Naturalist Michael Marchiano

“I always dreamed of being a cowboy.”

She owned the ranch and lived in the home right at the barn. Foreman Art Stoll and his wife lived up in the little foreman's house right at Diablo Ranch. Then her son-in-law, Tom Brunleve, and his wife, which is Angel's daughter, Joan Kerley, lived in the house up around the curve above Turtle Rock Ranch area, where they had a little cowboy cabin. And that's the cowboy cabin I stayed in for the year I worked up on the ranch. 

I once told them, "You know, as a child, I always dreamed of being a cowboy. I'd sure  love to get an opportunity someday." And she gave me a call in October of one year, saying that her two hands had just left and that Art needed some help.                      

And I said, "Well, you know, I’m inexperienced." She says no, you’re just gonna be doing laborer's work. And that's when I went to work for her. I found out that being a cowboy meant six and a half days a week, because you had to get up every day to go down to the barn to feed the milk cows. They had a group of dairy cows. And they would buy what were called “drop calves.” And the drop calves were male calves from dairies that they would bring there. The male calves could not be kept for the dairy for future use. So they'd be sold off for a very cheap price—five, ten bucks. Then you'd raise those up to size when they were a beef cow and then they'd be turned around and sold as beef. 

Now the cattle actually raised on the ranch were, in Angel's case, she was really big on Hereford cattle. But she also had some mixture of Angus in there. When you see cow that's black with a white face that's actually a Hereford-Angus cross because Angus are all black.

Art Stoll discovers a mysterious pistol

Art Stoll was a gentleman with an education at a third grade level. He'd been a cowboy his whole life. He told me stories about helping with the last cattle drive across eastern Oregon to back out  in the 1920s when he was about nine years old. He was a cook's helper on that. In any case, Art, I learned a lot from. There could be the right way to do something. There could be the wrong way to do it. And then there could be Art Stoll’s way, and that's the way we did it. 

But he's the one who may have built those round watering troughs you still see up on the mountain to this day. Those were put it by him in the 60s, for cattle. Partially they were put in because they were in favor of fencing off some of the actual ponds that were on the property. So cattle couldn’t go in and trample down all the vegetation around the edge. They were all made from natural springs, or all gravity fed. I know I helped to build a couple of those.

Art, on one of our times, we're up a place called Moses Rock Springs. And it has its name because right in the middle of the rock, there's a crack. And over the years, water dripping out of that crack in the rock had formed a cup about the size of my hands together. And a bowl there. And then it dribbled out over the edge of that into the natural spring. In the story of Moses in Genesis, he cracks the rock and water comes out from it. 

It was also the area where a shepherd's cabin had been at one time, too. Twenties, thirties and late 1800s  mostly sheep were on Mount Diablo, not cattle.

So, as we came to Moses Rock Springs, Art was saying, you know, he said, “I was running the bulldozer up here to flatten the pad for the spring over there. I found an old pistol. The handles are off of it and everything, and it's really corroded and the cylinders totally frozen stiff inside of it. I wonder, he says, if this doesn't go back like that, maybe the 1860s or 1870s.  He says, you know, this probably could have gone back to the times of Joaquin Murietta. And I kind of laughed. He says, “You know Joaquin Murietta was one of the most notorious Robin Hood bandits of California.” I  said, “Yeah, I know some of the stories of him. When he was finally run  down and captured is up as a bandit supposedly he and a gentleman by the name of Three-fingered Jack were shot and killed. They supposedly cut off Murietta’s head and they took off three Three-fingered Jack's hand. They stuck them in two kegs of whiskey to preserve them. And they had to bring them to the state capitol to prove that they had actually killed the right people to get the bounty on them. 

That's the real story about how they died. But he was telling me, “Well, I heard tell that they were up here in this area. I can picture them coming up here,” he said, “because there was freshwater here. There's places to hide and you've got a perfect view of the whole valley below. You can see if a posse was chasing you or anybody was coming up to you.” He said, “Who knows? Maybe one of those outlaws or bandits, this was their pistol.”

Later, when we looked at the pistol it was actually about 1860s or ‘70s, probably more like the 1920s or something. But I still like to believe that maybe it was way back from when. Because it adds to the myth of Mount Diablo, that even somebody like the famous Joaquin Murietta  could have been up there.

