LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – Knoxville Wildlife Area is another one of Lake County's marvelous wilderness lands that is worthy of investigation.
This 21,000 acre “park” is accessed via Lower Lake's Morgan Valley Road, and is just past the old Homestake Gold Mine.
Knoxville is actually a part of the 300,000 acre Blue Ridge/Berryessa Natural Area located in the counties of Lake, Napa, Colusa and Yolo. The rugged lands vary in elevation from 1,000 to around 2,200 feet.
The roads have taken a beating with the bounteous rains we've been experiencing, so be forewarned. Plans for parking lots are in the works.
Here is a place you can deeply claim epic views of expansive wilderness lands and wildflowers. If you are craving a getaway from the pinging sounds of electronic devices, here is where you can soak in some of nature's soundscapes – the running water in the subtle silver of the creek, and bird call melodies from the abundant avian species that are found here.
If you listen, and “turn on” your imagination you can garner the “daily news” from out-of-doors, fresh as sunburst from the winds.
Here at Knoxville oak grasslands, oak woodlands, chaparral brush and more can be found. These lands are special in that they hold some of the few serpentine-soils habitats that are found in California, and are protected.
Serpentine is our state rock. The out-of-the ordinary serpentine soils are home to a great variety of songbirds and raptors, reptiles and amphibians, along with many mammals like black-tailed deer, bobcats, black bears, and more.
What's interesting is that due to serpentine's chemical make up, it is not conducive to hosting most plant species, but instead, rare and endemic plants are found here that are home to the area's own plants and insects.
Serpentine is a mineral, and can be made up of many hues. It may be yellow to black, but is usually green here in Lake County.
According to local geologist, Dean Enderlin, “The formation of serpentinite is a very complex process. Much has been (and is being) written about it in geology journals. Serpentine minerals form when unstable ultramafic minerals in the deeper parts of an ophiolite complex chemically react with sea water (they hydrate). To put this in layman's terms, millions of years ago Lake County was under the ocean- up to about the Sierra Nevada foothills. The land below this ocean underwent a great collision of earth's tectonic plates. This particular under-ocean movement, called subduction, caused the floor which was west of us to move toward us, and under us. This complex process created our unique serpentine-rich geology.”
Lake County's serpentine is so special that the University of California has been undertaking studies at our county's own McLaughlin Natural Reserve, which is next door to the Knoxville Wildlife Area.
NASA scientist Dr. Jen Blank, PhD, Space Sciences and Astrobiology Division at NASA Ames Research Center, and Dr. Dawn Cardace, also with the NASA Ames team think that Lake County's serpentine formations are an analog to formations of serpentine on Mars.
With their Coast Range Ophiolite Microbial Observatory, or CROMO program, they have drilled wells on McLaughlin Reserve's lands to study microbial life which thrives in the high pH waters deep within the serpentine soil areas.
“Bi-products of the serpentinization reaction include reduced gases such as methane and hydrogen – these can be used as energy/food by chemotrophic bacteria,” said Dr. Blank. “Methanogens and sulfur reducing bacteria able to thrive on these gases can support other microbes in a subsurface environment – which may be a place to look for life on Mars.”
Our special serpentine soils hold a place in time and an extraordinary dimension in geologic terms.
Kathleen Scavone, M.A., is a retired educator, potter, writer and author of “Anderson Marsh State Historic Park: A Walking History, Prehistory, Flora, and Fauna Tour of a California State Park” and “Native Americans of Lake County.” She also writes for NASA and JPL as one of their “Solar System Ambassadors.” She was selected “Lake County Teacher of the Year, 1998-99” by the Lake County Office of Education, and chosen as one of 10 state finalists the same year by the California Department of Education.