Leah, Isabella Gr, Lulu

$.99 each The California Live Oak

By Lulu, Leah, and Izzy

By Leah

Table of Contents Pages 3-5: “One Wild and Precious Life” Poem Pages 6-8: Barbaric Yawp Poem Page 9: The California Live Oak Pages 10-11: Organism of the Year and Propaganda Poster Page 12: The Garden Pages 13-15: Letter from the Editor Page 16: Photo Essay

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“One Wild and Precious Life” Poems: Morning Above me I’m blinded by the angry white skies of morning The storm has scurried Off doing chores past the horizon Below me, gravel shifts Rearranged by the feet of the wind My vision is fuzzy As I peer through the leaves An emerald blur Purple petals adorn the perfect playground to the birds and the bees Silence but for the birds and the gasps of the teenage girl When the ladybug lands -Lulu

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One Wild and Precious Life Poems cont.

Small World Over my head, I see the cold white clouds, In the distance over the green, a bright hummingbird teleports, in and out of bright magenta and purple flowers.

The sounds of all the birds, singing to each other and responding All around I am wrapped in the sweet red smell of pomegranate.

Pomegranates of warm reds and young greens The pomegranate tree's small flowers at the end of the fruits, welcoming all to eat To my right, tall, lean trees, their leaves like gentle fingers, reaching out to all.

Underneath my feet, the smooth and sharp stones that make up the very ground we stand on.

All of this, in my small, small world.

-Izzy

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“One Wild and Precious Life” Poems cont.

The Cucumber Patch I wait as the green cloud surrounds me in my dreamless sleep; sleeping as if nothing is all and all is nothing.

Live.

The tiger zooms past me on its endless quest for Spring, as I greet the tree of many fruits.

Live.

Above me, I see the great masters of the sky and wind share their adventures with one another.

Live.

I ride the mountainous hills of the Great Emperor, always searching, but never finding.

Live.

The harsh grinding of man’s best enemy roams the Seas of Endless Equanimity, waiting to overcome the beast of the Earth.

Live.

-Leah Page 5

Barbaric Yawp Poems:

We Are Here I sway in the vermillion poppy fields The poppy fields which I am made of There she strolls with her hair dancing behind her in the wind The wind which she is made of There they lie on the scorching sand, by the water, and under the sun The beach which they are made of Here We are, every last one of us, hand in hand, spread through all that nature gave us Mother Nature which we are made of We are the Earthworm We are the Trees We are the Earth -Lulu

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Barbaric Yawp Poems cont.

Dirt Dirt.

Dirt is where we start and end.

We sprout up from the ground, and spend all of our life away from our starting home.

While we all spend life above ground, we stand above our homeland, our homeland that welcomes others.

Others that will tend to the dirt, turning it into soil.

We must care for the soil as it has cared for us, Because in the end, the soil is the one who will house us.

And keep us forever.

-Izzy

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Barbaric Yawp Poems cont.

Upturned As I fly over the seas of endless eternity, I see.

My mind is a spindle, forever waiting to be spun.

My breath, the sound of the water submerging the ice.

I perceive the soil above me, the air below me, I complain.

The earthworm greets me, the Earth envelops me into her loving arms, wasting the day away with dreams.

As I fly under the seas of endless eternity, I see.

-Leah

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The Califor nia Live Oak

By Leah Quercus agrifolia, known as the coast live oak, is an evergreen, drought-resistant tree native to California. Usually, healthy oak trees can grow up to a height of 10-25 meters, and some of them can survive as long as 250 years, with their trunk diameter up to three or four meters long. Coast live oak, otherwise known as the California live oak, are angiosperms, meaning that the plant produces seeds that are enclosed in flower tissue (ovary). The leaves of this plant are a dark green, oval shape, with sharp fibers that extend from the leaf, and the size of the leave varies depending on where it is located on the tree. The outer layer of leaves on the oak are slightly smaller and thicker than those on the inner layers, so as to capture the maximum amount of sunlight. On the other hand, the inner layer of leaves are a little bit thinner and broader, because in comparison to the outer leaves, these leaves

only have one layer of photosynthetic cells.

Coast live oak trees thrive in the coastal environment, but they are rarely seen on the immediate shore, and is one of the more dominant plants in that region, along with the California bay laurel and the California buckeye. The Native Americans found and used the acorns of the oak tree as a regular food staple, and in the 18th century, the Spanish missionaries used the wood to make charcoal for the fire kilns in making adobe.

There has been a decline in the population of the oak trees due to the drought and soil borne diseases such as sudden oak death. The coast live oak is beneficial to many different types of animals, including us humans, so therefore we should help make sure that this plant does not eventually die out.

