Cupressus abramsiana
Santa Cruz Cypress
Tell Me More
Driving parallel down the Santa Cruz coast you may come across a majestic, enormous, fluffy tree, a true work of art from mother nature that finds itself only in the Santa Cruz area. You've come across one of the mighty and one of the few, Cupressus abramsiana, or Santa Cruz Cypress. You can find Santa Cruz Cypress mixed into a mosaic of coastal greenery, evergreen trees, and only within the 5 populations and the only populations that exclusively exist in the Santa Cruz area. This cypress’s growth spread is so limited due to it’s need for a very specialized habitat. In order for the Santa Cruz Cypress to thrive, it needs to have soil that is “poorly developed, sandy or gravelly in texture, and well-drained” (http://ecos.fws.gov/docs/recovery_plan/980926.pdf).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1SI6rhotAkE
Where Are You and What Are You Doing?
There are only five known and documented populations of this cypress, all of which are in the Santa Cruz mountains. The Butano Ridge population resides in San Mateo county and the rest are with in Santa Cruz county limits; Eagle Rock, Bonny Doon, Bracken Brae, and Majors Creek. These populations take up about 356 acres total and all make up fairly small chunked regions of the mountain. The reason for the poor distribution of this tree is due to it's very specific needs to drop seeds. This tree is what is known as serotinous, which means it needs fire or extreme heat for its' cone to open up and release seeds. However, due to the populating of the Santa Cruz mountains and humans increase of knowledge and technology, we have become too good at preventing wildfires. This is prohibiting the release and spread of seeds. The cypress has become almost completely dependent on squirrels for distribution. The only notable loss of major cypress population was after 1975, 6 acres of Bracken Brae were disturbed by development. This brought the population area from 16 acres to 10. However, as of the end of 2013, the Santa Cruz cypress has 33,000 healthy, happy trees in the Santa Cruz area. Four of the five populations of cypress have been converted into parklands or ecological reserves, keeping the species out of unnatural harms way. Fish and Wildlife Service has even proposed re-listing it under "threatened". http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/an-endangered-species-act-success-californias-santa-cruz-cypress/
Who is Bullying You?
When listed, this species was threatened by the expanding agriculture investments in the area, logging, disruption of fire frequency, and expansion of construction in the Santa Cruz county. Smaller threats were acknowledged as well, such as disease, hybridizing with other cypress’, and competition with introduced species. While many small threats were observed, it is the first three threats that are most noticeably harming the population.Endangered, Threatened, or On Vacation?
Santa Cruz Cypress was first added to the endangered list on January 8, 1987. In order to move from “endangered” to “threatened”, the cypress population must be removed from all threatening situations, those being agriculture development, lack of fire, human structure development, and logging. To be removed from the “threatened” list, the cypress’ management plan must be implemented and show progress towards stabilizing the tree’s population. All five existing populations of the Santa Cruz Cypress must show positive reproductive health for all foreseeable future and an ex situ seed bank formed. On the recovery priority scale of 1-18, 1 being the highest, this tree was originally given a 5. However, due to the rapid removal of threats, it was brought down to a ranking of 14, showing confidence for the recovery of this cypress.
I Didn't Know I Was Broken Till I Wanted A Change. I Wanna Get Better
There are five actions stated in the Santa Cruz Cypress recovery plan that should remove the tree from threat. The first step is to secure the habitat of the pieces of the population that reside on private property. Next would be to take action towards building a management plan, which will require a study of critical life needs, history of the plant, and past and present demographics. Following the development of the management plan, it will be placed into action and will require enhancement and, of course, management of each of the populations and their corresponding habitats. Once these steps have either been implemented, a public education program should be developed in order to spread awareness. Lastly, in order to secure the future of this cypress, a reserve seed bank should be built. Current and past efforts have largely been due to different organizations, parks, and groups purchasing land in effort to protect the cypress population. They have recently addressed that imminent threat of destruction or changing habitat has mitigated immensely and discussion for reclassification had begun. Welcome back, you healthy fluffy tree, you!
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