Wildlife – 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.

When Money Washed up on the Shores of Greyhound Rock

Ranger Lautamo — Wed, 05 Oct 2016 20:00:34 +0000

Greyhound Rock. Photo: Julia Gaudinski/Mobile Ranger

Teeming with more than 300 species of invertebrates, fish, seabirds, and marine mammals, the Greyhound Rock State Marine Conservation Area on California’s central coast is a biodiversity hotspot. Giant kelp forests harbor abalone, juvenile rockfish, and a multitude of other marine invertebrates. Whales and dolphins feed offshore. Brown pelicans and Caspian terns dive for fish. And the bold red beak of the black oystercatcher flashes in the sun as it hunts for mussels and limpets in the rocky shallows.

Shells from the purple olive snail, Olivella biplicata, could buy you a tasty meal 500 years ago. Photo: Ed Bierman

When Snail Shells Were Currency

Around 300 to 500 years ago, purple olive snail shells (Olivella biplicata) could buy you nutritious seeds or a big hunk of tasty game meat. The shells were recognized by indigenous peoples throughout California as currency. This gave the Cotoni, who lived in the area around Greyhound Rock, a big trading advantage.

If you’re visiting the beach at Greyhound Rock, see if you can spot one of the smooth, oblong purple shells and try trading it with a fellow beachcomber for, say, a watch or smartphone. You probably won’t get more than a concerned look of confusion in return.

Olivella biplicata from the beaches of 1825. Photo: Soweby, 1825-Naturalis

That transaction would have failed for the Cotoni, too, because for the snail shells to have any economic value, they had to be made into beads. The Cotoni dried the shells to remove the organic remains (snail guts), ground off the tips so they could be strung onto a cord, smashed the shells into smaller parts, and then reshaped the shell fragments by using a pump drill. They used the beads for trading but also as jewelry and as ornaments on clothing and weapons.

The beach next to Greyhound Rock. Photo: Julia Gaudinski/Mobile Ranger

Money may not grow on trees, but for a time, it did wash up on shore for easy collecting at Greyhound Rock.

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Sources
- About MPAs: State of the Oceans. California MPAs website.
- Personal communication with Martin Rizzo, PhD Candidate, Santa Cruz County, February 2016.
- Tending the Wild: Native American Knowledge and the Management of California's Natural Resources, by M. Kat Anderson, University of California Press, 2005.
- The Role of Olivella Shell Currency in a Burgeoning Prehistoric California Economy, by A. Rowan Gard. Prized Writing 2005-2006, UC Davis website.
- Maps: The Move to the Missions. Amah Mutsun Tribal Band website.
- A History of American Indians in California, by Dwight Dutschke. Office of Historic Presentation, California State Parks website.
- Greyhound Rock, Santa Cruz. California State Beaches, See California website.

Elkhorn Slough Sea Otters Offset Agricultural Runoff

Ranger Lautamo — Wed, 28 Sep 2016 20:00:53 +0000

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Where to See the Sea Otters

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

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

Elkhorn Slough – A Protected Place for Otters and More

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

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

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

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

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

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.

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.

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.

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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.

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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.

Hummingbirds: Anna’s and Allen’s

Ranger Salazar — Thu, 09 Jun 2016 13:00:32 +0000

Anna’s hummingbird at the UCSC Arboretum. Photo: Lauren Salazar/Mobile Ranger

Anna’s hummingbirds (Calypte anna) are year-round residents of northern California, but they weren’t always. Prior to the mid-20th century, northern Baja California and Southern California were the only places that Anna’s would breed. Hummingbirds have long thin bills and even longer tongues that enable them to reach nectar that most other birds can’t get in narrow tubular flowers, such as monkey flower and manzanita. So their breeding habitat expanded when Californians planted exotic nectar-rich flowering plants in their gardens and hung hummingbird feeders outside.

You know you’ve spotted an Anna’s hummingbird when you see an iridescent pink gorget (throat). Photo: Lauren Salazar/Mobile Ranger

Allen’s Coming to Town

Anna’s hummingbirds are among the most common hummingbirds along the Pacific Coast, but they are certainly not the only ones. Allen’s hummingbirds (Selasphorus sasin) visit coastal California for their yearly migration from central Mexico. They breed along a strip of coastal California and southern Oregon that includes Santa Cruz.

