Elfin Forest -
2014 Columns
December, 2014 Elfin Forest Activities
December 6: The volunteer work party will meet from 9 am to about noon. Anyone is welcome to join in and work on projects to restore vegetation and reduce erosion. Wear comfortable shoes, long pants and sleeves, and park at the north end of 15th Street in Los Osos, avoiding driveways and mailboxes. Leader Ron Rasmussen rewards his warriors with his delicious homemade cookies!
October, 2014 Elfin Forest Activities
Saturday October 4: The volunteer work party known as the "Weed Warriors" will meet from 9 am to about noon. Anyone is welcome to join in and help pull obnoxious invading weeds and work on projects to reduce erosion. Wear comfortable shoes, long pants and sleeves, and park at the north end of 15th Street in Los Osos. Ron rewards his warriors with his delicious homemade cookies as the morning's labors conclude!
September, 2014 Elfin Forest Activities
As September starts, the Elfin Forest is far more stressed than I have seen it in the fourteen years I’ve lived here in Los Osos. Much of this is due to the heavy impact of oak moth caterpillars on our pygmy oaks added to the effects of the worst drought yet recorded in our area.
August, 2014 Elfin Forest Activities
August is one of the driest months of the year and the past rainy season was the driest ever recorded, yet some flowers continue to beautify the shrubs in the Elfin Forest. The signature flower of this season is the bright yellow of Mock Heather, a low growing shrub widespread in the Elfin Forest and blooming almost exclusively in August and September. Coyote Brush has yellow male flowers and white female ones with fluffy white puffs developing to carry their seeds in the wind. This is the middle of a very long blooming season for them. California Goldenrod also carries yellow blossoms, and is not the allergy producing form of goldenrod.
July, 2014 Elfin Forest Activities
Saturday July 5: The volunteer work party known as the "Weed Warriors" will meet from 9 am to about noon. Anyone is welcome to join in and help pull obnoxious invading weeds and work on projects to reduce erosion. Wear comfortable shoes, long pants and sleeves, and park at the north end of 15th Street in Los Osos. Ron rewards his warriors with his delicious homemade cookies as the morning’s labors conclude!
June, 2014 Elfin Forest Activities
This is the best time of the year for fanciers of blue flowers to visit the Elfin
Forest. Silver dune lupine inspired the name for Bush Lupine Point and is spreading
in the nearby revegetation area along the south edge of the boardwalk. The silvery
leaves below its blue flower spikes feed the caterpillars of the Moro Blue Butterfly.
June remains a good month to look for butterflies. Under the Flora and Fauna button
on our website (elfin-
May, 2014 Elfin Forest Activities
Sticky monkey-
April, 2014 Elfin Forest Activities
Sticky monkey-
March, 2014 Elfin Forest Activities
Second Wednesday Walk — March 12, 10:00 a.m.: What Will the Rains Bring? Assuming that we have gotten SOME rain by early March, Vicky Johnsen’s 2ndin the Elfin Forest will focus on searching out the Springtime flowers.
February, 2014 Elfin Forest Activities
Just two days before Valentine’s Day, SWAP docent Vicky Johnsen will describe the
special relationship between a native plant, the fuchsia-
January, 2014 Elfin Forest Activities
Saturday, January 4
The volunteer work party known as the "Weed Warriors" will meet from 9 am to about noon. Anyone is welcome to join in and help pull obnoxious invading weeds and work on projects to reduce erosion. Wear comfortable sturdy shoes, long pants and sleeves, and park at the north end of 15th Street in Los Osos, avoiding driveways and mailboxes.