Spring Landscapes - 2022 by Peninsula Open Space Trust

LANDSCAPES Peninsula Open Space Trust Spring 2022

ACTING TODAY FOR THE LONG-TERM Most weekends, my partner and I head to a trail or beach, our two kids in tow. It’s an activity we all enjoy; it instills an appreciation for nature in our children, keeps us away from screens and allows me to connect with the land POST has been instrumental in conserving. It also makes me think about how different the Bay Area would be if POST and our partners hadn’t thought ahead and protected these beloved landscapes with the help of supporters like you. Though POST has been preserving land for decades, the properties we protect need continued care so they can provide our region with benefits for years to come. I’m proud to be part of this team — to work alongside staff who embrace ongoing learning and recognize the need to adapt to the area’s changing needs. It’s because of our ability to adapt that I’m optimistic about the future, even in light of the challenges climate change brings. This issue of Landscapes examines the many ways that long-term care for the land — and the people and wildlife who have relationships with it — is central to POST’s mission. Discover how we’re working to bring

out the many benefits of POST-protected Cloverdale Ranch. Learn how POST is collaborating with the Muwekma Ohlone Tribe to support the development of their new land trust. Celebrate 10 years of partnership at San Vicente Redwoods and start getting excited about new trails! And finally, take a look behind the camera to learn more about our wildlife connectivity research and meet the pros who are essential to it. Caring for the land and its diversity of inhabitants is complex, evolving and rewarding, and it never stops. The work we’re doing today ensures that future generations can enjoy the benefits our local open spaces bring. I look forward to the day that our children’s children can experience the joy that comes from lacing up their shoes and heading off on a trail. Warm regards,

Jeanine Crider Director of Planned Giving

P.S. Our work depends on donors like you. Hundreds of our supporters have also named POST as a beneficiary in their trust or IRA. If you’ve included us in your plans, please contact me at (650) 352-6312 or jcrider@openspacetrust.org so I can thank you! cover & right

IN THIS ISSUE

A Quarter Century of Care at Cloverdale Ranch

Partnering for a Brighter Future: The Muwekma Ohlone Tribe

San Vicente Redwoods: A 10-Year Conservation Collaboration

What We Can Learn From Wildlife Moving Between Mountains

A QUARTER CENTURY of CARE AT CLOVERDALE RANCH

Spanning more than 6,700 acres along San Mateo County’s remote coastline, POST-protected Cloverdale Ranch in Pescadero is one of the largest contiguous open spaces in the region. When we began protecting this expansive and beneficial landscape in 1997, we knew caring for it would be a long and challenging endeavor. Now, 25 years later, we’re working on the possibility of transferring much of the property to the Midpeninsula Regional Open Space District (Midpen) to manage as public open space in perpetuity. One reason stewarding this land is so complex, apart from its size, is its mosaic of topographic features. Miles of forested hilltops decorate the largest coastal terrace prairie in the county and the third largest in the state. The rolling rangelands are dotted with cattle, whose grazing reduces the presence of weedy invaders in the native grasslands and decreases risk from wildfire. Myriad animals call the property home, including badgers, burrowing owls, grasshopper sparrows and colorful and endemic San Francisco garter snakes. Cloverdale Ranch was slated for development into low-density luxury estates before POST stepped in, and we have since conserved more than 8,200 acres,

some of which have been purchased by farmers or incorporated into Pigeon Point Light Station, Butano and Año Nuevo State Parks. This expansive landscape boasts roughly 15 miles of stream habitat for endangered coho and steelhead salmon, more than 700 acres of farms, 4,500 acres of grassland and 2.5 miles of iconic coastline. The land offers a multitude of natural benefits including habitat for wildlife, prime soil for our local food supply, three healthy watersheds and significant carbon sequestration, all of which contribute to the environmental health of our region. Cloverdale Ranch is the backbone for so much life along this stretch of coastline. Its preservation demonstrates how POST has long been a leader in multi-benefit conservation. Projects like this illustrate exactly what the nation and state are aiming for with their initiatives to protect 30% of land and water by the year 2030.