When they arrive, they make their presence known fairly aggressively. These three-inch birds are extremely feisty for their size, sometimes taking their rivals to the ground. Allen’s hummingbirds are even bold enough to chase off red-tailed hawks and American kestrels from their territories.

Allen’s Hummingbirds look sweet, but they can pack a punch. Photo: Alan Schmierer

At the University of California, Santa Cruz (UCSC) annual Hummingbird Days, Scott Adam described the arrival of the aggressive Allen’s this way:

“When they first arrive, there is a big territory war. They forcibly displace the Anna’s hummingbirds into the surrounding neighborhoods, take possession of the nectar-rich grevilleas in the Australian garden, and then wait for the females.”

The arboretum at UCSC is a hot spot for both the Anna’s and Allen’s hummingbirds because it contains several non-native Australian flowering plants that provide a good source of nectar.

Sources
- Hummingbird Wars: Nature’s tiny bullies return to Santa Cruz, by Ryan Masters. Santa Cruz Sentinel, March 8, 2015.
- Anna's Hummingbirds: Life History. Cornell Lab of Ornithology, All About Birds website.
- Allen's Hummingbirds: Life History. Cornell Lab of Ornithology, All About Birds website.

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.

A Natural History Field Guide to Santa Cruz’s Pogonip

Kylie Smith — Mon, 16 May 2016 20:00:30 +0000

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

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

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

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

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

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

What’s in the Guide

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Sources
- A Field Guide to the Communities of Pogonip, by Kylie Smith. Self-published, 2016.
- Pogonip: The Cowell Family, Polo, and a Poltergeist, part of the UCSC Natural History Tour. Mobile Ranger website.
- Pogonip: Lime Kilns, Secret Notes, and Questionable Koi, part of the UCSC Natural History Tour. Mobile Ranger website.

Salton Sea: Bizarre in Every Way

Ranger Gaudinski — Mon, 09 May 2016 20:00:47 +0000

The Salton Sea, 2015. Photo: Marc Cooper, public domain

In 1904, the Salton Sink was merely a dry lake bed. But in 1905, it became a huge inland sea almost overnight when the Colorado River was accidentally diverted into the basin in a botched diversion project for the Imperial Canal.

The accidental diversion created a habitat for the thousands of pelicans seen in the background of this photo taken in 1910. Photo: Pierce, C.C, public domain

Although it became a booming vacation destination during the 1950s, today, the Salton Sea area is a ghostly place. Exploring it now can feel like visiting the set of a horror movie that takes place in a post-apocalyptic wasteland. It is a very interesting place to visit, the water can be smelly, but it’s not toxic at all, so do not worry about that.

Someone must have been distracted by watching television when the apocalypse hit. Photo: Christopher Bowns CC BY-SA 2.0

How the Sea Came to Be

At the turn of the last century, concerns over the environment didn’t really exist. Development was paramount. That’s why people saw the accidental formation of the sea as an opportunity to turn the area into a tourist hot spot.

In 1927, budding entrepreneur Gus Eilers opened a new resort and started boat races. That inspired other young men to try to make their fortunes from the Salton Sea.

The yacht club and North Shore Motel at the Salton Sea in the 1960s. Photo: SkinheadSportBiker1 CC BY 2.0

During the 1950s and ’60s, the Salton Sea really started to boom as thousands of boaters, water skiers, and vacationers flocked to the area. The appeal of the sea even attracted celebrities, including Frank Sinatra and The Beach Boys. The sea was stocked with fish from the Gulf of California, so that attracted people who liked to fish, and bird populations began to migrate there, too.

The Salton Sea had its day in the sun. Photo: Shastared CC BY 2.0

An Aberration Created by Humans, Destroyed by Nature

Beginning in the 1960s, still at the height of its popularity, the sea went through dramatic changes. Unlike natural bodies of water, the Salton Sea has no outlet, which is why its water level is static. The water lost by evaporation is replaced in roughly equal quantity by irrigation runoff from local farms. This runoff contains large amounts of salt and nutrients from fertilizer (primarily nitrogen and phosphorus), so the salinity and nutrient levels rise every year.

