Present day salt pond at the wildlife viewing area. Photo: Julia Gaudinski/Mobile Ranger

The mouth of the Elkhorn Slough has long been known for its natural salt ponds. In the late 1800s these areas were developed to produce salt for local use. In 1916, the Monterey Bay Salt Company diked parts of the slough to create commercial salt ponds – a series of ponds where saltwater evaporates in the sun, leaving salt for harvest.

View of the slough just a short distance from the parking lot at the Moss Landing Wildlife Area. The wood posts were for docks for the salt ponds dating back to the 1800’s. Photo: Julia Gaudinski/Mobile Ranger

From 1902 until the local fish cannery business collapsed in the mid-1950s, the salt was used to preserve the fish. Later, the salt was used for water softening, refrigeration, and making ice cream. The company continued salt production until 1973. For a short time, the ponds were used to produce brine shrimp.

Today, the Moss Landing Wildlife Area comprises 872 acres that help protect the brown pelican, which was previously listed as an endangered species. Both brown and white pelicans use the ponds along with thousands of small shorebirds. The area is managed by the California Department of Fish and Wildlife.

Brown pelicans. Photo: Paul Babb 2013

The salt ponds are home to many birds, including American avocets and black-necked stilts. The threatened snowy plover also uses the salt ponds as nesting grounds and has recently become the focus of management for this area.

Take the Self-Guided Mobile Tour

This piece is part of the Santa Cruz Marine Protected Areas Beaches Tour made possible by the Santa Cruz Collaborative with support from the California Marine Sanctuary Foundation and the Resources Legacy Fund. Download the free app with many tours of the Santa Cruz area and beyond.

1. Sources

   • Elkhorn Slough Tidal Wetland Plan: Evolution of Elkhorn Slough and Associated Wetlands 20,000 years before present (ybp) to 1880 A.D. Andrea Woolfolk. Elkhorn Slough National Estuarine Reserve. September 7, 2005.
   • Elkhorn Slough Tidal Wetland Plan: 150 Years of Human Alterations and Tidal Habitat Change (1870 - Present). Barb Peichel, Kerstin Wasson, Andrea Woolfolk, Eric Van Dyke. Elkhorn Slough National Estuarine Research Reserve. February 20, 2005.
   • Changes in a California Estuary: A Profile of Elkhorn Slough. Edited by Jane Caffrey, Martha Brown, W. Breck Tyler, and Mark Silberstein. 2002 Elkhorn Slough Foundation.
   • What is a Salt Marsh? National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Website.

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]]> /blog/elkhorn-slough-from-salt-ponds-to-bird-sanctuary/feed/ 0 /santacruz/elkhorn-slough-sea-otters-offset-agricultural-runoff/ /santacruz/elkhorn-slough-sea-otters-offset-agricultural-runoff/#respond Wed, 28 Sep 2016 20:00:53 +0000 /?p=11740

Today, much of the land surrounding Elkhorn Slough near Monterey, California, is managed to reduce nitrogen input. Nevertheless, there is still 150 times more nitrogen in the slough than a century ago. Because of those levels, Elkhorn Slough mudflats are often covered in a thick, green sludge of nitrogen-loving algae. Algae could also be growing on eelgrass, blocking its access to light. Instead, the slough harbors beds of healthy, dark green eelgrass. So what’s the secret? It turns out to be everyone’s favorite keystone predator, the California sea otter.

Otters help keep kelp forests healthy and also contribute to healthy eelgrass habitat. Photo: Bart Selby

Brent Hughes from the University of California, Santa Cruz was first to make the connection between a charismatic carnivore and an unassuming perennial marine plant. He looked at 50 years of historical data that compared areas with and without otters and discovered that areas with larger populations of sea otters had healthier beds of eelgrass (Zostera marina).

Everyone’s favorite keystone predator, the California sea otter. Photo: Bart Selby

The reason: Otters love to eat crabs, which love to eat grazing invertebrates such as sea slugs, which love to eat the algae that grow on eelgrass.

This pup will learn to eat crabs from its mom, indirectly protecting eelgrass habitat. Photo: Bart Selby

This top-down management of species is known as a trophic cascade. A top predator alters the abundance of its prey, which in turn reduces predation on the next trophic level down the food chain.

The trophic cascade at Elkhorn Slough. The top predator is the sea otter (E. lutris), the mesopredators are crabs (Cancer spp. and Pugettia producta), the epiphyte mesograzers are primarily an isopod (I. resecata) and a sea slug (P. taylori), and algal epiphyte competitors of eelgrass primarily consist of chain-forming diatoms, and the red alga Smithora naiadum. Solid arrows indicate direct effects, dashed arrows indicate indirect effects, and the plus and minus symbols indicate positive and/or negative effects on trophic guilds and eelgrass condition. C, competitive interaction; T, trophic interaction. Image: Original artwork by A. C. Hughes and used with permission of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Science 2013 (see full citation below)

You can see the difference between an area with otters and one without when you look at Elkhorn Slough compared to Tomales Bay. Even though Tomales Bay has lower levels of nutrients (such as nitrogen from fertilizer), it has significantly fewer otters. The result is brown eelgrass covered in algae. Without as many otters preying on the crabs, the crustaceans are four times as abundant and 30% bigger than the crabs in Elkhorn Slough. This leaves very few sea slugs to keep the eelgrass grazed clean of algae.

Otters hard at work, keeping Elkhorn Slough’s ecosystem balanced. Photo: Bart Selby

Where to See the Sea Otters

For the best view of sea otters, visit the Moss Landing Wildlife Area (on the east side of Highway 1) or Moss Landing State Beach (on the west side of Highway 1, just off Jetty Road). At the beach on the same side as the harbor, you can often see a raft of male otters floating together out on the open water.

Keep any eye out for otters when you visit the slough. Photo: Bart Selby

Elkhorn Slough – A Protected Place for Otters and More

Elkhorn Slough is one of the few coastal wetlands remaining in the state, second in size to San Francisco Bay. At nearly 7 miles long, this estuarine waterway shelters an abundance of marine life, providing essential habitat for over 700 species, including aquatic mammals, birds, fish, invertebrates, algae, and plants. It is also part of California’s statewide program to establish Marine Protected Areas (MPAs). MPAs are a lot like our landlocked state parks except that they extend many miles off our coastline. These “underwater parks” are established in areas that are biologically diverse (lots of different marine species), culturally rich (think sunken ships like the S.S. Palo Alto and buried anthropological treasure), and economically important (fishing and tourism are a big deal to these coastal communities).

The MPAs in Santa Cruz County. Image: California Marine Sanctuary Foundation

Elkhorn Slough is home to three marine protected areas—Elkhorn Slough State Marine Conservation Area (SMCA), Elkhorn Slough State Marine Reserve (SMR), and the Moro Cojo Slough SMR. There are several different types of MPAs, and each one has its own set of rules. See the California Department of Fish and Wildlife website for details.

Image: Courtesy the Ocean Conservancy via the California Marine Sanctuary Foundation.

Take the Self-Guided Mobile Tour

This piece is part of the Santa Cruz Marine Protected Areas Beaches Tour made possible by the Santa Cruz Collaborative with support from the California Marine Sanctuary Foundation and the Resources Legacy Fund. Download the free app with many tours of the Santa Cruz area and beyond.

1. Sources

   • Sea Otters: Your Defence Against the Algal Apocalypse. Ed Young. National Geographic. August 26, 2013.
   • Sea otters promote recovery of seagrass beds. Tim Stephens. August 26, 2013. University of California Santa Cruz Newscenter Website.
   • Recovery of a top predator mediates negative eutrophic effects on seagrass Brent B. Hughes, Ron Eby, Eric Van Dyke, M. Tim Tinker, Corina I. Marks, Kenneth S. Johnson, and Kerstin WassonProc Natl Acad Sci, September 17, 2013. Issue 38:15313–15318.

]]> /santacruz/elkhorn-slough-sea-otters-offset-agricultural-runoff/feed/ 0 /santacruz/the-accidental-date-palm-at-santa-cruz-city-hall/ /santacruz/the-accidental-date-palm-at-santa-cruz-city-hall/#respond Sun, 18 Sep 2016 17:00:19 +0000 /?p=12712

Santa Cruz City Hall gardens. Photo: Julia Gaudinski/Mobile Ranger

Today’s City Hall at 809 Center Street was built in 1937-38 in the Monterey Colonial style, a new style at the time. The enclosed Spanish Gardens are part of this style, but the date palm there today is not.

A Canary Island date palm leans away from Santa Cruz City Hall at Center Street and Church Street. Photo: Laurel Wee

According to Leslie Keedy, Santa Cruz City Arborist, the Canary Island date palm tree was probably planted by a bird via its droppings. The bird probably got the date seed from one of the other Canary Island palms in the city. The palm took root next to the building but has been growing away from it, reaching toward the light.

Santa Cruz City Hall in the 1940s. Notice that there was no date palm to the right of the fountain then. Image: From the collection of Linda Rosewood

Palm trees are native to tropical regions and are part of the Arecaceae family, which is common in the tropics. Because it is native to the Canary Islands, it grows in mild and tropical climates, which makes it desirable to plant widely across the globe.

