Friends of Arana Gulch
Articles and Letters
Zoos are not a replacement for natural habitat
We Live in the Natural World
by Michael Lewis
https://malanlewis.wordpress.com/2022/02/06/zoos-are-not-a-replacement-for-natural-habitat/
Effort to sustain endangered tarplant launches in Santa Cruz – Santa Cruz Sentinel: The city receives $22,000 grant from US Fish and Wildlife, that will fund 1,000 tarplant plantings at Arana Gulch.
This sounds like a good idea, a positive approach to an endangered species.
But is it?
Is an endangered species in a zoo the same as an endangered species on its own in the wild?
Is a tarplant zoo ecosystem the same as a natural, wild ecosystem?
Is a tarplant that has been planted in a greenhouse, germinated and transplanted outdoors the same as a tarplant that grows naturally in its own environment?
Different is not the same.
Human controlled plants are not the same as naturally growing plants.
This project to grow tarplants at Arana Gulch originated as a requirement for the construction of the Broadway-Brommer bike bicycle-pedestrian project, the paved bike road that destroyed acres of federally threatened and state endangered tarplant habitat.
The propaganda disseminated by the City of Santa Cruz and its Parks, Open Space and Recreation Department claimed that building the paved bike road through critical habitat was the only way to save the tarplant. In government speak: "We must destroy the village to save the village."
Follow the path of destruction at Friends of Arana Gulch.
So that's what they did. Now the City of Santa Cruz has the obligation to "save the tarplant," even if that means growing plants in a greenhouse and planting them at Arana Gulch. At great expense. With no guarantee that the plants will survive and reproduce on their own.
Humans think that we can control everything, from climate to disease to species threatened and endangered by human growth and industrial development.
This turns out not to be the case.
The only way to insure the survival of species other than Homo sapiens is stop destroying their natural habitats!
by Michael Lewis
https://malanlewis.wordpress.com/2022/02/06/zoos-are-not-a-replacement-for-natural-habitat/
Effort to sustain endangered tarplant launches in Santa Cruz – Santa Cruz Sentinel: The city receives $22,000 grant from US Fish and Wildlife, that will fund 1,000 tarplant plantings at Arana Gulch.
This sounds like a good idea, a positive approach to an endangered species.
But is it?
Is an endangered species in a zoo the same as an endangered species on its own in the wild?
Is a tarplant zoo ecosystem the same as a natural, wild ecosystem?
Is a tarplant that has been planted in a greenhouse, germinated and transplanted outdoors the same as a tarplant that grows naturally in its own environment?
Different is not the same.
Human controlled plants are not the same as naturally growing plants.
This project to grow tarplants at Arana Gulch originated as a requirement for the construction of the Broadway-Brommer bike bicycle-pedestrian project, the paved bike road that destroyed acres of federally threatened and state endangered tarplant habitat.
The propaganda disseminated by the City of Santa Cruz and its Parks, Open Space and Recreation Department claimed that building the paved bike road through critical habitat was the only way to save the tarplant. In government speak: "We must destroy the village to save the village."
Follow the path of destruction at Friends of Arana Gulch.
So that's what they did. Now the City of Santa Cruz has the obligation to "save the tarplant," even if that means growing plants in a greenhouse and planting them at Arana Gulch. At great expense. With no guarantee that the plants will survive and reproduce on their own.
Humans think that we can control everything, from climate to disease to species threatened and endangered by human growth and industrial development.
This turns out not to be the case.
The only way to insure the survival of species other than Homo sapiens is stop destroying their natural habitats!
City of Santa Cruz Works to Save Endangered Santa Cruz Tarplant at Arana Gulch
City Newsroom
February, 1 2022
https://www.cityofsantacruz.com/Home/Components/News/News/9651/
The City of Santa Cruz and its partners are on a mission to save the Santa Cruz tarplant and have received a grant from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to support the effort. The $22,050 grant will fund field and greenhouse experiments to understand better the species’ biology and the best methods for restoration planting. City staff, consultants, and volunteers will plant more than 1,000 tarplant seedlings in experimental plots at Arana Gulch beginning on Feb. 3, 2022.A federally threatened and California endangered species, Santa Cruz tarplants have declined significantly at Arana Gulch, decreasing from more than 10,000 plants in the early 2000s to fewer than 250 plants in recent years. The City implemented a conservation grazing program in 2015. Still, numbers have remained low, and the team believes that the soil seedbank, which is the natural storage of seeds in the soil or on its surface, has been severely depleted.