A secret place name

Angel Kerley was notorious for wanting to put up signs tacked to a tree. There was different roads or creeks named after her grandchildren: Jill Creek and Danny Creek. And some of those names are still there on the map today. Or Mother's Road, which was in honor of her mother. There's Angel's Peak, which was the highest peak on the ranch.

But the one that I noticed reached into Pine Canyon was a sign that said Rattlesnake Gulch. And I said, “Why did this area get named that?” And Art Stoll, he says, “Oh I put that up in 1969.” And I said, “What’s the story behind that?” 

He says, “Well, Angel went riding on her horse down there. And as she came down through this huge thicket of poison oak, this rattlesnake came out of the brush and then the horse coming down spooked the rattlesnake, so he coiled and rattled. That kind of spooked the horse a little bit. And he reared. He did not throw Angel off. But she got worried, too. And she said it was the biggest rattlesnake she'd ever seen. And she says, “Art you gotta go down there and find that  snake and kill it!”

So anyway, he said over the next few weeks, he tried to go down there. He didn't see the snake again or anything. But within about a month later, going down to Pine Canyon, a very large rattlesnake, probably well over four, four-and-a-half feet was seen along the trail there. And he did end up dispatching the rattlesnake, killing it. And then put up the sign for Rattlesnake Gulch. 

And I believe that that sign, although extremely faded, is still tacked to the tree down in the canyon to this day. And I'm sure that people who walk and hike through there kind of wondered where that name came from. 

The fate of Diablo Ranch 

The ranch was sold in the ‘90s. And in the first two to three years after selling the ranch to the state, they were to continue their operation. A new administration came into Sacramento and said “We’re removing cattle ranching from all state parks now.” Angel passed away, but Tom Brumleve, her son-in-law, who was running the ranch then, fought like crazy with the state. But they eventually said, “No, you have to move them all  out.”

What is left up there is 60 acres right in the center of the park, which is the ranch itself. And there's another 30 acres that Tom has his house and that cowboy cabin and barn just below summit also. Those two inholdings still are owned by the family to this day. That's when they have raised their families.

He kept his business going by leasing the lands out in the Antioch area out on Deer Valley Road. He still runs cattle out there. He's now in his 80s. I mean, close to mid 80s. It’s a type of life that gets in your blood, something that really becomes your life. 

[Angel Kerley died in 1987.]

“I crammed the whole book into the first semester. 

The second semester would be an ecological study of Mount Diablo.”  

I went to Saint Mary's College locally here. I was a history major—social studies in general. I had minors in philosophy and humanities also.

Then I had to go to work and make a living. I became a teacher for a few years. I taught science, math and history—junior high.  And for the eighth graders, we had a life science course. And I tried to cram the whole book into the first semester. Second semester would be an ecological study of Mount Diablo. And so I could get these kids to be excited about this place, too.

The ranch was still working at the time and I got permission from Angel Kerley actually to bring the kids onto the ranch. We could go down to that reservoir that was still down there and study that area. But in the park itself, we did some studies and camping during that same time. 

And so I was fortunate for three years running to be able to take different groups of students up to Mount Diablo and introduce them to a real environmental study. They had to give both a written and an oral report on a subject that they decided on. So one of the  students might have taken trees and so forth of Mount Diablo, as an example. One girl approached me, asked me she could do a report on these small organisms that lived in the creeks. Just the fact that I could get a 12- year-old to do a report on something like that was so special to me. I should not say I got her to do it. She got herself to do it.

Guns, trucks, and trust

One of the years I was teaching, I had a very small class. Twenty two students only. And only nine boys in the class. Because of my young age, being in my early 20s, there was a rapport that was kind of built up in the classroom. They had done this trip on Mount Diablo with me. They knew every year I would go for a trip down to the deserts of Southern California. 

Several kids had showed interest, that god, they would love to be able to do something like that. So I sent a note home to all the parents of the boys, telling them that I would offer a trip of two to three boys at a time. So I had a group of boys that really were excited about that. One of the boys approached me and said, “I have a little doodlebug, mini-bike type.” He said, “Can we bring this along?” he said. “Because down there’s areas where you can run these around out there.”

