Grazing cows return to Arana Gulch to help endangered tarplant

The cows came home to Arana Gulch to help restore a troubled native wildflower. Cattle grazed the coastal prairie greenbelt for more than a century, when 100,000 Santa Cruz tarplants with their tiny yellow flowers pinpointed the meadows. The property was part of the Eastside Dairy farm through the mid-1950s and grazing continued until 1989. “In the years after the cows left, those numbers plummeted to just a handful,” said ecologist and tarplant expert Grey Hayes, who is part of the Arana Gulch restoration team. A relative to the sunflower, the pretty tarplant is listed as endangered by the state and threatened on the federal level. Its main threat is towering invasive non-native plants that block sunlight from reaching the short herb. Agriculture and development have consumed most of its historical range, which stretches from Marin County to Monterey County. Just pockets of the plant remain. “Cattle grazing is really the only sustainable solution to managing the habitat and recovering this endangered wildflower,” Hayes said. “Unlike people, cows can be out there constantly clipping the invasive grasses close to the ground. They allow light to reach the seeds and the seedlings.” Fourth-generation Santa Cruz rancher Tommy Williams manages cows at Arana Gulch, Moore Creek Preserve, UC Santa Cruz and in Scotts Valley. “Most of my operation is revolved around working to preserve these rangelands and the native grasses and flowers and the Ohlone tiger beetle,” he said...more