On a sunny and clear morning in May 2007, volunteers and staff of the Watsonville Wetlands Watch, the City of Watsonville Nature Center, and the Fitz Wetlands Educational Resource Center celebrated the perpetual preservation of Tarplant Hill.

The event included native plant displays and guided tours of the property. Volunteers from the nearby Bay Breeze subdivision planted native seedlings along a nature trail adjacent to the site.

This six acres of native coastal prairie is essential to the recovery of the endangered Santa Cruz tarplant.

Tarplant Hill Preservation

The celebration was a kickoff to extensive restoration work which Watsonville Wetlands Watch aims to complete with the help of the community.

Preservation of the grassy knoll was guaranteed when Watsonville Wetlands Watch bought the property in 2006 with a $475,000 grant from the state Wildlife Conservation Board.

Tarplant Hill is surrounded by hundreds of homes built in the past few years between Ohlone Parkway and Struve Slough in Watsonville. Preserving the site ensures it will remain the home of several rare and endangered species beside the Santa Cruz tarplant, including the threatened California red-legged frog, and the burrowing owl. Other species likely to be found on the property include marsh and northern harrier, short-eared owl, white-tailed kite, peregrine falcon, loggerhead shrike, and nesting cinnamon teal.

Ongoing Work

Watsonville Wetlands Watch has begun a three-year effort to restore and enhance the Tarplant Hill parcel, work made possible by a $35,000 grant from the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service. WWW is committed to maintaining the site in perpetuity, providing conditions that will create a self-sustaining native habitat.

Dobbie Jenkins surveys Struve Slough
for some of the 250 bird species found
near Tarplant Hill.

L-R: WWW President Bob Culbertson, Santa Cruz District Supervisor Ellen Pirie, Jim van Houten