Two Roads Diverge in a Wood

I recently took my 6-year-old son, Kyle, and his friend, Kimberly, to the proposed Lang Ranch Dam site. I told the kids we had come to see some very rare plants. As it turned out, we saw so much more.

The trail head was marked by a metal vehicle barrier installed back when it was agreed that the oak grove the trail leads to was worth preserving. The trail to the grove gently sloped down.

The noise of traffic from the two boulevards, Arboles and Westlake, became muffled as we descended the gorge to Lang Creek. Bird song and the wind blowing through the trees became the dominant sounds. We passed coast live oaks, their dense green canopy blocking out the sun.

The trail split. We went downward through the tall dry grass dotted with deep blue flowers with yellow centers. Soon we were where the endangered plants grow. Six Braunton’s milkvetch, plants so rare that this population represents 6% of its world population, stood almost six feet high. These plants have given this place a year’s reprieve from bulldozers, due to the permitting processes of the Army Corps of Engineers and the Endangered Species Act. They stand squarely within the proposed dam’s footprint.

I saw them anew through the children’s eyes. Watching out for “baby plants” we came in close to look at them. Flower buds were forming. A butterfly resembling a monarch but with large white triangles on its wings was on a long, multi-leafed stem. It fluttered onto Kimberly’s head, paused for a moment, then flew away.

We continued to the bend in the creek where the trail ends. The leaf litter is deep and soft under the 50 trees that would be removed to make way for the 66-foot-high dam. Then we climbed up the channel wall to some caves. They are small enough and shallow enough to invite these young explorers. There is lichen and moss on the rock ledge that would be ripped out to reach the bedrock that would anchor the dam’s concrete outlet structure. We heard coyotes yipping nearby, so we slipped and slid down the slope and started on the trail back.

As we returned, Kyle pointed and asked, “Is this a rare plant? Is this?”

Kimberly, her eyes shining, said she saw the butterfly again, “It came back!”

I considered explaining that insects and plants and trees and animals often “go together” and then thought it was best to just let them enjoy this place and not tell them too much.

How can I adequately explain to them that this place will probably be gone by summer’s end?

The Ventura County Flood Control District has all the permits to build the twin debris and detention basins that are known as Lang Ranch Dam. Although the city of Thousand Oaks has authorized a final study of the dam issue, it is unlikely that the district will change its plans because it doesn’t have to. The only approval it lacks is that of residents who know there is a better alternative.

The children were unaware of the controversy, and as we came back to where the trail split they wanted to explore some more. I looked where they pointed--the trail that leads to the flat field, the downstream site suggested for an off-line detention basin.

“Why not?” I thought. Splits in trails demonstrate that there is another way to go, if you’re only willing. Suddenly, I had the saddest feeling that the field was as remote and as unreachable as the darkest side of the farthest moon.