Habitat Awareness

Riparian

The term riparian comes from the Latin Ripa, meaning bank or shore. Riparian habitats occur along the banks or shores of rivers, streams, and lakes, and are often composed of plant species needing a constant supply of water. Cottonwoods, willows, alders, box elders, and ashes are common riparian trees, and these may be festooned with wild grape vines. In arid climates, riparian habitats are an important source of water, food, shade, and breeding sites for a variety of wildlife, especially birds, that does not occur in adjacent habitats. Small to mid-sized mammals use riparian zones as migratory corridors in their search for food. Riparian zones are also important to salmon because they provide shade, protection, and cooler water for young salmon before they migrate to the sea.

Wetlands

Wetlands are special habitats that form in areas where the soil is saturated for portions or all of the year. These conditions support an array of plants not found in the adjacent uplands. Marshes, bogs, and meadows are wetland habitats with nearly year round saturation. In California, many wetlands are seasonally wet; that is, they are saturated for only part of the year, usually the winter and early spring. Although some wetlands can be wooded, most California wetlands are dominated by annual and perennial herbaceous plants, including cattails, tules, rushes, and sedges. Wetlands provide important functions by reducing the impact of floodwaters, removing pollution, and providing food and shelter fro wildlife.

Grasslands

Grasslands are herbaceous habitats where woody plants are absent or contribute less than 10 percent of the vegetative cover. Many native grasses are perennial bunch grasses, and these have often been replaced by annual grasses and forbs from the Mediterranean region of southern Europe and northern Africa. Nevertheless, California grasslands still support many native plants. In the spring, lupines, clovers, poppies, and various bulbs provide colorful displays. Grasslands provide habitat for a variety of wildlife, including ground squirrels and small mammals. Snakes and lizards are common too, but birds probably make up the majority of wildlife species. Grasslands provide foraging habitat for the Swainson’s hawk, a California threatened Species and the San Joaquin kit fox, a federal endangered species.

Vernal Pools

Vernal pools are special seasonally-flooded wetlands that occur in shallow depressions, usually in a grassland landscape. The depressions are underlain by a layer that slows the percolation of water so that the pools are inundated for much of the winter and spring. Vernal pools may be isolated from each other, but they are often part of a cascading pool and swale complex. Because vernal pool habitats alternate between inundation and desiccation, they support a unique flora and fauna compared to adjacent habitats. Many species inhabiting are considered threatened or endangered by state and federal resource agencies and they grow nowhere else in the world. The various flower species begin to flower as the pools dry in the spring, and usually results in concentric rings of different colors.

Woodlands

California woodlands are dominated by hardwood trees, especially oaks. Woodland canopies can extend from10 percent of the cover to nearly 100 percent in places. In the Sierra foothills, interior live oak and blue oak are the common trees. California black oaks occur in the upper foothill zones and are part of the transition to montane hardwood-conifer forest. In the Coast Ranges, the coast live oak is the most common tree. One pine, the gray or foothill pine, occurs in oak woodlands, and it had great value to Native American in the region. Woodlands may have an understory of herbs, shrubs, or small trees. Because of this structural and species complexity, oak woodlands are one of the most diverse habitats in California, providing food, shelter, and breeding places to a great variety of wildlife.

Agriculture

Agricultural areas are used for producing food, fiber, and other products necessary for human survival. Consequently, the preservation of agricultural resources is important in an overall conservation program. The Williamson Act and conservation easements are used to protect agricultural lands from development. The Wildlife Heritage Foundation holds one conservation easement in Riverside County that protects a citrus orchard.