The Preegrine Falcons of Morro Rock- by Steve Schubert

Here’s a chance to support the Lookout Project and learn something about Peregrine falcons at the same time. Steve Schubert, Hi Mt. Volunteer Coordinator, has authored a book that is now available for purchase online. Forty percent of sales proceeds for Steve’s book ordered online by August 1, 2008 will be donated to the Hi Mountain Condor Lookout Project!

The Peregrine Falcons of Morro Rock: - A 40-Year History - 1967- 2007 by Steve Schubert. Paperback, 44 pages, with color and black and white photographs. Art work by John Schmitt.

From Amazon.com:

The peregrine falcons of Morro Rock, located along the coast of Central California, have been admired and observed by travelers and visitors from around the world, and is one of the most well-known peregrine falcon nesting sites in North America. This 40-year history chronicles the yearly efforts of nest site attendants and endangered species management techniques - captive breeding, double clutching, captive hatching of thin, fragile wild eggs, and fostering falcon chicks into the wild nests - that has assisted in the recovery of a once imperiled species

Paperback copies may be ordered through Amazon.com or CreateSpace.com at the following links:
http://www.amazon.com/dp/143484823X
http://www.createspace.com/3338535

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Santa Lucia Wilderness Area, 24 May ‘08

Hello all,

On Saturday, May 24th, I hiked down from Hi Mtn. Lookout to Hi Valley and Huff’s Hole, in the Santa Lucia Wilderness Area of Los Padres National Forest. I met up with Gary Guliazi in Hi Valley, who hiked in from Hi Mountain Rd after driving in from the Arroyo Grande side.

At 9:30 am, the south wind was blowing 25 mph at the lookout, with a windchill of 33*F. The temperature remained in the 40’s all day at the lookout, with a cold persistent wind, mostly overcast skies and dark threatening clouds, following light rainfall the day before (one week prior the temp. at Pozo was near 100*F!!). Down below on the wind-sheltered lower slopes and into Huff’s Hole a light wind and cool temperatures made for a very comfortable day.


The highlight of the day in Huff’s Hole yesterday was seeing a tiercel peregrine swoop down to the ‘eyrie’ cliffs, perch and preen about 45 minutes, and then later return from a hunt following an absence of an hour, followed by an apparent food exchange with the female. The female falcon flew to a ledge, walked across the ledge to the other side and seemed to be feeding young (not visible yet), then wiggled down into the scrape to apparently brood young chicks. Angry cak-ing vocalizations and
a peregrine up high in the sky later upon our departure announced that all is well and is as it should be with peregrine falcons nesting on the Huff’s Hole cliffs, after all these years (this is my 30-year Huff’s
Hole peregrine falcon nest watch anniversary, when John Schmitt and I were hired by the the U.S. Forest Service in 1978 as seasonal Biological Technicians, camping out in Huff’s Hole for more than 3 months as falcon nest guards).

Flowering (on Hi Mtn.slopes, Hi Valley to Huff’s Hole): chamise (profusely), woolly blue curls, soap plant, chaparral pea, black sage, spineflower, yerba santa, deerweed, mariposa lily, clarkia spp., golden
yarrow, milkweed, clematis, lupine spp., yellow-star thistle.

Bird sightings/vocalizations (Hi Mtn. to Huff’s Hole): band-tailed pigeon, California thrasher, wrentit, western wood peewee, bewick’s wren, house wren, canyon wren, black-headed grosbeak, spotted towhee, California towhee, mourning dove, white-breasted nuthatch, acorn woodpecker, Nuttal’s woodpecker, northern flicker, orange-crowned warbler, Anna’s hummingbird, western scrub jay, Stellar’s jay, oak titmouse, white-throated swift, ash-throated flycatcher, turkey vulture,
peregrine falcon.

Western grey squirrel and Merriam’s chipmunk also vocalized their presence from the oaks and brush-covered slopes. Bear scat was on the Huff’s Hole trail through the grassy protrero and likely bear tracks made large depressions in the soft oak duff from the old campsite down towards Huff’s Hole creek.

