Oceans – Mobile Ranger

Elkhorn Slough: From Salt Ponds to Bird Sanctuary

Ranger Lautamo — Wed, 02 Nov 2016 13:30:16 +0000

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.

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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.

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.

SS Palo Alto: War Ship, Night Club, Seal Hang Out, and Modern Art Hotspot

Ranger Gaudinski — Wed, 19 Oct 2016 20:00:48 +0000

The S.S. Palo Alto is a curious oddity with a rich history. It has also become an inspiration to artists who use it to inspire environmental awareness and promote ocean sustainability through the arts. Social Practice Arts Research Center at UCSC is sponsoring the “S.S. Palo Alto Project” which uses the ship as a “thought hub” around which to host art-based projects and events to teach ocean education and inspire environmental awareness.

Depiction of the S.S. Palo Alto by a UCSC art student.

Richard Desanto, who is coordinating the project says “I wouldn’t look to any one of our events or projects as a distillation of our goals; instead, each functions as a building block to a more environmentally sound future.”

Event: Armour Our Shore

In 2014, across from the visitor center near the “cement” ship, the S.S. Palo Alto Project partnered with Save Our Shores and the Public Art class of Professor Dee Hibbert-Jones to bring art to the shores of the park. Joined by local students of the Mt. Saint Madonna Middle School, teams performed skits to highlight the state of our waters. Alongside the plays were information rich posters covering various issues concerning the oceans as well as activities to further engage with the public. Local television broadcasters were present to cover the event.

Skit next to the S.S. Palo Alto titled “Armor Our Shore.” This was an event put on by the S.S. Palo Alto Project in 2014. Image: Courtesy the S.S. Palo Alto Project

Art: Fish Pack Your Trash

The Suitcase. The sculpture is made of items ranging from drinking straws to motor oil containers that flow through the urban catch basins to the beaches following rainstorms. Image: Kim Abeles

Kim Abeles from the S.S. Palo Alto Project has created the “Dolphin Suitcase” made from found trash that had washed up on the beach. The suitcase is a functional “prop” made up of disposable silverware, lighters, straws, and much more. Inside are larger pieces of trash. Abeles, accompanied by her Dolphin Suitcase, visits classrooms and teaches about how trash can become part of the pollutants that get into streams, and then flow into rivers and the ocean.

Ables built the Dolphin Suitcase as a functional sculptural “prop” to discuss storm drains and recycling. Image: Kim Abeles

The exterior detail creates reality. Every kid knows about a drinking straw, and they think of it as one. When they see them all collectively, it begins to have an impact that statistics or facts alone really couldn’t do. Image: Kim Abeles

The interior contains larger objects found in streams and rivers. These are secured with snaps and bindings, then presented home-shopping-network-style during the performance. Image: Kim Abeles

Dynamic Art: Bike Around the S.S. Palo Alto

The Velodrome Powerstation Project by Nathaniel Freeman and Paul Hempstead, aims to have people bike around a the S.S. Palo Alto on a temporary platform. The bikes are set up with batteries charged by the human-mechanized energy of the riders. These batteries are then plugged into a charging station (in visual range of the Moss Landing coastal power station located 20 miles south) that serves as the central power source of the structure itself, as well as being available for visitors to charge personal electronic devices.

Velodrome Powerstation Project by Nathaniel Freeman and Paul Hempstead. Image: Courtesy the S.S. Palo Alto Project

The structure is designed to mimic the existing architectural elements of the pier, and will use reclaimed and sustainable materials as much as possible. The walkway is made in part of a transparent material to allow for views of the vessel and the surrounding water; the same material is used to surround the interior of the track, ensuring rider safety and a clear view of the ship. The project aims to produce enough energy to sustain itself, as well as to incite visitor dialogue and create experiential learning opportunities for alternative energy generation.

For more information and upcoming events as part of the S.S. Palo Alto Project, check out the S.S. Palo Alto Project website and contact Barbara Benish at barbara.benish@gmail.com.

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Sources

The Lighthouse at Año Nuevo Island: Shipwrecks and Sea Lions

Ranger Lautamo — Wed, 12 Oct 2016 16:00:20 +0000

Abandoned lighthouse-keeper’s house on Año Nuevo Island in San Mateo County, California, November, 2005. Photo: Jef Poskanzer

It’s usually a fair bet that where there is a lighthouse, there is a history of shipwrecks. The area around Point Año Nuevo along California’s Highway 1 between San Francisco and Santa Cruz is no exception. The wreck of the Coya in 1866 claimed the lives of all but three of the 30-member crew and led to the installation of a steam fog whistle on Año Nuevo Island six years later (it is visible from the beach covered in elephant seals). That same year, the first light went on at the new Pigeon Point Lighthouse.

Ano Nuevo Light Station when in operation, sometime before 1948. Photo: Unknown federal employee

A High Price for an Ocean View

The first settlers on the island, who were to operate and maintain the whistle, paid a heavy price for their waterfront vista. In 1883, the lighthouse keeper, Henry Colburn, along with his assistant and two neighbor boys, drowned in the large surf while rowing out to the island. Even with keepers like Colburn risking their lives to lead captains and their crews to safe passage, large ships continued to crash between Pigeon Point and Point Año Nuevo. Finally, in 1890, a light was installed on the island.

