The Morro Bay Watershed Native Plant Series

The Morro Bay watershed is one of the most botanically diverse regions in California. This diversity can be traced back to the ice ages as California’s coastline receded and advanced over thousands of years, and the tectonic plates settled into their current position. Many communities and species of plants have evolved here as a result of such active geologic change. These plant communities have continued to exist and thrive because San Luis Obispo County still resembles its natural state, despite increasing human habitation and land use development. Because the natural areas of Morro Bay have been so well …

2017 Accomplishments: Collaborating for a Healthy Pennington Creek

January 26, 2018 Posted by Morro Bay National Estuary Program cal poly Camp San Luis Obispo CDFW Escuela Ranch estuary MBNEP morro bay morro bay national estuary program Pennington Creek Ranching Rancho El Chooro rangeland volunteers water conservation watershed Blog Posts

The cold clear waters of Pennington Creek provide a home to many species, including our iconic steelhead. Pennington Creek is also home to the California Polytechnic State University (Cal Poly) Escuela Ranch and the Rancho El Chorro Outdoor School. The Estuary Program works with these landowners and other partners to protect and enhance habitat in and around the creek for sensitive species like steelhead. During 2017, we collaborated to put past projects to good use and to complete groundwork for important upcoming projects. Helping the Waters Run Clear At Cal Poly’s Escuela Ranch, the university is training the next …

Field Updates May 2017: Bioassessment Surveys

June 9, 2017 Posted by Morro Bay National Estuary Program bioassessment bugs creeks estuary los osos macroinvertebrates macros MBNEP morro bay national estuary program watershed Blog Posts

Just three of our twenty-one great volunteers.

As you know, 2017 has been a little rainy. Since the start of the 2017 water year, the county rain gauge at Camp SLO received 33.29″ of rain. This exciting water year has so far kept our staff busy collecting sediment samples, doing site checks to see if our equipment was still there and anxiously waiting for flows to subside to levels safe enough to monitor. This has also been enough rain to keep more sites wetted enough to conduct bioassessment surveys on. After a few years of only conducting about 5–7 surveys, for 2017 we had 12 …

June Field Updates

July 1, 2016 Posted by Morro Bay National Estuary Program erosion estuary field update morro bay native plants snorkel survey watershed Blog Posts

Wooly Bluecurls (Trichostema lanatum), one of the many native plants we saw on the field tour.

Fulfilling our mission to protect and restore the Morro Bay estuary for people and animals requires a lot of hard work in the field. Read on to see what our staff and volunteers are doing on the ground. A Busy Month We went out and got our new Monitoring Coordinator, Shane, up to speed on our intertidal eelgrass monitoring efforts. Shane joins Evan, our Field Technician, and Erin, a grad student at Cal Poly, to look at the density of eelgrass at Windy Cove. We found a handful of what we believe are the egg collars of Moonsnails. …

Photograph Friday: Four Views from the Morro Bay Watershed

May 20, 2016 Posted by Morro Bay National Estuary Program beautiful scenery estuary morro bay view watershed Blog Posts

Morro Bay is a beautiful place and a valuable resource. This week, we want to share four photographs with you—all of them taken within the month. Each picture shows a different view from the watershed. Please enjoy these photographs, and feel free to send us your own images of this beautiful place. We’d love to feature them in a future blog post or on our website. So many different views. So many ways to help protect and preserve Morro Bay for future generations. Subscribe to get the Estuary Program’s blog delivered to your inbox each week! Donate …

Learn about the Morro Bay estuary with our staff

August 13, 2015 Posted by Morro Bay National Estuary Program elfin forest estuary field trips morro bay national estuary watershed watershed model whites point Blog Posts

A group of students note the plants and animals they've seen on a walk through the elfin forest.

With the start of the new school year just around the bend, it’s an exciting time for teachers and students alike. Estuary Program staff are excited about the school year, too. Education and outreach have always been an essential part of our mission, and our staff members work routinely with students and other interested groups to teach them about our bay and watershed. Recently, we have worked with a wide range of interested parties including college students from both Cal Poly and UCSB who are studying science, a group of girl scouts who traveled across the county to see …