I said, “Well, it wouldn’t be fair with the other boys that you have something like that.” He said, “Well, they can ride it also.” And I said, “Well, let me ask their  parents.” So I asked the parents. They all agreed. 

So when the other boys did this, one of the boy’s dad and the boy approached me and said, “I don't know if it's okay with you, but since you're going to be down there in wide open spaces where people can hunt and so forth,” he says, “my son has a single shot, .22 rifle. Could he bring it along and be able to, you know, plink in a couple of tin cans or something.” 

“Whoa,” I said, “Well, before we do this, let me check with the other parents. The parents said sure, no problem. So I got my .22 rifle also and have another one  And I said I'll teach them some gun safety, how we're supposed to do this and everything. And so we took those along, too. So here was this young male teacher taking three young boys, by themselves, no other supervision, with guns and motorcycles out into the wide open, vast spaces of the BLM lands and the deserts. These boys had the most wonderful times in their lives.

We did all of these things: plinking the tin cans a couple times, riding in the doodlebug, but also looking for snakes, lizards and climbing rock formations. Came home and no problems whatsoever. 

I think about this as I've gotten older with my own children, as they grew up. It was a different time. And you trusted people. No special waivers, no special insurance policies. Let me put these kids in a truck with me and take them on an adventure. I know if I was a teacher today, I could never do the same things that I once did like that. 

(Not the textbook)

So the teaching of the kids and the programs that I did there on Mount Diablo were, for me first of all, they were extremely special. I was in my early 20s, which means these kids were only 10, 12 years younger than me. And by the time I hit my 60s, they were starting to hit their 50s. And I'd run into them around town. They were still refer to me as Mr. Marchiano, which I would laugh and then them no it's Michael. And so they would call me by my first name. 

They would tell me almost to a student that what they remember most about my class was the outings we did and the studies we did on Mount Diablo.

“She was very accepting of a rattlesnake in her apartment.”

My wife, Paula, though, who has been a saint throughout her life with me, always accepted my having these different critters and exploring these things. One of them I brought was a sidewinder rattlesnake and another was two desert iguanas. My wife (I was going out with her at the time), I explained to her what I had. And I said “I need a place to keep these. Can I keep them at your apartment?” She kind of looked at me. I said, “No, no. I’ll come over and feed them and take care of them. But just I need a place to put them.” And she was very accepting of having me put a rattlesnake in her apartment, with a sealed cage. And also these two lizards. She ended up naming the lizards Anthony and Cleopatra in fact. So that’s the kind of thing that was starting on in my life.

“On Wednesday we had the baby. On Friday I was let go from the job.”

Got married in 1975, started a family in 1979. In 1970–80, right around there. I lost my job. Had a year old, and my wife had just had our second child. They’re 14 months apart. And on Wednesday we had the baby, and on Friday I was let go from the job.  

And I said well don't worry, I'll find the job and so forth. It took me over a year then. We went into some real financial problems. We had just bought a house in ‘77 and we were able to get enough—between $5,000 we saved and $5,000 my in-laws gave us, we’d be able put $10,000 down on a $50,000 house, an old-timer in downtown Martinez. 

So I did not want to lose that house or anything during that time. What we went through then with two babies. My daughter had to have tubes in her ears and could possibly go deaf, but we couldn’t get any help because I lost the job and that’s what my insurance had been through. I  sold my life insurance policies I had. A couple of stocks I invested in, totally wiped out. Credit card was maxed out. We made it through that, though. I’ve been very fortunate. 

“I’m not a fighter. I’m a lover.”  

I had been asked by a couple people about police work. But I said, “I'm not a fighter. I'm a lover. I'm Italian. I should know that's not for me.”  But ended up going into law enforcement for a career for 31 years after that. 

I ended up originally taking a job with Southern Pacific Railroad Police. And I thought, I'll stick with that the rest of my life. It was kind of security work, as opposed to real police work. But I got bored with the fact that it wasn't real police work. And after two years I went to the city of El Cerrito then eventually came to Martinez and worked as a police officer. My last 10 years, after my heart attack, I actually worked for the sheriff's office in a civilian position. And so I ended up with emergency services planning. It happened to be right after 2001, too, with with the big terrorist threat and everything. So there was a lot of emphasis then on preparing for various different types of situations.

