Monumental Questions - What makes Woodland Regional Park Preserve a Gateway to Berryessa Snow Mountain National Monument?
Nate Lillge • March 22, 2023
Woodland Regional Park Preserve (WRPP) is a local sample of what is available to enjoy in the Berryessa Snow Mountain National Monument. Within the 330,780-acre monument boundary, elevations reach 7,000 feet with many different ecosystems to explore. These habitat types support an enormous variety of plant and wildlife species including many that are listed as threatened or endangered.
When visiting the Berryessa Snow Mountain National Monument, one can explore seven different ecosystems: chaparral, oak grassland, riparian, mixed evergreen forest, coniferous forest, closed-cone forest, and sub-alpine. Each of these ecosystems has wonders to discover.
Chaparral ecosystems are dominated by short, evergreen shrubs with hard, waxy leaves. The branches of these bushes become intertwined as they grow which makes travel difficult off-trail. Oak grasslands are much easier to travel cross country as the oak trees grow some distance apart with little understory. Riparian ecosystems are those found immediately adjacent to water. Cache Creek and Putah Creek, along with other smaller streams, provide refuge for plants and animals during the hot, dry summer.
Mixed evergreen forests are dense stands of evergreen trees/bushes that are adapted to hot, dry conditions. Coniferous forests are dominated by coniferous trees with an understory and canopy. Closed-cone forests are defined as stands of trees that have hard, pitch-covered cones that require heat or fire to open.
Woodland Regional Park is gateway to Berryessa Snow Mountain – it offers some of what makes the monument special. Visitors to the park can experience riparian and grassland ecosystems, similar to those in the northern Inner Coast Range mountains with many of the same species. Birding, botany, hydrology can take place on site. An ADA trail provides the opportunity for guest to enjoy nature while proposed future trails on site will take hikers to more remote areas of the preserve to experience a wilderness hike. The mountains of Berryessa Snow Mountain National Monument are the high point of the watershed while WRPP - and the area around Woodland - is the low point. The geology of the monument creates the amazing soils and habitats at WRPP. Vernal pools and alkaline soils are present because of the sediment that has been carried out of the mountains by Cache Creek.
Guests at last Saturday’s Spring Thing got the opportunity to experience this gateway first hand. Tuleyome staff, Board members, and our amazing volunteers helped guests understand how WRPP and Berryessa Snow Mountain National Monument are connected.
If you would like to learn more about the Berryessa Snow Mountain National Monument or WRPP, please visit Tuleyome’s website at https://www.tuleyome.org.
-Nate Lillge (nlillge@tuleyome.org)
Tuleyome Adventures and Engagement Director
Certified California Naturalist
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