The Brief

Everyone’s heard about the wonders of California’s coastal redwood trees. They can live for hundreds, even one or two thousand years, all while enduring West Coast fires, storms and pests.

But there’s an equally fascinating native California tree: the bishop pine. While it’s not a household name, the drought-tolerant, rocky, soil-loving plant has fashioned its own way of surviving the ages.

Bishop pines are everything that redwoods are not. They get canker infections and snap like pencils. When their root balls are soggy, a strong breeze tips them over. In a wildfire? Woosh, they’re gone.

But the fragility of the bishop pine is arguably its strength.

The largest natural bishop pine forest in the world is in Tomales Bay State Park in Point Reyes. Just like the groves of their majestic cousins, the coastal redwoods, bishop pine forests can last for thousands of years. However, it’s because each individual bishop pine can quickly make space for the next generation.

The spread of pencil trees

Bishop pines were once widespread throughout western North America. That was during the Tertiary period, over 2.5 million years ago. Now, their range is mostly limited to a sliver along California’s coast. And it’s shrinking still!

A Bishop Pine at Jepson Memorial Grove, along the Johnstone trail, at Tomales Bay State Park on August 20, 2024.

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One culprit is a fungal infection that causes bishop pines to grow cankers, which appear as large bulges in a tree’s branches and trunk. Cankers girdle a tree’s branches and trunk, causing them to bulge and leak resin. The girdle reduces the flow of nutrients, weakening the trunk so that it eventually snaps in two like a broken pencil.

There are many snapped and fallen trees in Tomales Bay State Park, as well as in Inverness, a small unincorporated community nestled between the state park and Tomales Bay.

Cleaning up after the pines

To fully appreciate the largest and oldest remaining bishop pine forests, hikers can take the Johnstone Trail in Tomales Bay State Park. There, they’ll pass through the trees and other vegetation still coated in dew from the coastal fog and walk up the low hills to views of Tomales Bay glistening in the distance — views snatched between the trunks of bishop pines now a hundred feet tall.

While hiking the trail, it’s more or less a matter of time before one runs into local Emmanuel Serriere while he’s cleaning up the tangle of trunks and branches that happen when a massive tree falls and takes down unlucky neighbors with it.

Serriere has cleared the Johnstone Trail of bishop pines and other trees for 14 years. It began when he retired next door and started walking the trail regularly. One day, the trail was blocked by a fallen tree. Instead of waiting for someone else to do something, he took his chainsaw and unblocked the trail himself.

Emmanuel Serriere clears the Johnstone Trail in Tomales Bay State Park.

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Serriere walks the trail almost daily for his own enjoyment, but he takes note of how to improve the experience for everyone: removing loose roots that he calls “widow makers;” filling in giant potholes left by mature root balls; and, of course, clearing fallen trunks.

The state park works with multiple volunteers and staff to keep the Johnstone Trail open and safe for visitors, but Serriere is particularly active. He enjoys the labor, and more than that, he enjoys the experience of a pleasant hike, something he’s proud to share with fellow hikers.

Serriere estimated that he’d removed over a hundred tree trunks from the Johnstone Trail. He often works with fellow volunteer Gerald Meral and coordinates with park rangers on particularly bad pile-ups.

However, you’ll know a Serriere tree removal when you see one. The evidence remains on the slowly decomposing trunks lying next to the trail — literally on each cross-section, where Serriere has recorded in big fat Sharpie the date when he cleared that particular fallen tree.

A tree lies fallen alongside the Johnstone Trail in Tomales Bay State Park. Emmanuel Serriere clears the trail as part of his maintenance work and dates the trunks with a permanent marker as a memento of his effort.

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Suited to thrive

Still, not all locals share Serriere’s disdain for the pesky bishop pines.

Tom Gaman, a professional forester who has studied the Tomales Bay bishop pine forest in detail, grows bishop pines on his property. Gaman said he likes that they’re indigenous and thrive under the right natural conditions. If they’re healthy enough, they can even overcome canker infections.

Tom Gaman beside a bishop pine he grew from seed.

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Gaman showed me a dozen mature bishop pines around his yard that he planted from seed.

