What this area is really home to are specialized plants and animals that have evolved over thousands, if not millions, of years to live in Santa Cruz's natural surroundings. Factors like climate, soil type, elevation, and natural disturbances have all influenced the plants and animals found in Santa Cruz. Both of these disturbances could be crucial for native species in the grassland habitat found on lower campus. This practice may be detrimental to ecosystems that rely on fires to cycle nutrients and remove overgrowth. Due to their obvious dangers, fires are rarely used to promote the growth of native vegetation.
Grazing is another matter though.
Herds of migratory cattle can similarly cycle nutrients and remove overgrowth. Their study of grazing and its effects on native vegetation has provided numerous research opportunities to UCSC students. Liba Pejchar, a first-year Graduate Student, is using the cattle as a research device. If grazing is, in fact, an important disturbance that helps maintain healthy populations of native species, then we need to think more carefully about how we manage lands like state parks. Some of those involved have already graduated.