I’ve spoken several times about Coon Camp Springs, and the work that’s being done up there. The stars finally aligned or something, and Dave Allen and I got our schedules coordinated enough so I could send him a few questions about the place and the project.
To set the stage, here’s what I know about the place. Dave will fill in the rest in a moment.
First, I’ve known Dave Allen for about eight or nine years now, after meeting up via the JHO discussion forum. We met for a pig hunt in a place I knew, and before long we were hunting together pretty regularly. A few years ago, he mentioned this place his wife’s family owned up in the Eastern Sierra. It’s a tough place to draw a deer tag for, but we decided to put in as a group hunt with another friend of ours.
Anyway, we made a pre-season run up to the place and I was immediately hooked. It’s a real challenge to describe the high desert country to anyone who hasn’t experienced it, because if you just picture it, you miss out on the whole thing. There are the smells, alkali dust in the low country and sage drying in the summer sun. Then there’s the air, so dry your skin cracks in a few days, but it’s so clean you can almost taste it… or maybe it’s the fact that you can’t taste it at all.
There are the thunderstorms that roll in, heavy and dark and ominous…nothing like those great thunderboomers we’d get back east, but wicked and fast. You can see them coming in the distance, watch them boil up as the clouds stack up against the mountains and spill down in fire and rain across the thirsty country.
There’s wildlifethere too. Huge mule deer, and antelope roam the valleys and mountainsides. Canada geese, mallards, and whooping cranes cross the sky. Songbirds of all kinds sing from the branches of juniper, pine, and sagebrush.
So anyway, I hope from all this that you get the picture… it’s a beautiful, and special place.
But as awesome as it is, it’s clearly not what it once was. The hills are becoming dryer as the traditional water sources, underground springs and little creeks disappear. The valleys are denuded by years and years of grazing, both by cattle and sheep. And everywhere there is juniper. As we learned, the juniper is a native species, but it is taking over the habitat due to the absence of wildfire, as well as the heavy grazing that has kept many other native plants from returning. It is a water hog, and will dominate an area, sucking up the groundwater as it goes. This is why the springs were drying up.
So after our hunt, Dave announced that he had been thinking about an idea. He wanted to form an organization, like a hunting club. Part of our goal would be to work on the place and try to restore it, as much as possible, to some of its previous glory. If nothing else, we could get some of those junipers cleared out and try to restore water sources.
The initial plan didn’t quite work out, but Dave has never been one to be deterred by a setback. He started in on his own, located a forester who would remove the junipers in return for any profits he made by selling them to a power plant nearby. Then he took another stab at organizing, and this is when we formed the Coon Camp Springs non-profit corporation.
I’ve gone on enough now, though. I’ll let Dave do the “talking” for a while.
HogBlog: Give a brief history of the property. How did it come into the family, and how long ago? How did you initially get involved with the property?
Dave Allen:
In the 1920’s, George Walton homesteaded a 160 acre plot. He got his son to homestead an adjoining plot and a cousin to homestead another adjoining plot. He also recruited several other people to homestead other nearby plots.
There were rules for homesteading that you had to follow in order to eventually own the land. You had to dig a well. You had to put up a fence around your plot. You had to build a structure to live in. And you had to live on the property part of every year for five years. Once those five years had gone by, you were given the deed to the land. So, George waited until all of his recruits had “deeded up” and then he bought the plots from them for $50.00 each.
Once he purchased the other plots, he could put up a fence around the whole thing. There were some plots inside that border fence that had not been homesteaded. Once the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) was established, those plots fell under BLM ownership.
George and his family raised sheep. They kept the sheep in the Red Bluff area during the winter and then herded them to the property in late spring. They spent the summer and most of the fall on the property and then herded the sheep back to Red Bluff in the late fall. They followed this routine for around 15 years. And then land owners along the route started putting up fences and closing off the range. The fences put an end to being able to herd across open range.
