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.

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.

Pilkington Creek wends its way to meet the Pacific Ocean at the entrance to Seabright Beach. Photo: Courtesy of Molly Lautamo

Pilkington Creek is behind the Santa Cruz Museum of Natural History, which is at 1305 E. Cliff Drive. The creek might be a far cry from its wild and scenic past but, if you look closely, this humble creek tells a story of our connection to the land 500 years ago and reminds us of our responsibility to wisely care for the landscape that we call home.

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

Pilkington Creek’s Journey to the Sea

Pilkington Creek is named for Thomas Pilkington, who owned much of the land around the Seabright neighborhood in the late 1800s. The creek extends northward to Broadway, but almost all of its length runs through underground tunnels. It is revealed at Tyrrell Park, which is named for William Tyrrell, who also lived in the Seabright neighborhood in the 1800s. The creek emerges behind the museum from beneath Forbes Street to finish its journey to the ocean at Seabright Beach.

During the rainy season, Pilkington Creek spills out onto Seabright Beach through a culvert and sometimes flows on the surface all the way to the ocean. After it is on the beach, the channel spreads out to more than 10 feet wide, creating a seasonal lagoon that attracts both water-loving children and wildlife.

Pilkington Creek spilling out onto Seabright Beach after a winter storm. Photo: Courtesy of Molly Lautamo

Pilkington Creek Past and Present

The native people of this area, called the Awaswas,* lived by the seasons, and their diets fluctuated accordingly. You wouldn’t want to refill your water bottle from this creek today, but 300-500 years ago, these native people might have relied on this creek for drinking and cooking water.

The modern-day descendants of the Santa Cruz Awaswas are members of the Amah-Mutsun Tribal Band. Photo: Courtesy of Molly Lautamo

The Awaswas also relied heavily on riparian habitats for food, medicine, and building supplies. Smaller creeks such as Pilkington that have seasonal flows also have seasonal animals. The Awaswas knew that during the rainy season when the water was high, fish might be found in the creek. This attracted omnivores such as raccoons, bobcats, and even bears to feast at the water’s edge. Different plants also produce nuts, seeds, fruits, and new branches at different times of the year, and the Awaswas knew exactly when to harvest specific plants in this area.

The nut of the California hazel (Corylus cornuta) was harvested in late summer and was a staple of the Awaswas’ diet and of tribes throughout the state. Photo: Courtesy of Fir0002

Read Castles in the Moving Sand, the Mobile Ranger article about Seabright Beach’s castle-shaped bathhouse that James Pilkington built in the late 1800s.

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.

*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 forebearers 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.

The modern-day descendants of the Santa Cruz Awaswas are members of the Amah-Mutsun Tribal Band. Photo courtesy of Molly Lautamo.

Many people have heard the name Ohlone or Costanoan used to describe the native people who lived in Santa Cruz, California and the surrounding Bay Area. Costanoan was a Spanish name given to all the tribes who lived in the region from San Francisco to Monterey Bay. It is not an accurate reflection of the many diverse tribes, each with a distinct language and traditions. The blanket name “Ohlone” refers to many groups of native peoples who spoke the eight “Costanoan” languages. One of these eight languages was Awaswas.

The geographic distribution of different tribes around Santa Cruz County and Monterey. Courtesy of Vivienne Orgel. 

Awaswas was spoken by the group of people living in western Santa Cruz County, along the coast from slightly north of Davenport to Rio del Mar. The Awaswas speakers numbered fewer than a thousand and the language is now extinct, but some of their tribelet names are still remembered today. Well-known place names in Santa Cruz County like “Soquel”, “Aptos,” and “Zayante” are all Awaswas names.

Today, the descendants of the Mutsun (peoples “missionized” at San Juan Bautista) and Awaswas (peoples “missionized” at Santa Cruz) tribes do not call themselves the Ohlone. Instead, they have come together as the Amah Mutsun Tribal Band to preserve their history and culture. Learn more here.

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.

The Awaswas used a variety of methods, including fire, to maintain the Santa Cruz landscape. Image courtesy of Molly Lautamo.

The California coastal landscape has been managed in some way by people for thousands of years. In the Santa Cruz area, the native Awaswas people*, set fires to maintain and invigorate the coastal landscape. This form of land management successfully provided animal forage and a healthy crop of grasses and other plants important to the Awaswas’ diet. The Awaswas may have managed riparian plants along creeks local to Santa Cruz through periodic pruning and controlled burns. Willows, for example, might have been actively tended through a pruning process called coppicing with the intention of harvesting new shoots for basket making.

How and Why to Prune a Willow

Coppicing involves cutting back the branches of a shrub or tree to encourage new, vigorous growth. The plant is pruned back to its base during its dormant period, when the tree has lost all its leaves in winter. Much like when you heavily prune rose bushes, the willows grow back much healthier.

A recently coppiced tree, in this case an alder (Alnus glutinosa). Photo courtesy of Naturenet.

The same coppiced tree, showing regrowth after one year. Photo courtesy of Coppicing Cat James.

