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White Paper No.4

Produced by the University Of California,Santa Barbara’s Ocean and Coastal Policy Center

Dr. Michael Vincent McGinnis, Project Manager

Christina Elizabeth McGinnnis

Making the Watershed Connection:A Profile of Watersheds, Wetlands

and Regional Planning Effortsfor the South Coast

November 2001

Will GrovesWith Assistance From

Carla Navaro

Dr. John T. Woolley

Design by Monica PessinoPhotos by Michael McGinnis, Hugh Smith Jr. and Morgan Ball

Ocean and Coastal Policy Center

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Acknowledgements

The authors of this White Paper thank

support for the California Coastal Conser-

vancy and Trish Chapman for the com-

ments on drafts of Section One and

Two. We also thank support from the

Center for Bioregional Conflict Resolution

to cover costs associated with the final

production of this paper.

We thank Nick Bobroff And Lindy Cobern

for research assistance. Dr. John Woolley

contributed to the final section of the

report, and we thank him for his time

and effort. We are also grateful to Mark

Holmgren at UCSB’s Museum of System-

atics and Ecology for his comments on a

draft of this report.

The views expressed in this paper may

not be those of the University of Califor-

nia or any other government agency.

Ocean and Coastal Policy Center

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This is the 4th White Paper from UC, Santa Barbara’s Ocean and Coastal Policy Center. This White Paper provides a brief characterization of coastal wetlands and watersheds of southern California (from Point Conception to the Tijuana River). The Paper also describes important regional plans and watershed-based activism in the region. This White Paper is intended to complement the characterization of the ecological links and relationships of the Southern California Bight (White Paper # 5, forthcoming) by M.V. McGinnis entitled “The Coastal-Marine Interface of the Southern California Bight”.

In addition, this Paper includes an Appendix that provides a brief overview of informa-tion on the major hydrological units of the South Coast, which draws from the following primary sources:

• The California Rivers Assessment (CARA) database (http://www.ice.ucdavis.edu/newcara) provides information on large-scale watershed and river basin statistics;

• Information on the creeks and watersheds for the Evolutionary Significant Unit (ESU) of the endangered southern steelhead trout from the National Marine Fisher-ies Service (http://swr.ucsd.edu/hcd/SoCalDistrib.htm);

• Watershed Plans from the Regional Water Quality Control Boards (RWQCB) that provide summaries of existing hydrological units for each subregion of the south coast (http://www.swrcb.ca.gov/rwqcbs/index.html);

• General information on the ecology of the rivers and watersheds of the south coast described in California’s Rivers and Streams: Working Toward Solutions. State Water Resources Control Board;

• Interviews with County resource managers and planners;• The US Environmental Protection Agency’s “Surf Your Watershed” (http://

www.epa.gov/surf/hucinfo) and their index of watershed indicators (http://www.epa.gov/surf/iwi);

• The California Environmental Resources Evaluation System (CERES) (http://ceres.ca.gov);

• University of California Natural Reserve System (http://nrs.ucop.edu/reserves.html); and

• General restoration and conservation plans, materials and information for particular watersheds.

In addition to this information, we provide a brief characterization of watershed-based activism and organization in the region.

Executive Summary Preface

Making the Watershed Connection

Early one evening I was driving to my home in the Santa Ynez Mountains, into the range that sets the stage for the region. I saw a large bobcat lying in the middle

of the street, and pulled over to the side of the road. The bobcat was still panting and breathing. I cautiously petted the bobcat’s thick fur coat. His ears, teeth, paws and eyes were large for hunting small prey. I thought of the bobcat looming in the shadows of the brush, waiting for the appropriate time to cross the road.

The young bobcat died. I took the bobcat into the hills of its origin to bury it under an old oak tree, near coyote bush, monkey flower, and coastal sage. The bobcat is now part of the soil and oak tree.The presence of animals, plants and soils are the gifts of each watershed and the larger region. It is up to us who are alive now to translate this information into something more than memory.

This UCSB Ocean and Coastal Policy Center White Paper introduces the major water-sheds and wetlands of the South Coast region of alta California.

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This White Paper provides a brief characterization of the ecology of the major coastal ecosystems and watersheds that exist between Point Conception and the Tijuana Slough. The first section provides an introduction to the ecology and human impacts to these coastal systems.

