Since moving to California in 2014, my husband, Maciek, became obsessed with trees. Oh, he used to wax poetic about larches, but that’s nothing compared to how excited he gets about oaks (there are 18 species native to California), never mind manzanitas. This craze has extended to all of California's native plants, and on our weekend hikes in the Bay Area he’s constantly investigating shrubs and plants and complaining that we forgot to bring the right guide book (Shoutout to the state parks' amazing gift stores which have enriched our nature book collection significantly).
Sometimes we’ll run into a docent or naturalist on the trail who will answer our questions and then provide a bit of extra information about the plant we were trying to ID. Like, it’s not just that the white needled sapling is an albino redwood, but that it can’t use light to make its food and that new research indicates it plays a role in soaking up poisonous metals in the soils. This is how a “what is this” question opens a window to understanding, which we carry with us long after the specific memories from the hike itself fade.
This knowledge, and the effort of seeking it out, is the proper domain of naturalists. Unlike most of modern science that require a lab full of expensive instruments and years of study at a university, exploring nature is accessible to anyone with a love of the outdoors and a good dose of curiosity. It's more about passion than formal training, and it can start with something as practical as learning to identify poison oak.
Our goal with the Humboldt Project is to create a tool to help the enthusiastic and curious in their explorations of the diverse and extraordinary biomes around the Bay Area. We’re still in the listening stages, reaching out to professionals to learn how they think about the natural world, how they convey this information to the general public and the resources they’ve compiled in the course of their work. In the coming months, we plan to post what we find in this blog along with ideas for the app, updates on our progress, and maybe some of our own nature discoveries.
Stay tuned.