The leaves and fruits are very important to some cultures for food, fiber, and shelter. Animals also have myriad uses for these palms. Squirrels eat dates and store them in the folds of the trunk for later. Kestrels, barn owls, starlings, and other birds also nest in these large protective trees. Thus, it certainly makes sense that this palm owes its existence to help from a bird.

Postcard of Santa Cruz City Hall circa 1940s. There is no date palm in the hall courtyard, but there is one across the street. Image: From the collection of Linda Rosewood

Canary date palms, and palms generally, were commonly planted along the sidewalks or property boundaries of Victorian homes in Santa Cruz. In the 1800s, when the houses were built two palms were typically placed on either side of the home or the path to the home. The Italian cypress was also used in this manner, but not to the extent that the palm was.

Two Canary Island Date palms on the edges of the Darling House along West Cliff Drive. Photo: Julia Gaudinski/Mobile Ranger

Leaves

Palms are separated into two groups: feather palms, which have pinnately compound leaves that resemble a feather, and fan palms which have palmately compound leaves that resemble a fan.

Feather palm leaves of the Canary Island date palm in front of Santa Cruz City Hall. Photo: Laurel Wee.

This palm is a feather palm with leaves that reach up to 20 feet in length. Each leaf contains up to 200 leaflets that alternate on the sides of the central branch (rachis).

Flowers

Flower clusters are four to six feet long and orange. Female flowers are produced on separate plants. For this reason, you’ll see dates on only some Canary Island palms.

Palm trees are monocots. Other monocot plants are lilies, irises, and aloe.

Fruits

The fruit is a small drupe, similar to an avocado, about 2 cm long and 1 cm across. It contains a single seed.

Clusters of Canary Island dates. Photo: Laurel Wee

Closeup of Canary Island dates. The one on the lower left is the seed. Photo: Laurel Wee

Take the Self-Guided Mobile Tour

This piece is part of the Santa Cruz Tree Tour made possible by UCSC Environmental Studies student Laurel Wee with support from the Kennith S. Norris Center for Natural History. Download the free app with many tours of the Santa Cruz area and beyond.

1. Sources

   • Trees of the California landscape: A Photographic Manual of Native and Ornamental Trees, by Charles Hatch and Phyllis M. Faber. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2007.
   • Trees of Santa Barbara, by R. N. Muller, J. R. Haller, and K. K. Muller. Santa Barbara, CA: Santa Barbara Botanic Garden, 2005.
   • Personal communication with Randall Morgan, Naturalist, Santa Cruz County, February 2016
   • Personal communication with Leslie Keedy, Parks urban forester/arborist, Santa Cruz County, February 2016
   • Santa Cruz County History - Architecture Institutions in Santa Cruz County -- 1850-1950 by Susan Lehmann.

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]]> /santacruz/the-accidental-date-palm-at-santa-cruz-city-hall/feed/ 0 /santacruz/where-have-all-the-bridges-gone-at-natural-bridge-state-beach/ /santacruz/where-have-all-the-bridges-gone-at-natural-bridge-state-beach/#respond Wed, 14 Sep 2016 20:00:26 +0000 /?p=11096

The lone remaining arch at Natural Bridges State Beach in April 2012. Photo © Mobile Ranger.

The name Natural Bridges may seem deceiving when you first visit the state beach at the end of West Cliff Drive in Santa Cruz, California. Just one picturesque rock arch stands offshore in the crashing waves. You can’t even call it a bridge because it doesn’t connect to anything.

The three natural bridges circa 1900. At this time they were connected to land so technically are considered arches as well as bridges. Photo courtesy of Frank Perry and UCSC Special Collections

So why does the name imply multiple bridges? Perhaps Alexander Weiss, one of the local park rangers back in the ’70s and ’80s, said it best in his poem, “Ode to the Natural Bridges Arch” (see the end of this post for the complete poem):

Once three arches stood in this park
As if windows to the sea,
But wind-blown sand and storms like sharks
Attacked them constantly

The two remaining natural bridges circa 1950. Photo: Courtesy Frank Perry

Time Takes Its Toll

Before 1905, two additional stone arches connected today’s remaining arch to the cliffs where the parking lot sits today, forming three natural bridges. This cliff was once a long, narrow peninsula before the ocean eroded away everything but the middle section, which is now the last arch. Bridges typically form in peninsulas like this one as the waves are bent around the headland, focusing energy on both flanks. The waves sometimes erode caves on either side of the rock that eventually meet, or the bridge can originate from a small hole that grows bigger over many years and eventually erodes through to the other side.

Waves both created and destroyed the three bridges that once stood at Natural Bridges State Beach. Photo: Santa Cruz Museum of Art & History

At Natural Bridges, the rock is Santa Cruz Mudstone, which is fairly resistant to erosion. This means that after a bridge is formed, it will last for decades. Eventually as the base of the rock erodes, the opening enlarges until the entire formation collapses, as did the outermost bridge sometime after autumn of 1905. Some believe that the 1906 earthquake caused the collapse, but there’s no evidence to prove this theory. It was probably just time taking its toll.

The second-to-last arch came close to collapsing in winter 1979. Photo: Courtesy of Frank Perry

In 1974, a couple was married atop one of the two remaining bridges. Their wedding day marked the last time visitors were legally allowed onto the eroding mudstone formation. Six years later, on the dark and stormy night of January 10, 1980, the bridge closest to shore gave way. The park rangers were so saddened when the second bridge fell that they held a wake to commemorate its passing. Alexander Weiss, a park ranger, recited this poem that he wrote for the occasion:

Ode to the Natural Bridges Arch
By Alexander Weiss
January 13, 1980


Once three arches stood in this park
As if windows to the sea,
But wind-blown sand and storms like sharks
Attacked them constantly


This force made one disappear
Sometime ’round 1900;
The other two, like some stone brassiere
Would not be split asunder


But time and storms, they do not care,
And the near arch slowly shed
Bits and pieces here and there
Til it looked quite underfed


In February ’79
That shed quite a chunk,
And again in October, into the brine
Went some more kerplink! Kerplunk!


The arch now was thin and weak,
But gave not up and stayed;
As if it had some goal to seek,
It saw the new decade!


But as the seventies passed on
And the eighties had begun,
It knew it could not last for long
For it was erosion’s son:


For through erosion it was born
And through erosion it would die
And such a death one does not mourn
One merely says goodbye.


The night of January 10th
It gave up the ghost,
And we are here not to lament,
But to offer it a toast:


Here’s to arches that are gone
And to new ones on the way,
For just as sure as there’s a dawn
There’ll be some more some day!


And to our last remaining arch
That now stands like some island fort,
We pledge that we will always march
To give our arch support

Visitors walk through the remaining arch during an unusually low tide. Photo: Jim Whitehead/Mobile Ranger

Take the Self-Guided Mobile Tour

This piece is part of the Santa Cruz Marine Protected Areas Beaches Tour made possible by the Santa Cruz Collaborative with support from the California Marine Sanctuary Foundation and the Resources Legacy Fund. Download the free app with many tours of the Santa Cruz area and beyond.

1. Sources

   • From Three Bridges to an Arch, by Julia Gaudinski. Mobile Ranger website.
   • The Rocks of Santa Cruz’s North Coast: The Mighty Mudstone, by Julia Gaudinski. Mobile Ranger website.

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]]> /santacruz/where-have-all-the-bridges-gone-at-natural-bridge-state-beach/feed/ 0 /santacruz/surfing-over-kelp-forests-at-cove-beach/ /santacruz/surfing-over-kelp-forests-at-cove-beach/#respond Thu, 08 Sep 2016 00:00:41 +0000 /?p=9749

Surfing with the kelp. Photo: Steven Tyler PJs

Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) run along the coastline of California. They were created to maintain the precarious balance between keeping places wild and allowing people to interact with the landscape. In the Año Nuevo MPA, 55 miles south of San Francisco and 20 miles north of Santa Cruz, lies Cove Beach. This is a popular spot for seasoned surfers who fear the loss of this rugged coastline more than the great white sharks cruising the waters in search of fat seals. Gary Strachan, a park ranger and wildlife biologist, is often one of these surfers. He has seen firsthand how the waters have changed over the decades.

Surfer at Cove Beach, April 2015. Photo: Mike Merritt

A typical central California kelp forest community at 40 foot depth, Pebble Beach, California, June 2010. Photo: Chad King/NOAA BMNS

The Loss of Kelp Forests and a Killer Surf Break at Cove Beach

In the summer of 1967, large kelp harvesting boats anchored in the bay and started harvesting kelp. By the end of the summer, the surfers noticed that the waves were choppy or “blown out” on windy days and could be hard, even dangerous, to surf. It seemed that the removal of the kelp patches was affecting the surf. Who knew what implications this massive harvesting could have on the marine ecosystem? Anecdotal evidence from fishermen says that the fishing was much better before the harvest, but scientific data on kelp forests goes back only to 1984. Even recent data does little to clear up the mystery.

