Connections

From one habitat to the next, water and wildlife form a mosaic of natural communities.

In South Slough Reserve, a beaver pond provides a transition from forested watershed to the estuary.

Human boundaries tend to be precise, angular, static, and often arbitrary. Natural boundaries tend to be blurry, intricate, and dynamic. The complexities of natural boundaries form a mosaic of interlaced and interacting communities, an ever-changing landscape which forms the basis for our human communities.

On the South Coast, the natural boundaries are delineated by watersheds. Separated by ridges, water in each watershed drains downhill, through various tributaries, above and below ground, to a common outlet.Often encompassing many different natural communities, watersheds are nature's fundamental geographic areas. Water-its amount, condition, and timing-is a vital influence of natural existence. Most living organisms need water. Further, water is the primary mode of travel and distribution for many species of flora and fauna as they move within the watershed.

The most critical factor for water-centerd communities is the condition of the water-primarily the amount of dissolved salt, suspended silt, availability of free oxygen molecules, and temperature. Also key are the speed and depth of water and the bottom substrate material that shapes the water's flow.

The fuzzy edges between natural communities share many characteristics of both communities. The more tolerant plants and animals capitalize on these overlapping attributes, making the rich intersections of habitat more diverse and vibrant than either neighboring community.

Natural processes work on the landscape, forming intricate patterns on the watershed patchwork. Succession-how a site gradually changes from one ecological community to another­-alters the living face of the landscape. Over time, the natural progression from bare soil to climax community is set back to previous stages by cataclysmic fire, flood, and epidemic.

Physical and biological processess interact, creating a dynamic balance in the natural world and a thriving ecology of plants and animals in our rural wildlands. All life is connected. These connections become more clear when we shift our gaze between the small detail and the grand view-from the leaf to the forest, from the raindrop to the ocean.