On Friday, two reporters joined ranchers and UC, Fresno State and US Forest Service academics at the San Joaquin Experimental Range for a field day, presentations and barbecue marking the centennial of the Forest Service's research program. At the event, officials signed a new memorandum of understanding outlining the research goals and administrative arrangements for the 4,500-acre facility.
As part of the agreement, UC Cooperative Extension farm advisor and county director for Madera County, Neil McDougald, takes on the role of site manager for the sprawling oak woodland research facility 26 miles north of Fresno.
Dennis Pollock, a freelance reporter for AgAlert, took a guided tour of riparian areas on the station, and Ramona Frances, the ag reporter for the Madera Tribune, visited anthropological sites. The facility was inhabited by Native Americans in the distant past, evidenced by mortar cups ground into bedrock and a faint red pictograph on a rock outcropping. Remants of the station's gold mining history include tunnels dug into hillsides, piles of tailings indicative of placer mining and long-abandoned arastras, circular rock structures used by miners to break up gold ore.
In the photo, Frances (foreground) takes notes during one of the anthropological presentations, while McDougald (red jacket) listens.
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