Año Nuevo Island tank house with light at top, unknown date (prior to the construction of the light tower in 1913). Photo: Unknown federal employee

The keepers had to monitor the new light 24 hours a day and constantly scan the horizon in search of approaching fog. Perhaps the most difficult part of life on the island, though, was dealing with the sea lions that regularly overran the gardens and occasionally even the house.

Make Way for Pinnipeds

In 1948, the last keeper and his family moved off the island and was replaced by a marker buoy with an automatic light, sound, and radar reflector. Ten years later, the California Department of Parks and Recreation acquired the Año Nuevo State Reserve, including the island, which was classified as a scientific preserve. In the early ‘60s, after visitors to the island damaged the existing structures and deterred sea lions and elephant seals from returning to the island, the preserve was closed to the public.

The lighthouse and surrounding buildings on Año Nuevo Island in 2009. All of the dots and textured areas that you might think are seaweed are sea lions. Photo: Kenneth and Gabrielle Adelman, California Coastal Records Project

Today, only researchers and designated personnel are allowed on the island, and just the three structures remain: The keeper’s dwelling (built in 1906), the fog signal building (front section built in 1881, back section in 1899), and the fuel storage building (built in 1908). Researchers use the fog signal building to store their equipment and as a respite from the howling winds. Not surprisingly, the dilapidated keeper’s house is still overrun by sea lions, the rightful owners of this rugged island.

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Sources
- Año Nuevo Island Light Station: Documentation of the Light Station Complex, Año Nuevo Island, Año Nuevo State Reserve, San Mateo County, California, by Matt C. Bischoff, June 2005.
- Pigeon Point History. California Department of Parks and Recreation website.

Updated: October 12, 2016

Where Have All the Bridges Gone at Natural Bridges State Beach?

Ranger Lautamo — Wed, 14 Sep 2016 20:00:26 +0000

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

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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.

Greyhound Rock: Where’s the Hound?

Ranger Lautamo — Wed, 31 Aug 2016 20:00:32 +0000

Does Greyhound Rock look like a hound to you? Photo: Lauren McEvoy/Mobile Ranger

Greyhound Rock is named for the beach’s large rock formation that sits stoically offshore in the crashing waves. Usually, the rock is connected to the beach by a small sand spit that is part of the Greyhound Rock State Marine Conservation Area near Davenport, north of Santa Cruz, California. The rock was given its name by a Santa Cruz pioneer named Thomas Majors who thought it looked like a hound.

Historic photo of Greyhound Rock. Photo: Santa Cruz Museum of Art & History

Today, it’s a bit hard for most people to see the hound. Perhaps, over the decades, the ocean surrounding Greyhound Rock County Beach has eroded away any canine resemblance. If anything, the rock looks like a sleeping alligator from above, and from down on the beach, it just looks like a long mound of layered mudstone. That’s very cool in and of itself, hound or no hound.

Hound, alligator, or chocolate softserve ice cream? You decide. Photo: Lauren McEvoy/Mobile Ranger

Formation of the “Hound”

Greyhound rock is made up of Santa Cruz Mudstone. This is the rock formation that shapes the landscape characteristics of the northern Santa Cruz coast, from the north county line (basically at Ano Nuevo State Park) through to the west side of Santa Cruz. It’s a fairly hard rock type, although its many layers vary in their hardness and how easily they erode. If it were a much more erodible rock or did not have layers, the coastal landscape we see today might be without the many arches and bridges and dramatic sea cliffs with their undulating pocket beaches.

Classic shore platforms and pocket beaches of the Santa Cruz Mudstone. Long Marine Lab. Photo: Julia Gaudinski/Mobile Ranger

The pocket beaches occur where the horizontal layers of the mudstone have fractures or “joints” running roughly perpendicular to the cliffs. The joints are points of weakness, so the waves erode along the joints much faster than the rest of the layer.

Creation of Santa Cruz Mudstone

The Santa Cruz Mudstone was created about 7 – 9 million years ago (late Miocene era) by the settling of fine-grained silts, clays, and silicate remains of billions of single-celled plankton called diatoms. It varies in thickness but has been measured to be 8,900 feet thick in at least one location.

Santa Cruz Mudstone at Waddell Bluffs. Photo: Julia Gaudinski/Mobile Ranger

The sediments accumulated offshore of the ancient (Paleo era) coast in ocean water about 450 – 600 feet deep. The silts and clays came from nearby rivers. Because the amounts coming from each source varied over time, so did the composition of the layers. With time, these sediments became very thick. This is nearly the same conditions we have today half a mile off our coast.

Arches and bridges tend to form in the Santa Cruz Mudstone. Photo: Julia Gaudinski/Mobile Ranger

Hardening to Rock

Over millions of years, thousands of feet of sediment were deposited on top of the Santa Cruz Mudstone sediments. With burial, the sediment warms up and some of the silica from those billions of diatoms dissolves and later turns into cement that binds the particles together. This is called lithification.

