Wildlands of Cal Poly Pomona

 Threats

The biggest threat to the wildlands is the lack of planning, and the ignoring of plans already made. Many “promises” have been made and forgotten. The contrast between words (for example, the University Strategic Plan) and actions (for example, planning for a golf course) is often shocking. The decision-making process, throughout the administrations of two different presidents, has seemed arbitrary, capricious, and often self-serving, and, despite claims to the contrary, has seldom involved substantive input from the campus community. We are left with the feeling that nothing is safe, no matter what promises have been made.

Attention to planning could avoid other threats, but since that isn’t happening, some of these other threats will be mentioned individually. The most serious, of course, is destruction of the wildlands by converting them into something else: golf course, development, landfill, whatever. There are other threats, though, that are more subtle, that can turn a natural habitat into a degraded area, so that eventually no one will object when it is destroyed.

Vehicle use, especially in hilly terrain, has very negative consequences. Although we have paved roads here at Cal Poly, and the agricultural lands have permanent, well-maintained dirt roads, people have found it “necessary” to drive cross-country. This was especially common after the 1989 fire: mountain bikes, motorcycles, and 4WD vehicles plied the hills above J lot. The most serious consequence of vehicle use is increased erosion. By crushing the vegetation, or removing the ash crust after a fire, vehicles allow rain to reach the soil below, and gullies result. The 1989 fire uncovered gullies spaced a truck-tire-track apart that had been around for decades, and beside them were newly formed gullies from mountain bike tracks.

The areas around vehicle tracks are also prime habitat for weeds. Many of the weedy plants at Cal Poly grow only in disturbed areas, but the habitat they create is less suitable for the rest of the animals and plants in the natural communities.

Weeds can enter through disturbed areas, but they can also be intentionally seeded. Following the 1989 fire, and despite protests from biologists, the California Department of Forestry aerially seeded the burned areas. We have not obtained a list of the species that they used, but four species showed up afterwards that are common in such seeding mixtures. Two were natives: purple needlegrass, that in much earlier times would have grown in the Quad, but not in the hills, and doveweed, which is an indicator of overgrazing (and which has since disappeared). The other two were pernicious weeds: ryegrass (commonly-and mistakenly-used to prevent erosion), and tree tobacco. The purpose of aerial reseeding is to prevent erosion. Scientific studies show that it is ineffective, and that it can increase the flammability of the areas seeded. At Cal Poly, most germination took place after the winter rains.

Grazing is often considered to be a threat to native environments in southern California, and indeed grazing is an unnatural feature in a habitat that, prior to European settlement, had been without large grazing mammals for nearly ten thousand years. Sheep and goats are almost invariably destructive, but moderate levels of cattle grazing provide much less negative impact to the biota than many other land uses, including tillage and landscaping. An informal agreement between the colleges of Science and Agriculture to build grazing exclosures in the walnut woodland, and settle once and for all the effects of grazing, were preempted by planning for the golf course, and once that idea was abandoned, no new agreements have been made.