PHYSICAL SETTING
The 2000-acre UCSC campus is located 75 miles south of San Francisco at the northwest extreme of the city of Santa Cruz. It is bounded on the south by the city's upper west-side neighborhoods, on the east by Harvey West Park and the Pogonip, on the north by Henry Cowell Redwoods State Park, and on the west by undeveloped land and the Cave Gulch neighborhood (see Figure 1).
CLIMATE
UC Santa Cruz enjoys a Mediterranean climate typical of most California coastal areas, with warm, dry summers and cool, wet winters. Precipitation levels on campus vary considerably with elevation. The lower campus receives an estimated 30 inches of rainfall annually, while the upper campus receives 40 to 45 inches. Winds are generally northwesterly and seldom reach severe intensities; in addition, much of the campus is sheltered from prevailing winds by hills and trees.
GEOLOGY
The UCSC campus lies on the southeastern end of Ben Lomond Mountain, a major ridge of the Santa Cruz Mountains. Ben Lomond Mountain rises in a series of steplike terraces from sea level in the city of Santa Cruz to an elevation of almost 2,600 feet at the summit to the northwest. The UCSC campus spans a number of these marine terraces, with elevations ranging from less than 300 feet at the southern campus boundary along High Street to a maximum elevation of approximately 1,120 feet at the northwestern campus boundary (see Figure 2).
Campus bedrock consists of two major types: a marble terrane that underlies most of the campus, including the central, developed portion of campus, and a granitic terrane that underlies the area north of the Cave Gulch neighborhood and forms intrusions into marble bedrock in several north-central and southern campus locations. Karst features, including ravines, sinkholes, and caverns, are readily apparent in the lower and central campus, developing as a result of the dissolution of marble along fractures, joints, and faults. [16] "Mima mounds" are an unusual geologic feature found in the northwestern and southwestern portions of the campus. These low, flattened mounds, 30 to 60 feet in diameter, are separated from each other by depressions that form vernal pools during the rainy season, and which remain moist into mid-summer.
Although campus bedrock is highly faulted (see Figure 3), there is no evidence that campus faults have been active in Holocene times (within the last 10,000 years). Earthquake fault rupture and soil liquefaction are not considered campus geologic hazards. However, campus structures could be expected to undergo severe shaking during earthquakes centered on the nearby San Andreas fault (12 miles to the northeast of the campus) or on the San Gregorio-Hosgri fault system (ten miles to the southwest).
SOILS
Campus soils are characteristically derived from underlying rock. Calera soils are marble-derived clay loams found in wooded areas of the western campus. Granite-derived Diamond Springs and Holland loams located in the northern campus and the area immediately south of the Cave Gulch neighborhood support grasses, oaks, and pines. Pinto Loams, derived from Quaternary marine deposits, are commonly found in the lower campus meadows, with scattered patches occurring in the central campus meadows and forests. Sandy Loams, derived from sandstone, are found in northern campus lands supporting chaparral, oaks, and pines. Felton Loams, derived from mica schists, support both grasslands and forests in the central campus.
HYDROLOGY
It is estimated that the mean annual runoff from the campus varies from eight inches on the lower campus to sixteen inches on the upper campus. In general, drainage on the upper campus is by surface runoff, although some rainfall in that area is captured by a porous sandstone formation that in turn supplies springs and seeps on campus. Surface runoff on much of the central and lower campus is significantly less than runoff on other nearby lands due to the subsurface drainage system provided by campus sinkholes and subterranean solution channels.
VEGETATION
Three broadly defined vegetation communities predominate on campus: grasslands, forests (mixed evergreen and redwood), and chaparral (see Figure 4). No rare or endangered plant species registered by State or federal agencies are found on campus, although one, Yampeh, meets the California State Department of Fish and Game criteria for classification as rare or endangered.
The lower campus is dominated by rolling, gently sloping grasslands divided by two north-south canyons with densely forested slopes. These meadows, originally composed of native, perennial bunch grasses, now contain mostly introduced Mediterranean annual grasses, with only a few concentrations of native species remaining. Most of these areas have been, and are currently, grazed.
Redwood forests predominate in areas between buildings in the central, developed campus, with patches of grassland and mixed evergreen vegetation also occurring. Mixed evergreen and redwood forests are found on the steeply sloped land immediately to the north of the developed campus, and numerous springs and seeps in the area support distinctive assemblages of plant species. Virtually all of the redwoods are second-growth trees, since old-growth stands were logged until the early 1900s. Mixed evergreen forests on campus are dominated by oaks, bays, tan oaks, madrones, and Douglas firs.
A band of chaparral vegetation occurs to the north of the area described above. This community is dominated by dense stands of manzanita, with ceanothus, live oak, and knobcone pine also present. The remainder of undeveloped north campus lands are vegetated primarily with mixed evergreen forests, although stands of dwarf forest vegetation, redwood forests, and grasslands also occur.
WILDLIFE
The UCSC campus supports a wide range of wildlife (Ferris, 1986). Various wildlife species are associated with distinct plant communities found on campus. Campus mixed evergreen forests support a range of mammals, reptiles and birds. The redwood forests are visited by many wildlife species, but, except for species such as banana slugs, newts, and salamanders, few depend on redwood forests for their survival. Campus grasslands support rodents, rabbits, and insects, which in turn are preyed upon by birds (including raptors), bats, and ground predators (including coyotes). The chaparral supports reptiles, small birds, and predators such as the bobcat and the gray fox. Two important bird species are found on campus in limited numbers: the golden eagle, known to forage on campus, is protected by federal law, and the burrowing owl, which nests on campus, is classified as "declining" by the Audubon Society. No rare or endangered wildlife species are known to inhabit the campus.
SCENIC RESOURCES
UCSC occupies a magnificent site that provides a broad spectrum of visual images. Preservation of campus views has traditionally been a primary concern of campus planners.
Long-range views are impressive and memorable, both from the forest edge on the upper campus looking downward to the ocean and the city and from the lower campus looking upward. From most viewpoints along the forest edge on the upper campus, sightlines are unbroken and sweeping. Prominent upper campus viewpoints are the Cowell College plaza, Baskin Visual Arts, the University House, the knoll at Porter College, and the field at Oakes College. From the lower campus, points along Empire Grade, Coolidge Drive, and Hagar Drive offer panoramic views across the grasslands to the forested background. In addition, the campus is regarded as an important visual resource of the city, especially as an open backdrop to the developed areas of western Santa Cruz.
Short-range views on campus are influenced by topography and vegetation type, with the visual impression formed not from broad panoramas but from relatively close-range detail. Examples of areas where such views are important include heavily forested lands, small meadows surrounded by forests, and relatively open meadowland vegetated with oaks and madrones.