Santa Rosa Plateau

It is bounded by the rapidly urbanizing Inland Empire cities of Murrieta and Temecula to the northeast and southeast, respectively.

The Santa Rosa Plateau Ecological Reserve preserves approximately 8,400 acres (34 km2) of the plateau, and includes the Moreno and Machado Adobes, Riverside County’s oldest standing structures, and other buildings from the 19th century Mexican land grant Rancho Santa Rosa.

[1] The Santa Rosa Plateau is home to several native plant communities and habitats, including purple needlegrass prairie (Nassella pulchra), California oak woodland (Engelmann Oaks—Quercus engelmannii), montane chaparral, coastal sage scrub, and vernal pools, which are increasingly rare in urbanized Southern California.

[2] A vernal pool is a shallow depression in the soil which fills up with water during spring rains.

These eggs remain dormant during the dry months until the next rainy season allows them to hatch.

(6) The Santa Rosa Plateau Ecological Reserve was assembled in several stages; two parcels, comprising 3,100 acres (13 km2), were purchased by The Nature Conservancy in 1984.

A non-profit organization, the Santa Rosa Plateau Nature Education Foundation, provides funding for field trips to the Reserve for all third-graders in the area.

If you hear a commotion in the bushes, it may just be a rufous-sided towhee scratching through the leaf litter for insects and other invertebrates.

They have webbed feet for efficient swimming and claws, which are used for digging nests, tearing meat, and during courtship.

They leave the water on a daily basis to bask, in order to regulate their body temperature.

The Reserve is one of only four to six reproductively viable populations of the Southwestern pond turtle in southern California.

Arkosic sand and gravel was deposited by flowing water approximately 23-9 million years ago.

[15] Lichen found on rocks on the Reserve include species from genera Fruticose, Squamulose, Foliose, and Crustose.

The Native Americans known as Luiseño, due to their connection to the San Luis Rey Mission, began to inhabit the area about 1,500 years ago.

Before the arrival of Spanish missionaries, the indigenous peoples of Southern California lived in bands, each of which controlled its own territory.

[19] In 1846, Juan Moreno was granted 47,000 acres by the Mexican governor of California, Pio Pico.

Mahlon is said to have respected Native American rights to harvest acorns, gather wood and hunt on the Plateau.