This guide and case study houses maps to orientate you to the Cuyama Watershed and displays maps and resources focused on this watershed. This can be used as a stepping stone to explore key datasets on the Cuyama Watershed for each of the blueprint themes. Under the "Explore related items..." section you'll find maps on Cuyama Watersheds:

• Topography and Geology
• Water Resources
• Flora and Fauna
• Agriculture and Ranch Land
• Community and the Land

Each of these maps has a variety of data layers you can interact with. When you open these maps please pay close attention to the data layers that you can click on in the left tab. Keep in mind that each of these maps house has a small subset of data layers that are available within the Atlas. The full list of data layers can be found either by using the search bar at the top left of the page, or by viewing datasets and galleries under the Explore tab at the top of the page.

General Watershed Characteristics

The Cuyama Watershed is the largest watershed in the county encompassing 731,000 acres of land with elevation reaching up to 8,700 feet down to 350 feet. As the largest watershed within the county, it also has the most publicly owned and conserved land at 466,000 acres (63% of its area).

Population

~2,500

Land Use

• Farmland: 33,365 acres
• Grazing Land: 248,906 acres
• Urban Area: 343 acres

Vegetation

Chaparral is the dominant vegetation type in this watershed, like the majority of watersheds in the county (San Antonio Watershed is the one exception). The Cuyama Watershed is the most diverse watershed in the county containing 20 different macrogroup vegetation types out of the 31 mapped in California. The types found in this watershed include Montane Chaparral, Big Sagebrush Scrub, Wet Mountain Meadow, and North Coastal Mixed Evergreen and Montane Conifer Forests to name a few.

Vegetation Definitions

• Chaparral: This includes all chaparral (evergreen sclerophyll-leaved shrublands) below the zone of regular snow accumulation in the mountains. The chaparral occurs throughout Mediterranean climate parts of California from the Klamath Mountains to the Mexican Border. It is represented by a wide variety of floristic alliances, but in general can be grouped in to coastal (maritime), xeric (dry, sunny slopes), mesic (cooler, shady slopes), and lower montane (somewhat frost sensitive) types. All of these groupings have different characteristic species and fire regimes
• Great Basin Pinyon-Juniper Woodland: Includes all mixed and pure pinyon and juniper stands in trans-montane California. These are largely found in the Mojave Desert mountains, and in the mountains of the Modoc Plateau, and Great Basin. They also occur on the eastern slopes of the Sierra Nevada and the Peninsular Ranges and the northern slopes of the Transverse Ranges. Outliers occur west of the Sierra Crest in Kings Canyon, and in the mountains of Ventura and Santa Barbara Counties.
• California Grassland and Flowerfields: This macrogroup includes all annual forb/grass vegetation native and non-native, as well as native perennial grasslands growing within the California Mediterranean climate. This does not include the cool-moist north coastal terrace prairies, the montane meadow/upland grasslands, and non-native perennial pasture grasses. Stands of this macrogroup include everything from wildflower fields in the San Joaquin Valley and adjacent South and Central Coast Ranges, poppy fields of the western Mojave Desert, needlegrass grasslands of the foothills, valleys and coast ranges, and the largely non-native annual grasslands and weed patches in the dry, warm summer regions of California.
• California Foothill and Valley Forests and Woodlands: Includes all Mediterranean climate woodlands and forests in California from sea level to the point where snow and frost in combination with high winter precipitation enables cool temperate species of trees to dominate the overstory layer. This macrogroup ranges throughout the state west of the deserts and below the higher mountains where snow is the main form of precipitation. This includes the Central and South Coast Ranges, the Northern California Interior Coast Ranges, the Sierra Foothills, Central Valley, and lower elevations of the west slope of the Sierra, the Southern Cascades, the Southern Klamath Mountains, and the Transverse and Peninsular Ranges.
• Coastal Sage Scrub:This is the other main macrogroup of California shrublands. It differs from chaparral by being composed of drought-deciduous shrubs, which typically are smaller with less extensive root systems and shorter life spans. Many of the members of this macrogroup are also found in the warm deserts and show similar adaptations to hot-dry summer conditions.
• Mojave and Sonoran Desert Scrub: This is an upland desert scrub found on hill slopes and alluvial fans throughout the arid Southwest where winter temperatures are not as cold as in the Great Basin Desert and summer temperatures are very hot. The Mojave has frost and occasional winter snows, the Sonoran rarely has any frost. The warmer Sonoran desert tends to have more summer rain, and more distinctive emergent arborescent species, such as saguaro, ocotillo, and the Mojave is cooler with fewer large cacti and large thorny trees, but has Joshua trees and other Yucca species.

Climate Change Impacts

• An increase in average maximum temperatures of ~2.3 degrees Fahrenheit by 2045 (compared to a historical period of 1971-2000 average).
• An increase in average minimum temperatures of ~2.2 degrees Fahrenheit by 2045 (compared to a historical period 1971-2000 average).
• Higher variability in precipitation patterns ranging from an increase in precipitation of 18.4% to a decrease in precipitation of 18.2% by 2045 (compared to a historical period of 1971-2000 average, note: Precipitation varies widely among climate models).