Giant kelp (Macrocystis pyrifera) draped over the ocean surface, August 2011. The R/V Fulmar, a research vessel, is in the background. Photo: Chad King/NOAA MBNMS

A 2008 baseline data collection study surveyed the species found in kelp forests at 14 central coast MPAs. Surprisingly, their data showed that the density of a kelp canopy was not related to the number of species found within the canopy. In fact, sometimes more species are found in areas of sparse kelp canopy cover than in areas with dense canopy cover.

Image: Courtesy the Ocean Conservancy via the California Marine Sanctuary Foundation.

Harvesting of kelp at Año Nuevo Bay, by hand, was allowed until early 2016, when it’s status changed from a State Marine Conservation Area to a State Marine Reserve. As a Reserve, it has the highest level of protections and the take of all living, geologic, or cultural marine resources is prohibited. Blown-out waves or not, plenty of surfers still flock to this section of coastline in addition to hundreds of elephant seals.

Image: Courtesy California Marine Sanctuary Foundation

Take the Self-Guided Mobile Tour

This piece is part of the Santa Cruz Marine Protected Areas Beaches Tour made possible by the Santa Cruz Collaborative with support from the California Marine Sanctuary Foundation. Download the free app with many tours of the Santa Cruz area and beyond.

A monarch butterfly. Photo: Courtesy of Elise Wormuth

For decades, tens of thousands of West Coast monarch butterflies (Danus plixippus) have overwintered at Natural Bridges State Beach in Santa Cruz, California. From October through March, in the park’s wind-protected grove of eucalyptus trees, the monarchs rest from their long migration. Thick clusters of monarchs intertwine their legs and hang from the branches like orange leaves, except that these leaves take flight when the temperature rises above 55 degrees Fahrenheit.

A monarch cluster in Lighthouse Field, December 2005. Although they are next to a eucalyptus tree, the monarchs are on a branch of Monterey cypress. Monarchs cluster together on branches to stay warm. Photo: Courtesy of Vicki and Chuck Rogers

Monarchs are the only butterfly species that takes multiple generations to complete one round-trip migration. They travel 50–100 miles a day to escape the cold, and the round trip requires 4–5 generations to complete. A single generation can make the ~3,000 mile trip south, but the journey back north takes 3–4 generations to complete.

Monarchs that live east of the Northern Rockies overwinter in the Sierra Madre mountain range of Mexico, and those west of the Northern Rockies overwinter along the California coast. The butterflies return to the same groves each year for much-needed rest and to lay their eggs on nearby milkweed, which is the only plant that their larvae can eat.

Close-up of a monarch larvae on African milkweed (Asclepias fruticosa) in the milkweed nursery at Natural Bridges State Beach. Photo: Julia Gaudinski/Mobile Ranger

Silky gold milkweed (Asclepias curassavica). You can buy these plants in the visitor center and plant them in your yard to provide food for monarch larvae. Photo: Julia Gaudinski/Mobile Ranger

Monarch populations everywhere have significantly decreased. In Santa Cruz, the population has dropped from a high of 150,000 to just a few thousand butterflies. Both Roundup and deforestation are to blame. Illegal logging has shrunk the eastern butterflies’ winter habitat in Mexico, and the introduction of Roundup-ready corn and soybeans in the US has almost eliminated milkweed from much of their habitat. Fortunately, parks such as Natural Bridges are being actively managed to keep some monarch habitat intact.

Two monarch chrysalises on African milkweed inside the visitor center at Natural Bridges State Beach. You can see the butterfly inside each chrysalis. Photo: Julia Gaudinski/Mobile Ranger

A Monarch Refuge

Natural Bridges State Beach park rangers tend a milkweed garden for their winged visitors so the butterflies have a place to lay their eggs. They also maintain adequate shelter for the adult monarchs. Since a fungal disease called pitch canker killed some of the Monterey pines that protected the monarch’s eucalyptus grove from the wind, they have been planting cypress trees in the park as a replacement wind break.

A row of cypress trees planted on the east side of the eucalyptus trees. The monarchs cluster on the leaves of the eucalyptus, but the cypress trees provide important shelter from the wind. Photo: Julia Gaudinski/Mobile Ranger

Docents lead tours of the Monarch Grove at Natural Bridges from mid-October through January at 11 AM and 2 PM on weekends. Tours start at the Visitor Center. The park also holds a Welcome Back Monarchs Day on the second Sunday in October and a Migration Festival on the second Saturday in February for the beloved butterflies.

The entrance to the trail that leads to the Monarch Grove. Photo: Julia Gaudinski/Mobile Ranger

Even with lower numbers than in the past, it is still spellbinding to stand in the quiet eucalyptus grove at Natural Bridges and see the orange clusters of monarchs weighing down the branches. As the temperature warms and the butterflies begin to gently flit around the grove in search of food, their delicate wings glow in the sun like stained glass. The only sound is the creaking of eucalyptus branches, the click of cameras, and hushed murmurs of awe as visitors witness one of nature’s most beautiful phenomena.

The delicate wings of the monarch butterfly are nature’s tiny stained glass artworks. Photo: Crystal Birns Photography

Take the Self-Guided Mobile Tour

This piece is part of the Santa Cruz Marine Protected Areas Beaches Tour made possible by the Santa Cruz Collaborative with support from the California Marine Sanctuary Foundation and the Resources Legacy Fund. Download the free app with many tours of the Santa Cruz area and beyond.

1. Sources

   • Natural Bridges State Beach. California State Parks website.
   • Migration and Overwintering. USDA Forest Service website.
   • Personal communication with Martha Nitzberg, California State Park Interpretive Ranger, Natural Bridges State Beach, April 2016.
   • Tracking the Causes of Sharp Decline of the Monarch Butterfly, by Richard Conniff. Yale Environment 360 website, April 1, 2013.

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]]> /santacruz/multitudes-of-monarchs-at-natural-bridges-state-beach/feed/ 0 /santacruz/greyhounds-almost-nuclear-powerplant/ /santacruz/greyhounds-almost-nuclear-powerplant/#comments Wed, 27 Jul 2016 20:00:53 +0000 /?p=12240

Aerial image of El Jarro Point in 1993. This is area is about 3.5 miles south of Greyhound rock. The buildings in the center-top portion are what is now Swanton Berry Farms. Photo: © Kenneth and Gabrielle Adelman, California Coastal Records Project .http://www.Californiacoastline.org

​Greyhound Rock lies right next to one of the major faults within the San Gregorio Fault Zone. This fact might be no big surprise in earthquake-prone California, but what is startling is how ridiculously close we came to building a huge nuclear power plant right on top of this active fault zone.
​
In 1969, Pacific Gas and Electric (PG&E) announced it had leased 6,800 acres of Coast Dairies and Land property and intended to build a 6,000-megawatt-generating nuclear power plant at El Jarro Point, a wide marine terrace between Scott Creek Beach and Davenport Landing. The plant would have stood approximately where Swanton Berry Farm is now and required a major rerouting of Highway 1.

Geologist Gerald Weber standing in the field where El Point Nuclear Power Plant was to have been built. Photo: Julia Gaudinski/Mobile Ranger

“It is a classic exposure of fault movement. The fault had been completely covered by vegetation for probably hundreds of years. If not for the El Niño storms of 1972 and 1973, no one would have ever noticed it.”

​

The entire zone between the two black arrows is the Frijoles Fault at Año Nuevo/Cove Beach. Notice that it is a “zone” about 70 feet wide. To find it when you go to our Año Nuevo/Cove Beach stop, look for the trees and the slumped area. If you see the dark tilted layer in the cliffs, above the right-most arrow, you know you have found the fault. Image: Julia Gaudinski/Mobile Ranger

In the 1970s, the San Francisco Bay Area was well-known for earthquakes along the San Andreas Fault, of course. But the San Gregorio Fault, which extends from San Francisco to south of Santa Cruz all along the coast, was just being discovered and mapped. Weber’s work was crucial in detailing the faulting around Año Nuevo State Park and Greyhound Rock.

Faults in the San Francisco Bay Area and Santa Cruz coast region. Image: Courtesy Gerald Weber

By 1971, a passionate group of people was already on the move to stop the nuclear power plant at El Jarro Point. In September 1971, the Santa Cruz County Board of Supervisors voted 3 to 2 for a moratorium “in principle” on a permit for the plant. But it was really Weber’s discovery of the Frijoles Fault and other faults in the San Gregorio Fault Zone at Cove Beach that stopped the El Jarro Nuclear Power Plant dead in its tracks.
​
For a nuclear power plant to be approved, there can be no nearby active faults and, in geologic terms, “active” means a surface rupture within the last 10,000 years. By using radiocarbon dating of plant remains at the base of the cliffs at Cove Beach, Weber was able to prove clear movement within the San Gregorio Fault Zone at Año Nuevo/Cove Beach in the last 10,000 years.

A map of the many faults in this area. The fault exposed at Greyhound Rock is still not well mapped. Image: Created by and courtesy of Gerald Weber

Faults from the San Gregorio Fault Zone continue north and south and can be seen in the beach cliffs at Greyhound Rock. Greyhound Rock itself is not faulted.

