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Doyle Community Park
Doyle Community Park is an urban park on the eastern edge of downtown Santa Rosa, California. The western end of the park is the confluence of Matanzas Creek and Spring Creek. Spring Creek forms the northern park boundary and Matanzas Creek forms the southern park boundary. The eastern end of the park is a fenced and lighted baseball field formerly used by the minor league Santa Rosa Pirates. The remainder of the park includes the Doyle Park Clubhouse, restrooms, playground slides and swings, horseshoe pits, separate fenced areas for unleashed large and small dogs, and picnic tables with barbecue grills including five sites available for reservation. A paved trail follows the shaded riparian woodland of mature oaks, maples, and California bay laurel trees along Spring Creek and Matanzas Creek from the Doyle Park Clubhouse on Hoen Avenue to the footbridge over Matanzas Creek across Vallejo Street from Brook Hill School. Prior to European settlement, what is now Doyle Park was ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Work Projects Administration
The Works Progress Administration (WPA; from 1935 to 1939, then known as the Work Projects Administration from 1939 to 1943) was an American New Deal agency that employed millions of jobseekers (mostly men who were not formally educated) to carry out public works projects, including the construction of public buildings and roads. It was set up on May 6, 1935, by presidential order, as a key part of the Second New Deal. The WPA's first appropriation in 1935 was $4.9 billion (about $15 per person in the U.S., around 6.7 percent of the 1935 GDP). Headed by Harry Hopkins, the WPA supplied paid jobs to the unemployed during the Great Depression in the United States, while building up the public infrastructure of the US, such as parks, schools, and roads. Most of the jobs were in construction, building more than of streets and over 10,000 bridges, in addition to many airports and much housing. In 1942, the WPA played a key role in both building and staffing Internment of Japanes ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Riparian Woodland
A riparian forest or riparian woodland is a forested or wooded area of land adjacent to a body of water such as a river, stream, pond, lake, marshland, estuary, canal, sink, or reservoir. Due to the broad nature of the definition, riparian woodlands have a huge diversity of characteristics including but not limited to soil composition, microclimates, and vegetative structures. However, among the varied range and landscapes, one factor stays constant: a high rate of primary productivity. This makes riparian forests hugely important centers of nutrient recycling. Etymology The term riparian comes from the Latin word ''ripa'', 'river bank'; technically it refers only to areas adjacent to flowing bodies of water such as rivers, streams, sloughs and estuaries. However, the terms ''riparian forest'' and ''riparian zone'' have come to include areas adjacent to non-flowing bodies of water such as ponds, lakes, playas and reservoirs. Characteristics Riparian forests are subject to ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
American Sparrow
New World sparrows are a group of mainly New World passerine birds, forming the family Passerellidae. They are seed-eating birds with conical bills, brown or gray in color, and many species have distinctive head patterns. Although they share the name sparrow, New World sparrows are more closely related to Old World buntings than they are to the Old World sparrows (family Passeridae). New World sparrows are also similar in both appearance and habit to finches, with which they sometimes used to be classified. Taxonomy The genera now assigned to the family Passerellidae were previously included with the buntings in the family Emberizidae. A phylogenetic analysis of nuclear and mitochondrial DNA sequences published in 2015 found that the Passerellidae formed a monophyletic group that had an uncertain relationship to the Emberizidae. Emberizidae was therefore split and the family Passerellidae resurrected. It had originally been introduced, as the subfamily Passerellinae, by the Ger ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Birdwatchers
Birdwatching, or birding, is the observing of birds, either as a recreational activity or as a form of citizen science. A birdwatcher may observe by using their naked eye, by using a visual enhancement device such as binoculars or a telescope, by listening for bird sounds, watching public webcams, or by viewing smart bird feeder cameras. Most birdwatchers pursue this activity for recreational or social reasons, unlike ornithologists, who engage in the study of birds using formal scientific methods. Birding, birdwatching, and twitching The first recorded use of the term ''birdwatcher'' was in 1712 by William Oldsworth. The term ''birding'' was also used for the practice of ''fowling'' or hunting with firearms as in Shakespeare's '' The Merry Wives of Windsor'' (1602): "She laments sir... her husband goes this morning a-birding." The terms ''birding'' and ''birdwatching'' are today used by some interchangeably, although some participants prefer ''birding'', partly because ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
American Crow
The American crow (''Corvus brachyrhynchos'') is a large passerine bird species of the family (biology), family Corvidae. It is a common bird found throughout much of North America. American crows are the New World counterpart to the carrion crow and the hooded crow of Eurasia; they all occupy the same ecological niche. Although the American crow and the hooded crow are very similar in size, structure and behavior, their Bird call, calls and visual appearance are different. From beak to tail, an American crow measures , almost half of which is tail. Its wingspan is . Mass varies from about , with males tending to be larger than females. Plumage is all black, with iridescent feathers. It looks much like other all-black corvids. They are very intelligent, and adaptable to human environments. The most usual call is ' They can be distinguished from the common raven (''C. corax'') because American crows are smaller and the beak is slightly less pronounced; from the fish crow (''C. os ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Western Gray Squirrel
