Spring Landscapes - 2018

L ANDSCAPES Peninsula Open Space Trust Spring 2018

THE WEIGHT OF WATER

TA B L E O F C O N T E N T S

Water has always been a hot topic in California. One look at the varied and vast landscapes of our state and its easy to see how important water — too much, too little, at the wrong time — impacts us all.

In both instances, losing or abusing these rich, natural assets would have a broad regional impact on wildlife, the biodiversity and ecological health of our region as well as on our quality of life.

Here on the Peninsula, water plays a vital if not widely visible role. With 58 watersheds in our local Santa Cruz Mountains alone, they are the important circulatory system that supports life and biodiversity in our region.

Thank you for supporting our work in these crucial areas. I hope you enjoy this edition of Landscapes where you can learn more water and the critical role it plays in what we do.

Water is also why we feel so compelled to focus our work of late on Tunitas Creek Beach, its creek and in Coyote Valley to the south.

Enjoy,

Walter T. Moore POST President

THE WATERCOURSES OF THE PENINSULA CREEKS MAJOR ROADS POST-PROTECTED LAND

cover©William

K. Matthias 2005 / Unknown

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Protecting Tunitas Creek

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Reviving Butano Creek

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Rediscovering the Laguna Seca & Fisher Creek

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What Makes a Healthy Landscape Linkage?

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Fishers Bend is Alive

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Tribute Gifts

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Open Space Legacy Society

F R O M R AVA G E D B E A C H T O P U B L I C PA R K

PROTECTING TUNITAS CREEK Some places stand the test of time and evolve so that they always stay relevant.

Tunitas Creek Beach and the impressive, fossil-rich 200-foot-tall cliffs on its northern border, is just such a place.

A STEELHEAD STORY Tunitas Creek lies in a 15 square-mile watershed and flows southwest from the ridgeline to the Pacific Ocean.

It is easy to imagine the many eras survived by this beach. From the Ohlone who camped here, to the Spanish Portola Expedition that traveled through nearly 250 years ago, to the local railway that brought logs to a cliff top timber chute to the ocean in the late 1800s, weekend visitors from San Francisco to sunny southern beaches, Tunitas Creek Beach has seen it all. Now with our recent acquisition of 58 acres on the southern portion of the beach, it will begin a new chapter in its long, vibrant history.

This creek has been studied as a steelhead spawning site since at least 1939. The last recorded runs were in the early 1960s and were estimated to be about 100-200 individuals.

Sadly, populations have dwindled and only a few were found up stream as of 1995. We hope, that by restoring the creek over time, we will be able to once again re-establish steelhead in Tunitas Creek.

The last few years have seen significant degradation of the beach. It became popular via social media as a place for overnight raves, parties and campouts. TLC Locals, a community organization working alongside Heirs to our Oceans to rid the beach of over 9 tons of the revelers’ trash, alerted San Mateo County Supervisor Don Horsley’s office to the environmental catastrophe that was taking place here.

This initiated a unique project between POST and San Mateo County to purchase the property and develop plans for the restoration of the beach and implementation of safe public access. With its creek corridor, 13 different habitats and literally dozens of species that live in and around the property, this next chapter promises to be one that values the environment and everyone and everything that love this amazing property and call it home.

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It will be a major effort — and we are working now to raise $10 million in order to make this vision a reality in just three short years. Stay tuned for more information at openspacetrust.org/blog/ tunitas-creek-beach/.

©William K. Matthias 2005

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OUT OF BALANCE

REVIVING BUTANO CREEK When we protected 903-acre Butano Farms in 2012, we took responsibility for over a mile of Butano Creek. At that time the creek was out of balance.

A century of human involvement had moved the creek away from roads, farms and homes, straightened it and cleared out the woody debris. When they were finished, Butano Creek looked more like a ditch than a creek. The water moved so fast it was hard for fish and other wildlife to find shelter. And disconnected from its floodplain, it couldn’t spill its banks and drop the sediment it was carrying.

Instead, all that sediment waspilling up downstream in the Pescadero Marsh.

