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

• 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 Santa Maria Watershed is the third largest watershed in the county encompassing 437,000 acres of land with elevation reaching up to 6,800 feet down to sea level. It contains 219,000 acres (50% of its area) of publicly owned and conserved land.

Population

~150,000

Land Use

• Farmland: 58,469 acres
• Grazing Land: 98,817 acres
• Urban Area: 17,062 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).

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
• 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.
• California Foothill and Coastal Rock Outcrop Vegetation: Vegetative cover is generally less than 2% on cliffs and outcrops west of the deserts and inland from the immediate coast, south of central California. Rock surfaces or rapidly eroding unstable slopes are characteristic. Stands do not include alpine or subalpine sparse, rocky vegetation, and also do not include the sparsely vegetated portions of the warm and cold deserts.
• American Southwest Riparian Forest and Woodland: The Great Valley, South Coast, and warm desert riparian forests and thickets are included in this macrogroup. The range of the main indicator trees and shrubs are the southwestern United States and northern Mexico. Most stands of this macrogroup occur below 4,000-feet elevation and are replaced by the cool-temperate version of riparian (Montane and North Coast Riparian Forest and Scrub) in the mountains and on the north coast.

Climate Change Impacts

• An increase in average maximum temperatures of ~2.7 degrees Fahrenheit by 2045 (compared to a historical period of 1971-2000 average).
• An increase in average minimum temperatures of ~2.4 degrees Fahrenheit by 2045 (compared to a historical period 1971-2000 average).
• Higher variability in precipitation patterns ranging from an increase in precipitation of 19.4% to a decrease in precipitation of 18.0% by 2045 (compared to a historical period of 1971-2000 average, note: Precipitation varies widely among climate models).