The Bonny Doon Ecological Reserve is a nature preserve of 552 acres (2.23 km2) in the Santa Cruz Mountains of California, United States.

[2] The land was purchased in 1989 by The Nature Conservancy which deeded the property to the state, and is now managed by the California Department of Fish and Wildlife.

Evidence of the soil's marine origin include fossil remains of sand dollars, bivalves and gastropods.

Botanist Peter Raven calls the Sandhills “the Galapagos Islands of Santa Cruz County.” In describing the area, he added, "Dunes left as the ocean receded provide unusual habitats that form a mosaic of openings and unusual vegetation in the dominant forest vegetation of the region.

My early experiences in and around them helped to form my interest in botany and my passion for preserving plants worldwide.

[9] The Santa Cruz wallflower (Erysimum teretifolium) is a biennial "monocarpic" plant, which means that it dies after flowering and bearing fruit in the second or third year.

A perennial herb of the Brassicaceae or mustard family, it blooms from March through July with yellow flowers on terminal spikes.

decurrens) is a "species of concern" that blooms with white flowers from June through October and is easily confused with its close relative, Eriogonum nudum var.

The Martin fire could actually provide benefits to an area that hasn't burned in at least 40 years, and in some parts for nearly a century.

[11] There are two species endemic to the Sandhills that are federally listed as endangered: the Zayante band-winged grasshopper and the Mount Hermon June beetle.