“It’s what I've loved my whole life.” 

I was talking about my own life and raising a family, had eventually four children, going into police work. I  was still able to on occasion, through Lindsay Museum in Walnut Creek, to lead some outings on weekends. But I was also approached that by 4-H groups, scouting groups and I kind of became noted about my study and my knowledge of tarantulas. And then I offered a thing called Creeks and Ponds, which was actually a hike through Pine Canyon with an emphasis on the reptiles and amphibians that lived on Mount Diablo. My nickname occasionally would  be Spider Man or Snake Man, depending on which presentation I was giving. 

Yet at the same time, I was also falling in love with things like the trees and shrubberies, the wildflowers. I would try to teach myself through nature programs, through books. Reptiles for the West Coast was Robert Stebbins out of UC Berkeley, was well noted. So that book became my Bible for reptiles and amphibians. And Peterson's Guide for western birds was obviously the western birds book. But it wasn't until later we started to see things about West Coast insects and spiders. 

I find it interesting a lot of times parents would like to teach their kids about these things. And I think that's great. But I really would like to teach the parents, too. The adults are the ones that need the education in many cases. Kids already have a fascination and interest in these things. 

Over the years, I've given presentations to to organizations like Audubon. I do programs for Los Vaqueros, too, the water district. I teach at Cal State Hayward through Ollie program, which is extension. And Rossmoor (a senior living center).  I have anywhere from 80 to 120 people in their auditorium when I've been invited over there to give nature presentations. It’s been a great side avocation to do this. And it’s what I've loved my whole life. 

I was aware of MDIA when it was first formed, but I did not officially join it myself until about 10 years ago, when I retired, or just shortly before my retirement. The organization then gave me another avenue to continue to do presentations and to meet other people who have like interests and are doing some of the same things. And I think that's one of the best parts of it. 

MDIA or the Mount Diablo Interpretive Association was founded to support the lack of interpretive rangers. Rangers had to eventually change a lot of their emphasis towards law enforcement in the parks and taking care of, you know, problem things: vehicle accidents, bicycle accidents, or things of that nature. And so they did not have the time to do programs and lead nature hikes. So MDIA was to help pick up some of that slack. It's a group of docents to continue to educate people about the vast array of amazing things that are on Mount Diablo.

A few years back, I'd gotten a poppy award, which is also an award by the state for contributions. And I thought that was kind of special. And then on top of that, the MDIA has a local Hall of Fame, they call it, and they put me on that Hall of Fame award, too. But the Hall of Fame probably means the most. And it means it for a particular reason. My name is put on a plaque at Mitchell Canyon. And I hope that over the years, there will be people that will come out there and say, I remember that guy. That's Spider-Man. I went on a tarantula hike with him or I went on a wildflower hike with him or we did a nature hike. Or I did a hike regularly up at a Curry Point called Chaparral Spring. But we do it in December, January when Chaparral Spring is, as opposed to the real spring. I've done reptile and snake presentations at the summit. I've done fungus and mushroom presentations up there. We've done them on insects before up there. I've always kind of leaned towards those reptiles and spiders because they get the bad rap. And I’ve really tried to help make people feel a little bit better about the ones that seem to always be scary to them. They really shouldn't be. 

Ball fields, picnic areas, ranch land 

When you go into Pine Canyon and you start in Castle Rocks, the first thing you notice is a beautiful recreation area, a swimming pool, and baseball fields and picnic areas. And then you wind up a little bit of a hill into a sandstone area. In fact, there's even a couple small wind caves. And as you hit the top of that rise, you look down and there's a dam with a spillway that has been built there. That dam was built by flood control back in the 1950s because of the flooding along Pine Creek. And there were a half dozen flood control dams built in those days throughout Contra Costa County. The ironic part of that, to my knowledge, since the time of the ‘50s, when there was severe flooding in Central Contra Costa County, and Pine Creek was part of the part of the reason for that, the water level has never actually reached the top of that dam and overflowed that spillway. So the water still flows through the bottom of it. 

