First a Story....

Holy Batmobile Batman- San Dieguito Park was once a eucalyptus plantation

I am going to tell a story of San Diego County.  It is a beautiful area.  Gorgeous climate. An idyllic place to live.  Many peoples and plants have called this place home through the years.  Some natives, but many not.

Perusing Wikipedia and the history of San Diego we learn Native Americans such as the Kumeyaay people had been living in the area for as long as 12,000 years. Explorer Juan Rodriguez Cabrillo discovered San Diego Bay in 1542, but it was 200 years before Europeans settled the area. A fort and mission were established in 1769, which gradually expanded into a settlement under first Spanish and then Mexican rule.   San Diego was the first part of California that Europeans settled in, so San Diego has been described as "the birthplace of California." Then gold was discovered people stopped by on way to San Francisco…blah, blah, blah, the west was settled... wagon trains and prairie trails…  blah blah blah…  all leading up to people realized it was a GREAT place to live and it REALLY got rolling.

The visionary investors brought in trees that would grow FAST!!  Trees for lumber to build all the railroads that would be needed.  Houses are needed! Ships are needed!  California needed wood!!!  “For a person who has some capital and is willing to wait for returns, there is a pretty chance to make a fortune in the growing of gum (eucalyptus) trees,” one California newspaper suggested back in the day. They came, they planted, and THEN they realized….  This isn’t working out the same, the climate is “different” the wood grows too fast, the wood is inferior, it curls, it is useless…  hmmm…  THE INVESTORS LEFT, and the trees stayed. The natives were no competition for the fast -growing, light hogging, alleopathic aliens.  The natives dwindled.

To be continued…

Word of the Day!!  Allelopathy is a biological phenomenon by which an organism produces one or more biochemicals that influence the germination, growth, survival, and reproduction of other organisms.