Habitats of Burton Mesa Ecological Reserve
DRAFT --- Under Construction
We classify the plant communities by their dominant vegetation:
- Grasslands — the starting point after major fires — Perennial and annual grasses, either native or alien, few shrubs, often disturbed
- Coastal sage scrub — fast growing shrubs with soft, often drought-deciduous leaves — Black sage, lupine, monkeyflower, sagebrush
- Maritime chaparral — denser evergreen shrubs form dense thickets — Ceanothus, chamise, and manzanita
- Oak woodlands — the apex plants control the habitat — Coastal live oak, poison oak
- Riparian — pockets of damp habitat in a dry area — Willows, rushes
It is tempting to present the first four habitats as a succession. After a wildfire erases all the vegetation, quick-growing grasses establish first, followed by the soft shrubs to form scrub. Larger shrubs establish chaparral, only to be overshadowed by the live oaks. But some soft chaparral has remained scrubland for decades and hasn't succumbed to manzanita of the hard chaparral or woodland oaks.
My favorite hike winds through the variety of habitats in our reserve:
- I walk to the end of Greenbrier Road and cross the barrier. Crossing a bowl excavated by the developer with bulldozers decades ago, I climb a short rise to a level plateau with Oak woodlands. The largest occupants in our ecosphere, this is the apex community. The trees crowd each other, and the undergrowth is mainly poison oak.
- A few hundred yards and the trail moves into through Maritime chaparral, dense woody shrubs with a few oak trees. The understory is sparse, but at the trail's edge many tiny wildflowers catch sunlight opened by the trail.
- Four hundred yards I reach the end of the plateau; as the trail descends I enter Coastal sage scrub dominated by clumps of black sage and other low shrubs, and separated by grasses. In 600 yards I come to the driveway up to our local watertanks. The presence of some clumps of Mojave yucca, normally found 200 miles to the east, shows human intervention.
- A short walk down the pavement brings me to a side trail. I enter a wide field of Grassland. With no shade, most vegetation is burned out by the end of June. The few shrubs are Lompoc ceanothus, whose seeds only germinate after fires. For those who like mystery stories, this is a clue.
My one-mile hike has taken me through the four stages of chaparral development in reverse order. I'll have to climb back over the plateau to get back home.
Oak woodlands
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Maritime chaparral
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Coastal sage scrub
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Grasslands
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Riparian
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