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Organism of the Year!The Amazing Annelids Annelids, otherwise known as night crawlers, are an essential part in keeping the soil healthy and alive. Earthworms, commonly called night crawlers in the USA, usually are 9-30 cm long, and they are tubelike segmented worms that belong in the phylum Annelida. Species that belong in the Annelida phylum are: marine worms, earthworms, and leeches. They move by means of contracting their muscles that lengthen and shorten the body, and have more than two cell layers. Earthworms are herbivores and invertebrates, meaning that they lack a backbone.

These creatures help the soil in many ways, such as helping decompose dead matter. Earthworms decompose things ranging from vegetable scraps to dead mice or other animals. This is essential for not even us humans, but also for all living beings on the face of this planet. If annelids would not help decompose dead organisms, then the dead bodies of prehistoric animals would still exist. As a result, there would not be any room for living organisms to survive.

The Earth would turn into a big ball of dead matter that never, or very slowly, decomposes.

Another way annelids play a major role in your lives, or in the lives of other living beings, is that they create tunnels that help the soil maintain its structure, and the processes of aeration and drainage.

Worm castings, also known as worm poop, fertilize the soil, making it richer in nutrients and minerals. Well, you might ask,� How are the worm castings so rich in

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minerals and nutrients? When burrowing, earthworms consume soil, extracting nutrients from decomposing organic matter such as leaves and roots. The nutrients and minerals leave the worm as castings, which then eventually become part of the soil. Worm castings make the soil healthier and richer. Although us humans might not realize this, but the richer the soil, the more things can grow in it, therefore the soil is less likely to wash away during strong rains or thunderstorms. This, in turn, would cause less damage in our communities. Imagine communities washed away in a flood, just because the soil was not healthy enough to support life in it. Great and horrible disasters would occur, and the great civilization of humans will slowly meet its downfall.

Earth is the most unique planet because of soil, because it is the only planet in our galaxy that can support life. The life that exists on Earth wouldn’t exist without soil. Soil provides us with plants, and plants provide food and oxygen for all living beings, and it helps to regulate the flow of water. The soil on Earth is important to all of our necessities in life. The annelid helps to make soil what it is: rich, moist ground material. It is vital for soil to exist on Earth, but it is even more important that the creators of the soil, namely the earthworms, are recognized for their contributions.

Soil loss is a drastic issue in almost all parts of the world, and it is when the upper layer of soil is either blown away or washed away. Soil erosion, otherwise known as topsoil degradation, has been an on and off problem for millions of years, but nowadays it is a huge concern for the environment. Over the years, there has been more evidence that we humans are accelerating erosion and topsoil degradation all around the globe by means of our human activities. For example, farmers in the USA are destroying the soil and the organisms that live in it by adding pesticides or other harmful chemical compounds just to make a bigger profit. Pollution is a big contributor to topsoil degradation, because as the planet gets hotter, more areas will dry out, including the soil. As more and more soil dries out, less plants will grow, and the harder it will be for other organisms to survive. We need the topsoil,

because we rely on it for so many things including forestry, wildlife, and food production. To help prevent this issue, you could start growing plants where the roots intertwine and form a sturdy net in the soil.

For these reasons and many more, the Annelid Gazette has chosen the annelids as organisms of the year. Their contributions to this planet are and have been so great and important to all living beings on this Earth, so we decided that they deserve to be the organism of the year. As Charles Darwin once said, “It may be doubted whether there are many other animals which have played so important a part in the history of the world, as have these lowly organized creatures.�

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The Garden– A Song by Lulu The Garden was inspired by the field trip we took to Ron Finley’s garden.

Ron Finley is an upstander who planted a huge garden in front of his house to help feed the people in the community who have limited access to fresh fruits and veggies. He and the people around him live in a food desert where 72% of the restaurants are fast food, and the “healthy food” is actually grown using pesticides. These people rely on Ron Finley for actual healthy food, and the moving experience really motivated me to do something similar.

Pictures from the Finley Garden in South Los Angeles

Click on this link to listen to this wonderful song!!

The Garden Page 12

Letters from Editors: Dear Readers,

Finley’s garden, it was a challenge for me to relate to the people around him, who rely on the garden to get fresh food. It made me realize that we really are privileged. We don’t have to worry about only having fast food or pesticide pumped vegetables to set on the table for dinner. Another challenge I had was on another field trip. Up in Millard canyon, we knew we were going to mulch, and that the mulch was in lots of trash bags, and that he should drive the bags up the hill so that we didn’t have to carry them all that way. What we didn’t know was that each trash bag of mulch weighed twice my bodyweight! So yeah, I guess I had a bit of a hard time with that.

Along with challenges though, there were really good outcomes. I was proud of all the work that our class did and myself over the soil unit, for instance, I learned about labyrinths, I took a certain understanding and appreciation of upstanding after visiting Ron Finley’s garden, and my group’s hypothesis was right for the bacteria experiment we did at Arlington Gardens.