“This project to help restore the endangered Santa Cruz tarplant is emblematic of our broader efforts to better the environment throughout our parks, open spaces, beaches, and urban forest,” said Santa Cruz Superintendent of Parks Travis Beck. “Recovery of endangered species like the Santa Cruz tarplant helps to ensure continued biodiversity, which is the foundation for the ecological health of our open spaces.”
The work is being conducted in collaboration with the UC Santa Cruz Greenhouses and the Arana Gulch Adaptive Management Working Group, a collaborative group of City staff, partners from the California Coastal Commission, California Department of Fish and Wildlife, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Department, The California Native Plant Society, University of California Cooperative Extension, UC Santa Cruz Greenhouses, and consulting biologists.
Given the low numbers of tarplant in recent years, the group has advised moving to a more active reintroduction strategy in which greenhouse-reared seedlings are “outplanted” at Arana Gulch in areas where tarplant was found historically. Field experiments began in 2021 and, with this funding, will continue in February of 2022 with the goal of comparing different approaches to planting Santa Cruz tarplant onsite.
Complementing the field studies, greenhouse experiments at the UC Santa Cruz Greenhouses will investigate different treatments to induce germination of the tarplant’s ray achenes. Ray achenes are one of two types of seeds produced by individual tarplant flowers and are believed to survive for many years in the soil. Still, the environmental cues that trigger their germination are not understood. Understanding the means to germinate these seeds may inform practical management techniques to achieve the growth of dormant seeds in the seedbank.
The Santa Cruz tarplant (Holocarpha macradenia) is an annual plant with showy yellow late summer flowers that grows in the coastal prairie habitat along California’s central coast. Currently, fewer than 22 populations of the plant exist in the state, most in Santa Cruz County. Even where habitat is protected, as at Arana Gulch, maintaining the species is difficult. As an annual plant, Santa Cruz tarplant is dependent on the seedbank in the soil and conditions that allow plants to grow from that seedbank each year and survive to flower. Competition from non-native grasses can make that growth more difficult.
“We are pleased to support the work of the City of Santa Cruz and the Adaptive Management Working Group in conserving Santa Cruz tarplant at Arana Gulch. Arana Gulch provides a designated critical habitat for the species, and plants here are believed to be genetically unique among tarplant populations. We expect that this project will help recover the Santa Cruz tarplant at Arana Gulch and yield new information that may help conserve the species at other locations,” said Mark Ogonowski, Senior Fish and Wildlife Biologist with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.
February, 1 2022
https://www.cityofsantacruz.com/Home/Components/News/News/9651/
The City of Santa Cruz and its partners are on a mission to save the Santa Cruz tarplant and have received a grant from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to support the effort. The $22,050 grant will fund field and greenhouse experiments to understand better the species’ biology and the best methods for restoration planting. City staff, consultants, and volunteers will plant more than 1,000 tarplant seedlings in experimental plots at Arana Gulch beginning on Feb. 3, 2022.A federally threatened and California endangered species, Santa Cruz tarplants have declined significantly at Arana Gulch, decreasing from more than 10,000 plants in the early 2000s to fewer than 250 plants in recent years. The City implemented a conservation grazing program in 2015. Still, numbers have remained low, and the team believes that the soil seedbank, which is the natural storage of seeds in the soil or on its surface, has been severely depleted.
“This project to help restore the endangered Santa Cruz tarplant is emblematic of our broader efforts to better the environment throughout our parks, open spaces, beaches, and urban forest,” said Santa Cruz Superintendent of Parks Travis Beck. “Recovery of endangered species like the Santa Cruz tarplant helps to ensure continued biodiversity, which is the foundation for the ecological health of our open spaces.”
The work is being conducted in collaboration with the UC Santa Cruz Greenhouses and the Arana Gulch Adaptive Management Working Group, a collaborative group of City staff, partners from the California Coastal Commission, California Department of Fish and Wildlife, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Department, The California Native Plant Society, University of California Cooperative Extension, UC Santa Cruz Greenhouses, and consulting biologists.
Given the low numbers of tarplant in recent years, the group has advised moving to a more active reintroduction strategy in which greenhouse-reared seedlings are “outplanted” at Arana Gulch in areas where tarplant was found historically. Field experiments began in 2021 and, with this funding, will continue in February of 2022 with the goal of comparing different approaches to planting Santa Cruz tarplant onsite.