Note: conspicuously absent and/or not detected throughout the day, surprisingly missed but expected this time of the year in the chaparral and blue oak woodland, below Hi Mountain: lazuli bunting, black-chinned sparrow, sage sparrow, western bluebird, bullock’s oriole, red-tailed hawk (!), common raven, prairie falcon

Steve Schubert
www.condorlookout.org

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"Hi, but not Above"

Author/journalist and Hi Mt. Volunteer John FitzRandolph recently had this article about the Hi Mt. Lookout and desert tortoises published in The Cambrian. Thanks John!
http://condorlookout.org/archive/wp-content/uploads/2008/04/condor-tortoise.pdf

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"Hi But Not Above" by John Fitzrandolf

Author/journalist and Hi Mt. Volunteer John FitzRandolph recently had this article about the Hi Mt. Lookout and desert tortoises published in The Cambrian. Thanks John!

Download the entire article here (pdf)

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Hi Mt. History lesson

Here are the old lookout photos from the scrapbook that Kevin found (I wonder if the 3rd photo is the same building as the 1961 photo, or an earlier structure??. A 1976 photo from MCAS is also included). Below is the text that is posted on the Buck Rock Lookout Foundation website…from Dave Bulla’s letter, it suggests a lookout was present in 1926, but I wonder if that is correct. The mystery of the lookout’s past history continues.

Steve

Hi Mountain Lookout listed in National Lookout Register

Thanks to the help of Kathy Ball (Buck Rock Foundation), Dave Bula (Forest Fire Lookout Association), Rex Kamstra (firelookout.com), the USFS Santa Lucia Ranger District (LPNF), and the many others who helped us complete our recent application, we are pleased to announce our acceptance to the National Lookout Register! When a structure is less than 50 years old, but has sufficient historical significance to be registered, the lookout is listed in the National Lookout Register with an NHLR number, and is automatically transferred to the NHLR upon the 50th anniversary of its construction. The Hi Mtn. Lookout will be eligible for listing in the National Historic Lookout Register in 2010. Listing in the National Historic Lookout Register is often a first step toward eventual nomination to the National Register of Historic Sites maintained by the U.S. Department of the Interior.

For those of you who don’t know Kathy Ball, she is the founder of the Buck Rock Foundation and has been involved with the Hi Mtn. Lookout Project for several years now. She helped us secure some of our first grant monies to get the project off the ground. You may have seen Kathy’s interview with Huell Howser on the PBS series “California’s Gold”. Kathy attended out Open House/Condor Campout in October 2002, and it was there that we first spoke to her about getting Hi Mtn. Lookout listed in the NHLR. Over the course of the following year, we exchanged dozens of emails and initiated the somewhat tedious application process. Applying to the register involved tracking down as much historic information about our Lookout as we could find, and making a case for why it deserved acknowledgement as a building of historic significance. You can read our official NHLR application here.

The Hi Mtn. Lookout was accepted to the NLR on July 22, 2003 (US Lookout #522) as “meeting those standards of historic and cultural significance established by the American Resources Group, Washington D.C., in cooperation with the Forest Fire Lookout Association, the National Forestry Association, the National Woodland Owners Association, and State and Federal forestry agencies.” At our 2nd annual Open House/Condor Campout on October 4, 2003, Kathy Ball presented us with our Certificate of Recognition and official NLR sign. It was a proud moment for all of us. There were even a few tears as Kathy praised the Lookout Project for it’s dedication to restoring Hi Mtn. as a field research station, interperative center, and Condor telemetry outpost. Kathy told us that Hi Mtn. was the first lookout to be restored and listed in the name of wildlife monitoring. We sincerely hope that the Hi Mountain Lookout Project will now seve as a model, inspiring other folks to find reasons to save and restore their forgotten, dismantled, or vandalized fire lookouts.

Aside from the national recognition it brings us, listing in the NLR has other benefits for the Lookout Project. Our listing paves the way to future recognition of Hi Mtn. in the National Historic Lookout Register and as a California Historical Landmark. So as we continue to pour love, money, and effort into our little lookout, we are witnissing history in the making! As an added bonus, the listing process started us digging into the murky past of the Lookout tower. It turns out that the original lookout was built in 1926 and may have stood in a different location on the long spine of Hi Mountain. The current tower was built in 1961 to replace the old one and fell into disuse by the mid 70’s. Bits and pieces of Hi Mtn. history continue to surface, but there is much we still don’t know. What did the original tower look like? Who staffed and maintained it, and what aretheir stories? As the project progresses, we hope to learn much more about the historical significance of the Hi mtn. Lookout to San Luis Obispo County. Below is one of the emails we received from Dave Bula while researching the Lookout for the application process. Its a great example of the interesting history we uncovered while putting our application together.

