Tide pool abalone habitat,
clam beach and mussel rock, reed bed, canebrake,
the terrain tended comprehends a mosaic of
microenvironments,
inland valley oak-and-grassland, foothill chaparral,
sugar pine on the west slope, high, piñon
over the passes eastward thinning out
down desert washes into yucca and agave,
mesquite grove, palm oasis,
each niche a unique interface of common elements
variously configured in pocket climates
from surf to playa hot spring, a four-day walk—
orientation to the sun, proximity
to coastal fog, wind, rainfall,
elevation. Beneficial plants are propagated
in circumjacent drainages to ripen
for harvest in succession. Each favored species
commands a specialist who oversees its use,
conducts its rituals,
chooses a successor—a grandchild, often—and transmits
its store of observation and technique.
Along the edges of wet meadows rushes
for mats and thatching, basket sedges and arrow cane
are spot-burned in three-year cycles.
Pine needles are fired yearly to return their nutrients
to earth and nurse the nut crop. Rocks aligned
in staggered rows oblique to the streambed
when the rare storm issues in freshets at the mouths
of the arroyos slow
and disperse the inundation across alluvial fans to soak,
precipitating plumes of silt downstream
behind them in the shadow of the current.
As the flood recedes these wedges of fresh soil
are broadcast with grass seed
and interplanted with medicinal herbs and salad greens.