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Show by LAURA HARRIS Chorus f Cannery Row When professor Greg Smestad of Monterey, Calif., Studies (pop. 29,674) wants his students at the Monterey Institute of International to better understand the relationship between man and environment, he takes them on field trips. At a wilderness park three miles from school, he enthusiastically identifies and describes various plants to his group. Three miles in the other direction from the school is a younger, more fragile environment that has intrigued Smestad since he first came upon it. Because most of my work takes place in a laboratory, he says, I really enjoy being able to observe firsthand the science of nature unfolding in the wild." The elements in Smes tad's impromptu study were a vacant lot and an abnormal weather partem. The vacant lot was to be the site of a hotel development project, but an unusually strong El Nino season in 1995 transformed it into an urban wetland. Rainwater collected along a retaining wall, saturating the ground and forming a small pond, which provided a fertile downtown ecosystem. Before long, tall reed grass and abundant insects provided the ideal setting for the Pacific tree frogs that seemingly showed up from nowhere. Free Information Kit by mail No agent will visit. How to find the care right Insurance policy long-ter-m OnHn tvo Americans age 65 will need long-tercare, typically lasting three tears, at an aterage cost of oter $50. (HH) ter tear. The expense can be devastating. The solution? Long-tercare insurance. But w ith oter 1(H) policies on the market-e- ach v ith different features and prices finding the righl one can be difficult and theres free. easy, risk-fre- e to shop and compare. It's called vay Long-TerCare Quote1 (I.TCQ). I.TCQ is a national resource center and independent agency specializing in long-tercare insurance. It has Itoon rmmi mended in Consumers Now Digest, kiplinger's. Money and on NBCs The Early Today Show. Heres how it torks: fou protide basic information and LTCQ shops up d to 15 plans to find you the l)est coverage. You receive by mail or online a complete Personalized top-rate- kit A Quote on the three most suitable policies for you from the nation's leading insurers. Theres no cost, no obligation and no agent Information will tisit. For tour free Information Kit. either write to LTCQ. 6(H) W. Rav Rd.. D4. Chandler. AZ 85225: visit www.LTCQ.net or call The American Health Care Association, 2001 and Americans (or Long-Ter2000. Writing agent: Robert W Davis, CA License 0875084. Copyright Care Security, 2001 Greg Smestad at the vacant lot recording Pacific tree frogs. Everything about the infant wetland intrigued the curious Smestad, especially chorus was a welcome evening serenade its tiny, melodious frogs. Their two-nothat began around dusk with one or two frogs, then grew louder and louder as more joined the chorus. They were so loud, he says, that 1 could hear them from our balcony two blocks away." All this occurred in a part of Monterey known as Cannery Row, where sardine canneries operated between 1902 and 1964. John Steinbeck immortalized the area and some local citizens in his 1945 novel, Cannery Row. The canneries have since been renovated or replaced for other uses in downtown Monterey, a busy tourist destination today. One evening last February, Smestad noticed that construction equipment had been brought onto the lot, some of the vegetation had been removed, and the frogs were singing a different tune. It sounded eerie, he recalls. Californian and an avid family historian, Smestad was An smitten by the frogs and decided they had become a part of his own history and that of Cannery Row. He felt compelled to take action. Crouching on the sidewalk next to the vacant lot one evening with a hand-hel- d te eighth-generati- on microphone pushed through an iron fence, the internationally known professor taped chorus of unrehearsed frog music. His recorda symphony for the ages a The Sounds CD on a tided now of Cannery Row, is intended to be an archival ing, account of the freakish Cannery Row frog song, captured before a new hotel displaces the thumb-size- d amphibians. Indeed, the frogs might even be related through uncharted generations to those mentioned in Steinbecks novel. It seems that some characters in the book known as Mack and the boys returned from a expedition with about 700 captives, but before they could sell them to the local marine lab, a fine summer party got under way on Cannery Row, a drunk crashed into the frog box, and then, after everyone fell asleep... Through the broken end of the packing case a frog hopped and sat feeling the air for danger and then another joined him. They could smell the fine damp cool air. . .For quite a while a little river offrogs hepped down the steps, a swirling, nming. river. For quite a while Cannery Row crawled uitb frogs was overrun uith frogs. . . .But well before dawn they had all gone. Some found the sewer and some worked their way up the hill to the reservoir and some went into adverts and some only bul among the weeds in the vacant lot. The vacant lot referred to in the passage is the exact same one where Smestad made his recording. He hopes that when the hotel is finally done it might feature a garden area where the frogs could serenade visitors. In the meantime, its rumored the little frog-hunti- croakers are considering an offer from Smestad to go on tour with the CD. - Laura Harris is a freelance uriter from Salinas, Calif " i To learn more about Cannery yestetxfegf j onto and today, log www.corwieryrDw.com. |