If you look along that roadway, there's a fence right there. And on the roadway, you're on East Bay Regional Park property. The other side of the fence where the actual spillway and the dam is, that belongs to John Ginochio, a rancher, who lives on the other side. John and I, in fact, grew up together, went to grade school together and have known each other since we were five years old. And he's been a very good friend over the years. John's goal, which I'm very happy about, is that eventually, that property there, which is close to 3,000 acres, would be sold to either Save Mount Diablo or the state parks. He would like to see the property saved. And it butts right up against the park. Includes what’s called Olofson's Peak and over to Black Peak, up along toward Burma Road. Parts of Pine Canyon, too. 

A path to adventure for more than a century

You continue through that area. You cross the creek several times. In early spring and into early summer sometimes, you gotta kinda hop across stepping stones or get your feet wet going across the trails there. The road itself was an old stage road, and it was the original road that went to Mount Diablo. Back in the late 1880s, a hotel had been built up on Mount Diablo, about three quarters of the way up.  People who lived in San Francisco, going on a vacation at that time—it wasn't easy to take a trip to Tahoe or to Hawaii. So going across the bay on a ferry, catching a ferry that would go to Martinez, and catching a stage out of Martinez would then take you for this trip up this bumpy road through those creeks that we were talking about up to the hotel for a weekend or for a three day holiday or something like that. 

To my knowledge, I don't think there were any stage robberies along it, although people have always joked that the famous bandit Black Bart, was from the town of Concord, originally.  And he did do some highway work here in Contra Costa County. Those kind of myths—or there may be some truth in them, too—I think really add kind of to the fun and glamor of Mount Diablo.

Amphibians, birds, flowers

As you walk then past that flood control area, or you can look down to see the Pine Creek below. It’s always been interesting because of the types of wildlife that are through the area. Pine Creek at one time was noted particularly for red-legged frogs, which are considered to be one of the threatened species on Mount Diablo. In recent years, those numbers have declined considerably. It was also really notable for our Pacific chorus frog, or “tree frog.” And then the western toad, which is another animal that was ubiquitous in Contra Costa County when I was a child, but its numbers have decreased down to probably less than 2 or 3 percent of what they were in the 1960s. In any case, those are things  that can still be seen on Mount Diablo walking through there. 

Pine Canyon also is a great birding area, in springtime, particularly for migratory birds that come through there. The orioles that come out of Central America can be seen through there. Several species of hummingbirds: the black-chinned and the calliope, rufous, and Allen's. We see these coming through that area in the springtime. Birds like black-headed grosbeak or varied thrush. These are birds people are not as familiar with. And they stay hidden through those trees in there. Flocks of band-tailed pigeons live down through there. And that's not the pigeon you see in the city. So those kind of things, too, really add to it. 

But then as you continue through that canyon, wildflowers, the profusion of them—the varieties are just fantastic. One of the unique ones is the hummingbird sage. That’s a reddish sage. Grows up along the rim on the western side of that canyon. And it's one of the few places I know of it on Mount Diablo. 

Where raptors rule 

So you continue on up that canyon and you start to see these rocks to your left. And initially, there’s kind of a few of them sticking out among the chaparral area, which is the heavy shrubbery and brush. But then as you come up to the clearing along the roadway, you get a really good view of what's known as the Castle Rocks. The Castle Rocks themselves are actually in Mount Diablo State Park. The road that you’re on when you're looking up there, is still in East Bay Regional Parks. So it's a shared situation. 

Back in the ‘70s, Castle Rocks were actually on the ranch property and it was heavy with trespassers. We had problems with that. We’d try to go down and keep people out of there. 

Bird life through there is kind of spectacular because it’s these sharp cliffs.There’s several of what we call wind tunnels or wind caves. Ironically, the wind has very little to do with it. They’re caused by water actually dripping through there and washing out these openings geologically. In any case, these wind caves would be homes for things like great horned owls. And back in the ‘70s, the prairie falcon would roost in those cliffs, along with swifts and some of the swallows, probably other owls, vultures, and even maybe some other hawks in the area. But that area eventually became an area to reintroduce a bird that had been really devastated by DDT. And that was the peregrine falcon.

To this day, the area is closed for the breeding of those peregrine falcons. A group formed to educate people as to why these birds are up there, and ask people not to bother them, and, through that education, help protect those birds. And then also see the other greater wildlife that's there. 

