the myth of a virgin wilderness—untouched, unspoiled—is a peculiar one, a misplaced nostalgia for paradise, for Eden before the fall: Paradise, from the Persian for walled garden, is also the name of a town two ridges over. they saw a wilderness needing to be tamed, transformed, to be a garden planted in their image. there is a limitless opportunity waiting just beyond those western hills, and he says they are willing to do whatever is necessary. the result is that the valley is one of the most intensively managed and artificial landscapes in the world. even now the myth of California is in effect, we are too far north for the corporate citrus groves, but in January it seems like every front yard has an orange tree, the fruit peeking out behind dark leaves, or scattered on the ground.