Coastal scrub, coastal prairie - the original shoreline habitat

Coastal scrub? Are we talking hospital gear or the TV show or, perhaps, cleaning up the pots and pans? And prairie as in the Great Plains? We're not in Kansas, are we?

Once again, scientific terminology at its best disguises a uniquely beautiful and invaluable group of historic Bay Area habitats that were traditionally found in profusion along the Bay's shoreline and hills. Coastal scrub and prairie provide unique homes for many native California plants and critters, and in the springtime provide the world with wonderful wildflower displays.

These habitats have mostly disappeared under the developer's blade in our coastal and Bayside communities. But fragments still remain, and we have opportunities to protect and restore these unique remains of our natural heritage.

What are they?

Coastal scrub is a plant and animal community that once existed around much of the Bay, between the shoreline and adjacent forests. Its low but dense, woody cover of coastal sage (Artemesia), coyote brush (Baccharis), California lilac (Ceanothus), several lupine species (Lupinus), California blackberries, and bush and sticky monkeyflower (Mimulus) forms a favorite habitat for a group of scrub-loving birds such as the white-crowned sparrow, wrentit, Bewick's wren, spotted towhee, California quail, and orange-crowned warbler, among many others.

At other locations on the Bay shoreline, the vegetation was not woody, but formed the grasslands of the coastal prairie. These once extensive native grasslands have now almost disappeared. They featured perennial grasses such as oatgrass (Danthonia californica) and tufted hairgrass (Deschampsia caespitosa), and non-woody wildflowers, such as lupines, California blue-eyed grass (no grass at all, but a member of the iris family, Sisyrinchium californicum), California buttercup (Ranunculus californicus), checkerbloom (Sidalcea), and goldfields (Lasthenia chrysotoma). Birds of these grasslands include meadowlarks, horned larks (on bare dirt areas), and several sparrow species. These coastal-prairie grasslands are rich in small mammals and rodents - and their raptor predators such as the northern harrier, the American kestrel, burrowing owls, and the occasional golden eagle.

Where are they?

One of the last intact Bayside coastal prairies exists at the UC Richmond Field Station. Another is present at Point Molate in Richmond (or so we are told - access is not currently available because debate continues over the final transfer of the Naval Fueling Depot to local ownership). Point Reyes has some of the best remaining oceanside coastal prairies, which can easily be seen at the Lighthouse; the springtime wildflowers are truly dramatic.

As these habitats disappear so do the species dependent upon them. Grassland bird species, for example, are the most rapidly declining in population nationwide as well as in California.

But we have exciting opportunities to correct this sad trend of human destruction of our natural world. In Oakland, at the restored Martin Luther King Jr. wetland on San Leandro Bay, the adjacent uplands was seeded with native grasses, and diligent management by the East Bay Regional Park District over the last seven years has successfully encouraged these grasses. And sure enough, with the grasses came the small mammals and rodents that brought hawks and eagles. Other grassland birds also appeared, including the American pipit (a cute bird that bobs its head as it walks).

The Eastshore State Park provides great opportunities to restore these habitats. The first restoration project at this park was completed last year at the Berkeley Meadow; 17 of the Meadow's 76 acres are now either seasonal wetlands or uplands planted as coastal scrub and prairie. The Albany Plateau provides a great opportunity to restore habitat for the burrowing owl and for many other disappearing bird species. If Breuner Marsh and other shoreline lands in North Richmond can be saved from development (see article, page 4), they offer wonderful restoration opportunities.

It's not too much to ask that we preserve and restore just a little of the natural world that has been lost to us. It rewards us richly with beautiful soul-satisfying vistas and the knowledge that we can indeed co-exist with our fellow creatures who play their own critical role in the future of our world.

Arthur Feinstein