Complementing the field studies, greenhouse experiments at the UC Santa Cruz Greenhouses will investigate different treatments to induce germination of the tarplant’s ray achenes. Ray achenes are one of two types of seeds produced by individual tarplant flowers and are believed to survive for many years in the soil. Still, the environmental cues that trigger their germination are not understood. Understanding the means to germinate these seeds may inform practical management techniques to achieve the growth of dormant seeds in the seedbank.
The Santa Cruz tarplant (Holocarpha macradenia) is an annual plant with showy yellow late summer flowers that grows in the coastal prairie habitat along California’s central coast. Currently, fewer than 22 populations of the plant exist in the state, most in Santa Cruz County. Even where habitat is protected, as at Arana Gulch, maintaining the species is difficult. As an annual plant, Santa Cruz tarplant is dependent on the seedbank in the soil and conditions that allow plants to grow from that seedbank each year and survive to flower. Competition from non-native grasses can make that growth more difficult.
“We are pleased to support the work of the City of Santa Cruz and the Adaptive Management Working Group in conserving Santa Cruz tarplant at Arana Gulch. Arana Gulch provides a designated critical habitat for the species, and plants here are believed to be genetically unique among tarplant populations. We expect that this project will help recover the Santa Cruz tarplant at Arana Gulch and yield new information that may help conserve the species at other locations,” said Mark Ogonowski, Senior Fish and Wildlife Biologist with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.
Experimental Outplanting of Santa Cruz Tarplant
City Newsroom
January, 29 2021
https://www.cityofsantacruz.com/Home/Components/News/News/9183/
The Parks & Recreation Department’s Open Space & Greenways team, in collaboration with the Arana Gulch Adaptive Management Working Group, the UCSC Greenhouse, and UCSC volunteers, has successfully implemented an experimental outplanting of 400 Santa Cruz tarplant. Santa Cruz tarplant (Holocarpha macradenia) is an endangered plant species endemic to Northern California and ensuring its persistence is a key goal of the Arana Gulch management plan. An additional 400 tarplants are scheduled to be planted in February. The short-term goal of this experimental outplanting is to identify the best outplanting methods. The long-term goal is to increase the seedbank of the tarplant at Arana to a level that will ensure a high probability of persistence for 100 years, or in perpetuity. This planting is something of a landmark in that it exceeds the targeted population goal for the Santa Cruz tarplant management program.
The City’s contracted biologists will monitor the tarplant, and have implemented several experimental treatments: mowing, sheet mulching, grazing, and no treatment. The questions we hope to answer are whether or not planted seedlings survive to reproduce with no management, if mowing is an effective management strategy, how plants survive under grazing pressure, and if sheet mulching improves seedling survival and reproduction.
A huge thank you to everyone involved!!
January, 29 2021
https://www.cityofsantacruz.com/Home/Components/News/News/9183/
The Parks & Recreation Department’s Open Space & Greenways team, in collaboration with the Arana Gulch Adaptive Management Working Group, the UCSC Greenhouse, and UCSC volunteers, has successfully implemented an experimental outplanting of 400 Santa Cruz tarplant. Santa Cruz tarplant (Holocarpha macradenia) is an endangered plant species endemic to Northern California and ensuring its persistence is a key goal of the Arana Gulch management plan. An additional 400 tarplants are scheduled to be planted in February. The short-term goal of this experimental outplanting is to identify the best outplanting methods. The long-term goal is to increase the seedbank of the tarplant at Arana to a level that will ensure a high probability of persistence for 100 years, or in perpetuity. This planting is something of a landmark in that it exceeds the targeted population goal for the Santa Cruz tarplant management program.
The City’s contracted biologists will monitor the tarplant, and have implemented several experimental treatments: mowing, sheet mulching, grazing, and no treatment. The questions we hope to answer are whether or not planted seedlings survive to reproduce with no management, if mowing is an effective management strategy, how plants survive under grazing pressure, and if sheet mulching improves seedling survival and reproduction.
A huge thank you to everyone involved!!
March 8, 2021
Action Alert
The City Council (CC) will vote on its proposed "Temporary Outdoor Living" ordinance on Tuesday (3/9). Currently there are three open spaces that are listed as being prohibited from homeless campers (Neary Lagoon, Jessie Street Marsh and Arroy0 Seco Canyon).
