a river runs through it..

runs through what???

ok..Caltrans comes into my neighborhood, trashes the landscape and takes off..and now I gotta deal with it! is that fair?? well, is it? I mean, how many times do I have to repeat myself..how many angry blogger posts do I gotta post? these restorations are scams..expensive scams and now I learn that someone in Ventura sold ag land to the Coastal Conservancy to restore areas along the Ventura River to native status....more money down the drain.... UPDATE: I just heard that the deal fell through with the Fish and Game and Coastal Conservancy! another entity bought it which has no intention of "restoring" it....Oh joy...rapture even!
so after the rains, Mother Nature confirms my convictions..it's like she's setting up a little lab and showing Caltrans and other nativists the error of their ways, the folly of their behavior...but do they listen to me? no..no they don't...well, maybe now they will..first we got a little hillside on Padaro and Santa Claus..do you see what happened? it's slip sliding away..do you know why? because Caltrans hired an outside landscaper to rip out the ice plant, and put in native plants to stabilize the hillside..did it work? no!!! and there's the proof!
next, we got Caltrans ripping out non-natives and weeds, planting natives and pouring tons of WOOD CHIPS onto the land, from Santa Cruz to Carpinteria...wood chips were used to suppress weeds...now look, weeds have a place in nature, they are not evil, they are beneficial especially at roadsides where survival is difficult...but Caltrans and nativists want to kill weeds and they will poison the land to achieve their stupid goals!! and cover everything with wood chips..this is a bad idea..wood chips are ok in small areas like your yard, but in large area applications, unintended consequences will happen..like this: after the rains, weeds are sprouting as is normal but the wood chips have also allowed mushrooms, poison mushrooms as big as moon pies to sprout! big poison fungus that will kill your dog and mess with your allergies when the wind blows the spores around!! the bottom line is this: instead of fixing the roads, CALTRANS IS TRYING TO POISON YOU and your little dog, too !!! and on Christmas!