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In the fall of 2016, we partnered with the San Mateo County Resource Conservation District (SMCRCD) to help Butano Creek function the way nature had intended. We added a number of structures at critical points within the creek to shallow the creek channel, slow the flow of water, and direct floodwaters and sediment back to its historic 100-acre floodplain.

Today, we’re watching as the creek comes back to life. The structures we installed are now catching sediment, logs, and the woody debris needed to create habitat for fish and wildlife. As

well, the creek can now spill its banks which has reawakened an active wetland where wildlife can thrive.

Had the land not been previously protected we would not have been able to give Butano Creek the room it needs to move freely, be healthy, and change naturally over time.

The SMCRCD continue to monitor changes within Butano Creek. It took decades to push the creek out of balance and it will take time for it to recover. Stay tuned as we learn more about this amazing story of revival.

LEARN MORE ABOUT THIS PROJECT ON OUR WEBSITE: OPENSPACETRUST.ORG / BLOG / BUTANO-CREEK-1 ©William K. Matthias 2005

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REDISCOVERING THE

LAGUNA SECA & FISHER CREEK Just south of San Jose, at the intersection of Santa Teresa and Bailey Avenues, lies the Laguna Seca.

This area once contained one of the largest freshwater wetlands in the Bay Area.

While not shown on this map, we know from research conducted by our partners at the San Francisco Estuary Institute and the Santa Clara Valley Open Space Authority (OSA) that most of the water on the western side of Coyote Valley never moved through a defined channel or creek. Instead, the water was slowed and stored in a mosaic of freshwater meadows and ponds, percolating into the groundwater basin and providing habitat for a variety of wildlife.

But things have changed in Coyote Valley since Lyman drew his map. Just over 100 years ago, in early 1916, about 1,200 acres of wetlands and wet meadows were drained and subsequently burned to make room for a new booming industry in the Valley — agriculture. At that

time too, farmers installed the four-mile-long, man-made drainage canal that we now call Fisher Creek.

Mother nature is a quick learner though and over time, the flora and fauna of Coyote Valley have evolved to follow the way water moves across the land today. Fisher Creek is now an essential pathway for wildlife movement in the Valley.

As we work to protect and restore this landscape, we’re learning more about the significance of its history and hope to build a bright future for this amazingly rich wetland ecosystem.

Learn more about our current research at Fisher Creek on page 12.

This map shows the Coyote Valley dating from 1847. Chester Smith Lyman was a land surveyor who documented much of California, and this hand drawn map that he did depicts the dominant features of Rancho de la Laguna Seca and offers a glimpse of how water used to flow over the Valley floor and what this landscape looked like back then.

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01 ABILITY TO DISPERSE AND MIGRATE W H AT M A K E S A

LANDSCAPE LINKAGE? Over the years, POST and our partners have made great progress by protecting large areas of core habitat. More recently, we are focused on connecting these areas together to create what we call landscape linkages: broad areas of land that support the movement of plants and animals.

We use the term landscape linkage, rather than wildlife corridor to underscore the fact that by connecting the right habitats at an appropriate scale, we can meet the needs of species of all types and enable them to thrive now and into the future.

The graphic to your right explains the fundamental characteristics of a healthy and functional landscape linkage in our working area. POST’s work in Coyote Valley—one of the most important landscape linkages in the Bay Area—is influenced by these principles.

The needs of an individual can change throughout their life. For example, California tiger salamanders are born in wetlands but spend their adult lives in upland habitats.

02 RESILIENCE TO CLIMATE CHANGE

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Diversity in elevation, terrain, soils, and vegetation provides a range of living conditions, allowing plants and animals to find a comfortable spot as the climate changes and habitats shift.

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03 ACCESS TO WATER

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All life needs access to water. In our region, creek corridors are one of the most important features for the movement of wildlife.

04 DIVERSITY IN VEGETATION

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The best linkages host a variety of plants that serve different wildlife and vice versa, regardless of whether they have general or specialized needs.

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05 WIDTH Linkages must be wide enough to buffer the interior from nearby land uses that could disturb sensitive species.

06 PROXIMITY TO CORE HABITAT Larger, intact habitats support more diversity and abundance of life. Linkages connect these areas so that species can exchange genes and find resources.