These cliffs at Greyhound beach clearly show fault movement. The two black arrows point to the most obvious places where rocks have slid past each other. There are likely two other faults in this area two but they are a bit harder to see. Image: Julia Gaudinski/Mobile Ranger

One way to cope with the threat of earthquakes: poke fun at the threat with a t-shirt!

​
As you enjoy the California coast, keep in mind that it could start moving and shaking at any time. The San Gregorio Fault Zone has moved in the last 10,000 years and it will move again. We just don’t know when. Geologist Gerald Weber admits that he hopes the San Gregorio Fault Zone, which he spent much of his life laboriously mapping, might show some modest sign of movement while he is still alive.

Take the Self-Guided Mobile Tour

This piece is part of the Santa Cruz Marine Protected Areas Beaches Tour made possible by the Santa Cruz Collaborative with support from the California Marine Sanctuary Foundation and the Resources Legacy Fund. Download the free app with many tours of the Santa Cruz area and beyond.

1. Sources

   • The Geology from Santa Cruz to Point Año Nuevo, with the San Gregorio Fault zone and Pleistocene Marine Terraces. Gerald E. Weber and Alan O. Allwardt. University of California, Santa Cruz

   ​

   • Personal communication with Dr. Gerald (Jerry) Weber, Lecturer Emeritus University of California, Santa Cruz, Geologic Consultant. May and June 2016.

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]]> /santacruz/greyhounds-almost-nuclear-powerplant/feed/ 2 /santacruz/natural-bridges-state-beach-and-fred-swantons-development-dreams/ /santacruz/natural-bridges-state-beach-and-fred-swantons-development-dreams/#comments Wed, 06 Jul 2016 21:00:18 +0000 /?p=11094

Natural Bridges State Beach in 1972. This could have been the grounds for Fred Swanton’s hotel. Photo: © Kenneth and Gabrielle Adelman, California Coastal Records Project

In the early 1900s, Natural Bridges was briefly at risk of becoming the site of a grand hotel in line with the vision of Fred W. Swanton. He was fortunate enough to acquire the land that now makes up the state beach through his wife, Emma Stanley Pope Hall.

“Fabulous Fred” Invests in the Wrong Neighborhood

Because he was instrumental in the development of the Casa Del Rey Hotel, the Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk, two competing electric railroads, and a telephone company, Fred Swanton was a well-known Santa Cruz entrepreneur. He had big ideas and the ability to bring them to fruition. He was also the main person responsible for making tourism the foundation of the city’s economy. “Fabulous Fred” actively promoted Santa Cruz to neighboring areas, even traveling throughout California and Nevada with a marching band to spread the word. However, his plan for a development at Natural Bridges never came to be.

Swanton renamed Hall’s Beach (today’s Natural Bridges State Beach) as Swanton Beach Park and developed streets with the names of bigger cities, including Sacramento, Auburn, and Merced, hoping to attract buyers from the hot Central Valley. He also had plans for a large hotel with modern conveniences to cater to wealthy guests. But the cold winds and damp fog that linger in these neighborhoods, so the story goes, deterred Swanton’s prospective buyers and led him to financial ruin and bankruptcy in 1912.

Swanton Beach Park in 1905. Today, the area in the upper-middle of the postcard is Natural Bridges State Beach. Image: From the collection of Mike Patanaude

Perhaps he was just a bit ahead of his time and there were simply not enough people interested in living year-round in Santa Cruz yet. Swanton Beach Park was, in fact, one of many unsuccessful developments in the early 1900s along the Santa Cruz coast.

Swanton recovered financially and went on to do many other projects, including establishing a landing field at Swanton Beach Park in 1924. Known as Swanton Airport, it was used periodically until about 1931 when the Santa Cruz Airport opened in Capitola.

Unfortunately for Swanton, his financial recovery was only temporary. He filed for bankruptcy again in 1930 and deeded the 27-acre Swanton Beach Park to the state in 1933. He died almost penniless 10 years later. It seems Swanton’s entrepreneurial instincts and management skills waxed and waned over the years, and perhaps this is the real reason that the Swanton Beach Park development failed.

Natural Bridges State Beach in 2016. In the late 1800s, it was called Hall’s Beach, and in the early 1900s it was Swanton Beach Park. Photo: Julia Gaudinski/Mobile Ranger

Construction of beach facilities did not begin until 1954, and the area around the park was not developed for housing until the 1970s. Swanton might roll in his grave if he could see the multimillion-dollar homes that now line Swanton Avenue and his city-named streets.

If you’re looking for a resort today, head to the Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk. But thousands of visitors prefer the tide pools, dune habitat, cool geology, and monarch butterfly refuge that are protected by what is now Natural Bridges State Beach.

Take the Self-Guided Mobile Tour

This piece is part of the Santa Cruz Marine Protected Areas Beaches Tour made possible by the Santa Cruz Collaborative with support from the California Marine Sanctuary Foundation and the Resources Legacy Fund. Download the free app with many tours of the Santa Cruz area and beyond.

1. Sources

   • Natural Bridges State Beach General Plan. State of California, Department of Parks and Recreation, October 7, 1988.
   • Resort and Recreation Development: Waterfront, beach, and boardwalk, by Susan Lehmann. Santa Cruz Public Libraries website.
   • Our Ocean Backyard: Our coastline will change, and that’s for certain, by Gary Griggs. The Mercury News website, October 22, 2011.
   • Natural Bridges State Beach. California Department of Parks and Recreation website.
   • Personal communication with Frank Perry, Historian, Santa Cruz County, May 2016.
   • Surf, Sand and Streetcars. A Mobile History of Santa Cruz, California, by Charles S. McCaleb. Santa Cruz Museum of Natural History, 2005.

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]]> /santacruz/natural-bridges-state-beach-and-fred-swantons-development-dreams/feed/ 2 /santacruz/caves-and-the-moving-lighthouses-of-lighthouse-point/ /santacruz/caves-and-the-moving-lighthouses-of-lighthouse-point/#comments Thu, 16 Jun 2016 02:50:57 +0000 /?p=11893

Modern day Lighthouse Point showing the Purisima Formation and the Mark Abbott Memorial Lighthouse, which was built in 1967. Photo: Julia Gaudinski/Mobile Ranger

Lighthouse Point in Santa Cruz, California, is surrounded by world class surf spots and amazing views. It’s named for the lighthouse built to commemorate a local boy who went surfing and never came back. The lighthouse is a museum of local surf history, and the whole area has grown to be a special nexus of expression for the Santa Cruz surfing community. So it seems fitting, even though unfortunate, that this gateway to the ocean’s beauty and power is threatened by the power of the ocean.

Its Beach with Lighthouse Point in the background. Photo: Julia Gaudinski/Mobile Ranger

Lighthouse Point is composed of a particularly resistant part of the Purisima Formation. In general, the Purisima erodes fairly easily. For this reason, the ocean was able to cut landward and create the Monterey Bay. However, Lighthouse Point and a few other resistant headlands, including San Lorenzo Point and Pleasure Point, have withstood the ocean’s erosive force. Lighthouse Point actually protects Monterey Bay’s northern beaches from much of the wave energy they would otherwise get from the dominantly northwest waves. Even so, Lighthouse Point is not immune to wave erosion.

The lighthouse circa 1888. Photo: Courtesy of the Santa Cruz City-County Library System

Original Lighthouse Had to be Moved

The original lighthouse was built in 1869, close to the edge of the cliff. In 1878, less than 10 years later, a letter was sent to the Lighthouse Board noting that three large caves (all over 50 feet long and 50 feet wide) penetrated the point, and the largest extended to within 12 feet of the lighthouse.

To preemptively save the lighthouse from potential catastrophic cliff erosion, the Lighthouse Board ordered it to be picked up and moved 300 feet inward. Thus, from 1879 to 1948, the lighthouse was located on the north side of what is now West Cliff Drive.

Aerial view of Lighthouse Point circa 1941. You can see the beacon and the old lighthouse on the north side of West Cliff Drive. Photo: By Ed Webber, used courtesy of Frank Perry

A Long Run Comes to an End

In 1939, the Coast Guard assumed responsibility for all of the nation’s lighthouses. Shortly thereafter, the Coast Guard installed an automated beacon on top of a white wooden tower and decommissioned Santa Cruz’s lighthouse. The beacon was about 20 feet north of the current Mark Abbott Memorial Lighthouse. The light from the beacon was less than half as bright as that from the lighthouse. Despite a vibrant shipping past, by 1930, due to roads and railroads, Santa Cruz no longer had much shipping traffic. Therefore, the beacon was bright enough to be seen only by local fishing boats.

The lighthouse facilities were used briefly during World War II to house 200 soldiers stationed there during the war. After WWII, however, the lighthouse was not serving a particular purpose for the Coast Guard, so it was demolished. From 1948 until 1967, Santa Cruz had no lighthouse. There was just a beacon with a light so weak that local fisherman complained it couldn’t be distinguished from the car headlights on West Cliff Drive.

