Land Use

Scotts Creek is one of the least-disturbed watersheds in the Santa Cruz Mountains (Bulger 1998). Land use practices in the watershed are tailored to wildlife habitat conservation and enhancement.

The watershed is very rural with a small number of humans in residence (less than 200, informal census). Low intensity timber harvesting, row-crop farming, and cattle ranching are practiced in a sustainable fashion. There is a “quasi-industrial” missiles and space research and development facility with some small production activities in the uppermost part of the watershed. A large part of the watershed is actively used for natural resources management education and research. The vast majority of the watershed is owned by just four different entities. These are Lockheed Martin Space Systems Company http://www.lockheedmartin.com/, Big Creek Lumber Company http://www.big-creek.com, RMC Pacific Materials http://www.rmcpacific.com/, and California State Polytechnic University http://www.spranch.org.The wildlife and other natural resources of the Scotts Creek watershed are well protected. As a rural area along California’s coast, current restrictions to development in the Scotts Creek watershed are imposed and governed by numerous layers of limitations: Santa Cruz County ordinances, State and Federal environmental quality acts and endangered species acts, and the rarity of land sales. Some of these limitations complement large landholders’ intent to maintain low-intensity rural land use, resulting in a relatively undisturbed landscape, with healthy wildlife populations and highly diverse native flora exempted from the stress and impacts associated with public use or large resident human population. Excessive restrictions to current land uses could ultimately disrupt the sustainability of the local community and result in increased land sales, development, and greater impacts resulting from public access.

Human Poplulation

The distribution of human habitation in the watershed is clustered. The majority of dwellings are in the valley bottom and on front slopes. There are 21 residences adjacent to creeks. These are clustered in groups of two to four. There are seven such clusters, yet the total creek frontage adjacent to housing comprises only a very small percentage of the creek length. Lengths of streams in the watershed accessible to anadromous fish add up to 74,448 feet or 14.1 miles (Snider and others 1995). Only about 4% of this length can be considered to be adjacent to housing and the immediate attendant infrastructure associated with rural housing. Maintenance of native riparian buffer strips between houses and creeks is common in the Scotts Creek watershed.

There are a few sites where the creeks are cutting at the edges of roads as a result of natural meandering and the erosive effects of recruitment and movement of LWD through the system. Protection or repair of the roads at these sites could include salmonid habitat protection and enhancement elements that are durable.

Bridges are obviously associated with roads. In this watershed five of the ten bridges directly serve adjacent single family dwellings. Service of these structures may also provide opportunities to improve habitat.

Timber Harvest

The earliest logging in the watershed was selective. Small numbers of logs were yarded out by ox teams and steam donkey (sometimes one log at a time). Later, some clearcut logging was employed in Little Creek and upper Big Creek with slash and stumps being burned. It is important to know that the entire watershed was not clearcut. Apparently the recovery has been rapid. Both the Little Creek and Big Creek sub-watersheds support healthy stands of large redwood and Douglas fir today. These forest stands have the species diversity and structural complexity of a natural forest that has regenerated following a stand-replacing fire (Mark, personal communication, 2003).

Timber harvests in the Scotts Creek Watershed have been radically improved to conserve and improve environmental quality. Big Creek Lumber http://www.big-creek.com employs selection-type harvests that are intended to stimulate forest productivity. These harvests have been certified by Scientific Certification Systems (SCS) and the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) to be low-impact sustained-yield-type harvests. The certification criteria of FSC are intended to conserve natural forest conditions and avoid or mitigate environmental damage from harvest practices. Find out more about FSC at http://www.fscus.org/.

At Cal Poly’s Swanton Pacific Ranch http://www.spranch.org timber harvests are an educational opportunity for forestry and natural resources students. SP Ranch harvests also go through the FSC certification process. Cal Poly is conducting a paired watershed study in the Little Creek sub-watershed. This ten-year study is designed to measure the impacts of modern forestry techniques on water quality and quantity.

Crop Agriculture

Row-crop farming in Scotts Creek Watershed is currently only on Cal Poly’s Swanton Pacific Ranch. The farming is all certified “organic” by California Certified Organic Farmers (CCOF) (http://www.ccof.org/). Soil retention practices are used effectively. Cover-crop rotations are used in winter and as needed. Irrigation of crops is exclusively from deep wells. Tests have shown that water drafts from these wells do not affect creek flow volume.

