Trione-Annadel park struggling to protect hidden treasures
From the air, Trione-Annadel State Park - affectionately just “Annadel” to many - stands like a tall, 5-mile- island, floating between the flat valleys of Santa Rosa on the west and Sonoma to the east. And like an island adrift in a sea of development, the massif carries a trove of lost natural treasures. Despite Annadel’s 40 miles of official trails, many of its treasures lie hidden from casual view: Few know, for example, that Annadel is home to four types of blooming orchids.
That low profile is a mixed blessing to the small team entrusted with its care. Concealed in the wild, Annadel’s unique features are spared the damage that often comes with human contact. But if they’re kept secret, the public may not support the long-term efforts required to protect them.
While the park today is primarily a recreation magnet, the landscape itself has stories to tell, and the natural history of Annadel is a fascinating tour through time and change.
History of wildfires
October’s firestorm was not the first time flames have swept the Annadel landscape, and how often the fires return is an important question. To find out, Mark Finney, a young Berkeley researcher, began examining ancient redwood stumps in Annadel, looking for burn scars amid the tree rings, which he could then count to track time between fires. What he found was unexpected. Before the mid-1800s, there were fires every six to 23 years on average, and as often as every two years.
That was puzzling, because natural fire starts, such as lightning strikes, are very rare here. The frequent fires suggested a different cause: That they’d been set by humans. And indeed, the native people who came to live in Sonoma County at least 8,000 years ago - the Wappo, the Southern Pomo and Coast Miwok - were skilled in using fires to manage the wild resources here.
Native presence
The first people established walking trails throughout the region, including the land now enclosed in the park’s boundaries. Ancient camps mark their presence along today’s Canyon and Marsh trails, which were well-trod routes for thousands of years; they provide the easiest passage for those crossing between the Santa Rosa and Sonoma Valleys. Kate Green, associate archeologist for the State Parks District that includes Annadel, believes from historic understanding and dated evidence that native groups lived mainly in the rich valleys on either side of what today is the park, but they visited its high slopes and meadows for the unique resources they found inside.
Using fire to manage the landscape has a number of benefits. First, frequent fires don’t burn as hot or destructively. The ash creates luxurious growth in grasses that attract game, and fire knocks down pests such as ticks, while clearing openings in the brush and understory, making movement and access to resources like fallen acorns easier. Fire also dramatically stimulates the growth of certain fire-adapted California species, such as the native soap plant. Its sap was used as a lathering shampoo, bulbs were roasted as food and fibrous skins were excellent for scrubbing.
Today, in the burned regions of Annadel, last year’s fires have created a sudden explosion of soap plant, recognizable by its rosette of long, unusual wavy green leaves. While they’re no longer harvested by the descendants of the first people who lived in Sonoma County, they’re a reminder of the respect and old ways of stewardship with nature.
The Annadel highlands also were popular with native people for another unique resource found there.
Volcanic past
Seven million years ago, the Sonoma landscape was wracked with violent volcanic eruptions. Molten lava oozed from open fissures, similar to the vents in Hawaii today. Here, the thick magma was squeezed like toothpaste from the fissured crust and rose over thousands of years into ridges and mountains whose cores still stand today. Bennett Mountain, at 1,800 feet, is the highest point in the park.
Those eruptions left something else: Deposits of volcanic stone, especially the volcanic glass known as obsidian. Nodules of the glass can be found in outcroppings throughout the park. When skillfully worked, obsidian can be finely crafted into blades, arrowheads and tools with exceptionally razor sharp edges. Tools and ceremonial items made of Annadel obsidian have been identified in sites hundreds of miles away, signs they were being traded throughout northern California. The depth of chipped obsidian flakes at several worksites in Annadel suggest they were produced by human hands over a period of at least 2,000 years.
Green notes that 78 sites showing native American activity have so far been documented within the park. The state and native groups safeguard their locations to prevent looting because they are places of importance to local tribes and as part of state park’s mission to preserve and protect archaeological resources for their cultural, scientific and aesthetic values.
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