Aerial view of Lighthouse Point in 1957. The beacon stands alone. The only traces of the original lighthouse are the cypress trees that outline where it stood from 1879 to 1948. Photo: Used courtesy of Frank Perry

The New Lighthouse

The beacon might still be the only light here today if not for the tragic death of a local boy named Mark Abbott. On a Sunday morning in February, 1965, Mark went to the beach with his friends, went body surfing, and never returned. Mark’s parents, Chuck and Esther Abbott, were able to turn their grief from losing a child into something positive for the community: a new lighthouse at Lighthouse Point. The Abbotts made sure that the lighthouse honored even more than their son. A bronze plaque inside the lighthouse reads:

“This lighthouse is further dedicated to all our youth whose lives, through fate or misadventure, are terminated before realizing their true potential. May their spirits find new dimension in the unknown horizons that await us all.”

Same Cave Problem

The brick remains of the original lighthouse built in 1869 lie just a few hundred feet toward the ocean from the Mark Abbott Memorial Lighthouse.

Brick remnants of the original 1869 lighthouse (center left). The round brick shape (center right) was a cistern used for collecting rainwater from the lighthouse roof. Photo: Julia Gaudinski/Mobile Ranger

In 1980, one of the caves that undermined the original lighthouse was plugged with concrete because it threatened to undermine the Mark Abbott Memorial Lighthouse. Unfortunately, the plug did more harm than good, because it deflected waves upward, increased erosion of the upper cliff, and exposed the brick foundation of the original lighthouse site. It eventually washed out in 2000.

Filling the caves under Lighthouse Point in 1980. Photo: By and courtesy of Frank Perry

During the El Niño storms of 1982–83, waves eroded the sea cliff to within 10 feet of the Mark Abbott Memorial Lighthouse. A new concrete retaining wall was built in the 1990s, and the walkways and fences in this area are constantly being moved landward. Two caves still remain: one just to left of lighthouse, facing south (the one that had the concrete plug) and another on the west side, facing southwest. That second one is quite deep and extends almost to the lighthouse.

The cave filled in 1980, which is still eroding. Photo: Julia Gaudinski/Mobile Ranger

A cave in the Purisima Formation, which is undercutting modern day Lighthouse Point on the west side of Santa Cruz. Photo: Julia Gaudinski/Mobile Ranger

A crane placing rip rap rocks near Steamer Lane in 1981. Photo Courtesy of and by Frank Perry

Much of West Cliff Drive has been armored with rip rap (1– to 2–ton boulders placed in a group) and sea walls to try to prevent erosion from cutting back the coastline. Such protections at Lighthouse Point certainly conflict with its natural beauty and surf. But the caves are there and, at some point, hard decisions about additional armoring of Lighthouse Point versus saving the lighthouse will have to be made. Perhaps it could be moved back across West Cliff Drive?

A view from the Santa Cruz Mountains to the eroding coast along West Cliff Drive in 2010. Photo: © Kenneth and Gabrielle Adelman, California Coastal Records Project www.Californiacoastline.org

Further Information

• Lighthouse Point: Illuminating Santa Cruz, by Frank Perry. Otter B Books, 2002. Available at the Santa Cruz Museum of Natural History, Santa Cruz Surfing Museum, and Natural Bridges State Beach Visitor Center.
• Santa Cruz historian Frank Perry’s website.
• Santa Cruz Surfing Museum. Located at Lighthouse Point, the museum is open Wednesday through Monday, 10 am to 5 pm, July 4 through Labor Day and Thursday through Monday, 12 noon to 4 pm, the rest of the year.
• Santa Cruz Museum of Natural History. Located at 1305 East Cliff Drive, the museum is open Wednesday through Sunday, 10 am to 5 pm, during summer (Memorial Day through Labor Day) and Tuesday–Saturday, 10 am to 5 pm, the rest of the year. Call 831.420.6115 for more information.
• Lighthouse Friends website.
• The Huge Boulders Along the Santa Cruz Shoreline: A Common Coastal Story. Mobile Ranger blog.

Take the Self-Guided Mobile Tour

This piece is part of the West Cliff Drive Tour. Download the free app with many tours of the Santa Cruz area and beyond.

Brandt’s cormorandts tending to their babies on a sea cliff ledge on West Cliff Drive in Santa Cruz, California, May 2016. Photo: Lauren McEvoy/Mobile Ranger

Brandt’s cormorants (Phalacrocorax penicillatus) are back on the sea cliff just west of Natural Bridges State Beach in Santa Cruz. They started using this ledge in large numbers in 2011 after the breeding habitat was improved by removing the non-native and invasive ice plant. The Brandt’s cormorants do not nest on top of ice plant and are sensitive to human disturbance. To breed, they need open ledges free of predators and safe from people walking, talking, or sitting to drink coffee.

The ledge before ice plant removal in April 2011. Photo: Courtesy of Jonathan Fellis

In the photo above, you can see one Brandt’s cormorant on a nest (the greenish mound) and one empty nest. In April 2011, as part of the West Cliff Restoration Project, local ecologists Bill Henry, Josh Adams, Ryan Carle, and Jessie Beck cleared encroaching ice plant from this ledge. By the next day, a large group of Brandt’s cormorants started building their nests.

The same ledge one day after ice plant removal, April 2011. Photo: Courtesy of Jonathan Fellis

The cormorants incubate their eggs for ~30 days, and the chicks leave the nest when they 40–50 days old. When the birds fly from the ledge for the first time, usually in late August, they are not yet strong enough to fly back, so they hang out on the beach below for up to several weeks while the parents still feed them.

The young Brandt’s cormorants on the beach below their breeding ledge. Photo: Courtesy of Alayne Meeks

In 2011, after the ice plant was cleared, 21 nests were counted and 44–45 chicks were documented as hatching (Alayne Meeks, Oikonos). In 2012, the numbers of nests and chicks hatched were practically the same. The ledge was not used again for breeding from 2013 through 2015, but it was used again in spring 2016, with 35 birds and 14 nest sites as of May 17.

The reasons for the three-year hiatus are unclear. Fluctuations in the numbers of mating birds might be related to changes in ocean conditions, disturbances, presence of predators, or simply better habitat conditions elsewhere. In many years, the Brandt’s cormorants nest on the remaining Natural Bridges arch, less than 100 yards away. The same population might even alternate between the two sites.

Native Plant Restoration Is for the Birds

Although Brandt’s cormorants are not a threatened or endangered species, they are vulnerable to the loss of breeding habitats, including the erosion of offshore rocks, such as the remaining arch at Natural Bridges State Beach. Potential mainland breeding sites are heavily impacted by coastal development, coastal armoring such as sea walls, rip-rap (1– to 2–ton boulders placed in a group), invasive vegetation, and predators. Clearing of ice plant on West Cliff Drive provides more places for the birds to breed along the shore.

An example of coastal “armoring” along West Cliff Drive. You can see that both a sea wall and rip-rap were used to protect the coast from wave erosion. Photo: Julia Gaudinski/Mobile Ranger

Bill Henry, a local scientist, has spearheaded removal of ice plant and restoration of native plants along West Cliff Drive since 2012. Henry’s goal is to restore plant biodiversity, increase habitat, and engage the public in stewardship of the coast. An example of this restoration work can be seen just a few hundred feet to the east of the Brandt’s ledge pictured above (just past Chico Avenue).

Native plant restoration between Natural Bridges State Beach and Chico Avenue in January 2013, several months after planting. Photo: Julia Gaudinski/Mobile Ranger

The plot was cleared of ice plant and replanted in spring of 2012. The native species planted include California sagebrush, coast buckwheat, dudleya, lizard tail, seaside daisy, sticky monkey flower, prunella, and yarrow, all grown from locally collected seed. These plants are typical of the northern coastal sage scrub habitat that was here before it was displaced by ice plant. The restoration sites are already supporting increased faunal diversity, including native bees and birds.

The same restored location in May 2016. Photo: Lauren McEvoy/Mobile Ranger

Native coastal sage scrub vegetation in its full glory at 3-Mile Beach (Wilder Ranch State Park, three miles north of Santa Cruz). Coast buckwheat is in the bottom left of this photo, dudleya are the yellow flowers in the center, and California sagebrush dominates the back, toward the right. Photo: Courtesy of Jackie Pascoe

Restored coastal sage scrub vegetation also surrounds the Seymour Center at the Long Marine Lab.

The work was initially the West Cliff Restoration Project of the nonprofit Oikonos. Since 2012, partners and volunteers worked along West Cliff Drive (at Lighthouse Field, for example) and at the entrance to Seabright Beach. The project has since become a separate organization, Groundswell Coastal Ecology. Groundswell enhances coastal resources in Santa Cruz by pairing education, community activities, and science with ecological restoration. Sites include Seabright Beach, Lighthouse Field (across from the surfer statue), and Natural Bridges. Their 2016–17 plans include planting of more than 10,000 native plants along the Natural Bridges headland.

Volunteer for Restoration

If you are interested in participating in the coastal restoration process or want to receive Groundswell updates, please send email to info@groundswellecology.org. Groundswell ecologists are seeking volunteers to assist with seed collection and plant propagation, which will support the 2016–17 restoration season.

