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It's a brand new Rob on the Road:
Back to Nature!
"We are exploring gold country and one of the most beautiful
sites I have ever seen!"
..witness the blooming miracle of Daffodil Hill..
"Oh, look at this!" "Oh, there we go."
"Wow! Look at those feathers!"
See the spectacular arrival of Sandhill Cranes from Alaska..
And explore with me the unique beauty of the Marin Headlands..
"And you couldn't have picked a more beautiful setting."
"It's a great place to be, this is a fantastic national park."
Rob on the Road: Back to Nature starts now.
And now, Rob on the Road: Exploring Northern California.
Welcome to the Golden Gate Natural Recreation Area
in Marin county. This view is stunning!
This is the NatureBridge, it's where students come
from all over the world to get a hands-on lesson
from mother nature.
♪♪
You've got a great group of kids behind you,
and tell us where they're from?
>> Delta Elementary School in Clarksburg near Sacramento.
And that's the whole purpose here at the NatureBridge is
to literally bridge students with nature outside
of the classroom. Tell me about that.
>> Well it's a really great experience for the students
to come out and get to experience nature in nature's
classroom outside.
They learn about a lot of different things in
the classroom and when they're with us here at NatureBridge
they get to experience it.
They get hands on, they get to feel it, touch it
and just see it in action.
And you couldn't have picked a more beautiful setting.
>> It's a great place to be, this is a fantastic national park.
So what is the mission of this for you?
To have students spend time outside and get an appreciation
for nature and get an appreciation for the environment
in the world around us and to want to care about it
and take care of it.
Do you see lives being changed here, light bulbs
going off, Aha moments?
>> Almost every week. A lot of students come out
and they just like.. I get it, I see it and we have students
that come out here and they see the nature,
they see the animals.
They want to do something to help it, to make sure that
we have it for future generations.
Well, there's a lot to see and a lot to get.
Students, are you having fun?
Yeah!
Alright let's keep hiking.
♪♪
Matt, just look at the view that all of these students
are being exposed to. Tell me about this beautiful area.
>> Well, we're in the Marin Headlands section
of the Golden Gate National Recreation Area.
We're standing next to Rodeo Lagoon,
overlooking Rodeo Lagoon.
Fort Cronkhite is off in the distance on the other side.
>> And what is it exactly that you want these students
to take away from here?
>> Just the beauty of this place and looking at the different
habitats that we're hiking through and learning about
how different organisms survive in these different habitats,
using their different adaptations.
That leads into wanting to take care of it and we're going to
talk more about stewardship and learning to take care
of the environment later on in this week.
So some of the students here will take what they learn out
here in the field into the classroom.
>> That's our hope, we hope some so, that when you go back home
you do take some of the things that you learned here
and apply them to your everyday lives, whether it's in
the classroom or back at home.
Alright.
Well, on the count of three everybody say "Let's hike!"
one, two, three!
Let's Hike!
♪♪
What's the Hardcore Club?
Well, you have to eat the apple fully,
like everything in it, seasonal.
Seasonal?
Yeah. You want to try it?
okay.
Start from the bottom.
♪♪
What have you thought about this experience?
>> Well, I think it's really inspiring to help kids to like..
to make sure they eat all their stuff, not to waste anything
and help the environment a lot.
♪♪
So Matt's telling the group of students that he's brought
them down to the pond where they're going to be biologists
now for this part of the trip.
You're going to reach into the pond, you're going to
scoop around and you're going to collect what I like to call
"muck", okay? So a little bit of dirt and a little bit of muck,
but not much. Some dead leaves, some dead sticks and hopefully
some invertible, some critters in here.
♪♪
What is on my shoulder?
It's a bug.
It is an insect.
♪♪
well, we're searching for little invertebrates
that live in our pond.
>> Oh yeah.. and they're going to take these back to the lab?
We are, we're going to take them back to the lab
and we're going to use our microscopes to try and identify
what we have.
>> And the point of that is Biology.
