Located at the northeastern edge of Sonoma Valley, Calabazas Creek Open Space Preserve encompasses wild and scenic open space with regional significance. Rising from the valley bottom to the crest of the Mayacamas Mountains, the site features a wide range of natural habitats, which in turn support an exceptional diversity of native plants and animals.
VNLC prepared a comprehensive management plan befitting this magnificent, complex, and challenging landscape. Our team conducted exhaustive surveys of natural resources and potential public access routes on this preserve. We combined high‐resolution color infrared aerial photography and digital elevation models with intensive botanical field surveys to delineate the boundaries of all plant communities using the Manual of California Vegetation (MCV) classification system. We identified and mapped 20 unique plant communities (Alliance level of classification), consisting of over 400 plant taxa and including seven special‐status habitats and four special‐status plant species. We documented six special‐status animal species inhabiting the preserve, as well as multiple species of interest in need of management considerations. Our team also identified and mapped a host of significant management issues that threaten the sensitive resources and that may also be relevant to the proposed project area, including habitat succession, invasive plants, and soil erosion. We conducted intensive surveys of fire hazards throughout the property, focusing on fuel ladders in the form of dead trees and shrubs, many of which are the result of succession of chaparral to woodland and forest habitats, and from Sudden Oak Death syndrome. Following thorough analyses of these resources and threats, we developed and presented a range of site-appropriate management strategies for protecting and enhancing sensitive resources and ecosystem functions.