Zora Thomas planting native plants at Natural Bridges, January 2016. Photo: Groundswell Coastal Ecology

Groundswell volunteers with California State Parks employee Juan Villarino at a Lighthouse Field Coastal Stewardship Day sponsored by Groundswell Coastal Ecology. Photo: Groundswell Coastal Ecology

The Santa Cruz Chapter of the California Native Plant Society also leads restoration projects at Natural Bridges State Park and various places around the county. If you would like to get involved with them, check the meeting schedules and contact information on the Santa Cruz Chapter of the California Native Plant Society website.

Further Information

• Groundswell Coastal Ecology website
• Oikonos ecosystem knowledge website
• Santa Cruz Chapter, California Native Plant Society website

Take the Self-Guided Mobile Tour

This piece is part of the West Cliff Drive Tour. Download the free app with many tours of the Santa Cruz area and beyond.

Range of the California buckeye, Aesculus californica, which is endemic to California. Image: USGS

The entire life strategy of the California buckeye optimizes for economical water use. It is the first shrub (small tree) to leaf out every year and grows rapidly in the wet winter and spring months when its neighbors are still dormant. It finishes its creamy, fragrant floral show by the end of June, loses all its leaves, and then enters dormancy by mid- to late summer, although in cooler coastal climates the leaves might hang on until fall. The bark, leaves, and large eye-catching seeds are toxic to most animals. The pollen and nectar, although safe to many butterflies, hummingbirds, and native honeybees, make non-native bees sick, so that it’s a common problem for beekeepers. A “buckeyed-bee” hatches with deformed legs, body, and crippled wings.

Late May into early June is a great time to spot the California buckeye when it’s in its full flowering glory.

The redwood forest interpretive graphic, part of A Field Guide to the Communities of Pogonip, by Kylie Smith.

The Pogonip is a beautiful city greenbelt located in Santa Cruz, California, on the eastern edge of the University of California Santa Cruz (UCSC) campus. It contains a variety of plant and animal communities, or habitats, that have been shaped greatly by human impact over the years. Up until the purchase of the land in 1988 by the City of Santa Cruz, the Pogonip had been used for many different things, including a golf club, a polo club, residential estates, and a campground.

Golf players flock to the beautiful golf club at Pogonip, circa 1900. Photo: Courtesy of the Santa Cruz Museum of Art & History

Find this guide at the Golf Club Drive and Spring Street entrances into Pogonip. Photo: Kylie Smith

There are many natural wonders to be discovered within the Pogonip: Tiny animals, flowers and fungi to look at closely, and predators and vistas to admire from afar. The Pogonip is well worth a visit and, if you go, there is a new publication titled A Field Guide to the Communities of Pogonip. I created this guide as part of my senior project requirement to graduate from UCSC as an Environmental Studies major.

Shortly after moving to Santa Cruz to be a student, I found the Pogonip and immediately loved exploring its trails and learning about the plant and animals that live there. The field guide is the combination of my love for natural history, illustration, and the Pogonip. My hope is that the science and art will inform, inspire, and help you make a personal connection to the natural inhabitants and ecosystems in this diverse greenbelt. The guide represents many months of planning, researching, grant proposal writing, illustrating, and a huge amount of help from the Ken Norris Center for Natural History.

What’s in the Guide

The guide contains mural-style illustrations of the plant and animal species within each of the four main habitats of the Pogonip: Redwood Forest, Meadows, Mixed Evergreen Forest, and the Riparian communities.

The meadow interpretive graphic, part of A Field Guide to the Communities of Pogonip, by Kylie Smith.

Written stories and information within each mural encourage interaction with the surrounding ecosystem. You will discover the life story of the common Buckeye butterfly, a friendly meadow dweller, such as this example of the text from the Meadows community section:

“The life of a Buckeye begins as a tiny egg laid on a leaf of its host plant. Can you find it’s caterpillar in this drawing? (Hint: Look in a corner.) As a caterpillar, it eats and sheds its outer cuticle when it outgrows its skin. Eventually, it finds a spot to hang and form a chrysalis (see upper right). Within the chrysalis, the Buckeye transforms from a pea soup-like liquid into an adult butterfly. Once emerged, the adult pumps liquid into its wings. They harden in the sun and are flight ready! The common Buckeye is often seen fluttering low to the ground. Watch the adults suck up nectar from flowers with their proboscis.”

Similar illustrated entries cover the brown creeper, a secretive bird that lives among the redwoods; the Douglas iris, which grows within the Riparian community; and the slender salamander that lives in the Mixed Evergreen Forest.

This juvenile Ensatina is a type of salamander. Look for them nestled under logs in the moist soil along the Rincon Trail in the Redwood Forest community. Be cautious when rolling logs to look for hidden creatures and remember to always roll the log toward yourself so you have that barrier for protection and any potential dangerous animals can escape away from you. Photo: Kylie Smith

The guide also includes a map that shows the locations of hiking trails and each habitat within the Pogonip. In case you get confused about exactly which habitat you are in, there is also a learning guide that helps you locate yourself within a specific habitat.

Liverwort along the creek bed of the Fern Trail. Bryophytes, along with mosses, typically grow fairly flat on rocks by water. Photo: Kylie Smith

A Field Guide to the Communities of Pogonip, is available as a pamphlet that contains illustrations with written details and stories that can inform both children and adults. It’s available at both the Golf Club Drive and Spring Street entrances to Pogonip. You can also view the field guide online and download a pdf version.

A slightly camouflaged Red Admiral butterfly rests and soaks in the sun upon a fallen branch found along the Fern Trail in the Mixed Evergreen Forest community. This insect has a lifecycle that is very similar to the common Buckeye butterfly. Photo: Kylie Smith

Boneyard beach, 2012. Photo: Fran Trudeau CC BY-SA 2.0

Jekyll Island is a spot frequented by tourists on the barrier islands off the coast of Georgia and home to a picturesque boneyard beach. Barrier islands are long, thin, and generally parallel to the mainland, which they protect from the full force of the ocean’s might. They are dynamic ecosystems, and the islands themselves are often on the move from the influence of changing sea levels, storms, waves, tides, and longshore currents.

These decimated trees resemble a boneyard. Photo: oliver.dodd CC BY 2.0

Jekyll Island, like many barrier islands along the Atlantic coast, has a maritime forest. The forests of mostly oak and pine originally grew on high ground, protected from the ocean by sand dunes on the beach. Shoreline retreat is also a common phenomenon on barrier islands. Longshore currents move sand from the north to the south and can erode the dune fields that protect the forests.

The changing landscape and salty conditions created this unique beach. Photo: oliver.dodd CC BY 2.0

Without protection from the dunes, the salt water exposure kills the trees, and they uproot and fall over. The tree “corpses” are preserved due to the salty air, which starves insects and prevents fungal rot. These beaches can be up to three miles long and are an eerily beautiful reminder that landscapes are always changing.

This post was written by Livia Hyams, a Mobile Ranger intern at the time of writing, and Julia Gaudinski.

Female elephant seals and their pups rest at Año Nuevo beach. Photo: Mike Merrit

South of San Francisco, about 20 miles north of Santa Cruz along Highway 1, lies a beach hidden behind sand dunes covered in an undulating meadow of native grasses. From December through March, if you visit, you’ll hear what sounds like a fleet of diesel-powered tractors echoing off the dunes, because this stretch of sand is the breeding ground for northern elephant seals.

This beach is part of a Marine Protected Area called Año Nuevo State Reserve. These marine mammals, which weigh more than 1000 pounds each, migrate thousands of miles to reach this beach every year, where they mate and then give birth.

Male elephant seals can weigh up to 5,000 pounds. Photo: Dan Costa

For a real-life encounter with these marine mammals, you must reserve or join an Año Nuevo guided tour during breeding season, December 15 through March 31. During these months, visitors to Año Nuevo State Park must be on a guided walk to see the seals, and that’s for good reason.

Male elephant seals, called bulls, are extremely protective of their females and will fight other males to ensure exclusive rights to their harems. Weighing in at 3000-5000 pounds during breeding season, these roughly 15-foot behemoths come barreling toward one another on the beach in surprisingly fast undulations.

A bull elephant seal guards one of the females in his harem. Photo: Dan Costa

What’s That Sound?

As the bull rears up, with his two-foot trunk-like proboscis flapping, he lets out a series of deep, guttural bellows in rhythmic bursts. They sound somewhat like a series of loud farts and burps in an echo chamber or a diesel engine from the early 1900s.

Wildlife biologists once thought that the louder the bellow, the larger and stronger the bull, so the encroaching male could determine by sound alone whether he was a match for his opponent. Although this theory isn’t far off, recent research by Caroline Casey and Colleen Reichmuth at the University of California Santa Cruz has revealed that each male has a distinct “clap-threat call.” If two males have fought before, they recognize each other by this call. This gives the challenger a chance to back down from starting a fight with an opponent he knows he can’t beat.