An era of bass and bullfrogs

Back to the Pine Canyon itself: As you head on up into Pine Canyon, you then come into a spot just below what is today Diablo Ranch. And there's another small dam on the creek with a spillway. It is pretty well overgrown now. But there's enough of a dam that you can see where at one time there had been a fairly deep reservoir. In the 1920s, they pumped water from there to go to the town of Diablo over on the southern side of the mountain. When I worked for the ranch in the  ‘70s, the pump house still existed at the bottom of the dam down in the canyon. The old rusted pipes were still laying there. That water was probably 12- to 14-feet deep at the center part. People had planted some non-indigenous fish in there. We had some big-mouth bass and bullfrogs lived there at the time—a very destructive animal, actually, that should not be in the park and has since been removed. The pond was big enough that you could go out at night with a canoe and go gigging for bullfrogs, for frog legs. And I did that a couple occasions myself in my younger days. 

What has happened over the years, as we've had rainy years and flood years and things have washed down from the mountain, the silt has kept filling into that. And now it’s kind of a swampy, marshy meadow.

The higher you go, the wilder it gets

So then as you continue up Pine Canyon, going through beautiful coast oak woodlands, bay trees, some big leaf maples, buckeye trees. It’s an area that’s noted for coyotes and foxes and even a bobcat or two. There's always talk of people's favorite, mountain lions. But to give a perspective on that one: For over 50 to 60 years that I've been hiking Mount Diablo, on all sides of it, I have never seen a mountain lion up there. And my buddy John Ginochio, after 70 years of ranching Mount Diablo, including owning some of the lands off of Morgan Territory, the steepest North Peak side, where you might expect one to be more likely, he has never seen a mountain lion on the mountain either. And he's there all the time. It does not mean they're not there. One or two mountain lions probably range from the Mount Diablos to Black Diamonds to down through Altamont Pass all the way to Alameda County. But they are extremely rare and extremely shy, and they're nothing to fear either.  

Past Diablo Ranch to eagle country

You go up through the canyon there a little bit further, and this is where it starts to ascend toward what's known as Barbecue Terrace, if you went straight. Or there's a road that cuts off from that that leads up to Diablo Ranch. There was a nest of roosting golden eagles at the end of Pine Canyon when I went to work for the ranch. I first learned about those in 1970 from Angel Kerley, the owner of Diablo Ranch. She mentioned it, and we stayed away from that area because we did not want to scare those eagles out of the area, particularly during breeding time, which is January through July. I thought it was kind of spectacular that they knew where the eagle nest was. I was shown it from a distance. We could see through binoculars, but we never went down near it. 

But in, I guess it was June, maybe late May, a gentleman from University of California at Berkeley, would come out and go down there and he would crawl up to band the eagles. And I had a chance to meet him once and talk to him about them. He'd been doing that for several years. 

I tell the story especially because sometimes ranchers are given a bad rap of exploiting the land always. And obviously, they profit from it, whether it's cattle or sheep or timber companies. But there are those people, too, who respect much of nature and try to protect it along the way. 

How to nurture a love of nature 

It starts at home: not showing fear toward what we consider to sometimes be the fearful creatures. What I'm talking about here is the spider that's in the bathtub. OK. When that spider’s in the bathtub, probably a little spider’s got trapped who was out hunting the night before. Very beneficial in your house because he'll kill every earwig, cockroach, and sowbug that creeps in there. Show them that, oh, this is a very beneficial spider. Go back to Charlotte's Web. Don't make it to be the enemy. Make it to be the friend. And now you pick up that spider and let it go outside.

I have no opposition to somebody who swats a mosquito on them. I don't want flies in my house. I sure as heck don't want ants in my house. So I keep those to the outside. But I don't get fearful or get all upset when I see them either. And I take the measures necessary to keep them where they belong.

So that's where it really starts at home. Walking in the backyard and pointing out a praying mantis and explaining what it is. A butterfly. Everybody loves butterflies. So you start with that butterfly and explain where it came from and how important it is to pollinating your flowers. Bees. Okay? Not that they have stingers. Oooo, be careful. Yellow jackets at your picnic table. Yeah, I don't want them at my picnic table either. So I'll put out one of those attractant traps in my back yard to keep them away. But, when one does show up, they are just coming to get a little something to eat also, like the rest of us. 