We want Arana Gulch added to that list. This will require that the CC amend the ordinance that was first read at its 2/23 meeting. That first reading was voted yes by 5-2. Our goal is to have the amendment to add prohibition of camping in Arana Gulch passed with the same majority vote.
We have been in touch with the City's Parks Department about our concerns, and they were relayed to city staff in the Planning Department. But the final decision will be up to the City Council, so that is where your emails will do the most good.
Mention any or all of the following points:
We want Arana Gulch added to that list. This will require that the CC amend the ordinance that was first read at its 2/23 meeting. That first reading was voted yes by 5-2. Our goal is to have the amendment to add prohibition of camping in Arana Gulch passed with the same majority vote.
We have been in touch with the City's Parks Department about our concerns, and they were relayed to city staff in the Planning Department. But the final decision will be up to the City Council, so that is where your emails will do the most good.
Mention any or all of the following points:
- Note that "the draft ordinance already prohibits outdoor living encampments in Neary Lagoon, Jessie Street Marsh, and Arroyo Seco Canyon." All we are suggesting is adding Arana Gulch to that list.
- Arana Gulch is the smallest of the City's greenbelt properties (65 acres) and closest to downtown, both of which make it especially vulnerable to concentrated camping.
- Arana Gulch is the only greenbelt/open space that is listed in its entirety (65 acres) as "critical habitat" for an endangered and threatened species. The entire 65 acres of the Arana Gulch greenbelt was listed in the Federal Register as "critical habitat" for the threatened and endangered tarplant (Holocarpha macredenia) on October 16, 2002. It has never been delisted!
- The City of Santa Cruz cannot make a unilateral decision to allow camping in areas of "critical habitat" of an endangered or threatened species without consultation and a permit from both CDFW and USFWS authorities. Probably the CA Coastal Commission also.
- The development permits provided to the City by the CA Coastal Commission (CCC) for the AG Master Plan stipulated that the City would manage the area specifically for restoration of the tarplant and other sensitive habitats (riparian areas included), so a permit is likely to be needed from the CCC also.
- As part of its adaptive management at Arana Gulch, the Parks Department provided for the planting of 1,000 tarplant seedlings earlier this year within the fenced area. These would likely be obliterated if campers were allowed inside the fenced areas.
- As part of its adaptive management at Arana Gulch, the Parks Department provided for the planting of 1,000 tarplant seedlings earlier this year within the fenced area. These would likely be obliterated if campers were allowed inside the fenced areas
Archives
- 7/27/97 letter from Don Fong to Caltrans.
- 5/7/98 letter from Don Fong to The Good Times
- 6/28/98 letter from Don Fong to The Good Times
- 4/2000 article by Patti Jazanoski in The Comic news
- 4/13/2000 letter from Don Fong to Metro Santa Cruz
- 5/1/2000 letter from Don Fong to Metro Santa Cruz
- 7/28/2005 article by Shanna McCord in the Santa Cruz Sentinel
- 7/29/2005 article by Shanna McCord in the Santa Cruz Sentinel
- 9/29/2005 letter from Don Fong to Santa Cruz City Council
- 8/8/2005 Comments on the Proposed Draft EIR
- 9/27/2005 Friends of Arana Gulch Statement to City Council
- 9/29/2005 article by Shanna McCord in the Santa Cruz Sentinel
- 3/06 article in the Sierra Club Ventana Chapter Newsletter
- 3/06 - Comments on the Draft Master Plan for Arana Gulch
and the Draft EIR for the Proposed Project included in the Master Plan - 9/15/09 Biological Opinion for the Broadway-Brommer Bicycle-Pedestrian Path, Santa Cruz County, California
- 1/14/10 Save Arana Gulch, Don't Pave It!
- 3/10/10 Arana Gulch Defenders Speak Up
- 3/12/10 California Coastal Commission asks city to study another option
- 4/7/10 Patti Janowski LTE in Good Times (scroll down)
- 10/5/10 FOAG Reacts to Commission Staff Report!
- 10/7/10 California Native Plant Society (CNPS) letter to CCC
- 10/10 Center for Biological Diversity (CBD) Comments to CCC
- 10/10 Sierra Club Ventana Chapter Letter to CCC
- 10/10 One more reason for the Coastal Commission to deny approval of Broadway-Brommer
- 4/9/14 Farewell to the last of the open spaces in Santa Cruz