Cloverdale Ranch is the backbone for so much life along this stretch of coastline. photos

After protecting this property, we leased smaller parcels to Cloverdale Ranch’s abundant natural and man-made ponds and local farmers as part of our effort to preserve the region’s rich reservoirs also provide ideal habitat for many species, including agricultural heritage. A burgeoning network of local, POSTthe threatened California red-legged frog, the main prey for protected farms and ranches are now in operation, all of which the endangered San Francisco garter snake. It was through either lease or have purchased land from us over the years: pond restoration that POST truly learned how to work with the R&R Farms, Fifth Crow Farm, Root Down Farm, Fly Girl Farm, competing needs of ranchers and farmers while safeguarding Steadfast Herbs, Peninsula magnificent, wild creatures. Farms, Bolsa Point Farms, POST, our partners, farmers Markegard Family Grassfed Cloverdale Ranch offers a multitude and ranchers are just the and rangeland leased by latest caretakers of this long-time ranching families of natural benefits including habitat land. For millennia, many the Silvas and the Dinellis. for wildlife, prime soil for our local Indigenous groups called POST is dedicated to Cloverdale Ranch and the food supply, three healthy watersheds ensuring the best possible surrounding area home, and significant carbon sequestration, future for agriculture on including ancestors of the all of which contribute to the these lands. In addition contemporary Muwekma to providing access to Ohlone, Amah Mutsun and environmental health of our region. productive soil, we’ve Ramaytush Ohlone tribes. invested in muchMuch of what the landscape needed improvements to is today is the result of their infrastructure like barns, a bridge, wells and cultural footprint — thousands of years tending to the land and farmworker housing. We’ve worked closely with partners cultivating relationships with native flora and fauna. We hope to on water-related projects, restoring over a mile of Butano rekindle and build upon these connections in the future. Creek and reconnecting it with more than 100 acres of its Our intent has always been to temporarily steward this landscape historic floodplain, as well as expanding water storage like and transfer ownership to others for long-term care. Now, we ponds and reservoirs that make farms, ranches and adjoining are working with our partners at Midpen to explore transferring creeks more resilient to drought conditions. 4

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much of the upland habitat to them, while also looking for opportunities to turn farming parcels over to farmers, subject to easements that require continued production on the land. With this plan in mind, we’re fulfilling a vision of a resilient coastal ecosystem of protected and connected natural lands thriving alongside local farms and ranches. Cloverdale Ranch’s regional significance is unmistakable — for the economy, local communities and the environment.

Top: Fresh produce at R&R Farms’ updated farm stand helps support their operation. Middle: The grasshopper sparrow — a species of special concern — makes its home on Cloverdale’s rolling grasslands. Bottom: The fully restored barn at Root Down Farm is integral to their business.

There’s so much more to explore in and around Cloverdale Ranch. Stop by a farm stand, walk along the Wilbur’s Watch trail and visit a neighboring state park. Find out more at OpenSpaceTrust.org/VisitPescadero. 5

PARTNERING for a BRIGHTER FUTURE: THE MUWEKMA OHLONE TRIBE When POST was founded in the 1970s to support the work of the Midpeninsula Regional Open Space District, we didn’t realize how extensive and integral our network of partners would become. Many years later, we collaborate with a variety of groups to bring people and talent together around important conservation priorities including land acquisition, restoration projects, vital research and more. Recently, we have been building and strengthening relationships with multiple Indigenous partners, the original caretakers throughout our region. Last year, members of the Muwekma Ohlone Tribe invited POST 6

to support the creation of the Muwekma Ohlone Preservation Foundation, a new Indigenous land trust that will help members of the Tribe reconnect with their culture, language, ceremonies and each other on their ancestral lands. Since POST works in and around the Tribe’s unceded homeland, we are supporting them as they create their own independent nonprofit.

Expanding opportunities for Indigenous practices is crucial to carrying out our mission.

As a community currently comprising over 600 people who are native to our region, the Muwekma Ohlone’s relationship with Peninsula and South Bay landscapes extends well beyond prehistory. They have cared for and shaped the open spaces POST seeks to conserve since time immemorial, and their impacts

are still felt today. However, they remain a landless tribe, disenfranchised after centuries of oppression, displacement and genocide. At POST, we believe that working with Indigenous groups like the Muwekma Ohlone is vital to acknowledging the past, making positive changes in the present and working toward a brighter future for local communities and the lands we all love. As tribal members re-learn the knowledge their ancestors held, they’re teaching us about traditional methods of stewardship. Expanding opportunities for Indigenous practices is crucial to carrying out our mission of “protecting open space on the Peninsula and in the South Bay for the benefit of all” — and we’re working together to explore how to heal and recover what has been lost. There is a lot of work to do, and relationships like this are a step in the right direction.

Learn more about the Indigenous communities that lived, and live, in POST’s working area at OpenSpaceTrust.org/NativeLand.

