Riverside -Corona Resource Conservation District First Class Fieldtrip

On April 4th, my environmental science class went on it's first fieldtrip! Seeing as this is college, no, my classmates and I were not transported by a big yellow school bus unfortunately (I rather enjoy school bus rides). Seeing as we are adults we drove to the location , which was conveniently 5 minutes from Riverside Community College. It's literally right at the base of Mt. Rubidoux. I never knew such an interesting place was so close by! They have this neat outdoor Land Use Learning Center  which is a 3 & 1/2 educational facility (that I believe is still in construction by the looks of some of it) "that demonstrates four important plant communities of the inland empire: coastal-sage-scrub, chaparral, oak woodland, and riparian." This project is only one of the many things the RCRCD contributes to the community. The district also :conducts educational, technical assistance, and on-the-land conservation programs. To become involved contact them at (909)683-7691.

Before we got to venture into the habitat models in the Learning Center, we got to learn about pest control from a Dr. David Morgan. He had a British accent I believe? Any who it made the mini-lecture more enjoyable, at least for me seeing as how I love accents especially British ones.
Here are some notes from the lecture:

• find a predator or pathogen that kills the insect/pest.
• has to reproduce more rapidly than the pest to control it
• the solution predator must be tested in the new climate to which it has been relocated to make sure that it will survive where the problem prey is habituating
• has to be tested to make sure it only preys on the pest
• lots of tests done in quarantine
• have to apply for a permit to bring in the new predator, requires 75 pages of research: geographic range, etc. 
• have to do follow up studies after pathogen/predator released
• Permit goes through. find a way of producing/storing/releasing the good pathogen/predator.
• hard to control pests in urban areas, most insecticides not allowed in urban areas
• birth of bio-control @ University California Riverside

My tour guide  went on to discuss the conservation work:

• Santa Ana Sucker-threatened fish, so impacted by pollution, human development
• the district propagates the fish and releases(populations separated genetically because of adaptations to certain habitats)
• Brown Headed Cowbird-Invasive species. parasite nests of other birds
• double door system to avoid infestation
• overpopulation? species within a habitat will naturally downsize (talking about the fish)

At the end of the tour we reached the agriculture demo area:

• Agriculture can't succeed without good soil and access to water
• And the craziest thing my guide said that I don't know  if it's true but it certainly got my attention and sorry for the run on sentence was  "There are more organisms in a handful of soil than people on Earth."

Here are some shots I took at the Learning Center: