Our pool in May of 1998
Vernal pools are seasonal bodies of water. They are formed in depressions in clay soil. The rain water collects in these depressions for three weeks to three months. Plants and animals which live in vernal pools have quick life cycles. They spend the majority of their existence as cysts or seeds in cracks in the clay soil waiting for rain. The winter rains bring them to life again to grow and reproduce and return to their dormant state until the following year. This habitat is down to its last 2% in San Diego County due to development. We have dug an artificial pool. We spread "inoculum"(the soil and seeds salvaged from a pool about to be replaced by development) in December of 1998. This inoculum came from The Navy's Chollas Creek land. Not too much grew, possibly due to the light rains of La Nina. Scott Macmillan of RECON is working on a vernal pool reserve as mitigation for the destruction of the last natural pools in Otay Mesa. He has offered to give us plants grown in a nursery from seeds collected from the last pools on the mesa before their destruction for housing.
Our pool in May of 1998
May, 1999