I thought I was ready for school to be over a while before the soil unit, but I’m going to miss the experiences like this that we had throughout seventh grade.

Best,

This past week or so, our class began the soil unit. In the soil unit, we worked in numerous gardens, helped mulch where trees were dying up in Millard and Rubio Canyon, and learned all about food deserts.

We took a lot of field trips as well. My favorite field trip by far was to Ron Finley’s garden and house in South Central Los Angeles. Ron Finley is a total gangster gardener! He has shown so many people throughout the world what an amazing thing that he’s doing, planting food for the community, in a place where it’s harder to get freshly grown fruits and vegetables (a food desert), and that everybody can do the same thing whether it’s for the whole community, or just a personal garden. In his garden, we got to walk around and admire the work that he’d done over the fast few years, and if we got hot in the gleaming sun, stand under the cool of his banana trees. It was a truly inspiring experience to see the good that he’d done for himself and for all the people in the food desert, and to know that he’s not a miracle worker. He happened to have the idea to do a good thing for the people around him, but everybody can do the same thing.

Not everything was fun and games though. I had a lot of challenges throughout the soil unit. In Ron Lulu

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Letter from the Editor cont. : Dear Readers, During the past week, my classmates and I have been participating in the Soil Unit, a unit that is dedicated to learning about soil and how it impacts our lives. We have been exposed to so many experiences, ranging from going on a field trip to South Los Angeles to writing our own digital magazine about the soil.

The Soil Unit is usually at the end of 7th grade, and the overarching theme is how soil affects our lives and the lives of others.

Out of all the amazing memories I have had during the Soil Unit, one of my favorites was the field trip to Rubio Canyon in Altadena, California.

On that day, the 7th grade class was split into two different groups, one going to Rubio Canyon, and one going to Millard Canyon, which was also in Altadena. The trip from Westridge to Rubio Canyon took about 20 minutes, and when we arrived, we met our guide called Tim. Walking up into a canyon, I carried a bag of mulch and deposited it at the base of a baby oak tree. Since the conservatory was reforesting the area where we were working, we Page 14

mulched around each of the baby trees. Also, we weeded the area around the baby oak trees so the weeds could not rob the tree of its nutrients and water. Subsequently doing all of these chores, my classmates and I fetched a hose and watered all of the trees in that area, and then, realizing that we had some time, went to another area and took out some of the invasive plants that were taking over. This was my favorite experience because instead of learning about how to help stop topsoil degradation, we were actually doing a small part in helping stop topsoil degradation.

This week has gone by so quickly, and I will try my best to keep in mind all of the wonderful and inspirational things I have learned during the Soil Unit. As David Suzuki, a Canadian scientist, says, “If we pollute the air, water and soil that keep us alive and well, and destroy the biodiversity that allows natural systems to function, no amount of money will save us.�

Best, Leah

Letter from the Editors cont. : Dear Readers, Soil is one element on Earth that isn't always given the respect it should. Soil is what makes up the very ground that we walk on, build buildings on, discover ancient artifacts and more. The food that we eat everyday no matter what has its origin starting in the rich fertile soil.Without soil many of the things that we have today would not exist.

All of the plants we see today came from the soil. Even the foods we eat come from the soil.

The soil helps to protects and nurture the seed as it grows into our food. Soil provides us with the materials for basic living for our food and our own protection. To give back to the soil, we can protect it by covering it with mulch. The mulch acts as a shield to the soil. It protect and helps out the soil. The mulch will protect the soil from the sun's heat which can cause the soil to dry up. Mulch is mainly used to help absorb and hold water longer for the soil. Also all of the decomposers and microorganisms that live in the soil are protected by the mulch and can hide under it. The soil is filled with hundreds of different types of organisms. Some big enough to see and some microscopic. Each and every one of

them play a big role in the soil. They are what break down the minerals and help to give the soil fertility and nutrients. They move through the soil and help it mix it up and turn it to make it what we know as soil. The soil that we know and see today would be just dirt if it weren't for those organisms.

Soil is so important to our world. It could be especially helpful in food deserts. People could plant community gardens that could help feed those who don't have access to healthy organic foods.Without soil there would be no us. Everything that we use on a daily basis and eat has come from the soil. That is why we need to recognize it and its good deeds it could supply.

Best, Izzy

A picture taken at the Arlington Gardens in Pasadena, California

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The pictures chosen for the Photo Essay were the most colorful and bright pictures. The overarching theme of this collage were flowers and fruits. All of them are taken from a garden and they consist of both fruits and flowers. The pictures that were the brightest were chosen because it shows that if we turn our bland dirt into soil, beautiful colors will be the result of healthy plants. Soil can produce beautiful things and it is a home and a safe place for many organisms. The bright, sweet plants attract bees, flies, and butterflies which all help out in the garden in their own way.

Written by Izzy