A combination of three surrounding rivers and farm runoff feed the Salton Sea. Photo: Phil Konstantin CC BY 2.0, 2009

The extra nutrients from the fertilizer creates algal blooms, which smell horrible, especially in hot weather. When these die, the algae sinks to the bottom. Bacteria then eat the algae, creating hydrogen sulfide gas that depletes oxygen from the water.

Separate pools show different concentrations of algae and bacteria. Photo: Raindrift CC BY-SA 3.0

Because the gas restricts the oxygen that’s necessary to breathe, thousands of fish began to die during the 1980s. The birds that frequently migrate to the Salton Sea eat the rotting fish and become sick, sometimes dying from botulism poisoning. The sand on the beach is actually composed of fish and bird bones.

A dead fish in the Salton Sea, 2013. Photo: Courtesy of Livia Hyams

Just when it seemed things couldn’t get any worse, two large tropical storms in 1976 and 1977 caused the water in the Salton Sea to rise. Homes and buildings were flooded, and the damage was irreversible. On top of the dead animals and putrid stench, the flooding influenced a mass exodus of residents.

What’s left of the tourist attractions now. Photo: Greg Mannin LB, public domain

Today, the lake continues to shrink as there are no freshwater inputs and people avoid going in the salty often algal filled water at all. While it appears un-appetizing, the truth is the water is not polluted with anything harmful to humans. In fact, if you removed the high levels of salt and nutrients, it would actually meet federal standards for safe drinking water.

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

Salton Sea: Bizarre in Every Way. https://t.co/yo9mTZ5Ze4 #saltonsea @Visitsaltonsea @SaltonSeaMedia @SaltonSeaWalk pic.twitter.com/wQpNyxR3zZ

— Mobile Ranger (@Mobile_Ranger) May 10, 2016

Sources
- The Salton Sea. Lost America: Night Photography of the Abandoned West website, 2016.
- "Strange Geographies: The Salton Sea," by Ransom Riggs. Mental Floss website, 2009.
- Salton Sea Canoe Race Organizers Hope Recreation Can Help Save The Sea. Megan Burke, Tom Fudge, Brooke Ruth. KPBS, Tuesday February 9, 2016.
- Salton Sea. Wikipedia: The Free Encyclopedia. Wikimedia Foundation, Inc. Accessed April 2016.
- The Salton Sea: Death and Politics in the Great American Water Wars," by Matt Simon. Wired, 2012.
- The Salton Sea Fades Away, And A Town With It, by Gloria Hillard. All Things Considered, NPR, 2012.

Origin of Feral Pigs in California

Ranger Gaudinski — Thu, 28 Apr 2016 20:00:52 +0000

Feral pig. Photo: Ricard Bartz CC BY SA 2.5

Spanish ships visiting Monterey Bay in 1769 released a bunch of domestic pigs, hoping they would go forth, multiply, and be a plentiful food source for restocking their ships. This they did quite well for over 150 years, thanks to the tubers and grubs in the coastal prairies and the acorns in the woodlands.

Then in 1925, Eurasian wild boar were imported from North Carolina and released in Carmel. The feral pigs we have in coastal California today are a mix of these two stocks. About 30,000 wild pigs are hunted and killed each year in California, most in Sonoma, Mendocino, and Monterey counties.

If you want to know how to stalk, kill, and cook a wild pig, read Jack Bouleware’s article titled “Hunting Wild Boar.”

Lesser-Known Stories of the Long Marine Lab Neighborhood

Ranger Gaudinski — Mon, 11 Apr 2016 13:30:53 +0000

The gray whale at the Seymour Center surrounded by restored native plants: Erigeron glaucusseaside (seaside daisy) and Dudlea caespitosa (sea lettuce). Photo: Jackie Pascoe

Lots of great things happen at Long Marine Laboratory, including marine research, marine education, and lagoon and bluff habitat restoration. The lab sits atop a beautiful bluff on the west side of Santa Cruz, California, where it opened in 1978. It is named after Joseph M. Long, founder of the now-defunct Long’s Drugs chain, to honor his substantial contributions to the University of California.

