University of California at Santa Cruz
Text by Grey Hayes
Photo by Mark Oatney

Threats
Although a sometimes model for grassland management, the University is guilty of ongoing neglect of other important ecosystems. A partial list includes:

• subverting the intent of the U.S. Endangered Species Act in preparing a "site specific" Habitat Conservation Plan for a single development above the entrance to campus ("Inclusion Area D") despite performing a number of actions elsewhere on campus where "take" of federally listed rare and endangered species is occurring.

• ignoring its own biological consultants and building a housing complex in one of the most important wildlife corridors on campus: Jordan Gulch

• capping the top of two watersheds and sending torrents of erosive runoff into sensitive stream communities, including red-legged frog breeding areas (500 tons of soil dumped into streams to date)

• scoffing at the State’s foremost biologists as they suggest a campus-wide, holistic habitat conservation plan for the campus’ dozen listed species

• overlooking the 200 students and vagrants who have built shanties on sensitive habitat lands throughout campus

• polluting ground water with toxic runoff pumped directly into caves/sink holes, a practice which is illegal in most states

• extinguishing at least a dozen species protected by the California Environmental Quality Act