Biology, to find out the health of the water here,
the more diversity we have, the more healthy our pond
is going to be.
>> We got it! Eeew, I got it!
>> Good one!
Get it in... nice!
I was watching earlier and all along the hiking trail,
each stop, nature was applied to these student's lives.
Yeah, we weave it into everything.
They are a part of nature, nature is a part of them.
It's integral.
It all works together, it's all interconnected.
That's what we really try to make sure they're getting
while they're here.
"The yarrow is a native plant, it belongs here and the Native Americans.."
♪♪
So Averie, tell me about an animal you learned about
that you didn't know about?
The starfish because I figured it out that it had
no blood in it..
No blood? I didn't know that.
Yeah, it was really cool.
I think that it's a lifelong lesson we teach here
not just to teach them science and to be out and experiencing
but to be away from home for a little bit,
to kind of push your comfort zones
as a 4th, 5th or 6th grader.
It's kind of a pivotal time and I really think that
getting them to understand how important learning and science
and nature is, is the most important piece of it and if
I can do that, that's what
really makes me happy and keeps me passionate.
One of the things I love about exploring California
is that you find places that people will remember
for the rest of their life and this is definitely one of them.
>> It's good to hear you say that.
Thank you so much, here at the NatureBridge
here in the Marin Headlands in Marin County.
And have you gotten used to the fog horns?
Yeah.
What do you think about them?
I think they're annoying.
I think they're peaceful.
No. They're annoying.
Still ahead on Rob on the Road: Back to Nature..
Take flight with Sandhill Cranes making their annual pilgrimage
to Northern California.
"This area is one of the few remaining wetland
and ripe herring habitats left in California."
Plus..
"This area is breathtaking." "Well, that's very nice of you
to say. It's something that we take a lot of family pride in."
Immerse yourself in the blooming beauty
of Daffodil Hill.
We'll take you on a breathtaking tour ahead.
♪♪
Well few things are more awe-inspiring than nature
at its finest and that is definitely the case
at the Consumnes River Preserve, about a half hour
south of Sacramento, home to hundreds and thousands
of migratory birds and one of a kind experience.
♪♪
And we're here with the wetlands manager Mariah Garr.
Good to see you, Mariah.
Thanks for being here.
Nature is alive everywhere here.
It is, it is.
This is one of the most beautiful places in the valley.
Well, tell me about it.
We're surrounded by birds and water and wetlands everywhere.
What are we seeing?
>> Well, here at the Consumnes River Preserve,
this is a thousand acres of managed wetlands.
Out here you have seasonal wetland habitat where you find
migratory birds during the winter seasons mainly
and those are going to be water fowl, water birds
and shore birds.
>> Okay, where are they coming from and where are they going?
>> The vast majority of them come from up north.
Say Canada or even higher in the arctic circle.
They come down here, this is the pacific flyway
here along the coast and California.
They come to the central valley here at the preserve or other
areas and they come down here over winter to fatten up,
get healthy and rest up so that they can have babies
in the spring.
So tell me what we're seeing, name some of these off because
every little nook and cranny you see wildlife.
Right.
turn around here and tell me about some.
>> So this is some very typical dabbling duck habitat.
It's some wide open waters, shallows.
You'll see birds like coots or the red duck there
in the middle. That is a cinnamon teal.
>> And you can hear them.
>> You can hear all the calls, the peeps, the tweets,
the quacks. It's filled with birds.
We've got northern pintails, we've got shovelers, we've got
a wide variety of dabbling ducks right in this area right here.
>> And so can you even begin to say how many different
varieties you have here at the preserve?
>> I do know that we've got well over 200 species of various
birds from ducks to shore birds to songbirds or egrets or herons
and our Sandhill cranes.
Here in the pond you might have 5 of 10 different species.
>> And this is open to the public.
We see people here walking the boardwalk..
very popular for photography, people taking pictures.
>> Absolutely.
And so what do you think it is about this area
that is so special?
This area is one of the few remaining wetland
and ripe herring habitats left in California.
