporter to the Pinnacles. Investors came from San Francisco to consider placing a hotel there. In 1894 a post office was established in Bear Valley, since there was at least one other Bear Valley in California, the post office was named Cook after Mrs. Hains maiden name. In 1924 the post office was renamed Pinnacles, Schuyler Hain was a homesteader who arrived in the Pinnacles area in 1891 from Michigan, following his parents and eight siblings to Bear Valley. White, was a student at Stanford University, and White brought one of his professors to see the Pinnacles in 1893, dr. Gilbert was impressed by the scenery, and his comments inspired Hain to publicize the region. Hain led tours to Bear Valley and through the caves, advocating the preservation of the Pinnacles, Hains efforts resulted in a 1904 visit by Stanford president David Starr Jordan, who contacted Fresno Congressman James C. Jordan and Needham in turn influenced Gifford Pinchot to advocate the establishment of the Pinnacles Forest Reserve to President Theodore Roosevelt, Roosevelt proclaimed the establishment on July 8,1906
40.
Sequoia National Park
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Sequoia National Park is a national park in the southern Sierra Nevada east of Visalia, California, in the United States. It was established on September 25,1890, the park is south of and contiguous with Kings Canyon National Park, the two are administered by the National Park Service together as the Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks. They were designated the UNESCO Sequoia-Kings Canyon Biosphere Reserve in 1976, the park is famous for its giant sequoia trees, including the General Sherman tree, the largest tree on Earth. The General Sherman tree grows in the Giant Forest, which five out of the ten largest trees in the world. The Giant Forest is connected by the Generals Highway to Kings Canyon National Parks General Grant Grove, the parks giant sequoia forests are part of 202,430 acres of old-growth forests shared by Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks. Indeed, the preserve a landscape that still resembles the southern Sierra Nevada before Euro-American settlement. Many park visitors enter Sequoia National Park through its entrance near the town of Three Rivers at Ash Mountain at 1,700 ft elevation. The last California grizzly was killed in this park in 1922, the California Black Oak is a key transition species between the chaparral and higher elevation conifer forest. At higher elevations in the front country, between 5,500 and 9,000 feet in elevation, the landscape becomes montane forest-dominated coniferous belt, found here are Ponderosa, Jeffrey, sugar, and lodgepole pine trees, as well as abundant white and red fir. Found here too are the giant sequoia trees, the most massive living single-stem trees on earth, between the trees, spring and summer snowmelts sometimes fan out to form lush, though delicate, meadows. In this region, visitors often see deer, Douglas squirrels, and American black bears. There are plans to reintroduce the bighorn sheep to this park, the vast majority of the park is roadless wilderness, no road crosses the Sierra Nevada within the parks boundaries. 84 percent of Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks is designated wilderness and is only by foot or by horseback. Sequoias backcountry offers a vast expanse of high-alpine wonders, covering the highest-elevation region of the High Sierra, the backcountry includes Mount Whitney on the eastern border of the park, accessible from the Giant Forest via the High Sierra Trail. On the floor of canyon, at least two days hike from the nearest road, is the Kern Canyon hot spring, a popular resting point for weary backpackers. From the floor of Kern Canyon, the trail ascends again over 8,000 ft to the summit of Mount Whitney, in the summertime, Native Americans would travel over the high mountain passes to trade with tribes to the East. By the time the first European settlers arrived in the area, smallpox had spread to the region. The first European settler to homestead in the area was Hale Tharp, Tharp allowed his cattle to graze the meadow, but at the same time had a respect for the grandeur of the forest and led early battles against logging in the area
41.
Yosemite National Park
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Yosemite National Park is a national park spanning portions of Tuolumne, Mariposa and Madera counties in Northern California. The park, which is managed by the National Park Service, on average, about 4 million people visit Yosemite each year, and most spend the majority of their time in the seven square miles of Yosemite Valley. The park set a record in 2016, surpassing 5 million visitors for the first time in its history. Almost 95% of the park is designated wilderness, Yosemite was central to the development of the national park idea. First, Galen Clark and others lobbied to protect Yosemite Valley from development, Yosemite is one of the largest and least fragmented habitat blocks in the Sierra Nevada, and the park supports a diversity of plants and animals. The park has a range from 2,127 to 13,114 feet and contains five major vegetation zones, chaparral/oak woodland, lower montane forest, upper montane forest, subalpine zone. Of Californias 7,000 plant species, about 50% occur in the Sierra Nevada, there is suitable habitat for more than 160 rare plants in the park, with rare local geologic formations and unique soils characterizing the restricted ranges many of these plants occupy. The geology of the Yosemite area is characterized by granitic rocks, about 10 million years ago, the Sierra Nevada was uplifted and then tilted to form its relatively gentle western slopes and the more dramatic eastern slopes. The uplift increased the steepness of stream and river beds, resulting in formation of deep, about one million years ago, snow and ice accumulated, forming glaciers at the higher alpine meadows that moved down the river valleys. Ice thickness in Yosemite Valley may have reached 4,000 feet during the early glacial episode, the downslope movement of the ice masses cut and sculpted the U-shaped valley that attracts so many visitors to its scenic vistas today. The name Yosemite originally referred to the name of a tribe which was driven out of the area by the Mariposa