During and after lithification, the sediments are also subjected to regional tectonic stresses from huge tectonic plates moving around, which can cause folding and faulting. Thus, the original sediment composition, the degree of lithification, and the amount of tectonic stress combine to determine how hard a rock is and how it will erode. In and around Santa Cruz, the Santa Cruz Mudstone is not very deformed, with just some tilting, jointing, and faulting.

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Sources
- The Rocks of Santa Cruz’s North Coast: The Mighty Mudstone. Mobile Ranger website.
- "Our Ocean Backyard: Exploring the North Coast,” by Gary Griggs. Santa Cruz Sentinel, August 9 , 2013.
- "Our Ocean Backyard: West Cliff – Stepping Back in Time,” by Gary Griggs. Santa Cruz Sentinel, December 14, 2013.
- California Coastal National Monument. National Conservation Lands, California. U.S. Department of the Interior, Bureau of Land Management website, blm.gov.
- The things you learn on a Coastal Geology Walk at Año Nuevo State Park,” by Ryan Masters, Goat Trails blog. Hilltromper website, October 24, 2014.
- Coast Dairies Property: A Land Use History. Excerpt from "Coast Dairies Long-Term Resource Protection and Use Plan: Draft Existing Conditions Report for the Coast Dairies Property," Section 1.0. In Santa Cruz County History - Places, Santa Cruz Public Libraries website.

Elkhorn Slough: Interface Between Land and Sea

Ranger Gaudinski — Wed, 24 Aug 2016 20:00:40 +0000

Elkhorn Slough with Moss Landing Power Plant in the background. The orange stuff is called dodder (Cuscuta) and is a parasitic plant. Photo: Julia Gaudinski/Mobile Ranger

At Moss Landing, Highway 1 crosses over Elkhorn Slough, one of the largest estuaries in California. Estuaries are places where the sea meets freshwater. They are home to a rich array of plants and animals that can live in this unique habitat. At Elkhorn Slough, the seawater enters the estuary at the harbor mouth directly west of the Highway 1 bridge, and freshwater comes from several sources: the Salinas River; Tembladero Slough, which runs south of Castroville; and upland creeks that feed into both Moro Cojo and Elkhorn sloughs.

Most of the Elkhorn Slough Watershed and the majority of fresh water sources that drain into it. Image: Courtesy of The Elkhorn Slough Foundation

People have lived along the shores of Elkhorn Slough for at least 8,000 years. Successive waves of people have used the slough in different ways, including harvesting shellfish, fishing, hunting, agriculture, and even helping to generate electrical power. Conservation work in the last few decades has protected much of the natural habitat at Elkhorn Slough and has restored areas that were impacted by earlier human uses.

Today, it is one of the largest and most ecologically important estuarine systems in California. It provides habitats for native shorebirds, marine mammals such as sea otters and sea lions, and a wide variety of marine invertebrates. The slough also serves as an important nursery for a variety of fish species.

Moss Landing harbor at Elkhorn Slough. Photo: a7pointstar

Habitats and Wildlife at Elkhorn Slough

Elkhorn Slough tidal habitats encompass extraordinary biological diversity, providing critical habitat for more than 135 aquatic bird, 550 marine invertebrate, and 102 fish species. The slough is also home to sea lions, harbor seals, and California sea otters. More than 200 different bird species use the slough as a resting spot during their annual migrations.

The upland habitats within the watershed include three of the top 10 most imperiled US habitats: freshwater wetlands, coastal prairie, and maritime chaparral. These systems are amazingly diverse, with coastal prairie being the most species-rich grassland in North America.

Several harbor seals rest at a side channel in Elkhorn Slough. Photo: Julia Gaudinski/Mobile Ranger

Along with providing habitat for a diverse range of life, wetlands provide a critical service to the environment. They provide a buffer between land and sea, which protects the water from soil erosion and protects the land by reducing the impact of flooding. As natural filters, wetlands can remove impurities from the water before they enter our streams and oceans.

Estuaries like Elkhorn Slough are among the most threatened ecosystems in California, facing rates of habitat loss between 75 and 90 percent. As a result, a disproportionate number of rare, threatened, and endangered species reside in these areas. In the Elkhorn Slough watershed, two dozen species are included in these categories. Because experts recognize the value of these resources to the country, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) designated areas of Elkhorn Slough as part of the Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary and as a National Estuarine Research Reserve.

There are few native oysters left in Elkhorn Slough due to overfishing in the 1920s and habitat burial by sediments. Restoration work is underway. In this photo the growth rates of native oysters are being surveyed. Photo: Elkhorn Slough Reserve

Moss Landing Harbor

The estuary habitats were profoundly affected by the creation of the present day Moss Landing Harbor. In 1947, just two years after the end of World War II, the Army Corps of Engineers dredged a channel through the barrier dunes for a new harbor entrance.

