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When we got to Jepson Prairie and Olcott Lake, we walked around, I nerded out about flowers, Tony and his dad looked around and tolerated my frequent dives to the ground, and that was about it. Luckily, we then joined Solano County Land Trust guided tour, and man, was that fortunate. Not only did the docents show us the California Tiger Salamander we had wanted so much to see, but they also had these totally unexpted tadpole shrimp! These are ancient crustaceans that hatch, eat, breed, lay eggs, and die all in the few months between winter rains and summer heat. They're closely related to the triops that some people keep as pets. On top of all that, they're federally endangered, so even if we had known they were there, it would have been illegal for us to dip net for them! The docents had permits, so they were able to collect some to show us. So awesome.

The photos capture the full-blown ecological disaster brought about by the reckless introduction of Fallow Deer to a delicately balanced island ecosystem by a bunch of hunters.

Cres Island as it has existed over hundreds and probably thousands of years is being changed within a few years to a neatly mowed lawn, leaving nothing of its former floristic (and other) diversity but a handful of highly toxic and super-abundant herbs such as Asphodelus and Euphorbia.

Large stretches of the formerly species-rich sheep meadows now look as if maintained by a swarm of mowing robots.... Now add Wild Boar, also introduced by hunters, and you know where Cres is heading to!

Good report framing the general conservation issue in the Mediterranean is available here https://rm.coe.int/16807462b7