Females lose 16.5 pounds per day while nursing their pups. Photo: Dan Costa

Mom of the Year

After the females give birth, the pups must be nursed for three weeks straight. During this time, the mothers lose 30-40% of their body weight. That works out to 16.5 pounds per day! As soon as her pup stops suckling, the emaciated female becomes sexually receptive, so males try to mate with her as she makes her way to the ocean for a feast of fish after a nearly month-long fast.

This map shows the diving pattern of an individual female elephant seal foraging at Pratt Seamount in the northeast Pacific. Image: From the collection of Dan Costa, adapted from his article in Marine Mammal Science, 2011

Deep Divers and Long-Distance Swimmers

Out in the ocean, both the females and males dive to depths of 1500 feet, on average, and can stay submerged for up to two hours in search of bottom-dwelling fish. The deepest dive recorded was 5778 feet, which is more than a mile.

A female northern elephant seal in the ocean where she spends 10 months of the year foraging. Photo: Dan Costa

When the northern elephant seals aren’t overrunning the beach at Año Nuevo, they spend most of the year in the open ocean foraging for food. For one month, they rest on a sandy beach during a catastrophic molt. They shed all of their fur at once and grow a new coat. Females and males travel thousands of miles apart on their semiannual migrations. They frequent different feeding areas but return to the same beaches to mate and molt. In one year, females travel approximately 11,000 miles and males travel about 13,000 miles.

Tracks of male (red) and female (yellow) northern elephant seals on their foraging trips to the North Pacific and Gulf of Alaska. Animals were followed by the Tagging of Pacific Pelagics (TOPP) research group at Año Nuevo. Image. Courtesy of Dan Costa/University of California, Santa Cruz

Although they were nearly hunted to extinction in the 19th century for the oil in their blubber, their population is now an estimated 150,000. In California, their population continues to grow each year by 20-30%. There are multiple factors involved in that increase, but one is protection under the Marine Mammal Act since 1972 and another is the grizzly bear’s disappearance from the entire state because they were hunted to extinction. With no more bear attacks to threaten them while they are breeding, nursing, and molting on the beach, the seals have thrived.

Females and their pups in the water just offshore at Año Nuevo State Reserve. Photo: Dan Costa

Take the Self-Guided Mobile Tour

This piece is part of the Santa Cruz Marine Protected Areas Beaches Tour made possible by the Santa Cruz Collaborative with support from the California Marine Sanctuary Foundation and the Resources Legacy Fund. Download the free app with many tours of the Santa Cruz area and beyond.

1. Sources

   • "Benthic foraging on seamounts: A specialized foraging behavior in a deep-diving pinniped," S. M. Maxwell, J. J. Frank, G. A. Breed, P. W. Robinson, S. E. Simmons, D. E. Crocker, and J. P. Gallo-Reynoso. Department of Ocean Sciences and Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Center for Ocean Health, University of California Santa Cruz, 2011.
   • Año Nuevo State Park. California Department of Parks and Recreation website.
   • Guided Walks: Explore Año Nuevo with a Docent Naturalist. California Department of Parks and Recreation website.
   • “Call of the Beach Master.” Año Nuevo Blog, UC Santa Cruz Natural Reserves, September 1, 2015.
   • "Male elephant seals use ‘voice recognition’ to identify rivals, study finds,” by Tim Stephens. University of California Santa Cruz website, August 12, 2015.
   • "Elephant seal tracking reveals hidden lives of deep-diving animals.” May 15, 2012; Tim Stephens. University of California Santa Cruz Website.
   • Northern Elephant Seals: Bioacoustics. Research: Seals and Sea Lions, The Costa Lab website.
   • Northern Elephant Seal (Mirounga angustirostris). Seal Conservation Society website.
   • Northern Elephant Seal. The Marine Mammal Center website.
   • The Northern Elephant Seal: A Life of Singular Extremes. Point Reyes National Seashore. National Park Service, US Department of the Interior.
   • "Benthic foraging on seamounts: A specialized foraging behavior in a deep-diving pinniped," by Jessica J. Frank, Greg A. Breed, Patrick W. Robinson, Samantha E. Simmons, Daniel E. Crocker, Juan Pablo Gallo-Reynoso, and Daniel P. Costa. Marine Mammal Science, Vol. 28, Issue 3, Society for Marine Mammalogy, September 2011.

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Pilkington Creek is small, but it is an important part of the Monterey Bay watershed system. Photo: Courtesy of Vivienne Orgel

Ancient peoples might have managed the landscape around Santa Cruz, California through fire, but we can also see current small-scale land management practices along Pilkington Creek and at the entrance to Seabright Beach where the creek spills onto the sand. Over the years, community members have come together to remove non-native species, such as mattress vine, nasturtium, and periwinkle, that had begun to envelope the creek and crowd out native plants used by pollinators, such as bees and hummingbirds.

This work continues in several ways now. The Santa Cruz Museum of Natural History garden volunteers gather monthly to plant and tend to native species along the creek’s edge, as they continue to care for this riparian habitat.

Restored native plants at the entrance of Seabright beach. Photo: Courtesy of Bill Henry of Oikonos

Across the street at the beach entrance, a native plant garden mimics the ecosystem that once thrived here. A diverse and colorful palette of native plant species, such as yarrow, coastal sage, sticky monkey-flower, lizard tail, and buckwheat, have replaced the monocrop of non-native ice plant that recently covered this sandy slope. The Oikonos community group are collaborating with students from nearby Gault Elementary School to remove the invasive ice plant and replant the area with native species that attract pollinators and help prevent erosion.

Constant Change at Seabright Beach

Pilkington Creek flowing onto Seabright Beach after a storm in December 2014. Photo: Courtesy of Molly Lautamo

This beach has gone through a drastic transformation since the Awaswas* walked its shores, and it still changes every few months because of the flow of Pilkington Creek. During the dry season, the creek ranges from bone dry to a small trickle and doesn’t reach the beach above ground. During the rainy season, especially right after a storm, the creek rushes through the culvert that runs beneath East Cliff Drive and spills out onto Seabright Beach, sometimes flowing all the way to the ocean.

Volunteer to Help Restore Native Plants

You can help in the ongoing work of restoring native plants at Seabright Beach or volunteer for other opportunities. Contact the Santa Cruz Museum of Natural History to get started.

*The native peoples of the Santa Cruz area of California, refer to the region as Cotoni and call themselves the Awaswas. Most folks today think of them as the “Ohlone” people but this is a misnomer and not how they identify themselves. Today the descendants of the area’s indigenous forbears who were “missionized” at Santa Cruz and San Juan Bautista, are organized as the Amah Mutsun Tribal Band. The Cotoni-Awaswas nourished themselves from the sea and tidal zone as well as harvesting, gathering and taking game from the coastal uplands. Although not “agricultural” as we tend to think of it, California native peoples thrived by actively managing the environment for productivity.

Take the Self-Guided Mobile Tour

This piece is part of the Pilkington Creek Walking Tour made possible by the Santa Cruz Museum of Natural History. Download the free app with many tours of the Santa Cruz area and beyond.

Bermuda buttercup, California poppy, and wild radish growing against the rocks (Santa Cruz Mudstone) along Swanton Road near Santa Cruz, California. You can see one lone stock of wild mustard at the far left. Photo: Julia Gaudinski/Mobile Ranger

We wrote a post a few weeks ago about the hills “yellowing up” with wild mustard. Indeed they are, but there has been some confusion about distinguishing wild mustard from Bermuda buttercup (Buttercup oxalis), another invasive exotic wildflower that blooms at the same time, in similar locations, and has about the same bright yellow color.

Bermuda buttercup in central California. Photo: Julia Gaudinski/Mobile Ranger

Bermuda Buttercup

Bermuda buttercup is found throughout California up to elevations of about 8,200 feet. Like wild mustard, it’s typically found around agricultural land and other disturbed areas as a common weed. The flowers grow up to 20 in a cluster, with each flower comprised of five yellow petals. Their shamrock-like leaves are made up of three perfectly heart-shaped leaflets connected at their points. It is often called sour grass because of the sour-tasting stem. Like all oxalis species, this plant contains oxalic acid, which can be toxic if eaten in large quantities. Therefore, we recommend only very light munching on oxalis for a trail snack.

Finally, just to add more complexity to the issue of identification, despite being called Bermuda buttercup, it is not even in the buttercup family (Ranunculaceae).

Wild mustard makes for a beautiful sea of yellow. Photo: Julia Gaudinski/Mobile Ranger

Wild Mustard

Wild mustard (Brassica juncea) also has vibrant yellow flowers that grow in clusters. The key to correct identification is in the petals. Mustard flowers only have four flower petals. These edible beauties do not contain toxic compounds and have been an important part of the human diet since the Bronze Age. Several common dinner vegetables, including cabbage, broccoli, cauliflower, Brussels sprouts, and collard greens, are all cultivars of this single species.

Bermuda buttercup (Buttercup oxalis) on the left with wild mustard on the right. Photo: Julia Gaudinski/Mobile Ranger

Don’t let a field of yellow flowers fool you. Take a closer look at these wildflowers and test your knowledge.