Modern day Elkhorn Slough and Moss Landing Harbor. Photo: US Army Corps of Engineers

World War II had greatly restricted commercial fishing, so when the war was over, development of a commercial fishery in the area became a priority. An opportunity to increase access to fertile fishing areas in Monterey Bay was realized by expanding the harbor at Moss Landing. Today, Moss Landing Harbor is a center for commercial and recreational fisheries, public boating tours of the Monterey Bay and the Elkhorn Slough, kayaking, and world-renowned ocean research facilities.

Elkhorn Slough in 1979 with the expanded harbor. Photo: © Kenneth and Gabrielle Adelman, California Coastal Records Project .http://www.Californiacoastline.org

Changes to the mouth have had ripple effects up the slough. The main slough channel has continued to widen and deepen since it was first dredged decades ago. Scientists at the Elkhorn Slough Reserve are currently studying the long-term effects of these changes.

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Sources
- Elkhorn Slough Tidal Wetland Plan: 150 Years of Human Alterations and Tidal Habitat Change (1870 - Present) . Barb Peichel, Kerstin Wasson, Andrea Woolfolk, and 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. Elkhorn Slough Foundation, 2002.
- What is a Salt Marsh? National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Website.

Multitudes of Monarchs at Natural Bridges State Beach

Ranger Lautamo — Wed, 10 Aug 2016 20:00:43 +0000

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

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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.

Santa Cruz’s Nuclear Power Plant That Almost Was

Ranger Gaudinski — Wed, 27 Jul 2016 20:00:53 +0000

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

Creation of the plant was inadvertently derailed when a University of California, Santa Cruz (UCSC) geology graduate student named Jerry Weber took a walk on nearby Cove Beach in 1973. Weber noticed that a recent storm had eroded the sea cliff and revealed a large active fault in the cliff face. According to Weber:

“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

The San Gregorio Fault is long and composed of many parallel faults. At Año Nuevo/Cove Beach, Weber has mapped at least six faults in a zone that is a mile wide. In fact, when you think of faults and earthquakes in general it’s best to think of fault zones or even a system of faults.
Indeed, the San Gregorio Fault Zone is one part of what is now referred to as the San Andreas Fault System because there are several faults involved, including the Hayward and Calaveras Fault Zones and the San Gregorio Fault Zone.

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

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.

Managing a Strawberry Farm and Protecting the Elkhorn Slough

Ranger Lautamo — Wed, 20 Jul 2016 20:00:13 +0000

The crops at Azevedo Strawberry Ranch used to run right up to the water’s edge. Photo: Elkhorn Slough Foundation

Row crops were introduced to the areas around Elkhorn Slough in the late 1800s. The majority of these crops were strawberries because the slough’s perimeter has ideal growing conditions with a moderate climate and well-drained soils.

Strawberries are farmed in abundance around Elkhorn Slough due to the ideal growing conditions. Photo: Sharon Mollerus

The Azevedo Ranch, just about one mile up the slough from the Wildlife Viewing Area, was one such strawberry farm. They grew their berries next to the Azevedo Marshes, a series of pocket wetlands that were cut off from the slough in the 1870s with the construction of a railroad embankment. The strawberries were grown right to the edge of the slough, and like all berry farmers of the day, they applied chemical fertilizers containing high levels of nitrogen to the crops.

Sediments and chemicals from strawberry fields used to run off directly into the marshes. Photo: Elkhorn Slough Foundation

If runoff goes unchecked, the addition of nitrogen can lead to massive algal blooms that deplete the oxygen in the water, making it impossible for almost any other species to survive.

Today, there is a buffer zone of native vegetation that traps agricultural runoff before it reaches the Azevedo Marshes. Photo: Elkhorn Slough Foundation

In 1991, the Nature Conservancy acquired the ranch with funding from the Coastal Conservancy. Soon after, they took the strawberry fields adjacent to the slough out of strawberry production. Instead, they planted a native vegetation buffer. Today, the ranch has 24 acres of native plants between its strawberry producing crops and the marshes. This creates a natural buffer zone that traps nutrients and sediments and decreases nitrogen input into the slough. Azevedo Ranch is still owned by the Nature Conservancy, but it is managed by the Elkhorn Slough Foundation. This is a working example of how agriculture can co-exist next to a natural ecosystem without too much negative impact.

The view from the overlook at the research reserve. Photo: Elkhorn Slough National Estuarine Research Reserve

A Great Side Trip

We recommend a visit to the Elkhorn Slough National Estuarine Research Reserve at 1700 Elkhorn Road. They have a visitor center and a wonderful overlook where you can view much of the Elkhorn Slough. There are also five miles of trails to enjoy the grasslands, oak woodland, and wetlands of the Elkhorn Slough. There is a small admission fee for people over the age of 16. If you have a hunting or fishing license, you’ve already paid.

Take the Self-Guided Mobile Tour

Sources
- Elkhorn Slough Foundation Property: Azevedo Ranch. Elkhorn Slough Website.

