Photograph by Jacqueline Ramseyer
Jana Warren, an instructional assistant at the environmental study area at De Anza Community College, looks at the caterpillars feasting on leaves in the special butterfly houses built for the program.
De Anza project offers cornucopia of plant life
Environmental Study Area provides a valuable resource for college students and community residents
By Amy Jenkins
A visit to a community resource may be of interest to those landscaping with native plant life or to anyone who wants a taste of the diverse plant communities in California. Local residents don't have to travel far because the De Anza College campus has 11/2 acres that feature more than 300 species of native plants, called the environmental study area.
Instead of traveling to the coast, forest or desert, all one needs to do is visit the Cupertino campus. By taking only a few steps a visitor can leave a pond environment, where there are cattails, horsetails and turtles and enter a coastal sand dunes representation where plants have adapted to the environment with waxy leaves and low growth.
The area is divided into 12 native plant communities, including--freshwater marsh and pond, coastal sand dunes, channel islands, California desert, coastal sage scrub, chaparral, coastal redwoods, foothill woodland, grassland, conifers and riparian. Visitors can see a wide range of plants and trees, from large oak to redwoods to cacti, and many more.
Ecology Professor Doug Cheeseman says his dream became a reality in 1971 when a barren corner of campus was turned into a native species showcase. Student volunteers and a rotating staff has helped maintain the area for more than 30 years, by watering, pulling weeds and planting new material.
Sunnyvale resident Jana Warren and Cupertino resident Steve O'Brien work four days a week on ground maintenance. As instructional assistants, they lead one-hour tours for elementary school students throughout the Bay Area and community members at the open house the first Sunday of every month. Young students also use microscopes to view some of the numerous insects on the premises.
"I am in the process of inventory and making new signs to find out the exact number of plants we have," says Warren, who started working part time six years ago and has since earned an AA degree in Environmental Studies.
A history lesson accompanies the tour, in which Warren explains which roots are edible and were eaten by Native Americans. She also points out the exotic grasses that were brought to America by the Spanish and that are "totally the worst enemy to all native plants."
Population growth is an enemy for the chaparral because bigger homes are being developed, Warren says.
"This area is a real resource because it is like a mini-picture of what California looked like before development," she adds.
Warren and O'Brien try to keep the integrity of the plant communities intact, but it's a challenging task. More than 60 species of birds pass through the area and often drop seeds where they are not supposed to go, O'Brien says.
However this doesn't mean they discourage the birds from making the area their home. Even though they have to prune trees back because they are getting too large and competing with smaller foliage, "we think about the birds and their nests and try not to harm their habitat," Warren says.
Some of the birds that have flown through or made a home in the study area are mallard ducks, white herrings, green herrings and the snowy egret.
Warren says he has seen many new and interesting things over the past six years. The Jumping Cholla, a type of cactus representing the desert community, reproduced when an animal brushed across a mature species, a piece dropped on the ground and a new one grew. She says she has also seen the redwoods and conifers grow so much they are providing much more shade, and she has seen trees bloom for the first time in several years.
Tragically, three Monterey pines died because they had beetles that infected them, so now there are only two species of that pine left. They have planted new trees because "we lost the feeling of a forest," Warren says.
"It is amazing because all the plants are out of their natural habitat but they make it here," she adds. "It's incredible how plants thrive."
A waterfall in the area serves not only aesthetic purposes, but also aerates the water for the fish since it is a closed system. Water from the waterfall flows into a stream that runs along the perimeter and empties into the pond. Among the wildlife that make the area home are turtles, birds, squirrels, insects and butterflies. De Anza biology students are raising butterflies that are then released into the area. Warren says when she began working, there were one or two species of butterflies, but now there are up to eight varieties. Butterflies flock to the area because of milkweed plants that are available for them to eat.
"There is even a habitat on the splash zone of the waterfall," O'Brien says. "This is where the fly larva live."
O'Brien says he has lived in Cupertino on and off since 1960 and graduated from Monta Vista High School.
"[The environmental Study Area] is the best place in Cupertino as far as I'm concerned," he says. "This is the best place to take a class field trip because you don't have to deal with traffic. The students can spend more time learning and less time driving."
Sunnyvale, California Since 1994
