Top, Left: Cattle pen: San Marcos Foothills captures our legacy from the Spanish colonists, Mexican Vaqueros, and the early American ranchers.
Right: Sediment reaching lower Atascadero Creek in 1995 comes not from the urban areas as much as from the foothills where avocado farming, cattle grazing, and road cuts release vast acres of topsoil that are carried to the coast in the rainy season.

Bottom, Left: Erosion beyond natural levels occurs at many locations on the Foothills. Conservation oriented remedies can minimize erosion and provide models for other foothill properties.
Center: Oak Seedling: Regional patterns of regeneration are a current focus of oak research in California. SMF offers other research opportunities dealing with, for example, interactions among vertebrate species relative to grassland structure.
Right: Ladybug on Fiddleneck: Completing inventories of natural resources is an important aspect of stewardship. For example, no inventory of insects exists, although they serve as pollinators, decomposers, and the principal source of food for many animals.

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