The coastal area defies universal characterization. The landscape is as diverse as the people, and as diverse as the watersheds that shape the ecology of the Southern California Bight. White Paper #5 is a characterization of the ecological relationships and links of the Southern California Bight.

The Region

This region’s animals and plants depend on ecological relationships among mountains (such as the Santa Ynez, San Raphael and Sierra Madre Ranges) and their soils, creeks and riparian forests of coastal watersheds, the healthier rivers of the region (such as the Santa Margarita and Santa Clara Rivers), urban and rural areas, vernal pools and coastal wetlands, and the nearshore marine habitats. The relationships between the creeks, coastal watersheds, the Santa Barbara Channel and Channel Islands are part of our shared community.Like other animals, we relate to and depend on the rhythm of the ocean’s currents and

the changing patterns of the seasons, winds, climate and atmosphere. The ecological relationships and links that are found between animals, plants and ecosystems can span thousands of miles. Imagine the distance traveled by an arctic tern to feed on small fishes within the Bolsa Chica Wetlands.

A System of Shared Service

I live in the midst of old oak trees. The branches of these old souls cover the house. After a cold front passes, the winds blow from the sea to the mountains. The oaks respond to the wind by dropping acorns. I think the mountains also respond to these winds in all the colors of spring. The oak grove is a whole inter-dependent system of relation-ships -- it is the relationship between the trees, the entire grove, the canopy and undergrowth provided by the habi-tat, the birds (and their songs), and all the others that is sacred.

To protect oaks is a sacred and ancient activity. The Roman poet Ovid said, “Here stands a silent grove black with the shade of oaks; at the sight of it, anyone could say, ‘There is a god in here!’”

The notion of Yantra is useful here to depict the relationships that exist between the animals,

plants and ecosystems of a bioregion. In Short Description of Gods, Goddesses and Ritual

Objects of Buddhism and Hinduism of Napal, Jnan Sakya describes the Yantra diagram as

follows, “Yantra is a nucleus of the visible and knowable, a linked diagram of lines by means

of which visualized energies are concentrated. There are different kinds of Yantras and Sri

Yantra is the Great Yantra. Other lesser yantras are segments out of the great embracing Sri

Yantra.” The Yantra serves as analogy for the substance and energy of life that connects all

earthly entities. Each yantra is interdependent on other yantras. The sea, for example, can

be considered a lesser yantra of the earth. A coastal watershed is a smaller yantra of this

bioregion. Each yantra is connected to greater yantras. Hence the boundaries of ecosystems

are often difficult to identify because systems are interdependent and linked.

Sacred groves are important to many peoples, in India, Sub-Saharan Africa, parts of the

former Soviet Union, East Asia and Oceania. In many places, oak groves are considered

to belong to the gods. In Western Ghats, a mountainous region that exists along the

seacoast of India, a sacred grove (called Devaravattikan) exists in the midst of an agri-

cultural zone. Devaravattikan remains a temple to the people. It is believed that the

gods live among the trees, so people enter the grove with respect. This sacred grove

helps the people to maintain an ecological relationship with wild living creatures. Kans,

or the term for the sacred groves of India, are a refuge for native diversity and remain

the only habitat for a number of species of small animals.

Sacred groves were also once important features of villages in Europe, the Mediterra-

nean landscapes, and Pre-Columbia America. These groves were sacred parts of a living

and native culture

The presence of oaks in this region is one key factor contributing to the richness and diversity of life. The smell of oak pollen is in the air. It remains a sweet smell that I will eternally embrace. The oaks represent the flesh of the Santa Ynez Valley -- the body and torso of the watershed.

We can know the needs of any particular place only by participating in its specificity – by becoming more familiar with the natural community. During spring, one may notice the new leaves sprouting from oaks and sycamores, hear the coastal creek in your backyard or the early evening “hoot” of an owl. I think of the bobcat looming in the shadows. Animals and plants do not exist in isolation from one another or from human activity. An understanding of a place’s cycles, habitats, soils, currents and winds is needed today, with human beings awake and attentive to other inhabitants of the region.

The animals and plants of this region are part of our community. The word community

derives from Latin munus, which has a number of meanings that are relevant here,

including service, duty, gift and sacrifice. Community is an assemblage of individuals

bound by a relationship and partnership. This relationship and partnership is based on

mutual obligation, an exchange of gifts, and shared service.