Livestock

The livestock ranching is very low intensity. Cattle are grazed in rotation. The grazing appears to help sustain the local native prairie flora by keeping invasive grasses and other non-native plants in check (Hayes 2000). The majority of the grazing is in upland areas. Calves are typically sold off prior to the onset of the dry season. The total number of cattle in the watershed during the dry season varies. Typically about 50 to 100 may be in the watershed at one time. There are some horses, goats and other livestock in the watershed but the numbers are small. These animals are kept in pens or small pastures.

Quasi Industrial/R & D

In 1957 Lockheed Corporation bought 3,700 acres in the uppermost part of the watershed. By the early 1960s the facility became engaged in the research and development of the Polaris, Aegena, Trident and Poseidon guided missile systems. Research and development of aerospace materials and component testing continued until the 1970s, when Lockheed began testing small aerospace components manufactured at the local facility. Significant activities at the Lockheed facility in the 1980s included component testing and the special insulation and re-entry body and nose-cone materials designed to withstand the stresses of space travel. The Lockheed plant is also involved in the manufacture and confined testing of detonating fuses.

In 1996, the company became Lockheed Martin Space Systems Company (LMSC). The Lockheed facility in the Scotts Creek watershed continues to manufacture and test small ordinance devices for missiles and spacecraft. Lockheed no longer designs new missile systems but manufactures what was perfected in the 1980s.

RMC Pacific Materials (the Davenport cement plant) owns significant acreage in the watershed but does not conduct any industrial activities on it. There are no plans for any quarry development or plant expansion into the watershed. RMC contracts forestry professionals to conduct timber harvests on the property in accordance with the State of California Forest Practice Rules.

Recreational

Hewlett Packard Corporation (HP) owns a 200-acre recreational facility in Little Basin at the head of the watershed. This is a camping and meeting facility for the use of HP employees. Some land in the upper watershed is held by the Church of Latter Day Saints. Sizable equestrian trail events are conducted in the watershed. Hiking and nature observation are other frequent uses. Steelhead sport fishing occurs in lower Scotts Creek. This activity is well patrolled by California Department of Fish and Game wardens. Fishing and all other recreational activities are by specific permission or invitation only. The only publicly accessible recreational property in the watershed is the Santa Cruz County managed Scotts Creek Beach on the ocean side of State Highway 1.

Research/Education

The Cal Poly Swanton Pacific Ranch was donated to the University by Albert Smith at the time of his death to his alma mater, for the purpose of hands-on education in agriculture and forestry. Some 400 hundred students have completed the internship program and about 100 senior projects were created and completed at the ranch, mostly in forestry, with a smattering in crop science and livestock. The internship program is continually evolving and is run to provide a ranch-life experience for Cal Poly students and also for incoming students from other countries and universities. It is an eleven-week program, open to any college student who has an interest in agriculture and other natural resources. In 2002, there were 15 externally-funded research projects; this has added diversity to the students’ educational experience. Several masters degrees and thesis projects have taken place at the Ranch, with topics covering areas such as forest management, stream restoration, experimental techniques in low-intensity agriculture and healthy range maintenance. One of the applied research projects was the management of Monterey Pines (Pinus radiata) with pitch canker disease; this involved 57 Cal Poly students.

In 2002, Cal Poly and the U.S. Forest Service surveyed the Scotts Creek watershed for “sudden oak death” (SOD), a serious disease recognized in the area for the past several years. Dr. Walter Mark is one of the plant pathologists working on the regional survey. Cal Poly’s recent data show no SOD currently in the watershed but according to Mark there is no reason to expect that the disease will not move into the area. The characteristics of the vegetation and climate in the watershed are similar to the other areas where SOD occurs in Santa Cruz County.

The Cal Poly Swanton Pacific Ranch is currently involved in a number of habitat conservation and restoration projects. Ongoing student work and research provides both the impetus and means for these efforts. For more information on these projects please see Conservation and Restoration Projects.

Big Creek Lumber Company has received numerous awards for forestland stewardship. One of the reasons that they are able to operate so well with respect to habitat conservation is that they commission scientific studies and monitoring to ensure that they are operating with the best possible information. This practice leads to good research and the acquisition of new scientific and practical knowledge. Big Creek Lumber also welcomes well-justified, rigorous, peer-reviewed scientific studies to be carried out on their lands. Much good fisheries and other science have resulted.