And so rather than show fear towards these these creatures, you've got to say, You know what? Let's find out more about them. What role do they play where we live? How important are they?

I don't know how many people have ever noticed underneath the eaves of their houses, for instance, these mud nests that sometimes are there. And that's a mud dauber wasp that makes that. And it's actually controlling some of those spiders. It stings them and paralyzes, makes a little tube of mud, puts the body in there, lays an egg on it and then seals up. So if in the wintertime they're up there under your eaves, you don't want to knock them down because that's where spider larva has now turned into a pupa. It's overwintering, and it’ll hatch out come springtime. If in springtime, after all the holes are opened on the ends, you know it's no longer in use. If you want to knock it down then, it's fine. 

You see it's understanding that. It's understanding the roles that each of these creatures play.  Putting a bird feeder in the backyard. Then watching them, but watching the different ones that may come in there. And again, their roles. There are seed eaters and their beaks are shaped differently than those that are insect eaters. There are woodpeckers that will come down. There are those that want the larger seeds, like a jay.

You learn by looking at them, studying them, getting some identification books, going to the Internet nowadays. Boy, what you can find out there! Watching a “Discovery” program together about nature. Understanding where these animals come from and how they each have a role in our society. They each have a role in our environment. In fact, their role is far more important than our role in the environment, except for the fact that we're so destructive of it.

and new pests

I remember in 1970, one of the rangers got a picture of two ringtails up on Mount Diablo, sometimes called ringtail cats. But they're not cats.  Blew me away when I saw those photos. You could see the big eyes glowing, the reddish color. Amazed me that they lived up there on Mount Diablo. And I know they have not been seen up there to this day.

The photos were taken at the summit of the mountain. Ringtails are noted to really like rocky areas and they feed on small rodents. They’re thought of sometimes to be more of a desert or dry- area type of animal. But if you really think of Mount Diablo, it's a part of the Coast Range chaparral, a fairly dry area. We have a very wet winter, but really nine months of the year, it’s pretty dry. 

Reptiles

In fact there's some other unusual animals, on Mount Diablo. Particularly reptiles. There’s the coast horned lizard or the checkered whiptail. Both those animals are related to the whiptails of the deserts and the horned lizards of the deserts. These are all the things that add to the life of the mountain.

Badgers

 I've heard recently that there was a badger seen up on a spot on Mount Diablo. There were some hunters who shot when in 1970. It was on private land. They were actually out deer hunting, and ended up shooting a badger. I never saw one again since then, until about six, eight years ago. Hopefully they're going to make a comeback. 

They're contingent upon ground squirrel population, though. Ground squirrels were often poisoned by ranchers because they thought they ate the grain and the grasslands that the cattle needed. Plus the holes were places where cattle could break hoofs in them and whatnot.

Feral Pigs and Turkeys

The one animal that has now been imported to the mountain in the last 30 years that both the ranchers and the state park would love to get rid of are wild pigs. Very detrimental and destructive. I think they’re another thing that helps cut down on the number of native wildlife. 

And turkeys are starting to become a problem. They need to be culled or thinned on that mountain. 

“I thank God I was born in the Bay Area.” 

When  I start off my talk, always, it’s that I live at Martinez and so forth. I can get out of my house and walk within a quarter mile my home and be on the Canal Road, which is now an East Bay Regional Park road. I can walk from there and follow all the way through Pleasant Hill over to Walnut Creek. And I walk through Heather Farms across the street and go up into Shell Ridge. And from Shell Ridge, I can walk into Foothills Park, over Mount Diablo, into Morgan Territory, through Round Valley, over to Los Vaqueros and up Brushy Peak. And be on public lands the whole way.

The founding of Save Mount Diablo back in 1971, in fact, was extremely important. People rose up and started to raise the money that could really buy these parcels of land. Many of these still today are being saved by the group Save Mount Diablo. They’re not part of the state park yet, because the state cannot afford to buy them from the organization. Also East Bay Regional Park has done a spectacular job of saving lands. And part of that really goes to the credit of the voters of Contra Costa County. Because we have never turned down one of their bond issues. All of these lands, they’re all interconnected, so you get corridors for wildlife.

I thank God and that I was born and raised here in the Bay Area of California. The area is one that still treasures and wants to protect things.

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