click photo for full-size image
photo by Donald Kinney
Oh, I guess we all have familiar and wonderful places of our own that we can identify with. For me it is Lagunitas Creek (pronounced "La-goo-ní-tas"), and I started stopping by shortly after I resumed my interest in photography in 2002. Some call it "Paper-mill Creek", because Marin County pioneer Samuel P. Taylor established a water-powered paper-mill here in 1856. "Lagunitas" in Spanish means "little lagoons".
click photo for full-size image
photo by Donald Kinney
Water flows year around, supplied from reservoir releases mandated by the State of California--this pristine stream is home for the endangered Coho Salmon. Wild Coho's have diminished in numbers over the years to near extinction, but are making a tenacious comeback thanks to efforts by Marin Municipal Water District and the State Department of Fish and Game.
click photo for full-size image
photo by Donald Kinney
Photo (above) taken in December 2011. Read more about the plight of Coho Salmon in a blog post I did in June 2012. You may also peruse the pages of the book I did on Lagunitas Creek in 2011.
click photo for full-size image
photo by Donald Kinney
Most of the year the Lagunitas is a bucolic and gentle stream, but during heavy winter rains it turns into a raging torrent. Trees get ripped from its banks and float a ways down stream before clumping together in massive piles. Gravel scours and smooths and polishes its rocky bottom. The course of the Lagunitas changes ever so slightly from year to year and it is easy to see how this creek has carved out its rippled bottom and canyon over eons.
No comments:
Post a Comment