We've lost over 95% of that sort of habitat due to
urban encroachment, agricultural development,
human impacts on our great central valley.
So this is a remnant portion of that sort of habitat
and it's a magnet, it draws the birds in.
>> so this is rare.
>> It is, it is.
There are not a lot of places out there left in California
that look like us.
This is the public area, but down there is an area
closed to the public.
Let's go see it.
>> Alright.
♪♪
Well we found the star of the show the Sandhill crane,
flying in as we speak and we also found the bird man.
Good to see you Mark Reylonds with The Nature Conservancy.
>> Good to see you, Rob.
>> You're the lead scientist for the migratory bird project
and I am stunned at the size of these cranes,
the Sandhill crane. Tell me about it.
>> Aren't they magnificent? This is one of the largest birds
in north America and we're seeing them flying in right now
to these corn fields to Staten island but the greater
Sandhill crane stands about 5 feet tall..
>> Oh, that's tall.
Yeah that's about a 7 foot wingspan so definitely one of
north America's largest bird species.
so picture Michael Phelps with his arms spread out
and that's about the same distance.
That's right.
they look like dinosaurs.
Well, they are dinosaurs.
Birds are actually the living lineage of dinosaurs,
many scientists call them feathered dinosaurs,
and these cranes in fact look very prehistoric and sound
like you might imagine flying dinosaurs or ancient birds did.
they're loud.
They're very loud and I think that one of the things that's
most enjoyable about experiencing migratory birds
like the cranes is the sounds and if you can imagine being
here a couple hundred years ago the sounds would have been
just fairly deafening.
You read the early settler's accounts and they talk about
how noisy it was in the wintertime
in the Sacramento valley from the birds.
>> It blows my mind that these birds, some of them,
go to Homor, Alaska.
Isn't that amazing? And to think that they do that
by burning bird fat so by burning the equivalent
of chicken fat.
>> That they acquire here.
>> That they acquire here, so it's a very efficient fuel
so here they're feeding on some of the waste grain from the corn
farming operations here as well as invertebrates.
They turn that all into fat that lets them do these amazing
miraculous migrations like all the way from Alaska back
to California.
And so we're sitting here on top of this levy just to get,
no pun intended a bird's eye view of what's going on
down here.. this area is closed to the public but the public
can come down on 'the other side, right?
That's correct,
so we're at the Nature Conservancy Staten Island Nature Preserve
here in the delta and this is one of the largest
corn farms in the delta.
>> It's huge.
>> The Nature Conservancy acquired it in 1993.
It's 9,200 acres and we manage it primarily to benefit
migratory bird species like Sandhill cranes.
>> Why corn and cranes?
Well, corn is one of the crops that we can use
to benefit wildlife species.
It can be compatibly managed for wildlife benefit and so we
can flood it fairly early in the season to provide roosting
habitat for cranes and also the waste grain provides food for them.
>> You know, there is so much nature
right in our own backyard. We are right next to I-5
and you know, I've driven by here a million times
and I never knew what was going on in our own backyard.
>> Well I think that's one of the most exciting things
to me about this is that the world's great migrations
are really vanishing before our eyes and it's really one
of the great motivators for The Nature Conservancy
is to try and protect these fantastic long distance
animal migrations before they vanish and most people
think to experience something like that you have to go
to Africa, you have to go to the Serengeti and see wildebeest
and actually just a couple hours from the bay area, an hour south
of Sacramento you can experience one of the great animal
migration spectacles on earth right here.
>> Really?
On earth?
>> On earth.
>> Get out!
That must really move you that you get to have
that kind of job.
Oh, it's fantastic. And I get to work with great
colleagues and we do amazing things and it's all
for the benefit of wildlife and for nature.
Well Mark, that's awesome.
It's so good to be with you.
Thank you so much for being here.
>> Thank you.
Yep. On Rob on the Road.
We are exploring gold country in one the most beautiful sights
I have ever seen. Hundreds of thousands
of daffodils near Volcano in Amador county.
This is Daffodil Hill!