When George died, the land was passed onto his son and then eventually, it was passed onto his grand daughter June. When June finished high school she went on to U.C. Berkeley. While there, she met Ted Johnston. They went out on a few dates but their relationship did not get serious. Eventually, they each fell in love with someone else and married but they were always best friends. As the years went by, the two families stayed close and celebrated holidays together and visited one another often.
In the mid 1980’s June’s husband, Leon, died of cancer. Around two years later, Ted’s wife Maggy also died of cancer. June and Ted supported each other during these tough times as did their children. A while after Maggy had died, June moved into the Johnston home and they lived together for 20 years. June and Ted have both passed on now and we all miss them greatly. With June’s passing, the property is now owned by a non-profit corporation that June’s children created.
I came into the picture by marrying Peggy Johnston, Ted’s daughter. We were married just before Maggie died. As the newest member of the Johnston family, it wasn’t long before I was introduced to the Tichinin clan. I say clan because June and Leon had 6 kids, Paul, Peter, Bruce, Nick, Ann and Phyllis. Around this time, I was also introduced to “the range” as the Tichinins call it. That was my first time seeing High Desert and I fell in love with it.
And I still love it. It is quite distinctive in its makeup. The aroma of the Sage bush, the dry clean air, the valley, the forests and of course, the wildlife bring joy to me just thinking about them.
HogBlog: What’s the story with Coon Camp Springs, Inc? Why was it started?
It’s a non-profit, how did that happen?
Dave Allen: Since my first introduction to the property, I have always tried to get up there as many times as possible each year. Some years, I just could not get up there. Other years, I would get up there two or three times.
Over 12 or so years of visiting the property, I noticed changes occurring. The Juniper trees were rapidly expanding and seemed to be taking over as the dominant plant species. The few water sources on the property began to dry up. And I began to notice that it seemed like I saw less and less wildlife.
When I first started going to the property, I would always see Sage Grouse. But after a few years, they became scarce and then I stopped seeing them at all. The deer seemed to also be scarcer as the years went by.
And then, an event occurred that set me off on this mission.
During my visits, I discovered a spring on the side of one of the ridges. It was a small spring where water came out of the ground and collected in a small manmade depression in the soil. Alongside the little catch basin, there were very old remnants of a wooden structure. Someone in the past had made a cistern here which indicates that at one time, the spring must have produced much more water.
When I discovered the spring, it was the perfect place to go on a hot August afternoon. The little catch basin was well shaded and there was almost always a breeze blowing along the ridge. And, there were frogs living in the pond. So, when I wanted to relax and cool off, I would go to “my spring” and relax in the cool shade while listening to the frogs.
And then it happened. The spring dried up. This of course meant that the frog disappeared too.
This is when I realized that all of the trees that were providing that cool shade were Junipers. I started thinking about this and the other changes that I had been noticing and started doing some research. It did not take me long to find out that the Junipers were a major problem. Not only on this piece of property but throughout the western states. Because of our methods of managing the forests (or should I say mismanaging), the Junipers are quickly beginning to dominate the landscape and in so doing, they are pushing out many of the plant species that the wildlife need for nourishment. The Junipers are also drinking up the available water by their ability to live on a gallon of water if that is all that is available or by consuming dozens of gallons if it is available.
That is when I decided that I was going to try to do something about the situation. I didn’t know how one person could turn reverse this trend on 7,000 acres but I became determined to find a way. And of course, the only way I was going to accomplish it was by getting other people involved. I would need people and organizations to help with funding and with the actual on the ground implementation.
So, I created my non-profit corporation Coon Camp Springs Inc. I figured that people and corporations would be more likely to help out with funding and labor if they could deduct some of it from their taxes. The name of the corporation was taken from a set of springs that are basically the heart of the property. These two springs flow all year long and in many years are the only sources of water for miles around.
I was also very lucky in meeting up with Tim Thayer. Tim is a forester and owns a company called Midnight Harvest. Tim really believes in what I am trying to accomplish and has been a major player in the project. Midnight Harvest has removed thousands of tons of Junipers from the property. He has helped me dig ponds, restored earthen dams and he has helped out on many other parts of the project.
