RAIN BRINGS STATE PARK NEW LOOK; OFFICIAL SEES CHANGES AS CYCLE OF NATURE.Byline: Patricia Farrell Aidem Daily News Staff Writer El Nino wiped out trees at the Placerita Canyon Nature Center, rerouted the Placerita Creek and undermined trails. And Frank Hoffman Frank Hoffman (born December 19, 1909) was an American football player. He was elected to the College Football Hall of Fame in 1978. loves it. ``It's exciting,'' said Hoffman, the park's recreation services leader. ``It's exciting because I'm seeing nature do what it does. I've never seen the park in action like this.'' What looks like devastation to a city slicker is simply nature taking its course, Hoffman explained Monday as he surveyed the storm damage in the state park in Newhall. ``This is just not the way it was,'' a confused Hoffman said as he hiked the park's Canyon Trail, the walkway walkway Rehabilitation medicine An instrument used to measure the timing of foot contact and or position of the foot on the ground of which was lost to the new direction of the rain-swollen creek. The waterway waterway, natural or artificial navigable inland body of water, or system of interconnected bodies of water, used for transportation, may include a lake, river, canal, or any combination of these. , blocked by storm debris, has formed an island from what weeks ago was grassland grassland see grazing (2), pasture. . ``This used to be our trail, where it's a running river now.'' Four- and five-foot banks were carved by the raging creek after last week's storm, changing the landscape at Placerita. At one point, the creek eroded under a trail where, had a hiker stepped just right, he would have tumbled into the rock-strewn stream. As a result, park officials have closed some trails and advised hikers to use extreme caution because of possible rock or mudslides, slippery sections of walkways and debris in the paths. Hoffman said another concern is that hikers will leave the trails to avoid obstacles and trek through poison oak poison oak: see poison ivy. poison oak Species of poison ivy (Toxicodendron diversilobum) native to western North America and classified in the sumac (or cashew) family. or poison ivy poison ivy, poison oak, and poison sumac, woody vines and trailing or erect shrubs of the family Anacardiaceae (sumac family), native to North America. . Overnight, a coast live oak toppled, its root structure unable to hold on in the saturated soil. While some see yet another hazard, Hoffman sees a contribution to nature: Insects will eat the wood, birds will nest or workers will use the trunk as a natural barrier to mark paths or stabilize a trail. It will be several weeks - and perhaps several more storms - before park officials assess the damage. The work to repair or reroute trails will be backbreaking back·break·ing adj. Demanding great exertion; arduous and exhausting. back  break , but the season's heavy rain will only mean a livelier spring in Placerita. ``Spring in the park is one of the most beautiful things I've ever seen,'' Hoffman said. ``There'll be wildflowers, migrant birds, everything making babies.'' ``Everything'' includes snakes, lizards, rodents, insects, birds, coyotes and bobcats. And on Monday the species were out, basking in one of the few sunny days this winter has offered. Hoffman stopped to marvel at a red shoulder hawk or a nuttles woodpecker woodpecker, common name for members of the Picidae, a large family of climbing birds found in most parts of the world. Woodpeckers typically have sharp, chisellike bills for pecking holes in tree trunks, and long, barbed, extensible tongues with which they impale . Lizard lizard, a reptile of the order Squamata, which also includes the snake. Lizards form the suborder Sauria, and there are over 3,000 lizard species distributed throughout the world (except for the polar regions), with the greatest number found in warm climates. tracks made lines in the soft earth, a three-quarter-inch red velvet ant, a type of wingless wasp, scurried under wood debris and over rocks. ``This is incredible to me,'' Hoffman said, as he scanned the landscape, thrilled by each new find. CAPTION(S): 2 Photos PHOTO (1--Color) Frank Hoffman of the Placerita Canyon Nature Center checks out a tree Monday that toppled in last week's El Nino-driven rainstorms. (2--Color) Swollen creeks cut themselves new channels at the nature center in Newhall. John Lazar/Special to the Daily News |
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