Visalia Direct: Virtual Valley
\nSeptember 2008 Issue
\nAugust 11, 2008<\/p>\n
Checking on California via the Web<\/strong><\/p>\n As an educator, I have always used a lot of maps. If data can be mapped, they have been. We\u2019re all familiar with weather maps, population maps, and the infamous political \u201cred versus blue\u201d county maps. As a birdwatcher, I consult maps to confirm where some species reside. My wife uses maps to determine what plants grow best in a region.<\/p>\n It turns out, there are maps some of us don\u2019t expect to find. These are maps that change more frequently than books or magazines are published. A \u201clive\u201d map of earthquakes is definitely something a textbook could not include.<\/p>\n There were 1324 earthquakes in North America during the first week of August, 2008. A third of these were in or adjacent to California, half were in Alaska, and the remainder were scattered about the West. These data are from the U.S. Geological Survey, better known as the USGS, which maintains a live map of earthquakes on the Web (http:\/\/earthquake.usgs.gov\/<\/a>).<\/p>\n Why would a Californian need a map to know the state is moving? I\u2019m probably not alone, but until I had roommates in college it never dawned on me that I don\u2019t even notice most of the minor tremors. \u201cDid you feel that?\u201d is apparently a phrase new arrivals to our state are required to ask after every sonic boom, train passing, or actual tremor.<\/p>\n Thanks to the USGS, I can verify if there really was a quake. Turns out, most are so small that no one would notice them. It is possible to notice patterns, though, with lots of small quakes around the larger ones.<\/p>\n The USGS map also reveals not a single quake in the Central Valley. Not one. Not a single tiny yellow dot. The size of a dot represents the magnitude of the quake, using the Richter Scale. I am always impressed by how many 3.0 to 3.5 quakes strike our state.<\/p>\n I find that people outside our state assume it is always shaking. Turns out, it is always shaking. But what about the other popular vision: California burning?<\/p>\n Again, the USGS has a Web site with maps. The GeoMAC (http:\/\/geomac.usgs.gov\/<\/a>) service provides live wildfire data to government agencies. You don\u2019t need to be a California Dept. of Forestry employee to appreciate the maps.<\/p>\n There were 32 files in the Continental U.S. the first week of August. Half of these were in California. Okay, maybe we do tend to be a flammable state.<\/p>\n GeoMAC allows you to compare the previous five years to the current year. You can map the fires of 2002 and compare the map to 2007, for example. What you quickly realize is that the fires seem to appear in the same general areas year after year. And, once again, the immediate Central Valley and our foothills are rarely involved.<\/p>\n Don\u2019t get me wrong. I think living in an uneventful area is a good thing. That Fresno, Visalia, and our other cities are neither shaking nor threatened by wildfires are just two more important factors separating us from our fellow Californians.<\/p>\n A region is more than its physical qualities, so I\u2019ve located some other maps that illustrate differences between the Central Valley and other places.<\/p>\n Our strength remains agriculture. Yes, there are maps of agricultural data, too. The U.S. Dept. of Agriculture also has a great Web site with interactive maps (http:\/\/www.agcensus.usda.gov\/<\/a>). The Ag Census displays Central Valley counties in dark green for almost every category of production or farming income. The rest of the nation fades to beige or even brown, with the exception of grain crops in the Midwest.<\/p>\n The Ag Census shows just how amazing our Central Valley is: dark green for everything from tree fruit to milk production. People don\u2019t believe some of the facts, but here they are in shades of green. The Central Valley relatively tied the state of Wisconsin for cheese production in 2007. Same shade of green, same range of dollars in retail sales.<\/p>\n When I travel, I receive puzzled looks when I talk about how amazing it is to fly into Fresno. The land is a patchwork of green fields as you pass over the Valley. The Ag Census looks like the view from the air: a wonderful patchwork of greens.<\/p>\n I admit that our Valley is not perfect, though. Maps reveal our strengths, but they can also reveal our weaknesses.<\/p>\n