♪♪
We're inside Daffodil Hill with one of the owners,
Amador county Sheriff Martin Ryan.
Good to see you, Sheriff.
Hi Rob it's nice to see you and please, call me Martin.
Ah, okay I will. I'll obey you.
This area is breathtaking and I said it's one of the most
beautiful places I've ever seen and I mean it.
Well that's very nice of you to say.
It's something that we take a lot of family pride in being
able to produce a scene like this every year
for the people that come here to visit.
>> When did this open to the public?
1940.
It started off as a family memorial garden
that got a little carried away and as it expanded
people stopped and wanted to look at the flowers and so
in 1940, we opened it up to the public.
And how far does this place date back?
I saw the 1800's.
1887 was when our family purchased this property
so it's been in our family since then.
>> So that would have been your great grandparents?
Correct.
Okay, great grandparents and in fact, one of our homes,
the great grandmother's home is here on this property.
Great Grandma Lizzie.
We'll see that place coming up.
And look out over here and I can only imagine how many daffodils
are here, I mean we're talking in the hundreds of thousands.
>> We generally say that 300,000 bulbs are in full bloom.
>> 300,000!
You know, I know how daffodils do, they sink lower
in the ground, sometimes they don't last forever.
So how do you keep this so flourishing? Do you replant?
>> We do. We come back every year, we try to plant
about 16,000 bulbs.
>> Every year?
>> Every year.
>> My goodness!
>> And we'll identify areas that have gone a little weak
that don't have quite the bloom and we'll come back and plant
those and that's done by family members
and a couple close friends.
Oh really?
Yes.
Everywhere I look I see people taking pictures.
It's a great spot.
It's a great spot for photographs and we'll have
people up.. artists up here doing paintings.
It's just one of those kinds of places that you can get away
and forget everything except looking at the flowers.
>> What is it about daffodils that is so special clearly,
to your family?
>> Well, I think it's a remembrance of the family
and being up here and being part of this since we were
little and seeing the flowers come up year after year
and being part of that process. I think that's part of it,
it helps us remember what those days were like.
Remembers our ancestors, our parents..
it's just a very warm feeling that we get from doing this.
Every time I see someone come up to you,
your family must clearly be very loved here.
>> You know, we've been in this community a long time
and we've been very blessed to be active participants
in the community that are involved in a lot of things
are really care about it.
This truly is our home, it's been our home for generations.
And so, how long is Daffodil Hill thriving like this?
Because I know when it's the off-season it goes back
to a working ranch..
>> Correct. We have a 4 week grow season for the daffodils
and that's the life cycle of the daffodils up here.
At best case scenario assuming the weather cooperates,
we get 4 full weeks of bloom. After that we go back
to walnut harvest, cattle grazing.. we do a couple
of other things here on the ranch as well.
So are we here at the perfect time, I would guess?
I think you're here really at a good time.
We're a little delayed in opening this year but this
is going to be our third weekend assuming the weather cooperates
and I think the bloom is probably really good right now
and there's still a few yet to come up but I think we're
at a really good time right now.
And so you see people walking these trails and they're just..
I mean they're everywhere. People just flocking through here.
I imagine sometimes you still probably feel
your family walking these hills.
>> Oh, absolutely. I mean every place you look
it has a story that's affiliated with somebody from the family
that we can recall.
>> Be it the cabins, the barns..
The cabins, the barns.. even the pump house is a well
that my grandmother discovered here on the property.
>> Really?
She sounds like a really cool person.
Absolutely. She was amazing.
Well, she has a good grandson, too.
Well thank you, I appreciate that very much.
Alright, let's go tour.
♪♪
It looks like life. You know, you look at the flowers
and you just see the happiness of everything coming out
on you so it is beautiful, it is beautiful.
That is very, very well put.
How does it make you feel?
Oh, good. It brings back a lot of good memories.
What do you mean?
>> You know, the small town that I grew up in which was
Jackson a few miles away.. The Ryan family.. Yeah,
it's good memories.
so it's sort of.. no pun intended..
a walk down memory lane for you.
