Natural Nipomo: Black Lake Canyon

Natural Nipomo was a column published in the Adobe Press, the newspaper for the Nipomo community, in the summers of 2007 and 2008. Twice a month I discussed a different natural area of Nipomo, focusing on geological and biological features and the cultural significance, with my own personal impressions added. This was my first Natural Nipomo article.

As we descended into the canyon I could hear the chirping and kawing of birds and the creaking sounds of the eucalyptus trees. It was senior week, my last week as a student at Nipomo High School, and I tagged along on a field trip through Black Lake Canyon.

I'm a member of the high school's most recent graduating class. I plan to study biology at UC Davis in the fall. My years at NHS taught me many things, among them the importance of protecting the natural environment.

This isn't something I learned in the classroom. I learned by seeing firsthand the special places that surround us in Nipomo. Having seen where it's gone wrong, I think its important to visit the places where we still have a chance to do things right.

Members of Nipomo High School's Progressive Club take a hike through the disturbed habitat of Black Lake Canyon.

The hike moved on. Rays of sunlight broke through the oak trees overhead, gracing the leaves of ferns and shrubbery below. A thick grove of willow trees emerged from the wetlands. When I last visited the canyon about a year ago there was more open water and there were fewer willows. Black Lake Canyon is an example of an ecosystem undergoing succession, wherein habitat gradually changes and new species take the place of old. This is a natural process, but in the canyon it is greatly accelerated.

Black Lake Canyon was formed thousands of years ago at the end of the last ice age. Local experts postulate that it was carved out by a catastrophic flood that came from wetlands near present-day Nipomo High School. These floodwaters broke through the blowsand of the
Nipomo Mesa and made their way to the ocean. What remains today are four miles of canyon and the dune lakes system.

Two endangered species inhabit Black Lake Canyon. The first is the marsh sandwort (Arenaria paludicola), a perennial plant with a tender white flower. The other, Gambel's watercress (Rorippa gambellii), is a member of the mustard family. Gambel's watercress needs a stable water source to survive. Both species are threatened by development around the canyon, which causes erosion and habitat loss.

Thanks to the efforts of Ray Belnap, a former director of the Land Conservancy, the canyon has been designated a sensitive resource area. One provision of this designation designed to protect sensitive habitat within the canyon forbids the construction of homes below the rim of the canyon.

Our hiking group crossed Zenon Way and entered Land Conservancy property. A quick stroll through a stand of Eucalyptus trees brought us to a massive gully created by washout. Sheer walls of sand lined by fallen tree trunks rose twenty twenty feet. Naked roots hung over the sides.

"This is an ecological disaster due to the runoff from a neighboring property," says Herb Kandel, a board member of the Land Conservancy who led the hike that day. Greenheart Nursery has a retention pond at the top of ridge of the canyon. In flood years the pond overflows, sending a torrent of water into the canyon which carries sediment into the marshland habitat below.

Illegal dumping is another problem in the canyon. Big screen televisions, couches, computers and countless other items have been removed from the canyon, and workers have removed hundreds of tires. The charred remnants of a burned trailer were found not far from a now-closed road which runs through the canyon. Had the fire from this trailer spread, it could have set the Eucalyptus trees ablaze.

Erica Castello, now a senior at Nipomo High School, was a first-time visitor to the canyon when she came along on the hike. "It gives you a glimpse into what Nipomo should really look like," she says. "It gives you a look into how much we've already damaged our natural environment."

But there is much more to see than just the tragedy of the commons. Black Lake Canyon has some of the most pristinely untouched habitat left in Nipomo. You can visit the canyon at the north end of Guadalupe Road or the southernmost end of Zenon Way. From here you
can access trails that meander through oak woodlands and chaparral grassland. At the corner of Highway 1 and Callendar Road is a new park owned by the Land Conservancy which has sweeping views overlooking the canyon. Go to the canyon and see for yourself what Nipomo should look like.