A system of shared service in a community connects a culture to the natural terrain. Membership in a community requires the establishment of an intimate relationship with the landscape, the animals and plants. As the author and activist Freeman House writes, “The history that will best serve to teach us to live as communities of place – to learn where we are – lies in the surrounding landscape.”

The surrounding landscape is part of our community. The bobcat is part of this community. There is a close relationship, interaction and connection between human beings, the soils, waters, plants and animals, or collectively: the bioregion. “The bioregion is the domestic setting of community just as the home is the domestic setting of the family,” notes Wendell Berry, “The community carries within itself not only the nourishing energies that are needed by each member of the community; it also contains within itself the special powers of regeneration”.

Living in Place

Living-in-place requires that we know where water comes from, where waste goes, and where food comes from. A sense of place also requires that we are aware of the circle of animals and plants that are native to a bioregion. There are cultural representations of a place, such as the locations of historical landmarks, the stories of animals and plants, the sites of Chumash ritual and ceremony, and urban and rural areas. Understanding the needs of extraordinary animals, like wild southern steelhead of the Gaviota’s coastal watersheds, adds to the local knowledge of the ecology of a bioregion.Local and place-based knowledge can take many forms, such as the knowledge of a

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careful farmer or rancher, with his or her long experience of soil, crops, livestock and weather. Local knowledge is also found in the traditional earth builder, a craftsperson, fisher, a bird watcher or a conservationist. Taken together, the local knowledge of a farmer, fishermen and conservationist is the common ground of understanding about a particular place and region; local knowledge is the collective memories of those who inhabit a place. Local knowledge embraces the potentialities of living-in-place and the skills that are present in a community.

The Landscape Mosaic

Most of the coastal watersheds of this region are mosaics of different and often incompatible land-uses. In southern Santa Barbara County, if you were to follow a creek down to the sea, one would probably enter a farmer’s avocado, orange or lemon orchard. Later, one would likely enter a neighborhood and other urban developments in Goleta or Carpinteria. Some parts of the creek would be paved and the riparian vegeta-tion removed. Still following the riparian edge of the creek one may eventually reach a wetland or estuary, such as the Goleta Slough. One might be lucky to see a great blue heron hunting along the banks of the slough.Coastal wetlands provide important habitat for many resident and transitory bird species and fishes. If you are quiet and careful, you may hear one of 139 bird species that have been identified by scientists who study the region’s coastal wetlands. In fact, the richest array of birds in California is found within the lower watersheds of the Santa Ynez River and San Antonio Creek on Vandenberg Air Force Base.

The Goals of the Report

This White Paper focuses on particular watersheds and wetlands of the South Coast. Each watershed is a particular place. When you inhabit a place you recognize the patterns of the wind, the first flowers of spring, bird songs and animal dances. There are two general goals of this White Paper. First, we introduce the reader to the general ecology of these special coastal places.Making the watershed connection can involve an extension of human identity: It starts with the identification of the neighborhood creek. In time, this identification with the creek can be extended to the animals and plants of an entire watershed. This White Paper scratches the surface of the major watersheds of the region. A renewed sense of inhabitation can begin with an understanding of the ecology of a watershed. The pictures of birds and habitats of the south coast remind us that there are animals that are dependent on healthy wetlands and watersheds. Birds are keystone species; they are excellent indicators of the general health and ecological integrity of coastal ecosystems. The general decline in shore birds and marsh birds of the South Coast is an indication of ecosystem disturbance and ecological degradation.The authors of the report are very grateful to Morgan Ball and Hugh Smith, Jr. for the use of their original photographs of the animals and habitats of coastal watersheds. Morgan and Hugh remind us with their photographs that if you live in a place long enough, you can sense its subtle changes, and listen to the moisture of the fog drip off the branches of trees. If you know a place you can find your way home in a foggy morning.

Mike McGinnisJuly 2001

Table of Contents

Major Hydrological Units of the South Coast

Existing and Historical Conditions in Coastal Wetlands

and Coastal Watersheds in Southern California

Section One

The Major Watersheds of the South Coast

Section Two

Section ThreeSummary of Existing Conditions of Wetlands in the

South Coast

Section FourWetland Conservation and Planning in

Southern California

Section Five

Watershed–Based Activism in the South Coast

Appendix

Short-billed Dowitchers at Carpinteria Salt Marsh