The Erosion Story

The coastline at Long Marine Lab features undulating patterns made by a resistant layer in the Santa Cruz Mudstone. These are called shore platforms, and they are quite common along the north coast of Santa Cruz County.

Santa Cruz Mudstone in front of Long Marine Lab. This is a great example of pocket beaches. Photo: Julia Gaudinski/Mobile Ranger

Shore platforms are responsible for the many pocket beaches that you see in Santa Cruz and elsewhere along the north coast. The undulating pattern occurs where Santa Cruz Mudstone is flat-lying (horizontal) and there are 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. The presence of Santa Cruz Mudstone and shore platforms helps to keep erosion rates along the north coast quite low. Within California, erosion rates can range from a few inches up to several feet per year. Here, with the Santa Cruz Mudstone, they average a mere three to six inches per year.

Erosion is so slow here that the mast of La Feliz, which went aground in 1924, is still visible from the cliff top. The crew of 13 was rescued by people onshore, and all of the cargo was recovered. Now, 88 years later, the mast is still standing where rescuers left it then.

The La Feliz went aground off the coast in front of what is now Long Marine Lab in 1924. Photo: Courtesy of Frank Perry

The mast of La Feliz (pole on left), a ship that ran aground in 1924. Photo: Julia Gaudinski/Mobile Ranger

Along West Cliff Drive near Almar Street, where the bedrock changes to the Purisima Formation, which is a much less resistant sandstone. There, average erosion rates are roughly double.

An example of the Purisima Formation along West Cliff Drive. The top part of the cliffs where most of the ice plant is growing is composed of Quaternary deposits. The bottom section is the Purisima Formation. The contact between them can be seen clearly in the middle of the photo. Photo: Julia Gaudinski/Mobile Ranger

One of the highest natural erosion rates in California is at Point Año Nuevo in southern San Mateo County. There, the cliffs are low, nearly at sea level, and made of layers of Monterey Shale, which erodes easily. Average erosion rates have been nine feet per year for the last 300 years.

Native Plant Restoration

The coastal plants surrounding the Seymour Center and Younger Lagoon are gradually being restored to the native plant mix of coastal sage scrub. The native plants that would likely have lived on the sea cliffs and bluffs prior to European settlement would be a mix of low lying shrubs (generally under six feet) and herbaceous perennials and annuals including buckwheat, sagebrush, yarrow, lupine, and coyote bush.

Restored coastal bluff vegetation in front of the Seymour Center at Long Marine Lab. Photo: Julia Gaudinski/Mobile Ranger

This is a much more diverse ecosystem than what you see if you are passing along West Cliff Drive, where ice plant has largely displaced native plants. However, native plant restoration projects are starting along West Cliff Drive, too.

What is the best thing to do with ice plant in California? Either pull it out to make way for native plants or pickle it! Photo: Julia Gaudinski/Mobile Ranger

De Anza Mobile Home Park: Rent Control Ruckus

Along the cliff edge to the east of the lab is the De Anza Mobile Home Park. It is one of the nicer mobile home locations in Santa Cruz County. Residents must be over 55 years old, so they are mostly retired people who own their manufactured homes but pay rent on the lots.

De Anza Mobile Home Park (notice the bluff covered with ice plant). Photo: Julia Gaudinski/Mobile Ranger

De Anza was the hotbed of a rent control controversy here for many years, ending in 2003 when the city was no longer able to defend the legal challenges to its rent control ordinance from the park’s owner, Equity Lifestyle, Inc. Previously, rents for the manufactured home lots (not including the mortgages) were $400 to $700 monthly. Now, they run $1500 to $4100. Residents who lived there before rent control was abolished were allowed to continue with regulated rent, but that ends when they sell the manufactured home. Because of the new lot rental rates, resale values of the homes that they owned dropped from about $200,000 – 400,000 to less than $20,000.