Battalion. Before then the area was called Ahwahnee by indigenous people, as revealed by archeological finds, the Yosemite Valley has been inhabited for nearly 3,000 years, though humans may have first visited the area as long as 8,000 to 10,000 years ago. The indigenous natives called themselves the Ahwahneechee, meaning dwellers in Ahwahnee and they are related to the Northern Paiute and Mono tribes. Many tribes visited the area to trade, including nearby Central Sierra Miwoks, a major trading route went over Mono Pass and through Bloody Canyon to Mono Lake, just to the east of the Yosemite area. Vegetation and game in the region were similar to that present today, acorns were a staple to their diet, as well as seeds and plants, salmon. In 1851 as part of the Mariposa Wars intended to suppress Native American resistance and he was pursuing forces of around 200 Ahwahneechee led by Chief Tenaya. Accounts from this battalion were the first well-documented reports of ethnic Europeans entering Yosemite Valley, attached to Savages unit was Dr. Lafayette Bunnell, the company physician, who later wrote about his awestruck impressions of the valley in The Discovery of the Yosemite. Bunnell is credited with naming Yosemite Valley, based on his interviews with Chief Tenaya, Bunnell wrote that Chief Tenaya was the founder of the Pai-Ute Colony of Ah-wah-nee
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Mojave National Preserve
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Mojave National Preserve is a United States National Preserve located in the Mojave Desert of San Bernardino County, California, USA, between Interstate 15 and Interstate 40. The preserve was established October 31,1994 with the passage of the California Desert Protection Act by the US Congress, previously, it was the East Mojave National Scenic Area, under the jurisdiction of the Bureau of Land Management. At 1,600,000 acres, it is the third largest unit of the National Park System in the contiguous United States. Natural features include the Kelso Dunes, the Marl Mountains and the Cima Dome, as well as volcanic formations such as Hole-in-the-Wall, the preserve encloses Providence Mountains State Recreation Area and Mitchell Caverns Natural Preserve, which are both managed by the California Department of Parks and Recreation. Impressive Joshua Tree forests cover parts of the preserve, the Cima Dome and Shadow Valley forests are the largest in the world. The defunct railroad depot and ghost town of Kelso are also found there, the depot is now the visitor center. The preserve is commonly traversed by 4 wheel drive vehicles traveling on the historic Mojave Road, summer temperatures average 90 °F, with highs exceeding 105 °F. Elevations in the Preserve range from 7,929 feet at Clark Mountain to 880 feet near Baker. Annual precipitation varies from 3.37 inches near Baker, to almost 9 inches in the mountains, at least 25% of precipitation comes from summer thunderstorms. Snow is often found in the mountains during the winter, the California Desert Protection Act of 1994 designated a wilderness area within Mojave National Preserve of approximately 695,200 acres. The National Park Service manages the wilderness in accordance with the Wilderness Act, the CDPA, the following climate data is for a higher elevation area in the preserve. See also Climate of the Mojave Desert, Mojave Memorial Cross Official website Photo tour of Mojave National Preserve - from USGS
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Cabrillo National Monument
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Cabrillo National Monument is at the southern tip of the Point Loma Peninsula in San Diego, California. It commemorates the landing of Juan Rodríguez Cabrillo at San Diego Bay on September 28,1542 and this event marked the first time a European expedition had set foot on what later became the West Coast of the United States. The site was designated as California Historical Landmark #56 in 1932, as with all historical units of the National Park Service, Cabrillo was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on October 15,1966. The annual Cabrillo Festival Open House is held on a Sunday each October and it commemorates Cabrillo with a reenactment of his landing at Ballast Point, in San Diego Bay. The park offers a view of San Diegos harbor and skyline, as well as Coronado, on clear days, a wide expanse of the Pacific Ocean, Tijuana, and Mexicos Coronado Islands are also visible. A visitor center screens a film about Cabrillos voyage and has exhibits about the expedition, the Old Point Loma Lighthouse is the highest point in the park and has been a San Diego icon since 1855. The lighthouse was closed in 1891, and a new one opened at an elevation, because fog. The old lighthouse is now a museum, and visitors may enter it, the area encompassed by the national monument includes various former military installations, such as coastal artillery batteries, built to protect the harbor of San Diego from enemy warships. Many of these installations can be seen walking around the area. A former army building hosts an exhibit that tells the story of history at Point Loma. The area near the monument entrance was used for gliding activities in 1929-1935. Even Charles Lindbergh soared in a Bowlus sailplane along the cliffs of Point Loma in 1930, markers for these accomplishments can be found near the entrance, and the site is recognized as a National Soaring Landmark by the National Soaring Museum. On October 14,1913, by proclamation, Woodrow Wilson reserved 0.5 acres of Fort Rosecrans for The Order of Panama. To construct a statue of Juan Rodriguez Cabrillo. In 1939 the Portuguese government commissioned a statue of Cabrillo. The sandstone statue, executed by sculptor Alvaro de Bree, is 14 feet tall, the statue was intended for the Golden Gate International Exposition in San Francisco but arrived too late and was stored in an Oakland, California garage. Then-State Senator Ed Fletcher managed to obtain the statue in 1940 over the objections of Bay Area officials and it was stored for several years on the grounds of the Naval Training Center San Diego, out of public view, and was finally installed at Cabrillo Monument in 1949. The sandstone statue suffered severe weathering because of its position and was replaced in 1988 by a replica made of limestone
