Abstract
China Camp State Park is primarily a forested area with a fringing saline marsh while the Rush Ranch Open Space Preserve has large brackish marshes backed by grass-covered hills. The emphasis of this chapter is on small mammals common to both areas, i.e. endangered salt marsh harvest mice and several rare shrews. Both China Camp and Rush Ranch contain significant stretches of intact marsh–upland ecotone that provide refuge for small mammals during periods of high water. This refuge habitat will become even more important as accelerating sea level rise increases marsh inundation and reduces other available cover. Future efforts to conserve populations of salt marsh harvest mice and shrews around San Francisco Bay should focus on protection and expansion of the marsh–upland ecotone.
Highlights
China Camp State Park and Rush Ranch Open Space Preserve are components of the San Francisco Bay National Estuarine Research Reserve
Based on that list and the type of vegetation present at China Camp, a number of the mammals listed for China Camp in Table 1 are listed as SAN FRANCISCO ESTUARY & WATERSHED SCIENCE Table 1 Land mammals of China Camp State Park and Rush Ranch
Apigian and others (2005) studying Sudden Oak Death (SOD) in nearby Sonoma county suggested that the response to SOD by small mammals in coastal live oak woodlands in the San Francisco Bay Area may be varied, e.g., with wood rats being found only in the most heavily affected sites while the apparent response of deer mice and related species was varied
Summary
China Camp State Park and Rush Ranch Open Space Preserve are components of the San Francisco Bay National Estuarine Research Reserve. While both areas contain marshes they are quite different in their overall plant cover. China Camp is predominately a forested area in the hills of the Marin Peninsula and is located on the saline San Pablo Bay while Rush Ranch is composed of marshes and grasslands located on the more brackish Suisun Bay. The objective of this chapter is to summarize what is known and what needs to be known about terrestrial mammals that live at each site. Based on that list and the type of vegetation present at China Camp, a number of the mammals listed for China Camp in Table 1 are listed as SAN FRANCISCO ESTUARY & WATERSHED SCIENCE Table 1 Land mammals of China Camp State Park and Rush Ranch
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