In My Back Yard

The wild fires in San Diego last month brought discussion of the Wildland Urban Interface (WUI) back to the radio and television news. I listened, nodded gravely, and thought about how nice it would be to have enough money to live at the interface. In thinking that, I imagined that would mean living way out in Marin or somewhere at the top of Grizzly Peak. It meant money, privacy, woodlands all around, and views that people envy. It did not mean a bus stop in the driveway, ten feet of buffer zone between the end of our house and the beginning of the house next door, or two major freeways within 5 minutes drive.

Then I opened the living room curtains this morning just as the golden eagle who works the Sausal Creek watershed glided in to land on a pine tree behind my neighbor's house. "Hey, Bob, get the binoculars, the eagle is on the pine behind John's!" I yelled. Of course, by the time we found the glasses, he or she had taken off again. We'll be ready the next time, though. We've got the camera and the binoculars on the coffee table now.

Last week, we watched "our" eagle riding the thermals above the back yard and being harassed by crows. This week, he or she landed on a tree top less than a block away. What could possibly be more wild than an eagle in the tree tops across the street?

So, I've adjusted my imaginings accordingly. I now realize that this block of Lyman Road, six-tenths of a mile above the Mac Arthur Freeway, in spite of its location on the eastern side of a city of more than 400,000 people, is as much WUI territory as Malibu Canyon.

We can thank the creek that runs down from the hills two blocks over for our golden eagle. It merges into a narrow, but unbroken green belt that winds all the way to Walnut Creek. It's that creek and its watershed that makes this city neighborhood more than just another set of streets. I know, I know...it's the same creek and the same green belt that makes us vulnerable to catastrophes like the 1991 Oakland firestorm. But, for now, the miracle far outweighs the possibility of disaster.

I never imagined that I would live in a place where I could look up from the morning paper and see anything as graceful and free as an eagle circling overhead. It takes my breath away each and every time and gives me reason to say that I am blessed.