The Evolution of a Monterey Bay Fisherman

Ranger Lautamo — Wed, 13 Jul 2016 20:00:29 +0000

Photo: Becky Stamski/NOAA MBNMS

What habitat is deeper than the Grand Canyon, requires a submarine to properly explore, and is home to bioluminescent invertebrates? None other than the Monterey Submarine Canyon, an incredibly diverse habitat that extends 50 miles offshore. It provides unique opportunities for deep sea research, as well as recreational and commercial activities, such as diving and fishing.

This massive canyon is an underwater state park that protects marine life and habitat, known as a marine protected area, or MPAs. Within it, there are two areas that you’ve probably never heard of: Soquel Canyon and Portuguese Ledge. Both are valuable habitats for fish species that used to provide the livelihoods of Tim Maricich and other commercial fishermen.

This photo of a colorful blackgill rockfish (Sebastes melanostomus) was taken 1000 feet below the surface in the Sur Canyon. It was taken as a part of a research expedition conducted by National Marine Fisheries Service in December 2010. Photo: Kevin L. Stierhoff/NOAA SWFSC

From Fisherman to Captain for Hire

Maricich represents many fishermen in the Monterey Bay to whom fishing is more than a job. For them, it’s a way of life. He’s been fishing in the Monterey Bay for more than 47 years, and his roots reach back generations to a long line of fishermen in Croatia.

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

In 2007 when 29 offshore areas in California were designated as MPAs, Maricich’s way of life changed. Even though recreational and commercial fishing for some species are allowed in the Soquel Canyon and Portuguese Ledge (including salmon, mackerel, and sardines), rockfish, the mainstay of many fishermen, are off limits. Rockfish-free fishing zones have helped to rebuild the dwindling populations of a valuable commercial species, but that restriction also cut into the income of fishermen like Maricich.

Fishing boats in the Monterey Bay. Photo: Courtesy of David Merrett

Fishing regulations along the California coast began several years before the designation of MPAs and have caused a huge shift in the fishing industry. Between 1981 and 2011, the number of registered fishing vessels decreased by nearly 70%. Fishermen were being pushed out of waters that they’d been fishing for decades. The good long-term intention of rebuilding fish populations resulted in the short-term consequence of putting men and women out of work.

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

Today, Maricich still works on his boat in the Monterey Bay, but he’s letting cowcods and yelloweye rockfish (aka red snappers) swim by unscathed. He now captains a boat full of conservation biologists from the Nature Conservancy, and he’s helping them count fish.

This photo of cowcod (Sebastes levis) was taken in 2007 in the Cordell Bank National Marine Sanctuary. Photo: Dave Murfin/ NOAA

The unlikely partnership between a fisherman and marine scientists helps other fishermen trust data from studies within the MPAs. It also provides an economic opportunity for those like Maricich who have an intimate knowledge of navigating the Monterey Bay in search of fish.

A tagged black and yellow rock fish. Photo: Courtesy of Noëlle yochum

There’s another, less obvious reason for this partnership, though. As journalist Paul Greenberg puts it in an article titled “The Fisherman’s Dilemma,” it also stems from one truth that unites fishermen and conservationists: “After all the closures and commissions, all the surveys and reappraisals, the ocean is still deeply mysterious.”

The Rockfish Return

The ocean is indeed a mysterious place, so scientists and fishermen are continually discovering new species and gaining a better understanding of familiar ones. A 2008 baseline study of the Soquel Canyon and the Portuguese Ledge revealed that the Portuguese Ledge has a high diversity of fish species, and Soquel Canyon is home to high numbers of commercial species threatened by overfishing, including the yelloweye rockfish, bocaccio, and cowcod.

Studies that scientists are conducting with Maricich and other fishermen will continue to shed light on the effectiveness of MPAs. For now, It looks like there’s hope that these fisheries can recover, and fishermen like Maricich can look forward to a stronger industry in years to come, thanks to MPAs.

Take the Self-Guided Mobile Tour

Sources
- "The Fisherman’s Dilemma," by Paul Greenberg. The California Sunday Magazine, March 2015.
- "How many cowcod rockfish populations are out there?" by Ed Quimby. Northwest Fisheries Science Center website, January 2014.
  January 2014.
- Central California Marine Protected Areas. California Department of Fish and Wildlife website.
- Soquel Canyon State Marine Conservation Area and Portuguese Ledge State Marine Conservation Area: Factsheet 3. California MPAs website.
- Submarine Canyons. Sanctuary Integrated Monitoring Network (SIMoN) website.
- Destructive Fishing. Marine Conservation Institute website.
- California’s Central Coast Marine Protected Areas: Baseline Data Collection Summary Report, December 2008. California Sea Grant College Program.
- "A Little Fish in Big Trouble," by Elizabeth Grossman. Food & Environment Reporting Network website, June 18, 2015.
- Monterey Sardine Story, by Richard H. Parrish. Pacific Fisheries Environmental Group, National Marine Service. NOAA Fisheries website: Southwest Fisheries Science Center.

Natural Bridges State Beach and Fred Swanton’s Development Dreams

Ranger Lautamo — Wed, 06 Jul 2016 21:00:18 +0000

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

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.

