page_title: Santa Cruz Mountains
section_title: Ecology
hierarchical_section_title: Santa Cruz Mountains / Ecology
caption_attribution_description: Français&#160;: Un Lynx roux au Almaden Quicksilver County Park.
context_page_description: The Santa Cruz Mountains, part of the Pacific Coast Ranges, are a mountain range in central and northern California, United States. They form a ridge down the San Francisco Peninsula, south of San Francisco. They separate the Pacific Ocean from the San Francisco Bay and the Santa Clara Valley, and continue south to the Central Coast, bordering Monterey Bay and ending at the Salinas Valley. The range passes through the counties of San Mateo, Santa Clara, Santa Cruz, San Benito and Monterey, with the Pajaro River forming the southern boundary.
  The northernmost portion of the Santa Cruz Mountains, north of Half Moon Bay Road, is known as Montara Mountain; the middle portion is the Sierra Morena, which includes a summit called Sierra Morena, and extends south to a gap at Lexington Reservoir; south of the gap, the mountain range is known as the Sierra Azul.
  The highest point in the range is Loma Prieta Peak, 11 miles west of Morgan Hill, with a height of 3,786 feet, near which is the epicenter of the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake.
context_section_description: The Santa Cruz Mountains are a region of great biological diversity, encompassing cool, moist coastal ecosystems as well as warm, dry chaparral. Much of the area in the Santa Cruz mountains is considered temperate rainforest.
  In valleys and moist ocean-facing slopes some of the southernmost coast redwoods grow, along with coast Douglas-fir. Coast live oak, Pacific madrone, Pacific wax myrtle, big leaf maple, California bay laurel, and California black oak also occur in the Santa Cruz Mountains. There do exist several small and isolated stands of old-growth forest, most notably at Henry Cowell Redwoods and Portola Redwoods State Parks and one sizeable old-growth redwood forest at Big Basin. At higher elevations and on sunny south slopes a more drought-resistant chaparral vegetation dominates: manzanita, California scrub oak, chamise, and chaparral pea. Spring wildflowers are also widespread throughout the range.
  The area welcomes a tremendous number of species of birds. (see: bird list). Black-tailed deer, a subspecies of mule deer are common, as are western gray squirrels, chipmunks and raccoons. Periodic sightings of black bears indicate they frequent the mountains or wander north from Big Sur, where black bears are established.  Foxes, coyotes, bobcats, cougars and human-introduced Virginia opossums also inhabit the region but are rarely seen. Rattlesnakes are also inhabitants, mostly in the high, dry chaparral.
caption: Bobcat in wintertime, at Almaden-Quicksilver Park
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