No pun intended, yes.
>> Well, have fun.
♪♪
Everywhere you look here at Daffodil Hill-
and I wasn't expecting this.. there are so many
different varieties.
Yes, there's a lot of different flowers here
that people don't normally see. We advertise about 300
different varieties and that changes with the season
and what we plant but you're going to see things like this
that you probably won't see anywhere else.
>> I love daffodils, I've grown them my entire life
and I've never ever seen so many of these varieties.
>> And that's the special part about the ranch.
Not only do we have the old standard heritage bulbs
that you see, the big bright yellows
but we have these specialty bulbs that we put in the ground.
>> You know, the daffodil really is a stamp of spring.
>> You know, it just brightens everything up.
If you go around this community and around this county,
you're going to see a lot of daffodils.
A lot of the small communities are planting them now
and it really does signify that spring is here.
>> It's a happy place.
>> It is, absolutely.
This road has major historical significance.
It really does, Rob.
This was actually the main highway to bring supplies
over to the mines that came over the sierras for the mines
in Volcano, it was a big mining community back then
and also all the big mines in Jackson and Sutter Creek.
>> So this way the road?
This was the road.
And it goes right through Daffodil Hill.
There's this beautiful barn, tell me about this.
This barn was the original barn that was here in 1887
when the family purchased the property.
There was a blacksmith shop in the front, the animals
were put up for the wagons coming across,
were put up in the barn and dances upstairs
on Saturday night.
>> Dances upstairs.
How much fun!
We came up here as small kids, we grew up here, we grew up
playing in the fields and planting daffodils
and doing those kind of things and watching the different
people come through and it's just part of who we are
and what we do here.
>> You've got a special house here that you wanted to show me.
Absolutely.
Great Grandma's cabin that we have here on the left.
>> There are peacocks on her roof!
>> There are!
they like to get up and away from people.
They roost up there and they roost up in the trees.
>> Just absolutely beautiful.
So, tell me the history of this cabin.
I see either your grandmother or your great grandmother's church pew out here
as well as the old milk jugs which are so neat.
What is the family significance here?
You said that your Great Grandmother moved up here
after there was a fire not far away.
Correct.
Yes, the original boarding house that was here when we bought
the property in 1887 is what burnt down.
>> James.
>> Alright, very nice to meet you.
>> Very cute, what a family place huh?
Yeah, it is.
That's about the size we were when we started, so..
just a couple of years ago..
Right, just a few years ago, so..
>> Oh, look at this!
Oh, there we go.
>> Wow!
Look at those feathers!
Yeah, they'll put on the show particularly when the ladies
are around..
This is the male.
This is one of our larger, more adult males.
>> Are you showing off for the camera? look at that.
Look at those feathers, the structure is just unbelievable.
I've not been this close to a peacock before
So I didn't know that it was that big.
>> And the colors, if you look at the intricate
colors like right on the back just up from the neck
from the blue where it transitions.
The greens, the yellows and the golds.
>> Just beautiful.
As you sit here Martin and you look down your hill
of dreams really, how does it make you feel?
Ahh, just.. you know, it's so satisfying to see that
all the works that's been put in by our ancestors and to see
what it's come to and the number of people that enjoy it..
I mean that's just amazing and the number of comments we get.
The positive thoughts that people give us
and they thank us profusely for doing this.
To us it's what we know. It's just what we do.
>> A lot of smiles.
>> A lot of smiles.
Well, the splendor and definitely the signs
of spring are alive here right now and it has been
so nice to tour this beautiful daffodil hill with you.
Thank you so much sheriff Martin Ryan.
Appreciate you being here, Rob.
Thank you so much.
Absolutely.
Near Volcano in Amador County, the heart of gold rush.
Get it, gold.. daffodils?
Got it, perfect, perfect.
Hey!
It's Rob on the Road!
Hi Rob!
Good to see you!
We love seeing you on Channel 6!
Thank you!