Restoring Native Plants Helps Ocean Birds

Ranger Gaudinski — Wed, 01 Jun 2016 18:38:26 +0000

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.

Sources
- Beyond the Ledge: Monitoring Cormorants at West Cliff Drive, Santa Cruz, by Alayne Meeks, Ryan Carle, Jessie Beck. Año Nuevo Island Restoration Project website.
- Carpobrotus edulis, by Christien Malan andAlice Notten. Plantzafrica website.
- Cornucopia II: A Source Book of Edible Plants, by Stephen Facciola. Vista, CA: Kampong Publications, 1998.
- Invasive Plants of California’s Wildland, by Marc Albert. California Invasive Plant Council website.
- Local Plant Communities. Santa Cruz Chapter, California Native Plant Society.
- Personal Communication with Bill Henry, Founder, West Cliff Restoration Project and Groundswell Coastal Ecology, May 2016.
- Personal Communication with Josh Adams, Seabird Ecologist, United States Geological Survey, Santa Cruz Field Station, May 2016.
- Restoring native beauty and diversity along West Cliff Drive, by Jackie Pascoe. Santa Cruz Sentinel, June 7, 2012.

Surf’s up! Paleo Style

Ranger Gaudinski — Thu, 21 Apr 2016 20:00:47 +0000

The Wave (Coyote Buttes). Vermillion Cliffs, Arizona. Photo: Lobineau

Have you ever ridden a sand wave? Chances are you probably didn’t ride this one. It’s not at Mavericks, and it’s 200 million years old.

Originally a sand dune up to 60 feet high, this wave was part of a vast sand-blown desert on the super continent of Pangea. The desert was much bigger than the modern Sahara and was part of a massive and sinking basin that received sediment from areas as far as the ancient Appalachian Mountains. Known today as “The Wave,” it’s located in the Coyote Buttes of the Paria Canyon-Vermilion Cliffs in Coconino County, Arizona.

How Ancient Winds Formed The Wave

Large dunes require strong winds. The Wave has layers that record the changing winds, which brought sand from different directions. The rhythmic and cyclic alternating laminae represent periodic changes in the prevailing Paleo era winds, which pushed the huge sand dunes back and forth across the massive desert.

Over time, more sediment came into the basin via a huge ancestral river system on the scale of the Mississippi. After being covered by other sediments, the dunes solidified into Navajo Sandstone. If you have been to the Grand Canyon, or just about anywhere else in the Colorado Plateau, you have probably seen the Navajo Sandstone. To give you an idea of the amount of sand in the Navajo Sandstone: It’s about what the modern day Mississippi River would put out in about 10 million years of flow!

The Wave close up. Photo: Peter Fitzgerald

After another 200 million years of first burial and then uplift, erosion has uncovered and exposed the Wave. The thin ridges and ribbing are primarily from differential erosion of these layers by the wind. However, water has also played a part. Vertical movement and precipitation of iron and manganese within ancient water tables probably created the Liesgang bands, which are the alternating ribbons of red, orange, and pink that make The Wave so visually appealing.

The 1996 release of the German nature documentary “Fascinaztion Natur” created a huge influx of European tourists that hasn’t stopped. Access has since been restricted to only 20 hikers a day to preserve the natural rock formation and prevent overcrowding. These days, you need to apply for the required permits four months in advance. So if you want to check out these Paleo dunes, plan ahead!

Sources
- Liesgang rings (geology). Wikipedia. Accessed January 27, 2014.
- Navajo Sandstone (in Glen Canyon Group). Geological Tour Guide, Capitol Reef National Park & Surrounding Areas. University of Utah.

Bulls, Harems, and Pups at Año Nuevo

Ranger Lautamo — Mon, 21 Mar 2016 13:30:49 +0000

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

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.

Community Volunteers Help Native Plants Thrive Again

Ranger Lautamo — Mon, 14 Mar 2016 14:30:27 +0000

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.

Sources Used

Bonny Doon Beach: Railroads and Oil

Ranger Gaudinski — Thu, 03 Mar 2016 14:30:26 +0000

Dramatic sea cliffs of Santa Cruz Mudstone at Bonny Doon Beach. Photo: Julia Gaudinski/Mobile Ranger

California’s Bonny Doon Beach is home to wide-open sands, a creek that runs through it, and even a clothing-optional section to the right of the chunk of Santa Cruz Mudstone where there used to be a natural bridge. It is also has a few features that tell of the areas railroad and oil exploration history.

Aerial view of Bonny Doon Beach circa 1975 when there was still a natural bridge. Photo: From the collection of Paul and Carmen Mulholand via Tom Scully

Doon Beach with its natural bridge circa 1975. Photo: From the collection of Paul and Carmen Mulholand via Tom Scully

Notice the Parking Lot

When you park to go to Bonny Doon Beach, the main parking area hugs right up to huge hill. It so happens this hill is a man-made embankment. The local stream used to run out to sea in the area where the embankment is now. If you have driven between Santa Cruz and Davenport, you might have wondered why you can’t see the ocean very often on the drive. It’s because every creek along the route has an earthen railroad berm or embankment across it that blocks the view. They were all built in the early 1900s, and the embankment at Bonny Doon Beach is a great example of a very big one.

