Like other photo galleries that I have done recently for Puma Canyon, Fish Canyon and Table Mountain, this gallery includes pictures taken on numerous different trips in different years and at different times of the year. The dates of these visits were 4/02, 2/04, 3/14/09, 3/22/09, 4/4/15, 4/6/15, 4/7/15, 4/11/15 and 7/30/15. The Santa Fe Dam Natural Area is located just south of the 210 freeway and north of Arrow Highway in Irwindale, and was once considered as the site for a stadium for a professional football team. Fortunately that idea never came to fruition, as the entire area is in the flood plain of the San Gabriel river. The Recreational Area comprises 836 acres including a 70-acre lake with year-round fishing and swim beaches. The Renaissance Pleasure Faire was held here April-May and attracted some 20,000 people each weekend. The species that are displayed in this gallery are those in the Santa Fe Dam Regional County Park and the alluvial scrub habitat east of the river and north of Foothill Blvd. to the vicinity of Fish Canyon. For purposes of identification I have relied on the work done here by numerous people, especially Mickey Long who has compiled a Flora of Santa Fe Dam, revised in 2009. It is not surprising, given the extent of human activity around this area, and also given the fact that a watercourse flows down through here, that there should be a lot of non-native species in evidence, and there has obviously been some planting done of inappropriate species especially around the Nature Center (which I have never seen open) and adjacent campground. The view above is looking northward toward Fish Canyon and the San Gabriel Mountains with Agave americana in the foreground. An asterisk next to the common name indicates such a species, and the symbol ~ means a tentative identification. |