Take the Self-Guided Mobile Tour

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

Sources
- De Anza Mobile Home Park in Santa Cruz. Greg Camp. Property in Santa Cruz website.
- Joseph M. Long, 78; Philanthropist Led Chain of Drug Stores. Obituaries, New York Times December 31, 1990.
- Location, Location, Location. Metro Santa Cruz, December 12-19 issue, 2001.
- Living with the Changing California Coast, by Gary B. Griggs, Kiki Patsch, Lauret E. Savoy, et al. University of California Press, 2005.
- Institute of Marine Sciences, Long Marine Laboratory, University of California Santa Cruz.
- Personal communication with Gary Griggs, Distinguished Professor of Marine Sciences, University of California Santa Cruz, February 2012.
- Salvaging the wreck of the small coastal freighter La Feliz. SCM105, Santa Cruz Public Library website.
- The Santa Cruz Rent Control Story, by Frank Wodley. Coalition of Mobilehome Owners – California website, November 2007.
- Seymour Science Center > About Us > Our Past. University of California, Santa Cruz.
- UCSC breaks ground on biology building, by Kara Guzman. Santa Cruz Sentinel, September 24, 2014.

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.

Wildlife of Pilkington Creek: Past and Present

Ranger Lautamo — Thu, 11 Feb 2016 14:30:46 +0000

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.

Sources Used

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

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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

Slash and Burn: Native Garden Tending

Ranger Lautamo — Thu, 31 Dec 2015 13:30:25 +0000

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.

Sources Used
- Native American Management and the Legacy of Working Landscapes in California: Western landscapes were working long before Europeans arrived. Lucy Diekmann, Lee Panich, and Chuck Striplen. Source: Rangelands, Vol. 29, No. 3 (Jun., 2007), pp. 46-50
- Personal Communication with Jim Keller, Director of Conservation and Land Initiatives, Amah Mutsun Tribal Band, November 28, 2012.
- Tending the Wild: Native American Knowledge and the Management of California’s Natural Resources. M. Kat Anderson. University of California Press; 2005.
- Coppicing a Cultural Thread from the Past to the Present. Dino Labiste. Primitive Ways Website. 2013.

Gray Whales: Mud, Mating and Migrating

Ranger Gaudinski — Thu, 24 Dec 2015 13:30:05 +0000

Two gray whales. Photo courtesy of NOS/NOAA/MBNMS.

Have you seen any heart-shaped puffs of mist from the ocean offshore California lately? If so you were likely close to a gray whale. Gray whales arguably hold the record of having the longest mammal migration on earth and they are passing by Central Coast waters now. Starting in winter, gray whales (Eschrichtius robustus), are off on their 11,000-mile trip south and then head back north to the Arctic by summer.

The Great Migration: When to See it

Grays begin their migration in November heading south to the bays and lagoons of Baja California. Most of the whales passing the Central Coast during November and December are pregnant females racing to warmer waters to give birth. In mid-January, the rest of the gray whale population passes by.

They return north from mid-February to early summer; this is peak migration time and the Monterey Bay is a great food source. Northwest winds push the surface water offshore, replacing it with nutrient rich cold water from greater depths. This “upwelling” fuels the growth of plankton which are the basis for the Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary’s rich marine food chain. The richest waters are centered along the submarine canyons that come close to shore. Look for them just beyond the kelp forests. The gray whales come close enough that you can see the growth of whitish barnacles and pink “whale lice” on their skin – even without binoculars.

The gray whale migration route. Photo courtesy of NOS/NOAA Fisheries.

Mud Munching

Grays feed in a very unusual way. They dive to the bottom, lay on their sides and scoop up great gobs of mud which they filter through their baleen. The bristles of the baleen trap inch-long, fat-rich amphipods that get whisked down their throats using their huge tongue. Grays spend the summer in the Bering Sea or the Chukchi Sea, between Russia and Alaska feeding on the food rich muds.

Big as a School Bus

A full grown gray whale can be 45 feet long and weigh 40 tons but, even so, are often surprisingly hard to see. They are a mottled gray, with white patches of barnacles over their bulky body and a narrow, V-shaped head. The shape of the spouts gives you the first clue grays are around. The water tends to make a heart-shape: different from the more straight-up spout of blues and humpbacks.

A heart-shaped gray whale spout. Photo by Linda Tanner .