Coppicing also promotes the growth of long, straight, slender, and flexible branches – optimal for basket weaving. The pliable young branches of the willows growing along the edge of creeks may have been used for making baskets, fish traps, and the inner framework of Awaswas homes. The bark could also be stripped from the branches and braided into a strong rope. Local Rumsien (native tribe located on the south end of Monterey Bay around Castroville) basket maker Linda Yamane uses gray willow sticks for her baskets’ foundations.

Willow shoots were used by the Awaswas to make baskets. Photo courtesy of Molly Lautamo.

How Controlled Burns & Weeding Shaped the Landscape

Just as willow stands were managed through coppicing, the Awaswas used other land management techniques to promote other plant communities they relied on. Tule marshes were burned periodically to clear away old growth allowing sunlight to reach new shoots. This management was extremely necessary as the construction of one cooking basket required 3,750 stems from close to 40 bunchgrass plants!

Some less desirable species, such as salt marsh coyote brush, were weeded or burned to keep them from crowding out more frequently used species like willow. Meadows were also maintained through the use of fire to prevent shrubs and eventually trees from taking over precious grasslands needed for their seeds and the animals they would attract.

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.

*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 forbearers 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. Though not “agricultural” as we tend to think of it, California Indians thrived by actively managing the environment for productivity.

Poison oak (Toxicodendron diversilobum) is a woody shrub in the sumac family. All parts of the plant produce an oil called urushiol, which causes an allergic reaction in most people. Photo courtesy of Vivienne Orgel.

The Awaswas*, the native people indigenous to the Santa Cruz area of coastal California, could recognize hundreds of plant species and knew a variety of uses for each one. The land surrounding the Santa Cruz Museum of Natural History and the adjacent Pilkington Creek are home to native plants that the Awaswas frequently used. Here are three examples of these native plants that had important uses for the Awaswas and other California Indians:

Poison Oak

If you have ever experienced the unrelenting itch of a poison oak rash, then you may be surprised to learn that California Indians (and it’s assumed the Awaswas) had many uses for this notorious plant. Some records say that the native peoples would eat a small piece of the very young leaf in early spring to prevent the poison from affecting them for the rest of the year (We do not recommend trying this at home as it could be extremely dangerous).

It was purportedly also used as a remedy for warts, persistent sores, and even skin cancer. Some California Indians used the plant’s black juices for tattooing. Others used the leaves to wrap bread and the branches to weave baskets.

Poison oak leaves an unforgettable rash. This lobed leaf can be in colors of green and red. Photo courtesy of Elf.

Monkey-Flower

California Indians were not entirely immune to poison oak as records indicate that the leaves of the sticky monkey-flower were used to relieve the itch from a poison oak rash. The leaves were also used as a poultice for open sores and the young leaves could be eaten if gathered before flowering and boiled.

The sticky monkey-flower (Mimulus auranticacus) is the species of monkey-flower found in the Santa Cruz Mountains, and throughout much of California. Photo courtesy of Eugene Zelenko.

Native Grasses

Grasses provided both food and shelter for California Indians. The common tule is probably the best known grass used by the Awaswas and other native peoples living in Santa Cruz and the greater Bay Area. Tule is a large grass that grows up to twenty feet high in marshy areas. It was used to build shelters, boats, and sleeping/sitting mats. There isn’t any tule growing along Pilkington Creek but you can check out this giant grass at Neary Lagoon.

Just as our familiar staple grains are domesticated versions of Eurasian wild grasses, other native Californian grasses have nutritious seeds that were an important part of the Awaswas’ diet. Using a basket called a seed beater, the seeds were shook loose from the grasses into a large conical gathering basket. The Awaswas then heated the seeds and separated the inedible papery chaff from the tasty seed by tossing them in the air using a winnowing basket (watch a short demonstrational video here). The seeds were then pounded into a paste called pinole or made into a bread.

*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 forbearers 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. Though 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.

Branches of the native coast live oak (Quercus agrifolia). Photo courtesy of Molly Lautamo.

Pilkington Creek lies behind the Santa Cruz Museum of Natural History building and continues roughly ⅛ mile (500 feet) down river ending at Seabright Beach. The land along Pilkington Creek is dotted with populations of oak and eucalyptus.

The indiginous Awaswas people lived in western Santa Cruz County, along the coast from slightly north of Davenport to Rio del Mar, and they used native oak trees extensively. Eucalyptus trees, in contrast, were introduced to California following the arrival of European settlers but are now as commonplace as the native oak throughout the area once inhabited by the Awaswas. Both trees are beneficial to the landscape in some way and both are strongly associated with the California coast.

Branches of the non-native eucalyptus tree. Photo courtesy of Molly Lautamo.

At what point does a non-native plant become essential to an ecosystem, or in other words, native? Does it ever? Let’s take a look at the Awaswas’ relationship with the oak and the Europeans’ relationship with the eucalyptus, then you can decide.