07 INFRASTRUCTURE

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Transportation systems can disrupt wildlife movement, posing a risk to wildlife and motorists alike.

Many options exist for wildlife-passage infrastructure that reduce conflicts between wildlife and vehicles.

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LISTENING TO THE LAND

FISHER’S BEND IS ALIVE As we work to create this linkage for wildlife passage in Coyote Valley, we are striving to better understand how wildlife move across it. With funding from the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, we partnered with the OSA, the Wilmers Lab at UC Santa Cruz, and Pathways for Wildlife to track bobcats via radio collars and motion activated cameras throughout the Fisher Creek corridor.

As mentioned in our article on page 8, research has shown us that wildlife use the Fisher Creek corridor to move across the valley floor. It supports a wonderful diversity and abundance of life in Coyote Valley. The creek frontage was the main reason why POST purchased the 63-acre Fisher’s Bend property as an important piece in the puzzle of protecting this last chance landscape.

opossums, raccoons, rabbits and even a red-shouldered hawk that was right down in the creek bed.

With just a few seasons of data collected, it’s clear that Fisher’s Bend is alive and is the vital pathway we expected it to be.

Our purchase of Fisher’s Bend complements our first acquisition of the 30-acre Fisher Flats property last June when we saved it from Our cameras at Fisher’s Bend have becoming a distribution warecaptured a terrific diversity and house.We continue to work with abundance of wildlife activity. We’ve our partners to understand the documented multiple bobcats restoration potential of these two cruising along Fisher Creek as they properties—another important step make their rounds in the valley floor. toward implementing our vision for We’ve also photographed coyotes, Coyote Valley.

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©William K. Matthias 2005 / right Unknown

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JANUARY 1 - DECEMBER 31, 2017

MAKING IT LAST

TRIBUTE GIFTS

PRESERVE LOCAL LANDS FOR FUTURE GENERATIONS

IN MEMORY OF Don Allan Lucie Allen Connie Azopardi Erika Bailey Gary Baldwin Phil Barkan Christian G. Beck Brian Bedwell Irv Beltrame William & Anna Biagi Jim Bliss David Bomberger Dolores Bonnard Dr. David Brew Muriel R. Brown Susan Burgenbach Jeanne Carevic Jerry Cedarstaff Dean Christon Brad Clifford Margaret F. Cohn Fulton Collins Dwight & Betsy Crowder David Daniels Wim de Wit Valerie S. Dillehay Martin Donald John Dumanske Robert Duryea James M Early Ruth J. Edwards Merritt Elmore Rebecca Escamilla Bernie Esser

IN HONOR OF George Fink Andrew Fliss Christine Foong Michael Foote John Freidenrich Rose Sumako Fujioka Julie R. Godesiabois Renee Gross Cecelia B. Haas J. Patrick Haithcox Judy Holmgren Hall Nora Hall Richard Hayr Richard Heggie Ilse Hermann Spencer Z. Hiraki John & Trish Hooper Lueza Wanda Jarkowski Lisabeth Kaplan Will Kauffman Bruce K. Kawanami Tyler Kendall Hugh David Kennedy Muriel J. King Sabine Kohler Francie Krauel Carl Landman Jean Lauer Sharon McCauley Theresa McDonnell Ernst Meissner Mildred Meyer & Edwin Meyer George R. Millar

Maureen Missett Dave Mock Thomas Moutoux David L. Nelson Jack Ohms Boyd Paulson Jr. Diana Cook Pearl Michelle Philips Priyaa Raman Mark Rich Paul V. Roberts Betty Salveter Neil Schiffman Howard F. Schopman Pixie Schwartz Joseph & Mary Frances Scroggs Ingrid Semenza Carolyn Jean Shebalin Bryan Shechmeister Kenneth Sletten Lars Speyer David Stiles G. Frederick Stork Nancy Tracy Christie Vogel Melva & Carl Vollersen Kim Weden Edwin A. Wells Jim Wheeler Dora Willoughby Elinor Wilner David A. Zlotnick, M.D.