The western gray squirrel (''Sciurus griseus'') is a tree squirrel found along the western coast of the United States and Mexico. In some places, this species has also been known as the silver-gray squirrel, the California gray squirrel, the Oregon gray squirrel, the Columbian gray squirrel and the banner-tail. There are three geographical subspecies: ''Sciurus griseus griseus'' (central Washington to the western Sierra Nevada in central California); ''S. g. nigripes'' (from south of San Francisco Bay to San Luis Obispo County, California); and ''S. g. anthonyi'' (which ranges from San Luis Obispo to northern Baja California). In some landscapes, the western gray squirrel has lost habitat or experienced local extinction due to competition with other squirrel species and other pressures on their population. Description The western gray squirrel was first described by George Ord in 1818 based on notes taken by Lewis and Clark at The Dalles in Wasco County, Oregon. ''Sciurus gr ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Urban Flooding
Urban flooding is the inundation of land or property in cities or other built environment, caused by rainfall or coastal storm surges overwhelming the capacity of drainage systems, such as storm sewers. Urban flooding can occur regardless of whether or not affected communities are located within designated floodplains or near any body of water. It is triggered for example by an overflow of rivers and lakes, flash flooding or snowmelt. During the flood, stormwater or water released from damaged Water supply network#Water distribution network, water mains may accumulate on property and in public rights-of-way. It can seep through building walls and floors, or backup into buildings through sewer pipes, cellars, toilets and sinks. There are several types of urban flooding, each with a different cause. City planners distinguish ''pluvial flooding'' (flooding caused by heavy rain), ''fluvial flooding'' (caused by a nearby river overflowing its banks), or ''coastal flooding'' (often caused ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Alluvial Plain
An alluvial plain is a plain (an essentially flat landform) created by the deposition of sediment over a long period by one or more rivers coming from highland regions, from which alluvial soil forms. A ''floodplain'' is part of the process, being the smaller area over which the rivers flood at a particular time. In contrast, the alluvial plain is the larger area representing the region over which the floodplains have shifted over geological time. As the highlands erode due to weathering and water flow, the sediment from the hills is transported to the lower plain. Various creeks will carry the water further to a river, lake, bay, or ocean. As the sediments are deposited during flood conditions in the floodplain of a creek, the elevation of the floodplain will be raised. As this reduces the channel floodwater capacity, the creek will, over time, seek new, lower paths, forming a meander (a curved path). The leftover higher locations, typically natural levees at the margins of ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Quaternary
The Quaternary ( ) is the current and most recent of the three periods of the Cenozoic Era in the geologic time scale of the International Commission on Stratigraphy (ICS), as well as the current and most recent of the twelve periods of the Phanerozoic eon. It follows the Neogene Period and spans from 2.58 million years ago to the present. The Quaternary Period is divided into two epochs: the Pleistocene (2.58 million years ago to 11.7 thousand years ago) and the Holocene (11.7 thousand years ago to today); a proposed third epoch, the Anthropocene, was rejected in 2024 by IUGS, the governing body of the ICS. The Quaternary is typically defined by the Quaternary glaciation, the cyclic growth and decay of continental ice sheets related to the Milankovitch cycles and the associated climate and environmental changes that they caused. Research history In 1759 Giovanni Arduino proposed that the geological strata of northern Italy could be divided into four succ ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Flood
A flood is an overflow of water (list of non-water floods, or rarely other fluids) that submerges land that is usually dry. In the sense of "flowing water", the word may also be applied to the inflow of the tide. Floods are of significant concern in agriculture, civil engineering and public health. Environmental issues, Human changes to the environment often increase the intensity and frequency of flooding. Examples for human changes are land use changes such as deforestation and Wetland conservation, removal of wetlands, changes in waterway course or flood controls such as with levees. Global environmental issues also influence causes of floods, namely climate change which causes an Effects of climate change on the water cycle, intensification of the water cycle and sea level rise. For example, climate change makes Extreme weather, extreme weather events more frequent and stronger. This leads to more intense floods and increased flood risk. Natural types of floods include riv ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Coarse Woody Debris
Coarse woody debris (CWD) or coarse woody habitat (CWH) refers to fallen dead trees and the remains of large branches on the ground in forests and in rivers or wetlands.Keddy, P.A. 2010. Wetland Ecology: Principles and Conservation (2nd edition). Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UK. 497 p, p. 225-227. A dead standing tree, known as a Snag (ecology), snag, provides many of the same functions as coarse woody debris. The minimum size required for woody debris to be defined as "coarse" varies by author, ranging from in diameter. Since the 1970s, Forest management, forest managers worldwide have considered it best environmental practice to allow dead trees and woody debris to remain in woodlands, biogeochemical cycle, recycling nutrients trapped in the wood and providing heterotrophic nutrition, food and habitat for a wide range of organisms, thereby improving biodiversity. The amount of coarse woody debris is an important criterion for the evaluation and restoration of temperate ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Wetland
A wetland is a distinct semi-aquatic ecosystem whose groundcovers are flooded or saturated in water, either permanently, for years or decades, or only seasonally. Flooding results in oxygen-poor ( anoxic) processes taking place, especially in the soils. Wetlands form a transitional zone between waterbodies and dry lands, and are different from other terrestrial or aquatic ecosystems due to their vegetation's roots having adapted to oxygen-poor waterlogged soils. They are considered among the most biologically diverse of all ecosystems, serving as habitats to a wide range of aquatic and semi-aquatic plants and animals, with often improved water quality due to plant removal of excess nutrients such as nitrates and phosphorus. Wetlands exist on every continent, except Antarctica. The water in wetlands is either freshwater, brackish or saltwater. The main types of wetland are defined based on the dominant plants and the source of the water. For example, ''marshes'' ar ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