The inland view of the earthen berm on which the railroad tracks sit. The two arrows show the limits of the native bedrock formed from the Santa Cruz Mudstone. In between the arrows is all “fill” for the embankment. Image: Julia Gaudinski/Mobile Ranger

Grandiose Railroad Plans

At the turn of the 20th century, railroads were king and still expanding with easy money from business tycoons of the day. The railroad embankments we see today were originally part of the Ocean Shore Electric Railway, which was begun in 1905 and was to be a grand line from Santa Cruz to San Francisco. It was to have two parallel electric lines to run both passengers and freight and be completed in 1907. Southern Pacific was also building rail to Davenport at about the same time, so there was definitely some hardball and power politics between the two companies.

A More Humble Reality

Fate intervened. The 1906 quake caused huge damages to the northern end of the Ocean Shore line, and their easy funding largely dried up. Construction continued, although money had to be raised from local bonds. Southern Pacific secured the contract to transport cement and materials for the Davenport Cement Plant, and that took away much- needed revenue from Ocean Shore.

Construction of the Ocean Shore line circa 1905. Photo: Collection of Alverda Orlando

The details of how the collaboration ultimately occurred are hard to pin down, but Ocean Shore and Southern Pacific collaborated in building the embankments north to Davenport. The embankments are so wide because they were designed for three tracks (two for Ocean Shore and one for Southern Pacific). They consist of wooden trestles filled in with local material to enable the structures to support the extreme weight of the railway cars loaded with cement.

This 1906 photo shows the wooden railroad trestle that crosses San Vincente Creek, at Davenport, partially filled in. There are many of these filled trestles between Davenport and Santa Cruz, including the one at Bonny Doon Beach. Photo: Collection of Gary Griggs, courtesy of Sandy Lydon

By 1908, only portions of the rail on each end of the Ocean Shore line were running: Santa Cruz to Swanton, which is just north of Davenport, and San Francisco to Tunitas Creek, a few miles south of Half Moon Bay. The railroad never fully connected Santa Cruz to San Francisco. Ocean Shore stopped running trains by 1920 and never laid their second line. The Southern Pacific line was eventually sold to Union Pacific, which ran freight for the cement plant until the plant closed in 2010.

Why There Is a Tunnel

Creation of the railroad embankments meant completely blocking off the creeks and any associated estuaries and lagoons. Water flow was routed through tunnels made through the Santa Cruz Mudstone. The tunnels are on the north side of each beach and, despite large storms, have eroded little and have been adequate to handle the flow. In the picture below, the black arrow points to a tunnel where Liddell Creek comes out of the Santa Cruz Mudstone. You can follow the water to its exit at the ocean. The black rectangle shows the very linear railroad embankment that now defines the back of the beach.

An aerial view of Bonny Doon Beach. The black rectangle encompasses the embankment made by the filled railroad trestle. The arrow on the left points to the tunnel through which Liddell Creek drains to the sea. Photo: © Kenneth and Gabrielle Adelman, California Coastal Records Project, http://www.Californiacoastline.org

Liddell Creek draining through the man-made tunnel, which was drilled in 1907-1908 through the Santa Cruz Mudstone. Photo: Julia Gaudinski/Mobile Ranger

There’s Oil in Them Thar Hills!

In the farthest-right cove at Bonny Doon Beach (yes, the clothing-optional section), a tall skinny dike of sandstone cuts across the Santa Cruz Mudstone. A dike is essentially loose material. In this case, it’s the older and deeper Santa Margarita Sandstone, which was squirted up under pressure through the younger but harder mudstone. The dikes and the Santa Margarita Sandstone contain bituminous (asphalt-like) material in varying quantities. There are many similar dikes in the sea cliffs along the north coast of Santa Cruz. This one is unusual in how skinny and rectangular it is.

A sandstone dike that cuts across the Santa Cruz Mudstone. The blue line parallels the dike just above it. Photo: Julia Gaudinski/Mobile Ranger

Some of the bituminous sandstones just a few miles south, at Majors Creek, were quarried for paving material. Apparently, about 600,000 tons, valued at more than US $2 million, were quarried and sent by boat to pave San Francisco between 1888 and 1914. In the 1950s, the Husky Oil Company ran an experimental project to extract oil and gas by heating the sandstone in the drill hole and then recovering what melted. Over three years, they pulled out 3,000 barrels of oil and some gas. But costs were too high, overall, to make it economically viable.

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This piece is part of the North Coast Tour. Download the free app with many tours of the Santa Cruz area and beyond.

Sources Used

Trash Middens: From Shells to Plastic

Ranger Lautamo — Mon, 29 Feb 2016 14:30:34 +0000

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.