HogBlog: What’s your personal goal for the property and for Coon Camp Springs overall?
My goal for the property is to restore it to a healthy landscape where all kinds of wildlife can find food, water and shelter. We are slowly making progress on this goal. We are starting to see more deer each year. We are seeing more waterfowl nesting near the springs. The rabbit and ground squirrel populations are increasing dramatically. And something that really gives me encouragement that we are on the right track is the fact that “my spring” is flowing again. Even during this severe drought year, the spring which I have named Hanna’s Spring has a constant flow coming out of it.
This fall, I will improve the catch basin and maybe, just maybe, sometime in the future, the frogs will return.
As far as my goals for Coon Camp Spring overall. Well, I would love to find a way to make a living at habitat restoration. It would be great to be able to restore other properties like we are this one. However, I know that that is a daydream. Unfortunately, most landowners are either unable, unwilling or both to spend the money it takes to accomplish restoration steps like this. The process helps the wildlife and it makes the landscape healthier and safer in respect to fires, however, there is no profit to be made by the landowners. So, unless I suddenly become rich, the rest of the landscape will continue to be taken over by the Junipers and the wildlife will continue to suffer.
HogBlog: What are the more immediate plans for the project?
Because the project operates on a shoestring budget (mainly my credit card) and because most of the labor is performed by volunteers, it moves very slowly. You might say we move by baby steps. We always have little parts of the project going on. Such as planting bitterbrush, wild roses, native plum trees, various other trees that will provide food and we plant hundreds of pounds of native grasses and wildflowers each year. We have also started planting other types of trees such as Douglas Firs to compensate for all of the Junipers that we are removing.
Next year’s big project will be restoring an Aspen grove.
We just started putting up a fence that will enclose a three-acre Aspen grove. Once the fence is up, we will begin cutting and removing the Junipers that have infested the grove. Once they are out, we will clean up the ground cover within the grove. This will imitate the disturbance that a fire would create. This disturbance is what causes Aspens to propagate so theoretically, once we are done, the Aspens spread out more. Many wildlife species use Aspens for food and cover.
HogBlog: What’s next?
Much of the same and new stuff also. Hopefully, next year we will start putting together our plans for turning the valley back into a wetland. I have had two different biologists tell me that the valley used to be a seasonal wetland. A rock formation at the end of the valley used to act as a barrier and it kept the seasonal runoff in the valley. However, over time, the formation has opened up and now the runoff spills through and into a canyon. Our plans include digging a sinuous watercourse through the valley which will have deep spots, shallow areas, small islands and low banks. Once the watercourse is in place we will plant favorable plant species that will provide food and cover for a multitude of wildlife.
HogBlog: Where does funding for the project come from?
I have received one grant from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the Ca. Department of Fish and Game has provided some assistance through the Private Land Management Program. And I have received a few small cash donations from individuals. However, so far, I have provided the bulk of the financing for the project. I have received some donations of equipment such as a work truck and a pop-up camper for sleeping quarters. And I have received many hours of labor from volunteers.
HogBlog: How can readers help?
I can answer that with our new slogan, “Join us in making a difference”. If readers think we are working on a worthwhile project, they can help by donating funding, labor or even both. They can go to our website and see what we are doing. On our Sponsor Page, they make donations. And they can send us an email. I can add their name to my newsletter list and they will receive updates and announcements of upcoming work weekends.
HogBlog: If you suddenly had all the funding you could ever want, what would you do?
As I said before, if I were to suddenly become rich or were to be blessed with a benefactor, I would finish up the project on this property and then start looking for more to restore.
As Dave has said many times, his goal is to leave Coon Camp Springs, or the Walton Homestead, behind as his legacy… as his “mark on this ball of dirt.”
I’m proud to be a part of his efforts. You can find out more about Coon Camp Springs by visiting Dave’s website at www.cooncampsprings.com.
Come join us!
Thanks, Rex.
Apologies for the formatting issues… I was still editing while you read.