One does not simply buy bishop pine seeds. Gaman collected the pine cones himself. Even his 5-year-old bishop pines had little cones on them. The hard part was getting the seeds out. Bishop pine cones are sealed shut with resin. The seeds stay locked in these closed cones until a fire melts the resin so the cones can finally pop open.

Bishop pine seedlings growing in Tom Gaman’s yard.

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Gaman extracted the seeds by roasting the cones in his oven, but wild bishop pines rely on wildfires to reproduce. Although wildfires often kill mature bishop pines, the heat also opens their cones, and the fiery winds distribute the seeds, which then regenerate into new trees.

Since bishop pines require wildfire to produce, they happily increase the risk of wildfire as they age. The grove around the Johnstone Trail is full of dead trees, fallen branches, and dense mounds of dried needles. “Around here, you can walk through a bishop pine forest, and it hasn’t burned for so long that the litter can be a foot deep,” Gaman said.

This build-up of organic material stokes fears of an exceptionally big and fast-moving wildfire ripping through Inverness. Until that happens, though, the litter is actually a big problem for the bishop pines.

Tom Gaman holds his collection of extracted bishop pine seeds. The seeds are locked inside pine cones held shut with pitch. Gaman opens the cones by roasting them in his oven. Bishop pines rely on wildfires to reproduce in the wild.

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Gaman said that bishop pine seeds won’t germinate unless they’re down on what foresters call “bare mineral soil.” In 1939, a dozen years before Tomales Bay State Park opened, there was a big fire that cleared the land. The bishop pine forest we see today naturally sprung back after that wildfire.

Now, the forest is 80 years old, and the dying bishop pines are being replaced by oak and bay. Without another wildfire, this indigenous bishop pine forest — the largest natural bishop pine grove in the world — will eventually disappear.

Resilience of the forest, not the trees

Gaman explained that it’s not because bishop pines are fragile. “There might be 40 generations of bishop pines in the life of one redwood tree,” Gaman said. “So bishop pines are resilient in that the young ones can burst onto the landscape after a fire.”

The beauty of bishop pines is that they make space for the next generation. While it’s a pain to clear fallen trees, it’s a chore that’s easier to appreciate after the full experience of hiking the Johnstone Trail.

Emmanuel Serriere hikes through the bishop pine forest along the Johnstone Trail in Tomales Bay State Park.

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After I watched Serriere clear a lower part of the trail, we hiked up to a ridge. First, he pointed out the fallen tree he’d cleared and marked with the trail’s highest altitude. Then he turned to the clearing that the dead tree exposed.

“Look, we got new babies,” Serriere exclaimed. “New bishop pines coming up.”

A Bishop Pine visible on the center left, can be seen from Heart’s Desire beach, at Tomales Bay State Park on August 20, 2024.

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Topline:

The case: In September, the city settled a lawsuit brought forward by two brothers in their 70s who said they suffered serious injuries after an LAPD officer crashed into their car. Days before the $18 million settlement was reached, lawyers for the brothers said Feldstein Soto called an expert witness testifying for the plaintiffs and “attempted to ingratiate herself with him and asked him to make a contribution to her political campaign,” according to a sworn declaration to the court by the plaintiffs’ attorney, Robert Glassman.

The response: Feldstein Soto did not respond to an interview request. Her spokesperson said the settlement “had nothing to do” with the expert witness. Her campaign manager told LAist the city attorney had been making a routine fundraising call and did not know the person had a role in the case, nor that there were pending requests for her office to pay him fees.

What Jurado says: In a statement to LAist, Jurado said she wants to “make sure that the city’s legal leadership is guided by integrity and accountability, especially when their choices affect public trust, civic rights and the city’s limited resources."

What’s next: The motion needs to go through a few committees before reaching the full City Council. If it passes, the motion calls for the city attorney to “report to council in closed session within 45 days regarding the ethics breach violation and give updates to the City Council."

Every year in Santa Ana, Luis Cantabrana turns the front of his home into an elaborate altar in honor of La Virgen de Guadalupe that draws hundreds of visitors.

Along the front of the house, the multi-colored altar is filled with lights, flowers and a stained-glass tapestry behind a sculpture of the Lady of Guadalupe. Cantabrana’s roof also is lit up with the green, white and red lights that spell out “Virgen de Guadalupe” and a cross.