Typically grays only come to the surface for a short time. They give a quick couple of spouts, a roll of the back, and then they’re down for 5 or 6 minutes or more. Just long enough for you to get bored and look away.

Increasing Numbers

In the 1970s, whale sightings were few because their populations had been depleted due to world whaling practices. Thanks to anti-whaling laws that began in the 1940s, but were really given teeth in the US and internationally in the 1970s, many species have made a strong recovery. Gray whales have been taken off the endangered species list, while the numbers of humpback and blue whales have increased.

Sources Used
- Big Fish: A Brief History of Whaling. Meghan E. Marrero, National Geographic Education Website.
- MBNMS: Whales, Dolphins, and Porpoises of the MBNMS. NOS, NOAA, MBNMS Website.
- MBNMS: Whale Watching. NOS, NOAA, MBNMS Website.
- Humpback Whale. Wikipedia.
- A month-to-month guide to Central California Sea Life. Seasons in the Sea. Web.

Bridging the Gap Between River and Community: The Pedestrian Bridge

Coastal Watershed Council — Mon, 21 Dec 2015 13:30:47 +0000

The Highway 1 Pedestrian Bridge connects the east and west banks of the San Lorenzo River at the northernmost point of the Santa Cruz Riverwalk. Photo courtesy of and © Mark Yashinsky.

Many towns have rivers running through them. Often, the river has been integrated into urban planning and is a vital resource used and loved by the community. In some towns, however, the rivers presence has been marginalized, and people are not really aware of their local river nor do they interact with it. In these cases, the health of the river ecosystems and the entire watershed may also have been compromised. Many towns and cities in the latter case are now working hard to revitalize their rivers, improve watershed health, and help local people make a personal connection to their river.

In Connecticut, Riverfront Recapture has been working since 1980 to integrate the Connecticut River into the lives of people living in Hartford and East Hartford. In Pennsylvania, the Susquehanna Greenway Partnership is trying to create a network of vibrant “River Towns” up and down the Susquehanna River that are actively engaged with the river.

In the city of Santa Cruz, California, the San Lorenzo River has been largely cut off from the people due to large levees built in the 1950s for flood control. Since 2013 the Coastal Watershed Council has been working to make the San Lorenzo River a healthier watershed that is used and loved by it’s surrounding community.

The Highway 1 Pedestrian Bridge is a tangible example of what a community can do to increase access and enjoyment of an urban river. Before the Pedestrian Bridge was built it was difficult for pedestrians and bicyclists to cross the northern section of the urban river. It is illegal to take a bike on the Highway 1 overpass, so river-goers would have to travel down to Water Street to cross.

The Highway 1 bridge travels over the San Lorenzo River. On the highway, it is illegal for pedestrians or bikes to cross the river. Photo courtesy of and © Coastal Watershed Council.

These issues were addressed when the City of Santa Cruz and the local community came together and approved the the San Lorenzo Urban River Plan in 2003. The plan’s overarching goal was to restore native plants and to enhance fish and wildlife habitat in and along the river. They also hoped to create a space to enjoy the river’s natural beauty without compromising the needed levee structures. The pedestrian bridge and the Santa Cruz Riverwalk (the two-mile long City Park on the top of the levees) were created from this plan.

The new Pedestrian Bridge is lowered into place in 2009. Photo courtesy of and © Syblon Reid General Engineering Contractors.

The construction of the public Pedestrian Bridge was a major success for the city. In addition, the project received the American Public Works Association Monterey Bay Chapter 2010 Project of the Year Award. The bridge is 270 feet long, and is a great place to pause and observe the river meandering upstream and commuters traveling downstream.

A major goal of the San Lorenzo Urban River Plan was to “create a unique sense of space, but not to compete with the river’s natural beauty or impede the functionality of the levees.” The project’s authors pushed for interpretive signs, educational material surrounding the river and increased public awareness regarding the San Lorenzo River. The report gathered information from walking tours, public meetings, and from the experiences of similar interpretive trail projects that have proven to be successful.

Envisioning The River’s Future

Today the Santa Cruz Riverwalk is frequented by families, cyclists, joggers, and parents gently pushing their children along in strollers. It’s one of the best transportation corridors in Santa Cruz and it seems that every day more people are coming to spend time along the San Lorenzo River. However, many people still don’t think of visiting the river and many aren’t sure if it is safe.