Hi Steve,
Thanks for the update on the old Hi Mtn LO. It was not at all uncommon for replacement fire lookouts to be built in a slightly different spot from the earlier lookouts. The usual reason was the elimination some nagging blind spot where fires often occurred without being seen directly from the LO until they got a lot bigger. Another advantage to moving the location slightly was the ability to continue to use the old LO even while the new one is being constructed. The old one didn’t need to be removed until after the new one was completed. This happened in a lot of places. In others, where the mountaintop was so small (like up on top of a rock pinnacle), this was not an option, but it was usually done when possible. There are a number of pictures of band new lookouts standing a few feet away from the old lookouts. I also know of some cases where the new LO was placed as much as a mile away from the old one. It just varied.
Now, we have just learned something new about the old Hi Mountain LO. While visitng a CCC museum, Kathy Ball found some old materials in their “Don Hobart Collection”. The CCC did not build the old Hi Mountain LO in 1926, since the CCC wasn’t even formed until after FDR was elected in 1932, but since the CCC did build a lot of other lookouts, the museum must (correctly) have felt it was appropriate to house this entire collection.
Anyway, among that stuff that Kathy found was an undated description of the Hi Mountain LO. It was called a “standard 14×14 cab” on a “10-foot wood tower”. Even though that data is undated, it couldn’t possibly have been describing the current 1961 15×15 LO on a cement block base. It had to be the 1926 LO. To save time, I’m going to quote a little bit of my reaction to this news from Kathy.
“You’re right, that does NOT describe the current LO. The current LO can’t be called a 10 foot wood tower no matter how such things are designed. 10 foot block base? Yes. 10 foot cinder block? Sure. But wood tower? No way. So I think you’ve found something here. Now what we can’t tell from this is whether the cab was up on legs or up on top of a lower wooden enclosed story, like my old Argentine LO is. Either way might have been described as a “10 foot wood tower.” I’ve seen both types described as such.
Now what about the cab itself? “Standard 14×14 house.” To many, that would suggest the classic L-4 cab. However, in 1926, the L-4 had not even been developed yet. Up here in the northwest the lookouts in 1926 were of the cupola variety, usually the D-6, but some were D-1’s as well. However by 1926, as you know better than anyone thanks to Buck Rock, the 4A cab, or whatever you want to call that cab with the steeply pitched roof and large windows, was well established in California. This design WAS standard in the Santa Barbara NF (the earlier name of the Los Padres NF). Chews Ridge LO, Figueroa LO, and others of this type were built. This has been my guess all along for what the 1926 Hi Mountain LO must have been. But with no picture, or otherwise undeniable proof, I’ve been reluctant to state it as such.”
So now I feel like we’re one step closer. Hopefully, a picture of the old LO will turn up someday, confirming all this.
Continued good luck to you and all your group down there on your most worthwhile condor project.
Dave Bula Western Deputy Chairman, FFLA

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CALL FOR HELP! Summer ‘08 Internship Fundraiser

Hi Mountain Lookout needs YOUR help for summer ‘08! We are soliciting matching funds needed by end of April.

Cal Poly’s Biological Science Department has funding for one summer intern to staff Hi Mountain for summer 2008 (tracking Calif. Condors, opening the Hi Mountain Interpretive Center, educating the public about condors & the recovery program and providing a presence at the Lookout). We need to fund a second intern. We need to raise $2500.00. THE GOOD NEWS: we already have $1500.00!

IF you can help, please send a check, in any amount you can afford, to:
Morro Coast Audubon Society (check made out to “*MCAS/Hi Mtn Lookout S’08*”)
P.O. Box 1507, Morro Bay, CA 93443-1507

Thanks in advance of any help you can give! Questions? Contact Marcelle Bakula, fundraising volunteer, by email:marcelle@digitalputty.com (please put “Hi Mtn.” in subject line).

Thank you for your continuing support of the Hi Mt. Condor Lookout Project

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