Acorns: Not Just for Squirrels

During the 16th and 17th century, the native Awaswas peoples may have kneeled by Pilkington creek, harvesting plants that once grew along its edges. If you visit in autumn, be sure to look for acorns littering the ground.

Oak trees produce abundant, tannin-rich nuts in the fall. Photo courtesy of Deborah Small.

Acorns were an important part of the Awaswas’ food supply. Don’t try to take a bite out of this nut though. The Awaswas had to spend days processing the acorns — first by cracking open their hard shells and pounding them into a paste with a mortar and pestle, then leaching the tannic acid from the acorn meal, possibly with water from a creek like this one. Then the meal was boiled in a basket with stones heated over a fire.

Indigenous Central Coast peoples, such as the Awaswas, often took advantage of large rock surfaces in the landscape to make depressions for cracking open acorns, such as this one. Photo courtesy of Deborah Small.

Food & Lodging in California’s Oaks

Today, California’s oaks provide nourishment for many types of wildlife. Bears, mule deer, insects, and about two dozen species of birds all thrive on a diet that includes acorns. One mule deer alone can eat more than 300 acorns per day — it’s no wonder the Awaswas and other tribes in the area enlisted the help of the whole tribe come harvest time!

Cavity-nesting birds such as barn owls and wood ducks live in hollows in oak trees and these voids provide a winter hideout and summer home for squirrels. The arboreal salamander also makes its home in these cavities. The hollowed out trunk of an oak provides the perfect spot for a beehive and the bark provides habitat for spiders and centipedes.

Native oak trees like this one provide a home to countless creatures. Photo courtesy of Molly Lautamo.

On the ground you may see slugs, snails, caterpillars, ants, and earwigs ooze, inch, scurry, and scuttle beneath the leaf litter at the oak’s base and nematodes (tiny roundworms) and earthworms crawl throughout the tree’s root system. Also found intertwined in the oak’s root system are the tiny filaments, or mycelium, of numerous types of fungus. Some of these fungi form symbiotic relationships with the trees they cohabitate with– in fact, this oak would likely not be able to thrive without its beneficial fungus companions!

The oak woodland is a vital habitat to many native species. Eucalyptus trees, in contrast, actually prevent many native species from living within their barren groves — except, that is, for the monarch butterfly.

The Introduction of Fast-Growing, Flammable Forests

Accompanying the critters on the ground are flower caps from the eucalyptus, similar to acorn caps but darker and rounder with a cross split on top. The tree’s narrow, pointed, bluish-gray leaves that crackle and crunch underfoot may also carpet the ground.

If you are near a eucalyptus tree, look for their flower caps on the ground. Photo courtesy of Molly Lautamo.

The eucalyptus was first introduced to California in 1853 as an ornamental tree, but by 1880 it was also planted for lumber, firewood, medicinal products, oil, and windbreaks. The gold rush resulted in a frenzy of construction around the San Francisco area and thus a need for lots of lumber, fast. During this time the redwood, coast live oak and scrub oak forests were drastically thinned. The eucalyptus, one of the fastest growing trees, appeared at first to be a good replacement. Unfortunately, the tree had several downsides.

One downside is that when a relatively young eucalyptus is harvested, the tree’s wood twists and cracks and it rots too quickly to be of much commercial value, unlike the higher quality timber of centuries-old virgin eucalyptus forests Europeans had encountered in Australia. Eucalyptus forests are also a fire hazard due to a highly flammable oil in the leaf litter. To make matters worse, the trees release a toxin into the soil that prevents native plants from growing in or near eucalyptus groves.

Stands of eucalyptus trees lend their familiar shape to the Santa Cruz skyline. Photo courtesy of Molly Lautamo.

Another unforeseen downside to the eucalyptus is the tree’s unquenchable thirst. Eucalyptus trees can soak up a huge amount of water. In fact, stands of them can dry out nearby swamps and the global spread of eucalyptus trees has wreaked havoc on some native wetland communities.

Eucalyptus: Bad for Biodiversity but Good for Butterflies

Today the eucalyptus is perhaps best known for its importance as a monarch butterfly habitat. Every October through February, eucalyptus groves in Santa Cruz provide a resting place for thousands of these migrating butterflies. Natural Bridges State Park harbors most of the area’s monarchs, hosting migration festivals and leading tours of the park’s monarch sanctuary.

Monarch butterflies clustering on the branches of a eucalyptus tree in Santa Cruz. Photo courtesy of Brocken Inaglory.

So, the question remains: Does the native oak belong but not the non-native eucalyptus? At first look, it does appear the eucalyptus is doing more harm than good and yet it now provides important habitat for the monarch butterfly.

What do you think?

If you’d like to try eating acorns, check out this fun article.

Diluted eucalyptus oil can also be consumed or used topically, but undiluted the oil can be toxic. For more information, check out SF Gate’s article here.

Take the Self-Guided Mobile Tour

This piece is part of a walking tour all about Pilkington Creek by the Santa Cruz Museum of Natural History. You can download the free mobile app with many tours of the Santa Cruz area and beyond.