Sources
- 3.10 Ohlone History. Coastside State Parks Association website
- Save Our Shores

Harbor Seals: How and Where to Spot Them

Ranger Gaudinski — Thu, 14 Jan 2016 14:30:58 +0000

Harbor seal on a rock in Monterey Bay. Photo: By Dr. Steve Lonhart, courtesy of NOAA Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary www.sanctuarysimon.org

The waters of California’s Monterey Bay, particularly around the Santa Cruz Wharf, are home to the cute and quite fuzzy harbor seal (Phoca vitulina). The smaller of the wharf’s regular seal visitors, harbor seals can be identified by their ear holes (no flaps) and tiny front flippers that only allow a hauled-out seal to lie flat, like a big sausage. To see them, look toward the waters for what resembles a rounded football floating but then sinks beneath the surface and disappears. This is the typical foraging behavior of the harbor seal as it prowls the bottom for its food and surfaces for a short time to breath and look around.

Harbor seals. These are hanging out on the rocks on the beach at Wilder Ranch, in Santa Cruz, California.

Harbor seals favor coastal waters near shore and are often seen on rocky islands, sandy beaches, mudflats, bays, and estuaries. They normally haul out on sandy beaches and low rock ledges. They don’t climb well and are leery of humans, so you’re likely to see them only in the water and kelp around the wharf. Some of the best places to spot a harbor seal out of the water are at isolated beaches, such as the cliffs at Wilder Ranch, north of Santa Cruz off Highway 1.

This fellow chose what looks like a pretty uncomfortable resting area. Photo: Crystal Birns Photography

Population and Characteristics

Worldwide, harbor seals are found north of the equator in both the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. The total population is estimated to be about 500,000. In the United States, they range from Alaska to Baja California, with a population of about 35,000 along the California coast. They eat mostly small fish, squid, and octopus but are known to be opportunistic feeders, so they eat just about anything they can find in the kelp and on the ocean floor.

Harbor seals resting in a kelp canopy inside Point Lobos State Marine Reserve, near Carmel, California. Photo: Chad King, courtesy of NOAA, Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary, www.sanctuarysimon.org

The color of harbor seals can range from silver with black spots, to black with gray or white rings, to almost pure white. Males can be up to 6.5 feet long, while females are usually just under 5.5 feet. Female seals give birth about once a year, with pups born in the early spring, a 300-pound mom gives birth to a pup that weighs less than 25 pounds and is able to swim as soon as it is born. Females don’t make sounds. It’s the pup’s bleating call, that sounds like a child saying “maaa,” that bonds the mother to her pup.

A harbor seal with what looks like a shark bite (dark crescent in center of belly) that has healed. Photo: Dr. Steve Lonhart, courtesy of NOAA, Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary, www.sanctuarysimon.org

Take the Self-Guided Mobile Tour

This piece is part of the Marine Life Guide. Download the free app with many tours of the Santa Cruz area and beyond.

Sources Used

Oceans – Mobile Ranger

Elkhorn Slough: From Salt Ponds to Bird Sanctuary

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SS Palo Alto: War Ship, Night Club, Seal Hang Out, and Modern Art Hotspot

Event: Armour Our Shore

Art: Fish Pack Your Trash

Dynamic Art: Bike Around the S.S. Palo Alto

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Sources

The Lighthouse at Año Nuevo Island: Shipwrecks and Sea Lions

A High Price for an Ocean View

Make Way for Pinnipeds

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Where Have All the Bridges Gone at Natural Bridges State Beach?

Time Takes Its Toll

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Greyhound Rock: Where’s the Hound?

Formation of the “Hound”

Creation of Santa Cruz Mudstone

Hardening to Rock

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Elkhorn Slough: Interface Between Land and Sea

Habitats and Wildlife at Elkhorn Slough

Moss Landing Harbor

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Multitudes of Monarchs at Natural Bridges State Beach

A Monarch Refuge

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Santa Cruz’s Nuclear Power Plant That Almost Was

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Managing a Strawberry Farm and Protecting the Elkhorn Slough

A Great Side Trip

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The Evolution of a Monterey Bay Fisherman

From Fisherman to Captain for Hire

The Rockfish Return

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Natural Bridges State Beach and Fred Swanton’s Development Dreams

“Fabulous Fred” Invests in the Wrong Neighborhood

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Restoring Native Plants Helps Ocean Birds

Native Plant Restoration Is for the Birds

Volunteer for Restoration

Further Information

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Surf’s up! Paleo Style

How Ancient Winds Formed The Wave

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Bulls, Harems, and Pups at Año Nuevo

What’s That Sound?

Mom of the Year

Deep Divers and Long-Distance Swimmers

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Community Volunteers Help Native Plants Thrive Again

Constant Change at Seabright Beach

Volunteer to Help Restore Native Plants

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Bonny Doon Beach: Railroads and Oil

Notice the Parking Lot

Grandiose Railroad Plans

A More Humble Reality

Why There Is a Tunnel

There’s Oil in Them Thar Hills!

Take the Self-Guided Mobile Tour

Sources Used

Trash Middens: From Shells to Plastic

We Have Landfills, the Awaswas had Middens