Farming is Part of the Borrego Ecology

As the sun comes up over the Borrego Valley, I feel fortunate to be able to walk through the shaded fields of native Washingtonia filifera palms and their close cousins Washingtonia robusta here at the farm. Near my feet I hear the quiet hiss of drip irrigation emitters releasing carefully measured water into the soil. Above me I think I catch a glimpse of a Vermilion Flycatcher seeking a high vantage point among the deep green fronds. This is the good part of the day, the timeless part--before summer heat makes us count the minutes until break time or lunch.

There is another sense in which these fields seem timeless to me. There are folks out there who will tell you that agriculture began in Borrego early in the 20th. century when the first homesteaders ran Fresno scrapers across the desert floor or perhaps later when the Di Giorgio Corporation tried to grow early season grapes. But of course the story is much older than that.

Some anthropologists believe the Cahuilla Indians may have planted and maintained palm groves in the Borrego area for perhaps thousands of years before their traditional way of life came under assault from the Spanish and later the Americans. The Cahuilla and the Kumeyaay also most likely tended stands of mesquite and oak not far from Borrego, domesticated grasslands, and transplanted and hybridized species of plants in a complex managed landscape the legacy of which we mistake today for “natural.”

This older story is important to remember. Farming is simply an integral part of the very old, highly dynamic, and ongoing ecology of Borrego. This morning in the fields, the link that joins farmers to this remarkable system seems clear to me.