Did you know that California’s famous “golden rolling hills” are a relatively new landscape?
Spanish missionaries caused significant changes to the landscape and ecology as new plants and animals were introduced. Grazing lands were created by burning on lowland slopes to support large numbers of cattle, horse and sheep.
Prior to European settlement, grasses in the Monterey Bay area were perennial bunch grasses such as purple needle grass. Patches of native grasses can still be found on rougher terrain that is inaccessible to grazing and cultivation. These grasses, though able to recover from a burn, do not tolerate repeated grazing. Thus exotic plants, originating in the Mediterranean, took hold and spread outward from Monterey—the main site of Spanish activity.
Accounts show that by 1846 landscapes had been noticeably changed and new species had taken hold. Some of the most common plants now associated with rural California landscapes are non-native wild oats, filaree, wild mustard, wild radish, foxtail, and bur clover.
So if California’s native grasses did produce “golden rolling hills” it was for a shorter period of time during the year than it is today!
Sources Used
- Monterey Bay Area: Natural History and Cultural Imprints, Second Edition. Burton Le Roy Gordon. Boxwood Press; 1977.
- The Monterey Bay Shoreline Guide. Jerry Emory. University of California Press; 1999.
- Wilder Ranch State Park. Wikipedia. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wilder_Ranch_State_Park.
We have the same phenomenon in Eastern Siskiyou county where the cattle ranging discouraged the native lands. We purchased 300 acres and have allowed the land to heal and now the natural grass varieties are returning. One of them is Idaho Fescue. The wildflowers in the spring have also increased. We finally have the gold back on our California hills.
Wow Cindy. So nice to hear of people doing restoration on their own lands! More wildlowers; what a great thing!
That is inspiring Cindy! Do you allow native grazers on your land while keeping livestock out?
Thank you for your great blog site. I have linked your blog to mine in my newest post about Old New California in On the Trail of the California Cowgirl. I love California too, and love to write about the places I go and things I see.
Happy writing!
Barbara
I’m so thankful to find an article telling the harsh truth of foxtails and other introduced plants. It is perplexing that livestock grazing (the source of the problem) is being touted as a solution to the invasive plants that they actually spread. Such lies being spread en mass shows the power of the animal agriculture.