Walking, biking and other recreational activities are popular on the Santa Cruz Riverwalk. Photos courtesy of and © Crystal Birns Photography.

Once transformed, the safe inviting feel and aesthetics of the Santa Cruz Riverwalk draws us in and reminds us why this town came to be here in the first place. When we spend time along the river, it transforms us, taking us back to when we first connected to nature as a child. Now lets help connect our own children to nature – just like we did.

In 2013, the Coastal Watershed Council founded the San Lorenzo River Alliance, a diverse coalition of organizations with expertise in water, business, government, and arts: this group works every day to reconnect a healthy watershed to a vibrant community. So far, the Coastal Watershed Council and San Lorenzo River Alliance have gathered community input, activated prior commitments from local leaders, and enhanced habitat and recreational opportunities along the river.

The San Lorenzo River Alliance was formed in December 2013 to revitalize the San Lorenzo River to a healthy watershed connected to a vibrant community in Santa Cruz.

Learn more about the work of the Coastal Watershed Council and the San Lorenzo River Alliance here.

Take the Self-Guided Mobile Tour

This piece is part of the San Lorenzo River Tour by the Coastal Watershed Council. Download the free app with many tours of the Santa Cruz area and beyond.

Sources Used
- San Lorenzo Urban River Plan (2003). Coastal-watershed.org. Website.
- San Lorenzo River Alliance. coastal-watershed.org/sanlorenzoriver. Website.

Awaswas Wart Remedy: Poison Oak

Ranger Lautamo — Mon, 07 Dec 2015 13:30:05 +0000

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.

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
- California Indians. The Ohlone Peoples: Botanica, Animal and Mineral Resources. Susan Labiste. Primitive Ways Website. 2013.
- California Indians. The Ohlone Peoples: Botanica, Animal and Mineral Resources. Susan Labiste. Primitive Ways Website. 2013.
- Ohlone Medicine. Chuck Smith, Cabrillo College. 1999. Website.
- Personal Communication with Jim Keller, Director of Conservation and Land Initiatives, Amah Mutsun Tribal Band, November 28, 2012.
- Tending the Wild: Native American Knowledge and the Management of California’s Natural Resources. M. Kat Anderson. University of California Press; 2005.
- Tule: A Multipurpose Plant of the California Indians. Chuck Smith, Cabrillo College. 1999. Website.

Wildlife – Mobile Ranger

Elkhorn Slough: From Salt Ponds to Bird Sanctuary

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When Money Washed up on the Shores of Greyhound Rock

When Snail Shells Were Currency

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Elkhorn Slough Sea Otters Offset Agricultural Runoff

Where to See the Sea Otters

Elkhorn Slough – A Protected Place for Otters and More

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

Time Takes Its Toll

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Multitudes of Monarchs at Natural Bridges State Beach

A Monarch Refuge

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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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Hummingbirds: Anna’s and Allen’s

Allen’s Coming to Town

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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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A Natural History Field Guide to Santa Cruz’s Pogonip

What’s in the Guide

Sources

Salton Sea: Bizarre in Every Way

How the Sea Came to Be

An Aberration Created by Humans, Destroyed by Nature

Sources

Origin of Feral Pigs in California

Lesser-Known Stories of the Long Marine Lab Neighborhood

The Erosion Story

Native Plant Restoration

De Anza Mobile Home Park: Rent Control Ruckus

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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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Wildlife of Pilkington Creek: Past and Present

Coyotes and Mountain Lions Still Prowl Santa Cruz

The Most Common Visitors to Pilkington Creek

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Sources Used

Harbor Seals: How and Where to Spot Them

Population and Characteristics

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Sources Used

Slash and Burn: Native Garden Tending

How and Why to Prune a Willow

How Controlled Burns & Weeding Shaped the Landscape

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Sources Used

Gray Whales: Mud, Mating and Migrating

The Great Migration: When to See it

Mud Munching

Big as a School Bus

Increasing Numbers

Sources Used

Bridging the Gap Between River and Community: The Pedestrian Bridge