Invitation to Submit Photos

If you have photos of wildflowers that you would like to share with us, please email them to julia@mobileranger.com and we will try to include them in our upcoming wildflower post.

Half of an abandoned kayak collected during a Seabright Beach clean-up event. Photo: Courtesy of Chris Sulots

What will people hundreds of years from now think of American culture when they rummage through our trash? Especially in the absence of written records, a culture’s trash piles can shed much-needed light on a way of life that was mostly lost over the centuries. Anthropologists have sorted through the “trash” piles or middens of the Awaswas* people, who are native to Santa Cruz, California, to learn more about how they lived.

We Have Landfills, the Awaswas had Middens

Middens are the piles of discarded shells and bones left behind by the Awaswas (and other native peoples). From these piles, we know the ocean was an important source of food for the Awaswas, providing tasty fish, mollusks, marine mammals, and sea birds. We also know the types of tools used by Native American cultures and have a better understanding of their ways of life.

Present Day “Middens” of Plastic

Summer visitors on a holiday weekend can leave their marks on Santa Cruz beaches, such as this view of Panther Beach after Memorial Day weekend. Photo: Courtesy of Save Our Shores

You can no longer find middens on beaches in Santa Cruz, but you can certainly find trash from present day humans. Pieces of plastic, glass, paper bags, forgotten beach toys, and other remnants of human life are usually scattered across the beach. Unlike shells and bones, our trash can be detrimental to sea life, entangling birds and marine mammals or filling their bellies with indigestible plastics. Over the past seven years of beach clean-up events, volunteers with Save Our Shores have collected an average of 739 pounds of trash from Seabright Beach per year!

Two young participants in a clean-up event at Seabright Beach. Photo: Courtesy of Save Our Shores

The Awaswas people had great respect for the ocean and relied on marine creatures for survival. We, too, rely heavily on the ocean, not only as a food source but also as a place of peace and tranquility where we can recharge after a long, stressful day. It is our responsibility to keep our beaches clean and to protect the marine ecosystem that residents have relied on for centuries.

If you plan on spending time on a beach this summer, pick up a piece of trash before you leave and deposit it in the garbage so it goes in our present-day middens (landfills), where it belongs.

Changing Landscapes

So much has changed just in the past 100 years. How do you think this beach and creek will change in the next century? Will the creek still flood the beach? Will ocean levels rise? Will more native plant restoration take place, restoring the beach to a closer semblance of the ecosystem that existed here when the Awaswas walked these shores?

Photo: Courtesy of Molly Lautamo

Land management practices over the past 500 years, beginning with the Awaswas and continuing with Santa Cruz residents today, have drastically changed this landscape. We’ve learned a lot from the people before us, but how this place looks and changes over the next century or more will depend on us and how we choose to interact with this landscape and actively manage it or not.

Interested in learning more about Pilkington Creek, Seabright Beach, and the other native habitats right here in Santa Cruz? Check out the Santa Cruz Museum of Natural History.

*The native peoples of the Santa Cruz area of California refer to the region as Cotoni and call themselves the Awaswas. Most folks today think of them as the “Ohlone” people, but this is a misnomer and not how they identify themselves. Today, the descendants of the area’s indigenous forebears who were “missionized” at Santa Cruz and San Juan Bautista are organized as the Amah Mutsun Tribal Band. The Cotoni-Awaswas nourished themselves from the sea and tidal zone, as well as harvesting, gathering, and taking game from the coastal uplands. Although not “agricultural” as we tend to think of it, California Indians thrived by actively managing the environment for productivity.

Take the Self-Guided Mobile Tour

This piece is part of the Pilkington Creek Walking Tour made possible by the Santa Cruz Museum of Natural History. Download the free app with many tours of the Santa Cruz area and beyond.

Coyotes are often sighted in well-used open space areas in Santa Cruz. Photo: Courtesy of Jitze CC BY 2.0

Although it is easy to spot many different plants growing along Pilkington Creek in Santa Cruz, California, it’s harder to spot animals, especially large ones. When the native Awaswas* native people lived here, there were many large game animals in the area, such as black bears, grizzly bears, black tail deer, tule elk, and pronghorn antelope.

Deer provided food and the resources to make tools and clothing for the Awaswas native people. Photo: Courtesy of Vivienne Orgel

Awaswas hunters disguised themselves in deer skin and creep within 20 feet of the shy creatures, swiftly felling the deer with a bow and arrow. Deer provided more than just meat. The Awaswas used every part of the animal to make tools such as antler wedges, bone awls, and scapular saws. The hide was used for moccasins and other clothing.

Coyotes and Mountain Lions Still Prowl Santa Cruz

Humans and mountain lions still share the hills and open spaces surrounding Santa Cruz, as shown in these two photos of the same trail taken only two hours apart. Photo: Courtesy of Santa Cruz Land Trust

Mountain lions, bobcats, and coyotes also lived in Awaswas times and still roam this area today. Sightings of these animals are rare at Pilkington Creek, but bobcats and coyotes use the nearby Arana Gulch greenbelt behind the Santa Cruz Harbor. Mountain lions (also known as cougars or pumas) are common in Wilder Ranch and on the University of California, Santa Cruz (UCSC) campus and have occasionally been spotted in downtown and westside neighborhoods.

These larger predators are forced to look for food and water closer and closer to civilization as their habitat is developed by humans. The large expanses of forest that once covered Santa Cruz County have been fragmented into smaller and smaller pieces, divided by roads and neighborhoods where these predators can potentially cause harm to domestic animals and people.

Most of the undeveloped land is composed of state parks, agricultural land, and greenbelts within city limits. All of this habitat is heavily used by people, and we are not as accustomed to sharing the land with wildlife as the Awaswas people were.

The Most Common Visitors to Pilkington Creek

Photo: Gary J. Wood CC BY-SA 2.0.

If you visit the creek today, you might see smaller animals using the creek and surrounding habitat, including raccoons, opossums, and squirrels. Stellar’s Jays, European starlings, and California towhees sweep the surrounding park for insects, seeds, and remains of recent family picnics. The Santa Cruz Natural History Museum’s native plant garden attracts native insects that, in turn, attract native birds to the creek. Hopefully, more animals will use Pilkington Creek in the future with ongoing stewardship of the land.

*The native peoples of the Santa Cruz area of California refer to the region as Cotoni and call themselves the Awaswas. Most folks think of them as the “Ohlone” people, but this is a misnomer and not how they identify themselves. Today, the descendants of the area’s indigenous forebears, who were “missionized” at Santa Cruz and San Juan Bautista, are organized as the Amah Mutsun Tribal Band. The Cotoni-Awaswas nourished themselves from the sea and tidal zone and harvested, gathered, and hunted game from the coastal uplands. Although not “agricultural” as we tend to think of that term, California natives thrived by actively managing the environment for productivity.

Take the Self-Guided Mobile Tour

This piece is part of the Pilkington Creek Walking Tour made possible by the Santa Cruz Museum of Natural History. Download the free app with many tours of the Santa Cruz area and beyond.

Wild mustard makes for a beautiful sea of yellow. Photo: Julia Gaudinski

Thanks to the plentiful El Niño rains, the hills of California are greening up. But in many places, they are yellowing up, too. This is thanks to wild mustard, which you might have had in several forms for dinner last night. “Mustard” is the common name of the plant family known as Brassicaceae or Cruciferae, also called the cabbage family or crucifers. Cruciferae is the older name for the family and refers to the cross shape that is made by the four petals of their flowers. The wild yellow-flowered mustard you see while driving is from either the genus Brassica or Sinapis, and these two genera form the basis for most commercial mustard crops.

Wild mustard is also a weed that grows in disturbed areas and fallow fields. There are many types of mustard, but this one is most likely Brassica juncea. Photo: Julia Gaudinski

Mustard has been a very important part of the human diet since at least the Bronze Age. The sharp flavor of the seeds offers a unique opportunity to spice up our foods. Although it is native to western Europe, the Mediterranean, and temperate Asia, it has been spread by spice traders and conquering armies all over the world. In modern times, it is considered more important than all other spices except salt and pepper. It’s quite possible that you had black, brown, or white mustard seasoning your food in some way last night.

A blanket of wild mustard. Photo: Julia Gaudinski

Chances are also good that several other parts of your dinner might have hailed from the mustard family. High in vitamin C, crucifers have been extensively bred for vegetables. Chinese kale, rutabaga, seakale, turnip, radish, watercress, horseradish, wasabi, and kohlrabi are all crucifers. Amazingly, several common dinner vegetables, including cabbage, broccoli, cauliflower, Brussels sprouts, and collard greens, are all cultivars of just one species: Brassica oleracea. The genus Brassica has also been propagated for oil-producing plants, such as rapeseed, from which canola oil is made. So, even your fried food might owe its crispy goodness to a crucifer.

The next time you are munching on a piece of steamed broccoli, putting wasabi on that sushi, or eating fried chicken, think of those lush yellow fields that are brightly scattered about in spring and give a nod to the mighty mustard family and its contribution to your diet.