Visitors are welcomed with music and the smell of roses as they celebrate the saint, but this year’s gathering comes after a dark year for immigrant communities.

Luis Cantabrana stands in front of the stunning altar he built in front of his home in honor of La Virgen de Guadalupe. Every year, his display draws hundreds of visitors.

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Why do they celebrate? 

In 1513, the Virgin Mary appeared before St. Juan Diego between Dec. 9 and Dec. 12, asking him to build a church in her honor. Her image — a brown-skinned woman wearing a green veil with her hands together in prayer and an angel at her feet — miraculously appeared on his cloak.

To celebrate in Santa Ana, worshippers gathered late-night Wednesday and in the very early hours Dec. 12 to pray the rosary, sing hymns and celebrate the saint.

Cantabrana has hosted worshippers at his home for 27 years — 17 in Santa Ana.

The altar started out small, he said, and over the years, he added a fabric background, more lights and flowers (lots and lots of flowers).

“It started with me making a promise to la Virgen de Guadalupe that while I had life and a home to build an altar, that I would do it,” Cantabrana said. “Everything you see in photos and videos is pretty, but when you come and see it live, it's more than pretty. It's beautiful.”

The Santa Ana home's elaborate altar in honor of La Virgen de Guadalupe draws hundreds of visitors each year.

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Gathering in a time of turmoil 

Many also look to the Lady of Guadalupe for protection, especially at a time when federal enforcement has rattled immigrant communities.

“People don’t want to go to work, they don’t want to take their kids to school, but the love we have for our Virgen de Guadalupe,” Cantabrana said. “We see that la Virgen de Guadalupe has a lot of power, and so we know immigration [enforcement] won’t come here.”

Margarita Lopez of Garden Grove has been visiting the altar for three years with her husband. She’s been celebrating the Virgencita since she was a young girl. Honoring the saint is as important now as ever, she said.

“We ask, and she performs miracles,” Lopez said.

Claudia Tapia, a lifelong Santa Ana resident, said the Virgin Mary represents strength.

“Right now, with everything going on, a lot of our families [have] turned and prayed to the Virgen for strength during these times,” Tapia said. “She's a very strong symbol of Mexican culture, of unity, of faith and of resilience.”

See it for yourself

The shrine will stay up into the new year on the corner of Broadway and Camile Street.

California’s unemployment agency kept paying cellphone bills for 4 1/2 years without checking whether its workers actually were using the devices.

That’s how it racked up $4.6 million in fees for mobile devices its workers were not using, according to a new state audit detailing wasteful spending at several government agencies.

The Employment Development Department’s excessive cellphone bills date to the COVID-19 pandemic, when it shifted call center employees to remote work and faced pressure to release benefits to millions of suddenly unemployed Californians.

It acquired 7,224 cellphones and wireless hotspots by December 2020. State auditors analyzed 54 months of invoices since then and found half the devices were unused for at least two years, 25% were unused for three years and 99 of them were never used at all.

The investigation, which auditors opened after receiving a tip, identified 6,285 devices that were unused for at least four consecutive months, and said the department spent $4.6 million on monthly service fees for them.

From the beginning, the department had about 2,000 more cellphones than call center employees, according to the audit. The gap widened over time after the pandemic ended and the department’s staffing returned to its normal headcount.

As of April, the audit said the department had 1,787 unemployment call center employees, but was paying monthly service fees for 5,097 mobile devices.

“Although obtaining the mobile devices during COVID-19 may have been a good idea to serve the public, continuing to pay the monthly service fees for so many unused devices, especially post-COVID-19, was wasteful,” the audit said.

Department officials told auditors they were unaware of the spending, but auditors pointed to regular invoices from Verizon that showed which phones were not being used.

“We would have expected EDD management to have reconsidered the need to pay the monthly service fees for so many devices that had no voice, message, or data usage,” the audit said.

The unemployment department began acting on the auditors’ findings in April, when it canceled service plans for 2,825 devices. It has since implemented a policy to terminate service plans for devices that go unused for 90 days.

The California state auditor highlighted the mobile devices in its regular report on “improper activities by state agencies and employees.” The audit also showed that the California Air Resources Board overpaid an employee who was on extended leave as he prepared to retire by $171,000.

This article was originally published on CalMatters and was republished under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives license.