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SAN VICENTE REDWOODS: A 10-YEAR CONSERVATION COLLABORATION

Coastal canyons with recovering redwood, manzanita, ceanothus and other native flora comprise nearly all of the 8,852 acres at POST-protected San Vicente Redwoods (SVR) near Davenport. The little that isn’t forested is home to rare mountain grasslands which, this time of year, become a carpet of native wildflowers. As one of the largest protected areas in the Santa Cruz Mountains, this landscape is a cornerstone for conservation efforts regionally. 8

Along with our partners, Sempervirens Fund, Save the Redwoods League and the Land Trust of Santa Cruz County (LTSCC), we are thrilled to be celebrating 10 years of caring for this extraordinary place. From prescribed burns and shaded fuel breaks to selective thinning, creek restoration, road repairs and more, we are helping this previously clear-cut forest rebound. And this year brings an exciting new phase as we begin recreational trail construction led by LTSCC. SVR’s influence extends well beyond its borders as it offers refuge for wildlife moving within, across and past its boundaries. Using remote cameras and acoustic monitoring, we have been compiling data on how animals use this land. The research has enabled us to carefully shape plans for

environmentally sensitive recreation so that vulnerable species like mountain lions and seafaring marbled murrelets can continue to thrive when more people begin to visit the property. The importance of adaptability has been a key learning. In fact, when the CZU Lightning Complex burned nearly all of this forest in August 2020, the local ecosystem was transformed and we realized that our work needed to adapt to a new reality. While destructive, the fire offered insight into how to better manage SVR. We saw the success of some of our previous efforts, and we can look to the future with greater understanding of how to improve the forest’s health and prepare it for the effects of climate change.

As a result of the fire, we delayed public access. But even that delay gave us the opportunity to adapt — switching our focus to recovery and planting more than 28,000 trees, mostly redwoods. All four partners have been given a unique chance to learn more about forest regeneration, even as we work together to plan, build and one day soon, open public trails in this world-class destination.

For more about what makes SVR special and the many projects taking place there, visit OpenSpaceTrust.org/SVR. photos

WHAT WE CAN LEARN from WILDLIFE MOVING BETWEEN MOUNTAINS

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For the past three years, POST has worked with our partners at Pathways for Wildlife (Pathways) — a research organization specializing in animal movement — on the Southern Santa Cruz Mountains Wildlife Connectivity Study. The goal of this study, which is in its final stages, is to understand how wildlife move over and under highways between the Southern Santa Cruz Mountains and the Diablo and Gabilan mountain ranges. As an extension of our work in Coyote Valley, this research will identify existing wildlife crossings that need improvement, as well as locations where new crossings would be the most beneficial for animals to safely traverse the region. The project deployed over 50 remote-sensor cameras at existing bridges and tunnels under highways (culverts) and conducted systematic roadkill surveys in the study area. These cameras captured an assortment of species as well as surprising moments like the now-famous journey of a coyote and a badger. “Each image offers a window into

When wildlife can’t move safely to meet new populations and mate, they remain isolated, putting some species at risk of local extinction.

the lives of these individuals and the challenges they face while navigating our built infrastructure,” said Ahíga Snyder, co-principal at Pathways. When wildlife can’t move safely to meet new populations and mate, they remain isolated, putting some species at risk of local extinction. For example, far-ranging wildlife such as mountain lions face genetic isolation if they can’t interact and mate with neighboring populations. And the loss of this apex predator in our region would cause disastrous change throughout the food chain, disrupting the entire ecosystem. “This scientific research is the foundation for future conservation work in the area,” Ahíga further explained. “It is bringing to light new opportunities to improve wildlife movement in the Southern Santa Cruz Mountains, which will further support our regional resilience. It’s incredibly exciting.” 11

The results of this study will be instrumental in POST’s efforts to maintain our region’s rich biodiversity. Not only does the research tell us where animals need help, it’s another tool we can use to determine which landscapes are most in need of conservation so that wildlife can continue their important journeys in search of food, habitat and mates.

“ This scientific research is the foundation for future conservation work in the area.” — Ahíga Snyder

Follow POST on Instagram to see more photos and videos of local wildlife caught on camera! Instagram.com/POSTLandTrust.

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STOP and SMELL THE WILDFLOWERS With the spring wildflower bloom underway, it’s a spectacular time of year to be outside exploring the local open spaces you help protect. We’ve put together a new and improved online guide with some of the best trails for wildflower-viewing on the Peninsula and in the South Bay. The guide is now more interactive, easier to read on your phone and ready to take with you out on the land — and we plan to move our other outdoor guides to this format soon. We’d love feedback so we can continue to improve your experience! Simply click on the feedback button when you’re browsing the guide.

NEW and IMPROVED

GO TO THE GUIDE: OpenSpaceTrust.org/Wildflowers

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