Sylvia & Ed Alderman Elizabeth Andrew Evan N. Baldonado Rebecca & Andy Barfknecht Susan Basso Jan & Dave Baszucki Jeff Belden Liane Benedict Ken Bilodeau Steve Blank & Alison Elliott Mort Bradski John M. Brazil Robert & Barbara Buce Shirley Bunger Louise Cameron & Bob Schneck Stuart & Babbie Cameron Ora Chaiken Robert & Susan Christiansen The Dean & Wilma Chu Family Adonia Curry David Daniels Dennis DeBroeck Matt Dolkas Mary Early Gail Edwards-Haist Alison Elliot Christine & Robbie Evans

Russell C. Evarts Sue & Mike Gagliardi The Garrod Family Rona Giffard & Robert Robson Grant Giske Stanley Goldstein Katrina Sorensen & Forrest Grinstead David Gross Spencer Gump Alan Hakimi David & Elise Havskjold James K. Hess Robert R. Hillebrecht Debbie Hirth Jeff & Gayle Hoch Carol & Don Hohl Bob Holland Larry Horan Davis Horeff Leon Hua Mr. & Mrs. Tommy Joseph Jerry and Ginny Kaminski Dick Keiler & Tommilee Phillips Rebecca & Eric Keller Tom Lawer Jolene Layne Duc Hoang Le Mark & Debra Leslie Linda & Sid Liebes

Margaret MacNiven Robert Manson & Katherine McDonnell-Manson Mac Mason Megan McCaslin Bill Mcconnell Donna McIntosh Kathleen McMullen Ann & Roger McNamee The Francis W. Michel Family Hope Millholland Walter Moore Dave Myhre Dianne Neal Lee & Merrill Newman Steve & Rosita Newman Christal Niederer Erik & Sandi Nierenberg Matt Noel Oded Noy & Galia Linn Brad O’Brien Kelly O’Connor Dick & Judy Opsahl Geraldine Peters Daniel Phillips Meg Pietrasz The Portola Valley Ridge Trail Hikers Group POST’s purchase of Tunitas Creek Beach Marilyn Proffitt

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John & Erica Randolph Steve & Ann Ravel Marie & Robin Rector Bill Reller Joel Rosenberg Audrey Rust Robert Ruth Eloise Sampson Sam & Angela Schillace Jane Scribner Alexandra Slavet Leona Smith Tom Stanis Dianne J. Stauffer Wallace Stegner Suzanne & Godfrey Sullivan Noelle Thurlow Paul E. Trejo L. Cary Tronson & Flaria Franco Kathleen Twomey Ted & Nancy Vian Heather Wakelee Putney & Anne Westerfield Stephen Westrate Julie & Michael White Patti & Ed White Abby & Henry Wilder

©William K. Matthias 2005 / right Unknown

JOIN THE SKYLINE SOCIET Y

DO MORE FOR OPEN SPACE

Being a member of POST’s Skyline Society ($1,000+ annual support) is your opportunity to get a behind-the-scenes look at our work. Each year, we host a special reception to thank the members of this community and introduce them to our staff. It’s your chance to learn about our upcoming programs and hear from experts in the field. Events are held in both San Mateo and Santa Clara counties. Join us in 2018!

Make a simple tax-free gift by naming POST a beneficiary of your IRA or 401(k).

Is POST already in your plans? Contact us today to help us plan our future work.

You’ll also be invited to our June Open Space Legacy Society event!

Contact Tonya Treble Donor Engagement Officer ttreble@openspacetrust.org (650) 854-7696 x313

Contact Jeanine Crider Director, Planned Giving: jcrider@openspacetrust.org (650) 854-7696 x312 POST’S TAX ID NUMBER IS 94-2392007

Landscapes is printed on 30% post-consumer paper with soy inks.

Published by: Peninsula Open Space Trust

222 High Street, Palo Alto, CA 94301 (650) 854-7696 openspacetrust.org Design: The Point Collective, Inc. Editor: Matthew Dolkas We make every effort to accurately list the names of POST tribute gifts and apologize for any errors or omissions.

Please call our office at (650) 854-7696 to notify us of any errors.

POST is a public benefit California corporation and is tax-exempt under section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code.

Contributions to POST are tax-deductible.

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MONTHLY GIVING

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