Irreplaceable Fort Ord

According to the Bureau of Land Management the 7200 acres of land they manage (known as “Fort Ord”) just east of California State University, Monterey Bay (CSUMB) contains 35 different species of rare plants and animals. For the rare plants, 50-90 percent of these species’ populations occur only within Fort Ord.
The Fort Ord land has many diverse plant communities that range from Coastal Live Oak woodlands to desert-like grasslands. This diversity in the communities on Fort Ord is one of the reasons the area is home to many different rare or endangered species.

“Fort Ord is… unique because it is the largest remaining tract of maritime chaparral in the Central Coast (by far),” said Dr. Suzanne Worchester, a professor from the Science and Environmental Policy department at CSUMB. Dr. Worchester teaches a class on the Vernal Pools, which are large ponds that occur in the spring after rain and play host to many different species in the area before the water disappears in the summer. These pools are very common on Fort Ord after the rains and serve as a typical breeding ground for the rare California Tiger Salamanders (Ambystoma Californiense). “In most cases these species live nowhere else in the world. In some cases, Fort Ord is the only place where these species are relatively abundant anywhere in the world,” said Dr. Worchester as she explained Fort Ord has the highest density of the California Tiger Salamander in the area. “Some of the animals are so uncommon that people don’t know much about them. Fort Ord is thus special as this island of biodiversity in a sea of development that occurs up and down the CA coast.”

Just as Dr. Worchester explained, Fort Ord is one of the only “islands” of maritime chaparral (and other rare habitats) left in California. Despite covering less than 5 percent of the earth’s surface, Mediterranean-type ecosystems like the maritime chaparral (which is made up of low growing, dense, woody shrubs like Manzanita and native Ceanothis) in Fort Ord, are thought to contain nearly 20 percent of the planet’s known species according to a study done by Cowling et al., 1996.

The California Department of Fish and Game’s Wildlife Action Plan (a plan that governs some of the wildlife and natural resource management that happens in California) states that the hills of Monterey and especially the area encompassed by Fort Ord used to be covered in maritime chaparral, but today maritime chaparral is one of the area’s most threatened regions due to rapid development, especially around the coast. Because of the rarity of the maritime chaparral, it is protected by the California Coastal Act, and locally protected by Monterey County’s Local Coastal Plan.

However, not all habitats on Fort Ord have formal protection, but do host endangered species. Eric Ross, senior, Environmental Science Technology and Policy stated that students in CSUMB’s Environmental Science classes have studied the Purple Needlegrass, a rare native California plant that is found on Fort Ord’s grasslands, where it has to compete with non-native grass species introduced by ranchers in the 1800’s.

Numerous studies have shown that Fort Ord is the home to many different types of rare and endangered species, as well as a host of other important native California species that visitors often see while recreating on the nearly 86 miles of trails. Trailheads are located off Highway 68 near the Reservation Road exit. Further information about Fort Ord as well as trail maps and lists of rare and endangered species can be found at the BLM website for Fort Ord.