The
current hands-off management style, without riparian and
spring protections, prevents Wetlands from playing more
complete roles on San Marcos Foothills. Consider the roles
they could provide: by increasing wetland areas we increase
groundwater recharge and extend support for higher organisms.
Slowing water flow during runoff periods can assist in repairing
the incision in Atascadero and Cieneguitas creeks. Wetlands
can filter water and trap sediment as they prolong the period
of support that vegetative communities offer to animals.
Previous
documents, such as the Bridle Ridge EIR, have underestimated
the types and extent of San Marcos Foothills Wetlands. A
focal point for this plan is to expand the Wetlands inventory
because persistently wet areas catalyze ecological interactions
within a community. Furthermore, year-round residency of
certain wetland-dependent insects tends to support a broader
ecological pyramid. The richness of species and guilds on
San Marcos Foothills is linked to the availability of wetlands.
Perhaps more than any other ecological feature, the presence
and persistence of Wetlands speaks to the value of this
property as a natural preserve. [Policies Gen-1.1, 1.3,
1.4; Eco-2.1, 2.9; Water-3.1, 3.2, 3.3, 3.5, 3.6, 3.7]
Micro-Habitats
Life at the bottom of the food chain may not be glamorous,
but it is surprisingly complex and very necessary. We all
like to make messes, but few of us care to tackle the clean-up.
The billions of micro-organisms that take care of this task
for us do an irreplaceable service. Evolving during the
late Silurian Period, some 410 million years ago, millipedes
and centipedes (Diplopoda), scorpions (Scorpionida) and
mites (Acari) existed when the first terrestrial ecosystems
became available. ‘Development zoning’ during
this period was open to anything that could survive.
Millipedes
comprise 8,000-10,000 known species, living primarily on
fungal mycelia and decaying plant and animal matter. They
are adept and powerful burrowers living in moist micro-habitats
in the soil amongst plant litter and other debris, under
stones and decaying logs. Some 25 million years later, during
the Devonian Period, the first insects, mites and spiders
appeared. In the last 265 million years, over 350,000 known
species of beetles (one fifth of all the species on this
planet) have evolved to take advantage of the micro buffet
among the soils and in the ground. By their sheer numbers,
beetles are the most successful animals on Earth. What this
really means is that the unseen micro-organisms, and the
larger millipedes, centipedes, pillbugs, scorpions, spiders,
mites, snails, beetles, ants, flies—and the myriad
other tiny creatures typically dismissed as ‘bugs’—
have been evolving with Earth’s ecosystems longer than
most other creatures.
Micro-organisms
and insects are absolutely indispensable in maintaining
healthy ecosystems. Besides being decomposers, scavengers,
predators and prey, pollinators, and seed dispersers, the
essential role these creatures play in the dynamic recyclings
of nearly every terrestrial ecosystem is still only poorly
understood. San Marcos Foothills offers us a functioning
foothills community with much of its soils and other microhabitats
still intact. This represents a tremendous opportunity to
learn and to benefit from functioning native ecosystems
which, among other advantages, process nutrients and wastes
in a manner that maintains water and air quality without
further degradation.
Understanding
the diversity and ecological importance of micro-organisms
is a goal of the Resource Monitoring Committee. [Policies
Rim-4.2; Ed-6.1; Res-7.4]
